General Audience: Liturgy
prepares us to receive Christ in Holy Communion
At his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis continues
his catechesis on the various parts of the Mass, focusing this week on the Our
Father and the “breaking of the Bread.”
By Christopher Wells
Pope Francis dedicated his catechesis on Wednesday to the
liturgical rites following the Eucharistic Prayer, which help us “to dispose
our souls to participate in the Eucharistic banquet.”
The Our Father
Immediately following the Great Amen, the assembly recites
together the Our Father, which was taught us by Christ Himself.
This, the Pope said, is not just one Christian prayer among many. Rather, it is
“the prayer of the children of God,” in which, as Jesus teaches us, we call God
Father. The Our Father, recited not only in the Mass, but also in the
Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church, gives a Christian character to the
whole day, forming in us a filial attitude towards God, and a fraternal
relationship with our neighbor.
In the Our Father, we ask God to give us “our
daily bread,” a petition that has particular reference to the Eucharist. In
remarks to Polish pilgrims following the catechesis, the Pope emphasized that
it is necessary, if anyone has committed a grave sin, to receive absolution in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation before receiving Holy Communion – and reminded
us that Lent is a good time to make a good Confession in order to encounter
Christ in the Eucharist.
The Lord’s Prayer also calls us to be reconciled with our
brothers and sisters, when we pray for our sins to be forgiven, “as we forgive
those who trespass against us.” And so, the Pope said, “while we open our
hearts to God, the Our Father disposes us also to fraternal
love.”
The sign of peace and the breaking of the Bread
This reconciliation, with God and with our brothers and
sisters, receives a kind of “seal” in the exchange of peace, which in the Roman
Rite of the liturgy is “ordered” to Eucharistic Communion. We pray that Christ
will give us His peace, “so different from that of the world.”
We cannot approach Holy Communion, the Pope said, echoing Saint Paul, without
first making peace with one another.
This part of the Mass culminates in the fraction rite, “the
breaking of the Bread,” which from Apostolic times gave its name to the whole
Eucharistic celebration. Pope Francis reminded the faithful that it was in the
breaking of the Bread that the disciples recognized the Risen Lord at Emmaus.
Likewise, at Mass, “in the Eucharistic Bread, broken for the life of the world,
the praying assembly recognizes the true Lamb of God, that is, Christ the
Redeemer, and prays to Him, ‘have mercy on us, grant us peace.”
These final invocations before Holy Communion, Pope Francis
said, “help us to dispose our souls to participate in the Eucharistic banquet,
the source of communion with God and with our brothers and sisters."
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