Breaking the bread

Also called "the Fraction Rite"

Jewish origins

The ancient Hebrews celebrated

In the early Church the bread and wine were truly the offerings from the community, probably by households, to be presented to the Father in the form of the consecrated sacrifice of the Son.  The Agnus Dei would be sung repeatedly during “fraction rite”, which would have taken much longer than a single verse, as the loaves would have to be literally broken into pieces – which fulfills what Christ did in the Gospel, ant not just at the Last Supper, such as in  Luke 24:30. Interestingly, the word “bread” itself has etymological origins in “to break,” thus the “bread” is itself broken pieces of a loaf. (John 6:26 “loaves”).

This connection also helps us, as ushers, appreciate the role of the collection.  Since the community does not “give” the bread and wine (the gifts), we participate in the sacrifice with an offering of money (there’s a reason for the terms “bread,” “dough” and “breadwinner”). I only recently learned that the current form of the Offertory and Presentation of the Gifts is a Vatican II innovation. It seems that in early Church people would bring their gifts of loaves and wine and the Deacons would put them directly on the altar before Mass. Medieval Masses included a formal Offertory procession, but with priests and deacons, not lay people. Here for the c 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia entry on it: Fractio Panis | Catholic Answers Encyclopedia)