I Went to Mass Today. It Was Unlike Most Other Days!
What a privilege it
was to serve Mass this morning! It is not something I have had the honor to do
more than 3 or 4 times in my adult life.
For someone who
just recently received his Medicare card, today was both a day for gratitude
and for awe – gratitude for the gift of life and awe for the privilege to be so
close to the holy altar of sacrifice.
Who am I to have
been privileged to unlock Jesus’ cell door this morning in anticipation of Father
carrying Him out to be with those Whom He so dearly loves?
Or to have prayed
with Father in the sacristy before we processed into the sanctuary and after we
returned upon the completion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
I marvel at the undeserved
honor given me this day to carry the chalice, paten and unconsecrated host to
its altar home prior to Mass.
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| (Not My Parish But St. Vincent Ferrer, NYC) |
How can I ever explain
the overwhelming sense of unworthiness and the simultaneous joyful awareness of
being so privileged to kneel in the sanctuary just feet from the Last Supper and
Calvary, surrounded by our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, all the saints, the
heavenly angels and the souls of purgatory?
Why did God bless
me with this privilege on this the feast day of St. Joseph
What an honor it
was to hold a paten under the hands and mouths of those who came to receive the
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of their Risen Lord and Savior and to return the purified
chalice, paten and corporal to its table.
I have known
intellectually for some time that the Mass is the greatest event occurring on
the face of this earth each day. Today, I
was privileged to intimately live that Truth, up close and personal.
As I put out the
candles and retrieved the chalice, paten, corporal and cruets from the table
for return to the sacristy, I was prompted to glance over my shoulder. My loving
Lord had yet one more gift for me this day.
There, as he frequently
does, kneeling in the sanctuary, giving public, powerful but silent witness to his
abiding love for the Eucharist, was my pastor – never too busy to spend time
with His beloved Lord.
Thank you Lord for
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! Thank you Lord for Your holy and faithful priests! Thank you for today!