Sunday Reflections, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 12 October 2025

Peasant Girls with Brushwood

Jean-François Millet [Web Gallery of Art]

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 17:11-19 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’ When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ And he said to him, ‘Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Entrance to Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City

I've told this story before on this blog, in homilies, and on retreats I have given because the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 at Holy Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in a woman approached me asking for some help. I made an excuse as I entered.

When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside her and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting above, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.

My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast for the two of them. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said, 'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'

Peasant Girl Bringing Basket

Adolf Fényes [Web Gallery of Art]

The radiance of this girl's smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colours of the painting by Adolf Fényes and the darkness of that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.

Elisha Refusing Gifts from Naaman

Pieter de Grebber [Web Gallery of Art]

In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then [Naaman] returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, 'Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant'. But he said, 'As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.' And he urged him to take it, but he refused (2 Kings 5:15-16).

Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.

And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, 'Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.' (2 Kings 5:2-3 ESVUK). 

The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.

I had never met the girl and her mother before nor did I ever see them again. But that meeting has been for me ever since what I call an 'ongoing grace from God'. The girl would now be in her late 40s. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family. And may we thank God each day for everything we have, above all for the gift of our Catholic Christian faith.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest act of thanksgiving - Eucharist - that we can offer to God.

Ave verum Corpus

Setting by Mozart

Sung by Sistine Chapel Choir directed by Marcos Pavan

Latin text

Ave verum corpus, natum
de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet]
in the trial of death!

Traditional Latin Mass

What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI). 

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-12-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8. Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.

Apostle Paul

Govert Teunisz Flinck [Web Gallery of Art]

I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:4; Epistle).

She wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord. Sunday Reflections, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Peasant Girls with Brushwood

Jean-François Millet [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 17:11-19 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India) 

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Entrance to Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City

I've told this story before on this blog and on retreats I have given but the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 at Holy Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in a woman approached me asking for some help. I made some excuse as I entered.

When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside her and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting above, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.

My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast for the two of them. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said, 'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'

Peasant Girl Bringing Basket

Adolf Fényes [Web Gallery of Art]

The radiance of this girl's smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colours of the painting by Adolf Fényes and that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.

Elisha Refusing Gifts from Naaman

Pieter de Grebber [Web Gallery of Art]

There is an essay on this painting by Mélina de Courcy in the October issue of Magnificat.

In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then [Naaman] returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant”. But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused (2 Kings 5:15-16).

Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.

And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:2-3 ESVUK). 

The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.

I had never met the girl and her mother before nor have I seen them since. But that meeting has been for me what I call an 'ongoing grace from God' ever since. The girl would now be in her mid 40s. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family. And may each of us thank God each day for everything we have, above all for the gift of our Catholic Christian faith.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest act of thanksgiving - Eucharist - that we can offer to God.

Ave verum Corpus

Setting by Mozart

Sung by Sistine Chapel Choir directed by Marcos Pavan

Latin text

Ave verum corpus, natum
de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet]
in the trial of death!

Traditional Latin Mass

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-09-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8. Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.

Apostle Paul

Govert Teunisz Flinck [Web Gallery of Art]

Beethoven in Auschwitz

L. V. Beethoven - Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Op. 50 Renaud Capuçon, violin Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Masur

Last Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent, I came across a beautifully-written article on The Catholic Thing with the title Juliek and His Violin, written by Elizabeth A. Mitchell.

The article begins this way: 

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel recounts this exchange in his Auschwitz memoir, Night: I . . .I’m afraid . . .They’ll break. . .my violin . . . I . . . I brought it with me.

I thought he’d lost his mind.  His violin?  Here?

It’s an expression of incredulity at the seemingly inane focus of his young friend Juliek on a violin amidst shockingly inhumane conditions.  For days, the inmates had been force-marched in an evacuation to Gleiwitz, a sub-camp of Auschwitz, and now, crammed together in a barracks, bodies are crushing atop another.  Death is imminent.

Further down we read: 

And in those conditions, to an audience of the dead and dying, as the living fell asleep amidst the corpses who would awaken no more, Juliek played his violin.

Wiesel heard the strains of a Beethoven concerto resound through the darkness and penetrate the stillness: All I could hear was the violin, and it was as if Juliek’s soul had become his bow.  He was playing his life. His whole being was gliding over the strings.  His unfulfilled hopes.  His charred past, his extinguished future. He played that which he could never play again.

As Juliek spoke his dying words through music, asserting his human dignity against the darkness of pervasive inhumanity, he was giving life.  The notes of his violin wafted through the barracks, and into Wiesel’s soul. Wiesel carried them within himself and played them again for us. They resound now through the pages of The Catholic Thing, and along the avenues of the eternal.

The author reflects: Beauty has a particular ability to carry comfort, healing, and salvation to others.  In the ability to lift the veil between the finite and the infinite, what is passing and what is enduring, the arts properly communicate to us all that the soul carries within.  And this is a sacred trust.

The full article is here.

The Violin Player

Pieter de Grebber [Web Gallery of Art]

In a general audience in Castel Gandolfo on 31 August 2011 Pope Benedict XVI said, It may have happened on some occasion that you paused before a sculpture, a picture, a few verses of a poem or a piece of music that you found deeply moving, that gave you a sense of joy, a clear perception, that is, that what you beheld was not only matter, a piece of marble or bronze, a painted canvas, a collection of letters or an accumulation of sounds, but something greater, something that 'speaks;, that can touch the heart, communicate a message, uplift the mind.

A work of art is a product of the creative capacity of the human being who in questioning visible reality, seeks to discover its deep meaning and to communicate it through the language of forms, colour and sound. Art is able to manifest and make visible the human need to surpass the visible, it expresses the thirst and the quest for the infinite.

Indeed it resembles a door open on to the infinite, on to a beauty and a truth that go beyond the daily routine. And a work of art can open the eyes of the mind and of the heart, impelling us upward.

Still-Life: Vase with Irises against a Yellow Background

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

'Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Sunday Reflections, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Peasant Girls with Brushwood, Jean-François Millet [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Luke 17:11-19 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)  

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’  Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Luke 17:11-19 in Filipino Sign Language

Entrance to Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City

I've told this story before but the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 at Holy Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in was approached by a woman asking for some help. I made some excuse as I entered.

When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside here and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.

My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast for the two of them. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said, 'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'

Peasant Girl Bringing Basket, Adolf Fényes [Web Gallery of Art]

The radiance of this girl's smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colours of the painting by Adolf Fényes and that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.

Elisha Refusing Gifts from Naaman 
Pieter de Grebber [Web Gallery of Art]

In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then he (Naaman) returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!’ He urged him to accept, but he refused (2 Kings 5:15-16 NRSVACE)..

Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.

And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said (2 Kings 5:2-3 NRSVACE). 

The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.

I had never met the girl and her mother before nor have I seen them since. The girl would now be in her early 40s. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family. And may each of us thank God each day for everything we have, above all for the gift of our Catholic Christian faith.

Entrance Antiphon   Antiphona ad introitum Psalm 129[13]:3-4

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquties, Lord, who could stand?

Quia apud te propitiatio est, Deus Israel.

But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel.

Ps. ibid., 1-2 De proftindis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi vocem meam. 

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquties, Lord, who could stand?

Quia apud te propitiatio est, Deus Israel.

But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel.

The shorter form, in bold, is used in the Ordinary Form of the Mass while the longer is used in the Extraordinary Form, though it may also be used in the Ordinary Form.