This Week's Bulletin Sermon

Series on the Mass: Part 25: The Offertory, “In Spiritu Humilitatis” and Veni Sanctificator” Prayers
July 12, 2020

Once the chalice has been offered up, the priest says an apology prayer in which he offers himself and the faithful to God. “In the spirit of humility (in spiritu humiliatatis) and with a contrite heart receive us, O Lord.…” Being humble is necessary for our proper place before God: we need to understand that we are His creatures and sinners in need of His forgiveness. From this recognition, contrition and sorrow follow. Contrition in Latin means to crush or grind. We are crushed out of fear because we have offended God with our sins and, for this reason, the prayer is recited while slightly inclined to manifest our humility.

The prayer, inspired by the prayer of the three boys of Daniel 3:39-40, brings to mind their words when they were thrown into the fiery furnace during the Babylonian exile for refusing to adore the king. All they could do was offer themselves to God and ask that He accept them as a sacrifice. God in His mercy saved them.

The prayer “Veni Sanctificator” invokes the Holy Spirit. While this prayer is being recited, the priest first raises his eyes to Heaven, then makes a large circle with his hands and blesses the gifts. The large circular motion with the hands symbolizes the calling down of the Holy Spirit, which is followed by a Sign of the Cross to bless the gifts in anticipation of the consecration.

In Eastern liturgies, this invocation, called the “Epiclesis”, comes after the words of consecration and calls down the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Savior. The “Quam oblationem” of the Roman Canon has the same sense.

Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Charles Van Vliet, FSSP
Pastor, Regina Caeli Parish