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).

 

 

     

Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Easter, Year A, 26 April 2026

 

The Good Shepherd

Marten van Cleve the Elder [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 John 10:1-10  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.’ This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’

 Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

Brother Richie Fernando SJ

27 February 1970 - 17 October 1996

I remember vividly reading of the death in Cambodia on 17 October 1996 of Brother Richard Michael R. Fernando SJ, known as ‘Richie’. As a missionary priest in the Philippines I felt both pride and sorrow that a young Filipino preparing for the priesthood had given his life for others without a moment’s hesitation at the Jesuit-run Banteay Prieb, 'Centre of the Dove', in Phnom Penh where the residents were young Cambodians who had lost limbs from the many landmines scattered around the country.

A young man named Sarom, who had been asked to leave the Centre, came that day to a meeting. He entered a classroom where there were many young people and took a hand-grenade out of his bag, intending to throw it. Brother Richie, who had been assigned to Cambodia for two years as part of his preparation for the priesthood, grabbed Sarom from behind. But the grenade fell on the floor. Brother Richie covering it with his body. He died instantly but nobody else was even injured.

The one word used by those who knew Brother Richie well was ‘joy’, the joy that Jesus spoke about the night before he died: I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete (John 15:11). These words echo those at the end of today’s Gospel: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

On 12 October, five days before his death, Brother Richie wrote this letter to his friend, Fr Totet Banaynal SJ, who was then a brother:

I only have the will to cause things to happen. Maybe my will is powerful enough. I know where my heart is...it is with Jesus Christ, Jesus who gave His all for the poor, the sick, the orphan. I feel as if I’m beginning to understand more when I say: I want to be like Christ; I will follow Jesus; I’m Jesus’ friend and companion; I am a Jesuit; I know where my heart is.

I remember you shared before that ‘I can die for Cambodia.’ I honestly believe that to die for our poor friends here will be the greatest gift that God can give us. And I continually pray for that grace every day.

I discovered my life is not a project nor a program. I know I can choose and will things to happen. But in the end, my life is a grace, filled with surprises. It becomes sweeter when I accept and appreciate my life as it is... and our friendship... it wasn’t a project. It was grace and we build on that grace.

Brother Richie wrote in his retreat diary on 3 January 1996: I wish, when I die people remember Not how great, powerful, or talented I was But that I served and spoke for the truth, I gave witness to what is right, I was sincere with all my works and actions, in other words I loved and I followed Christ. Amen.

The Jesuits in the Philippines have now initiated the process that may lead to the beatification and canonisation of Brother Richie. There is quite an amount of material about Brother Richie on the internet.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Regina Caeli / Queen of Heaven

Regina Caeli / Queen of Heaven

Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia. /Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia. / Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia. /Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia. /Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia. /Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. / For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia. / Has risen, as he said, alleluia. / Pray for us to God, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. [The prayer is not sung in either version here but is included in private recitation.]

The ancient Latin hymn Regina Caeli replaces the Angelus during the Easter Season and is sung at the end of Compline (Night Prayer). Above it is sung by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain.

Below is a setting by Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548 - 1611) sung by Voces8 from England.

Traditional Latin Mass

Third Sunday After Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-26-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:11-19. Gospel: John 16:16-22.

Apostle St John the Evangelist

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy (John 16:20; Gospel). 

                                                                  

Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter, 19 April 2026

 

Supper at Emmaus

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35; 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 Luke 24:13-35  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the first day of the week, two of the disciples of Jesus were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognising him. And he said to them, ‘What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?’ And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’ And he said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.’ And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’ And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the Eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Cliffview, Lancaster, Kentucky

Today's gospel reminds me of a 'casual' meeting during Lent of 1969. The previous September I had begun a three-year course in music at Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY, north of New York City. (In 1966 the trustees of the college, run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, had dropped 'of the Sacred Heart' from the name of the school - a sign of things to come in the Church.) In 2024 it became Manhattanville University.

I was on my way to class one morning and met a student named Betty coming from class. We stopped for a brief chat. I asked her what she planned to do for the Easter vacation. She told me that she and a few other students were going to work in a parish in eastern Kentucky for the week. I had no pastoral obligations after the Holy Week ceremonies - I was one of the chaplains at the college while a student - and asked Betty if there was room for one more. There was.

We drove the 1,500 or so kms to Lancaster, Kentucky, one of four towns in a very large rural parish where there were only a handful of Catholics, where there was widespread poverty and the remnants of an anti-Catholicism that was based mainly on ignorance. The parish priest was Fr Ralph Beiting, then in his mid-40s, whom I mentioned last week. We met some college students from other parts of the USA.

Our work that week was not what you would call exciting. We spent most of our time cleaning out parish buildings, scrubbing and polishing floors. This was in preparation for summer programmes that included a Bible school for young people, summer camps from Monday to Friday in nearby Cliffview (see photo above) for children, boys one week, girls another, black and white children together at a time when there was very little social interaction between the two groups. There was house-to-house visitation in pairs, and similar activities in the other three towns in the parish and in the four counties where they were located.

Fr Ralph Beiting

1 January 1934 – 9 August 2012 [photo]

The six weeks I spent in Kentucky in the summer of 1969 is the only extended experience in my life that I would like to re-live, if that were possible. (A glorious winter’s day skiing in January of the same year in Toggenburg Ski Resort, near Syracuse, NY, my only time to try it, is the only short-term experience I’d love to re-live!) The Kentucky experience was one of discovery. I discovered that I had the ability to sit and listen to individuals. That is because a number of the college students I was working with, and one or two older persons, approached me and opened up to me. I had been totally unaware before that of this quality that others saw in me.

I also saw the different gifts that people have. Fr Beiting was a wonderful organiser, a man who inspired young people, who expected all the volunteers to attend our daily Mass. He responded to the spiritual and corporal needs of the people he served, his own people. He went preaching from town to town with seminarians to accompany him, setting up his microphone at a crossroads or other places where people might congregate. On one occasion he was driven out at gunpoint but showed up next day, not to preach, but to let the people know he was there. Eventually people saw that he was carrying on an old tradition in that part of the USA of travelling preachers, rather like Jesus himself. But the Protestant preachers seldom moved around anymore. Fr Beiting preached basic Christianity and was a 'man's man' in the best sense of that expression.

But if you wanted to talk about a problem, Fr Beiting wasn't the best person to sit and listen to you. Another priest I met was wonderful with children but found adolescents and young adults difficult to relate to. Each of us has our own specific gifts from God, all of which are needed. Fr Beiting made it possible for people to discover their gifts and use them in the service of others. 

This was a like a liberating revelation to me, a sense of realising what St Thérèse of Lisieux said about holiness: it is becoming what God wants us to be. It was for me something like the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

For a very long time after that summer 57 years ago I felt something like what one of the two disciples in today's gospel said: Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?

Another grace I experienced was the importance of friendship in our lives. I made some life-long friends that summer. In one instance God used me many years later to pull back one of those friends from suicide.

My 'casual' meeting with Betty on campus that Lenten morning wasn't, as I look back, the beginning of a conversion like that of Saul experiencing the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus. It was rather like the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, a growth in awareness of who I was as one called by God to the priesthood. And it was an experience of the joy of being a priest, a grace reinforced while working with joyful, dedicated priests that summer and for part of the following summer. And much of that joy came from the Lord through the generous, idealistic young people I was working with in Kentucky.

The road to Emmaus can be anywhere and the Lord can meet us through others we meet on that road. The two disciples who met Jesus, who invited him to dine with them, experienced the truth of the words of Jesus at the Last Supper: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).

Two Were Bound for Emmaus

Written by Bob Hurd, arranged by Craig Kingsbury

Sung by a choir of St Francis de Sales Parish, Ajax, Ontario, Canada

The song is based on today's gospel and on John 21

Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday After Easter

Good Shepherd Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-19-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:21-25. Gospel: John 10:11-16.

The Good Shepherd

Early Italian Christian Painter [Web Gallery of Art]

Communion Antiphon (John 10:14)

I am the good Shepherd, alleluia, alleluia. I know My sheep and Mine know me, alleluia, alleluia.

     

                                                               

Sunday Reflections, Easter, Year A, 4-5 April 2026

 

The Resurrection of Christ

El Greco [Web Gallery ofArt]

The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

The Easter Vigil is the most important liturgical celebration in the whole year. It is NOT an 'anticipated Mass', though by attending it we fulfil our Sunday obligation. 

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

At the Mass during the Day

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 20:1-9  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going towards the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on the head of Jesus, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

 

           Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Salubong

Angono, Rizal, Philippines

Regina Caeli / Queen of Heaven 

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.

R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.

V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.

R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.

R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Salubong is a Tagalog word meaning 'Welcome' or 'Greeting'. It is the name of the ceremony that takes place at dawn, or shortly before dawn, on Easter Sunday morning in the Philippines. In Visayan-speaking areas - in the central Philippines and Mindanao - the term Sugat is used. Sometimes the ceremony is known by its Spanish name, Encuentro. Women carry an image of the grieving Blessed Mother wearing a black veil of mourning in one direction while the men carry an image of the Risen Christ in another.  

They meet under an arch erected outside the parish church or sometimes inside the church. An 'angel', usually a young girl dressed in white, is lowered from a height and takes off the mourning veil of Mary and replaces it with a white one. She or another 'angel' intones the Easter Hymn Regina Caeli while dropping flower petals on the Risen Lord and his Blessed Mother. Sometimes a group of 'angels' does the same. There are variations in the ceremony from place to place. After the ceremony the Easter morning Mass begins in the church.

This ceremony for me shows the faith of the people in the words of the Prologue of St John's Gospel: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus, God and Man now risen from the dead, reveals his glory to his Mother and to us.

The ceremony shows the faith of the people in the humanity of Jesus and that of the Blessed Virgin. It shows their faith in the Resurrection of Jesus and the hope that on the Last Day we will be called to share that for all eternity. It shows the faith of the people as expressed in the last words of the Nicene Creed: And I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen; and of the Apostles' Creed: I believe in . . . the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

If we didn't believe those words the celebration of Easter would be meaningless. As St Paul wrote:  if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:4).

At Easter we begin to experience the truth of the promises Jesus gave to the Apostles and, through them, to us in his Last Supper Discourse: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27). A little later he says: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).

Those words are immediately followed by the central point in the mission that Jesus gives the Apostles and, through baptism and confirmation, to us: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12). Jesus repeats these words almost immediately when he sends the Apostles - and us - forth: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another (John 15:16-17).

May our joy be full this Easter and may we live the peace and joy of Easter, given to us by the Risen Lord Jesus, every day. The reason for our joy is wonderfully expressed in the refrain of the Easter hymn in Arabic below : 

Jesus is Risen

Flashmob, Beirut, Lebanon

This is one of the most joyful proclamations of the Resurrection I have ever come across. It is also a reminder to us that most Christians in the Middle East, including Lebanon, are Arabs whose language is Arabic, the language in which this Easter hymn is sung here by professional singers.

Please pray for the people of Beirut and southern Lebanon, parts of which have been bombed by Israeli forces during the current war in the Middle East.

Traditional Latin Mass

Easter Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-04-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. Gospel: Mark 16:1-7.

The Resurrection of Christ

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you (Mark 16:7; Gospel).