Churches of the Day

Monday of the Second Week of Easter

Jesus is our light of faith who led the pharisee Nicodemus to trust him as his spiritual guide

Optional memorials of St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, a french vagabond preacher, died  in 1716
and St Peter Chanel, the first Marist missionary priest and martyred in Oceania. d 1842
C/f A short life of these saints can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles              4:23-31
 As they prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the word of God boldly.

As soon as Peter and John were released they went to the community and told them everything the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard it they lifted up their voice to God all together.
'Master,' they prayed 'It is you who made heaven and earth and sea, and everything in them;
you it is who said through the Holy Spirit and speaking through our ancestor David, your servant:
'Why this arrogance among the nations, these futile plots among the peoples?
Kings on earth setting out to war, princes making an alliance, against the Lord and against his Anointed.'

'This is what has come true: in this very city Herod and Pontius Pilate made an alliance with the pagan nations and the peoples of Israel, against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, but only to bring about the very thing that you in your strength and your wisdom had predetermined should happen.
And now, Lord, take note of their threats and help your servants to proclaim your message with all boldness, by stretching out your hand to heal and to work miracles and marvels through the name of your holy servant Jesus.' 
As they prayed, the house where they were assembled rocked;
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the word of God boldly. 

The Word of the Lord.               Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm            Ps 2
Response                                  Blessed are they who put their trust in God.
Or                                              Alleluia!

1. Why this tumult among nations, among peoples this useless murmuring?
They arise, the kings of the earth, princes plot against the Lord and his Anointed.
'Come, let us break their fetters, come, let us cast off their yoke.'                              Response

2. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord is laughing them to scorn.
Then he will speak in his anger, his rage will strike them with terror.
'It is I who have set up my king on Zion, my holy mountain.'                                     Response

3. I will announce the decree of the Lord:
The Lord said to me: 'You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.
Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations, put the ends of the earth in your possession.
With a rod of iron you will break them, shatter them like a potter's jar.'                 Response

Gospel Acclamation              Col 3:1
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ,
you must look for the things that are in heaven where Christ is,
sitting at God's right hand.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL


The Lord be with you.              And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John       3:1-8        Glory to you, O Lord
 Unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leading Jew, who came to Jesus by night and said,
'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who comes from God;
for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him'.
Jesus answered:   'I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God'.
Nicodemus said,
'How can a grown man be born? Can he go back into his mother's womb and be born again?'
Jesus replied:
'I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God: what is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born  of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above. The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound,
but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit.'

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



Gospel Reflection                  Monday          Second Week of Easter                                                 

Today’s first reading follows on from the rulers, elders and scribes ordering Peter and John in a threatening manner not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. The response of Peter and John was to go the community of believers and in their presence to pray, asking God for help to proclaim the gospel ‘with all boldness’.

As they prayed, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and in the strength of that Spirit they proclaimed the word of God courageously. We need the same courage or boldness to proclaim the gospel of the Lord today. The source of our courage is the same Holy Spirit who is given to us within the community of faith, when we join with other believers in prayerful petition. The religious leaders may have wanted to put a lid on what was happening but they discovered that, in the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in the gospel reading, the Spirit, like the wind, blows where it pleases. The Spirit is always at work furthering the work of the Lord in the world. No earthly power can hold back the Spirit.

Our calling is to open our hearts ever more fully to the powerful presence of the Spirit, whom the Lord continues to pour out on all who know their need of the Spirit. In the gospel reading, Jesus calls on Nicodemus to allow himself to be born of water and the Spirit, to surrender to the movement of the Spirit. Nicodemus was a ‘teacher of Israel’ and he related to Jesus as a fellow teacher, ‘we know that you are a teacher who comes from God’. In reality, Jesus was not just Nicodemus’ fellow teacher. As John the Baptist had earlier said, he is the one on whom the Spirit descended and remained and who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Like Nicodemus, we all need to keep opening our lives more fully to the Spirit whom the risen Lord is always offering us, so that we can boldly proclaim by our lives the good news of his life, death and resurrection.

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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 Reflections on the Weekday Readings Your word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Saints for this Day: St Louis Marie de Montfort and 

Summary St Louis Marie de Montfort saw himself as a "slave" of Jesus Christ. He became a vagabond preacher, walking around France and was often banned by the episcopal authorities from preaching in their diocese.
Here Fr John Murray PP tells his story.


Montfort, a Breton village
Louis Marie Grignion was born in the hamlet of Montfort, a Breton village about thirteen miles east of Rennes, on 31 January 1673. Later, as an itinerant preacher, he preferred to drop his surname and be called simply Louis Marie de Montfort, or le Pére de Montfort, the Father from Montfort. The second of eighteen children, Louis was one of the few who survived to adulthood. He was born into a family of deep Catholic faith, in an area of France renowned for its dynamic Christian life.

Jesuit Education
At the age of eleven, Louis Marie set out for Rennes, the capital of Brittany, to enrol in the Jesuit College of Thomas à Becket. The young student from Montfort was considered by his teachers to be intelligent, religious, artistic in nature and somewhat shy. It was under the guidance of the Jesuits that Louis's priestly vocation matured. The decision to enter the priesthood was made, so he tells us, at the Shrine of Our Lady in the Carmelite Church in Rennes. After eight years at the Jesuit College, Louis Marie decided to pursue his theological studies at Saint Sulpice in Paris. At the age of nineteen, a new chapter opened in his life. The young man bade farewell to family and friends at the bridge of Cess on the outskirts of Rennes.

Studies in Paris
Having left all, he crossed the Cesson bridge to a new life of total dependence upon Divine Providence. So convinced was he that God was truly his loving Father that he gave his money, baggage and clothes to the first beggars he met. Begging for food and shelter along the way, he walked to Paris, arriving in the rags of a mendicant.

For the first two years, Montfort attended classes at the Sorbonne. The following six years of theological study, however, were spent under the tutelage of the Sulpicians themselves. Like the Jesuits, they found the student from Montfort to be a talented man of deep faith, intensely studious and strongly devoted to Our Lady. He was notable for the practical love he showed for the poor, for his desire to serve the outcasts of Paris society, and for a determination to live the gospel by identifying with the most neglected.

A man of the Bible
All his life, but especially as a seminarian, Montfort was an avid reader, and thoroughly enjoyed his task as librarian at Saint Sulpice. Above all else, he was a man of the Bible. The Sacred Scriptures were his constant companion, and his sermons and writings - five major works in all - abound with biblical texts. Louis yearned to proclaim the Good News of God's love to the outcasts, to assure them of the love of Jesus and of the maternal care of Mary.

First Mass
At the Lady Chapel in the parish church of Saint Sulpice, Father Louis Marie Grignion celebrated his first Mass on 5 June 1700. From the age of eleven, he had completed sixteen years of formal study to reach this goal. Yet Montfort's priestly ministry itself would last only a further sixteen years.

Unsettled
After a few years of preaching parish renewals and ministering to the destitute at the poor-house at Poitiers, Louis Mary was far from settled. He found it extremely difficult to discover how to implement his belief that God was calling him to serve the poor and to identify with them.

Meeting the Pope
His solution was simple. This unknown young priest from western France would seek the advice of the Pope. And so he set out on foot from Poitiers, begging for food and shelter along the arduous and dangerous routes to the Holy City.

In June 1706, Montfort met with Pope Clement XI (Giovanni Fancesco Albani 1700-21), pouring out his heart to the Vicar of Christ. Strangely, the Holy Father clearly saw in this young priest extraordinary gifts of God. He turned down Louis Marie's offer to proclaim the gospel in the wilds of Canada or in the Far East. Rather, the Pope named him Apostolic Missionary, telling him to return to his native land and renew the Church there.

He spent the rest of his life conducting approximately two hundred missions and retreats throughout the villages and towns of western France, proclaiming the gospel of God's love with Spirit-filled power.

Mixed Reaction
  De Montfort's bold, charismatic proclamation of God's love was heard in churches, barracks, poor-houses, and even in houses of prostitution. His preaching was a source of admiration for many, of resentment and, sadly, anger for others.

His life-style as a poor, vagabond preacher, with a knapsack strung across his shoulder to carry his Bible, breviary and notebooks, was not considered dignified for a cleric. Several times the episcopal authorities forbade him to preach in one diocese or another. Always obedient, Montfort would move on.

Identified with the poor
With utter disdain for human respect, this saintly man identified with the poor, and found his greatest joy in opening for them the Word of God and offering them whatever material help he could locate. Typical of his actions was the event recorded in Dinan - probably one of many similar acts on his part - when the missionary tenderly embraced a dying, leprous beggar lying in the street, and carried him to a nearby religious house, crying out to the doorkeeper: 'Open up to Jesus Christ!'

To the majority of the people, Father Louis Marie was simply the Good Father from Montfort. At times he was named the Father with the Big Rosary, for he ordinarily had a large rosary attached to the cord-like belt of his cassock.

Attracting Thousands
His preaching, flowing from his own experience of God's love and Mary's maternal care, attracted thousands back to the faith. In a Jansenistic age which harshly stressed the distance between God and his people, he recommended even daily communion, a tender devotion to the Mother of God, and a total surrender to Jesus in Mary.

Undeterred
Because of the style and contents of his preaching, this Elijah-like prophet was regarded by quite a few as no more than a strange misfit. He was poisoned on one occasion and, although it did not prove fatal, it caused his health to deteriorate even more rapidly. Other attempts were made on his life, yet Montfort was not deterred.

'Slaves of Jesus Christ'
His writings call for a loving, formal acceptance of who we truly are: the slaves of Jesus Christ. The term 'slave' always had, for Montfort, the evangelical connotation that we belong to the Lord, that we are loved by him, and that we are redeemed by the Incarnation and total offering of the Incarnate Wisdom for us.

This article first appeared in The Messenger (May 2006), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.

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Memorable Sayings for Today

The more a soul is consecrated to Mary,
the more it will be consecrated to Jesus Christ.

~ St Aloysius Church notice ~

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Also today we celebrate St Peter Chanel, priest and  martyr

St Peter Chanel, the first Marist missionary priest martyred in Oceania. He spent four years working on the Island of Futuna near Tonga. The Chanel College, a second level college in Coolock village, Co Dublin, Ireland is called after him.

Patrick Duffy tells his story.

Youth
Pierre Louis Marie Chanel was born on July 12, 1803 in the area of Belley in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. After training at minor and major seminaries he was ordained in 1827 and spent a brief time as an assistant priest at Ambérieu, where he met Claude Bret who was to become his friend and also one of the first Marist Missionaries.

Early ministry
From an early age he had been thinking about going on the foreign missions and his intention was strengthened by letters that arrived at Ambérieu from a former curate, then a missionary in India. Pierre applied to the bishop of Belley to go to the missions, but was appointed instead for the next three years as parish priest of Crozet, where his zeal and care for the sick won the hearts of the locals. During this time he heard of a group of diocesan priests who were hopeful of starting a religious order to be dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Marist
In 1831, Pierre joined the forming Society of Mary (Marists), who worked both on local and foreign missions. He was appointed first as spiritual director at the Seminary of Belley, where he stayed for five years. In 1833 he accompanied Fr Jean-Claude Colin to Rome to seek papal approval of the growing Society.

Missionary to Oceania
In 1836 the Marists were formally approved by Pope Gregory XVI and were asked to send missionaries to the territory of the South West Pacific. Chanel, professed a Marist on 24th September 1836, was made the superior of a band of Marist missionaries that set out on 24th December from Le Havre. They were accompanied by Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier who was to become the first Bishop of New Zealand. Pompallier had been appointed by Gregory XVI to care for the Vicariate Apostolic of Western Oceania. Pompallier based himself in New Zealand from 1838 and became the first Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand in 1848.

Journey
Their first port of call was the Canary Islands. Crossing over to South America, his friend Fr Claude Bret died at sea from a flu virus. By June they reached Valparaiso (where the French Picpus Fathers who had care of the Vicariate of Eastern Oceania had their base). By September they had reached Gambier, then Tahiti, where the group transferred to another ship and set sail for Tonga before first dropping two missionaries at Uvea (also named Wallis), the mainseat of the mission. Pierre Chanel went to neighbouring Futuna Island, accompanied by a French laybrother Marie-Nizier Delorme. They arrived on 8 November 1837 with an English Protestant layman named Thomas Boag who had been resident on the island and had joined them at Tonga seeking passage to Futuna.

Martyrdom
The group was initially well received by the island's king, Niuliki. Once the missionaries learned the local language and began preaching directly to the people, the king grew uneasy, suspecting that Christianity would take away his prerogatives as high priest and king. When his own son, Meitala, sought to be baptized, the king sent a favoured warrior, his son-in-law, Musumusu, to "do whatever was necessary" to resolve the problem. Musumusu initially went to Meitala and the two fought. Musumusu, injured in the fracas, went to Chanel feigning need of medical attention. While Chanel tended him, a group of others ransacked his house. Musumusu took an axe and clubbed Chanel on the head. Peter Chanel died that day, April 28, 1841.

Remains returned to New Zealand and France
News of his death took months to reach the outside world and almost a year before Marists in France learned of it. Bishop Pompallier, upon hearing of the death about six months later, arranged for a French naval corvette L’Allier, commanded by the Comte du Bouzet, to accompany the Mission schooner Sancta Maria and sail on 19 November for Wallis and Futuna Islands, taking with him Fr. Philippe Viard. The two vessels arrived at Uvea (Wallis) on 30 December 1841. They were able to locate and identify his remains, which were brought first to New Zealand in 1842  and eventually in 1850 to the Mother House of the Society of Mary in Lyon.

Veneration and canonisation
Eventually most on the island, including the chief Musumusu converted to Catholicism. Chanel was declared a martyr and beatified in 1889. He was canonised in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. His feast day in the Catholic Church is 28th April. The relics were returned to Futuna in 1977.

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Memorable Saying for Today

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church

~ Tertullian ~

The tyrant dies and his rule is over,
the martyr dies and his rule begins.

~ Soren Kierkegaard ~

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Third Sunday of Easter  Year C

The Lord reminds the apostles of his call to them to follow him
and that he will be always be with them and us as we go about living out his example.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles          5.27-32. 40-41
We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit. 

The high priest demanded an explanation of the apostles.
'We gave you a formal warning' he said 'not to preach in this name, and what have you done?
You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and seem determined to fix the guilt of this man's death on us.'
In reply Peter and the apostles said,
'Obedience to God comes before obedience to men; it was the God of our ancestors who raised up Jesus, but it was you who had him executed by hanging on a tree. By his own right hand God has now raised him up to be leader and saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through him to Israel. We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.'

They warned the apostles not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. And so they left the presence of the Sanhedrin glad to have had the honour of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name.

The Word of the Lord          Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm      Ps 29
Response                            I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.
or                                         Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

1. I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead, restored me to life from those who sink into the grave.   Response

2. Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him, give thanks to his holy name.
His anger lasts but a moment; his favour through life. night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn.     Response

3. The Lord listened and had pity. The Lord came to my help.
For me you have changed my mourning into dancing; O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.                 Response

SECOND READING   

A reading from the book of the Apocalypse               5:11-14
 The Lamb that was sacrificed is worthy to be given power and riches.

In my vision, I heard the sound of an immense number of angels gathered round the throne and the animals and the elders; there were ten thousand times ten thousand of them and thousands upon thousands, shouting,
'The Lamb that was sacrificed is worthy to be given power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing.'
Then I heard all the living things in creation - everything that lives in the air, and on the ground, and under the ground, and in the sea, crying,
'To the One who is sitting on the throne and to the Lamb, be all praise,
honour, glory and power, for ever and ever.'
And the four animals said, 'Amen'; and the elders prostrated themselves to worship.

The Word of the Lord          Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation      Lk 24:32
Alleluia, alleluia!
Lord Jesus, explain the scriptures to us.
Make our hearts burn within us as you talk to us
Alleluia!

or
Alleluia, alleluia!
Christ has risen: he who created all things and has granted his mercy to men.
Alleluia!


GOSPEL               

The Lord be with you.                      And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John             21:1-19             Glory to you, O Lord
Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.

Jesus showed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together.
Simon Peter said, 'I'm going fishing.' They replied, 'We'll come with you.'
They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.

It was light by now and there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus.
Jesus called out, 'Have you caught anything, friends?'
And when they answered, 'No', he said,
'Throw the net out to starboard and you'll find something.'
So they dropped the net, and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in.
The disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'
At these words 'It is the Lord', Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.

As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it.
Jesus said, 'Bring some of the fish you have just caught.'
Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them;
and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken.

Jesus said to them, 'Come and have breakfast.'
None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, 'Who are you?' they knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

After the meal Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?'
He answered, 'Yes Lord, you know I love you.'
Jesus said to him, 'Feed my lambs.'

A second time he said to him, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?'
He replied, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.'
Jesus said to him, 'Look after my sheep.'

Then he said to him a third time,
'Simon son of John, do you love me?'
Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, 'Do you love me?' and said,
'Lord, you know everything; you know I love you,'
Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep.
'I tell you most solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked;
but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you
and take you where you would rather not go.'

In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God.
After this he said, 'Follow me.'

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

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Shorter form

GOSPEL               

The Lord be with you.                      And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John             21:1-19             Glory to you, O Lord
Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.

Jesus showed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this:
Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together.
Simon Peter said, 'I'm going fishing.' They replied, 'We'll come with you.'
They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.

It was light by now and there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus.
Jesus called out, 'Have you caught anything, friends?'
And when they answered, 'No', he said,
'Throw the net out to starboard and you'll find something.'
So they dropped the net, and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in.
The disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'
At these words 'It is the Lord', Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water.
The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.

As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, 'Bring some of the fish you have just caught.'
Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them;
and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken.

Jesus said to them, 'Come and have breakfast.'
None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, 'Who are you?' they knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.

This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

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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.