Liturgy

Remembering and celebrating Jesus’ Ascension today, we worship the God of timeless glory.

The Ascension of Jesus will be celebrated next Sunday. As the Easter Season moves towards its second climax at Pentecost, we take heed of the Lord’s final words to his disciples, and look forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church.

On the fourth Sunday of Easter each year, we honour the Risen Lord as our Good Shepherd. Today is the day of prayer for vocations to priesthood and religious life: we pray that God will give the Church men and women formed in the image of the Good Shepherd, who will be the priests and religious of the future.

Today’s liturgy gives a preview of the events we will celebrate between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. These events are also the focus of this and every Sunday celebration. We ask for God’s help in understanding their significance.

We have reached the midway point of the season of Lent. The joy of Easter is within our reach and the parent of the prodigal son encourages us to rely on divine mercy.

Today, as we gather to listen to the Lenten call to repentance, we worship our God of kindness who, like a patient gardener, always gives people a second chance.

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.

The 40-day pilgrimage to Easter that began on Ash Wednesday is just a few days old. We pray that God, who sustained Jesus in his 40 days of temptations and suffering, will support us on our journey also.

Words matter. What we say has an effect on others, for good or ill. God’s word to us is spoken in Jesus, the Word made flesh, in whose name we gather this and every Sunday.

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.

Happy are they who their trust in the Lord: worry will not come their way, their lives will bear fruit. The prophet Jeremiah’s words are reflected in the Psalm, as we are invited to trust in the One who never disappoints.

Everyone who believes God’s word is called to pass on the Good News. Like many who have gone before us, including the prophet Isaiah and the apostles Peter and Paul, we may not feel up to the task. But God helps us every day.

We gather as people loved by God, people called to pass on the love we have received. The love God has put into the world will never fail, but will last as long as humanity lasts. We praise God for the gifts lavished on us.

The Word of God is the focus this Sunday, read by Ezra the priest in the Old Testament reading, and by Jesus in the Gospel. By his Word, God reassures the people of his closeness, especially in the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazereth.

There are echoes of the Christmas season in today’s liturgy, particularly in the Gospel story of the wedding feast of Cana, in which God’s glory becomes visible in Jesus, as it did at his Epiphany and Baptism. (Today is also the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.)

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.