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February 25, 2016We continue this week with the second installment in our series of reflections on the Building Prayer. We began with the address to God as our Father and Creator, from Whom all good things come, and we entrusted our project to His Divine Providence, which accomplishes our ultimate benefit and salvation.The next lines of the prayer describe what we are praying for, but from three different perspectives. We are asking God’s help to build:"A new home for St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church..."Our parish is a home because we as Christians are a family, joined together by our common bond of Baptism (remember, we are all taught to call God our Father). Our parish campus is moreover a home for the unique community that is St. Philip the Apostle Parish. We are offering a prayer that our building project will serve our community and allow it to flourish and grow."A place for the Christian people to celebrate the mysteries of salvation..."The "mysteries of salvation" are the Sacraments, most especially the celebration of the Eucharist in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Sacraments are outward signs (water, oil, bread and wine) of spiritual realities (the gifts and graces God gives us for our salvation); they take place in a physical location but have effects that transcend space and time. We are praying that we build a place worthy of the most important acts we can do on this earth."A sign and symbol of heavenly things..."These words are taken directly from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum, Concilium) composed by the Council Fathers at Vatican II. With this phrase, we are praying that our new parish accomplishes a third purpose: the glorification of God in our church so that others can recognize Him there. The Fathers have so beautifully expressed this third purpose, we would like to quote in full here:“[Sacred] arts, by their very nature, are oriented toward the infinite beauty of God which they attempt in some way to portray by the work of human hands; they achieve their purpose of redounding to God's praise and glory in proportion as they are directed the more exclusively to the single aim of turning men's minds devoutly toward God.Holy Mother Church has therefore always been the friend of the fine arts and has ever sought their noble help, with the special aim that all things set apart for use in divine worship should be truly worthy, becoming, and beautiful,signs and symbols of the supernatural world...” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 122)Pray the full text of the Building Prayer here, and watch for more reflections this Lent!
