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  The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix) Van Gogh [ Web Gallery of Art ] You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22:39; Gospel) . Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Matthew 22:34-40  ( English Standard Version Anglicised, India) When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.   And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.   “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”   And he said to him,  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.   This is the great and first commandment.   And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.   On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Léachtaí i nGaeilge Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan   Archbishop of Seoul (1922 - 2009) Earlier this year the Archdiocese of Seoul form

  Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well Johann Zick [ Web Gallery of Art ] At Mass yesterday I was struck by these beautiful words in the special Preface used when the Gospel of the Samaritan woman is read. The Preface is always addressed by the priest to God the Father. For when [Jesus] asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink,  he had already created the gift of faith within her and so ardently did he thirst for her faith,  that he kindled in her the fire of divine love. Please continue at Bangor to Bobbio .

  Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well Guercino [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Readings  (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   John 4:5-42  ( English Standard Version Anglicised: India)     [For the shorter form (4:3-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42, omit the text in brackets.] Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to

  Farmer in a Field Vincent van Gogh [ Web Gallery of Art ] Luke 17:7 (Gospel) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 17:5-10 ( English Standard Version Anglicised: India) The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”   And the Lord said,  “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you. “Will any one of you who has a servant [  ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?   Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterwards you will eat and drink’?   Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?   So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are un

  Young Jew as Christ Rembrandt [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 14:1, 7-14 ( English Standard Version Anglicised: India) . One Sabbath,  when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honour, saying to them,   “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honour, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,   and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person’, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.   But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be

  Madonna and Child Francisco de Zurbarán [ Web Gallery of Art ] For thus says the  Lord : “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river  and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;  and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,  and bounced upon her knees.  As one whom his mother comforts,  so I will comfort you;  you shall be comforted in Jerusalem  (Isaiah 66:12-13, First Reading) . Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 [or 10:1-9] ( English Standard Version Anglicised: India)    After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.   And he said to them,  “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into h

  Linaioli Tabernacle, St John the Baptist Blessed Fra Angelico [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, [England & Wales], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 3:1-6  (English Standard Version Anglicised: India) In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,   during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.   And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.   As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,      make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled,      and eve

  Legion of Mary altar At the very first meeting of the Legion of Mary an altar just like that in the photo, except for the words 'Legio Mariae' and the Vexillum, the standard of the Legion, was used. Every meeting since then, at whatever level, has such an altar, with the Vexillum included. The Legion of Mary held its first meeting on the evening of 7 September 1921 in Myra House, St Nicholas of Myra Parish, Francis Street, Dublin, under the name of the Association of Our Lady of Mercy that became the Legion of Mary in 1925. Present at that first meeting were Fr Michael Toher, Frank Duff, a 32-year-old civil servant, and a group of women, all young except for 64-year-old Mrs Elizabeth Kirwan, a widowed New Zealander and a nurse. She was appointed president of the group. The  website  of the Legion of Mary  states :  The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation in Mary’s and the Church’s wor

  Prophet Jeremiah and Christ Master of the Aix Annunciation [ Web Gallery of Art ] I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the  Lord (Jeremiah 23:4; First Reading) . Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Mark 6:30-34   (English Standard Version, Anglicised: India) The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.   And he said to them,  “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.   And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.   Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.   When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because