Lectio the Liturgy: Sunday, April 24, 2022

Julie Storr shares a reflection on the Collect for the Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday.

This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the 2nd Sunday of Easter. I love this prayer. It’s longer than most, but it give us some food for thought regarding our identity. Also note that on this Divine Mercy Sunday, we are reminded that our identity is ours only because of the mercy of God.

God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

The description of God is longer than usual. We are reminded that He is the God of mercy, and the God who kindles the faith of the people consecrated to Him. Kindle is defined as set on fire. Just like the fire that lights the candles during Easter Vigil, our faith, through our Easter feast, has been set on fire.

Next, we ask God to increase the grace He has given us. The need for the increase is for us to understand some specific effects that can only be given by God. We hope to grasp with proper understanding in what font, and by whose Spirit and Blood we have been washed, reborn, and redeemed.

Washed, reborn, and redeemed. These are words we may not always use to describe ourselves, but God says that is who we are. We have not earned this status; there are no hoops to jump or ladders to climb. To be washed, reborn, and redeemed is all a gift. It’s all grace.

To grasp and rightly understand means to take the full meaning into the mind, or to lay hold of something in its entirety. In this prayer, what we want to comprehend is this gift of God, the gift of being washed, reborn, and redeemed.

Click to tweet:
To be washed, reborn, and redeemed is all a gift. It’s all grace. #catholicmom

Now we know why we are asking for an increase in grace. Through God’s grace, we were made children of His own. Today we ask for an increase in grace to be able to live as His children.

Lectio the Liturgy:

Each day this week, read these declarations aloud (you can write them on a sticky note and put on your bathroom mirror, too): “I have been washed in God’s font. I have been reborn by the Spirit. I have been redeemed by Jesus’ Blood. I am God’s own.”

Thank you for praying with me.

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