Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 15th July, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
The Lord never gives up on those who reject him, but always continues to offer forgiveness in his love.
Memorial of St Bonaventure, Min. Gen. of the Franciscans, bishop,cardinal of Albano and doctor of the Church d.1274
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below todays’ Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Exodus 2:1-15
Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses because, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.‘
Now Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river, and the girls attending her were walking along by the riverside. Among the reeds she noticed the basket, and she sent her maid to fetch it. She opened it and looked, and saw a baby boy, crying; and she was sorry for him. ‘ This is a child of one of the Hebrews’ she said. Then the child’s sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and find you a nurse among the Hebrew women to suckle the child for you?’
‘Yes, go‘ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her; and the girl went off to find the baby’s own mother.
To her the daughter of Pharaoh said, ‘Take this child away and suckle it for me. I will see you are paid.’
So the woman took the child and suckled it.
When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who treated him like a son; she named him Moses because,
she said, ‘I drew him out of the water’.
Moses, a man by now, set out at this time to visit his countrymen, and he saw what a hard life they were having; and he saw an Egyptian strike a 
hid him in the sand. On the following day he came back, and there were two Hebrews, fighting.
He said to the man who was in the wrong,
What do you mean by hitting your fellow countryman?’
‘And who appointed you’ the man retorted ‘to be prince over us, and judge? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?‘
Moses was frightened. ‘Clearly that business has come to light‘ he thought. When Pharaoh heard of the matter he would have killed Moses,
but Moses fled from Pharaoh and made for the land of Midian. And he sat down beside a well.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 68:3. 14. 30-31, 33-34 R/v 33
Response Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive.
1. I have sunk into the mud of the deep and there is no foothold.
I have entered the waters of the deep and the waves overwhelm me. Response
2. This is my prayer to you, my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, O God, with your help that never fails. Response
3. As for me in my poverty and pain let your help, O God, lift me up.
I will praise God’s name with a song; I will glorify him with thanksgiving. Response
4. The poor when they see it will be glad and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants in their chains. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 118: 34
Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me to observe your law, to keep it with all my heart.
Alleluia!
Or Ps 94: 8
Alleluia, alleluia!
Harden not your hearts today’ but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 11:20-24 Glory to you, O Lord.
It will not go as hard with the land of Tyre and Sodom on Judgement day as with you.’
Jesus began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent.
‘Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard on Judgement day with Tyre and Sidon as with you.
‘And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be exalted as high as heaven? You shall be thrown down to hell.
For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet.
And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom on Judgement day as with you.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Reflection Tuesday, Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 11:20-24
Today’s gospel reading reveals the distress of Jesus before the refusal of some of the towns of Galilee to welcome him and his message, the towns of Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorazin. According to John’s gospel, Simon Peter, Andrew and Philip were from Bethsaida and according to the other gospels Capernaum was the home of Peter’s mother-in-law and a base for Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ threat of judgement on these towns reveals his anguish at their refusal to accept his preaching of the kingdom of God’s loving mercy. We tend to have the strongest feelings towards those we love the most, and, sometimes, that can include the feeling of anger. We often have a sense of helplessness when those we deeply care about take a path that we know will not serve them well. We try to persuade them otherwise out of our love for them, but our words fall on deaf ears. We have to let them go, even though our heart breaks at the path they are taking. This is akin to the experience of Jesus before those towns of Galilee that mattered deeply to him. However, because Jesus’ love is infinitely deeper than ours, his feeling of anguish at his love being rejected is also much greater than ours.
Jesus too remains helpless before the refusal of others to take the path of life he is offering them. Yet, he never gives up on those who reject him, continuing to call out to them in his love. After his death and resurrection, the risen Lord continued to preach the gospel to the towns of Galilee through his disciples, and the Acts of the Apostles suggests that many of the Galilean towns heard the gospel. ‘Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up’ (Acts 9:31). The Lord never gives up on us but he looks to us to seek him and, if we do so, we will not be disappointed. In the words of the responsorial psalm, ‘Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive’.
__________________________________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings : Your word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
__________________
Saint of the Day: July 15, St Bonaventure, bishop Doctor of the Church,
Summary: St Bonaventure, Religious was born at Bagnoregio (Italy) about 1218; died at Lyons (France) on this day in 1274 ,aged 53.
Patrick Duffy tells his story.
What’s in a Name?
Born to pious parents, John of Fidenza and Mary Ritelli, at Bagnoregio in Tuscany, the boy was christened John. But there is a story that when he was four, he became so ill that his mother took him to St Francis of Assisi, who, moved to compassion by her tears, prayed for the boy, and he was never again sick a day till he died. St Francis, himself then near the end of his own life, on seeing the child recover, cried out: “O buona ventura!“, (that is, , “Oh! Good luck!“) And, it is said, this was the name he took when he entered the Franciscans in 1243. Bonaventure joined the Franciscans when studying in Paris. Honoured as a teacher, for his extensive biblical and mystical writings, and for his holiness, gentleness, and compassion.
Studies
After profession Bonaventure was sent to the University of Paris, where he studied scholastic philosophy and theology under Alexander of Hales. He was a very focused student, not in any way given to idle curiosity, but keeping Jesus Christ and him crucified as his inspiration. He made his studies a continuation of prayer. He cultivated humility and sought to serve the sick and the most difficult people with love.
Later appointed cardinal-bishop of Albano and died assisting Pope Gregory X during the Council of Lyons. As he took over the leadership of the Franciscans after St Francis of Assisi, and is regarded as the second founder of the order. He is sometimes called “the Seraphic doctor”, possibly because of his connection with St Francis or his own warmth toward others seen as a heavenly fire.
He was ordained to the priesthood. One prayer he composed for his own use as a thanksgiving after Mass, Transfige, dulcissime Domine, (“Pierce my inmost soul, O Lord“) is recommended by the Church for all priests.
Friendship and rivalry with St Thomas Aquinas
In 1256, when Dominican Thomas Aquinas and Franciscan Bonaventure were due to take the doctor’s cap together, they competed in humility where others among the doctors were competing for precedence. Bonaventure won by insisting Thomas take precedence over him. Aquinas took his philosophy from Aristotle, whereas Bonaventure took his from Plato, probably through St Augustine.
Governance of the Franciscans
In the same year as he received his doctorate in Paris, Bonaventure was elected Minister General of the Franciscans at a chapter held in Ara Coeli in Rome. At that time the order was divided between those who held for the most rigorous interpretation of Franciscan poverty (Spirituals and/or Observants) and those who held for some moderation of the strict letter in line with greater numbers and community living (Conventuals). Bonaventure was able to calm this storm. He supported specialist Franciscan houses in university towns, at which friars would be trained to become preachers and spiritual directors. In visiting the houses on his return from Rome to Paris, he won over the respect of all by the extraordinary humility and charity he showed.
Constitutions and the Legenda Maior
At the Narbonne Franciscan Chapter in 1260, along with the definitors, he gave a new form to the old Constitutions. Subsequently, in response to a request of this chapter, he undertook to write a life of St Francis, which became known as the Legenda Maior. Because of this great work he is regarded as the second founder of the Franciscans.
From Narbonne he went to Mont’Alverna (the place where St Francis received the stigmata), and assisted in the dedication of a great church there. Here also he wrote Itinerarium mentis in Deum, or “The Way of the Soul to God“, showing that all riches and comfort are found in God alone and how the soul can find the true way that leads to him.
Declines Archbishopric of York
In 1265 Pope Clement IV nominated Bonaventure as Archbishop of York, hoping he would be an accomplished ambassador of the papacy in England, but Bonaventure begged the Pope not to impose that burden on him.
In 1273 Pope Gregory X appointed Bonaventure cardinal-bishop of Albano, adding a condition that he could not refuse. He then called him to the Council of Lyons in 1274, where he played an important part in the reconciliation negotiations between East and West. But Bonaventure died while the Council was still in session and was buried at the church of the friars at Lyons.
Mystical Writer
Bonaventure united in himself tender piety and profound learning. For him all learning had to further the journey to God. His writings – Commentary on the Sentences, his Breviloquium, De reductione Artium ad Theologiam – deal with all the major questions of philosophy and theology.
The Triple Way
Another work, entitled ‘The Triple Way’, expounds the purgative, illuminative and unitive ways of the soul towards God: it became the basis of all later mystical writing.
Seraphic Doctor
Bonaventure was canonised in 1482 and declared a doctor of the Church in 1588. Franciscans are often called the “Seraphic Order” because of the mystical experience of St Francis on Mont’ Alverna; Bonaventure himself is called “the Seraphic Doctor“.
____________________________
******************************
Memorable Saying for Today
It was pride that changed angels into devils;
and it is humility that makes men as angels.
~ Saint Augustine ~
******************************