I have just completed a simple, but useful little plugin for typo3 based websites who want a reflection on the Eucharist to appear on their pages. This is drawn from a selection of quotations provided for me by my new neighbour, Fr Reuben. They are a delight and perfect as fillers for your newsletters/Sunday Sheets.

The plugin can be downloaded from the TER, under the name massquotes. (If you have no idea what that means, you probably aren’t running typo3 and can safely ignore this paragraph).

taken from Celebrating the Mass.

As you know, I spend some time developing material as typo3 plugins. It is a most powerful Content Management System, and I commend it to you. See www.blessed.org.uk or www.saintthomaselson.org.uk or www.portsmouth.anglican.org or www.stjohnspeckham.org.uk

As for the quotations, here they are: enjoy and reflect in equal measure:

The following short excerpts from Celebrating the Mass are intended as ‘fillers’ for parish bulletins.

• The Eucharist is the vital centre of all that the Church is and does, because at its heart is the real presence of the crucified, risen and glorified Lord, continuing and making available his saving work among us. (CTM 1)
• Deepening our understanding of why we do something, is often of great assistance to us as we seek to do things well. (CTM 9)
• The idea of strangers gathering for Eucharist, and remaining strangers thereafter, does not sit easily with the Gospel message. (CTM 14)
• The Eucharist must feed those who celebrate: for their work in the healing of relationships, in the promotion of peace and justice, and in the proclamation of the Good News. (CTM 17)
• In the Liturgy of the Word the assembly listens with hearts burning as the Lord speaks to it again and it responds with words of praise and petition; in the Liturgy of the Eucharist it takes bread and wine, gives thanks, breaks the bread, and receives the Body and Blood of Christ. (CTM 19)
• The tables of God’s word and of Christ’s body are prepared, and from them the faithful are instructed and nourished; the spoken word of God announces the history of salvation, the Eucharist embodies it in the sacramental signs of the liturgy. (CTM 20)
• The liturgical assembly is never a random group of individuals but the gathering of God’s people to exercise its royal priesthood in the sacrifice of praise. (CTM 20)
• In the celebration of the Eucharist the assembly is united in and by the principal actions of gathering, listening to God’s word, praying for life of the Church and the world, giving thanks, sharing communion and being sent out for the work of loving and serving God. (CTM 24)
• Women and men, the young and old, people of every race and way of life—should avail of these opportunities so that the liturgy may be seen to be the work of the whole body of Christ. (CTM 27 )
• Through the variety of liturgical ministries in the Church, the body of Christ is built up. (CTM 28 )
• Regular opportunities should be made available for liturgical ministers to pray together and be renewed in their ministry. (CTM 32)
• By the depth of the priest’s prayerfulness and the dignity and humility of his bearing, the people should be able to recognise the living presence of Christ, who spoke with authority but who came to serve, not to be served. (CTM 37)
• In proclaiming the word of God from Sacred Scripture, readers exercise their responsibility in mediating the presence of Christ. (CTM 41)
• Ministers of music exercise a liturgical function within the assembly and by their role help to add beauty and solemnity to the celebration. (CTM 43)
• The people are assembling as table guests of the Lord to share in a supper as sisters and brothers. (CTM 48 )
• The church should be decorated appropriate to the mysteries of salvation celebrated through the unfolding of the liturgical year. (CTM 50)
• Bread and wine, breaking and sharing, eating and drinking, standing, kneeling, bowing, and greeting should not need to be explained.
• Words clearly proclaimed, actions deliberately and gracefully performed, elements and objects authentically made and reverently handled contribute to the integrity of the liturgy. (CTM 53)
• Since worship engages people fully, in every aspect of their being, they worship God with their bodies and feelings as well as their minds and spirits, with their hands and feet as well as their eyes and ears. (CTM 55)
• Pastors will take care to ensure that the congregation understands the spiritual meaning of the posture adopted, and be helped to pray its actions. (CTM 61)
• Even now the word of God handed down in writing God speaks to the people. (CTM 69)
• Great importance should be attached to the use of singing in the celebration of the Mass. (CTM 76)
• In the choosing of the parts actually to be sung, however, preference should be given to those that are of greater importance. (CTM 76)
• Music is integral to every liturgical celebration. (CTM 85)
• Silence allows for the voice of the Holy Spirit to be heard in the hearts of the people of God. (CTM 91)
• During liturgical silence all respond in their own way, recollecting themselves, pondering what has been heard, petitioning and praising God in their inmost spirit. (CTM 91)
• Liturgical silence is a corporate activity shared in by all present. (CTM 92)
• The character and beauty of the place and all its furnishings should foster devotion and show the holiness of the mysteries celebrated there. (CTM 96)
• When the Scriptures are proclaimed in the church, it is Christ himself who speaks. (CTM 98 )
• The priest celebrant’s chair symbolises unity, leadership, and service to the gathered assembly. (CTM 99)
• Christ is present in the person of his minister. (CTM 99)
• Christians glory in the cross of the Lord. (CTM 103)
• The very nature of sacramental symbolism demands that the elements for the Eucharist be recognisable as food and drink. (CTM 107)
• Vestments in their quality and design they can suggest the ritual and solemn character of the Eucharistic banquet. (CTM 111)
• Incense suggests both the otherness of the transcendent God and the cloud which symbolised God’s glory and presence in the midst of the Israelites. (CTM 117)
• If every Mass were celebrated in identical form and with the same degree of solemnity, then the Sunday celebration would cease to be truly pre-eminent. (CTM 131)
• At times of particular need, of rejoicing or sadness, many turn to the Church for spiritual support. (CTM 138 )
• In the Introductory Rites, Christ joins the Church to himself and gathers her children to join their voices to his perfect hymn of praise. (CTM 139)
• The liturgical assembly, “where two or three come together in Christ’s name, and where he is found in their midst” (cf. Mt 18:20), is the ‘first image that the Church gives of herself’. (CTM 139)
• The altar is an abiding symbol of Christ and the centre of the eucharistic action. (CTM 141)
• In the Penitential Act the assembly, gathered in God’s presence, recognises its sinfulness and confesses the mystery of Christ’s love. (CTM 145)
• In the readings God speaks with his people, opening up to them the mystery of redemption and salvation, and nourishing their spirit. (CTM 153)
• Christ himself is present in the midst of the faithful through his word. (CTM 153)
• By their silent listening and pondering, and by their singing and acclamation, the people make God’s word their own. (CTM 153)
• The high point of the Liturgy of the Word is the proclamation of the Gospel reading. (CTM 159)
• After hearing and taking to heart God’s word the assembly responds in the psalm with words which are themselves God-given. (CTM 161)
• The Homily is an integral part of the liturgy and a necessary source of nourishment for the Christian life. (CTM 167)
• If it is to fulfil its purpose, the Homily must be the fruit of meditation, carefully prepared, and in length, style, and content sensitively adapted to the needs and capacities of all present. (CTM 169)
• Though the intercessions may be quite concrete or particular in content, they should always look beyond the concerns of the local assembly to the needs of the whole Church and of the wider world. (CTM 172)
• The Church’s Eucharist, in all its rich variety of forms and traditions, has always retained this basic shape: the taking of the elements of bread and wine in the preparation of the gifts, the act of thanksgiving in the Eucharistic Prayer, the Breaking of the Bread, the giving and sharing of the Body and Blood of Christ in Communion. (CTM 174)
• The Eucharistic Prayer, the great act of blessing and thanksgiving, which constitutes the Church’s memorial offering of Christ’s Sacrifice. (CTM 175)
• The Procession with the Gifts is a powerful expression of the assembly’s participation in the Eucharist and in the social mission of the Church. (CTM 180)
• The Eucharistic Prayer is proclaimed by the priest celebrant in the name of Christ and on behalf of the whole assembly. (CTM 186)
• All are invited to lift up their hearts, that is, to raise up and place in God’s presence their entire being. (CTM 190)
• In the Sanctus Acclamation the assembly joins its voice to that of all creation in giving glory to God. (CTM 192)
• The words of Jesus, in which he gave himself to his disciples as their food and drink, are now repeated in the context of this prayer of praise. (CTM 194)
• Everything for which God has been thanked and praised, all that was accomplished in the history of salvation, is summed up and made present in the person of the crucified and risen Lord. (CTM 194)
• It is an offering made by the whole Church, but especially by those here and now assembled who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, offer themselves with and through Christ, the Victim and Priest who joins the Church’s offering to his own. (CTM 196)
• Saint Paul considered this ratification, the Great Amen,  by the assembly to be essential to the thanksgiving prayer. (CTM 198 )
• The themes underlying the Communion Rite are the mutual love and reconciliation that are both the condition and the fruit of worthy communion and the unity of the many in the one. (CTM 200)
• Such peace can only be the pure gift of God. It is won for us by the risen Christ, (CTM 200)
• Communion with God in Christ is enjoyed in communion with our sisters and brothers in Christ. (CTM 204)
• The natural, the practical, the symbolic, and the spiritual are all inextricably linked in this most powerful symbol — the Breaking of Bread. (CTM 205)
• The Communion procession expresses the humble patience of the poor moving forward to be fed, the alert expectancy of God’s people sharing the Paschal meal in readiness for their journey, the joyful confidence of God’s people on the march toward the promised land. (CTM 210)
• In the absence of all words, actions, music, or movement, a moment of deep corporate stillness and contemplation may be experienced. (CTM 215)
• In the Concluding Rite they are given a sense of abiding mission, which calls them to witness to Christ in the world and to bring the Gospel to the poor. (CTM 217)