Churches of the Day

 - 28/10 -  Ss Simon and Jude, Apostles, martyred in Persia
The apostles are meant to be living examples of the teaching s of Christ in action.

Saint of the Day; Oct. 28th: Simon: 'zealot' and Jude: brother of James, 
C/f A short history of today’s saints can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.     

FIRST READING             

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Ephesians    2:19-22
You are part of a building that has the apostles for its foundations.

So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God's household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.
As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy Temple in the Lord;
and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the  Spirit.

The Word of the Lord.            Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm          Ps  18:2-5, R/v 5  
Response                              Their word goes forth through all the earth.
Or                                               Alleluia!



1. The heavens proclaim the glory of God
and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story
and night unto night makes known the message.       Response

2. No speech, no word, no voice is heard
yet their span extends through all the earth.
their words to the utmost bounds of the world.          Response

Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
We praise you, O God, we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
The glorious company of the apostles praise you, O Lord.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.                        And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke     6:12-19     Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles'

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.  When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles':
Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James,
and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.
People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.

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


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Gospel Reflection        28th Oct.,      Ss  Simon and Jude, Apostles        Luke 6:12-19

Two of the twelve whom Jesus called to himself were called Simon and  Jude (or Judas). Simon’s other name, ‘the Zealot’, suggests that he was zealous to keep God’s Law.  There is an ancient tradition that both Simon and Jude were martyred on the same day. They remained faithful to the Lord’s call, even at the cost of their lives.

In the first reading, Paul reminds us that we are all part of a spiritual building that has the Apostles, like Simon and Jude, for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. We call this spiritual building the church. The physical buildings we call ‘churches’ are there to help us to be true to our calling as members of a spiritual building, what Paul calls in our reading, a holy temple in the Lord, where God lives in the Spirit.

As Simon and Jude were faithful to their calling, each day we seek to be faithful to our calling to allow God’s Spirit, the Spirit of the risen Lord, to shape our lives. We never fully answer this calling in the course of our earthly lives. We are always growing into this calling. If we are to grow into our calling to allow God’s Spirit to shape our lives, we need to do what the members of the crowd are depicted as doing in the gospel reading. We need to keep on reaching out towards the Lord to touch his presence and allowing him to touch us. One of the primary ways we do this is through prayer. At the beginning of the gospel reading, Jesus went out into the hills to pray. We need to find our own version of those hills, where we can be prayerfully present to the Lord.

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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 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: Oct 28; Ss Simon and Jude (1st century) apostles
Simon "the Less" is also called "the Canaanite" and "the Zealot."
Jude "(son) of James" (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13) was traditionally identified as Jude, brother of James and author of the letter of Jude, and may also be the one called "Thaddeus" (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18, (Patron saint of hopeless causes.),  A tradition has Simon and Jude preaching and being martyred in Persia.   

Ss Simon and Jude went together as missionaries to Persia, and were martyred there, according to St Venantius Fortunatus, a poet and bishop of Poitiers in the sixth century. This may explain why so little is known about them and also why they are usually put together.

Patrick Duffy summarises traditions about them.

New Testament Lists of Apostles
In the various New Testament lists of the twelve apostles (Mt 10:2-4; Mk 3:16-19; Lk 6:14-16; Acts 1:13), the tenth and eleventh places are occupied by Simon the Zealot (also called Simon the "Cananean," the Aramaic word meaning "Zealot") and by Judas of James, also called Thaddaeus or 'Lebbaeus.'

[caption id="attachment_51513" align="alignright" width="156"] St. Jude. Patron of desperate situations; forgotten causes; hospital workers; hospitals; impossible causes; and lost causes.[/caption]

Jude
Jude is often, in popular usage, known as the patron of desperate causes, the "Saint of last resort", the one you ask for help when all else fails. He is so named by Luke in his Gospel and in the Acts of the apostles. Matthew and Mark call him 'Thaddeus'. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except  where all the apostles are mentioned individually. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude.  Evidently because of the danger of a mix-up and due to the scandal of the named Judas Iscariot,  his name was shortened to “Jude” in English.

Simon
Simon is also not mentioned by name elsewhere in the New Testament but he is  mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. Some modern writers have used his surname "the Zealot" as a basis for conjectures associating him, and through him perhaps even Jesus, and his original followers, with the Zealot movement described by Josephus, a Jewish independence movement with a somewhat  terrorist streak.
The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans—the very domination of the Romans—was a blasphemy against God. No doubt some of the Zealots were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees, carrying on their ideals of religion and independence.

Unlikely yet chosen Apostles
Jesus chose some unlikely people as disciples:
*a former Zealot, Simon
*a former (crooked) tax collector,; Matthew
*an impetuous fisherman, Peter
*two "sons of thunder" James and John
* One with endless doubts, Thomas
*and Judas Iscariot, who was to betray Jesus.
It shows that holiness does not so much depend on human merit, but on God's creation, call and gift.

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Memorable Saying for Today

'The Lord often uses the 'Unlikely' to accomplish the 'Impossible.'
That's what Jesus did in the choice of the Apostles! ...not to mention you and me!

~ Marcus Garvey ~

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Saturday, Nov. 1 - Solemnity of All Saints
Disciples of the Lord sanctified by the Lord, now and in glory

Feast of the Day; Nov 1 ; All Saints; All those people who  who have gone before us, or are still with us on our journey of faith.
C/f A short history of today’s Feast can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.     

FIRST READING                 

A reading from the book of  the Apocalypse       7:2-4. 9-14
I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people of every nation, race, tribe and language.

I, John saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God;
he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea,
'Wait before you do any damage on land or at sea or to the trees,
until we have put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.'
Then I heard how many were sealed:
a hundred and forty four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel.

After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands.  They shouted aloud,
'Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'
And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four animals, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words,
'Amen.
Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen.'

One of the elders then spoke, and asked me,
'Do you know who these people are, dressed in white robes, and where they have come from?'
I answered him, 'You can tell me, my Lord.'
Then he said, 'These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and  they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb'.

The Word of the Lord          Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm       Ps 23: 1-6. R/v v6
Response                            Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord

1.The Lord's is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm.                                  Response

2. Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things.   Response

3. He shall receive blessings from the Lord  and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him, seek the face of the God of Jacob.                     Response

SECOND READING         

A reading from the first letter of  St John       3:1-3
We shall see God as he really is.

Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be called God's children; and that is what we are.
Because the world refused to acknowledge him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.

My dear people, we are already the children of God
but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed;
all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is. Surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself,
must try to be as pure as Christ.

The Word of the Lord              Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation          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 holy Gospel according to Matthew  5:1-12     Glory to you, O Lord.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples.
Then he began to speak, this is what he taught them:
How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.

Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

'Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven;
this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.'

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

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Gospel Reflection        November  1       Feast of All Saints         Matthew 5:1-12

The feast of All Saints begins the month of November. It is a month when we remember in a special way our loved ones who have died. Whenever we have a brush with death, either because of some serious illness in ourselves or because of the death of a loved one, important questions are often raised for us. We may find ourselves asking,
What is beyond this earthly life?’ ‘What is our ultimate destination?’,
‘What is the path that leads to this final goal of our journey?’
‘In what way should our ultimate destination impact on the way I live my life here and now?’
This feast of All Saints invites us to engage with these questions.

The ‘Saints’ referred to in the title of today’s feast are all those women and men who have reached that ultimate goal of eternal life for which God has created us. They are those who have lived in a way that was in keeping with that final destiny.

These ‘Saints’ are also those who are still with us in this earthly life and who are now living in the way that leads to life eternal. In that sense, the group we call ‘all Saints’ embraces both those who are with God in heaven, the ‘huge number’ spoken of in the first reading, and people who are all around us now. All three of the readings for this feast speak of our ultimate destiny in different ways. Saint John in the second reading declares, ‘what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed’. In other words, there is a necessary ‘not knowing’ when it comes to life beyond this earthly life. Saint Paul is of this same view. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he writes, ‘no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9). Yet, this healthy agnosticism about life beyond this earthly life does not stop the writers of the New Testament from speaking about it.

In that second reading, having declared what we 'don’t' know about this life beyond earthly life, Saint John states what we do know, ‘all we know is, that… we shall be like God, for we shall see him as he really is’. Elsewhere in his letter, Saint John tells us who God really is. In one of the most profound statements about God, he declares ‘God is Love’. Beyond this earthly life, according to Saint John, we shall see God as Love. The verb ‘to see’ there is obviously being used in a different way to how we see in our earthly, physical body. When the writers of the New Testament speak about what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, they have to use language drawn from this earthly life, as it is the only language they have. Saint John is expressing his conviction that beyond this earthly life, we will come to experience God as Love.

It will be an encounter with Love at its most complete. Furthermore, John declares, this encounter with God as Love will have a transforming effect on us. ‘We shall be like God, because we shall see him as he is’. There is a sense in which, even in this earthly life, we become what we observe. Saint John is suggesting that in seeing God as Love beyond this earthly life, we will become loving in the way God is loving. It could be said that our ultimate destiny is to become fully alive with the life of God, which is a life of Love.



If that is our ultimate destiny, then the path to that destiny is to grow more and more into the loving person we are destined to become. Such growth in love is not just 'our' work. It is ultimately God’s work in our lives, the work of the Holy Spirit, with which we co-operate. At the beginning of that second reading, Saint John calls on us to ‘think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children’. As we think of God the Father’s lavish love for us, as we open our hearts to that love, we are empowered to become more loving, more alive with God’s life of love, the life of the Spirit. The beatitudes which Jesus speaks in the gospel reading are his portrait of this loving person, the disciple who is on the way to becoming as loving as God. Such a person will have something of the gentleness of Christ, will reflect his merciful love to others, will mourn over our broken world and will work to bring God’s justice and peace to that world, even if it means being persecuted in the process. Such a person will do all this out of a poverty of spirit and a purity of heart, recognizing their dependence on God for everything, and seeking God’s glory in all things rather than their own glory. This is Jesus’ portrait of the living saint.

We might recognize such saints among us; we might even occasionally catch a glimpse of such a one when we look into the mirror! To those who are seeking to grow into this portrait of the saint, Jesus promises the gift of the kingdom of heaven, which he variously describes in those beatitudes as being comforted, being satisfied, experiencing God’s mercy and seeing God.

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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 , c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Feast of the Day: November 1; All Saints of the World

Today is the  'Solemnity of All Saints' or 'All Saint's Day'.  It commemorates all those who have gone before us and are now with God in heaven. 'The ultimate object of veneration of the Saints is the glory of God and the sanctification of people by conforming their lives fully to the divine will and by imitating the virtues of those who were pre-eminently disciples of the Lord.' ....(Directory on Popular piety and the Liturgy, n. 212. ,)

Patrick Duffy
The Solemnity of All Saints is probably of Eastern origin. In the early centuries Christians celebrated the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the early fourth century, following the persecution of Diocletian, martyrs became so many that a separate day could not be assigned to each and the Church assigned a common day for all, celebrated in the East on the first Sunday after Pentecost: there are homilies for this feast by St Ephrem the Syrian (373) and St John Chrysostom (407).

Developments in Rome
In the West the Byzantine Emperor Phocas (602-610) handed over to Pope Boniface IV (608-615) the Pantheon in Rome, originally built as a temple to all the Roman gods. On 13 May 610, Pope Boniface dedicated it as a church to St Mary and all the martyrs. But the anniversary was fixed for 1st November by Pope Gregory III (731-741) who consecrated a chapel to all the saints in St Peter's Basilica.

In Ireland and England
The 9th century Irish Martyrology of Aengus (828-833) has a feast for All Saints on 1 November. The feast became known in England and Ireland as All Hallows, from which we get Hallowe'en (the evening before All Hallows Day). It also took on some of the characteristics of the Celtic feast of Samhain. (c/f  Féile na Samhna: an bhunchiall.)

Who is Included?
The scope of the feast includes all those officially recognised as saints,
and those whose cause for canonisation has not yet been completed.
It  includes those whose holy lives were known only to their family, friends or religious communities.
Chapter V of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium of Vatican II is entitled "The Call to Holiness" and insists that the "(LG 40).  All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love." 

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Fr Martin Hogan writes  this reflection of the day  in The Word of God is Living and Active published by Messenger Publications, www.messenger.ie/bookshop/


A lot of people do not like large gatherings. They find big crowds exhausting. Today’s feast, however, is precisely about crowds of people. The first reading expresses it well, ‘a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language’. Today is the feast not just of a few chosen saints, but of all saints. Today we honour all the saints, those who are formally canonised and those who are not.

If our vision of humanity is shaped exclusively by the media we might be tempted to think that there are a lot more villains out there than saints. It is reassuring to be reminded by today’s feast that there exists a huge number of saints, impossible to count. In the words of the letter to the Hebrews, we are surrounded by a ‘great cloud of witnesses’. None of us can live as the Lord wants us to live purely on our own. We need the good example of others to inspire us and to show us what is possible.

Today’s feast declares that we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, if only we could recognise them. Some of these people have already passed beyond us and are now ‘standing in front of the throne of the Lamb’, in the words of today’s first reading. Many of them, however, are our companions on the journey of life. They do not look at all like the statues in our churches. They are very ordinary, yet they are also very special. These are the people we are grateful to have met and to have around.



The feast of All Saints encourages us to believe that any one of us could be part of that huge number, impossible to count. In that sense, today’s feast is about every one of us. John, in today’s second reading, is speaking about all of us when he declares that ‘We are already the children of God’, and that, in the future, ‘we shall be like’ God. We are all destined for sainthood. God intends that all of us would be conformed to the image of God’s Son. For most of us, that will only come to pass fully beyond this life. Yet, because we are already sons and daughters of God through Baptism, we are called to grow now towards that wonderful transformation that awaits us.

The road to sainthood begins here, wherever we happen to find ourselves.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus shows us what that road to sainthood looks like.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus painted a portrait of himself, the living saint par excellence. He was also painting a portrait of the person that we are all called to become. The Beatitudes give us different facets of the person of Jesus, while at the same time showing us different ways in which we might reflect the person of Jesus.

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Memorable Saying for Today

“We are all called to live our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do.
 “Do not be afraid of this holiness.
It will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy.” - Rather it will add to them.

~ unknown author ~

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