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).
He was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him (Matthew 17:2-3; Gospel).
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)
Readings(English
Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)
GospelMatthew 17:1-19(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time: Jesus
took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high
mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone
like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared
to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it
is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for
you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He was still speaking when, behold,
a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ When the disciples
heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and
touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’ And when they lifted up their
eyes, they saw no one, but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the
mountain, Jesus commanded them, ‘Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man
is raised from the dead.’
Like Peter, James and John, I caught a glimpse of something of the Purity of God on a hill. Tradition tells us that Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor, Israel. My 'Mount Tabor' was a hotel at the top of a hill in Lourdes, France.
During Holy Week 2001 I took part in the international pilgrimage of Faith and Light to Lourdes which takes place every ten years. Faith and Light was born of a desire to help people with an intellectual disability and their families find their place within the Church and society. This was the main purpose of the organized pilgrimage to Lourdes at Easter of 1971.
I was based in Britain at the time and travelled with a group from the north of England. However, before I left the Philippines for Britain in 2000 I had been invited to be chaplain to the small contingent from the Philippines, as I had been involved with Faith and Light in the Philippines, mostly on the fringes, between 1992 and 2000.
The Filipinos were staying in a hotel at a distance from the shrine and at the top of a hill. There was also a group of Faith and Light pilgrims from Hong Kong, including Fr Giosue Bonzi PIME, an Italian, in the same hotel. (I was with the English pilgrims in a hotel close to the shrine.)
One of those from Hong Kong was Dorothy, a girl of about eleven with Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21). Her father died suddenly when she was very young. Dorothy's face had the delicate beauty of Chinese ceramics. But she had an extraordinary inner beauty, a purity that could have come only from God. Though I had no Cantonese and she had no English, we were able to communicate simply by looking at one another. She showed complete trust in me. She had a vulnerability that called forth the deepest respect.
Fr Giosue
Bonzi PIME with Dorothy, now an adult, in Hong Kong
In Irish there's an expression used for a person
with a severe mental or learning disability, duine le Dia, 'a
person with God'. Dorothy was such for me, in a very full sense of that phrase:
she was a clear expression of the beauty and of the purity of God to me.
The Opening Prayer of today's Mass reads:
O God, who have commanded us
to listen to your beloved Son,
be pleased, we pray,
to nourish us inwardly by your word,
that, with spiritual sight made pure,
we may rejoice to behold your glory.
Through . . .
When Peter, James and John went up Mount Tabor
with Jesus they had no idea that would see the divinity of Jesus there. They
had no idea they would hear God the Father say This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased; listen to him. The Entrance Antiphon, taken from Psalm 26 [27], prays, It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me. I have no doubt that I saw the face of the Lord in that young girl with
Down Syndrome from Hong Kong whom I met in Lourdes in Holy Week 2001.
Jesus may speak to us at any time,
unexpectedly, as he revealed his presence to me in that hotel at the top of a
hill in Lourdes. May we make the Opening Prayer our own so that, with
spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.
Immaculate
Mary (The Lourdes Hymn)
Traditional
Pyrenean melody arranged by James Doig
He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them,
and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased; listen to him' (Matthew 17:5; Gospel).
GospelMatthew 4:1-11(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time:
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
And the tempter
came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to
become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’
Then the devil
took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the Temple and said to
him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He
will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you
up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus said to him,
‘Again it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’
Again, the
devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you
will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it
is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you
serve.” ’ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
I
remember vividly a homily on this gospel when I was in the seminary, around
1965. The preacher was a saintly Columban, Fr Edward McCormack, known to us as
‘Father Ted’, though he was a far cry from the Father Ted in the British comedy
TV series about a group of priests in a remote part of Ireland. It wasn’t so
much the preacher’s words as the sense of the horror he conveyed of the very
idea of Satan trying to tempt Jesus Christ, God who became Man, that struck me
and that still remains. Father Ted conveyed to me a sense of the horror of what
sin is.
Lent
is a time in which we can receive the grace of knowing something of the horror
of sin and of the price that our loving God paid in order to save us from being
lost in it. Lent is a time when the whole Church prepares to celebrate the
Resurrection of Jesus at Easter. We can’t do that without going through Good
Friday and all that led to that.
An
essential part of going through Lent, and one that involves some pain, is
accepting responsibility for our personal sins and asking God’s forgiveness in
the sacrament of confession or reconciliation. This is an expression of God’s
love for us as sinners, a sacrament in which Jesus gives us the grace to resist
the temptations of Satan as he did in the gospel.
One person who understood the
depths of God's love in the sacrament of confession was the Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925). In the videos above and below
the scriptwriter, the late Fr Desmond Forristal of the Archdiocese of Dublin,
uses the artistic device of having Matt tell his own story while walking
through the streets of Dublin 60 years after his death. It's a device that for
me works remarkably well.
Matt Talbot was a Dubliner who had become an
alcoholic by the age of 13 or 14 and spent the next fourteen years as a
drunkard. He went to the extreme once of stealing a fiddle from a beggar and
pawned it to get money for drink. It was his only living, Matt
tells us in the video, and I think that was the worst thing I ever did
in my life. Matt made many efforts later to trace the beggar but never
succeeded.
Yet during his fourteen years of drinking Matt
hardly ever missed Sunday Mass, though he didn't receive Holy Communion,
and always said a Hail Mary before sleeping. I think that's what
saved me in the long run, he tells us.
At the beginning of the second video - each video
is less than 15 minutes - Matt, masterfully played by Irish
actor Séamus Forde, goes through a soul-wrenching temptation right at
Communion time, something that happens the same Sunday morning at Mass in three
different churches, a temptation that drives him out of each, until he falls on
his knees outside one of them and prays Jesus, mercy; Mary help, a
prayer that most Dubliners would have been familiar with.
Matt Talbot
The second video shows Matt sending a
donation to the Maynooth Mission to China, as the Columbans were first known in
Ireland, some time in the mid-1920s. The note he enclosed is in the Columban
archives. The amount, one pound from himself and ten shillings (half of a
pound) from his sister, was considerable for poor people.
Towards the end of the video Matt
speaks of the things God had asked him to do. He put these thoughts in
my mind when I was praying - and I knew they came from him. Only the priest
in confession knew about these special things, small things God wanted
me to do. They weren't for anybody else.
Among the special things, small
things were the chains he wore on certain occasions. It was these very
chains, found on his body when he died, that led to people asking
questions about me . . . God must have wanted it that way . . . using me to say
something to people today, now.
Lent is a gift that God gives the
Church each year, a personal gift to each member of the Church, a time when he
wants to put these thoughts in my mind when I am praying.
During his life Matt Talbot was the
farthest thing imaginable from the 'celebrities' of today. In the 100 years
since his death in 1925 he has given hope to many, especially persons
struggling with alcoholism and other addictions.
Will I allow God this Lent to put
whatever thoughts he wants to in my mind by giving him time in prayer? Will I
allow him, as Mary did when she said Here am I, the servant of the
Lord; let it be with me according to your word, to use me to say
something to people today, now?
Will I fall on my knees in moments of
great temptation, as Matt did during the terrible struggle he had right at
Communion time three times on that one Sunday morning, perhaps reflecting the
three temptations of the Lord in today's gospel, and plead Jesus,
mercy, Mary help?
Will I allow myself to experience God's
merciful love for me as a sinner through the sacrament of confession as Matt
did?
They thought I was missing the good things in life. But God gave me the best
part - and he never took it away.
Dubliners refer to older churches by their street names rather than by their patronal names. The church above, which Matt calls 'Gardiner Street church', is that of the Jesuits. Matt also refers a number of times to the 'chapel' in Seville Place, the Church of St Laurence O'Toole, once Archbishop of Dublin and now one of its two patron saints of the city and archdiocese, the other being St Kevin. This is another old Dublin usage, calling a church a 'chapel'. The accent and idioms of Matt in the two videos are pure Dublin.
When I was a child my mother, when 'going into town', i.e. into the city centre, would sometimes go through Granby Lane and we'd pray at the spot where Matt died. Everyone in Dublin then knew who Matt Talbot was. I'm not so sure about today.
You can discover more about this wonderful man, venerated by many struggling with alcoholism and other addictions, here and by googling.
Snowdrops, St Columban's Dalgan Park
19 February 2023
Pope St Leo the Great
Office of Readings, Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Dearly beloved, the earth is always filled with the mercy of the Lord. For every one of us Christians nature is full of instruction that we should worship God. The heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is within them, proclaim the goodness and the almighty power of their maker. The wonderful beauty of these inferior elements of nature demands that we, intelligent beings, should give thanks to God.
Traditional Latin Mass
First Sunday in Lent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-22-2026 if necessary).
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10. Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11.
GospelMatthew 5:17-37(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law
or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly,
I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will
pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of
the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be
called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them
will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.
‘You have heard
that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders
will be liable to judgement.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with
his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be
liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell
of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that
your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar
and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court,
lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and
you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you
have paid the last penny.
‘You have heard
that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it
out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than
that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to
sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your
members than that your whole body go into hell.
‘It was also
said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.”
But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of
sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced
woman commits adultery.
‘Again you have
heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall
perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” But I say to you: Do not take an oath
at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it
is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do
not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let
what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from evil.’
Shorter form of the Gospel
GospelMatthew 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples:
'For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
'You have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement.’" But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, "You fool!" will be liable to the hell of fire.
'You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery."But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
'Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn."But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
'Let what you say be simply "Yes" or "No"; anything more than this comes from evil.'
Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA)
More than forty years ago I spent part of a summer working in a parish near New York City. One day when I was on duty I answered the phone. The caller gave me his name, which I wrote down. He told me he was living in an irregular situation, having been divorced from his wife. He was asking what the Church could do for him in that situation. I tried to tell him about programmes that the Church had in the diocese for Catholics who were divorced and re-married civilly or living with someone else. The latter situation wasn't nearly as common then as it is now.
But he was getting more and more angry, though I remained calm. He eventually hung up.
I was able to find his mailing address easily on the parish register and wrote him a letter letting him know that I had understood his situation and the reason for his anger and frustration. Again, I informed him of the ways the Church was trying to be with those who found themselves in situations such as his.
The following day I had another phone call from the man. He thanked me profusely for my letter, for having listened to him and for having heard what he was trying to say. He also acknowledged that he was in a situation that he himself had created.
Today's Gospel shows us a Jesus who is somewhat different from the 'domesticated' meek and mild Jesus that we often imagine or create. He speaks of hard things: the consequences of breaking God's law, the necessity of forgiving and accepting forgiveness, the fruits of anger - not the feeling, which is something spontaneous, but the decision to remain angry/to hate - and the effects of adultery. Some of the most difficult parts of today's gospel may be omitted and probably will be by many priests, for various reasons.
The media at the moment are giving lots of coverage to how the Church approaches those who are living with someone not their spouse. One might be led to think that the Church is being harsh for the sake of being harsh, imposing impossible difficulties on some of its members and failing to be 'merciful' and 'pastoral'.
In 2014 Fr Edward McNamara LC in zenit.org, a Catholic news agency, replied to a question about this very matter. He quotes from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos 1650 and 1651. The latter says, Toward Christians who live in this situation, and who often keep the faith and desire to bring up their children in a Christian manner, priests and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and must participate as baptized persons: 'They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace.
I have friends in such situations and in visiting parishes in Britain to do mission appeals for the Columbans I met couples in irregular situations who were very much involved in their parishes, but who accepted the teaching of Jesus, expressed through his Church, and live with that painful reality which they know they have created for themselves, for whatever reasons.
In the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) we find this exchange at the end:
Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, sir.'And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.'
Jesus shows the woman the greatest respect. Part of that respect is not denying that she had sinned. She knew that she had. God alone knew what had been going on in her heart. Jesus restored her dignity to her, gave her hope: Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.
Jesus has taught us very clearly what marriage is: Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?' He answered, 'Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh"? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate' (Matthew 19:3-6).
This is a hard saying. Many utterly reject it, even the part about male and female. Others wrestle with the consequences of not accepting the teaching of Jesus when they find themselves in difficult situations.
Some think, wrongly, that the Church does not allow anyone who is divorced to receive Holy Communion. That is not quite accurate. Some are. An ongoing seriously sinful situation is created when two persons, at least one of whom is married in the eyes of the Church, choose to live together whether after a civil wedding or otherwise. The same, of course, applies to any two persons not married to each other who live together in a sexually intimate relationship. That is a choice people make. But if a divorced person lives a chaste life he or she isn't living in a sinful situation. The First Reading (Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20) makes it very clear that God gives us the freedom to choose - and that there are consequences to the choices we make:
If you desire, you will keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of choice.
He has placed before you fire and water:
stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.
Life and death are in front of people,
and whichever one chooses will be given to him.
For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows a person’s every deed.
He has not commanded anyone to be ungodly,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
The response in the responsorial psalm, which is an echo of the first reading, is Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord! (NAB). This is taken from Psalm 119 [118], as are the verses used in the responsorial psalm. this is the longest psalm, 176 verses in groups of eight in praise of God's law as something that makes us free.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus challenges us in every aspect of our lives. He challenges us to think with a new mindset. St Paul expresses it well: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). That means taking to heart the words that Jesus repeated a number of times in the Sermon on the Mount: You have heard that it was said . . . But I say to you . . .
Angel of God
Angel of God
Composed by Blaž Strmole, sung by Voces8 & Ingenium
One of the first prayers I
learned in kindergarten was that to our Guardian Angel. I had never heard it
set to music before. This setting was uploaded to YouTube on 6 February. It is by Blaž Strmole, a young Slovenian composer and musician and founder of
Ingenium. I have often featured Voces8 and here the two ensembles sing together.
TEXT
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
to whom God’s love commits me here,
ever this night be at my side,
to light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen.
Traditional Latin Mass
Quinquagesima Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-15-2026 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Gospel: Luke 18:31-43.
Transfiguration
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Transfiguration (Cell 6)
