Prayer of Peace, attributed to St Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love,
where there is injury, pardon,
where there is doubt, faith,
where there is despair, hope,
where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The way of the Cross

Reader: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us pray, Lord God, when our world lay in ruins you raised it up again on the foundation of your Son’s Passion and Death; give us grace to rejoice in the freedom from sin which he gained for us. And bring us to everlasting joy. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

FIRST STATION : JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you; because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Amen.

Reader: As Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the scarlet cloak, Pilate said to them, “See, here is the man.” When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they cried out: “Crucify him!” At that, he gave Jesus up into their hands to be crucified. Amen.

Leader: It was indeed part of God’s plan that Christ, through his redemptive sacrifice which reached its summit with the death on the Cross, should become the source of a new unity of humanity who are called in him – Christ – to rediscover their dignity as the adopted sons of God. In this sacrifice on the Cross can be found the origin of the Church as the community of salvation. [General Audience, 6th October 1991]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world : Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord Jesus Christ, first-born of many brethren, you are alone and mistreated all over the world today. May we be more attentive to the sufferings of others, and so grow more like you, who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

SECOND STATION : JESUS TAKES UP HIS CROSS

Reader: They, once he was in their hands, led him away. So Jesus went out, carrying his own cross, to the place named after a skull; its Hebrew name is Golgotha. [John 19:16-17]

Leader: In the midst of this vigil stands the cross. You have borne this cross to this place and you have erected it in the midst of our gathering. On that cross, the divine ‘I Am’ of the new and eternal Covenant is made manifest ‘to the very end’. [John 13:1]. ‘God so loved the world that he gave up his only-begotten Son, so that those who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life’ [John 3:16]. The Cross, sign of that unfathomable love; the sign that reveals that ‘God is love’. [John 4:8] [Meeting with youth, Czestochowa, 14th August 1991]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord Jesus, you said: “Come to me, you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Take pity on your Church, threatened from within and without, delivered up before the world; support her with the strength of your arm, you who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

THIRD STATION : JESUS FALLS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Reader: Jesus falls under the weight of the cross. He does not resort to his supernatural power, nor does he resort to the power of angels. ‘Do you think that I cannot pray to my Father, who would at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?’ [Mark 14:36]. Having accepted the cup from his Father’s hands he is resolved to drink it to the end.

Leader: No being in the world is exempt from weakness, whether physical, emotional or spiritual. Each of us must face up to our handicaps humbly. In the providence of God, this does not mean a lesser aptitude for holiness or for serving the world: on the contrary, we can do all things in him who strengthens us, Christ Jesus.

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord we ask you to give to our persecuted brethren the grace to accept the Cross which they have not chosen, and to follow in your path to the Father, who lived and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

FOURTH STATION : JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER

Reader: Simon said to Mary: ‘Behold, this child destined to bring about the fall of many and the rise of may in Israel, to be a sign which men will refuse to acknowledge: an so the thoughts of many hearts shall be made manifest. As for your own soul, it shall have a sword to pierce it.’ [Luke 2:34-35] Mary meets her Son along the way of the Cross. His Cross becomes her Cross; his humiliation is her humiliation.

Leader: Side by side with her Son, and faithfully persevering in union with her Son, she ‘advance in her pilgrimage of faith’, as the Council emphasises. This happened not without her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim to whom she had given birth, in this way Mary ‘Faithfully preserved her union with her Son, even to the Cross.’

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Blessed Virgin, bend in sympathy over the children who are dying of hunger and cold. Take into your arms those who die in misery, O Virgin of Tenderness, and bring them into that Kingdom where every tear will be wiped away, the Kingdom where your Son reigns forever and ever. Amen.

FIFTH STATION : SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS JESUS TO CARRY THE CROSS

Reader: As for his cross, they forced a passerby who was coming in from the country to carry it, one Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. [Mark 15:21]

Leader: ‘Even as I write, I am glad of my sufferings on your behalf, as in this mortal frame of mine, I help to pay off the debt which the afflictions of Christ still leave to be paid, for the sake of his body, the Church.’ [Colossians 1:24] The truth of our faith does not exclude, but rather demands, the participation of all people, in the sacrifice of Christ, in collaboration with the Redeemer.

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord, just as Simon came to your aid, we wish to relive the sufferings of your Church in need. Awaken in our hearts the wish to serve you in the poor, the hungry, the thirsty and all who are lonely and afraid, the least of all your brothers and sisters. You are Lord forever and ever. Amen.

SIXTH STATION : VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS

Reader: Tradition has bequeathed us Veronica – a counterpart to the man from Cyrene. Although, being a woman, she could not physically carry the Cross to be called upon to do so, there is no doubt that she really did carry it in the only way open to her at the time, in obedience to the dictates of her heart: she wiped his face.

Leader: As Veronica ministered to Christ on his way to Calvary, so Christians have accepted to care for those in pain and sorrow as privileged opportunities to minister to Christ himself. Remember it is Christ to whom you minister in the sufferings of your brothers and sisters; the wisdom of Christ and the power of Christ are to be seen in the weakness of those who share his suffering.

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord Jesus, give us the strength to repeat Veronica’s gesture and wipe away the tears of our brethren, by sharing in their suffering. Let them know the power of your Resurrection: you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

SEVENTH STATION : JESUS FALLS A SECOND TIME

Reader: ‘I am a worm, not a man, scorned by all, the laughing-stock of the mob.’ [Psalm 22:6] The words of the psalmist come true in these steep, narrow little streets of Jerusalem in the last hours before the Passover, with the streets teeming with people.

Leader: Faith in sharing in the suffering of Christ brings with it the interior certainty that the suffering person; completes what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions’. It is precisely suffering, permeated by the spirit of Christ’s sacrifice, that is the irreplaceable mediator of the good things that are indispensable for the world’s salvation. [Apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris11th February 1984]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord you call us to follow you freely on the way of the Cross. Grant that your disciples may respond to that call, deny themselves, take up the Cross, and confess that you are the Saviour of mankind through your humbling of yourself and being raised to the right hand of the Father, where you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

EIGHTTH STATION : JESUS CONSOLES THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

Reader: Jesus was followed by a great crowd of the people, and also of women, who beat their breasts and mourned over him; but he turned to them and said: ‘It is not for me that you should weep, daughters of Jerusalem; you should weep for yourselves and for your children.’ [Luke 23]

Leader: The Shroud is an image of God’s love as well as of human sin. It invites us to rediscover the ultimate reason for Jesus’ redeeming death. As it speaks to us of l ova and sin, the Shroud invites us all to impress upon our spirit the face of God’s love, to remove from it the tremendous reality of sin. Echoing the word of God and centuries of Christian consciousness, the Shroud whispers: believe in God’s love, the greatest treasure given to humanity, and flee from sin, the greatest misfortune in history. [Reflection before the Holy Shroud, Turin 24th May 1998]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader:
Let us pray, almighty and eternal God, you gather together what id scattered and unite what you have gathered. Look with love upon the flock of your Son: may the bond of charity and the fullness of the faith unite all who have been consecrated by the one baptism. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

NINTH STATION : JESUS FALLS FOR THE THIRD TIME

Reader: ‘He became humbler still, making himself obedient even to death, death on the Cross.’ [Philippians 2:8]. We see Jesus falling for the third time under the Cross, falling, lying in the dusty road under the Cross, at the feet of a hostile crowd that spares him no insult or humiliation.

Leader: To have a ‘Pascal sense’ to life also means to understand the depths of the reality and the value of the Redemption carried out by the Passion and the death of Jesus, an atoning sacrifice which makes us realise the gravity of sin – a rebellion against God and refusal of sin love – as well as the marvellous work of the Redemption. [General Audience 7th May 1989]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Father give the light of hope to those who will know today both suffering and tears. We ask this through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

TENTH STATION : JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

Reader: The soldiers took up his garments, which they divided into four shares, one share for each soldier. This was in fulfillment of the passage in Scripture which says, ‘They divide my spoils among them, cast lots for my clothing.’ So it was that that the soldiers occupied themselves. [John 19:23-24]

But this solidarity was in no way an effect of sin on him: on the contrary, it was a gratuitous act of the purest love. [New Year Message, 1st January 1989]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord we are united in indissolubly in love with those who , through love and faithfulness to Christ, must carry the Cross, stripped of everything. Strengthen our faith, so that our prayer may accompany our brothers and sisters at all times: you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

ELEVENTH STATION : JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

Reader: They offered him a draught of win, mixed with gall, which he tasted, but would not drink; and then they crucified him. Jesus meanwhile was saying, ‘Father ,forgive them: they do not know what they are doing.’ [Matthew 27:34-35: Luke 23:34]

Leader: To a great extent, our Catholic unity depends on mutual charity. Let us remember that the unity of the Church originated on the Cross of Christ, which broke down the barriers of sin and division and reconciled us with God and one another. Jesus foretold this unifying act when he said: ‘…and I, if I be lifted up from the earth , will draw all men to myself.’ [John 12:32] [Meeting with Catholic Bishops, Philadelphia, 4th October 1979]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Father of all goodness, you had pity on your Son, bowed down by suffering. Look with mercy on the poor of this world: visit them with your love and give them your peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

TWELFTH STATION : JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

Reader: From the sixth hour onwards there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour; and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice ‘Eli, Eli, lamma sabachtani?’ - ‘My God, my God, why have your forsaken me? Jesus said, ‘It is achieved.’ Then he bowed his head, and yielded up his spirit. [Matthew 27:45,49]

Leader: The words uttered on Golgotha bear witness to the depth – unique in the history of the world – of the evil of the suffering experienced. When Christ says: ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’, his words are an expression of that abandonment which may times found expression in the Old Testament. Christ perceives in a humanly inexpressible way this suffering which is the rejection by the Father, the estrangement from God. But precisely through this suffering he accomplishes the Redemption, and can say as he breathes his last: ‘It is accomplished.’ [Apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris11th February 1984]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord we pray that , as you wished to live our life and die our death even to the experience of abandonment by the Father, give the Church the light and strength of your presence: you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

THIRTEENTH STATION ; JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS

Reader: When the body is taken down from the Cross and laid in the Mother’s arms, in our mind’s eye we glimpse again the moment when Mary accepted the message brought by the angel Gabriel. One again Jesus is in her arms, as he was in the stable in Bethlehem, during the flight into Egypt, at Nazareth.

Leader: Through faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in his redeeming death; and as a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ – the new Adam – this faith becomes in a certain sense the atonement for the disobedience and disbelief of our first parents. Thus teach the Fathers of the Church and especially Saint Irenaeus: ‘The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.’ [Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater 25th March 1987]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, God of mercy, in the Cross of your Son you revealed to us your love and your power. Teach us to discover in the sufferings of all people the image of him who lives and reigns with you and Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

FOURTEENTH STATION : JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

Reader: In the same quarter where he was crucified there was a garden, with a new tomb in it, one in which no man had ever yet been laid. Here, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus, rolling a stone against the door of the tomb. [Mark 15:46]

Leader: The Shroud is also an image of powerlessness: the powerlessness of death in which the ultimate consequence of the mystery of the Incarnation is revealed. The burial cloth spurs us to measure ourselves against the most troubling aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation, which is also the one that shows with how much truth God truly became man, taking on our condition in all things, except sin. Everyone is shaken by the thought that not even the Son of God withstood the power of death, but we are all moved at the thought that he so shared our human condition as willingly to subject himself to the total powerlessness of the moment when life is spent. It is the experience of Holy Saturday, an important stage on Jesus’ path to Glory, from which a ray of light shines on the sorrow and death of every person.

By reminding us of Christ’s victory, faith gives us the certainty that the grave is not the ultimate goal of existence. God calls us to resurrection and immortal life. [Reflection before the Holy Shroud, Turin, 24th May 1998]

Leader: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us pray, Lord we unite ourselves with our fellow-Christians in those places in the world where they are prevented from practising and witnessing to their faith: may our prayer befriend them in their solitude and sustain their hope in your unfailing goodness. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Leader: Let us pray, we adore your Holy Cross, O Jesus, and we glory in your resurrection. By your death you restored to us our dignity as children of God: give us the grace to share in your redemptive work, spreading the Good News of your Resurrection to every corner of the world, you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER OVER THE PEOPLE

Leader: Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing.

Send down your abundant blessing, Lord, upon your people who have devoutly recalled the death of your Son in the sure hope of the resurrection. Grant them pardon; bring them comfort. May their faith grow stronger and their eternal salvation be assured. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Who is Jesus Christ?

Anonymous

He was born in an obscure village the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was 30.
Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college.
He never travelled 200 miles from the place where He was born.
He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only 33 when public opinion turned against Him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property he had on earth.
When He was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched,
all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat,
all the kings that ever reigned, put together,
have not affected the life of man on earth as much as that
One Solitary Life.

Prayers to St. Francis

Prayer 1

Heavenly Father,
you have given us the saints to be our models, patrons and friends. Today we turn to St Francis of Assisi and as you helped him reflect the image of Christ through his life of poverty and humility, grant us through his intercession the graces we so much need for soul and body. We also ask your blessings on all those whom we love. May the example of St Francis inspire us to grow in holiness as we imitate his joyful love. Grant what we ask in your merciful love, through the merits of Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

Prayer 2

Father,
you helped St Francis of Assisi to reflect the image of Christ through a life of poverty and humility. May we follow your Son by walking in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi, and by imitating his joyful love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Who is Jesus to me? - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Jesus is the Word made Flesh.
Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Jesus is the Victim offered for our sins on the Cross.
Jesus is the Sacrifice offered at the Holy Mass for the sins of the world and mine.
Jesus is the Word – to be spoken.
Jesus is the Truth – to be told.
Jesus is the Way – to be walked.
Jesus is the Light – to be lit.
Jesus is the Life – to be lived.
Jesus is the Love – to be loved.
Jesus is the Joy – to be shared.
Jesus is the Sacrifice – to be offered.
Jesus is the Peace – to be given.
Jesus is the Bread of Life – to be eaten.
Jesus is the Hungry – to be fed.
Jesus is the Thirsty – to be satiated.
Jesus is the Naked – to be clothed.
Jesus is the Homeless – to be taken in.
Jesus is the Sick – to be healed.
Jesus is the Lonely – to be loved.
Jesus is the Unwanted – to be wanted.
Jesus is the Leper – to wash his wounds.
Jesus is the Beggar – to give him a smile.
Jesus is the Drunkard – to listen to him.
Jesus is the Mental – to protect him.
Jesus is the Little One – to embrace him.
Jesus is the Blind – to lead him.
Jesus is the Dumb – to speak for him.
Jesus is the Crippled – to walk with him.
Jesus is the Drug Addict – to befriend him.
Jesus is the Prostitute – to remove from danger and befriend her.
Jesus is the Prisoner – to be visited.
Jesus is the Old – to be served.

To me -
 Jesus is my God
 Jesus is my Spouse
 Jesus is my Life
 Jesus is my only Love
 Jesus is my All in All
 Jesus is my Everything.

JESUS, I love with my whole heart, with my whole being.
I have given Him all, even my sins and He has espoused me to Himself in tenderness and love.
Now and for life I am the Spouse of my Crucified Spouse.

Amen.

The Hidden Jesus, by St John Vianney

Our Lord is hidden there, waiting for us to come and visit Him, and
make our request to Him. See how good He is! He accommodates Himself to our weakness. In Heaven, where we shall be glorious and triumphant, we shall see him in all His glory. If He had presented Himself before us in that glory now, we should not have dared to approach Him; but He hides Himself, like a person in a prison, who might say to us, "You do not see me, but that is no matter; ask of me all you wish and I will grant it. " He is there in the Sacrament of His love, sighing and interceding incessantly with His Father for sinners. To what outrages does He not expose Himself, that He may remain in the midst of us! He is there to console us; and therefore we ought often to visit Him. How pleasing to Him is the short quarter of an hour that we steal from our occupations, from something of no use, to come and pray to Him, to visit Him, to console Him for all the outrages He receives! When He sees pure souls coming eagerly to Him, He smiles upon them. They come with that simplicity which pleases Him so much, to ask His pardon for all sinners, for the outrages of so many ungrateful men. What happiness do we not feel in the presence of God, when we find ourselves alone at His feet before the holy tabernacles! "Come, my soul, redouble thy fervour; thou art alone adoring thy God. His eyes rest upon thee alone. " This good Saviour is so full of love for us that He seeks us out everywhere."

Ah! if we had the eyes of angels with which to see Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is here present on this altar, and who is looking at us, how we should love Him! We should never more wish to part from Him. We should wish to remain always at His feet; it would be a foretaste of Heaven: all else would become insipid to us. But see, it is faith we want. We are poor blind people; we have a mist before our eyes. Faith alone can dispel this mist. Presently, my children, when I shall hold Our Lord in my hands, when the good God blesses you, ask Him then to open the eyes of your heart; say to Him like the blind man of Jericho, "O Lord, make me to see!" If you say to Him sincerely, "Make me to see!" you will certainly obtain what you desire, because He wishes nothing but your happiness. He has His hands full of graces, seeking to whom to distribute them; Alas! and no one will have them. . . . Oh, indifference! Oh, ingratitude! My children, we are most unhappy that we do not understand these things! We shall understand them well one day; but it will then be too late!

Our Lord is there as a Victim; and a prayer that is very pleasing to God is to ask the Blessed Virgin to offer to the Eternal Father her Divine Son, all bleeding, all torn, for the conversion of sinners; it is the best prayer we can make, since, indeed, all prayers are made in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ. We must also thank God for all those indulgences that purify us from our sins. . . but we pay no attention to them. We tread upon indulgences, one might say, as we tread upon the sheaves of corn after the harvest. See, there are seven years and seven quarantines for hearing the catechism, three hundred days for reciting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, the Salve Regina, the Angelus. In short, the good God multiplies His graces upon us; and how sorry we shall be at the end of our lives that we did not profit by them!

When we are before the Blessed Sacrament, instead of looking about, let us shut our eyes and our mouth; let us open our heart: our good God will open His; we shall go to Him, He will come to us, the one to ask, the other to receive; it will be like a breath from one to the other. What sweetness do we not find in forgetting ourselves in order to seek God! The saints lost sight of themselves that they might see nothing but God, and labor for Him alone; they forgot all created objects in order to find Him alone. This is the way to reach Heaven.

The Meditation Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

My God and My All!

The Blessing of St. Francis of Assisi to Brother Leo

The Lord bless you and keep you.
May He show His face to you and have mercy.
May He turn His countenance to you and give you peace.
The Lord bless you!

St. Francis of Assisi's Vocation Prayer

Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that we may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi's prayer praising Mary the Mother of Jesus

Hail, holy Lady, most holy Queen,
Mary, Mother of God, ever Virgin.
You were chosen by the Most High Father in heaven,
consecrated by Him, with His most Holy Beloved Son and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
On you descended and still remains all the fullness of grace and every good.
Hail, His Palace.
Hail His Tabernacle.
Hail His Robe.
Hail His Handmaid.
Hail, His Mother.
and Hail, all holy Virtues, who, by grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are poured into the hearts of the faithful so that from their faithless state, they may be made faithful servants of God through you.

St. Francis of Assisi's prayer in praise of God given to Brother Leo

You are holy, Lord, the only God,and Your deeds are wonderful.
You are strong.
You are great.
You are the Most High.
You are Almighty.
You, Holy Father are King of heaven and earth.
You are Three and One, Lord God, all Good.
You are Good, all Good, supreme Good, Lord God, living and true.
You are love. You are wisdom.
You are humility. You are endurance.
You are rest. You are peace.
You are joy and gladness.
You are justice and moderation.
You are all our riches, and You suffice for us.
You are beauty.
You are gentleness.
You are our protector.
You are our guardian and defender.
You are our courage. You are our haven and our hope.
You are our faith, our great consolation.
You are our eternal life, Great and Wonderful Lord,
God Almighty, Merciful Saviour.

Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St. Francis of Assisi

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord, All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong, and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun. Who is the day through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour, Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars, In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, And fair and stormy, all weather's moods, by which You cherish all that You have made.

Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water, So useful, humble, precious and pure.

Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire, through whom You light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs. Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon for love of You and bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those who endure in peace, By You Most High, they will be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death, from whom no-one living can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.

No second death can do them harm. Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks, And serve Him with great humility.

A Guide to the Sacrament of Penance : Discover God's Love Anew

(Produced by the Bishops of Pennsylvania - February, 2002)

1. What is Confession?

Confession is a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ in his love and mercy. It is here that we meet the loving Jesus who offers sinners forgiveness for offenses committed against God and neighbor. At the same time, Confession permits sinners to reconcile with the Church, which also is wounded by our sins.

The sacrament, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, is known by many names. Sometimes "it is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion" (1423). But it is also better known as "the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction" (1423).

For many of us it still continues to be known as "the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament" (1424). At the same time, the Catechism reminds us that "it is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent 'pardon and peace'" (1424). Finally, it is also called the sacrament of Reconciliation because it reconciles sinners to God and then to each other (1424). In this text, we will refer to the sacrament as the sacrament of Penance.

Through this sacrament, we meet Christ in his Church ready and eager to absolve and restore us to new life. The graces of Christ are conferred in the sacraments by means of visible signs - signs that are acts of worship, symbols of the grace given and recognizable gestures through which the Lord bestows his gifts. In the sacrament of Penance, the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of grace are the gifts received through the outward sign, i.e., the extension of hands and words of absolution pronounced by the priest.

2. What is sin?

Unfortunately, in society today, many people have lost the understanding of sin. Our Holy Father has stated that "it happens not infrequently in history, for more or less lengthy periods of time and under the influence of many different factors, that the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously clouded. . . . Too many signs indicate that such an eclipse exists in our time" Reconciliation and Penance, 18). In our day, many people have lost the sense of sin and feel that they can do whatever they wish without considering or fearing the consequences.

For such people, the term "sin" has no meaning. Yet we know that sin is a terrible evil which all of us must come to understand and with which all of us must struggle. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sin "is an offense against God as well as a fault against reason, truth and right conscience. Sin is a deliberate thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the eternal law of God" (1849, 1853). In other words, sin is willfully rejecting good and choosing evil. In judging the degree of sin, it is customary to distinguish between mortal and venial sins. "Mortal sin," the Catechism teaches, "destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law . . . Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it" (1855). (Refer to the Glossary on Mortal and Venial Sin at the end of the booklet.)

3. Why is Confession necessary?

We need the sacrament of Penance because each of us, from time to time, sins. When we recognize that we have offended God who is all deserving of our love, we sense the need to make things right. Like the prodigal son in the Gospel, we long to know again the loving embrace of a forgiving father who patiently waits for each of us. Jesus himself has established this sure and certain way for us to access God's mercy and to know that our sins are forgiven. By virtue of his divine authority, Jesus gives this power of absolution to the apostolic ministry. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "in imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church" (1444).

We need to know that our sins are forgiven. There is something in our human nature that calls out for the assurance that our sins are actually forgiven. Confession is the visible manifestation of God's mercy that provides us, in human terms as well, the clear awareness that God has forgiven us.

4. What is the source of the forgiveness of our sins?

Jesus invites us to reconciliation with God. It is Christ, the Good Shepherd, who offers us forgiveness and the power to turn away from sin. Writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul reminds us that just as sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, so too grace and new creation come to us through Jesus Christ. Just as death came through a human being, so too the resurrection of the dead came through a human being. As in Adam all people die, so in Christ all shall be brought to life - a fullness of life, a new creation already beginning in us through grace (cf. 1 Cor 15).

This is the message we proclaim when we face the mystery of sin. Just as Adam brought sin, death, disharmony, confusion, disruption and struggle into our lives, Christ, the new Adam, gives us grace, redemption, new life and salvation. (Refer to the Glossary on Original Sin at the end of the booklet). It is in Jesus Christ that we find the beginnings of the new creation. He leads us back to the Father, overcomes the tragic alienation of sin and restores harmony. Jesus gives us newness of life in grace that begins to restore our relationship with God and that will lead to full communion with God in glory. Grace is the beginning of a new creation for all of those baptized into Christ. In short, Jesus' passion and death have rescued us and given us new life.

5. How is the Church able to forgive sins?

The Church professes belief in "the forgiveness of sins" and is fully aware that only God forgives sins. It also believes that Jesus, through his death, washed away all sin and, after his resurrection, gave to his Church the power and authority to apply to us the redemption he won on the cross, namely God's forgiveness of our sins.

As the Catechism points out, our faith in the forgiveness of sins is tied to faith in the Holy Spirit and the Church: "It was when he gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles that the risen Christ conferred on them his own divine power to forgive sins: 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained'" (976; cf. John 20:22-23).

We bring our failings to the Church, then, because Jesus imparted to his apostles, their successors, and through them to all ordained priests, his own power to forgive sins, to restore and reconcile the sinner with God and also the Church. This power to forgive sins is often referred to as the "power of the keys", the power entrusted to the Church when Jesus told St. Peter, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt 16:19). This power is manifested and operative in the sacrament of Penance.

6. Why do we continue to need forgiveness if we are already saved?

The new life received in Christ does not abolish the weakness of human nature or our inclination to sin. "If we say, 'We are without sin,'" Saint John wrote, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). There are a great many kinds of sins, some mortal, others venial. But all sin has a detrimental effect. It impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the prevalence of the good. "Sin creates a proclivity to sin," the Catechism reminds us. "It engenders vice by repetition of the same acts" (1865).

As a result, even though we are baptized into new life, we must continue to return to the sacrament of Penance to cleanse ourselves of sin and receive God's mercy. We are always in need of God's forgiveness through the sacrament of Penance if we are to grow in a life of grace.

7. Why do I need to go to a priest for confession?

It is most unfortunate that many people have adopted a mindset that they do not need to go to Confession. Many say "I just tell my sins to God and he forgives me." There is on the part of such persons a failure to recognize that the sacrament of Penance is not an invention of the Church. Rather, the sacrament of Penance is Christ's gift to the Church to ensure the forgiveness he so generously extends will be made available to every member of the Church. Once again, we cite the words of our Holy Father in highlighting the connection between Christ, his Church and the sacrament of Penance:

"From the revelation of the value of this ministry and power to forgive sins, conferred by Christ on the Apostles and their successors, there developed in the church an awareness of the sign of forgiveness, conferred through the Sacrament of Penance. It is the certainty that the Lord Jesus himself instituted and entrusted to the Church - as a gift of his goodness and loving kindness to be offered to all-a special Sacrament for the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism" (Reconciliation and Penance, 3).

8. What is the role of the priest in forgiving sins?

In establishing his Church, Christ passed on to her the power to forgive sins. Just as he forgave sins, so would those chosen by him to be his apostles have the extraordinary power to forgive sins. In the priesthood today, the visible external sign of Christ's mercy and forgiveness is exercised in confession. Just as the whole Church makes visible in our world the presence of Christ, so the priest makes visible the forgiveness and mercy of Jesus in the sacrament of confession. The priest who by ordination is configured to Christ absolves sinners, not in his own name and power, but in the name and person of Jesus.

9. What do I need to do to be forgiven?

What leads us to the sacrament of Penance is a sense of sorrow for what we have done. The motivation may be out of love of God or even fear of the consequences of having offended God. Whatever the motive, contrition is the beginning of forgiveness of sin. The sinner must come to God by way of repentance. There can be no forgiveness of sin if we do not have sorrow at least to the extent that we regret it, resolve not to repeat it and intend to turn back to God. While we cannot be certain that we will not sin again, our present resolve must be honest and realistic. We must want to change, to be faithful to the Lord, and intend to take steps to make faithfulness possible. Christ's forgiveness always calls for such a commitment: "Go, and do not sin again" (John 8:11).

10. What happens in Confession?

In the sacrament of Penance, the contrite sinner comes before Christ in the person of the priest who hears the sins, imposes a penance and absolves the sinner in the name and by the power of Christ.

The sinner comes before the merciful judgment of God and approaches the Lord in sorrow, admitting guilt before his representative. It is in the person of Christ that the priest hears the confession of guilt. The words spoken in Confession are guarded by the most solemn obligation of complete confidentiality. In fact, Church law prescribes a serious penalty for any confessor who directly violates the "seal of Confession."

It is in the name of Christ that the priest pronounces the Savior's mercy: "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The Catechism reminds us that "absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused" (1459). Thus, the priest imposes a penance on the penitent, which can take the form of "prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear" (1460).

11. How do I prepare for Confession?

Confession is not difficult, but it does require preparation. We should begin with prayer, placing ourselves in the presence of God, our loving Father. We should harbor in our hearts a sense of sorrow for all we have done. The motivation for our sorrow may be out of love of God or even fear of the consequences of having offended God. Whatever the motive, contrition is the beginning of forgiveness of sin. We need to have sorrow at least to the extent that we regret it, resolve not to repeat it and intend to turn back to God.

With this disposition of heart, we should review our lives since our last confession, searching our thoughts, words and actions to discover those that did not conform to God's love, to his law or to the laws of the Church. This is what is known as an "Examination of Conscience." (Refer to Appendix at the end of the booklet.)

12. How do I go to Confession?

The following may be helpful in preparing for confession. Above all, do not be afraid. If you are hesitant about what to do, ask the priest for help:

• Greeting: The priest welcomes the penitent warmly and greets him or her with kindness.
• Sign of the Cross: Then the penitent makes the Sign of the Cross, which the priest may also make.
• Invitation to Trust in God: The priest invites the penitent to have trust in God using one of the formulas in the ritual or similar words. If the penitent is unknown to the priest, it is proper for the penitent to indicate his or her state in life (married, single, or clergy), the time of his or her last confession and anything else that may help the confessor in exercising his ministry.
• Reading of the Word of God
• Confession of Sins and Acceptance of Satisfaction: The penitent confesses his or her sins and accepts the prayers or deeds that the priest proposes as a penance.
• Prayer of the Penitent and Absolution: The priest asks the penitent to express sorrow by praying one of the prayers found in the ritual or in his or her own words. The priest then prays the Prayer of Absolution, to which the penitent responds: "Amen."
• Proclamation of Praise and Dismissal: The priest continues: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." The penitent responds: "His mercy endures for ever." The priest then dismisses the penitent, using one of the formulas found in the ritual.

NOTE: This is taken from the ritual for Roman Catholics. Eastern Churches utilize a different formula.

13. Why do I receive a penance?

To complete the process, a penance is imposed. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all disorders caused by sin. While we are not capable of truly satisfying God for the evil we have done and its consequences, we must make satisfaction for our sin through some action or prayer that will express our desire to make amends and to repair something of the disorder, damage or harm which our sinful actions have brought into the world. The penance imposed takes into account the penitent's personal situation and serves to support his or her spiritual good. It corresponds as much as possible to the gravity of the sins confessed. It may be a prayer, an offering, works of mercy, sacrifices or service to another. But this penance is in a real way our share in the Cross and helps us to be more closely joined to Christ.

In the Introduction to the Rite of Penance, we are reminded that true conversion is completed by acts of penance or satisfaction for the sins committed, by amendment of conduct, and also by the reparation of injury. The kind and extent of the satisfaction should be suited to the personal condition of each penitent. In this way the penitent is helped to be healed of the evil which caused him to sin. Therefore, it is necessary that the act of penance really be a remedy for sin and a help to renewal of life.

14. How often should I go to Confession?

Individual and integral confession remains the only ordinary way for us to reconcile ourselves with God and the Church. A Catholic who has committed mortal (grave) sin is obliged to seek God's forgiveness in this sacrament as soon as possible.

In ordinary circumstances, a Catholic who has committed mortal sin should not receive Holy Communion before receiving sacramental absolution. Not only does God forgive our sins, but we also receive the power of God's grace to struggle against sin and to be strengthened in our commitment to God and the Church. So powerful is the grace of this sacrament that the Introduction to the Rite of Penance reminds us that frequent and careful celebration of this sacrament is also very useful as a remedy for venial sins. This is not a mere ritual repetition or psychological exercise, but a serious striving to perfect the grace of baptism so that, as we bear in our body the death of Jesus Christ, his life may be seen in us ever more clearly.

Conclusion: Our Continuing Conversion

As we complete these thoughts on the sacrament of Penance, we might well reflect that the deepest spiritual joy each of us can sense is the freedom from whatever would separate us from God, a loving and merciful Father who receives each of us with all the forgiveness and love lavished on the prodigal son. Renewed, refreshed and reconciled in this sacrament once more, we who have sinned become a "new creation." Once more we are made new. It is this newness of spirit and soul that we hope all of us experience time and again in the sacrament of Penance.

Meditation on the Eucharist

When we gather in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord we are being made into the family that St. Paul described in his letter to the Ephesians: Christ lives in our hearts through faith, and as we come to the source of all love, we can glimpse the wonder, the depth and the height of a love which is given to us completely in this Eucharist. God’s power is doing infinitely more than we can ever ask or imagine, and we have become part of that great company of witnesses, the great river of history as Pope John Paul calls it, which began at the moment of God’s creation and flows back to him, the source of all goodness and love.

St. Paul wanted the Ephesians to be apostles of the truth. His invitation was the same as the one Jesus taught in the parable of the Sower. You recall how the Sower sowed on rocky soil and among thorns. These were the difficulties that every Christian must face. Sometimes it is an inability to persevere when the going gets difficult. At other times there are too many distractions which choke our growth in holiness just like the thorns impede the growth of wheat. Sometimes the seed falls on good soil: it is then that the Word produces a harvest of goodness and peace. Jesus, the Word of God, is still sowing the seed of the gospel today, and he asks us to join him in the great task of bringing God’s light and Truth to all whom we meet. The Sower invites us to be other Christs by fulfilling our duties conscientiously by making our daily lives and work signs of God’s power working in us. If we look around, if we take a look at the world, which we love because it is God’s handiwork, we will find that the parable holds true. The word of Jesus Christ is fruitful, it has the power to fascinate and inspire many people to greater fidelity to his commandments. The life and conduct of those who serve God have changed history. Even many of those who do not know our Lord are motivated, perhaps unconsciously, by ideals which derive from Christianity. The ideals of peace, reconciliation and genuine care for one’s neighbour challenge us to live as God’s people, his Church. Our food for this great work is the Eucharist, the very body and blood of our Saviour.

Jesus is here with us, he has made us a part of himself. St Paul taught us that we are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Jesus our God has not left us. He is here to nourish and sustain us, to forgive and heal us, to renew and strengthen us. He wants to be close to us. Indeed, he wants to be as important to us as the food and drink we need every day. When Jesus broke bread with his disciples on the night before he died, he was leaving us an eternal covenant which will never pass away. We live in a new time, and our song is of joy and hope: The rising day dispels the night, the shadows of doubt give way to the light of truth (St. Augustine).

This miracle of love invites us to pray and ponder the truth about our whole existence. Jesus, the first Son of the Eternal father, offers us himself as food for this life and for the life to come. It is at the altar that eternal life begins :

For those who are nourished by Christ will die the earthly death of time, but they will live eternally because Christ is life everlasting, (St. Augustine, On John)

This is the Good News of our faith. It is news because it speaks to us of a deep love which we could never have imagined. It is good because there is nothing better than uniting ourselves to God, the Father of all goodness, from whom every family takes its name.To live as a Christian apart from the Eucharist, is to make our progress a very difficult journey. All of us know that the best moments in our families’ lives are when we are joined together in the company of a meal or in some other common project. There is a sense of belonging that is nearly impossible to convey to someone who is outside of the family circle. Those who provide the food and those who are fed by it become part of a greater thing than just a simple meal. All the ties of love and relationship come together and become a bond that is difficult to break. I suppose the way we understand this bond best is when it is broken through the absence of a loved one.

It is the same with the Eucharist, the great meal of all God’s children. Each celebration of the Eucharist is impoverished whenever one of God’s children is absent.

At each Mass we pray with Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit to the one great God who is Father of us all. Mary, the Mother of the Body of Christ is present as are the saints and those who have gone before us. When we pray for the other members of the Church, the Pope, the Bishop, and so on, we are saying that they are also part of our community, which is, in turn, a symbol of the whole Body of Christ we call the Church.

The Second Vatican Council taught us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of all Christian life and activity. In other words, everything about us as faithful believers finds its beginning and its final purpose in this great sacrament. To return to the parable of the Sower. There can be no harvest if we are not ready for constant, generous work, which can be long and tiring: ploughing the land, sowing the seed, weeding the fields, gathering the grain..The kingdom of God is fashioned in history, in time. Our Lord has entrusted this task to us, and no Christian is exempt. Each of us has a part to play. As we gather in prayer before Christ in the Eucharist let us remember that the time has not yet come for resting. The work continues and there is much to be done. The life of the Church is expressed in the vitality of communities such as this. If we are to produce fruit, we must be like the grain of wheat which Jesus said must die before it bears much fruit. This was the way of Jesus, the way of his cross. The Lord challenges each of us to take up the cross every day and follow him. The way of the cross is the way of true love. Each of us knows that to grow individually and as a family, we must be prepared to make sacrifices. We must have a big heart and share the concerns of those who are precious to us. We must be able to forgive and understand. We must serve as Jesus did, not counting the cost. If we love in this way we will remove the obstacles which prevent us growing into the image of Christ. It is only when we are planted in love and built on love that we will experience the height and the depth of God’s love as revealed to us in Christ.

Our Christian lives are also fed by prayer and reflection. There can be no genuine conversion if we do not spend time with our Lord and hear him speak the same words of encouragement which he spoke while he was on earth. The Eucharist is always present in our churches not only for communion to the sick, but as a source of strength for each of us. St. John’s parish has had, for the last number of years, a profoundly Eucharistic spirit. The adoration chapel and more recently the chapel at Eastland, have been places of constant prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The value of this constant stream of petition and praise cannot be overestimated. It is not only a sign of your willingness to be a community that finds its strength in the Eucharist, but also a community who understands its role as part of the priestly people of God. Like Christ, our High Priest, you are also offering your prayer to the Father not only for your own good, but also for the good of the whole Church. For this generous gift the whole Church is grateful, and I ask your continued prayers for the Archdiocese so that together we might become the people God wants us to be.

Jesus gave us the Eucharist because he wants us to approach him. He wants to nourish us so that we become a single living being with him. When he said : Apart from me you can do nothing, He was telling us that he wants to be totally available to us. Whenever we gather at the altar for the holy sacrifice of the mass and when we contemplate the mystery of his presence in the Sacrament of the Altar we are brought to life as his holy people. God speaks to us as a tender father in the Eucharist: Here is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him. Here God gives us a certain promise of his presence and power which supports us and the whole world. Here the human family is made one with the family of heaven. Here we find God our Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the one and only God. It was H. G. Wells, an atheist of strong conviction who once said that if Catholics really believed what they say about the Eucharist, they would only dare come up the aisles of their churches on their knees.

God our Father does not want us to be fearful in his presence. He wants us to approach with the joy and simplicity of a child reaching to its mother. How I have longed, he said to the prophet Hosea, to hold you to my cheek, and to lead you with leading strings of love. Let us then approach this wonderful Sacrament with joy and thanksgiving. Let us commit to the heart of Jesus all our concerns and problems. Let us rest in this living, loving presence of God and praise him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:21)

Parts of the Mass

Preparation before Mass

• We prepare our souls and bodies to listen to God’s word and receive Him in Holy Communion. To prepare ourselves, we wait in quiet prayer and calm minds to receive the Lord.
• Entrance Procession: The priest and ministers pass through the assembly, leading us in prayer to the Father. The priest is acting in the person of Jesus Christ, taking our prayers to God the Father, and leading us in prayer and worship.

Introductory Rites

• Penitential Rite: We publicly express our sorrow for our sins and ask God’s mercy
• Gloria: An ancient hymn of praise sung or said on Sundays (outside Lent and Advent) and Feast Days.
• Opening Prayer: The ‘Collect’, the priest sums up all our prayers and leads us to the Father through the words of the Son.

LITURGY OF THE WORD

• 1st Reading: Usually from the Old Testament on a Sunday
• Responsorial Psalm: Sung or said response to the reading from the book of Psalms
• 2nd Reading: Usually from the New Testament (often the Letters of St Paul)
• Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia (or other acclamation during Lent) is sung or said
• Gospel: We listen to the God speaking to us, and especially the words and actions of Jesus in one of the four Gospels.
• Homily: The priest helps us to understand the readings, and how to make sense of them in our daily life. It may also be the opportunity for catechesis on some subject of the faith
• Profession of Faith: The Creed composed at the Council of Nicea is recited on Sundays and Solemnities. This states the major beliefs of our faith.
• General Intercessions: The needs of our world, our parish and other needs are prayed for.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

• Preparation of the Gifts: The gifts of bread and wine are brought forward by members of the community, signifying our offering to the Lord
• Prayer over the Gifts: The priest prays the prayer, asking that our offerings be acceptable.
• Eucharistic Prayer {Preface, Holy Holy, Memorial Acclamation, Great Amen}: The Eucharistic Prayer is the greatest prayer of the Mass. By this prayer, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The priest prays this prayer on behalf of the community, the people pray silently, and respond with the acclamations in faith.

Communion Rite

• Lord’s Prayer: We pray together the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.
• Rite of Peace: We offer a sign of peace to those around us, making peace with each other before receiving the Prince of Peace in Holy Communion.
• Lamb of God: This Litany is sung or said as our communal preparation for Holy Communion
• Holy Communion: We receive the Body of Christ, a moment of intimate communion with the Lord, and the highpoint of the Mass for us who receive Him.

Concluding Rite

• Prayer after Communion: The priest sums up all our prayers and completes the Communion Rite by thanking God for the gift of His Son, and asking that we may live this mystery in our lives.
• Blessing and Dismissal: We are blessed and sent forth to live the mystery that we have celebrated; to bring Jesus who we have received to those around us.
• Recessional Procession: The priest and ministers leave the Church, leading us in mission to go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
• Thanksgiving after Mass: We thank God for this gift of His Son in Holy Communion and the Word of God, and pray that it may make a difference in our lives.

Examination of Conscience

Use these questions to prepare for Reconciliation.

My Relationship with God

• Do I make time for prayer, to speak with God and listen to him on a regular basis?
• Do I try to get to Mass every Sunday?
• Am I ashamed to behave like Jesus in my life?
• At home? At school? With my friends?
• Do I get impatient and rebellious if things do not go my way?
• Do I turn to God only when I need something?

My Relationship with others

• Do I really love my neighbour?
• Do I forgive those people who hurt me, or make me angry? Do I complain about my family, my friends, others? Am I jealous of others ?
• Do I say unkind things about other people?
• Do I try to help others ?
• Do I say things or behave in ways that put other people down?
• Do I stick up for people who are bullied?
• Am I sincere and honest with other people, or am I a bit fake sometimes?
• In my family life do I do things to help out and make things easier for my parents and other members of my family ? Do I try to get on with them all the time ?
• Do I respect the bodies of others?
• Do I treat my parents with respect?
• Do I make too many demands of my parents?
• Am I generous in my time with my family, or am I always going out to avoid them?

Myself

• Do I think I am better than everyone else?
• Do I truly live as a Christian and give good example to others?
• Do I gossip?
• Do I lie?
• Do I steal?
• Am I hateful or bad tempered?
• Do I treat my body with respect?
• Do I misuse the gifts that God has given me ?
• Do I misuse the gift my sexuality: alone or with others ?
• Am I a show off?
• Am I a bully at school or at home ?
• Do I eat too much food when others in the world are hungry?
• Do I misuse drugs or drink alcohol?
• Do I use bad or immoral language or tell dirty jokes ?
• Do I look at immoral magazines, videos or immoral use of the internet ?
• Am I always thinking of myself?
• Do I use my time properly: doing my work on time?
• Am I lazy?
• Have I failed to do the work or study that I was meant to do?

Now prepare for a good reconciliation and ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Remember that God always forgives our sins and that the priest is here to help you and whatever you say is totally confidential and will never be repeated to anyone.

5 steps towards a good Reconciliation

Examine my conscience. Think about the things that I want to say I am sorry for. Be sorry for my sins. Confess all my sins, and be honest with the priest. Resolve to make changes in my life, and to try harder to avoid sin in the future. After confessing my sins, I do my penance.

Procedure during Reconciliation

After making the Sign of the Cross, begin by saying:

"Bless me Father for I have sinned …"

Tell Father how long it has been since your last confession. Tell your sins and feel free to ask about any matter that worries you. Finish with:

"For these and all my sins I am very sorry."

Father will give you some help and advice and ask you to do some penance: to say a prayer or do an act of kindness for someone. Then make an Act of Contrition, telling God you are sorry for your sins:

"O my God I am very sorry that I have sinned against you because you are so good and with your help I will not sin again. Amen."

The priest says:

"….I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

You answer: "Amen."
Father finishes with: "The Lord has freed you from your sins." You say thank you to Father and perform your penance.

How to go to confession

This free handout has been prepared by the NCCB Secretariat for the Liturgy and the NCCB Secretariat for the Third Millennium and the Jubilee Year 2000. It is intended as a brief review of the church's teaching on the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance. While it is copyrighted by the United States Catholic Conference, permission is given for free distribution to parishes and other Catholic institutions. More thorough study of the question may be accomplished by reading the introduction to the Right of Penance and other documents of the Holy See and NCCB on this important topic.

Many people have avoided celebrating the Sacrament of Penance, sometimes for years at a time, because they "don't know what to do". The following brief explanation is intended for a person who has not been to confession in some time and explains how the first form of the Sacraments of Penance may be celebrated. The person who is going to confession is called a "penitent" because he or she wished to do penance and turn away from their sin. The sorrow a penitent feels for his or her sins is no as contrition and must include a resolve to sin no more and to avoid all future occasions of sin [See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1451].

Preparation

Before going to confession, the penitent compares his or her life with the example and commandments of Christ and then prays to God for forgiveness.

Going to Confession

The priest welcomes the penitent and then both make the sign of the cross, saying: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Next the priest briefly urges the penitent to have confidence in God.

If the penitent is unknown to the priest, it is proper for the penitent to indicate their state in life, the time of the last confession, difficulties in leading the Christian life, and anything else which may help the confessor in exercising his ministry.

Reading the Word of God

Then the priest, or the penitent himself, may read a passage from the Bible. The priest or penitent may read from Ezekiel 11:19-20, Matthew 6:14-15, Mark 1:14-15, Romans 5:8-9, Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 John 1:6-7, 9, or another text from Sacred Scripture.

Confession of Sins and the Act of Penance

The penitent then confesses his sins. If necessary, the priest should help the penitent to make a complete confession and to have sincere sorrow for his sins against God. The priest then offers suitable advice to help the penitent begin a new life and, when appropriate, leads him to resolve that he will make appropriate restitution for the harm he has caused others.

Then the priest imposes an act of penance or satisfaction on the penitent. Such a "penance" serves not only to make up for the past but also to help him to begin a new life and provides the penitent with an antidote to weakness. Through confession of his or her sins, the penitent "looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible." [Catechism of the Catholic Church 1455]

The Prayer of the Penitent

After this the penitent prays a prayer showing he is sorry for his sins and he resolves not to sin again. A card with several examples of the prayer may be provided in the confessional. The penitent may recite the prayer by heart or read it.

The penance corresponds to the seriousness and nature of the sins and may suitably take the form of prayer, self-denial, and especially service to one's neighbor and works of mercy.

Here is one example of the Prayer of the Penitent: Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Lamb of God; you take away the sins of the world. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit restore me to friendship with your Father, cleanse me from every stain of sin in the blood you shed for them, and raise me to new life for the glory of your name. [RP 91]

Absolution by the Priest

Following this prayer, the priest extends his hands, or at least his right hand, over the head of the penitent and pronounces the formula of absolution. As he says the final words he makes the sign of the cross over the head of the penitent.

Priests Prayer of Absolution: God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The penitent answers: Amen.

Proclamation of Praise

After receiving pardon for his sins, the penitent praises the mercy of God and gives Him thanks in a short invocation taken from Scripture.

Dismissal of the Penitent

Then the priest tells him to go in peace. The penitent continues his conversion and expresses it by a life renewed according to the Gospel and more and more steeped in the love of God. For "love covers over a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8)

Notes

See Rite of Penance, numbers 15-20 and 41-47 and Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1422-1470.

A friend is very sick, why should I call a priest?

The priest can do a number of things. Firstly, he can administer the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. This is a special sign of God’s love and care for the sick person. It consists of a series of special prayers and blessings on behalf of the patient which offer strength, encouragement and consolation. The priest will anoint the patient with holy oil as a sign of special blessing. This sacrament can only be administered by a bishop or priest.

Secondly, the priest will provide an opportunity for confession so that the sick person may be consoled and untroubled by past events which may cause anxiety.

The priest can offer Holy Communion if the patient is able to receive it. This strengthens the sick person spiritually and emotionally.

The priest will also bless the family and offer prayers with them for the patient.

In these ways the priest by his presence shows that the Christian family cares about the person who is ill. A sick person’s own prayer is also of special value to the Church because such a person is so near to Christ at such a time.

What is Adoration?

Adoration is an ancient tradition of the Church. As Catholics we believe that at the consecration during the Mass, the bread and wine cease to exist and in their place are the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. This is the Eucharist. The Eucharist isn't simply a symbol or a sign of Jesus - Jesus is really present under the appearance of bread and wine. At Mass we can make a communion with Jesus in the Eucharist. Outside of Mass, we can visit Jesus (who is present in the Eucharist). When we pray to Jesus who is before us as the Eucharist, we are adoring him. This is what adoration is.

Adoration is both personal and communal. There are times when we pray together and when we pray by ourselves. We sing, we hear a lesson from a speaker, and we are blessed with the Eucharist (this is called Benediction).

As Catholics, we believe that Christ's body & blood, his soul and divinity are really present in the Holy Echarist.

When we adore the Eucharist, we are adoring CHRIST - not the monstrance. We only worship God, so it would be sinful to adore the monstrance.

Since Jesus is the King of Kings, he should have a fitting "home" - that's more or less what the monstrance is. The monstrance also holds the Eucharist up, so that everyone can see the Lord.

"Whatever makes Christ, Christ, is in the Holy Eucharist, nothing less."

The Eucharist is the greatest gift that Jesus can give us, the gift of Himself. He gives us everything, can we not give Him back a few minutes of our precious time to adore Him in the Eucharist?

It's too cold to get out of bed. I'll give Mass a miss this week.

This, and many other excuses can be used for not honouring our obligation to go to Sunday Mass. Here are some of the common excuses, and things you can say to your friends and family to encourage them to come to Mass every Sunday.

I am too busy to come to Mass every week

• We can always find time to do what we want to do.

• If Jesus is the most important person in my life, shouldn’t I give Him some time?

• There are many different Mass times at different parishesSaturday Vigil Mass and Sunday evening Masses.

• God gives us everything that we have. We can afford to give him
  one hour a week. One hour a week for our Creator is no big deal. Think of it as our favourite TV programme time. That’s all it takes.

I can’t be bothered to get out of bed on Sunday mornings.

• Come to Mass on Saturday night or Sunday night.

• It requires a bit of sacrifice in our lives to make time for
  Mass. We sacrifice ourselves for our children and family. We should do the same for God.

• Sure it requires an effort. But every good thing requires us to
  give something of ourselves in return. God repays our efforts in ways that we cannot see.    

The Mass is boring. Why should I bother ?

• The Mass is not entertainment. It is worship of God. Thus it is
  unlike anything else that we do. It is a hard prayer and it takes time and effort to understand. We get more out of the Mass if we put more into it. Read about it, pray about it. Prepare yourself beforehand. Listen to the readings, the prayers, the homily. Participate in the music and responses.

• We watch boring TV programmes. That doesn’t stop us watching TV.

My children go to a Catholic school. That’s enough.

• Nothing is enough for God. He gives us EVERYTHING.
  We should try to give Him as much as we can, and help our children to understand this.

• It is important for your children to develop the habit of Sunday Mass.

• We teach our children manners and behaviour, we should teach them to worship God.

• Parents are the primary educators in faith of their children.

• If we want our children to have the best, the Mass is important.

• They won’t develop the habit of Sunday Mass
  without modelling from their parents and seeing others at Mass regularly.

I pray at home. That’s enough.

• We have a ‘hunger’ for God, personal prayer is
  essential for all of us. The Mass is the greatest prayer we can offer to God. It is the prayer of Jesus himself.

• It is an opportunity to pray together with the
  parish, and to encourage them and to be encouraged and strengthened by them.

• We receive the body and blood of Christ at Mass. The Mass is
  the greatest prayer there is.Our faith weakens when it is not nourished by regular Mass and sacraments. The sacraments are the ‘petrol in the tank’ for our spiritual life.

• Our prayer leads into the Mass and our prayer is
  fed by the Mass. The Mass is the greatest prayer that the Church gives us.

 Where does it say that I have to come to Mass ?

• The commandment: “Keep holy the Sabbath Day” and “You shall worship the Lord your God”

• The precepts of the Church and Church law make it
  clear that we have an obligation to come to Mass every week. None of us likes being told what to do, but the Church is our Mother, and mothers usually know best !

• The Church asks us to in her documents and the
  writings of the Popes. It’s a bit like saying ‘I belong to the tennis club, but never pick up a racquet’. Clubs and societies have rules of membership, and not following them means that we don’t belong. If we want to belong, we need to abide by the rules.

• The Church isn’t just there for when we want it. The Church wants us as well.

• The long tradition of worshipping God on the day
  of resurrection. Going to Mass on Sunday is as old as Christianity itself. By doing so, we show our loyalty and love to Christ and His Church, our hope for salvation in the next life, and are united in faith and charity with the Catholic community.

• It’s doing what God wants us to do.

I know that God loves me. That’s enough

• Every parent tells their child that they are
  loved, and they show it in actions. Jesus shows us his love in giving Himself to us in love, through the Mass.

• We need to acknowledge God’s love, regularly. To
  thank God for what He gives us, to ask his forgiveness for our sins, and to pray for what we need.

• We have an obligation to worship the Creator.It
  would be an insult to receive all the gifts we have received from God e.g our eyesight, our health, nice home etc, without thanking Him with a little of our time.

I live a good life. I don’t need to come to Mass.

• We all lose our focus sometimes. The Mass is the best way to focus on what is important.

• No man is an island. We all need help. The Mass gives us the help we need to continue to live a good life.

• We all need to be strengthened in our faith. The Mass is the best way.

• The Mass helps us to measure how we are going in living a ‘good life’.

I get help from my family and friends. That’s enough.

• God’s grace comes to us through the Mass and the
  sacraments. This is the best help for us. This is ‘supernatural’ help that comes only from God.

• We ‘hunger for God’ in ways that we cannot always
  know or express. Coming to Mass ‘feeds’ this internal or spiritual hunger in our life.

St Francis of Assisi

b.1181 d.1226

Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181.

In 1182, Pietro Bernadone returned from a trip to France to find out his wife had given birth to a son. Far from being excited or apologetic because he'd been gone, Pietro was furious because she'd had his new son baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. The last thing Pietro wanted in his son was a man of God -- he wanted a man of business, a cloth merchant like he was, and he especially wanted a son who would reflect his infatuation with France. So he renamed his son Francesco -- which is the equivalent of calling him Frenchman.

Francis enjoyed a very rich easy life growing up because of his father's wealth and the permissiveness of the times. From the beginning everyone -- and I mean everyone -- loved Francis. He was constantly happy, charming, and a born leader. If he was picky, people excused him. If he was ill, people took care of him. If he was so much of a dreamer he did poorly in school, no one minded. In many ways he was too easy to like for his own good. No one tried to control him or teach him.

As he grew up, Francis became the leader of a crowd of young people who spent their nights in wild parties. Thomas of Celano, his biographer who knew him well, said, "In other respects an exquisite youth, he attracted to himself a whole retinue of young people addicted to evil and accustomed to vice." Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time.

Francis fulfilled every hope of Pietro's -- even falling in love with France. He loved the songs of France, the romance of France, and especially the free adventurous troubadours of France who wandered through Europe. And despite his dreaming, Francis was also good at business. But Francis wanted more..more than wealth. But not holiness! Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight. Battle was the best place to win the glory and prestige he longed for. He got his first chance when Assisi declared war on t heir longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia.

Most of the troops from Assisi were butchered in the fight. Only those wealthy enough to expect to be ransomed were taken prisoner. At last Francis was among the nobility like he always wanted to be...but chained in a harsh, dark dungeon. All accounts say that he never lost his happy manner in that horrible place. Finally, after a year in the dungeon, he was ransomed. Strangely, the experience didn't seem to change him. He gave himself to partying with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle.

The experience didn't change what he wanted from life either: Glory. Finally a call for knights for the Fourth Crusade gave him a chance for his dream. But before he left Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse -- no problem for the son of a wealthy father. And not just any suit of armor would do but one decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak. Any relief we feel in hearing that Francis gave the cloak to a poor knight will be destroyed by the boasts that Francis left behind that he would return a prince.

But Francis never got farther than one day's ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. And return home he did. What must it have been like to return without ever making it to battle -- the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor.

Francis' conversion did not happen over night. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn't just stop for God. There was a business to run, customers to wait on.

One day while riding through the countryside, Francis, the man who loved beauty, who was so picky about food, who hated deformity, came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance and the smell of the leper, Francis nevertheless jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper. When his kiss of peace was returned, Francis was filled with joy. As he rode off, he turned around for a last wave, and saw that the leper had disappeared. He always looked upon it as a test from God...that he had passed.

His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano. While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, repair my church." Francis assumed this meant church with a small c -- the crumbling building he was in. Acting again in his impetuous way, he took fabric from his father's shop and sold it to get money to repair the church. His father saw this as an act of theft -- and put together with Francis' cowardice, waste of money, and his growing disinterest in money made Francis seem more like a madman than his son. Pietro dragged Francis before the bishop and in front of the whole town demanded that Francis return the money and renounce all rights as his heir.

The bishop was very kind to Francis; he told him to return the money and said God would provide. That was all Francis needed to hear. He not only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes -- the clothes his father had given him -- until he was wearing only a hair shirt. In front of the crowd that had gathered he said, "Pietro Bernadone is no longer my father. From now on I can say with complete freedom, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" Wearing nothing but castoff rags, he went off into the freezing woods -- singing. And when robbers beat him later and took his clothes, he climbed out of the ditch and went off singing again. From then on Francis had nothing...and everything.

Francis went back to what he considered God's call. He begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands, not realizing that it was the Church with a capital C that God wanted repaired. Scandal and avarice were working on the Church from the inside while outside heresies flourished by appealing to those longing for something different or adventurous.

Soon Francis started to preach. (He was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest.) Francis was not a reformer; he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church. Francis must have known about the decay in the Church, but he always showed the Church and its people his utmost respect. When someone told him of a priest living openly with a woman and asked him if that meant the Mass was polluted, Francis went to the priest, knelt before him, and kissed his hands -- because those hands had held God.

Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat...and loving God. With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places. He read the command to the rich young man to sell all his good and give to the poor, the order to the apostles to take nothing on their journey, and the demand to take up the cross daily. "Here is our rule," Francis said -- as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that. He was going to do what no one thought possible any more -- live by the Gospel. Francis took these commands so literally that he made one brother run after the thief who stole his hood and offer him his robe!

Francis never wanted to found a religious order -- this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood. His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class. Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope.

Francis' brotherhood included all of God's creation. Much has been written about Francis' love of nature but his relationship was deeper than that. We call someone a lover of nature if they spend their free time in the woods or admire its beauty. But Francis really felt that nature, all God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope.

In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence, and for God's care. The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave. Another famous story involves a wolf that had been eating human beings. Francis intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he always had plenty to eat. Following the Gospel literally, Francis and his companions went out to preach two by two. At first, listeners were understandably hostile to these men in rags trying to talk about God's love. People even ran from them for fear they'd catch this strange madness! And they were right. Because soon these same people noticed that these barefoot beggars wearing sacks seemed filled with constant joy. They celebrated life. And people had to ask themselves: Could one own nothing and be happy? Soon those who had met them with mud and rocks, greeted them with bells and smiles.

Francis did not try to abolish poverty, he tried to make it holy. When his friars met someone poorer than they, they would eagerly rip off the sleeve of their habit to give to the person. They worked for all necessities and
only begged if they had to. But Francis would not let them accept any money. He told them to treat coins as if they were pebbles in the road. When the bishop showed horror at the friars' hard life, Francis said, "If we had any possessions we should need weapons and laws to defend them." Possessing something was the death of love for Francis. Also, Francis reasoned, what could you do to a man who owns nothing? You can't starve a fasting man, you can't steal from someone who has no money, you can't ruin someone who hates prestige. They were truly free.

Francis was a man of action. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. You can imagine what the pope thought when this beggar approached him! As a matter of fact he threw Francis out. But when he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica, he quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach.

Sometimes this direct approach led to mistakes that he corrected with the same spontaneity that he made them. Once he ordered a brother who hesitated to speak because he stuttered to go preach half-naked. When Francis realized how he had hurt someone he loved he ran to town, stopped the brother, took off his own clothes, and preached instead. Francis acted quickly because he acted from the heart; he didn't have time to put on a role. Once he was so sick and exhausted, his companions borrowed a mule for him to ride. When the man who owned the mule recognized Francis he said, "Try to be as virtuous as everyone thinks you are because many have a lot of confidence in you." Francis dropped off the mule and knelt before the man to thank him for his advice.

Another example of his directness came when he decided to go to Syria to convert the Moslems while the Fifth Crusade was being fought. In the middle of a battle, Francis decided to do the simplest thing and go straight to the sultan to make peace. When he and his companion were captured, the real miracle was that they weren't killed. Instead Francis was taken to the sultan who was charmed by Francis and his preaching. He told Francis, "I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one -- but both of us would be murdered."

Francis did find persecution and martyrdom of a kind -- not among the Moslems, but among his own brothers. When he returned to Italy, he came back to a brotherhood that had grown to 5000 in ten years. Pressure came from outside to control this great movement, to make them conform to the standards of others. His dream of radical poverty was too harsh, people said. Francis responded, "Lord, didn't I tell you they wouldn't trust you?" He finally gave up authority in his order -- but he probably wasn't too upset about it. Now he was just another brother, like he'd always wanted.

Francis' final years were filled with suffering as well as humiliation. Praying to share in Christ's passion he had a vision received the stigmata, the marks of the nails and the lance wound that Christ suffered, in his own body.

Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. When he began to go blind, the pope ordered that his eyes be operated on. This meant cauterizing his face with a hot iron. Francis spoke to "Brother Fire": "Brother Fire, the Most High has made you strong and beautiful and useful. Be courteous to me now in this hour, for I have always loved you, and temper your heat so that I can endure it." And Francis reported that Brother Fire had been so kind that he felt nothing at all.

How did Francis respond to blindness and suffering? That was when he wrote his beautiful Canticle of the Sun that expresses his brotherhood with creation in praising God. Francis never recovered from this illness. He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45. Francis is considered the founder of all Franciscan orders and the patron saint of ecologists and merchants.

Copyright 1996-2000 by Terry Matz. All Rights Reserved.

How do I get more out of Mass?

PREPARATION

Allow plenty of time at home to prepare for Mass. Organise the family for this important meeting with Christ. Perhaps pray before leaving home, or in the car on the way to the church. Remember, our preparation for Mass begins at home !

Read the scriptures before Mass. Allow time during the week to let the message sink into your mind. Use them for prayer. What is the message for me this week ? What do I think Father will preach about this week ? What would I preach about this week ?

Think of the people and the intentions that I have. Make a conscious decision to take these intentions with me to Mass this Sunday. Pray for these people and needs at Mass.

Prepare my mind by slowing down a little so I can concentrate on the Mass without too many distractions.

Prepare my body by physical fasting. The Church asks that we refrain from food and drink (not including water or medicine) for one hour before receiving Holy Communion.

Prepare my soul by going to reconciliation if I am aware of serious sin. God’s mercy and love is freely available to us in this sacrament and leads us to the Eucharist.

PARTICIPATION

Greet others on the way into Church. We are in this together ! We are all here for the same purpose: to praise and worship God.

Arrive in plenty of time to prepare for Mass. Allow for time to park the car, to settle the family down, to find a seat.

Turn off the mobile phone to avoid distractions!

Participate in the prayers and music of the Mass. Answer the responses with meaning; sing the hymns with feeling.

Listen to the readings at Mass. What is the God saying to me through the scriptures today?

Be aware of what is happening at Mass. Concentrate on the Mass rather than on the time.

From time to time, recall why I am here. The main purpose is to worship God, to give Him thanks; to ask Him for His help and strength, and to receive Him in Holy Communion.

Say a small prayer of Thanksgiving at the end of Mass. When we receive a gift, it is polite to say thank you. We receive the greatest gift we can in the Eucharist. We thank God for this gift of His Son.

HOMEWORK!

Learn a bit more about the Mass. Buy a missal to follow the Mass a bit more closely.

Buy a book which explains a bit more about the Mass. Talk about it with my friends, my prayer group, my cell group.

Pray about the Mass. Make it the highlight of my week.

Remember, the more I put into the Mass, the more I get out of it !

written by Fr. David Cartwright.

Holy Thursday Homily 2005

Eugene Hamilton sought to be a priest from a young age.

The young man, about 10, served Mass for the late Cardinal John O’Connor of NY, after Mass the Cardinal spoke to the young men serving Mass and suggested the idea of priesthood to them.

Eugene Hamilton heard the call of Christ to follow him; to live one of the most sublime, demanding, rewarding vocations. To be another Christ; to act in the person of Christ; to stand at the altar and make his body and blood present.

He dreamt of becoming a priest; a young man stricken with terminal cancer as his life was just beginning. A young man who had an exceptional relationship with the Lord, and desired to follow him, to his death.

He went to Dunwoodie Seminary in NY and began his studies. Shortly after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

He fell behind in his studies, he had to leave the seminary, but kept hopes alive of being able to resume. When it became clear that he would not be able to go back to Dunwoodie, he did not give up. He lived a life of holiness, a life of piety. He was due to be ordained in 2000, the same year that I was ordained.

He took as his own the motto of the late Cardinal Cooke whom he admired so much ‘Thy will be done’.

In the final hours of his life he was ordained after receiving the necessary dispensation from the Holy Father. The Pope said “Give Eugene all of my love. Tell him I love him with all my heart ‘in toto corde’".

As he laid on the couch of his family home dying, Bishop O’Brien ordained him a deacon, and then a priest. He died just 3 hrs later, surrounded by his family.

Ordained as another Christ on the couch of his parent’s home before Christ called him again. Called him to be with him, a priest forever.

As priests we follow the call of Christ

Celebrate the Mass, the sacrifice of Christ made present here.

The greatest gift that Christ left us, his very body and blood to sustain us.

No priest, no Mass, no Christ.

As priests we seek holiness of life.

We give ourselves to others in love and service.

We do not marry as a sign of our total dedication to Christ and his Church.

Celibacy as a sign that Christ is enough for us; all that we can ever need. A sign of what is to come.

As priests we are a sign of contradiction in a world which is obsessed with material things.

We propose the spiritual. We propose Jesus Christ as the answer. The name that saves; the name that has power.

Tonight we wash feet, do things that others would not do. We seek to follow Christ in service of others.

Jesus Christ instituted the Priesthood and the Eucharist today, Holy Thursday 2000 years ago.

Not just for us priests, for all people.

Christ acts through us, as other Christs.

We all follow Christ, we all answer his call; some through priesthood, some in religious life, some in the married life, some single life. He calls us all.

At the end of the Mass we will go in solemn procession, to follow Christ, to keep watch with him, to pray to him and with him.

We will walk behind him tonight, but will we keep walking?

Eugene Hamilton kept walking behind Christ in the final hours of his life. He responded to his call, despite his human weakness, sickness. He knew that Christ is enough for him.

Will we do the same? Will we wash each other’s feet? will we give ourselves for others in the model of divine charity which Christ showed and told us to imitate?

Christ give example to us. He imposes nothing, he proposes to us, a better way, a more excellent way of living. He calls us.

Will you say yes to his call?

Funeral Homily : Pope John Paul II

It’s already becoming fashionable to refer to him as ‘John Paul the Great’.

How could anyone sum up his life, his contribution to world history, his holiness, his achievements within a few days of his death. It is impossible.

We have read and seen so much about him in the media. The world is almost at a standstill; even royal weddings get pushed aside for his funeral. World leaders and over two million people are expected in Rome on Friday to farewell a man who has been our spiritual father, and grandfather for nearly 27 years, becoming the 3rd longest serving pope in history.

His death has been a very transparent affair. The Vatican has been very open and public about his suffering and his dying. At 9:37 pm last Saturday evening, Rome time, he was pronounced dead, after the prayers for the dying, Holy Communion, and the Rites for a dead Pope. He died at the end of Mass of Divine Mercy, a Feast he initiated during his pontificate. A small silver hammer would have been tapped on his forehead three times, and the cardinal camerlengo would have announced his baptismal name three times, ‘Karol Wotjtila, are you dead ?’ after the third time, his ring, the symbol of his authority, was broken and his private apartments were sealed.

His earthly life has ended. The world is now in mourning for him, and our prayers are offered for the repose of his soul, as they are for anyone who dies. Our prayers, and above all the Mass, make a great difference to our future destiny.

John Paul was above all things a man of God. A priest, a bishop, a Pope, a world leader, a head of state, but a man of God. He never ceased to preach and witness to the Lord. He made 104 pastoral voyages outside Italy, coming twice to Australia as Pope in 1986 and 1995. He made 146 pastoral visits within Italy. As the Bishop of Rome he visited nearly all of the 333 parishes in that city.

His writing has been prolific. Over 84 official documents and five books. He has proclaimed more saints than all of his predecessors combined. Over 480 saints and 1300 beatii, including our own Blessed Mary of the Cross McKillop.

Over 17 and a half million people have participated in his Wednesday audiences, and nearly 1000 meetings with Heads of States and Prime Ministers. He has been a pope that has broken world records, a pope with tremendous personal energy. Purely on statistics, he has been Great.

One of the titles of the Pope is Servant – Servant of the Servants of God. He accepted this title and carried it out. He was a servant- a servant of the Gospel, a servant of Jesus Christ, a servant of the Church, and a servant of the world. In his last years he became what the prophet Isaiah called ‘the suffering servant’.

As a servant of mankind, John Paul has been a true disciple and a true servant of Vatican II. He was a very young bishop during the last Ecumenical Council. Today there are no voting cardinals that were bishops at Vatican II. But John Paul has made sure that the legacy of Vatican II will continue. Some media commentators, and even some voices of dissent inside the Church, accuse the Pope of turning back the clock, of going against the teachings of Vatican II. John Paul wrote some of the documents of Vatican II, he was one of the most active bishops at the Council.

He has used two texts very often to emphasise his teachings, particularly on the dignity of the human person. One of these tells us that the meaning of human life is be to found in self-giving. The real meaning of human life is found in self giving, not self assertion, or getting the best for me, or getting as much as I can, but happiness and fulfilment is found in self-giving.

John Paul not only taught this, but lived this. His total life was self-giving. He gave his life to God as a priest after being orphaned at an early age during the Nazi regime.

He gave his life to Poland as a voice in the wilderness for human rights and for the Church. He gave his life to the Church as a Cardinal and again in 1978 as the first non Italian Pope for over 400 years.

He kept giving his life as the Vicar of Christ on earth, as a champion of human rights, as a fearless proclaimer of peace, as a witness to the hope that the risen Christ brings to us.

He gave his life during an assassination attempt in 1981, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, whom he credits with saving his life. He was saved at the very time of the apparition of Our Lady to the three young children. A year later, to the day, he went to Fatima to thank Our Lady and place the bullet in the crown of her statue in Fatima. His devotion to the Mother of God has been an unswerving part of his life and Papacy.

He kept giving his life during the onset of his Parkinson’s disease, his last illness, and now giving his life to the Almighty God whom he served so well.

No one can sum up the life of Pope John Paul, especially in a few short days after his death. Many people have tried, and his teaching and his legacy will endure for years, and centuries to come. If the next Pope did not do anything except implement the teachings of John Paul, he would be a success. There is so much there to continue.

The boldest and most successful attempt to capture the life of John Paul was perhaps the biography, ‘Witness to Hope’, written by the American commentator and friend, George Weigel. Over 900 pages trying to summarise the life and teaching of the Pope.

Weigel said that this man cannot be understood completely by the world, he is a contradiction. He cannot be understood completely by the Church. This man can only be understood from the inside, from the perspective of his relationship with Jesus Christ, and his unswerving trust in Divine Providence.

We look at John Paul from the outside and see so much to give thanks to God for. Aided by our prayers, may the God who knows him from the inside take him to his eternal reward, give him peace, joy and happiness, and life everlasting.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Amen.