Liturgy Alive 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

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Sunday, August 6, 2017

Greeting  (See First Reading)

The Lord invites us:
Listen to me
and you will have good things to eat
and rich food to enjoy.
May the Lord nourish you with his body
and may he always be with you. 

Introduction by the Celebrant (Two Options)

A. The Hungry Are Fed
In every Eucharistic celebration Jesus invites us to eat and drink with him. We are the people not only at the Last Supper but also at the multiplication of bread. We were and are present there. He does not want us to remain hungry for we can find in him all that is good and valuable. He gives us himself and he is asking us to do the same: give the people food to eat, give them yourselves. We ask the Lord to help us do this.
(or)

B. You Give Them To Eat
The media remind us almost daily of the hunger for food in many parts of the world. There is also much spiritual hunger, hunger and thirst for values, for something to hold on to and to hope for. Jesus gave to the people the food of compassion, his word of forgiveness, and especially the food of himself, of his body. He invites us, his disciples today, to give ourselves away as the food and drink of others. We ask during this Eucharist for the courage to do so.

Penitential Act 

How grateful have we been to Jesus
for giving himself to us?
How much have we given ourselves to others?
Let us examine ourselves before the Lord.
        (PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, you are the bread
that gives life to the world:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, you are the bread
that strengthens us on the journey of life:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you are the bread
that gives us everlasting life:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
In your kindness, forgive us, Lord.
Sustain us on our journey
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer 

Let us pray that we may learn from Christ
to feed the hungry
        (PAUSE)
God, our compassionate Father,
you let your Son Jesus Christ
give food to all who were hungry in any way.
Make us compassionate for all the poor of our day.
Teach us to see their needs,
to suffer with them, to share their anguish,
to bind their wounds and to appease their hungers.
Give us the strength to do all this
by the power of the food of himself
which Jesus gives us in each Eucharist.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

 Liturgy of the Word  

First Reading Introduction: Come, Listen, Eat And Drink
          In a time of need, God encourages his people through the prophet. To those who hunger and thirst for him and listen to him, everything will be given in abundance.

Second Reading Introduction: Nothing Can Separate Us From The Love Of Christ
          In their needs and difficulties, Christians should keep trusting in God. Our faith assures us that God will never abandon us, for he has shown us how much he loves us by giving us Jesus, his Son.

Gospel Introduction: They All Ate And Were Satisfied
        In terms close to those of the institution of the Eucharist, the evangelist tells how Jesus gave food to the hungry people and they could eat until they were satisfied. The disciples distributed the food.

General Intercessions

When the people that followed him were hungry, the heart of  Jesus was filled with pity. Let us bring before him all the cares and hungers of our brothers and sisters in need, and let us say: R/ Lord, satisfy our hunger.
•    For the pope, bishops and priests, that they may satisfy the people’s hunger for love and justice, truth and hope by proclaiming without compromise the Lord’s message of Good News, let us pray: R/ Lord, satisfy our hunger.
•    For the Church, the body of Christ,  that it may help people everywhere to discover and express their deepest aspirations and enrich them with the higher values of the Gospel, let us pray: R/ Lord, satisfy our hunger.
•    For the political leaders of the world, for scientists and economists, that they may cooperate unselfishly to solve the problem of hunger in the world and bring to a hungry world not only food but also dignity, justice, and peace, let us pray: R/ Lord, satisfy our hunger.
•    For the sick and the lonely, for the handicapped and those who are discouraged, for those who hunger for love and acceptance, that our love and concern may be signs to them that God does not abandon them, let us pray: R/ Lord, satisfy our hunger.
•    For all of us here, that we may busy ourselves not only with the immediate needs of ourselves and our families, but keep hungering for the higher goods of God’s Word and for the Eucharist, let us pray: R/ Lord, satisfy our hunger.
Lord Jesus Christ, let no trial or worry separate us from the love of the Father in heaven, which has come to us through you, our Lord for ever and ever. R/Amen.

 

Prayer Over the Gifts

God our Father,
we give you thanks for bread and wine
and for making them the signs
of your Son’s presence in our midst.
Through him we bring before you
the miseries and aspirations of all.
Let him multiply here for us
the bread of life to make us strong
and the wine of joy to give us hope.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

What Jesus did for the hungry crowd he does again for us here and now: he gives us something to eat, and it is himself he gives. Let us thank the Father with Jesus.

Invitation to the Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray to God our Father
for the food we need every day,
also for the food of the Eucharist.

Deliver Us

Deliver us Lord, from our concentration
on material needs and security
and make us truly concerned
to seek always your will
and to work for the coming of your kingdom.
Keep us free from discouragement
when your justice and truth are slow in coming,
and keep alive our joyful hope
that one day we shall see
the full coming among us
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Invitation to Communion

This is the body of Christ,
the Lamb of God
and the bread which the Father gives us.
Happy are we to be invited to the table
which the Lord has prepared for us.

Prayer after Communion

Our God and Father,
through the bread of life
of your Son Jesus Christ,
multiply in us our capacity to love.
Give us the courage to put into practice
the words spoken to us by your Son:
“You yourselves give the people to eat.”
Help us to share our food with them
and also our joy and our compassion,
our hopes and our love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing

When we come together
and receive our Lord in the Eucharist,
he is here for us not merely to console us
and to make us strong for our Christian living.
He also challenges us to do as he did:
to share our food with the hungry
and to give ourselves to one another.
May the Lord give you this strength and bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
in one another.
R/ Thanks be to God.

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