ANNOUNCER:
From the St. Ignatius Chapel at the Manresa Jesuit Spiritual
Renewal Centre in Pickering, Ontario. The National Catholic
Broadcasting Council presents The Daily TV Mass. Welcome to the celebration
of the Daily TV Mass. I am Fr. Henk van Meijel and today our homilist
is Deacon Mike Walsh. We remember the remarkable life
of Fr. Henri Nouwen who was an internationally known
priest and author, respected professor
and beloved pastor, who wrote 39 books on
the spiritual life. Born in Nijkerk, Holland on January 24, 1932, Fr. Nouwen was called to the
priesthood at a very young age and was ordained in 1957. He would go on to teach at
the University of Notre Dame and the Divinity Schools
of Yale and Harvard. In 1985, he spend
his sabbatical at L'Arche in Trosly-Breuil, France, and a year later,
Nouwen came to make his home at L'Arche Daybreak
near Toronto, Canada. Today marks the 25th anniversary
of Henri's sudden death while he was visiting Holland
and he is buried in Richmond Hill, Ontario. This mass is offered in
thanksgiving for the many gifts Henri Nouwen has shared
with so many over the years. In the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. The peace of the Lord be
with you. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. And as we have placed ourselves
before the Lord on this feast of St. Matthew. We, again, recall
our own weakness and that we need God's guidance. You were sent to heal
the contrite of heart. Lord, have mercy. CONGREGATION:
Lord, have mercy. FR. HENK VAN MEIJEL:
You came to call sinners. Christ, have mercy. CONGREGATION:
Christ, have mercy. FR. HENK VAN MEIJEL:
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.
- And let us say together. Glory to God in the highest and on Earth, peace to people
of goodwill. We praise You, we bless You,
we adore You, we glorify You, we give You
thanks for Your great glory. Lord God, Heavenly king. O God Almighty Father. Lord Jesus Christ,
only begotten son. Lord God, lamb of God,
Son of the Father. You take away the sins
of the world. Have mercy on us. You take away the sins
of the world. Receive our prayer. You are seated at the right hand
of the Father. Have mercy on us for You alone
are the holy one. You alone are the Lord. You alone are the most high. Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God,
the Father. Amen. And let us pray. O God, who with untold mercy, we're pleased to choose
as an apostle, send Matthew, the tax collector, grant that sustained by his
example and intersession we may merit to hold firm
in following You through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Your Son who lives and reigns with You in
the unity of the Holy Spirit. One God forever and ever. CONGREGATION:
Amen. A reading from the letter of
Paul to the Ephesians. I, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy
of the calling to which You have been called. With all humility
and gentleness. With patience baring
with one another in love making every effort to maintain
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit just as You were called
to the one hope of Your calling. One Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is above all
and through all and in all. But each of us was
given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. The gifts Christ gave were that some would be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers to equip the saints
for the work of ministry. For building up
the body of Christ until all of us come
to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the sign of God. To maternity. To the nature of the full
stature of Christ. The word of the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Thanks be to God. # (Organ playing) # # The heavens are telling # # the glory of God # # and the firmament proclaims # # His handy work # # Day to day pours
forth speech # # and night to night
declares knowledge # # There is no speech # # Nor are there words # # Their voice is not heard # # Yet their voice goes out # # through all the Earth # # And their words to
the end of the world # # (Organ playing) # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # We praise You, O God # # We acclaim You as Lord # # The glorious accompany
of apostles # # Praise You # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # # Hallelujah # The Lord be with you. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. A reading from the holy gospel
according to Matthew. CONGREGATION:
Glory to You, O Lord. As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man called "Matthew"
sitting at a tax booth and Jesus said to him, "Follow me." And Matthew got up
and followed Jesus. And as Jesus sat at dinner
in the house, many tax collectors
and sinners came and were sitting with Him
and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with
tax collectors and sinners?" But when Jesus heard this,
He said, "Those who are well have no need
of a physician, but those who are sick do. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have come to call not
the righteous, but sinners." The gospel of the Lord. CONGREGATION: Praise to You,
Lord Jesus Christ. So, I'd like to start by asking
you a question if I can. Regardless of where you are. If the answer to the question is
"Yes", raise your hand. So, here it is. Do you consider yourself
a disciple of Jesus the Christ? So, I'm going to put
my hand up here and when I was thinking
about this, I went to Webster's dictionary and looked up the
word "disciple" and I disciple is one
who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines
of another. And I think if you're here
watching the Daily TV Mass and you join us regularly,
this describes each of us. We do our best to accept
what Jesus teaches and assist in spreading
that Good News around the world. And today, in our two readings, both of them which are
so applicable for this feast day
of St. Matthew, it is a call to discipleship. A call to be a follower
of Christ and in our gospel,
you probably heard this story many, many times,
but in our gospel today, what's happening? Jesus is going from
place to place, He's walking and He encounters this man
in a tax booth named Matthew. He's sitting right behind
the tax booth and Jesus comes up to Him
and He offers him just really two words. He says to Matthew, "Follow me." And Matthew immediately gets up and leaves the tax booth
and follows Jesus. Now again, I know you've heard
this story many times, but it's really quite incredible
when you think about it. Here's Jesus starting
to build His followers and He picks this man,
a tax collector, now, we might not know this
but 2,000 years ago tax collectors were absolutely
the most hated of the Jewish people
by the Jewish people, because of what it is they did. They probably hated them more
than even the Romans. They considered them
to be unworthy as you see later on
with the Pharisees' reaction about who Jesus is eating with and the invitation
from Jesus is very simple. Some big long questionnaire,
no big what's your resume? No, it just simply goes up to
this man and says "follow me." And the part of the gospel
that's really so riveting to me anyway
is what Matthew does next. He physically gets up, he leaves the tax booth
and follows Jesus. He literally leaves
his old life behind him and he goes and he follows Jesus
into this new life. In our first reading,
Paul is there and Paul really
is telling us what it takes to be a disciple of Christ and I love the way he says that
he is a prisoner of Christ and he says if you too want to
be a prisoner of Christ, I am begging you to lead a life
that is worthy of being a disciple and again,
what does that take? No long resume.
He says this simply. It take humility, gentleness,
patience, and most importantly,
the ability to love. The ability to love ourselves and then give that love away
to the other. As you heard at
the beginning of mass, Fr. Henk mentioned that today
we remember a special person, Fr. Henri Nouwen. 25 years ago, he died on
this day quite suddenly. Now, I know many of you probably
don't know Henri Nouwen. Many of you do. I happened to have been really
very fortunate to spend two years as
the executive director of the Henri Nouwen Society and his books touch me all
through my formation. Fr. Ron Rolheiser, another
well-known Catholic priest who writes
in North America mostly, but he said this in
a recent column about Nouwen in the Catholic Register. He said Nouwen's readers
identify with him because he shared honestly
his struggles. He related his weaknesses
to his struggles in prayer and in that, many readers
found themselves looking into the mirror. And I know that was true for me
as I was reading his books. And while I was part of this
very special group with Sr. Sue Mosteller
and a number of others. We started a series called The Henri Nouwen
Spirituality Series. In one of the books that was
edited by this wonderful man, the late John Mogabgab. He put together writings
of Henri's that had not been published
or talks. And one of the books
he created was this one called A Spirituality
for Living. And in it, it really talks about
what it takes to be a disciple of Christ. I often thought maybe that would
be a better title. A Spirituality of Living
as a Disciple of Christ. And in the book, very early on,
he talks about Luke 6. Another one of these moments
where people are called and in the story at night we
hear Jesus goes and He lives or He goes away and He is
in solitude in deep prayer and then as night gives way
to the morning, Jesus comes and He chooses
His 12 apostles. And as morning gives way
to afternoon, the apostles along with Christ
go down onto the plain where many have gathered so that
they can hear Jesus teach and they can be cured by Jesus. And Nouwen goes on to say that
it is these three disciplines, which is really what
he says in this book. What are the disciplines needed
to be a disciple of Christ? And he says that there
are three of them. Solitude, the ability to live
in community and then go out and ministry. So, in solitude, what we do
is we really go and we are alone with God just as Jesus does
on so many occasions. We search for intimacy,
friendship, and companionship, and once we make
this connection, once we make room in our hearts
for God to be with us. We can go and live in community. And Henri Nouwen said something very interesting
about community. He says community is not
an organization. He says no community is a way
of listening and living. And living in a community,
he says, is not easy, so he says there are
two important things if we want to truly live
in community. Forgiveness and compassion. We often talk about
the Daily TV Mass community and I believe we are one,
because we come together and we celebrate each day
with this mass. And I know we are a people
who believe in forgiveness because at this mass
like every other mass, we will pray the words
that Jesus left us. That we will ask for forgiveness
of our trespasses and grant forgiveness to others. And once we connect,
once we live in community, we go out in ministry and again, all disciples of Jesus,
Henri Nouwen says are called to ministry,
but ministry is much more than doing things, although, you
will be called on to do things. Ministry is something we trust and the Daily TV Mass community
is a community that trusts in prayer. We pray for those
in our Intentions Book, we pray each day for everyone
who we care about. We have the week of masses
for prayers for things like vocations and
each November we come together with our book remembrance. We pray and we come together
in ministry and gratitude and with great compassion. And so, if we do these things. When we say yes
to Jesus' invitation, just as Matthew did,
to follow Him. When we spend time in solitude to make room for God
in our life, and when we come together
in community and ask for
and grant forgiveness and celebrate together. This will lead up into ministry
with gratitude and compassion. And that's what allows us to
truly leave this mass in peace, because we have chosen
to live our lives with discipline as disciples
of Jesus. So, join me now in our prayers as we know that prayer
brings us love, brings love alive in our lives. Dear God, may we always remember
the importance of discipleship of solitude, community,
and ministry. And may this help us
to come together to make time for You
and to open our hearts to hear Your call. For this, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Lord, hear our prayer. As part of our ministry
of prayer, we join together as we remember
those in our community who have asked to be included in
our Prayer Intentions Book. Especially those who are
dedicated in ministry and care to the sick. May they receive the grace
to continue their ministry of compassion and caring
with hope and joy. For this, we pray to the Lord. CONGREGATION:
Lord, hear our prayer. Hear the prayers. Hear these prayers
and the prayers of all your faithful servants as we strive to know you O Lord. To celebrate You
and to serve You and we do these things aided by
the power of the Holy Spirit and through Your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. CONGREGATION:
Blessed be God forever. By the mystery
of this water and wine, may we come to share in
the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share
in our humanity. 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. CONGREGATION:
Blessed be God forever. With humble spirit
and contrite heart may we be accepted by You
O Lord and May our sacrifice in Your sight this day
be pleasing to You, Lord God. Wash me, O Lord,
from my iniquity and cleanse me of my sins. Pray my sisters and brothers that my sacrifice and yours
may 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. As we celebrate anew the memory
of St. Matthew, we bring Your sacrifices
and prayers, O Lord. Humbly imploring You to look
kindly on Your church whose faith You have nourished by the preaching
of the apostles 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 through Christ, our Lord. For You have built your church
to stand firm of the apostolic foundations
to be a lasting sign of Your holiness on Earth
and offer all humanity Your heavenly teaching. Therefore, now and
for ages unending, with all the hosts of angels,
we sing You, we sing to You with all
our hearts crying out as we acclaim. # (Organ playing) # # Holy, Holy, # # Holy Lord # # God of hosts # # Heaven and Earth are full # # Of your glory # # Hosanna in the highest # # Hosanna in the highest # # Blessed is he who comes # # In the name of the Lord # # Hosanna in the highest # # Hosanna in the highest # You are indeed Holy, O Lord. The fount of all holiness. Make holy, therefore,
these gifts we pray. - (Chimes ringing)
- By sending down Your spirit upon them like
the dewfall so that they may become for us the Body and 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 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." (Chimes ringing) The mystery of faith. # (Organ playing) # # When we eat this bread # # And drink this cup, # # We proclaim Your death,
O Lord, # # 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, Thomas, our Bishop, the other bishops, the clergy, and the entire people
You've called Your own. Remember, also,
our sisters and brothers 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 with all the Saints who have pleased You
throughout the ages. We may merit to be co-heirs
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. CONGREGATION:
Amen. And at the Saviour's command and formed now by divine
teaching, we 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, 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. CONGREGATION:
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." CONGREGATION:
Amen. The peace of the Lord
be with you always. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. And let us offer each other
a sign of 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 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. And may the Body of Christ
keep us safe for eternal life. May the Blood of Christ
keep us safe for eternal life. (Chimes ringing) ANNOUNCER: Please join me now in
this act of spiritual communion. # And let us pray. Sharing in the saving joy,
O Lord, with which St. Matthew
welcomed the saviour as a guest in his home. We pray grant that we may
always be renewed by the food we receive
from Christ who came to call
not just the just, but sinners to salvation who lives and reigns
forever and ever. Amen. The Lord be with you. CONGREGATION:
And with your spirit. And may Almighty God bless you. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace glorifying
the Lord by your life. CONGREGATION:
Thanks be to God. ANNOUNCER:
Our thanks to our donors for the gift of this Mass. # (Organ playing) # # Come and journey # # With a saviour # # Who has called us
from our birth # # Who has washed us # # In the waters # # And who loved us # # On the Earth # # Come and journey # # Come and journey # # With a saviour # # Who has come # # We are all God's
sons and daughters # # In the spirit, we are one # # Come and journey #
