Churches of the Day

LENT-Saturday after Ash Wednesday

The following of Christ implies a leaving behind of what causes unhappiness in our own lives
and that of others and calls us to the greater service of God.

 Saint of the day: Feb 21; Opt. Mem. of St Peter Damien, bishop and doctor
(Check below the readings and reflection for a short life story  of this saint)

FIRST READING  

A reading from the prophet  Isaiah         58: 9-14
Your light will rise in the darkness.

The Lord says this:
If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word,
if you give your bread to the hungry, and relief to the oppressed,
your light will rise in the darkness, and your shadows become like noon.

The Lord will always guide you, giving you relief in desert places.
He will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water whose waters never run dry.
You will rebuild the ancient ruins, build up on the old foundations.
You will be called 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of ruined houses'.

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, and doing business on the holy day,
if you call the sabbath 'Delightful', and the day sacred to the Lord 'Honourable',
if you honour it by abstaining from travel, from doing business and from gossip,
then shall you find your happiness in the Lord
and I will lead you triumphant over the heights of the land. I will feed you on the heritage of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The Word of the Lord.                 Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm                Ps 85; 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 
Response                                    Show me, Lord, your way so that I may walk in your truth.

1. Turn your ear, O Lord, and give answer for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am faithful: save the servant who trusts in you.  Response

2. You are my God, have mercy on me, Lord, for I cry to you all the day long.
Give joy to your servant, O Lord, for to you I lift up my soul.                   Response

3. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of love to all who call.
Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my voice. Response 

Gospel Acclamation                          Ps 94: 8
Glory and praise to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God
Harden not your hearts today but listen to the voice of the Lord
Glory and praise to you, O Christ! you are the Word of God

or                                                               Ezek 33:11
Glory and praise to you, O Christ! you are the Word of God
I take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man, it is the Lord who speaks -
but in the turning back of a wicked man who changes his ways to win life
Glory and praise to you, O Christ! you are the Word of God

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.          And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to  Luke       5: 27-32          Glory to you, O Lord
I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house,
and said to him, 'Follow me'. And leaving everything he got up and followed him.

In his honour Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?'
Jesus said to them in reply, 'It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick.
I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.'

The Gospel of the Lord.         Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.


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Scripture Reflection                Saturday after Ash Wednesday        Luke 5:27-32

The opening words of today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah suggests that if the people of Israel behave in certain ways, such as doing away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word, feeding the hungry, then the Lord will be their guide and will give them relief in desert places. Jesus’ ministry seems to have taken a different shape. He revealed God’s unconditional love to people before they changed for the better, thereby empowering them to become the person God was calling them to be.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus called Levi, a tax collector, before he gave up his tax collecting. Such people were very unpopular because the payments they exacted from others often included large contributions for themselves. Certainly, the religious leaders of the time regarded people like Levi as ‘sinners’. Yet, the Lord called Levi to become one of his intimate disciples, thereby empowering him to leave his lucrative trade and become a follower of the one who had nowhere to lay his head. In gratitude, Levi invited Jesus to be his guest at a meal at which other tax collectors were present. This was the kind of company Jesus loved to keep because he knew such people, who were marginalized because of their profession, needed to know that God was calling out to them in his love, inviting them and empowering them to live in ways that were more in keeping with his desire for them and that would be truly life-giving for them. Like a doctor, Jesus knew his place was among the broken in body, mind and spirit.

The risen Lord continues to relate to us all in the same way. He continues to pour his love, God’s unconditional love, into our hearts so that we are empowered to become the new creation God needs us to be, if God’s kingdom is to make a breakthrough into our world.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & 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: Feb 21; Opt. Mem. of St Peter Damien, bishop and doctor
Peter who was a monk,  bishop, doctor of the Church and  reformer, was born in Ravenna (Italy) in 1007;  He became a hermit monk after a career as a professor. Ardent, energetic, and strict,  outspoken reformer of Church life and discipline. Appointed cardinal-bishop of Ostia, he became a diplomat and ecclesiastical statesman, a scholarly reformer devoted to Christ. Peter died on 22 February 1072.

 St Peter Damian (1007-72) was a hermit and scholar. He denounced clerical sex abuse. He was an influential reforming bishop and cardinal. Pope Leo XII declared him a doctor of the Church in 1828.

Patrick Duffy tells his story.

Early life
Peter was born at Ravenna into a large but poor family. He lost both his parents in childhood and while supposedly in the care of his brother was being treated as a slave. Another brother Damian was archpriest at Ravenna. He rescued Peter, gave him a good education in grammar, rhetoric and law at Faenza and Parma and Peter became a professor at Ravenna. In gratitude Peter took Damian as his second name.

An Ascetic
Peter was already leading an ascetic life, fasting, wearing a hair shirt and using the discipline when he joined the Camaldolese Benedictine followers of St Romuald at Fonte Avellana. On the abbot's death in 1043, Peter became the head of his community and founded five other hermitages. He was kind to his monks and compassionate towards the genuinely repentant, but he also urged reform both of wandering monks and the clergy.

No-nonsense reformer on behalf of the Popes
Because of his disciplined, blunt, and no-nonsense character, the popes of this period kept choosing him to carry out diplomatic missions: Pope St Leo IX (1049-54) chose him to preach against simony, clerical concubinage and sodomy. Pope Stephen IX (1057-58) made him cardinal-bishop of Ostia, near Rome, and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Gubbio. Nicholas II (1059-61) sent him to Milan to stamp out the buying and selling of clerical benefices there and in 1069 Alexander II (1061-73) sent him to Mainz in Germany to dissuade the young King Henry IV from divorcing his wife Bertha.

His writings
Around 1050, during the pontificate of Pope Leo IX, Peter published a treatise on the vices of the clergy entitled The Book of Gomorrah. He denounced as sinful all homosexual practices.  See www.ourladyswarriors.org/articles/damian1.htm.
Not unlike writings on clerical abuse today, it got a mixed response. Another work, written around 1053, entitled Liber Gratissimus, upholding the validity of the orders of simoniacal clerics, though it also got a mixed reception at the time, had a powerful influence in resolving the question. He also was a notable poet; one of his poems praises St Gregory the Great as Anglorum iam apostolus.

Last mission and death
Peter's final mission was to Ravenna where he was again successful. On his way back to Rome, he died of fever at Faenza. Never officially canonised, he was made a doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XII in 1828.

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Memorable Proverbs for today

'Sin will take you farther than you want to go,
it will keep you longer than you want to stay,
and it will cost you more than you want to pay.'

~ author unknown ~

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First Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

We all need to awaken to the meaning of 'being in Christ'.
We are all struggling against the powers of darkness confident that wherever there is sin, Grace also abounds still more.

Today the initial Rite of Election of Catechumens is celebrated.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Book of  Genesis          2:7-9 3:1-7
The creation and sin of our first parents.

The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.

The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman,
'Did God really say you were not to eat from any of  the trees in the garden?' The woman answered the serpent, 'We may eat he fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death".'
Then the serpent said to the woman,
'No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.'

The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm            Ps 50: 3-6, 2-12-13, 14, 17
Response                                Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.
1. Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.                       Response

2. My offences truly I know them; my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned: what is evil in your sight I have done.             Response

3. A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, nor deprive me of your holy spirit.            Response

4. Give me again the joy of your help; with a spirit of fervour sustain me.
O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise.                                     Response

SECOND  READING 

A reading from the letter of St Paul to  Romans                5:12-19
However great the number of sins committed, grace was even greater.

Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of 'law-breaking', yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law.

Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man's fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift. The results of the gift also outweigh the results of one man's sin: for after one single fall came judgement with a verdict of condemnation, now after many falls comes grace with its verdict of acquittal. If it is certain that death reigned over everyone as the consequence of one man's fall, it is even more certain that one man, Jesus Christ, will cause everyone to reign in life who receives the free gift that he does not deserve, of being made righteous. Again, as one man's fall brought condemnation on everyone, so the good act of one man brings everyone life and makes them justified.

As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.

The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God.

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Shorter form of the Second reading

A reading from the letter of St Paul to  Romans                5:12. 17-19

Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. If it is certain that death reigned over everyone as the consequence of one man's fall, it is even more certain that one man, Jesus Christ, will cause everyone to reign in life who receives the free gift that he does not deserve, of being made righteous. Again, as one man's fall brought condemnation on everyone, so the good act of one man brings everyone life and makes them justified. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.

The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God.

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Gospel  Acclamation          Mt 4:4
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.          And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew             4:1-11            Glory to you, O Lord
Jesus fasts for forty days and is tempted.

Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the tempter came and said to him,
'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves'.
But he replied, 'Scripture says:
'Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'.

The devil then took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple.
'If you are the Son of God' he said 'throw yourself down; for scripture says:
'He will put you in his angels' charge, and they will support you on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone'.
Jesus said to him, 'Scripture also says: 'You must not put the Lord your God to the test'.

Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 'I will give you all these' he said, 'if you fall at my feet and worship me.'
Then Jesus replied,
'Be off, Satan! For scripture says: 'You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.'

Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.

The Gospel of the Lord.           Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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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.