The Traditional Latin Mass - Part IX - The Roman Canon Part IV
“Unde et memores… Supra quae… Supplices te rogamus”: The Church Offers the Divine Victim
I. The Sacrifice Is Now Present — The Canon Enters Its Most Ancient Layer
After the Consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Sacrifice is truly present.
The priest now performs what St. Thomas Aquinas describes as the essential act of the Eucharistic liturgy:
“The offering of Christ’s Body and Blood to God the Father.”[1]
The prayers that follow are among the oldest in the Canon—some dating to the 2nd or 3rd century. They belong to what scholars call the “Oblation prayers”, meaning the formal offering of Christ to the Father.
These include:
Unde et memores
Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris
Supplices te rogamus
Together they form the heart of the sacrificial action.
II. “Unde et memores” — The Church Remembers and Offers
The priest, joining his hands and speaking in a low voice, says:
“Wherefore, O Lord, we Thy servants and Thy holy people, calling to mind the blessed Passion, the Resurrection from the dead, and the glorious Ascension into heaven of Christ Thy Son…”
This prayer is a direct continuation of the Jewish concept of zikkaron—a type of remembrance that makes present the saving acts of God.
A. Christian “Remembrance” Is Not Memory—It is Presence
Christ commanded:
“Do this for a commemoration of Me.” (Luke 22:19, DR)
The Greek anamnesis means:
not mere recollection,
but a making-present of the saving deed.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem explains:
“After His words, the sacrifice is set before us, not as a mere representation, but truly the Body and Blood of Christ.”[2]
Thus, in the Canon, the Church remembers:
His Passion
His Resurrection
His Ascension
not symbolically, but as realities now present on the altar.
III. The Church Offers the Victim to the Father
The prayer continues:
“…offer unto Thy excellent Majesty, of Thy gifts bestowed upon us, a pure Victim, a holy Victim, a spotless Victim…”
Aquinas notes the structure:
Hostiam puram — the pure Victim
Hostiam sanctam — the holy Victim
Hostiam immaculatam — the spotless Victim
These three titles echo the sacrifices of Exodus (Exod. 12:5), Leviticus, and the prophets—but now fulfilled in Christ.
What is being offered?
Not bread.
Not wine.
But:
the true Body of Christ,
the true Blood of Christ,
the resurrected Victim,
the glorified Christ,
the Lamb standing as slain (Rev. 5:6).
Doctrinal Significance
Trent teaches:
“In the Mass is offered the same Christ who once offered Himself on the altar of the Cross.”[3]
This is why the Canon speaks so boldly: the Church is offering the eternal Son.
IV. “Panem sanctum vitae aeternae, et calicem salutis perpetuae”
“The holy Bread of eternal life, and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.”
This expression reveals the Eucharist as:
Food of immortality (cf. John 6:54),
Medicine of salvation,
The pledge of the Resurrection,
The foretaste of eternal life.
St. Ignatius of Antioch (1st century) called the Eucharist:
“The medicine of immortality and the antidote against death.”[4]
Thus the Canon affirms that the Eucharist is both sacrifice and sacrament—the offering to the Father and the nourishment of the faithful.
V. “Supra quae…” — The Father Looks Upon the Sacrifice of His Son
This next prayer is breathtaking in its Old Testament imagery:
“Vouchsafe to look upon them with a gracious and serene countenance, and to accept them, as Thou didst vouchsafe to accept the gifts of Thy just servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham our patriarch, and that which Thy high priest Melchisedech offered unto Thee…”
A. Why These Three Figures?
Each of these Old Testament sacrifices foreshadows Christ:
Abel
Offered the firstlings of his flock (Gen. 4:4)
Represents sacrifice offered with purity of heart
His blood cried to God (Gen. 4:10), prefiguring Christ’s Blood poured out
Abraham
Offered his beloved son Isaac (Gen. 22)
The ram caught in the thicket signifies Christ crowned with thorns
Abraham is the model of perfect obedience
Melchizedek
Offered bread and wine (Gen. 14:18)
Is a type of Christ’s eternal priesthood (Heb. 7)
The Roman Canon is here teaching the faithful that the entire Old Covenant converges in the Sacrifice now present on the altar.
B. “Look Upon Them With a Serene Countenance”
The Church begs the Father to gaze upon:
the Body of His Son,
the Blood of His Son,
the Sacrifice of His Son,
with the same acceptance as He granted to His righteous servants.
This is the fulfillment of Psalm 50:21:
“Then shalt Thou accept the sacrifice of justice.”
VI. “Supplices te rogamus” — The Most Mysterious Gesture of the Canon
This prayer is accompanied by one of the most beautiful gestures in the Mass:
the priest bends low and kisses the altar—the tomb of Christ—before rising.
The prayer:
“We humbly beseech Thee, almighty God, command that these offerings be carried by the hands of Thy holy Angel to Thy altar on high…”
A. What Angel?
There are two interpretations:
Christ Himself, called “the Angel of the Great Counsel” in Isaiah 9 (Septuagint), and the true High Priest.
A literal angel, as in Revelation 8:3, who stands before the heavenly altar.
Both are doctrinally permissible.
B. The Meaning of the Gesture
When the priest kisses the altar:
he kisses Christ Himself (St. Ambrose),
he acknowledges the union of heaven and earth,
he expresses that the sacrifice offered here must be joined to Christ’s eternal offering in heaven.
C. Theological Depth
Aquinas writes:
“The Angel signifies Christ, who unites the earthly sacrifice with the heavenly liturgy.”[5]
Revelation 8:3 describes an angel offering incense with the prayers of the saints before God’s throne—an explicit image of the Mass.
Thus the Canon teaches:
the altar on earth
and the altar in heaven
are one in the same Sacrifice of Christ.
VII. The Prayer Concludes With a Petition for the Faithful
The priest prays that:
“All of us who partake of this altar may receive every heavenly blessing and grace.”
St. Augustine says:
“What the priest offers visibly, the faithful receive invisibly.”[6]
The Mass is not only the offering of Calvary; it is the wedding feast of the Lamb, where the faithful receive divine life.
VIII. Summary of the Mystery of Article IX
By the end of these three prayers:
The Church has offered the Divine Victim to the Father.
The Sacrifice of Calvary is united to the eternal heavenly liturgy.
The Old Covenant sacrifices are shown to be shadows fulfilled in Christ.
The faithful are drawn into the heavenly worship through the angelic mediation.
The Mass stands revealed as the nexus between time and eternity.
The Canon will now turn to the Memento of the Dead, the prayer for the faithful departed—those awaiting the fruits of this Sacrifice.
ENDNOTES
[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III, q. 83, a. 1.
[2] St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses, 5.
[3] Council of Trent, Session XXII, Ch. 2.
[4] St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, 20.
[5] St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III, q. 83, a. 4.
[6] St. Augustine, Sermon 272.