Menu
First Reading: Rom 8:12-17
Brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, "Abba, Father!"
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21
R./ Our God is the God of salvation.
God arises; his enemies are scattered,
and those who hate him flee before him.
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
R./ Our God is the God of salvation.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
R./ Our God is the God of salvation.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R./ Our God is the God of salvation.
Gospel Reading: Lk 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath and a crippled woman was there. An evil spirit had kept her bent for eighteen years so that she could not straighten up at all. On seeing her, Jesus called her and said, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." Then he laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and praised God.
But the ruler of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had performed this healing on the Sabbath day and he said to the people, "There are six days in which to work; come on those days to be healed and not on the Sabbath."
But the Lord replied, "You hypocrites! Everyone of you unties his ox or his donkey on the Sabbath and leads it out of the barn to give it water. And here you have a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. Should she not be freed from her bonds on the Sabbath?"
When Jesus said this, all his opponents felt ashamed. But the people rejoiced at the many wonders that happened through him.
Opening Prayer
God, your Spirit makes us cry out to you:
“God, our Father!”
Do not allow us any longer
to serve you in slavery to any law
but in a spirit of sons and daughters,
all your children,
that makes us go far beyond the law.
Yes, make us see and practice
that we are committed to your person
through bonds of love
in response to your gratuitous love
which sought us out personally
even before we were aware of it.
We thank you for being our Father
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading Introduction
We are sons and daughters of God because the Spirit of Christ, the perfect Son, is alive in us. With Christ and through his Spirit, we can call God our Father. He is a father with a love warm and tender as that of a mother. God is not a paternalistic Father. He respects our freedom. He wants us to be responsible and mature and to give him a free answer of love. He wants us to serve him as spiritual people, that is, people moved by the Spirit, without any slavish attitude.
Gospel Introduction
The stooped woman whom Jesus cured is just one sample of his love. Again, the legalists protest because Jesus cured a sick person on the Sabbath. Jesus appeals to their common sense. The Sabbath is a day of God, a day on which we remember the goodness of God and thank him for his love. Isn’t the day of the Lord the best day on which we can pass on the love of the Lord to one another and create one another anew?
General Intercessions
– For the Church, the body of Christ, that it may not be divided into factions and that it may become to all a sign of unity and love, we pray:
– For the whole wide world, that all peoples may discover that God loves them tenderly as his sons and daughters, we pray:
– For all of us, that we may forgive one another from the heart, seek no revenge, bear no grudges, and learn to see others as people loved by the same Father, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Great and holy God,
we may call you Father
for we are truly your sons and daughters.
God, accept our thanks
through Jesus, your Son,
who came among us
to make us your children.
As he will be with us
in these signs of bread and wine,
may he give us a deeper spirit
of being your sons and daughters
that we may serve you as he did,
with a love that does not weigh the cost
but is always responsive to your love for ever.
Prayer after Communion
God, our Father,
as we go back to our work and to people,
may your Spirit be truly our guide in life.
As the Spirit of love, may he help us
to see the needs and sufferings of those around us,
to feel with them and to help them;
as the Spirit of freedom,
may he make us responsible and mature
with the maturity to which you call us
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
Free sons and daughters of the Father, that is what we are. How great, and yet we know all this is a free gift from God. God has made us his children through our brother Jesus Christ. May he keep blessing you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
