Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church & School

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Sunday,  August 1, 2010 – Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the Pastor

JOURNEY THROUGH THE MASS…TWO TABLES OF SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT:  The following continues the reflection series from my booklet on the Mass.  These reflections are shared over these weeks in the bulletin in the hope they might deepen your awareness, appreciation, participation and devotion in our worship of the Lord at these two Holy Tables.

·        The Eucharistic prayer leads us into the most holy action of this table.  We are to let the movement of this prayer of praise and thanksgiving possess us.  We are to listen prayerfully with a holy quiet and reverence.  It is the option of the celebrant to select the Eucharistic prayer at a particular Mass.  The variety of Eucharistic prayers give us a variety of very rich options for our prayerful contemplation leading us to the holy and the saving action of Jesus laying down His life for us.  Not only laying down His life for us, but literally giving away His life for us and to us.  As we prayerfully listen to the Eucharistic prayer, let its words and phrases pull us quietly into contemplation.

·        Before the words of institution are prayed over the bread and the wine, our real attitude at this time should be one of awe and wonder and reverence.  The word consecration, coming from the Latin word - consecrare, which literally means to hand over, to make holy.  In the bread and wine we hand over our lives with Jesus on the cross - our gifts become the body and blood of Jesus.  What an amazing, amazing wonder!

·        I am sure you have noticed by now that some of the Eucharistic prayers are longer than others or perhaps you may want to say that some are shorter than others.  All the Eucharistic prayers have the same structure and some of them elaborate more fully on the basic themes.  The prayers after the consecration in each of the Eucharistic prayers should pull us more deeply into contemplation.  We contemplate who it is that is now with us.  We are reminded of His saving action for us - we are called to contemplate His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.  We now go piggy-back, if you will, with Him into the presence of the holy.

·        The remaining post consecration prayers remind us that we are a universal body, not just a local Church, not just a Parish Church.  We pray for those who are in servant leadership to the body of Christ - our Pope, our Bishops, for all of us who serve in servant leadership in family and in the ministry of everyday life.

        We never have a Mass without remembering our beloved dead.  We find ourselves in prayerful memory with them.  We ask the Lord present with us on the holy table to bring them, if He has not already done so, to quickly bring them into the company of all the holy ones - which we know in our tradition to be the communion of saints.  The next prayer is a prayer beginning with the phrase - Have mercy on us all to Jesus present with us on the altar that we may all be worth to walk in and with the company of the holy ones.

·        The prayer before the Our Father is a prayer of petition in which we ask Jesus to make us worthy to walk in the company of the holy ones, especially Mary, the Mother of Jesus and all the saints.  This prayer leads us to what is known as the great Amen. The Amen at the conclusion of this prayer, acknowledges that we are coming into God’s presence in the company of Jesus, who is now with us. The total living actions of our lives are brought into God’s presence - through Him, with Him, and in Him, all glory and honor is yours almighty Father forever and ever.  And then your response to the great Amen is to be prayerfully loud, affirming and full.  With the great Amen, you are literally saying that everything I have experienced so far in this celebration - I BELIEVE IT TO BE SO.  That is what the great Amen means.

·        When we are asked to pray with confidence at this time in the Mass - we have every reason to be confident.  Jesus, who has given us this prayer, is with us and prays with us and through us.  Praying the Our Father at this time in the Mass should be an exercise in contemplation.  With the words of Jesus and Jesus praying with us, we are being carried beyond ourselves and more fully into the presence of the holy.  We pray for the daily bread of God’s divine presence to nourish our deepest hungers and for God to give us the amazing gift of forgiveness, so that we may be instruments of His forgiveness in a world that is so wounded, broken and needy.  So, in great confidence and knowing that Jesus is with us, we now pray the words that He has given us to pray.  We pray these words with Him.

·        Now that we have prayed the prayer that Jesus gave us - now that we have prayed with Jesus and now that we are into this most intimate moment with Him, we continue to beg Him and ask Him to deliver us from every and all evil.  We ask Him to fill our hearts with the divine blessings of His peace and to make us instruments of that peace in the ministry of our everyday life.  We ask Him to protect us from all unnecessary anxiety as we await in this in-between time for His coming again in glory.

·        The peace prayer, which the priest prays on our behalf at this time, is really another prayer and word with Jesus who is with us and with whom we are about to enter into communion.  We ask Jesus to really intervene for us.  We ask Him to look beyond our weak humanity and sinfulness and to truly give us the gift of God’s Shalom or peace.  Before we offer the sign of peace, before we become instruments of the Lord’s peace, we must desire to be absorbed and possessed in the peace of our peace-giver - Jesus, who is among us.

CHURCH INDUCTION LOOPING:  Two very generous contributions towards the installation of the loop have been received by the Parish.  $2,000 and $500 contributions have been gratefully received.  The Parish remains open and receptive to any and all contributions towards this much needed investment.  Parishioners who may have a desire to make any level of contribution to the project may do so by using the Special Donation Envelopes from the pews.  All contributions will become a gift and will be used towards translating the induction loop dream into reality in the Church.  Contributions can be made through the use of the Special Donation Envelope and should have the designation-notation “Induction Loop Project”.  The envelope can be dropped into the Sunday collection or can be dropped off at the Parish office.  It is hoped that the induction loop may become a reality by September.