When this mix of Catholics & Protestants pray, there’s often a tension in the air when they get to that part - the one about “For Thine is the Kingdom…”

Thanks for praying with me,
Julie

I’m going to begin with the Collect for the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Ordinary time does not mean that nothing is going on, Ordinary Time just means that it’s not Lent, Easter, Advent, or Christmas. It is a time of spiritual growth.

Between 2018 and 2032, we will pray this mass only five times, however this Collect is worthy of remembering.

Originally named by Aquinas and Plato, these original three, truth, beauty, and goodness tell us what God is. (See my blog post for definitions)

It made me think about how often we look for the goodness of God. Something is good when it fulfills what it is intended to do. For example, a car that has terrible gas mileage and doesn’t start is not a good car.

However, God, in his goodness, who fulfills what He is, offers us mercy and when His mercy lifts you up, He lifts you up for good.

Check out the verbs in this prayer - how the world would change if we had a heart completely open to receive!

What our time in Lent should bring forth in us is that we grow in the understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.

Remember, that the majory of the Christian life is in the unseen and those are our hidden riches.

As we receive these glorious mysteries, we make thanksgiving to you, O Lord, for allowing us while still on earth to be partakers even now of the things of heaven. Through Christ our Lord.

We receive. In this prayer we learn that thanksgiving should be in our minds and on our tongues as we receive glorious mysteries.

Our glorious mysteries are the bread and wine, that through the working of the Holy Spirit become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This is where the natural world meets the supernatural. While still on earth, we are partakers, or sharers, of things of heaven.

To receive, or "percipientes" in the Latin form of the prayer, means to take to oneself or to take in wholly.
What happens when human nature receives the Divine? The word that comes to mind is fruit.

Mary received the words of Gabriel when she said “May it be done to me.” Human met the Divine and Jesus came into the world. (Luke 1 and 2)

In Acts 1:8 Jesus tells the Apostles that when they receive the Holy Spirit they will also receive His power. They would be witnesses to the work that He wants to do through them. They chose to receive.

How do you change when you receive the Divine? Just like Mary and the Apostles, we, too, should bear fruit.

If you want to see more fruit in your life, I propose that you re-think the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent. Yes, these are things that we do, but the true purpose of doing these things is to receive. The Christian life is based on receiving.

Jesus died and rose again so our sins could be forgiven. We only need to receive his forgiveness.

Our relationship with God also requires us to be in a position to receive. He doesn’t want our hands busy doing, trying to earn his love, he wants them open to receive. Our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving should put us in a position to receive.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass also gives us the opportunity to receive. At every mass, the natural world is overshadowed by the Divine. As we receive the glorious mysteries, our hearts should be filled with thanksgiving as God gives us, while still on earth, a taste of heaven.

Thank you for praying with me,
Julie

Renewed now with heavenly bread, by which faith is nourished, hope increased, and charity strengthened, we pray, O Lord, that we may learn to hunger for Christ, the true and living Bread, and strive to live by every word which proceeds from your mouth. Through Christ our Lord.

The prayer shows another facet of the beauty of receiving Communion. When we receive the Eucharist, we are renewed and gain greater capacity for the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity. God gives us these virtues, which enable us to act as His children. We can’t earn them; they are a gift.

To have faith nourished, hope increased, and charity strengthened is a blessing that I haven’t thought much about when I receive communion. Perhaps it’s because there’s so much in this Sacrament: spiritual food, the Body of Christ, our own identity as the mystical body of Christ, and now greater virtues is added to the list. I’m quite confident that we won’t have the complete understanding of the Eucharist until we get to Heaven, when we won’t need to receive communion anymore.

In the next part of the prayer, we ask God that we may learn to hunger for Christ, the true and living bread. These words mean exactly what they say: learn to desire to eat genuine, alive, bread.

It is an interesting thought, isn’t it? True and living, genuine and alive bread. Heavenly bread. The Eucharist. Bread we can’t live without. Bread we should hunger for.

Have you ever had a realization that you can’t wait for the weekend just so you can go to mass? Have you ever felt a hunger for Christ? It’s not a typical physical hunger. This is the type of hunger that makes us realize that we have a desire that only God can satisfy.

This is not the hunger that Satan tempted Jesus with when he met Jesus in the desert. Jesus had fasted for 40 days and Satan is sure he’s wanting to eat. He approaches Jesus with this challenge: change the stone into bread. In his response, Jesus’s quotes Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3. Before entering into the Promised Land, Moses gave the Israelites a review of their desert wanderings. He reminds them that during their journey, God caused them to be hungry and fed them with manna to teach them that "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

We rely on physical food, but do we remind ourselves that we also rely on spiritual food? Just like the Israelites, we, too, live on the word of God, the Scriptures. We also live on the Word of God, his Son, the Eucharist.

Perhaps the challenge lies in learning to desire God. St. Augustine wrote, "The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.” (Tract 4, Tractates on the first letter of John)

Life is filled with desires, some are good for us and some are not. St. Augustine adds that when we continue to desire, we shall be filled. We just need to pay attention to what it is we desire. Jesus was tempted and won the battle. May we trust in his grace for our own victory to desire the word and the Word that comes from the mouth of God.

Thanks for praying with me,
Julie