Liturgically Speaking: The Universal Prayers and the Offertory

After professing the Creed, we then offer the Universal Prayers, sometimes referred to as the Prayers of the Faithful or the petitions.  We pray for the Church and her leaders, the world, the sick and suffering, local needs, and we pray for the dead.  As we offer these prayers together for our needs, we are exercising our baptismal priesthood.  These prayers conclude the Liturgy of the Word, and we move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

           

The Liturgy of the Eucharist begins with the preparation of the altar and presentation of the gifts.  The corporal, missal, purificator, and chalice are brought to the altar.  In the second century, St. Justin Martyr told us simply that “bread, water, and wine are brought.”  Early on, there was no particular ritual for bringing up such gifts.  It was important for early Christians to distinguish themselves from pagan religions, and they did not want the emphasis placed on the pre-consecrated bread as if that were the victim of the sacrifice.  Later, however, the Church had to defend the goodness of material creation against Gnostic heretics who held matter to be evil.  So there arose the practice of bringing forward the bread, wine, and other foods, flowers, and gifts for the poor.  The deacons would separate out what was used for the Mass.  This practice of bringing up various food items ceased in the middle ages, though this is still the customary time to take a collection for the poor or the parish’s needs.

 

 Whereas the faithful used to bring bread for the Mass from home, this participation in the offering is still symbolized when members of the congregation bring forward the bread and wine.  We can participate further in this Offertory by offering ourselves – our lives - interiorly along with the gifts being brought up.  We might pray in words such as these: “Father I offer to you all the work I have done, all the evils I have endured, in union with this sacrifice of the Mass, offered upon the altar of the cross, in atonement for my sins and those of the whole world.”

The priest offers a blessing to God for the bread: “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation…”  These words have deep roots in the Jewish liturgies as well as echoing the words of King Melchisedech when he offered bread and wine: “Blessed be Abram by God most High, creator of Heaven and Earth, and blessed be God most High for handing over your enemies to you” (Gen 14:18-20).  Ordinary bread was used until about the ninth century when unleavened bread became customary in the Western Church to reflect the use of unleavened bread at the Last Supper. 

After this, the priest places a few drops of water in the wine and prays: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”  These words echo St. Peter’s Second Letter: “Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire” (2 Pet 1:4-5).  They also recall the words of Paul to the Philippians: “Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.  Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness…” (Phil 2:6-7).  This is the marvelous exchange for which Christ came, and that is carried out in the liturgy: God became man so that man might share in the divine life of God.  A blessing is said also over the wine, to which we respond “Blessed be God forever.” 

A prayer taken from the three young men thrown in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3:39-40 is prayed quietly by the priest: “With humble spirit and contrite heart may we be accepted by you, O Lord, and may our sacrifice in your sight this day be pleasing to you, Lord God.”  Here the gifts and the altar may be incensed. 

The act of the priest washing his hands arose out of practical necessity.  He was dirty and was about to handle the bread that was to become the body of Christ.  Now known as the Lavabo, it symbolizes an interior purification from sin and guilt.  He prays: “Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”