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 your glory; they

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 his throne, wh

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 wi

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, abstains