Liturgy Alive Monday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
in your Son Jesus Christ
you have revealed to us
your treasures of wisdom and love.
His life and his gospel are so full and rich
that we can never exhaust their wisdom.
Let it be a life and a wisdom
in which we grow day after day.
Make us complete in Christ,
that we may hasten
the coming of his kingdom
in ourselves and among people far and near.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading Introduction
In the first reading of today we hear Paul speak with conviction and enthusiasm about his mission of preaching the gospel. It is a glorious task. We can feel how the gospel fills him and has become the sole meaning of his life. Let Christ also be the meaning of our lives. If so, we cannot but preach him by our words and our way of life.
Gospel Introduction
It is strange how, as we read in the Gospel, faithful, practicing religious people, like the scribes and Pharisees—the regular churchgoers of their day—were a big obstacle to the work of Jesus. They are upset and angry because Jesus cures a man with a withered hand on the day of the Lord. Jesus came to do good and to preserve life, as he said, to carry out a mission of love and life, and these cannot be adequately expressed in laws and commands. We may and should do good also on Sundays!
General Intercessions
- Lord Jesus, open our minds and hearts to understand your gospel in all its riches, that we may live it and communicate it to others, we pray:
- Lord Jesus, may our sick and suffering people understand that they follow and complete the suffering of Christ and may this realization strengthen them, we pray:
- Lord Jesus, may our communities understand and love you and be united in you, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
accept these gifts as a sign
of our faith in your Son Jesus Christ.
Let us become smaller
and Christ grow greater in us,
that you may recognize and love in us
your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you have spoken to us
your living Word Jesus Christ
and given us his body to eat.
Give to this word an ever-new resonance,
that we may never get tired of it
or think we have exhausted it.
And what we have heard and understood,
help us to speak it in our own words
and in the language of our lives.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Blessing
In Christ are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It is him we have to proclaim with our lives and to become mature in him. May God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
