Lift Up Your Hearts

Sometimes at Mass we do not know what to do. One particular moment that this might occur is during the offertory when the gifts of bread and wine are being prepared on the altar. Certainly the Second Vatican Council called for an active participation in the liturgy of all who are at Mass, but it would be impossible for everyone to physically partake in this act of offering the gifts. The deacon or priest and possibly a server or two are busy completing this task, but how should everyone else participate in this offertory? The key to figuring out what to do during this time is to remember that our participation in Mass must be both internal and external. 

The external participation during the offertory might involve joining in with the singing of a hymn or other chant. It also includes the collection that often takes place during this time when we physically offer our gifts to the Lord in support of his church. However our participation in the offertory should not end there. The highlight of our participation is actually internal. We should cultivate an internal participation where we offer our very lives to God. We can recall the whole of our lives, both what we have done and what we will do, and offer it to the Lord. We can and should turn all that God has given us back into a gift to Him who has been so generous to us. 

So at the offertory do not stop at dropping some money in the basket, rather take your whole life and spiritually lay it upon the altar as an offering to God. Near the end of the offertory when the priest lifts up the bread and wine in an offering to God, lift up your hearts and your souls as an offering to the Lord. Ask Jesus Christ to accept this offering of your life, to make it holy, and to transform your whole life into the living Body of Christ.

This spiritual offering of our lives is expressed by the priest when he exhorts us in the preface dialogue, “lift up your hearts” to which we respond “we lift them up to the Lord.” At this moment we verbally express the offering of our whole lives which we have spiritually offered to God during the offertory. 

So next time you are at Mass while the offertory is taking place, spiritually recollect yourself and lay your life upon the altar, so that God can receive your gift and pour out grace upon it. 

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