RELIGION AND ART

MONDAY WEEK 31 ORDINARY TIME:  Do not invite those who might be able to invite you back Reading  Philippians 2:1-4  Be united in your love If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, so that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead. Reading Meditation Gospel Luke 14:12-14 Do not invite those who might be able to invite you back Jesus said to his host, one of the leading Pharisees, ‘When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courte...

31ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME First Reading Wisdom 11:22-12:2  You are merciful to all, because you love all that exists In your sight, Lord, the whole world is like a grain of dust that tips the scales,  like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground. Yet you are merciful to all, because you can do all things and overlook men’s sins so that they can repent. Yes, you love all that exists, you hold nothing of what you have made in abhorrence, for had you hated anything, you would not have formed it. And how, had you not willed it, could a thing persist, how be conserved if not called forth by you? You spare all things because all things are yours, Lord, lover of life, you whose imperishable spirit is in all. Little by little, therefore, you correct those who offend, you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord. Readings Meditation Loving Father our God in your sight, the whole world is like a grain of dust t...

SATURDAY WEEK 30 IN ORDINARY TIME Readings  Philippians 1:18-26  Life to me is Christ; but death would bring me more Christ is proclaimed; and that makes me happy; and I shall continue being happy, because I know this will help to save me, thanks to your prayers and to the help which will be given to me by the Spirit of Jesus. My one hope and trust is that I shall never have to admit defeat, but that now as always I shall have the courage for Christ to be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my death. Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more; but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results – I do not know what I should choose. I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better, but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake. This weighs with me so much that I feel sure I shall survive and stay with you all, and...

FRIDAY WEEK 30 IN ORDINARY TIME Reading Ephesians 2:19-22  In Christ you are no longer aliens, but citizens like us You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit. Readings Meditation   Gospel Luke 6:12-19 Jesus chooses his twelve apostles Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a t...

THURSDAY WEEK 30 ORDINARY TIME: It would not be right for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem Reading Ephesians 6:10-20  Put on God's armour and resist the devil Grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power. Put God’s armour on so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens. That is why you must rely on God’s armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground.  Readings Meditation So stand your ground, with   truth buckled round your waist,   and   integrity for a breastplate,   wearing for shoes on your feet   the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace   and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one. And then y...

WEDNESDAY WEEK 30 ORDINARY TIME: SIR WILL THERE BE ONLY A FEW SAVED? Reading Ephesians 6:1-9  Duties in domestic life Children, be obedient to your parents in the Lord – that is your duty. The commandment that has a promise attached to it is:  Honour your father and mother,  and the promise is:  and you will prosper and have a long life in the land.  And parents, never drive your children to resentment but in bringing them up correct them and guide them as the Lord does. Readings   Meditation Slaves, be obedient to the men who are called your masters in this world, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ: not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please men, but because you are slaves of Christ and wholeheartedly do the will of God. Work hard and willingly, but do it for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of men. You can be sure that everyone, whether a slave or a free man, will be properly rewarde...

TUESDDAY WEEK 30 IN ORDINARY TIME First Reading  Ephesians 5:21-33  Give way to one another in obedience to Christ Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body...