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10/8/26 Power-Prayer · Omnia Christus

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about the liturgy of the Eucharist,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: the Mass, and we've been talking about the Eucharistic prayers in general.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what we're going to do is just talk about the Eucharistic prayers in general.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: If we were to go through every one of the Eucharistic prayers and all the parts
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: of those prayers, we would be here for quite some time.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe we'll add that to a later expansion.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if we're now talking about the Eucharistic prayers in general,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: the Eucharistic prayer is that kind of core of the mass,
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  SPEAKER_00: that central prayer in which the priest prays specifically the words
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: of consecration,
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  SPEAKER_00: but surrounding those words of consecration are all of these other prayers.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of those prayers are prayers of petition.
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  SPEAKER_00: Prayer, the word prayer literally means petition to pray, to ask for something.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the fundamental sense of what prayer means.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so in this Eucharistic prayer,
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  SPEAKER_00: there are all of these petitions asking God to help the community,
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: asking God to bless those who have died, asking God for our needs.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's always been a fundamental part of our prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was interesting.
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  SPEAKER_00: I was just at the Jewish synagogue the other day for one of their celebrations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in that celebration,
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  SPEAKER_00: They prayed by name for every person in their community who had died during
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: that last year and went through the whole list and very complete praying for those.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has always been a part of our Judeo-Christian heritage to pray for people,
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  SPEAKER_00: to ask for our needs.
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  SPEAKER_00: But to our Western materialistic mind,
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  SPEAKER_00: there's probably a part of us that thinks, yeah, but that doesn't really matter.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's not really doing anything.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
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  SPEAKER_00: we might just give a little throwaway, yeah,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll pray for you,
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  SPEAKER_00: without really thinking about that or without really doing anything about that.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because for us, generally, we tend to think that like doing things is what matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: I do something concrete for someone.
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  SPEAKER_00: Praying for them,
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  SPEAKER_00: that's kind of just like words going out into the ether
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  SPEAKER_00: and it's not really doing anything.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't consciously think that, but at least I can speak for myself.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's a part of my mind that tends to think that way.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not really doing anything.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, fine, I'll pray for you, whatever.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: C.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lewis has a really good image that he uses,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I think it's in one of his essays,
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  SPEAKER_00: if not in Letters to Malcolm, which is his book about prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he says,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's funny that we would think that way because we don't think that way
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  SPEAKER_00: in other areas of our life.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says,
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  SPEAKER_00: if I'm sitting at a table and someone needs the salt,
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't think, well, you know, God knows they need the salt.
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  SPEAKER_00: They'll get the salt if they need the salt.
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  SPEAKER_00: I know if I don't pass them the salt, they're not going to get the salt.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the way God's made the world, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: God's given us abilities to do things for others or not to do things for others.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's up to us to do them or not to do them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't do them, that's not gonna happen.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true of prayer as well as in our material life.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have the ability to actually channel spiritual grace and help to people.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that is as concrete and real In fact,
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  SPEAKER_00: it is more concrete and real than actually doing something for that person.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because our spiritual connections are more real than our material connections.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's the opposite of what we think.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that's fundamental for us to remember,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the most important things we can do in our life are to pray for people,
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  SPEAKER_00: are to offer up Our sacrifices,
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  SPEAKER_00: our sufferings,
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  SPEAKER_00: our difficulties,
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  SPEAKER_00: to unite those to Christ and to channel those to people in our lives who have needs.
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  SPEAKER_00: Those are the most important things that we can do.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why that's such an important part of our Eucharistic liturgy,
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  SPEAKER_00: these prayers that we have for everyone.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is at the core of what we do as Christians,
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  SPEAKER_00: what we do as priests, and what we're doing here in the Eucharist.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's important for us to remember this reality,
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  SPEAKER_00: to push back against our materialistic conceptions that we absorb from the world and
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  SPEAKER_00: to sink into the truth of the power that the Lord has given us in prayer and to use
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  SPEAKER_00: that immense power that we have for good throughout every day.