A Prayer That Says It All

There's another part of the sermon I heard yesterday that I feel must share as well. It was a beautiful prayer that I had never heard before but that I doubt I'll ever forget. It was written by a French priest who went as a missionary to China and who died there as a martyr in 1840, having been tortured, crucified, and suffocated, all because he would not give up preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Here is the poem:

O my Divine Savior,
Transform me into Yourself.
May my hands be the hands of Jesus.
Grant that every faculty of my body
May serve only to glorify You.

Above all,
Transform my soul and all its powers
So that my memory, will and affection
May be the memory, will and affections
Of Jesus.

I pray You
To destroy in me all that is not of You.
Grant that I may live but in You, by You and for You,
So that I may truly say, with Saint Paul,
"I live - now not I - But Christ lives in me."

- Saint Jean-Gabriel Perboyre

It says it all!

How God Gives Us His Love in Holy Communion

I heard such a wonderful sermon yesterday I feel compelled to share it. The sermon was given in the context of Holy Communion. The Scripture reading on which it was based was John 13, in which Jesus, warning His disciples that He doesn't have much more time to be with them, gives them a new commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you."

"What is love?" asked the preacher. He said love is basically 3 things. It's (1) wanting to be with the loved one, (2) wanting to give good gifts to the loved one, and (3) wanting the loved one to be good.

That is how Jesus loves us, and that is how He wants us to love one another. The preacher spoke of how Jesus loves us through Holy Communion. He loves us in Holy Communion because in instituting this sacrament, Jesus demonstrated His desire not only to be with us, but in us. Jesus also loves us in Holy Communion by giving us a gift that is not only good but indeed the very best that He can possibly give us--the gift of Himself. Finally, He loves us through Holy Communion not only by demonstrating His desire that we be good but by actually enabling us to be good through sharing His life with us.

As I said, it was too good not to share.