Personal Thanksgiving
Bless God, utter his praise before all the living for all the favors he has given you. Proclaim before all men the deeds of God as they deserve, and never tire of giving him thanks (Tob 16:6).
* * *
We leave the holy banquet of Communion as happy as the Three Wise Men would have been if they could have carried away the Child Jesus. “Simeon gave back Jesus to his Mother; he kept him in his arms only one moment. We are far happier than Simeon. We may keep him always if we will.”[1] Lazarus often entertained our Lord in his home at Bethany. But in Communion, Jesus not only comes into our arms, or sits by our side, but also enters and dwells in our hearts. Thus, our heart ought to glow in the same way that the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus burnt within them as Christ spoke and explained the Scriptures to them.
It is natural that we desire to remain a few minutes in prayer and thanksgiving after the Mass. The Church recommends this practice.[2] Sometimes, we will be talking with Christ. At other times, we will say nothing at all; we will simply look at him and he will look at us.
* * *
We should also know that Christ’s body and blood remain in us after Communion as long as the accidents of the bread and wine remain as such. As soon as our bodily processes change these accidents, Christ’s real presence ceases to be. Nevertheless, we continue living in his Mystical Body.
* * *
While Christ is physically present inside us in the form of the consecrated species, we must be grateful and gracious hosts to him. For in a very tangible way, he has chosen to dwell in our body and make it his temple.
Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Mysterium Fidei, referred to the reproach of Novatian, whose testimony is trustworthy in this matter. He felt that anybody deserved to be condemned who “came out after Sunday service bringing the Eucharist with him, as was the custom,...and carried the holy body of the Lord around with him,” going off to places of amusement instead of going home.[3]
St John tells us in his Gospel that “as soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. Night had fallen” (13:30). Often, no sooner has the priest left the altar than people start leaving the church, hastily. They are ready at once to converse with any person who will speak to them, except to Jesus Christ, who would have so many things to say to them, and so much good to do them. Where is our faith?
St. Josemaría Escrivá thus advises us: “Do not leave the church almost immediately after receiving the sacrament. Surely you have nothing so important to attend to that you cannot give our Lord ten minutes to say thanks. Let’s not be mean. Love is paid for with love.”[4]
It is true that on some days, we will not be able to remain in the church after Mass, because of some pressing task or duty. But couldn’t we arrange things in such a way that we usually find time for our personal thanksgiving? It is a matter of giving due importance to it, and including it among the things that we want to do. For isn’t it true that when we want to do something, we find time for it?
The content of our thanksgiving will be just a continuation of the sentiments and affections we have felt—or tried to foster in ourselves—during the Mass, but perhaps in an atmosphere of greater intimacy this time. Sometimes, acts of faith, hope, and charity addressed to the three divine Persons will spurt from our soul. At other times, we will maintain an intimate dialogue with Jesus, our divine Friend who will purify and transform us. Or perhaps, we will just be sitting still, in silent adoration, in the same manner that a mother watches over her son who has fallen asleep. According to St Teresa, there is no other time than thanksgiving after Mass when we can so easily enrich our soul with virtues, or so rapidly advance to a high degree of perfection.
We should not look for prayers or formulas, if we do not find any need for them. But if we realize they can help us, we should overcome our laziness (say, to open our missal and read the prayers for thanksgiving there), or that subtle kind of vanity which makes us feel humiliated by having to read prayers composed by somebody else. We may, indeed, judge ourselves as having a degree of interior life so high that we can do without such prayers or formulas.
Have you tried to pray the Trium Puerorum, the song of the three young men (Dan 3:57 ff), inviting all creatures in heaven and on earth to join their hymn of thanksgiving?
All things the Lord has made, bless the Lord.
Angels of the Lord! all bless the Lord.
Sun and moon! bless the Lord.
Stars of heaven! bless the Lord.
Showers and dews! all bless the Lord.
Winds! all bless the Lord.
Fire and heat! bless the Lord.
Dews and sleet! bless the Lord.
Light and darkness! bless the Lord.
Lightning and clouds! bless the Lord.
Mountains and hills! bless the Lord.
Every thing that grows on the earth! bless the Lord.
Let us praise and exalt him above all for ever.
A Final Prayer
We should remember to pray for all those who cannot be with us in this celebration because they do not share the faith of the Church. Here, we can be helped by the words of Pope Paul VI:
May the most Blessed Virgin Mary, from whom Christ the Lord took the flesh that “is contained, offered, received”[5] in this sacrament under the appearances of bread and wine, and may all the saints of God and especially those who were more inflamed with ardent devotion toward the divine Eucharist, intercede with the Father of mercies so that this common belief in the Eucharist and devotion to it may give rise among all Christians to a perfect unity of communion that will continue to flourish.[6]
Today, as yesterday, we face the evil—and the sad panorama—of disunity among Christians. What is the remedy, and where do we find the answer, to it? Where else but in the Eucharist! As the holy martyr St Ignatius of Antioch exhorted us:
Strive then to make use of one single thanksgiving. For there is only one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and only one chalice unto the union of his blood, only one altar, only one bishop....[7]
Jesus’ Mother, who is also our Mother, gathers all her children at the foot of the cross of her Son. There she is, while our redemption is being accomplished: “She cooperated, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, with maternal love. Here we perceive the real value of the words spoken by Jesus to his Mother at the hour of the cross: ‘Woman, behold your son’ and to the disciple: ‘Behold your mother’ (Jn 19:26‑27). These are words which determine Mary’s place in the life of Christ’s disciples and they express the new motherhood of the Mother of the Redeemer: a spiritual motherhood, born from the heart of the Paschal Mystery of the Redeemer of the world.”[8]
Footnotes:
[1]J.M. Vianney (The Curé of Ars), Eucharistic Meditations, Sermon of the Feast of the Purification.
[2]Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Rites, Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium, 25 May 1967, no. 38.
[3]MF, no. 59.
[4]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, A Priest Forever (Manila:Sinag-tala, 1975), p. 19.
[5]C.I.C., canon 897.
[6]MF, no. 75.
[7]Epistle to the Philadelphians 4, PG 5,700.
[8]John Paul II, Enc. Redemptoris Mater, 25 March 1987, no. 44.
* * *
We leave the holy banquet of Communion as happy as the Three Wise Men would have been if they could have carried away the Child Jesus. “Simeon gave back Jesus to his Mother; he kept him in his arms only one moment. We are far happier than Simeon. We may keep him always if we will.”[1] Lazarus often entertained our Lord in his home at Bethany. But in Communion, Jesus not only comes into our arms, or sits by our side, but also enters and dwells in our hearts. Thus, our heart ought to glow in the same way that the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus burnt within them as Christ spoke and explained the Scriptures to them.
It is natural that we desire to remain a few minutes in prayer and thanksgiving after the Mass. The Church recommends this practice.[2] Sometimes, we will be talking with Christ. At other times, we will say nothing at all; we will simply look at him and he will look at us.
* * *
We should also know that Christ’s body and blood remain in us after Communion as long as the accidents of the bread and wine remain as such. As soon as our bodily processes change these accidents, Christ’s real presence ceases to be. Nevertheless, we continue living in his Mystical Body.
* * *
While Christ is physically present inside us in the form of the consecrated species, we must be grateful and gracious hosts to him. For in a very tangible way, he has chosen to dwell in our body and make it his temple.
Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Mysterium Fidei, referred to the reproach of Novatian, whose testimony is trustworthy in this matter. He felt that anybody deserved to be condemned who “came out after Sunday service bringing the Eucharist with him, as was the custom,...and carried the holy body of the Lord around with him,” going off to places of amusement instead of going home.[3]
St John tells us in his Gospel that “as soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. Night had fallen” (13:30). Often, no sooner has the priest left the altar than people start leaving the church, hastily. They are ready at once to converse with any person who will speak to them, except to Jesus Christ, who would have so many things to say to them, and so much good to do them. Where is our faith?
St. Josemaría Escrivá thus advises us: “Do not leave the church almost immediately after receiving the sacrament. Surely you have nothing so important to attend to that you cannot give our Lord ten minutes to say thanks. Let’s not be mean. Love is paid for with love.”[4]
It is true that on some days, we will not be able to remain in the church after Mass, because of some pressing task or duty. But couldn’t we arrange things in such a way that we usually find time for our personal thanksgiving? It is a matter of giving due importance to it, and including it among the things that we want to do. For isn’t it true that when we want to do something, we find time for it?
The content of our thanksgiving will be just a continuation of the sentiments and affections we have felt—or tried to foster in ourselves—during the Mass, but perhaps in an atmosphere of greater intimacy this time. Sometimes, acts of faith, hope, and charity addressed to the three divine Persons will spurt from our soul. At other times, we will maintain an intimate dialogue with Jesus, our divine Friend who will purify and transform us. Or perhaps, we will just be sitting still, in silent adoration, in the same manner that a mother watches over her son who has fallen asleep. According to St Teresa, there is no other time than thanksgiving after Mass when we can so easily enrich our soul with virtues, or so rapidly advance to a high degree of perfection.
We should not look for prayers or formulas, if we do not find any need for them. But if we realize they can help us, we should overcome our laziness (say, to open our missal and read the prayers for thanksgiving there), or that subtle kind of vanity which makes us feel humiliated by having to read prayers composed by somebody else. We may, indeed, judge ourselves as having a degree of interior life so high that we can do without such prayers or formulas.
Have you tried to pray the Trium Puerorum, the song of the three young men (Dan 3:57 ff), inviting all creatures in heaven and on earth to join their hymn of thanksgiving?
All things the Lord has made, bless the Lord.
Angels of the Lord! all bless the Lord.
Sun and moon! bless the Lord.
Stars of heaven! bless the Lord.
Showers and dews! all bless the Lord.
Winds! all bless the Lord.
Fire and heat! bless the Lord.
Dews and sleet! bless the Lord.
Light and darkness! bless the Lord.
Lightning and clouds! bless the Lord.
Mountains and hills! bless the Lord.
Every thing that grows on the earth! bless the Lord.
Let us praise and exalt him above all for ever.
A Final Prayer
We should remember to pray for all those who cannot be with us in this celebration because they do not share the faith of the Church. Here, we can be helped by the words of Pope Paul VI:
May the most Blessed Virgin Mary, from whom Christ the Lord took the flesh that “is contained, offered, received”[5] in this sacrament under the appearances of bread and wine, and may all the saints of God and especially those who were more inflamed with ardent devotion toward the divine Eucharist, intercede with the Father of mercies so that this common belief in the Eucharist and devotion to it may give rise among all Christians to a perfect unity of communion that will continue to flourish.[6]
Today, as yesterday, we face the evil—and the sad panorama—of disunity among Christians. What is the remedy, and where do we find the answer, to it? Where else but in the Eucharist! As the holy martyr St Ignatius of Antioch exhorted us:
Strive then to make use of one single thanksgiving. For there is only one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and only one chalice unto the union of his blood, only one altar, only one bishop....[7]
Jesus’ Mother, who is also our Mother, gathers all her children at the foot of the cross of her Son. There she is, while our redemption is being accomplished: “She cooperated, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, with maternal love. Here we perceive the real value of the words spoken by Jesus to his Mother at the hour of the cross: ‘Woman, behold your son’ and to the disciple: ‘Behold your mother’ (Jn 19:26‑27). These are words which determine Mary’s place in the life of Christ’s disciples and they express the new motherhood of the Mother of the Redeemer: a spiritual motherhood, born from the heart of the Paschal Mystery of the Redeemer of the world.”[8]
Footnotes:
[1]J.M. Vianney (The Curé of Ars), Eucharistic Meditations, Sermon of the Feast of the Purification.
[2]Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Rites, Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium, 25 May 1967, no. 38.
[3]MF, no. 59.
[4]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, A Priest Forever (Manila:Sinag-tala, 1975), p. 19.
[5]C.I.C., canon 897.
[6]MF, no. 75.
[7]Epistle to the Philadelphians 4, PG 5,700.
[8]John Paul II, Enc. Redemptoris Mater, 25 March 1987, no. 44.