Into our hands

I know it's been a while since I last posted (sorry Sara!!) and I have a couple things I want to write about, but right now it's late and I just wanted to get this one on here before I forget it.

I remember a priest once saying that before every mass we should pray that the Lord speak to us during the mass - whether it's something in the homily or the Liturgy or somewhere else. I should note too that the priest was really saying that we should pray that we are receptive to the Word because really, God is always speaking to us, we just don't always listen.

That being said, before mass today that thought popped into my head and I really prayed that something in the mass would jump out at me and really speak to me. Ask and you shall receive. What really struck me today was something the priest said before the consecration. The Eucharistic prayer included something along the lines of "He [Jesus] gave Himself into our hands." The reference was to his Passion and Death but I never really made the connection before to the Eucharist. The wording is beautiful: "He gave Himself into our hands" - exactly what He does at Communion - literally placing Himself in our hands.

I was also thinking about something Scott Hahn said about his conversion to Catholicism. He was talking about when he first went to a Catholic mass and as the mass went on, instead of it being an abomination, he remarked how biblical it was and he kept exclaiming how certain parts of the mass were from certain parts of the bible. The more I come to really know the mass through my participation in it and through various readings, it really is amazing how biblical and symbolic it all is. But unless someone explains it, or unless you're very well versed in the bible, I think it's easy to miss those connections altogether.