Gathered into One  

The Mass brings about unity in the Church. And the Spirit brings about unity in the Mass. “The celebration of Mass… is the center of the whole Christian life for the Church… as well as for each of the faithful individually.” Mass is “the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, in the Holy Spirit… The other sacred actions and all the activities of the Christian life are bound up with the Mass, flow from it, and are ordered to it.” (GIRM 16) 

This unity is the work of the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharistic Prayers, we ask that “we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.” We say to the Father that it is “through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit,” that you keep “gathering a people to yourself…”
We ask the Father to grant “to all who partake of this one Bread and one Cup that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit,
they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory.”  

In the Mass, we experience the Spirit. In the Spirit, we experience the Mass. 

ACTION: Be conscious of how our “communion in the Spirit” makes us one at Mass. Think of how the Mass integrates our whole Christian life. 

PRAYER: Lord, make us one—in your Spirit, through your Spirit. 

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings on the USCCB website here

Easter season is the time to focus on the Holy Spirit. Starting on Easter Sunday, we will look carefully at how the Spirit is proclaimed, invoked, and presented to us in the Mass. Lex orandi, lex credendi: “As the Church prays, so she believes.”

After that, we will reflect on the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; Galatians 5:22), and at how the Spirit enters the life of those who believe.

As you read these reflections, ask for the gift of Understanding. Ask to really understand what you believe, what you see and hear at Mass. Go deeper into understanding the Mass than you ever have before. We experience the Faith when we become aware of its mystery. We hope you reflect deeply on the Mass and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and find yourself more and more drawn into the mysteries of our Lord in the Mass and in His Gifts.