Celebrant: Aware that God cares for us more than we can imagine, we present to Him our needs.

Deacon/Lector:

That our Holy Father, and all bishops, priests, and deacons will joyfully and effectively proclaim the grace of God that brings us salvation, we pray to the Lord...

For our President, Congress, and Courts, that they may carry out their duties with reverence for God and His unchanging law, we pray to the Lord...

For all who are fathers, that on this Fathers' Day they may be affirmed and strengthened in their calling, we pray to the Lord...

That God, who rescues the life of the helpless, may enable us to rescue children from abortion, the sick from euthanasia, the criminal from capital punishment, and the poor from starvation, we pray to the Lord…

That Christians who are persecuted for their faith may grow in the courage to acknowledge Christ in the presence of others, we pray to the Lord...

That the sick may be healed, the dying consoled, and the departed welcomed into eternal life, we pray to the Lord...

Celebrant:

Father, 
To You we have entrusted our lives.
As we proclaim Christ your Son,
Provide for all our needs,
And fill us with Your Spirit.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Father Looks Back

Longtime country music singer Kenny Rogers has a song called “Water and Bridges,” which highlights a father's pain after losing a child to abortion. Rogers told CNN that the song is not about him, but is "really about choices you make when you're young that you pay for when you're old." He goes on to explain, "It starts off with a young couple who have an abortion, and the guy says, 'If a father could hold his son, I could undo what's been done, but I guess everyone is living with water and bridges.'" Counseling and healing is available for any man or woman who has lost a child to abortion. See www.RachelsVineyard.org for details.

Jer 20:10-13
Rom 5:12-15
Mt 10:26-33

Click here for a video link with homily hints.

“All the hairs of your head are counted…you are worth more than many sparrows.” This assertion in today’s Gospel forms the basis for preaching on how much God values human life. It is not just “living things” that God values, because he created them. Rather, it is human beings – worth more than other living beings – who are privileged to have a particular relationship with God. This “capacity for God” marks out what we mean by the “sanctity” of human life. There is a relationship opened up for us with the Creator – a relationship of which lower forms of life are not capable. We can know him, praise him, receive a share in his divine nature, and one day see him face to face. We were made for him, as St. Augustine said, and our hearts are restless until we rest in him.

If a sparrow does not fall to the ground without the Father’s knowledge, what about a tiny unborn child killed “in secret” by chemical abortions (sometimes masquerading as birth control), or a new human embryo destroyed “in secret” in a laboratory in the name of “research?” 

Part of acknowledging Jesus before others, then, is to bear witness to the care that he and the Father give to the smallest human lives, and the concern God has to preserve such life.