Sunday, February 27, 2011

Two Things I Learned This Week

Two little things I learned this week:

1)  The Presentation of the Gifts during mass is more than just bringing up the bread, wine and collection.  

Those members of the congregation are not just bringing up our monetary offering.  They are symbolically bringing up our spiritual offerings and requests as well. Which makes it a good time to silently let God know our prayers and requests, and give him our thanks.  (Instead of sitting there aimlessly tapping your feet to the hymn like I have been guilty of doing...)

2)  During the Liturgy of the Eucharist we are, of course, celebrating the sacrifice Jesus made for our sins.  But in early Biblical times, Jews would grab hold of a goat, "transfer" their sins onto it, and then sacrifice the animal by slaughtering it.
  
That part I knew, from both Leviticus and a scene in the Nativity Story.

What I didn't know, is that that is where get the term scapegoat from.
  
Luckily for me, that ritual longer exists.

I don't think they could find a big enough goat to hold all my sins!

God Bless.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Michael,
Thanks for these bits of Biblical and Liturgical information. As to the first about the Offertory, I once read that our guardian angel take our personal offerings to the altar. It made me shudder to think how many times I've sent my angel up there empty handed!

Victor S E Moubarak said...

Good point Michael, as always. Thank you for this post.

God bless.

Mary N. said...

Great post, Michael! I usually go over the readings during the Offertory but after seeing this I think I'll change that.

Lucky for the goats you mean ;) They'd be extinct by now if people still did that!

Anne said...

I'm going to write about this on my blog. This moved me deeply.

none said...

Always inspiring :-).

Sometimes I get a little restless during Mass, too but I will try to remember to pray during the offering, that is a such a good idea!

I guessed scapegoat had to do with that ritual, but never actually clarified it with research...so thanks for clarifying that for me. I'm glad it's no longer done.

Andie said...

So true Michael. I think that we also bring our talents forward as gifts, our work, and who we are.
Andie

Daily Grace said...

I really like this Michael! Thanks for teaching something I didn't know!!!

Michael said...

Karinann: I hadn't thought of that - now you've got me shuddering!

Victor, Andie, DG, Jade: Thanks very much for the comments and kind words

Mary: VERY good point, thanks for the chuckle

Anne: Loved your post, thanks for sharing