Grow in Appreciation of the Sacraments

Find a quiet place this week to pray and reflect on the role of the sacraments in your life and your own preparation for a sacramental celebration. Use this quote to begin your reflection.

“The fruitfulness of a sacramental celebration is strongly dependent on the connections among people and to what the dimensions of past, present and future bring to the celebration. In order for sacraments to be meaningful celebrations for us, we need to be grounded in Scripture, involved with our faith community, and working toward God’s reign.”

(Joseph Martos)

• How can I grow in appreciation of the role of the sacraments in my faith life?
• How can I prepare myself so that the sacraments are meaningful celebrations for me?

Reflect on t he Scriptural Foundation of the Sacraments

Find a quiet place this week to read the following Scripture passages and reflect on the connection between the sacraments and Jesus’ life and ministry. 

Read the following passages, in your Bible or by clicking the link to read on-line,  to see how the sacraments have their origins in the life of Jesus: 

• Mark 1:1-11
• Matthew 6:5 – 14 and 7:7 – 11 or Luke 11:1 – 13
• Matthew 18:21 – 35
• Matthew 28:16 – 21
• Luke 22:14 – 20
• Luke 5:18 – 26
• John 8:1 – 11
• Acts 2:37 – 41
• 1 Corinthians 11:23 – 26

Develop Good Liturgical Habits

Use the following suggestions to identify several things that you can do personally to participate more fully, more consciously, and more actively in the Sunday Eucharist. 

1. Become people who worship in the midst of the Sunday liturgy.

Know which Gospel and New Testament letters we are currently reading on Sundays, and use these for daily reading. Bring to the prayer of intercession on Sunday all that you pray for; take from it persons to be remembered daily by you; when you hear the news of the community and the world, hear it as a Christian who must in prayer lift up the world’s needs. 

• Find the Sunday Lectionary Readings here. 
• Find reflections at The Sunday Website (Saint Louis University)
   

2. Become people who prepare themselves for Sunday liturgy and people for whom Sunday liturgy is preparation for the week.

Seek little ways that can help you make the Lord’s Day as much as possible a day when liturgy has room. Find some habit for Sunday morning that helps you anticipate being together as a Church to do the liturgy. Find just one steady practice that makes you stretch toward the Reign of God we glimpse at Mass: It might be a way to make more real the collection that happens on Sunday for the Church and the poor; extending the peace of Christ that you receive each Sunday to others in need of that peace; or fasting from food or distractions…
 

3. At the liturgy, be the Church. 

Know the awesome responsibility you share for making the liturgy! Do not hide; do your private praying in the other hours of the week. Welcome one another, be at peace with one another. Sit together. Sing songs from your heart. Do not be afraid to show in your eager attention that you are hungry for God’s word when the readers read, hungry for Christ’s Body and Blood when you come forward in holy Communion. Give thanks and praise to God by your great attention in the eucharistic prayer. Keep your eyes open to one another and do everything you can to build up the Church, the Body of Christ. If the presider or homilist needs help, do not criticize – help. 
 

4. Apart from the liturgy, be the Church.

Remember we are always the Body of Christ, always in communion with one another. Know that you can ask for help from one another. Let others know that. In the simplest deeds of daily life at work or at home, be conscious of this life we share in Christ, of its joy and its hope. Do not set yourself as separate from others, but understand that we who are the Church are the one with others. In us, God is calling and blessing and sanctifying the world God loves. Look at the liturgy as a remote preparation for the week. Listening to God’s word on Sunday morning is preparation for the listening we do for God’s word in our lives all week. The thanks we proclaim at the eucharistic prayer is preparation for thanks over all tables and all meals, and also over all. The common table of holy Communion is preparation for looking at the whole world.
 

5. Give thanks always. 

Pray grace at meals even when you are alone… If your morning and night prayer is not permeated with praise and thanks to God, enrich it with verses of psalms and prayers from our tradition. …Cultivate moments of contemplation even during the busiest day, when gratitude can flow from the goodness of a person, any element of creation or any good work of human making.

(Cardinal Roger Mahoney. Gathering Faithfully Together: A Guide for Sunday Mass. Archdiocese of Los Angeles, 1998)