Celebrating 100 years
- Clustered Worship Sites:
Christ the King
St. Salome
St. Thomas the Apostle - Individual Worship Sites:
St. Cecilia
St. Margaret Mary - Irondequoit Catholic Communities:
Regional Mass Schedule
Regional Calendars
Irondequoit Senior Ministries
The mixing of water and wine is an ancient practice in both eastern and western rites. Because of the wine's heavy texture it became customary in both secular and religious usage to dilute the wine with water to render it less strong. Special utensils were used, especially by the ancient Greeks for this purpose. Even the shape of cups (in Greek: calix, our "chalice") was determined by the use to which it was put in this process of mixing.
Early Christians continued this custom in the celebration of the Eucharist. This utilitarian action was quickly given a symbolic interpretation. In the west the mingling came to represent the union of Christ with the faithful: just as the wine receives the water, so Christ takes us and our sins to Himself. The eastern interpretation was that the wine and water represent the divine and human natures in Christ. At Rome the rite was eventually given a prayer whose text was taken from an ancient Christmas oration expressing both symbolic meanings. Today an abbreviated version of this prayer is said by the priest or deacon at the time of the mixing.
