Focus on the Mass For Lent - “...And With Your Spirit!”

Over these past few weeks we've been taking some time to look at what we do and say at the Mass. Our hope is that, this Lent, we can become more conscious of what is happening every time we go to Mass so that it not only becomes a richer, more rewarding experience for us, but that we will be able to grow as Christians and be brighter lights of Christ's love for the world.

Last week we looked at the words “The Lord be with you!” and how God uses this greeting as an invitation to allow Him to do something great in our lives. This week we want to look at our response to this invitation. 

As Father says to us, “The Lord be with you” we respond to him with one voice, “And with your Spirit”. Why might we say this to Father Antony?

In the Mass everyone has different roles. As baptized priests, we have a role and Father Antony, our ordained priest, has a role. As the Mass begins Father reminds us that God has a great plan for us and we respond by reminding him that he, our ordained priest, also has a great role – God is about to ask him to take bread and wine and, through the Spirit, turn them into the Precious Body and Precious Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

This amazing action is something that no one else can do for us. It is something that no amount of seminary schooling, priestly formation or theological reading could possibly prepare Father Antony for. It is only in and through the Holy Spirit, and the unique gifts of the Spirit he received at his ordination, that ordinary bread and wine, in an extraordinary way, can become Christ for us.

As the Mass begins and we enter into this great exchange of “The Lord be with you/And with your Spirit” we are invited to remember that God has something great planned for us, and we must also remind Father that God has something great planned for him; making Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, our eternally loving God, real and present in the Mass and in our lives so that we can transform the world.