Memory: At Mass, it’s more than you think
The U.S. bishops are encouraging Catholics to deepen their love for the Eucharist as part of the ongoing National Eucharistic Revival initiative. In light of that effort, the following is the third in a series from Angelus contributing editor Mike Aquilina on the meaning and makeup of the Eucharistic Prayers.
Memory is the weak English word we use to translate the Hebrew “zikkaron.”
But it’s not just a problem in English. Scholars say that the original has never been translated well — not even in the Greek of the New Testament! And so it takes effort for us even to begin to understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24).
It’s a line he said at his Last Supper, as he instituted the Eucharist, and the Church repeats it at the crucial moment at every Mass: the moment of consecration.