Lectio the Liturgy

I get a kick out of thinking about how what we do in the physical realm affects the spiritual realm. In the prayer this week, we ask that what we celebrate here below will gain the prize of eternal redemption. What we do here below affects eternity. What we do during Advent gives us an opportunity to experience the supernatural, when our immortal God became one of us. Learn more at LectioTheLiturg...

This is an interesting feast day. While we take this Sunday to recognize Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, we also need to see him in the bread and wine on the altar at Mass. There has never been nor will there ever be a king more powerful than our King. Learn more at LectioTheLiturgy.com

Many are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. Happiness is not found at the end of a search, nor is it found at a store. Happiness comes when we give ourselves away. We are equipped for that! God gives us everything we need to be life-giving for others. Like Jesus, this is where we find full and lasting happiness. Thank you for praying with me, Julie

When we ask God to “look with favor,” He doesn’t just look. Just like a good Father, He comes to us. This weekend, as we ask God to “Look,” His presence is near you whether you feel it or not. Our only job is to take these moments to honor the Father with the loving devotion He deserves and desires from His children. Learn more at LectioTheLiturgy.com

If you want to experience the power of God, make a sacrificial offering. Your offering benefits you in miraculous ways and God gets to show you His power. https://www.lectiotheliturgy.com

Pop quiz: Define “majesty.” Now make it greater and apply it to God. God’s majesty brings together His glory and power, His strength and beauty, and His greatness and goodness. This week’s prayer reminds us that nothing we can do adds to God’s majesty, but what we do can bring Him glory. Look again at the description of God's majesty. What part of His majesty do you need most today? LectioTheLitur...

The prayer this week is the Prayer after Communion for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time We entreat your majesty most humbly, O Lord, that, as you feed us with the nourishment which comes from the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, so you may make us sharers of his divine nature. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. What would you say is the best part of being human? The prayer gives us one a...

We hear these words at every mass: do this. Just what are we supposed to do? “Do this” does not mean to sit and watch. Nor does it mean to just show up at church on the weekend. It means to do what Jesus did - He gave himself.

In 1833, the US Supreme Court ruled that “the court cannot give the prisoner the benefit of the pardon, unless he claims the benefit of it, and relies on it by plea or motion” and that a pardon is an act of grace, but delivery is not completed without acceptance. Jesus is always offering us pardon (and mercy and grace), but it is a two-way street. It’s not a pardon if we don’t accept it. Learn mor...

In the Prayer Over the Offering this week, we ask God that what we profess with devotion and faith may be ours through these heavenly mysteries What do you profess? It is time to up our profession game. If, through the heavenly mysteries, or the saving work of Jesus, we profess a holy powerful Church, what will we receive? It’s time to up our profession game. It’s time to bring the power of a livi...

In the prayer this week, the heavenly gift in the prayer is Jesus. The working is the “work” of the sacrificial action of Jesus on the Cross. The prayer also gives rise to the question, “How much does the saving work of Jesus mean to me?” When we come to love God for what He has done for us, giving him possession to our minds and bodies becomes a delight. Learn more at LectioTheLiturgy.com

When is prayer true prayer? While praying is always a good idea, prayer life can be deepened when we make it true prayer, a sincere devotion, our responding to God’s movement in our lives. True prayer makes us united in heart and mind, not just with each other, but with God. Learn more at LectioTheLiturgy.com

The prayer this week reminds me that we get “the better end of the stick” when it comes to God. He gives us the blessing of salvation and signs and symbols in the visible world that show us what happens in the invisible world. All we have to do is make a sacred offering and believe.

Do we long for unity and peace in the Church? Sometimes it seems like there is sand between not only members of the church, but between the members and the Church. The gifts of unity and peace are ours through the one sacrifice offered once for all. We only need to make a heart-felt acceptance of them. Learn more at LectioTheLiturgy.com

It’s a line we may tend to want to skip over when we pray the Lord’s Prayer (aka the Our Father). However, we hear it in a new way in the Prayer after Communion in the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. To live on earth as it is in heaven is a place of peace and power. Let HIs will be done! LectioTheLiturgy.com

Let’s have some fun and do some role-playing as we lectio this week. It’s take our turn at being the offering. As the offering, God is pleased to accept us just like we are, sinful and both proud and ashamed of it. However, He transforms us. One of the ways He does that is when He transforms our faults into grace, which he freely bestows on us. Being the offering is the best place to get a first-h...

Riddle: What can you offer at mass that is something you brought with you and doesn’t fit in your purse or wallet? It’s you! When we make ourselves and oblation, or offering present to God, we hold up our part of the sacrifice of Jesus. He always and forever offers Himself to the Father, the church, and the world, and we are called to go and do likewise. Learn more at my website, LectioTheLiturgy....

Firm foundation isn’t just a secure place to stand. Firm, or validum in Latin, means efficacy. Because of God, our words are prayers, our buildings are churches, and the Bible isn’t just another book. Through His mercy, He gives us the means to become holy. As we become holy, we come to realize that the good things truly are the eternal things. LectioTheLiturgy.com

In this week’s prayer, we recognize that with the presence of Jesus comes grace. Have you ever realized that at the Last Supper, When Jesus held the bread and said, “This is my body,” that he was present both physically and sacramentally? That SAME Jesus is present in the SAME way at Mass. However, it is our responsibility to be willing to let him dye, or imbue, us and make us new. Learn more at L...

“Everything is well with the Catholic Church. But I do not say that everything is all with all the members of the Church.” ~Rev. C.M. Carty Instead of focusing on the next scandal in our midst, we need to keep our attention on what and Who the Church is. The Church is holy - not because of its members, but because of her Bridegroom and there’s nothing we can do to change that. If all we see is fai...

Toddlers are a hoot, aren’t they? They sure know what they want. However, God doesn’t bargain like parents do. If we don’t want to accept His gifts, we don’t have to. The choice is ours. I would suggest taking it, though, because the gift that He wants to give at mass is the prize of salvation a “great gift.” When we accept and understand how great this gift is, we will never cease to praise Him -...

If you could write a job description for God, what would it include? In this week’s prayer, we ask God to accomplish the effects of his mysteries in us. The mysteries are the saving works of Jesus, the effects should make us look more like Him. As I prayed with this prayer, I had a sense of God telling me that his effects are not just being forgiven, they include being healed. The Prayer Over the...

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we get back what we offer to the Father - which is Jesus. However, there is more to the action than just taking. We need to take and receive. It takes both for us to be changed. While the prayer has a different intention, you may notice the same offering in the prayers of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity...

We can talk the talk, but in this week’s Collect we ask for the grace to walk the walk. If we want to please God, we need to follow through with the changes we are called to make. The down side is that our human frailty cannot do it on its own. The up side is that God gives us the grace to succeed. www. LectioTheLiturgy.com