5 March 2021
Lift
Up Your Heart Heavenward
Following the
greeting, “The Lord be with you,” which you know so well, you heard the words,
“Lift up your heart.” Now the whole life
of true Christians is a matter of lifting up the heart. To lift up the heart is a duty of Christians
who are such in very fact and not in name alone. To lift up the heart — what does this
mean? It means that you must trust in
God, not in yourself since God is so superior to you. When you trust in yourself, your heart stays
fettered to the Earth, not fixed on God.
So when you hear the priest say, “Lift up your heart,” you respond, “We
have lifted it up to the Lord.” See to
it, then, that your response rings true, since it is God himself who takes
cognizance of your words. Let there be
truth in what you say, lest your conscience deny what your tongue
professes. And since it is by God’s
grace, not by your own resources, that you are enabled to lift your heart
heavenward, the dialogue proceeds, after you have averred that your heart is
lifted up to the Lord, with the words of the priest, “Let us give thanks to the
Lord our God.” Why should we give
thanks? Because our heart has ascended
on high, and yet, had he not raised it up, we should still be wallowing in the
Earth.
Saint Augustine
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