Sunday Reflections, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 26 July 2026

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Vermeer [Web Gallery of art]

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13: 45-46; Gospel).

In his Introduction to the Devout Life (1608) the mystic St Francis De Sales (1567-1622) wrote: 'Both now and in the past it has been customary for women to hang pearls from their ears; as Pliny observed, they gain pleasure from the sensation of the swinging pearls touching them. But I know that God's friend, Isaac, sent earrings to chaste Rebecca as a first token of his love. This leads me to think that this jewel has a spiritual meaning, namely that the first part of the body that a man wants, and which a woman must loyally protect, is the ear; no word or sound should enter it other than the sweet sound of chaste words, which are the oriental pearls of the gospel.' [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 Matthew 13:44-52  or 13:44-46 (English Standard Version)

At that time: Jesus said to the crowd: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

[‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

‘Have you understood all these things?’ They said to him, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’]

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Institution of the Eucharist

Federico Fiori Barocci [Web Gallery of Art]

In July 2020 I took part in Mass, as a concelebrating priest, outside of where I live for the first time since Covid-19 restrictions were introduced in Ireland in early March of that year. It was in the monastery of the Poor Clares in Dublin. The Mass was for a friend and former parishioner of mine in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines, Mrs Sophronia Gelera, who had died in June at the age of 86. Nang Ponying, as she was known, had lost her husband Fortunato, whom I never knew, in an accident when Gina, the youngest of their six children, was less than a year old. (Nang is an honorific used by Visayan-speakers when addressing or referring to a woman or girl older than themselves, including sisters). 

Jimmy, the second in the family and the eldest of three brothers, was killed in a motorcycle accident on 26 January 1980, a Saturday, a few weeks after his 24th birthday. Just a few hours after giving him Holy Communion at Mass that morning I was called to the hospital to give him the Last Rites. That was when I became really close to the Gelera family. Jimmy's funeral Mass was the most difficult I have ever celebrated. But I remember at the very end of the funeral in the cemetery Nang Ponying said a prayer in which she handed back her eldest son to God.

Gina's graduation from college, October 1983

Immaculate Conception College, Ozamiz City.

With her sister Grace, her mother and me.

None of Nang Ponying's children were in the Philippines when she died, though they were able to 'meet' her before she died through Zoom family gatherings. And because of quarantine restrictions none of the five were able to travel home for her funeral.

Gina works with the Poor Clares and at the end of the Mass she gave a beautiful testimony to her mother's faith. It wasn't the shallow 'canonisation' that has become all too common at funeral Masses, but something that showed me the depth of Nang Ponying's faith.

Gina told of how on one day not long after Jimmy's death her mother had run out of cash and the only food in the house was a bunch of bananas (of the kind you cook - something Westerners are not familiar with). At the time only two of the family were still living with their mother, Gina and Grace, both in their teens. Nang Ponying decided that they would have half the bananas for breakfast and the other half for lunch. As it drew near six in the evening Gina asked her mother what they would do, since they had no food, Nang Ponying said, 'We will pray the Rosary as we always do at this time'. 

As they finished there was a knock on the door. It was a neighbour who knew nothing of their situation bringing them newly-harvested rice as a gift.

After Mass on Nang Ponying's 80th Birthday

11 March 2014, with family and priests

Gina mentioned a number of times her mother's great trust in God's providence. Her words reminded me of a wonderful book called Self Abandonment to God's Providence by Fr Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ, which I have read five or six times. It was edited and put together more than a century after Fr de Caussade's death in 1751.

Nang Ponying had developed a form of dementia in her latter years but still got up each morning at 5 to attend the parish Mass at 6. And Gina wrote on Facebook that her mother had once said to her, I will not stop going to Holy Mass everyday even if my feet and slippers are worn out.

Gina spoke of her mother's great trust in the presence of Jesus the Risen Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She would go to the parish church and pour out her heart to the Lord  in the Blessed Sacrament whenever she felt burdened. She truly believed the words of Jesus: Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light  (Matthew 11:28-30)..”

Nang  Ponying was not a Scripture scholar or a theologian. But she knew that God had given her two precious 'pearls' as gifts. One was the gift of her Christian faith through baptism. The other was the gift of Jesus the Risen Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Blessed Sacrament. And by her example she continues to share these 'pearls' from God with her family and with many others, including myself. Solas na bhFlaithease uirthi - The Light of Heaven upon her.

The last photo of Gina with her mother

An Old Irish Prayer for the Dead

Abraimís cúig Phaidir do na mairbh, le hanam ár n-aithreacha, agus ár máithreacha, ár ndeartháireacha agus ár ndeirfiúracha, ár gcomhluadar agus ár ngaolta agus ár ndaoine muinteartha go léir a d’fhág an saol seo. Gach 

n-aon nach bhfuil duine aige, guímid leis: go dtuga Dia cuidiú na guí seo dó agus dea-bhás dúinn féin an lá déanach. Amen.

Let us say the Lord’s Prayer five times for the dead, for the souls of our father and our mothers, our brothers and sisters, our family and our relations and all the members of our community who have left this life. For those who have no one, we pray: may God help them with this prayer and give us a good death on the last day.

From Paidreacha na Gaeilge, Prayers in Irish, edited by Donla uí Bhraonáin.

Traditional Latin Mass

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-26-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13. Gospel: Luke 19:41-47.

Christ Cleansing the Temple

Luca Giordano [Web Gallery of Art]

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers" (Luke 19:45-46; Gospel).

 

     

   

Sunday Reflections, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 21 September 2025

 

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Vermeer [Web Gallery of Art]

I mention two diamond rings below. I couldn't find a painting with a diamond ring but Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is a work of such extraordinary beauty that I used it instead.

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 16:1-13 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.” And the manager said to himself, “What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He said, “A hundred measures of oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.” Then he said to another, “And how much do you owe?” He said, “A hundred measures of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and write eighty.” The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.’ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

‘One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful with the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

  

The Lacemaker (detail)

Vermeer [Web Gallery of Art]

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.

Twelve years ago while on vacation in Ireland from the Philippines I dropped by the house of Brian, a childhood friend in Dublin. Over coffee we chatted about many things, ranging from the situation of the Church in Ireland to the days when we were growing up.

In the course of our conversation the small Jewish community in Dublin came up. It has never quite reached 4,000 in Ireland and the majority of the now fewer than 2,000 live in Dublin. I told Brian that my father, who spent all his working life as a carpenter on building/construction sites, most of those years as a highly respected general foreman, had built a house for a wealthy Jewish couple in the late 1950s. 

Our house was the one on the right, 44 Finn St, Dublin

Shortly after the house was finished a very expensive car stopped outside our house, in a street of terraced houses, where nobody had a telephone and very few had cars. The driver was the owner of the new house my father had built. He had come to invite our family to dinner the following week in his new home. My father had helped build many new homes over the 54 years of his working life but this was the only occasion when he had been thanked in such a way.

We enjoyed the gracious hospitality of the family and it was the only time I ever visited a Jewish home in Ireland.

Brian then told me a story about his father Jimmy, whom I had known well, a house painter and decorator. He had painted and decorated the houses of many Jewish families in Dublin over the years. This was mainly due to an incident the first time he was asked to work in a Jewish home. While removing the carpet from the stairs he found a diamond ring stuck in a corner. He immediately brought it to the owner and said 'I found this on the stairs'. 'I know', said the owner, 'I put it there!' 

The word spread through the Jewish community that Jimmy was trustworthy. Over the years he had many Jewish clients. 

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.

The Jewish Museum, Dublin

[Wikipedia; photo]

When I told the story of Jimmy and the diamond ring to my sister-in-law Gladys she told me that her engagement ring had been stolen while she and my brother Paddy were having renovations done to their home a few years ago.

I remember too how upset my father was when he was renovating a Georgian house in Dublin. He discovered that the knocker on the front door had disappeared and it could only have been one of his workmates who took it. He was unable to trace the knocker or find out who the thief was.

One who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Georgian Doorways, Dublin

[Wikipedia; photo]

When I wrote these reflections twelve years ago the major story in the Philippines was the 'pork barrel scam'. PHP10 billion - roughly US$200,000,000 or €200,000,000 - of taxes paid by the people had disappeared. Some senators and members of Congress were alleged to have been beneficiaries of this along with others. As I prepare this in 2025 the headlines about corruption are still the same.

Today's gospel speaks to situations like this. Corruption on such a vast scale begins in the classroom when a child learns that though cheating isn't right the main thing is not to be caught. The man who stole my sister-in-law's engagement ring and my father's workmate who walked away with the valuable knocker from the front door of the Georgian house were earning salaries. What values were they passing on to their families?

One thing that both my parents instilled in me was that I must not keep anything that isn't mine. When I was a toddler I came home from a park up the road from where we lived at the time with a leather football. This was in the mid-1940s, around the time World War II ended when such things would have been very scarce and expensive. They asked around the neighbourhood and it was only when nobody claimed the ball that our family kept it.

Honesty and trustworthiness at such basic levels are  a foundation for justice. I've known of individuals 'working for justice' who weren't paying their own workers a proper wage. I've known many others such as my father, such as Jimmy, who didn't talk much about justice. They simply behaved in a just and honest manner and treated others with respect.

God invites every single one of us to share for ever in the riches of eternal life. Eternal life begins in the here and now. We make our choices in the here and now.

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.  

     

Antiphona ad Communionem / Communion Antiphon (John 10:14)

Ego sum pastor bonus, dicit Dóminus;

et cognósco oves meas, et cognóscunt me meae.

I am the Good shepherd, says the Lord;

I know my sheep, and mine know me.

Prayer Request

Please pray for a young girl named Annie who lives in England. She is having brain surgery on Friday 26 September. Thank you.

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). 

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-21-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 3:25 - 6:10. Gospel: Luke 11:7-16.

Codex Aureus of Echternach

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]

The top panel on the right shows Jesus raising the young man.

The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother (Luke 7:15; Gospel).

                            

Blessed Carlo Acutis: Web Missionary. Sunday Reflections, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Vermeer [Web Gallery of art]

Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 13:44-52 [Shorter version: 44-46] (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

^[“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”]

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

World Youth Day Lisbon 2023

1-6 August

 [Wikipedia; photo]

Last weekend I preached at all the Masses in a parish in Dublin, asking for the financial and spiritual support of the people for the work of us Columban missionaries. I told the story of a 14-year-old girl - I'll call her 'Maria' - whom I met in a home for girls run by Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in Metro Manila about 15 years ago. Maria suffered from asthma and her family had been living on the streets. Her father was a blind beggar. Maria's question to me still reverberates after all the years: How can I offer my life to God?

After one of the Masses a man told me of a seriously ill 11-year-old boy he had visited in a hospital in Dublin who wondered why so many people do not see children as capable of being saints. The boy was offering his suffering for others, uniting it with those of Jesus. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24).

Blessed Carlo Acutis

3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006

[Wikipedia; photo]

Blessed Carlo Acutis, an English-born Italian raised in Milan, is one of the patrons of World Youth Day this coming week. From a very young age he found delight in visiting churches, knowing that Jesus was present in the Blessed Sacrament. This led his parents to return to the practice of their faith.

As a teenager Carlo became an expert at the computer and developed a website devoted to Eucharistic miracles. He was also a very sociable being. I don't think he was present at World Youth Day in Rome in 2000 but he surely took to heart these words from the homily of Pope St J0hn Paul II at the closing Mass on 20 August [emphases added]: To celebrate the Eucharist, 'to eat his flesh and drink his blood', means to accept the wisdom of the Cross and the path of service. It means that we signal our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others, as Christ has done.

Our society desperately needs this sign, and young people need it even more so, tempted as they often are by the illusion of an easy and comfortable life, by drugs and pleasure-seeking, only to find themselves in a spiral of despair, meaninglessness and violence. It is urgent to change direction and to turn to Christ. This is the way of justice, solidarity and commitment to building a society and a future worthy of the human person.

This is our Eucharist, this is the answer that Christ wants from us, from you young people at the closing of your Jubilee. Jesus is no lover of half measures, and he does not hesitate to pursue us with the question: 'Will you also go away?' In the presence of Christ, the Bread of Life, we too want to say today with Peter: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life' (Jn 6:68).

Dear friends, when you go back home, set the Eucharist at the centre of your personal life and community life: love the Eucharist, adore the Eucharist and celebrate it, especially on Sundays, the Lord’s Day. Live the Eucharist by testifying to God’s love for every person.

In today's Gospel Jesus tells us: The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Young Carlo while still a child found the one pearl of great value: his Catholic Christian faith received as a gift from God through baptism within which he found Jesus present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Blessed Sacrament.

One of the extraordinary things about Carlo, who in so many ways was ordinary in the best sense, was his influence on adults, bringing his parents back to the faith and bringing a young man from India, Rajesh Mohur, a Hindu employed by his family, to the Catholic faith. Rajesh talks about this in the video below. Flavio Bergamo, an adult who learned through the internet about Carlo some years after the teenager's death, was a middle-aged man who had fallen away from the faith for many years. He tells in the video below how the young teenager brought him back to the faith. 

Carlo died within a week of being diagnosed with leukaemia. Most of the people who attended his funeral Mass were people his parents didn't know, some of them immigrants working as caretakers in buildings whom Carlo got to know by name while walking to school.

The video below is just over 30 minutes in length but I urge you to take the time during the next few days to watch it. I have just done so, not for the first time. It is really time with the Lord Jesus. Among other things, it shows us that as followers of Jesus we are called to be persons of joy, not with silly 'smileys' on our faces but with the joy in our hearts that only Jesus can give, He who said to the Apostles 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).

May the young people gathering in Lisbon this week draw closer to the Lord Jesus and may they be inspired by the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis who is not just a patron of youth but the patron of computer programmers.

Traditional Latin Mass

Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-30-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13. Gospel: Luke 19:41-47.

Christ Cleansing the Temple

Luca Giordano [Web Gallery of Art]

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers" (Luke 19:45-46; Gospel).