Sunday Reflections, The Ascension; 7th Sunday of Easter, Year A, 14 and 17 May 2026

 

Ascension Cupola

Italian Mosaic Artist [Web Gallery of Art]

Ascension, Year A

The Ascension is celebrated on Ascension Thursday, 14 May, in England & Wales, Scotland. In the USA it is celebrated on Ascension Thursday in the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, Philadelphia. In all of these places Ascension Thursday is a Holyday of Obligation.

The Ascension is observed on Sunday, 21 May, in Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Philippines, USA (apart from the jurisdictions mentioned above).

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 28:16-20 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Ascension

Andrea della Robbia [Web Gallery of Art]

The reflection is for the Ascension.

Halliday Square, Dublin

[Original source: myhome.ie]

Early in the summer of 1953 when I was ten my father taught me how to ride a bicycle. In August of that year, when we were on holiday in Bray, south of Dublin, he taught me how to swim. I borrowed my cousin Deirdre's small blue bike and practised on Halliday Square, Dublin, just below Finn Street where we lived. It had a long enclosed garden in the centre where some local people grew vegetables, as I recall, and in my young mind was a kind of racing circuit.

However, in order to do any racing I had to learn first to keep on the bike while moving. My father held on to the saddle while I moved forward, wobbling quite a bit for about ten metres before we'd start again. I'm not sure how many times we repeated this or over how many evenings. But a moment arrived when I realized that I was moving forward steadily and surely - and that Dad wasn't holding on to the saddle. I was on my own. A great thrill - with an awareness that I couldn't 'unlearn' how to ride. From that moment I could only move forward, in more senses than one. And before long I found myself racing around the circuit that was Halliday Square, sometimes against others, sometimes just 'against myself'.

Bray Head and beach, Bray, Ireland

[Wikipedia]

Dad's approach to teaching me how to swim was similar. He held his hand under my chest, in fairly shallow water, off the stony beach in the photo above. I was trying to do the breaststroke. As with the bike, he showed great patience and I had absolute trust in him knowing that he wouldn't let me sink, just as he hadn't let me fall off the bicycle.

Once again there was the magic moment when I realized that Dad's hand was no longer touching my chest - I was swimming on my own. And as with cycling, this is an ability that you cannot 'unlearn'.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth, Jesus tells the Apostles in the First Reading (Acts 1:8).

My experience with my father - and with my mother too who often said to me in my childhood years, When you're 21 you'll be responsible for yourself, giving me a goal to reach - helps me understand something of the meaning of today's feast. If my Dad had kept holding on to the saddle of my cousin's bike I would never have learned to go on my own. If he had kept holding me while teaching me to swim I would have remained dependent on him.

If Jesus, the Risen Lord, had stayed with the Apostles they would have remained in Jerusalem and never have gone to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

For the next eight years after learning to ride a bike I cycled to school twice each day -  if it was raining I'd take the bus - coming home for lunch, getting about an hour's exercise in the process without calling it that. And in a very real way my Dad was always with me because he had enabled me to acquire a skill that in turn gave me a new freedom that brought with it new responsibilities and new possibilities. New possibilities and the responsibilities that go with them continue to arise in my life as a priest.

 

Perhaps the biggest influence of Dad on my life was his practice of going to an early Mass every working day. A carpenter, he spent all his working life on construction sites and became a highly respected general foreman and mentor of young workers, including architects. During my secondary school years I felt drawn by his example to go to daily Mass. He never suggested that I do this. It was his example that spoke to me. I've no doubt that this was part of God's preparation for me to become a missionary priest.

And in the life of the Church, as in the life of each individual, new situations with their challenges are constantly arising. The one thing that we can be certain of as disciples of Jesus carrying out the mission he has entrusted to the Church, whatever our particular part may be in that, is the truth of his final words before his Ascension, And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

He is with us always through his Holy Spirit whose coming we will celebrate on 24 May, Pentecost Sunday.

Antiphona ad introitum  Entrance Antiphon Acts 1:11

Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in caelum? Men of Galilee, why gaze in wonder at the heavens?

Quemadmodum vidistis eum ascendentem in caelum, ita veniet, alleluia, [alleluia, alleluia]. This Jesus whom you saw ascending into heaven will return as you saw him go, alleluia, [alleluia, alleluia].

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A

These readings are used in regions where the Ascension is observed on Ascension Thursday.

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

Readings (New American Bible: parts of  the USA)

Gospel John 17 1-11 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Traditional Latin Mass

The Ascension of the Lord

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-14-2026 if necessary).

Lesson: Acts 1:1-11. Gospel: Mark 16:14-20.

The Ascension of Christ

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight (Acts 1:9; Lesson). 

Sunday After Ascension

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-17-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:7-11. Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:1-4.

St Peter Preaching

Masolino da Panicale [Web Gallery of Art]

Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8; Epistle).

Sunday Reflections, 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A, 10 May 2026

The Holy Family with the Father and the Holy Spirit

Carlo Dolci [Web Gallery of Art]

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17; Gospel).

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 14:15-21  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Last Supper

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Today's Gospel is taken from the Last Supper Discourse, found only in St John's Gospel. These are the last intimate words of Jesus to the Twelve Apostles before his death on Calvary the next day. He makes this promise to them: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

The Helper, the Spirit of truth, is the Holy Spirit whom the Father was to send on Pentecost Sunday to guide the Church until the return of Jesus in glory on the Last Day. The Holy Spirit guides us through the Holy Bible, through the teaching of the Church and through the many great teachers He has raised up down the centuries. One of those teachers was the author of the Letter to Diognetus, who lived towards the end of the first century AD and into the second. An extract from it was in the Office of Readings in the Breviary last Wednesday. Here is part of that. I have added emphases. 

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.

It was the upright lives of the followers of Jesus, especially in the area of chastity, that slowly transformed those around them. Countless Christians from every background, young and old, were martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ and, in many cases, out of contempt for their chastity. 

On Tuesday 12 May the Church honours three martyrs. Pope St Damasus writes of two of them: Nereus and Achilleus the martyrs joined the army and carried out the cruel orders of the tyrant, obeying his will continually out of fear. Then came a miracle of faith. They suddenly gave up their savagery, they were converted, they fled the camp of their evil leader, throwing away their shields, armor, and bloody spears. Professing the faith of Christ, they are happy to witness to its triumph. From these words of Damasus understand what great deeds can be brought about by Christ's glory. The third martyr honoured on 12 May is St Pancras, from Syria, who became a Christian when he went to Rome and was beheaded for his faith in Jesus Christ, at the age of 14.

The Letter to Diognetus speaks to today's world, especially in the West. Like others, [Christians] marry and have children, but they do not expose them. Another translation of those last few words reads, but they do not destroy their offspring. The killing of babies in the womb is now legal in most countries, in some jurisdictions right up to the moment of birth. And there are places where children who survive abortion are left to die, allowed by law.

Christians share their meals, but not their wives. In many Western countries now the very concept of family, consisting of husband, wife and children, has been undermined, with divorce becoming more and more common among those who have married, and sexual activity outside of marriage being accepted as normal, usually with no till death to us part involved. 

A parody of marriage is now legal and socially accepted in many countries, mostly in the West, and those who oppose 'marriage' between two persons of the same sex are often condemned as 'bigots'. Two generations ago the very idea of such a 'marriage' would have been laughed at.

What Genesis 1:27 teaches us, as does nature itself, is now being rejected more and more: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Legislators, some of them claiming to be 'devout Catholics', approve of the genital mutilation of minors, in some jurisdictions without the consent of their parents, in a vain and tragic effort to change their sex, an impossibility.

Language has been corrupted to bring all of this about. Terms such as 'the gender assigned at birth' instead of the sex of a person being a given from the moment of conception, as science teaches us, are being widely used in order to dehumanise us. We are being asked to worship false gods just as Saints Nereus, Achilleus and Pancras were asked to do. They gave their lives for Jesus Christ rather than do that.

Every moment of our life, everything we do, every decision we make, are meant to be informed by our faith in Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, as Jesus described himself in last Sunday's Gospel. We know that he loves us, that he died for us, that he rose again in glory, that he and the Father have sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, that he will come to judge us on the Last Day when everything will be seen clearly.

The description of the life Christians are called to in the letter to Diognetus written 1,800 years ago speaks to today's world, especially the Western world, now a post-Christian world, but a world where the Holy Spirit still can fill us with wisdom and courage to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I will finish with two quotations that reflect what the Letter to Diognetus says. One is on the top of the homepage of this blog: Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon). 

The other is from the Venerable Sr Lucia of Fatima OCD which I found in Magnificat - a monthly liturgical publication I can recommend unreservedly - and is a reflection for the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, celebrated on 13 May. Sr Lucia writes: From the moment of our conception, our life continues through time and goes on to eternity, where it will abide. As long as we live on this earth we are pilgrims on the way to heaven, if we keep to the way that God has marked out for us. This is the most important thing in our lives: that we should behave in such a way as to ensure that, when we depart from this world and at the end of time, we shall deserve to hear from the lips of Jesus Christ those consoling words: 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.

+++

David Carlin, in an article in The Catholic Thing three years ago, describes what has happened in recent decades in the Western world and in the USA in particular in Logical, but Mad.

If Ye Love Me

Music by Thomas Tallis (c.1605 – 1685)

Sung by The Mancunium Consort

Text: If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; e’en the Spirit of truth (John 14:15-17; King James Version).

This is from today’s Gospel and includes the words of the Communion Antiphon.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fifth Sunday After Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-10-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:22-27. Gospel: John 16:23-30.

The Penitent Magdalen

Georges de La Tour [Web Gallery of Art]

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:23-25; Epistle).

                                                                  

Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Easter, Year A, 3 May 2026

 

Apostle St Thomas

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life"  (John 14:5-6; Gospel).

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 14:1-12  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.’ 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Apostle St Philip

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us”  (John 14:8; Gospel).

The first time I met Philip was when we started together in June 1947 in the boys' kindergarten  in Stanhope Street, Dublin, run by the Irish Sisters of Charity, now known as the Religious Sisters of Charity. They were founded in Dublin in 1815 by Mother Mary Aikenhead. The last time Philip and I met was in July 2019 in Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, Dublin, founded by the same Sisters in 1879. 

Philip was the youngest in his family and the last to die and I realised that I had known him longer than anyone else living. After kindergarten, where we made our First Holy Communion together on 20 May 1950, we went to different primary schools but were to go through secondary school together. We lived near each other and became friends shortly before we started in secondary school and soon became best friends. In our last two years in O'Connell Schools, Dublin, run by the Irish Christian Brothers, I often went to Philip's house in the evening to get some help in mathematics. Those visits always included a cup of tea and something to eat and I got to know his family very well, as he go to know mine. Anytime he visited my home my mother would later say, He’s a well-mannered boy. Philip fully supported my decision to become a Columban priest and attended my first Mass on 21 December 1967 in Holy Family Church, Aughrim Street, our parish church, along with Barbara to whom he was engaged. Two months later I officiated at their wedding.

On the evening of 24 July I got a message asking me to visit Philip in Our Lady's Hospice. This was a shock to me and I went to Dublin the following day. When I entered his room the first thing he asked me to do was to give him the Last Rites and to help him prepare for the end. I will never forget what he said to me after I had done that: I have always trusted in Jesus. May he now trust in me.

Philip had always been a man of quiet but deep faith. After his death one of our class described him in an email to me as a humble, charitable person who always put others before himself. The way he kept the Class of ’61 together was a sign of the love he had for others. (He had been the main organiser of gatherings of our Class of '61.) Philip was a just man, as St Matthew describes St Joseph (Mt 1:19), one who had followed Jesus who said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. It was a great blessing for me to be with Philip as a priest and life-long friend as he prepared for death.

Pope Benedict XVI constantly emphasised that our faith is in a Person, Jesus Christ, God who became Man. In his Regina Caeli talk on this Sunday in 2011 he said [emphases added], Faith in Jesus entails following him daily, in the simple actions that make up our day. 'It is part of the mystery of God that he acts so gently, that he only gradually builds up his history within the great history of mankind; that he becomes man and so can be overlooked by his contemporaries and by the decisive forces within history; that he suffers and dies and that, having risen again, he chooses to come to mankind only through the faith of the disciples to whom he reveals himself; that he continues to knock gently at the doors of our hearts and slowly opens our eyes if we open our doors to him'.

The Pope goes on to say, For Christians, for each one of us, hence, the way to the Father is to allow ourselves to be guided by Jesus, by his word of truth, and to receive the gift of his life.

Dear friends, the commitment to proclaim Jesus Christ, ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (Jn 14:6), is the main task of the Church. Let us invoke the Virgin Mary that she may always assist the Pastors and those in the different ministries to proclaim the Good News of salvation, that the Word of God may be spread and the number of disciples multiplied (cf. Acts 6:7; First Reading).

The Apostle Philip, who was to lay down his life for Jesus, asked him, Show us the Father. I pray that Jesus has shown the Father to my friend Philip and to all our loved ones who have gone ahead of us.

Bring Flowers of the Rarest

This hymn, very popular in Ireland when Philip and I were young, particularly in May, was written by Mary E. Walsh in the late 1800s. The words are here. It was sung by the late Irish tenor Frank Patterson at the Faith of Our Fathers concert in Dublin in 1997. Frank was a deeply committed Catholic and died in 2000 at the age of 61. May he rest in peace.

Garland of Flowers with Madonna and Child

Christiaen Luyck [Web Gallery of Art]

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday After Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-03-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:17-21. Gospel: John 16:5-14.

Christ as Saviour

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13; Gospel).