Theotokos Prayer Group - Sunday 9 November 2025 Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Feast)

 

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (c.324)

The Lateran Basilica was built by the Emperor Constantine on the Lateran Hill in Rome in about 324. The feast of its dedication has been celebrated in Rome on this date since the twelfth century. In honour of the basilica, “the mother and head of all the churches of the City and the World,” the feast has been extended to the whole Roman Rite as a sign of unity and love towards the See of Peter, which, as St Ignatius of Antioch said in the second century, “presides over the whole assembly of charity.”

Alleluia, alleluia.
I have chosen and consecrated this house, says the Lord, that my name may be there for ever.
Alleluia.

Gospel:    John 2:13-22

He was speaking about the temple of his body.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’
  So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Notes from meeting on 4 November:

Picture of many sheep and lambs Our Blessed Lord is among them, he falls back to see to the old and lame, carrying one on His shoulders and two under His arms.
The sheep had been lost in an unknown and unfamiliar area and had been attacked by wolves some bleeding slightly but Jesus prevented any terrible atrocities by summoning an army of large fierce Angels three deep on all sides and back and front of His Flock,
The Army of Heavenly Beings saw off the wolves and all was made safe to continue.
Above the Flock a large canopy type banner appeared, upon which was The Sacred Heart and The Immaculate Heart joined together by the entwined Rosary.

"My dear children
My Son Jesus will never leave you orphaned, He will always guide you and lead you to the Truth! Jesus is Love, Jesus Is Truth, His Heart is full of Mercy which flows out to all of His Own.
Do not fear the confusion and darkness which is everywhere but stand fast and PRAY. Go to Jesus in The Holy Eucharist and receive Him with gratitude and love.
Go to Jesus in Confession make sacrifice as best you can.
Pray my children My Holy Rosary, the weapon par excellence that has been given to you.
Always invoke through the Holy Spirit the protection of the two Hearts, My Son’s and this Mothers Heart.
All will be well my little ones, My Jesus loves you each so much.
Mary"

Galatians 5 v 22-26

22 On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.
24 All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.
25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behaviour be guided by the Spirit
26 and let us not be conceited or provocative and envious of one another.

Turn round.

Whenever we stray from Him, Jesus is waiting for us, welcoming us back.

Intercessions

I am the salvation of the people, says the Lord. Should they cry to me in any distress, I will hear them, and I will be their Lord for ever...

We pray in reparation for all offences against the life and dignity of the human person from conception until natural death. Lord have mercy on us!

Pray for our new Pope, Leo XIV, that he may shepherd the Church and proclaim Christ to the World.

Pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis

Lord give us a spirit of Hope in this Holy Year of Hope.

Sacred Heart of Jesus have Mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary pray for us.

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Leo McCormack a member of Theotokos Prayer Group in its early days. May he Rest in Peace  
Pray for his wife Sandra and family.

Pray for the soul of Mary, may she Rest in Peace, bring consolation to her family.

Pray for Yvonne Plucknett who has injured her back badly; 

Margaret who had Pneumonia but has now been told she has Blood Cancer;

Melanie who has Lung Cancer.

Pray for healing for a young man in hospital after having his drink spiked, he has been unresponsive since admission 4 weeks ago. 

Pray for Marcin, Terry, John Morgan, Lisa, Frances, Rosie, Adam Grey with cancer, Charlotte, Susan, Kyle, Catherine and Peter, Anne Shepherd, Felicity, Jessica, Marie Bedingfield, Milo,  John Joynes, Vanessa, Cathy, Matthew, Gina Hardy, Owen McEneaney, Reese, Tony, Joan, Jackie, Nathan, David, Derek, Malcolm, Hollie, and Harlan Moon.
Pray for healing for Lynn and Anne both with chronic illness.
Pray for Gina (aged 31) who is waiting for a further pancreas transplant.
Pray for Alan Guile may the Lord strengthen him and his ministry.
Pray for Grace who is dying - Lord be with her

Pray for the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.

Pray for upbuilding of Marriage and Family.

Pray for peace in our Country and our communities.

Pray for our young people that they may be protected from the evil one, that they may find a home in the loving Heart of Jesus.

Pray for all in our Parishes who are ill in body, mind or spirit.

Pray for Disha that he may find employment.

Pray for all those we have been asked and have promised to pray for.

Pray for all who are grieving give them strength, consolation and healing.

Pray for our Priests and for vocations to the Priesthood.

Pray for lost souls.

Pray for the conversion of the World.

Lord we continue to pray for Peace in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza and throughout the World.

Lord we pray for persecuted Christians throughout the World.

Lord we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all peoples and nations.

Pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory may they be granted eternal rest.

Mary, Mother of God, Theotokos, pray for us.
Mary Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Mary, Bride of the Spirit, pray for us.

If anyone has any prophecy, prayers, readings or intercessions I encourage you to please send them to
me. Let us share with one another the gifts and inspirations of the Spirit!
Also if there any changes necessary to the intercessions - please let me know

Resources
1.Theotokos Prayer Group:
https://www.facebook.com/Theotokos-Prayer-Group-142398089120415
/http://theotokosprayergroup.blogspot.co.uk/
2. Daily Mass readings can be found at:
https://universalis.com/mass.htm
3. Bishops Conference of England and Wales Website -
https://www.cbcew.org.uk
4. Diocese of Hexham & Newcastle Website:
Home - Diocese of Hexham & Newcastle (diocesehn.org.uk)
5. Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England:
http://www.ccr.org.uk/
6. Catholic Charismatic Renewal International
https://www.charis.international/en/home/
7. Celebrate Conference website
https://www.celebratetrust.org/
8. CHARIS in England and Wales
www.charisuk.com
9.CaFE - Catholic Faith Exploration (faithcafe.org)

Events

Next meeting will be on 11 November 2025 at 7.30pm in The Creche in St Patricks Church, Glenfield Road, Fairfield, Stockton TS19 7PL. All welcome.

Jubilee 2025 - Pilgrims of Hope
The 2025 Jubilee officially opened on December 24, 2024 with the rite of Opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter by the Holy Father.
Link to Jubilee website: Jubilee 2025 https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en.html

LEO XIV
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's Square

Wednesday, 5 November 2025

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Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025: Jesus Christ our hope. 4. The Resurrection of Christ and the challenges of the contemporary world. 3. Easter gives hope to everyday life

 

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning, and welcome to you all!

The Pasch of Jesus is an event that does not belong to a distant past, now settled into tradition like so many other episodes in human history. The Church teaches us to make a living remembrance of the Resurrection every year on Easter Sunday and every day in the Eucharistic celebration, during which the promise of the risen Lord is most fully realized: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).

For this reason, the Paschal Mystery is the cornerstone of Christian life, around which all other events revolve. We can say, then, without any irenicism or sentimentality, that every day is Easter. In what way?

Hour by hour, we have so many different experiences: pain, suffering, sadness, intertwined with joy, wonder, serenity. But through every situation, the human heart longs for fullness, a profound happiness. A great twentieth-century philosopher, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born Edith Stein, who delved deeply into the mystery of the human person, reminds us of this dynamism of the constant search for fulfilment. “‘The human being”, she writes, “always longs to have being given to him anew, so that he can draw on what the moment gives him and at the same time takes away from him” (Finite and Eternal Being: An Attempt to Ascend to the Meaning of Being”, Rome 1998, 387). We are immersed in limitation, but we also strive to surpass it.

The Paschal proclamation is the most beautiful, joyful and overwhelming news that has ever resounded in all of history. It is the quintessential “Gospel”, which attests to the victory of love over sin and of life over death, and this is why it is the only thing capable of satisfying the demand for meaning that troubles our minds and our hearts. Human beings are inspired by an inner movement, striving towards a beyond that continually attracts them. No contingent reality satisfies us. We tend towards the infinite and the eternal. This contrasts with the experience of death, anticipated by suffering, loss, and failure. As Saint Francis sings, “nullu homo vivente po skampare” (“no living man can escape”) from death (cf. Canticle of the Sun).

Everything changes thanks to that morning when the women had gone to the tomb to anoint the body of the Lord, and found it empty. The question posed by the Magi who came from the East to Jerusalem: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Mt 2:1-2), finds its definitive answer in the words of the mysterious youth dressed in white, who speaks to the women at Easter dawn: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here” (Mk 16:6).

From that morning until today, every day, Jesus will also have this title: the Living One, as He presents himself in Revelation: “I am the First and the Last, and the Living One: I died, and behold I am alive for evermore” (Rev 1:17-18). And in Him, we have the assurance of always being able to find the lodestar towards which we can direct our seemingly chaotic lives, marked by events that often appear confusing, unacceptable, incomprehensible: evil in its many forms, suffering, death, events that affect each and every one of us. Meditating on the mystery of the Resurrection, we find an answer to our thirst for meaning.

Faced with our fragile humanity, the Paschal proclamation becomes care and healing, nourishing hope in the face of the frightening challenges that life presents us with every day on a personal and global level. In the perspective of Easter, the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, is transfigured into the Via Lucis, the Way of Light. We need to savour and meditate on the joy after the pain, to retrace in the new light all the stages that preceded the Resurrection.

Easter does not eliminate the cross, but defeats it in the miraculous duel that changed our human history. Even our time, marked by so many crosses, invokes the dawn of Paschal hope. Christ’s Resurrection is not an idea, a theory, but the Event that is the foundation of faith. He, the Risen One, through the Holy Spirit, continues to remind us of this, so that we can be His witnesses even where human history does not see light on the horizon. Paschal hope does not disappoint. To believe truly in the Pasch through our daily journey means revolutionizing our lives, being transformed in order to transform the world with the gentle and courageous power of Christian hope.

____________________________________________________

Special greetings:

I extend a warm welcome this morning to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those coming from England, Ireland, Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America.  During the month of November, we pray in particular for the eternal repose of the faithful departed. May the risen Lord show them his mercy, and may the hope brought by our faith in the Resurrection keep our eyes and our hearts turned towards the joy of Heaven.  God bless you all!

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Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters,

In our continuing catechesis on the Jubilee theme of “Christ our Hope,” we reflect today on the presence of the risen Christ as an unfailing source of hope in our daily lives.  Whether we are experiencing moments of joy and serenity, or struggling to overcome the suffering caused by difficulty and pain, the human heart unceasingly longs for fulness and contentment.  The proclamation of the Easter message stands as a sure anchor: love has conquered sin forever, and life triumphs over death.  Jesus, who is now “alive forever and ever,” promises to be with us always.  His presence fills our lives with meaning and we discover that our yearning for eternity is not only justified, but is now within our reach.  Let us ask the risen Lord to help us to recognize his presence in every circumstance, and so experience the victory of Easter in our daily lives.