By Sr Kerry Willison RSM
The grace of God is an unconditional love that is given even if I do not deserve it. Grace is like the love of God experienced by those who don’t feel they have done anything to be loved by God.
It is the peace of God given when there seems to be turmoil all around and I need help to find my way through the darkness; it is the grace God gives, embodied in Jesus Christ who rose from the dead offering hope to all of us even if we do not deserve it.
Grace is who we are as Christians: “By the grace of God, I am what I am” (1 Cor 1:10).
Saint Paul declares that it is only by God’s grace that he became what he was: Christ’s messenger.
Grace is the gift of a good thing that is unearned. St Paul did not reform himself and start over, he was transformed and sent out. This is the essence of being Christian and the power of ministry in the Church.
One of the tasks of the Centre for Liturgy (CFL) is to offer training session for Acolytes and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who take Communion to the sick. The grace of God is truly at work in this ministry.
The Communion that is received and the communion that is experienced is at the heart of who we are, and whose we are as Christian. We, like St Paul, are transformed by the grace of God and are called to serve.
Being in the presence of someone who is frail or fragile in whatever way and bringing them the Body of Christ that was broken on the Cross, is about the grace of hope for both the minister and the communicant, it is God’s work in action.
For those ministering it is a powerful expression of their faith in the healing grace of God in whatever way is needed and for those receiving the Body of Christ it is a powerful expression of their faith in the compassion of God’s healing grace and love.
I asked Dave Jordan, an acolyte at Our Lady of Lourdes Church Nollamara Parish, who has made a commitment to taking Communion to the sick in his parish for the past six years, why he said “yes” to this ministry and how it affects his faith.
“Father Stanislaw Bendkowski SDS twisted my arm. After I got over the initial anxiety of taking Communion to those unable to come to the Church for Mass, and was able to acquire a very good resource book from the CFL to help me understand both the history of the ministry and a guide to ministering Holy Communion to the sick in their homes, I looked forward each week to being a part of this ministry of the Church,” Mr Jordan said.
“Each person I visit is the face of God to me, and the grace of God to me. I leave their presence always feeling a spirit of peace. It is only a half hour a week, but it is more than that to me – it is a spiritual experience of encountering the presence of God.”
Supporting liturgical ministers like Dave is an important aspect of the CFL’s mandate. During the COVID-19, all the planned projects for liturgical ministry training were cancelled and as we could no longer gather as a community for Eucharist, many of our liturgical ministers were out of a job.
It would have been easy to just shut down, but the grace of God’s presence and hope can be found in so many different places, people and everyday prayer.
The Eucharist is central to who we are as Catholics, and our prayer life flows from and to the fulness of the great prayer of thanksgiving of the Eucharist.
Not being able to gather as a Christian community to pray the Eucharist opened up other opportunities for prayer as we continued to live in the hope of the Easter message that we would one day gather together as a worshipping community and all that entails, for Eucharist in the not too distant future.
“ The Eucharist is central to who we are as
Catholics, and our prayer life flows from and to the fulness of the great prayer of thanksgiving of the Eucharist. ”
Supporting our liturgical ministers and others in prayer became central to the work of the CFL during this time and continues through the various prayer forms outlined on the Archdiocesan agency’s website: www.liturgy.perthcatholic.org.au
Personal prayer and communal prayer are an integral part of being Christian and Catholic as our prayer forms and guides us in the footsteps of Jesus.
As St Paul prayed: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).
From pages 22 to 23 of Issue 27: Adult Faith Formation in the context of Healing’ of The Record Magazine