SUB NOTES:

OFFERING RITE:
Our earliest accounts of the Papal Mass, the Ordines Romani, describe how after the Gospel (and, later on, the Creed), the Pope would receive offerings of various kinds from the different orders of society, the nobility, the clergy, various dignitaries and the matrons of the city. (The oldest of these Ordines is of the 7th century, predating our oldest chant manuscripts, and also calls the chant “Offertorium”.) REF. New Liturgical Movement: The Theology of the Offertory - Part 2: the Offertory and Priesthood in the Liturgy

PATER NOSTER:
Yet, within the context of the memorial sacrifice, the private use of the orans posture amongst the laity was foreign until the Catholic charismatic renewal that sprung up, beginning in the late 1960’s. The private use of the orans posture during their charismatic renewal gatherings eventually found their way into the Divine Symphony and grew in great popularity only due to a grave misunderstanding of what the Sacrifice of the Mass is, of what ‘the Our Father’ prayer is, and of what the Priest is doing when he is offering this outward sign of intercessory prayer for the People. Rather than imitate the Deacon (assuming he is not also pretending to the be a Priest and praying with his arms extended), they have voluntarily decided to obstruct the system of outward signs by praying as the Priest prays or, even worse, hold hands together. The Vatican’s 1997 Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of the Priest has this to say about this grave innovation to the liturgy:
To promote the proper identity (of various roles) in this area, those abuses which are contrary to the provisions of Canon 907 are to be eradicated. In Eucharistic celebrations, Deacons and non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers (e.g., especially the Eucharistic prayer, with its concluding doxology) or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant Priest. Neither may Deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful use gestures or actions which are proper to the same Priest celebrant. It is a grave abuse for any member of the non-ordained faithful to “quasi-preside” at the Mass while leaving only minimal participation to the Priest which is necessary to secure validity.
 
To protect and to secure the validity of the memorial sacrifice, the Deacon and the People must not offer and any sign, gesture, or word, which would give the indication that they are concelebrating the Mass with the Priest, that they are also in Persona Christi, that they are interceding for the People with him, or that they are also consecrating the offerings. Principally, that means that the People must be attentively and participatively silent in God through all of their language of word and body, except when the Church has given them the words to speak and the bodily language to express. For, it should not be a novel idea that we should trust that the liturgy is for our benefit and that any obstruction to it can be spiritually harmful to many.
ICP Practical Provisions 6, 2.

It should not be glossed over the fact that beginning with ‘the Our Father,’ the central theme of this final section of the third movement is medicinal. That is, the repeating note in our prayers is a cry for the food that heals us from sin. In the instant case, we prayed “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;” to which the Priest interceded, “that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress.” 

The reason why there is such a very heavy emphasis on sin in this section is so that the People will be properly disposed in every way to receive the remedy for their chronic condition. For Christ, Himself said, “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  True to His every word, Christ Jesus is Present at the memorial sacrifice and comes as the Holy Eucharist to be the great Physician to give peace and healing to those who have fallen into the maladies of this transitory life. 

If Catholics were attentive to the prayers and confessions in this section of the liturgy, I would hear far fewer complaints from them about how their Priest never talks about sin in his homily, because the primary and oft-repeated subject of this section is sin and its remedy. In fact, the condition of sin is being prayed and confessed about so much so that if you do not know you are sick now, perhaps you should reanalyze why you have come to this specialized hospital for sinners.

The words of consecration contain medicinal themes, such as “my Body which will be given up for you,” and “my Blood … poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.” Only a heavenly hospital could undertake the work of such a Divine transfusion, through which the patient is healed of sin by incorporated their body into a whole new Body and receiving all new Blood. For, as the Catholic Church teaches, there can be no remedy of our grave condition without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and preserving us from future sins:
For as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the death of the Lord. If we proclaim the Lord’s death, we proclaim the forgiveness of sins. If, as often as His blood is poured out, it is poured for the forgiveness of sins, I should always receive it, so that it may always forgive my sins. Because I always sin, I should also have a remedy.”
 
The Church is the only hospital that is in the sole business to treat the chronic disease of sin, and the remedies that God has given Her to heal His People’s wounded condition are the Sacraments; chiefly Baptism which once and immediately heals us of the effects of the original sin and unites us with our permanent family Physician; Penance and Reconciliation which immediately absolves and heals us from the guilt of sin incurred after Baptism;  the Anointing of the Sick which immediately confers upon the infirm the special grace of healing and comfort, and the Holy Eucharist which immediately grants the increase in grace for freedom from light daily faults, remission of punishments, preservation from mortal sins, restraint of concupiscence, growth of the virtues, sanctification in Christ, and more. 

Yet, just as no competent physician of this world would dare to operate on a person who is in no condition to survive surgery, neither does the Catholic Church offer the Holy Eucharist to those who are attached to grave sins, because the effects of the medicinal increase in grace it confers may only harm them further. On the contrary, just as a competent physician would work to make their patient healthy enough to recover from surgery, so too does the Church prepare the penitent to have peace, rather than to be condemned by Christ Jesus coming to dwell within them. 
For, what person who is doing evil would invite the police into their home?  What student asks his instructor to watch him cheat on an exam?  What man invites his wife to the home of his mistress?  Everyone would agree that if you are doing wrong, and do not want to be judged for it, it would be ill-advised to expose yourself to your judge. The same holds true for receiving the Holy Eucharist unworthily, and for this reason, Saint Paul wrote the Church at Corinth:

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the Body and Blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the Body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying. If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment; but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that your meetings may not result in judgment. The other matters I shall set in order when I come.
 
A person who is concerned about their eternal destination would take heed to these words of the Apostle and never feel pressured to get into the communion procession to receive Christ Jesus within them. Regardless of social pressure, this is not the time to ‘do what Catholics do’ or to be seeing ‘being Catholic,’ because those who receive the Holy Eucharist unworthily may complicate matters for themselves and may go from bad to worse, and from sickness to death. This admonition is true; receive the Holy Eucharist, but receive it not if you are not fit to have your Judge come to dwell inside of your home. Lk. 5:31-32.
CCC. 1392, St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 4, 6, 28: PL 16, 446; cf. 1 Cor. 11:26.
Denzinger, 43rd Edition [hereafter ‘DZ’], 1638, 1740, 3375.
DZ, 1020.
DZ 846, 1322, 1638, 3375.
DZ, 3375.
DZ, 846.
DZ, 4010.