Churches of the Day

Tuesday, Seventh Week of Easter

Through the Holy Spirit we are given confidence to call God "Father" and share in Christ's grace

Memorial of St Kevin, Kevin grew up in Kilnamanagh, a hermit in Glendalough, accepted disciples, made an abbot, died in 618.
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING  

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles         20:17-27
I am finishing my race and carrying out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me.

From Miletus Paul sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus. When they arrived he addressed these words to them:
'You know what my way of life has been ever since the first day I set foot among you in Asia, how I have served the Lord in all humility, with all the sorrows and trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I have not hesitated to do anything that would be helpful to you; I have preached to you, and instructed you both in public and in your homes, urging both Jews and Greeks to turn to God and to believe in our Lord Jesus.

'And now you see me a prisoner already in spirit; I am on my way to Jerusalem, but have no idea what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit, in town after town, has made it clear enough that imprisonment and persecution await me. But life to me is not a thing to waste words on, provided that when I finish my race I have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me - and that was to bear witness to the Good News of God's grace.

'I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will ever see my face again. And so here and now I swear that my conscience is clear as far as all of you are concerned, for I have without faltering put before you the whole of God's purpose.'

The Word of the Lord.           Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm         Ps 67
Response                              Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God.
Or                                            Alleluia!

1. You poured down, O God, a generous rain: when your people were starved you gave them new life.
It was there that your people found a home, prepared in your goodness, O God, for the poor.    Response

2. May the Lord be blessed day after day. He bears our burdens, God our saviour.
This God of ours is a God who saves. The Lord our God holds the keys of death.                            Response

Gospel Acclamation       Jn 14 : 18
Alleluia, Alleluia!
I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord;
I go, but I will come back to you, and your hearts will be full of joy.
Alleluia!

or                                          Jn 14: 16
Alleluia, Alleluia!
I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                    And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John  17:1-11           Glory to you, O Lord
'Father,  glorify your Son.'

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:
'Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you;
and, through the power over all mankind that you have given him,
let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.
And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
I have glorified you on earth and finished the work that you gave me to do.

Now, Father, it is time for you to glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world was. I have made your name known to the men you took from the world to give me.
They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now at last they know that all you have given me comes indeed from you;
for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have truly accepted this,
that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me.

I pray for them; I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me,
because they belong to you: all I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified. I am not in the world any longer, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

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





Gospel Reflection,       Tuesday,                    Seventh Week of Easter,                 John 17:1-11

I visited a church recently not too far from our parish church and I was struck by the fact that there were no shrines in the church with candles lighting in front of them. I was comparing it to our own parish church which has several shrines with candle stands before them. Whenever I enter our church there are always candles lighting at the shrines. When I see those candles lighting, I always think that each candle represents someone’s prayer. Someone has lit a candle, either for themselves or for others. The candles lighting at our shrines are symbols of people’s intercessory prayer or prayer of petition. One of the great services of love we render one another is to pray for one another. Jesus was the most loving person who ever lived, and one of the ways he expressed his love for others was by praying for them.

This is what we find Jesus doing in today’s gospel reading. On the night of the last supper, he prays for his disciples, for those who are gathered with him. As he leaves the world to go to his heavenly Father, he turns to his Father in prayer and says,
‘I pray for them, for those you have given me… I am not in the world any longer, but they are in the world’.
The disciples there stand in for us all. The Lord was praying for us all, in the awareness that the world of unbelief can be as hostile to us as it was to him. The early church believed that the risen Lord continues to pray for his disciples. Saint Paul refers to the risen Lord as one ‘who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us’.
It gives us a lift when people say they are praying for us.
It is all the more encouraging to know that the risen Lord is praying for us.

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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 : Your word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications , c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Saint of the Day June 3 :  St Kevin, Glendalough

Summary: St Kevin, abbot,  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. He died in 618 AD

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

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

Patrick Duffy tells his story.

Dates of his Life
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 fifth century.)

Sources
The sources for his story are the Codex Kilkenniensis which can be viewed 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. (Probably this story indicates 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. Soon after this 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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- Vigil and Feast of Pentecost  -

Saturday Vigil Mass of Pentecost Year C
 (Any one of the following readings from the Old Testament may be chosen)

FIRST READING      

1
A reading from the Book of Genesis   11:1-9
It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth.


Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another,
'Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.' - For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen. -
'Come,' they said. 'let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.'

Now the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built.
'So they are all a single people with a single language!' said the Lord.
'This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do, come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.'
The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.

Alternative First Readings 


2

A reading from the Book of  Exodus    19: 3-8. 16-20
The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai before all the people


Moses 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."
Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of lsrael.'
So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, 'All that the Lord has said, we will do.'

Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.

3

A reading from the Book of Ezekiel      37:1-14
Dry bones, I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live.


The hand of the Lord was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?'
I said, 'You know, Lord.'
He said,
'Prophesy over these bones. Say, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the Lord."'

I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them.
He said to me,
'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, The Lord says this:
Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!"'
I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.

Then he said,
'Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, "Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead." So prophesy. Say to them, "The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel.  And you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, The Lord, have said and done this - it is the Lord who speaks."'

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.

4

 A reading from the Book of Joel     3:1-5
Theme: I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.


Thus says the Lord:
'I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men see visions.
Even on the slaves, men and women, will I pour out my spirit in those days.
I will display portents in heaven and on earth., blood and fire,  and columns of smoke.'

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before the day of the Lord dawns, that great and terrible day.
All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved,
for on Mount Zion there will be some who have escaped, as the Lord has said,
and in Jerusalem some survivors whom the Lord will call.

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.
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Responsorial Psalm        Ps 103: 1-2, 24, 27-30, 35 R/v v. 30
Response                             Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or                                          Alleluia!

1. Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are,
clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in light as in a robe!                                                Response                   

2. How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your riches. Bless the Lord, my soul.                                                      Response                   

3. All of these look to you to give them their food in due season.
You give it, they gather it up: you open your hand, they have their fill                             Response

4. You take back your spirit, they die, returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.         Response    

SECOND READING       

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans         8:22-27
The Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words.

From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved - our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were - but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet - it is something we must wait for with patience.

The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL                      

The Lord be with you                        And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John    7:37-39
From his breast shall flow fountains of living water.


On the last day and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood there and cried out:
'If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who believes in me!'

As scripture says: From his breast shall flow fountains of living water.
He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified. 

Pentecost Sunday Year C

FIRST READING

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles         2:1-11
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak.

When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished.
'Surely' they said 'all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome- Jews and proselytes alike-Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.'

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God

Responsorial  Psalm        Ps 103
Response                               Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
Or                                           Alleluia.
1. Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are,
How many are your works, 0 Lord! The earth is full of your riches.                           Response

2. You take back your spirit, they die, returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.  Response

3. May the glory of the Lord last for ever! May the Lord rejoice in his works!
May my thoughts be pleasing to him. I find my joy in the Lord.                                  Response
SECOND READING     

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Romans         8:8-17
Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God .

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.

Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, 'Abba, Father!' The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.

SEQUENCE

Holy Spirit, Lord of light,
From the clear celestial height
Thy pure beaming radiance give.

Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come with treasures which endure;
Come, thou light of all that live!

Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul's delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace bestow;

Thou in toil art comfort sweet;
Pleasant coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill:

If thou take thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay;
All his good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on us who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
With thy sevenfold gifts descend:

Give us comfort when we die;
Give us life with thee on high;
Give us joys that never end.

Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.          And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John     14:15-16, 23-26        Glory to you, O Lord
The Holy Spirit will teach you everything.

Jesus said to his disciples
'If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever,

'If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him and make our home with him.
Those who do not love me do not keep my words.
And my word is not my own: it is the word of the one who sent me.

'I have said these things to you while still with you;
but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.'

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, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.