If you’re travelling to Dublin for The Parables Tour with Fr Mike Schmitz on Monday, 20 July, you’re warmly invited to begin the evening by celebrating Holy Mass at 5.00pm in St Kevin’s Church, Harrington Street, Dublin.

The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Fintan Gavin, with the homily preached by Fr Mike Schmitz. It offers a wonderful opportunity to gather with Catholics from across Ireland in prayer before the evening event at the National Stadium.

No ticket is required to attend Holy Mass, and everyone is welcome—whether you’re attending The Parables Tour afterwards or simply wish to join in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Please note: Tickets for The Parables Tour are limited, but Holy Mass is open to all.

If you’re travelling we encourage you to arrive early and take this opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist together before what promises to be an inspiring evening of faith and reflection.

Every parable tells a story that is taken from everyday life, yet wants to tell us something more, to refer us to a deeper meaning. The parable raises questions in us; it invites us not to stop at

appearances. Before the story that is told or the image that is presented to me, I can ask myself: where am I in this story?

What does this image say to my life? In fact, the term ‘parable’ comes from the Greek verb paraballein, which means to throw in front of. The parable throws before me a word that provokes me and prompts me to question myself.

The parable of the sower talks precisely about the dynamic of the word of God and the effects it produces.

Indeed, every word of the Gospel is like a seed that is thrown on the ground of our life. What, then, is this soil? It is our heart, but it is also the world, the community, the Church. The word of God, in fact, makes fruitful and provokes every reality.

God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom.

This is how he loves us: he does not wait for us to become the best soil, but he always generously gives us his word.

Perhaps by seeing that he trusts us, the desire to be better soil will be kindled in us. This is hope, founded on the rock of God’s generosity and mercy.

I have in mind that beautiful painting by Van Gogh, The sower at sunset. That image of the sower in the blazing sun also speaks to me of the farmer’s toil.

And it strikes me that, behind the sower, Van Gogh depicted the grain already ripe.

It seems to me an image of hope: one way or another, the seed has borne fruit.

We are not sure how, but it has.

And if we realize we are not a fruitful soil, let us not be discouraged, but let us ask him to work on us more to make us become a better terrain. – Pope Leo XIV – First General Audience May 2025