12 Sunday in Ordinary Time Prayer over Offering

This week’s prayer is about suscipe, a Latin word that means both, to take and receive. The prayer is also about conciliation and reconciliation. This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Prayer Over the Offering for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Receive, O Lord, the sacrifice of conciliation and praise and grant that, cleansed by its action, we may make offering of a heart pleasing to you. Through Christ our Lord.

In the Latin form of the prayer, suscipe is the first word of the prayer. We ask God to take and receive this sacrifice, which is Christ, who offered himself to the Father for us. The prayer tells us that it was a sacrifice of conciliation and praise.

Conciliation involves a third party bringing two other parties back together. Jesus is the one who became the conciliation between the human race and God. In the Mass, we offer the sacrifice of Christ back to the Father with praise because it is worthy of all praise. Without the conciliation of Jesus we would have no way to be reconciled with the Father. We would have no hope to be saved from being bound by sin.

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we receive the same sacrifice that we offer and when we not only take it but receive it as well, we are cleansed by its action. It is from this state of being cleansed that we may offer back to God a heart that is pleasing to Him.

I’ve been meditating on what it takes to have a heart pleasing to God and perhaps the best example is found in Jesus. When I unite myself to His heart, His heart does not adapt to mine, I become more like Him. In His heart we find a love that is willing to sacrifice and a heart that, while humble, is not afraid to walk in its true identity. This heart is not afraid to break to bring forth new life.

When we receive the sacrifice we offer, we become more and more like His heart.

Thanks for praying with me,
Julie