STOP HATING

Alter Server Prayer: Father in heaven, your Son Jesus Christ showed his love for you be serving his brothers and sister in need.  I now ask you to give me your help as I serve you and your people. Open my mouth to praise you in word and song. Open my ears to hear your word. Open my hand to do your work well. Take from me all evil and distracting thoughts.  Help me to know what I should do and do it well. Help me to serve reverently at your Holy Altar and give you praise and glory now and for ever. Amen 

Mass Readings Resentment and anger, these are foul things, and both are found with the sinner. He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord, who keeps strict account of sin.

Forgive your neighbour the hurt he does you, and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven. If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord? Showing no pity for a man like himself, can he then plead for his own sins?  Remember the last things, and stop hating, remember dissolution and death, and live by the commandments.

Remember the commandments, and do not bear your neighbour ill-will; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook the offence.

We Belong to the Lord Alive or Dead
The life and death of each of us has its influence on others; if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord.  This explains why Christ both died and came to life: it was so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

You must Forgive to be Forgiven

Peter went up to Jesus and said, 'Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?' Jesus answered, 'Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven time. 'And so the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decide to settle his accounts with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt. 


 At this, the servant threw himself down at the master's feet. "Give me time" he said"and I will pay the whole sum." And the servant's master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. 

Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. "Pay what you owe me" he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying. "Give me time and I will pay you." But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they say what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. 

Then the master sent for him. "You wicked servant," he said "I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you.? And in his anger the master handed him over the tortures till he should pay all his debt.  And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.' Mass Homily

Lord Jesus Christ, help me forgive all those I perceived as my enemies, those I considered have offended me.  Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Create in me a pure heart. Remove ill-will from my heart. Father in Heaven give me a forgiving heart that bears no grudge.