Mass of Thanksgiving for 170 Years of Mission at St Nicks

Mass for of Thanksgiving for 170 years of  the Mission and Presence of St Nicholas of Tolentino Parish 

ENTRANCE LITURGY

PROCESSIONAL SONG African

ENTRANCE HYMN No 458

WORDS OF WELCOME by co-chairs of the Parish Pastoral Council

AT THE BAPTISMAL FONT – Penitential Rite

RICHARD: 170 years ago, in 1848, six people were baptised in this parish in its first year of existence. Baptism is the foundation of our Life in Christ. Signed by the Cross of Christ and immersed in the Sacred Waters, we die to ourselves and rise with Christ, to live for Him and His world; from the Fount of Living Water we drink deeply of the Holy Spirit, and cry out ‘Abba! our Father!’. From every tribe and nation, race and people, with every form of diversity we are gathered into the one Family of all God’s Children. Every Sunday we begin our Mass by gathering around the Font of Holiness and New Life with repentant hearts so that the Holiness of God might be restored within us

READER: We commit to being a community of the welcoming Heart of Christ building together a Universal Communion of love for all: forgive us for those times in our parish’s history and in our own lives when we have not welcomed, not loved those different from us yet whom God sends us, such as the Windrush generation of our Caribbean sisters and brothers

ALL: HAVE MERCY, LORD, HAVE MERCY…

READER:     We commit to being a community building unity among all people: forgive us for those times in our parish’s history and in our own lives when we have been divided among ourselves, allowed elitism among us, when we have isolated ourselves from other Christians and People of other World Faiths

ALL: HAVE MERCY, CHRIST, HAVE MERCY… 

READER: We commit to being a community of both prayer and mission, developing new forms of mission as the Holy Spirit calls us: forgive us for those times in  our parish’s history and in our own lives when we have been inward looking, afraid to reach out to others, content to stay comfortable in our church and neglect the Christ of our streets

ALL: HAVE MERCY, LORD, HAVE MERCY…

BISHOP: May the God of endless Love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, embrace us with mercy and pardon, renew the Grace of Baptism in all of us empower us for our mission of Proclamation and Service and bring us all to everlasting life…

PEOPLE: AMEN!

GLORIA                                        No 530

OPENING PRAYER 

LITURGY OF THE WORD

AT THE LECTERN – Rededication to the Word                     

Our priest and Readers go to the Lectern and invite all of us to rededicate ourselves to the Word Who is Life for us, Bread for our Journey.

RICHARD: Our God is the One who speaks – a Word that creates, redeems and heals. God speaks with such intensity that the Word was made Flesh in Jesus. This Living Word has been proclaimed in this parish for 170 years.Let us always open our hearts to the Word Who is Life, that the flesh of our lives will also carry the Word to the World.

READER: Will you rededicate yourselves to being the People of the Word? Will you allow the Word to gather you as one community? Will you welcome the Word when it challenges you to change? Will you, like Mary, ponder the Word in your heart and make it your treasure and like St Nicholas build your lives upon the Rock of God’s Word?

PEOPLE: WE REDEDICATE OURSELVES TO BEING BOTH LISTENERS AND DOERS OF THE WORD, PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL WITH OUR LIVES SO THAT THE WORD WILL BE MADE FLESH IN US.

FIRST READING Isaiah c61: vv 1-3, 6, 8-9

RESPONSORIAL PSALM                                       Kurdish Hymn

SECOND READING                                    Ephesians c4: vv 1-7, 11-16

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION                                 Zimbabwean Gospel procession 

GOSPEL Matthew c5: vv 11-16

HOMILY – 

HANDING ON THE MISSION   Senior citizen parishioners (‘Elders’) come forward, with a candle lit from the Paschal Candle, with a Bible and with a bowl of water and a towel.

Young people and children come forward to receive these symbols expressing the ‘handing on’ of the Tradition of Faith & Mission Senior parishioners handing Light, Gospel, Faith, on to young people of the parish community … to take into the future

ELDER ONE: We received the Light of Faith from those who went before us: With confidence we pass on to you that Light – Go speak your voice, share your vision, and so renew the Church for a New Age, and go be the Light of Christ 

ELDER TWO: We received the Gospel from those who went before us:… With confidence we pass on to you the Living Word of God to shape your lives and to proclaim to your New World

ELDER THREE: We received from generations past the Mission to Serve the Wounded and Poor, the beloved of God:  with confidence we hand on to you the call to serve the Poor, to wash the wounds of the hurting, to speak out with courage for Justice and Equality and so create a New World 

ALL: THANKS BE TO GOD!

INTERCESSIONS    AFTER EACH INTERCESSION, ALL SAY
                                   RENEW YOUR PEOPLE  IN LOVE…

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

OFFERTORY  (collection for the support of St Nicks 170 Fund)        No 883  and the Taizé chant
The Kingdom of God is justice and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, Come, Lord, and open in us the gates of Your Kingdom

EUCHARISTIC ACCLAMATION
Sanctus:                           No 559
Consecration:               No 560                                   

PEACE                              No 590

COMMUNION                No 245 (‘Ubi Caritas’)
African Song
No 882

AT THE TABLE OF THE EUCHARIST Rededication as the Community of the Bread and the Cup

After sharing the Eucharist together, the Bishop and priests and deacons stand once more at the Altar Table and lead us in an Act of Rededication as the People of the Eucharist.

RICHARD: For 170 years people have gathered around the Eucharistic Table to share the Breaking of the Bread, and to drink deeply of his transforming love in the One Cup. The Eucharist is the Sacrifice of Christ that has broken down the barriers dividing us from each other; it is the centre of our lives, the love that gathers us from every race, culture and language into a Universal Community, a People of joyous diversity, the People of God; the power which nourishes us and sends us in mission to our world.

READER: Will you commit yourselves afresh to being the People of the Eucharist, working in the years and decades that lie ahead of us as a parish for the unity of the One Bread and One Cup  among yourselves and with Christians of every tradition? Will you commit yourselves afresh to being the People of the Eucharist, to break bread of justice, share the cup of suffering with the poor, welcome the stranger and the outcast to our Table and bring healing to our divided society?

ALL: WITH GRATEFUL HEARTS WE WILL BECOME THE LIVING EUCHARIST IN THE HEART OF THE WORLD, SERVING UNITY.

READER: Will you commit yourselves afresh to being the People of the Eucharist, 

by hungering for Christ’s presence and thirsting for Christ’s love … 

by expressing that love in humble service of the poor and broken

of your world? 

ALL: WITH GRATEFUL HEARTS WE WILL DEEPEN OUR LOVE 

FOR CHRIST, WHO WASHED OUR FEET AT THE FIRST EUCHARIST AND TOLD US TO DO LIKEWISE.

LITURGY OF BLESSING AND MISSION

LITURGY OF BLESSING AND MISSION

Commissioning and Sending our Community for a future of Service and Witness to the Lord

BISHOP:     We stand in a rich tradition of 170 years of faith and prayer, witness and service …  may the Father make us faithful to all that has been handed on to us

PEOPLE: AMEN!

BISHOP:    Jesus shares with us His dream of a world made new. May we listen to his call, walk his Way, proclaim His Truth and give Life by His Love in new and challenging ways

PEOPLE: AMEN!

BISHOP: May the Holy Spirit, fall upon us … with life-giving Water to cleanse and heal; with Fire to burn love into our hearts; with Mighty Wind to empower us to be Prophets that we will be a Parable of Communion in the Inner City forging the future with new courage

PEOPLE: AMEN!

BISHOP: May Almighty God bless us all
Father + Son and Holy Spirit
now and forever …

PEOPLE: AMEN!

DEACON:  We have celebrated together 170 years of this community … now go into the unknown future with the love of God, the Freedom of Christ and the power of the Spirit to proclaim the Risen Christ

PEOPLE: THANKS BE TO GOD!

RECESSIONAL   No 854

Thank you for coming to celebrate this very special celebration, marking 170 years since the foundation of our parish and its mission. We are inspired by the remarkable witness of St Nicholas of Tolentino, together  with St Maximilian Kolbe, St Edith Stein and all who perished in the Holocaust. St Vincent de Paul, St Louise de Marillac, Bl Frederick Ozanam and St Oscar Romero also hold special places in our parish story.  

We are immensely grateful to our Bishop Declan and to all of you who have come and celebrated with us our identity as a parish of diverse peoples called together by God here in the Inner City. Rededicating ourselves to the work of the Kingdom in the years and decades to come, may we embrace every new challenge that the future holds so as to be a community in Christ that is Re-Born in obedience to His Word, ready again to continue building this One World in His Justice, Equality and Peace.

 

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