09 July 2024 – Tuesday of Week 14 Optional Memorial: Ss Augustine Zhao Rong, priest, and his Companions, martyrs. Born 1746, ordained and martyred in 1815. Memorial also commemorates 119 companions, martyred in China over several centuries, especially during the Boxer Uprising. 1st Reading: Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13 As penalty for their sins, they shall return…
08 July 2024 – Monday of Week 14 Optional Memorial: St Kilian, bishop and martyr, born in Mullagh (Kilmore). Left Ireland with 11 companions and became known as the Apostle of Thuringia and eastern Franconia. Martyred in 689 with Kolonot and Totnan. Buried in Würzburg. 1st Reading: Hosea 2:16-18, 21-22 Israel will again show loving…
07 July 2024 – 14th Sunday (Year B) (1) Ezekiel 2:2-5 God sends Ezekiel to call the people to repentance The spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said: “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels…
06 July 2024 – Saturday of Week 13 Optional Memorials: St Maria Goretti, 1890-1902, stabbed to death in defence of her virtue. St Moninne of Killeavy founded a community at Sliabh Gullion, Armagh, died c 517/8. 1st Reading: Amos 9:11-15 The Davidic dynasty will be restored, and the land will be blessed with fertility On that…
05 July 2024 – Friday of Week 13 Optional Memorial: St Anthony Zaccaria, 1502-39, a medical doctor before he was ordained; founded the Barnabites. 1st Reading: Amos 8:4-6, 9-12 If glaring injustices remain unchecked, a famine for meaning will blight our lives Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the…
04 July 2024 – Thursday of Week 13 Optional Memorial: St Elizabeth of Portugal, 1271-1336 of the House of Aragon, unhappily married to the King of Portugal, widowed, then live din poverty as a Franciscan tertiary. 1st Reading: Amos 7:10-17 Expelled from the Bethel sanctuary, Amos announces God’s Word Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel,…
03 July 2024 Wednesday – St Thomas, Apostle (Feast) First reading Ephesians 2:19-22 In Christ you are no longer aliens, but citizens like us You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and…
02 July 2024 – Tuesday of Week 13 1st Reading: Amos 3:1-8. 4:11-12 Amos warns of the need for conversion Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: You only have I known of all…
01 July 2024 – Monday of Week 13 Memorial: St Oliver Plunkett of Irish nobility, ordained in Rome 1654; AB Armagh 1669; arrested in 1679 in Dundalk, found guilty in London of ‘promoting the Catholic faith’; hanged, drawn and quartered in Tyburn, London on 1 July 1681. Beatified in 1920; canonised by Pope Paul VI…
30 June 2024 – 13th Sunday (Year B) (1) Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24 All that God does is wholesome, and he intends us to enjoy a blessed immortality God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative…
29 June 2024 – Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 1st Reading: Acts 2:1-11 Peter is imprisoned, but an angel sets him free to continue leading the church About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. After he…
28 June 2024 – Friday of Week 12 Memorial: St Iraneus, lived just after the Apostles. Bishop of Lyons in Gaul. More details: https://biblical.ie/page.php?fl=Patristic/Irenaeus_1 1st Reading: 2 Kings 25:1-12 After Jerusalem revolts again, the Babylonians destroy the city and deports the survivors And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth…
27 June 2024 – Thursday of Week 12 Optional Memorial: St Cyril of Alexandria, 370-444, patriarch of Alexandria, fought against Nestorianism (the independence of the divine and human natures of Christ) at the Council of Ephesus 431, which proclaimed Mary the Mother of God. 1st Reading: 2 Kings 24:8-17 The first deportation of the Jews…
26 June 2024 – Wednesday of Week 12 1st Reading: 2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3 When Deuteronomy is rediscovered in the temple, it leads to reform The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan,…
25 June 2024 – Tuesday of Week 12 1st Reading: 2 Kings 19:9-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36 The Assyrians attack Jerusalem; but Isaiah promises that a remnant will be saved When the king heard concerning King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, “See, he has set out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus…
24 June 2024 – Birth of Saint John the Baptist 1st Reading: Isaiah 49:1-6 The Lord called me before I was born; in my mother’s womb he named me Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s…
23 June 2024 – 12th Sunday (Year B) (1) Job 38:1, 8-11 Job’s pride is curbed by awe The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: “Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When…
Presider’s Page 7 July (Ordinary Time 14) Opening Comment As weak and sinful people, we gather to ask the Lord’s mercy. We know his grace is sufficient for us. Together, we praise and thank our God for the constant care we receive. Alternative Opening Prayer (from 1998 ICEL Missal) God of the prophets, in every age you…
Presider’s Page 30 June (Ordinary Time 13) Opening Comment As summer takes hold, we give thanks to God for all the gifts we enjoy. We rejoice in God’s saving power: death itself is in his hand and all the living depend on God alone. Alternative Opening Prayer (from 1998 ICEL Missal) God of the living, in whose image…
22 June 2024 – Saturday of Week 11 Optional Memorials: St Paulinus of Nola, bishop, 355-431; Ss John Fisher, bishop, 1469-1535 built Christ’s and St John’s Colleges, Cambridge as Vice-Chancellor. Bishop of Rochester, a lover of truth and Thomas More, martyrs, 1478-1535, the first commoner to be Lord Chancellor of England, martyred under Henry V111. Patron lawyers and…
