Sunday

05

September

Pope St. Gregory the Great

(540 – 604)

White

He was elected Pope on 3rd September 590, the first monk to be elected to this office. He wrote extensively on pastoral care, spirituality, and morals, and designated himself “servant of the servants of God.” He died on 12th March 604.

Entrance Antiphon

Blessed Gregory, raised upon the throne of Peter, sought always the beauty of the Lord and lived in celebration of that love.

Collect

O God, who care for your people with gentleness and rule them in love, through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory, endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom those to whom you have given authority to govern, that the flourishing of a holy flock may become the eternal joy of the shepherds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First reading: Colossians 1:15-20

Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created

all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers – all things were created through him and for him. Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things in unity. Now the Church is his body, he is its head. As he is the Beginning, he was first to be born from the dead, so that he should be first in every way; because God wanted all perfection to be found in him and all things to be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross.

Psalm 99(100):2-5

R/     Come before the Lord, singing for joy.

1.     Serve the Lord with gladness.Come before him, singing for joy.

2.     Know that he, the Lord, is God.He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock.

3.     Go within his gates, giving thanks. Enter his courts with songs of praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.

4.  Indeed, how good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love. He is faithful from age to age.

Gospel Acclamation: cf.Ps18:9

Alleluia, alleluia! Your words gladden the heart, O Lord, they give light to the eyes. Alleluia!

Gospel: Luke 5:33-39

WThe Pharisees and the scribes said to Jesus, ‘John’s disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees too, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come, the time for the bridegroom to be taken away from them; that will be the time when they will fast.’ He also told them this parable, ‘No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not only will he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old. ‘And nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. “The old is good” he says.’

Prayer over the Offerings

Grant our supplication, we pray, O Lord, that this sacrifice we present in celebration of Saint Gregory may be for our good, since through its offering you have loosed the offences of all the world. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon: Lk 12:42

This is the steward, faithful and prudent, whom the Lord set over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time.

Prayer after Communion

Through Christ the teacher, O Lord, instruct those you feed with Christ, the living Bread, that on the feast day of Saint Gregory they may learn your truth and express it in works of charity. Through Christ our Lord.

Meditation

Perhaps, we can readily rattle all the titles and names of Jesus which we have read in books or heard in sermons and inspirational songs. The question remains whether any of these titles has an impact in our lives and relationship with Jesus. We could simply be like the Apostles saying what they had heard others say about Jesus. He asks us today: “But you, who do you say that I am?” This is a personal question. It demands a personal answer. Such an answer ought to be based on a personal experience of an encounter with Jesus. This is the task of our spiritual journey.