Prayerful Concerns of Our Parish Community – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We share these Prayers of the Faithful for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 29-30, 2023.  May they offer some further prayerful reflection when you read them.

God you have woven your image into the fabric of our being. If it were somehow taken out of us, we would unravel, we would cease to be. We come to you, then, in prayer and hope.

You tell us that sin does not have the power to undo what you have done God. We always remain reflections of you. Do not let our spirits be overcome by our failures and faults. Even in them, you love us. We pray to the Lord.

Your passion for what is right and just and your creativity remain deeper than any barrenness and apathy in our lives. Help us to seek that spirit of justice and trust in our imaginations and ability to create new ideas, new solutions to old problems, new ways of rejoicing. We pray to the Lord.

Free us from being held back by fear or hatred, for you have given us the great desire to love and to be loved. Help us to choose love. We pray to the Lord.

Give us the vision to discover what it is our deepest desires are and the courage to risk all in seeking those desires. You have planted them in our hearts. Finding them and living them will bring us our greatest joy. We pray to the Lord.

Jesus tells us that each of us matters. Each of us has gifts that are needed for the healing of the world. Help us to lead others to discover their giftedness. We pray to the Lord.

We give thanks for the vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Help us to follow his example in having a deep personal relationship with Jesus and his generosity of spirit, we pray to the Lord.

As we reflect on the gifts we have experienced, Lord, help us to believe in the promise of eternal life, yet to come. Bless our loved ones with this final gift. At this Mass we especially remember:

4:30 PM Felix Guinoo by his Daughter Ricamor & the Guinoo Family

7:30 AM  The People of the Parish both Living & Deceased

9:30 AM Robert S. Banks, Jr. by Sister Cathy

5:00 PM William Kendrick by Marta & Michael King

We pray to the Lord.

We offer you these prayers and those you have placed in our hearts. We ask now to be close to our Lord Jesus. To be close to Him with the energy of our hearts, to take up joyfully the mission He entrusts to us, to continue His presence and to spread the good news of His resurrection. Amen

(adapted from a prayer by Carlo Maria Martini SJ)