Happy Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and Happy Consecration Day!
For those who have been reading and praying with our parish Christmas gift, 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory, today culminates with our Eucharistic Consecration. As Matthew Kelly explains in 33 Days, “Consecration is to devote yourself to God…[to] dedicate ourselves abundantly, wholeheartedly, and completely to the will of God, surrender our distractions and selfishness, and promise to faithfully respond to God’s grace in our lives.”
In today’s Gospel, we hear of the Lord’s consecration: When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,” and to offer the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. (Luke 2:22-24)
As Saint John Paul II explained in a homily during an apostolic pilgrimage to India, “God enters the temple not as a powerful ruler but as a little child in his Mother’s arms. The King of glory comes not with a show of human force and power, not with a great fanfare and noise, not causing fright and destruction. He comes into the temple as he came into the world, as an infant in silence, in poverty, and in the company of the poor and the wise.”
In the Eucharist, the Lord comes to us in the same way! In the Communion host, He is small and vulnerable, allowing us to take Him into ourselves. It’s all choice and invitation; there is no coercion on his part. We receive the most precious gift…and the more we receive in a spirit of faith, the more the graces flow! With each reception of the Eucharist, the Lord gives us his very self! As we approach the altar, we are invited to give our very selves! Our prayer of consecration after reading 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory helps us commit to this “unconditional surrender to God,” every Sunday, every day, truly, every second of our lives…”
We will invite the Lord into our hearts deeper today as we pray the Prayer of Consecration, a small portion of which reads:
Lord Jesus Christ, truly present in the Eucharist, I consecrate myself to You today without reservation. Transform me. Transform my life. I trust in the eternal genius of Your ways. I make myself 100 percent available to You. Lead me, encourage me, challenge me. Show me how I can collaborate with You, and I will do what You ask with a joyful heart.
So, for those who have been using January to prepare for consecration, we invite you to join us today (Sunday, Feb. 2nd, at 9:30 or 11:30am) to pray the Consecration Prayer together.
And if you hadn’t yet had time to dig into 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory, and this desire is being placed on your heart, we invite you to read and pray with 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory, and when you are ready and spiritually prepared, you are welcome to kneel before the Tabernacle after Mass one day to pray the consecration prayer for yourself. (You could also go to our FaceBook livestream and watch today’s recording to unite your prayer with ours!)
One final nudge you may have while reading 33 Days is to find out more about Eucharistic Adoration! We are so blessed to have our own Adoration Chapel, located on the St. Joseph Campus. If you’d like to find out more about how Adoration “works” (What do I do? Where do I go?), we’ll be offering the opportunity in February to find out! Just contact me via phone call or email at shayne@saintjohnjackson.org; we will offer several days where we can stop by the chapel with you, show you around, and explain. Just call the office to make an appointment for a Tuesday at 2pm or a Friday at 1pm. (If an evening visit is needed due to your work schedule, please let me know as we have an option for that as well.)
Praying we can all give our “yes” to the Lord in these life changing ways!
Shayne