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. Welcome to the celebration
of the Daily TV Mass. I'm Fr. Ernie De Ciccio. The televising of
this Mass is made possible by the contribution from
Michael Martel from Nova Scotia. This Mass is offered in
memory of his father, Mickey. Our thanks to Michael
Martel for choosing to remember his deceased
family member in this way. This sacred celebration
will be seen by tens of
thousands of people across Canada
and around the world, and on their behalf, I thank you. In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. The grace and peace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the
Holy Spirit be with you all. CONGREGANTS:
And with your spirit. My dear brothers
and sisters, as we gather during this
season of Lent, we call to mind our need
for God in our lives. We recognize especially
our human weakness, and we ask the Lord to
give us strength and mercy and peace. You were sent to heal the
contrite of heart. Lord, have mercy. CONGREGANTS:
Lord, have mercy. ERNESTO: You came to
call sinners. Christ, have mercy. CONGREGANTS:
Christ, have mercy. ERNESTO: You are seated at
the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. Lord, have mercy. CONGREGANTS:
Lord, have mercy. May almighty God have
mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to
everlasting life. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. Let us pray. Prompt our actions
with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with
your constant help, that all we do may
always begin from you and by you be brought
to completion through our Lord
Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever
and ever. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. A reading from the
book of Deuteronomy. "Moses spoke to the
whole people of Israel, saying, 'See, I have
set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments
of the Lord your God that I am commanding
you today, by loving
the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments,
decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and
become numerous, and the Lord your God
will bless you in the land that you are
entering to possess. But if your
heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods
and serve them, I declare to you today that
you shall perish; you shall not live
long in the land that you are crossing the
Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth
to witness against you today that I have set before
you life and death, blessings
and curses. Choose life so that you
and your descendants may live, loving the
Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast
to him; for that means life to you
and length of days, so that you may live
in the land that the Lord swore
to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.'" The word of
the Lord. CONGREGANTS:
Thanks be to God. # Happy are they # # Who hope # # In the Lord # # Happy are those
who do not follow # # The advice
of the wicked # # Or take the path
that sinners tread # # Or sit
in the seat # # Of scoffers # # But their
delight # # Is in the law
of the Lord # # And on his love
they meditate # # Day and night # # Happy are they # # Who hope # # In the Lord # # They are
like trees # # Planted by
streams of water # # Which
yield their fruit # # In its season # # And their leaves
do not wither # # In all that
they do # # They prosper # # Happy are they # # Who hope # # In the Lord # # The wicked are
not so # # But are
like chaff # # That the wind
drives away # # The Lord
watches over # # The way of
the righteous # # But the way
of the wicked # # Will perish # # Happy are they # # Who hope # # In the Lord # # # Praise
to you, Lord # # King of
eternal glory # # Praise
to you, Lord # # King of
eternal glory # # Repent, says
the Lord # # The kingdom
of heaven # # Is at hand # # Praise
to you, Lord # # King of
eternal glory # The Lord be
with you. CONGREGANTS:
And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy
Gospel according to Luke. ERNESTO AND CONGREGANTS: Glory
to you, O Lord. ERNESTO: "Jesus spoke
to his disciples and sternly ordered them
not to tell anyone: 'The Son of Man must
undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders,
chief priests, and scribes and be killed and on the third day
be raised.' Then he said to
them all, 'If any want to
become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross
daily and follow me. For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake will save it. What does it profit them
if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit
themselves?'" The gospel
of the Lord. ERNESTO AND CONGREGANTS: Praise
to you, Lord Jesus Christ. ERNESTO: We've
only just started Lent, and today's gospel reminds us
of what this is all about: remembering that Jesus suffered and died for us and
for our salvation. But Lent is not just
about remembering what Jesus did. But it's a call for us
to walk in his footsteps. The words of
today's gospel-- If we want to be
his followers, then we have
to deny ourselves and take up our
cross daily. That might not be a very attractive
message to some people. I'll never forget when I was
a young university student and belonged to a
group of Christians who liked to
come together and pray, and we would put
on these coffeehouses to spread the word and to try to turn
people on to the gospel, to Christ. And the message
usually had to be, "Follow Jesus, and life's going to
be wonderful." And then one year, one of
our guest speakers stood up and said, "Accept Jesus
into your life, and life's going
to be hard." And I could see some of
the leaders of our group saying, "Shut up! Don't say
that kind of stuff! You're going
to turn them off!" But that's the
truth, isn't it? We follow Jesus not
because we're expecting to be given
an easy life. We follow Jesus because we
want to walk in his footsteps, and walking in
the footsteps of Jesus means joining ourselves
to Christ even in suffering. You know, there's a word that's
not very popular nowadays. It's called "sacrifice." It's almost fallen out of
our vocabulary, eh? Sacrifice.
Do we understand that life involves
sacrifice? Sacrificing of our
own selves, to the glory of
God, yes, but also for the good
of our brothers and sisters. I have to
teach marriage classes for our young couples
preparing for the sacrament, and I remind them, being husband and wife is going
to involve some sacrifice. It's not about either of you
winning all the time. And it's not even about
your marriage being 50/50, because as
husband and wife, it's going to
be 100/100. You have to give
it your all, and that means
sometimes sacrificing for the good of your partner. Parents do this, of course, for children. How many sleepless
nights do they have to go when the children
are newborn, when they're toddlers, when they're growing up
and going to school, when they're teenagers? And parents never
stop being parents. They'll spend the rest
of the their life worrying about their kids and,
yes, sacrificing for them, and I think it's beautiful
when even children learn to sacrifice for
their parents. We have huge
populations of seniors in most of our
countries nowadays. And it's not an
easy thing to give up
our own priorities, our own lives to
make sure that our seniors are
well looked after, provided for. Are we ready to sacrifice
for the good of others? And you know that Lent is
actually a season of sacrifice. When I was young, we
learned that word. We had to sacrifice
something for 40 days. And when I was
a kid, of course, it meant giving
up chocolate or chips or some other little
thing like that, but maybe we should think of
what's a more modern thing to sacrifice in our
own day and age. We're in 2022. We can live
without chocolate and chips. How many of you can live
without your cellphone at the dinner table? I tell that to children when
they're preparing for communion. "Why don't you turn off
your cellphone and talk to
your parents instead? Or even turn
off the TV while you're having
a meal together? You ever think of sacrificing
those kind of things?" Let's use these 40 days to
reflect on some of the stuff that we've made too
important in our own lives. It shouldn't
take a disaster, a calamity
for us to realize that we can live without
some of those things. You know, sometimes,
you hear about these tornados hitting
in some areas, and everything is destroyed. And survivors
will say, "I'm alive. I've got my family. I'm blessed. The other stuff
can be replaced." I've gotten into a few car
accidents into my life, and I've had to go by
car accidents too many times. And what an
inconvenience, eh, when you're stuck on the highway
and you got to wait two hours, not going anywhere. Then you realize somebody
died in that accident, and you say, "That could
have been me! I'm blessed. So what that
I'm inconvenienced?" So, this Lent, let's focus
on what's really more important, and let's be willing to
sacrifice some of those things that aren't as important
as we think they are. Let's sacrifice some
of what we have. Let's sacrifice
some of who we are. Maybe we could sacrifice some of
our play or entertainment. Maybe we can sacrifice
some of our wasted time. Let's use
our time better, spend it with God, spend it in
relationship, doing good for our
brothers and sisters. And then, yes, even though it might
involve carrying a cross, we will be following
Christ more faithfully. And now, let's offer
our prayers to the Lord, who always hears us
and answers us in our need. For all those in the
Daily TV Mass community who have asked to be included in
our prayer intentions book, especially those looking
for a deeper awareness of God in
everyday life, we pray
to the Lord. CONGREGANTS: Lord,
hear our prayer. During the
season of Lent, we pray in
a special way for all those preparing
for the Easter sacraments, men, women, and even
children who will be coming into the full communion of
the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil. That these final
weeks of preparation will bring them great growth
in faith and in love, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGANTS: Lord,
hear our prayer. For all those who are
sick in suffering, whether in body, mind,
or spirit, for all those who've
asked us to pray for them, for all those we've
promised to pray for, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGANTS:
Lord, hear our prayer. Loving God, we ask you
to hear all of our prayers, those we have spoken
and the many more that we hold in the
silence of our hearts, and answer us always with your
mercy and with your love, through Christ,
our Lord. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. Blessed are you, Lord,
God of all creation, for through your goodness,
we have received the bread we
offer you, fruit of the earth and
work of human hands. It will become for us
the bread of life. CONGREGANTS:
Blessed be God forever. Blessed are you, Lord,
God of all creation, for through your goodness,
we have received the wine we offer you, fruit of the vine
and work of human hands. It will become our
spiritual drink. CONGREGANTS: Blessed
be God forever. Pray, brothers
and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours
may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father. CONGREGANTS: May the Lord accept
the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and
the glory of his name, for our good and the good
of all his holy church. Regard with favour,
O Lord, we pray, the offerings we set
upon this sacred altar, that bestowing on
us your pardon, our oblations may give
honour to your name through Christ,
our Lord. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. The Lord be
with you. CONGREGANTS:
And with your spirit. Lift up your hearts. CONGREGANTS: We lift them
up to the Lord. Let us give thanks
to the Lord our God. CONGREGANTS:
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, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, for by your gracious
gift each year, your faithful await the
sacred pascal feasts with the joy
of minds made pure so that,
more eagerly intent on prayer and on the
works of charity and participating in
the mysteries by which they
have been reborn, they may be led to
the fullness of grace that you bestow on your
sons and daughters. And so with angels
and archangels, with thrones
and dominions, and with all the hosts and
powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your
glory as, without end, we acclaim... # 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,
these gifts, we pray-- (Bells ringing) 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 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." (Bells ringing) In a similar way,
when supper was ended, he took the chalice, and once
more giving thanks, he gave it 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." (Bells ringing) # The mystery
of faith # # 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 and bring her to
the fullness of charity together with
Francis, our pope, and Thomas, our bishop,
and all the clergy. 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, we pray, that with the blessed
virgin Mary, mother of God, with blessed
Joseph, her spouse, with the blessed apostles
and all the saints who have pleased
you throughout the ages, we may merit to be
coheirs to eternal life and may praise and
glorify you through your Son
Jesus Christ. # Through him and
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 # # Amen # And now, let's
join together in prayer using the words that our Saviour
Jesus Christ has given us. ERNESTO AND CONGREGANTS:
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. ERNESTO: Deliver us, Lord, we
pray, from every evil. Graciously grant
peace in our days, 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. CONGREGANTS: For
the kingdom, the power, and the glory
are yours, now and forever. Lord Jesus Christ, who 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. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. The peace of the Lord
be with you always. CONGREGANTS:
And with your spirit. Let us offer each other
the sign of peace. # # 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 called
to the supper of the lamb. ERNESTO AND CONGREGANTS:
Lord, I am not worthy that you should
enter under my roof, but only say
the word and my soul
shall be healed. (Bells ringing) ANNOUNCER: Please
join me now in this act of
spiritual communion. My Jesus, I believe that you are present
in the blessed sacrament. I love you above all things, and I desire you in my soul. Since I cannot now
receive you sacramentally, come spiritually
into my heart. As though you were
already there, I embrace you and unite myself wholly to you. Permit not that I should ever be separated from you. Amen. Let us pray. Having received the blessing
of your heavenly gifts, we humbly
beseech you, almighty God, that they may
always be for us a source both of pardon
and of salvation through Christ,
our Lord. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. The Lord be
with you. CONGREGANTS:
And with your spirit. Bow down for the
blessing. Almighty God, who have made known to your
people the ways of eternal life, lead them by that
path, we pray, to you, the
unfading light, through Christ, our Lord. CONGREGANTS: Amen. And may almighty
God bless you, the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. CONGREGANTS:
Amen. Go in peace, glorifying the
Lord by your life. CONGREGANTS:
Thanks be to God. ANNOUNCER: Our thanks
to our donor for the gift of this Mass. # # Lord who throughout # # These 40 days # # For us did fast # # And pray #
