Churches of the Day

Wednesday of 13th week in Ordinary Time, Year 2

 Saint of the Day: 1 July; St Oliver Plunkett, Irish bishop and martyr of the church
C/f A Short life of this saint can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Amos             5:14-15. 21-24
Let me have no more of the din of your chanting, But let your integrity like an unfailing stream.

[caption id="attachment_48298" align="alignleft" width="257"]          Amos preaches integrity[/caption]

Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and that the Lord,
God of hosts, may really be with you as you claim he is.
Hate evil, love good, maintain justice at the city gate, and it
may be that the Lord, God of hosts, will take pity on the remnant of Joseph.

The Lord says this I hate and despise your feasts,
I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals.
When you offer me holocausts, I reject your oblations,
and refuse to look at your sacrifices of fattened cattle.
Let me have no more of the din of your chanting, no more of your strumming on harps.
But let justice flow like water, and integrity like an unfailing stream.

The Word of the Lord.             Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm          Ps 49: 7-13. 16-7. R/v 23
Response                                I will show God's salvation to the upright.

1. 'Listen, my people, I will speak; Israel, I will testify against you,
for I am God your God.                                                                                                           Response

2. 'I find no fault with your sacrifices, your offerings are always before me.
I do not ask more bullocks from your farms, nor goats from among your herds.     Response

3. 'I own all the beasts of the forest, beasts in their thousands on my hills.
I know all the birds in the sky, all that moves in the field belongs to me.                  Response

4. 'Were I hungry, I would not tell you, for I own the world and all it holds.
Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?                               Response

5. 'How can you recite my commandments and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law and throw my words to the winds?'                                      Response

Gospel  Acclamation                              Jn 14: 6
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
no one can come to the Father except through me .
Alleluia!

Or                                                                   Jm 1: 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
By his own choice the Father makes us his children by the message of the truth,
so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all that he created.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew           8:28-34
Have you come here to torture us before the time?'

When Jesus reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs - creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way. They stood there shouting, 'What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?' Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding, and the devils pleaded with Jesus,
'If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs'. And he said to them, 'Go then', and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off and made for the town, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs.
At this the whole town set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave the neighbourhood.

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

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Gospel Reflection        Wednesday       Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time       Matthew 8:28-34

There is a strange ending to today’s gospel reading. Jesus had just healed two very disturbed people. They were described as so fierce that nobody could pass near them. They address Jesus very aggressively, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God?’ Yet, their fierceness and aggression did not deter Jesus from ministering to them. He released them from the spirit that had left them so disturbed. He restored their humanity. However, in response to Jesus’ life-giving work, the whole town implored him to leave their neighbourhood. It seems that the local people were more comfortable with having two very disturbed people about than with a display of God’s healing power. Jesus’ liberating ministry did not always meet with welcome and faith. The same is often true of the ministry of the church.

The church’s work on behalf of the well-being of the most vulnerable does not always meet with a welcoming response. Sometimes our own efforts to do what is best for the well-being of others does not always meet with a welcoming response either. Our efforts to share in the Lord’s liberating ministry will often leave us exposed to the same negative response as he experienced. Yet, the Lord remained faithful to the good work that God had sent him to do. We, as members of the church, are called to that same faithfulness. We try to keep doing the Lord’s life-giving work, regardless of how it is received by others.
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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 from WEEKDAY REFLECTIONS : The Word of God is Living and Active by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications  /c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop

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Saint of the Day: 1 July; St Oliver Plunkett, Irish bishop and martyr of the church

Oliver Plunkett (1629-81) born in Loughcrew, Oldcastle, Co Meath, Ireland, related to several aristocratic families. He is the first Irish martyr to be formally canonised- the most recent Catholic to be martyred  for the faith at Tyburn in England. The year was  1681 AD.

Here Patrick Duffy traces his life and his journey to martyrdom.

Oliver Plunkett was born into an aristocratic Norman family at Loughcrew, Oldcastle, Co Meath in 1629. The first great formative influence on him was his uncle Patrick, a Cistercian monk, who was Abbot of St Mary's in Dublin and then became bishop of Ardagh and later still of Meath. Oliver was sent to his uncle for his education and he always spoke of him with great respect and affection.

Career in Rome
In 1646, along with John Brennan from Kilkenny (a life-long friend and later archbishop of Cashel), Oliver accompanied Fr Peter Scarampi - who had been sent by the Pope as an envoy to the Confederation of Kilkenny - on his journey back to Rome. Due to delays and robbery, this proved a difficult journey that took almost a year. When he eventually arrived in Rome Oliver grew to love the city. By the time he was ordained priest in 1654, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland was well under way. As it was difficult for him to return home, he requested and was granted permission to remain in Rome. He became professor of theology at Propaganda Fide College (1657) and was also the agent representing the Irish bishops in Rome.



When in 1669 he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, his uncle Patrick Plunkett was the only active Catholic bishop remaining in Ireland. Oliver's return was difficult. The people had faith, but lacked instruction and organisation.
The priests of Armagh diocese resented the imposition on them of an "outsider" from Co. Meath. Also in the absence of bishops, the priests had lost their discipline, and there were rivalries among religious and the secular clergy.
Also there were divisions among Catholics - between native Irish and Anglo-Irish.
Also his flamboyant and touchy colleague archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, contested Oliver’s precedence and the primacy of the see of Armagh over Dublin.

In the first three years Oliver worked diligently to restore discipline. He established a school staffed by Jesuits in Drogheda for the education of young men and clergy. He pleaded for places in Rome for others, and travelled widely - often in disguise - confirming and instructing the people and promoting peace.

Choice to Stay with his Flock
But in 1673 the revelation that the Duke of York, the King's brother and heir to the throne, had been a Catholic for years caused a storm in the English parliament and forced the tightening of the penal laws against Catholics both in England and Ireland. This led to the closing down of the school at Drogheda. By law Oliver should have registered with the authorities and waited for a ship to deport him, but he took a decision not to desert his flock and went into hiding. He weathered this crisis and continued his pastoral work as best he could, continually keeping in touch with Rome through letters to the Internuncio in Brussels.

So-called “Popish Plot”
But in England in 1678 an ex-Jesuit student Titus Oates fabricated his infamous "plot". According to this there was an arrangement that the King (Charles II) was to be murdered and his Catholic brother James put on the throne; in Ireland a Catholic army supported by the Pope and France was 'alleged' to be ready to rise in rebellion. Oliver again had to go into hiding.

In December 1679 he was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle - in the next cell to Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin who had also been implicated in the plot. Talbot was quite ill and distressed and Plunkett forced his way in to him to console him and give him absolution before he died.

Gradual Realisation
Only gradually did Oliver realise that he was being framed as the prime mover of a supposed Irish branch of the Popish plot and charged falsely with conspiring with foreign kingdoms to import troops through Irish ports. Brought to Dundalk for trial, the prosecution witnesses failed to attend: no jury in Ireland could have convicted him on such trumped-up charges. He was then taken to London for trial, but was not allowed time to bring his own witnesses and documents. Here, with four renegade priests testifying against him, he was convicted.

His Last Week
In the process of facing these false allegations and then death by being hanged, drawn and quartered, Oliver prayed and fasted. His servant and friend James McKenna and a fellow prisoner Fr Maurus Corker were the companions of his last days and he celebrated the Eucharist daily for the last week of his life. When his moment came, he was calm and at peace.

A Man at Peace
In his speech from the gallows at Tyburn, England, he detailed the charges brought against him and declared himself innocent of them all. He forgave those who brought him from Ireland to London for trial, his judges who did not allow him time to bring his records and witnesses from Ireland, and all who concurred directly and indirectly in taking away his life.
Finally, he asked forgiveness of all whom he ever offended. He was the last person to be martyred for the Catholic faith in England in 1681.

His letters, written from his prison cell show a man at peace with God and himself, proud yet humble, strong yet gentle. His body is enshrined in Downside Abbey in Somerset while his head and other relics are on display at St Peter's Church, Drogheda, Co, Louth, Ireland.

Beatification and Canonisation
Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975 by Pope St Paul VI.
He was the first new canonised Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.

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Memorable Quote for Today

Love is never defeated,
And I could add, the history of Ireland proves it

~ Pope John Paul II ~

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Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Zechariah             9:9-10
See now, your king comes humbly to you

The Lord says this: Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout with gladness, daughter of Jerusalem!
See now, your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will banish chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished. He will proclaim peace for the nations.

His empire shall stretch from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

The Word of the Lord.             And with your spirit.

Responsorial Psalm           Ps 144: 1-2. 8-11. 13-14. R/v 1
Response                                I will bless your name for ever, O God my King

1. I will give you glory, O God my King, I will bless your name for ever.
I will bless you day after day and praise your name for ever.                                   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.  All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign and declare your might, O God.         Response

4. The Lord is faithful in all his words and loving in all his deeds.
The Lord supports all who fall and raises all who are bowed down.                       Response


SECOND READING 

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Romans             8:9. 11-13
If by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.

Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you.

In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

My brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.

The Word of the Lord.                 Thanks be to God

Gospel Acclamation              Mt 11: 25
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                      And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew  11:25-30        Glory to you, O Lord
I am gentle and humble in heart.

Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

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.