Churches of the Day

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

 Jesus' message of holiness which he preached and modelled is  meant for all his disciples to follow.

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of  Deuteronomy     26:16-19 
You will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.

Moses said to the people: 'The Lord your God today commands you to observe these laws and customs;
you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

'You have today made this declaration about the Lord; that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to his voice.

And the Lord has today made this declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as he promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.'

The Word of the Lord.                   Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm                  Ps 118: 1-2, 4-5, 7-8 R/ v. 1
Response                                     They are happy who follow God's law.

1. They are happy whose life is blameless, who follow God's law!
They are happy those who do his will, seeking him with all their hearts.     Response

2. You have laid down your precepts to be obeyed with care.
May my footsteps be firm to obey your statutes.                                                Response

3. I will thank you with an upright heart as I learn your decrees.
I will obey your statutes; do not forsake me.                                                     Response

Gospel Acclamation           Lk 8:1
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are those who, with a noble and generous heart, take the word of God
to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

Or                                              2 Cor 6:2
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Now is the favourable time;  this is the day of salvation.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

GOSPEL 

The Lord be with you.                            And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to  Matthew        5:43-48          Glory to you, O Lord
You must be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus said to his disciples:
'You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy.
But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike.

'For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not?

'You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'

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


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Gospel Reflection     Saturday,     First Week of Lent    Matthew 5:43-48

When we say of someone that they are a perfectionist, we probably mean that they like everything to be 'just right'. It is a complement, but it can also imply a slight criticism. We sometimes think of perfectionists as people who can be intolerant of those who don’t measure up to their high standards. We can be slightly anxious around them.

However, when Jesus says in the gospel reading that ‘your heavenly Father is perfect’, it is not with a view to making us anxious. On the contrary, to say God is perfect is to say that God is perfect in love. God loves us with a complete love, regardless of what we have done or failed to do. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, ‘he causes his sun to rise on bad people as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest people alike’. When the sun shines here in our parish, it shines on everyone, and when the rain falls it falls on everyone. The sun and the rain do not discriminate. Likewise, God’s love does not discriminate; it embraces all humanity.

There is no more or less in God’s love, because as Saint John says in one of his letters, ‘God is love’.
~ God loved us into life at our birth;
~ God’s love sustains us during our earthly lives;
~ God will love us into eternal life at the end of our earthly lives.
~ God’s gracious love is pure gift; it does not have to be earned or deserved. It is not a reward for a good life.
Rather, a good life flows from knowing in our hearts that we are loved unconditionally by God. If we open our hearts to God’s love, if we allow God to love us unconditionally, then we will begin to reflect something of God’s love to others. We will begin to love others in the same indiscriminate way that God loves us. We might even find ourselves loving those who have persecuted or harmed us in some way. At the very least, we might find ourselves praying for the grace to love them. When Jesus calls on us to be perfect as God is perfect, he is calling on us to be loving as God is loving. However, before we can love others as God loves them, we must first allow ourselves to be embraced by God’s perfect love.



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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 Second Sunday of Lent, Year A

Lent brings us into the heart of the Paschal Mystery. The selected disciples are brought to the mountain top where they are given a vision of a transfigured Jesus talking with prophets Moses and Elijah about his upcoming death and resurrection.

Saint of the Day: March 1st; St David, abbot and bishop, and patron saint of Wales,
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below todays' Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Book of Genesis 12:1-4
The call of Abraham, father of the people of God.

The Lord said to Abram,
'Leave your country, your family and your father's house, for the land I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.
 I will curse those who slight you.
'I will bless those who bless you:
All the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you.'

So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him.

The Word of the Lord              Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm          Ps 33: 4-5, 18-20. 22.R/v 22
Response                              May your love be upon us, O Lord,  as we place all our hope in you.

l. The word of the Lord is faithful and all his works to be trusted.
   The Lord loves justice and right and fills the earth with his love.        Response

2. The Lord looks on those who revere him, on those who hope in his love,
    to rescue their souls from death, to keep them alive in famine.          Response

3. Our soul is waiting for the Lord.  The Lord is our help and our shield,
    May your love be upon us, 0 Lord, as we place all our hope in you.   Response

SECOND READING

A reading from the second letter of St Paul to Timothy   1:8-10
 God calls and enlightens us.

With me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy - not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose and by his own grace.

This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the Appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus. He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News.

The Word of the Lord                            Thanks be to God.

Gospel  Acclamation                       Mt 17:5
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
From the bright cloud the Father's voice was heard '
This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen t0 him.'
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !

GOSPEL   

The Lord be with you.                        And with your spirit

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew        17:1-9
His face shone like the sun.

Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone. There in their presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him. Then Peter spoke to Jesus.
'Lord,' he said 'it is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'
He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and from the cloud there came a voice which said,
'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.'
When they heard this the disciples fell on their faces overcome with fear.
But Jesus came up and touched them. 'Stand up,' he said 'do not be afraid.'
And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but only Jesus.
As they came down from the mountain Jesus gave them this order.
"Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."

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

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For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here:  https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/



Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published 1966, by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.

Saint of the Day: March 1st; St David, abbot and bishop, and patron saint of Wales.

St David, abbot and bishop in the sixth century. He is reputed to have founded a number of monasteries, of strict regime.  

Patrick Duffy presents the traditions about David

St David is patron of Wales, where he was abbot and bishop. Several Irish saints were his pupils and he seemed to influenced monastic development in Ireland.

Accounts of David's life are scarce and based on oral tradition and a 'Life' written by Rhygyfarch (11th century bishop of St David's) at a time when the Norman bishop of Canterbury Lanfranc was trying to impose Roman dedications on churches in England and Wales. Rhygyfarch was keen to impress on the recently arrived leaders the importance of the Welsh saint and was not above a little exaggeration.

Family
The tradition is that David was born at Henvynyw (Vetus-Menevia) in Cardiganshire, and that his father was a prince called Sant who violated David's  mother, a nun. Norman bishop Rhygyfarch, who lived from 1057-1099 and wrote a 'Life of David' in Latin to impress the Normans, called him Sant 'holy' (sanctus by name and by merit). David is said to have been baptised by Ailbe, 'a bishop of the Munstermen', who is known to have been in Wales about that time.

At Monastic School 
David studied at the local monastic school and after he was ordained priest, he went to study under Paulinus of Wales near the Brecon Beacons. He remained with Paulinus for several years and is said to have cured him of blindness. Paulinus sent David out to make his own monastic foundations.

Rhygyfarch says David founded monasteries at Glastonbury, Bath and Leominster, but these are more likely to be Rhygyfarch's own claims to impress the Normans. But the one monastery we know he founded was that of Mynyw (Menevia) near his own birth place on the extreme south west of South Wales, facing Ireland, and now called St David's. David lived an austere life of prayer and fasting.

Strict Discipline
The monastery had a most austere regime. Instead of oxen to pull the plough, the monks had to pull their plough on their own shoulders. The diet was strict - consisting of bread, bitter herbs and salt with water or a little milk. David was called Aquaticus, because he drank only water and his monks became known as the Aquatici or "watermen". Finian of Clonard and Modhomhnoc (see 13th February) both spent time at his monastery.

Resolving Disputes
When the Pelagian heresy was being discussed at the Synod of Brevi (Llandewi Brefi in Cardiganshire), David was summoned to resolve the dispute. Shortly afterwards, in 569, he presided over another Synod held at a place called Lucus Victoriae.

The Holy Land and first bishop of Menevia
Rhygyfarch says David went to the Holy Land with two other Welsh monks Teilo and Padarn and that he was consecrated Archbishop of Wales by the patriarch of Jerusalem - probably another exaggeration! He was bishop (probably not archbishop) of Menevia, the Roman port of Menapia in Pembrokeshire, later known as St. David's, then the chief point of departure for Ireland. He died around 601 but he continued to be remembered in Ireland, and he is mentioned in the Martyrology of Oengus and in the Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland.

Diocese of Menevia
The cult of St. David was approved by Pope Callistus II in the year 1120 and two pilgrimages to St David's were 'declared' to be equal in merit to one pilgrimage to Rome. The Catholic diocese of that area of Wales is still called Menevia; the bishop currently lives in Swansea.

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Memorable Saying for Today

Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things
that you have heard and seen me do. '

~ Last words of David (Dewi Sant) of Wales ~

(The phrase 'Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd' -
'Do the little things in life' - is still a well-known maxim in Wales.)

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