RELIGION AND ART

TUESDAY WEEK 20 ORDINARY TIME YEAR C First Reading Ezekeil 28:1-10  Against the arrogance of the king of Tyre   The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre, “The Lord says this: Being swollen with pride, you have said: I am a god; I am sitting on the throne of God, surrounded by the seas. Though you are a man and not a god, you consider yourself the equal of God. You are wiser now than Daniel; there is no sage as wise as you. By your wisdom and your intelligence, you have amassed great wealth; you have piles of gold and silver inside your treasure-houses. Such is your skill in trading, your wealth has continued to increase, and with this your heart has grown more arrogant. And so, the Lord says this: Since you consider yourself the equal of God, very well, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most barbarous of the nations. Readings Refelctions They will draw sword against your fine wisdom, they will defile you...

MONDAY WEEK 20 IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C First Reading  Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman adorned with the sun The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Readings Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother.   The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to ...

20TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  First Reading Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10  'Do not let the prophet die' The king’s leading men spoke to the king. ‘Let Jeremiah be put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. The fellow does not have the welfare of this people at heart so much as its ruin.’ ‘He is in your hands as you know,’ King Zedekiah answered ‘for the king is powerless against you.’ So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the well of Prince Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank. Readings Reflection Ebed-melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king. ‘My lord king,’ he said ‘these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the well, where he will die.’ At this the king gave Ebed-melech the Cushite the following order: ‘Take three men w...

WEEK 19 SATURDAY ORDINARY TIME  First Reading Prophet Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13:30-32 ' I mean to judge each of you by what he does' The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows:   ‘Why do you keep repeating this proverb in the land of Israel: “The fathers have eaten unripe grapes; and the children’s teeth are set on edge”?  ‘As I live, it is the Lord who speaks, there will no longer be any reason to repeat this proverb in Israel. See now: all life belongs to me; the father’s life and the son’s life, both alike belong to me. The man who has sinned, he is the one who shall die. Readings Reflections ‘The upright man is law-abiding and honest; he does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the idols of the House of Israel, does not seduce his neighbour’s wife or sleep with a woman during her periods. He oppresses no one, returns pledges, never steals, gives his own bread to the hungry, his clothes to the naked. He never charges usury on loans, takes no interest...

FRIDAY WEEK 19 ORDINARY TIME First Reading Ezekiel 16:1-15,60,63  I clothed you with my own splendour but you made yourself a prostitute The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her filthy crimes. Say, “The Lord says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in cleansing water, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in napkins. No one leaned kindly over you to do anything like that for you. You were exposed in the open fields; you were as unloved as that on the day you were born.... Readings Meditation Gospel Matthew 19:3-12 Husband and wife are no longer two, but one body Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said, ‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning...

THURSDAY WEEK 19 ORDINARY TIME First Reading Ezekiel 12:1-12  The oracle of exile against the whole House of Israel The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, you are living with that set of rebels who have eyes and never see, ears and never hear, for they are a set of rebels. You, son of man, pack an exile’s bundle and emigrate by daylight when they can see you, emigrate from where you are to somewhere else while they watch. Perhaps they will admit then that they are a set of rebels. You will pack your baggage like an exile’s bundle, by daylight, for them to see, and leave like an exile in the evening, making sure that they are looking. As they watch, make a hole in the wall, and go out through it. As they watch, you will shoulder your pack and go out into the dark; you will cover your face so that you cannot see the country, since I have made you a symbol for the House of Israel.’ I did as I had been told. I packed my baggage like an exile’s bundle, by dayl...

WEDNESDAY WEEK 19 IN ORDINARY TIME First Reading 2 Corinthians 9:6-10  God loves a cheerful giver Do not forget: thin sowing means thin reaping; the more you sow, the more you reap. Each one should give what he has decided in his own mind, not grudgingly or because he is made to, for  God loves a cheerful giver.  And there is no limit to the blessings which God can send you – he will make sure that you will always have all you need for yourselves in every possible circumstance, and still have something to spare for all sorts of good works. As scripture says:  He was free in almsgiving, and gave to the poor: his good deeds will never be forgotten.  Readings Reflection The one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide you with all the seed you want and make the harvest of your good deeds a larger one. Gospel  John 12:24-26   If a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it yields a rich harvest Jesus said to his dis...