Liturgy Alive Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Wednesday, 16th Week in Ordinary Time
THE GOOD SOIL OF LIFE
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
you implant in our hearts
the good seeds of your word
and water it with your grace.
Let the good soil of our hearts
be receptive to each word
that you speak to us
in the Gospel, in the events of life,
in each good person we encounter.
Help us to yield a rich harvest
of integrity, compassion, and love,
by the power of Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever.
Liturgy of the Word
Introduction to the First Reading
Jeremiah states in the story of his special calling by God that it is God himself who has given him his mission to speak out as a prophet. God even remedies his inadequacy. He is the mouthpiece of God.
Introduction to the Gospel
God looks for good soil to sow his seeds of life. Do we have the hearts of stone in which nothing grows? Or hearts, open to the Good News, but so overgrown with weeds of constant worrying about the cares of life and things that do not matter, that no time is left to cultivate the growth in us of God's life and love? Let us ask in this Eucharist that we may yield a rich harvest, like the prophet Jeremiah.
General Intercessions
– For those who spread the Good News: pastors and missionaries, catechists and teachers, that they may keep sowing the seed even when they see no harvest yet, we pray:
– For farmers who sow and plant, that God may give them good weather and harvest and that we may be grateful for their work, we pray:
– For all of us, that we may not let the cares of life choke the Word of God in us but that we may be open to God's message and live it constantly, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
the harvest in our fields
has yielded its fruits
and here is bread and wine
to bring us strength and joy.
Let them become the body and blood
of Jesus, your Son,
to keep us growing in the life
that he brought us by his death
and his rising to life,
until we are ready for your harvest.
Grant us this through Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God, good sower,
in this Eucharist, you have let your Son sow again
the seed of the Good News.
Do not allow the worries of life
to overgrow your good gifts
nor to let your life be strangled in us.
Let each of us and all your Church
be the good soil in which grows
all that you have planted,
that when you walk in your field,
you may smile at the promise
of a rich harvest,
on account of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
"A sower went out to sow." On what kind of soil do we let it fall in us? Maybe at times it is receptive and ready, other times less so. May God's word never remain unanswered in us. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
