Hæc quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam facietis ("As often as ye do these things, ye shall do them in remembrance of me"). After the two consecrations the priest repeats the words of Jesus Christ, by which our Saviour commanded his Apostles and their successors to do, in memory of his Passion, what he had just done himself in their presence.
Unde et memores, Domine, etc. ("Wherefore, O Lord, … calling to mind," etc.). Here the priest calls to mind the Passion of our Lord, his resurrection, and ascension. He offers to the divine majesty in the name of the Church the consecrated victim, which he calls a pure Host, exempt from every sin; holy, being united with the divinity in the person of the Word; immaculate, with out any stain; and then, "The holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of everlasting salvation." While pronouncing these words he blesses the bread and the chalice with the sign of the cross. On this subject Luther turns to ridicule the Roman Church by asking how the priest blesses Jesus Christ—how the creature blesses the Creator. We answer here that the priest blesses the Host, not by his own authority, nor in his own name, but in the name and by the authority of the Eternal Father, who alone can bless Jesus Christ—as man and as victim. Such is the answer given on this point by Innocent III. St. Thomas answers differently by saying that after the consecration the priest does not make the sign of the cross to bless, but only to remind us of the power of the cross and of the death of our Lord.[1]
Supra quæ propitio, etc. ("Upon which vouchsafe to look," etc.). The priest then prays to the Lord that he
- ↑ "Sacerdos, post consecrationem, non utitur crucesignatione ad benedicendum et consecrandum, sed solum ad commemorandum virtutem crucis et modum passionis Christi quæ ad crucem est terminata."—P. 3, q. 83, a. 5.
