+ 4th-5th April – Palm Sunday – Weekend Liturgy

Welcome to Palm Sunday with Our Lady of the Way Catholic Community Emu Plains NSW Australia 

THERE WILL BE A CHILDREN’S LITURGY RESOURCE IN A SEPARATE POST FOR SUNDAY 5th

Welcome from near and far

Hello sisters and brothers – you who belong to Our Lady of the Way parish AND you who are joining us in this Parish Blog space from other places and/or other spiritual backgrounds. I’ve heard this past week of some people from Canada, India, the U.K. and the U.S. being with us in this online faith space – and some people from across metro Sydney – Thank you for the blessing of your presence.

That little furry friend above is two years older now but the photo still gets some ‘awww’ and ‘ahh’ responses – (not because of the bald guy!) In the current very unusual time of health crisis, we could probably all do with some doses of ‘awww’ and ‘ahh’ – so if you want to send me your cutest pet photo ([email protected]) I’ll get a few people to judge the best ‘awww’ and ‘ahh’ and print it in a coming Parish Blog post.

Anyway, back to this weekend – For anyone connecting with us who I haven’t met, my name is Paul and I’m a priest of Parramatta Diocese. My full time work is as the director in a small team of the Institute for Mission (ifm.org.au) – a ministry agency of the Diocese focussing on enrichment and leadership for life and faith for adults 18+ . Regarding a local community, I’m currently the parish priest with Our Lady of the Way, Emu Plains. We just squeeze in on the left edge of this Sydney railway map (before the landform and railway rises west) if you’re not too familiar.

If you zoomed in from the sky, on that left edge of the rail map above, you’d see something like this below:

The red pin point is the Emu Pains church building – and the life around it is the ‘Church’ in this place – the people that is. Linked with you who are further away, we here in this place can grow in our sense of oneness as humanity – and grow in our united capacity to be a network of goodness in and for the world God loves. Just as a geographic comment, that thick, dark diagonal line is the Nepean River – the two yellow lines that cross it are the M4 motorway and Great Western Highway – and the left hand side darker third of the photo is the start of the western rise from Sydney’s large Cumberland Plain to the Blue Mountains – small mountains, that is, if you’re linking with us from nearer to the Canadian Rockies or the Himalayas!  

Intro to today’s Mass

Physically speaking, there’s a picture below of the Our Lady of the Way church where I’ll centrally pray the Mass for the Palm Sunday weekend, for others to join. And I hope this structure of the Mass created here in the Parish Blog can help to unite us as a Eucharist people – a people who, with Jesus, loved and nourished, break our lives open for the world and for the glory of the Creator. 

Today, for the Palm Sunday weekend Mass, I have the Kensey family praying the Mass directly with me in the church at the ‘social distance’ we’re all practising. The Kenseys featured in the Saturday morning Parish Blog post – 4th April. I hope having them physically in the church today helps to make the connection more meaningful as you enter into and use this Mass outline in your own way.

I would like to offer this Mass especially for our parishioners Jayne and Richard Mason and for the loving welcome to eternal life for Jayne’s dear brother Danny. Sadly, Danny died yesterday – a victim of COVID-19

2 minute voice recording to start

Press the play button 

Pre-Mass Palm Sunday Gospel

On Palm Sunday, there’s traditionally this extra Gospel passage below, right at the start of Mass,  recalling the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem – and followed by a procession of palms. For us today, reading this passage can be a bit like our entry with Jesus, into the drama and trust of the Holy Week ahead; a week, we pray, that might continue to encourage and transform us in life and faith as Easter People. 

Formal opening greeting

We have shared the sign of the cross in the recording above, so now you might receive the following Mass greeting if you’re alone – or someone leading the prayer in your space might say:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you 

Reply: And with your spirit

Pentitential 

• Let’s pause and breathe deeply for about 15 seconds, being reminded of God’s awareness, personally, of each of us right now!
• We’re invited to take a moment to give thanks for something of goodness we have seen in recent days … if you’re with someone you might share that … before you or a prayer leader prays something like the following:

Lord Jesus – you walked this earth as one of us and embraced all that is real for us – the joys, the beauty and the incompleteness and struggle too – Lord have mercy

Lord Jesus – you showed us the power of faith in God through all things – and encouraged us to call God an intimate name – as you breathed in the love of  ‘Abba’ – Christ have mercy

Lord Jesus – you accompany us and our world in this challenging time with your journey of the cross – and with your surrender in trust – Lord have mercy

And let’s all receive this deep encouragement  – May almighty God have gentle mercy on each of us, forgive us of any sin, and bring us to everlasting life – AMEN

Opening Prayer from Mass

Let us pray

Enjoy reflecting through or sharing the reading of the following – and then the Gospel is being shared with you using recorded voices during Mass. 

First reading

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 21(22):8-9,17-20,23-24

Second Reading 

A Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians   (2:6-11)

Gospel Acclamation 

Gospel – voice recording

The following proclamation of the Gospel was recorded live at Our Lady of the Way Mass today 

HOMILY – voice recording

I hope this recorded homily helps to connect to each of our lives in some helpful way – feel welcome to use it as you wish, as a prompt for your own reflections and/or sharing

Profession of Faith 

Whilst unusual to see our Profession of Faith in the ‘virtual church space’ of a Parish Blog, perhaps this written format on your screen can can enable some part of it to speak in a new or particular way – So, let’s reflectively join together in professing our faith

I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting

AMEN

Prayers of the Faithful

Whether you’re praying this Mass on your own or with a partner,  family or friends – Let’s express some spontaneous prayer at this point. You might like to think of 

• A prayer for our nation and world – and key leaders – at this time  …… Lord hear us
• A prayer for the way in which those who, together, are the Church might be able to especially serve the world that God loves – at this time …… Lord hear us
• A prayer for yourself/yourselves – giving thanks for your goodness and capacity to bring life – at this time …… Lord hear us 
• ?
• ?

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST – Voice Recording

You are welcome to enter into the following Eucharistic prayer, recorded during the celebration of Mass at Our Lady of the Way Church for this Palm Sunday Mass. 

May we feel united with many who break the bread of life across the world; with people who share Sacramental faith in Jesus with us – and with those across beliefs who along with us, put flesh on God’s presence and goodness in creation. 

Here is the recording of the Eucharistic Prayer etc of Mass for you which goes for 9 minutes

Prayer after Communion

AMEN

Final Blessing

May you breathe deeply of God’s presence for you and God’s love for you, here in the Blessed Sacrament honoured and celebrated in Mass – and truly living through you / with you / and in you …

And may almighty God bless each of us – in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – Amen

Let us go and proclaim the Gospel by our lives

Thanks be to God!

Notices

• Sincere sympathy to parishioners Jayne and Richard Mason – you might have seen in red early in the liturgy outline, reference to Jayne’s sad loss of her brother Danny to COVID-19. May the Lord of life receive Danny with safety and joy in this Holy Week and comfort with hope and friendship, those who grieve his loss.
• A live streaming of Palm Sunday Mass with Bishop Vincent begins at 10am Sunday 5th April using the following link to YouTube www.youtube.com/user/ParramattaDiocese or Facebook www.facebook.com/parracatholic
• For this Our Lady of the Way network, there will be prayer and reflection in the Parish Blog for each of the special days of the Easter ‘Triduum’ – Holy Thursday / Good Friday afternoon / and liturgy of Easter – we will also give the links each of those days to the live streaming by the Diocese with Bishop Vincent.
• Did you see – or are you taking part in – the special outreach letterbox drop in our local streets for Palm Sunday and the days following? Here’s a small image of the cards prepared, that have a message relevant for people of all faiths and  backgrounds.                   
• You should be able to enlarge that above card on your screen  if you’d like to read the message in full. Full details of the outreach initiative in our local streets can still be seen on the Friday 3rd blog post. And if you’re reading this before Sunday 9am you can still take part in the drive-through palms and cards pick-up – AND during the week you can still participate in sharing a card as we have printed more and are making them available from the parish office during the day on Tuesday 7th April. You can also still pick up palms on Tuesday from the parish office (15 Troy St) from the supply that’s remaining. Here are a couple of the first images from the ‘drive-through’ palms pick-up on Saturday evening .. 

• A note about the formatting in this blog site: You’ll notice that some of the headings in posts that should look the same as others, don’t! – eg; why did the homily heading appear bolder than the gospel heading today? Same settings ..  no rhyme or reason for the difference when it uploaded … Anyway, only a small thing but for those who might have noticed, I’ll try to solve it as we proceed.

See you in the next post on Monday – and with friendship in God’s mission,

This site is not directly interactive at this stage – but if you’d like to give any advice or feedback to assist ongoing posts, you are welcome to contact me via [email protected] or to leave a message for me on the parish number 47351041

fr Paul