Greetings in Christ!
I’m typing this up before I head off on retreat. I’m going to start off with a message for both parishes and then continue my series on prayers the priest prays before and during Mass. So first, an announcement for you all at both parishes…
Holy Family is, of course, about to engage in a massive renovation/ restoration project. Part of that project will involve putting new foundations down for a large chunk of the Church and this presents us with a couple opportunities to dispose of sacred items in a wonderful way.
If you have old, broken rosaries, old Bibles, religious medals or anything like that that you wish to dispose of properly, get them together. We’ll put boxes out so people can place them in and, when they are about to pour the new foundation for our Church, we will add these items to it. It’s a nice way to send holy objects off properly.
So, get all your religious and blessed items together that you want to dispose of and we’ll let you know where to put them so they end up in the foundations of the Church. Please note that only sacred things should go into this collection.
Now, on to the prayers the priest prays silently, during Mass…
You may remember that last I left off, we had covered the prayers the priest prays while vesting for Mass. Once the priest processes in and begins, the next prayer he says that you may not hear is the blessing he prays over the Deacon before he reads the Gospel. The prayer is a blessing and reads like this:
“May the Lord be in your heart and on your lips, that you may proclaim his Gospel worthily and well, in the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.”
If the priest is reading the Gospel, he bows before the altar on his way to the Ambo and says:
“Cleanse my heart and my lips, almighty God, that I may worthily proclaim your Gospel.”
After the priest says “A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke (or whomever wrote the Gospel), he then makes a sign of the cross over his head, lips and heart. He prays the following:
“May the word of God be on my mind, on my lips and in my heart.”
After he reads the Gospel, the priest then kisses the Gospel and prays:
“Through the words of the Gospel may our sins be wiped away.”
Now, we jump to the part of Mass where the priest has received the gifts from the congregation. He starts with the bread, raising it a bit off the altar and prays:
“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”
The priest or deacon pours a bit of water into 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.”
He then takes the chalice with wine, lifts it a bit above the altar and prays:
“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink.”
So, that’s it for this edition. Next week, I’ll continue the series. Please pray for me on my retreat.
Love you all.
fjk
