The Source and Summit: Daily Eucharist and Eternal Hope

by Fr. John Granato  |  11/16/2025  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends,

We have two Sundays left before our first Sunday of Advent. Today is the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time and the following week will be Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. There is nothing ordinary about ordinary time. Since the reform of the Mass in 1970, instead of calling Sundays after Pentecost or Sundays after Epiphany, the reformers called them by the numerical order of the week, hence ordinary time means time in the order of time. It could never mean ordinary, as we understand ordinary in our English language because since the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, eschatological time (time that we live waiting for the Second Coming and end of the world as we know it) is living the resurrection every day of our lives.

All people live in a daily dying and rising, and Christians specifically live this daily dying and rising in cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been given us because of the Ascension of Jesus Christ back to the Father. Every day is a powerful reminder that we have been forever changed because of the Resurrection. Meditating on the Word of God and receiving the Word of God made flesh in Holy Communion needs to be the center of our lives. The Second Vaticar

Council's document on the liturgy (sacrosanctum conciliium) calls the Mass the source and summit of our life. Indeed, for the priest, celebrating a daily Mass is of the utmost importance for his spirituality and for his life of grace. The daily Eucharist is it only the source and summit of a priest's life and vocation, but it is also the necessary nourishment for him to remain true and faithful to his bride, the Church.

God bless!