Churches of the Day
Pictorial Thought for Today
Jun 9 - St Columba (Columcille) (1): Dove of the Church
Summary: St Columba, abbot, missionary also known as Colum Cille, was born in Gartan, County Donegal, Ireland in 521 and was of royal lineage. He studied under Finnian of Moville and Finnian of Clonard. He founded monasteries in Deny, Durrow, Iona and possibly Kells. From Iona, which became his principal foundation, missionaries undertook the conversion of Northumbria. Colum Cille is noted for his love for people and for all living creatures. He died in 597.
While his feast-day 9th June passes most years without any great sense of occasion, St Columba is in fact one of the Irish Church's most significant saints, writes Fr John R Walsh.
Columba, the greatest and earliest of our missionaries, is one of the Patron Saints of Ireland. He was born at Gartan, Co Donegal, on 7 December 521 to parents, Fidlimid and Eithne, who were both of royal descent. Usually designated in Irish, Colum Cille ("dove of the church"), the future saint was given his early education by Cruithnechan, a priest who lived near Kilmacrenan in the same region.
Columba's Mother
Eithne, a princess from Leinster, where Christianity was comparatively well established, was doubtless the inspiration for her son's early identification with the Church.
He became a pupil of St Finnian of Clonard, and later studied for the priesthood under St Mobhi of Glasnevin. It was from there that he returned north in 546 to found a monastery in Derry. He is credited, too, with later establishing another major Irish foundation at Durrow, Co Offaly.
In 563, Columba and twelve companions sailed from Derry via Moville to the island of Iona to establish a new monastery there. This became a base for the conversion of the heathen part of Scotland, peopled by the Picts. St Adomnán, who wrote his Life of Columba in Iona within a century of the saint’s death, gives Columba's reason for exile as a desire to be "a pilgrim for Christ".
Iona is a small island south-west of the larger Mull, about eighty miles north of Co Antrim. In Columba's time, it lay within the Irish territory of Dál Riada, which was divided by the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland.
Using Iona as a base, Columba set up other foundations with the support not only of the Dál Riada but also of Pictish chieftains, with whom he established good relations. Some authorities suggest that he founded thirty establishments in the Hebrides and along the west coast of Scotland, including monasteries on Hinba, Tiree and Skye. It is more likely that disciples of the saint set up these houses in the decades and centuries after his death. They would, then, have belonged to the paruchia Columbae (the federation of Columban religious houses) in Ireland and Britain.
For Columba, personal sanctification took precedence even over preaching the Gospel. Monastic life in Iona was identical to that at home in Ireland: work, mortification, prayer, study, and copying manuscripts, were the order of the day.
Columba was known to be a calligrapher. The Cathach, the earliest surviving manuscript we have in Ireland, probably issued from his pen. He was also the author of a number of Latin hymns, and had a reputation for miracles and visions, as well as prophecies.
Because of Columba’s position and temperament, he was a major figure in the political life of Dál Riada. He certainly played kingmaker in 574, on the death of the king of Dál Riada. His attendance at the important convention of Druim Cett, near Limavady in 575, was as a senior authority on Dál Riada affairs.
This assembly at Druim Cett not only rationalized relations between the two parts of the territory but regularized the position of the filid, the learned class of poets, who preserved oral history and genealogy. As a politician, Columba is held up as an example to present day seekers of reconciliation and accommodation.
By the time the saint died in his 77th year, on Sunday 9 June 597, his work of preaching Christ to the Picts was well in hand. The monastery at Iona had become the supreme Christian centre in Scotland. Columba’s disciples, too, were to play an important part in the evangelizing of Britain through foundations in Lindisfarne, Northumbria, on the east coast, and at Whitby.
In his steadfastness, energy, piety and humanity, Columba represents the early Irish Church better than any of his peers. A man of outstanding gentleness and empathy, he was a kindly individual with a practical concern for people. His biographer recalls how he helped the unfortunate; interested himself in the plight of a hostage; rehabilitated a reformed robber; cured a nun with a broken hip; assisted a woman in the pangs of child-birth with his prayers; provided destitute men with the means of feeding themselves. Even as his death approached, he comforted others rather than seek to be comforted.
Columba had a profound sense of the worth of each person and of the contribution each makes to society. At one with God, he was also at one with nature. Like all genuine followers of Christ, Columba could see through hypocrites. He did not tolerate evil-doers, though he invariably welcomed and reconciled the truly repentant. And so we find him castigating miscreants, and yet welcoming the sincerely contrite. Above all, Columba was a man of prayer.
Coming as he did from a princely background and having a commanding and practical personality, he was bound to make an enormous impact on the affairs of his generation. His real greatness, however, was that he was able to combine the advantages given him by temperament and birth with the ambition of sainthood.
Columba is remembered with particular affection in the three places where he himself founded monasteries - Derry, Durrow and Iona - and in the areas in Ireland where his followers established houses. Some of the most notable of these later foundations were Kells, Swords, Drumcliffe, Moone and Tory.
This article first appeared in The Word (June 2004), a Divine Word Missionary Publication.
While his feast-day 9th June passes most years without any great sense of occasion, St Columba is in fact one of the Irish Church's most significant saints, writes Fr John R Walsh.Columba, the greatest and earliest of our missionaries, is one of the Patron Saints of Ireland. He was born at Gartan, Co Donegal, on 7 December 521 to parents, Fidlimid and Eithne, who were both of royal descent. Usually designated in Irish, Colum Cille ("dove of the church"), the future saint was given his early education by Cruithnechan, a priest who lived near Kilmacrenan in the same region.
Columba's Mother
Eithne, a princess from Leinster, where Christianity was comparatively well established, was doubtless the inspiration for her son's early identification with the Church.
He became a pupil of St Finnian of Clonard, and later studied for the priesthood under St Mobhi of Glasnevin. It was from there that he returned north in 546 to found a monastery in Derry. He is credited, too, with later establishing another major Irish foundation at Durrow, Co Offaly.
In 563, Columba and twelve companions sailed from Derry via Moville to the island of Iona to establish a new monastery there. This became a base for the conversion of the heathen part of Scotland, peopled by the Picts. St Adomnán, who wrote his Life of Columba in Iona within a century of the saint’s death, gives Columba's reason for exile as a desire to be "a pilgrim for Christ".
Iona is a small island south-west of the larger Mull, about eighty miles north of Co Antrim. In Columba's time, it lay within the Irish territory of Dál Riada, which was divided by the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland.
Using Iona as a base, Columba set up other foundations with the support not only of the Dál Riada but also of Pictish chieftains, with whom he established good relations. Some authorities suggest that he founded thirty establishments in the Hebrides and along the west coast of Scotland, including monasteries on Hinba, Tiree and Skye. It is more likely that disciples of the saint set up these houses in the decades and centuries after his death. They would, then, have belonged to the paruchia Columbae (the federation of Columban religious houses) in Ireland and Britain.For Columba, personal sanctification took precedence even over preaching the Gospel. Monastic life in Iona was identical to that at home in Ireland: work, mortification, prayer, study, and copying manuscripts, were the order of the day.
Columba was known to be a calligrapher. The Cathach, the earliest surviving manuscript we have in Ireland, probably issued from his pen. He was also the author of a number of Latin hymns, and had a reputation for miracles and visions, as well as prophecies.Because of Columba’s position and temperament, he was a major figure in the political life of Dál Riada. He certainly played kingmaker in 574, on the death of the king of Dál Riada. His attendance at the important convention of Druim Cett, near Limavady in 575, was as a senior authority on Dál Riada affairs.
This assembly at Druim Cett not only rationalized relations between the two parts of the territory but regularized the position of the filid, the learned class of poets, who preserved oral history and genealogy. As a politician, Columba is held up as an example to present day seekers of reconciliation and accommodation.
By the time the saint died in his 77th year, on Sunday 9 June 597, his work of preaching Christ to the Picts was well in hand. The monastery at Iona had become the supreme Christian centre in Scotland. Columba’s disciples, too, were to play an important part in the evangelizing of Britain through foundations in Lindisfarne, Northumbria, on the east coast, and at Whitby.
In his steadfastness, energy, piety and humanity, Columba represents the early Irish Church better than any of his peers. A man of outstanding gentleness and empathy, he was a kindly individual with a practical concern for people. His biographer recalls how he helped the unfortunate; interested himself in the plight of a hostage; rehabilitated a reformed robber; cured a nun with a broken hip; assisted a woman in the pangs of child-birth with his prayers; provided destitute men with the means of feeding themselves. Even as his death approached, he comforted others rather than seek to be comforted.
Columba had a profound sense of the worth of each person and of the contribution each makes to society. At one with God, he was also at one with nature. Like all genuine followers of Christ, Columba could see through hypocrites. He did not tolerate evil-doers, though he invariably welcomed and reconciled the truly repentant. And so we find him castigating miscreants, and yet welcoming the sincerely contrite. Above all, Columba was a man of prayer.
Coming as he did from a princely background and having a commanding and practical personality, he was bound to make an enormous impact on the affairs of his generation. His real greatness, however, was that he was able to combine the advantages given him by temperament and birth with the ambition of sainthood.
Columba is remembered with particular affection in the three places where he himself founded monasteries - Derry, Durrow and Iona - and in the areas in Ireland where his followers established houses. Some of the most notable of these later foundations were Kells, Swords, Drumcliffe, Moone and Tory.
This article first appeared in The Word (June 2004), a Divine Word Missionary Publication.
____________________________________
******************************
Memorable Sayings for Today
“Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us.”
“No one has the right to hear the gospel twice,
while there remains someone who has not heard it once.”
“We talk of the Second Coming;
half the world has never heard of the first.”
~ author unknown ~
******************************
____________________________
Liturgical Readings for: Tuesday, 9th June, 2026
Tuesday of the Tenth week of Ordinary Time, Year 2
9 June; St Columba, (Colum Cille) abbot and missionary
Saint of the Day: 9 June; 1 St Columba, (Colum Cille) abbot and missionary
C/f A short life of be this saint can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the first Book of Kings 17:7-16
The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.
The stream in the place where Elijah lay hidden dried up, for the country had no rain. And then the word of the Lord came to him, 'Up and go to Zarephath, a Sidonian town, and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to give you food.'
So he went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks; addressing her he said, 'Please bring a little water in a vessel for me to drink'.
She was setting off to bring it when he called after her.
'Please' he said 'bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.'
'As the Lord your God lives,' she replied 'I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.'
But Elijah said to her,
'Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son.
For thus the Lord speaks, the God of Israel:
"Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth. "'
The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 4; 4:2-5. 7-8 R/v 7
Response Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.
I. When I call, answer me, a God of justice; from anguish you released me, have mercy and hear me!
a men, how long will your hearts be closed, will you love what is futile and seek what is false? Response
2. It is the Lord who grants favours to those whom he loves; the Lord hears me whenever I call him.
Fear him; do not sin: ponder on your bed and be still. Response
3. 'What can bring us happiness?' many say. Lift up the light of your face on us, a Lord.
You have put into my heart a greater joy than they have from abundance of corn and new wine. Response
Gospel Acclamation Phil 2; 15
Alleluia, alleluia!
You will shine in the world like bright stars because
you are offering it the word of life.
Alleluia!
or Mt 5: 16
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works,
they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 5:13-16 Glory to you, O Lord
You are the light of the world.
Jesus said to his disciples:
'You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again?
It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.
'You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.
In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
********************
Gospel Reflection Tuesday Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 5:13-16
In Ireland, wherever the land is mountainous or hilly, towns and villages tend to be built in the valleys where there is shelter from the wind and the rain of winter. In Italy, and also in Palestine where Jesus lived, towns and villages in hilly or mountainous areas tend to be built on top of the hills rather than in the valleys because in the heat of summer the hilltop is a much more pleasant place to be than the valley. The saying of Jesus in the gospel reading reflects that practice; Jesus speaks of a city or a town built on a hilltop. Such a city cannot be hidden; it is visible for all to see.
Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, was such a hilltop town, visible from the valley below and the hills around. Jesus was saying to his disciples, and to us, ‘like a city on a hilltop you cannot be hidden’. The light of Christ has shone in our hearts; we are to let that light shine, rather than try to hide it. Jesus identifies letting our light shine with the doing of good works, the kind of works that the values of the Beatitudes inspire, the works that are performed by the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for what is right, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers. Within the circumstances of our own particular lives, we are called to do the good words inspired by the values of the Beatitudes, so that the light of Christ may continue to shine through us today.
________________________________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published in 1996 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
________________
Saint of the Day: 9 June; 1 St Columba, (Colum Cille) abbot and missionary
Columba, abbot, missionary was also known as Colum Cille, born in Gartan, County Donegal, Ireland in 521 and was of royal lineage. He studied under Finnian of Moville and Finnian of Clonard. He founded monasteries in Deny, Durrow, Iona and possibly Kells. From Iona, which became his principal foundation, missionaries undertook the conversion of Northumbria. Colum Cille is noted for his love for people and for all living creatures. He died in 597.
While his feast-day 9th June passes most years without any great sense of occasion, St Columba is in fact one of the Irish Church's most significant saints, writes Fr John R Walsh.Columba, the greatest and earliest of our missionaries, is one of the Patron Saints of Ireland. He was born at Gartan, Co Donegal, on 7 December 521 to parents, Fidlimid and Eithne, who were both of royal descent. Usually designated in Irish, Colum Cille ("dove of the church"), the future saint was given his early education by Cruithnechan, a priest who lived near Kilmacrenan in the same region.
Columba's Mother
Eithne, a princess from Leinster, where Christianity was comparatively well established, was doubtless the inspiration for her son's early identification with the Church. He became a pupil of St Finnian of Clonard, and later studied for the priesthood under St Mobhi of Glasnevin. It was from there that he returned north in 546 to found a monastery in Derry. He is credited, too, with later establishing another major Irish foundation at Durrow, Co Offaly.
Sailed from Derry to Iona
In 563, Columba and twelve companions sailed from Derry via Moville to the island of Iona to establish a new monastery there. This became a base for the conversion of the heathen part of Scotland, peopled by the Picts. St Adomnán, who wrote his Life of Columba in Iona within a century of the saint’s death, gives Columba's reason for exile as a desire to be "a pilgrim for Christ". Iona is a small island south-west of the larger Mull, about eighty miles north of Co Antrim. In Columba's time, it lay within the Irish territory of Dál Riada, which was divided by the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland.
Using Iona as a base, Columba set up other foundations with the support not only of the Dál Riada but also of Pictish chieftains, with whom he established good relations. Some authorities suggest that he founded thirty establishments in the Hebrides and along the west coast of Scotland, including monasteries on Hinba, Tiree and Skye. It is more likely that disciples of the saint set up these houses in the decades and centuries after his death. They would, then, have belonged to the paruchia Columbae (the federation of Columban religious houses) in Ireland and Britain.Personal Sanctification
For Columba, personal sanctification took precedence even over preaching the Gospel. Monastic life in Iona was identical to that at home in Ireland: work, mortification, prayer, study, and copying manuscripts, were the order of the day.
Columba was known to be a calligrapher. The Cathach, the earliest surviving manuscript we have in Ireland, probably issued from his pen. He was also the author of a number of Latin hymns, and had a reputation for miracles and visions, as well as prophecies.Because of Columba’s position and temperament, he was a major figure in the political life of Dál Riada. He certainly played kingmaker in 574, on the death of the king of Dál Riada. His attendance at the important convention of Druim Cett, near Limavady in 575, was as a senior authority on Dál Riada affairs.
This assembly at Druim Cett not only rationalized relations between the two parts of the territory but regularized the position of the filid, the learned class of poets, who preserved oral history and genealogy. As a politician, Columba is held up as an example to present day seekers of reconciliation and accommodation.
Death
By the time the saint died in his 77th year, on Sunday 9 June 597, his work of preaching Christ to the Picts was well in hand. The monastery at Iona had become the supreme Christian centre in Scotland. Columba’s disciples, too, were to play an important part in the evangelizing of Britain through foundations in Lindisfarne, Northumbria, on the east coast, and at Whitby.
In his steadfastness, energy, piety and humanity, Columba represents the early Irish Church better than any of his peers. A man of outstanding gentleness and empathy, he was a kindly individual with a practical concern for people. His biographer recalls how he helped the unfortunate; interested himself in the plight of a hostage; rehabilitated a reformed robber; cured a nun with a broken hip; assisted a woman in the pangs of child-birth with his prayers; provided destitute men with the means of feeding themselves. Even as his death approached, he comforted others rather than seek to be comforted.
[caption id="attachment_46613" align="alignright" width="276"]
Columba and his Monks Apostle of the Scots[/caption]At One with God and nature
Columba had a profound sense of the worth of each person and of the contribution each makes to society. At one with God, he was also at one with nature. Like all genuine followers of Christ, Columba could see through hypocrites. He did not tolerate evil-doers, though he invariably welcomed and reconciled the truly repentant. And so we find him castigating miscreants, and yet welcoming the sincerely contrite. Above all, Columba was a man of prayer.
Coming as he did from a princely background and having a commanding and practical personality, he was bound to make an enormous impact on the affairs of his generation. His real greatness, however, was that he was able to combine the advantages given him by temperament and birth with the ambition of sainthood.
Columba is remembered with particular affection in the three places where he himself founded monasteries - Derry, Durrow and Iona - and in the areas in Ireland where his followers established houses. Some of the most notable of these later foundations were Kells, Swords, Drumcliffe, Moone and Tory.
This article first appeared in The Word (June 2004), a Divine Word Missionary Publication.
____________________________________
******************************
Memorable Sayings for Today
“Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us.”
“No one has the right to hear the gospel twice while there remains someone who has not heard it once.”
“We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first.”
~ author unknown ~
******************************
Liturgical Readings for: Tuesday, 9th June, 2026
CÉAD LÉACHT Sliocht as an céad Leabhar Ríthe 17:7-16
Ní raibh an próca mine ídithe na an crúiscín ola folamh, díreach mar a dúirt an Tiarna roimh re trí bhéal Éilias.
Ar ball beag chuaigh an sruthán i ndísc toisc nach raibh fearthainn sa tír. Ansin tháinig briathar an Tiarna chuige á rá:
“Éirigh agus imigh leat go Zárafat, cathair Shíodónach, agus fan ansin. Thug mé ordú, féach, do bhaintreach ansiúd thú a chothú.”
D’éirigh sé agus d’imigh mar sin go Zárafat. Nuair a bhain sé geata na cathrach amach, bhí baintreach ann ag cruinniú brosna. Chuir sé forrán uirthi agus dúirt:
“Tabhair chugam le do thoil braoinín uisce i soitheach, ionas go mbeadh deoch uisce agam.”
Bhí sí ar tí imeacht faoina choinne nuair a ghlaoigh sé uirthi:
“Ar mhiste leat,” ar sé, “blúire aráin a thabhairt chugam i do láimh.”
“Dar an Tiarna do Dhia beo,” a d’fhreagair sí, “níl builín aráin ar bith agam, níl ach glac mine i bpróca agus braoinín ola i gcrúiscín. Tá mé ag cruinniú cipín nó dhó anois roimh dhul isteach chun an méid sin a ullmhú dom féin agus do mo mhac le hithe, agus ansin gheobhaimid bás.”
Ach dúirt Éilias léi:
“Ná bíodh eagla ort, imigh agus déan mar a dúirt tú, ach déan toirtín beag domsa as i dtús ama, agus tabhair chugam é, agus ina dhiaidh sin déan tuilleadh duit féin agus do do mhac. Óir is mar seo a labhraíonn an Tiarna, Dia Iosrael:
‘ Ní bheidh an próca mine ídithe, ní bheidh an crúiscín ola folamh,
nó go dtiocfaidh an lá a chuirfidh an Tiarna fearthainn ar aghaidh na talún.’”
D’imigh sí agus rinne mar a dúirt Éilias léi agus d’ith siad an bia, ise, eisean agus [a mac] ar feadh a lán laethanta. Ní raibh an próca mine ídithe na an crúiscín ola folamh, díreach mar a dúirt an Tiarna roimh re trí bhéal Éilias.
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Salm le Freagra Sm 4; 4; 4:2-5. 7-8 R/v 7
Freagra Ardaigh solas do ghnúise os ár gcionn, a Thiarna
1. Éist liom is mé ag éamh ort, a Dhia na fíréantachta.
D’fhuascail tú mé ó mo phianpháis, éist liom go trócaireach.
A fheara, cá fhad dom faoi mhíchlú agus náire,
agus sibhse ag tabhairt taitnimh don bhaois is don éitheach? Freagra
2. Is é an Tiarna a roghnaíonn dó féin an duine diaga:
éistfidh an Tiarna nuair a ghlaofaidh mé air.
Bíodh eagla oraibh; ná peacaigí, déanaigí machnamh in bhur leaba.
Déanaigí íobairtí córa, bíodh bhur ndóchas sa Tiarna agaibh. Freagra
3. Is iomaí duine á rá: “Cé a nochtfaidh nithe fónta dúinn?
Ardaigh solas do ghnúise os ár gcionn, a Thiarna.”
Is mó a chuir tusa d’aoibhneas i mo chroí
ná iad siúd de bharr flúirse aráin agus fíona. Freagra
SOISCÉAL
Go raibh an Tiarna libh. Agus le do spiorad féin
Sliocht as an Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Matha 5:13-16 Glóir duit, a Thiarna
Is sibhse solas an domhain.
San am sin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail“Is sibhse salann na talún. Ach má éiríonn an salann leamh, cad a dhéanfaidh goirt arís é?
Níl tairbhe ann feasta chun rud ar bith, ach é a chaitheamh amach mar a ngabhfar de chosa ann.
Is sibhse solas an domhain. Cathair ar mhullach cnoic ní féidir í a cheilt. Ná ní lastar lampa chun é a chur faoi bhéal na peice, ach in airde ar an gcrann solais mar a dtugann sé solas dá mbíonn sa teach.
Sibhse mar an gcéanna, bíodh bhur solas ag taitneamh os comhair daoine chun go bhfeicfidís bhur ndeaghníomhartha agus go nglóireoidís bhur nAthair atá ar neamh.
Soiscéal an Tiarna. Moladh duit, a Chriost
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 14th June, 2026
Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Exodus 19:2-6
I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation."
From Rephidim they set out again; and when they reached the wilderness of Sinai, there in the wilderness they pitched their camp; there facing the mountain Israel pitched camp.Moses then went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying,
'Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel,
"You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation."
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 99: 2-3. 5. R/v 3
Response We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
1. Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy. Response
2. Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock. Response
3. Indeed, how good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Romans 5:6-11
Now that we have been reconciled, surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son?
We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy to die even for a good man - though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die - but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Having died to make us righteous, is it likely that he would now fail to save us from God's anger?When we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, we were still enemies; now that we have been reconciled, surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son? Not merely because we have been reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation Jn 10: 27
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
or Mk 1:15
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Kingdom of God is close at hand, Repent and believe the good news.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 9:36-10:8 Glory to you, O Lord
The harvest is rich but the labourers are few.
When Jesus saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,
'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest'.
He summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him.These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
'Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.
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.
Liturgical Readings for: Sunday, 14th June, 2026
CHÉAD LÉACHTSliocht as an Leabhar Exodus 19:2-6
Beidh sibh agamsa in bhur ríocht sagart, in bhur náisiún coisricthe.’
Chuireadar chun siúil arís ó Reifídím agus nuair a shroicheadar fásach Shíonái, shuíodar a gcampa ansiúd san fhásach os comhair an tsléibhe. Ansin chuaigh Maois suas chun Dé agus ghlaoigh an Tiarna air ón sliabh á rá:“Abair é seo le teaghlach Iacóib agus fógair é do chlann Iosrael:
‘Chonaic sibh féin a ndearna mé leis na hÉigiptigh, agus conas mar a thóg mé liom sibh ar eití iolair agus a thug mé chugam féin sibh. Uime sin má ghéilleann sibh do mo ghlór agus cloí le mo chonradh beidh sibhse, thar na ciníocha go léir, i mo sheilbhse ar leithrigh, óir is liomsa an domhan ar fad. Beidh sibh agamsa in bhur ríocht sagart, in bhur náisiún coisricthe.’
Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
SALM LE FREAGRA. Sm 99: 2-3. 5. R/v 3
Freagra Sinne a phobal agus caoirigh a pháirce.
1. Fónaigí don Tiarna go lúcháireach. tagaigí ina láthair le hamhráin áthais. Freagra
2. Bíodh a fhios agaibh gurb é an Tiarna is Dia ann. Eisean a rinne sinn; is leis féin sinn;
sinne a phobal agus caoirigh a pháirce. Freagra
3. Á, nach maith égo deimhin an Tiarna, nach marthanach a thrócaire ghrámhar!
Is dílis é ó ghlúin go chéile. Freagra
DARA LÉACHT
Sliocht as Litir Naomh Pól chuig na Rómhánaigh 5:6-11
Agus má rinneadh athmhuintearas idir sinn agus Dia trí bhás a Mhic
A bhráithre, nuair a bhíomar fós lag, fuair Críost bás I dtráth ar son drochdhaoine. Is ar éigean a gheobhadh fear bás ar son duine chóir féin – is ea, b’fhéidir go mbeadh sé de chroí aige bás a fháil ar son dea-dhuine. Ach cruthaíonn Dia an grá atá aige dúinn trí Chríost a fháil bháis ar ár son agus sinn fós inár bpeacaigh. Ó táimid fíréanaithe anois trína chuid fola, nach móide go mór go saorfar sinn tríd ó fhearg Dé? Agus má rinneadh athmhuintearas idir sinn agus Dia trí bhás a Mhic agus sinn inár naimhde dó, nach móide go mór anois agus an t-athmhuintearas déanta go saorfar sinn trína bheatha? Agus ní hé sin amháin é, ach táimid mórálach as Dia trínár dTiarna Íosa Críost, an té a ghnóthaigh an t-athmhuintearas sin anois dúinn.Briathar an Tiarna Buíochas le Dia
Alleluia Véarsa Eo 10: 27
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Éisteann mo chaoirigh le mo ghlór, agus aithním iad, agus leanann siad mé.
Alleluia!
SOISCÉAL
Go raibh an Tiarna libh. Agus le do spiorad féin
Sliocht as Soiscéal naofa de réir Naomh Mhatha, 9:36-10:8 Glóir duit, a Thiarna.
San am sin nuair a chonaic Íosa na sluaite, ghlac sé trua dóibh, mar go raibh siad ina luí go tréith mar a bheadh caoirigh gan aoire. Ansin dúirt sé lena dheisceabail: “Tá an fómhar fairsing ach níl ann ach meitheal bheag. Dá bhrí sin guígí Máistir an fhómhair go gcuireadh sé meitheal uaidh isteach ina fhómhar.”
Ghlaoigh sé chuige a dháréag deisceabal agus thug dóibh údarás ar na spioraid mhíghlana chun go gcaithfidís amach iad agus go leigheasfaidís gach galar agus gach éagruas.Is iad seo ainmneacha an dá aspal déag: Síomón ar dtús, ar a dtugtar Peadar, agus Aindrías a dheartháir, Séamas mac Zeibidé agus Eoin a dheartháir, Pilib agus Parthalán, Tomás agus Matha poibleacánach, Séamas mac Ailfáias agus Tadáias, Síomón Díograiseach agus Iúdás Isceiriót, an fear a bhraith é.
Chuir Íosa uaidh an dáréag sin leis na horduithe seo leanas:
“Ná gabhaigí an bóthar chun na ngintlithe agus ná téigí isteach i gcathair Shamárach ar bith; ní hea, ach téigí faoi dhéin chaoirigh caillte theaghlach Iosrael. Agus in bhur mbóthar daoibh, bígí á fhógairt go bhfuil ríocht na bhflaitheas in achmaireacht. Leigheasaigí lucht tinnis, tógaigí na mairbh, glanaigí na lobhair, caithigí amach na deamhain. In aisce a fuair sibh; tugaigí uaibh in aisce.
Soiscéal an Tiarna. Moladh duit, a Chriost
AN BÍOBLA NAOFA
© An Sagart
