Explanation of the Prayers and Ceremonies of Holy Mass, Dom Prosper Guéranger - Supra quae propitio

The Priest again stretching out his hands continues the Great Prayer, saying: Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris.  Yea, Lord, although Thou art Infinite Sanctity, Infinite Power, Sovereign Being Itself, deign in Thy Goodness and Mercy to cast Thine eyes upon this earthly dwelling of ours, and vouchsafe to incline Thy Face unto that which we are now offering unto Thee: supra quae respicere digneris.

Et accepta habere.  Formerly, up to the time of St. Leo, this Prayer did not end in the way it now does; the word illa, those things, was understood here, as the complement of the phrase.  St. Leo thought it would be better to give it a more determined close, and so he added these words to the said Prayer: Sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam.  Such then is the real sense: et accepta habere sanctum Sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam.  The remainder of the phrase forms a kind of parenthesis to the preceding, as it now stands: sicuti accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui justi Abel. ... Receive, then, O Lord, this Sacrifice (says the Priest), as Thou didst accept the offerings of Thy servant, the Just Abel.  The Gifts of Abel, O Lord, were agreeable unto Thee; and yet what he offered was infinitely inferior to That which we are now able to present unto Thee: there is no comparison possible, between these two Sacrifices; nevertheless, lowly as was Abel’s Sacrifice, Thou didst graciously accept it.

Nor is this all; there was yet another ancient sacrifice that God held dear: et sacrificium patriarchae nostri Abrahae, it was the Sacrifice of Abraham.  The first-named, that of Abel, was in a bloody manner, but Abraham’s was unbloody: it was a Father’s Sacrifice, consenting as he did, to the immolation of his son, demanded by God.  The Lord said unto him: Take thy son and go and offer him to Me in holocaust, on the mountain that I will show thee.  And Abraham obeyed God, and set out with his son.  The whole consisted in this acquiescence of the great Patriarch; his Sacrifice was all spiritual, for God, contented with his Obedience, bade him spare his son; the blood shed on this occasion was but that of a ram, immolated instead of Isaac.  Abel and Abraham are coupled in this Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who has given up His honour and His Life, offering unto His Father devotedness the most complete, immolating himself truly, since His Body and Blood are here separated before Him.  It is then most fitting to recall here the Sacrifice of Abel and that of Abraham; observe also how the Sacrifice of blood is primordial, but still that of Abraham is so agreeable unto God, that, in return, it makes this holy Patriarch become the direct ancestor of Christ, who truly had flowing in his veins the blood of this Father of the faithful.

Further still, the Priest here adds other words whereby is proved the existence of a third Sacrifice: et quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech.  This third Sacrifice is wrapped in mystery: it was offered by the High-Priest Melchisedech, himself a mysterious personage, and God found his offering truly acceptable.  We can here remind Him of what He Himself says to His Divine Son, in Psalm cix: Tu es Sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.   Yes, O Lord, when Thou wishest to honour Thy Son, Thou dost tell Him He is Priest according to the Order of Melchisedech; how agreeable, then, unto Thee must not the Sacrifice of this mysterious person have been.  In the Holy Mass we have at once united, the Sacrifice of Abel, that of Abraham, and that of Melchisedech: the Sacrifice of Abel, which represents the Sacrifice of the Cross, with which the Mass forms but one and the same Sacrifice; the Sacrifice of Abraham, in which the immolation takes place in an unbloody manner, as is the case in the Sacrifice of the Mass; finally, the Offering of Melchisedech which represents the Sacrifice of the Mass, in which Bread and Wine are used upon the Altar; but, after Consecration, there remains neither Bread nor Wine, but only the species or appearances, serving but to veil the Divine Victim.