Liturgy Alive Feast of St. John, Evangelist
Introduction
Close to our Lord, obsessed by love. This may well be the marks of John the Evangelist. He had experienced in his person what it means to be loved by Jesus and to love in return. And Jesus was the Lord, God’s Son! In later life he was driven by this love, as his gospel and his first letter reveal to us. He was the man who preached love; the words he used, the urgency and insistence with which he spoke cannot come but from a man who lived this love deeply and who felt that this should be the mark too of the Christian communities.
Opening Prayer
Lord God, you are love itself.
We know that you loved us first
before we could ever love you.
Let this unforgettable experience
of your “beloved apostle” John
become also our deep and lasting experience.
May the love you have shown us
in your Son Jesus Christ
move us to love you very deeply in return
and overflow on all those we meet in life.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
General Intercessions
– Lord Jesus, make us understand and put into practice that the core of the gospel is love for you and for one another, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, may our words and actions bear witness that we believe and rejoice in you as our risen Lord, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, make us happy people, who feel secure because we know that we live in your presence, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Father,
bread and wine are the signs
in which your Son gives himself to us today.
May these gifts be at the same time
the signs in which we place ourselves
at your disposal
and of the concrete you
who are our neighbors far and near,
our brothers and sisters whom you love
and whom we love
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Our living and loving God,
who can nourish our love better
than he who spoke of it to us,
your Son Jesus Christ?
Like him, and strengthened by his body and blood,
may we respond to the warmth of your love
by caring for our brothers and sisters,
even at the expense of ourselves.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Blessing
John is the apostle who insists that we should love one another as Jesus loves us. Jesus asks us to live in him as he lives in us. May we remain and grow in this love, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.