RELIGION AND ART

THURSDAY WEEK 13 IN ORDINARY TIME: GO PROPHESY TO MY PEOPLE First Reading Amos 7:10-17 The Lord took me from herding the flock and sent me to prophesy Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel as follows. ‘Amos is plotting against you in the heart of the House of Israel; the country can no longer tolerate what he keeps saying. For this is what he says, “Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, and Israel go into exile far from its country.”’ To Amos, Amaziah said, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” So listen to the word of the Lord. ‘You say: Readings ...

WEDNESDAY WEEK 13 IN ORDINARY TIME YOU ARE PETER AND ON THIS ROCK  I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH First Reading Acts 12:1-11 'Now I know the Lord really did save me from Herod' King Herod started persecuting certain members of the Church. He beheaded James the brother of John, and when he saw that this pleased the Jews he decided to arrest Peter as well. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread, and he put Peter in prison, assigning four squads of four soldiers each to guard him in turns. Herod meant to try Peter in public after the end of Passover week. All the time Peter was under guard the Church prayed to God for him unremittingly. Readings Lectures Reflections On the night before Herod was to try him, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with double chains, while guards kept watch at the main entrance to the prison. Then suddenly the angel of the Lord stood there, and the cell was filled with light. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him. ‘Get up!’ he said ‘Hu...

S ATURDAY WEEK 12 IN ORDIANARY TIME First Reading  Lamentations 2:2,10-14,18-19   Cry aloud to the Lord, daughter of Zion The Lord has pitilessly destroyed all the homes of Jacob; in his displeasure he has shattered the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has thrown to the ground,   he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers.  Readings Lectures Reflections Mutely they sit on the ground,   the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads,  and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads down to the ground. My eyes wasted away with weeping,  my entrails shuddered, my liver spilled on the ground at the ruin of the daughters of my people, as children, mere infants, fainted  in the squares of the Citadel. They kept saying to their mothers, ‘Where is the bread?’ as they fainted like wounded men   in the squares of the City, as they poured out their souls on ...

WEEK 12 IN  ORDIANRY TIME THE HEART BURNING WITH LOVE First Reading Ezekiel 34:11-16  I  will look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view  The Lord God says this: I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered during the mist and darkness. I shall bring them out of the countries where they are; I shall gather them together from foreign countries and bring them back to their own land. I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in every inhabited place in the land. I shall feed them in good pasturage; the high mountains of Israel will be their grazing ground. There they will rest in good grazing ground; they will browse in rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where ...

THURSDAY WEEK 12 IN ORDINARY TIME: HIS NAME IS JOHN First Reading Isaiah 49:1-6 I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth Islands, listen to me, pay attention, remotest peoples. The Lord called me before I was born, from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name. He made my mouth a sharp sword, and hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow, and concealed me in his quiver. Readings Lectures Reflections   He said to me, ‘You are my servant (Israel) in whom I shall be glorified’; while I was thinking, ‘I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing’; and all the while my cause was with the Lord, my reward with my God.   I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord, my God was my strength. And now the Lord has spoken, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, to gather Israel to him:   ‘It is not enough for you to be my servant, to restore th...

WEDNESDAY WEEK 12 IN ORDINARY TIME:  YOU WILL TELL BY THEIR FRUITS First Reading  2 Kings 22:8-13,23:1-3  The Book of the Law is found in the Temple of the Lord The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the Temple of the Lord.’’’ And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who read it. Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him as follows, ‘Your servants’ he said ‘have melted down the silver which was in the Temple and have handed it over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of the Lord.’ Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book’; and Shaphan read it aloud in the king’s presence.  Readings Lectures Reflections On hearing the contents of the Book of the Law, the king tore his garments, and gave the following order to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s minister: ‘Go and consult th...

TUESDAY WEEK 12 ORDINARY TIME First Reading 2 Kings 19:9-11,14-21,31-36 GOD UPHOLDS HIS CITY FOREVER The Lord protects Jerusalem from Sennacherib and the Assyrians Readings Lectures Reflections Sennacherib, King of the Assyrians, sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, ‘Tell this to Hezekiah king of Judah, “Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you, when he says: Jerusalem shall not fall into the power of the king of Assyria. You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to every country, putting them all under the ban. Are you likely to be spared?”’  Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messenger and read it; he then went up to the Temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. Hezekiah said this prayer in the presence of the Lord, ‘O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubs, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. ‘Give ear, Lord, and listen.  Open your eyes, Lord, and s...

MONDAY WEEK 12 ORDINARY TIME TURN FORM YOUR WICKED  WAYS First Reading  2 Kings 17:5-8,13-15,18  There was none left, but the tribe of Judah only The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Readings Lectures This happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods, they followed the practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed for them.  Reflections And yet through all the prophets and all the seers, the Lord had given Israel and Judah this warning, ‘Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law I laid down for your father...

FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI JUNE 19TH  First Reading Genesis 14:18-20  Melchizedek brought bread and wine Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. He pronounced this blessing: ‘          Blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth,    and blessed be God Most High for handing over your enemies to you.’ Readings for 12 Sunday O.T. And Abram gave him a tithe of everything.  Readings  Lectures Responsorial Psalm:  You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old Second Reading  1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same...

SATURDAY WEEK 11 ORDINARY TIME THE LORD SEES AND HE WILL AVENGE First Reading 2 Chronicles 24:17-25  You have deserted the Lord: now he deserts you' After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king now turned to them for advice. The Judaeans abandoned the Temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem. He sent them prophets to bring them back to the Lord, but when these gave their message, they would not listen. The spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, ‘God says this, “Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord to no good purpose? You have deserted the Lord, now he deserts you.”’ They then plotted against him and by order of the king stoned him in the court of the Temple of the Lord. King Joash, forgetful of the kindness that Jehoiada, the father of...

FRIDAY WEEK 11 ORDINARY TIME First Reading  2 Kings 11:1-4,9-18,20  Saved from the massacre, the true king is anointed by the high priest When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah learned that her son was dead, she promptly did away with all those of royal stock. But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, secretly took away Jehoash, her brother’s son, from among the sons of the king who were being murdered, and put him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters; in this way she hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death. He stayed with her for six years, hidden in the Temple of the Lord, while Athaliah governed the country. Readings Lectures Reflections In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the commanders of hundreds of the Carians and of the guards, and had them brought to him in the Temple of the Lord. He made a pact with them and, putting them under oath, showed them the king’s son.  The commanders of hundreds did everything as Jehoiada the priest...