God’s Family, the Church

In a family there are some things which the members do on their own, such as working or going to school.  And there are other things which they do together, like having their Sunday lunch or going on holiday.

So it is with the Family of God, the Church.  There are some things that we do by ourselves, such as saying our daily morning and evening prayers.  But the chief thing that we all do together is public worship.  By public worship I mean services in church in which we come before God as his Family and People.

Uniqueness of the Eucharist

The greatest of these, and the one which is completely different from all the others, is the Eucharist.  It is also called the Mass, the Holy Communion and the Liturgy, but whatever it is called it is the same service.  The reason why it is the greatest service is that, unlike any other act of worship, it was instituted and given to us by Our Lord himself.  That is why no other act of worship can possibly take its place.  And the reason why it is different from all others is that it is a Sacrament, an outward action by means of which God has promised to give us a gift for our souls.

The Sacrament

As you know, every Sacrament has what we call:

• matter (the part you can see);
• form (the form of words that goes with it);
• the inward gift (the part you cannot see); and
• the minister (the person by whom the Sacrament can be administered).

In the Eucharist:

• the matter is bread and wine;
• the form is the Eucharistic Prayer (Prayer of Consecration) containing the words Jesus himself used at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, “This is my Body…This is my Blood”;
• the inward gift is Our Lord’s Risen and Ascended Body and Blood as they are now in Heaven; and
• the minister must be a priest.  That is why, if no priest is available, then the Eucharist cannot be celebrated.

Parts of the Eucharist

In the next few weeks we shall be talking about the different parts of the Eucharist in some detail.  So for now we shall just look at the main parts as an overview.

The Gathering

The Eucharist begins with the Gathering which is an introduction to the whole service.  It includes prayers of penitence, the Gloria (except during Advent and Lent) and the Collect (Prayer) for the Day.

The Liturgy of the Word

This part is derived from the synagogue service which Jesus and his disciples attended in Palestine every Sabbath Day.  This consisted of prayers, readings from the Old Testament, psalms and sermon.  As the first Christians were Jews, they continued to attend the synagogue service to which they were accustomed, and so it was taken over by the Christian Church and made part of the Eucharist.

The Liturgy of the Word includes one or two readings from the Bible, the Gospel, the sermon, the Creed and Intercessions (prayers for others).

The Liturgy of the Sacrament

This part of the Eucharist, which centres on the bread and wine, is what Jesus himself gave us on Maundy Thursday at the Last Supper.  It was then that Jesus gave to his Crucifixion its meaning and offered himself beforehand to God for our salvation.  He

“…took bread and gave you thanks;
he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you;
do this in remembrance of me”.

“In the same way, after supper
he took the cup and gave you thanks;
he gave it to them, saying:
Drink this, all of you;
this is my blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. 
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me”. (1)

Offertory: we offer to God ourselves as symbolised by the bread and wine, manufactured foods which represent our life and work, what we are and what we do.

Consecration: at the Consecration, when the priest repeats Our Lord’s words at the Last Supper, we offer Our Lord himself to God and then Our Lord takes the forms of bread and wine on the altar and makes them one with himself in his Ascended Body as he promised.  And as we offer him to God as our Crucified Saviour, so he brings us to his Father and presents us with himself as the people he was born and died to save.

Breaking of the Bread: the priest breaks the consecrated Bread (the Host) as Jesus did at the Last Supper.

Communion: Jesus gives us himself in his Risen and Glorified Body under the forms of Bread and Wine so that, by becoming part of him, we may become like him. Then we possess him in our inmost being and he possesses us.

Dismissal and blessing

After the Eucharist we are meant to go back to our daily lives to live as true children of our Heavenly Father – loving, trusting, obeying and imitating him – and as faithful friends of his Son Jesus Christ.

Actions at the Eucharist and the Last Supper

You will notice that the actions of the priest at the Eucharist repeat the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper:

We should be present at the Eucharist every Sunday, not only because it is Our Lord’s own Service and Sunday is Our Lord’s own Day, but because he commanded his Church to do so.  “Do this”, he said, and so we, as members of his Church, take our part in doing it every Sunday.

Evensong

In the Church of England the public evening service is called Evening Prayer or Evensong.  This was compiled in the year 1549 by Archbishop Cranmer from two smaller services which had been drawn up by monks in the Middle Ages.  One was Vespers at which the Magnificat was sung, and the other was Compline which contains the Nunc Dimittis.  The Magnificat, which begins with the words, “My soul doth magnify the Lord”, is the song which Our Lady sang when she visited her cousin Elizabeth before Jesus was born.  The Nunc Dimittis, “Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace”, is what old Simeon sang in the Temple when Our Lady and St Joseph brought the Infant Jesus to present him to God.  Evensong is a good service to end Sunday with after one has been to the Eucharist in the morning.

Benediction

In some churches Evensong is followed by the service of Benediction.  This is a service in honour of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  During it the priest holds up the Host (consecrated Bread of the Eucharist), and traces the sign of the Cross with It over the people.  In this way Our Lord’s own blessing is given to them.

SUMMARY

1. Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, and ever since it has been the great act of Christian worship.  It is the only service which he has given us himself, and for that reason no other service can ever take its place.

It is variously known as the Eucharist, the Mass, the Holy Communion and the Liturgy.

The matter of the Eucharist is bread and wine, and the form is the Eucharistic Prayer (Prayer of Consecration).  The inward gift is Jesus himself in his Ascended Body.  Only a priest can celebrate the Eucharist.

2. Evensong was compiled by Archbishop Cranmer in 1549 from two smaller services (Vespers and Compline) which had been drawn up by monks in the Middle Ages.  It is a suitable service to end Sunday with after one has been to the Eucharist in the morning.

Reference

©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship.  Holy Communion.  Order One.  Eucharistic Prayer A.  Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/prayera.html  (Accessed 24 August 2010) (Internet).