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First Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8.
R./ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R./ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R./ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
R./ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R./ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11
Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you.
Gospel Reading: John 11:1-45
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
hen Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him,
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him.”
He said this, and then told them,
“Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him,
“Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death,
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
“Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go to die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
When she had said this,
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
“The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her,
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Greeting
May the Spirit
who raised Jesus from the dead
be alive in you.
May we live Jesus’ life to the full now,
that we may be raised up on the last day.
May Jesus, the Lord of life, be always with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant (Two Options)
A. I Am the Resurrection And The Life
How can some Christians answer in surveys that they don’t believe in the resurrection? The resurrection is central for a believer. Today’s liturgy is a strong statement of our faith in the resurrection, not only of that of Jesus but also our own. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead; Jesus himself rose from death to life. Our own risen life began at baptism, and this eternal life has to grow and keep rising until after we have died. God raises us up. Jesus asks us today: Do you believe this? And we answer: Yes, Lord, I do. Let the Eucharist be the food of that risen life in you.
(or)
B. Come Out Of Your Graves
Is it not true that at times we do not live a full life because we are afraid and selfish, we dare not to commit ourselves to one another, and we do not live according to the Gospel? If so, are we not more dead than alive? The Gospel calls us today to come out of the tombs of our hardened hearts, out of the graves of our fears and selfishness, of everything that keeps us imprisoned. Let us heed the Lord’s call to life, to rise with him to joy and love and freedom. Let us eat with the Lord his bread of life.
Penitential Act
We do not let life grow in us
when we mar it by sin and indifference.
We ask the Lord of life to forgive us.
(PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, our resurrection and life,
forgive us our hesitant and weak faith
and our timid and wavering hope.
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
forgive us that your life in us
has grown so little since we were baptized:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, our food of life,
forgive us that we have not let the Eucharist
raise us up from the grave of sin:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
and forgive us all our sins.
Make us live your life to the full,
that it may blossom into eternal life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray that we may lead
the risen life of Jesus our Lord
(PAUSE)
Our God of life,
you want us to live and to be happy.
Your Son Jesus assures us:
”I am the resurrection and the life.”
Do not let your life die in us.
Make us come out of our graves
of sin and mediocrity and fears.
Let life triumph in us
even in our uncertainties and trials
and make our hope contagious for others.
You have destined us for life without end
through the firstborn from the dead,
Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading Introduction: God Is The Life Of His People
To his disheartened people in exile in a foreign land, God tells through the prophet: I want you to live. I will bring you back to the land of the promise and give you my spirit of life and strength.
Second Reading Introduction: The Holy Spirit Gives Us God’s Life
Christians do not escape from the reality of their human nature, from evil and suffering. Yet they may not capitulate to the death of sin. Through the Holy Spirit living in them, they are called to share in God’s unending life.
Gospel Introduction: Lazarus, Come Out!
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. As he raised Lazarus from the dead, so he gives us a share in his risen life now and will raise us up on the day of judgment. It is our task too, to bring people to the fullness of life.
General Intercessions
“Lord, if you had been here,” said Martha. “my brother would not have died.” Lord, make us aware of your presence and of your call to live your life, as we pray to you: R/ Son of the living God, give us life.
• Lord, give new life to your Church and give it courage, that a better Church be born through the testing pains of renewal, we pray: R/ Son of the living God, give us life.
• Lord, pour out your life richly and deeply in adults and children preparing for baptism, that they may live close to you, we pray: R/ Son of the living God, give us life.
• Lord, sustain old people and the dying in the hope that they will rise in you, that they may entrust themselves to you in all serenity and with deep faith, we pray: R/ Son of the living God, give us life.
• Lord, keep inspiring those who suffer, the victims of injustice and misfortune, with the value and the dignity of life, that they may not give up on life, we pray: R/ Son of the living God, give us life.
• Lord, look on our Christian community. Make us appreciate life as a gift and a task so that we can use all our potentials to make it rich and full for ourselves and for others, we pray: R/ Son of the living God, give us life.
Lord Jesus, raise us up above our petty self-sufficiency to a hope stronger than death. Stay with us now and for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
your Son Jesus has given meaning
to death as well as to life.
In his own body
he experienced our sufferings with our joys
and died our death
as an offering to you and to us.
As we join him in his sacrifice,
help us to bear with him
the burdens of our brothers and sisters,
that with him and with you
we may live for ever. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Let us join in Jesus’ prayer of thanksgiving to the Father, the God of Life, for his goodness and the hope of resurrection.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
With hope and trust
we pray to the Father of all life
the prayer of Jesus our Lord.
Deliver Us
Deliver us Lord, from every evil
and let the peace we ask from you
not be a guilty peace of complicity
in the injustices of this world.
Let it be a liberating peace
that cannot find rest
until all our brothers and sisters are free
with the freedom you have brought us
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus the Lord, who says to us:
I am the bread of life.
All those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
have eternal life.
They live in me and I in them,
and I shall raise them up on the last day.
Prayer after Communion
God of all that lives,
your Son Jesus has reassured us in this Eucharist
that he is the resurrection and the life
and that we have eternal life already now
if we believe in him.
May his body and blood nourish this life in us
and make it grow day after day
that we may live his life to the full
and with him make it a gift
to brighten the lives of others.
Let him lead us to your life of unending joy.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing
God our Father wants us to live.
May we gratefully accept life from him
as a gift and an assignment. R/ Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us
that we might live.
May we live with him a life
worthy of the sons and daughters of God. R/ Amen.
The life-giving Spirit inspires us
to follow the way of Christ as people living for others.
May he make us always available and open
to anyone in need. R/ Amen.
And may the God of life,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
bless you and keep you in his love. R/ Amen.
Let Us Go In The Peace Of Christ. R/ Thanks Be To God.
