New Word for the Week

This week's scripture is but four words long:

I pray for them...

The pronoun "I" stands for Jesus and the pronoun "them" stands for us, the church, for you and me...

Jesus prays for us!

Now that turns things around a bit, doesn't it?

We often wonder how we should pray to Jesus.
We worry about failing to pray to Jesus.
We aren't sure if Jesus hears us when we do pray.

But here, Jesus is praying for us.

Actually, Jesus is praying for us - forever!

These words from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy are among the most beautiful words to come from Vatican Council II:

Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant,
taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile
that hymn which is sung throughout all ages
in the halls of heaven.
He joins the entire community of humankind to himself,
associating it with his own singing
of this canticle of divine praise.
(CSL, Chapter IV, p. 83)

The risen, ascended Christ stands eternally before the Father singing a canticle of divine praise and it is to his own prayer that he joins our prayer. We always end our prayers with the phrase "through Christ our Lord" not because we cannot come up with more creative endings, but because this is how we pray and the only way we pray: through Christ, with Christ and in Christ. Christ's is the prayer the Father hears; our prayer is heard is heard, too, because it becomes one with Christ's canticle of divine praise!

Jesus, the divine Choir Master; we the choir, invited to sing his canticle...

Forever and without end, Jesus lifts us up in the embrace of his prayer...

Jesus prays for us... Jesus prays for me... Jesus prays for you...

If ever I don't know what to pray, I can always ask:

"What is Jesus praying for me right now?"

WWJP?

-ConcordPastor