RELIGION AND ART

Monday Week Three of Lent First Reading 2 Kings 5:1-10 There were many lepers in Israel, but only Naaman, the Syrian, was cured Naaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master’s respect and favour, since through him the Lord had granted victory to the Aramaeans. But the man was a leper.  Now on one of their raids, the Aramaeans had carried off from the land of Israel a little girl who had become a servant of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my master would approach the prophet of Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy.’ Readings Naaman went and told his master. ‘This and this’ he reported ‘is what the girl from the land of Israel said.’ ‘Go by all means,’ said the king of Aram ‘I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’  So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten festal robes. He presented the letter to the king of Israel. It read: ‘With this letter, I am sending my servant Naam...

THIRD  SUNDAY  OF LENT YEAR C:  I AM WHO I AM First Reading  Exodus 3:1-8,13-15  'I AM has sent me to you' Readings Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush.  Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. ‘I must go and look at this strange sight,’ Moses said, ‘and see why the bush is not burnt.’ Now the Lord saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am,’ Moses answered. ‘Come no nearer,’ he said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers,’ he said, ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God. Lectur...

First Reading  2 Samuel 7:4-5,12-14,16 Readings   The Lord will give him the throne of his ancestor David The word of the Lord came to Nathan:  ‘Go and tell my servant David, Thus the Lord speaks: “When your days are ended and you are laid to rest with your ancestors, I will preserve the offspring of your body after you and make his sovereignty secure. (It is he who shall build a house for my name, and I will make his royal throne secure for ever.) I will be a father to him and he a son to me. Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established for ever.”’ Responsorial Psalm: His dynasty shall last for ever Second Reading   Romans 4:13,16-18,22  Abraham hoped, and he believed The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness which consists in faith. That is why what fulfils the promise depends on faith, so that it may be a fr...

First Reading Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28  Let us kill him: then we shall see what becomes of his dreams Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a coat with long sleeves made for him. But his brothers, seeing how his father loved him more than all his other sons, came to hate him so much that they could not say a civil word to him. Readings His brothers went to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem. Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers with the flock at Shechem? Come, I am going to send you to them.’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. Lectures They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they made a plot among themselves to put him to death. ‘Here comes the man of dreams’ they said to one another. ‘Come on, let us kill him and throw him into some well; we can say that a wild beast devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams.’  ........  Responsorial P...

  First Reading   Jerimaih 17:5-10    A curse on the man who puts his trust in man and turns from the Lord   The Lord says this: Readings ‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in man,  who relies on things of flesh, whose heart turns from the Lord. He is like dry scrub in the wastelands: if good comes, he has no eyes for it, he settles in the parched places of the wilderness, a salt land, uninhabited. ‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit. ‘The heart is more devious than any other thing, perverse too: who can pierce its secrets?  I, the Lord, search to the heart, I probe the loins, to give each man what his conduct and his actions deserve Gospel  Luke 16:19-31   Dives and Lazarus ...

  First Reading Jer. 18:18-22   My enemies are digging a pit for me ‘Come on,’ they said, ‘let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah; the priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word. Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says.’.....  Readings Gospel  Matthew 20:17-28  They will condemn the Son of Man to death Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the way he took the Twelve to one side and said to them, ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.’  Lectures Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that the...

TUESDAY   SECOND WEEK   OF LENT:  LEARN TO DO GOOD PRAYER BEFORE HOLY MAS S     Act of Love before Mass   O my God, I love Thee with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength and with no other desire than to be inseparably united to Thee.  It is through Thy Divine Son that this union is about to be realized within me.  In Holy Communion I long to identify myself with Him, that it will no longer be myself, but Him, who lives in me; and when I have received Jesus within myself, then I shall love and be loved by Thee in that same measure, in which I am united to Him.  Hasten then, to give me Thy Divine Son, at the hands of Thy priest, that through Jesus, I may unite myself forever to Thee, O God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. First Reading Isaiah 1:10,16-20   Cease to do evil; learn to do good  Readings Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the command of our God,you people of Gomo...