YOUR WORDS ARE SPIRIT LORD AND THEY ARE LIFE

Prayer before Mass: Almighty and ever-living God, I approach the sacrament of Your only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. I come sick to the doctor of life, unclean to the fountain of mercy, blind to the radiance of eternal light, and poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. Lord, in Your great generosity, heal my sickness, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I receive the Bread of Angels, the King of kings and Lord of lords, with humble reverence, with the purity and faith, the repentance and love, and the determined purpose that will help  to bring me to salvation. 

May I receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood, and its reality and power. Kind God, may I receive the Body of Your only-begotten Son, our Lord

Jesus Christ, born from the womb of the Virgin Mary, and so be received into His mystical body and numbered among His members.

Loving Father, as on my earthly pilgrimage I now receive Your beloved Son under the veil of a  sacrament, may I one day see Him face to face in glory, who lives and reigns with You forever. Amen. By Knights of the Holy Eucharist.  Readings Lectures  Reflection 

First Reading 

The fall of man

The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ The woman answered the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death.”’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.’ The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths. 

The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

 Responsorial Psalm

Happy the man whose offence is forgiven

Gospel

'He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak'

Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’

My loving Father, your words are spirit and they are life. Father whenever I disobey you, part of me is dead, and if I refuse to obey your commandments, spiritually I am dead this will also lead to my physical death. What next? My hope of eternity lost, for nothing unholy will behold your eternal glory and beauty.

Our first parents fell, when they engaged serpent in conversation he asked our first mother Eve ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ Satan knew it was a particular tree, but to engage the woman said really and any of the tree. The woman answered the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death.”’ But the serpent said ‘No! You will not die!

Father having inherited sin of disobedience from our first parents, we are tempted each day by the beauty and glamour in our world which represents our today's garden of Eden. The attraction of the world if we are not attuned to you spiritually, loving Father, like our first parents  we bear the consequences of our actions Death. The tempter never tells us the consequence whenever we are tempted 'No! You will not die'. False! Spiritual death and physical death is the price we pay for our disobedience.

Our knowledge of good and evil judges our actions, we realize our nakedness. Thank you Father full of compassion and love for our Redeemer, your Son Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and life. Having shown us the way, the truth and to save us gave His life as ransom for our redemption, that through faith in Him we are saved. That we might live and not die.

Open my heart, open my ears to hear and accept the words of your Son. Help me obey your words Lord.  Loosened my tongue Lord, that  I will speak of your praise Father. May my lips speak of your goodness and  love. Father, your words are spirit, and they are life. Lord Jesus Christ thank you for you are the WORD of God. Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for loving me.