Liturgy Alive Thursday, October 5, 2023

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
you speak your Word
and it challenges us
to give you a response.
You speak your Word,
and it gathers together
those who are willing to listen.
Let it build us into a community
responsive to you in loyalty
and eager to follow your living Word,
Jesus Christ, our Lord for ever.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction
        In the first reading we see how the Feast of Tabernacles, originally a harvest feast for wheat and vintage, was spiritualized into a feast remembering the exodus and the renewal of the covenant. The Word of God was read to the people. The Word came as a source of great joy and stirred their hearts. Thus it helped greatly to build up the community.

Gospel Introduction

       Few people are impressed by the fact that a bishop lives a life of poverty in a big palace or that priests or sisters are sober and restrained in their personal living when they use rich and powerful means and institutions to bring God to people. Missionaries, however dedicated and serving they may be, are not very convincing and have a hard time to build community if they import powerful means from outside. When Jesus sends out his missionaries to evangelize the poor, he wants them to be, like him, poor among the poor. True, evangelical poverty is an ideal not easy to attain. But does it still move us?

General Intercessions

– For those who speak the Word of God, that they themselves may be filled with it and out of this fullness proclaim it with conviction and warmth, we pray:
– For those who hear the Word of God, that they may receive it and treasure it in their hearts and let it bear fruits of justice and peace, we pray:
– For us, that we may let the Word of God free us from banality and fear, our securities and certainties, and give us deeper insight in our faith, that we may live as we believe, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord, our God,
speak among us over this bread and wine
your living Word, Jesus Christ.
Break the bread of strength for us
and pour the wine that unties our tongues,
that we may speak with our lives
a message of hope and joy.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Speak Lord, your servants listen.
Speak and tell us, who you are
and what you expect of us.
Speak to us in the events of life
and through the people we encounter.
Speak to us in the silence
of our emptiness and your apparent absence.
And make it quiet in our hearts,
that we may hear you
and respond to you 
in the strength of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Blessing

A community lives by the Word of God. It is its heart and soul. The Word calls them together, it inspires them, it sends them out to share it with others. May you always listen attentively and eagerly to the Word of God, and may God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.