Saturday, September 12, 2020

The Collect for the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

 Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of Your mercy, grant that we may serve You with all our heart. 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.

Look upon us, O God – When God turns His face toward us, we are illuminated by His glory. He fills us with His love and His light. Are we prepared to stand before God's gaze? He sees right into our minds, hearts, and souls. What will He see? No matter what He sees in us, God loves us anyway, and He wants us to repent of our sins and hand over our weaknesses to Him that He may fill us with His grace.

Creator and ruler of all thingsThese titles for God are so familiar to us that we seldom stop to think about them. Yet God created all things from nothing. Why? He wanted to share the great love that flows between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity, allowing that love to pour into creation. Indeed, God is not the watchmaker that some philosophers identify Him as, admitting that He created the universe but claiming that then He sat back and let it run on its own without any further intervention from its Maker. That, however, is far from true, for God rules the entire universe in His divine wisdom and providence.

we may feel the working of Your mercy – How do we feel God's mercy at work? There are so many ways of experiencing God's mercy. When we receive absolution in the sacrament of Confession, God reaches down through the priest to shower us in His mercy. When we receive the Eucharist, Jesus' presence, the fire of His love, burns up all our venial sins and strengthens us to fight against temptation. When we pray, God mercy calms and encourages our hearts.

grant that we may serve You with all our heart – Our ability to serve God is itself a gift from God. But we must cooperate and strive to serve and obey God with all our heart, not by half measures, not for our own benefits, but completely for love of Him.

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