Opening Prayer Series: 26th Sunday of Year

OPENING PRAYER SERIES:

 

THE MASS: OPENING PRAYER SERIES ICON.

OPENING PRAYER

The Opening Prayer for the 26th Sunday of the Year reads as follows:

Let us pray

(for God's forgiveness and for the happiness it brings)

Father,

You show Your almighty power in Your mercy and forgiveness.

Continue to fill us with Your gifts of love,

Help us to hurry toward the eternal life You promise,

and come to share in the joys of Your kingdom.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In making this prayer tangible the following reflection questions emerged.

1.            What does God's forgiveness mean to me?

2.            Why does God's forgiveness bring happiness to me?

3.            How will I experience God's forgiveness this week? (e.g. receive  
           sacrament of Reconciliation)

4.            Why does God's mercy and forgiveness show His power in my life?

5.            What hinders me from being filled God's gifts of love? (Name one area
           that I will work on this coming week).

6.            Why do I need to hurry towards the eternal life God promises me?

7.            If God called me home to Heaven today/this week, will I be ready?

GOSPEL REFLECTION

In today's Gospel we meet with the tragedy of the Rich man's situation.  God had blessed him with material wealth, but ignored to use his wealth for the betterment of others- in this case, Lazarus the poor man who ‘longed for the scraps that fell from the rich man's table'. When he died, he was not prepared to acknowledge his wrongdoing, but was audacious enough to want help from the very person he had failed to help in life, when he was in the position to do so.   Abraham speaks not only to the rich man to us also. We are not to neglect those whom we can help. We must do our best in our life, since we cannot try to swap places and ‘cross to the other side' after we have died.

It seems that he had learnt some of his lesson. To the rich man's credit, he did think of his brothers, since he did not want them to suffer also. However, he was asking for extraordinary means, rather than following the way God had provided (eg prophets).  Many of us can fall for the same trap.  We want something extraordinary to happen so that we may believe/believe more fully.  Human nature will find a way to discount it or just not believe anyway. Faith is a gift which we accept or reject and it is not a gift to be manipulated.

Let us take this gospel to heart and realize that our training is now.  If the cards of life have been dealt well for us, then use them to help others. If we are not so fortunate, make the most of the cards we are given and be grateful.  

We need to live good Catholic lives according to the commandments and precepts of the Catholic Church.  We need to follow the way God has given us through the Church, making use of the sacraments frequently and all other helps that the Church provides. This is not a time for cherry picking. we need to take on board fully and wholeheartedly what the Church teaches. 

Let us follow the example of Christ as the gospel Acclamation states:

'Jesus Christ was rich but he became poor to make you rich out of His poverty'