Standing with angels

 

St Gregory of Nazianzus(329-390), a close friend of St Basil the Great [see Yet another early witness to the Eucharist], is known in the East as Gregory the Theologian.  After studying with Basil in Athens, they returned to their native Cappadocia (now Eastern Turkey) to serve the Lord. It was during the time of the Arian heresy which refused the full divinity of Christ, Gregory was reluctantly consecrated bishop of Sasima, a small Cappadocian town. Following the death of his father, the bishop of Nazianzus, he briefly overseed that church. 

Later he became Archbishop of Constantinople, the most prestigious see in the East and second only to Rome in honour. He played a leading role at the First Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. which completed the creed that we commonly call the Nicene Creed, often recited at the Sunday Eucharist by Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

What does the word Eucharist mean?

The Greek noun εὐχαριστία (eucharistia) comes from two words:

eu (εὖ), meaning 'well' or 'good';

charis (χάρις), meaning 'grace', 'favour', 'gratitude', or 'thanks'.

Together, they convey the meaning of grateful thanksgiving for God's gifts.

The psalmist declares (Ps 116):

A thanksgiving cup I will raise; I will call on the Lord's name.

To participate in Mass is to participate in a feast of joy. Behind the grey walls of distraction, doubt, and discouragement, there is the joy of the risen Christ, who comes to us under the appearances of bread and wine.

It is well to be here. We are truly blessed.

All

Sunday 25 October 2026 (Year A)

Lectio Divina:*

Exodus 22:20-26 Psalm 18 (17) 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 Matthew 22:34-40

(See also Mark 12:13-17 and Luke 20:20-26)

Meditatio:

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)

Commentary:

This Sunday the clocks go back an hour. It also happens to be ‘Bible Sunday’ in many of the churches stemming from the Reformation. Most of what we hear and pray in church is directly taken from the sacred scriptures consisting of at least 66 books written by more than 66 authors at different times and in different contexts over a period of many centuries.  Holding them together is the agreed Canon or index of books which, it was agreed by Christians in the early centuries, is divinely inspired and, therefore forms part of the Word of God.

The next time you read the Bible cover to cover you might like to use a yellow marker and mark over the word ‘all’ (assuming you are reading the Bible in English). You will run out of yellow marker. You will be surprised at how often this word ‘All’ crops up from start to finish:

Given for you

Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying:

The political and journalistic world can boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien of Molokai. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, counts by the thousands those who, after the example of Fr. Damien, have devoted themselves to the victims of leprosy. It is worthwhile to look for the sources of such heroism [T.N. Jagadisan's 1965 publication Mahatma Gandhi Answers the Challenge of Leprosy]

Who was Father Damien of Molokai?  He was a Belgian Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who was canonised in 2009.  He voluntarily ministered among people afflicted with leprosy in Hawaii for 16 years until his death in 1889.  He shared their lives, treated their wounds and eventually contracted the disease himself.  He frequently spoke of the Mass and the Eucharist as the source of strength that sustained his mission.

His story reminds me of a TV documentary made at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when, in Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, the chaplain was filmed in the wards behind curtains talking to God and a person who was dying. 

Resting in God’s presence

I was listening the other day to an interview with Bishop Michael Pham of the Diocese of San Diego on Fr. James Martin SJ's excellent podcast, The Spiritual Life.  Bishop Pham was born in Vietnam and fled the country as a child after the communist takeover in 1975. His family endured a horrendous journey involving overcrowded boats, hunger, separation from family members and time spent in a refugee camp in Malaysia before eventually reaching the United States. Today, Bishop Pham is active in advocating for migrants and refugees. He has accompanied migrants through the legal system and spoken publicly about their God-given dignity.

He has accompanied migrants through the legal system and spoke out publicly about the dignity of migrants.

As is his custom at each interview, Fr Martin asked him how he approaches prayer. The bishop said that he specially values time spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he rests in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord. It reminded me of the words of Psalm 131:

Remembering those who went before us

St Canice's parish church (RC)
in Kilkenny city

Next month will mark remembrance of the dead especially around the feasts of All Saints and All Souls.  Yesterday evening I attended the annual memorial Mass in Kilkenny on a wet and cold winter’s night.  This is an annual event specially for families of the deceased in Saint Luke’s General Hospital. Staff of the hospital participate in the Mass.

I was struck by the beautiful choir, the care shown in the celebration, the prayers of intercession, the carefully chosen readings and the active participation by the congregation.  It is a privilege to have known those whom we love and who have gone before us. We can be sure that, in every Mass, we are united with the whole Communion of Saints, joining our prayers with those of the Church Triumphant in heaven while also, according to Catholic tradition and doctrine, praying for the souls of the Church Suffering.

The angelic doctor

 

Over the course of the last 10 months and as part of the Bread for the Journey blog series I have drawn on St Thomas Aquinas on many occasions [for example in The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist #1]. The feast of this great saint occurs on 28 January and deserves a short blog in its own right today. Much of our theological thinking has been shaped by his work especially in regards to the Eucharist.

The saint was a 13^th Century Italian Dominican friar, priest, theologian and philosopher.  He is associated with a school of thought often referred to as ‘Thomism’.  A proponent of natural theology, he argued that the existence of God could be known through rational reflection on the created world, drawing on both human reason and insights from Aristotelian philosophy. He also emphasised that faith and reason ultimately complement one another since both have their source in God.