Beyond You and Me

The Catholic Church is a family of prayer. At every moment of every day the Mass is being celebrated all over the world and we are praying as Catholics not only for ourselves and our own needs, but for the whole human family.

Beyond our own personal experience of the Mass, it is important to be aware of the much greater scope of it. It is in the Mass that the 1.2 billion Catholics around the world come together to share a common experience. But the wisdom of regular worship has a much deeper meaning than bringing us all together once a week; it is a profound reflection of God's blueprint for all of creation.

I wrote The Rhythm of Life not only for a Catholic audience, nor alone for a Christian audience, but for the whole cross section of society. And yet, I learned the premise upon which I based the book from the way the Church structures our practice of Christianity. Everything in creation has rhythm.

Rhythm is at the core of God's genius for creation. As we turn to God, we are invited to use this same blueprint for our life. In Genesis, we read that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. He didn't rest because he was tired. God rested on the seventh day because he foresaw our need for rest.

The seasons change to a rhythm. The tides come in and go out to a rhythm. The sun rises and sets to a rhythm. Your heart pumps blood through your body to a rhythm. Plants grow according to the process of photosynthesis, which is based on a rhythm. And ultimately, the workings of a woman's body are based on a rhythm-and that rhythm gives forth new life. The rhythm gives birth to harmony, efficiency, effectiveness, health, happiness, peace, and prosperity. Destroy the rhythm and you invite chaos, confusion, destruction, and disorder.

This is the wisdom upon which the Church bases our worship as Catholics. The Church bases the calendar on the rhythm that God has placed at the center of creation. In turn, the Church hopes this will help us to place this essential rhythm at the center of our own lives.

It is within this context that we can begin to understand Sunday as a day of rest and renewal, and more specifically, the role of the Mass in the Catholic lifestyle.