PRIEST: This morning you are all very welcome – let us welcome one another, as we recognise Jesus’ welcome to us. We are going to hear how the People of God welcomed their God: Abraham and Sarah discovering God in the strange visitors to their tent; Martha and Mary welcoming Jesus to their Bethany home. The stranger is often the bearer of God to us. Let us ask forgiveness whenever we fail to welcome our brother, our sister into our heart, into our community, for then we failed to welcome Jesus.
READER: When we fail to listen to the Words of Jesus
in the cries of the poor and the victims of war;
for not welcoming the voices from the streets of the Inner City…
LORD HAVE MERCY…
When we fail to welcome the stranger, the refugee, the traveller,
those of different race or culture or religion…
CHRIST HAVE MERCY…
When our love is too weak to struggle for justice,
when our compassion is too shallow to feed the hungry
when our faith is too small to listen to God in the silence…
LORD HAVE MERCY…
PRIEST: May the God whose heart is always open,
welcome us at the gates of his mercy;
May Jesus who welcomes our humanity, heal us to welcome him
in the flesh and skin of every race of the earth;
May the Spirit who is alive in the stranger,
transform the hostility of our hearts into divine hospitality
and bring all to everlasting life…
AMEN!