Thursday of the 4th week of Lent - Proper Readings ●
 
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Intro
We are now two weeks into the Coronavirus in Scotland and the UK and we have journeyed through the first days of growing chaos and panic to these days where things have settled down into the first phase, at least for a while.  Things have not collapsed as we feared.  That has been due to the good work of so many, from our governments, all the way down to millions of ordinary people all doing their bit.  But if we have faith we also have to see this avoiding of disaster and settling down of events as an answer to our prayers.  In the last weeks, there has been a huge and unprecedented outpouring of prayer and, in faith, we have to thank God that He has listened and proved Himself a good Father and Guide.  The First Reading today, where God answers Moses’ prayer to Him to prevent a disaster wiping out his people, gives us confidence that God answers the prayers of our priests and people today.
 
Entrance Antiphon ( Cf. Ps 104: 3-4)
Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice; turn to the Lord and his strength; constantly
seek his face.
 
Collect
We invoke your mercy in humble prayer, O Lord, that you may cause us, your
servants, corrected by penance and schooled by good works, to persevere sincerely in
your commands and come safely to the paschal festivities. Through our Lord Jesus
Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one
God, forever and ever.
 
First reading Exodus: 32:7-14
Moses pleads with the Lord his God to spare Israel
The Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Go down now because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have apostatised. They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they have made themselves a calf of molten metal and have worshipped it and offered it a sacrifice. “Here is your God, Israel,” they have cried “who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘I can see how headstrong these people are! Leave me, now, my wrath shall blaze out against them and devour them; of you, however, I will make a great nation.’ But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘why should your wrath blaze out against these people of yours whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with arm outstretched and mighty hand? Why let the Egyptians say, “Ah, it was in treachery that he brought them out, to do them to death in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth”? Leave your burning wrath; relent and do not bring this disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise: I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage forever.’  So, the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
 
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 105(106):19-23
 
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
 
They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped an image of metal, exchanging the
God who was their glory for the image of a bull that eats grass.
 
They forgot the God who was their savior, who had done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the land of Ham, such marvels at the Red Sea.
 
For this, he said he would destroy them, but Moses, the man he had chosen, stood in
the breach before him, to turn back his anger from destruction.
 
Gospel Acclamation cf. Jn6:63,68
 
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God! Your words are spirit, Lord, and
they are life; you have the message of eternal life. Glory to you, O Christ, you are the
Word of God!
 
Gospel: John 5:31-47
You place your hopes on Moses but Moses will be your accuser
Jesus said to the Jews: ‘Were I to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid, but there is another witness who can speak on my behalf, and I know that his testimony is valid. You sent messengers to John, and he gave his testimony to the truth: not that I depend on human testimony; no, it is for your salvation that I speak of this. John was a lamp alight and shining and for a time you were content to enjoy the light that he gave. But my testimony is greater than John’s: the works my Father has given me to carry out, these same works of mine testify that the Father has sent me. Besides, the Father who sent me bears witness to me himself. You have never heard his voice, you have never seen his shape, and his word finds no home in you because you do not believe in the one he has sent. ‘You study the scriptures, believing that in them you have eternal life; now these same scriptures testify to me, and yet you refuse to come to me for life! As for human approval, this means nothing to me. Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you. I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else comes in his own name you will accept him. How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that comes from the one God? Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father: you place your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be your accuser. If you really believed him you would believe me too since it was I that he was writing about; but if you refuse to believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?’
 

 
Reflection
This reading reveals something amazing; that when we pray we can change God’s mind; when we pray, we can change the course of world events; when we pray, bad things that were about to happen are prevented from happening.  The message to us today in this c-virus crisis is that our prayers really do work. And there have been so many prayers.  Our priests are still celebrating Mass, Morning, Noon, Evening and Night Prayer in intercession for deliverance from the disease, many of you are joining them for Masses online, or praying Rosaries, Novenas and Stations of the Cross.  So, keep up your prayers of Adoration and Praise, of Thanksgiving and Blessing, of Confession and Repentance.  But above all, keep up your Petitions for yourselves and your Intercessions for your loved ones and others.  God is encouraging us to redouble our prayers for the next phase.  Remember; God hears every prayer and answers and, if prayer can move mountains it can also help wipe away a little virus.
 
Intercessions
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.
 
We pray: for an end to the public health threat; that this global pandemic may pass quickly and with minimum effect.
 
We pray for our loved ones, especially our vulnerable; that they are kept safe.
 
We pray for our families’; that our livelihoods be protected.
 
We pray for our carers and all working in frontline services: that they are strengthened and kept safe.
 
We pray for our civic and religious leaders; that they are wise in their guidance of us.
 
We pray for those with care of our financial markets: that they act on behalf of the common good.
 
We pray for our medical scientists; that they quickly find a vaccine.

We pray for our nations; that they return to the LORD God with faith, love and hope;.
 
We pray for peoples: that they see our world return to security and peace.
 
The Lord’s Prayer
 
Prayer over the People
O God, protector of all who hope in you, bless your people, keep them safe, defend
them, prepare them, that, free from sin and safe from the enemy, they may persevere
always in your love. Through Christ our Lord.