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 14:1, 7-14 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honour, saying to them, ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honour, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, “Give your place to this person”, and then you, with shame, will take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher.” Then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’
He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends, or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’
Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion at Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod CityBut when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed . . .
Nine years ago I experienced this in a striking way after Mass at Holy FamilyHome for Girls (HFH) in Bacolod City, Philippines. I was based in Bacolod City from 2002 until 2017. Kathy Chua wished to share her birthday joy with the girls at Holy Family Home along with her family and co-workers. Most of the girls living in Holy Family Home - there are usually more than 30 there - have had traumatic experiences in their lives and the majority are from poor families.
Kathy and her husband Hernan have been celebrating her birthday for many years now - and continue to do so - with the girls at HFH and the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family who run it. There are other families who have been doing the same, some in HFH, some in orphanages or homes for the aged in Bacolod City.
And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you . . .
Kathy, whose father died suddenly when she was only three months old, spoke briefly at the end of the programme after the catered lunch but asked Hernan to take over. (The programme included a magician, some games and dances by the girls.) He told us how blessed his whole family was simply by the joy they saw in the faces of the girls. That was my own experience over the more than 14 years I was involved with HFH. That involvement has been one of the greatest blessings of my life, an ongoing one that I carry with me now in Ireland, and all the greater because it was something I had never expected when I returned to the Philippines in 2002 after a two-year stint in Britain that was supposed to be a four-year one.
Most of these girls have had experiences that no child or young person should ever have. But in HFH they get the best of truly caring professional care that enables them to feel the healing power of God's love. Much of that healing comes from their interaction with each other and from their shared responsibilities. For example, each cubicle for personal hygiene is used by three girls, who also have to maintain it. And something that touched me when I first began to go to HFH and given the 'grand tour' was to learn that each new girl, whether still a child or already an adolescent, is given a cuddly toy which she keeps on her bed. There are two large dormitories, each maintained by the girls. And they make their bed first thing in the morning, have an early breakfast, gather for prayers and then go off to the local elementary and high schools, both within walking distance.
The girls had been praying their hearts out for Fr Sinnott, then 79, after he was kidnapped in October 2009. (He died unexpectedly here in Ireland on 23 November 2019, St Columban’s Day.) He visited HFH after his ordeal to thank the girls, the Sisters and the staff for their prayers. This was the reaction of the girls when I told them of his release:
Hernan reminded us in his 'few words' of Jesus and children: Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14).
The First Reading and the Gospel remind me of a line in the Handbook of the Legion of Mary: Always will the legionary bear in mind that he is visiting not as a superior to an inferior, not as one equal to another, but as an inferior to his superior, as the servant to the Lord. This is the opposite of what I have heard many well-meaning people say: We must go down to the level of the poor (or whoever). Jesus identifies himself with the 'outsider', with the 'other', whoever the 'other' may be. And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me' (Matthew 25:40).
Children's Games
Traditional Latin Mass
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI).
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 08-31-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:4-9. Gospel: Luke 10:23-37.
