Friday 11 June – claretonline

Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

SACRED HEART OF JESUS

No Greater Love

Greeting (See the second Reading)

May Christ live in your hearts,
may you be planted in love,
built on the love of Christ,
and may he be with you always. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

Because our vision is narrow and limited, people pictured the great and unnamable God as inaccessible in a distant, fortified palace, wherein he withdrew after creating the world and people and where people’s sins could not harm him. Yet even in the Old Testament God made himself known as a God who loves and cares and who is deeply involved in human history. He fell in love with people, chose himself a nation and made a covenant with them. When his people became unfaithful as they could not really understand that God loved them, he showed himself with a human face and a heart that could be wounded and bleed in his Son Jesus Christ, to tell us: See how far love can go. Can you now believe in my love, accept it, and love me in return? It is the loving heart of God we celebrate today as we honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Penitential Act

Are we really aware of the depth of God’s love?
How have we responded to it?
Let us examine ourselves.

(Pause)

Lord, you have come among us
to share life and its cares with us
and to lead us on the Father’s road of life and love.
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Christ, your heart was wounded
because our hearts were divided
You came to replace our hearts of stone
with hearts capable of love.
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord, you made yourself available to all
to make us near to one another,
to all needs and all suffering.
Lord, have mercy. R/Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
forgive us all our sins,
fill us with your life
and keep us always in your heart
now and for ever. R/ Amen

Opening Prayer

Let us pray to God that we may understand
how much he has loved us in the heart of his Son

(Pause)

God our Father,
in your Son Jesus Christ you have shown us
that love is not just an empty word.
Here in this Eucharist you tell us again
how he placed himself into the hands of people
and shed his blood for us on the cross.
What more could he do?
Help us to see fully with eyes of faith
how much more he did for us
by rising again from the dead
and giving us life and hope and joy.
Let us never be separated from his love,
let it grow in us day after day
and overflow on our brothers and sisters.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: The Song of God’s Slighted Love

God loved his people with a tender love and guided Israel with a loving hand. Even when his people became unfaithful he did not have the heart to abandon them.

Reading 1: HOS 11:1, 3-4, 8C-9

Thus says the LORD:
When Israel was a child I loved him,
out of Egypt I called my son.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
who took them in my arms;
I drew them with human cords,
with bands of love;
I fostered them like one
who raises an infant to his cheeks;
Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,
they did not know that I was their healer.

My heart is overwhelmed,
my pity is stirred.
I will not give vent to my blazing anger,
I will not destroy Ephraim again;
For I am God and not a man,
the Holy One present among you;
I will not let the flames consume you.

Responsorial Psalm: IS 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.

(3) You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.
God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
With joy you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation.
R. You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.
Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;
among the nations make known his deeds,
proclaim how exalted is his name.
R. You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.
Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.
Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!
R. You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

Second Reading: The Riches of Christ’s Love

Paul thanks God for the grace that he was allowed to preach everywhere the riches of Christ’s love. He prays that all Christians might become aware of the depth of this love.

Reading 2: EPH 3:8-12, 14-19
Brothers and sisters:
To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given,
to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery
hidden from ages past in God who created all things,
so that the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known through the church
to the principalities and authorities in the heavens.
This was according to the eternal purpose
that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have boldness of speech
and confidence of access through faith in him.

For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Alleluia: MT 11:29AB

Alleluia, alleluia.
Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord;
and learn from me, for I am meek and gentle of heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Christ, the Paschal Lamb Slain for Us

John speaks of Christ on the cross as the suffering servant and the Passover Lamb; his pierced heart becomes a wellspring of life and love for all.

Gospel: JN 19:31-37

Since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
Not a bone of it will be broken.
And again another passage says:
They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

Intercessions

Let us pray to our Lord Jesus Christ that our faith and love may not waver and that our hearts may become constant, like his. Let us say: