The Eucharistic Liturgy Explained



Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.

Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.



Mark Shea's Article on Indulgences

Dear Catholic Exchange,

I loved this article on indulgences. I am a cradle Catholic who struggles with understanding how to respond to “Protestantese,” and this article does a great job of addressing the misunderstanding in the bad terms they use, and then converts them to the more common good terms. I usually never get responses to my questions, but I was pondering your thoughts on indulgences and wondering, do they really spare you from temporal punishments here on earth as well as in purgatory, or just in purgatory? My father is involved in prison ministry, and it seems to me that if your thoughts are correct, he should encourage the repentant prisinors to earn indulgences as this may result in a miracualous exit from prison, if their hearts are true. What do you think?

Dan Mulligan

Dear Dan,

Thanks for your kind words about the piece. Re: your question about Indulgences used to spare you temporal punishments on earth (by the lessening of severe penances often imposed in the early Church). What they do today in our era of extremely minor penances is anybody's guess. In God's Providence, an indulgence may result in the lessening of some trial due to sin (i.e. the governor miraculously commutes your sentence!) or (far more commonly I think), indulgences grant grace to bear suffering in a way that leads to deeper holiness. That's my guess anyway.

Mark Shea

Senior Content Editor

Catholic Exchange


Dear Catholic Exchange,

I would like details of the Eucharistic Liturgy including the names of the parts of the Mass such as the anaphora or list of sources re such.

Thanks,

Daniel Pena

Dear Mr. Pena,

Your email was forwarded to us at Catholics United for the Faith from Catholic Exchange. You asked for the details of the Eucharistic liturgy, with the names of the various parts or recommendations of sources that explain the Mass. We will provide, briefly, a bit of both. First, the liturgy is structured into two basic parts. According the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1346 The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day. It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity:

• the gathering — the liturgy of the Word, with readings, homily, and general intercessions; and

• the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and communion.

The liturgy of the Word and liturgy of the Eucharist together form “one single act of worship”; the Eucharistic table set for us is the table both of the Word of God and of the Body of the Lord (footnotes omitted).

The Liturgy of the Word is preceded by the gathering of the faithful for the Eucharist, presided over by Christ Himself, represented by the bishop or priest acting in Christ's person (Catechism, no. 1348). After the gathering, which is completed by the procession and/or hymn or antiphon, the liturgy begins in the Trinitarian Name. After confessing our sins, singing or reciting the Gloria (if on a Sunday or holy day) and praying an opening prayer called the Collect, the Scripture is read. The Catechism says,

1349 The Liturgy of the Word includes “the writings of the prophets,” that is, the Old Testament, and “the memoirs of the apostles” (their letters and the Gospels). After the homily, which is an exhortation to accept this Word as what it truly is, the Word of God, and to put it into practice, come the intercessions for all men, according to the Apostle's words: “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in high positions” (footnotes omitted).

After this begins the second part of the liturgy, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, with the offertory. The rest of the Liturgy of the Eucharist

is summed up in the Catechism:

1352 The anaphora: with the Eucharistic Prayer — the prayer of thanksgiving and consecration — we come to the heart and summit of the celebration.

In the preface, the Church gives thanks to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, for all his works: creation, redemption, and sanctification. The whole community thus joins in the unending praise

that the Church in heaven, the angels and all the saints, sing to the

thrice-holy God.

1353 In the epiclesis, the Church asks the Father to send his Holy Spirit (or the power of his blessing) on the bread and wine, so that by his power they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit (some liturgical traditions put the epiclesis after the anamnesis).

In the institution narrative, the power of the words and the action of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, make sacramentally present under the species of bread and wine Christ's body and blood, his sacrifice offered on the cross once for all.

1354 In the anamnesis that follows, 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.

In the intercessions, the Church indicates that the Eucharist is celebrated in communion with the whole Church in heaven and on earth, the living and the dead, and in communion with the pastors of the Church, the Pope, the diocesan bishop, his presbyterium and his deacons, and all the bishops of the whole world together with their Churches.

1355 In the communion, preceded by the Lord's prayer and the breaking of the bread, the faithful receive “the bread of heaven” and “the cup of salvation,” the body and blood of Christ who offered himself “for the life of the world”:

Because this bread and wine have been made Eucharist (“eucharisted,” according to an ancient expression), “we call this food Eucharist, and no one may take part in it unless he believes that what we teach is true, has received baptism for the forgiveness of sins and new birth, and lives in keeping with what Christ taught.”

This is the fundamental structure of the Liturgy. For further reading, Knowing Him in the Breaking of Bread: A Guide to the Mass by Francis Randolph is an excellent walk through the Mass. It can be ordered from most Catholic bookstores, Amazon.com or by calling Benedictus Books at 1-888-316-2640.

United in the Faith,

David E. Utsler

Information Specialist

Subscribe to CE
(It's free)

Go to Catholic Exchange homepage

MENU