27 May 2021

'Without being aware of it she was celebrating the reality of the Holy Trinity.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, Year B

 

Holy Trinity
Jusepe de Ribera [Web Gallery of Art]


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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 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.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Antiphona ad introitum  Entrance Antiphon

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.

Return of the Prodigal Son
Rembrandt [Wikipedia]

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.

Peasant Girl Bringing Basket
Adolf Fényes [Web Gallery of Art]

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.

Death of a heroic Chinese missionary

Our Lady of Sheshen 
(佘山聖母)
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).

Epistle: Romans 11:33-36.  Gospel: Matthew 28:18-20.

 

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.

Serenade in A Minor: Romance
Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
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.



20 May 2021

'Sanctify your Church in every people and nation.' Sunday Reflections, Pentecost, Year B

 

Pentecost

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


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

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.


The Visitation

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

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.

Pentecost


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

Sanctify your Church in every people and nation.

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).

Lesson Acts 19:1-8.  Gospel John 14:15-21.

Pentecost or Whitsunday

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 5-23-2021 if necessary).

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

 

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.

May Night
Composer: Selim Palmgren
Pianist: Ryan Sutherland

My piano teacher, Catherine Curran, had me learn this in the 1950s. 



11 May 2021

How many strangers would entrust their life to us simply because they knew we were Christians? Sunday Reflections, The Ascension, Year B

 

Ascension
Andrea della Robia [Web Gallery of Art]


The Ascension, Year B 

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)

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. 


Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B

These readings are used in countries/jurisdictions that observe the solemnity on Ascension Thursday.

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

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.

The Ascension
Theophanes the Cretan [Web Gallery of Art]

Reflection for the Ascension

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.

Fr Giuseppe Raviolo SJ

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?


St Jane Frances de Chantal 

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).

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


Sunday After the Ascension

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 5-16-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:7-11. Gospel: John 15: 26, 27; 16:1-4.

 

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

Spring Song
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Pianist: Mai Morimoto