Sunday, June 18, 2017

How Catholics Supernaturally Pray the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass


Here is a priceless post about what is happening in the Sacred Liturgy.

This knowledge is tremendous assistance with the supernatural prayer that takes you to these events. You can't remember everything, but you pick out what is important to you and what will help mystically be present in the Life of Christ.

The priest going to the foot of the altar represents Christ going to Mount Olivet.

The priest commencing the Holy Mass represents Christ beginning to pray in the Garden.

The priest saying the Confiteor represents Christ falling down and sweating blood at Mt. Olivet

The priest going to the Epistle side represents Christ being captured, bound and taken to Annas.

The priest going to the middle of the altar and saying the Kyrie eleison represents Christ being brought to Caiphas and these three times denied by Peter.

The priest reading the Epistle represents Christ being brought to Pilate.

The priest reading the Gospel represents Christ being taken to Pilate and again mocked.

The priest uncovering the chalice represents Christ being shamefully exposed.

The priest offering bread and wine represents Christ being cruelly scourged.

The priest covering the chalice represents Christ being crowned with thorns.

The priest washing his hands represents Christ being declared innocent by Pilate.

The priest making the memento for the living represents Christ carrying the cross to Mount Calvary.

The priest elevating the host represents Christ being raised on the cross.

The priest elevating the chalice represents Christ shedding blood from the five wounds.

The priest saying aloud the the Pater Noster represents Christ saying the seven words on the cross.

The priest breaking and separating the host represents Christ giving up His spirit.

The priest saying the Agnus Dei represents Christ being acknowledged on the cross as the Son of God by many bystanders.

The priest preparing the chalice again represents Christ rising from the dead.

Catholics who pray the Holy Sacrifice are deeply concentrating on being physically present as these things take place. It's really happening. We are not in the pews. As these things are happening we're approaching Christ to connect our soul to His Love and Divinity and Power. We are dissolving into Christ, asking Him for miracles, protection, exorcisms, gifts of the Holy Spirit. We're seeking His Wisdom and guidance. We are cramming in indulgences for ourselves and souls in purgatory.

Instead of teaching our people what the Liturgy is and how to pray it, they've led them down the rabbit hole of coming to Mass to get a cheap thrill from sappy music and handing out Communion. They've built themselves a performance stage in front of what is happening. They're anxious for the moments they can spring from their chairs and stampede the Sanctuary to get in on the performance which they sometimes applaud. They are completely dumbfounded by those of us who won't leave the pursuit of Christ to engage in cheap grace. Most don't know the difference between what is happening in a Catholic Church and what is not happening at the Protestant Church down the street. In their ignorance, many have fled there. God help them.

Did you ever think we would see the day when we have a pope who is selling cheap thrills mortal sin and Martin Luther?? Sneering and slandering living every day in a State of Grace?


Fr. Scalia explains the difference between a 'remembrance' and making present:



Our symbols of remembrance remain merely that – symbols. Our monuments remind us, but they do not make present. Only the Lord fulfills the longing of human memory by making history’s greatest event present to us now under the form of bread and wine. In what Saint Thomas calls the “memorial ne’er to cease,” everything of His Sacrifice is made present: His offering to the Father, the stretching of His Body on the Cross, the shedding of His Blood, His prayer for mercy, and even the giving of His mother.

“Were you there when the crucified my Lord?” the American spiritual asks. No, we were not – nor did we need to be. The Mass makes His crucifixion present to us, precisely so that we can become participants in His offering and conform our lives to that event.
This consideration of the Eucharistic memorial teaches us something about how Mother Church remembers. She does not reminisce about the good old days or merely recall her Lord. She is always – throughout history and throughout the world – making Him present through the ministry of her priests.

All teaching about Jesus Christ reaches its fulfillment in this memorial, in which He is not just recalled but made present. And without this memorial all teaching would remain only a recollection about past events.

To appreciate the memorial sacrifice, then, requires an appreciation of human memory. If we reduce our memory to that technological recall, easily delegated to a device, then we lose the template for understanding the memorial that perfects all human memory.

More later on the prayer of the Mass but wanted to get some food for thought on this glorious feast of Corpus Christi.

Happy Father's Day to all readers who are Dads and priests and deacons, bishops and Cardinals.

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