Sunday of the Word of God (3rd in Ordinary Time)

O Word! O Christ! How beautiful you are! How great you are! Who can know you? Who can understand you?
Grant, O Christ, that I know you and love you! Since you are the light, let a ray of this divine light invade my poor soul, so that I can see and understand you.
Put in me a great faith in you, so that all your words are like lights for me that illuminate me and make me come to you and follow you along the paths of justice and truth
O Christ! O Word! You are my Lord, my one and only Master. Speak, I want to listen to you and put your word into practice.

I want to hear your divine word because I know it comes from heaven. I want to listen to it, meditate on it, and put it into practice, because in your word there is life, joy, peace and happiness.
Speak, Lord, you are my Lord and my Master, and I want to hear only you. Amen.

 
~ Bl. Antonio Chévrier

From the Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass

"In the hearing of God's word the Church is built up and grows, and in the signs of the liturgical celebration God's wonderful, past works in the history of salvation are presented anew as mysterious realities. God in turn makes use of the congregation of the faithful that celebrates the Liturgy in order that his word may speed on and be glorified and that his name be exalted among the nations.

"Whenever, therefore, the Church, gathered by the Holy Spirit for liturgical celebration, announces and proclaims the word of God, she is aware of being a new people in whom the covenant made in the past is perfected and fulfilled. Baptism and confirmation in the Spirit have made all Christ's faithful into messengers of God's word because of the grace of hearing they have received. They must therefore be the bearers of the same word in the Church and in the world, at least by the witness of their lives.

"The word of God proclaimed in the celebration of God's mysteries does not only address present conditions but looks back to past events and forward to what is yet to come. Thus God's word shows us what we should hope for with such a longing that in this changing world our hearts will be set on the place where our true joys lie." (Preamble, 7)