Have you noticed that we start the Mass with the Sign of the Cross and end the Mass with the Sign of the Cross as the celebrant prays a blessing on us? I sometimes try to say the words of that little prayer just a tad more slowly to think of my Creator, my Savior, and my Advocate. While the Trinity is a mystery, three Persons in one God, we have three times the wealth and blessing!
We pray to put ourselves in a good place, in good standing with the Lord, by saying we are sorry for our bad choices and ask the Communion of Saints to pray for us to do better.
When we come to the prayer called the Gloria, we are blessed with almost a cheat-sheet filled with wonderful reminders of how we can praise God:
We call Jesus only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father…
the Holy One….the Lord….the Most High... and again we reference the Holy Trinity. When I have a problem getting into my own private personal prayer time, beginning with recitation of the Gloria can be quite helpful.
When we come to the Bible readings, we might notice that they are often thematically related. When the priest or deacon announces the gospel reading, we say a little prayer with gestures. I used to give religious instruction to children around the age of seven or eight. They seemed to like learning to make little crosses with their thumb tip on their forehead, lips, and heart while saying, May the Word of Christ be always on my mind, on my lips and in my heart. Those are great places for the Word of Christ to be, so that is a prayer to think about.
Right after the priest offers up the bread and wine that will be consecrated, and we say twice, Blessed be God forever, he prays that we will be accepted as an offering as well. He invites us to lift our hearts, and we say that we lift them up to the Lord. Have you thought about that, and not just chimed in with the response? Our hearts are the seat of our emotions, the place where love lives, where our most strong feelings reside. Can we focus and really lift up our hearts right at that time during that holy sacrifice of the Mass?
After the consecration, we say or sing the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. When we are reminded that Jesus takes away the sins of the world, I remember our troops who defend us from the consequences of certain sins of the world and who work to uphold world peace. Of course, that prayer can be prayed on a much more personal level, but so often I make resolutions to pray for particular people or causes and, with my forgetfulness, they fall by the wayside.
When I was younger, after the distribution of Holy Communion, the priest used to read what we called “the last Gospel” which was actually the first 14 verses of the Gospel according to John. The passage began, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. He was in the beginning with God. (V 1-2 NRSV).
You can read the rest on your own. I miss that reading at the end of Mass. I want Jesus to be with me at all my beginnings, and, especially if I am at Mass on Sunday and a new week will be beginning. Ah! Mindfulness is so important! May that Light that shines in the darkness shine in us today!
Sharon Krause is a RENEW volunteer whose writing has appeared in several resources for small-group faith sharing. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother residing in Manchester, Connecticut. Over the years, she has served in many parish ministries.
Photo by Ben White.