LITURGY LESSON: EUCHARISTIC
PRAYER #9, CONCLUSION
(Given:
At
the conclusion of various parts of the Mass, our Liturgy Lesson has quoted from
either Cardinal Bernadin or Cardinal Mahony. Now that we have completed our
lessons on the Eucharistic Prayer, let’s listen to what Cardinal Bernadin says
about this great prayer.
We are called to the Lord’s table less
for solace than for strength, not so much for comfort as for service. The
Eucharistic Prayer, then, is prayed not only over the bread and wine, so that
they become Christ’s body and blood for us to share; it is prayed over the
entire assembly so that we may become the dying and risen Christ for the world.
. . .
The voice and manner of the priest should
show that he offers this prayer as spokesman for everyone present. It is a prayer addressed to the Father
- not a homily or a drama or a talk given to the assembly, . . . .
For all our devotion to the body and blood
of Christ present on our altars, we Catholics have hardly begun to make this Eucharistic
prayer the heart of the liturgy. It is
still, to all appearances, a monologue by the priest, who stops several times
to let the people sing. We seem as yet to have little sense for the flow, the
movement, the beauty of the Eucharistic prayer. . . .
Are we a thanksgiving people? . . . The
habit of thanksgiving, of praise, of Eucharist, must be acquired day by day,
not just at Sunday
Again,
we are grateful to the late Cardinal for helping us understand the great
mystery that we celebrate together. May we become Christ to those we meet.
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