Churches of the Day

Monday of the 27th week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
The Good News it that God wants us to love him and all other people

Saint of the Day: Oct 2; –St Faustina Kowalska,  religious
C/f A short look at this saint’s life can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING 

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Galatians        1:6-12
The Good News I preached is not a human message that I was given by men, but something I learnt only through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

I am astonished at the promptness with which you have turned away from the one who called you and have decided to follow a different version of the Good News. Not that there can be more than one Good News; it is merely that some troublemakers among you want to change the Good News of Christ; and let me warn you that if anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one we have already preached to you, whether it be ourselves or an angel from heaven, he is to be condemned. I am only repeating what we told you before: if anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one you have already heard, he is to be condemned.

So now whom am I trying to please  man, or God? Would you say it is men's approval I am looking for? If I still wanted that, I should not be what I am - a servant of Christ. The fact is, brothers, and I want you to realise this, the Good News I preached is not a human message that I was given by men, it is something I learnt only through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Word of the Lord.          Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm        Ps 110: 1- 2. 7-10. R.v 5
Response                              The Lord keeps his covenant ever in mind.
Or                                           Alleluia!

1. I will thank the Lord with all my heart in the meeting of the just and their assembly.
Great are the works of the Lord; to be pondered by all who love them.         Response

2. His works are justice and truth: his precepts are all of them sure,
standing firm for ever and ever: they are made in uprightness and truth.    Response

3. He has sent deliverance to his people and established his covenant for ever.
Holy his name, to be feared; his praise shall last for ever!                              Response

Gospel  Acclamation          Jn 6: 63
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit and they are life: you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!

or                                               Jn 13: 34
Alleluia, alleluia!
I give you a new commandment:
love one another just as I have loved you, says the Lord.
Alleluia !

GOSPEL   

The Lord be with you.              And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 10:25-37              Glory to you, O Lord
Who is my neighbour?

There was a lawyer who, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and said to him, 'Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'
He said to him, 'What is written in the Law? What do you read there?'
He replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself'.
'You have answered right,' said Jesus 'do this and life is yours.'

But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbour?'
Jesus replied, 'A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead.
Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. "Look after him," he said "and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have."

Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands` hands?'   'The one who took pity on him' he replied.
Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do the same yourself'.

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

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Gospel Reflection          Monday       Twenty Seventh Week in Ordinary Time       Luke 10:25-37

In today’s gospel reading, it is said of the traveller who was attacked by robbers that he was left ‘half dead’. It is an unusual expression in English, ‘half dead’, but we all know what it means. The man was very likely close to death. We can be ‘half dead’ in other ways, apart from the physical and bodily sense. We can be ‘half dead’ in the sense that the spark has gone out in us. We feel only half alive and sense that we are dragging ourselves around, without much energy or enthusiasm for anything. In such times, we often need others to breathe new life into us, just as in the parable the Samaritan breathed new life into the broken Jewish traveller. He did so by doing the good he was capable of doing. He did what he could, and that turned out to be quite a lot, bandaging the man’s wounds, easing them with oil and wine, bringing him to an inn, a place of safety and hospitality, paying his expenses and promising to check in on him on his way back. He gave a little of his time and a little of his money to this unfortunate man and it made all the difference. The half-dead man came back to life.

What the Samaritan did for the broken Jewish traveller is an image of what Jesus wants to do for us all. He is the great healer of body, soul and spirit. He is always present to us in a healing, life-giving way. What the Samaritan did for the injured man is also an image of what Jesus wants us to do for one another, ‘Go and do the same yourself.’ There is always something we can do for one another. Giving others a little of our time, a little from our own human and material resources, can make a huge difference to them. It can bring new life to the half-dead.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, 1966/published 1966 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 : 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: Oct 2; –St Faustina Kowalska,  religious

Summary: St Faustina, a Polish nun, had a very intimate relationship with Jesus and was entrusted by him with the mission of Divine Mercy, a devotion which Pope John Paul II helped promote with her beatification and canonisation.

Patrick Duffy tells her story.

Helena Kowalska was born of a poor peasant, but religious, family near Lodz in Poland on 25th August 1905. She was the third of ten children and was baptised in the local church of Ðwinice Warckie. An obedient child, she showed a love of prayer, sensitivity to the poor and a great desire to be a saint.  She spent only three years at school, then worked as a domestic servant to support herself and her parents.

At twenty she tried to enter several convents in Warsaw and was rejected at first, but finally she was accepted into the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, taking the name of Maria Faustina

Humble Duties
In different convents of this order throughout Poland Maria Faustina was put to perform very ordinary duties - cook, gardener and doorkeeper -  she suffered from poor health. Externally nothing revealed her childlike trust in God, her rich prayer life with Jesus and the mystical graces she received.

Vision
On February 22, 1931, Jesus appeared to this simple nun, as we read in her diary:
In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me: “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You”.

Mission
Jesus asked her to dedicate her life to make God’s mercy known to every human being and entrusted her with a mission of mercy, which consisted of three tasks:

To remind the world of God’s merciful love of God for every human being, no matter how great their sins.
To pray for God's mercy for the whole world and particularly for sinners, especially through the practice of new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy presented by Jesus, such as:  the veneration of the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You
The feast of the Divine Mercy is celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter,  the chaplet to the Divine Mercy and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (at 3 p.m.)
To initiate an apostolic movement of Divine Mercy, proclaiming

proclaiming and entreating God's mercy for the world.

Her Diary
Faustina's life in the convent was filled with extraordinary gifts: revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, sharing in the passion of Jesus, bilocation, the reading of human souls, the gift of prophecy, and the rare gift of mystical engagement and marriage. These are recorded in her Diary, kept faithfully in obedience to Jesus and her spiritual director. Jesus, she tells us, appointed her 'Secretary' of his mercy.
'As Secretary of my most profound mystery, know that your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about my mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach me' (Diary 1693).

Illness, Death and Influence

Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1936, she accepted her sufferings as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners and died in Krakow in 1938 at the age of just 33.

Devotion to the Divine Mercy spread in Poland, but since the Diary was filled with misspellings, bad punctuation and poor sentence structure, Vatican theologians could not make much sense of it and, judging the devotion heretical, had it suppressed in 1958. In 1965 Archbishop Karol Wojtila, archbishop of Krakow, had a corrected edition of the Diary sent to Rome. This led to her cause for canonisation being accepted.

Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1993 and canonised her in 2000, on both occasions on the second Sunday of Easter, the very day requested by Jesus as Mercy Sunday when he appeared to her.

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Quote of the Day

Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.

 “No one who conceals transgressions will prosper,
but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

~ Proverbs 28:13 ~

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The Twenty Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
Prisoner's (and their families') Sunday

FIRST READING                 

A reading from the prophet Isaiah      25:6-10
The Lord will prepare a banquet, and will wipe away the tears from every cheek.

On this mountain, the Lord of hosts  will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines, of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines.

On this mountain, he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, he will destroy Death for ever. The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek; he will take away his people's shame everywhere on earth, for the Lord has said so.

That day, it will be said:
See, this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation; The Lord is the one in whom we hoped.
We exult and we rejoice that he has saved us; for the hand of the Lord rests on this mountain.

The Word of the Lord.            Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm          Ps 22: 1-6 R/v 6
Response                                In the Lord's own house shall I dwell for ever and ever.

1. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit.    Response

2. He guides me along the right path; he is true to his name.
If l should walk in the valley of darkness no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort.                                     Response

3. You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil; my cup is overflowing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Response

4. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life
In the Lord's own house shall I dwell for ever and ever.                        Response

SECOND READING         

 A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians     4:12-14. 19-20
There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength.

I know how to be poor and I know how to be rich too.
I have been through my initiation and now I am ready for anything anywhere: full stomach or empty stomach, poverty or plenty.

There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength. All the same, it was good of you to share with me in my hardships.
In return my God will fulfil all your needs, in Christ Jesus, as lavishly as only God can. Glory to God, our Father, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Word of the Lord.             Thanks be to God.   

Gospel Acclamation           Jn 1: 12. 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word was made flesh and lived among us;
to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!

or                                               Eph 1: 17. 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, enlighten the eyes of your mind
so that you can see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL                                    

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew     22:1-14
Invite everyone you can find to the wedding.

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son's wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.
Next he sent some more servants. "Tell those who have been invited" he said "that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding."

But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants,
"The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding".

So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him,
"How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?" And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants,
"Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth". For many are called, but few are chosen.'

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.