Daily TV Mass Friday May 15, 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.

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And with your spirit.

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Welcome to the celebration of the Daily TV Mass. I am Father Michael Coots. The televising of this Mass has been made possible by a contribution from the estate of Josephine Mary Campanela of Burlington, Ontario. This Mass is being offered for the repose of the souls of Josephine and her husband James Joseph Campanela, and for the living and deceased family members. May their souls and the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen. And as we prepare ourselves to celebrate this Eucharist, we ask God, the God of mercy and compassion, to forgive us. You were sent to heal the contrite. Lord have mercy. Lord have have mercy. 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. Amen. Let us pray. Hear our prayers, O Lord, so that what was promised by the sanctifying power of your word may everywhere be accomplished through the working of the gospel, and that all your adopted children may attain what testimony of truth has foretold. 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. At Corinth one night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people. He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them. But when Galio was a proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. They said, This man is persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law. Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of crime or serious villainy, I would be justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I do not wish to be a judge of these matters. And he dismissed them from the tribunal. Then all of them seized Sosthenes, the official of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Galio paid no attention to any of these things. After staying there for a considerable time, Paul said farewell to the believers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Sencre, he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow. The word of the Lord.

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Shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord the most high is us, a great king of all the earth. God is king of all the earth. He sumted peoples under us and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. God has gone up with a child, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our king, sing praise. God is king of all the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory.

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The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father, he said to the disciples, Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought in a human being into the world. So you have pain now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly I tell you, if you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. The gospel of the Lord.

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Praise you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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A nineteenth-century British poet Christina Rossetti writes a heart-touching poem called A Better Resurrection. She was grasping for hope, she was almost in despair, she was numbed, she couldn't feel anything, and yet she was anchored in deep hope, deeper hope than in her despair. She says, I can't see any buds or greenness or blossoms that bring forth or tell of the resurrection, the resurrection that gives joy to my heart and gives me hope. But there will be buds, there will be greenness, there will be blossoms. And so I pray, O Jesus, rise in me. It's that same sense of despair that we see in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, with Paul in Corinth. He's been over there at the seaport. He's been preaching and nobody wants to listen to him. He's been preaching about Jesus Christ and nobody seems to care, and he wants to throw in the towel. And God says, the gospel will be preached, and I will walk with you. It is in this spirit, moved by the Holy Spirit, that Paul decides that he's going to stay in Corinth for 18 long months. It is a time when the fledgling churches in different places, all the way from north and Philippi, coming down to Berea, coming down to Thessalonica, to Athens and Corinth, they're just beginning to blossom. They're beginning to get few followers. And it is this time that Paul will continue to preach the kingdom of God. And Luke has a paradigm, a pattern. Paul will always start with saying, I need to proclaim the kingdom of God. And then he will go out into the agora, the marketplace, and he will proclaim, Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And this will follow with an arrest. This has been the process that Saint Luke uses when Peter preaches and when the other apostles preach. But this time he's preaching in a Gentile place, so they arrest him, not because he is blaspheming against Jewish tradition, but they use a loophole in the law. In order to preach God, you have to be accredited. The Jews had a long history, they were an accredited religion, they could preach. But the Christians, they were just called Christians, and Antioch were called followers of the way. And so rightly so, Sosthenes, who was the leader of the synagogue, had Paul arrested before Gallio the pro-council. Now, the scrolls in Alexandria, or I think in Turkey, were found where they said that Gallio was the pro-council in the year 51-52, Anno Domini. It was about 18 years after the resurrection. And Gallio was a smart pro-council. He looked at the situation and he said, you know what, yellow just squabbling about small things that matter to you. If there's a riot over here, if there's a fight over here, I will step in and will stop it. Gallio's bright counsel and advice could be taken by many of our leaders today. They feel they can tackle every problem. And we've got a lot of problems. We've got health issues, we've got the infrastructure, we've got no clean water for many people, we've got refugees and migrants, we've got people who are displaced and homeless. And our leaders, many of them, think that they can make wild promises. I'll solve it in the next week, I'll solve it within seven days of my rule. And we know that in most cases, or not most cases, in a few cases, some of these leaders are just puppets on a string ruled by billionaires and money bags. But they could listen to Gallio, who said, you deal with it yourself. And so said, so done. Paul realized that he would preach the gospel. He would preach the gospel because the poor will always be there. Jesus himself said, the poor will always be with you. And so here he is in Corinth. He will spend not only 18 months there. And some scripture scholars say it's the longest time Paul has ever stayed in a fledgling church in order to bolster them up. I don't know whether that's true, because in Ephesus he spent over two years teaching the people, building up the church in Ephesus, which is in Turkey. And so from Corinth he goes to Sancria. From Sankria, he would have gone to Turkey, but he flies, not he flies down. He goes by boat to Syria and back to Antioch, where he started in the first place. Here is Paul preaching the good news. He's preaching the good news because we have to continue to preach the good news in day in and day out in our own parishes and in our own places. Sometimes we can feel the same despair as Paul. We ask for volunteers, nobody seems to come. But we know that in every parish there are men, women, and children who are concerned about the welfare of the people that are most vulnerable in the parish. We have the St. Vincent de Paul, people who will go out to the houses of the poor, houses of the needy. And the beauty about this is that when they go there, they will make sure that they save each person's dignity and save each person's pride. They don't come from a sense of arrogance. I'm in charge, I've got the money, I've got this, and I'm going to help you. No. They treat them just like Jesus treated the disciples at the Last Supper. He acted as a servant and as a slave. And so these volunteers from our parish, and we know them, you can look in every parish, and you will never see them go with fuss and with great pomp and ceremony. They will go there with great humility, they will go there without any big fuss, and they will help people out. And that is what Jesus says in our gospel today. There will be pain, that is the reality. It's not that God wanted us to have pain, but the fact is there are people within us, and sometimes it's ourselves, who act selfishly, who act with arrogance, who act out of our ego, and we don't care about the needs of those who are around us. We will cross the street in order to avoid a person who is poor. We will be busy work looking into our cell phones in order to avoid looking into the eyes of people who truly need us. Jesus said, the poor will always be with you, but they need not be neglected. And that is what we read in Psalm 113. And this is what it says. With this hope and with this trust, we can continue, like Paul, to proclaim the kingdom of God. God bless you all. Will you join me now as we bring our prayers before the Lord? We thank you, Lord, for enlightening us through your Son. Fill us with his light throughout this season. We pray to the Lord.

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Lord, heal our prayer.

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Let your wisdom lead us today, Lord, that we may walk in a newness of life. We pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer. For Pope Leo XIV's intention for the month of May, let us pray that everyone, from large producers to small consumers, be committed to avoid wasting food so as to ensure that everyone has access to quality food. We pray to the Lord. Throughout this month of May, our community prays to follow the example of Mary. We pray especially for mothers, grandmothers, and all who lovingly serve those in need that they may be blessed with joy, compassion, and mercy. We make this prayer 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 this 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. 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 heart. Thank you. 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.

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Accept in compassion, O Lord, the offerings of your family, that under your protective care they may never lose what they have received, but attain the gifts that are eternal through Christ our Lord. The Lord be with you and with your spirit. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. But at this time above all, to load you yet more gloriously when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Through him the children of light rise to eternal life, and the halls of the heavenly kingdom are thrown open to the faithful, for his death is our ransom from death. His rising is the life of all that has risen. Therefore, overcome with paschal joy every land, every people exults in your praise, and even the heavenly powers and angelic hosts sing together the unending hymn of your glory as they acclaim.

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Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

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Make holy, therefore, these gifts by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the body and blood of your Son, our 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 me.

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The mystery of faith.

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We proclaim your death, O Lord, 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 blessed and 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.

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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.

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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 distresses. We await the blessed hope, the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. 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 your church, and graciously grant a peace and unity in accordance with your will, who live and reign forever and ever.

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Amen.

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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 sins of the world. You take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us.

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Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. 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 and all our dear ones unto life everlasting.

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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. Keep safe, O Lord, those whom you have saved by your kindness, that redeemed by the passion of your Son, they may rejoice in his resurrection through Christ our Lord. The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. Go in the peace of Christ, hallelujah, hallelujah.

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Thanks be to God.

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