Eucharistic Prayer of the Immigrant
 
Note: This is an English translation by the Rev. Liz Muñoz, Rector of Trinity Church, Los Angeles, of a Spanish text originally developed at General Seminary. It was used at a bilingual "Misa Guadalupana" at Trinity on December 12th, 2007. Those interested in the Spanish text can find it on the Episcopal Church's Latino/Hispanic Ministries site.
 
Celebrant:   The Lord be with you.
People:        And also with you
Celebrant:    Lift up your hearts.
People:        We lift them to the Lord.
Celebrant:    Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People:        It is right to give God thanks and praise.
 
It is right and a good and joyful thing that we continuously praise you and give you thanks, Beloved Father, because you created the skies with your powerful love, and with great affection you gave the Earth to us as nurturing mother to be our cradle, our home, and our grave. You adorned her with vast plains and mountain ranges, with volcanoes, with mighty rivers, with captivating islands, with thick forests and barren deserts.
 
But we fell into sin and turned our back to you. We took control of that which was yours and we put a cilicio of barbed wire fences around it; we turned against each other and we turned the paradise that you entrusted to us into a living hell of pain and misery. Millions of your children were forced to look for help in strange lands.
 
But you did not abandon those who had abandoned you. You forgave us as a Father does and you wait for us with nurturing love as a Mother does. In the fulness of time you sent your own Son who emigrated from the heavens to the earth, and the One that was in communion with you came in solidarity with us.
 
Therefore we praise you with the angels and archangels, with all our ancestors and all those that enjoy now what we await, who forever sing your praises without ceasing:
 
Sanctus
 
The Celebrant continues:
 
Your Son Jesus Christ, born of Mary who is blessed among all women, our brother, an immigrant from the heavens and model for immigrants, worked wood with his rough hands, and became poor with us to make us rich in your grace. He journeyed the dusty byways to make known your Word, in order to proclaim pardon and amnesty, in order to proclaim to the poor the good news of their liberation.
 
The night in which he washed his friends feet, the same night in which they betrayed him and they gave him over to torture, our Lod and Companion Jesus took bread in his holy hands, closed his eyes to heaven, said the blessing over the bread, broke it and distributed to his friends with these divine words: "Take and eat all of you, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
 
After supper he took the chalice in his holy hands, he lifted his eyes to you, Father in heaven, said the blessing over it, and gave it to his friends with these divine words: "Drink from this chalice all of you. This is the cup of blood shed for you and for the whole human family for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it do it for the remembance of me."
 
Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith
 
Celebrant and People:
 
Christ has died to give us life.
Christ has risen to make us free.
Christ will come again to restore his Kingdom.
 
Dear Father, in this memorial of the amnesty and pardon you bestowed on us, we celebrate the wonder of your love and we offer this bread and this wine to you: shower your Holy Spirit over them, and thus they will be for us the body and blood of your Son our companion, the food and refreshment of your pilgrim people. Flood us with your blessing so that we may be artisans of your justice and instruments of your peace in this ragged world. Gather us in the unity of the faith, the hope, and the love of your Church scattered throughout the globe. We pray for our bishops and other ministers, lay and ordained: that they may be fathful messengers of your Word, agents and envoys of your liberation. Have compassion on those who suffer in solitude and neglect. Save the victims of hunger, of oppression, of persecution because of injustice, of torture in the prisons, and of the terror of war. Make is all participants in the hope of glory, and bring us one day into the joy of your eternal Kingdom to forever sing your praises
 
By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory are yours, Almighty God, now and for ever. AMEN.

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