'Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.' Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter

Supper at Emmaus, c.1629

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Then the two disciples 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, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  Luke 24:35-48  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Then [the two disciples] told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Benedict XVI celebrating Mass 

[Wikipedia; photo]

More than 20 years ago while visiting Canada I was invited to speak to a prayer group in Hamilton, Ontario. Afterwards over coffee I was chatting with an elderly woman, an immigrant from Germany, who had been a Lutheran for most of her life. In Canada she had felt drawn for a long time to becoming a Catholic but could not take the final step. 

One particular weekday afternoon while thinking about this she felt rather like the apostles in today' gospel when Jesus asked them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? To calm herself she went for a walk and, as she passed a Catholic church, decided to go in. While she was there a small group of teenage boys came in, went up to the front of the church, genuflected and knelt in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. After a few minutes they genuflected again and went out. That for the German woman was the moment when, like the two disciples returning from Emmaus, she could say that [Jesus] was known to [her] in the breaking of the bread. Jesus spoke to her through the teenage boys who had silently expressed their faith in the Real Presence of the Risen Lord Jesus, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament. 

This is one aspect of today's readings. Another is repentance. In the First Reading St Peter while proclaiming that Jesus was risen from the dead says to the people: And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:17-19). St Peter who had betrayed Jesus shows his understanding of our tendency to sin when he says, I know that you acted in ignorance in handing Jesus over to be killed. But his message is stark and clear: Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.

Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord (Psalm 4:6)

Response to the Responsorial Psalm

The Responsorial Psalm shows us where the source of life is: 'What can bring us happiness?' many say, Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord (Psalm 4:6). The light of God's face can come to us in unexpected ways, as it did through the smile of my young friend in the Philippines above.

The Second Reading, 1 John 2:1-5a, calls us to repent while at the same time offering us God's forgiveness: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. St John uses very blunt language while showing us where God is calling us: Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. This reminds me of what St Thérèse of Lisieux wrote on the second page of her autobiography, Story of a Soul: Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wants to be. This is a dynamic expression calling us to grow in holiness. I am guilty of sometimes having said to people that God loves us 'as we are'. Parents love their newly-born son as he is but don't want him to stay like that. They want to lovingly nurture him in every sense so that he may grow to be a responsible adult. And that will involve on occasion reprimanding him when he misbehaves.

There is a tendency to turn Jesus into a teddy bear. In last Sunday's Gospel St Thomas knew that if the Lord was truly risen he would carry the scars of his crucifixion. St Luke tells us in today's Gospel that Jesus said to the apostles, See my hands and my feet. He was showing his scars. Then Jesus goes on to tell them what their mission is to be: Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

To preach Christ as other than the Crucified Christ now risen from the dead is to not preach Christ at all. It is to deny that we are sinners in need of conversion. It is to deny that we need a Saviour. It is to deny that we need a God who became Man and died for us. It is to deny that we need Jesus Christ, the One  known to [the two disciples] in the breaking of the bread. It is to deny the reality of the faith of the teenage boys in Hamilton, Ontario. in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It is to deny the faith of the German immigrant who, because of the faith she saw in the teenage boys,  was able to recognise Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Bread that is the Blessed Sacrament and to embrace the Catholic Faith, letting go of her fears.

All in the April Evening

Words by Katherine Tynan Hinkson, music by Sir Hugh S. Robertson

Sung by London Emmanuel Choir

When I was in Fourth Class (Grade Four) in O'Connell Schools, Dublin, 1953-54, we learned Katherine Tynan Hinkson's poem under our wonderful teacher Mr John Galligan, a man of deep faith who prepared us for confirmation that year. And if my memory is accurate, we sang it the same year in the choir of Mrs Agnes Boylan whom I recall as an 'everyone's favourite grandmother' kind of person. The poem/song reminds us of the price of Easter, the price of our Salvation, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God..

High Altar with Bernini's baldacchino, St Peter's, Vatican City 

[Wikipedia; photo]

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 04-14-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:21-23. Gospel: John 10:11-16. 

The Good Shepherd

Byzantine Mosaic Artist [Web Gallery of Art]

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11; Gospel).

'These wounds are the everlasting seal of his love for us.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year B

 

From The Gospel of John (2003) directed by Philip Saville

John 20:19-31

This Sunday is also known as Low Sunday and as Divine Mercy Sunday

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 20:19-31  (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.”

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ and Doubting Thomas

 Andrea del Verrocchio [Web Gallery of Art]

I carry a scar on one of my hips from surgery when I was 17. I can't even remember which hip, without checking. But the scar is there, along with a couple of smaller scars from accidents when I was young. I hardly ever think about them. But they are there.

St Thomas's instinct was right: Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. He knew that if the Lord was truly risen he would carry the scars of his suffering. And he carries them for all eternity.

Scars are reminders of wounds that were. The Risen Body of Christ carries the scars of his Passion and Crucifixion but they are no longer wounds.

But the Body of Christ that is the Church is being wounded daily. The world that God created is being wounded daily. In the first reading during the Easter Vigil (Genesis 1:27,31) we heard these words: So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them . . . God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. 

But today we see much that he had made and that was very good destroyed or being destroyed. We see countless persons created in his image, in the image of God, being killed in endless conflicts.

In 1 Cointhians 6:19-20 we read: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

On Easter Monday 2017 four members of a Catholic family were shot dead in Quetta, Pakistan, by members of the so-called Islamic State. The victims were Pervaiz Masih, Tariq Masih, Imran Masih and Firdous Bibi. They were killed because each was a temple of the Holy Spirit, a follower of Jesus, a Christian.

Pope Francis: Easter Sunday, Mass and Urbi et Orbi

In his Urbi et Orbi message last Sunday Pope Francis said [my emphases], The witnesses report an important detail: the risen Jesus bears the marks of the wounds in his hands, feet and side. These wounds are the everlasting seal of his love for us. All those who experience a painful trial in body or spirit can find refuge in these wounds and, through them, receive the grace of the hope that does not disappoint.

In his message Pope Francis spoke to a world deeply affected by the current Covid-19 pandemic that has turned our world upside-down in so many ways. Here, for example, are his words to young people: The risen Jesus is also hope for all those young people forced to go long periods without attending school or university, or spending time with their friends. Experiencing real human relationships, not just virtual relationships, is something that everyone needs, especially at an age when a person’s character and personality is being formed. We realized this clearly last Friday, in the Stations of the Cross composed by the children. I express my closeness to young people throughout the world and, in these days, especially to the young people of Myanmar committed to supporting democracy and making their voices heard peacefully, in the knowledge that hatred can be dispelled only by love.

These words about the importance of experiencing real human relationships resonates very strongly with me. A good friend who read these Sunday Reflections every week and occasionally posted a comment died unexpectedly on Holy Saturday. His name was Liam Hayden and we first met when we started in O'Connell Schools, Dublin, in 1951, in Second Class (Grade Two). We were both in the B section.

Liam Hayden

Liam and I were in different sections for most of the ten years we were in the school, and were friendly with each other, but not pals. I really came to know him as a friend after an unexpected encounter with him and his wife Moira in 1976 while home from the Philippines. I had spent a week with the Legion of Mary in Pewsey, Wiltshire, England, in the summer of 1966, when I was still in the seminary, and Moira was in our group. Liam and Moira met some years later through their involvement with the Legion of Mary and were utterly dedicated to the work of the Legion in Dublin, especially in the two hostels of the Legion in Dublin for people who are basically homeless, Morning Star Hostel for men and Regina Coeli Hostel for women.

Though Liam and I became close friends only as adults, the foundation of that friendship was our being classmates at the age of 8. So many youngsters throughout the world today are missing out on that experience, being wounded by that lack. Yet the scars that Jesus carries for all eternity are the everlasting seal of his love for us, as Pope Francis put it. And the pain of loss that Liam's wife, his six children and 30 grandchildren - and so many others - are now feeling will become in time scars which will be a reminder of the love of Jesus for them in this life through Liam as a husband, as a father, as a grandfather and as a friend especially of those on the fringes of society. Please remember Liam and his family in your prayers.

Perhaps we can consciously unite the wounds we presently carry with the wounded Jesus on the Cross and unite the scars we carry from previous wounds with the Risen Lord Jesus whom Thomas recognised by those very scars. And we can join St Thomas in that great act of faith, My Lord and my God.

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

The Octave Day of Easter (Low Sunday) 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 4-11-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10.  Gospel: John 20:19-31.

 

Authentic Beauty

Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

All in the April Evening

Words by Katharine Tynan Hinkson

Music by Sir Hugh S. Roberton

Sung by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir conducted by Sir Hugh S. Roberton

The Glasgow Orpheus Choir had its origins in a working men's club in Glasgow, Scotland, and existed from 1901 until 1951 when Sir Hugh Roberton, its conductor for 50 years, retired. It was succeeded by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. Sir Hugh wrote, The Orpheus was a real choir of real people, people big enough to dedicate themselves selflessly to a noble purpose, and it never took its audiences cheaply, nor did it ever descend to tricks or exhibitionism. 

The Grimethorpe Colliery Band was formed in 1917 in South Yorkshire, England. Most of its members were full-time coal-miners. The colliery closed in 1992. The members now, as far as I know, are full-time musicians. There were many bands in Britain, like the Grimethorpe, connected with mines and with factories.

Sir Hugh, in his introduction to the song above, says of his own composition: I think the music fits the words, if it does not match them in excellence. It does indeed match them in excellence and can stand on its own, as the beautiful performance of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band shows.

I learned the original poem by Katharine Tynan Hinkson in Fourth Class (Grade Four) and the same year learned to sing it in our school choir under the direction of Mrs Agnes Boylan, the mother of Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO, the well-known spiritual writer. Mrs Boylan was in her 70s then and was like everyone's favourite grandmother, a person who took great delight in us and in the large flamboyant hats she always wore, like the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of England.

All in the April Evening

The Grimethorpe Colliery Band

'Reach out your hand . . .' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year A

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Caravaggio [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 John 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 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 retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin^[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:19-31 in Filipino Sign Language

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

John 20:19-31 from The Gospel of John

We can read the words of Jesus to Thomas as a gentle rebuke that has led to the nickname he may carry for all eternity: 'Doubting Thomas'. But I prefer to see him as the one who understood that the Risen Lord must carry the scars of his crucifixion and who made the most explicit act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my God!

The First Reading today (Acts 2:42-47) opens with the words They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 'The breaking of the bread' is an expression used for the celebration of the Eucharist. We can see in this sentence the essence of the Mass as we celebrate it today: listening to God's word, praying and sharing in the Sacrifice of Jesus and sharing his Body and Blood.

Some commentators say that the failure of Thomas was not to listen to God's word as related by his companions. Maybe he did fail here but did the others have the same awareness as Thomas had that the Risen Lord must carry his scars for all eternity?

In Evangelii Gaudium No 7 Pope Francis writes: I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: 'Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction'.

Thomas had been a companion of Jesus for two to three years but what he experienced in today's gospel was precisely what Pope Benedict describes as the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

Servant of God, Fr Emil Joseph Kapaun 

(20 April 1916 - 23 May 1951)

Celebrating Mass with American soldiers on 7 October 1950 during the Korean War. [Wikipedia]

 In his general audience in St Peter's Square on 31 October 2012 Pope Benedict said: I cannot build my personal faith in a private dialogue with Jesus, because faith is given to me by God through a community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers, into a kind of communion that is not only sociological but rooted in the eternal love of God who is in himself the communion of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is Trinitarian Love. Our faith is truly personal, only if it is also communal: it can be my faith only if it dwells in and moves with the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common faith of the one Church.

Pope Francis re-echoes this in Evangelii Gaudium Nos 264 - 268: We need to implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence . . . Sometimes we lose our enthusiasm for mission because we forget that the Gospel responds to our deepest needs, since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with Jesus and love of our brothers and sisters . . . The word of God also invites us to recognise that we are a people . . . Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time, unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love, expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.

What both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are saying is that while our faith is in a person, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, it can never be a question of 'Jesus and me'. Pope Benedict says, faith is given to me by God through a community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers. And Pope Francis emphasises that He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.

In other words, I can only know myself as a brother or sister of Jesus, as a son or daughter of God the Father when I know myself as a member of their family, which I have become through my baptism.

And that awareness of who I am is strengthened when I join other members of God's family every Sunday as they devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

During the current Covid-19 pandemic most Christians are not able to participate directly in the Eucharist. Yet we may do so in a real way - more than a 'virtual' way - through modern technology. 

On Tuesday of this Easter Week 2020 - I participated in such a way in the funeral Mass of a friend named Helen Rickard who was a member of Our Lady of the Visitation Praesidium of the Legion of Mary in Navan, our local town. I'm the spiritual director of the praesidium. The celebrant, Fr Declan Hurley, emphasised that through her baptism Helen had become a sister of Jesus and that she had lived her faith out of that in prayer, especially in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, often in the middle of night, and in serving others. The following day I watched on Facebook part of the funeral Mass of a priest of the Prelature of Marawi, Philippines, who was my student in the 1970s, Fr Nilo Tabania. I didn't watch it live, but many others did. Like my friend Helen, Father Nilo was a man of great simplicity, a man without guile, like Nathanael in St John's Gospel. Please remember Helen and Father Nilo in your prayers.

I spent most of my life as a priest in the Philippines and was well aware of the fact that probably a majority of the people there, certainly in rural areas, aren't able to take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on a regular basis because they live so far away from churches where it is celebrated. The present situation enables us to share in their experience. 

Yet when we participate in Mass through television, online or listening to the radio, we hear the word of God proclaimed to us. This is as real as the voice of a loved one we are talking to on the telephone or through one of the modern internet forms of communication. The conversation is real, not 'virtual'.

Yes, we cannot receive Holy Communion but we can be in true communion with the Risen Lord present body, blood, soul and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament when the priest says the words of consecration over the bread and wine that become the Body and Blood of Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote as follows about spiritual communion in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity) in No 55: Clearly, full participation in the Eucharist takes place when the faithful approach the altar in person to receive communion. Yet true as this is, care must be taken lest they conclude that the mere fact of their being present in church during the liturgy gives them a right or even an obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist. Even in cases where it is not possible to receive sacramental communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important, meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion, praised by Pope John Paul II and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life.

There is a very good post on spiritual communion on Catholic Strength.

In the suffering of so many throughout the world because of the Covid-19 pandemic we can see both the wounds of the suffering Christ and the scars of the Risen Christ. 

May we have the grace to see, with St Thomas, the presence of My Lord and my God especially in suffering, our own and that of others, in whatever form it comes.

All in the April Evening

Words by Katharine Tynan, music by Hugh S. Roberton

Sung by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir

I learned the poem All in the April Evening in Fourth Class (Grade Four) when we had a wonderful teacher named John Galligan, a man who influenced my life greatly, though it was only years later I realised that. I think our class also learned to sing it that year - I'm not totally sure! - under a colourful woman named Mrs Agnes Boylan, who loved to wear large hats like the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of England. She was everyone's 'favourite grandmother'. I learned later that she was the mother of the late Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO, abbot of Roscrea Monastery in Ireland and author of a number of influential books on spirituality.

All in an April Evening by Katharine Tynan

All in the April morning,
April airs were abroad;
The sheep with their little lambs
Pass'd me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs
Pass'd me by on the road;
All in an April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak human cry,
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet:
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.

But for the Lamb of God
Up on the hill-top green,
Only a cross of shame
Two stark crosses between.

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
I saw the sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God.

Canon Patrick Comerford, a priest of the Anglican Church of Ireland, has a very good commentary on the poem on his blog. He puts it in a Lenten context. But Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday. Katharine Tynan died on Good Friday 1931.

Gregorian Chant setting of the Communion Antiphon

Antiphona ad communionem  Communion Antiphon  Cf John 20:27

Mitte manum tuam, et cognosce loca clavorum,

Put your hand and feel the place of the nails,

et noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis, alleluia, alleluia.

and do not be unbelieving but believeing, alleluia, alleluia.

Below is a setting of the Latin text of the Communion Antiphon by contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan, sung by The Sixteen, Harry Christophers.