Liturgy Alive Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest, Martyr

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Tuesday, August 9, 2016

 

Saint MAXIMILIAN KOLBE, Priest, Martyr
Memorial 
August 14

Introduction

Maximilian Mary Kolbe became a Franciscan Conventual. He was a great devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. When the father of a large family was hand-picked for extermination, Fr. Maximilian offered himself to the commander to die in the man's place. He was starved to death. Pope John Paul II proclaimed him the Patron of our Suffering Century.

Opening Prayer

God our Father,
St. Maximilian Kolbe practiced
what your Son Jesus called 
the greatest love that disposes a person
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Through Jesus, who calls us his friends,
and with the help of the prayers of St Maximilian
make our love as strong as life and death.
Let it always have the last word in us
and be given for free, like yours.
Make us love one another as Jesus has loved us,
he who is our Lord for ever.

Introduction to the First Reading
       Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll with the prophecies he has to make to the People of God. That means, he has to be filled with its message. It contains bitter utterances, because he has to make the people face the truth of their infidelities, but at the same time, it tastes sweet to the prophet because he takes up his mission without protest, for he is doing what he has to do.

 

Introduction to Gospel Reading
      For Jesus, a child counts, as God loves what is little. They are the greatest in the kingdom of God, on account of their simple wisdom, their lack of pretension, their spontaneity and their humility. Sinners too, are among the little ones, in another sense: low before God—what have they given him? Yet none of them should be lost. In us too, the child should survive in the good sense. Are we not placing obstacles in the way of the kingdom on account of our sophistication and pretenses?

 

General Intercessions

– For those who are the greatest in the Church, that they may serve with great dedication and without looking down on them, the weakest, the poorest, those wounded in life, we pray:
– For all of us, that like Jesus, by loving them and praying for them, we may place in our midst children, the poor, the humble and all who serve, we pray:
– For those working in social welfare institutions, that they may provide shelter and much love for orphans and rejected and abandoned children, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God, loving Father,
your love appeared with a human face
in your Son Jesus Christ.
He showed all the depth of your love and his
by laying down his life for us, his friends.
May he be our food 
on the road of life and of love
not only when it is easy to love
but also when it is hard to be faithful
and when love demands self-forgetting sacrifice.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Our loving God,
in this eucharistic celebration
you have given us new proof of your love
by giving us your Son and his Spirit.
Jesus has strengthened our love.
Accept our thanks and bring out the best in us,
that we may bear rich fruit of faithful, reliable love.
Let your Spirit unite us
to build community with one another
and to live in your love and joy
now and for ever.

 
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