5th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

 

They left everything and followed him.

 

ENTRANCE ANTIPHON

Come, let us worship the Lord. Let us bow down in the presence of our maker, for he is the Lord our God.

PENITENTIAL RITE

God is all holy. In a close encounter with God, man becomes aware of his sinfulness and protests his unworthiness. But God purifies man, restores his self-confidence and entrusts him with a mission. Have we ever been acutely aware of our sinfulness? Let us pray for it. It is a moment of grace. It will shake us off our complacency and hypocrisy (Pause.)

I confess...

Glory to God in the highest,/and peace to his people on earth./Lord God, heavenly King,/almighty God and Father,/we worship you,/ we give you thanks,/we praise you for your glory./Lord Jesus Christ,/only Son of the Father,/Lord God, Lamb of God,/you take away the sin of the world:/have mercy on us;/you are seated at the right hand of the Father,/receive our prayer./For you alone are the Holy One,/ you alone are the Lord,/you alone are the Most High,/Jesus Christ,/with the Holy Spirit,/ in the glory of God the Father./Amen.

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray. Father, watch over your family and keep us safe in your care, for all our hope is in you. We ask this…

FIRST READING

(The experience of God’s holiness makes Isaiah feel unworthy. But God purifies and makes him fit for his mission).

A reading from the book of Isaiah

(6:1-8)

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: " Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven." And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

This is the Word of the Lord

PSALM (137)

Response: Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.

I thank you, Lord, with all my heart, you have heard the words of my mouth. Before the angels I will bless you. I will adore before your holy temple. R.

I thank you for your faithfulness and love which excel all we ever knew of you. On the day I called, you answered; you increased the strength of my soul.

R.

All earth’s kings shall thank you when they hear the words of your mouth. They shall sing of the Lord’s ways: "How great is the glory of the Lord!"

R.

You stretch out your hand and save me, your hand will do all things for me. Your love, O Lord, is eternal, discard not the work of your hands. R.

SECOND READING

(This is one of the earliest statements of the Church on the resurrection of Jesus.)

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians (15:1-11)

Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

This is the Word of the Lord

ACCLAMATION

Alleluia, alleluia! Speak, Lord, your servant hears; you have the words of eternal life. Alleluia!

GOSPEL

(God calls the unworthy and makes them worthy for his work.)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to St Luke ( 5:1-11)

While the people pressed upon Jesus to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all that were with him at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

This is the Gospel of the Lord

I believe...

PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL

Cel: Dear sisters and brothers, our heavenly Father lifts us up from the clay of our sinfulness. Confident of this, let us bring to him all our inadequacies and wants and say: Father, graciously hear us.

1. We pray for the Pope, bishops and all other ministers in the Church. Lord, supply what is wanting in them. R.

2. Let us pray for our youth that in spite of their sense of inadequacy they may opt for a life of service. R.

3. We pray for those whom sin has separated from God and the Church: may they experience the tender love of the Father and return. R.

4. Let us pray that when God calls us for a particular mission we may be wise enough to say yes. R.

(Pause to pray for other intentions.)

Cel: Lord, mysterious is your plan for each one of us. Enable us to accept it and fulfil it with the help of your grace. We ask this…

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS

Lord our God, may the bread and wine you give us for our nourishment on earth become the sacrament of our eternal life. We ask this…

Preface (P 35)

Father all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.

So great was your love that you gave us your Son as our redeemer. You sent him as one like ourselves, though free from sin, that you might see and love in us what you see and love in Christ. Your gifts of grace, lost by dis-obedience, are now restored by the obedience of your Son.

We praise you, Lord, with all the angels and saints in their song of joy.

COMMUNION ANTIPHON

Give praise to the Lord for his kindness, for his wonderful deeds toward men. He has filled the hungry with good things, he has satisfied the thirsty.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

God our Father, you give us a share in the one bread and the one cup and make us one in Christ. Help us to bring your salvation and joy to all the world. We ask this…

LITURGY AND LIFE

Thomas Merton was born on January 31, 1915. His mother died of cancer when she was thirty-four and Thomas six. His father also died of cancer when he was forty-four and Thomas sixteen. His younger brother was killed in a plane accident when he was twenty-four and Thomas twenty-seven. When Merton was hardly twenty, his guardian, appointed by his dying father, angrily broke off. Merton now believes in no one, no one is there to be believed in. Sceptic, insecure, angry, Merton begins a loose, immoral life. In the course of which he becomes a father of a child. Eventually he abandons both the mother and the child mercilessly. Restless, he continues to wander through life. Nevertheless he had a couple of near mystical experiences. His friends in the university persuade him to try his vocation as a Franciscan. Hearing his life story he is told no catholic religious will ever accept him. Merton is now more doubtful about his suitability for consecrated life. He is close to despair, perhaps not far from suicide. One of his professors persuades him to try with Cistercians. In 1941 Merton arrives at Gethsemane abbey of the Cistercians like a shipwrecked mariner reaching the shore. He was twenty-six then. From then on till he died of accidental electrocution at 53 in 1968 it is a remarkable story of divine-human romance. It is a saga of how man responds to grace, how grace trans-forms man and how God moulds him for his own purpose and glory.

Merton wrote a number of spiritual books including books of poetry. The Seven Storey Mountain, his autobio-graphy made him a worldwide author. His Seeds of Contemplation is a spiritual classic. His books won for him millions of admirers all over the world. He became an acclaimed spiritual master, an ardently followed social prophet, a mystic poet. His influence cut across racial and religious affiliations. In fact he died in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. Merton is a modern St Augustine.

Isaiah, St Paul and St Peter have one thing in common: their sense of unworthiness for the task they are called. In fact God entrusts them a treasure in earthenware jars so that no one would feel proud and carried away by conceit.

Our stance before God who calls us for a mission, for any mission, major or minor, should be that of Mother Mary: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." Then we will also be able to say with Mary: "The almighty has done great things for me." Mother Teresa acknowledged: "I am only a pencil in the hand of Jesus."

* * *

Holiness is not in one exercise or another, it consists in a disposition of the heart, which renders us humble and little in the hands of God, conscious of our weakness but confident, even daringly confident, in his fatherly goodness.

– St Therese of Lisieux

 

February 2004 

CALENDAR 

Psalter week 1

9/Mon (G) 1 Kgs 8:1-7,9-13; Ps 131; Mk 6:53-56

10/Tue (W) St Scholastica vir 1 Kgs 8:22-23,27-30; Ps 83; Mk 7:1-13

11/Wed (G/W) or Our Lady of Lourdes 1 Kgs 10:1-10; Ps 36; Mk 7:14-23

12/Thu (G) 1 Kgs 11:4-13; Ps 105; Mk 7:24-30

13/Fri (G) 1 Kgs 11:29-32 – 12:19; Ps 80; Mk 7:31-37

14/Sat (W) Sts Cyril mk & Methodius bp

1 Kgs 12:26-32 – 13:33-34; Ps 105; Mk 8:1-10

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