Letting God Lead the Day | Sunday Reflection

There is a beautiful line in the first Eucharistic Prayer that can often go unnoticed because it is said right before the epiclesis and consecration. In this line we ask God, “order our days in your peace.” I love this line for many reasons, but one reason in particular is that it reminds us that what we do in the Mass, and especially the Eucharist we are about to receive, is not just an isolated moment, but something that actually structures everything else around me. The gift that I receive in the Mass - the gift of Jesus Christ Himself, and the gift of faith that He gives me - is a gift that should have lasting consequences on every part of my life.

It can be easy to treat Mass like one task I do among many other tasks, all of which vie for my time. I punch in, sit for an hour, punch out, and then go back to the rest of my life. Another easy temptation is to treat Mass simply as a spiritual “recharge” to then help me through the week. While it is true that the Mass can certainly be rejuvenating and can be a great help as we navigate through life, the temptation comes in treating the Mass like a mere utility to then help me do my thing with me in the driver’s seat, while God is only in the background. None of these views of the Mass get to the heart of what the Mass is.

At the Mass, Jesus gives us His very self in the sacrament of the Eucharist. We are not just receiving a check off of our to-do list, nor a simple charge of our batteries - we are receiving so much more. Though simple in appearance, we know that it is Jesus present in the Eucharist, and so when we receive communion, we receive Jesus Himself! This is not lip service or a figurative expression - it is truly God whom we receive. Imagine that - God is sharing His very self with us. So, if I am receiving Jesus, true God and King of the Universe, then the life I go back to after Mass is not the same life it was before. Instead, it now is a life with Jesus. To echo St. Paul’s words to the Galatians, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” If this is now a life with Jesus, then everything else is different.

One of these key differences when I live my life with Jesus is that He gives the gift of faith. In our Gospel reading, the apostles beautifully ask that Jesus increase their faith. Who wouldn’t want that? And Jesus goes on to remind them of the power of faith. Faith helps us to see things as God sees them - to see the truth that we cannot see on our own. In a way, God shares His vision with us. But, faith is not simply a “thing,” but it is also an action. Faith is my assent to God’s revelation and my accepting of God’s vision and working together with Him in that new vision. I now see all things in His light and see how He orders all things. I see who He is, how He has created the universe, how He has created me, how He is calling me to holiness, and how He is calling me to act in accord with the dignity with which He made me and the others around me. With faith, I can see that I want God to be in the driver’s seat, not me. I want Him to order my days, not me. I want God to show me the path I must walk and to let the Holy Spirit lead, not as a background character, but as the primary one acting in my life. His peace and His providence will ensure the most beautiful vision of what life can look like.

Practically, this means that I make prayer a priority each and every day. Not as a thing that I need to do for the sake of doing it, but as a way for me to be with God and invite Him into my day. We can ask God to be the one in charge and show us what we ought to do. With faith, we know that He will know what is best better than we ever can. We can ask the Holy Spirit to show us how to navigate through the day and that we walk in His way. He’ll show us. Trust me, there is a big difference between letting God lead and telling God to get in line. I can’t even count the number of times that beautiful things have happened when I invite the Holy Spirit to lead my day - things that I certainly could never manufacture on my own. God wants to order our days, so we just need to let Him.

The Church offers us many ways to be reminded of how God beautifully orders things according to His vision. First, we see it in our liturgical year, being reminded of Jesus’s teachings during Ordinary Time, His coming and birth in Advent and Christmas, His suffering in Lent, and His resurrection in Easter. We also have the feasts of our saints to remind us of the calling we have to be saints and all the many intercessors we have in heaven to help us get there. And even on top of that, the Church draws special attention to devotional practices every once in a while to ground us in the mysteries of our faith. One of these devotions is the dedication of each month to one particular aspect of our faith. October is the month of the Rosary, in which we are called to a greater devotion to the rosary and are reminded of its power. How beautiful it is to be reminded to walk with Mary through the life of Jesus. Locally in the U.S., October is dedicated as Respect Life Month, in which we are reminded of the need to acknowledge and promote the dignity of all human life, from its beginning in conception, to its continued dignity in the midst of suffering and when close to death. While the world might be in the midst of the spooky season getting ready for Halloween or celebrating National Pizza month, or even the more noble recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month, which are certainly not bad things, we are reminded of even higher realities. The gift of faith helps us to see what is the most important and order all things around that. I love that the Church orders the year around these most sacred of mysteries so that we can order our lives accordingly.

This great gift that Jesus gives us in the Eucharist, the gift of Himself and the gift of faith that accompanies Him, is something we have the opportunity to receive today and every time we go to Mass. Listening to the encouragement of St. Paul today, we can stir into flame this gift. We can give God the permission to work in our lives, to grant us that vision of faith, and to ask for the grace to live with His ordering of our days. So, I encourage us all that when we hear those words in the Eucharistic prayer, “order our days in your peace,” and when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, that we pray those words in our hearts and ask God for that gift of ordering.