aeternus

A continued thought from yesterday’s post on St. Teresa, the Paternoster and mental/vocal prayer…

If we are to pray our vocal prayers with love and attention then we must also pray the liturgy with this same love, devotion and attention. In 1963 the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy produced the document SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM which was meant to help increase the vigor of the faithful Christian’s life. In it we are encouraged to participate in the Sacred Liturgy in the same way as St. Teresa is encouraging us to do. I’ve added emphasis where I felt it important and beautiful.

Here is an excerpt:

… the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord’s supper.

The liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with “the paschal sacraments,” to be “one in holiness”; it prays that “they may hold fast in their lives to what they have grasped by their faith”; the renewal in the eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them on fire. From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the eucharist, as from a font, grace is poured forth upon us; and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their end, is achieved in the most efficacious possible way.

But in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain.

Next time you are at mass allow yourself to enter into the mystery you are participating in. Each word of the mass can be like each word of the Paternoster you recite. If we allow the words of the Council and St. Teresa to seep into our conscious minds, we can set into practice and unite our souls in love and thankfulness to the Father’s Mercy and Love for us.

Today, Thank Him for the Eucharist you receive as it nourishes your soul in ways so deeply penetrating you may not even be aware of the depths!