Page:The Catholic prayer book.djvu/39

Rh Jesus Christ, dying once on the cross, oﬂiered himself up for us to his heavenly Father: “He has blotted out our sins by his blood that was shed for us, and by his painful death,” and thus he has reconciled us to the Father. But in order to leave us a perpetual memorial of this his great love, at that last supper which he partook with his disciples, he took bread in his holy hands, and after giving thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to them to eat, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in commemoration of me." Also he took the chalice, and said, “This is the chalice, the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you."—St. Luke, xxii. 19, 20.

By these words, “Do this in commemoration of me,” Jesus gave to his Apostles, and their successors, the Bishops and Priests of the Church, the power to change the bread and the wine into his most holy body and blood. The Priest blesses the bread and wine as Christ did, he speaks over them the same words of consecration which Christ spoke; and thus the bread and wine are changed now on the altar as they were at the last supper, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. As Jesus Christ sacriﬁced himself on the cross to his heavenly Father for our sins, so here on the altar, he offers himself up to the same heavenly Father, by the hands of the Priest.

After the consecration, which the Priest makes by saying over the bread and wine the same words which Jesus Christ said at the last supper, there is no longer any bread and wine on the altar, but the true and living Jesus Christ, at the same time God and man, really present, although hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.

The Priest offers up Jesus Christ to his heavenly