Prayer for the Sick
Father of goodness and love, hear our prayers for the sick members of our community and for all who are in need. Amid mental and physical suffering may they find consolation in your healing presence. Show your mercy as you close wounds, cure illness, make broken bodies whole and free downcast spirits. May these special people find lasting health and deliverance, and so join us in thanking you for all your gifts. We ask this through the Lord Jesus who healed those who believed. Amen.
Today’s Reading
Acts 14:21-27
21 Having preached the good news in that town and made a considerable number of disciples, they went back through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.
22 They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith, saying, ‘We must all experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God.’
23 In each of these churches they appointed elders, and with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.
24 They passed through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia.
25 Then after proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia
26 and from there sailed for Antioch, where they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.
27 On their arrival they assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
8 Yahweh is tenderness and pity, slow to anger, full of faithful love.
9 Yahweh is generous to all, his tenderness embraces all his creatures.
10 All your creatures shall thank you, Yahweh, and your faithful shall bless you.
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingship and tell of your might,
12 making known your mighty deeds to the children of Adam, the glory and majesty of your kingship.
13 Your kingship is a kingship for ever, your reign lasts from age to age. Yahweh is trustworthy in all his words, and upright in all his deeds.
Gospel, John 13:31-33, 34-35
31 When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified.
32 If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon.
33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come.
34 I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you.
35 It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.
Reading 2, Revelation 21:1-5
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea.
2 I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them.
4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone.’
5 Then the One sitting on the throne spoke. ‘Look, I am making the whole of creation new. Write this, “What I am saying is trustworthy and will come true.”
