Daily TV Mass Friday May 1, 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 in your spirit. Welcome to the celebration of the Daily TV Mass on the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. I am Father Michael Coots. The televising of this Mass is made possible by a contribution from the members of the St. Francis Xavier's Seniors Club of Toronto East. The Mass is being offered for the good health of their members, especially those confined to their home, in health care facilities and nursing homes, in memory of the deceased members, and that all nations of the world live in peace, love, and unity. The St. Francis Xavier Seniors Toronto Club of Toronto East have been faithful supporters of the Daily TV Mass since we first began broadcasting. You have our thanks and the thanks of all who are gathered for this celebration. As we prepare our celebration, we ask St. Joseph to intercede for us before the throne of God. 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. 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, Creator of all things, who laid down for the human race the law of work, graciously grant by the example of Saint Joseph the Worker, and under his patronage, we may complete the works you set us to do, and may attain the rewards you promise through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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A reading from the Acts of the Apostles. When Paul and his companion reached Antioch, they went to the synagogue. Paul was invited to address the people. So he stood up and began to speak. My brothers, you descendants of Abraham's family and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent, because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus or understand the words of the prophets that are read every every Sabbath. They fulfilled those words by condemning him. Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors, he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus. As also it is written in the second Psalm, You are my son, today I have begotten you. The word of the Lord.

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Today I have begotten you. This day I have begotten you and I will make the nations your heritage And the ends of the earth your position You shall break them with the rod of heart And lash them in pieces like a potato's son You are my son This day I have begun you Lother four kings be wives Be Lord rulers of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and with trembling You are my son this day I have you the truth and the life says no one comes to the Father except through me Aleluya Aluya The Lord be with you and with your spirit a reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.

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During supper he said to his disciples, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to it to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The Gospel of the Lord. Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. It was a feast instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955. He chose this feast as a sign of contradiction to the glorified Marxist ideology and communism that was at the center of the May Day parades. So where was the clash? In the book of Genesis, we read, On the seventh day God rested. For six days we read the work of God. Each day ends with, God saw that it was good. If we bypass evolution and God's involvement for 13 billion years, according to the scientist, our world would start with Genesis, with God saw that it was good. Work is good, work is holy. We then see Adam and Eve leaving paradise with the words, you will earn your bread with the sweat of your brow. Suddenly work becomes a chore, work becomes a burden. Work is good and work is holy. But there is another side of this picture because of man's sin, man's selfishness, and man's ego. We see this result through history. We saw the evils of slavery. Human beings, men and women, were captured and sold like material objects. They were made to work on cotton plantation and other manual labor. A century later, Charles Dickens' book showed the deplorable conditions in Britain. There was child labor, the living conditions were unimaginably terrible. And as a nail into this horrible coffin of situation, we have the utilitarian philosopher Robert Malthus, who thought that the poor were a blight on the community. They should choose to die and decrease the surplus population. This was the height of arrogance and a contempt of one's human being. I know this is an oversimplification, but this bad vision led to human dignity being ignored, led to unsafe working conditions and unsanitary housing arrangements. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Rerum Navarum, which advocated a balance between capital and labor, between human, and it said that human dignity should be preserved. There should be just wages and a right to form unions. Seventy years later, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. The church's revolutionary theology consecrated work as something good and something holy. It counteracted the secular attitude to work, where results were more important, while persons and their safety counted for nothing. Work was blessed by God in the narrative or from Genesis to explain the creation of our earth and its people. Then, as we read in Hebrews, in the fullness of time, God sent his son. The Son continued the work of the Father. The Son said, The Father works, and I continue to do the work of my Father. During the day, Jesus worked. God's continued creation of the world and keeping us in existence is something that Jesus believed in and we believe in as well. It was in Jesus that we live and move and have our being. In this way, the revolutionary theology of the church is not separated from its moral theology, not separated from its spiritual theology, not separated from its theology of social justice and truth, not separated from its liturgy, from the way we pray and the way we celebrate the Eucharist. The church touches the very heart of our human way of life, both logically, spiritually, and in practical reality. The worth and the dignity of man and woman cannot and will never be determined in terms of dollars and cents. If we do this, this would create a disaster, not merely morally, but also physically. We would be in a state of chaos and confusion. Like Joseph, Jesus lived in a working world. Joseph taught him in his carpent, taught him in his mason work, taught him how to use his hands and to make himself useful in the work and the labor of every day. And as a result, the teachings of Jesus, the thoughts of Jesus, and later his parables would include all types of work. Works of shepherds and fishermen, works of merchants and farmers, works of servants and stewards. These were not described by name, but rather by the work that they did. However, there are persons in the Bible, in the scriptures, to whom we can put a face. Peter was a fisherman, the centurion who believed and said, I'm not worthy to have you under my roof. There was Jairus, who was in charge of the synagogue. And finally there was Peter's mother-in-law, who started working immediately after Jesus cured her. So we come back to the idea: work is good, work is holy. Today, as we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, we pray for the father and the mother who see their children off to school, then drive to work in the office, in banks, and their workplaces to put a roof over their head, food on the table, and clothes that they wear. Then they come back home and are involved in cleaning and vacuuming and cooking, in mowing the lawn, in weeding and cutting the hedges, and then driving their children to all sorts of classes. Work is good, and work is holy, as they do it with the same subconsciousness of breathing in and breathing out. It is no wonder that Pope Francis said, It is these working families that transform our world and make history that is yet to be written. God bless you all. Join me now as we pray together. On the feasts of St. Joseph the Worker, Heavenly Father, you call us to work with before you in the holiness of heart. May we obey your commandment to be perfect. We pray to the Lord. You chose Joseph the righteous to care for your son in childhood and youth. Teach us to care for our brothers and sisters. We pray to the Lord.

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Lord, hear our prayers.

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You entrusted the earth to its people, to people it and to make it prosper. Inspire us to work wholeheartedly in this world. We pray to the Lord.

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Lord, hear our prayer.

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Father of all, do not forget what your hands have made. Grant that all who work may have secure employment and a fitting standard of living. We pray to the Lord.

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Lord, hear our prayer.

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For all those in our daily TV Mass Prayer Intention Book, we pray to the Lord.

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Lord, hear our prayer.

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Throughout this month of May, our community prays to follow the example of Mary so that mothers, grandmothers, and all in loving service may enjoy joy, compassion, and mercy through Christ our Lord.

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Amen.

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Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you. Fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.

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Blessed be God forever.

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The mystery of this wine and water, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

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Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation, for through your goodness we have this wine we offer you. Fruit of the wine and work of human hands. It will become for us our spiritual drink.

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Blessed be God forever.

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Lord God, be pleased to accept these gifts that we offer to you with humble and with contrite hearts.

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Thank you.

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Pray, my sisters, my brothers, that this our sacrifice be acceptable to God the Almighty Father.

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May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of God's name, for our good and for the good of all of His holy churches.

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O God, found of mercy, look upon our offerings which we bring before your majesty in commemoration of Saint Joseph, and mercifully grant that the gifts we offer may become the means of protection for those who call upon you. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.

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Amen.

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The Lord be with you. And leave your spirits. Lift up your hearts. 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 and Eternal God, and on the commemoration of Saint Joseph the Worker, to give you fitting praise, to glorify you and bless you. For this just man was given by you as a spouse of the Virgin Mother of God, and set as a wise and faithful servant in charge of your household to watch like a father over your only begotten Son, who was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him the angels praise your majesty, dominions adore, powers tremble before you. Heaven and the virtues of heaven worship together with exaltation. May our voices join with theirs, as in humble praise we acclaim.

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Holy, holy, holy Lord God of us, and of your glory, of Sonna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

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By sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the body and blood of Christ, Lord Jesus Christ. At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion, he took bread and giving you thanks, 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, he 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 the. Of me the mystery of faith.

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We proclaim your death, oh Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come after.

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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, Joseph the Worker, and with the Blessed Apostles and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life and 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. Amen, at the Savior's command, informed by divine teaching, we now dare to say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 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 and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your apostles, peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the faith of this year, 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. Let us share with one another a sign of this peace and friendship.

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Grant us peace.

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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, 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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Having fed upon heavenly delights, we humbly ask you, O Lord, that by Saint Joseph the Workers' example, cherishing in our hearts the sign of your love, we may ever enjoy the fruit of perpetual peace through Christ our Lord. Amen. The Lord be with you and with your spirit. 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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And speak to God.

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Our thanks to our donors for the gift of this man.