Churches of the Day

Monday, Third Week of Easter

Stephen, witness to Christ is seen as a threat to the future of the synagogue and is arrested.
Jesus calls to us to look beyond the gift of the bread to the mystery of his eternal life.

FIRST READING         

A reading from the Book  Acts of the Apostles              6:8-15
They could not get the better of  Stephen because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said.

Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people. But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia. They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said.
So they procured some men to say, 'We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God.'
Having in this way turned the people against him as well as the elders and scribes, they took Stephen by surprise, and arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin. There they put up false witnesses to say,
'This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law. We have heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene is going to destroy this place and alter the traditions that Moses handed down to us.'
The members of the Sanhedrin all looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

The Word of the Lord.             Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm          Ps 118; 23-24. 26-27. 29-30. R/v 1
Response                                They are happy whose life is blameless.
Or                                            Alleluia!

1. Though princes sit plotting against me, I ponder on your statutes.
Your will is my delight; your statutes are my counsellors.                                  Response

2. I declared my ways and you answered: teach me your statutes.
Make me grasp the way of your precepts and I will muse on your wonders.  Response

3. Keep me from the way of error and teach me your law.
I have chosen the way of truth with your decrees before me.                            Response

Gospel Acclamation          Jn 20: 29
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus said: 'You believe, Thomas, because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.'
Alleluia!

or                                            Mt 4:4   
Alleluia, alleluia!
Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL                     

The Lord be with you.              And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John   6:22-29        Glory to you, O Lord
Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life.

After Jesus had fed the five thousand, his disciples saw him walking on the water.
Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves.  Other boats had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten.  When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him,

'Rabbi, when did you come here?'
Jesus answered:
‘I tell you most solemnly, You are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’

Then they said to him,
‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?'
Jesus gave them this answer, 'This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’

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


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Gospel Reflection           Monday              Third Week of Easter        John 6:22-29

In times of conflict and war, truth is often the first casualty. The aggressor in particular will often bend the truth to try and justify what they are attempting to do. The Jewish religious leaders who were hostile to Jesus were equally hostile to his followers who were proclaiming that God had raised Jesus from the dead. In today’s first reading, we hear of their antagonism to Stephen, a gifted preacher. They procured people to falsify what Stephen had said, ‘We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God… This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law. We heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene is going to destroy this Place’. Although such accusations were essentially false, they would be a significant factor in the eventual death of Stephen by stoning.

Jesus once said of himself, ‘I am the truth’. He revealed to us the truth about God, about what it is to be human, about creation. His followers are to be people of truth, who live by the truth that Jesus proclaimed and lived. Because he is the truth, he can satisfy the deep hunger in our hearts for truth.

In the gospel reading, Jesus challenges the crowd to come to him not just as someone who can satisfy their physical hunger, which he had recently done, but as someone who can satisfy their deeper hungers, their hunger for truth, for a love that is faithful, for a life that is eternal. ‘Do not work for food that cannot last, but for food that endures to eternal life’. Jesus offers himself to them, and to us all, as one who can satisfy the deepest hungers of our heart. Such hungers will only be fully satisfied at the banquet of eternal life, but in so far as we keep coming to the Lord and opening our hearts to him, our deepest hungers will begin to be satisfied in the course of our earthly lives.

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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 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:  www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Fourth Sunday of Easter

This is  Good Shepherd Sunday
A Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious life, Married and Single life.
It is a call to a life of service in the Church and a call to live the Gospel mission as a representative of Jesus wherever and whenever we are.

FIRST READING
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 2:14. 36-41
God has made him both Lord and Christ.

On the day of Pentecost Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them in a loud voice:
'The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.'

Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles,
'What must we do, brothers?'
'You must repent,' Peter answered 'and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.'

He spoke to them for a long time using many arguments, and he urged them,
'Save yourselves from this perverse generation'.
They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.

The Word of the Lord.            Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 22: 1-6. R/v1
Response                             The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or                                            Alleluia!

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

SECOND READING

A reading from the first letter of St Peter            2:20-25
You have come back to the shepherd of your souls.

The merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing it patiently when you are punished after doing your duty. This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put his trust in the righteous judge. He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

The Word of the Lord.            Thanks be to God

Gospel Acclamation          Jn 10: 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you              And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to John     10:1-10      Glory to you, O Lord
I am the gate of the sheepfold

Jesus said:
'I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.'

Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again:
'I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold.
All others who have come are thieves and brigands;
but the sheep took no notice of them

I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.


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/

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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.