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).
GospelMatthew 28:16-20(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the
mountain to which Jesus had directed them.And when they saw him they worshipped
him, but some doubted.And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the
age.”
Benedictus sit Deus Pater, Unigenitusque Dei Filius, Sanctus quoque Spiritus, quia fecit nobiscum misericordiam suam.
Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.
This is the Offertory Verse in the Traditional Latin Mass on Trinity Sunday.
Nine years ago at this time I
gave a retreat to a group of Canossian Daughters of Charity in the Philippines. They
included four novices and seven professed Sisters, including one from Malaysia.
Their foundress, St Magdalene of Canossa bequeathed to the Sisters the mission
of 'making Jesus known and loved above all'. This comes from a stance of
standing at the foot of the Cross with Mary.
During
my talks each morning I shared many stories of individuals who had made Jesus
known to me, usually with no awareness that they were doing so. Some were
persons I knew. Some are now dead. Some I met only once in passing, never
learning their names. Most were poor. I know that my stories triggered off
similar memories among the Sisters of people who had made Jesus known to them
as the Sisters in turn had made him known to those they were serving.
I see this in the context of
the Communion of Saints, the angels and saints in heaven, the members of the
Church on earth, the souls in purgatory. The story of creation tells us that we
are made in the image of God. But what the author of that first account of
creation didn't know is that God is a Community of Three Persons. Made in God's
image, we are made to be in community with others.
Jusepe
de Ribera's painting of the Holy Trinity above, like a number of other
paintings, shows the dead Christ. The expression on the face of the Father
shows suffering. It is very similar to the face of the father in
Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, painted about
thirty years later. I don't know if Rembrandt was familiar with de Ribera's
painting.
The Blessed Trinity call us into the circle of
their life through suffering. We know the suffering of Jesus. Some of the great
artists show to us something of the suffering of the Father.
One of the stories I told involved two persons I
met only once, a mother and her daughter aged about 13. When they first
approached me outside a retreat house in Cebu City on the morning of Holy
Thursday 1990. I made an excuse that I was only visiting. When I went inside I
later saw the two of them sitting on the steps. The daughter had her head on
her mother's shoulder. Clearly, they were tired and hungry. When I was leaving
I gave them enough to buy breakfast. The young girl looked at me with the most
beautiful smile I've ever seen and said to me, Salamat sa Ginoo! 'Thanks to the Lord!' She wasn't thanking me but
inviting me to thank the Lord with her and her mother for his goodness. Through
her hunger and tiredness she had come to know something of God's bountiful love.
As I reflect on this incident now, 31 years later, I see it in the light of today's Second Reading, Romans 8:14-17. St Paul writes, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God . . . When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness. That young girl was led by the Spirit of God to thank the Father for having provided her and her mother with breakfast that day, for having listened to their prayer, Give us this day our daily bread. And she invited me as her brother in Christ to do the same. Without being aware of it she was celebrating the reality of the Holy Trinity.
And she has been calling me into the life
of the Holy Trinity for all those year. I've no idea what became of
her. I went to the Philippines in 1971 to do my part in making disciples of all nations and have baptised many in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. But that young girl, and many others like her,
have been constantly teaching me to observe all that I have
commanded you and assuring me in the name of Jesus, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Benedictus sit Deus
This is Mozart's setting of today's Entrance Antiphon, composed when he was twelve.
Please pray for the repose of the soul of Johanna Xiao who died in Dublin last Monday, 24 May, the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, the feast of Our Lady of Sheshen and, this year, the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
Johanna was born in China in 1923 and spent 30 years as a prisoner in China for being a member of the Legion of Mary, ten years in prison and 20 more in detention. She was able to come to Ireland in 1987 and lived in Dublin, active in the Legion of Mary until her health declined.
The basilica in Sheshen is also known as the Basilica of Mary, Help of Christians, whose feast day is 24 May. Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 designated that day as the World Day of Prayer for China.
Surely God and our Blessed Mother, in what I think of as their thoughtfulness, chose this date to call Johanna home. May this faithful disciple of Jesus, who followed him to a heroic degree and who, like Mary, stood by his Cross, rest in peace.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Trinity Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 5-30-2021 if necessary).
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.
Royal
Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates
Paintings
by George Cole (1810-1863) and his son George Vicat Cole (1833-1893)
Video by David Harris
The composer and the painters were English. Both the music and the paintings for me capture the beauty of England's green and pleasant land, to quote from Jerusalem by English poet William Blake. I was blessed to enjoy the beauty of much of England while doing mission appeals in Britain between 2000 and 2002. The Catholics of England, Scotland and Wales have been very generous supporters of the missionary work of the Columbans down the years. May God bless them abundantly for that.
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)
GospelJohn 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)
GospelJohn 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
GospelJohn 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.”
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 trhough 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 pan 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
May Mary, our Mother, draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples.
Ordinary Time begins resumes on Monday with the Eighth Week, Year 1. Monday in Australia is the Solemnity of Our Lady Help of Christians who, under that title, has been the Patroness of the country since 1844.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Vigil of Whitsunday or Whitsun Eve
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 5-22-2021 if necessary).
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.
The Ascension is celebrated on
Ascension Thursday, 13 May, in England & Wales and in Scotland. In the USA it is
celebrated on Ascension Thursday in the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston,
Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, Philadelphia, elsewhere on Sunday 2 June. In
all of these areas Ascension Thursday is a Holyday of Obligation.
The Ascension is
observed on Sunday, 16 May, in Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, Canada,
Ireland, Philippines.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
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.
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.
Fr Giuseppe Raviolo SJ (1923 - 1998) was a Pope St John XXIII-like
figure, physically and spiritually, from Italy who spent most of his priestly
life in Mindanao, Philippines, where I came to know him. He was the first
rector of St John Vianney Major Seminary in Cagayan de Oro City. But he also
spent nine years in Vietnam and was rector of the major seminary in Saigon, now
Ho Chi Minh City, during the Vietnam War. He once told me an extraordinary
story from that period.
The North Vietnamese Army was advancing on Saigon. The
soldiers were divided into groups of three. The standing order was that if one
tried to surrender the other two were to shoot him. One particular group found
themselves surrounded by American soldiers and one of them surrendered. The
other two did not shoot their companion and were captured along with him. Later
they asked their companion why he had taken such a risk. He answered, I
knew you were Christians and that you would not shoot me. The two were in
fact Catholics and had discussed the matter and had decided that, as
Christians, they could not shoot their companion if that particular situation
arose.
These were soldiers in the army of a Communist country, an
army without any chaplains, and their companion, who was not a Christian, took
it for granted that they would not take his life because he knew that they were
Christians.
In the First Reading today, the opening verses of the Acts of
the Apostles, Jesus says to his disciples, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will
be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the
earth.
Those two Catholic soldiers in the North Vietnamese
army were powerful witnesses of Jesus to their companion. They chose to live
their faith in Jesus. And he entrusted his life to them because he knew they were Christians.
How many strangers would entrust their life to us simply because they knew we were Christians?
Rejoice always,pray without ceasing,give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
This is really a postscript. The other day I came across the following quotation in This Tremendous Lover by Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO. It made me smile and it also highlighted for me that prayer is essentially being in a relationship with God, knowing that God loves us.
A saint should be a very easy person to live with. Unfortunately, those who try to be saints are often the opposite. Might we refer them to the example of St Jane Frances de Chantal? While she was still living in the world, St Francis de Sales became her director. The result of his influence may be gathered from the comment of one of her servants. 'The first director that Madame had made her pray three times a day. and we were all put out; but the Monsignor of Geneva (St Francis de Sales) makes her pray all day long and no one is troubled.'
Antiphona ad introitum Entrance Antiphon Acts 1:11
Viri Galilaei
Setting
by William Byrd
Sung
by Cardinall’s Musick
Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in
caelum? Men of Galilee, why gaze in wonder at the heavens?Quemadmodum vidisti eum ascendentem in caelum, ita
veniet, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.This Jesus whom you saw ascending into heaven will return as you saw him go, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Omnes gentes plaudit manibusL iubilate Deo in voce
exultationis.
Clap your hands all peoples! Shout
to God with loud sounds of joy!
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, sicut
erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall
be, world without end. Amen.
Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini
aspicientes in caelum? Men of Galilee, why gaze in wonder at the heavens?Quemadmodum vidisti eum
ascendentem in caelum, ita veniet, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
This Jesus whom you saw ascending into heaven will return as you saw him go, alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia.
In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass the whole text above is sung or recited. In the Ordinary Form the text in bold is recited or sung unless it is replaced by a suitable hymn.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Ascension Thursday
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 5-13-2021 if necessary).
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.
