Drink this all of you

 

picture: Confession & Communion - Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia

The sixth movement of the Mass is the Communion Rite, which follows the Eucharistic Prayer and prepares us for the reception of Holy Communion. The bread and wine have been consecrated and changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, and we receive these gifts from the minister. For reasons that have never been fully convincing to me, Communion for lay people in the Roman Catholic Church is almost always given under one species, namely the consecrated bread.

A disciple's charter

 

Sunday 1 February 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13

Psalm 146

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Matthew 5:1-12 

 

Meditatio:

“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’’ (Matthew 5:12)

Commentary:

Religion often gets a bad name. It is accused of spreading gloom, fear or a spirit of killjoy, and many today contrast religion with spirituality as if they were opposites—religion = bad, spirituality = good. The phrase “I’m not religious but I am spiritual” is now commonplace, sometimes spoken with a hint of self‑protection, as if being “religious” were old‑fashioned, reactionary or faintly embarrassing.

Facing the rising sun

 

Yesterday, I wrote about the moment of epiclesis in the Eucharistic Prayer and the value of being able to see what the priest is doing at key points in the liturgy. Many of us will remember attending Mass when the priest “said the Mass with his back to the people.” That was the norm for centuries until the post–Vatican II reforms.

Holy Spirit at work

One of the advantages of the priest facing the congregation is that we can see what is happening at different points during the liturgy. At key moments in the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest invokes—calls down—the Holy Spirit upon the assembly. Before the words of the Institution Narrative, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it…”, the priest asks the Spirit to bless the bread and wine that are to be consecrated and transformed. This is the first moment of the epiclesis, the Greek term meaning “calling upon.”

Scaling the heights

 

Staying with the Great Thanksgiving we reach the centre and summit of the Mass. Everything in the Liturgy of the Word leads us toward it, and everything in the Communion Rite flows from it. In this great prayer:

1. We give thanks – the very word Eucharist means thanksgiving.
2. We remember – not merely recalling, but actively entering into Christ’s Paschal Mystery in the here and now.
3. We invoke the Spirit – asking the Holy Spirit to sanctify the gifts and the gathered Church.
4. We unite ourselves with Christ’s sacrifice made present on the altar.

There is enough here to keep us occupied for an eternity.  Who said mass was boring?

The great thanksgiving

 

The Eucharistic prayer forms the fifth movement of the Mass. This is where worship comes together in one great prayer of thanksgiving.  It is a most sacred moment in the celebration as we kneel or stand in awe joining our voices with those of the priest and the choirs of angels and saints: “Holy, Holy, Holy God, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and earth are full of your glory, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest”.

Days like this

 

It’s one of those days. I can’t get through to the people or organisations I need, and with so many commitments I wonder how to make space for what truly matters. The rain paused briefly earlier, but now the evening is closing in again. Days like this test us, and each one brings its own surprises — a little joy, a little trouble.