St. Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr (Memorial)
| Lamentations 2: 2, 10 - 14, 18 - 19 |
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| 2 | The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers. |
| 10 | The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. |
| 11 | My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city. |
| 12 | They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom. |
| 13 | What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can restore you? |
| 14 | Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading. |
| 18 | Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! |
| 19 | Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. |
EWTN
| Psalms 74: 1 - 7, 20 - 21 |
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| 1 | O God, why dost thou cast us off for ever? Why does thy anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? |
| 2 | Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thy heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where thou hast dwelt. |
| 3 | Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! |
| 4 | Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place; they set up their own signs for signs. |
| 5 | At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes. |
| 6 | And then all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. |
| 7 | They set thy sanctuary on fire; to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name. |
| 20 | Have regard for thy covenant; for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. |
| 21 | Let not the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise thy name. |
EWTN
| Matthew 8: 5 - 17 |
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| 5 | As he entered Caper’na-um, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him |
| 6 | and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” |
| 7 | And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” |
| 8 | But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. |
| 9 | For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,’ and he goes, and to another, `Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,’ and he does it.” |
| 10 | When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. |
| 11 | I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, |
| 12 | while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” |
| 13 | And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. |
| 14 | And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever; |
| 15 | he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and served him. |
| 16 | That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick. |
| 17 | This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” |
EWTN
We are well aware that it is not easy suddenly to change a mind possessed by ignorance, we intend to add a few things, for the sake of persuading those who love the truth, knowing that it is possible to put ignorance to flight by presenting the truth.
— St Justin the Martyr
The writings of St. Irenaeus entitle him to a high place among the fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the gnostics, they delivered the Catholic Faith from the real danger of the doctrines of those heretics.
He was probably born about the year 125, in one of those maritime provinces of Asia Minor where the memory of the apostles was still cherished and where Christians were numerous. He was most influenced by St. Polycarp who had known the apostles or their immediate disciples
Many Asian priests and missionaries brought the gospel to the pagan Gauls and founded a local church. To this church of Lyon, Irenaeus came to serve as a priest under its first bishop, St. Pothinus, an oriental like himself. In the year 177, Irenaeus was sent to Rome. This mission explains how it was that he was not called upon to share in the martyrdom of St Pothinus during the terrible persecution in Lyons. When he returned to Lyons it was to occupy the vacant bishopric. By this time, the persecution was over. It was the spread of gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages it was making among the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He produced a treatise in five books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects, and afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of the Holy Scripture. His work, written in Greek but quickly translated to Latin, was widely circulated and succeeded in dealing a death-blow to gnosticism. At any rate, from that time onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.
The date of death of St. Irenaeus is not known, but it is believed to be in the year 202. The bodily remains of St. Irenaeus were buried in a crypt under the altar of what was then called the church of St. John, but was later known by the name of St. Irenaeus himself. This tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all trace of his relics seems to have perished.
Saint Irenaeus (c. 130-202)
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=291
