Wednesday 05 th october 2022
St. Faustina
Sister Faustina was a young, uneducated, nun in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland during the 1930s. She received extraordinary revelations on God’s loving message of Divine Mercy. Saint Faustina’s revelations are a constant reminder of the message to trust in Jesus’ endless mercy, and to live life mercifully towards others.
Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Est 4: 17
Within your will, O Lord, all things are established, and there is none that can resist your will. For you have made all things, the heaven and the earth, and all that is held within the circle of heaven; you are the Lord of all.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Galatians 2:1-2,7-14
It was not till fourteen years had passed that I went up to Jerusalem again. I went with Barnabas and took Titus with me. I went there as the result of a revelation, and privately I laid before the leading men the Good News as I proclaim it among the pagans; I did so for fear the course I was adopting or had already adopted would not be allowed. On the contrary, they recognised that I had been commissioned to preach the Good News to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been commissioned to preach it to the circumcised. The same person whose action had made Peter the apostle of the circumcised had given me a similar mission to the pagans. So, James, Cephas and John, these leaders, these pillars, shook hands with Barnabas and me as a sign of partnership: we were to go to the pagans and they to the circumcised. The only thing they insisted on was that we should remember to help the poor, as indeed I was anxious to do. When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, since he was manifestly in the wrong. His custom had been to eat with the pagans, but after certain friends of James arrived he stopped doing this and kept away from them altogether for fear of the group that insisted on circumcision. The other Jews joined him in this pretence, and even Barnabas felt himself obliged to copy their behaviour. When I saw they were not respecting the true meaning of the Good News, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, ‘In spite of being a Jew, you live like the pagans and not like the Jews, so you have no right to make the pagans copy Jewish ways. ’
Psalm 116:1-2
R/ Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.
- O praise the Lord, all you nations, acclaim him all you peoples!
- Strong is his love for us; he is faithful for ever.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps118:24
Alleluia, alleluia! Train me, Lord, to observe your law, to keep it with my heart. Alleluia!
Gospel : Luke 11:1-4
Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray: “Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come; give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.”’
Prayer over the Offerings
Accept, O Lord, we pray, the sacrifices instituted by your commands and, through the sacred mysteries, which we celebrate with dutiful service, graciously complete the sanctifying work by which you are pleased to redeem us. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Lam 3: 25
The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
Prayer after Communion
Grant us, almighty God, that we may be refreshed and nourished by the Sacrament which we have received, so as to be transformed into what we consume. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
In today’s gospel, we see Jesus praying. Seeing Him pray, His disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray, and He teaches them the Lord’s Prayer. They must have been surprised that He prayed in such simple language. The Lord, therefore, teaches that prayer is not communicating with God using special words and techniques, but reaching up to Him honestly.
To call God our Father is to recognise that our lives come from Him and, like a loving Father. He will give us what we ask of him sincerely. The Lord’s Prayer is, therefore, a reflection of true Christian prayer and living.