This week we Lectio The Liturgy with the Prayer after Communion for the Second Sunday of Easter, also known in the Catholic Church as Divine Mercy Sunday.

As I meditated on this prayer and on the Divine Mercy Chaplet, I was reminded of the contrast between taking and receiving and the difference between receiving and offering.

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that our reception of this paschal Sacrament may have a continuing effect in our minds and hearts. Through Christ our Lord.

The subject of the prayer is about our reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Our reception isn’t just an accepting or a taking. For example, sometimes at events like a home show, vendors have tables with fun freebies for anyone to take. Even if I have more pens than I will ever need, it’s so easy to find a new pen that looks fun and I end up adding another pen to my purse. Picking up a freebie on a table is taking and not receiving.

In this prayer, when we receive, it means that we don’t just walk by and pick up a freebie. It means that something is given to us and we take it in, we make it a part of ourselves and in this prayer, what we receive is the continuing effect in our minds and hearts of the paschal Sacrament. 

The continuing effect of the Eucharist in us produces the same work as the life of Christ. It brings our interior life through suffering and death, and into a life of giving to others. By being paschal, this Sacrament, which is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, connects us to the life of Christ, to his suffering, death, and new life. 

What does this have to do with Divine Mercy Sunday? There is an old saying that says, “you can’t give away what you don’t have.”

In the Divine Mercy Chaplet, we pray, "Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.”

These words describe the salvific actions of Jesus, who offered His entire being to the Father for our sins. Jesus received everything He is from the Father and He offered everything He is back to the Father for us.

We cannot offer the Father Jesus’ work in us if we have not accepted it. Nor can we give others mercy to others if we haven not accepted it.

When we pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, we are stating that we have received the gift, the gift that is all of Jesus, and we offer it back to the Father, asking Him to lavish His mercy, that He would not give us what we deserve, on us and the world.

When we receive this Sacrament, which is Holy Communion, we join with Jesus as a self-gift to the Father. Our spiritual journey becomes so closely united with Christ that we now copartner with Him in bringing the Father’s mercy to the world.



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God exists outside of time, so while Calvary is in the "past" for us, it is in a way "ever present" to God. The entire Passion (and the life of Jesus entirely, in fact) also cycles for us in many big and small cycles (as we walk through it during each year, as we walk through it praying the Way of the Cross, as we pray the Rosary, etc). In a non-temporal sense, Jesus is perpetually dying for our sins.
And, in so doing, He is giving us His wounds to heal, cleanse, and hide us. He is giving us His body to wear ("put on Jesus") and giving Himself as sacrifice for our sins.
In saying "I offer", we are saying, "I accept this gift of self that Jesus has given to me, and I will gladly use it as my entrance fee into Heaven.”