"Go, the Mass is finished." This means, not "OK. You have discharged your weekly obligation. Now go live Monday through Saturday as you wish, then come back and worship for another hour." Rather it means "Go -- and carry with you, out of this church into your daily routines, all that you have meant and done here." That is, here in the Mass you knelt before the Lord, and by your gestures you placed yourself under his Cross (you crossed yourself how many times?), and you spoke words which declare your readiness to obey his Word, and you partook of the Great Offering itself when you received the Host and sipped from the Cup. What did all this mean?
Well, among other things it identified you as his child, his servant, his priest; and as such you identified yourself as someone who is prepared to make his whole life (household chores, driving in traffic, sitting in committees, doing schoolwork or factory work, being with your family and friends) an offering to God, which is what we human beings were created to do. You are not your own. Your work is not your own. Your world is not your own. It belongs to the Most High; and our highest dignity as Homo sapiens is to "return" it all to him as an oblation, consciously, volitionally, intelligently.
---Thomas Howard, If Your Mind Wanders at Mass
Monday, February 21, 2011
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Great Post! Our priest said the other day from the pulpit, "If you want your children to become Sunday Catholics, only come to Mass on Sundays." He told us to take what we receive and go out into the world, try to make at least one extra mass during the week and as always, pray the family rosary.
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