As the Eucharistic Prayer continues, the Priest becomes the primary voice as he praises God, our Father on our behalf. We are introduced to our story, one where God loves us so deeply, that He always does all things out of love for us.
The priest begins while we remain humble before our God.
We give you praise, Father most holy, for you are great and you have fashioned all your works in wisdom and in love.
When’s the last time you marvelled at the beauty of God’s creation? It’s difficult, especially in trying times, to marvel at what we have or what we encounter. But God sees a bigger picture, one we cannot comprehend. With these words, the challenge is to allow ourselves a few seconds of marvel; of thanksgiving. His love for us is immeasurable and everything we have is because He loves us.
You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care,
We’ve encountered these first words before. Genesis 1:27 unfolds for us the reality of our humanity. These words follow the story of creation. We are caretakers of this beautiful world.
so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures.
God is the Creator, the reason for our being. I believe that the challenge in this brief phrase in the Eucharistic Prayer, is that everything we do and say should be in service to God. It should always be with love in our hearts.
We move now into a brief look at our Salvation History. With Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Kings and the Prophets we share in the story of the relationship between God and man. Throughout the Old Testament writings, we find God rescuing us, standing with us, calling us to renewal of faith in Him. In our humanity, we turned away from Him, but He was always present, waiting for us to return.
And when through disobedience he had lost your friendship, you did not abandon him to the domain of death. For you came in mercy to the aid of all, so that those who seek might find you. Time and again you offered them covenants and through the prophets taught them to look forward to salvation.
Now, this narrative takes a different tone, as we move from those who proclaimed the coming of Jesus into His arrival into the story of our salvation. It’s important to recognize that this is still a prayer to God the Father. Even in the narrative form, we are not passive listeners, our hearts should be centered and focused on this great prayer which we are being carried through by the words of the Priest.
And you so love the world, Father most holy, that in the fullness of time you sent your Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to the sorrowful of heart, joy.
As we move through this brief overview of the life of Jesus, it’s important to not just ignore it. We’re so familiar with the story, that sometimes we may be tempted to not really listen closely to this retelling. But is very important that we take note of the life of Jesus. We are called to imitate it – to proclaim the good news to everyone we meet.
The prayer continues
To accomplish your plan, he gave himself up to death, and rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life. And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose again for us, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first fruits for those who believe, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full.
Now that we have recalled the life and death of Jesus, and have taken note that we have been given the Holy Spirit as believers, the animator in our faith life, the one who moves us to action, we move to the next part of Eucharistic Prayer Number 4.
Please Join me next Wednesday as we move to the Invocation of the Holy Spirit. God bless your day.