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HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
† The Liturgy of the Eucharist
We begin by preparing the altar for the holy sacrifice to come. In the Prayer over the Gifts we get ready to offer ourselves and our lives together with the bread and wine so that we too might be transformed by God. In the Preface Dialogue we declare that it is right and just to give thanks to the Lord our God, and in the Preface we proclaim the reasons that we give God our thanks and praise. Then comes the great Eucharistic Prayer by which we render our thanks and praise to God the Father. As we recall what Jesus said and we do what he did at the Last Supper, God transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, and we pray that we will also be transformed by the Eucharist we celebrate and receive. We ratify this wonderful action with the Great Amen, and prepare for the culmination of the Liturgy of the Eucharist in Holy Communion.
† New Words in the Eucharistic Prayer
In the Eucharistic Prayer, there are new translations of the people's parts at two points: the dialogue that begins the prayer, and the acclamations that we sing after the elevations of bread and chalice.
The dialogue (called the Preface Dialogue) echoes those from the beginning of Mass and before the Gospel: "The Lord be with you." "And with your spirit." Our final response, after the priest says, "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God," will be "It is right and just." In a way, this response completes the priest's statement.
Two of the new Memorial Acclamation translations are quite similar to ones we have been using. The third option, "Save us, Savior of the world, / for by your Cross and Resurrection / you have set us free," is a new rendering of the acclamation "Lord, by your cross and resurrection . . . "
Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.
Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.