Eucharist and Gratitude

My mother was big on saying thank you. Most of her gratitude came in the form of baked goods—scrumptious edibles like homemade Easter bread or Italian wedding cookies. She offered these mouthwatering treats to those who constantly showed kindness to us--the family doctor who never took a penny after our father died or the neighbors who plowed our driveway after massive snowfalls. Mom recognized goodness in the hearts of others and was eternally grateful. By focusing on the blessings rather than the pain of life, she often changed those potentially painful moments into moments of thanksgiving. Gratitude shifts our focus and teaches us to hold each moment like a precious stone.   

Like my mother, the Church through the liturgy, continually reminds us to say thank you. In fact, the word Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. At the heart of the liturgy is the thanksgiving offered in the Eucharistic prayer. That prayer begins with a dialogue that starts when the priest says “The Lord be with you,” and the people answer “And with your Spirit.” This dialogue begins what is called the Preface, the prelude to the Eucharistic Prayer. The word Preface comes from the Latin verbs fateor, meaning I speak, and prae, meaning out. The Preface, therefore, is a prayer of utmost importance. There are nearly 100 Prefaces from which to choose, all of them tied to a particular liturgical season or feast. Each Preface begins with a reiteration of the last part of the preface dialogue:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks.

If we listen closely, each line of the Preface gives us a reason to say “Thank you, God!”

Here is an example from Preface V of the Sundays in Ordinary Time which focuses on creation:

For you have laid the foundations of the world

and have arranged the changing of times and seasons;

You formed man in your own image

and set humanity over the whole world in all its wonder,

to rule in your name over all you have made and for ever praise you in your might works,

through Christ our Lord.

After naming reasons to give thanks, the presider invites us to join with the angels—indeed the whole company of heaven--in a song of praise and thanksgiving and we sing the Sanctus, (Holy, Holy, Holy). As this part of the Eucharistic Prayer teaches, when we acknowledge all for which we have to give thanks, our only response is to give thanks and praise.