Greeting (see Second Reading)
Love comes from God and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. May Jesus, the Son of God, who made God’s love known to us, be always with you. R/ And also with you.
1. A Love without Boundaries
We are again reminded today that the heart of Christianity is love: love of God, love of one another. Jesus tells us that we have to love one another as he has loved us. This is a very demanding love, for it commits us to love not only those we like and who love us or like-minded fellow Christians, but also the difficult ones, the “unlovable,” people far from perfect, outsiders... That is not so easy, and this is probably why he calls it a commandment. Let us ask our Lord in this eucharist that we may grow in this openness of genuine love.
2. As I Have Loved You
We are often surprised how inventive love can be and to discover it where we had not expected it. It makes a dour husband surprise his wife with an unpredictable gesture of tenderness or a couple in the slums adopt a child found abandoned in the street. God’s astonishing love is the source of it all. He shows it when he gives up his own Son for us. Jesus kept giving a human shape to God’s love when he cared for people and gave new chances even to outcasts, the unloved and the unlovable. Today he calls us his friends and he tells us: “Love one another as I have loved you.” With these words he challenges us in today's Eucharist.
Penitential Act
We are still far from loving people the way Jesus wants us to love them. We ask the Lord and one another to forgive us. (pause)
Lord Jesus, you have loved us as the Father has loved you. Keep us in your love: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, the way you have loved us is that you laid down your life for us. Make us live for one another: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you loved the weak, sinners, those hard to love. Open our love and make it like yours: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
In your goodness forgive us, Lord, and make committed love the characteristic of us, your people. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us ask the Father that we may put no boundaries to our love (pause)
God, love is your name and you have revealed all its depth when you sent your only Son into the world and let him be the sacrifice that took our sins away. Through Jesus, who calls us his friends, make our love as strong as life and death, let it always have the last word in us and be given for free, like yours. May we always remain in your love and love one another as Jesus has loved us, he who is our Lord forever and ever. R/ Amen.
First Reading: God’s Love Open to All
God’s sign to Peter and the Church that believers from paganism are accepted and loved by God is that the Holy Spirit comes down on pagans too.
Second Reading: God Loves Us; So, We Love One Another
God loves us so much that his love took a human form in Jesus Christ. Since that time our love for one another is the sign of God’s love and of his presence among us.
Gospel: Love One Another As I Have Loved You
Jesus loves us and wants us to stay in his love and joy by keeping his commandments of loving one another.
Intercessions
Since Jesus is our friend, we can commend to him all those we love and the needs of all those whom we should learn to love. Let us say: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
– Lord Jesus, let there be love and friendship and trust in the community of your Church between its leaders and the faithful, we ask you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
– Lord Jesus, let there be love and friendship among all the people and the churches that claim that you are their Lord and shepherd; may they become really one in you, we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
– Lord Jesus, let love and friendship reign in all our communities of religious, that they may be good witnesses to your love, we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
– Lord Jesus, let love and friendship reign in all our Christian families, that parents and children may be living cells from which understanding and love may grow in our world, we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
– Lord, let there be love and friendship among us that opens our eyes and hands and hearts to the needs and the persons of the sick and the lonely, of the poor and the victims of injustice, we pray, you Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
– Let there be love and friendship in all our Christian communities, that people may come to believe in you when they see how we love one another, we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
Jesus, our friend, let us remain in your love and warm one another with it, for you are our Lord for ever and ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, loving Father, your love appeared with a human face in your Son Jesus Christ. He showed all the depth of your love and his by laying down his life for us, his friends. As he gives himself to us as the bread of life, may he be our food on the road of life and love, not only when it is easy to love but also when it is hard to be faithful and when love demands much sacrifice. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Let us raise our hearts and voices to our loving Father in heaven for having loved us before we could love him. With Jesus, God’s sign of love to us, let us offer the Father our desire and will to let his love overflow on everyone.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
With Jesus, our brother, let us pray together to our Father in heaven who loves us with so great a love as to give us his own Son: R/ Our Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord from all forms of selfishness that close us to our people. Keep us free from all sins that endanger love among us and grant us the peace of unity. Make us attentive and open to all, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ: R/ For the kingdom...
At the Sign of Peace
Let the sign of peace today be the expression of our genuine love for one another, and may it be followed by many signs and tokens of love in the life of every day.
The peace of the Lord be with you always. R/ And also with you.
Invitation to Communion
This is our Lord who said: ‘‘Love one another as I have loved you.” Happy are we to be invited to the Lord’s table of love and unity. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
God our Father, in this Eucharistic celebration you have given us new proof of your love by giving us your Son and his Spirit. Jesus has strengthened our love. Accept our thanks and bring out the best in us, that we may bear rich fruit of faithful, reliable love. Let your Holy Spirit unite us to build community with one another and to live in your love and joy now and forever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
We know that God loves us and wants to live among us. He calls us his friends, his chosen ones. Let us respond to his love without measure. We are sure that we love God and that he is present among us when we love one another. May God give us the strength to do so, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace, live in the Lord’s love, and serve him in people.
R/ Thanks be to God.
