Last night we had the second of our Lent talks. Fr Marcus Holden, co-author with Fr Andrew Pinsent of Evangelium, a multi-media course on our faith, gave a very interesting presentation on The Holy Mass. I should also mention that Fr Holden and Fr Pinsent have also produced a very good course, Credo, which provides an excellent introduction to the Catholic Faith.Fr Marcus began by showing us a clip from an advert for the Catholic Church shown on TV in America. Click here to see the clip.
Using material from the successful Evangelium course, Fr Marcus continued talking to us about the Mass; about the Eucharist as Presence, Sacrifice and Food.
We re-present Calvary each time Mass is celebrated but this time in an unbloody manner. Christ is present to us, body, blood, soul and divinity in the consecrated host. Christ's sacrifice takes place on the altar every time Mass is celebrated. When we receive Holy Communion we receive spiritual nourishment which is necessary for our spiritual wellbeing throughout our lives and at the end of life this is given as Viaticum.
Once again, it was disappointing to see so few people attending this very interesting talk. I was delighted, however, to see some of the young people from our Confirmation programme. We plan to be able to have more talks in Advent this year and I do hope that more people will be encouraged to come along and deepen their understanding of our faith.
After the talk we moved into church for the beautiful devotion of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament conferred by Fr Marcus. A fitting end to a very enjoyable evening.
1 comment:
It was indeed a very interesting talk - in some cases reiterating our understanding but also adding extra depth to it. Fr Marcus used visual images and film clippings to enhance his presentation. In particular it has created for me a very powerful image of the crucified Christ at the point of the Consecration in Mass.
He also explained the Jewish use of sacrifice of animals and why the 'Lamb of God' was such a significant concept to them -Christ being the sacrificial lamb.
Part of the talk was about the 'divine presence' in the host after Consecration and how this continues until such time as Christ withdraws His presence. Fr Marcus gave greater understanding of this telling us that even after a chalice had been stolen, the scattered hosts were retrieved and even after a considerable period of time had elapsed, they had not deteriorated but maintained their original state. He used this to emphasise the fact that the act of Consecration is not just a memorial action but a reality creating a living presence and thus spiritual food for us.
I look forward to further talks.
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