Liturgy and the Eucharist

Trinity
official
liturgical prayer directed to the father, through the Son

in the Holy Spirit.

the paschal mystery
By the whole church
1. Active participation means:
a. intellectual:

“that their hearts and minds are attuned to their voices.”
i.e. we understand what we are doing
b. we respond by way of gestures, words, acclamations.
c. each one has proper role to play in the celebration.

in an assembly; an ecclesial activity celebrated by the whole

Christ, head and members. It is an ordered assembly arranged according to different roles.
a. presider (priest)
b. special ministers of communion
c. readers
d. choir
e. ushers
f. servers
g. the assembly of worshippers

celebrations we celebrate and call to mind the passion, death

and resurrection of Jesus – the redemptive act of Jesus
2. Calling this to mind, we make present this great event and the fruits of this redemptive act of our Lord.

prayer through a pattern of symbolic, ritual movements, gestures and

verbal formulas.
Symbols must be perceptible to the senses.
Sacramental signs differ from conventional or indicative signs that they bring with them what they symbolize.
Pope Leo I said: “What was visible in Christ . . . passed on the sacraments of the church.” Symbols do not just pertain to things and action but also to the persons involved in the celebration.

life
St. Augustine said: “That we become what we eat.”
All

ministries in the church are essentially ministries of presence

in the future
The liturgy at once commemorate Christ’s past saving

mystery, demonstrates the present grace brought about Christ, and point to the future glory yet to come.
Thus S. Marsili said: “Liturgy is the final phase of salvation history.”

- eu charizesthai – to show favor
2. Mass – missa

meaning sent – from the dismissal rite “ite missa est,”
3. Lord’s supper – refers to the Last Supper where Christ instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

It is instituted by Christ
It is essentially ecclesial
It is a

sacrifice and a meal
Christ is really present in the Eucharist
It is an eschatological pledge and foretaste of our future glory

expresses suffering for the sake of the other, a self-denial

and humility.
a. the Eucharist is sacrifice because:
- Christ is present as “offering himself for us as a sacrifice to the Father”
- it is memorial of his sacrifice

Eucharist.
c. It is the whole Christ, Jesus the Head

and all of us as members of His body, who offers the sacrifice
d. The sacrifice of Jesus in Calvary and the mass is the same.

element in a meal
- a coming together (assembly)
- a dialogue

(storytelling)
- a sharing of food and drink (banqueting)
- sending forth (mission)

sin
- reconciliation
- it builds the community the, church
- PCP

II calls it “the primary source of renewal and the center of the community.”
- there is no Eucharist where there is no church.

minister
- in the word
- and, par excellence, in the

eucharistic species
b. Presence – transubstantiation

and not just a present means for grace but

also an eschatological meal.
a. it is the pledge of our own resurrection and new life “for he who eats of my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life.”
b. it is food for the journey (viaticum)
c. and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet