It's been so hot and dry here. I've made it a practice to pray for rain to sustain the farms as I drive back and forth to church on roads that crisscross the fields of corn. The corn still looks green, but grass everywhere is dry and brown. Everything just seems thirsty.
With this thirst in mind, I've been praying with Psalm 1:
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
Nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
But whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
That yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
And all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind.
When the wicked are judged they shall not stand,
nor find room among those who are just;
For the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
What is it in our lives that roots us and keeps us growing? What quenches our thirst, like the flowing water that the tree soaks up through its roots? For us as Catholics, it's the liturgy–the banquet where we receive Jesus, where we take Him into ourselves, where we are sent out as a community to bear Him to the rest of the world.
This summer, as we gather outdoors for Mass at St. Benedict's, as we finally get back to singing together and praying together as a community, let's focus on the ways that the liturgy nourishes us and quenches our thirst. Beyond that, let's think about how we can help others experience that life-giving water. As people return to church this summer, what feeds their souls? What will they want to soak up? How can we help them experience Jesus in the liturgy?
