BECOME ONE BODY ONE SPIRIT IN

CHRISTWe offer the sacrifice

PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORM

• The priestly people offer the sacrifice

Then the priest offered the Mass on our behalf

Now ministerial and common priestly people together offer the sacrifice

© Copyright ICEL 2010

Crafting the Art of LiturgyThe Assembly

AUGUSTINE

Just as we call all Christians ‘Christs’ in virtue of their mystical anointing, so we call them all ‘priests’ because they are all members of the one Priest.

The City of God against the Pagans. XX Chapter 10.

AUGUSTINE

You were asking what you should offer for yourself. Offer yourself. What, after all, is the Lord asking from you, but you yourself. Because in the whole earthly creation, he made nothing better than you. He asked yourself from you.

Sermon preached in the Celerina Basilica.48:2

AUGUSTINE

If there is no sacrifice there can be no priest.

Exposition of Ps 130: 4

CHRISTIAN INITIATIONThose who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism and Confirmationparticipate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist.

CCC 1322

WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE?

When we talk about the way we respond to each other in LOVE we are talking about Christian sacrificeThe source of this love and its perfection is found only in God

Robert Daly sj

A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE …

We can only experience sacrifice that is Christian in the flesh and blood of our human experiences …Think of a time when you were aware you were loved, perhaps by a parent or a friend.Or think of a time when you did a loving act for another.Share something of that experience with the person beside you

A mutual, loving encounter that is free and self-giving and takes place between two persons‘God is love…’This is Christian Sacrifice

CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE IS TRINITARIAN

1. The Father’s abundant love for the created is so abundant that God becomes human in Jesus.

2. Jesus lives his life fully in love even unto death

3. When we love each other, through the power of God’s Spirit we also enter into that divine Father-Son relationship.

Robert Daly sj: Sacrifice Unveiled

SACRIFICE BUT NOT CHRISTIANSomething that we give up Enduring a situation that is harmful or unjust - justifying suffering

‘Self sacrifice’ that leads to loss of identity

Giving up what you loveSomething that is done to or imposed

Bread and wineCollection for the poor

‘It is the sacrament of yourself that is placed on the Lord’s altar’

Augustine

We bring gifts

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER III ‘Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you:by the same Spirit graciously make holythese gifts we have brought to you for consecration’

EUCHARISTIC PRAYERThe rhythm of the week prompts us to gather up in grateful memory the events of the days which have just passed, to review them in the light of God and to thank him for his countless gifts, glorifying him ‘through Christ, with Christ and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit’.

John Paul II - Dies Domini 42

AUGUSTINE: SERMON TO NEOPHYTES

‘If, therefore, you are the body of Christ and His members, your mystery has been placed on the Lord’s table, you receive your mystery. You reply “Amen” to that which you are.

AUGUSTINE: SERMON TO NEOPHYTESBe a member of the body of Christ so that your “Amen” may be true.’