Fr. Rodney Kissinger, S.J. has been a Jesuit for over 69 years and a priest for over 58 years. His seasoned spirituality is the fruit of more than 60 years of making and giving the Spiritual Exercises in all of its formats to priests, religious and laity. It is presented not in the jargon of academia but in a language that everyone can understand. He is neither “old breed” nor “new breed,” he is just “half breed.” Having studied both the old theology and the new theology he is convinced that the continuity is so great that you cannot understand the new until you have mastered the old.

 

THE WORD OF GOD

In announcing the International Bishops Synod on “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,” our Holy Father Benedict XVI said, “The Church’s “primary and fundamental” mission is to nourish herself on the Word of God. In fact, if the proclamation of the Gospel constitutes her reason for being and her mission, it is indispensable that the Church know and live that which she proclaims so that her preaching is credible, despite the weaknesses and poverty of the human beings who constitute her.” There is no better way to keep the Word of God as the center of our personal and pastoral lives than by celebrating the Mass. The Mass is a mosaic of the Bible.

The Mass begins with the SIGN OF THE CROSS professing belief in the Triune God and salvation by the sacrifice of Our Lord on the cross. (Phil. 2:5-11) The GREETING is taken from the greetings in the Epistles of St. Paul. (1 Cor.1:3; Rom. 1:7; Gal.1:3; Phil. 1:2; Col. 1:2)

The PENITENTIAL RITE: “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy” is the prayer of the blind man on the road to Jericho (Luke 8:38), the humble prayer of the Publican in the Temple (Luke 18:14) and the pleading prayer of the ten lepers. (Luke 17:13)

The GLORIA is the song of the angels at the birth of the Lord. “And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2: 13-14)

The LITURGY OF THE WORD begins with a reading from the Old Testament. The RESPONSORIAL PSALM is from the Book of Psalms. On Sundays there is a reading from the New Testament and then a reading from one of the Gospels. CLICK HERE for the Entire Homily