Collect Your Thoughts

From my seminary days I recall that one notable difference between today's Gospel from Matthew and its Lucan parallel is the use of the word "daily": "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Why one evangelist remembered Him saying "daily" and another did not--or however that went down--I couldn't tell you. But there is something to that word "daily": We got up this morning, and it was a new day, a new opportunity or a new need to do many of the same things we did yesterday and the day before. We have to repeat this stuff daily for it to work.

This morning a Facebook friend shared the "Morning Offering." Perhaps you recall it:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day: for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for all my sins, for the intentions of all my associates, and in particular for the intentions recommended to me this month by our Holy Father.

Where did I learn that? Across the street from our church, at Saint Clair Catholic, before it became a grotto. Every morning we heard it over the loudspeaker. It reminded me of this morning's collect, which I would attempt for you in my best impression of my freshman and junior year English teacher, Sister Joseph Annetta, S.S.J. (Eternal Memory!):

Direct, O Lord, we beseech You, all our actions by Your holy inspirations, and carry them through by Your gracious assistance, so that our every prayer and work may always begin with You, and by You be happily ended: through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

(Actiones nostras, quaesumus, Domine, aspirando praeveni et adiuvando prosequere, ut cuncta nostra oratio et operatio a Te semper incipiat, et per Te coepta finiatur: per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.) [I learned it in Latin, too, because I'm goofy like that.]

That prayer collected--gathered--us from the diverse conversations that took place right up to, and sometimes a little bit after, the bell. That's one reason we refer once again to the Opening Prayer of the Mass as the collect.

Of course, the wording is now different from the version I just quoted (as was the previous Mass translation), but I remember it because we heard it from her daily. They say, repetitio est mater studiorum: "repetition is the mother of students," and it was a mother to us! But it worked.

But I would thoroughly understand if many of my classmates could not remember the prayer, especially if they haven't cared to remember it (interest makes a difference when it comes to memory), or if they haven't used it since their last class with Sister Joe. When I taught high school, I used that prayer every day, for both my theology and Latin classes.

The prayers, the hymns, the poems, the movie lines, and maybe even the times tables: These are the type of things I hope to remember when I'm retired and in our Villa, if we still have one.

Anyhow, a good Lenten practice might be to memorize a certain prayer or action, by repeating it daily. It will be one of those many worthy things we'll want to continue when Lent is over.

Every "today" is a day to choose whether or not to repeat the actions that can become our habits.

Bring Back the Morning Offering!

This post from the blog "Ascending Mount Carmel" was worth the read, because it reminded me of a prayer I learned in seventh grade (the year I began Catholic school), to wit, the "Morning Offering."

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day: for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for all my sins, for the intentions of all my associates, and in particular, for the intentions recommended this month by our Holy Father.

From memory...BAM!   I can remember this prayer, first learned 25 years ago at St. Clair Catholic, but I can't remember to lock doors.  In this and other respects I have a sort of patron in Woody Allen: “How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?”

The obsessive-compulsive conscientious fact checker in me consulted a search engine, whose first, appropriate, yield was EWTN.  Its version of the MO explains "associates" as "relatives and friends" and omits "recommended this month."  I respectfully disagree with these modifications, although my memorized version, it turns out, isn't the official one either.

"This month"?  What's that about, anyhow?  Glad you asked.  The Apostleship of Prayer is a Catholic prayer movement founded in 1844 by the Society of Jesus.  Its aim is to involve more and more people in the Church's missionary activity through prayer.  Each year the AoP issues the Pope's monthly prayer intentions--one general and one missionary.  The AoP website also offers rather helpful reflections on the intentions.  And this page offers several variations on the MO that were, until now, unfamiliar to me.

I like the version that includes "my work, my prayers, my apostolic efforts."  But here as always when it comes to prayer, the formula is subordinate to the recollection (attentiveness) and the discipline (fidelity) with which we pray.

Mr. Liske of AMC cites the Ignatian and Salesian endorsement of praise and contrition as dual bookends for the day.  Hans Urs Von Balthasar (S.J.) wrote a book entitled "Truth is Symphonic."  I've never read it, but I like to cite the phrase whenever people of different stripes agree on fundamental realities.  Jesus said that the agreement of two people on any matter merits the Father's attention (cf. Mt 18:19).  In today's polarized society, concord is a hot commodity!

Perhaps the Patient Reader would agree with me that some form of morning offering, conducted faithfully and attentively, would serve the Church well.  Simple and direct is the way to connect.