Only ordained priests and bishops are called to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice to the Father, with Christ, in the Holy Spirit, for the living and the dead, and for the Salvation of all.

Christ commanded His Apostles to celebrate this sacrifice when He said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24). This is a sacred task: to act in the person of Christ, to be His minister, to speak words which make present the living Christ and which renew the Paschal mysteries. This can be done only by the will of Christ by those whom He has empowered to act as His ministers, calling them and sealing them in the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

When, in the person of Christ, bishops and priests pronounce the words of consecration, the Sacrifice of the New Covenant is made present to the faithful in such a way that they too can participate in it.