Greeting
The word of God is alive and active: it is the living person of Jesus our Lord. May he continue speaking his Word to you, May you open your hearts to it, and may the Lord Jesus be always with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
A. The Seed Of The Lord
It is heartening to see that many families respect and venerate the Word of God so much that they keep a Bible in their homes. It is hoped that they also read it and apply it in their everyday lives. God’s Word is powerful, yet it is at the same time so humble as to beg us to receive it well and put it into practice. We ask the Lord Jesus who is here with us to let his mighty and humble Word move us.
B. A Generous Sower
When we look at living beings in nature, plants, and animals of all kinds, we see how much seed is generously sown. There is plenty of it, and yet few spring up and reproduce fruit. The Lord himself keeps sowing his Word among us as an invitation, a call, a challenge. But do we even let it take root? What is the crop we let it reproduce? God is generous with his Word but are we generous with our response? Let Jesus today speak his Word to us, let us welcome it with warmth, let it take root in us and grow and yield a rich and beautiful harvest.
Penitential Act
We hear the Word of God often; we respect it, but we do not always live according to it. We ask the Lord to forgive us. (PAUSE)
Jesus, living Word of God, touch our minds and hearts that we may live as you ask us: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy. Christ, powerful Word of God, give us depth and faithfulness, that your message may not wither in us: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, humble Word of God, make us receptive to you and to your message of life: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy. God, in your goodness speak to us your mighty word of forgiveness. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray that the Lord may open us to his Word so that it will not remain fruitless (PAUSE)
Lord our God, your Son Jesus opened the ears of the deaf and gave sight to the blind. Make us listen to his message of Good News, attune us to his voice and his silence, open especially our heart to all the light and love and hope that appeal to us in what he says. Give us also the courage to speak and to live as we believe, that his word may succeed in us. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.
Liturgy of the Word First Reading Introduction: God’s Word Is Creative
The prophet speaks a message of hope: God’s Word always produces results and is a creative act. God’s promise of salvation will be fulfilled.
Second Reading Introduction: Straining In Hope For A New Creation
St. Paul speaks a message of hope. We are God’s children who pass with Christ through suffering on the way of hope toward God’s freedom for ourselves and for a new world.
Gospel Introduction: A Seed That Bears Fruit
God sows his Word in hope. The good news will be effective in all those who are open to let it change their lives.
General Intercessions
Let us pray to the Lord who sows and harvests, that people may eagerly welcome his Word and respond to its urgent call. Let us say: R/ Lord, hear your people.
• For those who spread the word of the Good News: pastors and missionaries, catechists and teachers, that they may keep sowing the seed even when they see no harvest yet, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
• For those who are not moved by the Word of God, that the Church may hear their silent yearning and speak that Word in such a way that they see that it pertains to their life and happiness, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
• For those who have remained deaf to the Word of God, that they may be moved by it when they see it flowering and bearing fruit in the lives of good Christians, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
• For the sick, the lonely, those who suffer or mourn, that the Word of God may bring them consolation, give them the courage to bear their pain and to keep hoping in a loving God, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
• And for us and all Christian communities, that we may not let the cares of life choke the Word of God in us, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear your people.
Lord, may your Word not return to you without carrying out your will in us, and may our prayers not return to us without having been answered by you. This we ask through Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.
Prayer Over the Gifts
We bring before you, Lord God, the fruit of the seed you let the farmer sow and to which you gave growth. Let this bread bring us the life of your beloved Son Jesus, and may this wine from our hills, bring us joy and lasting hope. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
The Word of God is so effective among us that, when it is spoken over bread and wine, it changes them into Jesus our Lord. Let us give thanks and praise to our Father for this great gift.
Invitation to the Lord’s Prayer
With Jesus, we pray to our Father words of hope and trust.
Deliver Us
Deliver us Lord, from words that are empty and unreliable. Keep us free from false promises and from all forms of sin. Fill our mouths with words and songs of love, goodness and joy, as we encourage one another and wait for the final coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus the Lord, who sows in our hearts the good seed of his message. He himself is the message: let us receive him well and listen to him.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, people hunger today for truth, authenticity, for the deeper meaning of life. Open them to your Good News, fill our stammering words with your word of life and teach us to speak to them a language they understand, especially the language of hope and love of our Christian living. We ask this in the name of the Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
We have heard Jesus, the Word of God, and listened to him. The Lord now entrusts to you his Word and his body. Go now, speak his Word and be his body to the world. That you may be a blessing to all, may the Lord bless you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen. Go in the peace of the Lord. R/ Thanks be to God.
***
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 13: 1-23
Beware the birds that peck the Word
Today, Jesus introduces the puzzle of evil in the world. Why is evil present in the world? In giving catechesis to their communities, the early Christians tried to make Jesus’ message understandable and practical, applying it to concrete life situations. Biblical scholars today agree that the explanation of the parable, which is portrayed as Jesus telling his disciples privately, may not be directly announced by him. Matthew was presenting a catechetical explanation of it to his Community.
Reflecting on the Parable of the Sower, Pope Francis said, “This Parable is somewhat the ‘mother’ of all parables because it speaks about listening to the Word. It reminds us that the Word of God is a fruitful and effective seed, and God scatters it everywhere, and he pays no attention to the amount of seed wasted.
All are invited to work on these grounds so that when God’s word comes, it can penetrate and transform our lives. The first of the soils is paths with the hard ground; when the seed falls there, the birds of the air come, and if they peck it, nothing is left. The birds that peck the seeds represent in the Bible the temptations of paganism that tried to seduce Israel with their proposals of immoral life.
Even today, the word of God is being pecked at by the birds of pagan concepts or worldly values we are immersed in. The Word of God fails to bear fruit because it cannot penetrate hearts hardened by secularization and permissive ideologies. We begin to believe that ‘things are OK’ because everyone does them. For example, we carelessly utter insulting and vulgar speeches and still think, ‘it is ok,’ because everyone uses them.
When we come to the Church for the Sunday Eucharistic celebration, but if we are still dazed by the movie scenes we watched late at night, how can we tune our hearts to the Gospel? Instead, we should read the Gospel passage that we will hear in advance and arrive prepared with a cleared and tilled field. Identify those birds who peck the seeds of the Word and make us forget it as soon as we hear it.
Many seeds are lost in the thorns, on the stones, and along the paths. I used to get discouraged when I began these daily reflections of “Coffee with God” three years ago since so few people listened. Today’s Gospel reminds me that I shouldn’t say, ‘Since people are not interested, I no longer proclaim the Gospel.’ The solution is to sow more; the sowing must be more abundant to find the good soil present in everyone!
