The Eucharistic prayers of mass contain many beautiful phrases. One of my favorite is, “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like dewfall, so they may become for us the Body and Blood our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eucharistic Prayer II).
Dewfall, the unseen (water vapor in the atmosphere) slowly becomes seen (liquid water droplets).
God often works in our lives like dewfall. He slowly manifests Himself to us. We cannot see Him, yet the effects of His presence in our lives can be seen.
He is the dewfall that sustains us in desert. He is our manna “in the morning dew lay round about the camp, and when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground” (Exodus 16:13-14).
That is by far one of my favorites, too.
The prayers of the mass are so rich in beauty. Hope all is gooding with your dissertation.
Well, this is a God-incidence. I love that prayer too, especially the use of the word “dewfall.” It is just so beautiful and touches my heart. I heard it at Mass this weekend for the first time in a couple of weeks or so and it just grabbed me yet again.
A simple word, with such deep meaning beautifully touches hearts of so many. Thank you, Colleen.
And yet the priests at my parish leave off that phrase “like the dewfall.” Maybe they haven’t grasp the allusion to manna. I supply the phrase in my mind
Mooshadow — Thank you for comment and visiting my blog. It is not so much that they leave it out as to which of the Eucharistic Prayers they use, “dewfall” is in some and not in others.
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Sometimes they do omit it on purpose. I asked a priest why he doesn’t say it and he said it’s because “dew doesn’t fall” like snow or rain. After I questioned him and told him how much I love that phrase, he now uses alternative Eucharistic Prayers. I can live with that. But I love “like the dewfall.” It really captures my imagination and moves my heart. Thanks for this post.
And night doesn’t fall, either. Yet those words are in Webster’s; “dewfall” is categorized as literary usage.
Thank you Moonshadow for providing information on th literally usage of the dewfall.
I thank you, too, for the information on literary usage. I hadn’t thought of nightfall.