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When we offer the bread and wine, when we offer the body and blood of Christ, we are essentially tied up to that offering. We are members of the body which was offered on Calvary.

From yesterday's sermon by St. Peter Chrysologus in the Liturgy of the Hours:

Paul says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.

Yeah. That was a great reading.

Doing the Office of Readings by myself is so funny. Nancy is next to me on the couch, but her devotions come from Magnificat. And I'm bouncing up and down and pumping my fist ...

“Let your heart be an altar.”

I’ll keep this one as my key to this new day.

Thanks, Lorica.

“O search me, God, and know my heart.
Test me and know my thoughts.
See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me to the path of life eternal”
Ps. 139