“Neither
by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by His own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption. – Hebrews 9:13
In the separate Consecration of the bread and wine is the immolated Christ represented. Gihr states: “The twofold Consecration is a mystical shedding of blood, and places before our eyes in a most lively manner the bloody death of Christ sacrificed on the Cross. He again sheds It for us in a mystical manner on the altar. Christ’s sacrificial Blood in the chalice is a mystery of the unsearchable depth and obscurity of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.”
He continues: “As once on Mount Calvary, so Christ here on the altar, as the Great Mediator, as the true Victim and as the Eternal High Priest is elevated betwixt Heaven and earth, to reconcile God and Man, inasmuch as He moves the Heavenly Father to mercy and forgiveness, and rouses sinful man to love and compunction.”
Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, who from Thy saving wounds didst make the fountain of Thy grace flow to us; grant that as often as unchaste desires or evil affections assault me, I may presently run to Thy wounds, and from them draw my remedy. Amen.”
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In a news article of August 22, 2011, CNA purported to give an explanation (in the Novus Ordo Missae) for the responsorial acclamations by the laity to the “mystery of faith”.
According to the article, “[the] acclamation that responds…gives the assembly voice in the middle of the Eucharistic prayer” and “each [acclamation] recapitulates the deep mystery of our redemption by means of our Savior’s cross and resurrection.”
Well, no, the phrase “mystery of faith” contained in the words of consecration of the wine were never meant to “recapitulate the deep mystery of our redemption by the death of our Lord”.
Rather, according to sacred tradition – which St. Alphonsus Liguori teaches is the guardian of Catholic truths – the expression “mystery of faith” is meant to highlight the dogma of our faith in the Real Presence! The saint, in his book The Holy Eucharist, quotes Pope Innocent III (1198 – 1216): “Quoniam aliud ibi cernitur, aliud creditor.” (We see one thing, and believe another.)
Bread is no longer bread, but the Body of Christ; wine is no longer wine, but the Blood of Christ. That is the mystery to which the priest refers in the consecration.
The meaning attributed to that phrase in the N.O. is pure deception, and Catholics who read this, who attend the N.O., and who respond to the “mystery of faith” with one of the three “acclamations”, will no longer be able to claim ignorance.
As I work on this project, I too, am greatly benefiting. We hope to find a publisher so that people may be able to take a booklet with them to Mass and pray accordingly. I’ve been assisting at Mass by visualizing the scenes as portrayed in these graphics, and I cannot express to you how profoundly I am taken up with the Mass as it unfolds! Praying this way, I can attest to the fact that the TLM is the closest thing this side of Heaven!
Thank you for posting this. Having read it I began looking for the previous 22 posts, and now have some quality reading to treat myself to over the next few weeks. May God bless you,
Jeanine