The Prayer after Communion always reminds me of Oliver Twist, “Please, sir, can I have some more?” We have just received all of Jesus in the Eucharist, and now we boldly ask for more.

This week we Lectio The Liturgy with the Prayer After Communion for the Second Sunday of Advent. Like Solomon asking for wisdom, we, too, ask for a gift to help us to know God.

Replenished by the food of spiritual nourishment, we humbly beseech you, O Lord, that, through our partaking in this mystery, you may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven. Through Christ our Lord.

The prayer tells us that we are replenished, or filled again, by the food of spiritual nourishment. If we were going to look for a “what,” a “where,” and a “why,” in this prayer, the food of spiritual nourishment would be the “what.” 

The food is the actually the basis of the prayer. We eat and digest the bread and wine, but this bodily food is the nourishment of our soul. This teaches us that our body and soul are one and that what we do in one affects the other. Kneeling to pray affects how we pray. Standing to proclaim the Creed affects how we believe.

The “where” of the prayer is our partaking in this mystery. I’ve been pondering the word “partaking” for a couple weeks. Partake means to participate, or to share. However, to participate in Mass doesn’t mean that we just show up.

We are Iowa State Cyclone fans. We have been to a few football games and we’ve watched them on TV. I can say that we participate in the games. We stand, we cheer, and we get salted peanuts in the shell at the concession stand (which are so much better at games because we can make a mess).

When we partake at Mass we don’t stand and cheer, we participate in a manner worthy of where we are. The Mass is our prayer, so to participate in the Mass means that we join in the prayer. We join our voices and our prayers with the priest and all the others and in exchange we receive our Lord.

“Why” should we participate and be replenished with spiritual food? Because we need to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven. We need to always be reminded that earthly things are just that, things that will pass, but they are intended to teach us about heavenly things.

In the Latin form of the prayer, for the word judge, we find the word perpendere. It means to weigh carefully or to value according to its truth.

Let that sink in a bit. We ask God that we may judge wisely the things of earth. We need to value something according to truth. What are we attached to? History has taught us that humans can have an attachment to toilet paper but that is pretty minor compared to heavenly things. God wants us to look at and to use earthly things in light of things of heaven.

There are earthly signs among us today that also point to heavenly things: lights that remind us that we are called to be the of the world, beautifully wrapped gifts that remind us of preparing our heart to be a gift to God, and those amazing Christmas goodies that remind us to taste and see that God is good.

Just like praying the Mass, Advent is time meant for us to partake, to give and take. It is true, that what we get from it depends on what we put into it. It is a time to not only go through the external motions of getting ready for Christmas, but to observe the spiritual motions of preparing for our Lord.