Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 20-June-2022

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

KEYWORDS: catholic; mt7; ordinarytime; prayer;

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Matthew
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Matthew 7
1.	JUDGE not, that you may not be judged,	Nolite judicare, ut non judicemini.	μη κρινετε ινα μη κριθητε
2.	For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.	In quo enim judicio judicaveritis, judicabimini : et in qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis.	εν ω γαρ κριματι κρινετε κριθησεσθε και εν ω μετρω μετρειτε μετρηθησεται υμιν
3.	Any why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?	Quid autem vides festucam in oculo fratris tui, et trabem in oculo tuo non vides ?	τι δε βλεπεις το καρφος το εν τω οφθαλμω του αδελφου σου την δε εν τω σω οφθαλμω δοκον ου κατανοεις
4.	Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye?	aut quomodo dicis fratris tuo : Sine ejiciam festucam de oculo tuo, et ecce trabs est in oculo tuo ?	η πως ερεις τω αδελφω σου αφες εκβαλω το καρφος απο του οφθαλμου σου και ιδου η δοκος εν τω οφθαλμω σου
5.	Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.	Hypocrita, ejice primum trabem de oculo tuo, et tunc videbis ejicere festucam de oculo fratris tui.	υποκριτα εκβαλε πρωτον την δοκον εκ του οφθαλμου σου και τοτε διαβλεψεις εκβαλειν το καρφος εκ του οφθαλμου του αδελφου σου

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

CHAP. 7

7:1–2

1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) Since when these temporal things are provided beforehand against the future, it is uncertain with what purpose it is done, as it may be with a single or double mind, He opportunely subjoins, Judge not.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Otherwise; He has drawn out thus far the consequences of his injunctions of almsgiving; He now takes up those respecting prayer. And this doctrine is in a sort a continuation of that of the prayer; as though it should run, Forgive us our debts, and then should follow, Judge not, that ye be not judged.

JEROME. But if He forbids us to judge, how then does Paul judge the Corinthian who had committed uncleanness? Or Peter convict Ananias and Sapphira of falsehood?

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. But some explain this place after a sense, as though the Lord did not herein forbid Christians to reprove others out of good will, but only intended that Christians should not despise Christians by making a show of their own righteousness, hating others often on suspicion alone, condemning them, and pursuing private grudges under the show of piety.

CHRYSOSTOM. Wherefore He does not say, ‘Do not cause a sinner to cease,’ but do not judge; that is, be not a bitter judge; correct him indeed, but not as an enemy seeking revenge, but as a physician applying a remedy.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. But that not even thus should Christians correct Christians is shewn by that expression, Judge not. But if they do not thus correct, shall they therefore obtain forgiveness of their sins, because it is said, and ye shall not be judged? For who obtains forgiveness of a former sin, by not adding another thereto? This we have said, desiring to shew that this is not here spoken concerning not judging our neighbour who shall sin against God, but who may sin against ourselves. For whoso does not judge his neighbour who has sinned against him, him shall not God judge for his sin, but will forgive him his debt even as he forgave.

CHRYSOSTOM. Otherwise; He does not forbid us to judge all sin absolutely, but lays this prohibition on such as are themselves full of great evils, and judge others for very small evils. In like manner Paul does not absolutely forbid to judge those that sin, but finds fault with disciples that judged their teacher, and instructs us not to judge those that are above us.

HILARY. Otherwise; He forbids us to judge God touching His promises; for as judgments among men are founded on things uncertain, so this judgment against God is drawn from somewhat that is doubtful. And He therefore would have us put away the custom from us altogether; for it is not here as in other cases where it is sin to have given a false judgment; but here we have begun to sin if we have pronounced any judgment at all.

AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. ii. 18.) I suppose the command here to be no other than that we should always put the best interpretation on such actions as seem doubtful with what mind they were done. But concerning such as cannot be done with good purpose, as adulteries, blasphemies, and the like, He permits us to judge; but of indifferent actions which admit of being done with either good or bad purpose, it is rash to judge, but especially so to condemn. There are two cases in which we should be particularly on our guard against hasty judgments, when it does not appear with what mind the action was done; and when it does not yet appear, what sort of man any one may turn out, who now seems either good or bad. Wherefore we should neither blame those things of which we know with what mind they are done, nor so blame those things which are manifest, as though we despaired of recovery. Here one may think there is difficulty in what follows, With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. If we judge a hasty judgment, will God also judge us with the like? Or if we have measured with a false measure, is there with God a false measure whence it may be measured to us again? For by measure I suppose is here meant judgment. Surely this is only said, that the haste in which you punish another shall be itself your punishment. For injustice often does no harm to him who suffers the wrong; but must always hurt him who does the wrong.

AUGUSTINE. (De. Civ. Dei, xxi. 11.) Some say, How is it true that Christ says, And with what measure ye shall mete it shall be measured to you again, if temporal sin is to be punished by eternal suffering? They do not observe that it is not said the same measure, because of the equal space of time, but because of the equal retribution—namely, that he who has done evil should suffer evil, though even in that sense it might be said of that of which the Lord spoke here, namely of judgments and condemnations. Accordingly, he that judges and condemns unjustly, if he is judged and condemned, justly receives in the same measure though not the same thing that he gave; by judgment he did what was unjust, by judgment he suffers what is just.

7:3–5

3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. ii. 18.) The Lord having admonished us concerning hasty and unjust judgment; and because that they are most given to rash judgment, who judge concerning things uncertain; and they most readily find fault, who love rather to speak evil and to condemn than to cure and to correct; a fault that springs either from pride or jealousy—therefore He subjoins, Why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye, and seest not the beam in thy own eye?

JEROME. He speaks of such as though themselves guilty of mortal sin, do not forgive a trivial fault in their brother.

AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) As if he perhaps have sinned in anger, and you correct him with settled hate. For as great as is the difference between a beam and a mote, so great is the difference between anger and hatred. For hatred is anger become inveterate. It may be if you are angry with a man that you would have him amend, not so if you hate him.

CHRYSOSTOM. Many do this, if they see a Monk having a superfluous garment, or a plentiful meal, they break out into bitter accusation, though themselves daily seize and devour, and suffer from excess of drinking.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Otherwise; This is spoken to the doctors. For every sin is either a great or a small sin according to the character of the sinner. If he is a laie, it is small and a mote in comparison of the sin of a priest, which is the beam.

HILARY. Otherwise; The sin against the Holy Spirit is to take from God power which has influences, and from Christ substance which is of eternity, through whom as God came to man, so shall man likewise1 come to God. As much greater then as is the beam than the mote, so much greater is the sin against the Holy Spirit than all other sins. As when unbelievers object to others carnal sins, and secrete in themselves the burden of that sin, to wit, that they trust not the promises of God, their minds being blinded as their eye might be by a beam.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. That is, with what face can you charge your brother with sin, when yourself are living in the same or a yet greater sin?

AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. ii. 19.) When then we are brought under the necessity of finding fault with any, let us first consider whether the sin be such as we have never had; secondly that we are yet men, and may fall into it; then, whether it be one that we have had, and are now without, and then let our common frailty come into our mind, that pity and not hate may go before correction. Should we find ourselves in the same fault, let us not reprove, but groan with the offender, and invite him to struggle with us. Seldom indeed and in cases of great necessity is reproof to be employed; and then only that the Lord may be served and not ourselves.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Otherwise; How sayest thou to thy brother; that is, with what purpose? From charity, that you may save your neighbour? Surely not, for you would first save yourself. You desire therefore not to heal others, but by good doctrine to cover bad life, and to gain praise of learning from men, not the reward of edifying from God, and you are a hypocrite; as it follows, Thou hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thine own eye.

AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. ii. 19.) For to reprove sin is the duty of the good, which when the bad do, they act a part, dissembling their own character, and assuming one that does not belong to them.

CHRYSOSTOM. And it is to be noted, that whenever He intends to denounce any great sin, He begins with an epithet of reproach, as below, Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt; (Mat. 18:32.) and so here, Thou hypocrite, cast out first. For each one knows better the things of himself than the things of others, and sees more the things that be great, than the things that be lesser, and loves himself more than his neighbour. Therefore He bids him who is chargeable with many sins, not to be a harsh judge of another’s faults, especially if they be small. Herein not forbidding to arraign and correct; but forbidding to make light of our own sins, and magnify those of others. For it behoves you first diligently to examine how great may be your own sins, and then try those of your neighbour; whence it follows, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) For having removed from our own eye the beam of envy, of malice, or hypocrisy, we shall see clearly to cast the beam out of our brother’s eye.

Catena Aurea Matthew 7

Christ The Judge

Laurent De La Hire (1606 - 1656)
Oil on Canvas

Jun 20 – The Irish Martyrs of the (16th & 17th centuries)

20 June, 2012

Summary: The Irish Martyrs of the (16th and 17th centuries) The canonisation of Oliver Plunkett in 1975 brought an awareness of the other men and women who died for the Catholic faith in the 16th and 17th centuries. On 22nd September 1992 Pope John Paul II proclaimed a representative group from Ireland as martyrs and beatified them.

Patrick Duffy documents here their names and stories.

Dublin martyrs: Bl Francis and his godmother Bl Margaret Ball

What is a martyr?
Originally, it’s a Greek word meaning “witness”. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, speaking to those in Jerusalem at Pentecost, claimed he and all the apostles were “martyrs” i.e. witnesses, in this case to Jesus’s resurrection. Later the word came to mean a person who followed the example of Christ and gave up their lives rather than deny their faith.

The canonisation of English and Irish Martyrs
Henry VIII’s rejection of the Pope’s authority in 1534 led to the setting up of a State Church in England and in Ireland. In 1560 the Act of Supremacy made Queen Elizabeth the supreme head of the Church in England and Ireland. So it became a treasonable offence to refuse to acknowledge the English monarch as head of the Church and many Catholics were put to death for their faith in both countries.

Forty English martyrs were canonised in 1970 and Oliver Plunkett was canonised in 1975. In 1992 a representative seventeen Irish martyrs, chosen from a list of almost three hundred who died for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries, were beatified by Pope John Paul II. The amount of information we know about these seventeen varies. About some, such as Archbishop Dermot O’Hurley of Cashel, we know quite a lot; about others, such as the Wexford sailors, we know little more than their names and the fact of their death.

THE IRISH MARTYRS OF THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES

Here are their names in the chronological order of their deaths:

1. Bishop Patrick O’Healy and Father Cornelius O’Rourke, Franciscans: tortured and hanged at Kilmallock 22nd August 1579

2. The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors – Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581

3. Bishop Dermot O’Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green (now College Green), Dublin, 20th June 1584

4. Margaret Ball: lay woman, died in prison 1584

5. Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585

6. Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602

7. Bishop Conor O’Devany and Father Patrick O’Loughran: Franciscans, hanged 6th February 1612

8. Francis Taylor of Swords, lay man, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621

9. Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642

10. Bishop Terence Albert O’Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow’s Green, Limerick 30th October 1651

11. John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653

12. William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654

13. Others

1. Patrick O’Healy was born about 1545 in Co Leitrim and became a Franciscan. He was educated at the University of Alcalá in Spain. He seems to have spent some time in Rome – perhaps sent there with letters from King Philip II of Spain requesting help from Pope Gregory XIII for an invasion of Ireland. It may have been while he was there that he was made bishop of Mayo in 1576. He spent some time in Paris where he took part in public disputations at the university, amazing his hearers by his mastery of patristic and controversial theology, as well as of Scotist philosophy.

After Pope St Pius V (1566-72: Antonio Ghislieri OP) excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1571, the Earl of Desmond spent some time on the continent negotiating with King Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagni: 1572-85) to make Ireland a kingdom allied under Spain with the Pope’s illegitimate son, Giacomo, a possible candidate for King. Patrick O’Hely was certainly involved in these negotiations at the start, but after an abortive attempt to sail to Ireland from Ferrol in north-west Spain went to France.

In autumn, 1579, he and fellow Franciscan Father Conn O’Rourke from the ruling house of Breifne sailed from Brittany and arrived off the coast of Kerry. Whether aware of it or not, they were seen as part of the invasion force of Spaniards and Italians with James Fitzmaurice Earl of Desmond which had landed at Smerwick harbour.

2. O’Healy and O’Rourke landed at Askeaton, were captured and brought to Limerick. Sir William Drury, Elizabethan President of Munster and the Chief Justice offered to promote O’Healy if he would take the Oath of Supremacy. Both refused, were tried and found guilty of treason.

The sentence of death was carried out at Kilmallock in 1579. Before their execution they imparted absolution to each other and recited litanies together. In the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, Kilmallock, there is a stained glass window of three martyrs – Bishop Patrick O’Healy and Father Conn O’Rourke, and Father Maurice MacEnraghty, a secular priest and native of Kilmallock, who was martyred in Clonmel in 1585 (see 5. below).

3. The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors – Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581

Matthew Lambert was a Wexford baker who had arranged with five sailor acquaintances to provide safe passage by ship out of Wexford for Viscount Baltinglass and his Jesuit chaplain Robert Rochford when English troops were pursuing them after the fall of the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579-83). The authorities heard of the plan beforehand and Matthew was arrested together with his five sailor friends. Thrown into prison, they were questioned about politics and religion. Lambert’s reply was: “I am not a learned man. I am unable to debate with you, but I can tell you this, ‘I am a Catholic and I believe whatever our Holy Mother the Catholic Church believes.’”

They were all found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Only three of the names of the five sailors are known – Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh. Their execution took place in Wexford in 1581.

4. Bishop Dermot O’Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin, 20th June 1584

Dermot O’Hurley was born near Emly, Co. Tipperary, about 1530. His family were well off and as a young man Dermot went to study law at Louvain. In 1581 Pope Gregory XIII asked Dermot, still a layman, to become Archbishop of Cashel and he accepted, knowing that this appointment would make him a fugitive working in dangerous conditions. He reached Ireland in 1583, but while he was sheltering at Slane Castle he was recognised, arrested, imprisoned in Dublin Castle. Accused of plotting to overthrow the Queen’s government in Ireland, he was repeatedly questioned and tortured. He persistently protested that his mission was one of peace and he had no information to give his captors.

On 20th June 1584 he was taken to Hoggen Green, near St Stephen’s Green, to be hanged. Before his death he said: I am a priest anointed and also a bishop, although unworthy of so sacred dignities, and no cause could they find against me that might in the least degree deserve the pains of death, but only my function of priesthood wherein they have proceeded against me in all points contrary to their own laws. When the report of his execution spread in the city, some devout women carried his body with great respect to the Church of St Kevin (near Kevin St) where he was buried. A monument to his memory was erected there in 1992.

5. Margaret Ball: died in prison in Dublin 1584

Born Margaret Bermingham about 1515 in Skreen, Co Meath, she married Bartholomew Ball, a prosperous merchant in Dublin. Her eldest son, Walter, however, became a Protestant and an opponent of the Catholic faith. Margaret provided ‘safe houses’ for bishops and priests passing through Dublin and would invite Walter to dine with them, hoping for his re-conversion.

Walter was elected Mayor of Dublin. He had his mother arrested and drawn through the streets on a wooden hurdle, as she could no longer walk, to Dublin Castle. Here she remained imprisoned for the rest of her life. If she had renounced her faith she could have returned home, but she refused and died in prison aged 70 in 1584. The chapel-of-ease at Santry in Larkhill parish was named in her honour.

6. Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585

Maurice was born the son of a silversmith at Kilmallock He enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Desmond and became his chaplain and confessor. In September, 1583, a fugitive with the earl, he was surprised on Sliabh Luachra by Lord Roche’s gallowglasses, and handed over to the Earl of Ormond. By Ormond’s command he was chained to one Patrick Grant, and sent to prison at Clonmel. Here he lay in irons, exhorting, instructing, and hearing confessions at his prison grate until April, 1585. His jailer was then bribed by Victor White, a leading townsman, to release the priest for one night to say Mass and administer the Paschal Communion in White’s house. The jailer secretly warned the President of Munster to take this opportunity to capture most of the neighbouring recusants (those refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy) at Mass. In the morning an armed force surrounded the house, arrested White and others, seized the sacred vessels, and looked for the priest everywhere. He had hidden under straw at the first alarm, and, though wounded when the heap was probed, ultimately escaped to the woods. Learning, however, that White’s life could only be saved by his (Kenraghty’s) surrender, he gave himself up, and was at once tried by martial law. Pardon and preferment were offered him if he agreed to conform, but he resolutely maintained the Catholic faith and the pope’s authorlty, and was executed as a traitor. His head was set up in the market-place, and his body, purchased from the soldiers, was buried behind the high altar of the Franciscan convent.

7. Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602

Dominic was born into a leading Catholic family in Youghal in 1566, both his father and brother serving as mayor in the town. He was well educated and even learned some Latin as a boy perhaps by the Jesuits who had a school in Youghal at that time. After the failure of the Desmond Rebellion he went to France and served with honour in both the French and Spanish armies. He entered the Jesuits in Spain as a late vocation in 1589 and in 1601 came back to Ireland as a professed Jesuit brother with the Spanish fleet sent by King Philip III to assist the O’Neills and the O’Donnells.

After the Battle of Kinsale he retreated with O’Sullivan Beare to Dunboy Castle in west Cork, where after a siege he was captured, bribed to change his religion and tortured. Eventually he was hanged in his own town of Youghal. Before his execution he spoke to the crowd saying he longed for a martyr’s death. The hangman refused to execute him and the soldiers forced a passerby, a poor fisherman, to do the work. He died with the words of the psalm on his lips: “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” His fame quickly spread in Ireland and through Europe. In the Irish colleges of Douai and Salamanca the Jesuits showed his portrait.

8. Bishop Conor O’Devany and Father Patrick O’Loughran: hanged 6th February 1612

Conor O’Devany came from Raphoe in Co Donegal and entered the Franciscans in Donegal town as a young man around 1550. He was appointed bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Gregory XIII while he was in Rome in 1582. He was one of six bishops who attended a synod in Clogher which promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent in 1587. After the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588 he was captured, but was released and went back to his diocese, but in the years after the flight of the Earls he was again taken prisoner to Dublin Castle in 1611. He was accused of colluding with Hugh O’Neill in treason. He admitted being in the O’Neill territory as bishop during the Nine Years’ War, but he protested that he was being charged because of his religion.

Another priest, Father Patrick O’Loughran from Co Tyrone, had been in Rome as chaplain with Hugh O’Neill and later studied at the Irish College in Douai. Returning to Ireland, he was arrested on landing in Cork. He admitted he had been chaplain to Hugh O’Neill and had gone with him overseas and had visited the Pope. He refused to be tried by jury as this would mean certain conviction. Read more

Both Father Patrick and Bishop Conor were executed at George’s hill in Dublin on 6th February 1612. The executions, planned to frighten Catholics, only stiffened the resolve not only of the Irish but also of the Old English to remain faithful to their Catholic faith.

9. Francis Taylor of Swords, layman, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621

Francis Taylor was born into a wealthy family in Swords about 1550. In 1595 he was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. A convinced Catholic, he refused to accept the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity and was put in prison where he remained until he died seven years later. He is said to be buried in the family grave in St Audeon’s Church. A bronze sculpture of him along with Margaret Ball stand to the left of the main entrance to the Pro-Cathedral in Marlborough St, Dublin (image).

10. Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642

Peter Higgins was born in Dublin about 1600. He was received into the Domincan order probably at the Priory of St Saviour’s in Dublin (where the Four Courts stands now) and may have been ordained there before going to Spain for further studies. By 1627 he was a Dominican priest residing in Spain and probably returned to Ireland to become Prior of Naas in the 1630s.

During the Rebellion of 1641 when the Irish Ulstermen came south of the Boyne, the Catholic Lords of the Pale opted to join them while the Governor of Dublin, Sir Charles Coote, opted for a policy of “exterminate all Catholics”. Law and order collapsed and plunder became a daily occurrence. Both Protestant landowners and even Catholics known to be government supporters were looted by the rebels.

Peter Higgins as Prior of Naas made efforts to restrain the violent and sheltered the homeless. He intervened to save the Protestant rector of Donadea, William Pilsworth, who was about to be put to the gallows by Catholics and upbraided the Catholics for their unchristian behaviour. In January 1642 the Earl of Ormond mobilised a Protestant force in Dublin to strike back at Catholics.

Among those taken into custody was Peter Higgins, who in fact did not resist arrest, knowing he had done so much to save and protect Protestants and that he was innocent of any crime. Ormond tried to intervene on Higgins’s behalf presenting petitions from at least twenty Protestants who had known Higgins urging that the priest’s life be spared. But Ormond was amazed when on the morning of 23rd March 1642 he heard that Higgins’s body was hanging from a gallows; Sir Charles Coote had executed him without trial. At the gallows Higgins was offered a chance to deny his faith, but declined saying: “I die a Catholic and a Dominican priest. I forgive from my heart all who have conspired to bring about my death. Deo gratias.” Among the crowd stood William Pillsworth, rector of Donadea. He cried out: “This man is innocent, this man is innocent. He saved my life.” His words fell on deaf ears. No one knows where he was buried. His story became known outside Ireland through the martyrologies of the Dominican Order. A stone statue of him stands outside the Dominican Church in Newbridge. Read more.

11. Bishop Terence Albert O’Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow’s Green, Limerick 30th October 1651

Terence O’Brien was born into a well-off farming family near Cappamore in east Limerick in 1601. He became a Dominican in 1621 taking the name Albert. He studied in Toledo, Spain, where he was ordained in 1627. Returning to Ireland, he served as prior in Limerick and Lorrha near Portumna before becoming Provincial of the Irish province in 1643. He attended the general chapter of his order in Rome in 1644 where he made known the martyrdom of Father Peter Higgins mentioned above.

On his way home he visited two Irish Dominican foundations in Portugal and it was while he was there that he learned of his appointment as co-adjutor to the ailing bishop of Emly. This was the time of the Catholic confederation of Kilkenny. The Confederation was divided between the Old English, generally of Norman families who were prepared to agree on moderate terms with King Charles and the Irish, led by returned exiles and supported by the papal nuncio Rinuccini. In 1649 the parliamentarians under Cromwell abolished the monarchy and Cromwell wreaked havoc in Ireland.

After the siege of Limerick in 1651, O’Brien, who had encouraged citizens to resist, was captured as he tended the sick in the plague house. Tried by court-martial, he was condemned to death. As he went to the gallows, he spoke to the people: “Do not weep for me, but pray that being firm and unbroken in this torment of death, I may happily finish my course.” After his death by strangulation his body was left hanging for three hours and treated with indignity by the soldiers. They cut off his head and spiked it on the river gate where it remained fresh and incorrupt, because, people said, he had preserved his virginity throughout his life. His headless body was buried near the old Dominican priory of Limerick, a wall of which still stands in the grounds of St Mary’s Convent of Mercy.

A small silver pectoral cross of Terence Albert was given to the Irish Dominicans by the last surviving member of the O’Briens of Tuogh. According to family tradition, the bishop gave the cross to his mother shortly before his execution, and it had been passed on as a family heirloom from generation to generation. The image accompanying this article is a detail from a stained glass window (by Murphy and Devitt) in the Terence Albert O’Brien Chapel in St Saviour’s Church, Glentworth, Street, Limerick.

11. John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653

John Kearney was born in Cashel in 1619 of a prominent Catholic family. Ordained a priest in 1642 after his studies in Louvain, he was captured on his return to Ireland, but managed to escape. He ministered as a priest first in Cashel and later in Waterford. In 1653 he was captured again, taken to Clonmel and charged with functioning as a priest in defiance of the law. Witnesses testified that he had celebrated and administered the sacraments. He was hanged on 11th March 1653.

12. William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654

William Tirry was born in Cork in 1608 into a well-to-do Catholic Anglo-Irish family. In the 200 years from 1505 no fewer than twenty members of the family held the office of Mayor of Cork. He joined the Augustinians and studied in Vallodalid where he was ordained priest and did further studies in Paris and Brussels.

Returning to Ireland, he ministered with the local Augustinian community in Cork and became secretary to his his uncle, William, then bishop of Cork and Cloyne. He was appointed as prior to Skryne in Co Meath, but by that time Cromwell had come, so he lived the life of a fugitive for three years.

In the end he was taken captive from the house of a relative, Mrs Amy Everard, in Fethard, Co Tipperary. He had just vested for the Easter Mass when soldiers entered the house and took him to Clonmel where he was executed on 2nd May 1654. From the scaffold he spoke to the people who listened with rapt attention. Many miracles were reported after this death.

14. Others

Six Catholics of Irish birth or connection executed for the faith in England had already been beatified in 1929 and 1987: They are: John Roche (alias Neale), John (Terence) Carey, Patrick Salmon, John Cornelius (alias John Conor O’Mahoney), Charles Meehan, Ralph Corby (Corbington).

A further list of 42 other Irish martyrs was submitted to Rome for beatification in 1998. It includes Richard Creagh (1523-86), Archbishop of Armagh.

One extraordinary omission, due it seems to an editorial error in the early days of the process, was Archbishop Patrick Russell of Dublin (1629-92), who after harrassment and arrest following the defeat of the Jacobite army at the Boyne, died in a filthy underground prison in Dublin.

Church of the Irish Martyrs, Ballycane, Naas, Co. Kildare

catholicireland.net

St. Oliver Plunkett's Head – Drogheda, Ireland

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

From: 2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18

Samaria is invaded and its capital falls
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[5] Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years be besieged it. [6] in the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the city of the Medes.

Thoughts on the fall of Samaria
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[7] And this was so because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods [8] and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced.

[13] Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” [14] But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. [15a] They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings which he gave them. [18] Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only.

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Commentary:

17:5-41. The Northern kingdom comes to an end with the fall of Samaria. Undoubtedly that event was traumatic for the chosen people. But the sacred writer focuses mainly on the religious aspect of the drama. For one thing, he offers an explanation of it in terms of the overall relationship between God and his people: the events he describes are a lesson for Judah to learn (vv. 7-23). Also, he uses the situation created by the Assyrian takeover to show that the Samaritan population of his own time can no longer be regarded as part of the chosen people (vv. 24-41).

17:5-6. Assyrian chronicles attribute the overrun of Samaria to Sargon II, who succeeded Shalmaneser V in December 722 BC, and they record that 27,290 Israelites were deported, which would have been ten per cent of the population. This would mean that the deportation took place in 721 BC. Assyria’s policy was to deport the upper classes, who would have been best placed to organized resistance.

The date of the fall of Samaria connects with the last year of Hoshea’s reign: he ceased to be king in 724 BC. During the three-year siege Samaria had no king.

17:7-23. The fall of Samaria is described very briefly, whereas the causes of its downfall are reported at length. The sacred writer wants to show that sin was the cause of the catastrophe – a very grave sin when set against the generosity of God’s gifts.

Now, only the tribe of Judah survives – not that it has proven faithful to the Lord (vv. 18-19). For the sacred writer the fall of the Northern kingdom marks the end of a long process which began with Jeroboam and the making of the two golden calves (cf. 1 Kings 12:25-33). By turning their backs on the house of David, the Northerners became estranged from the presence of God. By explaining things in this way, the sacred writer’s message is that God has promised salvation and, specifically, continuity of the Davidic dynasty (2 Sam 7:14). The Northern kingdom cut itself off from the house of David, and now it has ceased to exist. But Judah endures; even though it, too, sinned, it puts its trust in God to keep his promise. The redactor of the books of the Kings is well aware that Jerusalem, too, will be destroyed and that the people of Judah will be sent into exile (cf. 1 Kings 9:7-9), yet God will still be present among them: the people of Judah will not disappear, for God is faithful to the promise he made to the house of David

The fall of the Northern kingdom was certainly a lesson for Judah, a lesson it failed to learn (cf. Jer 16:10-13). But it is also a lesson for all men, in all ages: abandoning God and distancing oneself from Christ, the Son of David, puts man in danger of eternal perdition. Commenting on the downfall of the two kingdoms, St Macarius drew a spiritual lesson: “Alas for the soul deprived of the loving care of Christ that causes it to bear the good fruits of the Spirit!; because, knowing itself to be abandoned, full of thorns and thistles, instead of producing fruit, it ends up on the bonfire. Alas for the soul in which Christ the Lord does not live!, because, feeling abandoned, it becomes the seed-bed for all vices” (Homiliae spirituals, 28, 2).

From: Matthew 7:1-6

Various Precepts: Do Not Judge
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [1] "Judge not, that you be not judged. [2] For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. [3] Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? [4] Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? [5] You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." [6] Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.

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Commentary:

1. Jesus is condemning any rash judgments we make maliciously or carelessly about our brothers' behavior or feelings or motives. "Think badly and you will not be far wrong" is completely at odds with Jesus' teaching.

In speaking of Christian charity St. Paul lists its main features: "Love is patient and kind [...]. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4, 5, 7). Therefore, "Never think badly of anyone, not even if the words or conduct of the person in question give you good grounds for doing so" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 442).

"Let us be slow to judge.--Each one sees things from his own point of view, as his mind, with all its limitations, tells him, and through eyes that are often dimmed and clouded by passion" ("ibid"., 451).

1-2. As elsewhere, the verbs in the passive voice ("you will be judged", "the measure you will be given") have God as their subject, even though He is not explicitly mentioned: "Do not judge OTHERS, that you be not judged BY GOD". Clearly the judgment referred to here is always a condemnatory judgment; therefore, if we do not want to be condemned by God, we should never condemn our neighbor. "God measures out according as we measure out and forgives as we forgive, and comes to our rescue with the same tenderness as He sees us having towards others" (Fray Luis de Leon, "Exposicion Del Libro De Job", chapter 29).

3-5. A person whose sight is distorted sees things as deformed, even though in fact they are not deformed. St. Augustine gives this advice: "Try to acquire those virtues which you think your brothers lack, and you will no longer see their defects, because you will not have them yourselves" ("Enarrationes In Psalmos", 30, 2, 7). In this connection, the saying, "A thief thinks that everyone else is a thief" is in line with this teaching of Jesus.

Besides: "To criticize, to destroy, is not difficult; any unskilled laborer knows how to drive his pick into the noble and finely-hewn stone of a cathedral. To construct: that is what requires the skill of a master" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 456).

Source: Daily Word for Reflection—Navarre Bible Commentary

Readings at Mass

There was none left, but the tribe of Judah only

Do not judge, and you will not be judged

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

Jun 20 – The Irish Martyrs of the (16th & 17th centuries)