Sunday Reflections, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 26 July 2026

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Vermeer [Web Gallery of art]

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13: 45-46; Gospel).

In his Introduction to the Devout Life (1608) the mystic St Francis De Sales (1567-1622) wrote: 'Both now and in the past it has been customary for women to hang pearls from their ears; as Pliny observed, they gain pleasure from the sensation of the swinging pearls touching them. But I know that God's friend, Isaac, sent earrings to chaste Rebecca as a first token of his love. This leads me to think that this jewel has a spiritual meaning, namely that the first part of the body that a man wants, and which a woman must loyally protect, is the ear; no word or sound should enter it other than the sweet sound of chaste words, which are the oriental pearls of the gospel.' [Web Gallery of Art]

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 13:44-52  or 13:44-46 (English Standard Version)

At that time: Jesus said to the crowd: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

[‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

‘Have you understood all these things?’ They said to him, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’]

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Institution of the Eucharist

Federico Fiori Barocci [Web Gallery of Art]

In July 2020 I took part in Mass, as a concelebrating priest, outside of where I live for the first time since Covid-19 restrictions were introduced in Ireland in early March of that year. It was in the monastery of the Poor Clares in Dublin. The Mass was for a friend and former parishioner of mine in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines, Mrs Sophronia Gelera, who had died in June at the age of 86. Nang Ponying, as she was known, had lost her husband Fortunato, whom I never knew, in an accident when Gina, the youngest of their six children, was less than a year old. (Nang is an honorific used by Visayan-speakers when addressing or referring to a woman or girl older than themselves, including sisters). 

Jimmy, the second in the family and the eldest of three brothers, was killed in a motorcycle accident on 26 January 1980, a Saturday, a few weeks after his 24th birthday. Just a few hours after giving him Holy Communion at Mass that morning I was called to the hospital to give him the Last Rites. That was when I became really close to the Gelera family. Jimmy's funeral Mass was the most difficult I have ever celebrated. But I remember at the very end of the funeral in the cemetery Nang Ponying said a prayer in which she handed back her eldest son to God.

Gina's graduation from college, October 1983

Immaculate Conception College, Ozamiz City.

With her sister Grace, her mother and me.

None of Nang Ponying's children were in the Philippines when she died, though they were able to 'meet' her before she died through Zoom family gatherings. And because of quarantine restrictions none of the five were able to travel home for her funeral.

Gina works with the Poor Clares and at the end of the Mass she gave a beautiful testimony to her mother's faith. It wasn't the shallow 'canonisation' that has become all too common at funeral Masses, but something that showed me the depth of Nang Ponying's faith.

Gina told of how on one day not long after Jimmy's death her mother had run out of cash and the only food in the house was a bunch of bananas (of the kind you cook - something Westerners are not familiar with). At the time only two of the family were still living with their mother, Gina and Grace, both in their teens. Nang Ponying decided that they would have half the bananas for breakfast and the other half for lunch. As it drew near six in the evening Gina asked her mother what they would do, since they had no food, Nang Ponying said, 'We will pray the Rosary as we always do at this time'. 

As they finished there was a knock on the door. It was a neighbour who knew nothing of their situation bringing them newly-harvested rice as a gift.

After Mass on Nang Ponying's 80th Birthday

11 March 2014, with family and priests

Gina mentioned a number of times her mother's great trust in God's providence. Her words reminded me of a wonderful book called Self Abandonment to God's Providence by Fr Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ, which I have read five or six times. It was edited and put together more than a century after Fr de Caussade's death in 1751.

Nang Ponying had developed a form of dementia in her latter years but still got up each morning at 5 to attend the parish Mass at 6. And Gina wrote on Facebook that her mother had once said to her, I will not stop going to Holy Mass everyday even if my feet and slippers are worn out.

Gina spoke of her mother's great trust in the presence of Jesus the Risen Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She would go to the parish church and pour out her heart to the Lord  in the Blessed Sacrament whenever she felt burdened. She truly believed the words of Jesus: Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light  (Matthew 11:28-30)..”

Nang  Ponying was not a Scripture scholar or a theologian. But she knew that God had given her two precious 'pearls' as gifts. One was the gift of her Christian faith through baptism. The other was the gift of Jesus the Risen Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Blessed Sacrament. And by her example she continues to share these 'pearls' from God with her family and with many others, including myself. Solas na bhFlaithease uirthi - The Light of Heaven upon her.

The last photo of Gina with her mother

An Old Irish Prayer for the Dead

Abraimís cúig Phaidir do na mairbh, le hanam ár n-aithreacha, agus ár máithreacha, ár ndeartháireacha agus ár ndeirfiúracha, ár gcomhluadar agus ár ngaolta agus ár ndaoine muinteartha go léir a d’fhág an saol seo. Gach 

n-aon nach bhfuil duine aige, guímid leis: go dtuga Dia cuidiú na guí seo dó agus dea-bhás dúinn féin an lá déanach. Amen.

Let us say the Lord’s Prayer five times for the dead, for the souls of our father and our mothers, our brothers and sisters, our family and our relations and all the members of our community who have left this life. For those who have no one, we pray: may God help them with this prayer and give us a good death on the last day.

From Paidreacha na Gaeilge, Prayers in Irish, edited by Donla uí Bhraonáin.

Traditional Latin Mass

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-26-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13. Gospel: Luke 19:41-47.

Christ Cleansing the Temple

Luca Giordano [Web Gallery of Art]

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers" (Luke 19:45-46; Gospel).

 

     

   

Sunday Reflections, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 19 July 2026

 

Sheaves of Wheat

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 13:23-43  [Shorter version: 24-30] (English Standard Version)

At that time: Jesus put another parable before the crowd, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” He said to them, “An enemy has done this.” So the servants said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he said, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ” ’

[He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’

All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.’

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.’]

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Reaper from Behind

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

At harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:30; today’s Gospel). 

In 1997 while on a visit to Toronto I read in a newspaper about a woman from the Philippines  who had been found guilty of embezzling about Can$250,000 over a period of time from the company for which she worked. The judge had no alternative but to send her to prison. However he was a very compassionate man. 

The judge was aware that the woman was no Al Capone. She had spent the money on surgery for her father in the Philippines, on improving her family's house there and on other family needs.

 She was also pregnant.

 The judge delayed the woman's imprisonment until six months after the birth of her child. She was also to serve her time in a women's prison near where she lived so that her family and friends could visit her easily.

 The First Reading gives context to the parable of the good seed and the weeds: Through such works you have taught your people that the righteous must be kind, and you have filled your children with good hope, because you give repentance for sins (Wisdom 12:19; First Reading). 

The judge in this case was both righteous and kind. As one implementing justice on behalf of the state he had to punish the person before him because she had committed a serious crime. But he also filled her with good hope and, I've no doubt, gave her an opportunity to repent of her sins.

The parable shows once again God's mercy, God's desire to be merciful. He doesn't want to destroy what is good. He wants what is good to grow. He wants to cultivate the virtues in our lives by nourishing them through his grace and with our cooperation. 

But the parable also acknowledges the reality of evil. Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, the householder instructs his workers. We can choose to be 'weeds', to spurn God's mercy. The consequences are the result of our choice, not of God's. The author of the Book of Wisdom says to God, you give repentance for sins. God himself offers the grace of sorrow for our sins, the grace to ask God for forgiveness, won for us by Jesus on the Cross. Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing' (Luke 23:34).

The greatest expression of the God's mercy, given as a gift to the Church, is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which we often call confession or penance. In his Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2001 Pope St John Paul II wrote: Dear priests, let us make regular use of this Sacrament, that the Lord may constantly purify our hearts and make us less unworthy of the mysteries which we celebrate. Since we are called to show forth the face of the Good Shepherd, and therefore to have the heart of Christ himself, we more than others must make our own the Psalmist's ardent cry: 'A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me' (Ps 51:12). The Sacrament of Reconciliation, essential for every Christian life, is especially a source of support, guidance and healing for the priestly life.

Three Columban priests whom I knew in Mindanao, Fr Frank Chapman from Australia, Fr John Meaney from Ireland and Fr Jim Moynihan from New Zealand, lived this very fully in their latter years in Cagayan de Oro. They used to spend hours in the confessional in the Cathedral every weekday and people came from all over to avail of the sacrament of reconciliation. Fr Chapman was still hearing confessions a few weeks before his death in 2004 at the age of 91. He spent the years of World War II in the mountains of Mindanao where he shared all the hardships of the people. 

The judge in Canada, though he had to be primarily a judge, also showed the charity of God, as many judges do. He showed compassion, which was expressed not only in the respect he showed the woman from the Philippines, but also in the respect he showed to her unborn child.

And St John Paul II shows how priests are called to show forth the face of the Good Shepherd, and therefore to have the heart of Christ himself so that all of us will meet the Good Shepherd and experience in the merciful heart of Christ himself in confession.

An Phaidir

The Lord’s Prayer in Irish

Setting composed by Seán Ó Riada

Maith dúinn ár bhfiacha . . . Forgive us our trespasses . . .

Traditional Latin Mass

Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-19-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 8:12-17. Gospel: Luke 16:1-9.

St Paul

Jusepe de Ribera [Web Gallery of Art]

When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:15-16; today's Epistle).

 

     

 

Sunday Reflections, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 12 July 2026

 

The Sower, June 1888, Arles

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

A sower went out to sow . . .

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)  

Gospel Matthew 13:1-23 (English Standard Version)

At that time: Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.’

Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ And he answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

‘Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’ 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Green Wheat Fields

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

. . . Other seeds fell on good soil , , ,

Wheatfield with Reaper at Sunrise

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

. . . and produced grain . . .

Harvest at La Crau (The Blue Cart)

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

. . . some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty . . .

Wheat Field with a Lark

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

. . . He who has ears, let him hear

In the spring of 1982 I made the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius at Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. We spent 40 days there, a few days of preparation for the Thirty-Day Retreat proper and five days of reflection on the experience afterwards. One of the spiritual directors, though not my own, was an American Jesuit priest named George. He was probably in his 60s at the time. He had worked for some years in South America and he was a recovering alcoholic.

One evening I saw Father George come out of the Jesuit residence dressed very nattily, wearing a rather nice sports jacket and hat, his pipe in one hand - and his rosary beads in the other. I said to myself, 'That man has it all together!'

Head of a Young Peasant with Pipe

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

He gave unusual homilies, laced with a delightfully dry and ironic humour. One was simply about a tiny bird - I think it was a species of hummingbird - that migrates each year in both directions between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, without stopping. All of us listening were filled with awe at God's creation, at the power and endurance of one of God's creatures, one that didn't have the power of reasoning but that knew how to get from one end of the landmass of the Americas to the other and to know where to go.

The First Reading and its Responsorial Psalm along with the Gospel invite us to reflect on how God's word takes root in our hearts. But they also invite us to reflect on God's bounty as revealed in nature itself. Isaiah tells us in the First Reading that it is impossible for the rain and snow that God sends not to bear fruit: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Sunny Lawn in a Public Park

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Psalm 64 [65], the Responsorial Psalm, echoes this:

You crown the year with your bounty

 your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills gird themselves with joy,

the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they shout and sing together for joy.

Jesus takes something simple in nature as an example of how God's word, God's very life, takes root in our lives. But we can see God's loving power, presence and bounty in the seed itself, without drawing any analogies or other meanings from it. Those of us who aren't from a farming background can take for granted the food that lands on our table. All the nourishment that we find in a loaf of bread or in a bowl of rice is there already in the grains the farmer sows. The seed of a husband fertilized by the egg of his wife becomes a new human being containing already in its microscopic size all that will be evident when that person is born and grows to maturity.

There is great emphasis today on the urgency of respecting nature and of not abusing it, in order to avoid possible disastrous consequences.

But the basic reason we should respect all of nature is that it is an expression of God's infinite bounty 'singing' in its own way: the valleys . . . shout and sing together for joy.

Father George conveyed something of that to all of us on retreat in Guelph 44 years ago. Another Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins, captured that in some of his poems, including Pied Beauty, published 29 years after his death and 41 years after he wrote it, rather like the seed being buried in the ground in spring and bearing fruit at harvest-time.

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In your charity pray for the soul of Vincent van Gogh who, through his paintings, revealed so much of the beauty of God in nature and in people and yet suffered greatly in his own life. Pray for all who are walking in darkness. And pray for the souls of all who, like Vincent, have taken their own lives.

Pied Beauty

by Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ

Read by Kristin Scott Thomas

Traditional Latin Mass

Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-12-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 6:19-23. Gospel: Matthew 7:15-21.

Peach Tree in Blossom

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18; Gospel).