Daily TV Mass Saturday April 27, 2026

Fr. Michael Coutts, S.J.

Transcript

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From the St. Ignatius Chapel at the Manresa Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Center in Pickering, Ontario. The National Catholic Broadcasting Council presents the Daily TV Mass.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, the friendship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And with your spirit. Welcome to the celebration of the Daily Televised Mass. I am Father Michael Coots. The televising of this Mass is made possible by a contribution from an anonymous donor from California. This Mass is being offered for the conversion of sinners and for the intentions of his family. Our thanks to our donors for the gift of this Mass, for the televising of this Mass to the faithful across Canada, the United States, and across the world. As we begin our Eucharist today, soon after Vocation Week, we ask God, the Good Shepherd, to work with us, to bless us, to walk with us in our journey of life. You were sent to heal the contrite, Lord, have mercy.

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Lord have mercy.

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You came to call sinners, Christ, have mercy. You are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. Lord, have mercy.

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Lord, have mercy.

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May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.

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Amen.

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Let us pray. O God, perfect light of the blessed, by whose gift we celebrate the paschal mysteries on earth, bring us to rejoice in the full measure of your grace for ages unending. We make this prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

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Amen.

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A reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Now the Apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the Word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them? Then Peter began to explain it to them step by step, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven being lowered by its four corners. And it came close to me. As I looked at it closely, I saw four footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, Get up, Peter, kill and eat. But I replied, By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a second time the voice answered from heaven, What God has made clean, you must not call profane. This happened three times. Then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter. He will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God? When they heard this, they were silenced, and they praised God, saying, Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life. The word of the Lord.

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So my soul thirsts for you come. My soul thirsts for come for the living car When shall I come and behold the face of Carl is thus team for the living O send out your light and your truth Let them leave me Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your twenty My soul is thirsting for living Then I will go to the altar of command to come at my exceeding charm and I will praise you with a heart my car My Soul is the boy All Hello I'm good shapes I'm ship All Hall Hall The Lord be with you and with your spirit A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John.

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Jesus said to the Pharisees, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because the hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep too that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my father. The Gospel of the Lord. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. They too must be brought together. In 1989, I was privileged to go to Jerusalem and then to visit the town of Joppa. Now we couldn't do that. But this is a turning, one of the turning points in the history of the early church. What was supposed to be clean and what was supposed to be unclean and forbidden to eat. Remember, it is the days before pasteurization and refrigeration, so it makes sense that certain foods would be banned. You know, you could have E. coli disasters. Even today, Hindus and Muslims and Jews have certain foods that are considered not to be kosher. Now, if the doctors and scientists tell us that this is not to be eaten, very often we disobey them. We take the risk. And we've seen that what happened in COVID-19 when millions died because we didn't take the advice of the doctors and scientists. But when God says this is not to be eaten, we take that risk at our own peril and we obey. Today we read that beautiful story of the Good Shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep. Just last week we had Vocation Week when the Good Shepherd called people to be priests, to be religious, to be married, to be single. And I thought about my own vocation in light of this. I was very fortunate in the month of February to go to Goa, to the place where St. Francis Xavier's body is there. And I remember when I went there, I said I was going to pray for the people of the TV mass community. I was dismayed because I could not light a candle. To light a candle at Lourdes, it's an open air, there was no problem. But inside the church, the church would simply be black and it would be impossible to clean it. So I went to a corner and prayed for the TV mass community, for the people in Canada. I went through all the provinces, all the way from Newfoundland to British Columbia. And then I went down to the United States, and the largest amount of our TV family is from there. And I could remember some of the sponsors that sponsored this mass, and I prayed for them, especially those in California and Florida, because they were the people that I remembered. And then I went off to the Middle East and then all the way to Australia and New Zealand. You see, the family has joined together without even realizing it. It's a family that is warmed by the faithful and by our faith together. But one of the most special things for me was to visit the little town of Baden in Goa. I was ordained on the 13th of July 1973. Three days later, my father took me down to this village. It was here that he, his parents, his grandparents, and all the ancestors were prayed and lived and were baptized. And they belonged to the little mission of that church of St. Sebastian. It can barely hold between 35 to 50 people. And my father took me there with great pride to present to the village his eldest son who was a priest. My father's three brothers had also joined the seminary. One was a priest in Lahore, and the other two died during the seminary because of the plague in 1918. But this time, instead of my father bringing me there, the cousin of my mother, 90-year-old Fernando and Wanda Ribero and their daughter Sunita, brought me and presented me to the church. It's a little church taken care of by Mrs. Sharmila Albuquerque, and she keeps it beautifully. And she said, Would you mind coming and celebrating Mass? And gave me goosebumps, and tears came down my cheeks, and I was not ashamed of it. As I celebrated Mass for these 35 or 40 people, and I realized how blessed I was. 52 years ago I celebrated the first Mass. Now I was celebrating the Mass. And I looked at them and I said, This is my family. This is the TV Mass family. As soon as the Mass was over, I returned to Panjum and sat at a coffee shop just to soak in all that great experience. And a couple approached me and said, Are you? And I knew what they were going to say, and I said, Yes. They said, We are from New Zealand, now settle down in Australia. Our names are Jane, Joan, and John Bell. And fancy meeting you, a Canadian, here in Goa. Our family has got together in a special way, and it has remained in a special way. We are, as Jesus said in the Gospel today, there are many sheep that do not belong. These did belong, and they did belong to onefold. And as I thought of my own vocation, I remember Father John Newton, who now lives in Oshawa. He remembered, he says, if you want to be a good priest, it's not important that you preach brilliantly or write everyday books. What is important is that you live out Psalm 24. Who shall ascend to the sanctuary of the Lord? The man with clean hands and pure heart. And I realized that through my life I have lived what Psalm 1 says. I have walked in the company of sinners, I have followed the path of the wicked. But do you see the Good Shepherd never leaves you? The Good Shepherd is always there to follow you, always there to forgive you and bring you back into the fold and say, Come back to me. Long have I waited for your returning to live a good life. And so my prayer is the prayer of the psalm. Like a deer that longs for living streams, so my soul is longing for you, my God. God bless you all. We thank you, Lord, for enlightening us through your Son, the Good Shepherd. Fill us with his light throughout this day. We pray to the Lord. Let your wisdom lead us today, Lord, as we walk in the newness of life. We pray to the Lord. For all those in our daily TV Mass Prayer Intention book, we pray to the Lord. Let us pray that nations move towards effective disarmament, but particularly nuclear disarmament, and the world leaders choose the path of dialogue and diplomacy instead of violence. We pray to the Lord. During this month of April, we pray for those in our community who are burdened by grief or discouragement. May they be uplifted by the light of the risen Christ and renewed in their hope. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation, for through your goodness we have this bread we offer you, fruit of the earth and work of human hands. It will become for us the bread of life. Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation, for through your goodness we have this wine we offer you, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become for us our spiritual drink. God be pleased to accept these gifts that we offer to you with humble and with contrite heart. Pray, my sisters, my brothers, that this our sacrifice be acceptable to God the Almighty Father. Receive, O Lord, these offerings of your exultant church, and as you have given a cause for such great gladness, grant also the gifts we bring. May they bear fruit in perpetual happiness through Christ our Lord. Amen. The Lord be with you. And in your spirit. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to 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 at all times to acclaim you, O Lord, but in this time above all to praise you yet more gloriously when Christ's our Passover has been sacrificed. Through Him the children of light rise to eternal light, and the halls of the heavenly kingdom are thrown open to the faithful, for his death is our ransom from death, and his rising the life of all, that all that has risen. Therefore, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exalts in your praise, and even the heavenly powers with the angelic hosts sing together the unending hymn of your glory as they acclaim. You are indeed holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness. Make holy, therefore, these gifts we pray, by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion, he took bread, giving you thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you. In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice and once more giving thanks, gave the chalice 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 new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.

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A mystery of faith, we proclaim your death and profess your resurrection until you come.

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Therefore, as we celebrate the memorial of his death and resurrection, we offer you, Lord, the bread of life and the chalice of salvation, giving thanks that you have held us worthy to be in your presence and minister 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 charity, together with Leo, our Pope, Francis, our bishop, all the clergy, and this entire people of God. Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection, and all who have died in your mercy, welcome them into the light of your face. Have mercy on us all, that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with Blessed Joseph, her spouse, with the blessed Apostles, with Saint Ignatius of Loyola, with Saint Francis Xavier, and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life and may praise and glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ. Through him with him and in him, O God Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our day. That by the help of your mercy we may be always free from sin, safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your church, and graciously grant a peace and unity in accordance with your will, who live and reign forever and ever. Amen. Peace of the Lord be with you always. And with your spirit. Let us share with one another a sign of this peace and friendship.

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You take away the seen of mercy.

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Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb. Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. May the body and blood of Christ bring us all to everlasting life.

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My Jesus, I believe that you are present in this holy sacrament of the altar. I love you above all things, and I passionately desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come spiritually into my soul, so that I may unite myself wholly to you now and forever. Amen.

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Let us pray. Look with kindness upon your people, Lord, and grant that those you are pleased to renew by these eternal mysteries may attain in their flesh the incorruptible glory of the resurrection. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen. Lord be with you.

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And with your spirit.

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May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in the peace of Christ to love and serve the Lord and one another.

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Our thanks to our donor for the gift of this Mass.

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We gather we stay in the Father Son. We gather with Jesus his son. We gather we faith with the spirit of God. We gather together as God.