available immediately following ma in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen grace to un peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ and with your spirit welcome to morning mass everybody as we gather in argue to fold st patrick's give honor and praise to the lord and so through prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries let us acknowledge  almighty god have mercy on us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life amen let us pray oh god who by the precious blood of your only be gotten son have redeemed the whole world preserve in us the work of your mercy so that ever honoring the mystery of our salvation not be afraid to go down to egypt for there i will make you a great nation not only will i go down to egypt with you i will also bring you back here after joseph has close your eyes so jacob departed from berseba and the sons of israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that pharaoh had sent for his transport they took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of canaan thus jake up and all his descendants migrated to each of his sons and his  daughters and his granddaughters and all his descendants he took with him to each of israel had sent judah and head to joseph so that he might meet him in goshen on his arrival in the region of goshen joseph hitch the horses to his chariot and rode to meet his father is real and go ship as soon as joseph saw him he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms and israel said to joseph at last i can die now that i've seen for myself that joseph is still a lawyer the word of the lord evil and do good and you may abide forever for the lord loves what is right and for sakes not his faithful ones without the end of the come from the lord the salvation of the justice is from the lord he is there refuge in time of distress and the lord helps them and delivers them he delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they and  oh oh oh the lord be with you a reading from the holy gospel according to matthew jesus said to the hostiles behold i am sending you like sheep into the midst of wolves so be shrewd as surface and simple as dogmas but be w men for they will hand you over to the court and scourge you in their synagogues and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the when they hand you over to not worry about how you want to speak or what you are to say you will be given at that moment what you want to say for it will not be you who speak but the spirit of your father's speaking through you brother will hand over brother to death and the father whose child children will rise up against parents and have them put to death you will be hated by all because of my name but whoever endures to the end will be say when they persecute you in one town flee to another amen i say to you you will not finish the towns of israel before the son of man comes the gospel of the lord you who may have gone to catholic school and if you are in my age category going to school in the fifties and in the s maybe you might remember as i do how the sisters taught us about the persecutions that took place in the church i remember learning about the early christians being persecuted but we know that the early church in its infancy experienced persecutions by both jewish people and the gentiles so there was this period in salvation history that left a very powerful impression on the young mind the persecution of christians at the time as a young boy i never thought that christians living in our our years would be persecuted at all and yet i've discovered as you have discovered that the persecution of those who follow religion is a reality it's something that we experience even in our day and it's something that we thought would never take place is very much prevalent within our society read it in the newspapers  persecution maybe more than anything else we we experience it in many many ways on many many different levels how many times have you been taught that when you are in a social setting you don't speak about religion or politics because it is bound to incite some kind of a reaction a great great debate so the reality is that we do live with persecution but in the gospel story this morning realizing that jesus was speaking directly to the people of his day and realizing that in our hearing of scripture he speaks to us he warns us that he is meant in the face of persecution the lord is meant to offer comfort and consolation to all those who are persecuted to give a sense of hopefulness and i think when we find ourselves in that kind of a situation in any age it's an important concept to hold on to there is hope and there is consolation and of course he's a sense the consolation of the spirit will be given to all those who are in need and sometimes  circumstances we are the ones who are in need i wonder as the current climate is changing as things become so different from the way they were when we were children do you believe that the people of today would persecute or crucify jesus if he came among us and person he does come among us in person in the in the hearts of individuals who professes name and we have the consolation and the hope that comes from jesus himself us pray my brothers and sisters is aware of our personal needs and the needs of others we offer these petitions to our father for the church that she will stand ever strong and in proclaiming the name of jesus let us pray to the lord for those who are in government work that our generation will see an end to the persecution of the practice of christianity let us pray to the lord for all those who may feel persecuted for their faith that they will draw strength from the holy spirit who through baptism dwells within their hearts let us pray to the  for our parish families that faith in jesus will be a unifying grace let us pray to the lord and for our brother in christ james and for all of our departed brothers and sisters that they will rest in peace that is not found in the world but is found in jesus let us pray for the lord heavenly father brothers and sisters pray that my sacrifice and yours will be acceptable to god the almighty father made a lord accept the sacrifice and join hands for the present laureate is the name for our good the good of all this holy church all our salvation through christ our lord amen the lord be with you and with your spirit lift up your hearts we lift them up so the lord let us give thanks to the lord our god it is right and just it is truly right and just our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks lord holy father almighty an eternal god for through the saving passion of your son the whole world has received  hard to confess the infinite power of your majesty since by the wondrous power of the cross your judgment on the world is now revealed and the author of christ crucified and so lord with all blood of our lord jesus christ at the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion he took bread and giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you when eat of it for this is my body which will be given out for you in a similar way when supper was scented he took the chalice and once more giving thanks he gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the ending terminal covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me therefore as we celebrate the memorial of his death and resurrection we offer you aboard the bread of life and the chalice of salvation giving thanks that you have helped us worthy to be in your presence and ministered to you humbly we pray that partaking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of charit together with francis our pope timothy our cardinal archbishop his brother bishops and all the clergy remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have at the save use command informed by divine teaching we dare to say our father  from evil deliver us lord we pray from every evil graciously grant peace in our days that by the help of your mercy we may be always free from sin and safe refresh old lord by this saving food and drink we pray that we may always be bathed in the blood of our savior so that it may become for us a spring of water welling up to eternal life