Hence at this point we do well to think of the heartbreaks of suffering humanity and of our Lord's oneness with the sorrows of mankind, and of his being broken for us on the cross, even as we must make of our own heart-breaks a loving union with his sacrifice. Only by such devotion can the agony of mankind become a part of Christ's agony, and be utilized in the process of divine redemption instead of being lost in ignorance of his love and rebellion against his compassion. Anything after this great act except the briefest of thanksgivings would seem to be an anticlimax. Anything less than a very careful carrying out of these acts is but a meagre obedience to the expressed wish of our great High Priest. The Eucharist is sometimes defined as the making present on the Altar of the eternal sacrifice offered once for all on Calvary, so that it becomes available to us as the means whereby we can, through our Communions, be identified with him in his sacrificial consecration to God.
Liturgical prayer is thus different from other kinds of prayer.
Hence the Mass can never be an act of private devotion. He ordained the Eucharist as the means whereby we put ourselves into his possession and, in return, enter into possession of him. It is the Holy Communion of his broken Body and poured-out Blood. These words describe Christ as offered or sacrificed for us. That is, Holy Communion can only be a Communion because it is first of all a Sacrifice.