The series of readings from the Apocalypse comes to an end today culminating in the vision of the new Jerusalem. The imagery relies heavily on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel who imagined the exiles returning from Babylonia to a restored Jerusalem and a re-built Temple. Its perfection radiates the glory of God.
Sometimes the language of the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse) is extremely difficult to grasp but today’s second reading (Apocalypse 21:1-5), while still very much a work of the imagination, offers images that can readily appeal to people today. John taps into our longing for a better future, a new world. In this world there is “no longer any sea”, that is a reference to the seas as a source of chaos.
The vivid imagination of John continues to explore what it means to belong to the Christian community and in the extract from today’s second reading (Apocalypse 7:9,14-17) he invites us to contemplate a scene of ecstatic celebration. Like the supporters of a team who have journeyed with them through years of failure and humiliation, they cannot believe that at last their day has come and that they have won their first ever All-Ireland title. Only we are not talking sport here!
We are a Roman Catholic Congregation of Priests, Brothers and Lay Associates. Our congregation was founded in Paris in 1703 by a young 24 year old Breton Lawyer, Claude Poullart des Places.
He founded a community for young men who wished to become priests and dedicated it to the Holy Spirit.
