In This Issue:
January, 2009
St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church
100 Oak Dr. South
Lake Jackson, Texas
LIGHT FOR THE WORLD
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In This Issue: |
PARTS OF THE MASS continued
INTRODUCTORY RITES
Entrance Procession
Entrance Song
Veneration of the Altar
Sign of the Cross: Greeting: Introduction
Penitential Rite
Invitation/Silence/Proclamation
Confiteor/Kyrie
(or Sprinkling Rite may take the place of the
Penitential Rite)
Gloria (Glory to God)
Opening Prayer (Collect)
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading
Responsorial Psalm
Second Reading
Gospel Acclamation
Gospel
Homily
Profession of Faith
General Intercessions
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Preparation of the Altar and the Gifts
Presentation of the Gifts
Offertory Song
Prayers At the Preparation of the Gifts
Mixing of Water and Wine
Lord God, We Ask You…
Incensation
Washing of the Hands
Prayer Over the Gifts and Its Invitation
Eucharistic Prayer*
(*continuation featured in this issue)
Preface
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord
Epiclesis
Institution Narrative
Memorial Acclamation
Anamnesis
Offering
Intercessions
Final Doxology
COMMUNION RITE
Lord’s Prayer
Rite of Peace
Breaking of the Bread
Commingling
Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)
(Private Preparation of Priest and People)
Invitation to Communion
Distribution of the Eucharist
Communion Song
Purification of the Vessels
Silent Prayer/Song of Praise
Prayer After Communion
CONCLUDING RITE
(Announcements)
Greeting and Blessing
Dismissal
Veneration of the Altar
Recessional
*Eucharistic Prayer I
Continuing a commentary on the 4 Prayers by Paul Turner
The First Eucharistic Prayer is lengthy and ponderous. Its repetitive structure so differs from the other prayers that it can be hard to follow. Yet throughout our history as a church, the Roman Rite has used no other Eucharistic Prayer more frequently. Inspired by St. Ambrose in the fourth century, it became the only eucharistic prayer permissible in the Roman liturgy until the Second Vatican Council. Having no assigned preface of its own, it accepted one chosen for the feast, season, or occasion. The rest of the prayer remained unchanged since about the seventh century and assumed the title “canon” because it was the only one. Now because we have so many eucharistic prayers, it is less accurate to call any of them a “canon.”
The prayer balances across the account of the Last Supper. We pray for the living in the first half, for the dead in the second. We ask intercession from some saints in the first half, and from others in the second. The prayer never included an explicit appeal to the Holy Spirit, which caused some controversy among the Eastern Rites noted for their devotion to the Third Person of the Trinity. Consequently, every single eucharistic prayer approved since Vatican II includes an explicit “epiclesis” — a request for the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.
Although fixed in form, Prayer I offers internal options. The prefaces change. The lists of the saints may be abbreviated. Many subsections conclude with an optional formula: “Through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Prayer I also permits a special acknowledgment of some feasts such as Christmas, Holy Thursday, and Easter.
Before Vatican II, Pope John XXIII authorized one last change to the Roman canon: He included Joseph among the list of saints. A few years after the council, the Memorial Acclamation was added as well. Eucharistic Prayer I is admittedly hard to follow, but its endurance gives testimony to the timelessness of the Catholic faith.
AMEN is a solemn prayerful affirmation, taken over by the Christians from the synagogue for scriptural and liturgical use in apostolic times. It was often spoken by Christ, and is given as one of His names in Revelations 3:14. It is now used as an acclamation of assent or religious confirmation of the speaker’s own thoughts as verily, or so be it. With this acclamation, Jews and Christians commit themselves to what has been spoken in prayer.
Moreover, the Hebrew root from which it is taken, can be understood to mean “to pound in one’s tent stake”. Desert tent-dwellers could not long survive without a tent for protection. “To stake one’s tent” comes close to meaning, “I’d stake my life on it.” So the word expresses commitment and agreement – “So be it in my life, as I have just heard.”
Our amen signifies our acceptance of Jesus’ way of life as our own, including His death and Resurrection. For such a short word, it carries a lot of meaning and demands much of us who say it.
QUIZ
(TRUE/FALSE)
Q. A special lamp must shine continuously before a Tabernacle when the Holy Eucharist is reserved.
(Click here for answers, or scroll down)
That the “Roman Canon” – Eucharistic Prayer I, is based on the Gelasian Sacramentary. The Sacramentary is ascribed to Pope Gelasius I (492-96) and is the earliest known Roman Missal with feasts arranged according to the Liturgical Year. It includes the Roman Canon in virtually the same form that is in current use. The Canon was called by some the “Te Igitur” after its first Latin words meaning “You, therefore….”, Latin words still referring to the Eucharistic prayer (and also to the Sacramentary.) This central proclamation of the Liturgy of the Eucharist is a prayer of thanksgiving and sanctification..
The celebration of the Eucharist, however, cannot be the starting-point for communion: it presupposes that communion already exists, a communion which it seeks to consolidate and bring to perfection. The sacrament is an expression of this bond of communion both in its invisible dimension - which, in Christ and through the working of the Holy Spirit, unites us to the Father and among ourselves - and its visible dimension, which entails communion in the teaching of the Apostles, in the sacraments and in the church’s hierarchical order. Only in this context can there be a legitimate celebration of the Eucharist and true participation in it. Consequently it is an intrinsic requirement of the Eucharist that it should be celebrated in communion, and specifically maintaining the various bonds of that communion intact.
Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia De Eucharista (The Eucharist in Relationship to the Church). #35
CHRISTMAS
Advent is the time of the Liturgical Year the Church dedicates four weeks to preparing for the past, present and future coming of Christ. It is not just a reminder of what Christmas is all about, but what life itself is all about.
Now, we are in the Christmas Season, not just one day – Dec. 25th – but a whole season to reflect on what Christ’s birth really means. The Christmas Season begins with Evening Prayer on Christmas Eve and ends after Evening Prayer on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. God’s Son came into the world, not by accident, but by the divine decision and plan of God. It was foretold by the prophets a thousand years before his birth that the Messiah should be born of the house and lineage of David. As St. Paul says, “In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born of a woman.” But before Archangel Gabriel came to Mary, the Son of God already existed, though not yet incarnated in human flesh – as we confess in the Creed: Jesus is “Eternally begotten of the Father”.
When Jesus took on flesh, he became our brother, and thus we are related to Him. No one in the past, present, or future of humanity is an accident, merely some extra “afterthought” on God’s part. We are here today precisely because God though about us and found a reason for our existence in His eternal plan of creation. God wanted us and chose us all as His children through our sharing in His Son’s humanity; we are all part of God’s sacred plan.
(adapted from a meditation by Fr. Rory Pitstick)
Feast Days of Saints
JANUARY
1 Mary, Mother of God Holy Day of Obligation
2 Sts Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen
3 Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
5 St. John Neumann
17 St. Anthony
21 St. Agnes
24 St. Francis De Sales*
26 Sts Timothy and Titus
28 St. Thomas Aquinas
31 St. John Bosco
Note: Jan. 1st is also the Octave Day of Christmas. Jan 4th is the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, but since it falls on a Sunday, that day takes precedence, and this year it is celebrated as The Epiphany of the Lord.
*St. Francis De Sales (1567-1622) was born in the family castle at Thorens, in the Duchy of Savoy, the eldest of 6 brothers. He studied law and theology under the Jesuits and in opposition of his aristocratic family, he spurned what could have been a brilliant secular career, chose religious life and was ordained in 1593.
Francis devoted himself to preaching, hearing confessions and other works of his ministry with great zeal. He spent 5 years as a missionary and was repeatedly attacked by assassins and mobs of Calvinists, but he was very successful in attracting thousands back to Catholicism and making new converts.
He became Bishop of Geneva in 1602 and was soon one of the outstanding leaders of the Counter-Reformation. In 1607, with St. Jane Frances de Chantal, he founded the Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin for young girls called to religious life.
He died in Lyons, France, was beatified in 1661, canonized in 1665 and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1877 by Pope Pius IX, and designated patron saint of the Catholic press in 1929.
ANSWER:
A. True. The Code of Canon Law #940 states, “A special lamp which indicates and honors the presence of Christ is to shine continuously before a Tabernacle in which the Most Holy Eucharist is reserved.” The U.S.C.C.B. lists the requirement of “a special oil lamp or a lamp with a wax candle.” Several other documents refer to the kind of lamp to be used, but nowhere is the color specified.
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Understanding The Mass and Eucharist