Churches of the Day
Pictorial Thought for Today
Aug 28 - St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) bishop
Summary: St Augustine, born at Tagaste in 354; died at Hippo in 430: baptised in 387, together with his son, after a long inner struggle and under the influence of St Ambrose (Feast:7 Dec.) and the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica (c/f 27 August). Bishop, Doctor of the Church. He taught in Carthage, Rome, and Milan. Bishop of Hippo for thirty-four years. Lived a communal life with his clergy and served the many needs of his people at a time of political and cultural collapse. Honoured as a model pastor and as a preacher and writer whose thought has had an enduring influence in Christian history.
Patrick Duffy tells his story.
A Berber with Roman citizenship
Augustine, a Roman African, was born in 354 in Tagaste, North Africa, (in present-day Algeria) to a pagan father named Patricius and a Christian mother named Monica. He may have been a Berber by race but his family name, Aurelius, suggests his family had Roman citizenship from the Edict of Caracalla in 212.
Teenage Years: Latin Literature and Hedonistic Lifestyle
At 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus, a Roman colony, also in present-day Algeria, where he became familiar with Latin literature, came home for two years and then went to study rhetoric in Carthage (in present-day Tunisia). At Carthage he got into a hedonistic lifestyle.
"I came to Carthage, and all around me in my ears were the activities of impure loves. I was not yet in love, but I loved the idea of love" (Confessions 3:51). He began a relationship that lasted thirteen years with a young woman whom he never names: she became his concubine. "It was a sweet thing to be loved, and more sweet still when I was able to enjoy the body of a woman" (Confessions 3:51).
Teaching Grammar and Rhetoric at Tagaste, Carthage, Rome and Milan
After teaching grammar at Tagaste (373-4), Augustine moved to Carthage where he conducted a school of rhetoric for the next nine years (374-383) and then went to Rome, where an introduction to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, eventually secured him the post of professor of rhetoric at the imperial court at Milan in 384. Although he was interested in Manichaeism, this began to change at Milan, where he became interested in Neoplatonism. Augustine lived for fifteen years with a woman who remains unknown and with whom he had a son, named Adeodatus who died when he was about eighteen.
His mother Monica had followed him to Carthage, persuaded him to put away his concubine and was pressuring him to become a Christian. But it was the bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who had most influence over Augustine. Ambrose was a master of rhetoric like Augustine himself, but older and more experienced.
Conversion
This quotation from the beginning of the Confessions of Saint Augustine sums up the intellectual and spiritual journey of this extraordinary man. "You have made us for yourself, O Lord and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
He was influenced by reading the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, who when he read "Go, sell all you have, and give to the poor, and come and follow me", did just that. While experiencing the pulls and tugs of this crisis, Augustine was sitting one day in a garden and heard the voice of a child repeating a chant: Tolle, lege! Tolle, lege! "Take up and read! Take up and read!" Interpreted this as a call from God to take up the Bible, he did so and read from the passage in Romans 13:13-14: "Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ; forget about satisfying your bodies with all their cravings." He did not need to read any further. A light of serenity pierced his darkness and all doubt melted away from him (Confessions 8:29).
Baptism and Return to Africa
Augustine then formed a lay community near Milan at Cassiciacum. His friend Alypius whom he knew from Tagaste was also a member and both along with Adeodatus were baptised by Ambrose at Easter 387. In August 387 Alypius was in the company of Augustine, Monica, Adeodatus, Navigius (the brother of Augustine) and Evodius (a North African companion) when they travelled to the port of Ostia with the intention of sailing back to North Africa to establish a lay community at Tagaste. Monica, however, died at Ostia on the way and was buried there.
[caption id="attachment_50024" align="alignleft" width="238"]
Bishop Augustine[/caption]
Bishop of Hippo
Augustine and Alypius lived a community life for a while at Tagaste (388-391). His friend Possidius, who later wrote a life of Augustine, was also a member of that community and later bishop of Calama. But this community life ended unexpectedly when Augustine was pressed into priesthood by the aging bishop and community at Hippo. Five years later he became bishop of Hippo. Alypius too became a priest and became bishop of Tagaste, where he remained till his death in 430. Augustine lived a monastic or community life at the episcopal residence in Hippo.
Synods, Sermons, Writings, and Letters
The next thirty years were turbulent for the Church: the Vandals were destroying the Latin culture; the city of Rome was losing its influence; and there were controversies with the heresies of Donatism and Pelagianism in the Church of North Africa. Bishop Augustine spent a lot of time attending synods and meetings of bishops in Carthage and other cities of North Africa. He also wrote many letters both within and outside Africa. The range of his writings is vast: the two best known works are his Confessions, an account of his own path to God and The City of God, which was occasioned by the fall of Rome to Alaric and the Visigoths in 410. But there are also Expositions on the Psalms, and works On the Trinity, On Grace and Free Will, On Original Sin and a host of others.
Death
Augustine was seventy-six when the Vandals came through Gaul and Spain to North Africa and were at the gate of the city of Hippo as he lay dying inside and they took it over as their capital after he died. His mortal remains were taken first to Sardinia and then to Pavia in Lombardy, northern Italy, where they can still be seen today. Along with Saints Jerome, Ambrose, and Gregory the Great he is regarded as one of the four doctors of the Western Church.
Influence
The vastness of his theological work and the fact that it was catalogued and preserved has meant that every generation of Christian thinking has been able to be in dialogue with the issues he treated right up to the present day.
Pope Benedict XVI, who in 1953 wrote his doctoral thesis on "The People and the House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church", dedicated three catecheses on Augustine and his spirituality at his Wednesday audiences in January 2008 that are well worth reading.
...Thomas Merton
Patrick Duffy tells his story.
A Berber with Roman citizenshipAugustine, a Roman African, was born in 354 in Tagaste, North Africa, (in present-day Algeria) to a pagan father named Patricius and a Christian mother named Monica. He may have been a Berber by race but his family name, Aurelius, suggests his family had Roman citizenship from the Edict of Caracalla in 212.
Teenage Years: Latin Literature and Hedonistic Lifestyle
At 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus, a Roman colony, also in present-day Algeria, where he became familiar with Latin literature, came home for two years and then went to study rhetoric in Carthage (in present-day Tunisia). At Carthage he got into a hedonistic lifestyle.
"I came to Carthage, and all around me in my ears were the activities of impure loves. I was not yet in love, but I loved the idea of love" (Confessions 3:51). He began a relationship that lasted thirteen years with a young woman whom he never names: she became his concubine. "It was a sweet thing to be loved, and more sweet still when I was able to enjoy the body of a woman" (Confessions 3:51).
Teaching Grammar and Rhetoric at Tagaste, Carthage, Rome and Milan
After teaching grammar at Tagaste (373-4), Augustine moved to Carthage where he conducted a school of rhetoric for the next nine years (374-383) and then went to Rome, where an introduction to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, eventually secured him the post of professor of rhetoric at the imperial court at Milan in 384. Although he was interested in Manichaeism, this began to change at Milan, where he became interested in Neoplatonism. Augustine lived for fifteen years with a woman who remains unknown and with whom he had a son, named Adeodatus who died when he was about eighteen.
His mother Monica had followed him to Carthage, persuaded him to put away his concubine and was pressuring him to become a Christian. But it was the bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who had most influence over Augustine. Ambrose was a master of rhetoric like Augustine himself, but older and more experienced.
Conversion
This quotation from the beginning of the Confessions of Saint Augustine sums up the intellectual and spiritual journey of this extraordinary man. "You have made us for yourself, O Lord and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
He was influenced by reading the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, who when he read "Go, sell all you have, and give to the poor, and come and follow me", did just that. While experiencing the pulls and tugs of this crisis, Augustine was sitting one day in a garden and heard the voice of a child repeating a chant: Tolle, lege! Tolle, lege! "Take up and read! Take up and read!" Interpreted this as a call from God to take up the Bible, he did so and read from the passage in Romans 13:13-14: "Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ; forget about satisfying your bodies with all their cravings." He did not need to read any further. A light of serenity pierced his darkness and all doubt melted away from him (Confessions 8:29).
Baptism and Return to Africa
Augustine then formed a lay community near Milan at Cassiciacum. His friend Alypius whom he knew from Tagaste was also a member and both along with Adeodatus were baptised by Ambrose at Easter 387. In August 387 Alypius was in the company of Augustine, Monica, Adeodatus, Navigius (the brother of Augustine) and Evodius (a North African companion) when they travelled to the port of Ostia with the intention of sailing back to North Africa to establish a lay community at Tagaste. Monica, however, died at Ostia on the way and was buried there.
[caption id="attachment_50024" align="alignleft" width="238"]
Bishop Augustine[/caption]Bishop of Hippo
Augustine and Alypius lived a community life for a while at Tagaste (388-391). His friend Possidius, who later wrote a life of Augustine, was also a member of that community and later bishop of Calama. But this community life ended unexpectedly when Augustine was pressed into priesthood by the aging bishop and community at Hippo. Five years later he became bishop of Hippo. Alypius too became a priest and became bishop of Tagaste, where he remained till his death in 430. Augustine lived a monastic or community life at the episcopal residence in Hippo.
Synods, Sermons, Writings, and Letters
The next thirty years were turbulent for the Church: the Vandals were destroying the Latin culture; the city of Rome was losing its influence; and there were controversies with the heresies of Donatism and Pelagianism in the Church of North Africa. Bishop Augustine spent a lot of time attending synods and meetings of bishops in Carthage and other cities of North Africa. He also wrote many letters both within and outside Africa. The range of his writings is vast: the two best known works are his Confessions, an account of his own path to God and The City of God, which was occasioned by the fall of Rome to Alaric and the Visigoths in 410. But there are also Expositions on the Psalms, and works On the Trinity, On Grace and Free Will, On Original Sin and a host of others.
Death
Augustine was seventy-six when the Vandals came through Gaul and Spain to North Africa and were at the gate of the city of Hippo as he lay dying inside and they took it over as their capital after he died. His mortal remains were taken first to Sardinia and then to Pavia in Lombardy, northern Italy, where they can still be seen today. Along with Saints Jerome, Ambrose, and Gregory the Great he is regarded as one of the four doctors of the Western Church.
Influence
The vastness of his theological work and the fact that it was catalogued and preserved has meant that every generation of Christian thinking has been able to be in dialogue with the issues he treated right up to the present day.
Pope Benedict XVI, who in 1953 wrote his doctoral thesis on "The People and the House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church", dedicated three catecheses on Augustine and his spirituality at his Wednesday audiences in January 2008 that are well worth reading.
__________________________
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Memorable Proverb for Today
The man of faith who has never experienced doubt
is not a man of faith.
...Thomas Merton
******************************
Liturgical Readings for: Friday, 28th August, 2026
Friday of the Twenty-First Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2
Saint of the Day: Aug 28; – St Augustine, bishop and doctor, theologian
C/f A short look at this saint’s life can be found below today's Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 1: 17-25
We are preaching a crucified Christ, an obstacle to men but to those who have been called, the wisdom of God.
Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the Good News, and not to preach that in the terms of philosophy in which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God's power to save. As scripture says: 'I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the learning of the learned.'
Where are the philosophers now? Where are the scribes? Where are any of our thinkers today?
Do you see now how God has shown up the foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God's wisdom that human wisdom should not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the message that we preach. And so, while the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness,
but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 32: 1-2. 4-5.10-11. R/v 5
Response The Lord fills the earth with his love.
1. Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just; for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp, with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs. Response
2. For the word of the Lord is faithful and all his works to be trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right and fills the earth with his love. Response
3. He frustrates the designs of the nations, he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever, the plans of his heart from age to age. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 129: 5
Alleluia, alleluia!
My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on his word.
Alleluia !
Or Lk 21: 36
Alleluia, alleluia!
Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength
to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.
Alleluia !
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 25:1-13 Glory to you, O Lord
The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.
Jesus said to his disciples:
'Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this:
Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, "The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him."
At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, "Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out".
But they replied, "There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves".
They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later.
"Lord, Lord," they said "open the door for us."
But he replied, "I tell you solemnly, I do not know you".
So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
______________________
Gospel Reflection Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 25:1-13
It seems that in the time of Jesus young unmarried women waited with the bride at her family home for the arrival of the bridegroom. Then when he arrived they would escort the couple with lighted lamps to the house of the bridegroom where the marriage feast had been prepared and the guests were waiting for the couple’s grand entry. It was an important task for these bridesmaids to accompany the couple and to guide them through the darkness with lamps burning brightly. It would have been very embarrassing if they didn’t have enough oil to keep their lamps lighting for the length of the procession to the house of the bridegroom.
In the parable, five of the ten bridesmaids discovered at the last moment that they didn’t have enough oil for their role of accompanying the married couple. ‘Our lamps are going out’, they cried. Jesus may be saying to us that we need to keep the lamp, the flame, of our faith burning brightly to the very end, and not allow it to go out. At the baptism of a child, when the godfather lights the baptismal candle from the Paschal candle, the priest says to the parents of the child, ‘keep the flame of faith alive in his/her heart’. That is our baptismal calling, to keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts and to allow our faith to show itself in the loving service of others. Elsewhere in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says to his disciples, to us all, ‘You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’. We are called to let the light of the gospel shine through us, for the long haul, and to do that we will always need the help of the Holy Spirit, who kindles in us the fire, the flame, of loving faith.
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings: The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop
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Saint of the Day: Aug 28; – St Augustine of Hippo, bishop and doctor, theologian
Augustine was born at Tagaste (Algeria) in 354; died at Hippo (Tunisia) in 430: baptised in 387, together with his son, after a long inner struggle and under the influence of St Ambrose (Feast:7 Dec.) and the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica (c/f 27 August). Bishop, Doctor of the Church. He taught in Carthage, Rome, and Milan. Bishop of Hippo for thirty-four years. Lived a communal life with his clergy and served the many needs of his people at a time of political and cultural collapse. Honoured as a model pastor and as a preacher and writer whose thought has had an enduring influence in Christian history.
Patrick Duffy tells his story.
A Berber with Roman citizenshipAugustine, a Roman African, was born in 354 in Tagaste, North Africa, (in present-day Algeria) to a pagan father named Patricius and a Christian mother named Monica. He may have been a Berber by race but his family name, Aurelius, suggests his family had Roman citizenship from the Edict of Caracalla in 212.
Teenage Years: Latin Literature and Hedonistic Lifestyle
At 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus, a Roman colony, also in present-day Algeria, where he became familiar with Latin literature, came home for two years and then went to study rhetoric in Carthage (in present-day Tunisia). At Carthage he got into a hedonistic lifestyle.
"I came to Carthage, and all around me in my ears were the activities of impure loves. I was not yet in love, but I loved the idea of love" (Confessions 3:51). He began a relationship that lasted thirteen years with a young woman whom he never names: she became his concubine. "It was a sweet thing to be loved, and more sweet still when I was able to enjoy the body of a woman" (Confessions 3:51).
Teaching Grammar and Rhetoric at Tagaste, Carthage, Rome and Milan
After teaching grammar at Tagaste (373-4), Augustine moved to Carthage where he conducted a school of rhetoric for the next nine years (374-383) and then went to Rome. where an introduction to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, eventually secured him the post of professor of rhetoric at the imperial court at Milan in 384. Although he was interested in Manichaeism, this began to change at Milan, where he became interested in Neoplatonism. Augustine lived for fifteen years with a woman who remains unknown and with whom he had a son, named Adeodatus who died when he was about eighteen.
His mother Monica had followed Augustine to Carthage, persuaded him to put away his concubine and was pressuring him to become a Christian. But it was the bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who had most influence over Augustine. Ambrose was a master of rhetoric like Augustine himself, but older and more experienced.
Conversion
[caption id="attachment_50023" align="alignright" width="201"]
Augustine, the convert who changed Church history[/caption]This quotation from the beginning of the Confessions of Saint Augustine sums up the intellectual and spiritual journey of this extraordinary man. "You have made us for yourself, O Lord and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
He was influenced by reading the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, who when he read "Go, sell all you have, and give to the poor, and come and follow me", and he did just that. While experiencing the pulls and tugs of this crisis, Augustine was sitting one day in a garden and heard the voice of a child repeating a chant: Tolle, lege! Tolle, lege! "Take up and read! Take up and read!" Interpreted this as a call from God to take up the Bible, he did so and read from the passage in Romans 13:13-14: "Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ; forget about satisfying your bodies with all their cravings." He did not need to read any further. A light of serenity pierced his darkness and all doubt melted away from him (Confessions 8:29).
Baptism and Return to Africa
Augustine then formed a lay community near Milan at Cassiciacum. His friend Alypius whom he knew from Tagaste was also a member and both along with Adeodatus were baptised by Ambrose at Easter 387. In August 387 Alypius was in the company of Augustine, Monica, Adeodatus, Navigius (the brother of Augustine) and Evodius (a North African companion) when they travelled to the port of Ostia with the intention of sailing back to North Africa to establish a lay community at Tagaste. Monica, however, died at Ostia on the way and was buried there.
[caption id="attachment_50024" align="alignleft" width="238"]
Bishop Augustine[/caption]Bishop of Hippo
Augustine and Alypius lived a community life for a while at Tagaste (388-391). His friend Possidius, who later wrote a life of Augustine, was also a member of that community and later bishop of Calama. But this community life ended unexpectedly when Augustine was pressed into priesthood by the aging bishop and community at Hippo. Five years later he became bishop of Hippo. Alypius too became a priest and became bishop of Tagaste, where he remained till his death in 430. Augustine lived a monastic or community life at the episcopal residence in Hippo.
Synods, Sermons, Writings, and Letters
The next thirty years were turbulent for the Church: the Vandals were destroying the Latin culture; the city of Rome was losing its influence; and there were controversies with the heresies of Donatism and Pelagianism in the Church of North Africa. Bishop Augustine spent a lot of time attending synods and meetings of bishops in Carthage and other cities of North Africa. He also wrote many letters both within and outside Africa. The range of his writings is vast: the two best known works are his Confessions, an account of his own path to God and The City of God, which was occasioned by the fall of Rome to Alaric and the Visigoths in 410. But there are also Expositions on the Psalms, and works On the Trinity, On Grace and Free Will, On Original Sin and a host of others.
Death
Augustine was seventy-six when the Vandals came through Gaul and Spain to North Africa and were at the gate of the city of Hippo as he lay dying inside and they took it over as their capital after he died. His mortal remains were taken first to Sardinia and then to Pavia in Lombardy, northern Italy, where they can still be seen today. Along with Ss Jerome, Ambrose, and Gregory the Great he is regarded as one of the four doctors of the Western Church.
Influence
The vastness of his theological work and the fact that it was catalogued and preserved has meant that every generation of Christian thinking has been able to be in dialogue with the issues he treated right up to the present day.
Pope Benedict XVI, who in 1953 wrote his doctoral thesis on "The People and the House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church", dedicated three catecheses on Augustine and his spirituality at his Wednesday audiences in January 2008 that are well worth reading.
******************************
Memorable Proverb for Today
The man of faith who has never experienced doubt is not really a man of faith.
**************************
Liturgical Readings for: Friday, 28th August, 2026
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as céad Litir Naomh Pól chuig Coirintigh 1:17-25
Is é Críost cumhacht Dé agus eagna Dé é.
A bhráithre, ní ag baisteadh a chuir Críost uaidh mé ach ag fógairt an dea-scéil agus é a dhéanamh gan dul i muinín eagna urlabhra ar eagla cros Chríost a choilleadh. Scéal seo na croise, is díth céille é dar leo sin atá ar bhealach a millte, ach is é cumhacht Dé é dar linne atá ar bhealach ár slánaithe. Mar tá scríofa:
“Cuirfidh mé eagna lucht na heagna ar neamhní; cuirfidh mé éirim lucht na héirime ar leataobh.”
Cá bhfuil an t-eagnaí? Cá bhfuil an fear léinn? Cá bhfuil aighneasóir na haoise seo? Nach bhfuil Dia tar éis díth céille a dhéanamh d’eagna an tsaoil? Nuair nár éirigh leis an saol, trína chuid eagna, aithne a chur ar Dhia, thograigh Dia as a chuid eagna féin na creidmhigh a shlánú trí dhíth céille an fhorógra seo againne.
Bíonn na Giúdaigh ag iarraidh “comharthaí” agus na Gréagaigh ag iarraidh “eagna,” ach níl againne á fhógairt ach Críost a céasadh.
Col a ghlacann na Giúdaigh leis sin agus is díth céille é dar leis na gintlithe; ach dóibh siúd a bhfuil glaoite orthu, idir Ghiúdaigh agus Ghréagaigh, is é Críost cumhacht Dé agus eagna Dé é.
Mar is críonna díth céille Dé ná eagna dhaoine agus is treise laige Dé ná an duine.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Salm le Freagra Sm 32: 1-2. 4-5.10-11. R/v 5
Freagra Líonann an Tiarna an talamh dá bhuanghrá.
1. Déanaigí gairdeas sa Tiarna, a fhíréana: is cóir moladh a thabhairt do dhaoine ionraice.Gabhaigí buíochas leis an Tiarna ar an gcruit; déanaigí ceol dó ar an gcláirseach dheichthéadach. Freagra
2. Óir is dílis é briathar an Tiarna, agus is fírinneach a oibreacha go léir.
Carann sé an chóir agus an ceart agus líonann sé an talamh dá bhuanghrá. Freagra
3. Cuireann sé comhairle na gciníocha ó rath agus beartas na náisiún ar neamhní.
Maireann comhairle an Tiarna go brách agus a smaointe ó aois go haois. Freagra
SOISCÉAL
Go raibh an Tiarna libh. Agus le do spiorad féin
Sliocht as Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Mhatha 25:1-13 Glóir duit, a Thiarna
Bígí ag faire, mar níl a fhios agaibh an lá ná an uair.
San am sin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail
“Is iad dála ríocht na bhflaitheas an uair sin mar a bhí ag deichniúr maighdean a chuaigh amach agus a lampaí acu in airicis an fhir nuaphósta. Cúigear díobh seo, bhí siad gan tuiscint agus bhí an cúigear eile ciallmhar; mar, thug na mná gan tuiscint na lampaí leo agus gan aon ola acu, ach thug na mná ciallmhara ola ina bpróiciní leo chomh maith leis na lampaí. Bhí an fear nuaphósta ag déanamh moille, agus tháinig sámhán orthu uile agus thit siad ina gcodladh. Ach glaodh i lár na hoíche: ‘Chugaibh an fear nuaphósta! Amach libh ina airicis!’
D’éirigh na maighdeana sin uile ina suí agus dheasaigh siad a lampaí. Ach dúirt na mná gan tuiscint leis na mná ciallmhara:
‘Tugaigí dúinn braon de bhur n-olasa, mar tá ár lampaíne in éag.’
D’fhreagair lucht na céille iad: ‘Le heagla,’ ar siad, ‘nach mbeadh ár ndóthain ann dúinn féin agus daoibhse, b’fhearr daoibhse dul go dtí lucht a díolta á ceannach daoibh féin.’
Bhí siad ag dul á ceannach nuair a tháinig an fear nuaphósta, agus iad seo a bhí ullamh, chuaigh siad isteach in éineacht leis chun na bainise, agus dúnadh an doras. Sa deireadh, tháinig na maighdeana eile freisin:
‘A thiarna, a thiarna,’ ar siad, ‘oscail dúinn!’ Ach d’fhreagair sé agus dúirt:
‘Deirim libh go fírinneach, níl aithne agam oraibh.’
Bígí ag faire, dá bhrí sin, mar níl a fhios agaibh an lá ná an uair.
Soiscéal an Tiarna. Moladh duit, a Chriost
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 30th August, 2026
Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah 20:7-9
The word of the Lord has meant insult for me.
You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced;you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.
I am a daily laughing-stock, everybody's butt.
Each time I speak the word, I have to howl and proclaim:
'Violence and ruin!'
The word of the Lord has meant for me insult, derision, all day long. I used to say, 'I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more.
Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not bear it.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 62: 2-6. 8-9. R/v 2
Response For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
1. O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water. Response
2. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. For your love is better than life,
my lips will speak your praise. Response
3. So I will bless you all my life, in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,
my mouth shall praise you with joy. Response
4. For you have been my help; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
My soul clings to you; your right hand holds me fast. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 12:1-2
Offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice.
Think of God's mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God.
Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Gospel Acclamation Eph 1: 17.18
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 16:21-27 Glory to you, O Lord
'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself
Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him.'Heaven preserve you, Lord;' he said 'this must not happen to you'.
But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God's way but man's.'
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?
'For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here: https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/
Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 30th August, 2026
CÉAD LÉACHTSliocht as an dara Leabhar Ezícéal, Fáidh 20:7-9
Tá briathar an Tiarna tar éis éirí ina mhasla domsa.
Mheall tú mé, a Thiarna, agus cheadaigh mé mo mhealladh;
rug tú bua orm; ba thú ba threise.
Níl lá nach mbíonn siad ag gáire fúm, is ceap magaidh mé ag gach aon duine.
Níl uair dá labhraim an briathar nach mbíonn orm
a fhógairt in ard mo chinn: “Éigean agus díobháil!”
Tá briathar an Tiarna tar éis éirí ina mhasla domsa
agus ina ábhar magaidh ar feadh an lae.
Deirinn: “Ní smaoineoidh mé air, ní labhróidh mise níos mó ina ainm.” Ansin chonacthas dom go raibh tine loiscneach i mo chroí, í dúnta istigh i mo chnámha.
Tá mé tuirseach ó bheith ag iarraidh í a chosc. Ní fhéadaim é a fhulaingt.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Salm le Freagra Sm 62: 2-6. 8-9. R/v 2
Freagra Tá iotá tarta ar m'anam chugat, a Thiarna, a Dhia liom.
1. A Dhia, mo Dhia thú; iarraim thú go dícheallach.
Tá íota tarta ar m'anam chugat, santaíonn mo cholainn
amhail tálamh atá tirim is spalptha cheal uisce. Freagra
2. Is mar sin a bhím ag breathnú ort sa sanctóir
chun go bhfeicfinn do chumhacht is do ghlóir.
Óir is fearr do bhuanghái ná an bheatha.
Fógróidh mo bheola do mholadh. Freagra
3. Mar sin a bheannóidh mé thú le mo bheo;
i d'ainmsé a thógfaidh mé mo lámha.
Líonfar m'anam mar le fleá,
is molfaidh mo bhéal thú le beola lúcháireacha. Freagra
4. Óir tháinig tú i gcabhair orm, agus gairdím faoi scáth do sciathán.
Tá m'anam ag cloí leat go dlúth, coinníonn do dheaslámh suas mé. Freagra
DARA LÉACHT
Sliocht as Litir Naomh Pól chuig na Rómhánaigh 12:1-2
Déinaigí, bhur gcoirp a thoirbhirt ina n-íobairt bheo .
A bhráithre, táim á iarraidh oraibh as ucht trócaire Dé, bhur gcoirp a thoirbhirt ina n-íobairt bheo naofa thaitneamhach do Dhia; sin é bhur n-adhradh spioradálta. Ná leanaigí patrún an tsaoil seo ach cuirigí malairt meoin oraibh féin trí athnuachan aigne ar shlí go n-aithneodh sibh cad é is toil le Dia, cad é atá maith agus taitneamhach agus foirfe.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Alleluia Véarsa Eo 10: 27
Alleluia, alleluia!
Éisteann mo chaoirigh le mo ghlór, a deir the Tiarna
agus aithním iad, agus leanann siad mé.
Alleluia!
SOISCÉAL
Sliocht as Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Mhatha 16:21-27
Más áil le haon duine bheith ar mo bhuíon, séanadh sé é féin
San am sin amach, thosaigh Íosa á thaispeáint dá dheisceabail nárbh fholáir dó dul go Iarúsailéim agus mórán a fhulaingt ó na seanóirí agus ó uachtaráin na sagart agus ó na scríobhaithe, agus a chur chun báis, agus éirí an treas lá. Ach thug Peadar ar fhód ar leith é agus thosaigh ag tabhairt casaoide dó: “Go bhfóire Dia ort, a Thiarna,” ar seisean, “agus i bhfad uait sin!” Ach d’iompaigh Íosa thairis agus dúirt le Peadar:
“Siar i mo dhiaidh leat, a Shátain! is ceap tuisle dom thú, mar ní hiad smaointe Dé atá i d’aigne ach smaointe daoine.”
Ansin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail:
“Más áil le haon duine bheith ar mo bhuíon, séanadh sé é féin, tógadh suas a chros agus leanadh mé. Óir cibé arb áil leis a anam a shaoradh, caillfidh sé é; ach cibé a chaillfidh a anam mar gheall ormsa, gheobhaidh sé é. Óir cá fearrde duine go ngnóthódh sé an domhan go léir dá ligfeadh sé a anam féin ar ceal? Nó cad a d’fhéadfadh duine a thabhairt mar mhalairt ar a anam?
Óir tá Mac an Duine le teacht faoi ghlóir a Athar lena chuid aingeal, agus ansin cúiteoidh sé le gach duine de réir mar a rinne. Deirim libh go fírinneach, tá daoine anseo i láthair nach mblaisfidh an bás nó go mbeidh Mac an Duine feicthe acu ag teacht ina ríocht.”
Soiscéal an Tiarna. Moladh duit, a Chriost
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
