Dictionary
A modern dictionary of Catholic terms, both common and obscure. Find accurate definitions of words and phrases.
OFFERTORY
That part of the Mass in which the unconsecrated bread and wine are offered to God. The prayers said by a priest in the new ritual are taken almost verbatim from the first-century liturgical document the Didache, discovered at Constantinople in 1873. The celebrant says, while separately offering the bread (on a paten) and the wine (in the chalice): "Blessed are you, Lord God of all things, because we have received bread [wine] from your bounty. We offer this fruit of the earth and of men's labor, that it may become for us the Bread of Life [Spiritual Drink]."
All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
