The prayers of the Church are always with us. In our private and communal prayer, the words we pray find their origin in Scripture and tradition, echoing through our lives. It’s not uncommon for a word or phrase so familiar to us to strike us, at a particular time and place, in an entirely new way.

During the Eucharistic Prayer at every Mass, the formula that Jesus spoke at the first Mass is prayed by the priest. Before the host is elevated, after the Holy Spirit has been called down, the words are spoken: “This is My Body, given up for you.”

The Eucharist is offered for the whole Church and for all people throughout time and space, but the word that Jesus chose was “you.” It is a sacrifice given for all generally, yet at the same time given specifically for “you.”

God, the author of life and source of true love and joy, designed a plan of salvation centered on saving me; it was all done not for me as part of the general population, but for me as an individual. It was not done for who I am, but because of whose I am. His body was given up so that I might live.

In many ways, God is an enigma, a mystery of unimaginable depth and complexity. What mind can truly comprehend pure love? Yet in His magnificent intricacy, enough was revealed for me to know in my heart that I am His, that I am loved, and that my greatest end is to know, love, and serve Him. In the moments when I feel faint, I can always reach back to those words I hear every week: “This is My Body, given up for you.”