THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
End of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Fishers of men (Gospel)
We are baptised in the name of Christ and we are meant to bring the good news to the world. St Paul even says that his mission is not to baptise but to preach, because he sees bringing the Gospel to people as his principle task. For the same reason Jesus prays not just that his followers would be one, but that they would be one so that the world may believe (Jn 17:21).
...Unity is above all for the glory of the Father. At the same time it is obvious that the lack of unity among Christians contradicts the truth which Christians have the mission to spread and, consequently, it gravely damages their witness (JOHN PAUL II, Ut Unum Sint, 98)
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Your undivided attention (Second Reading)
It is not that other people are a distraction from God. On the contrary, if we do not love others we cannot love God. But the others whom we love depend, as we do, entirely on God for their existence and for their eternal happiness. In the ordinariness of the sacramental signs – bread, wine, oil, water, forgiveness and married love – we see and are touched by God who gives meaning to everything and to whom we, and every person, owe everything. We must acknowledge him, not as one among many, but as the One on whose love we all depend.
The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1131).
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FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
It is a duty (Second Reading)
The sacraments are celebrated by the whole community of Christ’s followers for the whole community and for the whole world. In the sacrament of Confirmation we invite young people to play their part in offering the Good News to a world that can be full of disillusionment (First Reading). The eagerness of Jesus to go to preach the Good News is a model for all Christians (Gospel)
Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to … incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission and help us to bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds (Catechism 1316)
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SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Of course I want to! (Gospel)
Jesus healed the sick (Gospel) and St Paul took Christ as his model and sought to be helpful to everyone at all times (Second Reading). In the sacraments, this work of Christ continues. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation he heals our relationship with God and with others and the damage that our sin has done to us. In the Sacrament of Anointing, he gives his healing love to those who are seriously ill.
The Lord Jesus… has willed that his Church continue in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing the Sick (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1421).
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SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Who can forgive sins but God? (Gospel)
Forgiveness is always a gift. We can never demand that someone forgive us – we can only ask humbly. That is especially true when we seek forgiveness from God. We are entirely dependent on the generous love of the Father. When we experience that mercy in the sacrament of Penance, we should not lose the sense of wonder expressed in the Gospel: “We have never seen anything like this.”
The Church must consider it one of her principal duties… to proclaim and to introduce into life the mystery of mercy supremely revealed in Jesus Christ. Not only for the Church herself but also in a certain sense for all humanity, this mystery is the source of a life different from the life that can be built by human effort… (JOHN PAUL II, Dives in Misericordia 14).
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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
Repent and believe the Good News (Gospel)
The word ‘repent’ sounds harsh and negative; ‘Good News’ suggests joy. Yet they go together. God’s merciful love is reliable. His covenant is ‘for all generations’. If we fail to change and to open our hearts to God’s promise, we trap ourselves in the narrowness of our own vision and the inadequacy of our own resources. The Good News is the vision and the power of God. That is why we celebrate the sacrament of Penance as a praise and welcome of God’s mercy.
It is the sacrament of penance or reconciliation that prepares the way for each individual, even those weighed down with great faults. In this sacrament each person can experience mercy in a unique way, that is, the love which is more powerful than sin (JOHN PAUL II, Dives in Misericordia, 13).
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SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
He gave his Son up (Second Reading)
Though Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, God said ‘do not harm him’ (First Reading). But God’s own love is given through the death of his Son. God sent his Son not to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17). That is the love we meet in the sacrament of Penance. It is the love that invites us, in spite of our weakness and sin, into the glory which the apostles glimpsed on the mountain (Gospel).
In the fullness of time, the Son of God , coming as the Lamb who takes away and bears upon himself the sin of the world, appears as the one who has the power both to judge and to forgive sins, and who has come not to condemn but to forgive and save (JOHN PAUL II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 29).
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THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
You shall have no gods except me (First Reading)
Sin means letting something else occupy, wholly or partially, the place of God. The task we have never fully accomplished is to love God with all our heart, soul and might. The temple was God’s house; it was not to be shared with other activities, even if they were legitimate in themselves.
Is my heart set on God, so that I really love him above all things and am faithful to his commandments as a son loves his father? Or am I more concerned about the things of the world? …Are there false gods that I worship by giving them greater attention and deeper trust than I give to God: money, superstition…? (Examination of Conscience, Rite of Penance Appendix III)
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
They prefer darkness to the light (Gospel)
Apologies often begin half-heartedly or fearfully. But the more generously they are accepted the more fully we express our failure. “You are so good to me; I don’t deserve it. What I did was awful.” A real apology brings the past into the light, a healing light. So, in confession, we confess our sins honestly and as fully as we can. We recognise that we are not saved by anything of our own but by the gift of God’s mercy. We express our need for mercy by naming our sins (Second Reading).
(The confession of sins) is a liturgical act, solemn in its dramatic nature, yet humble and sober in the grandeur of its meaning. It is the act of the Prodigal Son who returns to his Father and is welcomed by him with the kiss of peace. It is an act of honesty and courage. It is an act of entrusting oneself, beyond sin, to the mercy that forgives (JOHN PAUL II Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 31, III)
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FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
It yields a rich harvest (Gospel)
The life of the Christian is a dying and rising, like the grain of wheat (Gospel). We have to die to our own sinfulness from which Jesus freed us by his death and resurrection. That process requires contrition. It also requires effort. The penance we receive in confession is a sign of that commitment to begin a new life and to work to overcome the sources of the sinfulness we have confessed.
(The penance) should serve not only to make up for the past but also to help (the penitent) to begin a new life and provide (him or her) with an antidote to weakness. As far as possible the penance should correspond to the nature and seriousness of the sin (Introduction to The Rite of Penance, 18)
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PALM SUNDAY
The one I kiss (Gospel)
Jesus is betrayed at every stage of his Passion. The disciples cannot stay awake with him; Judas hands him over with a kiss; Peter denies knowledge of him; he feels abandoned. But in that moment the centurion recognises him as a son of God. In that moment the love which conquers sin and death is accomplished and St John tells us that he gave up, or he poured out, his Spirit (Jn 19:30).
God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace (The Rite of Penance).
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EASTER SUNDAY
Baptised in his death (First Reading, Vigil Mass)
Tonight we celebrate the heart of our faith. In the Orthodox Churches, Christians greet one another ‘Jesus is risen’ ‘He is risen indeed’. In the sacraments it is the risen Jesus who acts and speaks (Vatican II Liturgy Constitution 7). In the liturgy we touch and are touched by the Easter life of Christ, triumphant over death and evil. We are baptised in his death so that we too might live a new life (First Reading).
In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle (Liturgy Constitution, 8)
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SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Divine Mercy Sunday
United, heart and soul (First Reading)
The community of Christ’s followers is meant to be merciful, welcoming, forgiving – united heart and soul (First Reading) loving all God’s children (Second Reading), asking to be forgiven as we forgive others. The apostles are given the power to forgive through the gift of the Spirit, but all Christians are to seek the conversion of sinners by charity, example and prayer (Liturgy Constitution 11.)
Peace be with you! Humanity must let itself be touched and pervaded by the Spirit given to it by the risen Christ. It is the Spirit who heals the wounds of the heart, pulls down the barriers that separate us from God and divide us from one another, and at the same time, restores the joy of the Father's love and of fraternal unity. (JOHN PAUL II, Homily at canonisation of St Faustina).
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THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
He opened their minds (Gospel)
Every liturgical action includes readings of the Word of God. God’s Word reveals him to us. God’s Word calls us to be his people. God’s Word challenges and encourages us to keep his commandments, especially the great commandment of love of God and neighbour. God’s Word gives us hope. As with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and with the disciples in today’s Gospel, Jesus opens our minds to understand the scriptures.
The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as it has venerated the Body of the Lord, in that it never ceases, above all in the sacred liturgy, to partake of the bread of life and to offer it to the faithful from the one table of the word of God and of the Body of Christ. (VATICAN II, Dei Verbum, 21).
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Day of Prayer for Vocations
I lay down my life (Gospel)
Today marks the end of the Year of Vocation. It is not a time to relax our prayers and efforts. We need to do all that we can to ensure that our faith communities will produce men willing to give their lives generously so that the Word will be preached and the Eucharist celebrated in the years ahead. The need for vocations becomes more acute as priests diminish in numbers and increase in age.
The pastoral work of promoting vocations has as its active agents, as its protagonists, the ecclesial community as such, in its various expressions: from the universal Church to the particular church and…, from the particular church to each of its parishes and to every part of the People of God. … all the members of the Church, without exception, have the grace and responsibility to look after vocations. (JOHN PAUL II Pastores Dabo Vobis, 41).
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