Liturgy suggestions for Summer Sundays
Bidding prayers etc for the Sundays and holydays of July and August are given below, beginning with next Sunday. After these suggestion sheets, you’ll find texts to welcome summer visitors from abroad.
Bidding prayers etc for the Sundays and holydays of July and August are given below, beginning with next Sunday. After these suggestion sheets, you’ll find texts to welcome summer visitors from abroad.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord: it’s the last day of the Christmas season.
The baptism of Jesus marked the end of his quiet years in Nazareth and the start of his public ministry.
In today’s Liturgy, we praise the Lord of glory, who leads us through the darkness of Lent to the light of Easter.
As the second week of Lent begins in other countries, we pause from our lenten penances to honour Patrick, the apostle of the Irish. In our celebration of this solemn feast, we worship God, creator, redeemer and sanctifier, who brought our ancestors into the Christian fold through the preaching of St Patrick.
Today we honour the Body and Blood of Christ, the food that sustains us on our pilgrimage through life. Even if in pandemic times we have not received Holy Communion as often as we would have liked, we have learned to appreciate this gift all the more.
Opening Comment
Today’s readings about water and thirst remind us that this is a baptismal season. During Lent, many people all over the world look forward to their baptism, while those already baptised prepare to renew their promises.
Loving the enemy and praying for those who make life difficult are two marks of a Christian, or so Jesus teaches us today. We gather, aware of how difficult love can be, yet united by the saving mercy of God, on which we rely.