Churches of the Day

Saturday of the 24th week in Ordinary Time, Year 2

The Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday

Saint of the Day: Sep 19; –St Januarius,  bishop, martyr
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  15:35-37. 42-49
The thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable.

Someone may ask, 'How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come back?' They are stupid questions. Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of wheat or something like that, It is the same with the resurrection of the dead:
the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable;
the thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious;
the thing that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful;
when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit.



If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own embodiment. The first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit.
That is, first the one with the soul, not the spirit, and after that, the one with the spirit.
The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven.
As this earthly man was, so are we on earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are we in heaven.
And we, who have been modelled on the earthly man, will be modelled on the heavenly man.

The Word of the Lord             Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm           Ps 55: 10-14. R/v 14
Response                                I shall walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.

1. My foes will be put to flight on the day that I call to you.
This I know, that God is on my side.                                                          Response

2. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not fear: what can mortal man do to me?            Response

3. I am bound by the vows I have made you. "O God I will offer you praise
for you rescued my soul from death, you kept my feet from stumbling
that I may walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.           Response

Gospel Acclamation           Ps 118: 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open my eyes, O Lord, that I am consider the wonders of your law.
Alleluia !

Or                                               Lk 8: 15
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who, with a noble and generous heart, take the word of God
to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Alleluia !

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.                  And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke8:4-15      Glory to you, O Lord
The part in the rich soil, this is people who the take the word and yield a harvest through their perseverance.

With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, he used this parable:
'A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture.
Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
and some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.'
Saying this he cried, 'Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!'

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said,
The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that they may see but not perceive, listen but not understand

'This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God.
Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved.
Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up.
As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity.
As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.

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

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Gospel Reflection      Saturday, Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time    Luke 8:4-15

Both of today’s readings are linked by the image of the sowing of seed.

In the first reading, Paul uses the image of the seed to speak of the transformation that awaits us beyond this earthly life. In the verses following our reading, he declares, ‘Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed.’ Paul recognises that human language is not capable of fully expressing the nature of this change. Earlier in this letter he wrote that ‘no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’. However, he sees in the farmer sowing seed on his land an intimation of the change that awaits us beyond this earthly life.

The seed has to die as seed, losing its physical body, before it can rise again with a new body as a stalk of wheat. The dying of the seed makes possible the rising of the wheat grain. In a similar way, for Paul, the dying of our physical body makes possible the raising of our spiritual body. In this earthly life, according to Paul, we are embodied souls, whereas in the next life we will be embodied spirits. We will retain our embodied identity, but our physical body will give way to a spiritual body. Our ultimate destiny is to be conformed to the image of the heavenly man, the risen Lord.

If Paul relates the image of seed -owing to our ultimate destiny, Jesus relates it to our present response to God’s active involvement in our lives. The parable of the sower and its interpretation recognises that the seed of God’s word, powerful as it is, can be restricted in its impact by obstacles in our own lives. We may not take God’s desire to be in communion with us through his Son seriously enough; our response to God’s initiative towards us may not be sufficiently rooted to withstand the storms of life; we can allow our relationship with God to become choked by the pleasures and cares of life. Yet if there is any openness at all in our lives, any patch of good soil, God will be able to bring his good work in our lives to completion, and we will attain the glorious destiny that Paul portrays in the first reading.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, 1966 published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Gospel Reflection is available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings 2021-: My Words Will Not Pass Away by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookstore

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Saint of the Day: Sep 19; –St Januarius,  bishop, martyr
Three times a year - on this feast of the translation of this martyr's relics and on the day he saved Naples from an eruption on Mount Vesuvius - the liquefaction of his blood is said to occur.

Patrick Duffy gives the background.

Fourth Century Martyr 
 Januarius was a 4th century bishop of Beneventum, who with his companions suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian at Naples.

It is said he was first thrown into a fiery furnace and remained unscathed.
Then thrown to the lions in the arena, they refused to touch him.
Finally he was beheaded.
The Christian women collected his blood in a glass vial and placed it in his tomb.

Liquefaction of his Blood
The first recorded liquefaction of his blood was recorded in the year 1389 and since then countless pilgrims have witnessed this unexplained occurrence. The phenomenon has been the subject of intense dispute and scientific examination for centuries. The Church has never made any official declaration that it is a supernatural event. But even sceptics admit that 'something' happens.

What is involved is a dark solid mass held in a glass vial kept in the treasury chapel of Naples cathedral. Three times a year a priest brings it out with a reliquary said to contain the saint's skull, holds it up and turns it as the people pray. After a period of anything from two minutes to an hour, it appears to become red and to bubble - or not. If it does, the priest proclaims the miracle and all sing the Te Deum in thanksgiving. If not, this is taken as a kind of prophetic warning.

Volcanic Eruptions
In 1631 an eruption on nearby Mount Vesuvius threatened. The people prayed to St Januarius to spare them. The flow of lava abated and the city was saved. Ever since, St Januarius has been invoked against volcanic eruptions. He is also the patron saint of blood banks.

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Memorable Saying for Today

I know God has a plan for me. I pray for Patience to wait on it
and Smarts enough to recognise it when it comes.

                                                                                  ~ P Mc Shane ~

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The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees

FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Isaiah            55:6-9
My thoughts are not your thoughts.

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found,
call to him while he is still near.
Let the wicked man abandon his way,
the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,
to our God who is rich in forgiving;
for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways not your ways - it is the Lord who speaks.
Yes, the heavens are as high above earth
as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.

The Word of the Lord.           Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 144:2-3.8-9. 17-18. Rv 18
Response                               The Lord is close to all who call him.

1. I will bless you day after day and praise your name for ever.
The Lord is great, highly to be praised, his greatness cannot be measured.       Response

2. The Lord is kind and full of compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all his creatures.                           Response

3. The Lord is just in all his ways and loving in all his deeds.
He is close to all who call him, who call on him from their hearts.                        Response

SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians 1:20-24.27
Life to me is Christ.

Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my death.
Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more; but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results- I do not know what I should choose. I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better, but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake.

Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ.

The Word of the Lord.                  Thanks be to God

Gospel Acclamation               Lk 19: 38
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessings on the King who comes, in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!
Alleluia!

Or                                                Acts 16: 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                   And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 20:1-16       Glory to you, O Lord
Why be envious because I am generous?

Jesus said to his disciples:
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard. Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them,
"You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage". So they went.
At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same. Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them,
"Why have you been standing here idle all day?"
"Because no one has hired us" they answered. He said to them, "You go into my vineyard too".

In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff,
"Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first".
So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each. They took it, but grumbled at the landowner. "The men who came last" they said "have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day's work in all the heat."

He answered one of them and said,
"My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?"

Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.'

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.