Family

Penitential Rite: a) We often misunderstand one another; we are sometimes suspicious; we twist the meaning of what people say to us and straight away conclude that we are right and they are wrong. b) We are often intolerant; we are sometimes blind to the needs of others; we live in discord with our neighbour and try to outdo the other. c) We are sometimes too ready to judge others. We despise the human weaknesses and failings of others, forgetting our own. Opening Prayer: a) Lord, Father of all life, how difficult it is to admit that we have caused others to suffer through our selfishness, love of ease and our desire to dominate; and how difficult it is for us to admit that we need you for every breath we draw, for our daily bread, for mercy and forgiveness and we need each other for growing to be persons - persons who love, who are loved. We would rather be our own persons, independent, powerful, alone. Yet you keep reminding us through every illness that afflicts us when we need others to care for us, through every love gone sour when we need to be understood, through every failure in our lives when we need support, through every opportunity for ever lost, through loss and bereavement when we need consolation and comforting and through every person we have hurt, we realize our need for community. Humbly we come recognizing this fact this evening and our need for friends, for love, and above for you the centre of our community life. We make this Intercessions: R/Lord, bind us together in love 1) Come Lord and dwell with us in the midst of our families that there will be understanding and concern among us. 2) Come Lord and sit with us at our family meals that we be grateful for your generosity and grateful for each other 3) Come Lord and share with us our moments of relaxation and recreation that we be a joyful people and bring happiness to others. 4) Come Lord and enlighten us when we have to take decisions that our choices will be the good for the family and according to your Gospel 5) Come Lord and grace us when we struggle with temptations of the world and against our sinful tendencies 6) Come Lord to encourage us when we make efforts to reconcile with those who have hurt us and learn to make sacrifices as expressions of our love 7) Come Lord Offertory: Engrossed as we are, like Martha, and overwhelmed by the manifold tasks of our life in our family and community life, we come with our little wine and bread to honour you our guest and learn to sit attentively, like Mary, before you, Lord. May your gaze embrace our work and service as well as our prayer and faith that

knows its source and origin as yourself. Preface: Praise and Thanksgiving to you, heavenly Father for you are a God of nearness, closeness. Praise and thanksgiving to you loving Father for providing us with the care and concern of families and parish communities so that we can all the more experience your creative goodness. Praise and thanksgiving to you Almighty Father, for the beauty and mystery that abounds in our world, in our parish, in the individuals that make our family, for the gift of each person here. Praise and thanksgiving to you Almighty Father, for the variety and difference of each member, and so their beauty and mystery. We thank you for the talents and gifts you have endowed us with and the myriad of ways we serve the family and community whether through leadership, humour, animation, encouragement, creativity, peacemaking, simple caring and attentive listening and silent presence. As children surrounded and protected by the strength of a Father's love and the warmth of a mother's tenderness (affection), we join all creation in rejoicing, in celebrating your great care and concern for us and raise our voices and praise your name. Holy... Communion: Your word is born in our silences, your love is revealed in our humble fidelities, your promise is confirmed through our fragile faith. Each day amaze us through your word: the one that you reveal through your servants and prophets, the one that you proclaim through your son Jesus, the one that you whisper through Mary's example in the silence of our hearts, the one that is born in us each time we say yes to you. We make b) Lord, you are God of our fore parents, God of Abraham and Sarah, God of Jesus and Mary, we are your Family. We bear your name. You seek us without wearying and reveal yourself through your word Jesus. You place your spirit within us that beyond our false certitudes, beyond our deceptive assurances and beyond our seeming merits, we learn to rely on the strength that comes from the tenderness of your mercy. Lord, you have built your church on the rock of your word, and you have left the power of our faith as a pledge for the future. Do not let division shake our fidelity, but make us living stones for the building up of your dwelling in every family.