Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent

We pray through Tuesday in the fourth week of Lent and reflect on the Preface as the key that opens the meaning of the Mass. We trace how the Eucharist is thanksgiving and why giving thanks is described as our duty and our salvation, then we end with a simple question that demands an honest answer. 
• Opening prayers and daily offering through the Immaculate Heart of Mary 
• What the Preface is and how it teaches the Church’s seasons and saints 
• “It is truly right and just” as a lens for Christian life 
• Eucharist as the Greek word for thanksgiving 
• Why thanksgiving is called a duty and tied to salvation 
• How ingratitude denies grace 
• Bringing small daily thanks into Christ’s great Eucharistic thanksgiving 
• A direct prompt for prayer: what am I thankful for and have I thanked God 
If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith this Lent, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our Lenten Reflection booklet, now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org. 

Transcript

What The Mass Preface Teaches

Why Eucharist Means Thanksgiving

A Question For Your Gratitude

Closing Prayers And Resources

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Tuesday in the fourth week of Lent. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen. Preface. The beginning of the Eucharistic prayer is called the preface, and it is, like other parts of the Mass, a key to understanding the Mass of the day. It is linked more generally with a class of feast or saint. For example, there are prefaces for the season of Lent and Easter, and one for virgins and one for pastors. By hearing these prayers each day, we can learn what it is the Church wants us to know and love about a time of year or a type of saint. Most striking are the words we find at the beginning of almost every preface. It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere, to give you thanks. Notice how important thanksgiving is in the life of a Christian. It is our duty, our life, and even our salvation to give thanks to God through Christ. At first glance, this might seem to exaggerate until one knows that the word Eucharist is Greek for thanksgiving. Not only is it fitting to start the Eucharistic prayer with a prayer of thanksgiving, then, but it also makes sense of this radical claim. For the Eucharist, Christ Himself, is our life and salvation. Without him and without this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that is the Mass, we would have no hope of eternal bliss, and yet because of Him we have every hope. This is why the preface also calls Thanksgiving a duty. It is right and just, it is proper and good, it is necessary to give thanks to God for all the good he has done for us. Not to do so, in a word, to be an ingrate, would be to ignore and deny the wondrous beauty of the grace that He has and does bestow upon us. No Christian should have such audacity. At Mass in a particular way, we are focused on thanking God for what He has done in Christ, in the church and in the saints, especially those we celebrate on a particular day. But this does not limit us. We ought always and everywhere, even and especially at Mass, to thank God for other things as well, from big to small, that we might allow our small and humble thanksgiving to enter into the great Eucharistic thanksgiving of Jesus Christ to the Father. With that in mind, today's question is quite simple. For what are you thankful? And have you thanked God for it? All that I have and all that I am I give to your hands, Jesus. Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith this Lent, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our Lenten Reflection booklet, now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.