Peter L.

So, I’ve had a number of moments in the Catholic Mass that have been “Aha moments,” especially around the symbols that the church uses during the Mass. One in particular was when the priest behind the altar is pouring the water into the wine, and he says at that moment, “By the mingling of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who has humbled himself to share in our humanity.” And that was a moment where I realized “Wow, these these symbols reflect our relationship with God, in a sense.” The wine being that of Christ, the love of God, the divinity, and the water being the humanity. And how the water gets consumed, in the wine, and just as as we’re called to be consumed in the divinity of God, almost lost, in the divinity of God.

And then also with the gifts, there’s a there’s a moment during the Mass, of course. It’s about the bringing up of the gifts of bread and wine, and I realize how that that’s reflective of what we bring to God. And, on the altar, the priest says words that…we call it the transubstantiation, where the bread and the wine become the body and blood Christ and…I realized that the bread and the wine are a very reflective of who we are; our very gifts to God, and how his word transforms our gifts and who we are into the very nature of himself. Into the nature of Christ. And so, to me, the whole Mass is about this great transformation that happens through Christ, and it’s reflected in all the symbols that we use. So there’s more than that, but I’ll just stick with that for now.