by L'équipe de publication | Aug 15, 2024 | Evangelium
Saint Stephen of Hungary
(969 – 1038)
Green/White
He was the son of a pagan father and a Christian mother. He worked hard for the conversion of his country to Christianity, setting up both episcopal sees and monasteries. He was crowned the first King of Hungary in 1001.
Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23
Look to your covenant, O Lord, and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever. Arise, O God, and defend your cause, and forget not the cries of those who seek you.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father; bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts, the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Ezekiel 16:1-15,60,63
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her filthy crimes. Say, “The Lord says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in cleansing water, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in napkins. No one leaned kindly over you to do anything like that for you. You were exposed in the open fields; you were as unloved as that on the day you were born. ‘“I saw you struggling in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live, and grow like the grass of the fields. You developed, you grew, you reached marriageable age. Your breasts and your hair both grew, but you were quite naked. Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread part of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I bound myself by oath, I made a covenant with you – it is the Lord who speaks – and you became mine. I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil. I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk. I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat. I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head. You were loaded with gold and silver, and dressed in fine linen and embroidered silks. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen. The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendour – it is the Lord who speaks. ‘“You have become infatuated with your own beauty; you have used your fame to make yourself a prostitute; you have offered your services to all comers. But I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were a girl, and I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever. And so remember and be covered with shame, and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I have pardoned you for all that you have done – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
Canticle : Isaiah 12
R/ Your anger has passed, O Lord, and you give me comfort.
Truly, God is my salvation, I trust, I shall not fear. For the Lord is my strength, my song, he became my saviour. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name! Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples! Declare the greatness of his name.
Sing a psalm to the Lord for he has done glorious deeds; make them known to all the earth! People of Zion, sing and shout for joy, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps110:7,8
Alleluia, alleluia! Your precepts, O Lord, are all of them sure; they stand firm for ever and ever. Alleluia!
Gospel : Matthew 19:3-12
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said, ‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’ They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?’ ‘It was because you were so unteachable’ he said ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’ The disciples said to him, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church, for in your mercy you have given them to be offered and by your power you transform them into the mystery of our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Ps 147: 12, 14
O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord, who gives you your fill of finest wheat.
Prayer after Communion
May the communion in your Sacrament that we have consumed, save us, O Lord, and confirm us in the light of your truth. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Jesus seeks to reaffirm the indissolubility of the sacred institution of Marriage. He establishes hardheartedness as the root cause of marital separation. Hardheartedness is the internal resistance to commune, so be in union with God. Therefore, marital separation is not just an outcome of external relational incompatibility. It manifests a deeper alienation from the Principal Author of Vocations. In the sacrament of Matrimony, God is the Principal Caller. He invites couples to respond to the call of perpetual commitment to one other. He then binds and recreates the two hearts into one flesh. The Perfect God empties Himself into their imperfections. He therefore refills, sanctifies and justifies them. There is a scarcity of marital unions rooted in sacrificial self-giving. We must return to Christ, who breaks himself to unite us. He sacrifices himself to heal the wounds of brokenness created by powerful forces of separation.
by L'équipe de publication | Aug 14, 2024 | Evangelium
The Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary
Solemnity
White
The commemoration of the death of the Blessed Virgin is known as the Assumption because of the tradition that her body did not decay but that she was raised up, body and soul, into heaven. The Apostolic Constitution “Munificentissimus Deus, 44” of Pius XII teaches that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Rev 12: 1
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant, we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10
The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake, and violent hail. Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne, while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready, for her to be looked after in the twelve hundred and sixty days. Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ, now that the persecutor, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down.’
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 44:10-12,16
R/ On your right stands the queen, in garments of gold.
The daughters of kings are among your loved ones. On your right stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words: forget your own people and your father’ house.
So will the king desire your beauty: He is your lord, pay homage to him. They are escorted amid gladness and joy; they pass within the palace of the king.
Second reading: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia! Mary has been taken up to heaven; all the choirs of angels are rejoicing. Alleluia!
Gospel : Luke 1:39-56
Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ And Mary said: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour; because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid. Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name, and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him. He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away. He has come to the help of Israel his servant mindful of his mercy – according to the promise he made to our ancestors – of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.
Prayer over the Offerings
May this oblation, our tribute of homage, rise up to you, O Lord, and, through the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, whom you assumed into heaven, may our hearts, aflame with the fire of love, constantly long for you. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Lk 1: 48-49
All generations will call me blessed, for he who is mighty has done great things for me.
Prayer after Communion
Having received the Sacrament of salvation, we ask you to grant, O Lord, that, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom you assumed into heaven, we may be brought to the glory of the resurrection. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
After a major surgical operation, a man asked why he freely donated one of his kidneys to his mother. He replied smiling, “Without her decision to bring me into this world, I would have never seen the light of the day.” Mothers are special. They carried us in their wombs for many months, nourished us as infants, and cared for us as we grew. Our Blessed Virgin Mother is not only full of grace (Lk 1: 28), but she is also the Mother of God. We can recall how she facilitated Christ’s first miracle at the Cana wedding (Jn 2: 1-12). More so, Christ loved her so that He had to put her in the care of His beloved Apostle St John (Jn 19:25-27). By the Assumption of Mary, the Churches teaches that she was glorified at the end of her earthly pilgrimage. She is our mother, and her heart is full of love and mercy for her children. Her glorious Assumption gives us hope that she had gone to intercede for us. It is our hope that one day we shall join her in heaven with her son.
by L'équipe de publication | Aug 13, 2024 | Evangelium
Saint Maximilian Kolbe,
Priest, Martyr (1894 – 1941)
Red
He was born on 8 January 1894 in occupied Poland: he joined the Franciscans in Lwów in 1910. In 1941 he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. A prisoner escaped, and in reprisal the authorities were choosing ten people to die by starvation. One of the men had a family, and Maximilian Kolbe offered to take his place. He died in the man’s place.
Entrance Antiphon: Mt 25: 34, 40
Come, you blessed of my Father, says the Lord. Amen I say to you: Whatever you did for one of the least of my brethren, you did it for me.
Collect
O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr Saint Maximilian Kolbe with a burning love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary and with zeal for souls and love of neighbour, graciously grant, through his intercession, that, striving for your glory by eagerly serving others, we may be conformed, even until death, to your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: Ezekiel 9:1-7,10:18-22
As I, Ezekiel, listened, God shouted, ‘Come here, you scourges of the city, and bring your weapons of destruction.’ Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. In the middle of them was a man in white, with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar. The glory of the God of Israel rose off the cherubs where it had been and went up to the threshold of the Temple. He called the man in white with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt and said, ‘Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who deplore and disapprove of all the filth practised in it.’ I heard him say to the others, ‘Follow him through the city, and strike. Show neither pity nor mercy; old men, young men, virgins, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.’ So they began with the old men in front of the Temple. He said to them, ‘Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses, and go.’ They went out and hacked their way through the city. The glory of the Lord came out from the Temple threshold and paused over the cherubs. The cherubs spread their wings and rose from the ground to leave, and as I watched the wheels rose with them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. This was the creature that I had seen supporting the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I was now certain that these were cherubs. Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings. Their faces were just as I had seen them beside the river Chebar. Each moved straight forward.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
112(113):1-6
R/ Above the heavens is the glory of the Lord.
Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! May the name of the Lord be blessed both now and for evermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting praised be the name of the Lord! High above all nations is the Lord, above the heavens his glory.
Who is like the Lord, our God, who has risen on high to his throne yet stoops from the heights to look down, to look down upon heaven and earth?
Gospel Acclamation: Ps110:7,8
Alleluia, alleluia! Your precepts, O Lord, are all of them sure; they stand firm for ever and ever. Alleluia!
Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector. ‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven. ‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’
Prayer over the Offerings
We present our oblations to you, O Lord, humbly praying that we may learn from the example of Saint Maximilian to offer our very lives to you. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Cf. Jn 15: 13
Greater love has no one than to lay down his life for his friends, says the Lord.
Prayer after Communion
We pray, O Lord, that, renewed by the Body and Blood of your Son, we may be inflamed with the same fire of charity that Saint Maximilian received from this holy banquet. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
“Treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.” It would be tempting to quickly tap into the hatred that the Jews held against the Gentiles and Tax collectors. But how did Jesus himself treat the Gentiles and the tax collectors? Forgiveness flows from God’s identity as loving and compassionate. Thus, forgiveness is a God-given gift. Jesus offers several pathways towards reconciliation, and forgiveness is indispensable. When Jesus met Matthew, the tax collector, he invited him to follow him. When Jesus met Zacchaeus, the tax collector, he asked for an encounter in Zacchaeus’s house where remorse, repentance, reparation and change happened. A Heart that persists on the pathway of forgiveness encounters a Kairos moment when an offender yearns for forgiveness. Too many families, homes, institutions, and nations suffer division because people do not walk on the path of forgiveness.
by L'équipe de publication | Aug 12, 2024 | Evangelium
Saint Fachtna or Fachanan of Ross
Green/Red
He is patron saint of the diocese of Ross, of which he was probably the first bishop. He established the monastic school of Ross, at what is now Rosscarbery, in county Cork, one of the most famous schools of Ireland, which flourished for three hundred years.
Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23
Look to your covenant, O Lord, and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever. Arise, O God, and defend your cause, and forget not the cries of those who seek you.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father; bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts, the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Ezekiel 2:8-3:4
I, Ezekiel, heard a voice speaking. It said, ‘You, son of man, listen to the words I say; do not be a rebel like that rebellious set. Open your mouth and eat what I am about to give you.’ I looked. A hand was there, stretching out to me and holding a scroll. He unrolled it in front of me; it was written on back and front; on it was written ‘lamentations, wailings, meanings.’ He said, ‘Son of man, eat what is given to you; eat this scroll, then go and speak to the House of Israel.’ I opened my mouth; he gave me the scroll to eat and said, ‘Son of man, feed and be satisfied by the scroll I am giving you.’ I ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey. Then he said, ‘Son of man, go to the House of Israel and tell them what I have said.’
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:14,24,72,103,111,131
R/ Your promise is sweet to my taste, O Lord.
I rejoiced to do your will as though all riches were mine. Your will is my delight; your statutes are my counsellors.
The law from your mouth means more to me than silver and gold. Your promise is sweeter to my taste than honey in the mouth.
Your will is my heritage for ever, the joy of my heart. I open my mouth and I sigh as I yearn for your commands.
Gospel Acclamation : Mt11:25
Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children. Alleluia!
Gospel : Matthew 18:1-5,10,12-14
The disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. Then he said, ‘I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ‘Anyone who welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven. ‘Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray? I tell you solemnly, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all. Similarly, it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church, for in your mercy, you have given them to be offered and by your power you transform them into the mystery of our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Ps 147: 12, 14
O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord, who gives you your fill of finest wheat.
Prayer after Communion
May the communion in your Sacrament that we have consumed, save us, O Lord, and confirm us in the light of your truth. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
The disciples were preoccupied with social status as an indicator of greatness. Jesus, on the other hand, presents humility as the marker of greatness. We live in a period dominated by slogans of ‘Me First’. Through Humility, Jesus highlights the transformative power of placing ‘Others First’. Humility enables us to count ourselves as unworthy, not because we have nothing to offer but because we stand in awe of God’s great privileges. We appreciate how blessed we are to call God, Abba-Father, and so become His children. As God’s children, we acknowledge our vulnerability and total dependency on Him. We, therefore, develop a deep sense of empathy and an inner disposition to accommodate and place others first. Humility helps us to recognize that although we could be intellectually gifted, there is still much more that we don’t know. Further still, we could be morally strong now but still very vulnerable to moral pitfalls in the future. We must avail ourselves of our presence and resources in uplifting others into greatness.
by L'équipe de publication | Aug 11, 2024 | Evangelium
Blessed Isidore Bakanja
(c.1886 – 1909)
Green/Red/White
He was born in Bokendela in Congo around 1886 and baptied on 6 May 1906 after receiving instruction from Trappists missionaries. Rosary in hand, he used any chance to share his faith; though untrained, many considered him as a catechist. He worked as a domestic on a Belgian rubber plantation. He was ordered to stop teaching fellow workers how to pray: “You’ll have the whole village praying, and no one will work!” He was chained and beaten to death for refusing to discard his Carmelite scapular. He died on August 15, 1909, forgiving his murderer with these words: “I shall pray for him. When I am in heaven, I shall pray for him very much.”
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23
Look to your covenant, O Lord, and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever. Arise, O God, and defend your cause, and forget not the cries of those who seek you.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Ezekiel 1:2-5,24-28
On the fifth of the month – it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin – the word of the Lord was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldaeans, on the bank of the river Chebar. There the hand of the Lord came on me. I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with light around it, a fire from which flashes of lightning darted, and in the centre a sheen like bronze at the heart of the fire. In the centre I saw what seemed four animals. I heard the noise of their wings as they moved; it sounded like rushing water, like the voice of Shaddai, a noise like a storm, like the noise of a camp; when they halted, they folded their wings, and there was a noise. Above the vault over their heads was something that looked like a sapphire; it was shaped like a throne and high up on this throne was a being that looked like a man. I saw him shine like bronze, and close to and all around him from what seemed his loins upwards was what looked like fire; and from what seemed his loins downwards I saw what looked like fire, and a light all round like a bow in the clouds on rainy days; that is how the surrounding light appeared. It was something that looked like the glory of the Lord. I looked, and prostrated myself.
Responsorial Psalm : Psalm 148:1-2,11-14
R/ Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host.
All earth’s kings and peoples, earth’s princes and rulers, young men and maidens, old men together with children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord for healone is exalted. The splendour of his name reaches beyond heaven and earth.
He exalts the strength of his people. He is the praise of all his saints, of the sons of Israel, of the people to whom he comes close.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps147:12,15
Alleluia, alleluia! O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! He sends out his word to the earth. Alleluia!
Gospel : Matthew 17:22-27
One day when they were together in Galilee, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men; they will put him to death, and on the third day he will be raised to life again.’ And a great sadness came over them. When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel came to Peter and said, ‘Does your master not pay the half-shekel?’ ‘Oh yes’ he replied, and went into the house. But before he could speak, Jesus said, ‘Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from foreigners?’ And when he replied, ‘From foreigners’, Jesus said, ‘Well then, the sons are exempt. However, so as not to offend these people, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that bites, open its mouth and there you will find a shekel; take it and give it to them for me and for you.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church, for in your mercy you have given them to be offered and by your power you transform them into the mystery of our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Ps 147: 12, 14
O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord, who gives you your fill of finest wheat.
Prayer after Communion
May the communion in your Sacrament that we have consumed, save us, O Lord, and confirm us in the light of your truth. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Jesus pays a coin worth twice the temple tax, which the tax collectors demand. This was despite the temple being his Father’s house. The tax collectors were ignorant of how indebted they were through sin. No amount of tax coins could ever have paid for their sins. Yet Jesus sought to redeem them through the currency of his blood unconditionally. He thereby makes them not just subjects but co-heirs of the Kingdoms of God. Jesus was, therefore, neither a subject nor a foreigner but the King of kings. As the King and Highest of the priests, all other kings and temple high priests owed him the tax of unconditional obedience. Yet he chose to become everything to everyone to win people back to himself. He humbly accepts the position of a foreigner and subjects himself to an adulterated version of the temple law by paying double the temple tax. In a world whereby everybody is clamouring for their human rights, Jesus Christ forfeits his Heavenly rights to help us enjoy our human and heavenly rights. How much can we forfeit what we rightly deserve so that others can enjoy their human and heavenly rights?
by L'équipe de publication | Aug 10, 2024 | Evangelium
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 3
Saint Clare,
Saint philomena
Green
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23
Look to your covenant, O Lord, and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever. Arise, O God, and defend your cause, and forget not the cries of those who seek you.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8
Elijah went into the wilderness, a day’s journey, and sitting under a furze bush wished he were dead. ‘O Lord,’ he said ‘I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down and went to sleep. But an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked round, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. But the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank, and strengthened by that food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33(34):2-9
R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.
I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always on my lips; in the Lord my soul shall make its boast. The humble shall hear and be glad.
Glorify the Lord with me. Together let us praise his name. I sought the Lord and he answered me; from all my terrors he set me free.
Look towards him and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed. This poor man called, the Lord heard him and rescued him from all his distress.
The angel of the Lord is encamped around those who revere him, to rescue them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. He is happy who seeks refuge in him.
Second reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal for you to be set free when the day comes. Never have grudges against others, or lose your temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness. Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ. Try, then, to imitate God as children of his that he loves and follow Christ loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.
Gospel Acclamation:
Jn14:23
Alleluia, alleluia! If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Alleluia!
Gospel: John 6:41-51
The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus said in reply, ‘Stop complaining to each other. ‘No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father. I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life. ‘I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church, for in your mercy you have given them to be offered and by your power you transform them into the mystery of our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Ps 147: 12, 14
O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord, who gives you your fill of finest wheat.
Prayer after Communion
May the communion in your Sacrament that we have consumed, save us, O Lord, and confirm us in the light of your truth. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
God will always meet those who believe in him at their point of need. He will never abandon his children even in the darkest period of their lives as is the case with Elijah in the wilderness. Jesus affirms that salvation is only for those who believe in him and put his teaching in practice. He declares that he is the living bread which has come down from heaven. Christ, here, makes allusion to the Eucharist, which is his flesh, broken for the life of the world – the highest point of his love for mankind. Elijah received strength from the food the Angel of the Lord gave him and was encouraged by the words too. We, Christians, take Christ as the Son of God and we are strengthened when we receive Him at the Eucharist. This empowers us to face our daily challenges and energizes us as we journey on earth.
