Oct
14
Written by:
Todd Williamson
10/14/2010 2:29 PM
Last week I attended the annual meeting of the National Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions. The focus of the meeting was the implementation of the English translation of the third edition of The Roman Missal. Two outstanding speakers led the members in study and discussion throughout the week: Father Paul Turner (Kansas City - St. Joseph) and Monsignor Kevin Irwin (The Catholic University). Both are renown in their understanding of and ability to speak on the third edition of The Roman Missal.
Among the numerous topics that were presented, one has continued to stay with me after the meeting—it was a presentation on “Living a Eucharistic Life,” emphasizing the dynamic of allowing our lives to be shaped by the prayers we pray in the liturgy. Traveling back to Chicago from the meeting, I spent time reviewing the Order of Mass with this dynamic in mind.
For some reason, the prayers of preparation that the priest prays in receiving the bread and the wine caught my attention. The lines in particular were “. . . for through your goodness we have received the bread [the wine] we offer you . . . .” Even more particular, it was the words “we have received . . . we offer you . . . .” The word “receive” is new to the revised English translation.
Of course, these prayers acknowledge that the gifts we present to God in the liturgy are, first and foremost, the things that he has first given us. Now, we know this. We’ve studied this. We’ve had this pointed out in any number of workshops or in any number of articles on the Mass. However, in the light of the meeting and the great discussion on the power of the liturgical texts to shape our lives so that we are led to live eucharistic lives, these words prayers of preparation struck me in whole new way.
We would have nothing to offer to God, to raise up to God, if he hadn’t first given to us. All that we have comes from his great goodness. And for that we bless God; we give him thanks!
In the light of these prayers, to live a eucharistic life means two things: first it means to recognize and to remember the lavish generosity of the Lord—to be mindful of all that he has done. Secondly, it means to live an offering life. That is, to live out of a disposition that recognizes that I have nothing apart from God and that because all I have is gift, I am called to turn and offer that back; to offer it back to God and to offer it to my brothers and sisters. That’s what it means to live a life shaped by the Eucharist!
The words of the liturgy have the power to shape us, to form us, to transform us. These words have been doing that for 45 years through the English translation of the prayers of the Mass. The text of the third edition will continue to do that—if we allow them to, and if we are open to that dynamic.