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.
Today’s gospel gives us the familiar double command to love God and to love our neighbour.
But God is not just giving us rules for our lives. He is seeking our relationship with him.
God had already loved the people of Israel into being as a free nation. He had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and led them safely through the desert to the Promised Land. Because he had shown them his love, he was seeking their loving response.
· God has loved each one of us into being by creating us as unique individuals.
· Christ has loved us into a redeemed life by dying on the cross to save us.
· The Holy Spirit has loved us into communion by filling our hearts with his grace.
Most of us will have received love from many people during our lives. We can think of examples of people who have loved God wholeheartedly and loved their neighbour devotedly.
Paul’s converts in Thessalonica responded to God’s loving call by abandoning their former pagan attachments to serve the real living God, in response to Christ’s call. Now they were eagerly awaiting Christ’s second coming in glory.
In Exodus, Moses explains what is meant by loving our neighbour as ourselves. Charity begins at home, but it does not end at home. Moses asks us to consider the vulnerable people in our society, symbolised by widows and orphans.
Moses says: “You must not molest the stranger or oppress him, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt.” Nowadays we are confronted by the huge challenge of migration. Pope Francis has called us to open our hearts wider to become more welcoming to migrants.
· We are called to love God—how will we respond in prayer today?
· We are called to love our neighbour—how will we respond to our neighbours, both near and far?
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Catholicism of the Catholic Church References:
CCC 2052-2074: the Ten Commandments interpreted through twofold love
CCC 2061-2063: moral life a response to the Lord’s initiative of love
The Prayer after Communion is a pray in which the presider “prays for the fruits of the mystery just celebrated” (GIRM 89). These are not private prayers, but the presider prays in the name of the whole liturgical assembly. There are usually three elements contained in these prayers – for the fruits or the effects of receiving Communion, a missionary perspective, and an eschatology notion. The first part of this prayer on the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time prays that the Sacraments “perfect in us what lies within them.” Sacraments, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, are efficacious signs of grace by which divine life is dispensed to us (cf. CCC 1131). They are means or vehicles of our sanctification, in which we are transfigured into Christ. The Eucharist, that is the body and blood of Christ, increases our union and charity with the Lord, forgives our sins, gives us the assistance to resist temptations, and strengthens the unity between each other (cf. CCC 1416). These effects ‘lie’ within the Eucharist, and bears fruit, or perfect us, for those disposed. These fruits of Communion spur us with a missionary spirit to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. At the same time, there is an eschatology notion (or the future unfolding of the plan of salvation with the Second Coming of Jesus and a new heaven and earth). Liturgy recalls the past, lives in the present, and looks forward to the future. We recall, “that what we now celebrate in signs we may one day possess in truth”. The bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ are signs of unity or communion with God and with each other. It foreshadows our ultimate communion with God and the saints in heaven. It is a pledge for eternity. The Eucharist points to a future reality that we hope to possess one day in heaven – to possess God. The Eucharist sustains us along the pilgrimage of life as we make our journey for eternal life. Even now, when we celebrate the Eucharist, we are united with the Church heaven (cf. CCC 1419). It is worth well to spend some time reflecting on the Prayer after Communion as they are rich in theology and therefore forms our spiritual life.
These hymns have been picked and chosen from different sources.
Christ be beside me (CFE106, L910, LHON194)
Come my way, my Truth, my life (L911, LHON215)
God be in my head (CFE205, L914, LHON283)
A new commandment I give unto you (CFE4, L920, LHON133)
Make me a channel of your peace (CFE478 L898, LHON470)
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.
