The service of the
table includes the bringing of the bread and wine to the altar,
the care and ornamentation of the altar, and the distribution
of the eucharistic bread. One might also add the ministry of
the collection.
Bringing of the Bread
and Wine to the Altar
The Rite and its meaning
At one time or another,
at all Masses it is necessary to bring to the altar the bread
and the wine for the Eucharist. It may be doen in a way which
would be insignificant on the liturgical level. For instance:
the priest may go to the credence table to look for the bread
and the wine, or he may send an altar bor for it, or everything
may already be on the altar from the beginning of the Mass.
I think that none of these ways is fully satisfactory.
We should give to this
rite it full meaning. This is precisely what the General
Instruction of the roman Missal, article 49, recommends
when it states excellently:
. . . it is desirable
for the faithful to present the bread and wine which are accepted
by the priest or deacon at a sutable place. . . . The rite
of carrying up the gifts continues the spiritual value and
meaning of the ancient custom whn the people brought bread
and wine for the liturgy from thier homes.
The spiritual meaning
of the rite is the following: the faithful participate in the
priesthood of Christ; as such, the present the offerings which
are going to become the body and blood of the Lord. Hippolytus
of Rome (215) already mentioned that the catchumens who were
going to be baptized had the reght to bring the "oblations"
to their baptismal Mass. Inversely, the Council of Elvira in
305 forbids the congregation to accept the offering of someone
who was excluded from Communion.
It is good that the
procession comes from the congregation to the sanctuary in order
to signify well that it is the whole community which in engaged
in this rite. it is normal also that the congregation in some
way "accompanies" the procession with a song
The Ministers of the
Gifts
Everyone without distinction
-- men, women, elderly, children -- can be called to this ministry.
Sometimes, it would be appropriate to entrusxt it to a whole
family -- parents and children-- or to those for who the Mass
is celebrated in particular. We rejoin then the tradion of the
patristic ae.
It the congregation
is not too large, it is possible that those who carry the bread
have also baked and prepared it. At a celebration of First Communion,
the children, divide into groups, had kneaded the dough, then
baked the bread, That was the occosion of an extraordinary practice
lesson of symbolism. (Let us add also that this caused the parents
of problems of cleaning clothes greatly sprinkled with flour!).
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