The Consecration

You will remember that in the Eucharist, when the priest does what Our Lord did at the Last Supper and offers Our Lord to God and uses his own words (“This is my Body, this is my Blood”), then the forms of Bread and Wine on the altar and Our Lord’s Ascended Body in Heaven become one in the Blessed Sacrament.

This wonderful moment in the service is called the Consecration.  You can tell when it is reached because of the bell, which is rung three times at the Consecration of the Bread and three times at the Consecration of the Wine.  If you look up then, you will see the priest lift up the Consecrated Bread, the Body of Christ, and offer It to God, and then do the same with the Chalice.  You should join with the priest in offering Our Lord to God, because it is then that Our Lord, our Great High Priest, presents us with himself before his Father’s Throne in Heaven.

You will notice that after the Consecration the priest genuflects (kneels on one knee) before the Blessed Sacrament as an act of adoration to Our Lord now present on the altar.  We shall say more about this in the next session.

We have a special name for the consecrated Bread which now hides Our Lord’s Ascended Body.  The special name is the Host, which means the Offering.  We call the consecrated Wine, the Precious Blood.

The Lord’s Prayer

After the Consecration comes the Our Father.  As Our Lord is, at this moment in the service, praying to his Father for us, so we sum up his prayers and our own by saying or singing the Lord’s Prayer itself.  This is followed by the Fraction or Breaking of the Host.

Fraction (Breaking of the Host)

The priest first breaks the Host in half, as Jesus broke the Bread at the Last Supper.  When the Host is broken, the priest says:

“We break this bread
to share in the body of Christ”. (1)

Agnus Dei

The Agnus Dei, or “O Lamb of God” is said or sung.  This is a prayer to Our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament, asking for his mercy and peace:

“Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us”

is sung twice, and then:

“Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
grant us peace”. (2)

The Communion

After the Agnus Dei, the priest invites the people to come up and make their Communion, that is, to receive the holy Food of the Blessed Sacrament.  As they leave their pews they genuflect to the Blessed Sacrament and go up to the altar rails where they kneel together in a row.

Making your Communion

Those of you who are already confirmed will know what to do.  You make the sign of the Cross and then place your right hand across your left so as to make, as St Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, said in the year 348 AD, “a throne for the King of Kings”.  The priest places in your hand one of the Hosts or consecrated Wafers, and says, “The Body of Christ”.  You say “Amen” meaning, “This is what I believe”.  Then you raise your hand containing the Blessed Sacrament to your mouth.  Another way of communicating is to open one’s mouth so that the priest can place the Sacrament within it.  This avoids any risk of the Sacrament being dropped.  After you have communicated in the first part, the priest or a specially trained lay person comes to you with the chalice.  You make the sign of the Cross.  When the priest or lay person says, “The Blood of Christ”, you say “Amen” and then sip from the chalice.  Making the sign of the Cross reminds us that without the Crucifixion we would not have the Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament.

It is a wonderful moment when Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament comes into your soul so that you and he are one.  You will never be closer to him in this life than you are when you make your Communion, for then you are part of his Ascended Body because his Ascended Body is part of you.

Communion and Christian fellowship

There is nothing which joins people together in true Christian fellowship more than Holy Communion.  Imagine yourself as a complete stranger in a foreign land, not even knowing the language of the people.  You would feel completely out of it.  But if there were a church there where you could make your Communion with them at the Eucharist, you would at once realise that you were one of them.  And it should be exactly the same among us all in this place.

After Communion

When the Communion is over, the priest rinses and dries the chalice and then says the Post Communion Prayer, after which everyone joins in a prayer thanking God for feeding us with the Body and Blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.  In this prayer we also offer ourselves to God and end by saying:

“Send us out
in the power of your Spirit
to live and work
to your praise and glory. 
Amen”. (3)

The Dismissal

A final hymn may be sung and then we kneel down and the priest gives the Blessing.  We make the sign of the Cross, this time as a reminder that the Crucifixion was the price Jesus had to pay in order to be able to give us his blessing.  Then the priest says:

“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”

and everyone replies:

“In the name of Christ.  Amen”.

From Easter to Pentecost the words are different.  The priest says:

“Go in the peace of Christ.  Alleluia, alleluia”. 

And we reply:

“Thanks be to God.  Alleluia, alleluia”. (4)

So at the end of the Eucharist, God sends us back from his Throne in Heaven into the world again to live as his true children – loving, trusting, obeying and imitating him – and as faithful friends of his Son Jesus Christ.

Finally, the priest and servers leave the altar and the Eucharist is over.  And so once again we have done what Jesus did at the Last Supper and what he commanded us to do for the re-calling of him.  He took bread and wine (that is the Offertory), he gave thanks (the Consecration), he broke the Bread (the Fraction), and he gave it to his Apostles (the Communion).  And it is these four actions which together make the Eucharist.

SUMMARY

1. The Our Father: sums up Our Lord’s prayers and ours before the Throne of God.

2. Fraction: the priest breaks the Host (the consecrated Bread).

3. The Communion: when we make our Communion (receive the holy Food of Our Lord’s Body and Blood), he comes into the centre of our soul and we are closer to him then than at any other time.  Through him we also have fellowship with one another.

4. Dismissal: God sends us back from his Throne in Heaven into the world again to be his faithful soldiers and servants.

References

1. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship.  The Order for the celebration of Holy Communion also called the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper, Order One.  Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/orderone.html  (Accessed 25 August 2010) (Internet).

2. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship.  The Order for the celebration of Holy Communion also called the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper, Order One.  Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/orderone.html  (Accessed 25 August 2010) (Internet).

3. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship.  The Order for the celebration of Holy Communion also called the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper, Order One.  Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/orderone.html  (Accessed 25 August 2010) (Internet).

4. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship.  The Order for the celebration of Holy Communion also called the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper, Order One.  Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/orderone.html  (Accessed 25 August 2010) (Internet).