This week we Lecito the Liturgy with the Prayer Over the Offering for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As I prayed with this prayer this week, I realized the best way to understand it’s meaning is to imagine God, seated on a throne, next to the priest who is standing behind the altar. The priest picks up the paten and chalice, turns to God and says,

Receive with favor, O Lord, we pray, the offerings of your people, that what they profess with devotion and faith may be theirs through these heavenly mysteries. Through Christ our Lord.

When we ask God to receive, we ask him to take these offerings and make them His own. The prayer doesn’t explicitly tell us what our offerings are. They could be the bread, the wine, and whatever you offer to God. People have told me that they offer their loved ones, their children who have left the Church, or they offer someone who is ill. You may even give God the ultimate offering of yourself. Whatever you choose, it is given to God.

The prayer doesn’t specifically tell us what we are professing. Actually, our offering could be what we profess. Our profession could also be what we say and how we live. Either way, what we profess is done with devotion and faith.

Devotion, or pietate in Latin, means faithfulness to natural ties or filial relationships. Faith teaches us that God is our Father and we, His children owe Him our filial love.

Now it is our turn to receive and what we profess becomes ours through the heavenly mysteries, which are the effects of the events of Christ's life that are made present within us. We receive God.

What stood out most to me was the difference between the ways God receives and the way that we receive.

In the prayer, when we ask God to receive with favor, He draws near with His cleansing love and transforming power. When we stand before God, the Sovereign Almighty, His hands are open to receive what we offer because He is a good Father, who loves to have His children come to Him.

When we receive, the posture is quite different. Being in God’s presence humbles us and we lower to our knees, recognizing that all the good we have ever received is from God. Out of love for His children, the Father has raised us up. He gives us freedom, He forgives our sins, He made us His own.

If what we profess with devotion and faith becomes ours, it’s time for the Church to up her profession “game.” It’s time to profess the power of a living God in the world today. Let’s try it and see how God returns what we give.

Learn more at my website, LectioTheLiturgy.com