Participation at the Eucharist, continued
In order to be made ever more Christ-like at each Eucharist, Fr. Philippe
Verhaeghen, (o.s.b.) proposed that at each offertory we place on the paten,
together with the bread and the wine, our entire being, with our riches and our
capacity for love as well as with our weaknesses and limitations, so that Christ
may take them upon himself and that we may be ever more conformed to him.
Finally, this sacrament is to be lived beyond the Mass itself: we have to
translate it into our daily lives, in all our encounters. This is the
significance of the dismissal spoken by the priest at the end of Mass. When the
priest says: “go in the peace of Christ”, the Mass is ended and the mission
begins.
The sacrament of reconciliation
The sacrament of reconciliation is a sacrament of inner healing. Cardinal
Danneels defined it one day as a transfusion of the Precious Blood which
purifies us of all spiritual anemia.
We can never exhaust the rich meaning of the parable of the Prodigal Son… the
Father is always there. He watches for each of us personally, with arms always
open, to draw us close to his heart. Let us prepare well for this sacrament; it
is not a superficial process, we need to move beyond our psychological allergies
in order to benefit from this extraordinary grace.
It is important to pray to the Lord that He may call forth new priests for the
Church who can bring us his pardon and his peace.
The Cenacle retreat
More and more Christians aspire to spend a longer period of time in retreat
and renewal, whether or not they belong to a prayer or faith-sharing or
evangelizing group.
This time apart is seen as all the more necessary since we live in a world
without solid moral foundations, where we must restore unity in our inner lives
and discern whether our lives truly correspond to the will of God. We need to
rediscover, as St. Augustine said, that “our happiness is in God”.
There are many initiatives that seek to meet this need, such as recollection
weekends and retreats.