REPENT AND START AGAIN
INTRODUCTORY RITES
Gather as a family/ community; create an environment appropriate for prayer (dress appropriately - switch off your phones...).
We are conscious that Christ is present not only in the Blessed Sacrament but also in the Scriptures and in our hearts. Even when we are on our own, we remain part of the Body of Christ.
Place lighted candles, a crucifix, and the Bible on a covered table. These remind us of the sacredness of our time of prayer and could help us feel connected with our local worshipping communities.
You may sing or play an appropriate hymn. For instance:
The Sign of the Cross
Greeting and Introductory Words
L: The Lord invites us to the table of his Word: let us bless him for his goodness.
A: Blessed be God forever.
L: We experience chaos and despair; sometimes, it feels as if life is falling apart. To each of us, the Lord says: “Peace be with you.” It is a peace which is a gift and a task. The task is repentance – changing our old ways and beginning anew.
We pray for the courage to repent that we may experience the gift of the Lord’s peace.
Penitential Rite
L: For the times, we have been unwilling to change our ways and our life, we ask the Lord for his forgiveness.
Pause
L: Lord Jesus, you bring us the peace of your forgiveness:
Lord, have mercy.
A: Lord, have mercy.
L: Lord Jesus, you eat with us to share with us your life:
Christ, have mercy.
A: Christ, have mercy.
L: Lord Jesus, you open our minds to understand the Scriptures:
Lord, have mercy.
A: Lord, have mercy.
L: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.
A: Amen.
Gloria
Opening Prayer
L: Lord God,
open our minds to understand the Scriptures
and fill us with wonder
in the presence of the risen Christ,
that we may change our ways, and
be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
A: Amen.
THE LITURGY OF THE WORD
Readings
The readings are those assigned for the day in the Lectionary.
Preferably use a Bible/ Lectionary for reading.
Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Psalm Psalm 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9
Response Lord, let your face shine on us.
or: Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 John 2:1-5a
Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia.
Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us;
make our hearts burn while you speak to us.
Gospel Luke 24:35-48
Reflection on the Readings
Use one of the following ways to reflect on the readings.
Lectio Divina
Imagine being in the upper room with the apostles when Jesus “stood in their midst”. What are your thoughts and feelings when you hear him say: “Peace be with you”; “Why are you troubled?”; “Have you anything here to eat?”; and when he commissions them to be his witnesses?
Sunday Snippets
Frederick Charrington, the Charrington Brewery owner, was walking down a street. Suddenly the door of a pub flew open. A man staggered out with a woman clinging to him and pleading: “The children haven’t eaten in two days! I’ve not eaten in a week! Please come home! Or… just give me a few coins so I can buy…” Her pleas were cut off as the man struck her.
As Charrington leaped forward to help her, he noticed a lighted sign on the pub: “Drink Charrington Ale.” He was stunned. He later wrote: “Here was the source of my wealth, and it was producing untold misery before my eyes. I pledged that not another penny of that money should come to me.”
Charrington spent the rest of his life striving to free people from alcoholism. He had the courage to repent and begin again.
This is thrust of today’s readings!
In the first reading, Peter moves from castigating the Jews for putting to death “the author of life” to calling them to conversion: “Repent, therefore, and be converted.”
Peter uses a Jewish historical form: reviewing the past and moving through the present to the future. The aim is not to condemn but to draw his listeners to action, to a change of mind and heart.
Here, the medium is the message! Peter says: “You denied the Holy and Righteous One.” Peter, too, denied Jesus. But he repented and began again. It is never too late, no sin is too grave, for one to repent. Peter knows– as John writes in the second reading – that we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus, who is the expiation for our sins.
Repentance is Jesus’ message to his disciples. After giving them his peace, he commissions them to preach “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” He calls them to proclaim his death and resurrection but also that through his death and resurrection, God has forgiven, accepts, and loves all people everywhere.
As human beings, we sin, we produce misery for others, we put people to “death”. The Lord calls us to have the courage to repent and to begin again. He is ready to forgive us; and it is then we will experience his peace. Let me start again…
Questions to Ponder
Reflect on some (or all) of the following questions:
Reading 1: Is the point of the reading to lay blame for Jesus’ death or to tell us that sin can be erased and offenders can be raised to new life by the same power that raised Jesus to life? What meaning does this text have for me?
Reading 2: “The way we may be sure that we know him (Jesus Christ) is to keep his commandments.” Do I know Jesus?
Gospel: Do I see it as my task to preach the good news of God’s forgiveness to all nations? How can I do that locally, in my neighbourhood, globally?
The Creed
Prayer of the Faithful
L: St Paul reminds us that we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. Through him, we pray: Lord, hear our prayer.
R: For the Church: that the Spirit may open our minds to understand the Scriptures and empower us to share the message of God’s love and forgiveness with all, we pray…
R: For our world: that God may help us to recognize the dignity of each person and work to heal the wounds and divisions that exist, we pray…
R: For all who are broken and wounded: that they may find healing in Christ and that God may help us recognize them as our brothers and sisters through the wounded Christ, we pray…
R: For all who feel bound by their past: that God may heal and free them so that they may live life fully, we pray…
R: For a spirit of stewardship: that we may make wise use of the resources of the earth, and protect them for future generations, we pray…
R: For ourselves: that we may be open to God’s forgiveness, repent, and strive to forgive others as we have been forgiven, we pray…
L: Loving God, you give us your peace and forgiveness through the suffering, death, and resurrection of your Son. May we experience your peace and forgiveness, and witness to it. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
A: Amen.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
The Lord’s Prayer
Spiritual Communion
A: Jesus, I know and believe in your real presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is you I desire to love and receive above all things. As I am unable to receive your sacramental presence now, come and be with me in heart and soul. Let my entire self be united with you as I welcome you again and know your loving embrace. Amen.
Post Spiritual Communion Reflection
Lord,
Peter reminded his listeners
that they had been complicit in your death.
But he ended with a comforting call to repentance and life
offered through your death and resurrection.
He invited them to immerse themselves
in your peace and forgiveness.
Lord,
you appear in the midst of your disciples
and extend your “peace” to them.
You invite them to touch your body
and then ask for something to eat
to reassure them that you are alive.
You commission them
to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Lord,
you call me to immerse myself
in the mystery of your death and resurrection,
and to experience the peace that comes
through changing my heart and life.
Change my heart, O Lord.
CONCLUDING RITE
Concluding Prayer
L: God of the living,
who will believe that your Son is risen
if he is not alive among us today?
Make us brim with his life,
that it may overflow on those around us
in deeds of compassionate forgiveness,
of generosity without measure.
Through Christ our Lord.
A: Amen.
Blessing
L: The Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and lead us to everlasting life.
A: Amen.
L: Go in the peace of Christ.
A: Thanks be to God.
Conclude with a hymn. For instance:
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