Writer's Wednesday -- Sr. Breige McKenna, osc
If you come to mass with the right attitude, your life will change. Our churches are often packed with people who come and leave the same way. You ask yourself, "Is it Jesus? Did he change? Is he not fulfilling his promises?" Or could it be that I do not have the expectant faith to allow him to touch my life and answer my needs?
He's the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Jesus who healed in the gospel. So he must be fulfilling his promises of answering people's needs.
We can blame the priest for our lack of faith when we say the priest is boring or not charismatic or too loud or too timid. The real issue is our own faith. It's true that if the priest has great faith, it is a great step toward meaningful worship. That's why, in my ministry to priests, I always challenge the priests to greater faith.
We have to look beyond ourselves and beyond the priest's humanity to see what he represents at the mass and what he is doing. As a Catholic, I know I must not let the priest come between myself and Jesus in the Eucharist.
The Church obliges us to attend mass, not because Jesus needs us, but, like all good mothers, the Church knows we need the Bread of Life to live in a world that Jesus himself told us would hate us, because it hates him.
We need to be strengthened for the journey. Food for the soul and food for the body: this is what he gives us in the mass.
---Sr. Briege McKenna, osc, Miracles Do Happen.
He's the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Jesus who healed in the gospel. So he must be fulfilling his promises of answering people's needs.
We can blame the priest for our lack of faith when we say the priest is boring or not charismatic or too loud or too timid. The real issue is our own faith. It's true that if the priest has great faith, it is a great step toward meaningful worship. That's why, in my ministry to priests, I always challenge the priests to greater faith.
We have to look beyond ourselves and beyond the priest's humanity to see what he represents at the mass and what he is doing. As a Catholic, I know I must not let the priest come between myself and Jesus in the Eucharist.
The Church obliges us to attend mass, not because Jesus needs us, but, like all good mothers, the Church knows we need the Bread of Life to live in a world that Jesus himself told us would hate us, because it hates him.
We need to be strengthened for the journey. Food for the soul and food for the body: this is what he gives us in the mass.
---Sr. Briege McKenna, osc, Miracles Do Happen.
posted by Pat Gohn at
4/04/2007
1 Comments:
A very appropriate challenge. I am struggling with prayer for my son who has a rare and serious brain tumor and I'm trying to have faith the size of a mustard seed.
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Unknown, at 1:52 PM
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