Rejoice in Worship - Lift Up Your Hearts! Alternate Prefaces for Holy Communion

Recently the sacrament of Holy Communion has gained a place of utmost importance in the Hispanic church. This gives us reason to rejoice but, at the same time, it is a challenge. The church needs to explore new resources that will broaden its appreciation for this sacred moment.

Many congregations use an order of worship that emphasizes both Word and Sacrament. After hearing the proclamation, the people come to the Table to join in the Great Thanksgiving — a dialogue between the people and the celebrant:

Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and
everywhere to give thanks to you,
Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth . . .

Immediately after, the celebrant introduces the preface or prologue, where praise is rendered to God for God's mighty acts in history. After the preface comes the invitation to join with angels and archangels in the following hymn:

Holy, holy, holy, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Usually the preface establishes the theme of the day, based on (1) the seasons of the Christian Year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Season After Pentecost), (2) a special event in the life of the congregation, or (3) the gospel for that day.

There is a rich variety of themes for the Christian Year that some congregations do not include in their emphases. Each liturgical season points to an event in Jesus' life: his birth; his coming; his manifestation as God incarnate; his passion, death, resurrection; and his presence through the Holy Spirit — the church's missionary journey.

The hymnal Mil Voces Para Celebrar has made an excellent contribution. It offers a complete text for Holy Communion. However, new prefaces emphasizing a particular theme that corresponds to the celebration of the day may be used. They may be written by a group of worship leaders or may be modeled on those of other denominations — but always taking care to be consistent with our Wesleyan tradition. The new prefaces may be compiled into a Celebrations Manual, giving the pastor several alternatives to use in the eucharistic prayer.

The following example is an alternate preface for World Communion Sunday — a celebration shared by several Christian denominations:

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, to give
thanks to you . . . creator of heaven and earth.
From the earth you gave us bread and drink.
You have formed all peoples and
all nations that live upon the face of the earth. That is why, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn . . .

Though it may seem insignificant, the variety of prefaces in the ritual will enrich the worship experience, making it meaningful and relevant for the congregation in their daily living.

The Rev. Irving Cotto is a clergy member of the Southern New Jersey Conference. He currently serves as pastor of Asbury UMC in Camden, NJ. the Rev. Cotto and his wife, Lilian Lucrecia, reside in Cherry Hill, NJ.