UNITED IN PRAYER

A PRAYER RESOURCE FOR FAMILIES, INDIVIDUALS AND HOUSEHOLDS.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord (Year A)

Gather

Proclaim

Break

Send

Pause
Take a moment to still yourself. Take a deep breath and ask God for a renewed sense of presence with you in this moment.

Opening Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, obedient always to your Father’s will, throughout the world the Church renews your offering from the rising of the sun to its setting: unite in one body those who share the one bread.
Lord Jesus Christ, you stand at our door and knock: come to us, fill our hearts with your truth and stay with us.
Amen.

Sing or listen

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
R: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. Alleluia.

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Gospel

John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.

Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.

This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

If you’re accustomed to the Christian ideas of the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, it’s perhaps helpful to be reminded of how odd this might seem to others. Why, do you think, are the Jews confused by Jesus in the Gospel, and how does he respond to their confusion?

Clearly what is said here suggests the importance of being closely connected with Jesus, as the source of life. Where can you most clearly recognise this connection in your own life?

This bread is given not just for you, for me, but for “the life of the world”. What does that idea add to all that Jesus is saying here?

As you read the Gospel again, consider what part receiving the body and blood of Christ has played in your own life of faith.

The promise made here is that whoever “eats this bread will live for ever”. Take the last few moments of this prayer to respond in your own way to that promise.

Adapted from https://pray-as-you-go.org/