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Presider’s Page for 24 May (Pentecost)

Opening Comment (Mass During the Day)
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the second climax of the Easter season. We celebrate ‘the great beginning of the Church’, the day the Holy Spirit first came to confused and frightened disciples.

Alternative Opening Prayer (from 1998 ICEL Missal)
Send down, O God, upon your people
the flame of your Holy Spirit,
and fill with the abundance of your sevenfold gift
the Church you brought forth from your Son’s pierced side.
May your life-giving Spirit
lend fire to our words and strength to our witness.
Send us forth to the nations of the world
to proclaim with boldness your wondrous work of raising Christ to your right hand.
We make our prayer 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.

Introduction to the Scripture Readings
Acts 2:1-11 — Pentecost is described. People from different nations hear the same Good News, as the Spirit brings unity. Galatians 5:16-25 — The effects of self-indulgence are compared with what the Spirit brings. John 15:26-27, 16:12-15 — The Spirit who will lead believers to complete truth is promised by Jesus.

BIDDING PRAYERS

Introduction (by the Presider) Aware of the Spirit at work in us, we bring our prayers to the Father.

  1. For those touched by the Spirit through Baptism and Confirmation — that they may always allow God’s Power to work in them (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.
  2. For a world plagued by hunger, war and destruction — that the Spirit may renew the face of the earth (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.
  3. For those who have never known God’s love — that the Spirit may be with missionaries and all who pass on the faith (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.
  4. For people who can’t get on with each other — that the Spirit of love may bring harmony (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.
  5. For children who receive their First Communion this month — that the Spirit may help them love Jesus more each day (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.
  6. For all who gather here, celebrating the Spirit’s coming — that our faith may be firm, our hope sure and our love without end (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.

The Presider prays for the dead, especially N & N: that the Spirit may awaken them to life without end (pause for quiet prayer). Lord, hear us.
Conclusion (by the Presider) Lord God, how great you are, how many are your works: let your Spirit guide your people, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

SONGS AT MASS (Suggestions) ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus’ (Taizé) or ‘Veni Creator’; ‘Spirit of the Living God’; ‘Send Forth Your Spirit O Lord’.

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Joe O Leary offers these thoughts for next Sunday, World Day of the Sick. (Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes)
“Lourdes shows a loving, healing God bending over the mass of human filth and misery, like Christ at the pool of Bethdaida, or like Christ in today’s Gospel compassionately touching the unclean leper.” …….
“So many people are locked in spiritual and psychological paralysis — and the physical paralysis that he cures could be a result of that spiritual paralysis; so many people are impoverished and marginalized and treated as lepers in our society; so many people are possessed or obsessed by demons of various kinds — by prejudice, hatred, fear, greed, enslaving attachments and addictions. The healing activity of Jesus is a blow to liberate us from all these forms of bondage.”

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