RELIGION AND ART

18 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C First Reading  Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23  Vanity of vanities; all is vanity Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!  For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity. Readings Reflections RESPONSORIAL PSALM   O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the n ext You turn men back to dust and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’ To your eyes a thousand years  are like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night. You sweep men away like a dream, like the grass which springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers: by evening it withers ...

SATURDAY WEEK 17 ORDINARY TIME YEAR C ÉCOUTEZ LA VOIX DU SEIGNEUR VOTRE DIEU FIRST READING JEREMIAH  26:11-16,24 'This man has spoken to us in the name of the Lord' The priests and prophets addressed the officials and all the people, ‘This man deserves to die, since he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.’ Readings Textes Jeremiah, however, replied to the people as follows:   ‘The Lord himself sent me to say all the things you have heard against this Temple and this city. So now amend your behaviour and actions, listen to the voice of the Lord your God: if you do, he will relent and not bring down on you the disaster he has pronounced against you. For myself, I am as you see in your hands. Do whatever you please or think right with me. But be sure of this, that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and on its citizens, since the Lord has truly sent me to you to say all these words in you...

FRIDAY 17 WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C DIEU EST AMOUR FIRST READING 1JOHN 4 :7-16 Let us love one another, since love comes from God My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,   because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God,  but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away. Readings Reflections   My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.   No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us  and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit. We ourselves saw and we testify that ...

THURSDAY WEEK 17 ORDINARY TIME YEAR C LE ROYAUME DES CIEUX  FIRST READING JEREMIAH 18:1-6   When the clay goes wrong, the potter starts afresh The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘Get up and make your way down to the potter’s house; there I shall let you hear what I have to say.’ So I went down to the potter’s house; and there he was, working at the wheel. And whenever the vessel he was making came out wrong, as happens with the clay handled by potters, he would start afresh and work it into another vessel, as potters do. Then this word of the Lord was addressed to me, ‘House of Israel, can not I do to you what this potter does? – it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.’ Readings   Reflections PREMIÈRE LECTURE JÉRÉMIE  18, 1-6   « Comme l’argile est dans la main du potier, ainsi êtes-vous dans ma main » Parole du Seigneur adressée à Jérémie : « Lève-toi, descends à la mai...

TUESDAY WEEK 19 ORDINARY TIME YEAR C FIRST READING JEREMIAH 14:17-22  We confess our wickedness; you, God, are our hope   The Lord said to me:  Say this word to the people: ‘Tears flood my eyes night and day, unceasingly, since a crushing blow falls on the daughter of my people, a most grievous injury. If I go into the countryside, there lie men killed by the sword; if I go into the city, I see people sick with hunger; even prophets and priests plough the land: they are at their wit’s end.’ ‘Have you rejected Judah altogether? Does your very soul revolt at Zion? Why have you struck us down without hope of cure? We were hoping for peace – no good came of it!   For the moment of cure – nothing but terror! Lord, we do confess our wickedness and our fathers’ guilt: we have indeed sinned against you. For your name’s sake do not reject us, do not dishonour the throne of your glory. Reflections   Remember us; do not break your covenant with us. Ca...

MONDAY 17 WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C THE OVERWHELMING POWER OF GOD FIRST READING  2 CORINTHIANS 4:7-15 Such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us. We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body. Indeed, while we are still alive, we are consigned to our death every day, for the sake of Jesus, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus, too, may be openly shown. So death is at work in us, but life in you. But as we have the same spirit of faith that is mentioned in scripture –   I believed, and therefore I spoke  – we too believe and there...

17 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C SEIGNEUR APPRENDS-NOUS  À  PRIER   FIRST READING GENESIS 18:20-32 Readings Abraham negotiates with the Lord The Lord said, ‘How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin! I propose to go down and see whether or not they have done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has come up to me. I am determined to know.’  The men left there and went to Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man with the sinner? Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it? Do not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the sinner, treating just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the judge of the whole earth not administer justice?’ the Lord replied, ‘If at Sodom I find fifty just men in the town, I will spare the who...

16 WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C - SATURDAY FIRST READING JER. 7:1-11   Readings Reform your behaviour and I will stay here with you, says the Lord The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord:   ‘Go and stand at the gate of the Temple of the Lord and there proclaim this message. Say, “Listen to the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who come in by these gates to worship the Lord. The Lord Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will stay with you here in this place. Put no trust in delusive words like these:   This is the sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord!   But if you do amend your behaviour and your actions, if you treat each other fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow (if you do not shed innocent blood in this place), and if you do not follow alien gods, to your own ruin, then here in this place I will stay with you, in the land that ...

FIRST READING SONG OF SONGS 3 :1-4 I found him whom my heart loves The bride says this:  On my bed, at night, I sought him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him. So I will rise and go through the City; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him. The watchmen came upon me on their rounds in the City: ‘Have you seen him whom my heart loves?’ Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my heart loves. Readings  GOSPEL JOHN 20:1-2,11-18 'Mary, go and find the brothers and tell them' It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’  Meanwhile Mary stayed outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, still weeping, she ...

FRIDAY WEEK 15 IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C LE FILS DE L’HOMME EST MAÎTRE DU SABBAT  FIRST READING ISAIAH 38:1-6,21-22,7-8   The Lord hears Hezekiah's prayer and heals him Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, ‘The Lord says this, “Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live.”’ Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to the Lord, ‘Ah, Lord, remember, I beg you, how I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what is right in your eyes.’ And Hezekiah shed many tears..... Readngs GOSPEL MATTHEW 12:1-8 The Son of Man is master of the sabbath Jesus took a walk one sabbath day through the cornfields. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them. The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath.’ But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David d...