Category: Penitential Rites

PRIEST: This morning you are all very welcome – let us welcome one another,  as we recognise Jesus’ welcome to us.  We are going to hear how the People of God welcomed their God: Abraham and Sarah discovering God in the strange visitors to their tent;  Martha and Mary welcoming Jesus to their Bethany home. The stranger is often the bearer of God to us.  Let us ask forgiveness whenever we fail to welcome our brother,  our sister into our heart,  into our community,  for then we failed to welcome Jesus.

READER:          When we fail to listen to the Words of Jesus
                                in the cries of the poor and the victims of war;
                                for not welcoming the voices from the streets of the Inner City…

                                                           LORD HAVE MERCY…

When we fail to welcome the stranger,  the refugee, the traveller,
                                those of different race or culture or religion…

                                                           CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

When our love is too weak to struggle for justice,
when our compassion is too shallow to feed the hungry
when our faith is too small to listen to God in the silence…

                                                           LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:        May the God whose heart is always open,
                                 welcome us at the gates of his mercy;
                          May Jesus  who welcomes our humanity, heal us to welcome him
                                in the flesh and skin of every race of the earth;
                          May the Spirit who is alive in the stranger,
                                transform the hostility of our hearts into divine hospitality
                           and bring all to everlasting life…

                                                               AMEN!

PRIEST:       We celebrate today the two great founding Apostles, Peter and Paul. In celebrating them we celebrate also who we are as Church, for they more than any others have shaped for all time the Body of Christ. In Peter we have the uniting Shepherd who knows his own weakness only too well and so gathers us gently as one: a Rock of Faith who is not hard! In Paul we have the fearless Prophet, the adventurer for Christ who breaks new ground and reshapes the Church to be truly Universal. Together they teach us to be at once a gentle Pastor and a fearless Prophet. Let us embrace the mercy of God so that we might be such a Church …

READER:       Peter is the Rock of Faith who affirms us in faith
                            when our weakness overwhelms us:
For the times we do not affirm, heal and encourage each other …

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY …

                             Paul is the bold Pioneer of the Gospel,
                             ever open to the the new challenges of the Spirit:
when cling to the things of the past and make the Church a museum
rather than the creator of a new future

                                                      CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

                              Peter and Paul together gather the One People of God
                              into a unity rich with diversity:
when we do not value each other’s differences and gifts
when we do not strive for unity in Christ

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:         May the God who calls fill us with mercy;
                           may the Lord who sends heal our every wound with His forgiveness,
                           may the Spirit who empowers encourage us in our weakness;
                           and bring us all with the Saints to everlasting life

                                                        AMEN!

PRIEST: ‘Who is our neighbour?’ Jesus is asked in today’s Gospel.  ‘Wrong question!’ is Jesus reply. You are to be the neighbour, he says, to everyone, and especially the most wounded.  A very timely parable given the closing of borders to Refugee brothers sisters around the world, as we see a despised foreigner being the neighbour to the wounded man.  Jesus the Samaritan carer challenges us to place the wounded world at the very centre of our worship and our vision of God.  Perhaps our willingness to be involved in the pain and struggle of the world is the true measure of our love and worship of God.

READER:       When fear causes us to pass by on the other side of the road,
                             and we will not touch the wounds and pain of another…

                                                         LORD HAVE MERCY

When we seek to find comfort in worshipping God
                              while neglecting to tend the hurting body of the Lord
                              on our streets and among the starving…

                                                         CHRIST HAVE MERCY

When our words and actions hurt others,
                               when we make victims of others and cause suffering instead of healing…

                                                         LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:      May the God of Compassion touch us with his mercy;
                        may Jesus our Samaritan Brother lift us up with
                                          his forgiveness and new life;
                         may the Spirit of healing be poured out like generous oil `
                                            and joyful wine;
                          and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                         LORD HAVE MERCY!

PRIEST:     Today,  God’s word challenges us to take up our mission: Jesus calls us and sends us just as he did the Seventy Two so long ago.  We are all called to labour in His harvest of salvation. And there is an urgency in His words,  asking of us a single-minded determination to offer the world the Gospel of peace,  the Good News of Life.  Today’s Mass encourages us to form a missionary community, a ‘Parish in communion for mission’, giving ourselves for those who do not join us week by week.  Do we take up the challenge of Jesus?

READER:                For the times and ways that God sends us
                                      but we find excuses for not going,  not doing what he asks…

                                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

Whenever we bring strife rather than peace to another’s home;
                                       when our presence, actions and words are hurting
                                       rather than healing for another…

                                                               CHRIST HAVE MERCY

For spending more energy on preserving the Church
                                       than proclaiming the Gospel;
                                       for carrying unnecessary baggage of the past, hindering us
                                       from bringing the Good News of Jesus to today’s people

                                                               CHRIST HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:                     May the God of outreaching love forgive our fears;
                                        may Jesus who came to bring Life in all its fullness
                                        have mercy on our narrowness;
                                        may the Holy Spirit be purifying fire in our hearts
                                        to empower us for the mission of Peace,
                                         and bring us and our world to everlasting life…

                                                                     AMEN!

PRIEST: Today we lift our voices in thanksgiving and praise for the ‘inestimable gift’ of the Eucharist;  we lift our eyes to gaze upon the awesome presence of our Lord and Saviour in the poverty of bread and wine;  we lift up our hearts to embrace the love whereby God touches the depths of our being.  In the Eucharist we taste the redeeming Blood of Christ; we enter into the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross that saves the whole world; we share the banquet that challenges us to feed the world with justice and love. The Body and Blood of Christ we share gives us life, shaping and renewing our lives and our communities:  let us repent the ways we are not the love of Christ…

READER:        The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Unity and Love:
for all divisions among Christians,
                              for every denial of love in our own hearts

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Healing:
for the ways that our touch and words hurt rather than heal;
                                for the ways our Church excludes rather than welcomes

                                                      CHRIST HAVE MERCY

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Christ’s Redeeming Sacrifice:
for the ways we do not love with a sacrificial love;
do not forgive with a divine generosity of mercy;
excluding others from our love, friendship and community

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:      May God rain down upon us the Bread of Forgiveness;
                         may Jesus pour out His redeeming Blood that heals our brokenness
                         and liberates freedom and love;
                         may the Spirit draw us into the Unity that reconciles;
                                            and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                          AMEN!

PRIEST: Having for months celebrated the great actions of God in Christ that bring us salvation and life, today we celebrate the being of God: not what God does, but Who God is! Today is a day for gazing with wonder, a day to contemplate the mystery of God Who is Love – always Love, never other than Love! And each one of us, without exception are made in the image and likeness of this God. Today we celebrate that there is such diversity in identity, creating such a profound harmony. So today we celebrate who we truly are and all that God wants us to become – a freedom for Love … like God! And yet we know we are not such love! Let us ask for mercy …

READER:       Father, you so loved the world You sent Your Only Son
not to condemn, but to save and to give Life:
Confidently we cry out to you ….  

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY…

Eternal Word and Son, made flesh in the womb of Mary,
You came home into our humanity to set love free within us:
Confidently we cry out to you ….  

                                                      CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

Holy Spirit, love shared between the Father and the Son,
You are poured out into our hearts,
                              You flow through our lives into the world to renew the face of the earth
Confidently we cry out to you ….   

                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:           May the God whose best name is Love …
                              Be the Father who forgives us, the Brother who redeems us,
                              and the Loving Holy Spirit who gives us a new heart,
                              bringing us and all creation to everlasting life

                                                     AMEN!

PRIEST: Fifty days ago we celebrated Jesus’ Resurrection – now we celebrate the Power of Resurrection set free to transform the world! Today is not only the birthday of the Church in a ferment of Praise and Mission, it is also the beginnings of a New World, a New Creation, for through the Church and beyond it, the Spirit is recreating the face of the earth! Let us welcome the purifying fire of the Spirit into our lives so that through forgiveness we will ever grow in holiness.

READER:           The Holy Spirit comes as a mighty wind!
For our fears and timidity, our lack of courage,
                                in witnessing to Jesus and speaking out Gospel Justice! 

                                                         LORD HAVE MERCY

The Holy Spirit comes as flames of fire, fire of Love!
For every denial of love that starves the world of hope;
For every division between Christians that hides the face of Christ 

                                                         CHRIST HAVE MERCY

The Holy Spirit gives us a new language of faith and praise
That we might ever speak the language of mercy and forgiveness
Healing and hope to our broken but beautiful world 

                                                         LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:      May the Father set us free to be Children of God;
                        may Jesus enthroned in Glory pour out upon us the Spirit of Love and Mercy;
                        may the Holy Spirit rush through our lives to lead us to new beginnings
                        and bring all the world to everlasting life

                                                         AMEN!

PRIEST: Today we gather with Mary and those first disciples, some 120 in number,  as they prayed and waited in the Upper Room of their fears soon to be turned to hopes.  We also like them have heard Jesus entrust his mission to us;  we like them know our own weakness and anxiety;  we like them cry out for the empowering Spirit to come.  Let us invite the Spirit who forgives and heals to enter the dark shadows of our negativity and sin…

READER:      When we are afraid to allow the energy of the Spirit
to burn freely in our lives;
when we are afraid of the Spirit’s mighty wind
                                         blowing through our lives and our communities;

                                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY

When we hurt the Spirit’s unity by our shallow love
and petty selfishness;
                           for every intolerance and dishonesty…

                                                                      CHRIST HAVE MERCY

When we seek the Spirit’s consolation and healing,
but not Spirit’s energy for challenging mission;
                            when we ask for the Spirit’s gifts,
                                         but not that we might become gift to another…

                                                                      LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:          May the God whose breath is love  – give us new life;
                            may the Saviour whose touch is healing  – grant us mercy;
                            may the Spirit whose presence within is fire – burn us with love’s pain;
                            and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                                         AMEN!

PRIEST:    Today we celebrate our Mission as a Church – for Jesus sends us out to the whole world to be his witnesses. Today we celebrate Jesus enthroned as our King,  as he goes up to his throne with shouts of Joy and in the Cloud of divine Presence.  Today we celebrate the immensity of our human dignity,  as in Jesus our High Priest, our human flesh is taken up into the Holy of Holies of God’s presence,  into the eternal sanctuary with God.  Today is a day of great rejoicing  and Jesus’ great trust in us.  Let us empty our hearts of the sin that limits our joy.

READER:                        For the fears and narrowness of vision
                                             that stop us being a missionary community…

                                                                           LORD HAVE MERCY

When we claim Jesus as our King,
                                              but fail to walk his Royal way of love,
                                              fail to give him first priority in our lives…

                                                                           CHRIST HAVE MERCY

Whenever another human person is abused,
                                              their dignity ignored or diminished;
                                              for leaving our brothers and sisters to starve of food or freedom

                                                                           LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:    May the God who calls us to eternal glory
                             transfigure our every weakness
                      May Jesus our High Priest clothe us
with the mercy he has won for us by his blood;
                      May the Spirit who dwells in every human heart
                              heal each wound that diminishes us;
                      and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                                           AMEN!

PRIEST Jesus had to go,  had to leave us:  for out of his agony and his Resurrection flowed streams of living water – the life-giving Spirit that would guide the Church to new adventures, a new and radical openness to new peoples. The many gates, always open in the walls of the New Jerusalem is a challenge for the Church to be a place of welcome to all peoples in every kind of diversity. And the Holy Spirit is the power of love within that can build a different world. That Spirit will give us peace when the world says we should be in turmoil. That Spirit will heal divisions when the world says we cannot live as one.  If we make Jesus’ word of love our home,  then the Spirit can do the impossible among us.

READER:           When we do not root our lives in the Word,
                                 when the Word that is love is not our home

                                                              LORD HAVE MERCY

For the times we do not rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us,
                                 to heal us,  to cross boundaries of misunderstanding

                                                              CHRIST HAVE MERCY

When we do not hold each other in reverence and caring,
                                 when we cause needless distress
                                 rather than offer life-giving peace

                                                              LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:       May the God of Peace hold us in the palm of his hand
                                     and bring us forgiveness;
                         may Jesus the living Word of Divine Love
make his home within us by his mercy;
                         may the Spirit,  the Advocate,  plead compassion for us,
                                    and heal all divisions among God’s people;
                         and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                               AMEN!