15 July 2018

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings at Mass
1st: Amos 7:12-15
Ps: 84:9-14
2nd: Ephesians 1:3-14
Gospel: Mark 6:7-13

Jesus made a tour round the villages, teaching. Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

Missionaries of Christ

There is work for all in God’s field. Christ, however, did not limit himself to sending out his missionaries: he also gave them clear and precise instructions on how to behave. He first sent them out “two by two” so that they might help each other and bear witness to brotherly love. He warned them that they would be like “lambs in the midst of wolves”. They were to be peaceful in spite of everything, and were to bear a message of peace in every situation; they were not to take clothes or money with them in order to live on whatever Providence offered them; they were to heal the sick as a sign of God’s mercy; wherever people rejected them, they were to depart, doing no more than to alert them to their responsibility for rejecting the Kingdom of God. (…) May this Gospel reawaken in all the baptized the awareness that they are missionaries of Christ, called to prepare the way for him with words and with the witness of their lives.
Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, Angelus.
Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 8 July 2007

THIS WEEK’S FEASTS
Mon 16 Our Lady of Mount Carmel  
Fri 20 St. Apollinaris, Bishop, Martyr, also Holy Prophet Elijah, in our diocese. 
Sat 21 St. Laurence of Brindisi, Priest, Doctor, also, Memorial of BVM  

Psalter week III

16th Sunday OT:
1st: Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ps: 22
2nd: Ephesians 2:13-18
Gospel: Mark 6:30-34

Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Her Scapular

In 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a Carmelite named St. Simon Stock in Aylesford, England, giving him a brown woollen scapular to be worn over the shoulders (or scapula in Latin), which hung over the front and back all the way to the ankles. “This shall be a privilege,” the Virgin said, “for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire.” Eventually, this became the distinctive sign of monastic habits and the devotion was extended to lay people as well by wearing a much smaller version of the garment. This scapular for the faithful can be given by any priest with a very simple rite of imposition.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel has promised to those who wear the scapular that she will save them from the fires of hell; she will also shorten their stay in purgatory, as we read in a Bull of Pope John XXII, to whom she also appeared saying, “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in purgatory I shall free so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”

The Scapular Devotion consists in:

• Wearing the Scapular perpetually.
• Observing chastity according to one’s state in life (married/single).
• Daily recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, or abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays, or daily recitation of the Rosary, or daily performing a good work.

Pope Benedict XV also granted a partial indulgence for every time we devoutly kiss the scapular.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pray for us.

BOAT TRIP to Blue Lagoon Sunday 5 August, €20, depart from Latchi at 2pm, more details to come. Call Kumari 9663 1888, or Rosalina 9927 9294.

JOIN St. Paul’s 100 CLUB:  Members have a chance to win a €50 prize 3 times a year; it costs €2 a week which can be paid at any moment. This also helps the emergency fund of the Parish. Call Ruth 99040294.

CARITAS Paphos Assisting the vulnerable in the Paphos area. If you can lend a helping hand, call Wendy 9904 0294. Prayers welcome!

Mass Times HERE