RELIGION AND ART

THURSDAY WEEK 13 IN ORDINARY TIME: GO PROPHESY TO MY PEOPLE First Reading Amos 7:10-17 The Lord took me from herding the flock and sent me to prophesy Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel as follows. ‘Amos is plotting against you in the heart of the House of Israel; the country can no longer tolerate what he keeps saying. For this is what he says, “Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, and Israel go into exile far from its country.”’ To Amos, Amaziah said, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” So listen to the word of the Lord. ‘You say: Readings

WEDNESDAY WEEK 13 IN ORDINARY TIME YOU ARE PETER AND ON THIS ROCK  I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH First Reading Acts 12:1-11 'Now I know the Lord really did save me from Herod' King Herod started persecuting certain members of the Church. He beheaded James the brother of John, and when he saw that this pleased the Jews he decided to arrest Peter as well. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread, and he put Peter in prison, assigning four squads of four soldiers each to guard him in turns. Herod meant to try Peter in public after the end of Passover week. All the time Peter was under guard the Church prayed to God for him unremittingly. Readings Lectures Reflections On the night before Herod was to try him, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with double chains, while guards kept watch at the main entrance to the prison. Then suddenly the angel of the Lord stood there, and the cell was filled with light. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him. ‘Get up!’ he said ‘Hu

S ATURDAY WEEK 12 IN ORDIANARY TIME First Reading  Lamentations 2:2,10-14,18-19   Cry aloud to the Lord, daughter of Zion The Lord has pitilessly destroyed all the homes of Jacob; in his displeasure he has shattered the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has thrown to the ground,   he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers.  Readings Lectures Reflections Mutely they sit on the ground,   the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads,  and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads down to the ground. My eyes wasted away with weeping,  my entrails shuddered, my liver spilled on the ground at the ruin of the daughters of my people, as children, mere infants, fainted  in the squares of the Citadel. They kept saying to their mothers, ‘Where is the bread?’ as they fainted like wounded men   in the squares of the City, as they poured out their souls on their mothers’ breasts.......    Or  Isaiah 61:9-11  I exult

WEEK 12 IN  ORDIANRY TIME THE HEART BURNING WITH LOVE First Reading Ezekiel 34:11-16  I  will look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view  The Lord God says this: I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered during the mist and darkness. I shall bring them out of the countries where they are; I shall gather them together from foreign countries and bring them back to their own land. I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in every inhabited place in the land. I shall feed them in good pasturage; the high mountains of Israel will be their grazing ground. There they will rest in good grazing ground; they will browse in rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where to rest – it is the