Category: Penitential Rites

PRIEST: We gather the year that is past with thankfulness for the many touches of grace and goodness that have been the gifts of God; with sorrow for all that has wounded our world through sin and selfishness, war and injustice; with healing prayer for hurts we have endured or have inflicted. We seek to enter the New Year with hearts purified in the fire of Divine Love and lives focussed on the God who makes all things new!

READER:      For Peace not won, and Justice not achieved;
For poverty still rampant and power still abused
For Climate Change denied or ignored
We ask your mercy, O God of Peace

                                                LORD HAVE MERCY …

For forgiveness withheld and wounds inflicted;
For relationships broken and lives abused
We ask your mercy, O God of Pardon

                                                CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

For touches of grace not welcomed and gifts not accepted;
For the Good News not proclaimed and unity not achieved
We ask your mercy, O God of Oneness

                                                LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:    May the God of Pardon bring mercy to our failures,
                      The God of Unity bring fire to our love grown cold,
                      The God of Peace bring healing to our hurting hearts,
                      and renew hope as we journey into this New Year
                      To bring all creation to everlasting life…       

                                               AMEN!

PRIEST:      As we draw near the end of this strangest of years we gather as a family of families, recognising there has been much grief, fear amd anxiety in the story of our families this year, and it is not yet over. Nevertheless, we gather around the simplicity and poverty, the love and the faith of the Holy Family of Bethlehem and Nazareth.  Theirs was very far from a trouble-free family life: homeless, fleeing for their lives into exile because of the fears of the powerful, destined to be refugees for years.  Yet we celebrate the wonder of God’s great confidence in us and in our families, entrusting His own Son to a family like ours, for Jesus to grow and develop into the power of love that He became.  In the midst of so many diverse forms of family life among us, let us rededicate ourselves to the task of loving and caring, supporting and understanding one another, as we recognise that our failures are forgiven…

READER:                    The family is the school of love:
                                         that we may replace harshness with forgiveness,
                                         criticism with encouragement, deafness with sensitive listening

                                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY …

The family is called to be a healing community:
                                          that we may care rather than judge, accept rather than reject,
cherish rather than take for granted

                                                                      CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

The family is called to be a place of prayer:
                                          that Christ may be the centre of our homes, not on the edge,
                                          that parents may be the first and best of teachers of their children
                                                            in the ways of faith,
                                          that love may set all free to search and develop,
                                          not criticism  to stifle and limit

                                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:        May our God who is family, Father, Son and Spirit,
                          bring mercy to our failures, fire to our love grown cold,
                          healing peace to our hurting hearts,
                         and renewed hope to the challenge of love and growth
                         bringing us all humanity to everlasting life…       

                                                                             AMEN!

[PRIEST]            We have prepared these past four weeks of Advent for the coming of our Saviour. Now, we come together on this dark but glorious night, to hail redemption’s dawn, to hasten with the shepherds to see the wondrous sight, and, after some 2000 years, to kneel with them again in adoration and love before the Word made Flesh.  Jesus comes, Son of God and Son of Mary, to share our humanity and weakness, so that we may share forever His divinity and life.  Tonight of all nights, the night of the Incarnation, we rejoice, for Love came to live among us for all time and beyond.  So let us, as the Angels told the shepherds, come, see, and celebrate.

CAROL   

PENITENTIAL RITE:            [PRIEST]

It is right to rejoice this night … but we need to recognise the dark shadows that fall across our joy.  The dark night with the bright star foreshadows the darkness of the third hour on the Cross, when Jesus died that love might overcome hate, and so to reconcile sinners to God and all people.  The cold stable cave of the Nativity echoes the death cold tomb waiting to be transformed into Resurrection and life.  Let us leave behind the sin and pain of this past year, and embrace God’s New Beginning of Grace that can bring Hope to our torn world.

[READER]                Father,  who sent your Son to be our Redeemer,
                                      come and speak Your Word of Forgiveness to every human heart:
                                      forgive us for closing our heart to Jesus’ brothers and sisters,
                                      and free us by your forgiveness …

                                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY…

Jesus, come and speak Your Word of Peace into the violence and war of our world:
for the angers within us, for every injustice that makes others victims,
                                      for being so slow to work for ‘peace on earth’…

                                                                    CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

Holy Spirit, overshadowing Mary long ago in order to renew the face of the Earth,
come and breath Your Love upon a world that forgets how to accept each other:
                                       for every refusal to love, to heal, to give with compassion and sacrifice …

                                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY…

[PRIEST]       May the Father who so loved the world
                                     that He sent His beloved Son embrace us with forgiveness;
                          May the Son and Saviour Jesus who died to reconcile us all
                                     touch our hearts with pardon and peace;
                          May the Holy Spirit who hovers over this night more brightly than the Star
                                    fill our lives with light and healing;
                          and May our God who is with us bring us and all the world to everlasting life…
                                                                         AMEN!

[PRIEST] Now reconciled, we are ready to approach, like the shepherds, the birthplace of the great Shepherd, there to adore Him and offer the gift He seeks … ourselves!

PRIEST:          My dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus,
                  We gather today on this last Sunday of Advent Preparation to share in this Eucharist God’s great call to bear Christ to the world.  Mary heard this call and answered with such love that he whom she already carried in her heart,  was now  conceived in her womb.  Overshadowed by the Spirit and abandoned to God’s Word and Will,  the Saviour can come to us, flesh of our flesh.  Let us utter our ‘Yes’ to the God who calls as we share Mary’s song of joy in the Coming of our Saviour.

Let us pray…

O God of our History, from all eternity You have spoken forth Your Word of Love that gives Life, creating the heavens and earth,  making man and woman in Your own image and likeness.  You dreamed of a People ready  to serve Your Truth and Kingdom in the world. And in the fullness of time, You found a woman so full of love that Your Word could make His home in her heart and her womb. Through her your Son,  the Divine Word, is made Flesh and dwells among us.  Bless these Advent Candles of Light and Expectancy and bless our community with the faith and love of Mary,  that we might dare to abandon ourselves to You and welcome the Day of your Kingdom … In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit… AMEN!

READER:      Mary, the woman of faith, risked saying ‘yes’
                            to an unknown future in God’s plan:
                            for our lack of faith and trust,

                                                             LORD HAVE MERCY …

                             Mary,  the woman of hope, embraced the overshadowing Spirit
                             and dared the impossible for God:
                             for the ways we risk little in the service of God and His kingdom,

                                                             CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

                             Mary, the woman of love, welcomed the Word in her heart
before she welcomed the Word in her womb:
                             for our lack of love that silences God’s Word in today’s world,

                                                             LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:       O Lord, stir up your might and come!
                          Touch us with Your overshadowing Spirit,
                           speak Your Word of forgiveness to our hearts and to our world,
                           so that the Saviour, our Emmanuel, may come again
                          and bring us to  everlasting life

                                                              …AMEN!

PRIEST:                     My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This third Sunday of Advent is a day for rejoicing…rejoicing that the coming of our Saviour is close at hand; rejoicing that his coming will bring Good News to the Poor, a new freedom and an era of healing and liberation; rejoicing that God still sends prophets like John the Baptist to witness to the Light and to challenge us to welcome the Christ who changes all things!
Let us now sing with joy as we witness the Coming of Christ that brings healing to our brokenness and forgiveness to our sinfulness, transforming us with His Coming…

                            [ proceed to wreath, singing ‘Rejoice in the Lord Always!’]

Let us pray…
O God, Mother and Father of all that lives, come among us and dance over us with your joy, as on a day of Festival! Fill our community with that rejoicing that comes from welcoming your Light, Jesus Christ, and sharing that light of forgiveness. liberation and healing with all our world. Bless this Advent Wreath and our parish so that we may hasten the day when your Son, our Brother, will fill all creation with joyous Glory…

                           IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER + AND OF THE SON,
                                           AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT…AMEN!

READER:                     Lord, for the wastelands in our lives,
                                          the deserts of sin within us and our world:
                                          the emptiness that deprives our earth of your joy;
                                          we ask your mercy

                                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY …

                                           Lord, for the violence and war that wastes our world,
                                           for the deserts of unemployment and homelessness,
                                           for the darkness of greed and luxury;
                                           we ask your mercy

                                                                    CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

                                            Lord, because of the joy you have in forgiving us,
                                           because you come to transforming us with healing and reconciliation;
                                           with confidence we ask your mercy

                                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:        O Lord, stir up your might and come! Clothe us in your joyous Light,
                           renew our hearts in your  compassion and forgiveness,
                           and bring us all to  your Day of unending Festival,
                           that we may rejoice to live for ever and ever              

                                                                     AMEN!

PRIEST: We gather on this Bible Sunday, at the beginning of our second week of Advent Preparation and Prayer. On this Bible Sunday, we come together to listen to God’s Holy Word in the Bible, so that we may allow His Word to be made Flesh in our lives. That same Word will be spoken over bread of the earth and wine from the hills, with such power that the Word will become the Flesh and Blood of Christ in Eucharist.

Let us now praise the Light of God’s Word as we sing…

                                         (‘The Lord is my Light’)

                                       [ proceed to the wreath ]

Let us pray…
O God, from all eternity You have spoken forth Your Word, so that all creation may experience Your Love. Your Word first created Light at the dawning of time. In the fullness of that time, Your Word became Flesh in the poor Virgin of Nazareth. For Your People everywhere, Your Word remains the Light that guides our journey, the Lamp revealing the path before us. Bless our Advent Candles, and this our parish family, so that the Light of Your Word may grow in our hearts, inspire our lives, and guide our community,

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER  +  THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

                                     … Amen!

READER:           Too often, Lord, we allow the false lights of our world to guide us,
                                 rather than the Light of Your Word:
                                forgive us when we fail to root our lives in the Word of the Gospel…

                                                       LORD HAVE MERCY …

                                 Lord, for the many times we do not listen to Your Word in the Bible,
                                 for the ways we leave it an unopened book, a treasure sadly neglected

                                                       CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

                                 Lord, the neglect of Your Word makes us less a People of Faith;
                                it weakens our witness to Your Presence and Your Kingdom:
                               so for the ways our lives do not shine with the Light of Your Word

                                                       LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:         O Lord, stir up our hearts to prepare the way of Your Son,
                           the Word made Flesh, so that through His Coming on earth
                           we may serve you with lives filled with the Light of His Word,
                           for He Who will come again lives for ever and ever…

                                                             AMEN!

As our children gather here we echo the Prophetic words of Isaiah

 (‘Prepare the Way of the Lord…’)

PRIEST:  My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
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 the Kingdom 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 serve Your Kingdom, and so 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!

PRIEST:    As we come to this last Sunday of our Liturgical Year, we celebrate Jesus Christ, King of all Creation. We celebrate the One who came with a dream for the world, for the Universe – a dream of creation alive with divine love, drawn together in the deepest Unity in Christ. We celebrate our Shepherd-King who identifies Himself with the poor and excluded of our world and who laid down His life on the Cross to make this Dream a reality. On this great Feast, which is also National Youth Sunday, we rejoice in the gift of  our young people who are called to make the Dream of God a reality for the world. So we ask ourselves:  does Jesus reign in our hearts and in our lives? Do we share His Dream with our young people and draw them joyfully to serve His Kingdom? Does the quality of our loving reveal the Servant and Shepherd King to our wounded world? Do we serve each other and our suffering planet in the name of our King?

READER:       Father, your Spirit prays within us ‘Your Kingdom Come…’,
                             When we do not seek and serve first the Coming of Your Kingdom
A Kingdom Justice, Love and Peace

                                                       LORD HAVE MERY …

                             Jesus, our Servant-King, from your heart flowed living water,
                             well-spring of our love and healing for our wounds:
                             wash us clean of our compromises,
                             that we may live your Gospel and build your Kingdom…

                                                       CHRIST HAVE MERY …

                             Holy Spirit, come and refresh our wearied hearts and tired bodies,
                             that we may once more live the challenge of the Kingdom,
                             becoming each day your New Creation
listening always to the cry of the Earth, the cries of the Poor,…

                                                       LORD HAVE MERY …

PRIEST:           Lord God, Trinity of Love and source of Life,
                             touch us with the mercy of Your Kingdom,
                             work in our hearts, renewing our lives,
                             and lead us in the ways of the Beatitudes:
                             heal our blindness that we may see,
                             cleanse our hearts that we may love,
                             and renew our dedication
                            that we may work for the coming of Your Kingdom upon the earth
                            bringing us and all the world to everlasting life…

                                                            AMEN!

RICHARD:  Today we celebrate that God is the generous giver of so many gifts … He lavishes His Gifts upon us. But on this World Day of the Poor we recognise each gift is also a responsibility,  a call to action in the service of the Kingdom. We are given these gifts of the Spirit in order that we can become a Gift in the Spirit to our world. Not to use these gifts, to refuse to be creative, perpetuates injustice, damages our planet and its creatures, and inhibits our own growth and development.  Let us seek forgiveness that we may use God’s many gifts to extend God’s Kingdom of Freedom and Justice among us.

READER:           For the ways we deny God’s gifts,
                                 refuse to use them in the service of God and His world

                                                          LORD HAVE MERCY …

                                 When we fail to be alert to God’s challenge,
                                 when we resent God’s giftedness in others,
when we refuse to recognise and accept others’ gifts
                                 when we deny growth in ministry to each other, especially women

                                                          CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

                                When we do not hear the cries of the poor and the oppressed,
                                when we pass by on the other side,
                                when we allow the size of the problem to paralyse us,
rather than deepen our faith and energise our response

                                                          LORD HAVE MERCY …

RICHARD:         May God the Giver of all Good Gifts
                                     lavish his mercy upon us,
                                         set us free to serve and build peace,
                                                and gift us with forgiveness,
                                bringing us all to everlasting life

                                                           AMEN!

PRIEST:    We gather on this day of Remembrance, while there continues to be fear of terror attacks and war rages in so many nations. We bring to mind those too many who have died in the innumerable and tragic wars and conflicts of the past more than one hundred years.  We gather too that we might pray for peace.  Jesus tells us today to wake up to the call to build peace, to find a new wisdom – the wisdom of peace rather than the foolishness of war! With sorrow we recognise that we have still to learn how to solve conflict without violence, settle disputes without recourse to war.  Let our remembering be not a glorification of war, but a profound cry from the heart for Peace.

READER:     Lord,  have mercy on our world for the darkness of war,
                          for the inhumanity of destruction,
                          for the pollution of our minds and our earth,

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY …

Jesus,  forgive us for striking our brother and sister
                           with bullet, missile and bomb,
                           for being blind to the human devastation of modern warfare,
and the immorality of Nuclear weapons and the Arms Trade

                                                      CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

Spirit,  heal the wounded hearts and minds
                           that seek power more than humanity,  war more than peace,
destruction more than listening to the cries of the poor and of the earth

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:     May the God of perfect peace touch every heart with mercy,
                       every mind with healing and every conflict with reconciliation,
                       that we may transform darkness to light and war to peace,
                       offering our world the hope of everlasting life…

                                                          AMEN!

Instead of a Gloria today,  let us sing sing a chant as a prayer for all who have been killed in warfare,  and that all the world might be rescued from the death that is war:

                                                         No 813 [x3]