Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
we have accepted your invitation
to follow your Son Jesus as his disciples.
Let your Spirit give us the wisdom and strength
to take our faith seriously
and to accept our task in life with all its consequences.
Let your Spirit help us to follow your Son
without fear or discouragement,
for we are certain that Jesus will lead us to you,
our loving God, for ever and ever.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Is 1:10 –17

Hear the word of the LORD,
princes of Sodom!
Listen to the instruction of our God,
people of Gomorrah!
What care I for the number of your sacrifices?
says the LORD.
I have had enough of whole-burnt rams
and fat of fatlings;
In the blood of calves, lambs and goats
I find no pleasure.
When you come in to visit me,
who asks these things of you?
Trample my courts no more!
Bring no more worthless offerings;
your incense is loathsome to me.
New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies,
octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear.
Your new moons and festivals I detest;
they weigh me down, I tire of the load.
When you spread out your hands,
I close my eyes to you;
Though you pray the more,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood!
Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 50:8 – 9, 16bc –17, 21 and 23

R./ To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R./ To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R./ To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R./ To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Gospel Reading Introduction
          God has made us for life. In Jesus he shows us that he wants us to be healed, that is, wholly and fully alive and raised from the dead, for by his resurrection Jesus defeats death in its roots. In this Eucharist we ask Jesus to raise us up, from the death of sin and ultimately from physical death.

Gospel Reading: Mt 10:34—11:1

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to
bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but
the sword. For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy
of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and
follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life
will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives
me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet
because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and
whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will
receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup
of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a
disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve
disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach
in their towns.