Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 1st April, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Tuesday, Fourth Week in Lent
By Baptism all our sins, are forgiven leaving no impediments for entry into the kingdom of God .
Memorial of St Ceallach (Celsus), abbot bishop of Armagh, d. 1129, buried in Lismore.
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below todays’ Readings and Reflection
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 47 :1-9.12
I saw a a stream came out from the Temple, bringing life to all wherever it flowed.
The man went to the east holding his measuring line and measured off a thousand cubits; he then made me wade across the stream; the water reached my ankles. 
He then said, ‘Do you see, son of man?’
He took me further, then brought me back to the bank of the river. When I got back, there were many trees on each bank of the river. He said, ‘This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows. Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.’
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 45:2-3, 5-6, 8-9, R/ v8
Response The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
1. God is for us a refuge and strength, a helper close at hand, in time of distress:
so we shall not fear though the earth should rock, though the mountains fall into the depths of the sea. Response
2. The waters of a river give joy to God’s city, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within, it cannot be shaken; God will help it at the dawning of the day. Response
3. The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Come, consider the works of the Lord the redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 50:12.14
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
A pure heart create for me, O God, and give me again the joy of your help.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John 5:1-3.5-16 Glory to you, O Lord
The man was cured at once.
There was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem there is a building, called Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people – blind, lame, paralysed. One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in this condition for a long time, he said,
‘Do you want to be well again?‘
‘Sir,’ replied the sick man ‘I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed;
and while I am still on the way, someone else gets there before me.’
Jesus said,
‘Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.’
The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.
Now that day happened to be the sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured,
‘It is the sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat’.
He replied, ‘But the man who cured me told me, “Pick up your mat and walk. “
They asked, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Pick up your mat and walk”?‘
The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the place.
After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said,
‘Now you are well again, be sure not to sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.’
The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him.
It was because he did things like this on the sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Reflection Tuesday Fourth Week of Lent John 5:1–3, 5–16
The question Jesus puts to the man who had been paralysed for thirty eight years sounds strange to our ears, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ Why would he be near to a pool known for its healing properties if he didn’t want to be well again? However, perhaps he had begun to lose all hope of every being well again. He may have lost the will to be better, the will to live. By his question, Jesus wanted to arouse in him the hope for healing that he once cherished. He had obviously been disappointed many times. As he said to Jesus, ‘I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on my way, someone else gets there before me’. If people are disappointed often enough, they can easily lose hope. By asking, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ Jesus was inviting him to recover his desire to be well. We can all be tempted to lose hope. We can easily get despondent, lose our zest for life, our hope of something better, for a whole variety of reasons.
The Lord is always at work among us to renew our hope, to help us recover our desire for that fullness of life the Lord desires for us all. By asking his question, Jesus sought to heal the man’s despondency before he could really heal him physically. Even when we are physically well, we can all need that deeper healing, that renewing of our hopes. The risen Lord is always at work among us renewing our hope, our desire for all of humanity to be well again. Hope is more than optimism; it is the work of the Spirit of the risen Lord among us and within us. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans,
‘Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’ (Rom 5:5).
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
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Saint of the Day: St Ceallach, also called Celsus
Summary: St Ceallach, lay administrator,abbot, bishop. Celsus was born in 1080, became Abbot of Armagh and priest in 1105 and presided at the Synod of Rathbreaail in 1111. In 1129 he died and is buried n Lismore by his own request.
Patrick Duffy tells St Ceallach’s story.
A Hereditary Lay Abbacy controlling the Church in Armagh
Ceallach (Celsus) was born in 1080. He belonged to a powerful local family, the Clann Sínaigh, which controlled what was then the hereditary lay abbacy of Armagh. In this system the lay coarb (that is, “successor” of some saint, in this case of St Patrick), was also erenagh (or, administrator), in this case of Armagh. That was the ecclesiastical structure in Ireland at that time. Bishops and priests seem to have had little influence and were probably under the control of these lay abbots. In 1091 Ceallach inherited the title of coarb and was then the effective erenagh of Armagh.
Lay Control in Europe Being Overturned
Lay control of bishoprics had also been operative in Europe, but with the reform of Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) it was gradually replaced by a diocesan structure with bishops. This reform spread to England, especially when strong Norman archbishops like Lanfranc and St Anselm came to the see of Canterbury. In response to requests from the Norse community in Dublin, Lanfranc had consecrated Donngus and Anselm had consecrated Samuel Ó h-Ainglí as bishops for Dublin and Anselm had consecrated Malchus as the first bishop of Waterford in 1096.
Reform Beginning in Munster
Both Lanfranc and Anselm had written to the O’Brien kings of Munster, Turlough and Muircheartach, urging a change to the lay dominance of the coarb and erenagh system. The First Synod of Cashel (1101) presided over by King Muircheartach Ó Briain introduced this reform to Ireland. From the clergy side the reform was led by Maol Muire Ó Dunáin, bishop of Meath, who probably visited Rome and was appointed papal legate to Ireland by Pope Paschal II (1099-1117). This synod enacted decrees against lay investiture and against simony: it also laid down that no layman could be an erenagh and that no erenagh could have a wife.
Ceallach’s Decision
In line with this reform Ceallach of Armagh, a man of learning and piety, not yet married, made the courageous decision to become a priest. In 1106 Maol Muire Ó Dunáin ordained him bishop, probably somewhere in Munster. At the Synod of Rathbreasail (probably in the parish of Drom & Inch – north Tipperary) in 1111, at which Ceallach was present, the reforms of Cashel were made nationwide and the whole country was divided into formal dioceses with Cashel and Armagh as the two archbishoprics.
In the face of stern opposition, probably most of all from within his own family, Ceallach administered Armagh, whose diocesan boundaries were laid down at this time. As a metropolitan province, Armagh was given twelve suffragan dioceses. Dublin at this stage had a strong Norse population and was more linked with Canterbury. But in 1121, after Bishop Samuel Ó h-Ainglí died, Ceallach went to Dublin as the new bishop Gréne, or Gregory, was being installed.
St Malachy
Ceallach Appoints Malachy as vicar.
In his absence Ceallach appointed the young monk Malachy, who later succeeded him, to act as his vicar in Armagh. Possibly his lengthy absence in Dublin was connected to a dispute there between the Norse and Irish factions or to his desire to assert Irish influence in that city.
Ceallach, when he returned to Armagh in 1122, saw that Malachy had sterling qualities suitable in a bishop. He sent him first to Lismore where he could have contact with Benedictine influences from England and the continent. Ceallach continued to administer Armagh. When Malachy returned, Ceallach gave him the task of restoring Bangor as a monastic community and in 1124 he consecrated him as bishop of Connor.
His Death and Influence
Knowing that his own family would try to regain control of Armagh when he died, Ceallach named Malachy as his successor as bishop there, sending him his crozier (bacall) in token. In 1129 while visiting Munster, Ceallach died at Ardpatrick and was buried in Lismore at his own request.
Malachy did indeed have difficulties establishing control as bishop. But he was able to have Giolla Mac Liag, abbot of Derry, installed and accepted as effective bishop and administrator of Armagh, while he himself returned to the monastery of Bangor. Malachy then consecrated a bishop for Connor diocese, keeping Down for himself.
Ceallach Effected a Crucial Change
Ceallach’s personal decision to become a priest and a bishop effected a crucial change in the organisation and reform of the Church in Ireland in the 12th century. He deserves to be better known and acknowledged.
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Memorable Sayings for Today
When you get what you want, that’s God’s direction.
When you don’t get what you want, that’s God protection.
~ Author Unknown ~
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