Jan 19 Mon - Do our perceptions shape reality?

 

Jan 19 Mon
Do our perceptions shape reality? or
Do our perceptions help us understand reality?

Let us compare the dogmas of the beer industry with the dogma of Mary, the Mother of God, to help us choose.

In the early 1980s, at the height of Miller Lite's popularity, its slogan—"Less filling! Tastes great!"—was everywhere. The company wasn't just selling beer—it was shaping perceptions, defining social cues, and signaling identity as much as flavor.

Just as marketing shapes our perceptions of beer, it can shape how we understand religion. However, while marketing attempts to shape reality to fit perceptions, authentic religious formation shapes our perceptions to understand reality.

Religious education relies on concise formulations to communicate the precepts of belief. Yet there is a fundamental difference. Their purpose is not to market perceptions, but to understand reality.

It might sound shocking to say that Mary is the Mother of God, Theotokos. From a secular-marketing point of view, it's a terrible optic. Many Protestants instantly assume that Catholics are worshiping Mary as a goddess. That's not true, and the Church does not back down from the dogma. Mary is the mother of Jesus: the Person of Christ, not just His human nature. She gave birth “in the fullness of time” to Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

Mary is God's creation, not a goddess, yet she cooperates with the Holy Spirit in bringing the whole Person of Jesus into the world. She is the Mother of God because God chose her for that role, a gift, not a title of divinity.

The dogma allows us to expand the horizons of our faith. At every Mass, Holy Mother Church makes real, sacramentally present Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. We receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in Holy Communion. This is not a blurred perception, but an accurate declaration of reality. When author and lapsed Catholic Mary McCarthy once observed that the Eucharist is a nice symbol, Flannery O'Connor immediately responded: "Well, if it's only a symbol, I say to hell with it."

Christianity ultimately resists the marketing logic that places perception before reality. The central message of the faith—the Passion and the Cross—does not appeal to comfort, prestige, or social approval. As St. Paul wrote, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” Unlike beer slogans or political dogmas, this message defies prejudice and refuses to be packaged for easy consumption.

Beer loyalty teaches how easily we adopt unquestioned prejudices; yet faith requires attention beyond superficial signals. Faith demands recognition of truths that continue to unfold and provoke intelligent inquiry, a willingness to follow a path that is often countercultural, and a pursuit of depth over convenience. The marketing of beer shows how persuasion shapes perception. But only faith directs the mind and heart beyond appearances, guiding us to the reality of God’s work and His plan for salvation.

We've heard it said, "Perception is reality." Baloney! The Incarnation of Jesus requires that we perceive the reality of heaven and earth as they are. Catholic dogmas are windows to infinite realities. Perception, purified by faith and reason, helps us understand reality. 
Excerpts from Fr. Jerry Pokorsky

Jan 18 Sun - In the fullness of time, there came also the fullness of God.

 

Jan 18 Sun
In the fullness of time, there came also the fullness of God.
And today we can see Him as a little Child. St Bernard tells us: “The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed." Thanks be to God, through whom we receive such abundant consolation in this pilgrimage, this exile, this misery.

Before his humanity appeared, his kindness lay concealed. Of course, it was already in existence because the mercy of the Lord is from eternity, but how could men know it was so great? It was promised to us but not yet experienced: thus, many did not believe in it. “At various times and in different ways, God spoke through the prophets, saying I know the plans I have in mind for you: plans for peace, not disaster."

What reply did man make, man who felt pain, and knew nothing of peace?
Now, at last, men believe with their own eyes, because all God’s promises are to be trusted.

Now, peace is no longer promised, but conferred; no longer delayed, but given; no longer predicted, but bestowed. God has sent down to earth a bag bulging with his mercy, a bag that, at his passion, was torn open so that our ransom pours out of it onto us. A small bag, perhaps, but a full one: for it was a small Child that was given to us, but in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

For our sake, the Word of God became perishable like the grass. Lord, what is man, that you mind him so much, or pay him so much attention?

Let man infer from this how much God cares for him. Let him know from this what God thinks of him, what he feels about him. Man, do not ask about your own sufferings, but about what God suffered. Learn from what he was made for you, how much he appreciates you, so that his kindness may show itself to you from his humanity.

The smaller He makes himself as man, the greater shows his goodness. The more he humbles himself for me, the more I love him. “The goodness and humanity of God our Savior appeared," says St Paul.

And St. Josemaría adds: “I see God lying in a place where only animals dwell, and I exclaim: Jesus, where is your majesty?
My child, have you seen the greatness of God become a child? For his Father is God, and his ministers are the angels. Yet He is here, in a manger, in swaddling clothes ... Such was the sign the shepherds were given. St Paul describes it very well. He says of Christ: emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Helpless, He cannot defend himself. He is a baby who looks like any ordinary child."

We are moved, as were the shepherds, by the great lesson of humility our Lord teaches us even from the cradle. He came into the world in the utmost silence, unknown to the wise and powerful of this world.

Jan 17 Sat - Should I be united with other Christians around Jesus?

 

Jan 17 Sat
Should I be united with other Christians around Jesus?

The octave of Christian unity will begin tomorrow: these are days of special petition to the Holy Trinity, in which we ask for the fulfillment of the words of our Lord at the Last Supper: “Holy Father, keep in your name those you have given me, so that all be one as we are one." Urged on by the Holy Spirit, we are getting ready to live the octave in a unity of desires with the entire Church. We do so, full of supernatural hope, because we know that it has to be the Holy Spirit who moves the hearts of all those who believe in Christ and who will bring about the perfect unity of all Christians in the one Church.

Our prayer follows the path marked out by the priestly prayer of Jesus Christ, on the evening of his Passion. When the time had come for him to pass from this world to the Father, our Lord prays for a holy and compact Church with a unity which points up its beauty, for the supreme and highest principle of the unity of the Church is her resemblance with the mystery of the Trinity of Persons, and the Unity of only one God the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Like the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, Jesus Christ prays for the unity of his flock. For years, He has guided his disciples; He has looked after them one by one, but He knows that the enemy is constantly trying to snatch the sheep and scatter the flock, and his Heart suffers, knowing that many will waver and abandon the sheepfold.

The prayer of Christ also extends to those who have never been counted amongst his followers, those who never even knew about his flock: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold, and I also have to bring them, and they will hear my voice and will form only one flock with one shepherd."

With this octave, the Church wants us to take one more step in identifying our sentiments with those of Jesus. Being well aware of the vicissitudes of the Church throughout history, and conscious of the weakness of the human heart, so easily swayed by error, egoism, discord, and desire for power, our prayer has to be more intense, uniting itself to that of the Good Shepherd: “as you, Father, in me and I in You, that they be united in us..., that they be one as we are one. I in them and You in me, so that they be united as one, and so that the world might know you have sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me."

Let us offer up our prayer, mortification, and action for this goal: That all may be one! - so that all of us Christians have the same will, the same heart, and the same spirit: and all, very united to the Pope, go to Jesus through Mary.

Jan 16 Fri - How big is God?

 

Jan 16 Fri
How big is God?
Many have likely seen the stunning photos from the James Webb Space Telescope, which show thousands of galaxies. Not just stars, mind you, but galaxies, each of which is filled with trillions of stars. Now imagine those thousands upon thousands of galaxies condensed down into an infinitely dense point the size of – nobody really knows – but let’s say, the size of a baseball. Something like this is the picture we have of the Big Bang theory, which describes the beginning of our universe. It may or may not be what actually happened, but we can conceive of it as a possibility.

I mention the possibility merely as a way of wrapping our minds around what is involved in the Incarnation. The Creator of all those galaxies and every atom and quark in them – the infinite Source of the Being and Goodness of whatever exists – constricted Himself down to the size of a baby – to the size of an embryo.

In Philippians 2:7, Paul says that Christ “emptied himself” of his divinity and took on our humanity. Do we quite understand how radical a claim that is? The Incarnation isn’t like Apollo or Zeus appearing to someone or taking control of a human body for a while. Those “gods” are localized entities, not as vast as the entire universe. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is bigger than the universe itself.

All that is hard enough to get our heads around. Actually, I don’t think we can ever really get our heads around it. We don’t even know what “dark matter” is, or what’s inside a black hole, or why the Higgs Boson does what it does. Whereas God not only knows those things completely, He made them, and they only continue to exist because He is keeping them in existence. The difference between that “mind” and our minds is like the difference between a cherry tomato and the entire galaxy – only now you need to multiply that difference by the biggest number you can think of, and you’d still not be close.

Okay, so now try to get your head around this notion: That God actually loves us. Not only does He take notice of us, like you might notice a moderately interesting pebble at the beach, which would be startling enough. There has to be more interesting stuff to gaze at in the universe than me. There are more interesting things on this desk than me. But God not only notices, He actually loves us.

How do we know that? Why would we think that He even cares?

Christians believe that the evidence for this all-pervading creative love is found in the Incarnation. A God bigger than we can even imagine chooses to become incarnate in an embryo smaller than we can see with the naked eye. It certainly turns everything upside down.

He did so to make us children of so wonderful a Father. Do not forget: anyone who does not realize that he is a child of God is unaware of the deepest truth about himself. 

Excerpts from Randall Smith

Jan 15 Thu - What are the elements of the Eucharistic Prayer?

 

Jan 15 Thu
What are the elements of the Eucharistic Prayer?

The chief elements of the Eucharistic Prayer are:

• Thanksgiving (expressed especially in the Preface): In the name of the entire people of God, the priest praises the Father and gives thanks to him for the whole work of salvation or for some special aspect of it that corresponds to the day, feast, or season.

• Acclamation: Joining with the angels, the congregation sings or recites the Sanctus. This acclamation is an intrinsic part of the Eucharistic Prayer, and all the people join with the priest in singing or reciting it.

• Epiclesis (invocation): In special invocations, the Church implores the power of the Holy Spirit that the gifts offered by human hands be consecrated, that is, become Christ’s body and blood, and that the spotless Victim to be received in Communion be the source of salvation for those who will partake of it.

• Narrative of the Institution and Consecration: In the words and actions of Christ, that sacrifice is celebrated which he himself instituted at the Last Supper, when he offered, under the appearances of bread and wine, his body and blood, gave them to his apostles to eat and drink, and then commanded that they perpetuate and reenact this mystery.

• Anamnesis (memorial): In fulfillment of the command received from Christ through the apostles, the Church keeps his memorial by recalling especially his passion, resurrection, and ascension.

• Oblation: The oblation or offering of the victim is part of a sacrifice. In this memorial, the Church, and in particular the Church here and now assembled, offers the spotless Victim to the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Church intends that the faithful not only offer the Victim but also learn to offer themselves and so to surrender themselves, through Christ the Mediator, to an ever more complete union with the Father and with each other, so that at last God may be all in all.

• Intercessions: The intercessions make it clear that the Eucharist is celebrated in communion with the entire Church and all its members, living and dead, who are called to share in the salvation and redemption purchased by Christ’s body and blood. This part also includes the commemoration of the saints in whose glory we hope to share.

• Final Doxology: The praise of God is expressed in the doxology, to which the people’s acclamation is an assent and a conclusion.

In accordance with the rubrics, the priest selects a Eucharistic Prayer from those found in the Roman Missal or approved by the Apostolic See. The Eucharistic Prayer demands, by its very nature, that the priest say it in virtue of his ordination. The people, for their part, should associate themselves with the priest in faith and in silence, as well as through their parts as prescribed in the course of the Eucharistic Prayer: specifically, the responses in the Preface dialogue, the Sanctus, the acclamation after the consecration, the acclamatory Amen after the final doxology, as well as other acclamations approved by the Conference of Bishops and recognized by the Holy See.

Jan 14 Wed - Do I long to see God?

 

Jan 14 Wed
Do I long to see God?
Man, rise up! Set aside your preoccupations for a moment. Cut yourself off for a time from your turbulent thoughts. Cast aside, now, whatever may be your heavy responsibilities and put off your burdensome business. Make a little space free for God, and rest for a little time in him.

Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts. Keep only the thought of God, and thoughts that can aid you in seeking him. Close your door and seek him. 
Then, speak now, with your whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek.

And come you now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how it may seek you, where and how it may find you.

Lord, if you are not here with me, where shall I seek you when you are absent? And if you are everywhere, why do I not see you present? Truly, you dwell in unapproachable light. But where is that unapproachable light, or how shall I come to it? Or who shall lead me to that light and into it, that I may see you in it? Again, by what signs, under what form, shall I seek you? I have never seen you, O Lord, my God; I do not know your face.

What, O most high Lord, shall this man do, your son, but now an exile far from you? What shall your servant do, anxious in his love of you, and cast out far from your presence? He is breathless with desire to see you, and your face is too far from him. He longs to come to you, and your dwelling-place is inaccessible. He is eager to find you, but does not know where. He desires to seek you, and does not know your face.

Lord, you are my God, and you are my Lord, and never have I seen you. You have made me and renewed me, you have given me all the good things that I have, and I have not yet met you. I was created to see you, and I have not yet done the thing for which I was made.

And as for you, Lord, how long? How long, O Lord, do you forget us; how long do you turn your face away from us? When will you look upon us, and hear us? When will you reveal yourself to us and show us your face? When will you come closer to us?

Look upon us, Lord; hear us, enlighten us, reveal yourself to us. Remain with us, that it may be well with us. Without you, everything is so harsh for us. Have compassion on us for our efforts and strivings towards you, since we can do nothing without you.

Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor find you unless you reveal yourself. Let me seek you while I long, let me long for you while I seek you. Let me find you by loving you and love you while I keep on finding you.
From the "Proslogion" of St Anselm

Jan 13 Tue - Is our Redemption from evil still being carried out?

 

Jan 13 Tue
Is our Redemption from evil still being carried out?

For centuries, the Chosen People centered its hopes on the coming of the Messiah, the Redeemer. Christ did come, and yet evil remains. He came to free us from evil, but He wants our free cooperation in shaking off its fetters. Therefore, a hope that remains at the purely human level makes no sense.

Christ has not failed, because the teaching of Christ enriches the world today. Yet God has willed that men should be free. It is we men who are unwilling. The Redemption is taking place at this very moment. And you and I are co-redeemers.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. From the time that Jesus took on our human nature, the Father's plan for the redemption of mankind has moved towards its perfect fulfilment. Since He was God, and since any action of his on our behalf was of infinite value, Christ was able to save us, breaking the bonds with which the devil had enslaved us. And since He was man, He could expiate for our sins in his own body: Taking a human nature, He took our sins upon himself. Those sins can no longer cause us to despair. God himself has drawn near to us, and what we were incapable of doing on our own, Christ has done for us.

“Listen to what Jesus tells us in St John's Gospel: For this I was born, for this I came into the world, to give testimony to the truth, to free mankind from the slavery of sin."

If difficulties sometimes make us weary and tempt us to lose hope, let us remember that God, though Lord and architect of the whole world, who created and set in order every single thing that is, was something more than loving towards mankind; He was long-suffering as well. So, He has always been, and is still, and shall ever be: merciful, kind, slow to anger, and true. There is none so good as He. God is always moved to compassion at the sight of our wretchedness. “God has a special love for what is humble in creation. This has consoled me. God looks on me with love when I do what I can. He loves your defects, if you get up after every fall, if you fight, if He sees your goodwill, your efforts. Sanctity is nothing other than struggle, my children."

We need to give Christ a chance to make use of us, to be His word and His work, to share His food and His clothing in the world today. If we do not radiate the light of Christ around us, the sense of the darkness that prevails in the world will increase.

To ensure that our voice reaches Jesus above the noise caused by our many sins, let us go to Mary. God has made her the repository of his Mercy. Through her intercession, we pray: All-powerful God, renew us constantly and free us from our slavery to sin.

Jan 12 Mon - Why do I sometimes feel empty, even though I have done many things?

 

Jan 12 Mon
Why do I sometimes feel empty, even though I have done many things? 

Human life is characterized by a constant movement that drives us to do, to act. Nowadays, speed is required everywhere to achieve optimal results in a wide variety of fields. How does Jesus’ resurrection shed light on this aspect of our experience? When we participate in his victory over death, will we rest?

Faith assures us: yes, true rest is found in God. Entering God’s repose means peace and joy, not mere inactivity.
So, should we just wait, or can this change us right now?

We are absorbed by many activities that do not always leave us satisfied. A lot of our actions have to do with practical, concrete things. We have to assume responsibility for many commitments, solve problems, and face difficulties. Jesus too was involved with people and with life, not sparing himself, but rather giving himself to the end.

Yet we often perceive that too much doing, instead of giving us fulfilment, overwhelms us, takes away our serenity, and prevents us from living to the fullest what is truly important in our lives.

Sometimes, at the end of days full of activities, we feel empty. Why? Because we are not machines, we have a “heart”; indeed, we can say that we are a heart.

The Evangelist Matthew invites us to reflect on the importance of the heart, quoting this beautiful phrase of Jesus: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21).

We must reflect on this because in the numerous commitments we continually face, there is an increasing risk of dispersion, sometimes of despair, of meaninglessness, even in apparently successful people.

Instead, when we look at life with the Risen Jesus, we find access to our “restless” heart, yearning for fulfillment. St Augustine writes: “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Restlessness is the sign that our heart does not move by chance, without a purpose or a destination, but is oriented towards its ultimate destination, the “return home.”

The authentic approach of the heart does not consist in possessing the goods of this world, but in achieving what can fill it; namely, the love of God, or rather, God who is Love.

This treasure, however, can only be found by loving the neighbor. Our neighbor asks us to slow down, to look them in the eye, sometimes to change our plans, perhaps even to change direction.

No one can live without a meaning that goes beyond what passes away. The human heart cannot live without hope, without knowing that it is made for fullness, not for want.

Jesus Christ, with his Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection, has given us a solid foundation for this hope. In Christ, life will continue to triumph in daily life. This is Christian hope: let us always bless and thank the Lord who has given it to us!
Excerpts from Pope Leo XIV

Jan 11 Sun - How can Jesus be present in the world?

 

Jan 11 Sun
How can Jesus be present in the world?
Last Sunday, in the Epiphany, the Magi met a Child, in need to be wrapped in swaddling clothes. His Mother, Our Lady, was always there because she gave birth to him. There is a transition, from her most pure womb to this material world; from being still hidden to being visible in the manger.

Today is the Baptism of Our Lord. In his Baptism, the Blessed Trinity declares that he is God, the Son of God, “my Beloved Son…”. Our Lady is not there, because Jesus is God, was God, and will be God forever. He proceeds from the Father, uncreated, not made, consubstantial with the Father. There is no transition from not being to being, but continuity. He, simply, IS.

Two feasts form a single story. The Epiphany tells us that He has a human nature. The Baptism tells us that he is God. God and Man in a single Person.

Let us go to the cave of Bethlehem and, with faith and simplicity, and from the depths of our hearts, let us adore Jesus, promising him that we will always follow his star.

Let us trust that Jesus is the true light that will bring us the happiness we seek in the things of this world. For only Christ alone will fill the longing for happiness that we seek.

But how can I, wretched as I am, approach Jesus?
Saint Josemaría told us:

“I am moved by this angel who crawls ‘on all fours’ to approach the newborn Jesus.
A spiritual being with perfect intelligence, love, will, and freedom understands that he can only approach the mystery of the Infant God by crawling along the wise path of humility."

Our Lord shows Himself to us when, with the light of the Holy Spirit, He makes us grasp that He is at our side as we go along our path through life; and He is asking us, as He asked John, to bear witness to him. Each of us must bear witness to Christ. This is what He wants us to do: to get to know him, and then to share with others the saving news that we have found him.

St. Josemaría tells us: “All my children are Christ passing through the world. You are not known. Yet, all over the world, friends and colleagues at work are discovering Christ in your brothers, in you. Afterwards, they too will bring Christ to other hearts and minds. You are Christ passing along the street. But you must walk in his footsteps."
“Now, do you understand the greatness of your mission?"

Jan 10 Sat - What is the mystery of death?

 

Jan 10 Sat
What is the mystery of death?
The mystery of death has always raised profound questions in human beings. The desire for life and eternity that we all feel for ourselves and for the people we love makes us see death as a sentence, as a ‘contradiction.’

For some, death seems to be a kind of taboo, an event that must be kept at a distance; something that must be spoken of in hushed tones, so as not to disturb our sensibilities and peace of mind. Often, for this reason, people even avoid visiting cemeteries.

Is death really the last word on our lives? Only human beings ask themselves this question, because only they know that they must die. But being aware of this does not save them from death; rather, in a certain sense, it "weighs" on them more than on all other living creatures.

Considering this aspect, one might then think that we are paradoxical, unhappy creatures, not only because we die, but also because we are certain that this event will happen, even though we do not know how or when. We are aware of it, and yet powerless.

Death is not opposed to life, but rather is a constitutive part of it, as the passage to eternal life, and it gives us a foretaste, in this time still full of suffering and trials, of the fullness of what will happen after death.

The evangelist Luke seems to capture this foreshadowing of light in the darkness when, at the end of that afternoon, when darkness had enveloped Calvary, he writes: "It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was beginning" (Lk 23:54).

The lights of Saturday, for the first and only time, announce the dawn of the day after Saturday: the new light of the Resurrection. Only this event is capable of illuminating the mystery of death to its depths.

Only the Resurrection is capable of illuminating the mystery of death to its full extent. In this light, and only in this, what our heart desires and hopes becomes true: that death is not the end, but the passage towards full light, towards a happy eternity.

The Risen One has gone before us in the great trial of death, emerging victorious thanks to the power of divine Love. Thus, He has prepared for us the place of eternal rest, the home where we are awaited; He has given us the fullness of life in which there are no longer any shadows and contradictions.

Only in light of Christ’s Resurrection can one be able to call death our “sister,” as St. Francis did, while concluding that waiting for death in the hope of Jesus' Resurrection preserves us from the fear of disappearing forever and prepares us for the joy of life without end.

Praying, understanding what is beneficial for the kingdom of heaven, and letting go of the superfluous things that bind us to ephemeral things is the secret to living authentically, with the awareness that our time on earth prepares us for eternity.
Excerpts from Pope Leo XIV's catechesis.

Jan 9 Fri - Can I fulfill myself within society?

 

Jan 9 Fri
Can I fulfill myself within society?

A well-ordered society requires the presence of three essential relationships:
- man's connection to the world,
- to one another,
- and to God.

A young man approached his pastor to complain about the many mediocre souls he’s forced to keep company with at Mass. “Is there a parish somewhere,” he asks, “where people are actually saints? Would you please direct me to it?”

Suppressing a smile, the kind pastor tells him that, of course, there is such a parish. “Only you must remember,” he advises the young man, “that from the moment you join such a parish, its perfection will be diminished by your membership in it.”

Yes, the story is apocryphal, but that’s not the point. In fact, the perfect Church would be so pure that no human being could be a part of it. Only angels need apply.

Christ's thirst for souls remains as wide as creation itself. His Mystical Body must be no less generous than Him. God’s offer of salvation is extended to all, sinners included. Indeed, to disdain a Church that desires the company of the impure would amount to surrendering the entire sacramental mission of the Church, wiping out whole redemptive possibilities envisioned by Christ, who came to save all that has been created. Civilization, part of the order of creation, is sick and needs to be healed like all things.

Such a strategy will necessarily include, especially, the least morally pleasant people—ourselves. Didn’t Christ come primarily for people like us?

If only those as pure as driven snow are invited to the Church, the Church would be abandoning not only the poor, who are especially in need of grace, but civilization as well, which grace can use to assist the poor in coming home to God.

By the poor, we mean those who are spiritually disadvantaged—people lacking in the stuff of heroism, their souls steeped in mediocrity and sloth.

We must contribute to creating an order in which personal fulfillment is possible, and this should happen in the midst of the world.

Even the most spiritually destitute among us, people whose energies and lives are consumed by material and sensual pursuits, have been called to prayer, however tepid or episodic the effort may be.

A city that does not allow for gainful and honest employment is an inhuman city. This extends to the entire order of interpersonal relations rooted in justice and love; this is man in relation to other men.

Finally, there is the order of adoration, of man in relation to God. Once again, if the city does not make any provision for its citizens to pray, to talk to God, it would be an inhuman city. At the end of the day, therefore, no decent or sane city can remain hostile or indifferent to those things that aim at the perfection of the human personality, which necessarily includes access to God and the salvation He has promised.
With excerpts from Regis Martin

Jan 8 Thu - Why is there a variety of Eucharistic Prayers?

 

Jan 8 Thu
Why is there a variety of Eucharistic Prayers?

The variety of Eucharistic Prayers in the Roman Missal reflects a deliberate development in the Church's liturgical tradition, aimed at enriching the celebration of the Mass, fostering deeper participation by the faithful, and highlighting diverse aspects of the mystery of salvation. Historically rooted in the ancient Roman rite's single Canon, this multiplicity was introduced following the Second Vatican Council to address pastoral needs, avoid monotony, and align more closely with the richness found in Eastern liturgies, all while preserving the essential unity and validity of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

In the Roman rite, the first part of the Eucharistic Prayer, known as the Preface, has acquired many different texts through the centuries. There were twenty Prefaces in the missal at the time of Pope John XXIII. 

The second part of the Eucharistic Prayer, known as the Canon, assumed an unchanging form. By contrast, the oriental liturgies have admitted a certain variety in their Anaphoras. After the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI added three more Eucharistic Prayers, keeping the very venerable Roman Canon.

The First Eucharistic Prayer (or Roman Canon) is called Roman because it originated in Rome at the end of the fourth century. It developed its present form during the pontificate of Gregory the Great in the seventh century and has had no significant changes since then.

It consists of fifteen prayers often described as “tiles in a mosaic.” We may look at all fifteen and see their total effect, or we may go line by line and enjoy each prayer. 

This Eucharistic Prayer may be used on any day. It is particularly fitting on days when there are special texts for the prayers Communicantes…[In union with the whole Church...] and the prayer Hanc igitur… [Father, accept this offering...].

The Second Eucharistic Prayer is the most ancient Anaphora. It follows closely the Anaphora of Saint Hippolytus, written about the year 215. It is vigorous and clear, and has a solid biblical and theological background. Its features make it particularly suitable for weekdays. Although it has its Preface, it may also be used with other Prefaces.

The Third Eucharistic Prayer is rich with overtones of ancient Alexandrian, Byzantine, and Maronite Anaphoras. It expresses the doctrine of the Eucharist as the sacrifice of Christ in an especially clear way. It gives prominence to the Holy Spirit, naming him four times. Its use is particularly suited to Sundays and holidays. It may be said with any Preface.

The Fourth Eucharistic Prayer provides a fuller summary of the history of salvation. It borrows some elements from the Eastern liturgies, and even from the liturgy of the synagogue. It is a profoundly biblical prayer that recounts the main events in the history of salvation and links this history to its center: Christ. This Eucharistic Prayer has a fixed Preface; therefore, it cannot be used when a Mass has its own proper Preface. 

There are other Eucharistic Prayers for special occasions: three Eucharistic Prayers for Masses of children, two for Masses of reconciliation, and the so-called Eucharistic Prayer of the Swiss Synod for Masses of ecclesial gatherings.