What can be presented before the altar besides bread and wine?

The episcopal delegate of liturgy of the Diocese of Cartagena (Spain), Father Ramón Navarro, explains that the only exception to the presentation of bread and wine before the altar in the Eucharist is money or other gifts for the poor or the Church.

In the latest issue of the diocesan magazine Our Churchthe liturgist carries out an analysis of the moment of preparation and presentation of the gifts before the altar, which is popularly known as the “offertory.”

In the last part of his reflection, Father Navarro addresses the question of the gifts that are presented before the altar and that sometimes go beyond the brief indication of the bread and wine that appears in the Missal: “Alone. Exclusively. Nothing more,” he emphasizes.

The liturgist details that “we usually, especially at Masses with children or at celebrations, for example, patron saints, add a lot of things that we bring to the altar, giving them an offertorial character.”

Even, he adds, these gestures are accompanied with statements such as: “Together with the bread and wine we offer you this object, which means such and such a thing.” However, he emphasizes that “that does not make sense at that moment of the celebration and blurs its purpose.”

By presenting or offering objects other than the Eucharistic species, there is a risk that “this moment of the preparation of the gifts revolves around us, instead of preparing and preparing us for what comes next.”

Father Navarro explains that there is a “fully justified” exception, which is to receive “money or other gifts for the poor or for the Church” that must be placed in an appropriate place “outside the Eucharistic table,” as stated. in number 73 of the General Ordination of the Roman Missal (OGMR).

The true “offertory” of the Mass is found in the Eucharistic Prayer

Father Navarro recalls that the OGMR specifies in its number 72 how “in the preparation of the gifts, bread and wine with water are brought to the altar, that is, the same elements that Christ took in his hands.”

Navarro highlights that “the language is very careful. The verb ‘offer’ does not appear at any time. The Eucharistic gifts—bread and wine—are brought to the altar but not offered.”

The reason is that “in the Eucharist the offering is not the bread and wine—God does not need them!—but the Body and Blood of his Son, to whom we join in the offering that demonstrates our own life.”

The liturgist details that it is in the Eucharistic Prayer when the offertory of the “bread of life and the chalice of salvation” is made that we will later receive in Communion.

For all this, he concludes, “the moment of preparation of the gifts has its importance, but not to the point of being the central moment of the celebration.” This is the reason for the title of the article Let’s not get ahead of ourselves: “Let’s not turn this moment into what it is not, into what will come later. Although we call it offertory.”