Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
At Mass yesterday I was struck by these beautiful words in the special Preface used when the Gospel of the Samaritan woman is read. The Preface is always addressed by the priest to God the Father.
For when [Jesus] asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink,
he had already created the gift of faith within her
and so ardently did he thirst for her faith,
that he kindled in her the fire of divine love.
In Sunday Reflections for yesterday I highlighted the Servant of God Alfie Lambe, a Legion of Mary envoy to South America. The last line of the quotation from yesterday's Preface above is a reference to an ancient prayer to the Holy Spirit with which every Legion of Mary meeting begins, leading to the Rosary.
Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the
hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
v. Send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and they shall be
created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
God our Father, pour out the
gifts of Your Holy Spirit on the world. You sent the Spirit on Your Church to
begin the teaching of the gospel: now let the Spirit continue to work in the
world through the hearts of all who believe. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The versicle and response above are taken from Psalm 104 [103]:30.
GospelJohn 4:5-42 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
[For the shorter form (4:3-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42,
omit the text in brackets.]
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near
the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was
there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside
the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said
to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the
city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a
Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked
him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to
him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do
you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He
gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus
said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty
again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give
me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw
water.”
[Jesus said to
her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered
him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I
have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have
is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ]The woman said
to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.Our
fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the
hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such
people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know
that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he
will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am
he.”
[Just
then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a
woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So
the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come,
see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They
went out of the town and were coming to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him,
saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat
that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one
another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to
accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then
comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the
fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving
wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower
and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds
true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent
you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have
laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”]
Many Samaritans from that town believed in
him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever
did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with
them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of
his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you
said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”
Alfie Lambe was born in Tullamore, Ireland, joined the Irish Christian Brothers but was advised to leave because of his poor health. He joined the Legion of Mary where he showed outstanding qualities and was appointed to South America as a Legion envoy, with the mission of helping the Legion grow there. With Seamus Grace, another Irish legionary, he left for Bogota, Columbia on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 16th July 1953. He was only 21.Until his early death in Buenos Aires, he was to serve in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. He acquired the Spanish nickname El Corderito, 'the little lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires initiated the cause for his beatification in 1978.
Noel Lynch, who went to South America as a Legion envoy around the time of Alfie's death, wrote about Alfie. One story he tells parallels today's gospel.
One of the ideas of the Legion
Handbook is that a legionary most always be on duty. Alfie taught by example.
One dayAlfie met a young man in a railway
station. With a smile he asked him would he like to do something for Our Lady.The young man answered that he would but that
he did not go frequently to Sunday Mass. Alfie replied; 'I did not askyou
about Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' That same week he
attended his first Legion meeting.Within a few weeks he was an officer
of that Praesidium and soon after became officer of his Curia. Within a few
yearshe went for the priesthood and today is rector of the diocesan
seminary.
The Praesidium is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary and meets weekly while the Curia consists of the officers of a group of praesidia in a particular area and meets monthly.
In today's gospel Jesus asks for help: Give me a drink. He asks a stranger, a Samaritan woman, which astonished his disciples. Alfie approached a stranger while waiting for a train and asked him if he would like to do something for Our Lady.
The question of Jesus to the Samaritan woman led her to become a missionary that very day to the people in her own town. Alfie's question to the young man in the railway station led him to become a missionary in his own diocese as a priest.
Jesus was aware of the background of the woman. Alfie didn't know anything about the young man he approached but wasn't put off when the latter indicated that he didn't attend Sunday Mass regularly. Alfie replied, I did not ask you about Sunday
Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?
The gospel has these striking words: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.' Clearly the woman was not filled with fear or shame like someone whose sins have been publicly revealed. She wanted to share the good news that she had found the Messiah.
Her words echo those of Psalm 139 (138): O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar . . . For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being . . . O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts. See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.
The woman at the well experienced the truth of the words : O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar. Jesus called her to be her real self, to be the person God wanted her to me. The young man approached by Alfie Lambe discovered who God wanted him to be through the gentle invitation to work for Our Lady.
Because of the Samaritan woman's missionary work among her own people they came out to meet Jesus and many more believed because of his word. And the final words of the gospel tell us that a missionary's work is to bring people to meet Jesus: It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
That too was the whole purpose of Alfie Lambe's work in South America: accompanying Our Lady knowing that her mission is to bring us all to know her son.
That too is the mission of the Legion of Mary: The object of the Legion of
Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by
prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary’s and
the Church’s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign
of Christ (Handbook, page 11).
Ave Regina Caelorum
This ancient Latin hymn to Our Lady is traditionally sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer) from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2 February, through Wednesday of Holy Week.
Hail, Queen of heaven; hail, Mistress of the Angels; hail, root of Jesse; hail, the gate through which the Light rose over the earth.
Rejoice , Virgin most renowned and of unsurpassed beauty. Farewell, Lady most comely. Prevail upon Christ to pity us.
Daffodils emerging, St Columban's Dalgan Park
10 March 2023
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation (Psalm 139 [138]).
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday in Lent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-12-2023 if necessary).
GospelMatthew 17:1-9 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
After six days Jesus took with him Peter and
James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.And he
was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun,
and his clothes became white as light.And behold, there appeared to them Moses and
Elijah, talking with him.And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and
one for Elijah.”He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased; listen to him.”When the disciples heard this, they fell on their
faces and were terrified.But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus
only.
And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus
commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from
the dead.”
Like Peter, James and John, I caught a glimpse of something of the Purity of God on a hill. Tradition tells us that Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor, Israel. My 'Mount Tabor' was a hotel at the top of a hill in Lourdes, France.
During Holy Week 2001 I took part in the international pilgrimage of Faith and Light to Lourdes which takes place every ten years. Faith and Light was born of a desire to help people with an intellectual disability and their families find their place within the Church and society. This was the main purpose of the organized pilgrimage to Lourdes at Easter of 1971.
I was based in Britain at the time and travelled with a group from the north of England. However, before I left the Philippines for Britain in 2000 I had been invited to be chaplain to the small contingent from the Philippines, as I had been involved with Faith and Light in the Philippines, mostly on the fringes, between 1992 and 2000.
The Filipinos were staying in a hotel at a distance from the shrine and at the top of a hill. There was also a group of Faith and Light pilgrims from Hong Kong, including Fr Giosue Bonzi PIME, an Italian, in the same hotel. (I was with the English pilgrims in a hotel close to the shrine.)
One of those from Hong Kong was Dorothy, a girl of about eleven with Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21). Her father died suddenly when she was very young. Dorothy's face had the delicate beauty of Chinese ceramics. But she had an extraordinary inner beauty, a purity that could have come only from God. Though I had no Cantonese and she had no English, we were able to communicate simply by looking at one another. She showed complete trust in me. She had a vulnerability that called forth the deepest respect.
Fr Giosue Bonzi PIME with Dorothy, now an adult, in Hong Kong
In Irish there's an expression used for a person with a severe mental or learning disability, duine le Dia, 'a person with God'. Dorothy was such for me, in a very full sense of that phrase: she was a clear expression of the beauty and of the purity of God to me.
The Opening Prayerof today's Mass reads: O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory. Through . . . When Peter, James and John went up Mount Tabor with Jesus they had no idea that would see the divinity of Jesus there. They had no idea they would hear God the Father say This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.The Entrance Antiphon, taken from Psalm 26 [27], prays, It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me. I have no doubt that I saw the face of the Lord in that young girl with Down Syndrome from Hong Kong whom I met in Lourdes in Holy Week 2001. Jesus may speak to us at any time, unexpectedly, as he revealed his presence to me in that hotel at the top of a hill in Lourdes. May we make the Opening Prayer our own so that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.
Immaculate Mary (The Lourdes Hymn)
Traditional Pyrenean melody arranged by James Doig
GospelMatthew 4:1-11 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Then
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was
hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the
Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he
answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth
of God.’”
Then
the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the
templeand said to him, “If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you’,
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus
said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the
Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high
mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And
he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is
written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Then
the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
I remember vividly a homily on
this gospel when I was in the seminary, around 1965. The preacher was a saintly
Columban, Fr Edward McCormack, known to us as ‘Father Ted’, though he was a far
cry from the Father Ted in the British comedy TV series about a group of
priests in a remote part of Ireland. It wasn’t so much the preacher’s words as
the sense of the horror he conveyed of the very idea of Satan trying to tempt
Jesus Christ, God who became Man that struck me and that still remains. Father
Ted conveyed to me a sense of the horror of what sin is.
Lent is a time in which we can receive the grace of knowing
something of the horror of sin and of the price that our loving God paid in
order to save us from being lost in it. Lent is a time when the whole Church
prepares to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus at Easter. We can’t do that
without going through Good Friday and all that led to that.
An essential part of going through Lent, and one that
involves some pain, is accepting responsibility for our personal sins and
asking God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of confession or reconciliation. This
is an expression of God’s love for us as sinners, a sacrament in which Jesus
gives us the grace to resist the temptations of Satan as he did in the gospel.
One person who understood the depths of God's love in the sacrament of confession was the Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925). In the videos above and below the scriptwriter, the late Fr Desmond Forristal of the Archdiocese of Dublin, uses the artistic device of having Matt tell his own story while walking through the streets of Dublin 60 years after his death. It's a device that for me works remarkably well.
Matt Talbot was a Dubliner who had become an alcoholic by the age of 13 or 14 and spent the next fourteen years as a drunkard. He went to the extreme once of stealing a fiddle from a beggar and pawned it to get money for drink. It was his only living, Matt tells us in the video,and I think that was the worst thing I ever did in my life. Matt made many efforts later to trace the beggar but never succeeded.
Yet during his fourteen years of drinking Matt hardly ever missed Sunday Mass, though he didn't receive Holy Communion, and always said a Hail Mary before sleeping. I think that's what saved me in the long run, he tells us.
At the beginning of the second video - each video is less than 24 minutes - Matt, masterfully played by Irish actor SéamusForde, goes through a soul-wrenching temptation right at Communion time, something that happens the same Sunday morning at Mass in three different churches, a temptation that drives him out of each, until he falls on his knees outside one of them and prays Jesus, mercy; Mary help, a prayer that most Dubliners would have been familiar with.
Matt Talbot
The second video shows Matt sending a donation to the Maynooth Mission to China, as the Columbans were first known in Ireland, some time in the mid-1920s. The note he enclosed is in the Columban archives. The amount, one pound from himself and ten shillings (half of a pound) from his sister, was considerable for poor people.
Towards the end of the video Matt speaks of the things God had asked him to do. He put these thoughts in my mind when I was praying - and I knew they came from him. Only the priest in confession knew about these special things, small things God wanted me to do. They weren't for anybody else.
Among the special things, small things were the chains he wore on certain occasions. It was these very chains, found on his body when he died, that led to people asking questions about me . . . God must have wanted it that way . . . using me to say something to people today, now.
Lent is a gift that God gives the Church each year, a personal gift to each member of the Church, a time when he wants to put these thoughts in my mind when I am praying.
Matt Talbot was the farthest thing imaginable from the 'celebrities' of today during his life. In the nearly 100 years since his death he has given hope to many, especially persons struggling with alcoholism and other addictions.
Will I allow God this Lent to put whatever thoughts he wants to in my mind by giving him time in prayer? Will I allow him, as Mary did when she said Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word, to use me to say something to people today, now?
Will I fall on my knees in moments of great temptation, as Matt did during the terrible struggle he had right at Communion time three times on that one Sunday morning, perhaps reflecting the three temptations of the Lord in today's gospel, and plead Jesus, mercy, Mary help?
Will I allow myself to experience God's merciful love for me as a sinner through the sacrament of confession as Matt did?
They thought I was missing the good things in life. But God gave me the best part - and he never took it away.
Dubliners refer to older churches by their street names rather than by their patronal names. The church above, which Matt calls 'Gardiner Street church', is that of the Jesuits. Matt also refers a number of times to the 'chapel' in Seville Place, the Church of St Laurence O'Toole, once Archbishop of Dublin and now of its two patron saints, the other being St Kevin. This is another old Dublin usage, calling a church a 'chapel'. The accent and idioms of Matt in the two videos are pure Dublin.
When I was a child my mother, when 'going into town', i.e. into the city centre, would sometimes go through Granby Lane and we'd pray at the spot where Matt died. Everyone in Dublin then knew who Matt Talbot was. I'm not so sure about today.
You can discover more about this wonderful man, venerated by many struggling with alcoholism and other addictions, here and by googling.
Snowdrops, St Columban's Dalgan Park
19 February 2023
Pope St Leo the Great
Office of Readings, Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Dearly beloved, the earth is always filled with the mercy of the Lord. For every one of us Christians nature is full of instruction that we should worship God. The heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is within them, proclaim the goodness and the almighty power of their maker. The wonderful beauty of these inferior elements of nature demands that we, intelligent beings, should give thanks to God.
Traditional Latin Mass
First Sunday in Lent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-26-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10. Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11.
GospelMatthew 5:38-48 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to his
disciples:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is
evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the
other also.And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,[a] let him have your cloak as well.And if anyone forces you to go one
mile, go with him two miles.Give to the one who begs from you, and do not
refuse the one who would borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you,so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on
the just and on the unjust.For if you love those who love you, what reward do you
have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than
others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?You therefore must be perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect.”
FrRufus Halley was one year behind me in the Columban seminary in Ireland. We were close friends. He came to the Philippines in 1969, two years before I did. He spent his early years in the country in Tagalog-speaking parishes in an area of the Archdiocese of Manila south of the metropolitan area, now the Diocese of Antipolo. He was fluent in the language. After about ten years he began to feel a clear call from God to leave the security of working in an area overwhelmingly Christian and mostly Catholic to a part of Mindanao where Columbans had worked for many years that is overwhelmingly Muslim, the Prelature of Marawi. There he became fluent in two more Filipino languages, Meranao, spoken by the majority of Muslims in the area, and Cebuano, spoken by most of the Christians. Both Muslims and Christians saw Father Rufus as a man of prayer, a man of peace, a man of God. He spent an hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament. Over the years he earned the trust of some Muslim leaders despite the long history of distrust between Muslims and Christians that sometimes led to outright conflict. Because of the trust he had built up he, a foreigner, a Christian and a Catholic priest, got an extraordinary request: to mediate in a feud between two groups of Meranaos. Father Rufus saw this as another call from God and agreed. He also sought the advice of a Muslim elder who wasn't involved in the conflict. Over a period of many weeks he was going back and forth between the leaders of the two factions until eventually they agreed to meet. The morning of the meeting was filled with tension but when the leaders arrived they agreed to end the feud. A week or so later Father Rufus dropped into the house of one of the leaders of the conflict and, to his delight, saw a leader of the other faction having coffee with him, the two men engaged in a lively, friendly conversation into which they invited the Irish priest. Father Rufus used to speak about this event as the highlight of the twenty years he spent living among Muslims, a period when tension was seldom absent from his life and where there was often danger. Though a person who had a naturally optimistic disposition - five minutes in his company would get rid of any 'blues' you might feel - that didn't keep him going. His Christian hope and faith did.
Father Rufus with young friends
On the afternoon of 29 August 2001 while returning on his motorcycle from an inter-faith meeting in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur, to Malabang, maybe five or six kilometres away and where he was assigned, Father Rufus was ambushed by a group of men who happened to be Muslims and shot dead.
Both Christians and Muslims were devastated by his death.
Father Rufus came from a privileged background and could have entered any profession. But he chose to answer God's call to be a missionary priest. Our Columban superiors sent him to the Philippines.
He later chose, in answer to God's call and with the blessing of our superiors, to go to a very difficult mission. That choice led to twenty years of joyful service there to Catholics and Muslims. It also led to his death.
Father Rufus wasn't the enemy of anyone. Because of that and because they saw him as a man of God, two groups of Muslims who were enemies accepted him as a mediator. He wasn't a man to greet only your brothers and sisters but one who crossed barriers.
The closing words of Jesus in today's gospel are You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. For years my understanding of becoming perfect in this sense was of a blueprint like that of an architect. If you found this blueprint and built according to its specifications then you'd have a perfect product.
But a building is inanimate.
However, I found a very different image of perfection in Story of a Soul, the autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux: Perfection consists simply in doing his will, and being just what he wants us to be.This is an image of a living being, of a unique being. God's will gradually unfolded in the life of Father Rufus, as a flower unfolds, the growth being silent and hardly noticeable most of the time.
I see in the stages of the life of Father Rufus, whose baptismal name was Michael, a testimony of the truth of the words of St Thérèse and a model of how we can follow the words of Jesus. Through his daily prayer, his daily faithfulness, his responding to God's will at crucial moments in his life, he became what God willed him to be: a Catholic priest who as he laid in death on the side of a road in a remote area of the southern Philippines, became an even stronger bridge between Christians and Muslims, a man who in life and death showed the true face of Jesus Christ, God who became Man out of love for all of us.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Author of the original Latin unknown; English translation below by St John Henry Cardinal Newman
Ánima Christi, sanctífica me.Soul of Christ, be my sanctification; Corpus Christi, salva me. Body of Christ, be my salvation; Sanguis Christi, inébria me. Blood of Christ, fill all my veins; Aqua láteris Christi, lava me. Water of Christ's side, wash out my stains; Pássio Christi, confórta me. Passion of Christ, my comfort be; O bone Iesu, exáudi me. O good Jesus, listen to me; Intra tua vúlnera abscónde me. In Thy wounds I fain would hide; Ne permíttas me separári a te. Ne'er to be parted from Thy side; Ab hoste malígno defénde me. Guard me, should the foe assail me; In hora mortis meæ voca me. Call me when my life shall fail me; Et iube me veníre ad te, Bid me come to Thee above, ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te With Thy saints to sing Thy love, in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen. World without end. Amen.
Traditional Latin Mass
Quinquagesima Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-19-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Gospel: Luke 18:31-43.
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