Daily Archives: 19 March 2006

The WDTPRS series intends to help you enter more fully and love more deeply the prayers Holy Church has given us.  As a result I must constantly attempt the tight-wire of writing too much and too little, of including huge … Continue reading →

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EXCERPT:
This prayer is an excellent example of the mysterious effects of the Eucharist for the properly disposed baptized man, woman and child, and the responsibilities that derive from our daring to approach so great a gift. First, please note that that word pignus, “pledge, token” indicates that what we have just “taken” is merely a foretaste of what is to be offered to us in heaven. Our prayer today says that we here on earth are “already” filled. At the same time it clearly points to the fact that we do “not yet” have the complete fulfillment of mystery, which will be found only in the celestial banquet of heaven in the sight of God. We have here, as it were, a kind of manna dropping to us from heaven, crumbs from the Father’s feast, though the slightest and tiniest crumb might suffice as the ransom, token, pledge, down payment for every sin committed by every person who has ever lived or ever will live. If this is not enough to make you kneel and beseech God in thanksgiving, then I can’t imagine what will. Continue reading →

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EXCERPT:
Hearken, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against Thee.
Weeping, we lift our eyes to Thee, king most high, redeemer of all. Listen, O Christ, to the prayers of the supplicants.
Thou right Hand of the Father, the keystone, the way of salvation, gate of heaven, cleanse the stains of our sin. Continue reading →

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EXCERPT:
Here we have a prayer which might aptly describe many of us at this point in Lent: we started out with good resolutions and they are getting hard to keep. If it is not hard to keep to our plan, then perhaps we are not getting the point of Lent. We at times struggle not to fall down and flag in our resolve to gain mastery of sinful habits and tendencies. The powerful threefold Christ-recommended discipline is arduous indeed and our wounded nature rebels against the restraints, seeking the false freedom of license. Maybe we have already slipped and violated our private resolution for Lent. As a people united before Christ’s altar of sacrifice, humble and cast down low, we raise our eyes upwards to the Father who tenderly sees our efforts. Since we are kneeling and cast down (inclimamur) we beg Him to pick us back up, dust us off, and help us stay upright for the rest of the journey (sublevemur). In pleading for help from Him in this way we are acknowledge our helplessness in a way that does not violate our own role and free will. We are also giving witness (confessio) to others of our faith in Him. Continue reading →

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