Deacons and priests are blessing the water before they put a drop of water into the chalice with the wine during the preparation of the gifts and I don’t like it. I also can’t find anything in the current rubrics calling forit.
Frequently during my leave, I sat through Mass and wondered, could they have changed that? What is behind that action that change and went back to my GIRM and
mostly found that what has bugged me isn’t in the GIRM it is something that has somehow come into being. Today’s topic really bugs me.
It is a very simple act. While pouring a drop of water into the wine they say quietly during preparation of the gifts:
-By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Nothing else!
This is another one of our ritual actions that originally had another meaning. The Greeks always mixed water with their wine because the thicker wine of the day tasted better diluted. In the 4th century our current meaning became the reason for this action. The symbolism is that the water is our humanity and once mixed it is inseparable. We, as the people of God, are essential to the actions of the priest during consecration. The preparation of the gifts is the presentation of our lives to God asking God to transform us into the body and blood of Christ.
When, in my opinion, the misguided cleric blesses that water before pouring into wine it seems to me that he is saying, our humanity isn’t good enough, it needs to be blessed before being added to the wine. When in reality all we have are two elements that are being prepared and we have added another gesture that distracts from the intent of what we are supposed to be doing. At this time, it is just wine, nothing more!
The rubrics say
The Deacon, or the Priest, pours wine and a little water into the chalice saying quietly.
I see no mention of blessing the water first. I worry that it sends a message contrary to what we should be sending. Nobody can articulate why this action has come to be except as a hold over from the old mass.
Not a fan!
In Short
It is the preparation of the gifts and not the blessing of the gifts, that comes later! And if all that wasn’t enough consider this, that water is now blessed! Not just the used part, the who cruet. I don’t see them drinking it or putting it back into Baptismal Font.