9781644135945

The Light of the World
Nothing for oneself, but everything for God: that is the language of humility. He who prays
in the right spirit asks nothing for his own sake, but acknowledges that whatever he has, he has
received it from God and for God, for Christ and His Church. Genuine prayer urges the soul
to work for God, for Christ, and for souls. It necessarily unites our soul with God and Christ,
with the Church, and with our fellow men.
He who prays in the right spirit neither ignores God’s gifts nor denies any of the rights of
his fellow men. Well aware of the fact that he did not receive these gifts and graces to be used
for his own ends, he tries to make good use of them for God and His glory.
Prayer
O God, who dost manifest Thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; increase
Thy mercy towards us, that we, seeking the way of Thy promises, may be made partakers of Thy
heavenly treasures. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Mass
The liturgy of the Mass for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost is entirely dominated by the
thought of Easter and by the remembrance of that unforgettable event of Easter night, the
reception of baptism. By today’s Mass the grace and the obligations of baptism are renewed.
The sixty-seventh psalm gives us a splendid picture of Easter by showing us the children
of Israel on their march to the Promised Land. Having left the captivity and slavery of
Egypt, they march, full of joy, through the Red Sea, where their enemies perish. At Sinai
they receive the Ten Commandments; they are fed by the manna, and at last come into
possession of the land of Canaan. Jahve goes with His people from Sinai to the heights
of Mt. Moria, where, in the temple of Jerusalem, He has chosen the dwelling place where
He would draw to Himself those that were of a just mind and would offer their prayers
and sacrifices to Him. They would be united in one faith and one cult. From here power
and grace was to go out to His people.
What the Introit thus reproduces before our eyes has been repeated in baptism. On Easter
we were brought out of Egypt, that life of separation from God. We then marched through the
waters of the Red Sea (baptism); we received Christ’s new law, and, having been nourished
with the manna of Holy Communion, we were introduced into the new Jerusalem. Here, in
the Church, symbolized by the house of God, God has His holy dwelling place; here we can
seek and find Him in His holy Church, in the community of His mystical body. Full of gratitude
for the inexpressible grace of baptism and membership in the Church we rejoice: “God [is] in
His holy place” (Introit). Here in the church, on the altar of the Catholic house of prayer, He is
enthroned in the midst of His people, the baptized, who, being of one faith and one mind and
animated by the same desire of sacrifice, gather around Him during the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Here in the Eucharistic sacrifice lies a source of strength and blessing for all those who have
devoted themselves to Christ in baptism.
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