11 Feb 2024 – 6th Sunday (Year B) (1) Leviticus (13:1-2, 44-46 Lepers had to live apart. Only if a priest pronounced a leper cured could he or she come back into normal life The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: “When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or…
10 Feb 2024 – Saturday of Week 5 Memorial: St Scholastica, died c 543, sister of St Benedict. Patron of convulsive children. 1st Reading: 1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34 Jeroboam, the rebel king of the north, provides his own sanctuaries and priests Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom may well revert to the house of…
09 Feb 2024 – Friday of Week 5 1st Reading: 1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19 The prophet Ahijah announces the breakup of David’s kingdom When Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah had clothed himself with a new garment. The two of them were alone in the open…
08 Feb 2024 – Thursday of Week 5 International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking. Optional Memorials: St Jerome Emiliani, d 1537, founder of The Clerks Regular of Somaschi for the care of orphans and the poor. Patron saint of orphans. St Josephine Bakhita, 1868-1947, native of Sudan, reared a slave in Italy,…
Presider’s Page for 11 February (Ordinary Time 6 / World Day of the Sick) ‘Whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God.’ The words are St Paul’s, from today’s second reading. We gather here to give glory to God, praying for the sick, marking the Day of Prayer for Temperance and…
07 Feb 2024 – Wednesday of Week 5 Optional Memorial: St Mel (Feast in Ardagh and Clonmacnoise), died in 488, like Patrick, a Briton who came to Ireland, with whom he worked until he was ordained in Ardagh. Gave the religious veil to St Brigid. (A Visit to the renovated St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford…
06 Feb 2024 – Tuesday of Week 5 Memorial: Ss Paul Miki and Companions martyred at Nagasaki, Japan in 1597. The six Franciscans, seventeen Franciscan Tertiaries and three jesuits died suspended on crosses. 1st Reading: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30 The temple dedication ends with a beautiful prayer Then Solomon stood before the altar of the…
05 Feb 2024 – Monday of Week 5 Memorial: St Agatha, third-century martyr from Catania in Sicily. Patron of Bell-founders. 1st Reading: 1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 A cloud of divine splendour fills the sanctuary of the new Temple Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of…
04 Feb 24 – 5th Sunday (Year B) (1) Job 7:1-4, 6-7 Job wrestles with the problem of innocent suffering Job said: “Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a labourer? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like labourers who…
03 Feb 2024 – Saturday of Week 4 Optional Memorials: St Ansgar, 9th century French born Archbishop of Hamburg who preached in Denmark and Sweden. Apostle of Scandinavia and Patron of Denmark. St Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste, martyred in Armenia in 315. A physician and patron of people who suffer from disease of…
02 Feb 2024 – The Presentation of Our Lord 1st Reading: Malachi 3:1-4 When God’s Messenger arrives, he will refine the people See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you…
Presider’s Page for 4 February (Ordinary Time 5) As we come together for worship, each of us brings worries, anxieties and fears. We gather them all together and entrust them to the one who heals his suffering people. Alternative Opening Prayer (from 1998 ICEL Missal) Out of your power and compassion, O God, you sent your Son…
01 Feb 2024 – Saint Brigid of Kildare 1st Reading: Job 31:16-20; 24-25; 31-32 Job’s generosity towards the needy is reflected in St Brigid’s works of charity I have never withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the…
31 Jan 24 – Wednesday of Week 4 Memorial: St John Bosco 1815-88, born in Piedmont, founded the Salesians, to educate boys for life. Patron saint of youth and Catholic publishers. 1st Reading: 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17 Having sinned by counting the people, David wants to pay the price himself The king said to Joab…
30 Jan 24 – Tuesday of Week 4 Optional Memorials: St Aidan (Feast in Ferns), aka Maedoc (Mogue) born c 550 probably in Cavan, Studied in Wales, returned and founded a monastery in Ferns where he became Bishop. Died there in 626. …
29 Jan 24 – Monday of Week 4 1st Reading: 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13 While fleeing Jerusalem during Absalom’s revolt, David is cursed and accepts it as the will of God A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the Israelites have gone after Absalom.” Then David said to all his officials who…
28 Jan 24 – 4th Sunday (Year B) (1) Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Moses predicts the coming of a future prophet greater than himself Moses said to the people: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet lie me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you…
27 Jan 24 – Saturday of Week 3 Optional Memorial: St Angela Merici, 1474-1540, founder of the Ursulines. 1st Reading: 2 Samuel 12:1-7, 10-17 Nathan warns David; his sin with Bathsheba will be punished within his own family The Lord sent Nathan to David. He went to him, and said to him, “There were two…
26 Jan 24 – Ss Timothy and Titus, Bishops Both died toward the end of the first century. Disciples and associates of Saint Paul the apostle, who seem to have attended the Council of Jerusalem with him. Timothy represented Saint Paul to various communities and, according to tradition, was eventually placed in charge of the…
25 Jan 24 – The Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle 1st Reading: Acts 22:3-16 Paul’s account of his conversion, to his fellow-Jews, on the steps of the Temple “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law,…
