Year A
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
The main theme of this weekend is Christ, the Head of His Household. By this, we are reminded that we belong to Christ’s family, the Church. This in a way prepares us for next weekend’s celebration in which we shall worship Christ, as the King of the Universe.
Jesus treats his family, the church, with impeccable love and tenderness. He is close to the Church just as a faithful husband is close to his beloved bride.
Let the following words of Christ our head, guide us: “Even if you have to die, says the Lord, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life” (Cf. Opening Prayer & Alleluia Verse).
When we consider the word ‘devoted’ many ideas may come to our minds. To be devoted is to be very loving or loyal to someone or something. It may be towards someone such as a friend, our parents, a spouse, or a child or children. At the same time, it may be towards an interest or hobby of sorts such as a sport, going on walks, music, gardening, cooking, and studies. Today’s Collect and Prayer over the Offerings refers to be being devoted to God, the highest form of loving and loyalty we should aim towards in this life. We pray today that we may have the constant gladness of being devoted to God. For in being devoted towards God, we find our full and lasting happiness. Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, have the capacity, or we may say, are programmed for him. We are made for a relationship for him, and we find our ultimate purpose and meaning of life in him. “Our hearts,” wrote St Augustine, “are restless, until they rest in him.” When our lives are ordered towards God, the author of all that is good, we find true and lasting happiness and peace in our lives. Being devoted towards God is living our lives in his presence and following the golden commandments of loving him and our neighbour, knowing that he is our origin and ultimate end. In our participation in the liturgy, we are encountering the Divine and are being ordered towards Him, with his grace, to our end, our everlasting happiness. As today’s Communion Antiphon highlights for us – “To be near God is my happiness, to place my hope in God the Lord.”
Hymns have been chosen from the Laudate Hymnal:
Centre of My life, 423
All that I am 600
Now let us from this table arise 647
To Jesus' Heart, all burning 800
All my hope on God is founded 959
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
