Pastor’s Corner for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A(Safeguarding Sunday) by Fr. Bruce Botha SJ

27 July, 2023

On this Safeguarding Sunday, we wish to ask for forgiveness and to offer forgiveness to one another. We, the ministers called to serve you, want to ask you to forgive those times we have hurt you. This community wants to ask the forgiveness of those it has hurt, condemned and excluded. Each of us here present wants to ask pardon for the times we have hurt each other. Let us together confess our shortcomings and ask God for his healing forgiveness.

Litany of Contrition

For the times when we have failed to serve you as you needed, we ask you to forgive us.

For the times when we have failed to treat each one of our flock with the loving tenderness of the eternal shepherd, we ask you to forgive us.

For the times when we have failed to see the image of Christ present within each of you, we ask you to forgive us.

For the times when we as a church have excluded people from our community because of race, gender, nationality, marital status and sexual orientation, we ask you to forgive us.

For the times when our community has been self-centered and blind to the needs of others, we ask you to forgive us.

For the times when our faith community failed to acknowledge the hurt that we committed, we ask you to forgive us.

For the times when each of us has judged our neighbor, we ask you to forgive us.

Concluding Prayer

Lord God, we come to you in the knowledge that you hold all your children in unconditional love. We lift to you those who are vulnerable and in need of protection. Give them your safety, comfort and peace.

We cry to you for those who are hurting and whose trust has been broken. Give them your healing, restoration and justice. We bring to you those who seek to forgive others who have hurt them. Give them your strength, courage and hope.

For those who have caused your children to stumble, lead them to seek your forgiveness and to enter into true repentance. Thank you for all who give their time, knowledge, and skills to make our communities safer. Give them your wisdom, guidance and grace.

For ourselves, we ask you to give us your heart for the vulnerable, the oppressed, the voiceless and the forgotten. Help us to see them as you see them; to value them as you value them, and to nurture and protect them as you desire. Help each one of us play our part in creating safer places for all your people.

We ask this, and all our prayers, through Christ our Lord. AMEN.