Liturgy of the Eucharist
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) helps us to go over the second part of the Eucharistic celebration. Last year I spoke more about the Liturgy of the Word. During the weekends before Lent, I will sharing with you some thoughts about the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Hopefully, this information will help you to make your participation in Mass more meaningful and understandable.
GIRM 78 says that “now the center and high point of the entire celebration begins, namely, the Eucharistic Prayer itself, that is, the prayer of thanksgiving and sanctification. The Priest calls upon the people to lift up their hearts towards the Lord in prayer and thanksgiving; he associates the people with himself in the Prayer that he addresses in the name of the entire community to God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the meaning of this Prayer is that the whole congregation of the faithful joins with Christ in confessing the great deeds of God and in the offering of Sacrifice. The Eucharistic Prayer requires that everybody listens to it with reverence and in silence.”
Next week, we will talk about the elements of the Eucharistic Prayer.
May our participation at every Holy Mass help us to grow in devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We conclude with a fragment of the Eucharistic Prayer III: “Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church and, recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”
El # 78 del IGMR dice que “ahora comienza el centro y el punto culminante de toda la celebración, a saber, la oración eucarística en sí, es decir, la oración de acción de gracias y la santificación. El sacerdote llama a la gente a alzar sus corazones hacia el Señor en oración y acción de gracias; asocia a la gente consigo mismo en la oración que dirige en nombre de toda la comunidad a Dios Padre a través de Jesucristo en el Espíritu Santo. Además, el significado de esta oración es que toda la congregación de fieles se une con Cristo al confesar los grandes hechos de Dios y en la ofrenda del sacrificio. La plegaria eucarística requiere que todos la escuchen con reverencia y en silencio.”