Patronal Mass of Rededication 2019

Mass for the Patronal Feast of St Nicholas of Tolentino concluding our 170th Anniversary Year

ENTRANCE LITURGY

PROCESSIONAL SONG African

ENTRANCE HYMN No 458

AT THE BAPTISMAL FONT – Renewal of Baptismal Promises

PRIEST: As we conclude our celebration of 170 years of mission and witness, we recommit ourselves to God’s future for our parish of community and mission. 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, for each other and for our 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 we are gathered into the one Family of all God’s Children.

READER: Will you now renew your commitment as the People of the Water:
Do you renounce all evil in the world and in your own hearts?
Do you commit yourselves to living the holiness of the Beatitudes?

PEOPLE: We do renounce all evil, seeking to live the Holiness and Love of Christ.

READER:     Will you love God your Father with all your heart and strength?
Will you accept afresh the New Life won for you
                         by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, brother to all Humanity?
Will you open afresh your life to the Power and Gifts of the Spirit
that we might continue the Mission of the Church here long into the future?
Will you live faithfully as a member of God’s Holy Church,
                         building together a Universal Communion of love for all the nations?

PEOPLE: Signed by the Cross of Christ, we will live our Baptism in love for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Church. 

PRIEST: Divine Trinity, bless anew the water of this Font
and renew the Grace of Baptism in each member of this Parish.
Empower us for our mission: to build our community in love and service
and so witness to the love of Christ in the heart of the Inner City,
In the Name of the Father, + the Son and the Holy Spirit…

PEOPLE: AMEN!

All are sprinkled with Baptismal Water as a sign that we seek to live our Baptism anew.

MEANWHILE ALL SING No 407

GLORIA                                        African Gloria

OPENING PRAYER 

LITURGY OF THE WORD

AT THE LECTERN – Rededication to the Word                 African Song of Acclamation

The Books of the Word are brought to the Lectern, ‘the Table of the Word’. Our priest and Readers go to the Lectern to welcome the Books of the Holy Scriptures, and all rededicate ourselves to the Word Who is Life for us, Bread for our Journey.

PRIEST:      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 is to be proclaimed in new ways
                       by this parish for years to come.
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 Jeremiah c1: vv 4-10

RESPONSORIAL PSALM                               No 892

SECOND READING                                    Romans c8: vv 14-25

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION  African 

GOSPEL Luke c4: vv 16-21

HOMILY

RENEWAL OF COVENANT WITH THE POOR

PRIEST:   As in the past, so into the future God entrusts to our parish the care
of the poor of the city. The Holy Spirit calls and empowers us to rededicate ourselves as a community to that same caring for the poor and marginalised, excluded and rejected. Challenged to work for a True Jubilee of Justice and Peace for our world by remaining true of our Covenant with the Poor, and inspired by God’s great Lover of the Poor, St Nicholas, we accept again the challenge of our Jubilee 2000 Covenant:
to hold in prayer the poor and conflict-torn of the world;
to recognise the causes of poverty, war and racial conflict and so campaign;
to find renewed energy for inspired action to bring about peace and justice;
to welcome the stranger among us and struggle with them for freedom. 

Do you reaffirm this Covenant with the Poor?

People: WE REAFFIRM OUR PARISH COVENANT WITH THE POOR:
WE WILL CONTINUE TO REACH OUT IN COMPASSION TO THE POOR OF OUR STREETS AND CITY, WELCOMING & LISTENING TO THE STRANGER;
WE REDEDICATE OURSELVES AND OUR PARISH TO THE STRUGGLE
FOR JUSTICE AND EQUALITY FOR ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH.

INTERCESSIONS  –  AFTER EACH INTERCESSION, ALL SAY

RENEW YOUR PEOPLE  IN LOVE…

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

OFFERTORY      No 473, then the Consecration of our Icon of St Nicholas and the Blessing       of the St Nicholas Bread (during Incensing) chant ‘Laudate Omnes Gentes’

EUCHARISTIC ACCLAMATION
                              Sanctus:                           No 559
                              Consecration:    No 560                                   

PEACE    No 922

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 Clergy stand once more at the Altar Table and lead us in an Act of Rededication as the People of the Eucharist.

PRIEST:   At the centre of every Catholic church stands the Table of the Lord.
May generations to come gather around this 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.
As in the past, so into the future God entrusts to our parish the care

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 Tableand bring healing to our divided society?

PEOPLE: 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 by humble service of the poor and broken
of your world? 

PEOPLE: 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

THE BLESSING AND MISSION 

Commissioning and Sending our Community for another year of Service and Witness to the Lord

RECESSIONAL   No 854