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Home / 2017 / October
  • Weekday Homily Resources

    31 October. Tuesday, Week 30

    Bl. Dominic Collins, martyr (opt. mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 8:18-25 The future we hope for is already within us, like a seed waiting to flower I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for…

    Read More 31 October. Tuesday, Week 30Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    30 October. Monday, Week 30

    1st Reading: Romans 8:12-17 In the Spirit, we are God’s children; he is our “Abba, Father” My brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds…

    Read More 30 October. Monday, Week 30Continue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 29 October 2017 (Ordinary Time 30)

    There’s a reminder of the two great commandments in today’s celebration: we are called to love God and our neighbour: friend, visitor and stranger alike.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 29 October 2017 (Ordinary Time 30)Continue

  • Sunday Homily Resources

    29 October. 30th Sunday in OT

    Saint Colman, bishop To love our neighbour as God does, prejudices of race, religion and colour have to go. The Torah urges fairness towards others as a principle deeper than specific laws. Jesus shows a life of utterly unselfish loving, inviting us to that quality of life. For Saint Paul, the imitation of Christ is…

    Read More 29 October. 30th Sunday in OTContinue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    28 Oct. Ss Simon and Jude, Apostles (Feast)

    1st Reading: Ephesians 2:19-22 God has appointed apostles so that his people’s needs will be served You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In…

    Read More 28 Oct. Ss Simon and Jude, Apostles (Feast)Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    27 October. Friday, Week 29

    Saint Otteran, monk (opt. mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 7:18-25 Who can free me from my moral crisis? Only God, through Jesus Christ I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want,…

    Read More 27 October. Friday, Week 29Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    26 October. Thursday, Week 29

    1st Reading: Romans 6:19-23 Freed from sin and now serving God, and destined for eternal life If I may speak in human terms because of your natural limitations, just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for…

    Read More 26 October. Thursday, Week 29Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    25 October. Wednesday, Week 29

    Blessed Thaddaeus McCarthy (opt. mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 6:12-18 Be obedient to God and you will come from death to life Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those…

    Read More 25 October. Wednesday, Week 29Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    24 October. Tuesday, Week 29

    Saint Anthony Mary Claret, bishop (opt. mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 5:12, 17-21 Through Adam, sin and death came to us all; through Jesus Christ, grace far surpasses all sin Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned. But…

    Read More 24 October. Tuesday, Week 29Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    23 October. Monday, Week 29

    Saint John of Capistrano, priest (opt. mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 4:20-25 Like Abraham, our faith will be credited to us by God No distrust made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what…

    Read More 23 October. Monday, Week 29Continue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for Mission Sunday, 22 October (Ordinary Time 29)

    As God’s family in this place, we gather to worship. God is our king, we heed his Word and share the Bread of Life.

    Read More Presider’s Page for Mission Sunday, 22 October (Ordinary Time 29)Continue

  • Sunday Homily Resources

    22 October. 29th Sunday in OT

    Saint John Paul II, Pope We live in a very challenging pluralist world. Only the grace of God and the depth of our convictions can help faith to thrive in our society. But throughout history faith has survived in some dire circumstances. It was never totally easy to serve God. 1st Reading: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6…

    Read More 22 October. 29th Sunday in OTContinue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    21 October. Saturday, Week 28

    Option: Saturday Mass of the BVM 1st Reading: Romans 4:13, 16-18 Hoping against hope, Abraham became the father of many nations, believing in the life-giving power of God The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For…

    Read More 21 October. Saturday, Week 28Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    20 October. Friday, Week 28

    1st Reading: Romans 4:1-8 Faith is credited as justifying us. It is how Abraham was justified What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?…

    Read More 20 October. Friday, Week 28Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    19 October. Thursday, Week 28

    Saint Paul of the Cross, priest (opt mem.); Saints John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests, martyrs (opt mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 3:21-30 All have sinned, but are freely justified by faith in Jesus Christ But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the…

    Read More 19 October. Thursday, Week 28Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    18 October. St Luke, Evangelist (Feast)

    First Reading: 2 Timothy 4:10-17 Only Luke is with Paul, in his final imprisonment Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him…

    Read More 18 October. St Luke, Evangelist (Feast)Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    17 October. Tuesday, Week 28

    Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (Memorial) 1st Reading: Romans 1:16-25 Refusal to worship the true God leads to immorality I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness…

    Read More 17 October. Tuesday, Week 28Continue

  • Weekday Homily Resources

    16 October. Monday, Week 28

    Saint Hedwig (opt mem.); Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (opt mem.); Saint Gall (opt mem.) 1st Reading: Romans 1:1-7 Jesus, son of David is known as Son of God by the resurrection From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through…

    Read More 16 October. Monday, Week 28Continue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 15 October (Ordinary Time 28)

    We gather as fellow-pilgrims at this Sunday’s Eucharist, all journeying to the great banquet of heaven. In our Communion today, we get a taste of what is to come.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 15 October (Ordinary Time 28)Continue

  • Sunday Homily Resources

    15 October. 28th Sunday in OT

    St Teresa of Avila, virgin and doctor of the Church By baptism we are called to salvation, to take our place in the kingdom of God. Somehow, we must wear a wedding garment, so as to take our assigned seat at the wedding feast. Our eucharist recalls our invitation and prompts reflection on how we…

    Read More 15 October. 28th Sunday in OTContinue

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  • 4 comments

    Julieann Moran: Synodal Pathway Update

    December 17 2025
    Soline Humbert
    About the Women's issue: I notice in the video that the interviewer, Wendy Grace, dismisses the present reality of inequality in the church (12'12"): "The church is the one place I felt the most gender equality". Issue? What issue? This is worrying in the light of the recent Vatican Commission's report on women deacons with its appalling theology and anthropology. Brendan Hoban has called it "a kick in the teeth for Catholic women", as the well battered can of equality is being kicked down the synodal path. There is no true synodality without the radical Gospel equality of women. A few crumbs and a thin icing of equality on top of the patriarchal cake will not substitute for the Bread of Life and will not feed the people. https://www.westernpeople.ie/opinion/another-kick-in-the-teeth-for-catholic-women_arid-80080.html
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  • 17 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill – Jaja’s Question: A Blasphemous Theology?

    December 9 2025
    Sean O'Conaill
    In 2004 in London at Heythrop College I heard René Girard admit that his contention in "Things Hidden" (1978) that the crucifixion of Jesus was not a sacrifice was his 'greatest mistake'. Schwager was, I believe, the one who persuaded him of this. And yet we need to see that for Pilate, Herod and Caiaphas the crucifixion was not a ritual sacrifice either. It was a political solution to a political problem, the releasing of communal tension in the elimination of the challenge posed by Jesus, especially in his provocative behaviour re buying and selling in the Temple. For Girard this was scapegoating, an archetypal example of an archaic pattern of response to cultural crisis. For Schwager it was also, for Jesus, the setting for the institution of a new Covenant and the culmination of the evolution of archaic religious sacrifice from an evasive victimisation of someone else (or of some other creature) into non-violent self-giving. He persuaded Girard to this perspective - to me a consoling proof that academic disagreement need not always deteriorate into endless rivalry. Girard's belief that archaic ritual religious sacrifice evolved out of this kind of unrehearsed scapegoating is also dramatically supported by that one story, but of course this is not conclusive on its own. Is Ireland seeing more violence - e.g. against incomers - BECAUSE far fewer 'go to Mass'? We obviously need to sit together, synodally, to discuss what 'going to Mass' really means. Those who have put themselves out to welcome refugees are 'making sacrifice' also - and 'making peace' - but do homilists notice and point to this as an example of the essential priestly offering of the laity, to be brought to the altar with the other Offertory gifts? Time for all of us to be fully 'mindful'?
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  • 17 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill – Jaja’s Question: A Blasphemous Theology?

    December 9 2025
    Joe O'Leary
    I was not aware that Schwager (himself influenced by his compatriot von Balthasar) was an influence on Girard rather than merely a disciple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymund_Schwager Their correspondence (published) begins in 1974 and Schwager's book "Must There be Scapegoats?" was published in German in 1978. That was also the year of Girard's "Des choses cachees depuis la fondation du monde" in which Girard is interviewed by two eager disciples (perhaps enacting mimetic rivalry) and sees Christ as ending the regime of sacrifice. I met Girard at that time thanks to Richard Kearney and queried his dismissive attitude to the notion of sacrifice. (We also chatted about Proust, since I had visited Illiers-Combray that day, and we agreed that it spoils the novel to do so.) I wrote a brief piece on "The Riddle of Sacrifice" in The Crane Bag, vol. 3, 1979, in which I noted with bemusement that the Council of Trent was unable to give a definition of "sacrifice" (unfortunately a typo had me saying the opposite!) Later I taught Girard's famous book, "Violence and the Sacred," published in French in 1972. It's essayistic and somewhat flimsy, like another famous French book I also taught, Denis de Rougemont's "L'amour et l'occident" (1939). Girard began as a brilliant literary critic, and his mimetic theory was conceived in his study of Proust and Stendhal, and this is both a strength and a weakness. Walter Burkert is a more straitlaced and solid scholar of the same themes (in Greek tragedy). Girard did not address theology in 1972 so his book of 1978 probably marks his flamboyant entry onto the theological stage, and I now see that this was probably under Schwager's influence, so it may be that Schwager is the true originator of the "Girardian" account of the sacrifice of Christ (as well as the one who prompted Girard to correct his 1978 views later). I haven't much appetite for von Balthasar's "Theodramatics" and I'm not sure if I could tackle Schwager either at this late stage.
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  • 17 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill – Jaja’s Question: A Blasphemous Theology?

    December 9 2025
    Sean O'Conaill
    Thanks, Joe. As for that theme of sacrifice, Raymund Schwager SJ persuaded Rene Girard that Jesus had brought the concept of sacrifice to a 180 turn away from priestly sacrifice of SOMEONE ELSE - e.g. Abraham's putative sacrifice of Isaac. As in the case of the widow's mite, the sacrifice that is pleasing to God, is the giving of ourselves, at some cost, for the sake of others - so we mustn't see in Jesus' sacrifice any lack of love on the part of God the Father. On the contrary, God is embodied in Jesus as the spirit of self-sacrifice, the only gateway to the future, and to Paradise. For Christian fundamentalism it is the violent shedding of Jesus blood by his enemies that constitutes the saving sacrifice. On the contrary it is only Jesus's utterly non-violent offering of himself - in opposition to violence - that was pleasing to God. How I wish that this obvious distinction was more often seen and emphasised. The clear implication of Jaja's protest in 'Purple Hibiscus' is that he had never heard that distinction being made in church or school, and that his anger arose from the violence of his own rigorous father, Papa Eugene - who saw no moral error in that violence either.
    Go To Comment
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