PRIEST: We hear today how Jesus begins his ministry – immersed in a world of pain and oppression, he brings an explosion of life-giving and healing! Healing was his chosen way to proclaim the Good News of New Life in God’s love. Healing was the gift of his compassion as well as the sign of his Kingdom. Like St Paul, all of us also have the sacred duty of proclaiming the Good News to the world around us. Let us welcome the healing of Christ into our own woundedness, the freedom of Christ into all that is imprisoned and not yet fully free for love within us. By his unconditional mercy and forgiveness may we truly come alive in his wholeness, the better to proclaim His Good News and serve His healing will for our world!
READER: Our sins are often our wounds crying out for healing
… let us welcome the healing of Christ
that we might find freedom from sin
LORD HAVE MERCY…
When we do not believe enough in God’s love for us;
when we doubt he really wants to make us whole…
CHRIST HAVE MERCY…
When our lack of love and compassion
deprives others of healing and hides His Good News;
when we imprison others by our attitudes
and hurtful words and actions…
LORD HAVE MERCY…
PRIEST: May Abba Father, the Life-giver, make us whole;
May Jesus, the Pain-bearer, free us from the burden of our guilts;
May the Holy Spirit, the Love-maker, raise us up to be fully alive
to bring to all the world everlasting life…
AMEN!