The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, splendor of the Father, have mercy on us.
Jesus, brightness of eternal light, have mercy on us.
Jesus, King of glory, have mercy on us.
Jesus, sun of justice, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most amiable, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most admirable, have mercy on us.
Jesus, mighty God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Father of the world to come, have mercy on us.
Jesus, angel of great counsel, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most powerful, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most patient, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most obedient, have mercy on us.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, have mercy on us.
Jesus, lover of chastity, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our lover, have mercy on us.
Jesus, God of peace, have mercy on us.
Jesus, author of life, have mercy on us.
Jesus, model of virtues, have mercy on us.
Jesus, zealous for souls, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our refuge, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Father of the poor, have mercy on us.
Jesus, treasure of the faithful, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Good Shepherd, have mercy on us.
Jesus, true light, have mercy on us.
Jesus, eternal Wisdom, have mercy on us.
Jesus, infinite Goodness, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our way and our life, have mercy on us.
Jesus, joy of the Angels, have mercy on us.
Jesus, King of Patriarchs, have mercy on us.
Jesus, master of Apostles, have mercy on us.
Jesus, teacher of Evangelists, have mercy on us.
Jesus, strength of Martyrs, have mercy on us.
Jesus, light of Confessors, have mercy on us.
Jesus, purity of Virgins, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Crown of all Saints, have mercy on us.
Be merciful, spare us, O Jesus.
Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Jesus.
From all evil, Jesus, deliver us.
From all sin, Jesus, deliver us.
From Thy wrath, Jesus, deliver us.
From the snares of the devil, Jesus, deliver us.
From the spirit of fornication, Jesus, deliver us.
From everlasting death, Jesus, deliver us.
From the neglect of Thine inspirations, Jesus, deliver us. 
Through the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy nativity, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thine infancy, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy most divine life, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy labors, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thine agony and Passion, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy cross and dereliction, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy sufferings, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy death and burial, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy Resurrection, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thine Ascension, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thine institution of the most Holy Eucharist, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy joys, Jesus, deliver us.
Through Thy glory, Jesus, deliver us.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Jesus.
Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.

Let us pray.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast said: Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you; grant, we beseech Thee, to us who ask the gift of Thy divine love, that we may ever love Thee with all our hearts, and in all our words and actions, and never cease praising Thee.

Give us, O Lord, a perpetual love of Thy holy Name; for Thou never failest to govern those whom Thou dost solidly establish in Thy love. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

The Litany Project: The Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 15

Come, Holy Ghost! Fill the hearts of Thy faithful.
And enkindle in them the fire of Thy Love.

As we approach the end of the litany, we ask the Holy Spirit one more time to come to us and fill our hearts. We recognize, though, that as He fills our hearts, He also sets our hearts on fire. Love is a power. It is dynamic. It is strong. It is warm, even hot. It spurs us forward to reach up to God and out to other people. 

This is a dangerous prayer, in a good way, for when we invite the Holy Spirit into us, when we invite Him to set our hearts on fire, He will change our lives. 

Let us pray.
Grant, O merciful Father, that Thy Divine Spirit enlighten, inflame and purify us, that He may penetrate us with His heavenly dew and make us fruitful in good works; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who with Thee, in the unity of the Spirit, liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen. 

The litany’s final prayer is directed to God the Father. We remember His great mercy, and we beg Him to send the Holy Spirit, His Divine Spirit, to enlighten us, to inflame us, and to purify us from our sins and faults and weaknesses.

We also beg the Father that the Spirit may penetrate us, may probe deep down within us, and fill us with His heavenly dew, with His great gifts and with all the virtues. That dew will make us bloom and blossom, bearing the fruit of good works in love. 

As always, we pray in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ as we remember the unity of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, living and reigning together for all eternity and loving us more than we can imagine.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 14

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, send us Thy Holy Ghost.

The Lamb of God, of course, is none other that Jesus. John the Baptist identified Him as such in John 1:29 when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world.” The reference goes back centuries to the time when the Israelites were still in slavery in Egypt. In preparation for the first Passover, God told Moses to have the Israelites sacrifice a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. They were to eat the lamb and be ready to depart, for the angel of the Lord would come upon Egypt, bringing death to all the firstborn sons of that place except where he saw the lamb’s blood. The angel passed over the Israelites, and they left Egypt and slavery behind.

We, too, are enslaved, not by the Egyptians but by our sins.  And Jesus, the Lamb of God, by His blood, takes away the sins of the world. He became the willing sacrifice on the Cross, taking the covenant curses upon Himself and reconciling us with the Father. We now ask Jesus to send us His Holy Spirit, the Love He shares with the Father.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, pour down into our souls the gifts of the Holy Ghost.

We also ask our Lamb of God, our Jesus, to pour down the gifts of the Holy Spirit into our souls. Of course, we must be prepared for this outpouring of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. We must open our hearts wide to receive them, and then we must respond by making good use of these gifts so that they continue to grow within us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, grant us the Spirit of wisdom and piety.

In this petition, we beg our Lord to grant us the Spirit of wisdom and piety. We are pleading for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, for the sanctifying grace that gives us a share in divine life, for the eternal life that we begin living right now and that we will enter into fully in Heaven.  

We recall that wisdom is the “God’s eye” perspective of the world, at least as much as we human beings can ever possess. Piety refers to our devotion to God, our desire and efforts to place Him first, above all else, and to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 13

Holy Ghost, grant us the merits of all virtues.

“Merits” is a tricky word when we use it in a religious sense. If we don’t understand it correctly, it can sound like we think we earn or deserve our salvation in some way. We do not. God gives us our salvation by His grace alone when we open ourselves up in faith and love. 

However, because God loves us so much, He allows us to cooperate in the process of salvation. It is a process, too. Even though He initiates it and saves us by His grace, we have to grow in that grace. This takes work, and through our efforts, God allows us to “merit.” He rewards us as we grow closer to Him in virtue and as we enter deeper and deeper into His sanctifying love. Of course, we can only do this by His grace. 

So our merits, as one professor remarks, are a bit like the praise and hugs a father gives to his child when the child offers his father a gift that the father has paid for and helped the child wrap. Because the father loves his child, he rewards the child for his “hard work” even though the father has done most of it. What the father wants most is the child’s love. The same is true for God.

Holy Ghost, make us persevere in justice.

The concept of justice is often misunderstood in today’s world. What it ultimately means, however, is being right with God, and that is its sense in this petition. When we ask the Holy Spirit to help us persevere in justice, we are asking for an outpouring of grace to keep us right with the Blessed Trinity.

Holy Ghost, be Thou our everlasting reward.

This petition might as well be “Holy Ghost, get us to Heaven,” for God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is our ultimate, everlasting reward in Heaven, where we will see Him face-to-face and spend eternity growing in love for Him and for each other. 

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 12

Holy Ghost, grant us the only necessary knowledge.

We are surrounded by “knowledge” these days. Information is everywhere. With just the click of a mouse or the tap of a screen, we can easily know everything from the latest sports scores to the weather next week (maybe) to the most recent celebrity gossip. But is this easy access to information a good thing? It may be, depending on how we use it, but it can also be extremely overwhelming, tiring, and even irritating. 

So we ask the Holy Spirit to grant us the only necessary knowledge. We ask Him to help us prioritize what we need to know and to put first things first. What is this “only necessary knowledge”? It is knowledge of God. And by “knowledge,” we don’t mean just some vague idea of God. We don’t even mean the most complex and intricate theology. We mean a knowledge that entails personal experience, a knowledge that is an intimate relationship. This is the kind of knowledge the Holy Spirit will grant us if we ask Him and then open our hearts to receive His gift.

Holy Spirit, inspire in us the practice of good.

St. Paul captures a feeling that all of us have probably experienced at one time or another: “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). We human beings are perverse creatures. We are weak and inconsistent, always knowing what we should do and often failing to do it and doing just the opposite instead. 

The Holy Spirit inspires us in our efforts to do good, and He gives us the grace we need to actually do the good we desire. When we ask Him, He will nudge us toward a deeper relationship with God, more fruitful prayer, and more effective service toward our neighbors. He will show us what is good, and help us desire and achieve that good. But we have to be willing to listen and respond. 

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 11

Holy Ghost, teach us to pray well.

We do not know how to pray as we ought. Paul tells us this in Romans 8:26, and he explains that the Holy Spirit prays within us. The Spirit teaches us how to pray if we open ourselves to His guidance. He guides in opening our hearts and minds to the Blessed Trinity. He Who is love shows us how to express ourselves in love. 

When we listen to and follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions on prayer, we learn that prayer is all about expanding our desire for God. We learn that prayer is far more about getting Someone than about getting something. God wants us to ask for what we need and want for ourselves and others, but He also wants us to grow ever closer to Him in prayer and in love. This is what the Spirit teaches us when He teaches us to pray well.

Holy Ghost, enlighten us with Thy heavenly inspirations.

The Holy Spirit inspires all of us. He nudges us in particular directions. He guides us into a deeper understanding of truth. He shows us how to act with love in all situations. He shines a light into our hearts, minds, and souls that that we may know ourselves, and so that we do not get discouraged by what we learn, He enlightens us about God’s great love even for weak, sinful little people like us.

Holy Ghost, lead us in the way of salvation.

In 1 Timothy 2:4, Paul tells us that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” The Holy Spirit leads us into that salvation, filling us with the divine presence when we are baptized and guiding us to deeper faith, hope, and love as we grow ever closer to God along the path to Heaven. That is the goal, of course, Heaven, the beatific vision, eternal life face-to-face with God, full immersion in His love forever and ever. 

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 10

Holy Ghost, engrave Thy law in our hearts.

In Jeremiah 31, God says that He is going to make a new covenant with His people. It will not be like the old covenant that they have broken. Rather, in the new covenant, God explains, “I will put My law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts.” In the new covenant, the people will know God in a different way, from the inside out. 

We are living in this new covenant, and it is the Holy Spirit Who enters into us, engraving the law of God, the law of love, in our hearts. The old covenant set forth God’s law, but it did not provide the grace people needed to fulfill it. The new covenant gives us both the law and the grace to fulfill it. The law is no longer external, something to gaze at and try to live up to as best we can. Rather, it is within us, in our minds and hearts, because God is within us, giving us the strength we need to embrace His will.

Holy Ghost, inflame us with the fire of Thy Love.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the place where the apostles were gathered with the noise of “the rush of a mighty wind.” Then “tongues as of fire” rested on each one of them, and suddenly their fear was gone (see Acts 2). They begin to speak in different languages, and they hurried right outside to proclaim the Gospel to all those gathered in Jerusalem for the feast.

The apostles were on fire with the Holy Spirit. The appearance of flames over their heads was symbolic of the fire burning in their souls, a fire that burst out in love for God and for the people they hurried to evangelize. The Holy Spirit can inflame us with that same love. He wants to set us on fire so that we may pour ourselves out to God and for others. 

Holy Ghost, open to us the treasures of Thy graces.

Do we realize how much God wants to pour out His love for us? Do we understand the graces He has reserved for us? Do we know that He longs to give us everything we need for our salvation? God has a treasure house of graces for us, a treasure house of love, a treasure house of joy and peace.  

Jesus tells us to store up our treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19), but we should also realize that God gives us all these treasures and then some. When we have God, we have everything. 

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 9

Holy Ghost, inspire us with horror of sin.

Our culture often has a dismissive attitude toward sin or, worse yet, a tolerance for or even acceptance of sin. People laugh about it or brush it off as no big deal. Yet here we ask the Holy Spirit to inspire us with a horror of sin. 

We should be horrified. Sin is the worst thing that can possibly happen to us because it weakens or even breaks our relationship with God. When we sin, we tell God that there is something more important to us than He is, that we know better than He does what we need, and that we just are not going to obey Him. And who are we to say such things? It should horrify us that we do every time we sin.

Holy Ghost, come and renew the face of the earth.

This petition recognizes that we need the Holy Spirit to renew us and all creation at every moment. We so easily fall. We get discouraged. We sin. We slide away from the right path. We grow dark and depressed. We lose track of who we are and what God has called us to be. So we need the Holy Spirit to renew His life-giving, energizing, healing presence within us all the time.

We can also pray this line looking ahead to the end of time when God will renew all things in a definitive, final way. When Jesus returns, He will bring with Him a new Heaven and a new earth. We will rise up in the general resurrection and enter into a whole new realm of existence that we cannot even imagine now. It should make us excited and eager. Are we?

Holy Ghost, shed Thy light in our souls.

The Holy Spirit enlightens us with knowledge, understanding, counsel, wisdom, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. He illuminates us with divine love. He makes us shine brightly before the world like lamps that do not cower under bushel baskets but glow from a lamp stand or like a city on a hill, offering God’s light to everyone we encounter (see Matthew 5:14-15).

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 8

Gift of God, the Most High, have mercy on us.

God sends the Holy Spirit into our souls as His great gift of love. Since the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Father and the Son, so strong and vibrant that He is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of divine love. 

We should pay special attention to the idea of gift. God does not have to give us anything. He does so freely and out of His great love. We do not earn His gifts. There is no way we can. Yet God gives us the greatest gift of all: Himself. 

Spirit Who fillest the universe, have mercy on us.

At the beginning of Genesis, we read, “the Spirit of God moved over the waters” (1:2). He moved, and the world was created. Light and dark, the sun and moon and stars, day and night, waters and dry land, plants and animals and birds all came to be. Then God breathed His Spirit into the first human being, created in His image and likeness. 

But God does not just create everything and let it run on its own. Rather, He sustains all life with the life-giving love of the Holy Spirit. God moves in the world and in our lives. He is always present. He fills the universe with His Love, and that Love is the Holy Spirit.

Spirit of the adoption of the children of God, have mercy on us.

Through a series of covenants, God has expanded His family bit by bit over the centuries of salvation history. In these last days, Jesus made that family the world-wide Church when He inaugurated the New Covenant, which gives us an even deeper relationship with God the Father. When we are baptized, when the Holy Spirit enters into us, filling us with sanctifying grace and divine life, we become children of God, sons and daughters in the Son. 

St. John writes in his first letter, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (3:2). We are God’s covenant family. We are His beloved children. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir” (Galatians 4:6-7). We are heirs to God’s kingdom, already in the Church and forever in Heaven.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 7

Holy Ghost, the Comforter, have mercy on us.

In John 14:26, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, from the Greek word paraklētos, which can be translated Helper, Counselor, Intercessor, Advocate, or even Comforter. The Holy Spirit, as we have seen, prays within us. He helps us recall and understand what Jesus has taught. He advocates for us with His great love (for He is Love). And all of this should bring us great comfort. God loves us so much as to dwell within us, guiding us closer and closer to Him and filling us with His great gifts.

Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, have mercy on us.

Only God can make us holy. We must cooperate, of course. We must turn our minds and hearts and souls and bodies over to Him so that He can sanctify them. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, consecrated, set aside, for Him and for His purposes. 

Holy Ghost, Who governest the Church, have mercy on us.

Many saints and scholars have said that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, the Body of Christ. On the first Pentecost, which is often called the birthday of the Church, the Holy Spirit descended upon the followers of Jesus gathered in the upper room. With a noise like a great driving wind and tongues as of fire, the Spirit entered into those frightened, timid people and changed them from the inside out.

The apostles, led by Peter, left that upper room, now on fire to preach the Gospel. Peter delivered his first sermon right then and there, speaking to the thousands of Jews who had gathered for the festival. He was not longer afraid, no longer timid. He spoke with great force and conviction, and over three thousand people received Baptism that day.  

Jesus tells us not to be anxious when we are questioned about our faith, even by “the rulers and the authorities,” for “the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12). We must get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us personally and to govern the Church. That’s His job.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 6

Spirit of grace and prayer, have mercy on us.

Grace and prayer. Both of these are gifts from God that the Holy Spirit pours into us. Grace, as defined in the Catechism, is the “free and undeserved gift God gives us to respond to our vocation to become His adopted children.” When we are baptized, God fills us with sanctifying grace and comes to dwell within us. We become temples of the Holy Spirit. 

But God’s grace does not end there. God provides actual graces, sacramental graces, and special graces every day of our lives. These graces strengthen us in love, draw us to God, nudge us toward repentance, and give us all we need to devote our entire existence to God. Our job is to open ourselves to receive these graces and to respond to them, embracing them and living them with gratitude. 

Prayer, too, is a grace. We might think that we initiate prayer, but God gives us the desire to pray to Him in the first place. We respond by pouring our hearts out to God. As St. Therese of Lisieux so beautifully explains, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” 

In Romans 8:26, St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit actually prays in us. He “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” Notice how the Spirit surrounds us in prayer. He prays within us as He spurs on our own prayers. Our intimacy with God deepens more and more as we allow the Spirit to work within us, reaching up to the Father and the Son in love.

Spirit of peace and meekness, have mercy on us.

In Scripture, peace is more than just a lack of conflict. Rather, it is a state of wholeness with everything in proper order. When we are at peace, we are right with God, with others, and with ourselves, according to God’s plan for our lives.  

Meekness is yet another one of those concepts that gets a bad rap in the modern world. People often equate “meek” with “wimpy” or “cowardly.” But this isn’t the Christian sense of the word. Meekness isn’t weakness; it’s strength under control. People who are truly meek are humble, self-controlled, and gentle, but they are also strong. They know how to respond to all situations correctly and how to allow God to guide them in their dealings with others. In this, they imitate Jesus, Who is both meek and powerful, gentle and forceful.

Spirit of modesty and innocence, have mercy on us.

Modesty is another form of self-control. The Catechism explains that “Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden.” Modesty refers to our outward appearance but also to our behaviors, words, and attitudes. When we are modest, we recognize and preserve the human dignity that God has given us, and we treat ourselves and others with respect, for we have all been made in the image of God.

The word “innocence” may call to mind the image of a small child, one who has not yet learned how to be anything other than what he or she is. Indeed, Jesus tells us, “I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3). We might think it is impossible to recapture the innocence of our childhood. We have seen too much of the world. We have done too many things wrong. Yet God offers us the way of repentance and forgiveness. He cleanses us of our sins and purifies our hearts so that we can rediscover the innocence we have lost.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 5

Spirit of knowledge and piety, have mercy on us.

Knowledge and piety are two more of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. With knowledge, we come to know the truths of our faith. It is the foundation, in a sense, for understanding, counsel, and wisdom. Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). The Spirit tells us what we need to know and then leads us into a deeper interaction with that knowledge. He is truly the very best teacher.

Piety is a word often misunderstood by modern culture. We might associate piety with images of solemn, dull, overly religious people who never have any fun. But this isn’t piety at all. Piety means loving devotion towards God. It recognizes that God is worthy of all our love and all our worship, and when we are truly pious, we want to give God the love and worship He deserves. Of course, since God is infinite and we’re merely tiny, finite creatures, we’ll never be fully successful. But our sincere striving in itself is pleasing to God.

Spirit of fear of the Lord, have mercy on us.

Fear of the Lord is the final gift of the Holy Spirit and another greatly misunderstood concept. We often associate fear with something negative, something horrible, something we do not want to feel. Yet Proverbs 14:27 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.” Proverbs 9:10 adds, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 19:9 even calls the fear of the Lord holy and enduring. 

So this fear is not negative, nor is it simply a gut reaction or instinct. Rather it is something we learn, which makes it a deliberate choice. What is this fear of the Lord, then? First, it is a deep reverence for God. It is a recognition that God is God, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.  We stand in awe before the God that our human minds cannot grasp. 

Fear of the Lord also includes a strong disinclination to offend God. We love Him, so we don’t want to sin against him. This may be because of the punishments He justly applies when we sin. If so, we have servile fear, which is not perfect but does give us a start to overcome temptations. Or we may simply fear to offend God because we recognize His goodness and beauty and holiness, and we want to please Him out of love. This is filial fear, and it should be our goal.  

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 4

Spirit of love and truth, having mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit infuses us with divine love. Since He is the very love between the Father and the Son, He is Love in person. Therefore, He can love in and through us, boosting and purifying our love so that it reaches out in true self-giving to others, imitating the pure self-giving love between the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit is also truth. Jesus promised in John 14:26 that He would send the Holy Spirit upon His disciples and that the Holy Spirit would “teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit teaches us the truth. If we let Him, He provides us with insights about God and about ourselves and about God’s will for our lives. He helps us go deeper into our faith and to better understand and appreciate, even rejoice in, the truth.

Spirit of wisdom and understanding, have mercy on us.

Wisdom and understanding are two of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are infused into us at our baptism, but they grow throughout our lives as we open ourselves to them and cultivate them. We must cooperate with the Spirit and use the gifts He so generously provides if we are to bring them to fruition.

The Catechism defines wisdom as “a spiritual gift which enables one to know the purpose and plan of God.” That should amaze us if we think about it. With the gift of wisdom, we get something of a God’s -eye view of life. Not completely, of course. It’s more like a glimpse here and there, but it can certainly help us discern and follow God’s will.

Understanding helps us come to terms with the truths of our faith. We certainly hold fast to those truths with faith, but when we apply our understanding, we go deeper. We dive into truth to get to the meaning of it. We see more clearly. We appreciate the great gifts we have. We make them our own as we take them into our minds and apply our reason to them with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Spirit of counsel and fortitude, have mercy on us.

Counsel and fortitude are two more of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Counsel is the ability to make good judgments. When we know the truth, we must act on it. But to act properly, we must first decide what is best to do (and when and how, etc.). The Spirit helps us do that with the gift of counsel.

Many people use the words “fortitude” and “courage” interchangeably, and that can work if we define them properly. The gift of fortitude is a sort of courage that helps us face the difficult struggles and trials of our lives and keep on going. We endure what we must, relying on God’s help and loving support. But fortitude also spurs us to action. It gives us the boost we need to speak the truth, to stand up for the moral law, and to act against the crowd, doing what is right even when we are the only ones. 

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 3

Source of heavenly water, have mercy on us.

“If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Jesus spoke these words to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10. He was talking about the Holy Spirit, the living water, the heavenly water that flows into our souls at Baptism and remains in us. When Jesus gives us this “water” to drink, it becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 1:14).

In John 7, Jesus attended the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the priests carried water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it out on the altar in the Temple. This water recalled God’s provision of water from the rock for His people during the exodus from Egypt and the Israelites’ years in the desert. But Jesus provided a new meaning when He said, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John adds the comment that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, Whose shower of grace pours down upon us at Baptism and throughout our lives as long as we remain in God and He remains in us.

Consuming fire, have mercy on us.

At Pentecost, tongues as of fire appeared over the heads of those gathered in the upper room. The Holy Spirit descended upon them, filling them with His fire. The tongues were merely a visible sign of something going on deep within, and the Spirit’s fire purified and strengthened, burned away the bad and made the good warm and supple. 

The Spirit’s fire set the apostles on fire, and these men, who just before had kept the doors locked out of fear, ran out to preach the Gospel to everyone gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. Some of their hearers thought they were drunk, and perhaps in a sense they were, “drunk” with the new “wine” of the Gospel. But mostly, they were on fire with love and with a longing to carry out their mission to spread the Gospel to the whole world.

Ardent Charity, have mercy on us.

The definition of “charity” has narrowed these days. We mostly think of it in terms of giving money or material items to the poor. But “charity” is actually a much broader term that, in older editions of the Bible, was often used to translate the Greek word agape. Agape is divine love, the kind of love that gives completely. It is a love that pours out everything for the good of another. It is the love of the Blessed Trinity in which we are called to share and which is so vibrant, so dynamic, so ardent as to be another Person, the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual unction, have mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit is our unction, our medicine, our salve. He heals our hearts of sin and comforts us in our trials. He calms our fears, soothes our worries, and quiets our cares. He gives us the strength we need to overcome temptation and to repent and rise when we fall.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 2

Holy Ghost, Who proceedest from the Father and the Son, enter our hearts.

Theologians tell us that the Holy Spirit is the very love between the Father and the Son, a love so strong and so vibrant that He is actually the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. We say that He proceeds from both the Father and the Son because both of these two Persons are constantly pouring out Their love for each other. This is the love, the Holy Spirit, that we are asking to enter our hearts so that we may be filled with divine love.

Holy Ghost, Who are equal to the Father and the Son, enter our hearts.

As the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit is fully divine and equal to the Father and the Son. This is, of course, a mystery. We cannot wrap our human minds around the Blessed Trinity, and we are not supposed to. Yet we have faith, for God has revealed this truth about Himself, this amazing Three-in-One and One-in-Three that is the Trinity.

Promise of God the Father, have mercy on us.

At the end of Luke’s Gospel, the risen Jesus assures the apostles that they will be witnesses of His life, death, and resurrection. They will carry this Gospel to all nations, starting in Jerusalem and working their way out. They will tell the whole world about Jesus, and they will bring His salvation to all people willing to accept it. But first, Jesus says, “And behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). This promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus has already said that the Holy Spirit would come upon His disciples. He goes so that the Holy Spirit may come to them (John 16:7). And this Holy Spirit is the promise, the comforter, and the advocate Who will fill Jesus’ followers with His power and with His tremendous gifts that will give them what they need to fearlessly take the Gospel into the whole world.

Ray of heavenly light, have mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds and hearts. He infuses us with knowledge and understanding, good judgment and wisdom, if we are open to receiving this light. It can, however, be difficult to allow the light to enter into us, for the light shows how dark we actually are. It illuminates our nooks and crannies, which can have all sorts of unpleasant things lurking within them. Yet only when we see ourselves clearly can we fully repent of our sins and allow God’s mercy to cleanse us and His light to fill us with divine radiance.

Author of all good, have mercy on us.

We might be more inclined to think of God the Father as the Author or Creator, and indeed He is. But creation is the work of the entire Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:2, we read that the Spirit of God “was moving over the face of the waters.” These “waters” refer to the chaos, the disorder, the darkness, even the nothingness that the world was before God created everything from nothing. The Spirit of God moved in an act of love that brought order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and beauty out of the void.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 1

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Nearly all litanies begin with a plea for mercy. We remember that we are sinners. We admit that we need God’s mercy and forgiveness. The triple repetition recalls the Trinity, but it also emphasizes the divinity of Christ, Who is our God and our Messiah, our Savior, our Anointed One. He died for us, taking our sins upon Himself, and He longs to shower us in the mercy of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we pray these first verses (and many of the subsequent responses), we stretch ourselves, opening ourselves up to God’s mercy, and we beg Him to pour it out on us.

Father, all powerful, have mercy on us.

We have an all-powerful Father. God loves us, protects us, guides us, and disciplines us as the very best Father, and since He is all-powerful, He can and does do this perfectly. Nothing can prevent Him from caring for His children...except, of course, one thing: His children. Our Father loves us so much that He will not take back HIs gift of free will. He holds out His all-powerful love and mercy, but we have to accept it freely. Even though God is all-powerful, He does not force Himself on us, for that is not true love.

Jesus, Eternal Son of the Father, Redeemer of the world, save us.

This verse focuses on Who Jesus is and what He does for us. He is the Eternal Son of the Father, the only-begotten Son, existing with the Father from all eternity. He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. But that Eternal Son, the Eternal Word of God, became Man, and Jesus Christ, the God-Man died on the cross for us. The Redeemer of the world died to atone for our sins, to save us from eternal separation from God, to fill us with sanctifying grace, with the divine Presence, and to bring us into Heaven. When we pray “save us,” we are longing to enter into the salvation Jesus has gained for us and holds out to us. We know that we need His help even to reach out for this great gift that He longs to give us.

Spirit of the Father and the Son, boundless life of both, sanctify us.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son pour out Their Love for each other continually, giving fully of Themselves, and this Love is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Their Love is Their Life, eternal, perfect, beyond the grasp of our human imaginations. It is this divine Life, this divine Love that enters into us and makes us holy. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us, drawing us closer and closer to God in love. He fills us with Himself, and He lifts us up into divinity, allowing us to share ever more intimately in the love of the Trinity.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Father, all powerful, have mercy on us.

Jesus, Eternal Son of the Father, Redeemer of the world, save us.

Spirit of the Father and the Son, boundless life of both, sanctify us.

Holy Ghost, Who proceedest from the Father and the Son, enter our hearts. 

Holy Ghost, Who are equal to the Father and the Son, enter our hearts.

Promise of God the Father, have mercy on us.

Ray of heavenly light, have mercy on us.

Author of all good, have mercy on us.

Source of heavenly water, have mercy on us.

Consuming fire, have mercy on us.

Ardent Charity, have mercy on us.

Spiritual unction, have mercy on us.

Spirit of love and truth, have mercy on us.

Spirit of wisdom and understanding, have mercy on us.

Spirit of counsel and fortitude, have mercy on us.

Spirit of knowledge and piety, have mercy on us.

Spirit of the fear of the Lord, have mercy on us.

Spirit of grace and prayer, have mercy on us.

Spirit of peace and meekness, have mercy on us.

Spirit of modesty and innocence, have mercy on us.

Holy Ghost, the Comforter, have mercy on us.

Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, have mercy on us.

Holy Ghost, Who governest the Church, have mercy on us.

Gift of God, the Most High, have mercy on us.

Spirit Who fillest the universe, have mercy on us.

Spirit of the adoption of the children of God, have mercy on us.

Holy Ghost, inspire us with horror of sin.

Holy Ghost, come and renew the face of the earth.

Holy Ghost, shed Thy light in our souls.

Holy Ghost, engrave Thy law in our hearts.

Holy Ghost, inflame us with the fire of Thy Love.

Holy Ghost, open to us the treasures of Thy graces.

Holy Ghost, teach us to pray well.

Holy Ghost, enlighten us with Thy heavenly inspirations.

Holy Ghost, lead us in the way of salvation.

Holy Ghost, grant us the only necessary knowledge.

Holy Ghost, inspire in us the practice of good.

Holy Ghost, grant us the merits of all virtues.

Holy Ghost, make us persevere in justice.

Holy Ghost, be Thou our everlasting reward. 

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, send us Thy Holy Ghost.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, pour down into our souls the gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, grant us the Spirit of wisdom and piety.

Come, Holy Ghost! Fill the hearts of Thy faithful.

And enkindle in them the fire of Thy Love.

Let us pray.

Grant, O merciful Father, that Thy Divine Spirit enlighten, inflame and purify us, that He may penetrate us with His heavenly dew and make us fruitful in good works; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who with Thee, in the unity of the Spirit, liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen. 

The Litany Project: A Litany Primer

What is a litany?

A litany is a traditional Catholic prayer made up of verses and responses. It is designed as a supplication or entreaty, which is what the original Greek word litaneia means, but it can also be a prime source for meditation on the realities of God. Catholics pray litanies to the Persons of the Blessed Trinity, often responding to each verse with “Have mercy on us” or something similar, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints with the response of “Pray for us.” 

How do we pray litanies?

Many people pray litanies on their own as a private devotion, quietly saying each verse and response in turn. Others pray litanies in a group with one person reciting the verses and the others replying with the response. 

Aren’t litanies too repetitive? 

Not at all! The repetition of the litany is intentional, for it calms us and establishes a regular pattern so that our thoughts can turn to the meaning of each verse. 

How can we pray a litany more effectively?

It does sometimes seem like a litany flies right by without us hardly noticing what we are saying. The pattern can get too comfortable. This is the whole point of The Litany Project. Over the next several weeks, I will be exploring three litanies, one to the Father, one to the Son, and one to the Holy Spirit. I will first provide the litany in full. Then I will offer a short explanation and meditation for each verse. 

Praying litanies in this way will deepen these beautiful prayers and allow us to open our hearts and minds to what God wants to teach us as we pray to Him. 

Reflections on the Mass: The Concluding Rites

As we pray to Jesus, Who is now with us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity after Holy Communion, the priest carefully purifies the sacred vessels. Then he quietly prays, “What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.” We, too, might make this our post-Communion prayer, for it reminds us that the Eucharist is our medicine and our purification, our hope and our greatest gift, given to us through the grace of God Who loves us more than we can imagine.

The priest sits for a short time. Then he invites us to rise, and he says one more prayer, based on the liturgical season, that reminds us of the miracle and grace we have just received in the Eucharist. The priest says once again, “The Lord be with you.” And truly the Lord is with us very intimately at this moment, for His Eucharistic presence is still in our bodies for about fifteen minutes after we receive Him. We respond, “And with your spirit.”

Depending on the liturgical season or solemnity, the priest will sometimes pray an extended blessing over us, to which we answer with a firm “Amen.”  Then he makes the sign of the cross as a final blessing, and we trace the sign of the cross on our own bodies and say, once again, “Amen.” We started the Mass with the sign of the cross, and now we finish with the same prayer, reminding us once again of the Blessed Trinity and of Jesus’ command to take up our crosses and follow Him.

Finally, the priest announces, “Go forth, the Mass is ended,” or a variation on that. We respond, “Thanks be to God.” We must now go forth, out into the world, but we take Jesus with us. We take the graces we have received, the lessons we have learned, and the inspiration we have discovered, and we go out into the world that so desperately needs God. We are sent forth like the apostles to preach the Gospel in our words and actions and to allow Jesus to work through us. 

Reflections on the Mass: Holy Communion

The time has now come for us to receive Jesus in Holy Communion. This should be a moment of great longing and great joy. We are receiving our Lord and Savior, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

Before going up to Communion, we should pray for Jesus to come to us and enter our bodies, hearts, and souls. We can ask our Lady to help us prepare to receive her Son. We should also repent of our sins by praying an Act of Contrition and expressing our sorrow for having offended God. If we are conscious of any mortal sins, we must refrain from receiving the Eucharist until we go to Confession.

When we go up to Communion, we should do so deliberately, with concentration and devotion. When the priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister holds up the Host before us and says, “The Body of Christ,” we should recognize Jesus in our hearts and respond with a firm “Amen.” The same holds true with the chalice of Jesus’ Precious Blood.

After we receive, we should thank Jesus for coming to us. We might express our love for Him, offering Him everything we have and everything we are. We can ask Him to burn away our venial sins in the fire of His love (for that is what the Eucharist does) and to cleanse our hearts and minds and souls. We could bring Him our special intentions at this point as well, or we might also simply close our eyes and bask in the warm presence of Jesus’ love within us.

Some churches sing during Communion and/or afterward. We can participate, but we can also continue to pray silently, enjoying our intimate fellowship with Jesus. This is a special time that we should not miss through distraction or carelessness. It is a time to be with Jesus, Who is personally within us, radiating His love into us and filling us with His grace. 

Reflections on the Mass: Preparing for Holy Communion

After we have recited the Lamb of God, we kneel down in reverence before our Eucharistic Lord. The priest elevates the Host and chalice, and we gaze upon Jesus, present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity under the signs of bread and wine. The priest then says, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

Do we realize how blessed we are to be kneeling there at that moment? We have been called to share in the Eucharistic sacrifice and banquet. We have been called to worship God present among us and to welcome Him into our very selves.

We respond with great humility, “Lord I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Here we echo the words of the Roman centurion who asked Jesus for a miraculous healing and had the faith to believe that Jesus could do it without even entering into his home. In that case, Jesus performed the miracle from a distance, but now He does indeed enter under our roofs to heal our souls.

And we should be ready to receive Him. In these few precious moments before Holy Communion, we must prepare our hearts and souls to welcome Jesus. We might pray an Act of Contrition and simply talk to Jesus, asking Him to come to us, shower us in His merciful love, and strengthen us. This might also be a time to present special intentions and petitions and to simply marvel that our Lord loves us so much as to enter into us in this intimate, perfectly loving way.

Reflections on the Mass: The Lamb of God

As the Sign of Peace draws to a close, the priest mingles a little bit of the Host with the Precious Blood in the chalice, praying quietly as he does, “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.” This symbolizes the resurrection of Christ, when His Body and Blood were reunited to His spirit, but it also symbolizes the unity of the Church with Christ.

Around the same time, we sing or recite the Lamb of God sequence:

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Jesus is our Lamb of God. John the Baptist said so clearly, indicating that Jesus was to be the sacrifice that would replace all the animal sacrifices of ancient Israel. He is the new and perfect Sacrifice of the new and eternal Covenant. He gave Himself up on the cross for our sins, and that sacrifice on the cross is re-presented in an unbloody manner at every Mass.

Yes, the Mass is a sacrifice where we enter into the sacrifice of the cross and unite ourselves to Jesus, Who is both priest and victim. We give ourselves completely to Him as He gives Himself completely to us. 

Reflections on the Mass: The Sign of Peace

When the Lord’s Prayer is finished, the priest turns to us and says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” We respond, “And with your spirit.”

It is important to understand peace according to its Biblical meaning. In the Scriptures, peace is not simply the lack of conflict. Rather, it is a state in which everything is in its proper order. When we are truly at peace, we are living as God would have us do. We are in a right relationship with Him and with the people He has put into our lives. Our minds and our hearts are focused on Him, and our words and actions flow out of that focus.

The priest or deacon then invites us to offer each other the sign of peace. This should be brief and simple. A handshake, nod, smile, or wave to the people around us is sufficient. We must remember that the sign of peace is not intended to be a miniature social hour in the middle of Mass. Instead, it is intended to remind us of Jesus’ words about reconciling with our brothers and sisters before we bring our gifts to God in worship. It is a nudge toward forgiveness, a challenge to let go of grudges, and an invitation to allow God to fill our hearts with His love for the people around us.

Reflections on the Mass: The Lord’s Prayer

The Eucharistic Prayer is finished. Jesus is present on the altar, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. We stand now, and the priest reminds us of Jesus’ teaching and command. We are to pray as He taught us, and that means praying the Lord’s Prayer.

We join our voices to praise God and ask Him for our daily bread and for the forgiveness we continually need. We beg Him that His will may be done on earth, in us and by us, as it is in Heaven. We long to “hallow” His Name, to hold it sacred, and we desire the coming of His kingdom.  We ask God that we may not be led into temptation, the testing or trials that God sends to us but that He always gives us the grace to endure and conquer if only we turn to Him. We conclude with a request that recognizes how small and helpless we are as we ask God to deliver us from evil.

Here we pause, but the priest continues to pray. He reiterates the request to deliver us from evil and asks that God grant us peace and the help of His mercy that we may be “free from sin and safe from all distress” while we wait in hope for the coming of Jesus. 

We rejoin the prayer then with the doxology, “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours now and forever.” We know that God is control. We realize that everything we have comes from Him. We proclaim this in trust, recognizing that He longs to give us every good gift, for He is our Father. 

Reflections on the Mass: The Doxology and Amen

At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest takes the chalice and paten in his hands and raises them up before us. Then he proclaims the doxology, a prayer of praise and worship:

Through Him, and with Him, and in Him,
O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is Yours,
for ever and ever.

We channel our worship of God through His Son, Who is now present on the altar, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. We praise the Father with the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. We entered into divine life in Christ when we were baptized, and we are about to dive deeply into intimacy with the Blessed Trinity when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist.

We join our hearts in adoration as we gaze upon the Eucharist, and at the end of the doxology, we say or sing “Amen!” We proclaim our “Yes!” to God. We declare, “It is true!” We profess our belief that Jesus is really present. Our “Amen” should ring out with joy and awe that we should receive such a gift.

Reflections on the Mass: The Eucharistic Prayer

We now enter into the climax of the Mass as the priest begins to recite the Eucharistic Prayer. There are four major Eucharistic Prayers that the priest can choose from. They are of varying lengths and complexities, but they all contain the necessary elements of the epiclesis, the institution narrative and consecration, and the anamnesis.

The epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit to come down upon the gifts of bread and wine and transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ. We watch as the priest extends his hands over our offerings and asks God to accept them and to change our hearts and minds and lives along with them so that we may be all the more ready and eager to receive our Lord. A server will sometimes ring a bell to remind us that a very important invocation is taking place.

The institution narrative follows. While the prayers are slightly different in each Eucharistic Prayer, they all recall how, on the night before He suffered and died for us, Jesus took bread, broke it, gave thanks to the Father, and said, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is My Body, which will be given up for you.” With these words, the bread on the altar becomes the Body of Christ. The priest is acting in persona Christi, and Christ acts through Him as the Holy Spirit answers the prayer of the epiclesis. This is the first part of the consecration.

The priest is holding the bread as he speaks the words of consecration and the transubstantiation takes place on the altar. He then raises the Host up for all to view. We cannot see the transformation happen, but we know it by faith.

The priest then takes up the chalice, recalling how Jesus took the chalice in His hands and said the blessing before giving it to the disciples with these words: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of My Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of Me.” With these words, the wine is transformed into the Blood of Christ.

Jesus Christ is now present on the altar, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. We have the obligation to worship Him in wonder and awe and to receive Him with the greatest reverence. We declare this mystery of faith with a brief response proclaiming the death and resurrection of our Lord and declaring that He has set us free and that we will continue to proclaim this mystery until He comes again.

Each Eucharistic Prayer also features an anamnesis, a remembrance. In the anamnesis, we do exactly what Jesus commanded us to do when He said, “Do this in memory of Me.” We remember what Jesus did, but we also remember the people with whom we share in this offering and those for whom we pray. We remember the whole Church, clergy and laity together. We remember those living and those who have gone before us. We remember the saints and those who may still be suffering in Purgatory. We remember our own special intentions. What is more, we ask God the Father to remember all of this, too. It is not that He will ever forget, but we reverently place all of this before Him so that we do not forget.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preface Acclamation

The priest ends the Preface of the Eucharistic prayer with an invitation to us. We are to join our voices to those of the angels and sing a hymn of praise to God in all His glory. So we lift up our voices and our hearts in praise.

“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.” We proclaim three times that God is holy, and this reminds us that God is Trinity in Unity. He is one God, one divine substance, but three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We don't have to understand it, and we never fully will, but we do have to belief it. For God has revealed it. “Lord God of hosts” reminds us that God is the God of the angels, too, of His angel army. This is His military title, reminding us of His omnipotence.

“Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.” This is more true than we realize. God's glory surrounds us. His creation reflects it, each element in its own way. We, too, are called to reflect God's glory and to respond to His glory with awe and wonder. Everything around us is a gift from Him. We don't deserve any of it. He gives it freely out of love. Are we grateful?

“Hosanna in the highest.” Hosanna is a cry of rejoicing, but the word literally means “save us” or “rescue us.” As we pray this line, we are to recognize that only God can save us and rescue us from our sins and our weakness and the horrible messes we get ourselves into. God is the Savior. We need His salvation to the maximum. We rely on His help, for we cannot save ourselves. So when we say “Hosanna,” we cry out to God for something that only He can give: our salvation.

“Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.” This line comes from Matthew 21:9. Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on the day that would come to be known as Palm Sunday. The crowd is celebrating before Him, crying out that He is blessed and that He has come in the name of the Lord. They are recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, but they do not fully realize yet that He is also God. Yet their praise is sincere, and now we echo it, and we have all the more reason to do so, for we know Who Jesus is.

“Hosanna in the highest.” Still echoing the crowd in Jerusalem, once more we proclaim, “Hosanna in the highest.” We join our voices to theirs, asking God to save us and rejoicing because He has, He is, and He will.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preface

The Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer varies with the liturgical seasons and solemnities. Priests can choose from a number of different Prefaces for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. Each one specifically addresses the season and provides a beautiful reflection on salvation history and on the mystery and awe of the Eucharist.

Each Preface begins with a reference to our previous response of “It is right and just.” The priest reiterates, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give You thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.” Think about these words for a moment. God deserves all our thanks and praise. It is our duty to thank and praise Him. It is our salvation to thank and praise Him, for in doing so, we open ourselves to His grace, and we repent of our sins.

The Eucharist is the high point of our praise and thanksgiving. We join ourselves to Jesus as He offers the highest sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the Father, the almighty and eternal God, Who graciously bows down to accept our sacrifice of His beloved Son. Then we have the opportunity to receive the Son in the most intimate way possible.

The Preface helps us meditate on the sheer beauty and wonder of the Eucharistic mystery we are entering into. Yet it goes by so quickly that we may miss it if we aren't paying close attention. It helps to read through the Prefaces for the current liturgical season in the missal and reflect on them, allowing them to sink deeply into our minds and hearts. Then when we hear them at Mass, we can bask in their depths and in the light of their truth.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preface Dialogue

The Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer opens with a short dialogue between the priest and the people. This can go by so quickly that we may miss its importance.

The priest begins with “The Lord be with you.” Think about this for a moment. This is a tremendous blessing, especially since our Lord is about to be with us in an unimaginably intimate way when we receive Him in the Eucharist. But He is always with us, of course. He dwells within us when we are in a state of grace. He holds us in being at every moment. So the priest says these words as a reminder of that reality and as a prayer that we may recognize God's presence and respond to Him by growing ever closer to Him.

We respond, “And with your spirit.” At this point, we should remember what the priest is about to do. He is about to act in persona Christi, in the person of Christ, to consecrate the Eucharist. Through the priest, Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. What a gift this is! And what a responsibility. So as we say these words, we should mean them in a deep way. We should be praying that Jesus work in and through the priest and that the priest open himself up to the work of our Lord, that he make himself a channel of grace.

The priest then exhorts us, “Lift up your hearts,” and we reply, “We lift them up to the Lord.” As we say that, we should do it, as fully as we can. Our focus should be fully on God and on the prayer and worship we are offering in the Mass. We must prepare ourselves to welcome and receive Jesus in the Eucharist, and this requires a raised heart, a heart lifted up to God in love and adoration. We give God the hearts He has given to us and love Him with the love He so graciously provides.

Finally, the priest prays, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” There is so much to be grateful for. God has given us everything we have and everything we are. And He is about to give us Himself in the Eucharist. We should be filled with wonder and gratitude. We reply, “It is right and just.” It is right and just indeed, for God deserves every bit of our gratitude. When we are thankful, we recognize all the gifts He has given us. We deserve none of them, yet He is generous beyond our wildest dreams. That's because He loves us.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preparation of the Gifts

At this point in the Mass, the priest prepares the gifts he is about to offer on the altar. We prepare our minds and hearts to join in the sacrifice.

The priest begins by praying either quietly or aloud a blessing over the bread, blessing God for His great gift to us that we now offer back to Him so that it can become the bread of life. If the priest is speaking out loud, we join our blessing to his by responding, “Blessed be God for ever.” We should mean it, too, for, in blessing God, we are recognizing His awesomeness, His perfection, His generosity toward His creatures, and His great love for us.

The priest then turns his attention to the wine. He (or the deacon) has already mixed the wine with a little water, speaking a quiet prayer that “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ Who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” The priest now prays the blessing over the wine, against blessing God for His gift that we offer back to Him that it may become our spiritual drink. We again respond, “Blessed be God for ever.”

Both of these preparation prayers mention that these gifts, the bread and the wine, are the work of human hands. We human beings are to use the natural gifts that God has given us, the wheat, the grapes, our bodies, our minds, to cooperate in His saving plan.

The priest prays quietly, asking that God accept us, with our “humble spirit and contrite heart,” and that our sacrifice may find favor in His sight and be pleasing to Him. Then he washes his hands, praying that God wash away his sins.

The priest then invites us to pray that this sacrifice, both his and ours, may be acceptable to God. We echo that prayer, adding that we wish to give praise and glory to God's name through our sacrifice and receive good for ourselves and for the Church. The priest extends his hands and says another prayer over the gifts. This one is seasonal, and we can find it in the missal. We should pay close attention to it and join in it with a firm “Amen.”

We are now ready to enter into the Eucharistic Prayer.

Reflections on the Mass: The Offeratory

When the Prayers of the Faithful are complete, we sit down for the Offeratory. We will often sing a hymn during this time, but we should not get distracted from the many things that are going on.

For one thing, on Sundays and Solemnities, the ushers come around to take up the collection. We should make an effort to give as much as we are able. Supporting the Church is an obligation for us, and while no one should ever dictate an amount for us to give, we should strive to be generous. After all, our parish provides us with Holy Mass and the other sacraments.

The deacon or priest prepares the altar during this time as well. We notice that he carefully places the corporal (the cloth that rests on top of the altar cloth) and sets out the sacred vessels. Then the priest brings or receives the gifts of bread and wine. On Sundays and Solemnities, parishioners carry these gifts forward and present them to the priest. We should join ourselves to them spiritually, for the bread and wine are offered by the entire congregation, and they symbolize the offering of everything we have and everything we are to God.

As the priest lays the bread and wine on the altar, we should place ourselves on the altar as well. We should give God our joys and sorrows, our worries and anxieties, our triumphs and trials, our families, our jobs, our leisure. And mostly, we must give Him ourselves, for we are His anyway. Without Him, we would not exist, and without His constant care, we would cease to exist. The Offeratory is the perfect time to recognize this and give everything back to God, for He has given it all to us.

Reflections on the Mass: Prayers of the Faithful

After the Creed, we remain standing for the Prayers of the Faithful or Universal Prayer. We pray as the Body of Christ, uniting ourselves as one as we cry out to God for our needs.

These prayers often follow a pattern. We pray for our Holy Father the Pope and for our bishop and other members of the clergy that they may lead us well and faithfully. We pray for civic leaders that they may be guided by truth and goodness. We pray for our sick that they may experience the grace and healing of God. We pray for our dead that they may see God's face. We pray for special needs, for an end to abortion perhaps or for relief from a natural disaster.

We bring all of these to God, praying the heartfelt response of “Lord, hear our prayer” or something similar after each petition. Usually, we also have a chance to silently add our own prayers, and we should offer our special intentions to God, lifting them up to Him with confidence, knowing that He hears us and loves us and will respond to us in the way that is best for us according to His perfect will.

Reflections on the Mass: The Creed

After the homily, we sit in silence for a few moments, reflecting on what we have learned and praying about it. Then, at least on Sundays and solemnities, we stand to pray the Creed, expressing our adherence to our Catholic faith.

Most of the time we pray the Nicene or Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed that was developed out of Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381. This Creed, also called a profession of faith or a symbol of faith, allows us to speak our faith out loud.

We proclaim our belief in God the Father almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth. We declare our belief in Jesus Christ the Son, Who is truly God yet became Man and died and rose and will come again. We pronounce our belief in the Holy Spirit, “Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” We declare that we believe in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church” and in “one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” Then we end with an eager anticipation of “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

It is also legitimate to pray the shorter Apostles' Creed at Mass at the priest's discretion. This Creed, too, allows us to express and reflect on the basic beliefs of our Catholic faith, only in a more condensed fashion.

We must be careful not to recite the Creed out of mere habit but rather reflect on each word we speak, allowing our faith to grow as we proclaim it. We would do well, too, to pray the Creed privately, very slowly, and meditate on each statement of faith, making sure that we understand what we believe, at least as much as possible, and that we hold fast to this basic statement of our Catholicism.

Reflections on the Mass: The Homily

After the proclamation of the Gospel, we sit down and assume a position of open listening, for we are about to hear the homily. In the Catholic Church, the homily may only be given by a bishop, priest, or deacon. These men are ordained in the sacrament of Holy Orders, and they are provided with special graces to preach about the Sacred Scriptures and about our Catholic faith. It is not legitimate for anyone else to give the homily at Mass.

The priest (or bishop or deacon) usually uses the homily to explain the readings we have just heard and to help us apply their teachings to our own lives. He might present the historical context of some passages, interpret others in meaningful ways, offer tips for living out the messages, or often all of the above. Drawing on his own studies and prayer, he provides insights to help us better grasp the Scriptures and our faith.

We should frequently pray for our bishops, priests, and deacons so that their homilies can be edifying both for us and for themselves and so that they may be willing to be the instruments Jesus uses to speak to our hearts and minds.

Reflections on the Mass: The Gospel

After the Gospel Acclamation, we listen with great attention to the Word of God in the Gospel. This is one of the high points of the Mass, and we stand in reverence with our minds and hearts open because Jesus is speaking to us. The Gospel may be proclaimed at Mass only by a bishop, priest, or deacon, someone who has received the Holy Orders. Jesus speaks through this ordained man, using him as His instrument to proclaim His Word.

The Gospel begins with a brief dialogue between the priest (or bishop or deacon) and the people. “The Lord be with you.” “And with your spirit.” We should speak our part with sincerity and with a prayer for the one who will read the Gospel.

The Gospel is drawn from either Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. The Sunday Lectionary works on a three-year cycle with Matthew read in Year A, Mark in Year B, and Luke in Year C. The Gospel of John is read throughout, filling in as only this beautiful, theological Gospel can do.

We should focus carefully on the Gospel, following along in a missal if that helps. Again, it is best to read and meditate on the Gospel before Mass, for this opens us to what God wants to say to us.

At the end of the reading, the priest (or bishop or deacon) pauses briefly and then declares, “The Gospel of the Lord.” We respond with awe and gratitude: “Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.” For Jesus has spoken to us.

The priest (or bishop or deacon) then kisses the Gospel book as a sign of reverence and prays quietly, “Through the words of the Gospel may our sins be wiped away.” Amen. May it be so.