Churches of the Day

Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Our God is God of the living

 Saint of the Day: 3 June; St Kevin, Irish abbot
C/f A short life of be this saint can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection


FIRST READING:  

A reading from the second letter of St Timothy      1: 1-3. 6-12
Fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

From Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus in his design to promise life in Christ Jesus; to Timothy, dear child of mine, wishing you grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
Night and day I thank God, keeping my conscience clear and remembering my duty to him as my ancestors did, and always I remember you in my prayers.

This is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God's gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy - not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose and by his own grace.

This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the Appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus. He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News; and I have been named its herald, its apostle and its teacher. It is only on account of this that I am experiencing fresh hardships here now ; but I have not lost confidence, because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to him until that Day.

The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm            Ps 122:1-2. R/v 1
Response                                  To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.

1. To you have I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens:
my eyes, like the eyes of slaves on the hand of their lord..               Response

2. Like the eyes of a servant on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God till he show us his mercy.      Response

Gospel  Acclamation                 Jn 17: 17
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord, consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!

Or                                                   Jn 11: 25. 26
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord'
whoever believes in me will never die.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                     And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Mark      12: 18-27    Glory to you, O Lord
He is God, not of the dead, but of the living.

Some Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection came to Jesus and they put this question to him, '
Master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no children. The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same, and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?'

Jesus said to them,
'Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said:
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.'

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

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Gospel Reflection            Wednesday             Ninth Week in Ordinary Time          Mark 12:18-27

The question of the afterlife is one that has intrigued people from very earliest times. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is approached by the members of a Jewish group, the Sadducees, who did not believe in life after death. They approach Jesus as someone whom they know has a different view on this issue to themselves. The question the Sadducees put to Jesus about the woman with seven husbands suggests that they understood life beyond death as simply an extension of this earthly life. However, Jesus’ reply suggests otherwise. ‘When they rise from the dead, men and women are like the angels in heaven’.

Life in heaven is not a mirror image of life on earth; it is qualitatively different. St Paul speaks about this life beyond death in terms of transformation. ‘We shall all be changed’, he says. For one thing, it will be a life with no trace of death in it. Today’s first reading declares that Christ has ‘abolished death and has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News’. We would, of course, like to know more about this transformed life. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus refers to heaven as the place where God’s will is done to the fullest possible extent. We are invited to pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. The transformation that awaits us is all that God wills for us, which according to Paul is our being fully conformed to the image of Christ himself.

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

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Saints of the Day: 3 June; 2. St Kevin, Irish abbot


Abbot, Kevin grew up in Kilnamanagh in Leinster, where Bishop Lugaid ordained him to the priesthood. He settled as a hermit in remote Glendalough but disciples gathered around him and eventually a monastic settlement grew up. Kevin died in 618

(The image left shows some of the ruins of the monastic city of Glendalough which grew up there after St Kevin (Irish Caoimhghin).

The themes of Kevin's life include harmony with nature, a desire for solitude and asceticism, as well as the struggle around celibacy.

Patrick Duffy tells his story.

The year of Kevin’s birth is generally given as 498 and the Annals of Ulster record the date of his death as 618. This would give him 120 years! More likely he was born in the middle of the sixth century.

Sources
The sources for his story are the Codex Kilkenniensis in Marsh’s Library in Dublin which has three Latin Lives written probably in the 11th century and three Irish Lives transcribed by Michael O’Clery in 1629 from the old books that relied on oral traditions and pilgrims’ tales. Pádraig Ó Riain (Dictionary, 149) notes that no critical edition and evaluation of the saint's Lives has been attempted, so what we have about him are traditions.

Baptised by Cronan
His father was named Caomhlugh and his mother Caoimheall or Coemella. According to legend, when the boy was being brought to the priest Cronan for baptism, a person appeared and breathed on the child, blessing him and calling him Coemgen. Cronan believed this was an angel and said, “So shall he always be called Coemgenus ('beautiful born') for he will be most beautiful”.

Close to Nature and Love of Animals
Like many Celtic saints, Kevin was close to nature and had a great love of animals. When he was a boy, every morning and evening a white cow would come to his parents’ house with milk for him, perhaps symbolic of the wisdom, poetry and brightness associated with the boy.

Early Formation at Kilnamanagh
His parents brought him to the monastery of Kilnamanagh in Tallaght near Dublin and here he underwent instruction and spiritual formation by three holy men, Eoghan, perhaps of Ardstraw, Lóchán and Éanna of Kilnamanagh.

A Place of Solitude
But at an early age he wandered off into the Wicklow Mountains and spent time in solitude at first at Hollywood near Blessington and finally in Glendalough. Legend says his place of solitude was revealed when the owner of a cow that strayed into the area discovered that she began to produce great quantities of milk. His three teachers came and took him back to the monastery where he continued his studies.

More Miracles
A story from his training time at Kilnamanagh marks him out as extraordinary. One day Kevin was supposed to bring a source of fire to light the candles for Mass, but forgot. 'Run quickly for the fire and bring it,' an older monk shouted. 'How will I carry it?' Kevin asked. 'In your bosom,' came the reply. Kevin went instantly and collected the fire in a cloth he had around him, but neither his clothes nor his flesh were harmed in any way. The older monk, full of remorse, said, 'O holy youth, I see that you are full of the Holy Spirit.'

Celibacy
Another story about his choice of celibacy relates to his time of training at Kilnamanagh. A young woman saw him with his companions in the fields and fell passionately in love with him and pursued him in many ways but he resisted her advances.
One day she came on him alone and embraced him and asked him tenderly to lie with her. Kevin rushed away and finding a bed of nettles, stripped off his clothes and rolled himself in them naked. When she further pursued him, he quickly dressed, took up a bunch of nettles and beat her off. She, realising the hopelessness of her quest, quickly repented and went off herself to become a nun, would you believe?.
(Probably this story shows that at the heart of Kevin’s quest for holiness there was a real struggle.)

Ordained Priest
Kevin was ordained priest by Bishop Lugidius and founded a monastery at Cluainduaich, though the location of this is unknown.

Search for Solitude and the Ascetical Life
He soon was back again at Glendalough in search of solitude and the ascetical life. He first settled near the upper lake, and lived in a narrow cave in a rock above the lake still to be seen today and called 'St Kevin's Bed'. The cave is accessible by boat, but  involves a steep upward climb.

Miracles of Nature
Kevin wore only wild animal skins and ate what food he could gather from the surrounding trees and plants. He slept on a stone slab with another stone as a pillow. Sometimes he would stand in the cold waters of the lake reciting the psalms - a common penitential practice for Irish monks - and keeping vigil. Many miracles of nature are told of him such as the one of his dropping his psalm book in the lake and it being brought back to him undamaged by an otter. Another is that during Lent, as he was praying with his arm outstretched, a blackbird settled in his palm, built herself a nest and laid an egg in it. Ever patient, kind and gentle to all living creatures, Kevin waited until the tiny bird had hatched and fledged before he moved, showing the harmony between him and nature.

Community and Hermitage
A community of monks gathered round him, so he set up and ran a monastic settlement in the lower valley. After his death this became a monastic city. He also established a hermitage near his cave at the upper lake at Templenaskellig, dividing his time between his hermitage and the community. As an abbot who founded a monastic city, Kevin chose to remain as a priest rather than become a bishop. He spent most of his life at Glendalough, unlike some of his fellow saints who travelled widely on missionary journeys. Despite this remaining in one place, his influence and fame spread far and wide.

Death in Harmony with Nature
Before his death Kevin decided to remain permanently at his hermitage, asking his monks not to visit, bring food or disturb him in any way. The wild animals kept him company. A final story demonstrates the harmony with creation that seems to have surrounded him. A wild boar, which was being hunted, found its way into his oratory, closely pursued by dogs and men. The huntsmen, however, on seeing the saint kneeling under a tree praying, with birds perched on his shoulders and hands, were dumbfounded. The hounds lay down and would not go after the boar. For the sake of the hermit they all went quietly away and allowed the boar to go free. And so Kevin died.

His Spirit Lives On
Kevin's spirit still lives on in Glendalough. Fr Michael Rodgers, who spent many years as a missionary in Africa, has made his own tearmann or retreat house in the valley and welcomes those who want to follow in the footsteps of the saint. See www.tearmann.ie . There is also a hermitage  there run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.

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Memorable Saying for Today

'I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station,
through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.'

~ George Washington Carver ~

also

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away."

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- The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - Corpus Christi -

FIRST READING

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy           8:2-3. 14-16
He fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known.

Moses said to the people:
‘Remember how the Lord your God led you for forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart - whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Do not then forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: who guided you through this vast and dreadful wilderness, a land of fiery serpents, scorpions, thirst;
who in this waterless place brought you water from the hardest rock;
who in this wilderness fed you with manna that your fathers had not known.

The Word of the Lord               Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm          Ps 147:12-15. 19-20. R/v 12
Response                               O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
or                                              Alleluia!

1. O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! Zion, praise your God!
He has strengthened the bars of your gates, he has blessed the children within you.   Response

2. He established peace on your borders, he feeds you with finest wheat.
He sends out his word to the earth and swiftly runs his command.                                  Response

3. He makes his word known to Jacob, to Israel his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus with other nations; he has not taught them his decrees.            Response

SECOND READING       

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians         10:16-17
There is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body.

The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ,
and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ.
The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us,
we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.

The Word of the Lord               Thanks be to God.

Sequence
(Choice: We may use the whole sequence or the final three stanzas marked with an asterisk*)

Sing forth, O Zion, sweetly sing
The praises of thy Shepherd-King,
In hymns and canticles divine;
Dare all thou canst, thou hast no song
Worthy his praises to prolong,
So far surpassing powers like thine.

Today no theme of common praise
Forms the sweet burden of thy lays-
The living, life-dispensing food
­That food which at the sacred board
Unto the brethren twelve our Lord
His parting legacy bestowed.

Then be the anthem clear and strong,
Thy fullest note, thy sweetest song,
The very music of the breast:
For now shines forth the day sublime
That brings remembrance of the time
When Jesus first his table blessed.

Within our new King's banquet-hall
They meet to keep the festival
That closed the ancient paschal rite:
The old is by the new replaced;
The substance hath the shadow chased;
And rising day dispels the night.

Christ willed what he himself had done
Should be renewed while time should run,
In memory of his parting hour:
Thus, tutored in his school divine,
We consecrate the bread and wine;
And lo - a Host of saving power.

This faith to Christian men is given
­Bread is made flesh by words from heaven:
Into his blood the wine is turned:
What though it baffles nature's powers
Of sense and sight? This faith of ours
Proves more than nature e'er discerned.

Concealed beneath the two-fold sign,·
Meet symbols of the gifts divine,
There lie the mysteries adored:
The living body is our food;
Our drink the ever-precious blood;
In each, one undivided Lord.

 Not he that eateth it divides
The sacred food, which whole abides
Unbroken still, nor knows decay;
Be one, or be a thousand fed,
They eat alike that living bread
Which, still received, ne'er wastes away.

 The good, the guilty share therein,
With sure increase of grace or sin,
The ghostly life, or ghostly death:
Death to the guilty; to the good
Immortal life. See how one food
Man's joy or woe accomplisheth.

We break the Sacrament; but bold
And firm thy faith shall keep its hold;
Deem not the whole doth more enfold
Than in the fractured part resides:
Deem not that Christ doth broken lie;
'Tis but the sign that meets the eye;
The hidden deep reality
In all its fullness still abides.

*Behold the bread of angels, sent
For pilgrims in their banishment,
The bread for God's true children meant,
That may not unto dogs be given:
Oft in the olden types foreshowed;
In Isaac on the altar bowed,
And in the ancient paschal food,
And in the manna sent from heaven.

*Come then, good shepherd, bread divine,
Still show to us thy mercy sign;
Oh, feed us still, still keep us thine;
So may we see thy glories shine
In fields of immortality;

*O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,
Our present food, our future rest,
Come, make us each thy chosen guest,
Co-heirs of thine, and comrades blest
With saints whose dwelling is with thee.

Gospel Acclamation          Jn 6: 51-52
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven says the Lord.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you              And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to John 6:51-58             Glory to you, O Lord
My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

Jesus said to the Jews:
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.'
Then the Jews started arguing with one another: 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' they said.
Jesus replied:
I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.'

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.