Uncovering That Place of True Gladness

Dear Friend,

According to many calculations, this week marks the completion of month five of our experience of the pandemic lockdown/shelter in place. The opening prayer of this week’s liturgy seems a very apt marker for this moment.

“O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose,

grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise,

that, amid the uncertainties of this world,

our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.”

In technical terms, the opening prayer of the Mass is known as the “collect” because it is meant to “collect” us into one focus at the outset of Sunday Mass. Many of these prayers date from the earliest days of Christian liturgy and, like the scriptures themselves, can feel very immediate, with meaning that can unfold and even rhyme in some way with current circumstances and dilemmas. If nothing else, I think every person who hears and prays these words with the priest this Sunday will relate to the phrase “amid the uncertainties of this world”!

Praying this week’s “collect” as our strange summer comes to a close, I ask you to consider what might be the “single purpose” behind the life and programming of our parish. In line with our Franciscan value of joy, consider how we might work together in the days ahead to uncover “that place of true gladness” and “fix our hearts” on that! 

Like Peter in this week’s Gospel, we are made to stand at the threshold of heaven and earth, and, in the words of the master theologian N.T. Wright, “be the conduit through which God’s life comes to earth and earth’s praises rise to God.” A good place to locate ourselves amidst the world’s “uncertainties” and a wonderful purpose, too.

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor