The Cathedral Close

Here is a brief meditation for the day from the late Bp. Charles C. Grafton,

The Eucharist is the gospel sacrifice and it is a sacrifice of fourfold aspects. It is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, for in the canon the priest asks God to accept it as such. It is also a sacrifice of prayer or the calves of our lips. “We pray that we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of His Passion.” It is a sacrifice of ourselves. “We offer ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable,
holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee.” The Church also offers and presents Him, her Head, and pleads His death and merits for herself and her children. On the cross Christ died for humanity; by the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice we as individuals plead, and appropriate that sacrifice to ourselves. Once the command concerning sacrifice was “touch not,” now it is “offer”; once it was “eat not,” now it is “eat and live.”