Virgin, the Martyrs and other Saints[18], and having
once more implored the blessing of God, and spread his hands over the
victim, according to the custom of the Jews, he pronounces over the
bread and wine the words of consecration according to the command of
Christ, and adores and raises for the adoration of the people the
body and blood of our Divine Lord. It is in this consecration that
the sacrifice of the mass principally consists; as by it the victim
is placed on the altar, and offered to God, viz. Christ himself,
represented as dead by the separate consecration of the bread and
wine, as if His blood were separated from His body. After some other
prayers, in which the priest offers to God the holy sacrifice, and
prays for mercy and salvation for all present, he elevates the host
and chalice together; this was the ancient elevation, as the more
solemn one, which follows immediately after the consecration, was
introduced generally in the 12th century, in opposition to the heresy
of Berengarius. Then concluding the canon the priest recites the _Our
Father_, and breaks the host, as Christ broke the bread, and as His
body was "broken" for us[19]; he puts a particle of the host into
the chalice[20]; he implores mercy and peace from the lamb of God, at
solemn masses gives the kiss of peace according to the recommendation
of scripture, and receives the two ablutions of the chalice, one of
wine, the other of wine and water, lest any portion of the sacred
blood should remain in it: he recites the communion or anthem, which
was originally sung while the holy communion was distributed; he says
the prayer or prayers called postcommunion, dismisses and begs God's
blessing on the people, in fine he recites the beginning of St.
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