This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Almighty every-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

In this prayer, our petition is that God would bring to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as His children. We can enter into the inheritances that He promised only when the spirit of adoption is perfected in our hearts.

Paul tells us in Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” The spirit of adoption confirms in us that we are truly children of God. When we not only know but truly believe that we have been fully adopted, when this spirit is perfected in our hearts, we can have the assurance that we receive everything that Jesus did. All of His inheritance is ours as well. The Kingdom of God is ours!

The prayer tells us that it is the Holy Spirit that brings about this perfection in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. This love is so strong that it is the third Person of the Trinity. St. Gregory writes, "The Holy Ghost Himself is Love." (Hom. xxx, in Pentecost) Out of complete and passionate love for you, God wants to be your Father and the Holy Spirit is the Love that teaches you.

For some people, fully accepting God as a Father is a difficult step. Relationships with earthly fathers can affect how we see God. Some people lose their fathers to death or other types of abandonment early in life. Others have heart-breaking experiences. What often happens in these situations is that those who have been wounded project the image of their earthly father onto our Heavenly Father. They usually don’t know that it’s happening, but when they try to grow in their faith, they experience a block. They want the inheritance that is promised, they want the love of the Father, but they just can’t seem to enter into a trusting relationship with Abba Father.

It is important to remember that God understands. He does not love us less, in fact, He has great compassion for the poor in spirit. You could say that it is an opportunity for God to “woo” the person, to enter into a relationship with the intent to love them, to heal them, and to win their heart. It is so important to Him that He gives us His own promises to stand on: “[God] will never fail you or forsake you” (Deut. 31:6) and He will never change (Mal. 3:6). He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds. (Ps 147:3)

We hear in this prayer, and also in the Mass, the phrase, “we dare to say, Our Father.” If we take the fear-factor, the “double dog dare you” fear out of the word “dare,” it means that we have the courage and not the fear, to call Him “Father.”

I was thinking about how much the Father loves to hear us call out to Him. I have a new grandson. It will be some time before I hear him call me grandma, but what a delight it will be to my ears. He won’t need to be afraid to call out to me, I’ll be waiting to hear his little voice. For me, it will be a while, he’s only 4 months old, but God is waiting for us now, every day, all day, to call out to Him. He wants us to know and to believe that His desire for us is only for good. He wants to give us the inheritance of His kingdom, His power, and His love.

There’s one more thing about this prayer, and that is the timing. He wants us to walk into this inheritance today when the prayer says that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised.

A life of healing, freedom, and love is ours today. He wants us to live in His Kingdom, on earth, today. We only need to say yes.