INTRODUCTORY REFLECTION
Funerals can evoke feelings across a wide spectrum of human emotion. Along with grief we may marvel at what thoughtful eulogies and homilies can reveal about the deceased person, even someone we knew well.
Familiarity can blind us to things, whether admirable or not, that don’t match our preconceptions. All three synoptic Gospels testify to the fact that this was the case with Jesus’ relatives and townsfolk. They had Jesus pigeonholed so definitively that he was ‘amazed at their lack of faith’.
Our perceptions of others can be limited by a lack of curiosity and imagination or by fear of the demands of a deeper intimacy. We’re all the poorer when we don’t allow ourselves to discover and delight in others’ gifts.
THE WEEK’S PRAYER FOCUS
We pray for a church that owns up to its weakness, that it might truly become the field hospital imagined by Pope Francis.
SAMPLE INTERCESSIONS
These intercessions are offered for selected use at Sunday Mass in the parish alongside those that express local needs and concerns.
PRESIDER
Dear friends, drawn together by our shared faith in Jesus, let us open our hearts to the gift of God’s power and place our troubled world in God’s good hands.
READER
We pray for Pope Francis and all church leaders, that they will bear faithful witness to God’s saving grace, both in season and out of season. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for all baptised believers, that like the apostle Paul they will find the power of God at work in their trials and weaknesses. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for the multitude of children who have known nothing but war and trauma, that by the grace of God they will break free from the cycle of hate and violence. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for the followers of Islam preparing to observe New Year, that they will be blessed by this day devoted to reflection and reconciliation. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for the First Peoples of Australia and the Torres Strait, that this week’s NAIDOC celebrations will stir them to ‘Keep the fire burning’ and stay ‘Blak, loud and proud.’ (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for all who are homeless this winter, that with the active help of individuals, communities and agencies they will find the shelter and support they need. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for all who are serving sentences in Australian gaols, especially young indigenous people, that their time in prison will help and not hinder their readiness for life in the community. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for our parish community, that the word and sacrament of this eucharist will strengthen us in faith and the following of Jesus. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray for those who have died recently . . . and for those whose anniversary of death occurs around this time, that by the grace of God they will rise from mortality to the glory of immortality. (Pause) Let us pray to the Lord.
PRESIDER
God of boundless mercy, your Son lived among us in a human family that we might all become his sisters and brothers in spirit. Help us hear and heed his word. We ask this through Christ, our Lord.