Liturgy Alive Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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Friday, June 19, 2020

 

Solemnity of the SACRED HEART of JESUS

NO GREATER LOVE

Greeting

May Christ live in your hearts,
may you be planted in love,
built on the love of Christ, 
and may he be with you always.

Introduction by the Celebrant

Because our vision is narrow and limited, people pictured the great and unnamable God as inaccessible in a distant, fortified palace, wherein he withdrew after creating the world and people and where people's sins could not harm him. Yet even in the Old Testament God made himself known as a God who loves and cares and who is deeply involved in human history. He fell in love with people, chose himself a nation and made a covenant with them. When his people became unfaithful as they could not really understand that God loved them, he showed himself with a human face and a heart that could be wounded and bleed in his Son Jesus Christ, to tell us: See how far love can go. Can you now believe in my love, accept it, and love me in return? It is the loving heart of God we celebrate today as we honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Penitential Act

Are we really aware of the depth of God's love?
How have we responded to it?
Let us examine ourselves.
(PAUSE)
Lord, you have come among us
to share life and its cares with us
and to lead us on the Father's road of life and love.
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Christ, your heart was wounded
because our hearts were divided
You came to replace our hearts of stone
with hearts capable of love.
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord, you made yourself available to all
to make us near to one another,
to all needs and all suffering.
Lord, have mercy. R/Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
forgive us all our sins,
fill us with your life
and keep us always in your heart
now and for ever. R/ Amen

Opening Prayer

Let us pray to God that we may understand
how much he has loved us in the heart of his Son
(PAUSE)
God our Father,
in your Son Jesus Christ you have shown us
that love is not just an empty word.
Here in this eucharist you tell us again
how he placed himself into the hands of people
and shed his blood for us on the cross.
What more could he do?
Help us to see fully with eyes of faith
how much more he did for us
by rising again from the dead
and giving us life and hope and joy.
Let us never be separated from his love,
let it grow in us day after day
and overflow on our brothers and sisters.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction: The Song of God's Slighted Love 
      God loved his people with a tender love and guided Israel with a loving hand. Even when his people became unfaithful he did not have the heart to abandon them.


Second Reading Introduction: The Riches of Christ's Love
      Paul thanks God for the grace that he was allowed to preach everywhere the riches of Christ's love. He prays that all Christians might become aware of the depth of this love.

Gospel Introduction: Christ, the Paschal Lamb Slain for Us 

       John speaks of Christ on the cross as the suffering servant and the Passover Lamb; his pierced heart becomes a wellspring of life and love for all.


General Intercessions

Let us pray to our Lord Jesus Christ that our faith and love may not waver and that our hearts may become constant, like his. Let us say: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, we have come to know and appreciate in you a heart that is just and fair to all. Help us to discriminate wisely between right and wrong, the true and the false, that we may always judge and act in accordance with the values of justice and love, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, you are the model and fulfillment of all that we are called to be. Renew our humanity, cleanse our intentions, steep us in your self-forgetting love, make us straightforward and pure of heart, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, you are the source from which we drink. Do not allow us to seek ourselves, dispose us to sacrifice ourselves for others, make us attentive to those who need us, the poor, the weak, the defenseless, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, you are dependable. Give us your strength when we waver, raise us up when we stumble, make us reliable and worthy of people's trust, give us a deep sense of responsibility toward ourselves and the community, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
Lord, we are certain of you. Fill us with the riches of humanity and grace with which your heart overflows and be our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
gather in the bread of life of your Son
the fragments of our broken promises
and our divided hearts.
We offer you our ambiguities,
our tensions and our fears,
that you may make us whole and wholesome again
through the Lamb that was slain
to make us your new people,
Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

May this eucharist give us the grace to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth of the love that God has shown us in Christ.

Invitation to the Lord's Prayer

Let us pray to God our Father
in the very words of Jesus, his Son,
whose life and death proved to us
how far God's love can go: R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
and keep us rooted in your love.
With joy we place ourselves in your hands,
for we know that you are always faithful.
Call us back to you when we err
and unite us all in the love of your Son,
as we long in faith and hope
for the full coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Invitation to Communion

This is the body of Christ
whose heart was opened on the cross
to pour out on us streams of grace.
This is the Lamb of God
who made us capable of love.
Happy are we to be invited
to share his table.R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God, loving Father, 
accept all our thanks and praise
for refreshing us again today
at the source of life and of love,
Jesus, your Son in our midst.
Give us the heart of Jesus,
straightforward, single-minded, 
uncomplicated and strong,
all set on doing your will,
and at the same time respectful of all and open to all,
willing to accept each and all
wholeheartedly and at their own pace.
This is why he is our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.

Blessing

The love in the heart of Jesus
is more than sentiment.
It means commitment with one's whole person,
whatever the cost and the consequences.
May this be the heart to transplant in us
and may God bless you all,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen
.

Go in peace, and let the love of Christ
be the root and foundation of your life. R/ Thanks be to God.

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