February 25, 2024 - Pastor Message
04/30/2024“I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above…One cried out to the other, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!’ At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. ‘See,’ he said, ‘now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ ‘Here I am,’ I said, ‘send me!’” (Isaiah 6:1-8).
This image of the call of the prophet Isaiah has been interpreted by Christians from ancient times as an image of our encounter with God in the Eucharist. From reluctant spectator to eager missionary, Isaiah is transformed when the seraphim, an angel often associated with holy fire, touches his lips with a burning ember from the altar of sacrifice before the awesome presence of God. This divine spark lights the fearful soul of Isaiah on fire and sends him out to boldly proclaim God’s word to others.
Just so, our celebration of the Eucharist is meant to be a transformative experience of the awesome presence of God that lights our fearful souls on fire and sends us out to serve the mission of Christ, God’s living Word. But how often do we really experience it that way? When we receive the living and true sacrifice, Jesus Christ, on our lips, does it change us? The Church in the United States has been participating in a three year Eucharistic Revival that aims to make that transformative vision of the Eucharist a reality in our lives. By renewing our understanding and appreciation of the Eucharist, the revival hopes to serve as an accelerant, stirring the sometimes dim and fading ember of our Eucharistic celebration into a raging fire of faith and missionary zeal.
One way it seeks to do this is through a special novena dubbed the Revival Spark Series: 9 Days of Prayer for Renewal. The novena is composed of nine days of reflection, prayer, and spiritual exercises organized around nine different themes related to the Eucharist. While meant to be done consecutively, you can also spread the days out over a period of weeks, which makes the novena perfect for our Lenten journey. An added bonus is the fact that we don’t do it alone; we join thousands of other Catholics across the country as they pray the novena as well, lighting the entire country on fire with brighter Eucharistic faith. I strongly encourage you to consider adding the Revival Spark Series novena to your Lenten prayer by checking out the Eucharistic Revival website at eucharisticrevival.org, and, whatever you do, seek to intensify your faith and celebration of the Eucharist this Lent.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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