medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Phyllis Jestice
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Many thanks for the responses to my question---both on- and offlist.
> I think John Wickstrom's post came especially close to the heart of
> my puzzlement:
>
Hello Phyllis, et al.
May I add a little bit - as a RC organist?
> "When my reasonably tolerant Lutheran wife attends mass, she always
> chokes when the
> congregation rises for the "orate fratres" (Pray, brethren, that our
> sacrifice may be acceptable to God the almighty Father...)"
>
> In other words, the point that the Anglican communion and the
> Lutherans both believe in the Real Presence, but still find the RC
> mass offensive. Where DID this idea of the mass "as a propitiatory
> sacrifice for sin" come from? When did it appear in western
> Christianity? Is it present in eastern Christianity?
>
The order of the Mass is to some extent borrowed from the Hebrew Temple
service. I don't know all the specifics, but it makes sense that a lot of
early Christian worship would be based on common practice. After all,
Christ came into the world to fulfill what the Old Testament had
prophesied.
My understanding of "the Mass" goes to the heart of the Nativity - Jesus
Christ, both man and God, stepping onto earth and into time - out of his
eternal existence. At the Last supper, he instituted the Eucharist in
order to remain in our human realm of existence. Now, we all strive for
the eternal existence to come - resurrection, Church Triumphant, heaven,
in God's presence, etc. Coming to church for Mass is our stepping out of
time and into eternity, to whatever extent each one of us is capable of
comprehending such. The first parts of the Mass are our preparation for
this experience, the Lessons, singing Psalms, a sermon. And the Offertory
("Preparation of the Gifts" as it's called now) is also still preparation.
Even at the Last Supper, there were the Passover Prayers/Commentary
leading up to the "feast". The bread and wine were already in place when
Jesus instituted the Sacrament. The "Orate fratres" is the priest's
invitation to us to accept as being a part of this preparation of the
bread and wine at the Altar. I keep hearing/reading that scholars aren't
sure when today's bread and wine become part of the the Eternal Sacrifice,
but surely that has happened when the priest recites Christ's own works of
institution. That's what I believe, anyway. But that has not yet taken
place when we pray the OF.
Now posture is another question. The Anglicans (leaning towards Rome if
not already Roman officially as in Anglican Use RC) I've been with stand
for the Offertory Hymn, and are already standing for the "Orate fratres".
The Book of common Prayer (1979) doesn't have the OF, but they traditional
stand for the Doxology, at which point the offering ($$) is brought forth.
Catholics OTOH usually sit during the PofG. Standing for the OF is not
out of respect that Christ is already present in the yet un-consecrated
gifts, but simply the prefered posture for congregational prayer.
So, there is a difference between the Offertory/PofG and the Eucharistic
Prayer/Great Thanksgiving. The Mass being a long, complicated dialog
prayer, one needs to read each section carefully (as it also must be
carefully translated!) to know just where one stands. I believe many
misconceptions through the centuries have come about this way. On a
tangent - even the cult of the saints has been misunderstood. But careful
reading of the Collects/Prayers for any saint's day reveals the
relationships between us, the saint being remembered, and Who/What we are
worshiping in the Mass. We do NOT worship saints! We worship God,
calling to mind the saints' relationship to God, hoping that it might
eventually be our relationship to God as well.
Stephen Collins
Charleston, SC
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