The Holy Eucharist Given to Us at Jesus' Passover Supper

Today we celebrate the feast of Holy Thursday, the day that the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist when, at the Passover Supper with His disciples, He  "took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in  my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,  you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes."  At every liturgy the priest consecrates the bread and the wine which, in the consecration, the bread and the wine becomes the body and blood, soul and  divinity of the Lord. Through the priest, the Lord then says to us: Take and eat and take and drink: "This is my body that is for you...[and] this cup is the new covenant in my blood," poured out for you. Each participant at this holy banquet then receives the Holy Eucharist, which is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ.  What a gift! What a meal! What awesome nourishment. And what a gift to be part of this holy banquet until Jesus comes again and in the act of celebration proclaiming, in faith,  the death and resurrection of the Lord! 

I thank my parents and religious education teachers and the priests of my childhood for passing on this faith to me. And I thank God for giving me this gift of faith through them!  May my faith deepen day by day until my death in the Lord Jesus and my entrance into eternal life!

The Death and Life of Jesus in Us

"...[W]e who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies." We know "that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you his presence.  Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God."  Truly, "we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us"  (2 Cor 4: -15).

Dying with Jesus and rising with Jesus--all for the sake of others in order that "thanksgiving" will
overflow for the glory of God!  What a treasure and what a gift to be  an instrument in God's hands for "abundance" to be outpoured upon others, to be the "cause" of "thanksgiving" to gush forth from others in glory of God's holy name!

What a sacred mission! And as difficult as it is to be "given up to death for the sake of Jesus," what a grace to rise with Christ to new life in the dying to selfishness, to impatience, to pride, to fear, to avarice and greed and whatever blocks grace from flowing through us!  May we, each day, see patience, humility, courage, love, generosity, wisdom and all the gifts of the Spirit rise in us to the glory of God forever and ever. Amen!  

Another Thanksgiving Reflection

Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Sisters, reflected upon the state of our country following the election. I share with you her  Thanksgiving Prayer, remembering the U.S. prior to this election  She writes:

Creator God, we thank you and praise you

for the opportunity to have lived in a country open to the community of nations and their gifts to us rather than espousing a national political goal of living in isolation from them.

We thank you and praise you

for the memory of a United States where difference, it seemed, was finally seen as the lifeblood of our future, rather than a threat to the present;

We thank you and praise you

for a government that strove to embrace the new while keeping the best of the old rather than seek to revive a past long gone;

We thank you and praise you

for a country in which the role of religion was to grow our spirits rather than feed our fears or capture and control our politics.

We thank you and praise you

for a people of many colors and cultures and gifts who enriched one another's understanding of life rather than set out to set one against the other.

We thank you and praise you

for a country that sought to treat both women and men as equals rather than continue to shape a society in which men were to be privileged and women were meant to be preyed upon;

We thank you and praise you

for a country that attempted to help those who could not help themselves rather than abandon the needy for the sake of increasing the profits of the wealthy;

We thank you and praise you

for a nation that sought by reaching out to others, by defending the oppressed and supporting the defenseless to become a real moral leader of the free world rather than exploit the weak and reject the desolate for the sake of national aggrandizement.

Finally, we thank you and praise you

for those who have led us with noble vision and compassionate hearts. We give thanks for their great respect for democracy and deep commitment to the common good rather than to partisan politics. It is to them we owe the ongoing unity of differences in this land. It is in their names and through their spirit that we seek unity again in our now divided country.

From where I (Sister Joan Chittister) stand, it is on those things that the future of this already great nation depends.

She writes: Happy Thanksgiving. May the memory of the past great vision of this country give us all the energy and strength it will take to revive that vision again. It is those ideals and that kind of community covenant that dries my own tears.

[Joan Chittister is a Benedictine sister of Erie, Pa.]

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of life and love.

Highly to be praised are You, O God, for holy is your name

And holy are you, O Lord, in all of creation, within which Your being dwells.

No other god is holy or worthy to be praised, honored, or glorified.

Kindness and love and goodness flow from you, O God, into all creatures.

So beautiful and radiant are you that all of creation reflects your beauty.

Giving totally of yourself, You, O God, as the God-man, gave your life for us upon the cross and rose again to set us free from anything that separates us from You.

In all of us, great and small, you pour out the Holy Spirit, to sanctify us and make us whole and to teach us Truth.

Vivifying is the life of the Spirit that sustains us and strengthens us every day to allow ourselves to be transformed into You!

In and through you, O Lord, we give glory and honor and praise to you through our love for others and ourselves, doing only what pleases You.

Never, Lord, let us depart from You.

Going forth from your Being, in which we live and more and are, may we know the gift of redemption, freely given through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

Gratefulness

 Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of Thanksgiving here in the U.S.  In today’s first reading, Revelation 15: 1-4, John’s vision reveals the main reason for us to be grateful. It is “the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” being song by those victorious over “the beast” that roams this earth, seeking souls to devour:

 “Great and wonderful are your works,

Lord God almighty.

Just and true are your ways,

O king of the nations….

[Y]ou alone are holy.

All the nations will come

And worship before you,

For your righteous acts have been revealed.”

What are those great and wonderful works? For me, they are the gift of life itself, the gift of the faith that my parents handed on to me, the gift of God’s unconditional love for us revealed by the Son of God becoming man and dying for us on the cross and rising from the dead in obedience to the Father’s will that we be reconciled to God through the blood of His Son poured out as our ransom.  God’s great works are His promise to be with us always until the end of time, the gift of the Eucharist by which He nourishes us, sustains us, strengthens us, purifies us, reconfirms His oneness with us in body, mind and spirit and makes us one with one another in love and forgiveness. God’s wonderful works are the gift of creation, the gift of one another, the gift of family and friends, of religious communities, of the church and the sacraments, the gift of the Scriptures. His awesome gifts include the sufferings of my life by which God purifies me, makes me humble in my dependence upon Him, and strengthens my endurance.

It is more difficult for me to say “thank you” for the corruption, the deceitfulness, the hatred, the injustices, the wars and violence, the divisiveness and disunity in our world. Yet, I know that God will use evil to reveal Himself and His power to save us, to bring us to authentic worship and to reveal His righteousness. Yes, I believe that God “alone is holy,” and that “all the nations will come and worship before [God], for [God’s] righteous acts have been revealed.” Evil will not triumph; grace will!

For what are you grateful?

A Life Centered in God

In today’s first reading, Sirach 47: 2-11, the author enumerates David’s victories over the enemies of the Israelites and his practice of praising God and offering thanks to God every morning. “With his whole being he (David) loved his Maker and daily had his praises sung; He set singers before the altar and by their voices he made sweet melodies. He added beauty to the feasts and solemnized the seasons of each year so that when the Holy Name was praised, before daybreak the sanctuary would resound. The Lord forgave him his sins and exalted his strength forever; He conferred on him the rights of royalty and established his throne in Israel.”

How does that passage reflect in your life and mine?  At the end of our lives, would anyone enumerate our victories over our enemies?  Do you and I, at the end of any given day, enumerate the victories we may have achieved that day through Jesus Christ over the enemies we encountered that day, whatever they may be:  pride and envy, jealousy and avarice, deceit and stinginess, corruption and the eruption of anger, judgmentalism and condemnation, revenge and resentments, unforgiveness and lack of mercy and compassion and so much more?

Moreover, do we begin each day praising and thanking God or joining those who do?  Do we solemnize our feasts, the seasons of each year of our lives, our successes and failures with prayers of petition, thanksgiving, and praise, or join those who do?

Without our asking, God has conferred “the rights of royalty” upon us, that is, God adopted us as His sons and daughters and, through the blood of His Son shed on the cross, established our thrones in heaven!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Honor God’s name!

Acknowledge God’s presence!
Prepare God’s way!
Probe God’s messages!
Yes, know that God is always speaking Truth, seeking Truth, and inviting us to Truth!

The Lord is King!

Halleluiah!
Always present is my God! Halleluiah!
Now and forever near to those who seek Him,
Knowing my comings and goings and my thoughts from afar!
Sound the trumpet! God is near!  Halleluiah!
Give glory and honor and praise to God’s holy name!
In times of darkness and of light, in sorrow and in joy, in life and in death
Verify that God is God,
Invisible and infinite,
Never far from the brokenhearted is our
God and Savior!