** Continued from Nov. 26 Post…
Let’s consider the words: “Thine own of thine Own.” What does this mean? With these words, we acknowledge that all is God’s. He has give us the bounty, but there is an even more basic dimension. God has given man wheat, water, salt and yeast. He has given us sugar and grapes. These are the raw materials for the bread and the wine, but it is not complete. We have to add something, something only we can, our effort. We must take God’s gifts and add our human effort to create bread and wine. We must work with the raw materials plus our effort. But, now they are just plain bread and plain wine. What is the missing ingredient? …PRAYER.As we include this essential ingredient, we also add our intention to dedicating this effort and these gifts to God. This is symbolised by the Seal which we stamp on the bread. With this dedication and our prayers we bring the offering to the Church. Then God begins to interact with man, just as he did with His Incarnation. He takes our offering and adds His Blessing. Before, it can come to the altar as an offering; it must become more than the self centred gift of one person or one family. In the Service of the Oblation (the Proskomidi) our offering is expanded to include the entire cosmic reality of God’s world, this is what is on the Paten which will be brought to the Altar with the Chalice in the Great Entrance and offered to God. “Thine own of Thine Own,” but what is the rest of it? For all, that is all of God’s creation and on behalf of all, each and every one of us. This is the ultimate Thanksgiving, this is the connection we have with all of God’s created world, the entire Christian family, both living and departed and the with the Cosmos. Ultimately, these gifts are not only blessed, they are consecrated by God’s Holy Spirit; which is send down upon ‘us and upon these Gifts here presented’ in an Universal Thanksgiving for Salvation of the world by Christ Jesus. AMEN]]>
