Offerings of the faithful at Mass

 St. Cyprian, martyred in Africa in 258, chided those who came to Mass and received the Eucharist but made no offering of their own: “You are wealthy and rich, and do you think that you celebrate the Lord’s Supper, not at all considering the offering? Who comes to the Lord’s Supper without a sacrifice, and yet take part of the sacrifice which the poor man has offered? Consider in the Gospel the widow… ”

St. Augustine was impressed by a fifth-century procession of gifts in Rome in which the faithful brought from their own homes things from their kitchen tables.

Augustine called this an “admirable exchange” — for their gifts God gave back Jesus. The prayer over the gifts from the sixth day in the octave of Christmas uses Augustine’s language: “Lord, receive our gifts in this wonderful exchange: from all you have given us we bring you these gifts, and in return, you give us yourself.”

All are priests and victims

Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do. I appeal to you, he says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status.

  How marvellous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf, and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God: with himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself. The victim remains and the priest remains, always one and the same. Immolated, the victim still lives: the priest who immolates cannot kill. Truly it is an amazing sacrifice in which a body is offered without being slain and blood is offered without being shed.

  The Apostle says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Brethren, this sacrifice follows the pattern of Christ’s sacrifice by which he gave his body as a living immolation for the life of the world. He really made his body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, he continues to live. In such a victim death receives its ransom, but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is actually a birth, and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life, and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven.

  Paul says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.

 --Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon

可是讓我們聽一聽保祿使徒請求什麼，他說：「我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體。」他藉著這樣的請求，使眾人升高到祭司職的頂峰：「奉獻你們的身體，當作生活的祭品。」

基督徒的祭司職真是前所未聞的！他本身是祭品，又是祭司；他不必在他以外尋找、他該奉獻給天主的祭品；他個人在他內就擁有為他自己獻給天主的祭品；祭品常是同一個，而祭司也是同一的；被宰殺的犧牲仍然生活，祭司也不會死亡，因為他該獻祭。

這真是令人驚異的祭獻：肉身被奉獻，而不需要有肉身；血被奉獻，而不必流血。保祿說：「我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體，當作生活的祭品。」

弟兄們，這祭獻是以基督的祭獻作典範，他祭獻了他的身體，為的是將生命賜與世人；他確實使他的肉體成為生活的祭品，因為他曾被殺死、而仍然活著。在這祭品中，死亡成為代價，而祭品仍然存在；祭品依舊活著，而死亡已被懲罰。因此殉道者因死亡而誕生；結束了生命時，便開始生活；雖被殺害而仍然活著。人們以為他們在世上已經絕跡，他們卻在天上閃爍發光。

「弟兄們，我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體，作為生活的、聖潔的祭品。」這正是先知所唱的歌：「犧牲和素祭，都非你所喜，你便給我造了一個身體。」

人哪，你要成為天主的祭品和祭司；你不要失去崇高的天主賦與你的恩惠；你要穿上聖德的長袍，束上貞潔的腰帶。願基督作你的頭帕；願印在你額上的十字時常保護你；把天主知識的奧秘放在你心裡；要不斷的焚燒你祈禱的馨香；緊握聖神的劍；使你的心成為一座祭壇。這樣，把你的身體毫無畏懼的獻于天主，作為祭品吧！

--金言聖伯多祿主教講道集

The consummation of Philosophy

Father James Schall believes that 

the consummation of philosophy is rejoicing and delighting in the light of truth — and that truth is manifested in a special way at Mass. 

https://www.ewtn.com/library/Theology/zcathpolphil.htm

It's sinners that need the Mass

If we don't feel in need of God's mercy and don't think we are sinners, it's better not to go to Mass.

-- Pope Francis, General Audience, 12 February 2014

"All of us have been made priests of our lives" -- St Josemaría and the Sacrifice of the Altar

(Fr José Mario O Mandía, Homily, June 2008)

"All of us have been made priests of our lives."

(St Josemaría, "Christ's Death is the Christian's Life," Christ is Passing By, 96)

YOU AND I CAN BECOME HOLY

Good evening, my dear brothers and sisters.

As many of you probably know,

Saint Josemaría's message was to remind everyone

that God wants all of us, you and me, to be holy,

whatever our job or occupation may be.

Carpenters, doctors, housewives, nurses,

students, teachers, plumbers, hairdressers,

vendors, businessmen, lawyers, streetsweepers,

farmers, construction workers, journalists, fishermen,

sick or healthy, young or old...

God invites everyone to His great feast in heaven,

He wants us all to experience and enjoy forever

what Pope Benedict calls the "supreme moment of satisfaction" (Spe Salvi, no 12).

"[H]e will wipe away every tear from their eyes"

the book of Revelation says of heaven,

"and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning

nor crying

nor pain any more,

for the former things have passed away.

And he who sat upon the throne said,

'Behold, I make all things new.'" (Rev 21:4-5)

HUMAN WORK ON THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE

During the sacrifice of the Mass,

as the priest offers the bread and wine,

he praises God, the Lord of all creation,

for the bread "which earth has given

and human hands have made";

he also thanks God for the wine

"fruit of the wine

and work of human hands."

Saint Josemaría echoed these words in his teaching,

because he taught that all honest work,

our family and social life,

our joys, sorrows, successes and failures

are the offering God asks of us at Mass,

so that Jesus Christ may present these to the Father,

together with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

The Holy Spirit blesses these offerings,

He makes them holy,

He sanctifies them,

so that the same job that buys us a meal on earth

can also buy for us a banquet in heaven.

Work can buy us a passage to heaven--

work can make saints of us!

OFFERING THE BEST

When you and I commit ourselves to offer God our work in the Holy Mass,

we also commit ourselves to do our very best,

to execute it as perfectly as possible,

just as God commanded in the Old Testament

that all offering should be without stain, without blemish

(the book of Leviticus repeats this at least twenty-six times!)

Slipshod work and sloppy jobs

have no place on the altar of sacrifice.

But doing our work as perfectly as possible

does not only require

that it be materially complete and thorough.

It also requires that our intention

be purely and exclusively for God's glory.

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory" (Ps 115:1),

Saint Josemaría would often exclaim,

repeating the words of the Psalm.

If our motives are stained by self-seeking,

blemished by selfishness,

tainted with pride,

we cannot say that we are giving God our all--

our offering is not perfect.

Participation at Mass, therefore,

makes us more attentive and caring at home,

more conscientious in our job,

more ambitious to be of service to others.

It makes us more aware

that our all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful Father in heaven

is interested in the tiny little details of our life,

that He truly cares for you and me.

That's why He wants our daily occupations

to yield much more than just the few dollars

that provides clothes on our back,

food on the table,

a roof over our heads,

or schooling for the kids.

In the Holy Sacrifice of Jesus' Body and Blood

God makes use of our modest contribution,

to make Food and Drink

for many hungry and thirsty souls

(that includes our own

and the souls of the people we love).

WORK OF MAN BECOMES WORK OF GOD

In the Mass, Jesus makes our work His own,

He takes it into His own sacred Hands,

and offers it to His Father.

He transforms humble human work

into God's glorious Work.

Let us thank the Lord for His great mercy.

Let us thank Him for His love.

Because He makes it possible for us

to turn every single situation,

every single event

of every ordinary day

into an occasion for loving Him,

for serving the Church and all souls

in joy and in simplicity.

The message of Saint Josemaría

helps us to convert what other people might consider liabilities

into spiritual assets.

CENTRE OF CHRISTIAN LIVING, ROOT OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

Since the founding of Opus Dei in 1928,

Saint Josemaría had always taught

that the Mass

is "the centre ... of Christian living",

because no matter what we may be doing,

our whole day ought to revolve around the altar,

so that Jesus Christ can offer us and our work to our Heavenly Father.

Moreover, Saint Josemaría considered the Mass not only as the centre

around which our life gravitates,

but also as the root which feeds our spiritual life,

the source from which we draw strength.

When we receive Jesus' Body and Blood,

He makes us grow,

He transforms us into Himself,

He makes us more and more like Him, more Christ-like,

He makes us see with His eyes,

speak with His words,

and love with His heart (cf St Josemaría, Meditation, 19 March 1975).

He makes us behave more

like authentic children of God,

so that when others look at us

they only see Jesus.

Yes, this conversion is possible!

PRAY FOR PRIESTS

Finally, an appeal to all of you.

Saint Josemaría once wrote:

"I ask all Christians to pray earnestly for us priests

that we learn to perform the Holy Sacrifice in a holy way.

I ask you to show a deep love for the Holy Mass

and in this way to encourage us priests to celebrate it respectfully,

with divine and human dignity:

looking after the cleanliness of the vestments

and other things used for worship,

devoutly, without rushing.

Why the hurry?

Do people in love hurry when they are saying goodbye?

They seem to be going and then they don't go;

they turn back once and again;

they repeat quite ordinary words

as if they had just discovered their meaning ..." (St Josemaría, Homily A Priest Forever)

The Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph

lived only for Jesus.

May we, also, live only for Him

as we carry out the commonplace tasks

of every single day.

Tolkien on frequent communion

Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. . . . There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death.

By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste—or foretaste—of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.

The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise.

Frequency is of the highest effect.

Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.

Also I can recommend this as an exercise (alas! only too easy to find opportunity for): make your Communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children—from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn—open-necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to Communion with them (and pray for them).

It will be just the same (or better than that) as a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people.

It could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the Five Thousand—after which our Lord propounded the feeding that was to come.”

--JR Tolien, The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings, p 219.

WHAT TO OFFER

If I renounce everything I possess, if I carry the cross and follow Christ, I have offered a holocaust on the altar of God. Or if I burn up my body in the fire of charity ..., I have offered a holocaust on the altar of God...; if I mortify my body and abstain from all concupiscence, if the world is crucified unto me and not me unto the world, then I have offered a holocaust on the altar of God and I am become a priest of my own sacrifice.

--Origen, In Lev. hom., 9, 9)

PRIESTS AND VICTIMS AT HOLY MASS

If the oblation whereby the faithful in this Sacrifice offer the divine Victim to the heavenly Father is to produce its full effect ... they must also offer themselves as victim, desiring intensely to make themselves as like as possible to Jesus Christ who suffered so much, and offering themselves as a spiritual victim with and through the High Priest himself.

--Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 25

THE HIGH PRIEST GATHERS THE OFFERING OF THE FAITHFUL

Here the great crucifix which towers above us serves as a reminder that Christ, our eternal high priest, daily unites our own sacrifices, our own sufferings, our own needs, hopes and aspirations, to the infinite merits of his sacrifice. Through him, with him, and in him, we lift up our own bodies as a sacrifice holy and acceptable to God (cf. Rom 12:1). In this sense we are caught up in his eternal oblation, completing, as Saint Paul says, in our flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the Church (cf. Col 1:24). In the life of the Church, in her trials and tribulations, Christ continues, in the stark phrase of Pascal, to be in agony until the end of the world (Pensées, 553, éd. Brunschvicg).

--Benedict XVI, Westminster Cathedral, Saturday, 18 September 2010

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PRIEST

The saintly Curé d'Ars would often say with tears in his eyes: "How dreadful it is to be a priest!". And he would add: "How a priest who celebrates Mass like an ordinary event is to be pitied! How unfortunate is a priest with no inner life!". May the Year for Priests lead all priests to identify totally with the Crucified and Risen Jesus so that, in imitation of St John the Baptist, they may be prepared to "shrink" that Christ may grow and that, in following the example of the Curé d'Ars, they feel constantly and profoundly the responsibility of their mission, which is the sign and presence of God's infinite mercy. Let us entrust to Our Lady, Mother of the Church, the Year for Priests which has just begun and all the priests of the world.

--Benedict XVI, General Audience, 24 June 2009

THE FUTURE AND THE HOLY SACRIFICE

The priest is the man of the future: it is he who has taken seriously Paul's words: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col 3: 1). What he does on earth is in the order of the means ordered to the last things. The Mass is this one point of union between the means and the End because it already enables us to contemplate, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of the One we shall adore for eternity. The holy Curé's simple, concentrated sentences on the Eucharist help us perceive more clearly the riches of this unique moment in the day when we experience an encounter that is life-giving for ourselves and for each one of the faithful. "The happiness that exists in saying Mass", he wrote, "will only be properly understood in Heaven" (Nodet, page 104).

I therefore encourage you to strengthen your faith and that of your faithful in the sacrament you celebrate, which is the source of true joy. The Saint of Ars wrote: "The priest must feel the same joy (as the Apostles) in seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands" (ibid.). In giving thanks for what you are and for what you do, I repeat to you: "Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the Church" (Homily, Mass on the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, 13 September 2008).

VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS [ARS, SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2009]

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND PRIESTHOOD

A true sacrifice is anything that we do with the aim of being united to God in holy fellowship – anything that is that is directed towards that supreme good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed. It follows that even an act of compassion towards men is not a sacrifice, if it is not done for the sake of God. Although it is performed by man, sacrifice is still a divine thing, as the Latin word indicates: “sacri-ficium,” “holy-doing” or “holy-making.” Man himself can be a sacrifice, if he is consecrated in the name of God, and vowed to God – a sacrifice in so far as he dies to the world in order to live to God. This is also an act of compassion: compassion of a man for himself. Thus it is written: take pity on your own soul by doing what is pleasing to God.

True sacrifices are acts of compassion to ourselves or others, done with God in mind. Such acts have no other object than the relief of distress or the giving of happiness. Finally, the only true happiness is the one the psalmist speaks of: but for myself, I take joy in clinging to God. From all this it follows that the whole redeemed city (that is to say, the congregation or community of the saints) is offered to God as our sacrifice through the great High Priest who offered himself to God for us so that we might be the body belonging to so great a head. He took on the form of a servant and suffered for us. It was under this form that he both offered and was offered: at the same time mediator, and priest, and sacrifice.

St Paul starts by exhorting us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as an act of homage justly owed to him. He tells us not to con-form ourselves to the world but to be trans-formed by renewing our will and our thinking: seeking to find out the will of God, to discover what is good, what is acceptable, what is perfect; for we ourselves are the whole of that sacrifice. He continues: In the light of the grace I have received I want to urge each one among you not to exaggerate his real importance. Each of you must judge himself soberly by the standard of the faith God has given him. Just as each of our bodies has several parts and each part has a separate function, so all of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us.

This is the sacrifice of Christians: we, being many, are one body in Christ. And, as the faithful know, this also is the sacrifice which the Church continually celebrates in the sacrament of the altar, in which she teaches that she herself is offered in the offering she makes to God.

--VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS [ARS, SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2009]

PRIESTS, CONFESSION, EUCHARIST

Dear priests, think too of the extreme diversity of the ministries you exercise in the service of the Church. Think of the great number of Masses you have celebrated or will celebrate, making Christ really present on the altar each time. Think of the innumerable absolutions you have given and will give, enabling a sinner to be forgiven. Then you perceive the infinite fruitfulness of the sacrament of Orders. In the space of a moment your hands, your lips became the hands and lips of God. You bear Christ within you; through grace, you have entered the Holy Trinity.

The priest is the man of the future: it is he who has taken seriously Paul's words: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col 3: 1). What he does on earth is in the order of the means ordered to the last things. The Mass is this one point of union between the means and the End because it already enables us to contemplate, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of the One we shall adore for eternity. The holy Curé's simple, concentrated sentences on the Eucharist help us perceive more clearly the riches of this unique moment in the day when we experience an encounter that is life-giving for ourselves and for each one of the faithful. "The happiness that exists in saying Mass", he wrote, "will only be properly understood in Heaven" (Nodet, page 104).

I therefore encourage you to strengthen your faith and that of your faithful in the sacrament you celebrate, which is the source of true joy. The Saint of Ars wrote: "The priest must feel the same joy (as the Apostles) in seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands" (ibid.). In giving thanks for what you are and for what you do, I repeat to you: "Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the Church" (Homily, Mass on the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, 13 September 2008).

--VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS [ARS, SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2009]

"'If my past and present life can be described as 'active' , let us not forget that the 'act' par excellence of each day is the Holy Mass, which constitutes the most perfect synthesis of prayer and the heart of our meeting with God in Christ. Over thirty years' experience of priestly life has taught me that to reach this summit, to arrive at this synthesis and this fullness, one must approach it through prayer and emerge from it towards the prayer of the whole day, knowing perfectly well that this day will be filled to overflowing with activities and engagements of every sort. Everyone knows that the priest's day is liturgical, not only thanks to the Mass but also through the liturgy of the hours, which confers on the day its special rhythm. On the whole, work takes most of the time, but all activities should be rooted in prayer as though in a spiritual soil. The depth of this soil must not be too thin: inner experience teaches us how to form it, day after day, so that it is sufficient.'"

(John Paul II, in André Frossard, Be Not Afraid! p 33)