23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time - 2025 - Year C
The following are prayerful resources rather than a liturgy.
- The gospel for the day
- Some optional questions for reflection
- Prayers of Intercession
- Cluster Prayer
- The gospel of the week ahead with questions for reflection
Having used our prayer resources, you might want simply to reflect yourself on them and how that might flow into your coming week.
Some people have found it very helpful to meet with others and share their thoughts. If you are interested in joining a small group to share your thoughts and feelings about God's Word please email us: cluster.alpha@outlook.com
Questions for reflection (framed for a group discussion)
The gospel today tells us “…great crowds accompanied Jesus…” but he knows that their hopes of him as the liberator of the people from Roman oppression will be crushed and the majority of them will fall away. They have no idea what lies ahead. They have heard him speak, but they have not listened to what he was saying. Perhaps it is in this context that we should read the stark message of today’s gospel.
Jesus gives examples of people who have not properly thought through their plan of action: the builder who is erecting a tower; the king who is contemplating going to war against an army of greater numbers. He is all too well aware that when he enters Jerusalem with these excited followers, he will be leaving the city within the week carrying a cross on the way to execution.
To be a loyal disciple of Jesus is to walk along the less popular path; to enter through the narrow door. It is hard, and often it is two steps forward and one step back. It is the experience of having done something that pleases God, only to be followed by a foolish failure to do so. It is falling down and picking up that cross and moving forward. The first positive aspect is that when we do this, we are truly following Jesus on the road that leads, not just to Calvary, but to the Resurrection. The second is that we are not doing it alone: we have the example of Jesus, and we have the support of each other. When we fall down, let’s always remember that this cluster is bristling with people willing to help – we only have to reach out.
1. Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry his cross. Who are the Simons (and Simones!) who help you in your faith journey?
2. How do you try to discover what God is asking of you?*
* All second questions
© The Pastoral Center
Prayers of Intercession
We pray for Pope Leo. May he continue inspiring the Church to demonstrate faith in Christ by embracing the cross with Jesus
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
For our world leaders. May they learn to trust Wisdom rather than their own limited resources.
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
For those affected by the earthquake in Afghanistan. May God give them strength and hope, and may they receive the practical help they need.
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
For the world we live in, that, in this Season of Creation, God may open our eyes to recognise the goodness of all creation, and help us do what we can, to restore and care for the wonderful gift we have been given.
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
For our faith community. May we be strengthened to carry the crosses of our lives as we live out our Baptism.
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
For all who are sick in our parish cluster and for all who care for them. We hold those who are on the Prayer Foundation List in our hearts and prayers.
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
For those who have recently died, and for those whose anniversaries we remember at this time. May they share fully in the glory of God’s promise.
We remember Michael Boyle, Dorothy Gilhooly, Patrick Boyle, Jack Laing, Jonathan (Jon) Savage & Kate Selby.
Lord, in your mercy ... Hear our prayer
We will now say together the prayer to be missionary disciples.
Cluster prayer
Lord continue to bless our community in this time of transition.
Help us on our journey to grow from a maintenance church to a missionary church.
Give us the courage to be missionary disciples.
Make our doors wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship; narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and prejudice.
Kindle in us the fire of your love that all who come here will find joy, peace and love.
Make this a house of prayer and a gateway to your kingdom.
AMEN
Questions for reflection (framed for a group discussion)
Today's feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, commonly known as the Triumph of the Cross, encapsulates the purpose of Jesus's life, death and resurrection. It is also a blueprint for our own lives as Christians, particularly when we are faced with hardship, pain, or difficult decisions.
In a world where one's own comfort is being sold as the more attractive alternative to sacrifice, this can all too often result in more pain and destruction. In this Season of Creation, in fact, we are reminded how thoughtlessness, self-interest and greed are putting the very planet we share, and its most vulnerable people, in jeopardy.
Crosses come in many sizes. Crosses that are inflicted on us. Those we make for ourselves. Everyday choices between the easy way out and a path that will force us out of our comfort zone. Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of love, his Triumph of the Cross, tells us that facing our crosses is the better way, embracing what love asks of us, even if it comes at a cost. Jesus' way leads us to the resurrection, here and now.
1. Share a moment when you embraced your cross and emerged more alive.
2. What is something you can give up this week to make more time for prayer or service?*
* All second questions
© The Pastoral Center
Gospel for the day - 23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year C
Luke 14:25-33 - ‘Anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’
At that time: Great crowds accompanied Jesus, and he turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’
This is the gospel of the Lord. Commentary on the readings.