9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
Saturday
“When I cried to the Lord, He heard my voice” (Introit). The Church is always going up to the
temple to pray. Her basic attitude is one of homage towards God, of littleness before Him, of
adoration and humility.
The Church pays homage to God. The first duty the Church of Christ performs is the adoration
of God and humble submission to Him. In all humility she bows down to submit herself to God.
Every page of the Holy Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament, is holy to her; she
believes in every word of the Gospels. Believing requires humility. In her priests and religious
she stands in the sanctuary day and night paying homage to God. “It is truly meet and just, right
and availing unto salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee,
O Lord” (Preface). Unceasingly the Church chants the psalms in honor of her Lord and God,
continuing her avowal in the Gloria: “We adore Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee
for Thy great glory.” Out of her mouth goes forth an unending “Glory be to the Father, and
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” Daily and hourly she celebrates the Sacrifice of the Mass,
offering to God in her gift of sacrifice an infinitely valuable adoration and homage. “Through
Him, and with Him, and in Him, be unto Thee, O God the Father Almighty, in the unity of the
Holy Ghost, all honor and glory.”
The Church receives every gift from God. What could she do by herself, without God,
without Christ? What can the body achieve without the head, which enlivens and directs
all the other members? What is the branch without the vine? The Church knows that “no
man can say: The Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost” (Epistle). She knows the many gifts
and graces which are operative in her children. “To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the
word of wisdom; and to another, the word of knowledge; . . . to another, the grace of healing;
. . . to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the discerning
of spirits” (Epistle). “It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish” (Phil
2:13). The Church knows that she has nothing of herself, but has received from God the
fullness of all good things. “Of His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace” ( Jn
1:16). Therefore she expects and requests everything from the Lord. “When I cried to the
Lord, He heard my voice” (Introit).
The Church returns all things to God. She does not retain for herself what she has received
through her prayers to Him. His gifts and graces she returns as homage, adoration, praise, and
thanksgiving, especially during the Sacrifice of the Mass. “A hymn becometh Thee in Sion; and
a vow shall be paid to Thee in Jerusalem” (Gradual). Whatever the Church has received in gifts
and graces, she turns to good use with her members, — into works of charity, of zeal for souls, of
love towards God and men — rendering it fruitful for God and His interests, for His glory and
the salvation of souls. She is like another virgin of Nazareth who, after her blessed conception
of the Son of God, retained nothing for herself, but returned everything she had received to
Him from whom she received it, as we learn from her admirable Magnificat and the words of
devoted love to Elizabeth and John.
We unite our prayers with those of the Church. The more we abandon our own way of praying
by humbly submitting them to the prayers of the Church, the more our prayers will be assured
of being heard.
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