PRIEST: Today, God’s word challenges us to take up our mission: Jesus calls us and sends us just as he did the Seventy Two so long ago. We are all called to labour in His harvest of salvation. And there is an urgency in His words, asking of us a single-minded determination to offer the world the Gospel of peace, the Good News of Life. Today’s Mass encourages us to form a missionary community, a ‘Parish in communion for mission’, giving ourselves for those who do not join us week by week. Do we take up the challenge of Jesus?
READER: For the times and ways that God sends us
but we find excuses for not going, not doing what he asks…
LORD HAVE MERCY
Whenever we bring strife rather than peace to another’s home;
when our presence, actions and words are hurting
rather than healing for another…
CHRIST HAVE MERCY
For spending more energy on preserving the Church
than proclaiming the Gospel;
for carrying unnecessary baggage of the past, hindering us
from bringing the Good News of Jesus to today’s people
CHRIST HAVE MERCY
PRIEST: May the God of outreaching love forgive our fears;
may Jesus who came to bring Life in all its fullness
have mercy on our narrowness;
may the Holy Spirit be purifying fire in our hearts
to empower us for the mission of Peace,
and bring us and our world to everlasting life…
AMEN!