Psalm 145/146
Alleluia! My soul give praise to the Lord;
I will praise the Lord all my days, make music to my God while I live.
Put no trust in the powerful, mere mortals in whom there is no help.
Take their breath, they return to clay
and their plans for that day come to nothing.
They are happy who are helped by Jacob’s God,
Whose hope is in the Lord their God,
Who alone made heaven and earth, the seas and all they contain.
It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are oppressed.
It is God who gives bread to the hungry, the Lord, who sets prisoners free,
the Lord who gives sight to the blind,
who raises up those who are bowed down,
the Lord who protects the stranger and upholds the widow and orphan.
It is the Lord who loves the just but thwarts the path of the wicked.
The Lord will reign for ever, Zion’s God, from age to age. Alleluia !
LITANY OF PRAISE:
Lord, our hope lies all in you!
READING: Vatican II – Constitution on the Church (para 4)
When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was completed, the holy Spirit was sent on the Day of Pentecost to sanctify the church continually and so that believers might have access to the Father through Christ in the one Spirit. This is the Spirit of life, the fountain of water springing up to eternal life, through whom the Father gives life to human beings dead in sin, until the day when, in Christ, he raises to life their mortal bodies. The Spirit dwells in the church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple, prays, and bears witness in them that they are his adopted children. He guides the church in the way of all truth and, uniting it in fellowship and ministry, bestows upon it different hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs it and adorns it with his fruits. By the power of the Gospel, he rejuvenates the church, constantly renewing it and leading it to perfect union with its spouse. For the Spirit and the Bride both say to Jesus, the Lord, Come ! Hence the universal church is seen to be “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
REFLECTION: (James O’Halloran SDB)
We are asked in the church to be a community as the Trinity is a community. This raises intriguing questions as to what kind of community the Trinity is and how we make it present in the church. Just to choose a few challenging facts: the Trinity is a community where there is: a) intimate loving and sharing b) full participation of the three members c) absolute equality of persons d) outreach to the other.
How do we replicate this in the Church?
Now we are created in God’s image. In Genesis 1;26-27 we read how God created human beings ‘in our own image, after our own likeness . . . male and female . . . ‘ The statement that we were created male and female is significant. We are not meant to live in isolation. From the beginning God’s will was that we be a community of brothers and sisters without divisions: there can be differences that enrich, yes, divisions, no. The message of scripture is clear: no barriers. This theme is taken up by St.Paul who declares: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.
So why must we be community? Quite simply because God is community, and we are created in God’s image. It is true that God is within me and I reflect an aspect of God to the world that no one else can, and it is also true that I am uniquely a cell of the body of Christ. Nevertheless would it not be accurate to say that we are more fully like God and Jesus when we live in harmony?
INTERCESSIONS: Lord, in your mercy . . . Hear our prayer
CLOSING PRAYER:
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mould me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.