Category: Penitential Rites

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

PRIEST: Today we celebrate our faith in Christ Jesus: we look to Abraham as our Father in Faith who risked all to journey an unknown path to an unknown land;  and we watch for Jesus to come in the unexpected moments, the dark hours of lonely night;  and in the most unlikely events and people.  Faith challenges us to gaze with honesty into our hearts and ask ourselves: ‘What is my real treasure? – faith in Jesus, or something far less?’ As we recognise the poverty of our love for Him, let us also recognise the wealth of His mercy towards us…

READER:     For the times when our inner darkness overwhelms our faith
and we lose sight of our Christ, we cry for your mercy…

                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY

For the times when we are afraid to risk new adventures of faith
new challenges to serve and to love, we cry for your mercy…

                                                    CHRIST HAVE MERCY

For the times we do not watch with prayer, wait with longing,
                          hold another with love and welcome Jesus, we cry for your mercy…

                                                    LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:        May the God of Abraham call our hearts to journey
                                      the pilgrimage of forgiveness;
                           may Jesus, the one who comes, come with mercy
                                      into the night of our sin and fears;
                           may the Spirit stir our hearts to watch with longing love
                                      for the touch of divine peace;
                           and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                      AMEN!

PRIEST:     In a world of plenty, millions starve!  In a society where the employed are overworked, millions are unemployed and millions more exploited and enslaved.  Today, Jesus challenges this crazy world where the rich get richer and the poor are further dispossessed.  Jesus makes us ask ‘What is real happiness, what makes for true security? – plenty of possessions,  or generous humanity?’  Solutions might be hard to find, but let us begin by risking to recognise what is wrong and selfish within ourselves and our world.

READER:                    Jesus cries out:  ‘Happy are the poor in the Spirit!’
For every possessiveness of heart,
                                          for each form of greed and for all our selfishness…

                                                                  LORD HAVE MERCY …

Jesus cries out:  ‘Happy are you if you hunger and thirst for justice!’
                                          For the ways we ignore the plight of the starving;
for pretending that there is nothing we can do;
                                          for thinking that it is not our problem…

                                                                  CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

Jesus cries out:  ‘Happy are you when you make peace upon earth!’
For the violence that is rooted in the lust for wealth and power;
                                          for the vanity of a peace that is not justice for the oppressed…

                                                                  LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:      May the God, creator of our bountiful world,
                                     forgive every selfish refusal to share;
                         May Jesus our Brother redeem and save us
                                    from the injustice that kills;
                         May the Spirit, Who is Sharing,
inspire us to heal our world of possessiveness;
                         and bring all humanity to everlasting life…

                                                                    AMEN!

PRIEST: Today Jesus challenges us to pray…to pray with perseverance, to pray with faith, and to pray for the coming of the Kingdom.  We are challenged to believe in a God always waiting to be merciful.  We are challenged to so live our baptism that we die in Christ and come alive to a new life, a new love in the Spirit. Let us humbly confess to the Lord the ways and times we have neglected his love, been weak of faith and failed to pray:

READER:        For the times we have refused the invitation to prayer,
                             and filled our minds and hearts with noise and superficiality…

                                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

For the times our prayer has been selfish or self-centred,
focussing on our own wants,
                             and not on the needs of God’s Kingdom…

                                                               CHRIST HAVE MERCY

When we have scorned others’ prayer,
                              and hardened our hearts against compassion;
when there was little love in our words or thoughts before God,
                              when we have prayed with little expectancy or hope…

                                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:            May the All-loving God whom we name ‘Abba’, Father,
                              embrace us with His Love,
                              lead us to the fountain of life that is the reconciliation of Christ,
                              and burn within as fire of the Spirit’ love,
                              to bring us to everlasting Life…

                                                                 AMEN!