God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of Your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, You may nurture in us what is good and, by Your watchful care, keep safe what You have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
God of might – God is all-powerful, yet He is also most gentle with His children. He created the universe. He set the planets in motion and determined the laws of nature. Yet He stoops down to each of us in love. He even becomes our food in the Holy Eucharist, giving Himself to us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
giver of every good gift – God gives us all we have and all we are. Everything that is good comes from Him. Yet are we grateful? Do we spend some of our prayer time thanking Him for His gifts to us? Or do we just keep asking for more? God wants us to ask Him for what we need and want, but we should also continually express our gratitude for what we already have.
put into our hearts the love of Your name – The ability to love God is a gift from God. Love, real love, self-sacrificing love that wills the absolute best for another and helps to achieve that best, is a theological virtue. As the Catechism says, love (or charity) is “the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (#1822). Here we pray that God put His love into our hearts so that we can love Him more. We need to open up and expand our hearts so we can receive more of that love. Remember that “name” in the Scriptures refers to the whole of a person, in this case God's Person, His character, and all of His marvelous attributes. When we love God's name, we love God.
deepening our sense of reverence – Do we ever just stand before God and be amazed? Do we ever gaze upon Him in our hearts and think, “Wow! Just wow!”? We should develop a deep reverence for God, and that reverence should extend into our churches and our lives so that we approach God at Mass and in the other sacraments and in prayer and in study with all the respect and awe He deserves.
You may nurture in us what is good – What has God nurtured in us? He has given us a share in His divine life. He has poured His sanctifying grace into our souls. He Himself dwells within us. He gives us grace to love, to believe, to hope, to pray, to receive the sacraments, to study, and to experience a taste of the joy of the Kingdom of God. If we cooperate with Him, we will grow ever closer to Him.
by Your watchful care – God cares for us at every moment of every day. He holds us in existence every second. If God were to forget about us for even an instant (not that He ever would), we would simply disappear. Yet God doesn't just watch us from a distance or remain uninvolved in our lives. He is constantly giving us grace to follow Him and protecting us from harm and working all things for our good.
keep safe what You have nurtured – We are weak and sinful, and we fall often. That's why we must pray for God's protection, that He keep safe His divine life within us, that He protect us from temptation and from harm, that He continually give us the grace to resist evil and embrace His love.
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