When does consecration occur during Catholic Mass?

Answer 1

During the eucharistic prayer, when the priest bends over the altar and says:

THIS IS MY BODY

and

THIS IS MY BLOOD

then the bread and wine CEASE to exist (only their appearance remains). The entire substance of the bread becomes the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ; likewise the entire substance of the wine ceases to exist and becomes entirely the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. This is a great mystery which none of us understands, but what now still looks like a ordinary wafer is actually God lying there on the altar. He is every bit as much present as if you were standing in a hot dusty Jerusalem street in the first century and you saw this bleeding, dying man come around a corner with a large wooden cross over His shoulder. By the way - this is why you are kneeling, and if there are no kneelers present, then kneel on the floor - GOD has just arrived.

Answer 2

Transubstantiation - the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

.

Catholic AnswerThe consecration occurs during the second half of the Mass, known as the Liturgy of the Eucharist (old term, the Mass of the Faithful); specifically during the Eucharist Prayer or Canon, which the priest says alone while at the altar.

This is not the easiest thing to understand. Everything that we see is composed of two things (this is the philosophical way of defining things): substance and accident. Look at water, you can have steam, liquid water, ice, or snow. They are all the same "thing" - H20, but they certainly look different. If we didn't know better we would think that there were four different things. The H2O is "water", that is the "substance". The "accidents" are cold, hard, liquid, soft, vaporous, etc. In other words, you can change the accidents but the substance remains the same.

Another example might be wood, you could have a tree, a floor, or a pile of ashes. Same thing, they are all "wood", but with different accidents.

But in all the things we can look at in the world, the accidents can and do change, but the substance remains the same. The Eucharist is entirely the other way around, the "accidents": looks and tastes like bread - remain the same, BUT the entire substance, what it is, changes. So even though to every sense we have, even with sophisticated instruments, everything we can see, touch, etc. it remains bread; but the entire substance of bread has, through a miracle of God, changed into the substance of Jesus Christ, His Body, and Soul, His Humanity, and Divinity, are all present where previously bread had been present.

This is a great mystery, but, hey, God is all powerful, and so far beyond us as to be incomprehensible. But He condescended to become human so that we could comprehend Him. The fact that He also condescended to appear under the appearance of bread is no less a miracle than that he came as a human being.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994

1375

It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion. Thus St. John Crysostom declares:

It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. The word transforms the things offered. (St. John Chyrsostom, pro. Jud. 1:5: J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca {Paris, 1857-1866} 49, 380)

And St. Ambrose says about this conversion:

Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed . . . Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature. (St. Ambrose, De myst. 9, 50; 52: J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina {Paris: 1841-1855} 16, 405-407

Answer

In a Catholic Mass, the consecration is when the priest performs a ritual in which God transforms the Eucharistic hosts into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This is known as Transubstantiation.

The part of the mass that has a consecration is the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Answer 3

Consecration happens when the priest takes the bread in his hands and says the words of institution.

In layman's terms, that is when he speaks the words that Jesus spoke at the last supper: TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.

The same thing happens with the wine.

Answer 4

When the priest says "This is my body," then raises the Host so the congregation can see it, and then genuflects.

Catholic Answer As noted above, the Consecration takes place during the Eucharistic Prayer (the Canon) during the Liturgy of the Eucharist (the second half of the Mass, it used to be called the Mass of the Faithful).

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Consecration. The words of institution of the Eucharist, pronounced at Mass, by which is accomplished the very sacrifice that Christ instituted at the Last Supper. The formula of consecration is uniform for all the approved canons of the Mass and reads, in literal translation: "Take and eat of this, all of you; for this is my body which will be given up for you . . . take and drink of this, all of you; for this is the chalice of my blood, of the new and eternal testament, which will be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins. Do this in commemoration of me." After the consecration there is no longer any bread or wine on the altar, only the Body and Blood of Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.

Answer 5

The bread and wine becomes the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. The accidentals (Physical properties) remain the same, though, but it is really, truly Jesus.

Answer 6

In Catholic theology the consecration is the moment in which transubstantiation takes place, and the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ

Answer 7

The consecration takes place on the main altar of the church.