Category: Penitential Rites

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,
                          for 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 that wounds our planet;
                         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!

Let us rejoice in the Lord’s Coming as we sing…[‘Prepare the Way of the Lord’]

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,
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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

PRIEST:     Today we find strangely harsh words on the lips of Jesus, words that seem to reject a woman who comes to him in her need.  Yet her coming leads him to discover the depth of his mission from God his Father and to offer all peoples his saving love.  Let us ask forgiveness when we are not prepared to open our minds to new ideas and our hearts to new people…

READER:       For whenever we see people as a threat rather than as a gift

                                             LORD HAVE MERCY…

For whenever we are closed to new experiences of God or of our world;
                            when we hurt rather than heal

                                             CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

For each refusal to welcome someone who is different,
                             someone we do not understand
every harshness in our words and contempt in our hearts

                                             LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:     May our God absolve us of our sins,
                                 heal us of our wounds,
                                cast out our every fear,
                      and open wide our hearts to the gift of every person,
                      and so bring us and all creation to everlasting life…

                                                AMEN!

PRIEST: We have powerful images presented to us this morning: the prophet meeting God on the mountain; Paul willing to loose salvation if only his Jewish people would embrace His Lord;  and Peter walking towards Jesus on the storm tossed sea.  Powerful images that speak to us of the power of faith and prayer.  We have come to meet the living God in this Eucharist:  let us like Peter be aware of our weakness and bring that weakness before God with a repentant heart.

READER:               For not making space in our busy lives to listen
                                    to the whispering voice of God deep within us;
                                    for too often not having the faith really to pray…

                                                                                LORD HAVE MERCY …

For the times we lack the faith to trust in the God who calls us;
                                      When we do not have the courage
                                      to ‘launch out over the deep’, risking for God…

                                                                                CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

For the weakness of our faith when the storms overwhelm us;
                                       for the ways we no longer gaze upon the Lord who holds us
                                       in the darkest hour and most fearful turmoil

                                                                                LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:          May the God of Compassion come to us in every storm of guilt,
                                             and bring us peace;
                             may the Risen Lord draw close to us in our weakness
                                             and heal our fears with his mercy;
                             may the Holy Spirit whisper deep within our hearts the forgiveness
                                             that brings us peace beyond all understanding;
                              and may God raise us all to everlasting life…

                                                                                     AMEN!

PRIEST: As we celebrate today the beautiful Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, we behold the Glory of God, the glory that each of us carries deep within our being. For we are all created in God’s image and likeness. And the Glory of God is humanity fully alive.  Transfiguration is only complete, however, when we have transformed our world from war and injustice into the glory of equality, justice and peace among all the peoples of the earth. Sadly today is also the anniversary of the dropping of first Atom Bomb – upon the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Its dark cloud of death and destruction has overshadowed the world ever since! To transform a world addicted to weapons of mass destruction will demand we truly listen to Him – God’s Word made flesh – and act! Let us now bring our world of war to the God of Peace and limitless Mercy.

READER:     For the human addiction to war and destruction
that it be transfigured to peace and healing

                                            LORD HAVE MERCY…

For the mountains of injustice and inequality
                           that diminishes all human beings, both rich and poor alike

                                            CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

For the transformation of our inhumanity that wounds
into the divine Humanity that is fully alive and life-giving

                                            LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:    May God our Father speak his words of forgiveness and mercy to our hearts;
                      May the Transfigured Christ transform the darkness of our sin into the glory of His love;
                      May the Holy Spirit be the light of justice, healing and compassion in our hearts,
                     and bring us to everlasting life…

                                             AMEN!