Churches of the Day

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

There is a very striking portrayal of the deep compassion Jesus has for the broken and needy in today’s gospel.

Saint of the Day: December 3; Memorial of St Francis Xavier,
One of the first Jesuits, sent to India, Goa, and Japan. He died in 1552 on his way to China. Patron of the Missions.
c/f short history of today’s saint can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.     

FIRST READING          

A reading from the Prophet Isaiah      25:6-10
The Lord invites us to his banquet and wipes away the tears from every cheek.

On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will prepare for all peoples 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 of Hosts 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. 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 I 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

Gospel  Acclamation            Is 33:22
Alleluia,  alleluia!
Look the Lord is our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our King and our saviour.
Alleluia!

Or
Alleluia,  alleluia!
Behold our Lord will come to save his people. Blessed are those who are ready to meet him.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL 

The Lord be with you.                                               And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 15:29-37        Glory to you, O Lord. 
Jesus cures many people and provides food for all.

Jesus reached the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he went up into the hills. He sat there, and large crowds came to him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb and many others; these they put down at his feet, and he cured them. The crowds were astonished to see the dumb speaking, the cripples whole again, the lame walking and the blind with their sight, and they praised the God of Israel.



But Jesus called his disciples to him and said,
'I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them off hungry, they might collapse on the way.'
The disciples said to him,
'Where could we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed such a crowd?'
Jesus said to them,
'How many loaves have you?'
'Seven' they said 'and a few small fish.'

Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and he gave thanks and broke them and handed them to the disciples who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected what was left of the scraps, seven baskets full.

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

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Gospel Reflection         Wednesday,         First Week of Advent          Matthew 15:29-37

There is a very striking portrayal of the compassion of Jesus for the broken and needy in today’s gospel reading. He initially healed the lame, the crippled, the blind and those unable to speak, all of whom had been brought to him by a large crowd. He then noticed how hungry this large crowd was; he was concerned for their physical well-being. He didn’t say, as we might be tempted to say, 'I have done enough compassionate work for today. It is time for me to move on’. When faced with human need, he could not but respond with a compassionate heart. The disciples were of a different frame of mind, perhaps more like ourselves. When Jesus mentioned the hunger of the crowd to them, they answered, ‘Where could we get enough food in this deserted place to feed such a crowd!’ As we might say today, they were telling Jesus, ‘Don’t even think about it!’

However, Jesus could not but think about it and he prodded his disciples to think about it, ‘How many loaves have you?’ The discovery that seven loaves were available and a few small fish wouldn’t have inspired anyone with hope or confidence. Yet, this was all Jesus needed to feed the hunger of the crowd. His compassionate heart could work powerfully through the smallest of human resources. The gospel reading suggests that we need to give the Lord’s compassionate heart space to work through us. The Lord never turns aside from human need but sometimes he can only address it with our help, even though we may feel we have very little to offer him. The task can seem so much greater than the resources at our disposal. We wonder if it is worth our while to begin at all. Yet, we will often be surprised and amazed at how powerfully the Lord can work through our seemingly limited resources and efforts, if we trust that he can and will do so.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from Fr  Martin Hogan's  book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is Near to You, on your lips and in your heart  published by Messenger Publications, c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

Saint of the Day: Dec 3; St Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier, priest, missionary, Born in 1506 in Navarre (Spain);  Francis met Ignatius of Loyola while both were studying in Paris and he became one of the first Jesuits. At Ignatius' request, Francis went to Goa (India) as a missionary and travelled extensively through southeast Asia to Japan, winning converts and organising Christian communities. Francis Xavier was noted for the simplicity of his lifestyle and for his tireless missionary zeal. He died on this day in 1552 off the coast of China.

Patrick Duffy tells his story.

St Francis Xavier was one of a group of seven companions of Ignatius of Loyola who were the first Jesuit priests. He went as a missionary first to India, then Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Japan. He died aged 46 just before he could reach China. Pope Pius XI declared him patron of the foreign missions.

A Basque
Francis was born in 1506 in Xavier (Javier), a small village in Navarre in the north of Spain. He was a Basque, the son of local land owners. Their family home was a castle. At the age of 19 Francis went to study in Paris. There he enjoyed sports and the city's night life. Bright and vibrant, with a great zest for life, he lacked a clear focus as to where he should invest his enormous energies.

Meeting with Ignatius of Loyola
A turning point came when a fellow Basque, Ignatius of Loyola, turned up in Paris. Aged 38, Ignatius was a rather mature student and Francis ridiculed him as a middle-aged religious enthusiast. But after five years of patient encouragement Ignatius finally broke through Francis' mask of self-sufficiency and encouraged him to ask himself the question, "What am I doing for Christ?"

Spiritual Exercises and Ordination
Ignatius directed Francis through the Spiritual Exercises - 30 days of prayer and reflection. After this period of reflection on what was to be his own response to the love of God, Francis threw in his lot with Ignatius. With four others they formed a group of companions offering their services to God through work in the Church. In 1537 they all went to Venice where they were ordained to the priesthood, intending to go to the Holy Land. Unable to travel, they ended up in Rome. Here they worked in hospitals, looking after the sick, preaching about the love of God and begging for alms. They vowed to go anywhere the Pope would send them. Francis became secretary to Ignatius, who had correspondence with a vast number of people. This cannot have been appealing work for him.

Mission to India
When the Pope (Paul III - Alessandro Farnese) gave approval to the Society of Jesus in 1540, King John III of Portugal asked him for two Jesuits to go to India. After a delay of some months in Lisbon, Francis set out with an Italian priest and a seminarian. The voyage from Lisbon to Goa took thirteen months and he was seasick for long periods. Arriving in Goa in 1542, Francis found the Portuguese Catholics notoriously cruel to slaves, living in concubinage and neglectful of the poor. He tried to combat this by devoting himself to helping the poor and sick and zealously encouraging people to live a good life, but he found the behaviour of the Portuguese officials and traders one of the more difficult things to bear. Francis wrote: "I am so sick of life, seeing so many sins committed and to be able to do nothing that the best thing for me would be to die for the defence of our fait. Yet Francis continued with his own enthusiasm for the faith.

South India 
In 1542 the Portuguese Governor of Goa asked Francis to go to teach the ethnic group called Paravas (Tamil-speaking pearl-fishers) of Cape Comorin at the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula. They were nominal Christians who had received no formal instruction in their new faith because no priest had ever learned their language. Arriving in South India, Francis was the only European in this world of scorching heat. He set about learning Tamil and managed to translate the Creed. He experienced the loneliness of working in a foreign culture. He had been promised two Jesuit helpers, but they never arrived. After a year he decided to return to Goa to see what had happened to them. He was so accepted by the people that a number of young Paravas went with him to be trained for Christian ministry.

After seven years on the South India coast, constantly travelling up and down, preaching, teaching, consoling, comforting, begging for the poor, visiting the sick, Francis moved on to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), the Malaya peninsula and and the Molucca islands, from time to time returning to visit his headquarters in Goa.

To Japan
In 1549 Francis sailed to Japan, arriving at Kagoshima, the most southerly point of Japan. Here he translated an abridged statement of Christian belief into Japanese and made a hundred converts within a year. He went on to other towns, most notably the capital Miako (now Kyoto). As he found that his external appearance of poverty met with little success, he decided to dress in fine robes, and present himself as the emissary of the King of Portugal, giving the ruler the presents the king had sent for the Emperor of Japan. This produced a different result. He was well received and given the use of an empty Buddhist monastery. Here he made about 2,000 converts.

To China and death
Leaving two Portuguese priests in charge, Francis returned to Goa in 1552 and after a few months set sail for China. He did not have diplomatic support and when he became sick, he was put ashore on to Sanchian Island, the gateway to China, with only his faithful convert Anthony to care for him. He died here at the age of 46. His body was taken back to Goa where it is kept in the Basilica of Bom Jesus.

Urgency to baptise
Francis believed that those who were not baptised would not share the delights of heaven. Hence the urgency he felt to baptise as many people as possible. But although he baptised thousands, he always saw each person as a whole - body, mind and spirit - and was concerned about material needs as well as spiritual ones. When he became aware of how extensive and populous the continent of Asia was - including India, Japan and China - , he called for more companions to share the work.

Communications and isolation
Francis wrote letters to Ignatius telling all he did. These show a deep friendship which neither distance nor time apart caused to fade. Return letters took between two and four years; in his ten years away from Rome, Francis received only 5 messages. He had to rely on his relationship with God to give him the strength to carry on. There were new companions along the way, but much of the time he was alone, isolated in a country where, despite being a good linguist, he had little grasp of the local language. His mission to China was taken up again by fellow Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who arrived in China in 1582.

Canonisation and patron of the missions
Probably the best known of all Jesuits, Francis was canonised along with Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Philip Neri and Isidore the farmer from Spain in 1622. Pope Pius XI declared him patron of the foreign missions in 1927.

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Memorable Saying for Today

Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs,
nor out of theological arguments, but out of love.”

~ Roland Allen  ~

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 - 07-12-2025-

Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

John the Baptist is a prophetic voice for all ages: his message speaks to us today of conversion as part of the Christian way of living. Conversion calls for us be tolerant of each other and be united in mind and heart.

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah          11:1-10
He judges the wretched with integrity.

A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse,  a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of the Lord rests,
a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
(The fear of the Lord is his breath.)
He does not judge by appearances,
he gives no verdict on hearsay, but judges the wretched with integrity,
and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land.
His word is a rod that strikes the ruthless, his sentences bring death to the wicked.

Integrity is the loincloth round his waist, faithfulness the belt about his hips.

The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid,
calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them.
The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together.
The lion eats straw like the ox.
The infant plays over the cobra's hole; into the viper's lair the young child puts his hand. They do no hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea.

That day, the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples. It will be sought out by the nations and its home will be glorious.

The Word of the Lord    Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm        Ps 71:1-2, 7-8, 12-123, R/v7
Response                         In his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails.

1. O God, give your judgement to the king, to a king's son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice and your poor in right judgement.    Response

2. In his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea, from the Great River to earth's bounds.               Response
3. For he shall save the poor when they cry and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak and save the lives of the poor.                               Response

4. May his name be blessed for ever and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him, all nations bless his name.                           Response

SECOND READING

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Romans         15:4-9
Christ is the Saviour of all people.

Everything that was written long ago in the scriptures was meant to teach us something about hope from the examples scripture gives of how people who did not give up were helped by God. And may he who helps us when we refuse to give up, help you all to be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It can only be to God's glory, then, for you to treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated you.
The reason Christ became the servant of circumcised Jews was not only so that God could faithfully carry out the promises made to the patriarchs, it was also to get the pagans to give glory to God for his mercy, as scripture says in one place:
'For this I shall praise you among the pagans and sing to your name.'

The Word of the Lord            Thanks be to God.

Gospel  Acclamation        Lk 3:4, 6
Alleluia, alleluia!
Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight
and all mankind shall see the salvation of God.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.                    And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew3:1-12        Glory to you, O Lord
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.

In due course John the Baptist appeared;
he preached in the wilderness of Judaea and this was his message:
'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand'.
This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said:
'A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.'

This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather belt round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.

But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them,
'Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming?
But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, and do not presume to tell yourselves, "We have Abraham for our father", because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones.
Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.

I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am,
and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn;
but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.'

The Gospel of the Lord                Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/
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For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here:  https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/

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