JUST WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH THESE GIFTS:

PRESENTING OR OFFERING (#2)

Words spoken, gestures used, and body postured act together in this transition ritual wherin gifts are presented and table is readied. I want to describe its past and present.

Past. This was called the offertory. The priest, with back to the people, stood at the altar on the other side of the altar rail. He opened the corporal (=body, i.e, the cloth on which rested the white host) and placed it on the larger, top altar cloth. He dramatically held the host-on-the-paten on high. He put wine and water into the chalice (=cup) while quietly reciting prayers. He then held the chalice up high. (The inside of the cup was gold because it would contain the sacred wine. Families gave the priest his chalice at ordination. Only he drank from it. Chalices were specially crafted and decorated. They often contained the wedding stone of a deceased relative or the priest's mother. Each priest kept his chalice in the sacristy safe. Priests attached an incredible emotional and spiritual meaning to the chalice).

The priest sometimes incensed the gifts and the altar front. Then his clean hands were washed by one or two male altar servers, not because they were dirty from receiving the gifts, but because his sins should be washed away before he offered the sacrifice of the Mass for us. He then invited prayer (Orate Fratres = pray brethren) and the altar servers bravely and /or proudly tongue-twisted the Suscipiat. A prayer over the gifts concluded the pre-Vatican II rite. The emphasis was clearly offertory. The people sat, watched and fervently offered themselves, together with Christ to God. They did their own devotional prayer. This ritual required no verbal or gestural interaction between priest and people.

Present. After 1969 the rite's name changed from offertory to presentation of the gifts. Male or female servers set the table. (Sometimes the bare table is fully clothed by laity). After hard earned money is placed in the basket, the bread and wine, together with the money are brought up in procession by members of the Assembly. This procession, like all processions, is accompanied by music and song. Although there are no altar rails, the bread and wine bearers usually do not invade the sacred precincts where the table is. Hospitality ministers (formerly called ushers) do invade as they place the collection near the table. The deacon and servers set the bread, cup, and flagon or pitcher with wine on the table. There should be enough sacred bread and the sacred wine consecrated at each liturgy that ministers will not need to go to the tabernacle for communion.

Then the priest, facing the people, lifts the plate-with-bread up a few inches while praying a blessing prayer aloud or quietly. He then takes the principal community cup, containing wine and water, and similarly says a blessing prayer. His gestures no longer convey offering. They are simple, less histrionic. The bread and wine, table, and Assembly may be incensed. He washes his hands, invites the Assembly to pray, and listens to their response. Finally he prays the prayer over the gifts.

What we do and how we ritualize indicates what we believe, what meaning our actions signify. Think about your experience of the presentation of the gifts. What meaning is communicated to you as the ritual is enacted?