CALENDAR OF SERVICES FOR JULY 2019
Sunday readings from Revised Common Lectionary, Year C (Year of Luke)
Weekday readings from Lectionary for Ordinary Time (Year One)
Liturgical colour green
Monday, 1st July: Thirteenth Week of Year
Wednesday, 3rd July: Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 4th July: St. Elizabeth (1271-1336), Queen of Portugal, came from the royal family of Aragon. At the age of 12 she married King Denis of Portugal, to whom she bore two children, Constance and Alfonso. Denis was a good ruler but a bad husband. Elizabeth has been named in baptism after her saintly great-aunt, Elizabeth of Hungary, who died in 1231. Both women became Franciscan Tertiaries and showed unbounded love for the sick and poor. When widowed, both chose poverty and renounced their regal riches. Elizabeth of Portugal was blessed as a peacemaker. For several family quarrels erupted onto the public stage. At the end of her life, she prevented war between Portugal and Castile by riding out into the middle of the battlefield. On her death bed she professed vows, joining the Poor Clares. She was buried at their convent in Coimbra. We celebrate Elizabeth (Isabella) as patient wife and good mother, as a follower of St. Francis, and as one of the patron saints of Portugal.
10.00am Mass in Chapel of St. John Baptist, Lion Street
Sunday, 7th July: Fourteenth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity III:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
6.00pm District Mass in Little St. Mary’s, Capel-y-ffin
Wednesday, 10th July:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 11th July: St. Benedict of Nursia (480-550): abbot and founder of Subiaco and Monte Cassino (near Naples): author of the rule which bears his name; Patriarch of Western monasticism; Patron Saint of Europe. St. Mary’s contains a statue of St. Benedict, which you can see between pulpit and altar. His ‘presence’ shows of medieval connection with Brecon Benedictine Priory, and later connections with Llanthony Tertia, founded by Father Ignatius, and with the contemporary abbey of Belmont, Hereford. Observance of the Rule of St. Benedict made its way gradually throughout Europe. Its expansion was assisted by the Kindred Cluniac and Cistercian Orders. So, the Benedictine Rule helped to form a vision of a united Christian Europe. In my opinion Brexit negates this vision. Indeed, Brexit is a recurrence of the act of severance, during which every single Benedictine monastery in England and Wales was suppressed by Henry VIII.
Also Today: Srebrenica Memorial Day (8,000 Muslims killed by Christian Serbs in 1995).
10.00am Mass in St. John’s Chapel
Sunday, 14th July: Fifteenth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity IV:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Marys, Hay
Wednesday, 17th July:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 18th July: St. Elizabeth of Russia (1864-1918), grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, was brought up in a minor German court. When she married Grand Duke Sergius Romanov, she became Russian Orthodox. Her sister, Alexandra, was the wife of Tsar Nicholas II. In 1905 Sergius was assassinated. Elizabeth forgave his murderer. She renounced her possessions. She founded, and herself joined, the Convent of St. Martha and St. Mary, Moscow working in its hospital and orphanage. Following the Revolution, Elizabeth and her companion Barbara were taken to Alapaevsk in Siberia, where Bolsheviks threw them down a disused mineshaft. Her remains, after several journeys, were buried in the Holy Land, at St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Gethsemane. Like the imperial family, Elizabeth is venerated as ‘passion bearer’, a special Russian category of saint, whereby innocent suffering is honoured.
10.00am Hay Market Day Mass in St. John’s Chapel
Sunday, 21st July: Sixteenth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity V:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
6.00pm Evensong in Little St. Mary’s, Capel-y-ffin
22nd – 25th July: Royal Welsh Show
Tuesday, 23rd July: Feast of St. Bridget of Sweden, Patron Saint of Europe
Wednesday, 24th July: St. Sharbel Makhlouf (1828-1898): Pope Paul VI spoke at his beatification: Sharbel, a hermit of the Lebanese mountain, is numbered among the blessed. A new eminent member of monastic sanctity is enriching, by example and intercession, the whole Christian people. May he teach us, in a world fascinated by wealth and comfort, the great value of poverty, penance and self-denial, which liberate the soul in its ascent to God? Sharbel belonged to the monastery of St. Maro at Annaya, before spending his last 23 years as a hermit. Every day he celebrated the Divine Liturgy at eleven o’clock, after a morning of preparation; the remainder of his day was mostly spent in from of the Tabernacle, giving thanks for Holy Communion. St. Sharbel belonged to the Maronite Church, which combines preservation of West Syrian worship and practice with belonging to the Roman Catholic Communion. The Maronites, a community isolated by mountainous territory and vicissitudes of history, played a large part in founding the modern state of Lebanon.
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 25th July: Feast of St. James the Great:
10.00 am Mass in St. John’s Chapel
Sunday, 28th July: Seventeenth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity VI:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Wednesday, 31st July: St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Jesuits, came from the Basque region of Spain. He flourished as courtier and soldier, until he was wounded at the siege of Pamplona. Long convalescence gave opportunity for conversion. Ignatius began his spiritual struggle in solitude at Manresa, near the abbey of Monserrat. Here he began to compose the Spiritual Exercises, which formed a classic training manual for Christian life and prayer. Next place, Jerusalem: Ignatius the pilgrim travelled to the Holy Places; his initial impulse was to convert Muslims, but events frustrated this project. Next place, Paris: Ignatius the mature student devoted many years to study; he gathered six companions and together, at Montmartre, they professed vows. Next place, Venice: here the seven were ordained. Final place, Rome: here the Pope approved the Society of Jesus in 1540; Ignatius spent the rest of his life, forming and guiding the new religious order. The Society of Jesus was like an engine, finely tuned for urgent tasks of mission and education. In view of its special calling, the Society side-lined objectives pursued by other Christian groups: advanced stages of contemplative prayer, as taught by the great Spanish mystics; and corporate celebration of the Divine Office in the way of St. Benedict.
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
EVENSONG IS SAID OR SUNG IN ST. MARY’S, HAY, EVERYDAY AT SIX O’CLOCK.
