Quote:
Originally Posted by Athanasias
Thanks for your help. Yes I agree with you that this is where we also make a spiritual sacrifice to God also but is the Eucharist itself considered to be a propitiatory sacrifice that is offered up to God on behalf of the people by your priest? You see this is what I was trying to get at. I am trying to understand your priesthood better and its functions in relation to the liturgy.
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No, the individual "brings" their own sacrifice and offers it themselves, it's a much more personal thing.
When someone is baptised into the LDS church they make a promise (covenant) with God to always remember Him and to take his name upon us (ie to be called "Christian" - along with everything it means to be Christlike), and in return he covenants with us that we will always have his Spirit (the Holy Spirit) to be with us. Unlike other Christian faiths where the Holy Spirit comes and goes, we believe that after baptism (and confirmation by the layong on of hands) a person can ALWAYS have the Holy Spirit with them.
The sacrament/Eucharist is where we renew that covenant. Individually we come before God offering him our repentant (broken) hearts and humble (contrite) spirits as we again make the commitment we made at baptism. But just as a person must be baptised by someone who has proper priesthood authority, the sacrament must also be officiated by those with proper priesthood authority. The priest doesn't offer the sacrifice, he enables the people to offer their own sacrifice. As in ancient Israel the priest would perform the ritual preparing and burning the lamb, the person who came to offer the sacrifice would still be the one giving up of their substance (a lamb of their own flock) and making the covenants with God.
I believe in the Catholic church that the priest giving the Eucharist represents Christ at the last supper. There is also a similar symbolism with our priesthood, but the meaning is different and I won't claim to know or understand all of it.