Liturgy Alive Wednesday 16th Week in Ordinary Time Y1

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Opening Prayer

God of might and tender care,
in the gift of life,
in our daily food on the table,
in the fragile freedom we enjoy,
we recognize your provident hand.
Give us the wisdom and strength
not to seek a hollow security
of things that are only provisional,
but to move forward
in search of lasting values:
the freedom of the justice and love
of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction: I will rain down bread from heaven for you.
          It is quite likely that the delicious manna was not as plentiful and frequent as the epic description of Exodus seems to imply. But the authors bring out its theological meaning. When food is scarce and always the same, when the Hebrews cry out for the false securities of Egypt, every day enough manna “rains from heaven” for the needs of the day. Thus, the Hebrews experience that God cares and that they are in his hands. He sustains them on the arduous road to freedom. God gives them—and us—what we need every day. We are not to worry about tomorrow.
          Christ refers to the manna as a figure of the Eucharist, which sustains us on the road of life and does not allow death.

Gospel Reading Introduction: The seed produced grain a hundredfold.
           God looks for good soil to sow his seeds of life. Do we have the hearts of stone in which nothing grows? Or hearts, open to the Good News, but so overgrown with weeds of constant worrying about the cares of life and things that do not matter, that no time is left to cultivate the growth in us of God’s life and love? Let us ask in this Eucharist that we may yield a rich harvest, like the prophet Jeremiah.

General Intercessions

–    That we may always keep trusting in God’s providence, that he will always care for the People of God and guide his Church, we pray:
–    That the Eucharist may be our food of strength and commitment throughout our journey in life, we pray:
–    That seriously ill and dying Christians may have the chance to receive the viaticum, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
we bring before you the bread
that you give us to eat every day.
Make us seek the bread of your Son
that makes us neither rich nor poor,
but that unites us as brothers and sisters
and makes us go the way of life
of Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, provident Father,
you have nourished your people
with the living bread from heaven,
your Son, Jesus Christ.
By the strength of this food,
send us out to this hungry world
to provide it with bread for the table
and also with the manna
of justice, truth, and freedom,
that people may believe that you are our God
and that your Son is our Lord for ever. 

Blessing

The Lord gives you bread to eat. Do those of us who have always enough to eat thank the Lord for it? Do we thank him for giving us the manna of the Eucharist? And do we share what we have with those who have not enough? May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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