Ad Jesum per Mariam

Eucharistic Revival Conference #3: The Importance of the Eucharistic Prayer

Eucharistic Revival Conference #3: The Importance of the Eucharistic Prayer Last week we began looking at the Mass and the prayers of the Mass through the centuries. Ultimately the journey will take us through examining the Mass in the Past, the Present and Potentially the Future. We started the journey by examining the prayer of the consecration or the Eucharistic prayer. It may also be called the Prayer of Consecration. We examined the New Testament text of the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Last Supper captures the essence of what Jesus did: He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and shared it with his disciples. This moment is recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Today we look at several topics including a more detail look at the Eucharistic prayer through the centuries and how Roman Canon impacts the Mass. Listen to: Eucharistic Revival Conference #3: The Importance of the Eucharistic Prayer ----------------------------------------- Image: The Last Supper – The First Eucharist: Spanish Painter: Vicente Juan Masip: 1562

Duration:: 1h 15m
Broadcast on:: 26 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

So, last week we stopped at the beginning, looking at the prayer of the Consecration or the Eucharistic Prayer as in other English setting, it's called the Prayer of Consecration. While in other churches they call it the Prayer of Great Thanksgiving. So, it sums up what is written in the New Testament text of the institution of the Eucharist at the last supper. At the last supper, it sums up what Jesus did. He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples. So, we find that in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 26, verse 27, and then Mark 8, 6, Luke 22, 19, and the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Coninsians, chapter 11, verse 24. That call he took, he blessed, he broke and then he gave. So, eventually the prayer is of the name Eucharist comes from there as a thanksgiving. This is where what we do at Sandemasi is become to be known as the action of thanksgiving, the Eucharist. So, what I would like to do today is reading. To continue showing that the word and the sacraments, the elements of the bread and wine of which prayers was spoken and which were consumed is called the Holy Communion. So, in that prayer, what we have said, the four quotations of the Bible I have mentioned, they talk of what is known as the institution narrative, what Jesus did at the last supper. So, when we talk of the institution narrative, we are talking of the exact words of Jesus at the last supper, where he says, "This is my body, this is my bread." And I said as we had begun looking at the institution narrative is not found in some area, other area prayers of the Mass, of the Eucharistic prayer, they are not found. For example, you will not find the words of Jesus, what Jesus said at the last supper, in the documents of the early church, the Eucharistic prayers of the early church. For example, in the Diddake, you will not find the words of Jesus, but that's the prayer they used to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. But those actual words of Jesus are not mentioned in the Diddake. They are not mentioned in the East Syrian, Anaphora of Adai and Mari, that is associated with the Syrian right of the Syria Maraba, which is even recognized by the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church now, but it doesn't have the institution narrative. And then there is a Egyptian papyrus, Strasbourg, in the apostolic constitution, in the Acts of John, in the Acts of Thomas, even in the first century prayers described by the city of Jerusalem, we don't find the institution narrative. Why am I trying to emphasize that, is that in people, we get very much obsessed with these words of Jesus Christ, that at a certain point, we lose that what is important is really the whole prayer of thanksgiving that we give to the Father through the Son in the Spirit. However, I will have seen also in many of the prayers example of the adjusting matter that we looked at last week, that the words of Jesus are very, very important, are the ones that change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. So there is also another one, the city of Jerusalem in the Mistagodgico Catechesis number four, we see that there is an institution narrative. So, there is no single, single, single Eucharistic prayer that exists as the prayer from what we have today. There is no single one, the Eucharistic prayers we have today, one, two, three, four, and the others that we mentioned. So, they have been buried from different other sources to come with what we have, to come up with what we have now. And where did we get that? First of all, there are two forms that are known to be the ancestors of the Eucharistic prayer. The first is the Hebrew Baraka prayer, and the Hebrew Baraka prayer is a prayer that is used to bless or to acknowledge God's wake in the world. So, what happens is that in that prayer, for example, at the Eucharistic, when we start the Eucharistic, the priest will stand up and say, "Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation." That is typically taken from the Jewish prayer of Baraka. Why should we bless God? Isn't it God who is supposed to bless us? We are saying, "Blessed, we are blessing God, or the prayer of Baraka which literally means blessing." Why are we blessing God? What does that mean? Baraka for the Jewish is a prayer of blessing because it acknowledges God in all that is. All that we have received has come from God. The second is also from the Jewish prayer known as the Torah. The Torah prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving found in the astronomical texts. And this is a prayer for example, the Torah prayer is a thanksgiving because God has done something to you, and therefore you are praising him, giving him thanks for the things that you have received. For example, if someone was sick, was ill, and then they recovered, they went to give a Torah sacrifice, a thanksgiving sacrifice for fact that God has healed him. After someone, after they go to war and come back and they are victorious, they come back to give God thanks for having God, having done something for them, for someone. So, the Eucharistic prayer, the real two ancestors that many people talk about is the first of all the Barak, acknowledging God's goodness and provision. Secondly, acknowledging God for what he has done for us in the Torah sacrifice. So, in the Jewish community, there is the belief that in their practices, that nothing is worth releasing to a human use and let God is acknowledged. That's very, very important. Nothing is used, it is to human use, unless God is acknowledged as the source of it, and that it was given to us as a gift. So, this will be a very important aspect of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is, we acknowledge the work of God in creation and in redemption, and that has been given to us as a gift. So, first and foremost, the Eucharist is a gift of God. So, the structure of both prayers, they acknowledge is the literary combines acknowledgement of God, of God, what God has done, and then followed by repetition. We acknowledge what have you done God for us, or you have created us in your own image, you have given us what to eat, you have protected us from our enemies. Therefore, thank you for that. But we ask you, you see, the rest of all acknowledge what God has already done, and then later on, after you have acknowledged all that, then you say, but we still need more. So, there is the acknowledgement of God, and then petition. That's why I was saying the prayer that we use at the beginning of the Eucharist, blessed are you, Lord of all creation, through your goodness we have received this. And then later on, we either ask you something, or we ask for his mess, that he be messful to us. So, for example here, I am taking example how we use that in the Roman canon, that is Eucharistic prayer number one of our, in our Roman image. In the Eucharistic prayer number one, we say, to us also, your servants, who those sinners, not weighing our merits, but granting us your pardon through Christ our Lord. After we have mentioned all what God has done, acknowledged him, then we come with him, asking him to grant us, pardon. So, there are two instances here, one is that of acknowledgement, and second is that one of petitioning. I want to give an example of that. There are two Italian theologians, liturgical theologians. The first one is Cesar Giroudo, he says that the Eucharistic prayer is by partite, by partite it means that it has two parts, it has two parts. Next on the Biberico Toda, as I had said, the Toda prayer, we acknowledge God and then say give us something. Then the major categories of, in this Toda sacrifice, there are several other sacrifices that were called sacrifices of Toda. For example, the bent offering, they would want something, if someone was healed from an illness, they would go to the temple to bent offering, sacrifice of bent offering. Or they would bring cereal offerings, they would make peace offerings, and make sin offerings, and the beauty offerings. So, it's a prayer, it's an offering, it's a sacrifice that is made by a person who has been redeemed. So, the Eucharist is a sacrifice that redeems us. Toda is among the peace offering, a prayer of praise accompanying a sacrifice of thanksgiving. So, this consisted with two things, a prayer of thanksgiving, the Toda consisted of two things. First of all is reciting God's gracious deals. And secondly, petitioning for further divine gifts. So, he says this, by part of the two parts that he is talking about is in other way what I have said is that the first part is called anomnetic or anomnensis. What is anomnensis? What is the opposite of anomnensis or rather, what is the opposite of anomnensis? It's a fancy word of just saying very simple things like remembrance, memory. So, the opposite of anomnensis is amnesia. The opposite of anomnensis is amnesia. And probably the biggest problem of our time is amnesia that we have forgotten all the good deeds that God has done for us. So, this was the first part of the prayer to remember reciting the remembrance. So, he says this prayer says the prayer of the Eucharist has two parts. The part of remembering and then the epicuretic. It's just a fancy word of saying invoking the Holy Spirit, quoting the Holy Spirit on what? The petition is that you petition, first of all, on the on the elements that let your spirit come upon these gifts, that they may become for us the body and blood of Christ. So, those are the two parts of the Eucharistic prayer. You need to remember and then ask the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit would be asked first of all to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. But it would also be petitioned, the Holy Spirit would also be petitioned to change us into a body of Christ. So, the Holy Spirit has two aspects, two duties there. So, the prayer is for Geraudo, the prayer is animatic. If the remembering of what God has done comes before the institution of narrative, comes to face within the institution of narrative, or is apicalatic when the Holy Spirit is asked to do something within the institution of narrative. The second one is Enricomata, the Italians cannot agree with themselves. And there he says, the other one says no, the Eucharistic prayer is done in three parts, is tripartite. What does that mean? It means that it contains two thanksgiving and prayer of petition. So, the first thanksgiving is literally on the cup and the second thanksgiving is on the bread. So, it contains two thanksgiving and prayer of petition. Examples are Didake number nine and Didake number ten. Didake, as I said the other day, is the writings of the teaching of the twelve apostles. So, in that document the teaching of the twelve apostles, we find in Enricomata's view, we find that the Eucharistic prayer is divided into three parts. So, let's take an example of one of that, what we mean here. This is Didake number nine. I think it would be good that it's a long text, but it's important that we read it. Who could read it for us who is able to read it there? Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you. So, we have first thanksgiving over the cup concerning the cup. Second thanksgiving concerning the bread, and then there is a petition, let the church be gathered together from the ends of the earth. This is what we have as the Eucharistic prayer there. We don't find in there the words of Christ, isn't it? But what the prayer is asking is first of all thanksgiving twice and then the petition. And look at the end, towards the end there what is saying is that this thanksgiving must be, must end into the petition of gathering in the church. So, the Eucharist is not complete unless there is a gathering of the community, a gathering and ordering of the church. Didake 10 also brings the same aspects, brings the same aspects as we see in there. First of all, but after you are filled, thus gives thanks. We thank you Holy Father for your holy name, which you caused to tabernacle in our hearts. And for the knowledge and the faith and the maturity, which you made known to us through Jesus, your seventh, to you be the glory forever. You master Almighty, created all things for your name's sake. You give food and drink to men for enjoyment that they might give thanks to you. But to us, you freely give spiritual food and drink and life eternal through your son, through your seventh. Before all things we thank you that you are mighty, to you be the glory forever. And then remember, Lord, your church, to derive it from all evil and to make it perfect in your love. And gather it from the four winds sanctified for your kingdom, which you have prepared for it. For yours is the power and the glory forever. Let grass come and let this world pass away, or sauna to the God, to son of David. If anyone is holy, let him come. If anyone is not so, let him repent, maranata, amen. So we see the same movement in all the Eucharistic prayers that, first of all here is giving thanks for the name of God, and for the sake of who, created the things that are there, and eventually the food of the Eucharistic, that is given to us. But most of all, at the end, there is a prayer for the church to be delivered from the evil one and to be made one and whole. So this is why when the bishops ask for the renewal of the Catholic faith is also the renewal of the whole church. The renewal of the Eucharistic faith is also the renewal of the whole church. Because you don't have the bread and wine turned into Jesus Christ without turning us into the church. So at this point, the Eucharist makes the church, and the church makes the Eucharist. That can be confusing, but it is simply to say that when we pray at the Eucharist, it is there that the body and blood of Christ are made present to us. But it is at that same time that we become one body, one spirit in Christ. So the Eucharist makes the church, and the church makes the Eucharist. Maybe I just stop here and ask any questions, any observation, any clarification of what I have said so far. That's a good question. Can a priest say in this way you are talking about it? The way you are saying it appears that a priest cannot say Mass alone, he has to be with the church. Because you cannot say Mass alone, it must be if you have to form a community, isn't it? That's a very, very brilliant question. What is our opinion? Can a priest say Mass alone in this case? Because we say that the Eucharist makes the church, and the church makes the Eucharist. Which means at Mass it is the whole body of the church that makes the Eucharist, and it is the Eucharist that makes it. So can a priest on his own say the Mass without the body of the others? Is the priest on his also the body? Why the answer is yes. Why is yes? Is it yes? Because he represents Jesus in a very normal way, in a very normal way, a priest shouldn't say Mass alone. It must be, there must be, that's why the church says there must be at least one person to assist in that Mass. The reason is that, is what we are saying here, to form a church. There must be at least one person to assist. But there are extreme circumstances that he is there, and there is no one who could assist him, for example during the times of COVID. And the priest could do, he says the Mass in the name of the church. He doesn't say Mass for himself, he says the Mass in the name of the church and the intentions of the church. There has been, sometimes there had been abuse in the history of the church that a priest would say Mass alone, because there are intentions, stipends that have come. So you have to feel what, even if you are not, there are no people to celebrate Mass. And that led to the sustenance of the life of the priest, because they depended on that, so they said a few masses in the, to answer to the needs of the stipends that are there. But in a normal way a priest should not say Mass alone without the presence of the community, because we are supposed to be made into a body of Christ. There are needs that he, there are circumstances that a priest says Mass alone, yes. But not because I don't want to wake up at six, so I can say Mass at seven, while the others are saying Mass, that's not right. That's not right. So I want to conclude that section. We see what do we get, what, what came out permanently in those three centuries? First to the third centuries, what do we get about the Eucharist? What we hear, the first thing is the real presence of Christ, is by and large a greed that after the prayer of thanksgiving, in the species of bread and wine, Christ comes about it and is present there. Although there are some other examples that, the people that didn't believe that, we find those in the ignition, so vent your co-writing about the people that are saying, "No, Christ doesn't stay there." And just in the matter explaining, the Reneus explaining Tatullian, all these are saying, the body and blood of Christ are present after the prayer of thanksgiving has been said. And all the fathers and all people, unanimously accept a few, believe that he or that prayer, Christ, the body and the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ. What happened in the, we say that, for example, in Justin matter, the bread and wine would be brought to a preside, the one who is presiding over the Eucharist. And they say the prayer of thanksgiving over this bread and wine. And after finishing that prayer, the whole assembly would say, amen, meaning that this is what we believe. It is true, now they are a body and blood of Christ. And then they distribute a deity and they call deity, the Eucharist. This is, at this point in time, there are various different ways of celebrating the mass. There is no uniform way of celebrating the mass. So what comes out, first of all, is the question of real presence. Secondly, is the question of sacrifice, understanding the mass as a sacrifice. But this is not used in the Eucharist sense because the sacrifice, in what we have told, we call it poda and the barad, is associated with it, the animal or vegetable offering or bent offering. This one, this view of a literary coming to bend animals, the view of coming to bend vegetables, the view of coming to offer something is completely abandoned in this time of the change. The understanding of sacrifice that is coming here is that Christ offered himself once and for all. Therefore, what is this sacrifice? This sacrifice is a memorial. It's a remembrance. But it's a remembrance of who, what happened in the past, is made present here and now. I will give you an example in the Deuteronomy, chapter 26. When the Jewish community, when they come together to eat the Passover meal, a kid in the family, the youngest boy in the family would stand up and ask the father the head of the family. Why is this day different from all other days? And then the father would begin to explain to the kid to say, we were, just now Deuteronomy 26, we were wandering our mains. Our fathers went into Egypt, the story of Joseph and the like, went into the Egypt and they became a big nation. But Pharaoh oppressed us. You see what happens here. He begins narrating the story as in the past. Our fathers were wandering our mains. So he moved from where? And then when he comes, they persecuted us. He himself, who was not there, he says they persecuted us. Which means that remembering of what happened to the fathers has brought him exactly into that reality of suffering that the fathers went through. So what Memorial does brings us to the very sacrifices of Christ. So this is why they began to understand the sacrifice, not as every day we come to kill Jesus again. The other protestants, churches, they say, oh, you catholic, when you say must, you quite sacrificed. You kill Jesus again and again, no. We don't go back, the Israel doesn't go back to Egypt, but in remembering a father in this day, he is moved, is catapulted into the incident that happened long, long, long time ago that the fathers were not there. And it comes alive today in the narration of what happened. So the Eucharistic sacrifice becomes present here and now in the remembrance we do at the Eucharist. So they abandoned completely the notion of bent offering of Syrians, it became a memorial sacrifice. So, but for them, even if they remove the, they thought of the memorial, they never removed the metaphor of sacrifice because it is very important for our understanding of what Christ did for us. It is very important to our religious mentality and it began quickly to be applied to Eucharistic sacrifice because Christ has given himself for us. And how do we do it? Because he told us, do this in remembrance of me. As often times as you do this in my remembrance, then the sacrifice takes place. We are brought back to the cross. Not that cross at that time in a historical concrete manner, but with faith in faith, we are brought to that sacrifice of Christ. And we offer ourselves together with the high priest, our high priest Jesus Christ at that moment of the Mass. So, the last one, the last three things, the third is communion. Perhaps the most depressing issue in the early church was the issue of unity. That was the biggest issue of unity. As I said already, we are talking about the epichresis. You change the body and blood. I mean the Euchar is the bread and wine to be body and blood of Christ. The second part is you change the community to become one body. One spirit in Christ. And this is why what we have seen in Didake, it is always asking the unity of the community. So, as I said the very beginning day, show me how you pray and I will tell you what you believe. So, the prayer asks for communion and if the communion is achieved, it means that's a clear manifestation of what you believe about the Eucharist. That the Eucharist builds the body. If the body of the church has integrated it is because we have abandoned or we have selected on our Eucharistic face. It is meant. So, the goal of the Eucharist is not the real presence. I want to emphasize this. The goal of the Eucharistic is not the real presence. The goal of the Eucharist is not the sacrifice. The goal of the Eucharistic is the communion in Christ that all of us become one body in Christ. And with Christ. Which means there is the horizontal aspect that we and Christ are united. Then the vetico that we and Christ are united. And then the horizontal that there is union, there is unity among us. That's the goal of the Eucharist. More than the real presence, more than the sacrifice, I'm not trying to undermine those that are very important. But the goal of the Eucharist is communion with God and with one another. That's why we pray, make us one body, one spirit in Christ. So, if there are no other other questions or if there is any question, can we have any questions before I want to cross to the 1st century and 4th to the 7th century? No question. It's a very good class. So, here what I really want us to do to talk about is the, after what we have seen in the 1st, 4th centuries, as 3 centuries, then we have the 1st from the 1st century to the 8th century, to the 7th century. There are another way of, there are some things that are happening. And what is happening here is really the many things that I want us to see is the development of the Roman canon. By Roman canon, I want to mean the Eucharistic prayer number one. You have seen that what we have discussed is that there are so many other forms of prayer that are different to Eucharistic prayers. Here in the 1st century, they begin slowly standardizing the form of prayer, that you find out that the Roman canon Eucharistic prayer number one has been used in the church as the only prayer for all the more than 1500 years as the only prayer of the day. So, with that it is assumed it is a structure in the 8th century. But already in the 4th century from Ambrose of Milan, Saint Ambrose of Milan, he is already making a commentary on this prayer. And he makes a commentary, it is meant to be a canon. A canon, what is meant by a canon, it is a rule. Canon is a rule of how it has to be said, it has to be celebrated. But also as a rule, it is also an action. Therefore, this is designated two things. It is an action that is the Eucharistic axial, the action of the Eucharist. And secondly, it is the rule to be followed in celebrating the action of the Eucharist of the Mass. So, I am saying that, as I said in the Indian, so many years it became the rule of celebrating the action of the Mass. And in this prayer what is very important, I think it is knitting up past a path. It is like someone knitting up the path, there will be multiplication of the same kind of prayers in this prayer. And the protestant would say, would completely reject this prayer as a prayer of works, a prayer of repetition, because you will find a repetition in this prayer that is best only, they are borrowing from other texts. So, I want to give you just to show you an example of what I am talking about here. That prayer is, that prayer reads as an extended plea for acceptance of the Eucharistic sacrifice. The whole prayer reads like an acceptance of the plea to accept the sacrifice. And this prayer is the, as I say, the contents, epicratic and then the anamnesis, you see that. So, what are we doing there is this, that the structure of the prayer looks like this. That is, first of all there is the dialogue, the dialogue that comes with the Lord be with you and your spirit. Lift up your hearts and we have raised them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks, that's the dialogue that comes in the first place. Then it is followed by, then, praise, preface, sanctus, which means in Latin it begins with verdynum. It is truly right and just. And then we have transition and the prayer for acceptance of the gifts that you have brought. And then there is the first intercession for the living. We pray for the living in the Eucharistic prayer number one. And then you have the list of whom, the sense. This is why people ask it. Why do you have two different lists of sense in one prayer? You have the prayer, you start a clement, six to send. The Christiana said that and that and that. And then after two minutes you begin another one, wow, wow, wow, all those things. And then you finish that there is the formula of offering. Therefore Lord, the graciously accept this gift. Bless them. And then we have finally the epicalesis. That is asking that the Lord comes and changes the bread and wine into the body and the blood of Christ. So the center of the prayer is the institutional narrative. By institutional narrative we mean the words of Jesus Christ. Took bread, took, blessed, broke and gave. That is the institutional narrative. Why in this period of when he grows is the, using this prayer, why is the institutional narrative important? Why does the institutional narrative become important here? [ Inaudible ] Yeah, the institutional narrative becomes very important here is because the creation was created by words. God said, let there be light and there was light. Let there be the sea and what is the arty. That word is become creative, it's the creation. So here through the words of Jesus when he says this is my body and Jesus is the word of God. When he says this is my body, the body is created in that. So this is why the center becomes the institutional narrative. To say that through the words that which was not he has begun to be. [ Inaudible ] This can happen, but at the heart of it is that there is Christ himself who is saying this is the body of Christ. This is my body because when we begin, how do we begin that prayer? We begin, he took the bread and then said the blessing. And then from there you are using the third person in the beginning. But when it comes to those words you are using the first person, which means it is now Christ saying the words. It's Christ himself giving the body and blood through his word, creating them in his word. Why I said in the other day in others emphasize the epichlesis, the invocation of the spirit, because there is a theology group that says as the spirit created the body, the flesh of Jesus in the womb of Mary. When we ask the spirit to change the body and the wine, it is the bread and the wine. It is the spirit that has the power to convert that. The two of them are right. This is why for a very long time in the final analysis the prayer will have the epichlesis at the same time have the institutional narrative. Other prayers they will only have the invocation of the spirit and other prayers will only have the words of Christ's institutional narrative. But now more than ever the understanding that the two are not contrary. The words of Christ and the invocation of the spirit forms up the whole structure of the Eucharistic prayer. So after that now let's go back. After the institutional narrative we begin to repeat what we have already said. We have the second formula of offering. We have the first formula of offering up there where we are asking that the sacrifice is accepted. And then we have the second offering and what are we offering in the second offering ourselves. And then there is the second epichlesis. We had the first one and then we have the second epichlesis. And then we have another second intercession that is list of names. And then we have the concluding blessing that is through him with him. Now the concluding blessing is the very, the very last part of the Eucharistic prayer. And that is followed by the final praise, the Doxology, which is through him, with him, in him and in. That's the end. Now this became the structure of the Eucharistic prayer in the fourth century. At this time when this coming the Latin church used that, they used that. But also as we have seen there still in some places in the Eastern that they are using another form of different forms of prayer. But in the West this slowly began to become standardized as a way of the Eucharistic action. While in the East, same catholic, there were still other prayers. There is a prayer of John Chrysostom, there is a prayer of Basu, the Great. There is the prayer of the city of Alexandria and the different others. But in the West this began to be standardized, began to be standardized. Finally it was standardized that all the West, the Roman Catholic, Western Catholic, used that as the Eucharistic prayer. Yes, and it is typically in Latin, that's why you have all those, those are the beginnings of every part of the prayer. You have the veradinum te eggitur in Primus, communicantes, hankitur, all those represent the beginning of each part of that prayer in the Euchar. Everything is in Latin. The reason for this prayer that we have there is in the reason of that prayer is that first of all is to render praise and thanksgiving to God over the bread and cup and for creation and redemption. The truth of the Eucharist, the mass is the same. The way you celebrate it is different, but the heart of it are those that we have seen in all the rendering, thanksgiving and praise over the cup over creation. So, the Church followed the Jewish customs of summing up its faith in what God has done or what God did. It is thanksgiving, anomnesis, proclamation, rod up into one thing. So, the remembrance, you say, thank you, the remembrance, which is also a connotation. When you talk of remembrance, you are talking of the sacrifice itself. The proclamation of the deeds of God is rod up, a praise of God's glory best on His work. And this is why the protestancy with the movement of faith alone serves us, not works. They find that this prayer has too much works. Therefore it is an abhorrent prayer, it leads us to the faith factor that he serves us. But that is a debate of another context. So, two aspects in the development of the prayer, as I have said, is praise and thanksgiving, which is literally praise and thanksgiving developed in the cultural media. What is the cultural media at this time in the region where it is developed, it is developed in the western church, not in the eastern church. The emphasis of the eastern church is different with the emphasis of the western church. So, when you look at this prayer, the emphasis is the theological development that is happening in the region of the west. And what is happening, various additions and expressions that mark historical development of the prayer and the theological focus of the reflections. These are what literally forming the prayer. So, what I am saying is that, for example, a Jewish prayer that has been Christianized, the motive of thanksgiving becomes, we are thanking gifts for Christ. While in the Jewish prayer, the motive of thanksgiving had nothing to do with Christ. But here, the motive of thanking God is Christ. And what God has done through the Pasco mystery of Christ. So, we say that the motive was to thank God for saving me or saving our nation. And here, the motive of thanksgiving is that the Pasco mystery of Christ, what God has done in Christ. And in that thing, the issue of salvation is not only my nation, is not only me. It encompasses the whole creation. It encompasses the whole creation. So, when we are praying the Eucharist, at the Eucharist, we are priests for all creation. Creation is the animals and everything we carry in that prayer. We carry it in that prayer. So, in the same manner as I had said, what do we still have time? We have a few minutes. What is the main point? Is the same thing what still comes here as the issues in the 4th and 7th century, 4th to 7th. Are you present? Again, there is no hesitation. Is it a body or is it not a body? Is it a real Christ or is it not a real Christ? Here, there is no hesitation. The body and blood come from the bread and wine. When the praise is said on it, it is consecrated, it becomes the body and blood of Christ. And that the Eucharistic presence is spoken. This is very important, is spoken in terms of the language of the philosopher Plato. Plato has this understanding of the universe. That is, what we have here on earth, the material things, these are just the sense manifestation. But the real world, the perfect world is somewhere else. So, what we have here are only forms. The physical things are forms. The real world is somewhere. So, what we are doing in this world is to prepare ourselves to join the real world. So, when they will be talking about that here, they will talk of the material things. The bread and wine are just material things. That represent under them the goal with them is to reach the real world, the ideal world. So, there is the real and the ideal. The ideal world is the reality that is beyond our senses, beyond our imagination, because the senses can lie to us. So, this is why in the Eucharistic, so when you see, what you see is the body and blood of Christ. But what that reports to you in a real world is its body and blood of Christ. So, here they begin to talk of the sacraments. They begin to talk of the body and blood of Christ are the sacraments of, I mean, the bread and wine are the sacraments of the body and blood of Christ. So, through the image, what we have here, the concrete things are images. The real things are in the next world. So, what we have in the body and the bread of Christ are images that have contact with the real things in the world. So, the material things carries us to the real spiritual things, the other world, the body and blood of Christ from the bread and wine. The same way they talk of the sacrifice, I would want to emphasize much because it is literally the same thing I have spoken there, but here they begin to talk of sacrifice in terms of whom. That offering of Christ was with blood, this is a bloodless sacrifice, as a bloodless sacrifice. So, the Eucharist is the living and effective sign of whom his first sacrifice. It is living because in remembering it, it comes about today. It comes about today. And the last one is still the same communion. I can't emphasize much on that. The bread and the here is very important to see. Here, I think it will be good to spend a few minutes on this. Because here, for example, in Saint Augustine, who is literally the top notch of the Eucharistic theology at this time, Saint Augustine says, the bread which you see or the sanctified by God's word. You see, the word here is the sanctifier. It is the body of Christ, the cup or rather its contents sanctified by God's word is the bread of Christ. The bread is still important. Through this Christ our Lord wished to be with his body and his blood, which he shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. If you receive wethery, you are what you receive. Keep that sentence. If you receive wethery, you are what you receive. For the apostles says, we though many are one bread and one body. By means of this bread, he impresses on you, you must love unity. For was this bread made from one grain, where there are not many grains of wheat. Yet before they became bread, they were separated. They were separated. They were joined together through water and that after some grinding, for unless wheat is milled and moistened with water, it never reaches that form, which is called bread. So you too, in a certain sense, were first milled by the humiliation of fasting and by the sacred rite of exorcism. Let me explain this. What is happening here is that Augustine is talking about what you receive become what you receive. We are receiving the body and blood of Christ. We are receiving the body of Christ. But what he is using there, the church is the body of Christ. In the receiving of the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, you are receiving the church yourself. You are becoming part and parcel of the church. So when he says, be what you receive. You are what you receive. First of all, you are receiving the body of Christ, the sacrament of the body of Christ. Secondly, you are receiving the accuracy of the body of Christ, the church. This is why he continues to say, like grains of wheat that were sprayed on the ground. In order to become the body, in order to become the bread, they were supposed to be milled, moistened. He is using that language to mean the mering together. The moistening is the sacrament of baptism and consummation. So you were baptized, you were confirmed, and now you receive the Eucharist. You are receiving your own mystery. You are receiving the body of Christ. And the body of Christ in Augustine is the first of all. Okay, the sacramental body, but you cannot receive the sacramental body without receiving the Echresia, the church. Therefore, you must love unity. This is why he is the sacrament of communion. And that became the name of the Eucharist as the Holy Communion. That we are made into the body and blood of Christ. So, lastly is another one, John Chrysostom. For him, he puts the issue of unity. He puts it more in terms of having to honor Christ. You must honor the rest that represents Christ. So he says, "Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple, clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he suffers cold and nakedness." He who said, "This is my body," is the same one who said, "You saw me hungry and you gave me no food." When you did it to the list of my brothers and sisters, you did it also to me. What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden cherishes when he is dying of hunger? He started by satisfying his anger. And then with what is left, you may add on the cotta as well. So that's the Eucharist. And in the very beginning, we say that at the end of the Eucharist, there is always the thinking of whom? The poor is always thinking of those that are not present here. There is always a correction for those that have less in need. So that is why the Eucharist is a Holy Communion. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, it shall be word without end, amen. Merry seat of wisdom, pray for us. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (applause)