'Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.' Sunday Reflections, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Blessed Margaret Ball and Blessed Francis Taylor

St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Dublin [Wikipedia; photo]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 12:49-53 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided: three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

                                  

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Then the officials said to the king, ‘This man should be put to death’ . . . Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, ‘Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies’ (Jeremiah 38: 4, 10; First Reading).

Margaret Bermingham (1515-1584) was born near where I live in County Meath, Ireland, into a prosperous Catholic family. In her mid-teens she married Bartholomew Ball, becoming part of another prosperous Catholic family. Some sources say that the couple had twenty children, others ten. But only five survived into adulthood. Bartholomew served as Lord Mayor of Dublin for a while. Two of his sons were to find themselves in the same position, as did Francis Taylor, who married Gennet Shelton, a granddaughter of Margaret. Both Margaret and her grandson-in-law were to meet a similar fate and are numbered among the 17 Irish Martyrs beatified by St John Paul II on 22 September 1992.

It was a time when Queen Elizabeth I carried out a persecution of Catholics in England and Ireland who would not submit to her as head of the Church of England and the Church of Ireland, the members of which were called Protestants. Walter Ball, the eldest son of Margaret and Bartholomew, became a zealous Protestant and in 1577 was appointed Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes, a position, as far as I can make out, the main responsibility of which was to persecute Catholics.

Margaret's home in Dublin was a safe house for bishops and priests where they could celebrate Mass, something they could not do publicly. When Walter became Lord Mayor in 1580, while still retaining his previous position, a higher one, he had  his mother, who suffered greatly from arthritis, arrested and dragged through the streets of Dublin tied to a wooden pallet and taken to the prison in Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland. This was the method often used to bring prisoners to the gallows. Walter said that his mother deserved to be executed for her Catholic faith but that he had spared her.

Two years later Walter's younger brother Nicholas became Lord Mayor. He had remained faithful to the Catholic faith but was powerless to release his mother as Walter outranked him by his royal appointment as Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes. However, he visited his mother regularly, bringing her food, clothing and some furniture. But the appalling conditions gradually wore Margaret down and she died in 1584.

She had consistently prayed for her son Walter and did not disinherit him.

Eleven years later Francis Taylor, who had married Margaret's granddaughter Gennet Shelton, both of them faithful Catholics, became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1595 but was imprisoned for his faith in Dublin Castle, like his grandmother-in-law, and died seven years later in 1613 from the harsh conditions that had gradually worn him down.

Both Margaret and Francis were beatified with 15 other Irish Martyrs on 27 September 1992 by St John Paul II. In his homily the Pope said: All sectors of God’s people are represented among these seventeen Servants of God: Bishops, priests both secular and religious, a religious brother and six lay people, including Margaret Bermingham Ball, a woman of extraordinary integrity who, together with the physical trials she had to endure, underwent the agony of being betrayed through the complicity of her own son.

Further on St John Paul said: The Martyrs’ significance for today lies in the fact that their testimony shatters the vain claim to live one’s life or to build a model of society without an integral vision of our human destiny, without reference to our eternal calling, without transcendence. The Martyrs exhort succeeding generations of Irish men and women: 'Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called . . . keep the commandments unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ'.

It is unbelievable how cruelly Walter Ball treated his mother and his family. We can hope that his mother's prayers obtained for him the grace of repentance before he died.

For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.

Faith of our Fathers

Words by Fr Frederick William Faber 

Sung by Frank Patterson

With the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus

Fr Faber wrote the words of this hymn to honour the Catholic martyrs of England and Ireland who died during the Reformation. The word 'Fathers' is used in an inclusive sense, meaning 'ancestors'. The version above uses the traditional tune Sawston, the one most common in Britain and Ireland. The tune normally used in the USA is called St Catherine and was written by Henri Hemy.

Up to the 1960s this hymn used to be sung before the national anthem at Gaelic Football and Hurling finals in Ireland.

The final stanza of the hymn expresses for me the faith of Blessed Margaret Ball and her love for her son Walter, despite what he had done to her:

Faith of our Fathers! we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife:
And preach thee too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.

Faith of our fathers' holy faith! We will be true to thee till death!

 Traditional Latin Mass

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 08-17-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:2-11. Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican

Dirck van Delen [Web Gallery of Art]

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13; Gospel)

'In the hands of Christ my action may have a divine scope.' Sunday Reflections, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Lambert Lombard [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  John 6:1-15 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.  Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

San Alberto Hurtado SJ 

(1901 - 1951)

St Alberto Hurtado SJ is a man who took today's gospel very seriously, He established the first Hogar de Cristo, Home of Christ, in Chile in 1944 to care for the many in Santiago who were homeless or had little to eat. There are now many such homes, not only in Chile and in other countries in South America but in the USA. Canonised in 2005 by Pope Benedict, he is still venerated in Chile as he was loved in his lifetime by the simple title of 'Padre Hurtado'.

He can speak to us with authority, as he does in this meditation he gave many years ago. His reference to the Venerable Matt Talbot comes from the time he spent in Dublin learning English.

The Multiplication of the Loaves  

Meditation during a retreat on the gift of self and cooperation.

Indecision, faintheartedness is the great obstacle in the plan of cooperation. We think: 'I’m not worth all that much', and from this comes discouragement: 'It makes no difference whether I act or fail to act. Our powers of action are so limited. Is my unpretentious work worthwhile? Does my abstaining from this have any meaning? If I fail to sacrifice myself nothing changes. No one needs me . . . A mediocre vocation?' How many vocations are lost. It is the advice of the devil that is partly true. The difficulty must be faced.

The solution

Five thousand men along with women and children have been hungry for three days . . . Food? They would need at least 200 denarii to feed them and this is the approximate yearly salary of a labourer.

In the desert! 'Tell them to go!' But Andrew, more observant says: 'There are five loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?' Here we have our same problem: the disproportion.

And the loaves. Made of barley, hard as rocks (the Jews used wheat). And the fish. They were from the lake, small, rather mushy in texture, carried by a young boy in a sack that had lain on the ground for three days in the heat . . . not much of a solution. 

Did the Lord despise this offering? No, and with his blessing he fed all the hungry and had leftovers. Neither did he despise the leftovers: twelve baskets of the surplus were gathered, fish heads and bones, but even this he valued. 

The young boy consented to give Christ his poor offering, not realizing that he would feed the multitude. He believed that he had lost his small possession but he found instead that there was even a surplus and that he had cooperated for the good of the others. 

And me . . . like those fish (less than those loaves) bruised and perhaps decomposing but in the hands of Christ my action may have a divine scope, a divine reach. 

Remember Ignatius, Augustine, Camillus de Lellis, and Matt Talbot, base sinners whose lives were converted into spiritual nourishment for millions who will continue to feed on their witness. 

My actions and my desires can have a divine scope and can change the face of the earth. I will not know it, the fish did not know it either. I can do a great deal if I remain in Christ; I can accomplish much if I cooperate with Christ . . 

Fr Patrick Egan

Fr Patrick Egan, a Columban who spent most of his life as a priest in Chile died unexpectedly on 17 July at the age of 88. At his funeral Mass Fr Alo Connaughton, who had also worked in Chile, told a story in his homily that illustrated how Father Pat lived the Gospel, a story that San Alberto Hurtado would appreciate. Father Pat was a man who, if he saw a need, would respond to it, as Jesus did to the hungry crowd in this Sunday's Gospel. In one parish where he served he found a man who was not only homeless but nameless as well. And the man didn't know where he was from. Father Pat, who was one of 14 children who grew up on a small farm in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, made a room for the man in the parish house.

Then with the help of a couple of women in the parish he went about getting the man an official and legal identity. Inspired by the story of Zechariah naming his son John, they chose Juan as his name and took 24 June, the feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, as his date of birth, going back 40 years, the age they reckoned he was.

They then had to find a family name for him. The man often walked around carrying rags, though kind people gave him clothes, and one of the women suggested jokingly that they choose the name 'Falabella'. This is the name of an up-market department store, comparable to Arnotts in Dublin, Harrods in London, Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City and Rustans in Manila. Father Pat then went with the man now named Juan Falabella to a government office to register him. The person dealing with them was very kind and understanding and Juan now was entitled to various government benefits.

Father Pat grew up about 15 kms from where the poet Antoine Ó Raifteirí was born in 1779. The poet, like Father Pat, understood this Sunday's Gospel. And Father Pat understood and lived the words of San Alberto Hurtado, in the hands of Christ my action may have a divine scope, a divine reach. 

Ó Aithrí an Reachtaraigh / from Raftery’s Repentance

Le / by Antoine Raiftearaí

A Rí na Glóire atá lán de ghrása, / is tú a rinne beoir is fíon den uisce; / le beagán aráin do riar Tú and sló; / Och! Freastail fóir agus slánaigh mise.

O King of Glory full of grace, / You made beer and wine from water; / With a little bread you provided for the multitude; / Oh! Attend to, help and save me.

Raiftearaí (1779 – 1835) was one of the last of the wandering Irish bards. He was the youngest of nine children. Some time between 1785 and 1788 all except Antoine died at the same time from smallpox and he became blind. His poetry was in Irish, though not written down when composed. The poem from which the stanza above is taken shows a knowledge of Scripture, including a familiarity with today's Gospel, along with a deep faith in God's mercy and that of our Blessed Mother and an awareness that his life was drawing to a close. He died on Christmas Day 1835. His surname, which has a number of variations in Irish, is usually Anglicised as 'Raftery'.

Antoine Raiftearaí

Craughwell, County Galway, Ireland [Wikipedia]

Traditional Latin Mass 

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-28-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:2-11.  Gospel: Luke 18:9-14.

Church Interior with the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican

Dirck van Delen [Web Gallery of Art]

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13)

'Then I felt a huge weight lift away from me.' Sunday Reflections, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Church Interior with the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican

Dirck van Delen [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 18:9-14 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Model of The Second Temple

[Wikipedia; photo]

The tax collector ('publican' in older translations) acknowledges his sinfulness when he prays, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Jesus tells us, This man went down to his house justified. That means that God had forgiven him and lifted the burden of his guilt from him.

The tax collector asked God for mercy and received it. The parable calls us to ask for mercy and to give it when we are asked for it, in that way sharing God's mercy with another. The act of asking for mercy and the act of showing mercy both lead us to an inner freedom.

The story below from Rwanda is a powerful witness to God's mercy shown through a murderer begging for forgiveness from the daughter of the man he killed and through her forgiving him. 

Ntarama Church, Rwanda

[Wikipedia; photo]

Over 5,000 people seeking refuge here were killed by grenade, machete, rifle, or burnt alive during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.

A religious sister from Rwanda, Sr Genevieve Umawariya, speaking during the Synod on Africa held in Rome in 2009, the theme of which was The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace, spoke of an incident that parallels today's gospel. Here is what she said:

I am a survivor of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda 1994.

A large part of my family was killed while in our parish church. The sight of this building used to fill me with horror and turned my stomach, just like the encounter with the prisoners filled me with disgust and rage.

It is in this mental state that something happened that would change my life and my relationships.

On August 27th 1997 at 1 p.m., a group from the Catholic association of the 'Ladies of Divine Mercy' led me to two prisons in the region of Kibuye, my birthplace. They went to prepare the prisoners for the Jubilee of 2000. They said: 'If you have killed, you commit yourself to ask for forgiveness from the surviving victim, that way you can help him free himself of the burden/weight of vengeance, hatred and rancor. If you are a victim, you commit yourself to offer forgiveness to those who harmed you and thus you free them from the weight of their crime and the evil that is in them'.

This message had an unexpected effect for me and in me . . .

After that, one of the prisoners rose in tears, fell to his knees before me, loudly begging: 'Mercy'. I was petrified in recognizing a family friend who had grown up and shared everything with us.

He admitted having killed my father and told me the details of the death of my family. A feeling of pity and compassion invaded me: I picked him up, embraced him and told him in a tearful voice: 'You are and always will be my brother'.

Then I felt a huge weight lift away from me . . . I had found internal peace and I thanked the person I was holding in my arms.

To my great surprise, I heard him cry out: 'Justice can do its work and condemn me to death, now I am free!'

I also wanted to cry out to who wanted to hear: 'Come see what freed me, you too can find internal peace'.

From that moment on, my mission was to travel kilometers to bring mail to the prisoners asking for forgiveness from the survivors. Thus 500 letters were distributed; and I brought back mail with the answers of the survivors to the prisoners who had become my friends and my brothers . . . This allowed for meetings between the executioners and the victims . . .

From this experience, I deduce that reconciliation is not so much wanting to bring together two persons or two groups in conflict. It is rather the re-establishment of each in love and allowing internal healing which leads to mutual liberation.

And here is where the importance of the Church lies in our countries, since her mission is to offer the Word: a word that heals, liberates and reconciles.

Pope Francis echoes this last sentence of Sr Genevieve in his message for World Mission Day 2016: Mercy finds its most noble and complete expression in the Incarnate Word. Jesus reveals the face of the Father who is rich in mercy.

[This Sunday is World Mission Day and the theme of the message of Pope Francis is You shall be my witnesses,]

Nyina wa Jambo (Mother of the Word)

You can read about Our Lady of Kibeho here

The man who killed Sister Genevieve's father experienced God's mercy through her as she did through him. Each was freed of the very different but related heavy burdens that they carried. And the man had no more fear of whatever punishment he might receive for his crime. Like the tax-collector in the gospel, he made no excuses. He simply asked for mercy.

The tax-collector in the parable, Sr Genevieve Umawariya and the man who had killed her father experienced the truth of the First Beatitude (Matthew 5:3) usually translated into English as Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For years I never quite understood what this meant until I read the translation in the New English Bible: How blest are those who know their need of God; the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

May each of us, like the tax collector, like Sister Genevieve, like the man she forgave and who accepted her forgiveness, know our need of God and of his mercy. 

Alleluia from Exsultate jubilate

Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Sung by Leontyne Price

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan

[If the video above does not work try this link]

Traditional Latin Mass

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-23-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 5:15-21. Gospel: John 4:46-53.

St Paul

Pierre Etienne Monnot [Web Gallery of Art]

'We will be true to thee till death.' Sunday Reflections, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Blessed Margaret Ball and Blessed Francis Taylor

St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Dublin [Wikipedia; photo]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 12:49-53 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India).

Jesus said to his disciples:

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Then the officials said to the king, ‘This man should be put to death’ . . . Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, ‘Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies’ (Jeremiah 38: 4, 10; First Reading).

Margaret Bermingham (1515-1584) was born near where I live in County Meath, Ireland, into a prosperous Catholic family. In her mid-teens she married Bartholomew Ball, Becoming part of another prosperous Catholic family. Some sources say that the couple had twenty children, others ten. But only five survived into adulthood. Bartholomew served as Lord Mayor of Dublin for a while. Two of his sons were to find themselves in the same position, as did Francis Taylor, who married Gennet Shelton, a granddaughter of Margaret. Both Margaret and her grandson-in-law were to meet a similar fate and are numbered among the 17 Irish Martyrs beatified by St John Paul II on 22 September 1992.

It was a time when Queen Elizabeth I carried out a persecution of Catholics in England and Ireland who would not submit to her as head of the Church of England and the Church of Ireland, the members of which were called Protestants. Walter Ball, the eldest son of Margaret and Bartholomew, became a zealous Protestant and in 1577 was appointed Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes, a position, as far as I can make out, the main responsibility of which was to persecute Catholics.

Margaret's home in Dublin was a safe house for bishops and priests where they could celebrate Mass, something they could not do publicly. When Walter became Lord Mayor in 1580, while still retaining his previous position, a higher one, he had  his mother, who suffered greatly from arthritis, arrested and dragged through the streets of Dublin tied to a wooden pallet and taken to the prison in Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland. This was the method often used to bring prisoners to the gallows. Walter said that his mother deserved to be executed for her Catholic faith but that he had spared her.

Two years later Walter's younger brother Nicholas became Lord Mayor. He had remained faithful to the Catholic faith but was powerless to release his mother as Walter outranked him by his royal appointment as Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes. However, he visited his mother regularly, bringing her food, clothing and some furniture. But the appalling conditions gradually wore Margaret down and she died in 1584.

She had consistently prayed for her son Walter and did not disinherit him.

Eleven years later Francis Taylor, who had married Margaret's granddaughter Gennet Shelton, both of them faithful Catholics, became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1595 but was imprisoned for his faith in Dublin Castle, like his grandmother-in-law, and died seven years later in 1613 from the harsh conditions that had gradually worn him down.

Both Margaret and Francis were beatified with 15 other Irish Martyrs on 27 September 1992 by St John Paul II. In his homily the Pope said: All sectors of God’s people are represented among these seventeen Servants of God: Bishops, priests both secular and religious, a religious brother and six lay people, including Margaret Bermingham Ball, a woman of extraordinary integrity who, together with the physical trials she had to endure, underwent the agony of being betrayed through the complicity of her own son.

Further on St John Paul said: The Martyrs’ significance for today lies in the fact that their testimony shatters the vain claim to live one’s life or to build a model of society without an integral vision of our human destiny, without reference to our eternal calling, without transcendence. The Martyrs exhort succeeding generations of Irish men and women: 'Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called . . . keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ'.

It is unbelievable how cruelly Walter Ball treated his mother and his family. We can hope that his mother's prayers obtained for him the grace of repentance before he died.

For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.

St Maximilian Kolbe OFM Conv

8 January 1894 - 14 August 1941

[Wikipedia; photo]

When St John Paul II canonised his fellow-Pole on 10 October 1982 he described him as a Martyr for Charity. He was a prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp. On an occasion when a prisoner escaped ten others were ordered to be executed by being deprived of food and water in a bunker. One of them, Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish soldier cried out, My wife! My children! The priest offered to take his place, an offer that was accepted. By the time the Nazis needed the bunker again all but the Franciscan had died of starvation and thirst. He was killed by lethal injection on 14 August 1941.This year his memorial is not observed by the Church as it falls on a Sunday. The guards had heard him while the others were still alive leading them in prayer and hymns.

Franciszek Gajowniczek

15 November 1901 – 13 March 1995

[Wikipedia; photo]

Walter Ball had deliberately caused the death of his mother because she would not deny her faith. Fr Kolbe offered his life to keep intact the family of someone he hardly knew. Franciszek was reunited with his wife Helena at the end of the War but, sadly, their two sons had died in January 1945 under a Soviet bombardment. However, he was the guest of St Paul VI at the beatification on 17 October 1971 of the man who had saved him and a guest of St John Paul II at the canonisation of St Maximilian on 10 October 1982.

Persecution and martyrdom have been part of the Church's history from the beginning. On 22 June this year, Pentecost Sunday, at least 40 people were massacred while attending Mass in Owo in southwestern Nigeria.

For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.

Faith of our Fathers

Words by Fr Frederick William Faber 

Sung by Frank Patterson

With the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus

Fr Faber wrote the words of this hymn to honour the Catholic martyrs of England and Ireland who died during the Reformation. The word 'Fathers' is used in an inclusive sense, meaning 'ancestors'. The version above uses the traditional tune Sawston, the one most common in Britain and Ireland. The tune normally used in the USA is called St Catherine and was written by Henri Hemy.

Up to the 1960s this hymn used to be sung before the national anthem at Gaelic Football and Hurling finals in Ireland.

The final stanza of the hymn expresses for me the faith of Blessed Margaret Ball and her love for her son Walter, despite wht he had done to her.

Faith of our Fathers! we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife:
And preach thee too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.

Faith of our fathers' holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death!

Traditional Latin Mass

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 8-14-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:2-11. Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

Church Interior with the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican

Dirck van Delen [Web Gallery of Art]