Parish of Our Lady & Saint David, Cwmbran

Who is my neighbour?

The Word This Week

Both first reading and Gospel today invite us to be “down to earth” about the Law of God. It’s very easy to become an “expert in religion” – knowing all the right answers, remembering all the right quotes, and so on. But for Moses and for Jesus, if God’s Law is to be kept anywhere, it must be in our hearts and in our everyday lives. We are not to be concerned with keeping our eyes fixed on heaven, if it means that we cannot see the poor man at our feet.

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14

Responsorial Psalm: Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will
revive.

Second Reading: Colossians 1: 15-20

Gospel: Luke 10: 25-37

Your peace will rest on that man.

The Word This Week

The link between the First Reading and Gospel is not immediately apparent today, until you look at the “headings” which are always chosen “to make the connection between readings of the same Mass clear.” (Introduction to the Lectionary n.123.) The “headings” present us with a simple picture today: a river of peace flowing out from the Lord, which we see in the Gospel as the flowing of the disciples as they are sent out on their first mission. From the Lord of Peace, others, like ripples in a pool, flow out carrying his simple message: “Peace to this house!”

First Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14

Responsorial Psalm: Cry out with joy to God all the earth

Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18

Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

You are Peter, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

The Word this Week

Peter and Paul are the two great heroes of the Apostolic Age ‑ Peter for leading the first Christian communities and binding them in unity, a role that springs from his profession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, and Paul for travel­ling throughout the Roman Empire as the Apostle to the Gentiles, ensuring that the Gospel could be heard by all. They both ended up in Rome, the heart of the Empire, where they crowned their lives of witness by shedding their blood for Christ. As the ancient hymn for this feast day (“Decora Lux aeternitatis”) says: “”Rejoice, O Rome, this day; thy walls they once did sign With princely blood, who now their glory share with thee.  What city’s vesture glows with crimson deep as thine? What beauty else has earth that may compare with thee?” In celebrating the death of these apostles and martyrs, we celebrate the triumph of life and death offered fully to God.

First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 12:1-11

Responsorial Psalm: From all my terrors the Lord set me free

Second Reading: Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18

 Gospel: Matthew 16: 13-19

“You are the Christ of God.
The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously”

The Word This Week

Out of a seemingly innocent question comes the dark shadow of the cross: Jesus must teach his disciples that to be the “Anointed One”, “the Christ”, means to follow the path of sacrifice to the very end. He is not a King who comes with armies, but a King who comes with truth and humility, prepared to die for that truth about God’s Kingdom. But the mourning is always to be seen in the light of Easter – “being raised on the third day”, when “a fountain will be opened”, the fountain of Baptism and eternal life in the death and resurrection of the Lord.

First Reading: Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1

Responsorial Psalm: For you my soul is thirsting, O God, my God.

Second Reading: Galatians 3:26-29

 Gospel: Luke 9:18-24

Her many sins have been forgiven,
or she would not have shown such great love.

The Word This Week

The “theme” of the First Reading, Psalm and Gospel today is “forgiveness of sins”. We hear the touching Gospel story, of the “woman with a bad name in the town” coming to anoint Jesus’s feet. Living inspired by the love of Jesus is the key to our discipleship – his crucifixion is the sign of his love, which is in itself the forgiveness of sins

First Reading: 2 Samuel 12:7-10,13

Responsorial Psalm: Forgive, Lord, the guilt of my sin

Second Reading: Galatians 2: 16, 19-21

Gospel: Luke 7:36-8:3

“Young man, I tell you to get up.”

These Sundays of Ordinary Time will not appear every year, since the great solemnities of Pentecost, Trinity and Corpus Christi will displace them. So it can be a bit of an abrupt jump back into the pattern of readings for this season – not readings chosen to celebrate a particular feast or mystery, but the Sunday by Sunday continuous reading of the Gospel and Apostolic Letters. So this Sunday we drop back into Saint Luke’s Gospel with the dramatic story of the raising of the widow’s son in the town of Nain. A ‘theme’ that can unite the scriptures today is found in the psalm: “For me you have changed my mourning into dancing.” Our faith is that the death and resurrection of Jesus has changed death forever – just as both Jesus and Elijah changed it in the stories read today. Christians will mourn the death of loved ones, just as Jesus himself wept over his friend Lazarus: but Christian mourning, while acknowledging grief, will also contain – in Jesus – the hope of dancing, the hope of life, the hope of resurrection, as revealed in the stories we hear today

First Reading: Kings 17:17-24

Responsorial Psalm: I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

Second Reading: Galatians 1:11-19

Gospel: Luke 7:11-17

The Eucharist is not an invention of the Church: it is a part of God’s plan of salvation from the very beginning: it is prefigured in the Old Testament, seen today in the food offerings of Melchizedek, priest king of Jerusalem associated with Abraham, choose bread and wine as the offerings. It is also revealed by the prophetic action of Jesus, in feeding the multitude, before he feeds the Church with the gift that is transmitted through the centuries. The Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, is our communication with the Father, in the Spirit: it is the real presence in the Church’s here and now of the eternal God; it is Covenant, Memorial and Promise, Meal and Sacrifice, the heartbeat of the Family of Believers.

First Reading: Genesis 14:18-20

Responsorial Psalm: You are a priest forever,
                                            a priest like Melchizedek of old

 Second Reading: Corinthians 11:23-26

 Gospel: Luke 9:11-17

THE PARISH ADVISORY COUNCIL WILL MEET IN ST NON’S ROOM AT
ST DAVID’S CHURCH ON THURSDAY 6^TH JUNE AT 7PM

This Sunday is all about the “Divine Community” – in other words, the way in which our God is in himself a communion of love: Father, Son and Spirit, distinct yet perfectly united – three persons, one God.  We hear of the perfect union between Father and Son, revealed in the mysterious poem of the First Reading, where the Son is “Wisdom” joining the Father in the act of creation. This union bears fruit in the Spirit, who pours this perfect love into our hearts, so that we may imitate the “Communion of Love” by living together and hoping for our place within the Divine Community.

First Reading: ApostlesProverbs 8:22-31

Responsorial Psalm: How great is your name, O Lord

                                            our God, through all the earth!

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Gospel: John 16:12-15

We arrive at the fiftieth day ‑ the completion of the Easter Season, and the completion of the Paschal Mystery: the Lord has died, is risen, has ascended to heaven and now gives birth to his Church, by sending the Spirit upon the apostles. This feast of the gift of the Spirit is so significant for us, because it marks the handing on of Jesus’ ministry to the Church ‑ in the Church we are guaranteed the presence of the Lord, in his sacra­ments, in his ministers, in the Blessed Sacrament and in his Celebrated Word. It also marks the fulfillment of our thoughts about baptism throughout this season: the gift of the Spirit which we receive in Confirmation is the `seal’ of our baptism, guaranteeing and confirming all that baptism achieves.

First Reading: Apostles 2:1-11

Responsorial Psalm: Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth

Second Reading: Romans 8: 8-17

Gospel: John 14: 15-16, 23-26

As he blessed them he was carried up to heaven

The Word This Week

Recently the bishops of England and Wales decided to move the celebration of Ascension to this Sunday. While this moves the feast away the fortieth day, it does open up this celebration as part of the journey of the Easter Season. Ascension is not just a feast that “happens to fall in Eastertide”: it is an integral part of the Easter mystery. Remember the Lord’s words at the Last Supper: “I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me.” Jesus does not open the way to us just by rising from the dead: to complete the mystery presumes the Lord’s return to the Father. Ascension is therefore a feast of hope: our hope that the Lord will return, as he went. Our hope that he will take us with him, when our bodies are raised as his was. Our hope that we will take our place in heaven, where he sits at the Father’s right hand.

First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11

Responsorial Psalm: God goes up with shouts of joy the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.

 Second Reading: Hebrews 9: 24-28, 10: 19-23

Gospel: Luke 24: 46-53

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2013 – 13^TH TO 18^TH MAY

Monday 13^th             12noon        Holy Trinity

Tuesday 14^th             7pm              Victory Church

Wednesday 15^th        12noon         The Salvation Army

Thursday 16^th           7pm              Richmond Rd Baptist Church

Friday 17^th                12noon         Fairhill Methodist Church

Saturday 18^th morning: sponsored prayer walk and breakfast for Christian Aid Cwmbran at Cwmbran United Reformed Church.  Walk starts 8.00am, breakfast 9.00am