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.
However crowded the room, however buzzy the conversation, however voluble the voices, however high the volume, you will hear one thing, clear as a bell, when chattering in a busy place: should anyone in the throng mention your name it's as if everything goes quiet. You listen. You want to hear what anyone might be saying about you.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him.
There is something that only you can do, in the way that you do it.
Only you can be you.
We are called by name.
That call comes from God in our baptism, cutting through, like that voice in the crowded room.
We know the apostles’ names. There is beauty in that.
We know that Judas Iscariot would be the one to betray him.
What extraordinary poignancy in knowing that, as we hear his name.
Many vocation is fulfilled and life-fulfilling.
Many people fail to hear, or listen to, God's unique call.
Many people hearing the call, turn away.
Jesus instructs the Twelve on what to do, where to avoid.
He gives them exact tasks.
Each is called to those tasks.
They will each do the tasks in a unique way.
What happens if those tasks go undone, if God’s work is neglected?
For true fulfilment, listen to God. We must.
God told Moses what to say to the House of Jacob:
If you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own…
I will count you a kingdom of priests.
How to listen? How to know God’s call? How to discern our vocation?
Jesus demands that His followers ask the Lord to send labourers to His harvest.
We must give glory to God and to love our neighbour, as we love ourselves.
When we pray we hear God.
When we cherish God’s word we discern God's spirit.
Every Christian, every parish, should pray for labourers for the harvest.
Why is this an imperative? Consider a Christian’s work. Consider Christ:
Christ died for sinful men. Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
Surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son?
Through our baptism we know our saving Lord.
Each of us is called to draw others to Him, in the way that only we can.
Pray to do what only you can do. Hear Him call you to do it in Christ's name.
Pray that good, holy men hear His call to become His priests.
In the introduction to the silence before the confession an allusion to Jesus who ‘had compassion for the crowds’. How much do we have compassion for the many in our society and in the world who are like sheep without a shepherd ?
Introducing the first reading a reminder that, like the people of Israel, we are on a journey with Christ and, like them, we need to pause to remember how God has cared for us in the past and to draw strength for the journey ahead.
Before the second reading, Paul reminds us, as he did the Roman Christian community, that we have died and risen with Christ in our Baptism and reconciled with God we can have total trust in the God who loves us.
Before the Gospel reading, we hear how Jesus had compassion on the crowds and chooses those among his followers who would continue his ministry and proclaim the Good News of the love of God both by their words and by their actions.
Before the communion silence, recall that it is the compassionate Christ who gives himself to us and who calls us to be compassionate in the week ahead.
These hymns have been picked and chosen from different sources.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord (On Eagles’ wings) (CFE832, L952, LHON759)
Forth in the peace of Christ (CFE183, L853, LHON263)
Open your ears, O Christian people (CFE582, L472, LHON546)
I will be with you (CFE289, L866, LHON379)
God forgave my sin (CFE209, L849 LHON286)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
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.
