24 Sunday OT Prayer After Communion

This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Prayer After Communion for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This week’s prayer is like a puzzle with more than one way to solve it.

May the working of this heavenly gift, O Lord, we pray, take possession of our minds and bodies, so that its effects, and not our own desires, may always prevail in us. Through Christ our Lord.

The heavenly gift in the prayer is Jesus. The working is the “work” of the sacrificial action of Jesus on the Cross. This is redemption, God buying us back. He regained possession of us in exchange for payment and the payment was the working of this heavenly gift.

At first I found this part of the prayer a bit unnerving. How can you tell someone that that this work of Jesus should take possession of their mind and body, because “take possession” sounds so controlling? However, possession doesn’t mean just to own or control, it also means to occupy.

If we want Jesus to be at work in the world today, we need to let him take possession because He works through our minds and bodies. Paul tells us to “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 2:5 ESV). He also tells us in his letter to the Galatians, “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20). Giving Jesus possession of our minds and bodies is part of the normal Christian life.

In the last phrase of the prayer, we pray that instead of our own desires, the effects of the work of Jesus prevails in us. For the word “prevail,” in the Latin form of the prayer, we find the word praeveniat, which means to come before. The effects of the work of Jesus are to be our priority, however, they can’t be our priority if we don’t let them take possession of our minds and bodies.

As I meditated on this prayer, there were two points that stood out most to me.

The first is that the effects of the saving work of Jesus should prevail, not my desires. We’ve all seen them, the celebrities and influencers who have become accustomed to getting everything their heart desires. Some even reach a point where they think that the people around them should fulfill their desires, as well.

God knows that one of the quickest ways to be unfulfilled and unhappy is if we focus on ourselves, and when we focus on ourselves, we miss out on what God wants for us. If He loves us enough to die for us, we need to trust that His desires for us are more than we can even comprehend and He wants to fulfill His desires in us.

The second, and probably the most important takeaway from the prayer comes from the word “working.” Redemption is the work of Jesus, He took care of the hard part. Our work is to say “yes.” 

Every saint said “yes” to God and lived from their submission to the saving work of Jesus. Every saint prayed that Jesus’ desires would be their desires. In their own way, every saint spoke the words of Mary, “May it be done to me according to Your word” and not one of the saints has been disappointed in what God has done in them and through them.

Each one of us are called to be a saint, too. Perhaps the first step to our own sainthood comes from our answer to the question, “How much does the saving work of Jesus mean to me?” When we come to love God for what He has done for us, giving him possession to our minds and bodies becomes a delight. 

Thanks for praying with me,
Julie