Sunday Reflections, 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. 14 June 2026

 

The Harvest (Breton Landscape)

Émile Bernard [Web Gallery of Art]

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest (Matthew 9:37-38; 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 Matthew 9:36-10:8 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve Apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

St Margaret Mary Alacoque Contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Corrado Giaquinto [Web Gallery of Art]

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly . . .  God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6, 8; Second Reading). 

At breakfast three years ago on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (celebrated this year on Friday 12 June), I overheard one of my brother priests pointing out that our faith is not about sin but about God's love for us. The Second Reading at the Mass of the Sacred Heart included theses words of St John that we need 'drummed' into us constantly: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:10-11).

Loving and serving others comes from the reality that God has shown his love for us as sinners to the extent that the Second Person of the Trinity became one of us and died for us on the Cross. In the Second Reading at this Sunday's Mass St Paul tell us: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:10-11). In the Jerusalem Bible translation that last verse reads: We are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.

The First Reading tells us what we are called to be: and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6).

The Responsorial Psalm reinforces this: Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock (Psalm 99 [100]: 3).

The opening words of the Gospel show us how God sees us when we are in need, when we sin and turn away from him: When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. That is why he died for us.

That is why the Church has made June the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Church invites us to reflect constantly on St Paul's words to us today: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ in Agony on the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

In recent decades, most notably in the Western world, the month of June has been hijacked by a powerful international lobby that takes 'Pride' in and promotes sinful ways of behaving and living that deny the reality that God has made us male and female. God teaches us this through nature itself. The more extreme wing of this movement demands that children and adolescents be allowed to change their sex, something that is impossible. They use nonsensical, unscientific terms such as 'the gender assigned at birth'. This is corrupt language that corrupts culture, society and individuals, that cuts us off from God our loving Creator. We're not assigned anything at birth. We are either male or female human beings made in the image of God from the moment of conception.

This extreme lobby promotes the genital mutilation of minors; it promotes cheating in women's sports by allowing men to participate in them; it promotes contempt for women and girls by allowing men who say that they are women into the private spaces of women and girls. All of this is a form of abuse.

Fr Paul D. Scalia of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, USA, has an article in The Catholic Thing, Pride and Prejudice, that shows how pervasive this false ideology has become, especially in the United States. This article concludes with words of hope for all, reflective of the readings in this Sunday's Mass.

Humility! is not quite as effective a battle cry as Pride! Humility is hard to embrace because it always carries the stinging reminder of our created and fallen nature – that we neither create nor save ourselves. Pride presumes the power to define ourselves and to brush off the creaturely limits of male and female. In so doing, it closes itself off from – it becomes intolerant of – a Savior.

Humility opens us to the Savior who has opened his Heart to us. 'Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart' (Matthew 11:29). The feast of the Sacred Heart bids us open our hearts in humility to the One who has opened his Heart in humility to us. It is a fitting feast to turn away from the pride that divides and toward the humility that saves. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine!

The Sacred Heart

[Library of Congress]

Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34).

Salve Regina, Madrid, 7 June 2026

Traditional Latin Mass

Third Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-14-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 5:6-11. Gospel: Luke 15:1-10.

Parable of the Lost Drachma

Domenico Fetti [Web Gallery of Art]

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? (Luke 15:8; Gospel).

 

     

                                                                        

 

Sunday Reflections, Corpus Christi, Year A. 7 June 2026

Institution of the Eucharist

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Corinthians 10:16-17; Second Reading). 

Corpus Christi Sunday, Year A

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A 

In most countries this solemnity, formerly celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, is now observed on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday, this year replacing the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. 

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 6:51-58 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said to the Jews, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’

 So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

  

Pope Benedict XVI, Zagreb, Croatia, 2011

[Wikipedia; photo]

John and Pam are a couple who live in the parish of the Assumption, Howth, in the Archdiocese of Dublin whom I have come to know very well through Worldwide Marriage Encounter since I came back to Ireland from the Philippines nine years ago. John was seriously ill in hospital three years ago and shared some reflections with me in emails which I thought would be good to share on Sunday Reflections with his permission for the feast of Corpus Christi. He has kindly given me permission to use his reflection again this year. Please pray for Stephen, the sone of John and Pam who is recovering from serious surgery.

From a small swelling below my left knee I developed sepsis and suffered septic shock late at night in which my vital signs: heartbeat, pulse, disappeared. My guardian angel must have been watching over me because Pam, my beloved of 53 years [now 56], was sitting beside me and her nursing training acquired 60 years ago, sprang into action as she gave me the kiss of life and applied CPR. 

Fortunately, Pam’s action was successful. I came to and the ambulance brought me to Beaumont Hospital where I received extraordinary care from a dedicated team for 3½ weeks as they worked to bring the infection under control, which has been a slow business. Thankfully I have now been discharged and continue to recover at home under Pam’s dedicated care.

It has been a time for reflection. Our wonderful parish community - the Body of Christ - has been praying for me as has our faithful Marriage Encounter family.

53 years ago, Pam and I vowed to live as one body as Jesus called us in Matrimony to do. Now Pam, who is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion in our parish, has been bringing me the Body of Christ, broken for us on the Cross and risen to Easter glory, to receive in my hospital bed and now at home. It has been extraordinarily profound for both of us. St Paul links the various meanings of ‘body’ together.

I have to assume that the Lord still has some task for me that I may neither know nor understand at this moment.

I was pretty poorly in hospital and had some dark nights of the soul, unable to sleep and wondering if I would ever really recover. However there were always others more ill than me in the ward.

As expected, we’ve had extraordinary love and prayers from our Marriage Encounter Family. One couple, Mike and Rose, have kindly been keeping everyone up-to-date on my faltering progress.

However what has been perhaps less expected has been the outpouring of love and prayers from our daily 10:00 Mass community in our parish church in Howth that I join every day via the webcam. I have had a real tangible experience of belonging to a community who truly love me and Pam. It has been an alive experience that St Luke describes so vividly in Acts referring to the early Christian communities. Both Pam and I feel humbled by it all and this outpouring of love, prayer and support has so buoyed me up especially through the darker moments.

The idea of Body is a strong theme running through St Paul’s letters. There is Jesus offering his Body broken on the Cross to be gloriously raised on Easter Day. Jesus himself tells us [in today’s gospel] that unless we eat his Body and drink his Blood we shall not have his life in us. He it was who raised marriage to be a Sacrament by calling Pam and me and countless others to live as One Body.

Paul develops this by identifying the Christian Community as Christ’s Body with the members looking out for other members. We have experienced this in huge and tangible measure pressed down and over-flowing. 

Pam and I are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and if asked, we stand in the middle of the church and it has often occurred to me that we as a married couple called to be one body by Jesus, are serving his Body to the Body of Christ in our parish. This became a deep thought in my present illness, watching Pam receive the pyx with the Blessed Sacrament in it at the end of Mass to bring the Lord to me on my sick bed.

Love (III)

By George Herbert

Read by Ben W Smith

Supper at Emmaus (1606)

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-07-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 3:13-18. Gospel: Luke 14:16-24.

St John the Evangelist

Bernardo Cavallino [Web Gallery of Art]

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (I John 3:16; Epistle). 

                                                                      

Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday Year A, 31 May 2026

The Coronation of the Virgin

Velázquez [Web Gallery of Art]

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16, 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 3:16-18 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Adoration of the Holy Trinity (Landauer Altar)

Albrecht Dürer [Web Gallery of Art]

Three years ago I visited a parish in Dublin for a mission appeal on behalf of the Columbans with Angie Escarsa, a Columban lay missionary from Zambales, Philippines, who has been here in Ireland since the late 1990s. I concelebrated and preached at the Saturday evening Mass.

I noticed a young man in a hospital-style wheelchair-bed up near the altar-rails with his parents. I observed how they cared for him during Mass, with devotion and tenderness. I briefly met the family afterwards and learned that the young man had been very badly injured in an accident. It was clear that he needed full-time care.

On Sunday morning another Columban, Fr Dermot Carthy, concelebrated and preached. He is a native of the parish who came home four years ago from Peru where he had worked for 62 years. I simply attended Mass and stayed at the back of the church. (This can be a good experience for a priest from time to time.) I noticed an elderly couple two pews in front of me, both of them white-haired and not very tall. The wife helped her husband a number of times to stand, doing so in a way that indicated a tender love for the man she had spent most of her life with - 61 years as I learned when I met them after Mass. I told them that they had made my day, which they had. The face of the wife lit up when I said this. 

I noticed a young family at the Mass, husband, wife and four children, three girls and a boy. The eldest was in her white First Communion dress, as she had made her First Holy Communion the day before. I saw only one other girl in her Communion dress. When I made my First Holy Communion in 1950 every child would be at Mass the following Sunday, the girls in their white dresses, the boys in their new suits with a white rosette attached to the left lapel of their jacket. I met the family briefly after Mass and told the parents that they too had made my day, which they had.

I saw in each of these couples and families a reflection of the Holy Trinity. We are made in God's image and God is a Community of Three Persons, eternally generating life and drawing us into that life. Each of the three couples I met had shared in that power of generating life through marriage. The elderly couple had grown old gracefully, no doubt with many difficulties as well as joys along the way, but clearly loving each other with the love of Jesus the Risen Lord whom they had given to each other in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Their serenity spoke to me of God's love, of the life-giving Trinity in whom I find my origin and with whom I hope to spend eternity.

The middle-aged couple were carrying a heavy load, but with great love. They had generated their son with God's own loving power of creating which He had shared with them through their marriage. Now they were sharing together in carrying the cross with Jesus whom they had given to each other as the source of their love for each other when they exchanged their marriage vows. They understand the meaning of the words for better, for worse in those vows. The extraordinary love for their adult son who cannot look after himself comes from the heart of the Blessed Trinity.

I constantly marvel at the willingness of young married couples to bring children into the world and to raise them. This speaks particularly powerfully to me when I see parents raising their children in the Faith. I am blessed to know such couples and families and am aware that it is not at all uncommon for couples to have a child - or a parent - who needs special care.

In the lives of each of us there are individuals, married couples and families, often unaware that they are gifts of God to others, who draw us into the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16).

For Irish Readers

The legend is that St Patrick explained the Trinity by holding up a shamrock. There are three leaves but only one shamrock.

Preamble to the Constitution of Ireland

In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,

We, the people of Éire,

Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,

Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation,

And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations,

Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution.

The Preamble has no legal force but is an expression of values. In 2015 the voters of Ireland changed the Constitution so that same-sex 'marriage' could be introduced. In doing so they removed  any connection between marriage and bringing new life into the world. In 2018 the voters, the majority baptised and confirmed Catholics, amended the Constitution to allow the killing of babies in their mothers' wombs. Both decisions were implicitly a rejection of the eternally life-giving Holy Trinity. Explicitly they were a rejection of life-giving and and of life.

Benedictus sit Deus

Setting by Mozart who composed this music when he was twelve.

Antiphona ad introitum   Entrance Antiphon (Cf. Tobit 12:6)

Benedictus sit Deus Pater, Unigenitusque Dei Filius, Sanctus quoque Spiritus, quia fecit nobisum misericordiam suam.

Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.

Traditional Latin Mass

Trinity Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-31-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 11:33-36. Gospel: Matthew 28:18-20.

Holy Trinity and the Saints in Glory

Sebastiano Conca [Web Gallery of Art]

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 (Matthew 28:19; Gospel).

     

                         

 

Sunday Reflections, Pentecost, Year A, 24 May 2026

 

Pentecost

Sir Anthony van Dyck [Web Gallery of Art]

Pentecost Sunday, at the Vigil Mass . 

NB: The Vigil Mass has its own prayers and readings. Those for the Mass During the Day on Sunday should not be used – though some priests seem to be unaware of this. It is incorrect to refer to this Vigil Mass as an ‘anticipated Mass’. It is a celebration proper to the evening before Pentecost Sunday and may be celebrated in an extended form. It also fulfils the Sunday obligation.  

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA

Gospel John 7:37-39 (English Standard Version, Anglicised) 

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Mass During the Day, Year A

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 20:19-23 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Confession

Giuseppe Maria Crespi [Web Gallery of Art]

In the summer of 1982 I did a number of short supplies for priests in parishes in a diocese in the western USA. In one parish where I spent only a weekend I found a note that had been shoved under the front door on Monday morning and addressed to me. There was no signature but it was written in the style of a teenage girl.

Very often anonymous letters are negative and condemnatory of the receiver. This was the very opposite. I don’t remember what the gospel reading of the Sunday was but it highlighted the mercy of God and that is what I had preached about. Whatever I said touched the writer of the note profoundly. She wrote that for years she had hated God. I’ve no idea why or of what had been troubling her. She might well have been the victim of some awful act of another. But when at that Sunday Mass she heard the Good News that God is a forgiving God and that he loves each of us individually and unconditionally she was able to let go of the hatred, if that is what it really was, and of the anger in her heart and accept God’s love. She wrote that for the first time in years she went to Holy Communion.

As we celebrate the Descent of the Holy Spirit the gospel today tells us that the Risen Lord, appearing to the Apostles, breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any it is withheld. 

One of the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit to the Church is the power to forgive in God’s name, to enable us to hear Jesus say to us what he said to the Apostles twice in today’s short gospel reading, Peace be with you. This is the gift he offered at the Last Supper.

This is the gift God gives us most especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, what many of us still call Confession or Penance.   It is the way in which God, through the Church and specifically through the sacrament of Holy Orders, brings back into communion with him those who have turned away from him through mortal sin, that is a sin involving grave matter, a clear awareness that it is such and full and deliberate consent to the act. To go to confession in that situation is a matter of urgency, to be done before we go to Holy Communion again. Then Holy Communion becomes a true celebration of the full communion that God wants each of us to have with him.

But the sacrament is also a great help to those who are faithfully following Jesus but who sometimes take to byways down which God is not calling them, byways that lead into sin. Though the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not essential for the forgiveness of such sins it is the special way given by God through the Holy Spirit for that. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

The priest too is a sinner and each time he goes to confession himself he understands the struggle to overcome shame of those who come to him to confess their sins and to receive from him the forgiveness of a merciful and understanding God.

I left that parish on Monday morning and did not know who had shoved the note under the door. I’ve no idea what became of the writer. Perhaps she went to confession shortly after. Very likely she hadn’t committed any grave sin but had suffered greatly because of the actions of another; But whatever the situation was she had a profound experience of God’s mercy that Sunday, something like that of Zacchaeus, like that of the woman caught in adultery, like that of the Prodigal Son.

The gospels don’t tell us what subsequently became of Zacchaues or of the woman caught in adultery. But we know that the Holy Spirit profoundly touched their hearts, healed their wounds and changed their lives as Jesus passed by. And I know that the Holy Spirit profoundly touched the heart and healed the wounds of that young woman in the western USA parish as Jesus ‘passed by’ that Sunday morning through a priest who spent only two nights there.

The Sequence in today’s Mass, Veni Sancte Spiritus, ‘Come, Holy Spirit’, expresses something of that in the seventh stanza:

Lava quod est sordidum, Heal our wounds, our strength renew,

Riga quod est aridum, On our dryness pour your dew,

Sana quod est saucium. Wash the stains of guilt away.

 

The Lock

John Constable [Web Gallery of Art]

The response for the Responsorial Psalm in the Sunday Mass is: Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth. This is from Psalm 103 [104], the great psalm of creation, verses from which are used in the Responsorial Psalm, which includes these words: You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth. This is a reminder to us that as Christians we are called by the Holy Spirit to respect and take care of everything that God has created so that it may continue to bring life and not death. Six times in the account of creation in Genesis 1:1-31 we read, And God saw that it was good. The seventh time we read, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ captures something of the presence of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of creation and life in the closing lines of his poem God’s Grandeur:

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent 

World broods with warm heart and with ah! Bright wings.

God's Grandeur

by Gerard Manley Hopkins, read by Jonathan Roumie

Traditional Latin Mass

Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-24-2026 if necessary).

Lesson: Acts 2:1-11. Gospel: John 14:23-31.

Pentecost

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them (Acts 2:3; Lesson).