23rd Sunday of the Year

23rd Sunday Ordinary Time Year C – Why do we come to church?

Why do we come to church? What is it that we are seeking to obtain from this one hour each weekend?

I guess that the answer to these questions depends on our own personal starting point. What are we expecting, when we come? What is our mindset when we set out to come to church each weekend?

If our view is one of fear at being told off or lectured by the priest for our many failings or dread at the mournful hymns and music and the monotony of the prayers, then we are probably coming to church as an act of penance. To suffer through the time until the final whistle and blessing and then make our grateful and joyful escape!

But, if we have an expectation to have our hearts raised and our souls uplifted by the gifts of the Word and the Holy Eucharist, then what a completely different experience we can have. We can rejoice in the sense of community and family praying together in word and in song. We can listen with great expectation to the Word of God and ponder this within our hearts, letting it flow into us, around us and through us and allowing it to change us for so much better than we were before.

If we come as family, to gather together to share with each other the love that our Father in heaven has for each one of us; to share and show His love for me, for us, in how we then behave with each other. Looking, listening, hearing, caring and supporting each other.

We cannot begin to know the mind of God or what He is thinking or planning. But we do know what He wants and expects of us. We know because Jesus told us. He told us that the two greatest commandments are, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength and the second is equally important and that is to love your neighbour as your heavenly Father loves you.”

Jesus told us very clearly and very explicitly what it is that God our Father wants and expects from us. He wants us to rejoice in what we know. He wants us to celebrate what He has given to us. He wants us to reach out with all of our hearts and minds and strength to everyone that we meet and to share His love of mankind with them. To share this huge gift that He has given us with those who would benefit from it.

When we come to church, this is our chance, our golden opportunity to recharge our own personal faith-batteries with renewed energy and with renewed focus. We need to be able to see God in all around us and to better appreciate His beauty and wonder. We need to be able to live what we know to be true. That God sent His only Son into this world to live for me, to suffer and to die for me and then to rise from the dead and save me from my sins: me and every person on earth.

We need to be able to celebrate what we know and believe to be true: that we are saved.

We cannot begin to know God’s mind, His thinking or His preparations. But we do now that God loves us. That He wants us to celebrate our lives as witnesses to this love. That He wants us to live our lives as examples of love and that He wants us to celebrate this each time we come here to church.

We have celebrated the lives of two women from the parish who have died recently and they each in their own way, were living examples of how we should be: full of life, full of care for others, full of determination to live their lives to the full and for the benefit of their community. I mean, Vera Brockway and Jean Taylor.

Why do we come to church? To celebrate, to rejoice, to laugh, to smile and to cry out with one unified voice, “We are saved. Alleluia! Amen”

Bidding Prayers

1.      That the world recognises the need for prayer and utilises it to improve the lives and loads of its peoples. Lord in your mercy

2.      That there is an end to the many different wars and conflicts that beset so many countries and that peace may come and reign.

3.      That our parishes of St John, St Luke and St Anne grow in identity, in strength and in community together.

4.      That our young people grow in a sense of wonderment and praise of God our Father and let Him into their lives.

5.      That our sick, our dying, our lonely and our housebound are comforted by the love of God shown in and through our actions.

6.      That our recently deceased may find everlasting peace with their heavenly Father. We remember especially, Vera Brockway and Jean Taylor and pray for their souls.

7.      That Our Lady, the Mother of our Saviour may intercede for us as we now pray together, hail Mary, full of grace