How to Make a Morning Offering (and Why It’s a Non-Negotiable)

[0:00]Hey, I'm Father Mark Mary. I'm Sister Mary Regina. I'm a Franciscan Friar, the Knot. And I'm a sister of life. And this is Ascension present. All right, welcome back, sister. Thank you. Thanks, sir. All right. And uh welcome back, everybody. So, uh sister Maria Regina vocation director. Vocations director of Sister Life is back with us. Today we're going to talk about kind of like a staple of Catholic devotional spirituality, prayer life, um the morning offering. So, morning offering, very simple. It's kind of like just what it's called. So, it's like waking up in the morning and offering my day and everything that it it has, that it will, everything that will happen, um my joys, my sorrows to the Lord. And there are like different wordings, you know, you get different orders of the intentions. But at the heart of it, it's in the morning, when I wake up, surrendering my day to the Lord and His providence. And that's basically it. It's simple, but why is it such an important prayer? I have a couple thoughts. Let's hear it. Okay, so the first is that praying a morning offering helps me remember my life is about a relationship. That it kind of fights the autonomy of the world. You know, the culture is like, you know, your life is you, you make every decision you want, you determine your life, um, you your value comes from the decisions that you make. A morning offering literally orients my heart from the the moment I wake up, that my life is a relationship, before it's anything else, that I belong to someone. I belong to God. I belong, you know, I have a good Father in heaven, and that offering of my heart to the Lord is like, oh, yeah. I'm not living this life by myself. Like I'm in relationship with someone. And it reminds me of the dialogue in the mass. So, before the Eucharistic prayer, the priest says, um, lift up your hearts, and we say, we lift them up to the Lord. And it's almost like that, I think those phrases really capture the movement of a morning offering, like, lift up your heart. I lift them up to the Lord. And it kind of radiates through my whole day that I am from someone and I'm going to someone. And so, just like, postures my heart to abide in this relationship, no matter what happens during the day. Another reason to pray the morning offering is it reminds me that my life is not just about me. So, it's almost like the first reason, it reminds me, I have a vertical dimension to my life, that that God and my father and I are in relationship. Another reason to pray it though is that morning offerings, we unite everything to the Lord for different intentions. So, you know, it could be for, um, the salvation of souls, for, you know, all these different intentions, it helps me remember I'm part of a body. Like we have the awesome gift in the church that we're not isolated individuals. Like all just, it's not just like me going to Jesus and you going to Jesus over on your ballpark over there. It's like, we're all in it together and we're all, we actually need each other. We need the body and it's okay that I don't complete myself. Like it's actually okay that I that I lean on others, that I, I need you and you need me and we're on this journey together. And a morning offering when I like put my heart into those intentions, like, yeah, I'm offering my day for the souls in purgatory. Like my brothers and sisters who are awaiting the vision of heaven, like, I'm living, I'm going to offer this sacrifice for them today. And it like helps, I think, broaden our perspective, again, kind of fighting the, sometimes the struggles in the culture of like, I'm isolated, I'm alone, um, I have to determine everything. I have to have it all together, like, no. We have each other and that's such an awesome gift and your offering wins grace for me. Like the truth in Jesus, we're united and that's just an awesome, it just takes the pressure off. It's like, wow, I can lean on my brothers and sisters, they can lean on me. Like we're made for that. We're made for that community. And a morning offering, uniting everything that happens to me today, to the Lord, for the sake of the body is like anchoring myself in that truth. And then the third reason to pray a morning offering, this is my favorite. It's a beautiful act of faith, hope and love. And I would like to tell you something that I'm trying to bring back faith, hope and love. The theological virtues that we, I think we just need to bring them back, um, because we actually need them for, for salvation. And I love them so much. It was actually the name of a basketball team that I was on once. We were named faith of a love. Of course you were. So, it was pretty awesome. Um, so faith, hope and love. Okay, morning offering, act of faith in the Lord. It's like, I believe everything that that we just said. I believe that my life is a gift. I believe I'm going to someone. I believe that God is who He says He is, that He is going to provide for me. That I believe that everything that happens to me today, the joys, the sorrows, the surprises, the relationships, encounters, that everything is given to me as a gift from the Father who loves me. So, it's this act of faith that God, I believe you are good. I believe you love me. It's an act of hope. I just, yeah, hope, hope is where it's at. It's just like, we are somos peregrinos. We're going to heaven. We are not made for this earth. We are going somewhere. And a morning offering is like, helps us remember the eternal perspective on our lives. That we are, we're on a journey. We are going somewhere. And it's like, yes, okay, despite the sufferings that might happen today, despite my struggles, my poverty, whatever, those things aren't the final word. Like God's love is and I'm going to Him. And hope is this virtue, they're like anchors us in eternity and the truth of who we are and who God is. And so, a morning offering is like, yes, I am going, my destination is heaven. That's, yeah, that's just an awesome, awesome thing. And then love, morning offering, is a beautiful act of love. Kind of like we said, it's like, I am offering my life for those around me. I'm offering my life for the good that something in me could bear fruit for those that I love or those that I don't even know. It's like, Jesus says, you know, no greater love is there to lay down your life for your friend. Like that's the posture of heart that that we're all like striving for is my life is about giving the gift to God and to another. And like morning offering, starting the day that way, I just think anchors us in these virtues and helps us make our way to God. Thank you, sister. And, uh what we'll be doing actually is I'll be recording another video with, uh a morning offering that you can play, uh pray along with. Um, but yeah, it's just again, it's, it's a way to, it's a way to start our day with the Lord, which is how we want to start all things. Uh it's a way to even root ourselves beginning with uh an act of like, like you said, like faith, which is going to help us not just judge everything on a very natural, but understanding the supernatural component to, uh, everything that's happening in, in, and developing in us a spirit of receptivity. But also just knowing that, um, no matter what's happening, we're not doing it alone. The Lord's with us. We're in in that relationship and we're in, uh, we're not in it alone. We're in communion with one another as well. That's it. That's it. Rocked it. Thank you, sister. Thank you all. And look forward to praying the morning offering with you on future video and, uh remember, we are pilgrims on this earth. What's the saying? Somos. Somos. Yes, we are. Yes. Amen. Nailed it. See you next week.