'When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.' Sunday Reflections, Pentecost Sunday, Year B

Pentecost

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

All [the apostles] with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers . . . When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. (Acts 1:14; 2:1).

Pentecost Sunday, at the Vigil Mass 

(Saturday evening), Years ABC

NB: The Vigil Mass has its own prayers and readings. Those for the Mass During the Day on Sunday should not be used – though some priests seem to be unaware of this. It is incorrect to refer to this Vigil Mass as an ‘anticipated Mass’. It is a celebration proper to the evening before Pentecost Sunday and may be celebrated in an extended form. It also fulfils the Sunday obligation. 

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA

Gospel John 7:37-39 (English Standard Version, Anglicised) 

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Mass During the Day, Year B

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 15:26-27, 16:12-15 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

OR

Gospel John 20:19-23 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

This week I'm using what I used three years ago. I'm focusing on the central role of our Blessed Mother in God's plan for our salvation. I cannot imagine a painting of the Annunciation, a painting of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, a painting of the Birth of Jesus without Mary. I cannot imagine a painting with people at the foot of the Cross without Mary being among them. Michelangelo's Pietá without Mary would be ludicrous. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that Mary was with the Apostles from Ascension Thursday as they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. Any of the great paintings of Pentecost show Mary with the Apostles. El Greco catches all of this in the paintings I have used here. I've used his painting of Pentecost above and below.

The Annunciation

El Greco, painted 1596-1600, Museo del Prado, Madrid

[Web Gallery of Art]

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God . . .  And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:35, 38).

Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, wrote the following in 1937 in his foreward to Mary, Mother of Divine Grace by Fr Joseph Le Rohellec CSSp, translated by Fr Stephen Rigby and Fr Denis Fahey CSSp.

God has set [Mary] in the beginning of our ways. From the first, the idea of Her was present to His mind along with that of the Redeemer. He only looked at poor fallen humanity through Her. When, in the fulness of the ages, She was born and came to maturity, He sent to Her His high angel, and to Her proposed the Divine plan of Redemption for which the world had waited for forty dismal centuries. That plan invited Her participation. Nay, more, He was pleased to make it necessary, so that if Her consent is not forthcoming, that plan will not be put into effect, and the dream of those forty centuries will not pass into actuality, will not come true, will not even continue as a dream. For there is to be no fruition. In Mary, all humanity withers because in Her it has not known the time of its visitation.

. . . Mary was formed by the Holy Trinity for the work She had to do. 'She was the fruit of an eternal deliberation,' says St Augustine.

Mary is central to God's plan for our salvation. When she said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word the Holy Spirit came upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her.

The Visitation

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:41-43).

Here is part of his Regina Caeli address on Pentecost Sunday 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Dear friends, this year the Solemnity of Pentecost occurs on the last day of the month of May on which the beautiful Marian feast of the Visitation is normally celebrated. This fact invites us to let ourselves be inspired and, as it were, instructed by the Virgin Mary, who was the protagonist of both these events.

In Nazareth she received the announcement of her unique motherhood and, immediately after conceiving Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, she was impelled by the same Spirit of love to go and help her elderly kinswoman Elizabeth, who had reached the sixth month of a pregnancy that was also miraculous. The young Mary who is carrying Jesus in her womb and, forgetting herself, hurries to the help of her neighbour, is a wonderful image of the Church in the perennial youthfulness of the Spirit, of the missionary Church of the incarnate Word called to bring him to the world and to witness to him especially in the service of charity.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit after his Ascension. But while still in the womb of Mary, the Mother of God, he brought the Holy Spirit to St Elizabeth and the baby in her womb, St John the Baptist.

 

The Adoration of the Shepherds

El Greco, painted c.1614, Museo del Prado, Madrid

[WebGallery of Art]

And while they were there, the time came for [Mary] to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And the angel said to [the shepherds], “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:6-7, 10-12).

Mary, the Mother of God, presents her new-born Son, Jesus, God who became Man, to the shepherds and, through them, to us. This is the mission given her by God: to bring Jesus, God who became Man, to us and to bring us to him.

The Crucifixion

El Greco, painted 1596-1600, Museo del Prado, Madrid

[Web Gallery of Art]

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 25-27).

Jesus, God who became Man, as he is dying on the Cross because of God's great love for us, because of God's desire that we spend eternity with him, gives His mother, Mary, to us as our mother so that she will draw us to him.

Pentecost

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

At the moment of the Annunciation / Incarnation the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her. In Bethlehem Mary gave birth to our Saviour Jesus Christ, God who became Man. At Pentecost, the moment of the birth of the Church, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary once again as he came upon the Apostles. In a very real sense Mary is giving birth to the Church.

In 2018 Pope Francis decreed that every year the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, be celebrated by the Universal Church on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday. Here is the Collect or Opening Prayer of that Mass.

O God, Father of mercies, 

whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross, 

chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, 

to be our Mother also, 

grant, we pray, that with her loving help 

your Church may be more fruitful day by day 

and, exulting in the holiness of her children, 

may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This collect reflects that of the Mass on Pentecost Sunday: sanctify your Church in every people and nation. It is in our baptism that we find our deepest identity as sons and daughters of God the Father, as brothers and sisters of Jesus and therefore of one another, with Mary given to us by God himself as our Mother.

Veni Sancte Spiritus  

Come, Holy Spirit

Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994) © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé

The phrase Veni Sancte Spiritu is constantly repeated. This is 'Come Holy Spirit' in Latin, the official language of the Roman (Latin) Catholic Church, the largest of the more than 20 Catholic churches, all in communion with the Pope, all equally Catholic. Individuals sing verses in their own language. There are young people from every continent, a fulfilment of the verses from the First Reading of the Mass on Pentecost Sunday.

And they were amazed and astonished, saying, 'Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? — we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God' (Acts 2:7, 11).

Traditional Latin Mass

Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-19-2024 if necessary).

Lesson: Acts 2:1-11. Gospel: John 14:23-31.

Mysteries of Faith

Guido Reni [Web Gallery of Art [Web Gallery of Art]

This is a ceiling in the Vatican Palace showing from the top the Ascension, Pentecost and the Transfiguration.

'She had faith that did not shake.' Sunday Reflections, Ascension, Year B

The Venerable Edel Quinn

14 September 1907 - 12 May 1944 [photo]

Solemnity of the Ascension

The Ascension is celebrated on Ascension Thursday, 9 May, in England & Wales, Scotland. In the USA it is celebrated on Ascension Thursday in the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, Philadelphia. In all of these places Ascension Thursday is a Holyday of Obligation.

The Ascension is observed on Sunday, 12 May, in Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Philippines, USA (apart from the jurisdictions mentioned above).

Ascension, Year B 

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  Mark 16:15-20  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Servant of God Frank Duff

7 June 1889 - 7 November 1980 [photo]

In her biography of her godfather Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, Finola Kennedy has a chapter with the heading Edel, Fr Aedan, Alfie. Under the title is a quotation from today's First Reading: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Edel, Fr Aedan and Alfie were the Venerable Edel Quinn, Columban Fr Aedan McGrath and Servant of God Alfie Lambe.

This Sunday, 12 May, is the 80th anniversary of the death of Edel Quinn in Nairobi, Kenya.

Both Edel and Alfie Lambe felt called to religious life. Because of her tubercolosis (TB) Edel could not enter the Poor Clares. Alfie spent some time in the novitiate of the Irish Christian Brothers, known officially as the Congregation of Christian Brothers whose ministry is teaching, but had to leave for health reasons. Both became witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth, Edel in East and Central Africa and Alfie in South America. Both died young, Edel at the age of 36 and Alfie at the age of 26. Alfie is buried in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers in Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, a touch of what I call 'the thoughtfulness of God', something I first became aware of after my mother's sudden death in 1970.

Edel left for Africa in December 1936. Some in the leadership of the Legion of Mary thought it was a bad idea to send a young woman in poor health on such a difficult mission. After seven years of intense work involving long journeys on poor roads, an intense spiritual life focused above all on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our Blessed Mother's central role in God's plan of salvation for all of us, Edel's TB caught up on her and she died on 12 May 1944 where she is buried in the Missionaries' Cemetery.

The cause for her beatification began in 1957 and in 1994 Pope St John Paul II declared her Venerable. The cause for her beatification continues.

Frank Duff said of Edel Quinn: She had a faith that did not shake. Without that foundation you would not have that special characteristic of devotion to Our Lady, whose faith is singled out for praise in the Gospel . . . Things like fear would naturally assert themselves in her. Why did they not carry her away as they do with most people? I suggest that in her case the ground was so drenched with the Holy Ghost that the sparks of temptation did not start a conflagration.

Servant of God Alfie Lambe

24 June 1932 - 21 January 1958 [photo]

Alfie went to South America in July 1953 and served in Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. Because of his family name and short stature he acquired the nickname El Corderito, 'The Little Lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires introduced the cause of his beatification in 1978.

Fr Aedan McGrath with Pope St John Paul II

Fr Aedan McGrath was born in Dublin on 22 January 1906 and died suddenly at a family gathering on Christmas Day 2000. He spent two years and eight months in solitary confinement in China for his work with the Legion of Mary. I remember his return to Ireland in 1954 after being expelled from China. He was met at Dublin Airport by the President, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and thousands of others. He told me that when he saw the large crowd when the plane landed he said to himself 'There must be somebody important on board'.

Father Aedan spent the rest of his life promoting the Legion of Mary. Based in Manila from 1979 he visited many countries in the Pacific Rim. His story was one of the reasons I became a Columban missionary priest and I was graced to have come to know him very well as a friend during my years in the Philippines and as an inspiring brother Columban priest.

These three missionaries took to heart the words of Jesus in the gospel for the Ascension: Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. The 80th anniversary of the death of Edel Quinn reminds us of this and of what we are all called to be, proclaimers of the gospel by the way we follow Jesus in our daily lives.

You can find quite a bit of material on these three great missionaries by googling their names.

Fr Aedan tells the story of the bird that befriended him in prison

I saw two extraordinary things at Father Aedan's funeral in our cemetery here. During the prayers of commendation before the coffin was lowered a robin redbreast was hovering all the time over it. Then as it was being lowered into the ground a flight of birds in V formation approached from the southwest. Just before they passed over our cemetery one of the birds flew into the middle turning the 'V' into 'A'. You can learn more about this in A Heavenly Farewell, a video I made while still in the Philippines.

Traditional Latin Mass

Ascension Thursday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-09-2024 if necessary).

Lesson: Acts 1:1-11. Gospel: Mark 16:14-20.

Ascension

Lorenzo Ghiberti [Web Gallery of Art]

Sunday after the Ascension

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-12-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:7-11. Gospel: John 15:26 - 16:4.

 

'If ever you take your neighbour's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.' Sunday Reflections, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix)

Van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22:39; Gospel).

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 22:34-40 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan 

Archbishop of Seoul (1922 - 2009)

Earlier this year the Archdiocese of Seoul formally opened the cause for the beatification of Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan. Many of my Columban confreres in Korea knew him well. He inspired many priests in the Philippines by being a great pastor. I have used the material here before but have no hesitation about using it again.

This time nine years ago I visited Korea to attend the ordination to the priesthood on 1 November of Fr Lee Jehoon Augustine, a Columban who spent two years working in the Manila area as part of his preparation for the priesthood. He is now serving in Myanmar.

While there I went with two Columban priests, Fr Liam O'Keeffe, a classmate from County Clare who returned to Ireland last year, Fr Con Murphy from County Cork, who came back to Ireland in 2018 after 57 years in Korea, and a woman named Pia to visit the graves of five Columbans in a cemetery owned by the Archdiocese of Seoul, but outside both the city and the archdiocese.  One of the five Columbans buried there, Fr Mortimer Kelly from Gort, County Galway, was a classmate of Father Liam and myself. Pia had known Fr John Nyhan, from Kilkenny, Ireland, another of the five, since her childhood.

The cemetery is on a hillside, as is the Korean custom. A little higher on the hill where my companions are buried is the grave of Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, a man who was revered in Korea, not only by Catholics but by nearly all South Koreans.

While we were there Father Con told me of a homily that Cardinal Kim once preached at a Mass in a Catholic university. He took out two daily newspapers and began to speak in such a quiet voice that those present had to strain forward and 'eavesdrop'. Cardinal Kim was flipping over the pages of both newspapers and some were thinking he was unprepared. Then he came to a particular story about young women working on the railways who collected the fares of last-minute passengers and helped 'push' people into trains at rush hour.

The report in both papers was about accusations by higher authorities that some of these young women were perhaps pocketing some of the fares. Cardinal Kim's voice grew stronger as he spoke about this. Then he began to remind the students of how privileged they were, getting higher education and an opportunity to find better jobs than the young women working for the rail company who were at the bottom of the heap.

Cardinal Kim, who was noted for his love for the poor and who knew many poor people personally, now speaking in a very strong voice, asked the students if they were going to treat others with the contempt that some showed towards the young women in a menial job or if they were going to use their professional qualifications in the service of others.

Cardinal Kim

In that homily the late Archbishop of Seoul was bringing together the two Great Commandments that Jesus gives us in today's gospel and between which there is no conflict. In the First Reading, to which the Gospel is linked by theme, God reminds the Hebrew people of how they are to treat those who are poor or different - aliens, widows, orphans. If ever you take your neighbour's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down (Exodus 22:26; First Reading), That cloak was what a poor person slept in.

In other words, Jesus is asking us to see each person through his eyes. GK Chesterton in his biography of St Francis of Assisi, if my memory is correct, has a wonderful image of a huge crowd looking up at God on a balcony, rather as in St Peter's Square when the Pope is on the balcony there or at his window for the Sunday Angelus. However, Chesterton didn't see himself among the crowd but with God on the balcony, looking down on the people and seeing them as God sees them.

Cardinal Kim was doing something similar. He was looking at both the university students and the railway workers through the eyes of God. Rank means nothing to God as he looks on his children. As Psalm 149 so beautifully expresses it, God takes delight in his people [Grail translation].

Frank Duff, Founder of the Legion of Mary

7 June 1889 – 7 November 1980 [Photo]

On pages 296-297 the Handbook of the Legion of Mary, nearly all of which was written by its founder the Servant of God Frank Duff, quotes from Chesterton's biography of St Francis. St Francis only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous. To him a man was always a man, and did not disappear in a dense crowd any more than in a desert. He honoured all men; that is he not only loved but respected them all. What gave him his extraordinary personal power was this: that from the Pope to the beggar, from the Sultan of Syria in his pavilion to the ragged robbers crawling out of the wood, there was never a man who looked into those brown, burning eyes without being certain that Francis Bernardone was really interested in him, in his inner individual life from the cradle to the grave; that he himself was valued and taken seriously.

This is how members of the Legion of Mary, which is strong in Korea, are told to look upon each person they meet, indeed to see them higher than themselves. Fr Bede McGregor OP, former Spiritual Director of the Concilium, the central body of the Legion of Mary in Dublin, tells how Frank Duff himself lived that. When he was postulator of the cause for the beatification of Frank Duff he interviewed a man who lived in the Morning Star Hostel, run by the Legion of Mary in Dublin for men who are down on their luck. Father Bede explained tp the man that he was seeking testimonies for the Vatican and needed him to swear on the Bible that anything he said concerning Frank was true. He added that the man was an alcoholic and had lived a tragic life. The man agreed and then he said these beautiful words: Frank Duff was the only man who ever looked up to me. 

The Legion was born in the slums of Dublin in 1921 and to this day is involved to a large degree in serving people who have little or nothing.

God is constantly blessing the Church and the world through persons who embody the Gospel in their lives. I know from my friends in Korea in particular that Cardinal Kim embodied the Two Great Commandments; he was an embodiment of what each of us is called to be in virtue of our baptism in the different situations in which we find ourselves.

Cardinal Kim's grave 

평화의 기도 The Prayer of St Francis (in Korean)

이승희 SeungHee Lee Composer

▫서울가톨릭싱어즈 Seoul Catholic Singers ▫

지휘 유근창 Conductor Simon, Geun-Chang Riu ▫

반주 남효주 Pianist Angela, Hyo-Ju Nam ▫

2019. 6. 29 @신천동 성당 SinCheon-Dong Church

Traditional Latin Mass

Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-29-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossian 1:12-20. Gospel: John 18:33-37.

Christ Before Pilate

Mihály Munkácsy [Web Gallery of Art]

Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33; Gospel)