RELIGION AND ART

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...