Celebrating Lent in the Year of the Eucharist
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
In other words, how we pray reveals a lot about what we believe. How we pray can
even shape what we believe. The Mass, the “source and summit” of our Christian
lives, is our greatest prayer. The prayers of the Mass—including not only the
Eucharistic Prayers and the readings, but also the prayers said by the presider
alone—are a rich treasury, reaching back through centuries of Catholic
tradition. If we listen carefully to these prayers this Lent, we may well find
ourselves astonished at what they ask for, and what they promise!
The brief Prayer over the Gifts, which is prayed by the presider just before
the Preface Dialogue, can be easy to miss. We’re standing up, we’re getting
ready for the next response, we’re putting away hymnals or checkbooks or orders
of celebration… but these wonderful prayers are well worth listening to. They
can help, in Pope John Paul II’s phrase, “open us up to the dimensions of the
mystery” we celebrate in the Eucharist. As we present the gifts of bread and
wine to be transformed into the body and blood of Christ, as we offer God our
own hearts and lives, also in need of transformation, we will come to realize
that there is nothing this great sacrifice can’t do in our lives and
communities. The Eucharist can….
• Change our lives (Sunday I)
• Lead us to sincere repentance (Thurs II)
• Free us from the sins that enslave us (Wed II)
• Forgive our sins and guide our wayward hearts (Tues V)
• Help us to reject all harmful things (Sat II)
• Bring us purity and strength (Thur IV)
• Make us ready to forgive one another (Sun III)
• Cleanse the old weakness of our human nature (Chrism Mass)
• Prevent us from becoming absorbed in material things (Mon II)
• Protect us in time of danger (Wed III)
• Help us to pursue the true gifts you promise and not become lost in
false joys (Thur III)
• Give us grace to cast off the old ways of life and to redirect our
course towards the life of heaven (Mon IV)
• Enable us to give you loving service (Sat after Ash Wed)
• Prepare us to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ our
Savior (Ash Wed)
• Make us grow in your love and service and become an acceptable
offering to you (Fri after Ash Wed)
• Be the sacrament of our salvation (Wed I)
• Help us grow in holiness and advance the salvation of the world (Wed
V)
• Help us to live the love these mysteries proclaim (Fri II)
• Make us more like Christ your Son (Sat I)
• Forgive our sins and fulfill our hopes and desires (Sat V)
Eucharist and Service
“We cannot delude ourselves: by our mutual love and, in particular, by our
concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ.
This will be the criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic
celebrations is judged” (Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine). The
inscription over the altar of St. James Cathedral boldly reaffirms this
statement: “I am in your midst as one who serves.” Eucharist is source and
summit: and its genuineness is revealed when it overflows into loving action in
our world. At the 10:00am Mass each Sunday of Lent, representatives of the
outreach ministries of the Cathedral will bring up the gifts, a reminder of the
call we have all received to serve our community in the name of Christ. At the
same time, liturgical ministers will have an opportunity to experience one of
our outreach ministries by signing up to help for one afternoon in the Catholic
Worker Family Kitchen. During the Lenten season, the CRS Rice Bowl Program
allows us to look beyond our own borders to the hunger and want of untold
millions in our world. Every Eucharist we celebrate calls us to share our bounty
with them.
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