28th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR C

PRIEST:     Jesus touches with His love the outcasts of His day … the ten lepers. Only one returned to give thanks:, and he was not even a member of the People of God!  We are provoked to ask a number of questions: who do I make into an outcast, putting them beyond my love? Do I reach out to those the world despises? Do I live with a grateful heart, do I live the Eucharist, the ‘sacrifice of thanksgiving?

READER:             When I exclude anyone from my love,
                                 making them my outcast,
                                 Father forgive me…

                                                     LORD HAVE MERCY

For accepting the prejudices of my society
against whole groups of my fellow citizens,
                                 for not struggling to unmask and eradicate these prejudices,
Jesus reconcile me…

                                                     CHRIST HAVE MERCY

For the lack of gratitude in my life, for forgetting to thank God,
or to thank those who show me their love and compassion,
                                 Holy Spirit change me…

                                                     LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:         May God the Creator of all fill our hearts with love
                                     for all that He has made;
                           May Jesus our Brother reconcile us with all against whom
                                     we have closed our hearts;
                           May the Holy Spirit sing with thankfulness for God’s mercy
                                     deep within our being;
                           and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                    AMEN!

27th Sunday of the Year C

PRIEST:    Today, God’s Word speaks to us about stirring up the faith that the Spirit gives us, so that we may offer more dedicated service to the Kingdom of God. Pope Francis has  called us to be a more humble Church. Today the Gospel reminds us that we are but humble servants of God’s Kingdom,  not its possessors. We are also challenged to fan into a flame the Spirit that is never timid! Let us now celebrate our faith in the Lord’s compassion and forgiveness for all our weakness.

READER:       When our faith is weak, and crumbles before the challenge of tragedy,
                            thank you for understanding and forgiving us

                                                          LORD HAVE MERCY…

When we allow the flame of the Spirit to grow dim in our hearts,
your reconciling touch stirs Your Fire of love once more
                            and we can witness again to you

                                                          CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

When we weary of the call to generous service,
                            and seek the shallow comfort of selfishness,
your mercy strengthens us once more
                            to find our joy in being your servants

                                                          LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:     Father, we rejoice in your mercy which is endless;
                       Jesus, we thank you for redeeming us by your Blood on the Cross;
                       Holy Spirit, we praise you that you are reconciling love
                                   poured into our hearts
                       bringing us to everlasting life…

                                                        AMEN!

26th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR C

PRIEST:      Our world is divided between rich and poor, have’s and have-not’s, the Dives’ and Lazarus’s of today … and the gap is getting wider by the month! But Jesus has a different vision of the world – where the poor are the important ones, and the rich beg from them. He called this vision the Kingdom. It is our mission to transform the world into the Kingdom, and so we are challenged to express God’s option for the Poor. Let us reflect upon how far away we are from the values of Jesus who chose the world of the poor…

READER:                  For the ways we are possessive of what we have,
                                       and too often refuse to share with those who have so little…

                                                                 LORD HAVE MERCY

                                       For the ways our need for security makes us blind and insensitive
                                       to so much desperate need around us and in our world…

                                                                 CHRIST HAVE MERCY

                                       For a world that denies most of our brothers and sisters
                                       the right to food, to shelter, to work, to health…

                                                                 LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:          May God the Father and Mother of all life forgive us;
                            May Jesus the Universal Brother open our hearts
                                             to heal of the world of poverty;
                            May the Holy Spirit renew the face of the Earth,
                                             beginning with our own lives
                            and lead all the earth to everlasting life…

                                                              AMEN!

25th SUNDAY YEAR C

PRIEST:     The Word of God for us today challenges us about who it is we really serve! Where are our priorities – the ambition for money, easy life-style, and power? Or the building of a world shared equally by all?  Greed is not the preserve of the rich… we can all allow greed for more to distort our lives.  At a time when there is so much war and killing, so much poverty and injustice, we ask ourselves how many of our resources – time, prayer, money – do we put to the Mission of the Gospel and the building of peace and justice. So let us reflect on how we respond to Christ’s call to greater honesty and integrity in all our dealings; Christ’s call to a simpler life-style and a life of that offers the world an alternative, and better Way…

READER:     When we put more energy into money and property
                          than we do for people and relationships

                                                   LORD HAVE MERCY…

When we compromise our Gospel values of justice and charity
                           for the sake of our own gain and ambitions

                                                   CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

When we live with little regard for the poorest of our communities;
                            when we accept laws and policies that oppress
the already downtrodden

                                                   LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:        May the God of Justice purify our hearts;
                          may Jesus come to us in the poverty of His forgiveness;
                          may the Holy Spirit inspire us to choose with God
                          the Mission to serve the poorest,
                          and so bring us to everlasting life…

                                                     AMEN!

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY YEAR C

PRIEST      On this Home Mission Sunday we have the joy of celebrating the forgiving heart of God. The great parable of the Prodigal Son is given only in Luke’s Gospel – the Evangelist of Mercy.  But this parable carries insight into the very heart of God, a heart constantly open to forgive us no matter what, a heart ever on the watch for our homecoming, ever straining and yearning to see our return. This Gospel inspires us to be a community of God’s heart, always seeking out the lost and bringing them home to their Father and our Father! Let us then open our hearts not only to receive His mercy, but also to offer this great mercy and forgiveness to those who have hurt us. 

READER         When we do not trust the constant forgiveness of God,
When we doubt His unconditional acceptance of us

                                                     LORD HAVE MERCY

                              When we will not forgive others who have us hurt,
When we will not fling wide open the gates of God’s Mercy
When we are not Ambassadors of Reconciliation

                                                     CHRIST HAVE MERCY

When despite the forgiveness God freely gives us
we will not forgive ourselves
When we cling onto guilt and refuse to be healed 

                                                     LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST        May the God who is Prodigal in His Mercy forgive us
                         May Jesus, the Elder Brother, carry us home to our Father;
                         May the Holy Spirit grant us the Joy of being reconciled
                                              And bring all the world to everlasting life

                                                    AMEN!

Feast of St Nicholas of Tolentino

For 171 years, the Eucharist has been the centre of our parish’s life, community and mission: may this celebration of the Breaking of the Bread heal our brokeness, deepen our love for Christ Jesus, bind us together in life-giving community and empower our mission to be Good News to the Poor

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…
[Response]          RENEW YOUR PEOPLE  IN LOVE…

St Nicholas broke the Bread of the Eucharist at the Table of the Lord; and broke bread with poor of his society: may we and the whole Church rededicate ourselves to translating our love for the Christ we meet in the Eucharist into as deep a love for the Christ we meet in the Poor 

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…

St Nicholas preached the Gospel and broke the Bread of the Word for the people of Tolentino, drawing many to Christ: having received the Gospel from generations past may we find new ways of passing on the Gift of the Living Word of God to our young people so that they will shape the church moving into the future

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…

Throughout these past 171 years our parish has welcomed migrants who have come to our shores and our city: may the whole Church be truly ‘Catholic’ where ‘all are welcome’ – a home to peoples of every race, language and culture, a world-wide community building bridges between peoples, struggling for justice and equality for the most marginalised and ridding the world of all forms of human trafficking and modern slavery

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…

Giving thanks for our 171 years of mission and looking forward with hope to the years to come, we pray for a renewed vision of mission and healing, growing as a ‘communion for mission’; may we continue to build healing bridges uniting many cultures, races, identities and faiths, caring together for the poor, the marginalised and the excluded of the inner city more effectively 

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…

That our children and young people will grow up to care for the poorest, respecting people of all races, cultures and sexual orientation and valuing our multi-racial society; that opposing all racial violence and every form of prejudice, our schools and colleges will rejoice in the diversity of our one Human Race

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…

St Nicholas was used so extensively by God to bring healing to the sick and the poor: for all who have been wounded in mind and heart by abuse, injustice and poverty; we pray especially for ….
St Nicholas prayed deeply for the dead: we pray for those violently killed in South Africa, for all who perished in the Bahamas;
we pray also for all the faithful departed of our parish in its 171 years history and for … whose anniversaries are at this time  

LORD HEAL OUR  WORLD…

 Mary, Mother of all the abandoned ones, help us to recognise Jesus in every person….                                                             HAIL MARY…

We pray in silence for God’s empowerment of our parish family in service and mission…

23rd Sunday of the Year C

PRIEST:   Today Jesus challenges us as to the nature and demands of being His disciples: whether we prize our relationship with the Lord before all else? Whether we are willing to persevere in the task of loving by shouldering with Him the Cross of humanity’s suffering? The second reading today asks us whether we enslave others or set them free? There is no-one who is not our brother, our sister. Let us trust the forgiving love of our God and as we welcome His mercy re-commit ourselves to the Light of Mercy to our world.

READER:        For the ways we do not put our relationship with God first,
                             for not making time for prayer,
                             for pushing worship to the sidelines of our lives

                                                                  LORD HAVE MERCY

                             When we avoid carrying the Cross with Jesus,
when we do not get involved with the suffering of others
because it will demand too much of us

                                                                  CHRIST HAVE MERCY

                             Because our world enslaves so many people today
for child exploitation, human trafficking, forced labour and servitude;
whenever men, women and children are sexually exploited

                                                                  LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:         May our God of love, Father, Son and Spirit
                           embrace us with mercy, touch us with peace,
                           and reconcile us with compassion,
                           that we may build a world where all are free,
                                            bringing all to life everlasting …

                                                                 AMEN!

22nd Sunday of the Year

PRIEST: We celebrate together the great feast of the Kingdom: the Eucharist to which Jesus has invited us. He has also invited each other person here,  without exception. Whether we are rich or poor, whether accomplished or apparently without many skills, we have all been invited with equal love by Jesus.  Have we opened our heart to each one, without exception with the same equal love that Jesus shows? And the humility of which Jesus speaks is not about running ourselves down:  rather it is raising others up;  it is not about denigrating ourselves, rather it is refusing to dominate another and instead to embrace the privilege of serving.


READER:
               Humility is gentle and welcoming:
                                    when we are harsh and judgmental,
                                    and close our hearts to those Jesus invites to the Feast…

                                                           LORD HAVE MERCY…

Humility seeks to encourage and affirm,  rejoices in others’ gifts:
                                     when we resent the gifts of others,
                                     diminish others by our criticism and jealousies…

                                                           CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

Humility seeks to walk lovingly among those
                                     trodden down by our society,  or misunderstood by others:
when we scorn those different from ourselves,
                                     or do seek to understand and walk another’s journey…

                                                           LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:            May the God who sets the oppressed free affirm us in mercy;
                              May Jesus who came to walk among the downtrodden
                                         raise us up in forgiveness;
                              May the Spirit heal our hearts, making them small enough
                                        to carry the greatness of Divine Love;
                              and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                          AMEN!

21st Sunday Year C

PRIEST:     Jesus challenges any temptation to complacency:  we do not have an automatic ticket into the Kingdom. Everyday, we need to say ‘YES’ again to entering by the narrow gate of Christ’s radical love. That we come often to Mass, that we pray frequently, that we keep the Catholic rules – none of these things brings salvation – the narrow gate is simply to love – to love more and more deeply, more and more widely.  In the end nothing else really matters.  Let us seek forgiveness for our failures to place love above all else in our lives.

READER:              When we are tempted to do the minimum required,
                                   …settling for the opposite of a life motivated by love!

                                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

For every exclusiveness of heart:
                                    that excludes others from our concern or our community;
                                    that thinks we alone are special…

                                                               CHRIST HAVE MERCY

When we treat prayer and worship like a divine insurance policy,
                                    seeking a false sense of security,
                                    dulling our openness to faith and love…

                                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:                May the God of Universal Love,
                                        forgive all narrowness of heart among us;
                                  May Jesus, brother to all peoples and races,
                                        break down the barriers that divide;
                                  May the Spirit of Divine Love burn the narrow gate
                                        of ever-expanding love into our hearts;
                                  and bring all the earth’s people into everlasting life

                                                               AMEN!

20th Sunday of the Year – C

PRIEST: As we gather today around the Table of the Eucharist and the Table of the Word, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses on every side, encouraging us to continue the sometimes hard journey of the disciple and the prophet – a journey that leads us to the fire of conflict in order to live truly the Gospel of Jesus. The prophets among us, help us all to see and understand our contemporary world differently, more authentically with the love of Christ.  But the path of the prophets leads to suffering – let us not flinch from ‘the Love of Christ that urges us on’, or the Fire of the Spirit in our bones leading us along the often lonely Way of Christ.

READER:               When we do not seek to throw off the sin that clings so easily;
when we lose sight of Jesus and avoid the Cross

                                                                            LORD HAVE MERCY …

When we are afraid to stand out against the crowd
                                     for the sake of the values of the Gospel;
when we seek acceptance more than faithfulness to the Lord

                                                                            CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

When we want respectable Christianity rather than
                                    the radical Gospel of Christ that leads to love’s conflict for justice

                                                                            LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:               May the God of fire purify us with his merciful love;
                                may the truth-bearer Christ heal our hearts of fear;
                               may the Spirit empower us for holiness and wholeness
                                               and bring us all to everlasting life

                                                                             AMEN!