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Week Reflections – A Vaccine of Hope
Date: 1st - 6th February 2021Location: Our Lady and St Kevin's Church, Littleton, Co. Tipperary
Week Reflections – A Vaccine of Hope
Date: 1st - 6th February 2021
Location: Our Lady and St Kevin's Church, Littleton, Co. Tipperary
The Pope Video – February 2021
For women who are victims of violence
Christian Radio Stations
Bishop Alan McGuckian
The Joy of the Gospel – Reflection 4 by Bishop Alan McGuckian
St Columba – 1500 years
Celebration of the life and legacy of St Colmcille/Columba
Bishop Alan McGuckian
The Joy of the Gospel – April 29th
Churches of the Day
Nature itself is alive
Nature itself is alive
When I lived with the T’boli people in the Philippines, I learned much about their earth centred spirituality…I remember the first time I became aware of how sensitive they are towards the presence of the spirit world in nature.
I was returning one evening from an outlying village and I noticed a T'boli man felling tall bamboos. Before cutting each strand he bent low over the bamboo and whispered some words. I asked my T'boli companion what he was doing and he informed me that the man was asking the spirit of the tree for permission to cut it down.
… I learned that normally such a prayer addressed the spirit as the true owner of the tree. The supplicant informed the spirit that he needed the tree to build a house so he requested the spirit to allow him to use the bamboo for that purpose. …The T’boli relate to the natural world as 'Thou' and not as 'It' or a mere commodity.
Sean McDonagh
Spirituality
Dominican Publications
Feb 27 - St Anne Line (d. 1601)
Summary of St Anne Line: Anne was the widow of Roger Line, who along with Anne's brother was arrested in England and banished to Flanders where he died a few years later. Anne was given charge of a house of refuge for priests, was found out, arrested, charged and executed. One of Shakespeare's enigmatic poems, The Phoenix and the Turtle, has been interpreted as in praise of the love of St Anne Line and her husband Roger.
Patrick Duffy explains.
A convert from Calvinism
A
nne Line was the second daughter of William Heigham of Essex, a strict Calvinist, and was, together with her brother William, disinherited for converting to Catholicism. Some time before 1586, she married Roger Line, a young Catholic, who had been disinherited for the same reason. Roger Line and young William Heigham were arrested together while attending Mass, and were imprisoned, fined, and finally banished. Roger Line went to Flanders, where he recived a small allowance from the King of Spain, part of which he sent regularly to his wife until his death around 1594.
In charge of a house of refuge for priests
Around that time Fr John Gerard opened a house of refuge for hiding priests and asked the newly-widowed Anne Line, despite her ill-health, to take charge of it. By 1597 this house had become insecure, so another was opened, and Anne Line was, again, placed in charge. On 2nd February 1601, Fr Francis Page was saying Mass in the house managed by Anne Line, when men arrived to arrest him. The priest managed to slip into a special hiding place, prepared by Anne, and afterwards to escape, but she was arrested, along with two other lay people.
Trial
Tried at the Old Bailey on 26 February, she was so weak that she had to be carried to the trial in a chair. She told the court that far from regretting having concealed a priest, she only grieved that she "could not receive a thousand more". Sir John Popham, the judge, sentenced her to hang the next day at Tyburn.
Execution
Anne Line was hanged on 27 February 1601. She was executed immediately before two priests, Fr Roger Filcock, and Fr Mark Barkworth, though, as a woman, she was spared the disembowelling that they endured. At the scaffold she repeated what she had said at her trial, declaring loudly to the bystanders: "I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far am I from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand." Fr. Barkworth kissed her hand, while her body was still hanging, saying, "Oh blessed Mrs. Line, who have now happily received thy reward, thou art gone before us, but we shall quickly follow thee to bliss, if it please the Almighty."
The Phoenix and the Turtle
There is no foolproof documentary evidence that Shakespeare was a Catholic. But in The Times Literary Supplement of April 18, 2003, John Finnis and Patrick Martin argued that Shakespeare's most enigmatic poem, The Phoenix and Turtle, published in 1601, which up till then had defied all attempts at explanation, is in fact a memorial poem for Anne Line, the Catholic widow executed at Tyburn in 1601 and her husband, Roger.
Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either-neither,
Simple were so well compounded
That it cried how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.
Threnos
Beauty, truth, and rarity.
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos'd in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:--
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be:
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
Patrick Duffy explains.
A convert from Calvinism
A
nne Line was the second daughter of William Heigham of Essex, a strict Calvinist, and was, together with her brother William, disinherited for converting to Catholicism. Some time before 1586, she married Roger Line, a young Catholic, who had been disinherited for the same reason. Roger Line and young William Heigham were arrested together while attending Mass, and were imprisoned, fined, and finally banished. Roger Line went to Flanders, where he recived a small allowance from the King of Spain, part of which he sent regularly to his wife until his death around 1594.In charge of a house of refuge for priests
Around that time Fr John Gerard opened a house of refuge for hiding priests and asked the newly-widowed Anne Line, despite her ill-health, to take charge of it. By 1597 this house had become insecure, so another was opened, and Anne Line was, again, placed in charge. On 2nd February 1601, Fr Francis Page was saying Mass in the house managed by Anne Line, when men arrived to arrest him. The priest managed to slip into a special hiding place, prepared by Anne, and afterwards to escape, but she was arrested, along with two other lay people.
Trial
Tried at the Old Bailey on 26 February, she was so weak that she had to be carried to the trial in a chair. She told the court that far from regretting having concealed a priest, she only grieved that she "could not receive a thousand more". Sir John Popham, the judge, sentenced her to hang the next day at Tyburn.
Execution
Anne Line was hanged on 27 February 1601. She was executed immediately before two priests, Fr Roger Filcock, and Fr Mark Barkworth, though, as a woman, she was spared the disembowelling that they endured. At the scaffold she repeated what she had said at her trial, declaring loudly to the bystanders: "I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far am I from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand." Fr. Barkworth kissed her hand, while her body was still hanging, saying, "Oh blessed Mrs. Line, who have now happily received thy reward, thou art gone before us, but we shall quickly follow thee to bliss, if it please the Almighty."The Phoenix and the Turtle
There is no foolproof documentary evidence that Shakespeare was a Catholic. But in The Times Literary Supplement of April 18, 2003, John Finnis and Patrick Martin argued that Shakespeare's most enigmatic poem, The Phoenix and Turtle, published in 1601, which up till then had defied all attempts at explanation, is in fact a memorial poem for Anne Line, the Catholic widow executed at Tyburn in 1601 and her husband, Roger.
Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either-neither,
Simple were so well compounded
That it cried how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.
Threnos
Beauty, truth, and rarity.
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos'd in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:--
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be:
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
Liturgical Readings for: Saturday, 27th February, 2021
FIRST READING A reading from the book of Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Theme: You will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.
Moses said to the people: 'The Lord your God today commands you to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
'You have today made this declaration about the Lord; that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to his voice. And the Lord has today made this declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as he promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.'
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118
Response They are happy who follow God's law.
1. They are happy whose life is blameless,
who follow God's law!
They are happy those who do his will,
seeking him with all their hearts. Response
2. You have laid down your precepts
to be obeyed with care.
May my footsteps be firm
to obey your statutes. Response
3. I will thank you with an upright heart
as I learn your decrees.
I will obey your statutes;
do not forsake me. Response
Gospel Acclamation Lk 8:1
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are those who, with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Or 2Cor 6:2
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Now is the favourable time;
this is the day of salvation.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 5:43-48
Glory to you, O Lord
You must be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus said to his disciples: 'You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike.'For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not?
'You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
____________________________
Gospel Reflection Saturday, First Week of Lent Matthew 5:43-48
The call of Jesus at the end of today’s gospel reading sounds very daunting, ‘You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect’. We are all very much aware that we are a long way from being perfect. Even the word ‘perfect’ can be off-putting for us. When we speak of someone as a perfectionist we are not always paying them a compliment. We think of perfectionists as overly demanding and somewhat intolerant of human weakness. However, when we read back over the whole of today’s gospel reading, we can see that when Jesus calls us to be as perfect as God, he is calling on us to be as loving as God. He is talking about the perfection of love. Jesus declares that God loves the good and the not so good equally, just as the sun shines and the rain falls on both alike. God’s love does not discriminate. There is no less or more when it comes to God’s love. As Saint John says in his first letter, God is Love. To say God’s love is perfect is to say that what we do or fail to do has no impact on the quality of God’s love for us. God loved the people who crucified Jesus as much as the martyrs who were killed for bearing witness to Jesus. God’s love cannot change. What changes is our capacity to receive God’s love and to allow ourselves to be transformed by it, so that something of God’s perfect love takes flesh in our own lives. We will never be as loving as God is loving in this life, loving others without any regard to how they relate to us. Some few people come very close to loving in such a divine way. When such people come to our attention, we stand amazed by them. Yet, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can all, at least, keep growing towards that quality of love which is of God. That is the goal of our lives as followers of Jesus. That goal is very beautifully expressed in the prayer, ‘May we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity’.
The scripture readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Gospel reflection comes to us with thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings 2020-2021: You have the Words of Eternal life: by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
_______________________________
For Video Scripture Reflections for next Sunday’s Gospel click here: https://www.catholicireland.net/lent-videos/
Liturgical Readings for: Saturday, 27th February, 2021
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as an céad leabhar Deotranaimí 26:16-19
Beidh sibh i do phobal coisricthe don Tiarna faoi mar a gheall sé.
Dúirt Maois leis an bpobal:
“Ordaíonn an Tiarna do Dhia duit inniu na dlíthe agus na reachtanna seo a chomhlíonadh; ní foláir duit iad a choimeád le barr cáiréise le do chroí go hiomlán agus le d’anam go hiomlán.
Tá an dearbhú seo déanta agat inniu faoin Tiarna: gurb é do Dhia é, ach ar choinníoll go leanfaidh tú a bhealaí, go gcoimeádfaidh tú a dhlíthe, a aitheanta agus a reachtanna, agus go n-éistfidh tú lena ghlór. Agus tá an dearbhú seo déanta fútsa inniu ag an Tiarna: go mbeidh tú aige mar phobal ar leith leis féin, faoi mar a gheall sé duit, ach ar choinníoll go gcoimeádfaidh tú a aitheanta go léir; agus go gcuirfidh sé thú os cionn na náisiún uile a rinne sé chun molta agus clú agus onóra; agus go mbeidh tusa i do phobal coisricthe don Tiarna faoi mar a gheall sé.”
Briathar Dé.
Salm le Freagra Sm 118
Freagra Is aoibhinn dóibh siúd a chomhlíonann dlí an Tiarna
I. Is aoibhinn dóibh siúd a bhfuil a slí gan locht,
a chomhlíonann dlí an Tiarna.
Is aoibhinn dóibh siúd a dhéanann de réir a thola,
a iarrann é óna gcroí go hiomlán. Freagra
2. Thug tú do phroiceapta
chun go gcomhlíonfaí iad go beacht.
Á, dá mbeadh mo slite socraithe go daingean
chun do reachtanna uile a choimeád. Freagra
3. Molfaidh mé thú le dílseacht chroí
ag foghlaim d’fhoraitheanta dom.
Déanfaidh mé de réir do reachtanna;
ná tréig mé ar fad. Freagra
SOISCÉAL
Sliocht as Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Matha 5:43-48
Bígí foirfe faoi mar atá bhur nAthair neamhaí foirfe.
San am sin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail:
“Chuala sibh go ndúradh: ‘Bíodh grá agat do do chomharsa agus fuath agat do do namhaid.’ Ach is é a deirimse libh, bíodh grá agaibh do bhur naimhde agus guígí ar son bhur ngéarleantóirí; sin mar a bheidh sibh in bhur gclann ag bhur nAthair atá ar neamh, a chuireann faoi deara dá ghrian éirí ar olc agus ar mhaith, agus a fhearann báisteach ar chóir agus ar mhíchóir. Óir, má thugann sibh grá dóibh seo a thugann grá daoibh, cad é an tuarastal atá ag dul daoibh? Nach ndéanann na poibleacánaigh féin an rud céanna? Agus mura mbeannaíonn sibh ach do bhur mbráithre amháin, an ndéanann sibh aon ní thar na bearta? Nach ndéanann na págánaigh féin an rud céanna?Bígí foirfe, dá bhrí sin, faoi mar atá bhur nAthair neamhaí foirfe.
Soiscéal Dé.
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 28th February, 2021
Scripture ThemesGod sacrifices his own Son as part of the plan of salvation of the world. Calvary is a sign of God’s love for us. This story of Abraham’s sacrifice will be told again at the Easter Vigil as a preparation for Baptism.
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Genesis 22:1-2.9-13.15-18
Theme: The sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith.
God put Abraham to the test. 'Abraham, Abraham' he called. 'Here I am' he replied. 'Take your son,' God said 'your only child Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a burnt offering, on a mountain I will point out to you.'
When they arrived at the place God had pointed out to him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood. Then he stretched out his hand and seized the knife to kill his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven. 'Abraham, Abraham' he said. 'I am here' he replied. 'Do not raise your hand against the boy' the angel said. 'Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your son, your only son.' Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt-offering in place of his son.The angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven. 'I swear by my own self - it is the Lord who speaks - because you have done this, because you have not refused me your son, your only son, I will shower blessings on you, I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants shall gain possession of the gates of their enemies. All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, as a reward for your obedience.'
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 115
Response I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
1. I trusted, even when I said:
'I am sorely afllicted.'
O precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his faithful. Response
2. Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;
you have loosened my bonds.
A thanksgiving sacrifice I make:
I will call on the Lord's name. Response
3. My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 8:31.34
Theme: God did not spare his own Son.
With God on our side who can be against us? Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give. Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us-he rose from the dead, and there at God's right hand he stands and pleads for us.The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God
Gospel Acclamation Mt 17:5
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
From the bright cloud the Father's voice was heard
'This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.'
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 9:2-10
Thanks be to God
Theme: This is my Son, the Beloved.
Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone by themselves. There in
their presence he was transfigured: his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter spoke to Jesus. 'Rabbi', he said it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.' He did not know what to say; they were so frightened. And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, 'This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.' Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.As they came down the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They observed the warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what 'rising from the dead' could mean.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 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, 28th February, 2021
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as an céad leabhar Genesis 22:1-2. 9-13. 15-18
Íobairt Abráhám, ár n-athair sa chreideamh.
Tamall ina dhiaidh sin chuir Dia promhadh ar Abrahám: “A Abrahám, a Abrahám,” ar sé. “Anseo dom,” ar seisean. “Tóg leat do mhac,” arsa Dia leis, “d’aonmhac Íosác ar a bhfuil do ghreann, agus imigh go tír Mhoiriá, agus déan é a íobairt ansiúd ina íobairt dhóite ar chnoc a thaispeánfaidh mé duit.”
Nuair a shroicheadar an áit a thaispeáin Dia dó, thóg Abrahám altóir ann agus chóirigh an t-adhmad uirthi. Chuir sé ceangal faoina mhac agus leag ar an altóir é, anuas ar an adhmad. Shín Abrahám a lámh amach, agus rug greim ar an scian chun a mhac a mharú.
Ach ghlaoigh aingeal an Tiarna air ó neamh agus dúirt: “A Abrahám, a Abrahám.” Dúirt sé: “Anseo dom.” Dúirt sé: “Ná leag lámh ar do mhac, agus ná déan aon dochar dó; óir tá a fhios agam anois go bhfuil eagla Dé ort, mar níor dhiúltaigh tú do mhac, d’aonmhac, dom.” Ansin d’ardaigh Abrahám a shúile agus féach, laistiar de bhí reithe agus a adharca in achrann i dtor; thóg Abrahám an reithe agus d’ofráil é mar íobairt dhóite in áit a mhic.Agus ghlaoigh aingeal an Tiarna ar Abrahám athuair ó neamh: “Mhionnaigh mé dar mise féin – focail an Tiarna iad seo – ós rud é go ndearna tú an rud seo agus nár dhiúltaigh tú do mhac, d’aonmhac féin, dom, dáilfidh mé na frasa beannachtaí uaim anuas ort. Cuirfidh mé an rath ar do shíol ionas go mbeidh siad líonmhar mar réaltaí neimhe nó mar ghaineamh na trá; agus beidh seilbh ag do shliocht ar gheataí [cathrach] do naimhde. Beannóidh ciníocha uile an domhain iad féin dar do shliocht mar gur ghéill tú do mo ghlór.”
Briathar Dé.
Salm le Freagra Sm 115
Freagra: Siúlfaidh me i bhfianaise an Tiarna i ndúiche na mbeo.
1. Bhí muinín agam fiú nuair a dúirt mé:
'Táim do mo bhuaireamh go mór.'
Is luachmhar i bhfianaise an Tiarna
bás a chuid naomh. Freagra
2. A Thiarna, is mise do ghiolla;
scaoil tú mo chuibhreacha díom.
Ofrálfaidh mé duit íobairt an mholta,
gairfidh mé ar ainm an Tiarna. Freagra
3. Comhlíonfaidh mé ar mhóidigh mé don Tiarna
i láthair a phobail go léir,
i gcúirteanna theach an Tiarna,
i do lár baill, a Iarúsailéim Freagra
DARA LÉACT
Sliocht as litir N.Pól chuig na Rómhánaigh 8:31-34
Níor lig Dia uaidh a Mhac Féin.
A bhráithre, má tá Dia ar ár dtaobh, cé atá inár gcoinne? Nuair nár lig sé uaidh a mhac féin ach é a thabhairt suas ar mhaithe linne go léir, cén fáth nach mbronnfaidh sé gach grásta eile orainn ina theannta chomh maith? Agus cé a dhéanfaidh lucht tofa Dé a chúisiú? Nuair atá Dia dár saoradh, cé a dhéanfaidh ár ndaoradh? An é Críost a dhéanfaidh é, an té a fuair bás agus a tógadh ó mhairbh, atá fós ar dheis Dé agus atá ag idirghuí ar ár son?Briathar Dé.
Comhgháir an tSoiscéil Mth 17:5
Glóir duit, a Chríost: is tú Briathar De!
Cloiseadh glór an Athar as an scamall solasmhar:
'Is é seo mo Mhac muirneach dár thug mé gnaoi: éistigí leis.'
Glóir duit, a Chríost: is tú Briathar De!
SOISCÉAL
Sliocht as an Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Marcas 9:2-10
Is é seo mo Mhac muirneach.
San am sin rug Íosa leis Peadar, Séamas agus Eoin, agus sheol sé suas iad sliabh ard ar leithligh. Agus tháinig claochlú air os comhair a
súl, agus d’éirigh a chuid éadaigh dealrach, iad gléigeal thar cuimse, nach bhfuil úcaire ar domhan a dhéanfadh chomh geal iad. Agus chonacthas dóibh Maois mar aon le hÉilias agus iad ag comhrá leis. Agus labhair Peadar le hÍosa: “A Mháistir, “ ar sé, “is maith mar a tharla anseo sinn: déanaimis trí bothanna, ceann duit féin, ceann do Mhaois agus ceann d’Éilias” – mar ní raibh a fhios aige cad ba mhaith dó a rá óir tháinig uamhan orthu. Agus tháinig scamall ina scáil anuas orthu, agus an glór as an scamall: “Is é seo mo Mhac muirneach dár thug mé gnaoi: éistigí leis!” Agus go tobann, ar dhearcadh dóibh ina dtimpeall, ní fhaca siad duine ar bith níos mó ach Íosa in éineacht leo ina aonar.Ar a slí anuas dóibh ón sliabh, chuir sé mar acht orthu gan a raibh feicthe acu a insint do dhuine ar bith nó go mbeadh Mac an Duine éirithe ó mhairbh. Agus choinnigh siad an scéal chucu féin ach go mbídís ag fiafraí dá chéile cad ba chiall leis an éirí úd ó mhairbh.
Soiscéal Dé.
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Machtnamh ar Bhriathar Dé dia Dara Domhnach den Charghas
Is iontach linn a bheith anseo
Tógann Íosa Peter, Seamus agus Eoin árd ar an tsléibh Tabor, agus tugann sé taithí iontach leó a thugann a n-anáil amach. Bhí sé mar thaithí chomh luachmhar nach bhféadfadh Peter é a ligeant as a mheabhair, coíche. Bhí sé ag iarraidh é a éascú ar feadh tréimhse éiginnte agus mar sin deir sé le Íosa, 'Rabbi. . . lig dúinn trí phubaill a dhéanamh, ceann ar do shon, ceann do Mhaois agus ceann do Elijah '. Bhí léargas mór aige ar an áilleacht neamhaí Chríost sé féin agus an dá dheisceabail eile, agus ní raibh sé ag iarraidh ligean dó. Meallann an áilleacht an tsúil agus an croí; glaonna sé chugainn. Ach, ní mór do Peter agus do na daoine eile an taithí luachmhar seo a ligean; ní raibh sé i gceist ach a bheith i láthair na huaire. Gheobhaidh siad é ar ais sa chéad uair eile mar bhronntanas. Ar a shon sin, bhí an tasc acu éisteacht le Íosa, 'Is é seo mo Mhac beloved. Éist leis '. Is é sin ár tasc freisin. Caitheamar ár saol ag éisteacht leis an Tiarna mar a labhraíonn sé linn ina fhocal agus i gcúinsí ár saol; éisteacht leis mar ullmhúchán don mhéid iontach sin nuair a fheiceann muid aghaidh le duine i gcónaí agus is féidir linn a rá go deireanach, 'tá sé iontach a bheith anseo.'
Pádraig Ó Rúairí, cp, Sliabh Argus, Átha Cliath.
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