Friday, February 28, 2025
Feast of Saint Hilary

Dear Friend,

Welcome to week nine of BMW, Be My Witnesses. We have completed our first cycle of movement from prayer to mission and we are ready to repeat that cycle, hopefully at a deeper level. However, should you be joining us just now for the first time, this is a good place to start. We will begin with a session on prayer, then for a couple of weeks we will do some learning, followed by a focus on our belonging to something bigger than ourselves. Finally, we will again exercise our going forth as missionaries for the following three weeks. So, let’s get started with prayer.

Prayer: The Eucharist is the Source and Summit of Prayer

Over the past couple of years, we have spent a great deal of time reflecting on the great gift of the Eucharist. The Second Vatican Council (Lumen gentium, 11) issued this statement: “It is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of the priestly community is brought into operation. Incorporated in the Church through baptism, the faithful are destined by the baptismal character for the worship of the Christian religion; reborn as sons of God they must confess before men the faith which they have received from God through the Church. Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It.”

Those words, “font” and “apex” are often translated as “source” and “summit.” Everything we do begins with the Eucharist and leads us back to the Eucharist. This is the nature of the prayer of every disciple of the Lord.

We are first fed. And, as we know, this is no ordinary food. Rather, it is the Lord himself. That sacred food then is not supposed to be part of us; rather, we are supposed to become what we eat. We can never be effective disciples, let alone missionary disciples unless we become the Lord. For we are never to go out and announce ourselves. Instead, we are to announce the Lord and the best way to do that is to be the Lord, to have become the Lord by our consuming him in the Eucharist.

We are also aware that all that we do, every person we encounter, every event we share leads us back to Christ. Jesus really is the high point of our lives. When we are out being missionary disciples, there should be within us an urging to bring it all back to the Lord.

The Challenge

We can do this at the next Mass we attend. At the Offertory, let us lift up every effort we have made as other Christs in our world. Thus the Mass and our prayer life is a circle or better a spiral. We begin in prayer and we end in prayer.

Until next week, may God Bless you.

I am sincerely yours in Christ,

+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing

P.S. Below is a video version of this week’s Be My Witnesses. Please do share with family and friends. Thank you. God bless you.