OFFERING

I found this meditiation from the 'Offertory' section of Daniel-Rops's Missa Est moving. All too often, while the priest prepares the bread and the wine, the congregation fumbles for coins and treats this moment as an interval; yet the Offering is that of both the 'kindly fruits of the earth' (much more present in a country parish among fields of wheat and vineyards), and of what we bring, in matter and/or in spirit, and which the priest's preparing of bread and wine represents.  

If you have nothing else to offer to the Lord, simply present your work and your pains;

it has cost many men much effort, this piece of bread lying on the paten.

If your hand is empty and your mouth painfully dry, offer your wounded heart, all that you have suffered;

for the wine to be poured into the chalice did the grapes not have to be crushed and the skin torn?

If all you have in you is sin and bitterness, the pain of living and all the anguish of humanity,

let your hands lift those pitiful things up to heaven, for Mercy has already received them in advance at his Supper.

And if you do not even have the strength to present and to implore, 

if all that is in you is absence and abandonment,

simply accept, in silence, that Another take care of you for you and take charge of you, 

so that the Offering and the Offerer may be a single gift.

OFFERING (AGAIN)

The French author Daniel-Rops published, in 1952, a little book called "Missa Est" with very fine B&W photographs by Laure Albin-Guillot and a series of brief texts explaining parts of the Mass followed by short meditations on each part. Here is his meditation on the Offering of the bread and wine (my translation):

If you have nothing else to offer the Lord, lay before Him only your works and your travails:

this piece of bread resting there on the paten cost many men many efforts.

If your hand is empty and your mouth painfully dry, offer your wounded heart, all you have suffered:

for the wine to be poured into the chalice, did the grapes not have to be trampled and their skin opened?

If all you have inside you is sin and bitterness, the pain of living and all humanity’s anguish:

let your hands lift up those sad things, for Mercy has received them in advance in His Supper.

And if you do not even have the strength to offer and implore, if all inside you is absence and abandonment:

only accept in silence that Another take care of you on your behalf and accept you, so that the Offering and the Offerer may be one gift.