Oh Lord our God, how often we take Your lifting of the veil for granted! In Your great love for us; You give us access to Your Kingdom and invite us to have an intimate relationship with You. No longer just a God for His people but a Father for His children. And all this was made possible by the gift of Your Son our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. You Lord are great and worthy to be praised.
O God, we ponder your love within your temple.
And after we enter into that intimate and loving relationship with You; Your command is simply for us to share the abundant love we receive with Your lost sheep. To seek them out where ever they may be. To bind their wounds and liberate them from their captivity. To heal and bring Your love and light into their lives. And to invite and lead them home to You.
O God, we ponder your love within your temple.
Glory be to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen
First reading
Hebrews 12:18-19,21-24
What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm; or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them. The whole scene was so terrible that Moses said: I am afraid, and was trembling with fright. But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s.
Gospel
Mark 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.
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