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First Sunday of Advent YB

PRIEST:  My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
In the midst of our war torn world and of the immense crisis of Global Warming, we have come to the Holy and Joyful Season of Advent, these four weeks of preparation…learning to watch with faith for the Coming of the Lord in Glory…learning to welcome with love our brother Jesus who has already come among us…learning to yearn with hope for the final coming of His Kingdom of Peace, Justice and Love upon the earth.

Let our hearts chant the ancient prayer of our Christian forebears, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’

[proceed to wreath]

Let us pray…

O God, Father and Mother of all Life, by your Word all things are made holy. Send forth your Blessing upon our Advent Wreath, and upon our parish family: may we use this sign of Your growing Light to prepare our hearts and minds to build Your Kingdom among us, to heal our Earth and bring Peace built upon Justice, so that we may hasten that day when the Lord Jesus will come in His Glory … In the Name of the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit…AMEN!

READER:     The purple candles and ribbon call us to repentance,
                           making our hearts wide open and ready for His Coming:
Lord, grant us the grace of conversion to your Gospel this Advent…

                                         LORD HAVE MERCY…

The circle of evergreen reminds us that God is ever faithful to us,
in His love and mercy that never ends:
Lord, forgive us all our unfaithfulness to your call to love…

                                         CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

The red berries remind us that Jesus came among us to die on a Cross,
                              and that we drink the Cup of His Redeeming Blood:
Lord, by Your wounds we are healed,
and by Your death we are freed from the death of sin…

                                         LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:     O Lord, stir up Your might and come!
                       Be our protector and liberator;
                       rescue us from the dangers that threaten us
                       because of our sins,
                      and lead us to our salvation, for ever and ever…

                                           AMEN!

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On Social Friendship – Visionary!

POPE FRANCIS CALLING US TO PRAYER AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

‘The Bible says that whoever finds a friend has found a treasure. I would like to invite everyone to go beyond their groups of friends and build social friendship, which is so necessary for living together well.
We especially need to have a renewed encounter with the most impoverished and vulnerable, those on the peripheries. And we need to distance ourselves from populisms that exploit the anguish of the people without providing solutions, proposing a mystique that solves nothing.
We must flee from social enmity which only destroys, and leave “polarization” behind.
And this isn’t always easy, especially today when part of our politics, society and media are bent on creating enemies so as to defeat them in a game of power.
Dialogue is the path to seeing reality in a new way, so we can live with passion the challenges we face in constructing the common good.
Let us pray that, in social, economic, and political situations of conflict, we may be courageous and passionate architects of dialogue and friendship, men and women who always hold out a helping hand, and may no spaces of enmity and war remain.’ Pope Francis

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Pope’s Prayers for Action on Global Warming

PRAYER FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Loving God, we praise Your name with all you have created.
You are present in the whole universe, and in the smallest of creatures.
We acknowledge the responsibilities you have placed upon us
as loving stewards of Your creation.                                                                                   We know we are called to live in a communion of love and justice
with all the creatures of the Earth, with the forests, seas and land.
We are called to purify and protect the air we breathe, the water we drink.

May the Holy Spirit inspire us all
to embrace the changes needed to heal our Common Home, the Earth.
Give courage and wisdom to political leaders to fulfil their promises
and take decisive action to care for the Earth                                                                     and bring true justice and equality to the poorest and most vulnerable.                                                                                  Guide us to commit our and all nations to the care of our Common Home.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son…AMEN!

You are the wisdom that guides us,
You, are the love that unites us
You are the divine energy that empowers us.

Come, lead us into all Truth liberating us
to become Your Church, the sacrament of God’s Loving for our 21st Century world.

Come speak to your Church through the voices of the silenced, the hurting, the wounded.
Come so that we may listen with love to unfamiliar voices for through them You speak
healing and hope to the People of God, renewing and reforming us in love.

Teach us the way we must go, what we must change
Show us new ways to be Your Church
and make this Journey of Synod Your own!

All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place, person and time,
in the communion of the Father and the Son, forever and ever. Amen.

 

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TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY YEAR A

PRIEST:    We are gathered today for the Eucharist during the Synod Assembly in Rome…to share this glimpse of the great banquet of God’s love with our sisters and brothers who are marginalised, suffering and poor. We and they have been invited and called, simply because God loves us so much. The Holy Spirit is challenging us to be an all inclusive Church that rejects no-one. How do we to God’s invitation to the banquet? Do we come joyfully and with expectancy?  Or do we come grudgingly and with little desire to receive?   Do we allow the Eucharist really to change our lives? And who else do we invite to share the Banquet not only of Faith but also of Justice?

READER:       For the times we ignore the invitations of God,
                            the promptings of His Spirit deep within us;
                            for the ways we silence the voice of God’s call…

                                            LORD HAVE MERCY…

                            For the ways we avoid the challenge of the Word of God
                            to change,  to grow,  to serve and to proclaim…

                                            CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

                           For our sins  and those of the Church that stop so many
coming to God’s banquet of the Eucharist
                           and sharing in the mission of the Church…

                                            LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:           May the Father who calls us
                             welcome us to his banquet of forgiveness;
                            May the Redeemer,  Jesus,  break the bread of mercy for us;
                           May the Reconciling Spirit breath peace and new hope into our hearts
                          and bring us to everlasting life…

                                              AMEN!

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TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY YEAR A

‘He sent his servants to all who were invited to the Feast’ … that the Synod Assembly gathered in Rome as part of the Global Synod will be led by the Holy Spirit to walk the path of reform and renewal, building a radically inclusive Church, where all are welcome and valued   

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

‘There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength’, writes St Paul … we pray in a world addicted to injustice and poverty, that the World’s poorest will be the world’s first priority, so that the poor will have an equal share in the Feast of the Earth’s Banquet

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

‘God will remove the mourning veil and the shroud enwrapping the nations’ … we pray urgently for an end to the war, brutality and terrorism afflicting the peoples of Palestine/Israel and that from the ashes of this horrifying conflict there may emerge a miracle of reconciliation, a peace built upon the rock of Justice and Security for Palestinian and Israeli alike

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

All were given the wedding garment free … we pray for Stephen and Francisca married in this church yesterday; for our whole baptised community and for those journeying in Faith towards Sacraments of Initiation: may we discover the joy of living in Christ, robed with garments of holiness and moving towards the eternal feast of heaven

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

That as a community we will gladly go the crossroads of our world and fill God’s house with rich, poor, black, white, healthy, addicted, secure and disturbed – may the banquet of His Love which we celebrate here be healing and life for all

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

As we grieve the inhumanity and brutality being inflicted upon the women and children of Gaza and Israel, we pray for the hostages held in Gaza and plead for a conversion of heart to peace in the people of violence and in those leaders calling for and justifying vengeance … we dare to pray in this darkest hour for the dawning of a new peace  

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

We pray for the thousands of victims of the horror of war in Gaza and Israel and those medical staff in hospitals without power, medicines or food … we pray too for …
we that all who have died recently now enjoy the Heavenly Banquet, especially, Fr Donal Daly and the victims of war, violence and famine;
and for all whose anniversaries are at this time,

                           [READER]        GOD OF PEACE…
                           [Response]     Gather all to Your Feast…

Mary Queen of Peace and Mother of the Church, pray with us for the Renewal of the Church in humility and mercy through the Synod… 

HAIL MARY…

Let us pray in silence for the Church to be truly Good News to the Poor …

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Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Year A

PRIEST: Today we hear the Lord’s call to each one of us to work in His vineyard … the world. He challenges us to build up His Kingdom upon the earth.  Even if we respond only at the eleventh hour, He rewards us with a most generous love that fulfils the yearnings of our heart and completes our joy.  Those going at the eleventh hour as we hear in today’s Gospel, represent those who are normally excluded and marginalised, but whom God calls and wants to be co-workers in the mission of the Church. Will we leave behind our sense of earlier rejection and recognise God’s urgent calling and answer with the gift of ourselves with renewed confidence?  Surely it is our deepest joy to share our faith and to proclaim His Gospel to our own people, our own city. Are we faithful to His calling,  do we work for His Kingdom everyday?

READER:        For narrowness of heart and meanness of the spirit
that does not welcome others who might be different from ourselves,
                             that is not willing to share the work of Christ with one another

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY…

For not answering God’s call to share the Good News,
for allowing past rejections to stop us responding to God’s urgent call
for our lack of enthusiasm in working in God’s Vineyard

                                              CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

When our ways are not God’s ways, our thoughts are not God’s thoughts;
when we fail to challenge our society to change according to the Gospel

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:         May the God who calls us forgive us every failure to serve,
                         send us once more into His Vineyard,
                         heal us by His mercy of the wounds of past rejection
                         and bring us and all Creation to everlasting life

                                                   AMEN!

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Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Year A

PRIEST:     On this ‘Joy of the Gospel’ Sunday, Jesus challenges us to be a community of endless forgiveness, ever opening the gates of mercy to all peoples. For His Gospel of Joy  is news of limitless forgiveness. Broken, hurting and embittered people need to know a community that will go the extra mile to understand and forgive, before they will discover a God they need never fear and can bring them a joy beyond compare. Does our forgiveness of each other and ourselves speak the love of Christ to others? Do we open the gates of mercy to another?

READER:                 When we deprive another of freedom by withholding forgiveness;
                                      when we are held captive by an unbending and unforgiving heart;
when we reject others through our prejudices and harm their growth

                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY…

When we are slow to forgive those who have hurt us,
slow to forgive ourselves our weakness and failure,
when our parish fails to be a place of reconciliation
and therefore fails to be a place of evangelisation

                                                    CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

Because your mercy is endless,  your love is healing,
your Gospel is joyful Good News of New Beginnings for everyone

                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:       May the God of Forgiveness embrace us in mercy,
                        fill us with the joy of the Gospel of unconditional love,
                        and send us to our nation as bearers of reconciliation, healing and hope,
                       offering to all the Good News of everlasting life

                                   AMEN!

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Twenty-Third Sunday of Year A

PRIEST: Today, the Word of God presents us with the vision of a community centred upon the Christ who is alive among us … a community that takes seriously the call to holiness:   and takes equally seriously the fact that each one of us is responsible in some measure for each other’s growth and development.  We are given to one another to encourage each other on the path of holiness and Christian maturity. We are part of one another’s gradual conversion to Christ. Today this involves what Pope Francis calls our ‘eco-conversion’, conversion to communion with our common Home the Planet Earth. Let us reflect on whether we accept such responsibility to help and challenge one another to hear the cry of the Earth, the Cry of the Poor – and to act!

READER:                    For the ways we stunt one another’s growth
by our resentments and unforgiveness,
                                       by our lack of caring and concern,
                                       by keeping ourselves to ourselves

                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY…

For every refusal to love our neighbour as our self,
for being selective about who our neighbour might be;
for our neglect of our responsibility for the earth, for our environment and for the poor of our ‘common home’

                                                    CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

For refusing others when they seek to help us, guide us, encourage us or correct us
For the ways we do not listen to the Prophets who challenge us

                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:           May the God of all love and compassion accept us as we are,
                            forgive us our every failure
                            and lead us forward by His Spirit to growth and holiness,
                           and bring us and all Creation  to everlasting life…

                                                      AMEN!

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Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Year A

As the Church celebrates the ‘Joy of the Gospel’ may all God’s People witness joyfully to the free gift of God’s love in our lives so that many more will come to know the God who gives not less than everything to all willing to receive His love into their lives

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

For all who are unemployed, for those denied the right to work, for those who are exploited or discriminated against in their work place, for those denied a just and living wage, for the victims of modern slavery, trafficking 

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

For those who do not recognise the God who creates and loves them;  for those seeking meaning and hope in their lives;  for those struggling to come to Jesus Christ and find in him the key of truth in our modern unbelieving world; for God’s blessing and guidance upon our Journey of Faith group

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

For a change of heart and policy among our Government that they will listen to the cries of those suffering most because of the cost of living crisis and the increasing numbers of homeless people  

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

For our young people at this time starting at University, apprenticeships or their working life: that they might find joy and fulfilment as they shape their and meet new challenges

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

That we will overcome our fears of sharing the Good News with those around us and answer the Call to Serve;  that we will continue to build a community of welcome for all in every form of diversity;  that such love will be found among us that seekers may find their way to Christ

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

That the sick and the housebound might hear the Good News of healing and hope, and by their loving prayer nourish the Mission of the Church:  we pray especially for …
for those who have died recently,… and in particular the victims of the Earthquake in Morocco and of violence, conflict and famine
for those whose anniversaries are at this time:

                    [reader]            LORD WE PRAY…
                    [response]      MAY ALL KNOW YOUR LOVE..                           

Let us ask Mary, Queen of Peace and mother of the poor, to pray with us for the Peace of our world and justice for all the oppressed …

                                                   HAIL MARY…

Let us pray in a moment of silence…

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Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Year A

That the Christian Church in our land will continue to ‘fling wide open the doors of God’s mercy’, to develop the New Evangelisation and so invite to all to come and find new life in Christ Jesus;  that mission will be our joy and our fulfilment

                       [reader]               LORD WE PRAY…
                       [response]         MAY YOUR GOSPEL BE HEARD…                           

For the people of our city and our nation,  that all will discover that it is never too late hear the call of Christ to the Fulness of Life; and may we build together a future of hope to bring opportunity, meaning and purpose to the lives of our young people

                       [reader]               LORD WE PRAY…
                       [response]         MAY YOUR GOSPEL BE HEARD…                           

For those who place their hope in money and profit rather than the God who creates and loves them;  for those seeking meaning and hope in their lives;  for those struggling to come to Jesus Christ and find in him the key of truth in our modern unbelieving world

                       [reader]               LORD WE PRAY…
                       [response]         MAY YOUR GOSPEL BE HEARD…                           

For our parish family enriched with such diversity, that we will find new ways to bring  the Joy of the Gospel and its New Life to the people of our Inner City; that as a Parish in communion for mission we will bring healing and hope to the most marginalised

                       [reader]               LORD WE PRAY…
                       [response]         MAY YOUR GOSPEL BE HEARD…                           

That we will overcome our fears of sharing the Good News with those around us; for all involved in our Journey of Faith, especially those seeking to know Jesus and find faith;  that it will be our joy to be known in our area as disciples of Jesus;  that such love will be found among us that seekers may find their way to the Christ among us

                       [reader]               LORD WE PRAY…
                       [response]         MAY YOUR GOSPEL BE HEARD…                           

That the sick, and housebound might hear the Good News of healing and hope, and by their loving prayer nourish the Mission of the Church:  we pray especially for …
for those who have died recently…. and  in particular all victims of war and terror throughout the world
for those whose anniversaries are at this time

                       [reader]               LORD WE PRAY…
                       [response]         MAY YOUR GOSPEL BE HEARD…                           

Let us ask Mary, the One who gave Jesus to the world, to pray for us that we too will rejoice to give Jesus to our world…

                                                           HAIL MARY…

Let us pray in a moment of silence…