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What’s in a name? The word “Eucharist” means thanksgiving. We all remember at least once a year to give thanks as we eat turkey, watch football, and take a day off. At least, I hope, we are thankful. But that word needs to be unloaded. We should be thankful to God. This thankfulness is not just a mood or disposition but a prayerfulness and fulfillment of a relationship with God. To alter a word in the operatic song, “every day is thanksgiving day for me.” The Scriptures tell us to dedicate ourselves to thankfulness. Does that mean we neglect prayers of asking, sorrow and adoration? No. But we may be neglecting thanksgiving at other times of the year. When we go to Mass, we must realize that Christ is still giving thanks (Eucharist) to God. Christ gives thanks to the Father. Christ can do this because he is also one of us, human. Listen to the words at Consecration: “… he himself took bread, and, giving thanks, he said the blessing…” Then “… he took the chalice, and, giving you thanks, he said the blessing…” When the bread is first offered, the celebrant says, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation…” That word, “blessed,” really means “thanks.” Notice the gesture of holding aloft the bread and wine. It is done in thanksgiving for all that God has given us. This bread will be changed into the living, substantial presence of Christ, still giving thanks in the Eucharist. We join our gratitude to his as between consecration and communion; Christ is giving thanks until we join him in a special way in thanksgiving. We thank him, and with him, thank the Father who is so good to us. It may be that on Sundays and weekdays, the faithful say to themselves, “I am going to church,” or “I am going to hear Mass,” or “I am going to celebrate the Liturgy.” All these phrases are good. But, maybe once in awhile, we could say to ourselves, “I am going to give thanks to and with Christ in the Eucharist”? There is no better way to give thanks to God than in this action, which gives us the word, “Eucharist” or “thanksgiving.” As the old prayer used to say, “What shall I give to the Lord for all he has given us? I will take the chalice of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

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While I have given some emphasis to the angels, we are also in the company of our beloved dead who are saints. The saints are our kinfolk, those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. Some are well known, as the ones remembered at Mass and frequently found in religious art and statuary. The majority are members of our family and friends who have gone to the Lord without the notoriety of canonization. They are saints, nonetheless. The saints present to us many ways to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. There are martyrs, doctors of the Church, confessors, virgins, pastors, missionaries, etc. Some churches fill their windows with depictions of the saints and maybe statues, too. This reminds us that we are surrounded by the saints, our circle of friends. They are not far off, long ago, but with us praising God and interceding for us. They bring back to us the whole history of our Church in remembering them. They pray for us. We talk to them. In addition to famous saints, the personal saints of family and friends pray with and for us. Unfortunately, “out of sight is (often) out of mind.” Do we neglect calling upon our personal saints? Do we remember those to whom at death, we said, “I will never forget you”? Who is the saint whose name you bore at baptism? When was the last time you spoke to him or to her? What do you know of your patron, protector and intercessor? Are you conscious in the liturgy that you are not alone but surrounded by a host of witnesses? We join with them in praise and thanks to God. We also remember the souls in purgatory who are assured of heaven but cannot really pray for or help themselves. However, they can pray for us and they appreciate our prayers for them. The Church is full of people trying to live their faith; but, we do not do it alone. Our prayer and praise always includes the unseen members of our family in faith. What a great gift is our faith! We are so very privileged to know these blessings from the Lord!

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We attend the liturgy in a church, not just for our private and personal prayer, but for the prayer of the whole family. The saints and angels also pray with us. How many times do we advert to the presence of the angels at Mass just before the Canons at the “Holy, Holy, Holy,” when we say “with the Angels and all the Saints we declare your glory, as with one voice we acclaim….” We pray also that the angels will take this sacrifice to the altar in heaven. At the funeral Mass we say, “May the angels lead you into paradise.” Many churches have angels on either side of the tabernacle and/or in the stained-glass windows. The angels of God constantly sing God’s praises because they see the face of God. How many turn to the personal guardian angel which we each have? When was the last time you spoke to your guardian angel? They are not just for children, but for all of us. There was a prayer that many of us used to say: “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom his love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.” Your angel prays and praises God with you in the liturgy. All of God’s saints and angels are with us in our prayers. As the familiar prayer here says, they guard, protect and guide. They have been given this commission by God to care for us. Are we conscious of praying to them (for intercession and help) and praying with them at Mass? Many years ago, we used to say a prayer at the end of Mass to St. Michael the Archangel. His name means “he who is like to God.” Archbishop Michael Curley was the Ordinary and he regularly referred to his patron saint name in catechesis about the importance of this special messenger from God. As sort of an inside joke, if you look at the archbishop’s chair at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in the sanctuary, you will see the words, “Quis ut Deus,” which means “who is like to God.” We place great confidence in Michael. Michael drove Satan into hell. Is not our world in need of invoking him again to protect the Church (that’s us) from the diabolical time and atmosphere in which we live? We should be saying, “Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.” You are not alone at Mass. In addition to your fellow Catholics, you are with your guardian angels. Sing with them. Rejoice with them. Speak to them. Do this so that you may one day stand with them at the throne of God, just as they stand at your side during your mortal pilgrimage to the home prepared for you in your Father’s house.

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Sometimes we receive communion under both species, which is the consecrated bread and wine. Reception under both species does not mean that we receive more than when we receive under one species. The sick person who can only swallow a fragment of the host receives the whole resurrected Christ. The one who only drinks of the consecrated cup receives the whole Christ. While there is a separate consecration and then elevation of the host and chalice, either communion with the consecrated bread only or the consecrated cup only brings us the whole living presence of Christ. We might speak of this as a physical presence, but given that we use sacred signs, we more properly refer to it as a sacramental presence. It is still the REAL Jesus. St. Paul says, “Whether you eat this bread or drink this blood unworthily you are guilty of the body and blood of Christ.” So why did Christ seemingly separate the host from the cup? It was a sign of the manner in which Christ is present and comes to us. Christ could have said simply, “It is I,” or “I am there.” But when the words, body and blood are used, it differentiates that presence from the other modes in which God is present with us. This is the sacramental-physical presence of Christ which is different from his spiritual presence as when we come together for prayer, when Christ is in us by grace, and when Christ is present in the reading of the Scriptures. There is no doubt that when Christ used the words “body and blood” we are talking about the actual substantial presence of Christ. The host is not just a part of Christ. The whole physical presence of Christ comes to us either in the host or in the precious blood, taken together or singly. Also, the two consecrations of the host and wine are signs of Christ’s death. His body seemingly separates from the blood. The blood seemingly separates from the body. A living body has blood and the blood courses its way through a living body. Later in the Mass, when the priest drops a particle of the host into the chalice, he says, “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.” Seemingly, this looks like a reunion of the body and blood, but it is a sign again of the resurrected Christ. It is the sacramental-physical resurrected Christ we receive in communion.

Editor’s Note: Msgr. Awalt likes to use the word “physical” in reference to the real presence in the sacred species. It is not his desire to circumvent the more inclusive “sacramental” presence. He simply wants to stress the fact that the presence is substantial and genuine. We are not dealing merely with a spiritual or ghostly presence. Language falls short to express the Eucharistic mystery. I have hyphenated the word “sacramental” to his word “physical” to help avoid confusion. A figurative or empty symbolic representation would be no authentic presence at all. A spiritual presence would speak to Christ’s soul and his divinity, but not to the full implications of the bodily resurrection. A mere physical presence might be crudely understood as the presence of a corpse. It has pained me to hear some teach the real presence in such terms, as if the Eucharist is merely our Thanksgiving turkey ready for the carving. Jesus is sacramentally and substantially present. The Eucharist is the risen Lord, whole and complete. He is totally present in every fragment of the host and in every drop of the precious blood. This point is what the late pastor tries vigorously to emphasize.

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When a bishop offers Mass, he greets the people with “Peace be with you.” At the sign of peace, the priest acknowledges their unity in Christ by saying, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” In both cases, the congregants respond, “And with your spirit.” This extension of peace and variations on the dialogue response are frequently used in the liturgy. When congregations are scattered throughout a large church, instead of the handshake, some make the symbolic “V” sign with their fingers. The “V” sign that was so significant in years past is not seen as much today. After the Second World War it signified victory. During the 1960’s it was a secular sign of peace. But in either case, we ought to rediscover what these words and that gesture mean. This is particularly true of that which is commonplace in the liturgy. What finer salutation can the celebrant at Mass make to the congregation than “the Lord be with you.” It is a wakeup call to the indwelling of God in our souls for those in a state of grace. God, who is all powerful, all merciful, and all wise, lives in us. Do we speak to God present there? God is present in us, in our celebrant and in our neighbor. Are we conscious of that in our dealings with each other, or is the ritual so routine or commonplace that it stirs us not at all? This phrase is put into action at the “sign of peace,” when by any decent gesture we may choose (it is not specified), we greet each other. We often see a quick kiss between spouses, a hug or a handshake. We extend to each other God’s peace. It has a deeper meaning than renewing old friendships and just being polite socially. Our appreciation of peace comes from the Hebrew word, “shalom,” as peace is our devout desire and prayer for our co-worshippers. It is not a Dale Carnegie greeting or a “hail fellow” well met— it is deeper than that. Try to think of difficult neighbors as being vicariously present in the person standing next to you. Do we really forgive them? Do we ask to be forgiven, as in “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? SHALOM means not just the absence of hostility. It means things that cannot be fully expressed in a single word. This peace means forgiveness, joy, comfort, support, tranquility and God’s presence with you. This is a great preparation for communion, which expresses our unity in the Body of Christ. Peace be with all who read this. Let us be cognizant of what we say and why we are saying it.

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There is a phrase in the Canon of the Mass upon which we cannot long dwell while saying it but about which we should ponder at times so that it will mean more to us in its usage. “Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church….” We use this phrase in approaching God in the Liturgy. The faith of the Church does not refer to that segment of the faithful who have gone before us. They have lost their faith— they have no need for it as they see God face to face. The souls of Purgatory awaiting the completion of their purification before full union with God also do not need faith as they, too, have seen the Lord. It must then refer to us or at least to those among us who give great examples of the faith in our day to day living. Because of our union with these in Christ, we ask the Lord to look favorable upon us. When using this phrase, I think of the bishops and cardinals who have lost their lives or who are imprisoned for decades in China, Mexico, India, Sudan, etc. and have still held on to the faith. I think of missionaries, men like you and me, who live in strange cultures, eat unfamiliar foods, and work tirelessly for the spread of the Word of God. I met one of our own priests whose mission in Brazil involves paddling up the rivers in search of souls to tell them that God loves them and has sent his son to die for them. He works in the heat; others work in the cold and like St. Paul, in dangers and threats. What faith they have! I recall an article by Fr. Peter Daly in The Catholic Standard where he wrote about the examples of great faith in the ordinary lives of our people. For instance, several young mothers who get their little toddlers up and dressed, bringing them to daily Mass. He tells of the husband who stays routinely at the bedside of his wife of 57 years, holding her hand as she is dying. There is a young man who works in a fast-paced information technology job, who starts the day off with the Liturgy of the Hours (a book he keeps on his desk). Worthy of note is the father of six whom on his way home from work stops by the church to pray for his family. Then there are the adult leaders who give up their Wednesday evenings to work with teenagers, just because they love kids regardless of their baggy pants and pierced body parts. A retired nurse volunteers her time and effort to hospice work for the dying. A young lawyer devotes his lunch hours to teaching illiterate adults to read. The doctor and nurse, a husband and wife team, twice each month cook meals for the area homeless shelter and their three teenage sons help deliver the meals. Important to mention are the young women who volunteer at the neighborhood crisis pregnancy center so as to weekly save lives. Any pastor, and for that matter, any observant person could make a similar list. There is so much goodness and grace. It is truly amazing. “Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church,” and help us to go and do likewise.

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Just before the celebrant brings the congregation the Blessed Sacrament at Communion time, he says, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” The visual appearance of the host hardly looks like a supper, let alone a banquet. If we realize it is Jesus, our Lord, who comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine, we can see how like food to the body, this supernatural food nourishes us in the life of God. “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have life within you.” Really, the invitation to come to his supper refers to the invitation we have for the heavenly life that is described in terms of a banquet. The gift of receiving the Eucharist at Mass is meant to be our nourishment, strength and sustenance on the way to the great banquet that God has prepared for those who love him. It is something similar to the words we use when we give communion to those who are dying. Communion then is called “viaticum.” Via – te – cum, breaking the word into its component parts means “on the way with you.” Christ comes to us on our way to seeing him, as St. Paul says, face to face. Ordinary communion is the way that we pilgrim people walk with Christ on our way. Rather than being distracted by the appearance of the small portion of the consecrated bread and wine, we should think of Christ coming to us as our companion on the journey to the great banquet which is the manner our heavenly existence is described (Book of Revelation 19:9). The revised corrected translation better renders as “blessed” what we previously termed “happy.” While we might not always have a joyful feeling when receiving communion, we are still blessed despite obstacles like physical condition, bad weather, our weariness, etc. Why? We are blessed because faith tells us that Christ is our companion no matter what the circumstances. The word “companion” has in its composition, cum – panis, that is, with bread, the way Christ chooses to walk with us in our ordinary life.

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The title used for Christ in the Liturgy is “Lord.” We are so used to using that title that it is almost thought of as his proper name. “Dear Lord,” “my Lord,” etc. occurs in our private prayers as well as in the Liturgy. Lord is not his proper name as much as it is what he is, not who he is. The word “Lord” is not used exclusively with Jesus. The Father is called Lord in the prayers of the Mass. The Holy Spirit is Lord, too. The word means “divine.” Is this just a frivolous distinction? No. His name spoken by the angels is Jesus, the one who saves (Luke 2:21). Christ means the anointed one. One who has a special mission is anointed by God. In the prayers of the Church, it helps to realize when the word Lord is used that this nuance be kept in mind. It helps us to realize what we are doing. Our prayer is directed to God the Father, sometimes referred to as Lord in the Canon of the Mass. So Christ who is man and can pray intercedes for us as the Preface says. He is also Lord, that is, God, and not just a wise man, a prophet, but Lord. In the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus is both God and man. In fact, it is the only title that Jesus used in speaking of himself, namely, Son of man. Jesus is one person, but two natures. As man, he prays; as God, he takes us to the Father. A favorable hearing is granted to us because Jesus is both God and man, bringing us to the Father. So when we say, “through Jesus Christ, Our Lord,” we realize the great truth that lies behind that title, “Lord.” We are one with him by the working of the Holy Spirit, who moves us to join Jesus and to be led toward the Father. Our reception will be good, because Jesus himself takes it to the Father, and Jesus is Lord.

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The reason why I embarked on this study was to point out phrases, actions and things that we see and take for granted. My hope is that we will take time for a second look, increasing and renewing our knowledge for a deeper understanding of the familiar so as to enhance our devotion. Let us start examining familiar phrases in our prayers and liturgies. Every Mass begins with words that ask God in his mercy to forgive our sins. One of the most common phrases used is “Lord, have mercy” or in Greek, “Kyrie Eleison.” The Greek word “eleison” has different shades of meaning as it is used in the Scriptures. The most obvious sense is asking God to forgive us, his sinful people. But the word is used also in the beginning of the Scriptures after the great flood that destroyed the then-known world. In that context, it is asking God’s help for a new beginning. As the people of God started anew after the flood, we want to start anew after God’s forgiveness, for which we ask. The emphasis in that sense, without losing sight of God’s mercy, is asking God to help us begin anew, much like our purpose of amendment in the Sacrament of Penance. Starting all over after experiencing God’s forgiveness is one usage of “Lord, have mercy.” Another Scriptural time we find the word “eleison” used is in the anointing of the King. Here another sense makes itself known. When used thusly, it is asking God’s help in a new vocation— a new role in life. This request is appropriate as we begin a new job, a new day or a new endeavor in our lives. It may help to think of these additional meanings as we say or sing the familiar words, “Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleson, Kyrie Eleison.” Our thoughts are not totally or only on our sins; rather, we look to the future, seeking to amend our lives and/or to ask for assistance in new projects, work and vocation.

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The word tabernacle means a tent or a shelter. It indicated the presence of God among the exodus Jews. It later became the Holy of Holies when the Temple was built in Jerusalem. In the Holy of Holies were kept the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the seven-branch candlestick and the loaves of unleavened bread. It was a special recognition of the presence of God; the Temple was the only place where sacrifice could be offered. Today, we have a more special and unique presence of God in our tabernacle. Christ is really present, body and blood, soul and divinity. This presence is marked by the burning lamps and by our genuflection as we honor Christ present in the Eucharist before we come to and after we leave this special presence. The tabernacle now is a place where we keep the Eucharist to be taken to the sick. Also, we pray before that presence on our visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Older Mass-goers are used to seeing the tabernacle on the altar itself. The tabernacle has now a separate stand for itself. It reminds the faithful that not only do we believe in the real presence, but also in the real activity of the Eucharist. In the liturgy (Mass) is the re-presentation of the death and resurrection of Christ. Although we always think of Christ’s presence in the tabernacle and in the liturgy, we also believe that in the Mass there is a prolongation of Christ’s activity on the Cross and in the resurrection. Mass is not just an opportunity to go to communion but to enter into the continuation of Christ’s action for our redemption. Christ does not suffer again, nor rise again, but this is an action in which Christ continues to present himself in the same actions that took place on the Cross, and when he rose from the empty tomb. It is in the Mass that we bring our crosses, trials and needs and join ourselves to the praise, thanksgiving and petition of Christ in the Mass. We must not forget the resurrection. It is indeed the victory of Christ’s resurrection in which we share as a result of our baptismal graces. It is hoped that we will see Mass, not just as an opportunity to receive our Lord, but to share in this real and yet unseen mystery of our redemption in his death and resurrection. Between the consecration and the communion is a time of internal participation for us. This is the intense participation in the Mass and not just the externals of singing, reading and private prayer; Christ is taking us to the Father. The hosts that are left from this activity are kept in the tabernacle for our adoration and for being taken to the sick. Many hoped that moving the tabernacle from the main altar might help us to better discern the two aspects of the Eucharist— Christ’s abiding presence in the tabernacle and his activity on the altar of sacrifice.

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