ANNOUNCER: From the historic
Loretto Abbey Chapel. With the kind cooperation
of the Toronto Catholic District School Board. The National Catholic
Broadcasting Council presents The Daily TV Mass. In the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The grace and peace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, the friendship of
the Holy Spirit be with you all. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. Welcome to the celebration
of this Daily Televised Mass. I am Fr. Michael Coutts. The televising of this Mass
is made possible by a contribution
from Louise Turcott from Scarborough, Ontario. This Mass is being offered in
loving memory of her husband, Hilliard Turcott, who would have celebrated
his 89th birthday yesterday, February 24. She offers it also
for her parents, Lucie and Lou Aukofer. And on behalf of the Catholics
across Can, all our Canadians across Canada and across
the world we thank you for
the gift of this Mass. As we celebrate this Eucharist, we are called once again to be
faithful to the gospel. Jesus puts many
standards before us and the only model and level of those standards
is Jesus Himself. You were sent to heal
the contrite of heart. Lord, have mercy. CONGREGATION:
Lord, have mercy. FR. MICHAEL COUTTS:
You came to call sinners. Christ, have mercy. CONGREGATION:
Christ, have mercy. FR. MICHAEL COUTTS:
You are seated at the right hand of the Father
to intercede for us. Lord, have mercy. CONGREGATION:
Lord, have mercy. May Almighty God
have mercy on us. Forgive us our sins and bring us
to everlasting life. - CONGREGATION: Amen.
- Let us pray. Almighty Ever-living God, who in the abundance
of Your kindness surpass the merits
and the desires of those who entreat You.
Pour out Your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer
does not dare to ask. We make this prayer through our
Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in
the unity of the Holy Spirit. God, forever and ever. CONGREGATION:
Amen. A reading from
the letter of James. Beloved. Do not grumble
against one another. So that you may not be judged. See? The judge is standing
at the doors. As an example of suffering
and patience, beloved, that the prophets who spoke in
the name of the Lord. Indeed, we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of
the endurance of Job, and you have seen
the purpose of the Lord. How the Lord is compassionate
and merciful. Above all, my beloved, do not swear either
by Heaven or by Earth or by any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no be no. So that you may not fall
under condemnation. The word of the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Thanks be to God. # (Organ playing) # # Bless the Lord # # Of my soul # # And all that is within me # # Bless His holy name # # Bless the Lord # # Of my soul # # And do not forget # # All His benefits # # It is the Lord # # Who forgives all
your inequity # # Who heals all Your diseases # # Who redeems your life # # From the pit # # Who crowns you # # With steadfast love
and mercy # # The Lord is merciful # # And gracious # # Slow to anger # # And abounding
in steadfast love # # He will not always accuse # # Nor He will keep His anger # # Forever # # (Organ playing) # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Your word, O Lord # # Is true # # Make us holy in the truth # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # The Lord be with you. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. A reading from the holy gospel
according to Mark. CONGREGATION:
Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus continued His journey
and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan and the crowds again gathered
around Him and as was his custom,
He again taught them. Some Pharisees came
and to test Him, they asked, "Is it lawful
for a man to divorce His wife?" Jesus answered them. "What did Moses command you?" They said Moses allowed a man to
write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her. But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness
of heart, he wrote this commandment
for you. But from the beginning,
God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall
become one flesh. They are no longer two
but one flesh. Therefore, what God
has joined together let no one separate. Then in the house,
the disciples asked Him again about this matter
and Jesus said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife
and marries another commits adultery against her and if she divorces her husband
and marries another, she commits adultery." The gospel of the Lord. CONGREGATION: Praise to You,
Lord Jesus Christ. Yesterday, in the first part
of that reading from the letter of James,
you had James speaking to the rich people who put
all their trust in their fancy clothes
and their gold and in their silver. Today He speaks about those
who do not have all these and feel that they
are oppressed. They feel that these rich people
manipulate them. They feel that these
rich people control them. And sometimes they want justice. Want it immediately and want it
according to their standards. And James says, "Wait a minute.
Have patience." Because when you want justice
and you want it in your own way, very often violence ensues. Whenever there is an issue
and a problem, there's always so many different
ways of looking at it. And once very often,
instead of having a debate and a conversation,
there's usually a lot of heat and very little light. Tempers flare-up
and people take violence. And violence never
gets us anywhere. We know that from experience. It only engenders more violence. Whenever there is a topic, there are always two
or three ways of discussing it. And there are
certain topics that you don't even need to get into. In the musical "My Fair Lady",
Professor Higgins mother, Mrs. Higgins says to her son,
Professor Higgins, when he's talking to
Eliza Doolittle. "Talk about the weather,
talk about anything, but not politics and religion." A very sensible woman indeed. Because whenever
we bring up any topic, there's always so many
different opinions and my opinion is right. So, what does James do? James says, "Be patient like
the prophet Job." Now, that was rather wrong. In fact, we speak about
the patience of Job mainly because of
this letter of James. Not because of it in himself. When I studied the Book of Job
48 years ago and again in December,
under Fr. Fred Chung from St. Augustine Seminary, Job turns out to be a person
who complains and complains and complains. He whines so much that I feel
like saying to you, "Do you want some cheese
with your wine?" He complains for 38 chapters in that small Book of Job. He complains against
his three companions who have come
to give him support. He says, "How dare you think
that I have committed sin, and therefore, am being punished
for all of this." Job is not an example
of patience except according
to James over here. Rather Job complains so much that even he asked God, "I want a justification,"
and God shuts him down and says, "Watch out.
Look who you're talking to." Now, the reason why James
has asked these people who feel they are oppressed,
to feel they need justice, he says, "Take the example of
Jesus Himself." Jesus when He was in the Garden
of Gethsemane and persecuted and Peter drew his sword. Jesus said,
"Put away the weapons. Those who live by violence
will die by violence. Do you not think that I could
ask for an army to come from Heaven
and to destroy them? Jesus would not use violence even when He was persecuted. But there is also another reason
for Jesus doing this. For James telling them
to have patience. Because James and Paul and all
the other apostles were so convinced
that the second coming, the judgement was just
around the corner. 2,000 years later,
it still hasn't come, but at that time
they were convinced and they said, "Have patience." Because when
the judgement comes, the justice that you seek will
be meted out to those people
who manipulate you, who persecute you,
who seek injustice against you. They will meet their due reward. Having said that,
James jumps to another thing. Another question all together
and he says, "Do not swear. Do not take oaths against Heaven
and against Earth and James is basing this on
Matthew's gospel chapter five,
verses 33-35. Now, that gospel
hadn't been written. It was still in its oral stage, but James said
Jesus Himself said "Don't take an oath against God, against Heaven, against Earth." The reason is because you
being a Christian, you should always
tell the truth. And you should tell
the truth why? Because Jesus is the way the truth and the life. And if Jesus is the truth and you say that
you're a believer in Christ, then you should
tell the truth. You don't need to take
an oath to say that you are telling the truth. You don't need to put
your hand on anything and swear that you're
telling the truth. Jesus told the truth
and you should tell it. But what happens if
by telling the truth, I harm other people or there
is a harm as a result? Let me give you an example. A good friend of yours is
working in a factory or working at a company and he defrauds things,
he lies, he cheats. Do you, even if you're not
working in that company, go and tell the boss, "Look,
this guy is defrauding you." Or you have a friend who is cheating on his or her spouse. Do you go and tell them? As Charlie Brown
in Peanuts cartoon says, "The most important achievement
that I've had in my life is to know when
to keep my mouth shut." To be a whistleblower,
that's a different issue and at the different time. When we come to the gospel,
Jesus put the question should a man be allowed to
divorce his wife? Now, the situation
in the time of Jesus is so different from us
and I'd like to mention two things in particular. One is in those days, it was
a very patriarchal society and the woman
did not have a voice unless her father, her husband,
or a brother, a male person was there,
she did not have a voice. She was totally vulnerable. To divorce her meant that
she would be totally lost. Secondly, is that women
in those days were considered as property
of the husband. Now, in 2022,
none of these apply. So, why don't
we speak about that? And the reason is because people
have made up their minds one way or the other. If I say something
that they agree with, they will quote me right, left,
and centre. If I say something
that they disagree with, they will not only
disagree with me but with everything that I say. And so, the point is it's there
in the Catholic Catechism. Look and you'll
find the answers. And so, I will never speak
about it in public, but on a one-to-one basis,
we will talk to it and that is what Pope Francis
keeps on telling us to do. And so, we ask the Lord to give us that insight of Jesus and the insight of Jesus was man and woman were made
for themselves to reflect God's encounter
with the universe. And so, they should reflect it
in their marriage as you and I have to reflect it
in the way we treat one another and in the way we respect
the nature, our universe that was given to us and we are
stewards of that creation. God bless you all. Join me now as we pray together. For all those in the daily
televised mass community who have asked to be included in
our prayer intention book, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Lord, hear our prayer. For those suffering in mind,
body, and spirit, that they may find relief and
healing through Jesus Christ, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Lord, hear our prayer. For men and women who are, who are married and who take all
the efforts they have to keep that marriage together
to make it holy, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Lord, hear our prayer. For an increase
of vocations to priestly and religious life. We pray to the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Lord, hear our prayer. Loving God, we ask You to listen
to these, our prayers. To bless all married couples, bless all families through
Christ our Lord. CONGREGATION:
Amen. Blessed are You,
Lord, God of all creation. For through Your goodness we have this bread
we offer You. Fruit of the earth
and work of human hands, it will become for us
the bread of life. CONGREGATION:
Blessed be God forever. Blessed are you,
Lord, God of all creation. For through Your goodness, we have this wine we offer You, fruit of the vine
and work of human hands. It will become for us
our spiritual drink. CONGREGATION:
Blessed be God forever. Pray, my sisters, my brothers, that my sacrifice and yours
be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father. CONGREGATION:
May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory
of His name, for our good and the good
of all His Holy Church. Let us pray. Accept, O Lord, the sacrifices instituted
by Your commands and through the sacred mysteries
which we celebrate with dutiful service, graciously complete
the sanctifying work by which You are pleased
to redeem us. We make this prayer
through Christ, our Lord. CONGREGATION:
Amen. The Lord be with you. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. Lift up your hearts. CONGREGATION:
We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks
to the Lord, our God. CONGREGATION:
It is right and just. It is truly right and just,
our duty and our salvation. Always and everywhere
to give You thanks, Lord, Holy Father.
Almighty and eternal God. For in the goodness,
You created us and when we were
justly condemned. In mercy, You redeemed us
through Christ, our Lord. Through Him, the angels praise
Your majesty. Dominions adore and powers
tremble before You. Heaven and the virtues
of Heaven and the blessed Seraphim worship
together with exaltation. May our voices join with theirs
in humble praise as we acclaim. # (Organ playing) # # Holy, Holy, # # Holy Lord # # God of Hosts # # Heaven and Earth are full # # Of Your glory # # Hosanna in the highest # # Blessed is he who comes # # In the name of the Lord # # Hosanna in the highest # You are indeed Holy, O Lord. The fount of all holiness. Make holy, therefore, - (Chimes ringing)
- these gifts we pray. By sending down
Your spirit upon them like the dewfall
so that they may become for us the Body and the Blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the time He was betrayed and entered willingly
into His passion. He took bread
and giving You thanks, broke it, and gave it to
His disciples saying, "Take this all of you
and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you." (Chimes ringing) In a similar way,
when supper was ended, He took the chalice,
and once more giving thanks, He gave the chalice to
His disciples saying, "Take this, all of you,
and drink from it. For this is
the Chalice of my Blood. The Blood of the new
and eternal covenant. which will be poured out
for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of Me." (Chimes ringing) # The mystery of faith # # (Organ playing) # # We proclaim Your death,
O Lord # # And profess
Your resurrection # # Until You come again # Therefore, as we celebrate
the memorial of His death and Resurrection,
we offer You, Lord, the Bread of Life
and the Chalice of Salvation. Giving thanks that You
have held us worthy to be in Your presence
and minister to You. Humbly, we pray that partaking
of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one
by the Holy Spirit. Remember Lord, Your Church
spread throughout the world. Bring her to
the fullness of charity. Together with Francis, our Pope, Thomas, our Bishop. The bishops across Canada,
and all the clergy, and this entire people of God. Remember, also,
our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in
the hope of the Resurrection and all who have died
in Your mercy. Welcome them into
the light of Your face. Have mercy on us all that with the blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph,
her spouse, with the blessed Apostles with our Canadian martyrs,
St. Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brebeuf, and companions, and with all the Saints who have pleased You
throughout the ages. We may merit to be co-heirs
to eternal life and praise and glorify You through Your Son, Jesus Christ. # Through Him, with Him,
and in Him # # O God, Almighty Father # # In the unity
of the Holy Spirit # # All glory
and honour is Yours # # Forever and ever # # (Organ playing) # SINGER:
# Amen # # Amen # # Amen # At the Saviour's command and formed by divine teaching,
we now dare to say Our Father,
who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth
as it is in Heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliver us, Lord,
from every evil. Graciously, grant peace
in our day that by the help of Your mercy
we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress
as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour,
Jesus Christ. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours,
now and forever. Lord Jesus Christ,
You said to Your Apostles, "Peace, I leave you.
My peace, I give you." Look not on our sins,
but on the faith of Your church and graciously grant her
peace and unity in accordance with Your will who live and reign
forever and ever. CONGREGATION:
Amen. The peace of the Lord
be with you always. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. And wherever you are, share with one another
the sign of that peace. # (Organ playing) # # Lamb of God # # You take away the sins
of the world # # Have mercy on us # # Lamb of God # # You take away the sins
of the world # # Have mercy on us # # Lamb of God # # You take away the sins
of the world # # Grant us peace # Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away
the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called
to the Supper of the Lamb. Lord, I am not worthy that you
should enter under my roof. But only say the word
and my soul shall be healed. May the body and blood of Christ bring us and all our dear ones onto life everlasting. CONGREGATION:
Amen. (Chimes ringing) ANNOUNCER: Please join me now in
this act of spiritual communion. # Let us pray. Grant us, O Mighty God, that we may be refreshed and
nourished by the sacrament which we have received. So as to be transformed into
what we consume. We make this prayer through
Christ, our Lord. - CONGREGATION: Amen.
- The Lord be with you. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. May Almighty God bless you. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. CONGREGATION:
Amen. The mass has been celebrated. Go now in the peace of Christ. CONGREGATION:
Thanks be to God. ANNOUNCER:
Our thanks to our donor for the gift of this Mass. # (Organ playing) # # There's a wideness # # In God's mercy # # Like the wideness of the sea # # There's a kindness # # In God's justice # # Which is more than liberty # # There is plentiful
redemption # # In the blood # # That has been shed # # There is joy # # For all the members # # In the sorrows # # Of the head # # For the love # # Of God is broader # # Than the measures
of our mind #
