Churches of the Day

Thursday of the 24th week in Ordinary Time, Year 2

Saint of the Day: Sep 17; –St Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church, 
C/f A short look at this saint’s life can be found below today's Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians       15:1-11
I preached the gospel to you - believing anything else will not lead to anything.

Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you - believing anything else will not lead to anything.

Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures;
that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died;
then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles;
and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.

I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God's grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.

The Word of the Lord.           Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 117: 1-2. 15-17. 28. R/v 1
Response                               Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
Or                                              Alleluia!

1. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.
Let the sons of Israel say: 'His love has no end.'                                        Response

2. The Lord's right hand has triumphed; his right hand raised me up.
I shall not die, I shall live and recount his deeds.                                      Response

3. You are my God, I thank you. My God, I praise you.
I will thank you for you have given answer and you are my saviour.    Response

Gospel Acclamation          2 Cor 5: 19
Alleluia, alleluia!
God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself,
and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.
Alleluia !

or                                                 Mt 11: 28
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
Alleluia !

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you             And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 7:36-50        Glory to you, O Lord
Her many sins, must have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such great love.

One of the Pharisees invited him to a meal. When he arrived at the Pharisee's house and took his place at table, a woman came in, who had a bad name in the town. She had heard he was dining with the Pharisee and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment. She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,
'If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is that is touching him and what a bad name she has'.

Then Jesus took him up and said,
'Simon, I have something to say to you'.
'Speak, Master' was the reply.
'There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty. They were unable to pay, so he pardoned them both. Which of them will love him more?'
'The one who was pardoned more, I suppose' answered Simon.
Jesus said, 'You are right'.

Then he turned to the woman. 'Simon,' he said 'you see this woman?
I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
For this reason I tell you that her sins, her many sins, must have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such great love. It is the man who is forgiven little who shows little love.'
Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven'.
Those who were with him at table began to say to themselves,
'Who is this man, that he even forgives sins?'
But he said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace'.

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

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Gospel Reflection        Thursday,          Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time     Luke 7:36-50

In many ways today’s gospel describes one of the most striking scenes in all of the gospels. A woman breaks into a meal uninvited at which Jesus is a guest. She weeps unrestrainedly with her tears falling on the feet of Jesus. She proceeds to wipe her tears away from Jesus’ feet with her hair. She then covers his feet with kisses and anoints them with an alabaster jar of ointment she had brought with her. To the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to his house, the behaviour of this woman was unseemly, unbecoming, and scandalous, especially as she had a reputation as a sinner.

Yet, Jesus understood what lay behind the woman’s extravagant and unconventional behaviour. It was loving gratitude for the experience of God’s merciful love earlier conveyed to her through Jesus. It was love in return for love. She had received the gift of God’s unconditional love from Jesus and, now, she was responding in kind. The Pharisee had not experienced God’s loving forgiveness in the way the woman had and, so, could not understand her gestures. The portrayal of the woman reminds us that we give to the Lord in response to the experience of being gifted by the Lord. The experience of receiving the Lord’s unconditional love is the wellspring of a life of loving service of the Lord. There is the Lord's commandment to love but prior to the commandment is the invitation to receive the gift of the Lord’s love. Receiving from the Lord is the inspiration for our giving to him.
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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: Sep 17; –1. St Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church
- 2. St Hildegard of Bingen, mystic, virgin and doctor of the Church

1. St Robert Bellarmine,
Robert was  a spiritual director at the English College, Rome, encouraged the student priests there who were later to become martyrs. He was a Jesuit theologian and then a bishop who was almost elected pope. He also concurred in the condemnation of Galileo.

Patrick Duffy reiterates his story here.

Early Life
Born in Montepulciano in Tuscany, Robert's father was a chief magistrate and his mother the sister of Pope Marcellus II (Marcello Cervini - 1555). After a broad education, he entered the Jesuits at 18. He taught classics and studied theology at Padua and Louvain, where he was ordained.

Theologian to Pope Clement VIII
Robert taught controversial theology - it was the Reformation time - and was recalled to teach at the Gregorian University. He was also spiritual director to the English College when many of the students would have to face martyrdom when they went back to their home country. Then after three years as Jesuit provincial in Naples, Pope Clement VIII (Ippolito Aldobrandini, pope 1592-1650) called him to be his personal theologian. Subsequently he became a cardinal and archbishop of Capua. Almost elected pope in 1605, the new pope, Paul V (Camillo Borghese), appointed him prefect of the Vatican Library.

Concurred in Galileo's Condemnation
Although Galileo was a personal friend, Bellarmine accepted the Ptolemaic view of the earth as the centre of the universe and though he tried to persuade Galileo to present the Copernican view as theory and not as fact, he concurred in Galileo's condemnation.

Later Life 
Towards the end of his life he retired to the Jesuit novitiate in Rome and wrote a devotional work on The Art of Dying Well. He died on 17th September 1621 and is buried in the Lady Chapel of the Gesù, the main Jesuit church in Rome.

He was canonised in 1930 and declared a doctor of the Church the following year.

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Memorable Proverb for Today

Science without religion is lame, Religion without science is blind.

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Saints of the Day: Sep 17; – 2. St Hildegard of Bingen, mystic, virgin and doctor of the Church

Hildegard of Bingen, (1098–1179), a German mystic, writer, composer, philosopher, Benedictine abbess, visionary, & polymath. "Who is this woman?" asked Cistercian Pope Eugenius III, when shown her writings. "She rises out of the wilderness like a column of smoke from burning spices."

Hildegard had a big influence in her own day but was wiped out from Church consciousness for eight centuries, in recent years she has made a big comeback through feminism, and creation/ environmental theology. The central theme of her writings is the life-giving power of God - what she called "the beauty of greenness" (pulchritudo viriditatis). There is also much recent interest in her music and poetry.

Patrick Duffy profiles this extraordinary medieval lady.

Childhood at Bermerstein and her formation
Born in 1098, the tenth child of noble parents Hildebert and Mechtild at Bermersheim near Mainz in the Rhineland, Hildegard was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg by Jutta von Spanheim and succeeded her as abbess when she died in 1136.

Visions
From the age of three she had experienced visions accompanied by headaches. On reporting them to her confessor, he encouraged her to write them down, and the headaches disappeared. Her confessor showed what she had written to the archbishop of Mainz, who appointed a monk named Volmar to be her secretary.

The Scivias
The archbishop showed the resulting work Scivias (short for Scito vias Domini = "Know the ways of the Lord" 1142-52) to the Cistercian Pope Eugenius III, then visiting Trier. "Who is this woman?" he asked when he read it. "She rises out of the wilderness like a column of smoke from burning spices." The book contains 26 visions about the Church, the relationship between God and man and redemption. It is a theology, telling the history of salvation centred on Jesus from creation to the Second Coming.

Her convent at Rupertsberg
Around 1147 Hildegard - possibly to secure a more independent role for herself and her sisters - left Disibodenberg and set up a convent in Rupertsberg near Bingen on the Rhine. The move caused a rift with the abbot and monks of the monastery of St Disibod - because of the feared loss of revenue - and stress to Hildegard, but within a few years she had a thriving community of fifty nuns.

Knowledge of Medicine
Hildegard cared for the sick nuns of her own community and from this experience she wrote two books on medicine. It describes herbal remedies and the circulation of the blood five centuries before the scientist Harvey.

Poetry, Music and the Arts
A gifted poet and musician, she also produced hymns and canticles for her nuns to sing. These have recently been reproduced and are currently popular sales items. She also installed a piped-water system in her convent. She made illustrations for the Scivias and devised an early form of an international language like Esperanto.

Convent Under Interdict
Hildegard came into conflict with the archbishop of Mainz when she took a decision to bury in the convent cemetery the body of a young nobleman, who had been excommunicated. She knew that the man had repented before he died and she had acted in good conscience. The archbishop put her monastery under' interdict' thus depriving the community of the sacraments for some months and forbidding music in their church. Hildegard's response was to write a long letter to the bishop on sacred music to which she added:
"Those therefore who, without good reason, impose silence on churches in which singing in God's honour can be heard will not deserve to hear the glorious choirs of angels praising the Lord in heaven."
The archbishop lifted the interdict.

When she was about sixty, she devoted five years going around actively preaching and teaching and speaking to all kinds of people.

Death and Influence
Active to the last, Hildegard died on 17 September 1179. Though many miracles were reported during her life and at her tomb, she was never formally canonised, but she is listed as a saint for that day in the Roman Martyrology.

Hildegard's Relics

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Memorable Sayings  for Today

Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”

– Pedro Calderon de la Barca -

“The future will either be green or not at all.”

– Bob Brown -

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The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees

FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Isaiah            55:6-9
My thoughts are not your thoughts.

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found,
call to him while he is still near.
Let the wicked man abandon his way,
the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,
to our God who is rich in forgiving;
for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways not your ways - it is the Lord who speaks.
Yes, the heavens are as high above earth
as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.

The Word of the Lord.           Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 144:2-3.8-9. 17-18. Rv 18
Response                               The Lord is close to all who call him.

1. I will bless you day after day and praise your name for ever.
The Lord is great, highly to be praised, his greatness cannot be measured.       Response

2. The Lord is kind and full of compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all his creatures.                           Response

3. The Lord is just in all his ways and loving in all his deeds.
He is close to all who call him, who call on him from their hearts.                        Response

SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians 1:20-24.27
Life to me is Christ.

Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my death.
Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more; but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results- I do not know what I should choose. I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better, but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake.

Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ.

The Word of the Lord.                  Thanks be to God

Gospel Acclamation               Lk 19: 38
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessings on the King who comes, in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!
Alleluia!

Or                                                Acts 16: 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                   And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 20:1-16       Glory to you, O Lord
Why be envious because I am generous?

Jesus said to his disciples:
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard. Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them,
"You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage". So they went.
At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same. Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them,
"Why have you been standing here idle all day?"
"Because no one has hired us" they answered. He said to them, "You go into my vineyard too".

In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff,
"Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first".
So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each. They took it, but grumbled at the landowner. "The men who came last" they said "have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day's work in all the heat."

He answered one of them and said,
"My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?"

Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.'

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.