Hand Washing

The priest next says two prayers quietly. The first is a prayer of contrition as he bows before the altar, the priest asks that the Lord would be pleased with “the sacrifice” that is being offered to Him, not out of pride but indeed out of humility and contrition.

The second prayer accompanies the “washing of the hands.” This prayer usually calls to mind the Passion of our Lord and the act of Pontius Pilate before the crowd, but it is more an act of ritualizing the prayers of Psalm 51 that the priest says silently as he washes his hands: “wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” Psalm 51:2.

Our offering

In some cases, as has been mentioned, the priest will have prayed all of the preceding prayers inaudibly. So, the first words we hear at any given Mass during the Liturgy of the Eucharist may be an invitation by the priest to join him in prayer that God may accept his sacrifice and ours.

It is worth noting that in the priest’s invitation to us is a plea that the sacrifice being offered to the Father will be acceptable. This presents us with a Biblical truth that in the scriptures there are times when people offer an unacceptable sacrifice to God.

• In Genesis 4, God accepts the sacrifice offered by Abel, “but for Cain and his offering he had no regards” (Genesis4:5)

• In Malachi 1:6-11, God rejects the sacrifice of the priests, saying, “I have no pleasure in you, says the lord of hosts and I will not accept an offering from your hand” (Malachi 1:10). Malachi that goes on to prophesy what has traditionally been seen as a prophecy fulfilled in the celebration of the Mass and alluded to in the Third Eucharist prayer: “for from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered in offered in my name, and a pure offering” (Malachi 1:11)

• Saint Paul appeals to us in his Letter to the Romans to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1)