27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Preparing for this liturgy, I was surprised that I could not get beyond the Opening Prayer, or Collect, as it is called. This Opening Prayer is a wonderful example of what is called in the ancient expression lex orandi, lex credendi, loosely translated as how we worship is also what we believe. The first word to notice in this prayer is “abundance.” God is not stingy. God’s abundance deals with God’s kindness and goes beyond our merits and desires. God’s abundance also refers to his mercy and forgiveness, even for what our conscience dreads and what we dare not ask in prayer. God loves us and cares for us with an abundance only God can generate and sustain.
Now, jumping over the prophet Isaiah in the first reading, Saint Paul in the second, and the Evangelist Matthew in the Gospel, we come to the Prayer after Communion. Here, once again, we pray what the Church teaches and what we believe: that when we have received the Eucharist, it is indeed food for our spiritual journey as well. What/Who we consume is nourishment whose sole purpose is to transform the participant into Himself so that we too may give ourselves to others. By this transformation, we are called to become, like Him, food for others.
Let Us Pray:
Grant us, almighty God, that we may be refreshed and nourished by the Sacrament which we have received, so as to be transformed into what we consume. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
