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Livestreamed Sunday Masses celebrated by Archbishop Costelloe are available from approximately 11am on Sundays. Links are as follows:

Archdiocese Website – www.perthcatholic.org.au

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Other Resources:

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Free-to-air Television: ‘Mass for You at Home’ is shown at 6.00am every Sunday morning on Channel 7.

The Shalom World App can be downloaded for free and gives you access to Catholic TV, Masses and much more.

Outline of this Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

LIFE

Life, like the water of the seas, freshens only when it ascends toward heaven.

OPENING PRAYER:

O God, our Father, give us at all times,
minds which are eager to seek, memories
which are strong to remember,
wills which are dedicated to obey,
hearts which are surrendered to love,
lives which are committed to service. 
Prepare us for the glory of your Kingdom,
proclaimed by your beloved Son. Amen.

READ: Ezekiel 37:12-14

Theme: The Lord puts His Spirit in His People.

UNDERSTANDING THE PASSAGE:

Ezekiel, the prophet of HOPE, was called to give God’s message to the exiled people in Babylon, and to bring the rebels back to God.

This reading describes a vision of a valley of dry bones. The bones symbolised ‘the whole house of Israel’. The Israelites kept saying: “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead”.

But God would raise Israel from the ‘grave’ of its exile in Babylon. Ezekiel, in his vision, discerned the breath (or the Spirit) of God moving over the dry bones and they became a great, immense army, and he understood that God’s Spirit was about to do this for these hopeless people. This scene also summed up the missions of Ezekiel. He was to inject new spirit into the down-hearted people and help them to recover their faith and hope in God.

The Lord raised up those people to ‘live again’ and to return to their homeland.

Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.

The RESPONSORIAL PSALM 129 (130) is filled with trust that God is ready to forgive, and with the joy of having been forgiven. Our God is one who saves. With Him there is mercy and fullness of redemption. He comes to us when we are in ‘the depths’. And without Him where else can we be? In Him we ‘live and move and have our being’; without Him we are in exile: lost, restless, searching! Have LIFE with GOD!

READ: Romans 8:8-11

Theme: If the Spirit of God dwells in us, then He will raise our mortal bodies to life.

UNDERSTANDING THE PASSAGE:

St. Paul says that if ‘unspiritual things’ of the world (pride, passion, lust, ambition) completely dominate a person’s life, it is spiritual suicide.

When ‘spiritual things’ (peace, justice, goodness, kindness, prayer) dominate a person’s life, that person is Spirit-controlled, Christ-controlled, God-focused. This person is on the way to LIFE.

St. Paul explains that all people die because all are involved in the human situation. Sin came into the world and brought death, which is the consequence of sin. So all people die. But to the Spirit­ controlled person, death means the beginning of a NEW LIFE, or more accurately, the further unfolding of a life that is already there because of being justified and sanctified through Christ.

“Nobody is excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven except through human fault.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)

The GOSPEL ACCLAMATION is to praise the Lord and recall the great message that HE IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. Anyone who believes in Him will not die for ever.

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

READ: John 11:1-45

Theme: I am the resurrection and the life.

UNDERSTANDING THE PASSAGE:

In this Gospel reading we discover a theme of resurrection that invites us to look forward to the approaching joys of the Easter Season.

Jesus raised his friend Lazarus to life. Lazarus was set free “for God’s glory, that through it the Son of God may be glorified”. Jesus knew that this coming to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead was a step for Him which would end in the cross.

Lazarus is the representative of all those whom Jesus loved, those for whom Jesus came into the world. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says: “I am the Light of the World, the Water of Life, the Way, the truth, the Life, and I am the Resurrection”. JESUS IS RESURRECTION for humankind. In Jesus ‘the hope that the graves would be opened and the dead come forth’ is fulfilled. God has given us eternal life WITH HIM through JESUS, and the principle of this New Life is the SPIRIT OF GOD within us.

This reading stresses the fact that JESUS IS RESURRECTION AND LIFE for us – and nothing else really matters.

“The Gospels do not explain the resurrection: the resurrection explains the Gospels. Belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; IT IS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH”.

(L.S. Whale)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION

This is the final ‘sign’ that the Gospel writer offers us before Jesus’ death. It is a powerful sign

The one who is destined to ‘die for the people’ as the high priest Caiaphas said, is the bearer of life for the people.

As we prepare again to contemplate the suffering and death of Jesus, let us prepare by asking for a deep faith that he is resurrection for us.

Not only at the end of our earthly lives, but even now he wants to raise us up.

Let us bring to him our doubts and uncertainties,

our fears and disappointments,

our shame and disillusionment.

He will call us forth from the tomb which entraps us, he will free us.

DO WE BELIEVE THIS?

Thomas a Kempis said, “For a small living, men run a great way; for eternal life. many will scarce move a single foot from the ground”.

(a) What are we doing for eternal life?

(b) Are we open to the work of the Holy Spirit in our life?

(c) Do we live our life with Christ?

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK:

Lord, fill us with Your life.

FINAL PRAYER:

O God, our Father,
Increase our knowledge, that we may know more about you,
and more about the life which you want us to live.
Increase our strength of mind and will,
that we may be able to keep the resolutions that we have made.
Increase our love that we may be more open to the Spirit
and live our lives with Jesus in preparation for eternal life with you.
Amen.