Peace be to you.

A great American patriot once said that he regretted he had only one life to give for his country.

He meant that his love was greater than his sacrifice.

His life could be given only once in time and therefore could not be repeated.

It is very different with the life of our Lord.

Though the life was given once, it is eternally given.

And it is eternally given and repeat it in the sacrifice of the Mass. In this lesson we are going to describe the Mass

in terms of three of its principal parts. The offer tree, the consecration, the communion.

First, the offer tree. This takes place when the priest offers bread and wine to God.

Our blessed Lord, at that moment, if we may draw an image,

is looking out from heaven saying,

I cannot die again in the human nature that I took from Mary,

that human nature is now glorified at the right hand of the Father,

the pledge and the promise of what your human nature is to be.

But I can die in you and you can die in me.

Will you therefore offer yourselves to me? I can add nothing to the sacrifice of my love except by and through you.

Now we begin to offer ourselves to him

under the species of bread and wine.

Let me tell you how this was done in the early church.

If you would have come to Mass in the early

church you would have brought some bread and wine. You also might have brought

some linen, fruits, wheat, oil, wool, and other things that were needed by the religious community, that is by the church.

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