Category: Mass

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Introduction – Prayers Of The Faithful

The month of September has long been dedicated to Mary under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows. Each day of this month is celebrated, in some part of the world, as a major feast of Mary under one of the many titles she bears. On September 8th we celebrate her Nativity and on September 15th we invoke her as Our Lady of Sorrows. In Ireland September 7th is acknowledged as the date of the founding of the Legion of Mary which has had such an important place in our own Diocese of Saint John.

September 13th is the feast of St. John Chrysostom and it was on this date in 1984 when St. John Paul II visited our province and offered Mass for us at Moncton. His motto “Totus Tuus”, taken from a prayer by St. Louis de Montfort declares that he belonged entirely to Mary. But the month takes on special meaning for us all on September 14th, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. From the moment of Jesus Conception in Mary’s womb, to the moment of His death on the Cross and she received His lifeless body in her arms, to the moment she was present at Pentecost, her life has always been centred on Her Son, Jesus. For her faithfulness to Jesus we celebrate her and look to her as an example of discipleship and witnessing to Her Son in the world.

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Introduction – Prayers Of The Faithful

“We can’t think of the Christian life apart from this path. There is always this journey, a journey that He(Jesus) took first, the journey of humility, the journey, too, of humiliation, of denying oneself, and then rising. But this is the path. Without the Cross, the Christian style is not Christian, and if the Cross is a Cross without Jesus, it is not Christian. The Christian style takes the Cross with Jesus and goes forward- not without the Cross, not without Jesus.”    Pope Francis

A new month begins on Tuesday. With September comes the opening of schools and a provincial election. These are very welcome signs that small battles are being won in the war against COVID-19. But does it mean that we are on the verge of “business as usual”? People speak of a “new normal” which will define the way we live. The old normal would work quite well if it is done, as Pope Francis suggests, i.e. to live in the Christian style where the cross enables us to be humble and to sacrifice for others and Jesus always gives us reason to hope.

St. Paul warns today about conforming to the age. The present age is marked by the fears connected to the pandemic and a growing sense of isolation, a pernicious kind of separation from others and from the culture and faith that have formed us. In faith we have connected more deeply though prayer for each other and by enduring the sacrifices to keep others healthy. That is the lifestyle of a Christian.