| Letters to our Novices |
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| Will you decide to follow the call to religious life? |
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Dear Novices,
The question was raised, "What is a sacrifice of praise, and how can praise be called a
sacrifice?"
I offer this thought for your reflection:
As members of the human family, we experience our incompleteness (one of the results of
original sin) by way of our natural desire to give. We satisfy this desire in a number of ways.
The question was raised, "What is a sacrifice of praise, and how can praise be called a
sacrifice?"
I offer this thought for your reflection:
As members of the human family, we experience our incompleteness (one of the results of
original sin) by way of our natural desire to give. We satisfy this desire in a number of ways.
We give to one another in the human family, whether this is in small ways such as sharing a meal or a
conversation, or larger ways such as sharing one's life with another and creating a new family through this
bond of sharing called the Sacrament of Matrimony in which physical sharing of self results in new life. In
religious life, we experience a spiritual and emotional bond which is strong enough to sustain us, even in the
absence of a physical bond. In fact, the physical bond is renounced in order that the emphasis can freely be
placed on the spiritual element of our relationship to one another and to the greater Church we serve.
How is praise a sacrifice? Consider the meaning of the word "sacrifice." With a true sacrifice, there is a
victim which is entirely immolated as it is offered. The giver must forever do without that which has been
sacrificed. A sacrifice cannot be taken back. Likewise, when we offer our praise to God, it needs to be
offered in a sacrificial manner. In other words, in order to be authentic praise offered to God, a "sacrifice"
would be that praise we offer entirely for love of God, not for the good, warm, fuzzy it brings to us. That would
be self-love rather than true love of God. (Or to put it even more bluntly, it is to love God without a thought of
"what's in it for me?")
This concept of sacrifice can be found in every human community. There is a Native American Legend of the
Bluebonnets which beatifully communicates the theme of sacrifice as it relates to the human person:
One of the the leaders said that the Great Spirits wanted us to make a sacrifice. That meant that
everyone had to give up their most valuable possession.
I went back to my tipi to think about what I should do. I only had one thing that I loved -- it was my little
doll. My doll was special because my grandmother made it for me. It was made from buffalo skin. The
face was painted with the juice of berries. On its head were beautiful blue feathers from a bird. I did not
want to lose my doll. It was the only thing I had left from my family.
I fell asleep in the tipi. When I woke up, it was dark. I knew what I had to do. I picked up my doll and
crept out to the fire.
The night was very still. The air was hot. I kissed my doll and said, "O Great Spirit, here is my doll. It is the
only thing I have. It is very special. Please send the rain." Then I thought about all of the people who would
die without rain, and I threw my doll into the fire.
I watched the fire until it grew cold. Then, I scooped up some ashes and threw them to the Winds.
When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't believe what I saw. The hills were covered with beautiful
blue flowers, the same color as my doll's feathers.
Everyone in the village saw the flowers. They knew they were a sign from the Great Spirit. Soon it started
to rain and everyone danced. They even changed my name from "She-Who-Is-Alone" to "One-Who-Dearly-
Loves-Her-People."
Every spring, the Great Spirit remembers my sacrifice and covers Texas with the beautiful blue flowers.
The flowers are called bluebonnets.
The Legend of the Bluebonnet
The Texas fields are covered
With a blanket of deep blue.
But for a little Indian girl,
This would not be true.
Texas land was buried and dry.
Rains just would not come.
Indians danced and prayed for rain,
And beat upon their drums.
The Chief made a proclamation.
He appealed to one and all.
A prized possession must be sacrificed
Before the rains would fall.
The Indian camp was silent,
While each person searched his heart.
But when it came to sacrifice,
With possessions they would not part.
Suddenly a little girl stepped forth,
Holding her blue-clad doll.
She placed it in the roaring fire
and raindrops began to fall.
The rain brought forth the grass,
Among its blades, flowers of blue.
To be a sign for all the time
Of a love so pure and true.
Author Unknown
The story has several Christian elements, such as the sacrifice of an "only child" (even though this child is a
doll), a hill, a period of "falling asleep and re-awakening" reminds us of the Resurrection. The Indian girl or
the doll with the blue dress may even be a figure of Mary.
The following article describes this concept ever more eloquently.
Eucharist is Perfect Sacrifice of Praise
In the Eucharist, the glorified Christ who gave his life for our salvation unceasingly offers to the world the fruits of Redemption
won on Calvary
The Eucharist as the "sacrifice of praise" was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis at the General
Audience of Wednesday, 11 October. "As the term itself originally says in Greek, Eucharist means
'thanksgiving'; in it the Son of God unites redeemed humanity to himself in a hymn of thanksgiving and
praise", the Pope said. Here is a translation of his catechesis, which was the third in the series on the
Eucharist and was given in Italian.
1. "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty
Father". This proclamation of Trinitarian praise seals the prayer of the Canon at every Eucharistic
celebration. The Eucharist, in fact, is the perfect "sacrifice of praise", the highest glorification that rises from
earth to heaven, "the source and summit of the Christian life in which (the children of God) offer the divine
victim (to the Father) and themselves along with it" (Lumen gentium, n. 11). In the New Testament, the Letter
to the Hebrews teaches us that the Christian liturgy is offered by "a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained,
separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens", who achieved a unique sacrifice once and for all by
"offering up himself" (cf. Heb 7:26-27). "Through him then", the Letter says, "let us continually offer up a
sacrifice of praise to God" (Heb 13:15). Today let us briefly recall the two themes of sacrifice and praise
which are found in the Eucharist, sacrificium laudis.
The Eucharist is the sacrifice of Redemption
2. First of all the sacrifice of Christ becomes present in the Eucharist. Jesus is really present under the
appearances of bread and wine, as he himself assures us: "This is my body ... this is my blood" (Mt 26:26,
28). But the Christ present in the Eucharist is the Christ now glorified, who on Good Friday offered himself on
the cross. This is what is emphasized by the words he spoke over the cup of wine: "This is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mt 26:28; cf. Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20). If these words are examined in
the light of their biblical import, two significant references appear. The first consists of the _expression "blood
poured out" which, as the biblical language attests (cf. Gn 9:6), is synonymous with violent death. The
second is found in the precise statement "for many", regarding those for whom this blood is poured out. The
allusion here takes us back to a fundamental text for the Christian interpretation of Scripture, the fourth song
of Isaiah: by his sacrifice, the Servant of the Lord "poured out his soul to death", and "bore the sin of many"
(Is 53:12; cf. Heb 9:28; 1 Pt 2:24).
3. The same sacrificial and redemptive dimension of the Eucharist is expressed by Jesus' words over the
bread at the Last Supper, as they are traditionally related by Luke and Paul: "This is my body which is given
for you" (Lk 22:19; cf. 1 Cor 11:24). Here too there is a reference to the sacrificial self-giving of the Servant
of the Lord according to the passage from Isaiah already mentioned (53:12): "He poured out his soul to
death...; he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors". "The Eucharist is above all
else a sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of the Redemption and also the sacrifice of the New Covenant, as we
believe and as the Eastern Churches clearly profess: 'Today's sacrifice', the Greek Church stated centuries
ago [at the Synod of Constantinople against Sotericus in 1156-57], 'is like that offered once by the Only-
begotten Incarnate Word; it is offered by him (now as then), since it is one and the same sacrifice'" (Apostolic
Letter Dominicae Cenae, n. 9).
4. The Eucharist, as the sacrifice of the New Covenant, is the development and fulfilment of the covenant
celebrated on Sinai when Moses poured half the blood of the sacrificial victims on the altar, the symbol of
God, and half on the assembly of the children of Israel (cf. Ex 24:5-8). This "blood of the covenant" closely
united God and man in a bond of solidarity. With the Eucharist the intimacy becomes total; the embrace
between God and man reaches its apex. This is the fulfilment of that "new covenant" which Jeremiah had
foretold (cf. 31:31-34): a pact in the spirit and in the heart, which the Letter to the Hebrews extols precisely by
taking the prophet's oracle and linking it to Christ's one definitive sacrifice (cf. Heb 10:14-17).
5. At this point we can illustrate the other affirmation: the Eucharist is a sacrifice of praise. Essentially
oriented to full communion between God and man, "the Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the
whole of the Church's worship and of the Christian life. The faithful participate more fully in this sacrament of
thanksgiving, propitiation, petition and praise, not only when they wholeheartedly offer the sacred victim, and
in it themselves, to the Father with the priest, but also when they receive this same victim sacramentally"
(Sacred Congregation of Rites, EucharisticumMysterium, n. 3e).
As the term itself originally says in Greek, Eucharist means "thanksgiving"; in it the Son of God unites
redeemed humanity to himself in a hymn of thanksgiving and praise. Let us remember that the Hebrew word
todah, translated "praise", also means "thanksgiving". The sacrifice of praise was a sacrifice of thanksgiving
(cf. Ps 50 [49]:14, 23). At the Last Supper, in order to institute the Eucharist, Jesus gave thanks to his Father
(cf. Mt 26:26-27 and parallels); this is the origin of the name of this sacrament.
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God
6. "In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is presented to the Father through the
death and the Resurrection of Christ" (CCC, n. 1359). Uniting herself to Christ's sacrifice, the Church in the
Eucharist voices the praise of all creation. The commitment of every believer to offer his existence, his
"body", as Paul says, as a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom 12:1), in full communion with
Christ, must correspond to this. In this way, one life unites God and man, Christ crucified and raised for us all
and the disciple who is called to give himself entirely to him.
The French poet Paul Claudel sings of this intimate communion of love, putting these words on Christ's lips:
"Come with me, where I Am, in yourself,
and I will give you the key to life.
Where I Am, there eternally
is the secret of your origin ...
…Where are your hands that are not mine? And your feet that are not nailed to the same cross? I died and
rose once and for all! We are very close to one another
.... How can you separate yourself from me
without breaking my heart?" (La Messe l´ -bas).
L'Osservatore RomanoOctober 18, 2000
Reprinted with permission.
In Jesus and Mary,
Sister Mary Margaret
If you would like more information on our community, or more information about pursuing the religious life,
please contact us.
Vocations of all ages considered.
You must be willing to conform to our spirituality, a faithful Catholic, self-supporting, and psychologically fit.
conversation, or larger ways such as sharing one's life with another and creating a new family through this
bond of sharing called the Sacrament of Matrimony in which physical sharing of self results in new life. In
religious life, we experience a spiritual and emotional bond which is strong enough to sustain us, even in the
absence of a physical bond. In fact, the physical bond is renounced in order that the emphasis can freely be
placed on the spiritual element of our relationship to one another and to the greater Church we serve.
How is praise a sacrifice? Consider the meaning of the word "sacrifice." With a true sacrifice, there is a
victim which is entirely immolated as it is offered. The giver must forever do without that which has been
sacrificed. A sacrifice cannot be taken back. Likewise, when we offer our praise to God, it needs to be
offered in a sacrificial manner. In other words, in order to be authentic praise offered to God, a "sacrifice"
would be that praise we offer entirely for love of God, not for the good, warm, fuzzy it brings to us. That would
be self-love rather than true love of God. (Or to put it even more bluntly, it is to love God without a thought of
"what's in it for me?")
This concept of sacrifice can be found in every human community. There is a Native American Legend of the
Bluebonnets which beatifully communicates the theme of sacrifice as it relates to the human person:
- My name is She-Who-Is-Alone. I am a Comanche Indian who lived in Texas a
long time ago. When I lived in Texas, only Indians lived here. They call me She-
Who-Is-Alone because my parents and the rest of my family died. They died
during the drought, when it did not rain for a long time. Texas is very hot in the
summer. Without rain, the crops do not grow. Without food, many people get
sick and die. The horses and buffalo need water also.
- When the drought came, we prayed to the Great Spirits for help. The people
played the drums and danced to ask for help. Our leaders prayed also. They said,
"Great Spirit, your people are dying. We need rain to grow the berries. We need
food so we are strong enough to hunt the buffalo. End this drought. Tell us what
we must do so you will send the rain."
One of the the leaders said that the Great Spirits wanted us to make a sacrifice. That meant that
everyone had to give up their most valuable possession.
I went back to my tipi to think about what I should do. I only had one thing that I loved -- it was my little
doll. My doll was special because my grandmother made it for me. It was made from buffalo skin. The
face was painted with the juice of berries. On its head were beautiful blue feathers from a bird. I did not
want to lose my doll. It was the only thing I had left from my family.
I fell asleep in the tipi. When I woke up, it was dark. I knew what I had to do. I picked up my doll and
crept out to the fire.
The night was very still. The air was hot. I kissed my doll and said, "O Great Spirit, here is my doll. It is the
only thing I have. It is very special. Please send the rain." Then I thought about all of the people who would
die without rain, and I threw my doll into the fire.
I watched the fire until it grew cold. Then, I scooped up some ashes and threw them to the Winds.
When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't believe what I saw. The hills were covered with beautiful
blue flowers, the same color as my doll's feathers.
Everyone in the village saw the flowers. They knew they were a sign from the Great Spirit. Soon it started
to rain and everyone danced. They even changed my name from "She-Who-Is-Alone" to "One-Who-Dearly-
Loves-Her-People."
Every spring, the Great Spirit remembers my sacrifice and covers Texas with the beautiful blue flowers.
The flowers are called bluebonnets.
The Legend of the Bluebonnet
The Texas fields are covered
With a blanket of deep blue.
But for a little Indian girl,
This would not be true.
Texas land was buried and dry.
Rains just would not come.
Indians danced and prayed for rain,
And beat upon their drums.
The Chief made a proclamation.
He appealed to one and all.
A prized possession must be sacrificed
Before the rains would fall.
The Indian camp was silent,
While each person searched his heart.
But when it came to sacrifice,
With possessions they would not part.
Suddenly a little girl stepped forth,
Holding her blue-clad doll.
She placed it in the roaring fire
and raindrops began to fall.
The rain brought forth the grass,
Among its blades, flowers of blue.
To be a sign for all the time
Of a love so pure and true.
Author Unknown
The story has several Christian elements, such as the sacrifice of an "only child" (even though this child is a
doll), a hill, a period of "falling asleep and re-awakening" reminds us of the Resurrection. The Indian girl or
the doll with the blue dress may even be a figure of Mary.
The following article describes this concept ever more eloquently.
Eucharist is Perfect Sacrifice of Praise
In the Eucharist, the glorified Christ who gave his life for our salvation unceasingly offers to the world the fruits of Redemption
won on Calvary
The Eucharist as the "sacrifice of praise" was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis at the General
Audience of Wednesday, 11 October. "As the term itself originally says in Greek, Eucharist means
'thanksgiving'; in it the Son of God unites redeemed humanity to himself in a hymn of thanksgiving and
praise", the Pope said. Here is a translation of his catechesis, which was the third in the series on the
Eucharist and was given in Italian.
1. "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty
Father". This proclamation of Trinitarian praise seals the prayer of the Canon at every Eucharistic
celebration. The Eucharist, in fact, is the perfect "sacrifice of praise", the highest glorification that rises from
earth to heaven, "the source and summit of the Christian life in which (the children of God) offer the divine
victim (to the Father) and themselves along with it" (Lumen gentium, n. 11). In the New Testament, the Letter
to the Hebrews teaches us that the Christian liturgy is offered by "a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained,
separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens", who achieved a unique sacrifice once and for all by
"offering up himself" (cf. Heb 7:26-27). "Through him then", the Letter says, "let us continually offer up a
sacrifice of praise to God" (Heb 13:15). Today let us briefly recall the two themes of sacrifice and praise
which are found in the Eucharist, sacrificium laudis.
The Eucharist is the sacrifice of Redemption
2. First of all the sacrifice of Christ becomes present in the Eucharist. Jesus is really present under the
appearances of bread and wine, as he himself assures us: "This is my body ... this is my blood" (Mt 26:26,
28). But the Christ present in the Eucharist is the Christ now glorified, who on Good Friday offered himself on
the cross. This is what is emphasized by the words he spoke over the cup of wine: "This is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mt 26:28; cf. Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20). If these words are examined in
the light of their biblical import, two significant references appear. The first consists of the _expression "blood
poured out" which, as the biblical language attests (cf. Gn 9:6), is synonymous with violent death. The
second is found in the precise statement "for many", regarding those for whom this blood is poured out. The
allusion here takes us back to a fundamental text for the Christian interpretation of Scripture, the fourth song
of Isaiah: by his sacrifice, the Servant of the Lord "poured out his soul to death", and "bore the sin of many"
(Is 53:12; cf. Heb 9:28; 1 Pt 2:24).
3. The same sacrificial and redemptive dimension of the Eucharist is expressed by Jesus' words over the
bread at the Last Supper, as they are traditionally related by Luke and Paul: "This is my body which is given
for you" (Lk 22:19; cf. 1 Cor 11:24). Here too there is a reference to the sacrificial self-giving of the Servant
of the Lord according to the passage from Isaiah already mentioned (53:12): "He poured out his soul to
death...; he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors". "The Eucharist is above all
else a sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of the Redemption and also the sacrifice of the New Covenant, as we
believe and as the Eastern Churches clearly profess: 'Today's sacrifice', the Greek Church stated centuries
ago [at the Synod of Constantinople against Sotericus in 1156-57], 'is like that offered once by the Only-
begotten Incarnate Word; it is offered by him (now as then), since it is one and the same sacrifice'" (Apostolic
Letter Dominicae Cenae, n. 9).
4. The Eucharist, as the sacrifice of the New Covenant, is the development and fulfilment of the covenant
celebrated on Sinai when Moses poured half the blood of the sacrificial victims on the altar, the symbol of
God, and half on the assembly of the children of Israel (cf. Ex 24:5-8). This "blood of the covenant" closely
united God and man in a bond of solidarity. With the Eucharist the intimacy becomes total; the embrace
between God and man reaches its apex. This is the fulfilment of that "new covenant" which Jeremiah had
foretold (cf. 31:31-34): a pact in the spirit and in the heart, which the Letter to the Hebrews extols precisely by
taking the prophet's oracle and linking it to Christ's one definitive sacrifice (cf. Heb 10:14-17).
5. At this point we can illustrate the other affirmation: the Eucharist is a sacrifice of praise. Essentially
oriented to full communion between God and man, "the Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the
whole of the Church's worship and of the Christian life. The faithful participate more fully in this sacrament of
thanksgiving, propitiation, petition and praise, not only when they wholeheartedly offer the sacred victim, and
in it themselves, to the Father with the priest, but also when they receive this same victim sacramentally"
(Sacred Congregation of Rites, EucharisticumMysterium, n. 3e).
As the term itself originally says in Greek, Eucharist means "thanksgiving"; in it the Son of God unites
redeemed humanity to himself in a hymn of thanksgiving and praise. Let us remember that the Hebrew word
todah, translated "praise", also means "thanksgiving". The sacrifice of praise was a sacrifice of thanksgiving
(cf. Ps 50 [49]:14, 23). At the Last Supper, in order to institute the Eucharist, Jesus gave thanks to his Father
(cf. Mt 26:26-27 and parallels); this is the origin of the name of this sacrament.
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God
6. "In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is presented to the Father through the
death and the Resurrection of Christ" (CCC, n. 1359). Uniting herself to Christ's sacrifice, the Church in the
Eucharist voices the praise of all creation. The commitment of every believer to offer his existence, his
"body", as Paul says, as a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom 12:1), in full communion with
Christ, must correspond to this. In this way, one life unites God and man, Christ crucified and raised for us all
and the disciple who is called to give himself entirely to him.
The French poet Paul Claudel sings of this intimate communion of love, putting these words on Christ's lips:
"Come with me, where I Am, in yourself,
and I will give you the key to life.
Where I Am, there eternally
is the secret of your origin ...
…Where are your hands that are not mine? And your feet that are not nailed to the same cross? I died and
rose once and for all! We are very close to one another
.... How can you separate yourself from me
without breaking my heart?" (La Messe l´ -bas).
L'Osservatore RomanoOctober 18, 2000
Reprinted with permission.
In Jesus and Mary,
Sister Mary Margaret
If you would like more information on our community, or more information about pursuing the religious life,
please contact us.
Vocations of all ages considered.
You must be willing to conform to our spirituality, a faithful Catholic, self-supporting, and psychologically fit.
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