How we can receive more from the Mass – 21 (Daily self-offering)

“Show me your calendar, and I will tell you your priorities.”

A few days ago, I watched a YouTube video featuring Bishop Robert Baron, where he used this phrase.  And there is clearly truth in those words.  We spend our time, we offer up our time to things that, for whatever reason, are important to us.  For example, I remember offering up a great deal of my time taking my children to their various evening and weekend activities. 

I say ‘offering up’ because, frankly, if I were to have made a selfish choice about what to do with my days, they would not have been spent watching endless lengths of swimming or standing in the freezing wind and rain watching a rugby or football match.  But enriching our children’s lives is very important and so I offered up that time, and did so joyfully. 

But what else is important to us?

In our reflections on the Holy Mass, we have noted the importance of our full, conscious and active participation in the liturgy; we are not merely passive attendees.  And how much more enriched and blessed is our experience of celebrating the Mass when we do participate fully.

Similarly, we are invited to be full, conscious and active participants in our daily relationship with God.  And how much more enriched and blessed will our lives become as a consequence!

But we must make a conscious decision to do so.  Think about your daily calendar, your schedule.  Are your days punctuated with moments that you offer up to God?  Actions, words, thoughts?  Even for just a few seconds?

Why not set an alarm on your phone, your watch – put it on your schedule – and offer up those moments to God. 

By regularly spending a little time being aware of God’s presence in our lives, the celebration of the Eucharist may increasingly and truly become the source and summit of everything we do.