+ Wednesday 10th June – Midweek Mass online – and Year 6 students in the church

10 June 2020

Dear friends –

(cover image credit: Unsplash collection – connecting to the fire theme in the first reading)

As written about last week, with the 50 people guideline for religious gatherings, we’re reserving the physically present Wednesday time slot for connection with our parish school children. From 9.45am the church will be open again for an hour of prayer/adoration for anyone to attend and with a brief communion service at 10.15am. Today we welcome Yr 6 and their teachers to the church for 9.15am Mass. And along with the children, we will video the liturgy of the Eucharist part of the Mass to insert here into the blog straight after – for another of what’s been our Wednesday approach to a mixed medium liturgy with texts, voice recordings and video pieces. Blessings for your participation and your day ahead.

WELCOME TO MASS ON WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 10 IN ‘ORDINARY TIME’

INTRO TO MASS

and penitential rite

>>>Click on the triangle play button to activate the voice recording<<<

OPENING PRAYER (included in the recording above)

THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

FIRST READING

A Reading from the First Book of the Kings (18:20-39)

Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’ Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’ They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made. Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’ So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.

Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’, and built an altar in the name of the Lord. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God and are winning back their hearts.’

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.’

The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God.

Painting of Elijah Receiving Bread from the Widow of Zarephath – a scene from the First Book of Kings just prior to today’s passage – (image credit: Unsplash collection)