Friday of the Second Week after Pentecost
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
God Loved Us First
Greeting (See 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
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: Hosea 11:1,3-4,8c-9The 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.
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
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: Ephesians 3:8-12,14-19 The riches of Christ’s love
John’s first letter echoes and deepens the Old Testament message: All love comes from God, for God is love. His love commits us to one another. If we do not love one another, God’s love cannot be in us.
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
Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord;
and learn from me, for I am meek and gentle of heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Or
God first loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: John 19:31-37 Christ, the Paschal Lamb
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: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, we have come to know and appreciate in you a heart that is just and fair to all. Help us to discriminate wisely between right and wrong, the true and the false, that we may always judge and act in accordance with the values of justice and love, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, you are the model and fulfillment of all that we are called to be. Renew our humanity, cleanse our intentions, steep us in your self-forgetting love, make us straightforward and pure of heart, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, you are the source from which we drink. Do not allow us to seek ourselves, dispose us to sacrifice ourselves for others, make us attentive to those who need us, the poor, the weak, the defenseless, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
– Lord, you are dependable. Give us your strength when we waver, raise us up when we stumble, make us reliable and worthy of people’s trust, give us a deep sense of responsibility toward ourselves and the community, we pray: R/ Lord, make our hearts like yours.
Lord, we are certain of you. Fill us with the riches of humanity and grace with which your heart overflows and be our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
gather in the bread of life of your Son
the fragments of our broken promises
and our divided hearts.
We offer you our ambiguities,
our tensions and our fears,
that you may make us whole and wholesome again
through the Lamb that was slain
to make us your new people,
Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
May this eucharist give us the grace to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth of the love that God has shown us in Christ.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray to God our Father
in the very words of Jesus, his Son,
whose life and death proved to us
how far God’s love can go. R/ Our Father…
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
and keep us rooted in your love.
With joy we place ourselves in your hands,
for we know that you are always faithful.
Call us back to you when we err
and unite us all in the love of your Son,
as we long in faith and hope
for the full coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.
R/ For the kingdom…
Invitation to Communion
This is the body of Christ
whose heart was opened on the cross
to pour out on us streams of grace.
This is the Lamb of God
who made us capable of love.
Happy are we to be invited
to share his table. R/ Lord, I am not worthy…
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, loving Father,
accept all our thanks and praise
for refreshing us again today
at the source of life and of love,
Jesus, your Son in our midst.
Give us the heart of Jesus,
straightforward, single-minded,
uncomplicated and strong,
all set on doing your will,
and at the same time respectful of all and open to all,
willing to accept each and all
wholeheartedly and at their own pace.
This is why he is our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
The love in the heart of Jesus
is more than sentiment.
It means commitment with one’s whole person,
whatever the cost and the consequences.
May this be the heart to transplant in us
and may God bless you all,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace, and let the love of Christ
be the root and foundation of your life.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Reflection:
7 June 2024 – The Sacred Heart of Jesus
John 19: 31-37
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
The devotion to the Sacred Heart, with its ancient origins, gained significant popularity in the Church, particularly in the seventeenth century through the efforts of a French mystic, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, in 1673. In her autobiography, she narrated the renowned twelve promises of the Sacred Heart, which led to the pious practice of the nine first Fridays of the month.
It is through her advocacy that the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a significant event in the Christian calendar, was established. In 1856, Pope Pius IX elevated the feast to a solemnity in the Universal Church, celebrated on the Friday after the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. On 11 June 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated humanity to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In today’s Gospel, the evangelist narrates the scene of Jesus’ death on the Cross, stating, “…but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.” This detail is not without significance. The Greek word used by the evangelist to describe the act of opening the side of Christ is the same word used by the author of Genesis to describe the act of God opening the side of Adam to create a partner for him!
From Chapter one, John presents his Gospel as a retelling of a new Genesis, a new creation – mirroring the creation story of the Book of Genesis. The blood and water flowing from Jesus’ side symbolize the birth of a new spiritual creation. Blood is the symbol of the Eucharist and water symbolises Baptism. Through the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist flowing from the broken Heart of Jesus, he creates his Church.
We, the new creation of Jesus, have our origins in the wounded, yet compassionate Heart of Jesus. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!