Immersed in Christ: Saturday After Easter: April 10, 2021

Only as United

The function of the Holy Spirit is to be "the bond of unity" between the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, and between human persons in the Church. The Opening Prayer at Mass is usually addressed to the Father and ends, "Through our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit." The Mass instructions (GIRM 53) say that in the Gloria "the Church, gathered together in the Holy Spirit, glorifies… the Father and the Lamb." And (56): The Liturgy of the Word should "promote meditation… in which our hearts grasp [together] the word of God at the prompting of the Holy Spirit." And (78) that in the Eucharistic Prayer the presider "unites the congregation with himself in the prayer he addresses to God the Father in the name of the entire community through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit."

No one, including the presider, does anything at Mass except as united with everyone else in the "unity of the Holy Spirit." The Mass is a communal celebration, not a private devotion. To those who want to be undisturbed in private prayer Jesus says, "Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret" (Matthew 6:6). At Mass we should be enthusiastically vocal and physically demonstrative in order to express and experience our unity in the Spirit.

ACTION: Make the responses at Mass as if you mean them. Put feeling into the hymns.

PRAYER: Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.