Blessing the Bread and the Wine.

Once the presider has been given the bread and the wine, both are taken and placed on the altar. If a deacon is present, he will prepare the cup by pouring a drop of water into the wine (if there is no deacon, the priest will do this) while saying a prayer. His prayer requests that we who participate in this Mass may come to share in the divinity of Christ, (symbolized by the drop water).

The blessing said over the bread and cup are derived from ancient Jewish prayers still in use today (see bellowed) by those celebrating the Sabbath. Given the context of the Last Supper, it is likely that they are very close to what Jesus would have said when the scriptures tell us that “he took bread, and bless” (Mark 14:22).

Sometimes these blessings over the bread and wine are said silently by the priest. If he says them aloud, we make his prayer our own by responding, “Blessing be God forever” calling to mind the words Saint Paul, in his letter to Romans: “the Creator who blessed forever” (Romans 1:25)

On some occasions, the gifts are incensed after the blessing of the bread and wine. Incense is made up of grains of material that, when heated, melt and give off a fragrant odor. It has been used by almost every world religion as a way of designating the sacred and showing reverence to God.

The Psalmist proclaimed in Psalm 141: 2, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee,” and incense was ordered to be used in the Holy of Holies in Leviticus 16:12. The cloud of fragrant smoke reminds us that what we are doing is a very sacred act. When the bread and wine are increased, the altar is also incensed, as well as the processional cross. A deacon or the altar server incenses the priest, and then the congregation.