Ghostly
FOLLOWING
last month’s article about intercession I would like to thank all those
readers who responded with suggestions and advice about lists. I am presently
working my way through them!
Every
month I am privileged to celebrate the Eucharist at the Convent of the Holy
Cross at Rempstone. On the altar there is placed a list of names for prayer, and
as part of the work and offering of intercession, as a sister prays the prayers
of the people, she includes the petition ‘we pray for those whose names are on
the altar?
This
reminds me of a vital part of the prayer of intercession. We must never forget
that our prayer of intercession is one with the prayer of Jesus ‘who ever
lives to make intercession for us’. In the Eucharist our prayer becomes one
with his offering. The Eucharist is in its essence the place for intercession.
I
was taught as a boy never to come to the Eucharist alone. I was wisely guided to
see that my partaking of Holy Communion was not in itself an action that was
self-centred. It is from ‘first to last the work of Christ’. Eucharistic
worship takes on a deep and powerful meaning when it is seen as an act of
intercession. It is
If
we reflect on our crucified Lord’s intercession, we see that he expressed
penitential prayer for others: ‘Father, forgive them for they not what they
do!’ Likewise he expressed thanks on behalf of others, an expression of
gratitude for the blessings received by others:
‘I
thank you, Father, that you have revealed yourself to these children.’
Intercession should not hang only on the hook of pain. Intercession should also
spring from the shared joy, or a sense of wrong not felt and realized.
I
have started with lists and have ended up with life. When St Paul entreats us to
‘pray without ceasing’, he is hoping that we shall realize that the whole
life of being ‘in Christ’ is one of intercession. A life that recognizes
that all needs and all gifts find their end and meaning in him. That is why he
is our food and drink. That is why we place all our needs upon his table.
quite
wrong to view it as a ‘me and God experience’. The Eucharist centres on the
Father and the reconciliation and renewal of his beloved creation.
The
Eucharist, being the source and centre of Christian life and ministry,
underlines one fact of our life of faith. Our faith is a gift given not for our
benefit, but for the benefit of those for whom we are given grace to be
intercessors.
Each
of us can play a unique and unrepeatable part in the work of Christ through the
offering of our daily life and experience. This is true whether we are thankful
or penitential; even when we are infuriated and cross with someone God has made
us intercessors for them! The whole of our life is a call to be spent for
others.
The
Eucharist carries us from penitence through intercession to thanksgiving to
adoration. It gives us words,
Andy
Hawes is parish priest of Edenham, Witham on the Hill and Swinstead and Director
of the Edenham Regional House in the Diocese of Lincoln
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