The Mass of the Faithful - Part 1

 The Mass of the Faithful, in writing is twice the length of the Mass of the Catechumens. In practical liturgy it is about the same length of time, maybe little longer depending on how many people are present, as during the Mass of the Faithful we receive our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. As such I will separate this section into two halves. The first half is from the Offertory to the end of the Canon, just before the Pater Noster, the Our Father prayer. So the contents are as below:

• From the Offertory to the Preface
• Offertory verse
• Offering the Bread and Wine
• Incensing the Offerings
• Washing of the Hands
• Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity
• The Orates Fratres
• The Secrets
• From the Preface to the Pater Noster (Consecration)
• The Preface
• The Sanctus
• Canon of the Mass
• The Prayers before the Consecration
• The Prayers at the Consecration
• Consecration of the Host
• Consecration of the Wine
• The Prayers after the Consecration
• End of the Canon

This seems like a lot, and it is, which is why I am separating this into two pages, but some of this happens relatively quickly, especially when the Priest is familiar with Latin. Why is is so wordy? Well it is based on the practice of celebrating the Passover, as the Hebrews did in the Temple, and how Christ did prior to His Holy Passion and Sacrifice. The Sacrifice herein is then recreated, not as in Christ is re-sacrificed in the meaning of modern English understanding, but more closely to the word re-presenting the Sacrifice of Christ to Most Holy Trinity. This separation that I have established is also a good way to look at the Mass, as in how we act towards God, and how God responds to us in the second half. This first half points to how we give to God through Christ, because the Priest is in persona Christe, what happens during the Mass is done in the person of Christ by the Priest.

The Offertory to the Preface - 

The offertory verse, offering the bread and wine, and the incensing of the offering, all happen within close proximity to one another. Some parts even at the same time. I say this because as the Priest offers the Bread and Wine for the blessing of God, he is praying the offertory verse, and the congregation is making an offering themselves. An offering of money in most cases, but and offering of a living sacrifice of themselves all the time. We all offer up ourselves to God at every Mass, this is made more obvious later on during the "Sursum Cordae", translated as upwards hearts, just prior to the Preface prayers, where we "lift up our hearts, lifted up to the Lord", and yet is an offering made by the people nonetheless. We offer up our hearts to the Lord, we ask that our hearts be a worthy offering to Him, a pure offering; made pure by the sacraments, and through obeying Him in Heaven. 

The wine prior to being consecrated is also symbolic of the Incarnation of Christ, Him being God taking upon the nature of humanity. The wine representing His divinity then is mixed with water, a symbol of His human nature. All of the prayers found in the offertory are offered to God the Father, just as Christ's sacrifice was offered to God the Father, the priest in the person of Christ re-presents the same offering to God the Father. During a High Mass, or a Solemn High Mass, the offerings are incensed. This includes the bread and wine upon the altar, the clergy and altar servers, and those that are in the congregation, as we offer up ourselves and offerings are incensed to have a pleasing odor before the Lord. This was done in the temple worship, and is done in Heaven before God Himself as the Angels, St. Michael in particular, offers the prayers of the Saints before the Lord our God, and we are incensed as we also offer up our prayers. So not only are we making a sacrifice, an offering, of our hearts, who we are as a person by nature, but we are offering our our prayers to the Lord our God.

The washing of the hands is a means of physical purification, just as when the Priest prayed that his lips be purified before speaking the Gospel, now he washes his hands prior to handling the host as they will soon become the Body of Christ, truly and substantially present. The prayer associated with this is called the Lavabo another prayer named by the incipit, being Lavabo, translated as wash or I will wash, speaking to the manner of the physical cleansing that is to happen. In the times of the Old Testament temple worship the High Priest, the one to go in and offer sacrifice to God, would spend about a week outside the Temple, yet still on temple grounds, and fast, pray, and ritually wash their body. As they prepared their heart and mind for the sole act of worshipping God, they prepared their body for the act as well.

At this point the Priest then prays to the Most Holy Trinity and that God accepts our oblation, another term for an offering to God, in remembrance of Jesus Christ's Passion, Resurrections, and Ascension, while asking the Saints to intercede to God, in Trinity, on our behalf; through the same Christ that the Saints professed to be God. After this the Priest faces the congregation and tells them to pray with him in offering the sacrifice to God asking that our sacrifice is pleasing and acceptable to Him in Heaven. This plea is then reiterated in the secret, which varies from day to day, an inaudible prayer asking that the sacrifice be made worthy for the sake of our Salvation.

The Preface to the Pater Noster - 

Afterwards is the preface which leads us into the canon of the Mass where the Eucharist is consecrated. Here in the preface it is made clear to whom we are praying once more. In the preface the Priest is addressing the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and professing our belief in God, and the mystery of the nature of the Trinity. And it is followed with the Tersanctus, a hymn in which we sing in the same manner as the Angels that never cease in singing. The Tersanctus is Latin for Ter and Sanctus, or Thrice Holy. The hymn is more commonly called the Sanctus. In English the hymn goes "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and Earth are full of your Glory. Hosanna in the highest, Blessed is He who is comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest." Hosanna is Hebrew Aramaic for "Save me! I pray!", we call out to the Lord to save us.

The Canon of the Mass is the non-changeable heart of the Mass. It can be further separated into three sections: 

1. Three prayers of remembrance and then two offertory prayers
2. The Consecration
3. Three offertory prayers and two prayers of remembrance

In the first section we pray for the living, typically a name of someone in particular is placed in here, for times when the mass is offered for someone in particular. And then we add in a list of Saints, who are in heaven and whom we are celebrating this Mass with as they are of the Body of Christ and then the Priest prays for everyone there and for the faithful through out the world. In the offertory part we offer up our prayers and works done in the Name of God for His glory, and ask that He sanctifies our offerings.

The Priest now takes the host and repeating the words of Christ, at the same time affirming our belief in the Real Presence of Christ, and as miraculous as when Christ did it before His Passion the Host becomes His Body, and the Wine becomes His Blood, substantially and truly so. After the words of Consecration for either is said the Host, or chalice respectively, is elevated. Elevated to show that the Host, or Wine, has become the Body and Blood and that they are being offered to God alone, but they are also elevated so that we may adore Christ in both the Eucharist and Precious Blood. 

The next set of prayers the three offertory and two remembrance prayers follows suit. The three offertory prayers sum up the most important ends of the Mass. An offering for sin, remembrance of His sacrifice, and to receive the Eucharist. These ends can be found in the Old Testament typological forms. For the sin offering in Genesis, Abel offered an unblemished lamb for his sins, and the Lord found it pleasing. Christ is the unblemished lamb that is offered for our sins. Abraham, also in Genesis, offered his only son in obedience to God. And God's only begotten Son offered himself for us. Lastly, again in Genesis, Melchisedech the king of Salem (later to be named Jerusalem), who was the priest of the most high God brought forth bread and wine as a blessing. Christ who is the High Priest, and King of Kings offers Himself in the form of Bread and Wine. The Priest who is celebrating the Mass, during his ordination, is also called a Priest in the order of Melchisedech offers bread and wine that becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The last two remembrance prayers are for the commemoration of the dead, and a remembrance of the early Saints of the Catholic faith. The living and the dead are prayed for, and the prayers of the Saints are asked for, because of the three states of the Church exemplified in the Communion of the Saints. The living is the Church Militant, us here on Earth. The dead are those in Purgatory, the Church Suffering. Finally the Saints in heaven are the Church Triumphant, those that are in heaven before God.