Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church Three Bridges NJ
“From the Pastor” Bulletin Article Series
17. The New GIRM: Prayer Over the Offerings
In just 36 weeks we’ll be using the new GIRM or revisedGeneral Instruction for the Roman Missal. We’re up to the second half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist - and the last segment on the PreparationofGifts. After the gifts of bread and wine are received and prepared, the required prayers have been said, and the other gifts [the collection, gifts for the poor, etc.] have been placed elsewhere, the priest makes a profound bow and says quietly:
With humble spirit and contrite heart may we be accepted by you, O Lord,
and may our sacrifice in your sight this day be pleasing to you, Lord God.
This prayer paraphrases the words of Azariah [aka Abednego], one of the three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace, yet survived and sang God’s praises from the flames! [See Daniel 3; the prayer is verses 39-40.] Although I’m sure there’s no correlation, the priest may then play with fire: he may use incense at this point to reverence the gifts and to highlight what happened, is happening, and will happen!
He begins by incensing the bread and wine; at one time there were elaborate directives for this act, depending on whether it was a High Mass or Low Mass. Since it is not explicitly forbidden in the new GIRM, some priests still make a triple sign of the cross and three rings: two counter-clockwise and one clockwise over the gifts; I have no valid explanation of that tradition.
The revised GIRM directs him to add incense to the thurible and bless it with a sign of the cross in silence; it then directs him to incense the offerings, then the cross, and then the altar – to signify how the Church's offering and prayer are rising like incense in the sight of God. It also highlights how this bread and wine … will become what was once offered on the cross … not on Calvary, but on this altar. A deacon or other minister [server] then incenses the priest because of his sacred ministry - and the people by reason of their baptismal dignity.
To express his desire for interior purification the priests washes his hands at the side of the altar, as he prays in a low voice:
Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
One time, after I said this prayer, a new server said to me, “What?” I smiled and respectfully whispered, “I was talking to God, not to you!” [True story!] Tradition says this prayer from Psalm 51:4 was written by King David to express repentance for one of his worst sins. David had an affair with Bathsheba, who was married to his army commander Uriah; she and David conceived a child, but Uriah would not go home to be with his wife so David couldnot say it was Uriah’s child ... so David had him executed.
Then the priest extends his hands and joins his hands after saying,
Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice and yours
may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.
The people rise and reply:
May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands
for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.
Note the two subtle but significant changes which are underlined above: “my sacrifice and yours” more properly expresses the communaland personal aspect of what is happening. Each and every participant must unite their sacrifices to that of the Lord Jesus’ ‘once for all’ self-sacrifice at Mass! And we can be assured Jesus will accept it because it is from his ‘holy’ Church! Words like ‘holy’have been added elsewhere to highlight the divine component of the Mass.
The Prayer over the Offerings. Another subtle change is the name for this oration; currently it is the Prayer over the Gifts; the revised text calls them “Offerings.” These orations, which are unique at every Mass, have also been revised, though the people’s response is still “Amen” - by which they make the offering their own. We then enter the crux and climax of the Mass: The Eucharistic Prayer.
Rev. Thomas J. Serafin – The New GIRM Article # 17