TODAY’S BIBLE READING (GALATIANS 1:13-24)

(Week 27 of the year: Tuesday)

GOD REVEALED HIS SON IN ME, SO THAT I MIGHT PREACH THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT HIM TO THE PAGANS.

For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion: how that, beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.

And I made progress in the Jews’ religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

But when it pleased him, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood.

Neither went I to Jerusalem, to the apostles who were before me: but I went into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus.

Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem, to see Peter, and I tarried with him fifteen days.

But other of the apostles I saw none, saving James the brother of the Lord.

Now the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I lie not.

Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ:

But they had heard only: He, who persecuted us in times past, doth now preach the faith which once he impugned:

And they glorified God in me.

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE READING (ISAIAH 7:1-9)

IF YOU DO NOT STAND BY ME, YOU WILL NOT STAND AT ALL.

In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Razon the king of Afam went up against Jerusalem with Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, to lay siege to it; but he was unable to capture it.

The news was brought to the House of David. “Aram,” they said, “has reached Ephraim.” Then the heart of the king and the hearts of the people shuddered as the trees of the forest shudder in front of the wind. The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go with your son Shear-jashub, and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the Fuller’s Field road, and say to him:

‘Pay attention, keep calm, have no fear,
do not let your heart sink
because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands,
or because Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah
have plotted to ruin you, and have said:
Let us invade Judah and terrorise it
and seize it for ourselves,
and set up a king there,
the son of Tabeel.
The Lord says this:
It shall not come true; it shall not be.
The capital of Aram is Damascus,
the head of Damascus, Razon;
the capital of Ephraim, Samaria,
the head of Samaria, the son of Remaliah.
Six or five years more
and shattered Ephraim shall no longer be a people.
But if you do not stand by me,
you will not stand at all.'”

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE READING (2 CHRONICLES 24:17-25)

YOU MURDERED ZECHARIAH BETWEEN THE SANCTUARY AND THE ALTAR.

After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king now turned to them for advice. The Judaeans abandoned the Temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem. He sent them prophets to bring them back to the Lord, but when these gave their message, they would not listen. The spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, “God says this, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord to no good purpose? You have deserted the Lord, now he deserts you.'” They then plotted against him and by order of the king stoned him in the court of the Temple of the Lord. King Joash, forgetful of the kindness that Jehoiada, the father of Zechariah, had shown him, killed Jehoiada’s son who cried out as he died, “The Lord sees and he will avenge!”

When a year had gone by, the Aramaean army made war on Joash. They reacheed Judah and Jerusalem, and executed all the officials among the people, sending back to the king at Damascus all that they had plundered from them. Though the Aramaean army had by no means come in force, the Lord delivered into its power an army of great size for having deserted him, the God of their ancestors.

The Aramaeans treated Joash as he had deserved, and when they retired they left him a very sick man; and his officers, plotting against him to avenge the death of the son of Jehoiada the priest, murdered him in his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the Citadel of David, though not in the tombs of the kings.

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

25th JANUARY, BIBLE READING (ACTS 22:3-16)

THE CONVERSION OF ST PAUL (JANUARY 25th)

Paul said to the people, “I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters to their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.

“I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me.’ The people with me saw the light but did not hear his voice as he spoke to me. I said: What am I to do, Lord? The Lord answered, ‘Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do.’ The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my companions had to take me by the hand; and so I came to Damascus.

“Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me; he stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away while invoking his name.’”

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

“LEARN NOT ONLY THE BOOKS OF THE MUSLIMS, BUT THOSE OF THE GREEKS AS WELL” – ST JOHN DAMASCENE

ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS, PRIEST AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH; MEMORIAL: DECEMBER 4

“Iohannes Damascenus or Yuhanna Al Demashqi, also known as the ‘golden speaker’ (literally ‘streaming with a gold’) for his ability to write and argue, was a Syrian monk who made a crucial difference to the Church and without whom Eastern Orthodoxy might not have retained its attachment and beauty.

Born in 675 or 676 in the Syrian capital into a prominent family, the Mansur, his grandfather Mansur Bin Sargun had surrendered the city to the Muslims, but Damascus continued to be effectively run by a Christian civil service for hundreds of years, and John’s father Sergius served the caliphs, as did John after him.

One of the great polymaths of the age, John had particular skill in law, theology and music, writing hymns that are still used in Orthodox liturgy. Revered across Christendom, the Orthodox Church refers to him as ‘the last of the Fathers’ while the Catholic Church regards him as a Doctor of the Church, in particular, the Doctor of the Assumption because of his writings on that subject.

Syria had been the land where followers of Jesus first called themselves Christian and it was steeped in the Hellenistic culture in which the faith developed. His learned father had insisted that John ‘learn not only the books of the Muslims, but those of the Greeks as well’ and he grew up at least partly speaking Greek, and earning a Hellenistic education. His tutor may have been Cosmas, a Sicilian Greek kidnapped by Arabs, although the biography is sketchy, and Cosmas probably also taught John’s childhood friend, St Cosmas of Maiuma.

John grew up to become a major opponent of the iconoclasts, then gaining ground in the court of Constantinople. In 726 Emperor Leo III ordered that images should not be venerated, against the wishes of the patriarch, and St John undertook a defence of holy images, gaining a reputation as a writer and influencing the Second Council of Nicaea.

John left Damascus in his 40s to become a monk, partly due to the increasingly Islamic atmosphere of Damascus, and he died in Palestine on December 4, at the Mar Saba monastery outside Jerusalem. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII in 1883.”
– This article was published in “The Catholic Herald” issue November 29 2013. For subscriptions please visit http://www.catholicherald.co.uk (external link).

 

TODAY’S BIBLE READING (ACTS 9:1-20)

THIS MAN IS MY CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO BRING MY NAME BEFORE PAGANS.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find.

Suddenly, while he was travelling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all round him. He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” he asked, and the voice answered, “I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.” The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but even with his eyes wide open he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight, and took neither food nor drink.

A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision in which he heard the Lord say to him, “Ananias!” When he replied, “Here I am, Lord,” the Lord said, “You must go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.”

When he heard that, Ananias said, “Lord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priest to arrest everybody who invokes your name.” The Lord replied, “You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.” Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he was baptised there and then, and after taking some food he regained his strength.

After he had spent only a few days with the disciples in Damascus, he
began preaching in the synagogues, “Jesus is the Son of God.”

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

PRAYER ON THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF ST PAUL

FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF ST PAUL, JANUARY 25

PRAYER:

God our Father,
you taught the Gospel to all the world
through the preaching of Paul Your apostle.
May we who celebrate his conversion to the faith
follow him in bearing witness to the truth.
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.
Amen.

THE BIBLE STORY OF ST PAUL’S CONVERSION (Acts 22:3-16):

Paul said to the people, “I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters to their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.

“I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me.’ The people with me saw the light but did not hear his voice as he spoke to me. I said: What am I to do, Lord? The Lord answered, ‘Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do.’ The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my companions had to take me by the hand; and so I came to Damascus.

“Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me; he stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away while invoking his name.'”

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.