Graduation/Thanksgiving Liturgy

INTRODUCTION:
Good morning/ good afternoon brothers and sisters in Christ!
Today, our hearts are filled with joy and satisfaction on because this day marks a
very significant event for all of us. This is a day of achievement and a day of
thanksgiving.
We come together today to thank God for the blessings we have BEEN receiving
in the whole year’s endeavor particularly for keeping and sustaining us in our studies
together with our teachers, friends and most of all our parents.
With grateful hearts, let us now stand to welcome our mass presider Rv. Fr.
________________ and together, let us sing joyfully our entrance hymn.

ENTRANCE HYMN:
SIGN OF THE CROSS:
PRIEST: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
ALL: Amen.
GREETINGS:
The sign of the cross is meant to manifest the presence of the Lord to the
community by the graduating and the people’s response the mystery of the Church
gathered together is shown.
PRIEST: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all.
ALL: And with your spirit.

PENITENTIAL RITE:
PRIEST: My brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate these Sacred Mysteries,
let us call to mind our sins.
ALL: I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned
through my own fault. In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and
in what I have failed to do and I asked Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, all the angels
and saints and to you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God.
PRIEST: May the Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to ever
lasting life.
ALL: Amen.
KYRIE: Lord have mercy.

OPENING PRAYER:
O God, the Father of every gift, we confess that all we have and are comes down
from You; teach us to recognize the effects of Your boundless care and love You with a
sincere heart and with all our strength. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who
lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

LITURGY OF THE WORD:

FIRST READING:
A reading from the book of Prophet Isiah (12:1-6)
You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were
angry with me, your anger turned away and you comforted me. Surely God is my
salvation: I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my
might; he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you say in that day:
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that His name is exalted.
Sing praise to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be known in the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of
Israel.
The word of the Lord.
ALL: Thanks be to God.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM:
“LORD, I THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS AND LOVE”
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, with all my heart.
For you have heard the words of my mouth;
In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise:
I will worship at Your Holy Temple and give thanks to Your Name
 Because of Your kindness and Your truth:
For you have made great above all things your name and your promise
When I called, you answered me:
You built up strength within me.

All the kings of earth shall give thanks to you Lord.

When they hear the voice of Your mouth;
And they shall sing the ways of the Lord:
“Great is the glory of the Lord.”

SECOND READING:
A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians (5:12-18)
But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters to respects who labor among you, and have
charge of you in the Lord and admonish you, esteem them very highly in love because of their
work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers,
encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you
repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray
without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for
you.
The word of the Lord.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: // Glory and praise to you O Lord Jesus Christ//
PRIEST: The Lord be with you.
ALL: And with your spirit.
PRIEST: A reading from the Holy Gospel of Luke (17:11-19)
ALL: Glory to You O Lord.
PRIEST: On his journey to Jerusalem Jesus passed along the borders of Samaria and
Galilee. As He was entering the village, ten lepers met Him. Keeping their
distance, they raised their voices and said, “Jesus, master, have pity on us!” When
He saw them, He responded, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” On their
way there, they were cured. One of them, realizing that he had been cured, came
 back praising God in a loud voice. He threw Himself on His face at the feet of
Jesus and spoke his praises. This man was a Samaritan.
Jesus took the occasion to say, “Were not all ten made whole? Where are the other
nine? Was there no one to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?”
He said to the man, “Stand up and go your way: your faith has been your
salvation.”
The Good News of our Salvation.
ALL: Praise to You, O Lord Jesus Christ.

HOMILY:
PRAYERS TO THE FAITHFUL:
PRIEST: All through the years, God has sustained us in life and generously responded to
our need. With confidence in His steadfast love and generous spirit, let us ask for
His blessing as we present our petitions to Him. Let our response be: Lord hear
our prayer.
1. For the Church, under the leadership of Pope Francis, that the Lord will continue
to strengthen them in leading their flocks toward the fullness of life. We pray.
2. For Bishop Cerilo Casicas, our parish priest and all the clergy, all the
missionaries, religious men and women that they will remain faithful and
committed to their vocation and ministry. We pray.
3. For our Government officials, that they will always be guided and inspired to
serve with love, justice, and integrity. We pray.
4. For our school administrators, faculty, and staff that they have oneness of heart
and unified direction in education and value formation of the young in order for
them to be become fruitful and useful citizens of earth and heaven. We pray.
5. For our school personnel for their lengthy patience and unselfish service during
our years of formation that they may persevere in their works all the days of their
life. We pray.
6. For our parents, teachers, and friends that they will continue to enjoy God’s
abundant blessings and dedicate themselves to their chosen vocation as they help
building Go’s kingdom. We pray.
7. For all of us that we will learn to cherish the talents that God has given us and be
ever grateful for the heavenly gifts we received, and also will grant us complete
change of heart in order to follow Him with greater fidelity. We pray.
PRIEST: Loving Father, in the grace and the strength you give us every day we find reasons to
live and celebrate life with gratitude. May you continue to bless us and answer our
petitions being entrusted to you through Christ, our Lord.
ALL: Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
PRIEST: Blessed are You, Lord, God of all creation, through Your goodness we have this
bread to offer which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become
for us the bread of life.
ALL: Blessed be God forever.
PRIEST: Blessed are You Lord, God of all creation through Your goodness we have this
wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our
spiritual drink.
ALL: Blessed be God forever.
PRIEST: Lord, we ask You to receive and be pleased with the sacrifice we offer You with
humble and contrite hearts. Lord, wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my
sins.
Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty.
ALL: May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His
name, for our own good and the good of His Holy Church.

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS:

PRIEST: For the gifts You have bestowed O Lord, we offer you the sacrifice of praise,
humbly begging that what you have conferred upon us in our unworthiness we
may give back, to the glory of your name, through Christ our Lord.
ALL: Amen.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER:
PRIEST: The Lord be with you.
ALL: And with your spirit.
PRIEST: Lift up your hearts.
ALL: We lift them up to the Lord.
PRIEST: Let us give thanks to their Lord our God.
ALL: It is right and just.
PRIEST: Father, all powerful and ever-lining God, we do well always and everywhere to
give You thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 He came among us as man to lead mankind from darkness into the light of faith.
Through Adam’s fall we were born as slaves of sin but now through baptism in
Earth unites with heaven to sing the new song of creation as we adore and praise
you forever:
ALL: Holy, holy, holy Lord
God of power and might
Heaven and earth are full of your glory
Hosanna in the highest
Blesses is he who comes in the name of the Lord
Hosanna in the highest.
PRIEST: 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
and giving thanks, broke it and give 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.”
Remember also our brothers and our 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, we pray, that with the Blessed Virgin
Mary, mother of God, with blessed Jospeh, her spouse, with the blessed apostles,
and all the saints who have pleased You throughout the ages, we may merit to be
coheirs to eternal life, and may praise and glorify You through Your Son, Jesus
Christ.

CONCLUDING DOXOLOGY:
Through him, with Him, and in Him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and
honor is yours almighty father, forever and ever.
ALL: Great Amen. (To be sung)

COMMUNION RITE:
PRIEST: At the Savior’s command and formed by the divine teaching we dare to say:
ALL: OUR FATHER
PRIEST: Deliver us Lord, we pray form every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, 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 savior Jesus Christ.
ALL: For the Kingdom the power and the glory are Yours now and forever.

SIGN OF PEACE:
PRIEST: Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your apostles: Peace, I leave you, my peace I give
you, look no on our sins, but on the faith of your church and graciously grant her
peace and unity in accordance with your will through Christ our Lord.
ALL: Amen.
PRIEST: The peace of the Lord be with you always.
ALL: And with your spirit.
PRIEST: Let us offer each other the sign of peace.
In similar way, when supper has ended, he took the chalice, and once more giving
thanks, he gave it to His disciples saying: “TAKE THIS ALL OF YOU, DRINK
FROM IT FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OFA
NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT, WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU
AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. DO THIS IN
MEMORY OF ME.”
PRIEST: The mystery of faith
ALL: When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim your death O Lord, until
you come again.
PRIEST: 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 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 Francis our pope and Cirilo, our bishop and all
the clergy.

BREAKING OF THE BREAD:

ALL: Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. 2x
Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
PRIEST: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.
Blessed are those who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called
to the supper of the Lamb.
ALL: Lord I am not worthy that you should enter my roof, but only say the word and
my soul shall be healed.

Communion songs:
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION:
PRIEST: O God, who have given to us as spiritual food the saving sacrament of Your Son,
which we have offered you in thanksgiving, grant that, being strengthened by gifts
of courage and joy, we may serve you more devotedly and be worthy of still
further blessings through Christ our Lord.
ALL: Amen.

BLESSINGS OF THE GRADUATES:

(The valedictorian addresses the priest in these words)
STUDENT: Revered Father, we graduating students, present with joy these diplomas, medals
and other school awards to which we worked during our grade school years. We
ask you to pray that they will always remind us of our duty to serve God and the
country with zeal and loyalty.
(With hands extended toward the graduating pupils the priest prays)
PRIEST: God our Father, You are the fountain of knowledge and virtue. Grant these Your
sons and daughters whom you filled with divine and human gifts may dedicate
themselves to You and the people with unfailing generosity and love. Grant this
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(In silence the priest makes the sign of the cross on the graduation symbols and sprinkles them
with the Holy Water.)

THANKS GIVING PRAYER OF THE GRADUATES:

GRADUATES:
 Heavenly Father, it is Your infinite goodness that made everything possible for us today,
as we feel proud for the achievements we’ve made, we turn to You, O Lord, to know You the real
source of everything we are enjoying now.
We thank you dear Lord for sustaining us any sort of difficulties. Many times, Lord, we
resented those trials but now we commend ourselves to grant us grace enough to carry life’s
struggle joyfully knowing, You are with us.
We thank You Lord for giving us parents, teachers, catechists, friends and relatives and
schoolmates, spiritual director who in one way or another had helped us in becoming what we
are now. So help us and hear us O Lord. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

FINAL BLESSINGS:
PRIEST: The Lord be with you.
ALL: And with your spirit.
PRIEST: Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessings.
May the God of all consolation order your days in his peace and grant you the
gifts of his blessings.
ALL: Amen.
PRIEST: So that on this life’s journey you may be effective in good works, rich in the gifts
of hope, faith and charity and may come happily to eternal life.
ALL: Amen.
PRIEST: May the blessings of the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
come down on you and remain with you forever.
ALL: Amen.
PRIEST: The mass is ended, go in peace.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
First Reading: Genesis 28:10-22a
Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran. When he came upon a
certain shrine, as the sun had already set, he stopped there for the night. Taking one of the stones
at the shrine, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep at that spot. Then he had a dream: a
stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens; and God’s messengers were
going up and down on it. And there was the LORD standing beside him and saying: “I, the
LORD, am the GOD of your forefather Abraham and the God of Isaac: the land on which you
are lying I will give to you and your descendants. These shall be as plentiful as the dust of the
earth, and through them you shall spread out east and west, north and south. In you and your
descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing. Know that I am with you; I will
protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have
done what I promised you.”
When Jacob awoke form his sleep, he exclaimed, “Truly. The LORD is in this spot,
although I did not know it!” In solemn wonder he cried out: “How awesome is this shrine! This
is nothing else but an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!” Early the next morning
Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as memorial stone, and poured oil
on top of it. He called the site Bethel, whereas the former name of the town has been Luz.
Jacob then made this vow: “If God remains with me, to protect me on this journey I am
making and to give me enough bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I come back safe to my
father’s house, the LORD shall be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial stone
shall be God’s abode.”

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 91:1-8, 3-4, 14-15ab

R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
Say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God in whom I trust.”

R. In you, my God, I place my trust.

For he will rescue you form the snare of the fowler,
From the destroying pestilence.
With his pinions he will cover you,
And under his wings you shall take refuge.
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress.
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.

Gospel Acclamation: see 2 Timothy 1:10

Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through
the Gospel. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Matthew 9:18-26

While Jesus was speaking an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said,
“My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will leave.” Jesus rose and
followed him, and so did his disciples. A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up
behind and touched the tassel of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I shall
be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved
you.” And from that hour the woman was cured.
When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd who
were making commotion, he said, “Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they
ridiculed him. When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand, and the little girl
arose. And the news of this spread throughout all that land.

Meditation:
God is the Source of everything. We look to him for all that we need–unless we are so
“wise and learned” that we think we do not need God! The key to receiving the abundant grace
God has for us is faith in his saving power. The Catechism affirms that “Believing in Jesus Christ
and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.” (CCC
161).
In the Gospel we encounter two people who exhibit extraordinary faith in the power of
Jesus, a synagogue official and a woman with an incurable illness. Both of them approach the
Lord seeking an “impossible” miraculous healing. The synagogue leader asks Jesus to lay his
hands on his daughter who has just died so that she will come back to life. The woman believes
that touching the tassel of his cloak will cure her hemorrhages.