Liturgy Alive Monday 18th Week in Ordinary Time Year 1

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Monday, August 5, 2019

Opening Prayer

God, our compassionate Father,
you let your Son, Jesus Christ give food
to all who are 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 in their anguish,
to bind their wounds and to appease their hungers.
Give us the strength to do all these
by the strength of the food of himself
that Jesus gives us in each Eucharist.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction: In the year of the jubilee you shall return, everyone of you, to your own property.
           The first readings in the 18th and the 19th weeks are taken from the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. It describes the journey of God’s people through the desert, with the trials of the difficult journey, the temptations of discouragement, lack of faith and trust, material and materialistic needs, infidelities and complaints. We have to learn to place them in the context of our own itinerary through life as Christians, our own deserts with temptations, difficulties and grumbling.

Gospel Reading Introduction: Command me to come to you on the water.
           It is regrettable that the Lectionary has omitted that part of the remark of Jesus that gives the foundation of this episode: “Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” Jesus redefines the true understanding of purity. One is pure not because of ritual ablutions but because of one’s fidelity to God’s law. Human traditions that obstruct God’s law should be abolished. After all, it is the spirit of the law that counts, not the letter.

General Intercessions

–    For the pope, bishops, and priests, that they may satisfy the people’s hunger for love and justice, for truth and hope by proclaiming with conviction and love the Lord’s message of the Good News, we pray:
–    For the political leaders of the world, for scientists and economists, that they may cooperate to solve the problem of hunger in the world and bring to a hungry world not only food but also dignity, justice, and peace, we pray:
–    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, we pray:

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 hungers 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 this through Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

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

Blessing

That Jesus is sharing the food of himself with us in the Eucharist is for us a double sign: that we have to care for the hungry and do what we can to help them. A second, that we too, commit ourselves to one another, putting ourselves at the service of each other. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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