|
August
10, 2003 - 19th Sunday
in Ordinary Time
Get
Up and Eat
Readings:
1
Kgs 19:4-8; (Listen
to MP3 - Elijah
at Horeb Mountain 1Kgs 19:1-21)
Ps
34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9;
Eph 4:30-5:2; Jn 6:41-51
Commentaries
/ Gospel Reflections from:
Sunday's
Into Silence • Diario
Biblico • Daily Gospel • A
Certain Jesus
Greeting
(see Second Reading)
As
God's beloved children,
follow Christ by loving as he loved you,
giving himself up
as a sacrifice to God.
May the Lord Jesus be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction
by the Celebrant
What
keeps people alive and growing and healthy? For their body, it is food
and drink. Yet even for their body not only food and drink is needed
but also the nourishment of love and security. What do we need to keep
us going as Christians? It is our trusting faith in God. That faith
is kept alive and growing in us through our close relationship with
Christ. He nourishes this faith and love in us with the food and drink
of his word and with the strength he brings us through the eucharist;
this is our "viaticum," our food and drink for the road of
life. It gives us the courage to stand up for what is right and good.
Let the Lord Jesus give us in this eucharist the food and drink of his
word and his body.
Penitential
Act
Too
often we have not listened to Christ's word
and have not eaten enough his bread of life.
Let us ask the Lord to forgive us.
(PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, you give us the food of your word
and tell us to get up and walk:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, you give us the food of your body
and tell us to walk by its strength:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you give us the food of your love
and tell us to go and meet our neighbor:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
and take all our sins away.
Give us yourself as our food for the road
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening
Prayer
Let
us pray that Jesus' bread of life
may sustain us on our journey
(PAUSE)
God, Father of life,
your Son Jesus is our living bread
come down from you to give life
to us and to our world.
Let him restore our strength and courage
as we journey with him through life,
and give us the will and love
to share our bread with those who need it,
for in them Jesus cries out his hunger.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.
Scripture
Readings
First
Reading Introduction: Bread for the Road
Tired of being God's voice to a people
that does not listen, Elijah is on the verge of a breakdown. Through an
angel God gives him food to march 40 days - symbolic of a life-time -
to encounter God and to receive from him new strength for his mission
as a prophet.
First
Reading: 1 Kgs 19:4-8 (Listen
to MP3 - Elijah
at Horeb Mountain 1Kgs 19:1-21)
Elijah
disappeared into the desert going on a day's journey. Then he sat down
under a broom tree and prayed to die, "That is enough, Yahweh,
take away my life for I am dying."
He
lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree. Then an angel touched
him and said, "Get up and eat." Elijah looked and saw, at
his head, a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and
drank and went back to sleep. The angel of Yahweh came a second time
to him, saying, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too long for
you." He got up, ate and drank, and on the strength of that food,
he traveled for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
Responsorial
Psalm: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R
(9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will
bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the Lord;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify
the Lord with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look
to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The
angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the Lord is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Second
Reading Introduction: Follow the Way of Love of
Christ
A Christian must be loving and forgiving,
like Christ, who sacrificed himself for us. In the eucharist he can give
us the strength to follow him.
Second
Reading: Eph 4:30-5:2
Do
not sadden the Holy Spirit of God which you were marked with. It will
be your distinctive mark on the day of salvation. Do away with all quarreling,
rage, anger, insults and every kind of malice: be good and understanding,
mutually forgiving one another as God forgave you in Christ.
As
most beloved children of God, strive to imitate him. Follow the way
of love, the example of Christ who loved you. He gave himself up for
us and became the offering and sacrificial victim whose fragrance rises
to God.
Gospel
Introduction: Bread for the Life of the World
As we need bread or food to live, so we
also need bread for eternal life. Jesus is that bread for the life of
the world.
Gospel
Reading: Jn 6:41-51
 The
Jews murmured because Jesus had said, "I am the bread which comes
from heaven." And they said, "This man is the son of Joseph,
isn't he? We know his father and mother. How can he say that he has
come from heaven?"
Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can
come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will
raise him up on the last day. It has been written in the Prophets: They
shall all be taught by God. So whoever listens and learns from the Father
comes to me.
"For
no one has seen the Father except the One who comes from God; he has
seen the Father. Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal
life.
"I
am the bread of life. Though your ancestors ate the manna in the desert,
they died. But here you have the bread which comes from heaven so that
you may eat of it and not die.
"I
am the living bread which has come from heaven; whoever eats of this
bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh and I will
give it for the life of the world."
Commentary
The
doubters Jesus encounters today can't be faulted for taking a second
look at Jesus and wondering how his words fit himself, the son of
a carpenter. Where they can be faulted is in failing to recognize
and accept that God can and does work great deeds, often using the
most ordinary and common things, at times even those we've gotten
so used to seeing. Jesus, for them was that, "the son of a carpenter."
But where they failed was in recognizing that the carpenter's son
in front of them could actually be "more than just that."
God is a God of the common and ordinary, a God of ordinary people
living ordinary lives in an ordinary world. And yet it is precisely
in this ordinariness that the power and splendor of God shines forth
the most. How often do we fail to recognize this truth, just as the
leaders of the people failed to recognize in Jesus, the perfect manifestation
of the love of God for us. Jesus has been called the "perfect
sacrament of God," and Augustine defines a "sacrament"
as a "visible sign of an invisible grace." If we were only
to learn to see things, not with the eyes of our senses but with the
eyes of faith, we will come to the wonderful realization that everything
is a "sacrament of God's presence," just there, hidden,
unnoticed. God's "hidden" presence is there all around us,
every single day, and yet we often fail to pay careful attention to
it. But that doesn't change the fact that he is there, in people,
in things, in events, in circumstances, both the good and the not-so-good
that we encounter day in and day out. If we but open our eyes to this
truth. God is often there, right in front of our very eyes, just waiting
to be recognized.
Read
also: • Gospel
Reflections by Fr. Gerry Pierse, C.Ss.R.
•
Biblical
Commentaries fro Diario Biblico
General
Intercessions
Let
us pray to Jesus Christ who said, "Those who come to me will never
be hungry; those who believe in me will never thirst." He is bread
for the road to all who seek him. Let us say: R/ Stay with us, Lord.
- For
those who leave the Church because they do not like the renewal and
for those who say farewell to the Church because changes are slow in
coming, that they may learn to accept the human dimensions of the Church,
let us pray: R/ Stay with us, Lord.
- For
those who are down with discouragement, for those wounded in life, for
those who seek God but cannot find him, that we may become to them the
humble way to Christ, let us pray: R/ Stay with us, Lord.
- For
those deserted by the people they trusted, for those struggling to remain
loyal to their commitment in marriage or their mission in life, that
the faithful Christ may be to them the bread of fidelity and strength,
let us pray: R/ Stay with us, Lord.
- For
the poor and the handicapped, for the loners and misfits in life,that
they may encounter real Christians who inspire and encourage them to
believe in the love of God and people, let us pray: R/ Stay with
us, Lord.
Lord
Jesus Christ, when confronted with our own miseries and those of the
people around us we feel small and powerless. Be to all of us the bread
of strength, that our hearts may be compassionate, our love warm and
deep, and our service faithful and self-effacing, for you are our Lord
for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer
over the Gifts
God
our Father,
you draw us to yourself through Jesus,
whom you sent to us as the bread of life.
Make us become what we are about to eat,
the living body of Christ,
united, bearing witness to him,
and bringing his life to the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction
to the Eucharistic Prayer
With
joy let us raise our hearts and voices to thank our Father for his goodness.
He is the power that saves us, the strength that keeps us going, through
Jesus, given us in the eucharist.
Introduction
to the Lord's Prayer
In
the words of Jesus, God's faithful Son,
let us pray to the Father of all
for strength and life: R/ Our Father...
Deliver
Us
Deliver
us, Lord from every evil
and keep us from discouragement.
When we run out of resources
and our strength crumbles,
help us to accept our limitations
and give us the bread of strength of your Son
to keep us going in joyful hope
until the coming in glory
of our Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...
Breaking
of Bread (A. Schilling)
More
than for food on the table,
people ask for love
and we need understanding and acceptance.
Let us implement Jesus' words
and break bread for one another.
He has the power to change our lives.
Invitation
to Communion
This
is Jesus, our Lord,
the living bread
which has come down from heaven,
to be the life of the world.
Those who eat this bread
will live for ever.
Happy are we that the Lord invites us
to eat this bread of life. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer
after Communion
God,
our Father who cares for us,
in this eucharist you let your Son tell us:
Get up and eat and walk.
Let Jesus sustain us on our journey,
keep us from discouragement,
give us the courage to make him visible
in our words and deeds.
Let him lead us to the mountain
where you live as our God for ever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
The
bread of life that we have eaten
commits us to one another.
If we are one with the Lord,
we must also be one with each other.
If he committed himself to us
at the cost of his life,
we must live for one another
and see to it that among us
no person is trampled underfoot.
We can carry out this assignment in life
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let
us go with the strength of Christ
and sustain one another. R/ Thanks be to God.
|
Click
here for: htm file or
download
(613 kb) Powerpoint presentation