John Ronald Reuel Tolkien – Author, Poet, Her

I learned how to read novels by reading J. R. R. Tolkien.

My mother had a beautiful edition of The Hobbit on one of our many bookshelves. It was the hardbound edition, that came in a green, it was embossed with gold leaf and had gilt pages. There were lovely illustrations inside, with maps drawn by the author himself.

I pulled it off the shelf and read it when I was in the third grade; when I was finished I began reading it again, and I also The Lord of the Rings, followed by the Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales that had been edited and published by his son Christopher after his death. I read these volumes many times over: eight, nine, ten times over…into my early thirties.

Reading and re-reading Tolkien put the idea in my head that I wanted to be a writer. Reading his work over and over again gave me a deep appreciation for the care and craft he put into the construction of his fantasy world.

I remember a sensation I had on my third time through the Silmarillion; I believe I was in the seventh grade at that time. My comprehensive reading list had expanded considerably by that time, to include more than fantasy and science fiction; I read other literary classics, poetry, history and mythology as well as scripture. In addition to these I had begun to read reference materials related to Middle Earth, and through those readings I experienced a heightened sense of understanding of the story being narrated; my vocabulary had expanded and I had become a better reader, making it so that I was able to comprehend more of the material I was engaged with. The picture was filling; I was able to grasp more of the world that Tolkien had created; it was coming to life for me in new and different…more fulsome way.

I even read a biography of the great man himself, which was probably the first piece of non-fiction I ever read (other than histories that had been so mythologized that they felt like fiction).

I found the reference materials compiled by other authors about Tolkien and Middle Earth to be fascinating: The Tolkien Companion, the New Tolkien Companion, along with various encyclopedias, bestiaries and anthologies depicting the arms and armor of this fantasy world.

I added his smaller—lesser known works to the corpus of material I consumed. While still in the seventh grade I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which resonated with my another of my reading interests, Arthurian Lore, and through Tolkien’s Beowulf, I was introduced in a literary way to the Viking sagas.

Through Tolkien I came to have an early appreciation for the power of myth, as well as their malleability, and the potential we have as creative beings to fashion our own myths and communicate them to the broader world.

Through his writing Tolkien dramatized the basic conflicts he saw at work in our civilization, conflicts between the bucolic and pastoral life (which is where his heart was), with the forces of industry that seemed to be destroying the planet (even in his day he saw this happening), as well as the disasters of modern warfare and the suffering they visit on the world, which he experienced first-hand while serving as a signal man in World War I.

In my opinion the collected stories of Middle Earth do what all great literature does, they represent a social critique in the twentieth century more relevant to the human race ever.

We would be wise to be mindful of it.

 

A Homily – The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading - 2 Kings 4:42-44

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 144(145):10-11,15-18

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:1-6

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

The Gospel According to John 6:1-15 ©

                        

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 It is wise to trust in the providence of God, knowing that it does not manifest itself as miraculous or supernatural activity; we are the agents of the divine, God’s providence comes through us. Those one-hundred men experienced this when the bread was distributed and none of them took more than one hundredth of what had been given, each of them took less than a fifth of a loaf…and there was some left over.

 Know this.

 God, the creator of the universe, God is not a king.

 God is present in all times and all places, even in the deepest recesses of the human heart, but God does not intervene directly in human events. God’s influence over us is indirect; God shows us the way and it is for us to take it. It is up to us to act on God’s behalf in relation to our sisters and brothers, to care for our mother’s and father’s as God would have us do. God’s power does not interfere with our freedom in any way.

 Contemplate the vast power of God, in whom and through whom the entire universe exists; contemplate the way of justice, love and humility, keep to it, and share it with the stranger, the alien and even your adversary.

 The apostle calls us to selflessness and to love, to recognize this truth: Gods spirit animates all things. God is God of all beings; the whole of what is came into being through the divine, exists in the divine, and without the divine would cease to be, because God’s spirit animates all things.

 As children of God we each share in the same grace that was manifested by Jesus of Nazareth. We each receive an equal share of God’s love, which is a love without measure, infinite and eternal. We each reflect that grace for one another according to our own willingness and our individual capacities which fluctuate in direct proportion to our desires and ambitions for ourselves and our families.

 Be mindful of doctrine and its pitfalls.

 Peter would have us believe that he follows Jesus because Jesus has the secret to eternal life, as if this were the purpose of the gospel, as if believing in the proposition that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” is the key to receiving the gift, as if the gift had not already been given to all of God’s children.

 Peter wants us to believe access to Jesus, to the truth and the reality of life everlasting, is parceled out by God through the church, allowing some to come to it while refusing others.

 This scheme is not true.

 Jesus preached the good news, and the good news is this:

 God loves you and you are saved. You are not saved for anything you have done, you did not earn it, you are saved because God loves you and God love’s everyone.

 The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you…if you do x, y, and z.

 God has already forgiven you, you are already saved. God has prepared you and everyone for eternal life, this is the good news…the really good news.

 Believe it!

 Let the goodness of the promise flow through you now and start living as if it were true.

 We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the “Holy One of God;” we are called to act on the principles of Jesus’ faith, to be charitable and of service to each other.

 Remember.

 At least half a century had passed from the time of Jesus’ death to the time that Luke’s Gospel was written. By this time Palestine (Judea and Samaria) were completely under Roman rule, Jerusalem had been ruined, its temple destroyed, and the population killed or in bondage, scattered across the Empire in the second great Diaspora.

There were no witnesses to the events Luke describes, the story is a fabrication, pure myth, it never happened. Nevertheless, it became part of the tradition and was handed down as evidence that Jesus had both great compassion and great power.

 The raising of the dead man at Nain asserts the notion that widow should not be left alone, with no husband or son to protect her. This is a metaphor not a miracle, suggesting that the mission of the church is to protect the widow and keep her in life. This reversal of social norms and the common way of life is the miracle. The widow has entered the church, and the family of God will prevent the widow from being forces out into the margins of society.

 It is not that the widow’s son died, and returned to life; it is that Jesus appointed the church to care for the widow in place of her dead son. This is what puts Jesus directly in the tradition of the prophets, not the miracle making, the wonder working, the acts of power and the magic. It is his work as an advocate for justice in the community, his compassion and humility that mark him as the prophet that he was.

 Consider the gospel reading for today; this reading from John is piece of pure propaganda and a gross misrepresentation of Jesus’ ministry.

 The gospel writers took a story from the common tradition and embellished it, transforming a story that was suggestive of a miracle, the feeding of the multitudes, into an explicit work of magic.

 In other versions of this story the miracle of faith which led to the feeding of the people could be read as having come from the people themselves, because they were following the way that Jesus was leading them in, they shared what they had and each received a portion of what was put on the common table. The people, seeing how little food there was to be passed around, contributed to the stores of foodstuffs they each had in their possession; those without enough taking what they needed, and those with extra giving what they had in the spirit of communitarianism and hospitality that was a hallmark of the nascent church.

 The authors of John’s Gospel were not content with that; they could not resist the temptation to embellish and give the credit to Jesus’ supernatural powers for engineering a miraculous event. This editorial move undercuts the teaching of Jesus. The way he preached is a living way; it does not ask us to have faith in magic powers, but to trust in our neighbors and their basic commitment to principles of justice and compassion.

First Reading - 2 Kings 4:42-44

They Will Eat, and Have Some Left Over

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing Elisha, the man of God, bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in the ear.’ ‘Give it to the people to eat’, Elisha said. But his servant replied, ‘How can I serve this to a hundred men?’ ‘Give it to the people to eat’ he insisted ‘for the Lord says this, “They will eat and have some left over.”’ He served them; they ate and had some left over, as the Lord had said.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 144(145):10-11,15-18

The Greatness and Goodness of God

I will bless you day after day and tell of your wonderful deeds, O Lord.

Alleluia!

I will praise you to the heights, O God, my king –

  I will bless your name for ever and for all time.

I will bless you, O God, day after day –

  I will praise your name for ever and all time.

The Lord is great, to him all praise is due –

  he is great beyond measuring.

Generation will pass to generation the praise of your deeds,

  and tell the wonders you have done.

They will tell of your overwhelming power,

  and pass on the tale of your greatness.

They will cry out the story of your great kindness,

  they will celebrate your judgements.

The Lord takes pity, his heart is merciful,

  he is patient and endlessly kind.

The Lord is gentle to all –

  he shows his kindness to all his creation.

Let all your creatures proclaim you, O Lord,

  let your chosen ones bless you.

Let them tell of the glory of your reign,

  let them speak of your power –

so that the children of men may know what you can do,

  see the glory of your kingdom and its greatness.

Your kingdom stands firm for all ages,

  your rule lasts for ever and ever.

The Lord is faithful in all his words,

  the Lord is holy in all his deeds.

The Lord supports all who are falling,

  the Lord lifts up all who are oppressed.

All look to you for help,

  and you give them their food in due season.

In your goodness you open your hand,

  and give every creature its fill.

The Lord is just in all his ways,

  the Lord is kind in all that he does.

The Lord is near to those who call on him,

  to all those who call on him in truth.

For those that honour him,

  he does what they ask,

  he hears all their prayers,

  and he keeps them safe.

The Lord keeps safe all who love him,

  but he dooms all the wicked to destruction.

My mouth shall tell the praises of the Lord.

Let all flesh bless his holy name,

  for ever and ever.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:1-6

One Body, One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God

I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 6:1-15 ©

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias – and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.

Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.

 

A Homily – The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

The Feast of Saint Leonidas, Father of Origen

Little is known about the Christian Martyr Saint Leonidas, except that he was beheaded by the Egyptian prefect, a man named Lactus, in 202 CE, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus.

We might encounter his name in his list of martyrs from that period of persecution, but not much more would have been said about him because Leonidas did not lead a noteworthy life except for the fact that he was father to one of the greatest and most well-known philosophers and theologians of the late second century…the redoubtable Origen, who in the Orthodox tradition is a regarded as a saint and counted among the mothers and fathers of the church, while among the Catholics and for the rest of the Western Church he is a controversial figure.

The controversy surrounding Origen arises  from the fact that his writings were formerly condemned during the reign of the Emperor Justinian, at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 CE, nearly three hundred years after his death, and though he himself was not officially anathematized, all of his work was.

It was three centuries after Origen’s death, two centuries after the church had become the official religion of the Roman Empire, as the church was on its way to becoming the only sanctioned religion whose practice was permissible in the West. It was then, just as Origin’s contribution to Christian philosophy was being condemned that the Roman Catholic Church took a turn for the worse, the so-called Dark Ages ensued, and the Empire began to crumble.

Remarkably, Origen’s work remained influential. His thought continued to guide the thinking of theologians for centuries and continues to influence us in the twenty-first century.

And yet Origen is not a Catholic Saint; we do not celebrate his feast. We celebrate the feast of his father instead, giving thanks to Origin through Leonidas, for his great work.

Origen ran afoul of the church on account of his doctrine of apocatastasis, which taught, in keeping with scripture[1], that all things and beings emanate from the divine, and according to the doctrine of apocatastasis, would ultimately return to the source of its being (God) in the great reunification and reconciliation of the divine with creation.  It is the furthest and most logical extension of Christian hope that has ever been penned…according to the doctrine of apocatastasis even the devil and his angels would be reconciled with God in the end.

In the early sixth century Origen’s cosmology was perceived as being a threat to the Imperial religion, and to the increasingly popular theology of Saint Augustine of Hippo (d. 430 CE) who taught that the material universe was created ex nihilo (an absurdity)…out of nothing, thus obviating the argument for the return of the created order, including all things and being, to its divine source.  

Augustine’s theology while inherently dualistic, insofar as it describes the material order as beginning in nothingness (to be understood as a privation of the good and the material essence of evil), and allows for its continuation into eternity. In the Augustinian scheme evil continues, it is rooted in a pre-temporal reality and its scope has no limit. Furthermore, the entire system of sacramental theology that has been operative in the church since the sixth century is dependent on this absurdity.

Justinian and those who voted to condemn Origen’s work and the Second Council of Constantinople, understood that the doctrine of apocatastasis implies a theology of universal salvation. They understood how this soteriology challenges the authority of priests and bishops, and the church itself as intermediary between God and humanity. This threat to Augustine’s sacramental theology, because it undermined the authority of the church, it also undermined the authority of the first Christian Emperor. It was on these grounds and on the basis of these political considerations that Origen’s work was condemned. It was an act of unadulterated hubris on the part of the Church.

Even though Origen’s teaching caused him to fall out of favor with the hierarchy, the man himself was incredibly popular, he was among the most widely read theologians of the patristic era, his theology was seminal to that of many other theologians and philosophers, including those who penned the Nicene Creed. Origen himself could not be anathematized, but his doctrine was seen as dangerous, deemed heretical and among Catholics it was set aside.

Origen saw the doctrine of apocatastasis as the logical conclusion of the basic faith commitments held by all Christians in his time.

He was right.

These basic faith commitments are also held by most Christians today, representing a shared tradition of belief concerning the nature reality and the purpose of existence that we have never wavered from. Origen was not attempting to teach something radical or new, he was expostulating the faith he had received from his teacher Clement of Alexandria, another giant among the Ante-Nicene mothers and fathers.

Origen followed in his father’s footsteps, going to a martyr’s death c. 252 – 254 CE, his time came during the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Decius; at the age of 69 he was imprisoned, tortured and died from his injuries.

He was a philosopher and a theologian of great repute, martyred twice: first by the Roman Empire and then by the Imperial Roman Church, tortured by the former, and intellectually assassinated by the later…and he lives on.

---

[1] See the introduction to John’s Gospel

Observation, February 9th, 2024, Friday

a warm February

today is cooler than it has been

 

there is a breeze,

it rattles my windows

Observation - October 8th, 2023, Sunday

the sun is shing

leaves are falling

there is a chill in the air

it is cold in the apartment,

            though the windows are closed

I have not yet

lit the furnace

Observation - July 8th, 2023, Saturday

 It is quiet… there is the soft sound of air moving through a fan, and the quiet hum of its motor…turning.

 Above that I hear a choir of monks singing the liturgy of the hours, it is nine o’clock in the morning and the hour is Terce.

 The coffee in my cup is warm, and there is a coal burning in the ashtray, smoke drifting from the burning end of a marijuana cigarette…commercial grade.

 There is woodpecker knocking on a tree, the sound comes through the window with the cool summer morning.

A Homily – The Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Pentecost) Year A

First Reading Genesis 11:1-9

Psalm – Psalm 32(33):10-15 ©

Second Reading – Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20 ©

Canticle – Daniel 3:52-56 ©

Third Reading – Ezekiel 37:1-14 ©

Psalm – Psalm 106(107):2-9 ©

Fourth Reading – Joel 3:1-5 ©

Fifth Reading – Romans 8:22-27 ©

Gospel Acclamation

The Gospel According to John 7:37-39 ©

Sixth Reading – Genesis 11:1-9 ©

Seventh Reading – Acts 2:1-11 ©

Psalm 103(104):1-2,24,27-30,35 ©

Eighth Reading 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12, 13 ©

Sequence – Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Gospel Acclamation

The Gospel According to John 20:19-23 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 It is the Feast of Pentecost, forty days after Easter, marking the beginning of the Apostolic Age.

 Christians throughout the world celebrate this day; tradition tells us that this feast commemorates the gift of the Holy Spirit, given by Jesus of Nazareth (Joshua son of Joseph), to the nascent Church founded in his name.

 For the Church, it is a new era.

 Jesus has left the building…he has left the planet, and though it has been whispered that he will return, care for community of believers is now in the hands of his disciples, such as they were.

 The departure of Jesus marks the beginning of the age of prophecy for the Christian community. It is a time of discernment in which the Church would undergo an evolutionary process, a process by which it would become a new creation.

 From this point forward Christianity is no longer merely a sect of Judaism; it becomes an international movement, transcending Palestine as it spreads throughout the Mediterranean region, Gaul, and the Iberian peninsula, North Africa and the Near East, all the way to India and eventually…around the world.

 It did not happen overnight, and there remain human communities that have never heard the name of Jesus…or the good news preached in his name.

 In the Apostolic Age, the Church becomes responsible for teaching the way of Jesus, the new way, preached in new tongues, told through new stories shaped by every culture that encountered them; in these stories Joshua son of Joseph becomes something new as well: Jesus the Christ, a mythological, a man of godly power, fully human and fully divine.

 In Christian doctrine Jesus becomes identified with God’s own self, the second person of the Holy Trinity; he is the creator of the universe in whom all things exist, without whom not one thing comes into being.

 Be mindful.

 In his time and throughout his life Jesus preached the way of love, of service, of caring, of justice, of mercy of humility. He uttered not a tittle about his godhood.

 Remember.

 God, the creator of the universe, God of law and order. God is not a purveyor of magic tricks, God does not dabble in the supernatural or trade in miracles; therefore today’s narrative from The Book of Acts must be understood as a metaphor.

 The meaning is this:

 The Church had grown to include a great number of people from all parts of the Roman Empire, from Egypt and North Africa, from cisalpine and transalpine Gaul, from Arabia and Persia, from all around the Mediterranean Region, from North and South of the Black Sea, to India.

 In every company of believers there were speakers and translators capable of sharing the Good News in every tongue that was known; from Ethiopia to Brittania, from Carthage to the Himalayas.

 The gift of tongues is to be understood as the blessing of a multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural community. An individual possessing the gift of tongues, was someone who had the ability to interpret between one language and another, so that everyone gathered to hear the Gospel and scripture expounded on, would be able to understand what they heard.

 The myth of Pentecost, as related here in the Gospel of Saint John, narrates some of the struggles of the early Church. It was written more than one hundred years after the death of Jesus, and decades after the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. It was written by and for John’s community, in an era when the differentiation among Christians and Jews had concretized, when the leaders in the new Christian movement were trying to establish their bona fides as the true heirs of Jesus’ ministry, and doing so by divorcing themselves from their Jewish roots, by distinguishing themselves over and against their Jewish heritage.

 These new Christians re-imagined the gift of the Holy Spirit as something that was released in a breath of ritual remembering, they imagined it as something new, something new to them, but they were wrong.

 The Holy Spirit has always been with the people, has always been with humanity, the Holy Spirit did not suddenly come into the world with Jesus’ death and subsequent ascension. The tradition says that the Spirit was with us at the beginning when God breathed life into Adam’s inanimate form.

 Know this!

 Jesus said: let the thirsty come, your thirst will be relieved.

 Do not be confused on this point; belief is not the coin you exchange for access to God. Jesus said simply: “Come if you are thirsty. Drink and be restored.”

 Jesus calls us to follow the way, and the way is life, trust him and keep to the way. Give water to the thirsty, feed the hungry, take care of the orphan and the widow and the poor.

 Do not muddle around in the rhetoric of John, or allow John’s confusion stop you from understanding that when John attempts to qualify the good news of the Gospel and its message of infinite hope, when John attempts to circumscribe it by any measure, it is precisely there that John deviates from the way.

 Remember this!

 The spirit has always been with us, all things come into being in the spirit of God, are sustained by God’s spirit and to God’s spirit all things and beings return, just as day follows night.

 Reflect on the teaching of Paul:

 Who teaches that God is the creator of the universe; the eternal God is the first source and center of all things. The infinite God engenders all potentialities and yet interferes with none of them, having created the universe in state of absolute freedom, uninfringed by divine coercion.

 God does not manipulate creation, and yet the entirety of what passes in the created order, moves according to God’s eternal purpose, there is no contradiction in this mystery.

 The Spirit of God animates all beings, sustains all of creation throughout all time. Pentecost is a feast that acknowledges and celebrates this reality, it does not mark the instantiation of the reality at a particular point in time.

 The mission and ministry of Jesus is passed on to the church and the community of believers through this revelation. We here it in the calling to love and care for those in greatest need, to serve justice and be merciful in the face of the world’s horrors.

 It is wise and good to anticipate the coming of God. It is wise and good to desire the divine presence. Anticipate that moment, relish it, cherish it, but remain present to the people and events that are actually occurring in the world.

 When you are in prayer and your thoughts are unformed, when your feelings are unclear and no words come to your mind, or when the words that do come are inappropriate for prayer; then be silent, quiet your mind, still the murmurs in your heart, let go of the voices and listen.

 Be mindful: the prayers we pray for ourselves, are the same prayers we are called on to pray for everyone else, even our adversaries, including our most bitter enemies.

 If you pray for light and understanding, if you pray for life and peace, if you pray for solace and grace, if you pray for healing and guidance, if you pray for any blessing at all, make that prayer a prayer for everyone.

 Remember the wisdom of Isaiah who says: in the end every knee shall bend, and every tongue confess the name of God. In the end we are all in this together.

 Remember what the Psalmist wrote:

 It is impossible to hide our sins, our guilt, our anger, and our self-loathing from God.

 All sins are forgiven by God, though for us to forgive ourselves and for us to forgive each other, these are much more difficult tasks.

 We experience misery in our guilt until we admit our faults and ask forgiveness, until we give up our anger and forgive those who have hurt us; until then we are bound by it.

 Have faith, trust: the death of the body is not an impediment to God’s salvific will. God will go beyond any threshold to save God’s children; God has promised to pierce the veil of death.

 If you follow the way Jesus taught, then you are on the path of love and mercy, seeking reconciliation, you are forgiving and among the forgiven.

 Know this!

 God does not require or even desire our praise and exaltations, except insofar as those praises take the form of mercy and compassion expressed toward our fellow human beings. Serve God through the love and kindness you show one another; this is the way of salvation…it is close to you…have no fear.

 God does not come and go from our lives according to our deeds and merits. God’s salvation reaches everyone. The God of Jesus Christ is the God of all people, and Pentecost reveals this.

 All of those things which we imagine that divide us one from another, all these thoughs and ideas are illusions born of fear, a lack of trust (faith) in our neighbors, in ourselves, and in God.

 We are all the children of the living God, the living God whose voice is love and who dwells within our beating hearts.

 Remember this!

 

First Reading Genesis 11:1-9 ©

The Tower of Babel

Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ (For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.’

Now the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built. ‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.’ The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

 

Psalm – Psalm 32(33):10-15 ©

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

He frustrates the designs of the nations,

  he defeats the plans of the peoples.

His own designs shall stand for ever,

  the plans of his heart from age to age.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

They are happy, whose God is the Lord,

  the people he has chosen as his own.

From the heavens the Lord looks forth,

  he sees all the children of men.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

From the place where he dwells he gazes

  on all the dwellers on the earth;

he who shapes the hearts of them all;

  and considers all their deeds.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

 

Second Reading – Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20 ©

Moses Led the People Out of the Camp to Meet God

Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel:

‘“You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.”

‘Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’

So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do.’

Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.

 

Canticle – Daniel 3:52-56 ©

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest, Lord God of our fathers.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

Blest your glorious holy name.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest in the temple of your glory.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest on the throne of your kingdom.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest who gaze into the depths.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest in the firmament of heaven.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

 

Third Reading – Ezekiel 37:1-14 ©

A Vision of Israel's Death and Resurrection

The hand of the Lord was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the Lord.”’ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.

Then he said, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead.” So prophesy. Say to them, “The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.”’

 

Psalm – Psalm 106(107):2-9 ©

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia!

Let them say this, the Lord’s redeemed,

  whom he redeemed from the hand of the foe

and gathered from far-off lands,

  from east and west, north and south.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Some wandered in the desert, in the wilderness,

  finding no way to a city they could dwell in.

Hungry they were and thirsty;

  their soul was fainting within them.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need

  and he rescued them from their distress

and he led them along the right way,

  to reach a city they could dwell in.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Let them thank the Lord for his love,

  for the wonders he does for men:

for he satisfies the thirsty soul;

  he fills the hungry with good things.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia!

 

Fourth Reading – Joel 3:1-5 ©

I Will Pour Out My Spirit on All Mankind

Thus says the Lord:

‘I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men see visions.

Even on the slaves, men and women, will I pour out my spirit in those days.

I will display portents in heaven and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.’

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord dawns,

that great and terrible day.

All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, for on Mount Zion there will be some who have escaped, as the Lord has said, and in Jerusalem some survivors whom the Lord will call.

 

Fifth Reading – Romans 8:22-27 ©

The Spirit Himself Expresses Our Plea in a Way that Could Never Be Put into Words

From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved – our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were – but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet – it is something we must wait for with patience.

The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

 

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 7:37-39 ©

'If Any Man is Thirsty, Let Him Come to Me!'

On the last day and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood there and cried out:

‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to me!

Let the man come and drink who believes in me!’

As scripture says: From his breast shall flow fountains of living water.

He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

 

Sixth Reading – Acts 2:1-11 ©

They Were All Filled with the Holy Spirit and Began to Speak

When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’

 

Psalm 103(104):1-2,24,27-30,35 ©

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

Alleluia!

Bless the Lord, my soul!

  Lord God, how great you are,

clothed in majesty and glory,

  wrapped in light as in a robe!

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

How many are your works, O Lord!

  In wisdom you have made them all.

The earth is full of your riches.

  Bless the Lord, my soul.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

All of these look to you

  to give them their food in due season.

You give it, they gather it up:

  you open your hand, they have their fill.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

You take back your spirit, they die,

  returning to the dust from which they came.

You send forth your spirit, they are created;

  and you renew the face of the earth.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

Alleluia!

 

Seventh Reading – 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 ©

In the One Spirit We Were All Baptised

No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.

Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.

 

Sequence – Veni,  Sancte Spiritus

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,

From the clear celestial height

Thy pure beaming radiance give.

Come, thou Father of the poor,

Come with treasures which endure

Come, thou light of all that live!

Thou, of all consolers best,

Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,

Dost refreshing peace bestow

Thou in toil art comfort sweet

Pleasant coolness in the heat

Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, light divine,

Visit thou these hearts of thine,

And our inmost being fill:

If thou take thy grace away,

Nothing pure in man will stay

All his good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew

On our dryness pour thy dew

Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will

Melt the frozen, warm the chill

Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on us who evermore

Thee confess and thee adore,

With thy sevenfold gifts descend:

Give us comfort when we die

Give us life with thee on high

Give us joys that never end.

 

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel of John 20:19-23

As the Father Sent Me, So Am I Sending You: Receive the Holy Spirit

In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

 

The Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Pentecost) Year A