An Intermission or an Offering?

AnneMarie Miller discusses the Preparation of the Gifts at Mass—and why we shouldn’t ignore it.

As a kid, many times I’d try to be strategic about when I would leave Mass. Unless it was urgent, if I needed to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, I’d think about my timing. What part of the Mass was the most “skippable” and good for a bathroom break?

The readings from Scripture were pretty important, so I needed to stay in the church for those. Depending on the priest’s preaching, the homily wasn’t always something I wanted to miss, either. The intercessions—when we stand and pray for those in the Church and the community—clearly were important. I couldn’t skip the Eucharistic Prayer, since that was the climactic point of the liturgy when the bread and wine would change into the Body and Blood of Christ.

However, there was one part that seemed consistently “skippable” if I needed to exit the pew: the Preparation of the Gifts. Unlike parts of the Mass when the congregation verbally prays or listens to the priest or lector, I didn’t have much of a role during the Preparation of the Gifts. This was a chunk of time when I’d sit in the pew and watch other people do stuff—the ushers gathered a collection of money, certain families would carry bread and wine up to the priest, and the priest and altar servers would prepare the altar for the Eucharistic Prayer. If I didn’t need to use the bathroom, I would at least mentally “check out” during this part of the Mass. It was a break in the liturgy, an intermission where I didn’t do need to do anything—or so I thought.

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However, as I’ve grown to learn more about the liturgy, I’ve started to see that I can’t split apart the sections of the Mass as “skippable” or “essential.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist (which includes the Presentation of the Gifts) form “one single act of worship” (CCC 1346).

The Presentation of the Gifts is an important element of the Mass, even for those of us “in the pews.” Even if we aren’t gathering collection baskets or walking up the aisle with gifts of bread and wine, we all can take this part of the Mass to recall our share in Christ’s priesthood. At Baptism, we were each consecrated with holy chrism oil as sharers in Christ’s threefold office of priest, prophet, and king. St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans:

I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

As I previously discussed in What I Stopped Asking Myself at Mass (and what I’m asking instead), as the bread and wine are presented to the priest, we can offer ourselves to God. As the altar is prepared for the Eucharist, we can ask God to prepare our hearts and minds to receive him. As the priest washes his hands, we can ask God to purify our hearts and souls. We can also ponder the care with which the altar and gifts are prepared, and reflect on how we can use that same care and attention when preparing a place in our daily life for God.

Far from being a basic “intermission,” the Preparation of the Gifts pulls our focus more intently towards God, drawing our eyes and hearts to the altar where God will offer himself completely to us in the Eucharist.

What can we each do to more fully offer ourselves to God and participate during this part of the Mass?

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