I am writing from West St. Paul, Minnesota, where I am spending some time with my mom on my “home visit.” I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend time with her and old friends as well as get some needed R&R. It’s been quite the year!
I had a nice morning attending Mass, visiting the adoration chapel, and greeting my music teacher from second and third grade – it is always fun be back in these spots that I frequented in my childhood and adolenence. I just got back from a 35-minute walk through the brisk autumn air, back “home” from church. I will keep this post short, but I wanted to also share with you that Our Franciscan Fiat will be moving. In order to be integrated with the new website for our ommunity, you will soon be able to follow the blog here. Thank you for your prayers and support.
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I am working on getting our new website up; right now I have a draft.
Once everything is up and running, I will post here for Our Franciscan Fiat. In the meantime, you are welcome to read older posts here. Happy reading! This past week, I was speaking with someone who is presently away visiting family in Canada. He said he’d be back after Thanksgiving there. I didn’t know when Canadians celebrate this holiday so I had to look it up, learning that it is actually this coming Monday.
This topic of thanksgiving is one that has re-surfaced for me lately. I have realized that I don’t make an effort at gratitude as much during my daily life as I could or should. I am renewing my efforts. I was also recently visiting with a friend and the topic of making a point to give thanks throughout the day came up. Have you ever thought about it?: If someone gives a friend a gift or does them a favor but the recipient does not acknowledge it with at least a word of thanks, doesn’t that seem rude? God gives us even the very air we breath and our very existence. How often do we remember to say “Thank you?” It “just so happens” that the readings this Sunday morning have very much to do with the topic of thanksgiving. We have the foreigner, Naaman, who just had to do something to show gratitude for his cure from leprosy; if he couldn’t give Elisha a gift for his healing, at least he wanted some soil from Israel on which to offer sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. In keeping with this obvious theme in the readings, I chose the hymn: “Now Thank We All Our God” for the closing one at Mass. The titular words of this song also serve as a good reminder of when to give thanks: Now! We should give thanks to God, in the now of our daily life, for the gifts that are constantly bestowed upon us. Gratitude is not just for Thanksgiving Day (American or Canadian). This morning at Mass, as we honored Our Lady of the Rosary, the words of the Collect (introductory prayer of the priest) delighted my ears:
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ you Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. I recognized these as the same words that we pray each day during the Angelus (with only slight deviations). There are other times throughout the liturgical year when the prayers use parallel texts that are found elsewhere. An example that comes to mind is on the Feast of Corpus Christi, when the Collect uses the same words as the prayer used for Benediction. I always find this kind of neat when we hear a text that matches another familiar prayer. The words of this morning’s prayer struck me for another reason, too. I like the image of grace being “pour[ed] forth…into our hearts.” The thought of generous, plentiful amounts of grace being spilled upon my needy heart is encouraging. No wonder the Church makes the point of using this prayer multiple times throughout the day and during the liturgical year! It is interesting that we pray for a pouring forth of grace in close connection to Marian devotions. It makes sense, though, that we ask for this through the intercession of Our Lady, who herself is “full of grace.” I could certainly use a deluge of grace right now, and every day, for that matter! |
AuthorSr. Christina M. Neumann Archives
December 2019
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