The Year of the
Eucharist |
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NOVEMBER 2004 - EUCHARIST AND LITURGY “Do this in memory of me.” From the beginning of the Church (Acts 2:42) Christians have obeyed this command of the Lord. They have gathered as Jesus did with His disciples in the Upper Room, they have listened to His Word as His disciples did at that Supper (Jn 14-16). They took bread and wine, blessed and gave thanks to the Father, broke bread and shared the sacred body and blood as Jesus had done. “Do this in memory of me.” We continue to do as the Church has always done as we celebrate the Eucharist in the liturgy, the public official worship of the Church, the liturgy that the Church calls the source and summit of our Christian life. Do this in memory of me. We do this in ritual, an organised pattern of words, symbols and actions, and through the faith-filled doing of our ritual God is worshipped and we are sanctified. In our liturgy we look back at what God has done, particularly in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (the paschal mystery), His saving power becomes present to us and we look to the future in hope, that future when all will be well and all of creation will be celebrating the heavenly liturgy. Happy those called to the Supper of the Lamb! ALL GLORY PRAISE AND HONOUR IS YOURS, ALMIGHTY GOD Gathering Christians are people who gather on the Lord’s Day. We gather, different ages, races, backgrounds but all part of one people, the people of God. All the parts of the Introductory Rites (hymns, greeting, penitential, Gloria, opening prayer) are meant to unite us that we may praise and thank with one heart. Do I recognise Mass as the celebration of all of us together or is Mass my private devotion? Do I recognise the body (1Corinthians 11:29) made up of all the gathered people? Acts 2: 46; 1 Corinthians 11: 29; Galatians3:28–29; Hebrews 10:25; Matthew 18:20 Listening Our God is a God who speaks to us. The truth about God and about us is revealed in Scripture, the bread of life which the Church lays out for us at the table of the Word. The word is applied for us in the homily and we respond in the prayers of intercession and the Creed. How well do we listen? Do we pay attention? What will help us pay better attention? Matthew 4: 4; Luke 11: 27-28; Hebrews 4: 12; Psalm 119: 97-105. Thanking The Church teaches us that the centre and summit of the entire celebration is the Eucharistic prayer (from The Lord be with you, …. lift up your hearts…. to the great Amen) - “a prayer of thanksgiving and sanctification.” for all God’s great deeds, particularly the great deed of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Part of our praise and thanks is asking that the God who has done such great things will continue to work in our world, our Church, in us and bring all the departed to happiness. Are we grateful people? Is thanksgiving part of my daily life? Psalm 136; Psalm 145; Revelation 8: 38-39; Ephesians 3: 20-21 Leaving From the tables of God’s Word and of the Body and Blood of Jesus we go. We leave for our homes, workplaces, leisure places to bring the presence of Christ; we are ambassadors for Christ. We go to love and serve the Lord by living as faithful disciples living out what we have celebrated in the liturgy of the Eucharist. Thanks be to God. Does our celebration have an effect on our lives? Are we conscious of being missionaries, people who are sent? Isaiah 61:1-2; John 20: 21; 2 Corinthians 5: 19-20; Isaiah 49: 1-6 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Msgr.
Michael de Verteuil was ordained a priest on
December 17th 1986 and served as chaplain at the Port-of-Spain General
Hospital and the Living Water Community of which he has been a member since
1981.