Therefore, O Lord, As We Celebrate the Memorial

We continue our reflection on the parts of the First Eucharistic Prayer. After the words of the Consecration are spoken over the bread and wine, the faithful are shown the Sacred Body in the Consecrated Host and the Precious Blood in the chalice, and they proclaim the mystery of faith, “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again” as they kneel and adore the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.

Next, the priest prays the following prayer,

Therefore, O Lord,

as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed Passion,

the Resurrection from the dead,

and the glorious Ascension into heaven

of Christ, your Son, our Lord,

we, your servants and your holy people,

offer to your glorious majesty

from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim,

this holy victim,

this spotless victim,

the holy Bread of eternal life

and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.

This prayer is known as the anamnesis. This word, taken from the Greek language, means for Christians, and especially for Catholics, a liturgical remembrance. It is a remembrance of Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension into heaven and an affirmation that these mysteries of the Lord’s life are really and truly present, albeit invisibly through the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “In the anamnesis that follows (the consecration), the Church calls to mind the Passion resurrection, and glorious return of Christ Jesus; she presents to the Father the offering of his Son which reconciles us with him” (#1354).

The Catechism also teaches us, “When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present; the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present” (Lumen Gentium #3, cited in The Catechism of the Catholic Church #1364).

This prayer of anamnesis, or remembrance, focuses us as we come together before the altar at Mass. We come there to be united in the Paschal Mystery of Christ, His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension in the hope of His return. We can say that we are immersed in this salvific mystery at the altar. What happens at the altar is the “source and summit of our life” as the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught us in Lumen Gentium #11. It is what gives the Church and us to go forth and evangelize and serve others.

This prayer is also an offering of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ by the Church, which is possible because Christ has given the Church the power of the Holy Spirit to do so. The priest prays, “… we, your servants and your holy people, offer to your glorious majesty from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.” These words open a window to a view of eternity. They tell us that at Mass we are kneeling in adoration before the spotless and all-holy Victim, and are drawn up into the real, true and present Mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

The prayer also tells us that it is through the hands of the ordained priest that this sacrifice is offered, but every baptized person is called to join in this offering. Through this offering every person present enters into the indispensable interior dimension of full, conscious and active participation in that Eucharistic Liturgy. Without this interior participation, the exterior participation becomes shallow and difficult to understand. It is this offering that empowers the Church and each of us to go forth and offer Jesus and ourselves to a world that so needs Him!

My dear brothers and sisters, when we come to Mass let us enter into the Paschal Mystery really made present on the altar, and let us offer the Sacrifice of Christ for ourselves and for the whole world. Let us see the Mass as it truly is, the source and summit of our life!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid

Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh