Category: Prayer

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.

WEDNESDAY PRAYER 5^th May, 2021

The Magnificat

My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

He looks on his servant in her lowliness;

henceforth all ages will call me blessed.

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy his name !

His mercy is from age to age, on those who fear him.

He puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud-hearted.

He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.

He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty.

He protects Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy,

the mercy promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his sons for ever.

LITANY OF PRAISE:

Holy is your name, O Lord!

SCRIPTURE READING:  Matthew 12:46-50

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said: ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’  The Gospel of the Lord.

REFLECTION:  (Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa OFM.Cap.)

                The title, “Mother of God” tells us about Mary. She is the only one in the world who could say to Jesus what his heavenly Father said to him: “You are my son; I have begotten you!” St.Ignatius of Antioch, in all simplicity and almost unaware of the tremendous dignity he was giving a human creature, said that Jesus is “of God and of Mary.” The title, “Mother of God” is sufficient in itself to establish the greatness of Mary and to justify the honour attributed to her. Catholics are sometimes reproached for exaggerating the honour and importance they attach to Mary, and, we must admit, the reproach has often been justified, at least for the way she has been honoured. But we never think of what God did. By making her the Mother of God, he so honoured her that no one could possibly honour her more even if he possessed, as Luther said, as many tongues as there are blades of grass: “In the title Mother of God, all honour is included; no one could say anything greater of her, or to her, even if he had as many tongues as there are blades of grass or stars in the sky or grains of sand in the sea. We must let our hearts reflect on what it means to be the Mother of God.”

                The title “Mother of God” places Mary in a unique relationship with each person of the Trinity. St.Francis of Assisi expressed this in a prayer: Holy Virgin Mary, among all the women of the world there is none like you. You are the daughter and handmaid of the most high King and Father of heaven; you are the mother of our most holy Lord, Jesus Christ; you are the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Pray for us to your most holy and beloved Son, our Lord and Master.

                Let us now see how to apply the title “Mother of God” to each one of us. Let us see how we can really become mothers of Christ. Jesus himself told us how to become his mother. It happens in two ways: by hearing the Word and by practicing it. We conceive Christ when we love him in all sincerity of heart and uprightness of conscience and we give him birth when we do works that show him to the world. This echoes the words of Jesus: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven.”

                Let these words of St.Augustine spur us on to imitate the Mother of God: “His Mother carried him in her womb; may we carry him in our hearts; the Virgin became pregnant with the Incarnation of Christ, may our hearts become pregnant with faith in Christ; she brought forth the Saviour, may our souls being forth salvation and praise. May our souls be not sterile, but fertile for God.”

INTERCESSIONS:  Lord, in your mercy . . . Hear our prayer

CLOSING PRAYER:

The first decade of the Joyful Mysteries – the Annunciation.

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