17 Aug Thu
Adoro Te Devote (II). Offering the entire day.
O living bread, supplying life to mortals!
Make my soul henceforth to live on you;
Ever taste the sweetness of your presence.
Christ's sacrifice is the only offering worthy of God. Thus, we should examine how well we prepare ourselves at night to offer and receive our Lord the next morning. That way, the fruit we obtain will be greater every day. And if we are “closely united to Jesus in the Eucharist, we will try to be continually in God's presence in the middle of the ordinary things that occupy our day. As we journey on this earth, we will be seeking God at all times, in everything.”
We serve God, “not only at the Altar, but in the whole world –which is an altar for us. All the works of men are done as if on an altar, and each of you, in that union of contemplative souls which is your day, offer in some way ‘your Mass’, which lasts for twenty-four hours, in expectation of the Mass to follow, which will last another twenty-four hours, and so on until the end of our life.”
At the end of the Mass, you hear the priest telling all, “The Mass is ended.”
–Don’t believe him.
Or, yes, believe him, but say interiorly: “Now I continue with MY MASS.”
The rest of your day should be a continuation of the Mass, but now, offering your work, your family life, your frustrations and disappointments, your joys, your rest…everything should be part of your offering to God.
And now you are the “priest” of your whole existence. In the Mass, Jesus offers himself through the ministry of the priest; the rest of the day, YOU offer yourself united to Jesus.
Our priestly soul enables us to turn our whole life “into a continuous act of praise to God amid your ordinary activities: constant prayer and reparation, petition and sacrifice for all souls. And you should do all this in close, purposeful union with Christ Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar.”
Our whole day, with all its joys and longings, acquires, in union with Christ's Sacrifice, the co-redeeming value of the Holy Mass.
“With a fully lay mentality, you exercise this priestly spirit when you offer to God your work, your rest, the joys and setbacks of the day, the holocaust of your bodies spent in the effort of constant service. All of this is a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Image: Divina Pastora, by José Nicolás de Escalera (1734 – 1804). Each sheep approaching Jesus is branded with the anagram “Ave Maria”
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