B16 on the Mass

"In the Roman liturgy the priest, having offered the bread and wine, bows toward the altar and prays in a low voice: 'Lord, we ask you to receive us and be pleased with the sacrifice that we offer with humble and contrite hearts.' The priest thus prepares to enter, together with the whole assembly of the faithful, into the heart of the Eucharistic mystery, into the heart of that celestial liturgy to which the second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, refers.
The altar of sacrifice becomes in a certain way the point of encounter between heaven and earth; the center, we could say, of the one Church that is at the same time heavenly and in pilgrimage on earth, where, in the midst of the persecutions of the world and God's consolations, the Lord's disciples proclaim his passion and death until he returns in glory.
The Eucharistic celebration thus mysteriously shows the splendor of the Church, immaculate bride of the immaculate Lamb, Bride that Christ loved and gave himself up for to make her holy.''