ENTRANCE LITURGY
PROCESSIONAL SONG African
THE RITE OF CATECHUMEN IS CELEBRATED
GLORIA said
OPENING PRAYER
LITURGY OF THE WORD
AT THE LECTERN – Rededication to the Word
Our priest and Readers go to the Lectern to welcome the Holy Scriptures, and all 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 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.
PARISHIONER: 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 DO!
FIRST READING Jeremiah c1: vv 4-10
RESPONSORIAL PSALM CD Psalm
SECOND READING Romans c8: vv 14-25
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION CD Alleluia de Kiev (Taizé)
GOSPEL Luke c4: vv 16-21
HOMILY
BAPTISMAL LITURGY
BLESSING OF THE WATER
RICHARD: As we give thanks for 172 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.
PARISHIONER: 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!
PARISHIONER: 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 live faithfully as a member of God’s Holy Church,
building together a Universal Communion of love for all the nations?
Do 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?
PEOPLE: WE DO!
RICHARD: Brothers and sisters:
Let us ask the Lord our God to breathe His restless Spirit upon this water, gift of His hand and sign of our baptism, upon our children chosen for baptism, and upon everyone of us, that we may be faithful to the new life we have received.
PEOPLE: COME CREATOR SPIRIT COME!
We praise you, our creating God, for fresh water, sparkling mirror of your glory;
for fresh water, out of which life first sprang, and upon which the first path to new life was charted;
for the parting of the waters of Exodus, clearing freedom’s highway out of the house of slavery;
for the waters of repentance, flowing straight into the hearts of your people at the word of John the Baptist;
for the Living Water, your Son Jesus, pouring himself out like a flood,
quenching our thirst with his love.
PEOPLE: COME CREATOR SPIRIT COME!
God, Father and Mother of all Life,
look with love upon your Church gathered this Holy Night
and unseal for us the founting water of baptism,
and raise your children by New Birth into your new Humanity,
that we may work with you to create a new world, your kingdom upon the earth.
PEOPLE: COME CREATOR SPIRIT COME!
God, take this, our water, once more as your own.
Make it really alive, as in the beginning;
You who are Creator, brood over it in love as tender Mother;
You who are Redeemer, fashion us anew in the image of Jesus
who is alive in Your Spirit forever
PEOPLE: COME CREATOR SPIRIT COME!
Our Catechumen is now baptised
BIDDING PRAYER BEGIN WITH THE RENEWAL OF OUR PARISH COVENANT WITH THE POOR
RICHARD: As in the past, so into the future God entrusts to our parish the care of the poor of the city and beyond. 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. We hear the cries of our poor Earth, our planet hurting and abused by our exploitation. Challenged to work for a True Jubilee of Justice and Peace for our Earth and its peoples 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 :
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 DO!
INTERCESSIONS – AFTER EACH INTERCESSION, ALL SAY
RENEW YOUR PEOPLE IN LOVE…
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
OFFERTORY The Blessing of the St Nicholas Bread
READER: As a child, St Nicholas went to the homes of the poor with his parents to bring food, clothes and comfort;
as an Augustinian novice he gave the Priory’s food away to the poor and converted his brothers to generosity;
as a priest he organised the distribution of food to poor families during time of famine;
as God’s servant of healing Nicholas blessed bread and placed it on the lips of a dead child who came to life;
and every day he broke the bread of the Word and the bread of life for God’s people.
PRIEST:
Hear our prayer O Lord and with the intercession of St Nicholas of Tolentino bless this bread that it might bring healing and strength to Your People today, encouraging us to share with love, touch with gentleness and speak with courage so that we might be Good News to the Poor, Bread in your hands to be broken for a New World of justice and equality
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
AMEN!
EUCHARISTIC ACCLAMATIONS
COMMUNION
AT THE TABLE OF THE EUCHARIST Rededication as the Community of the Bread and the Cup
After sharing the Eucharist together, the Priest stands once more at the Altar Table and lead us in an Act of Rededication as the People of the Eucharist.
RICHARD: 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.
PARISHIONER: 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?
PEOPLE: WE DO!
PARISHIONER: 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: WE DO!
LITURGY OF BLESSING AND MISSION
THE BLESSING AND MISSION
Commissioning and Sending our Community for another year of Service and Witness to the Lord
RICHARD: We stand in a rich tradition of 172 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!
RICHARD: Jesus shares with us His dream of a world made new,
a New Heaven and New Earth where all creation is set free.
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!
RICHARD: 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!
RICHARD: May Almighty God bless us all
Father + Son and Holy Spirit now and forever …
PEOPLE: AMEN!
RICHARD: Our Celebration is ended …
go in the love of God,
the Freedom of Christ
and the power of the Spirit
to proclaim Good News to All Creation!
PEOPLE: THANKS BE TO GOD!