'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Sunday Reflections, Saints Peter and Paul

Sts Peter and Paul 

Guido Reni [Web Gallery of Art]

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Solemnities take precedence over Sundays in Ordinary Time.

At the Vigil Mass (Saturday evening)

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 the Vigil Mass as an ‘anticipated Mass’. It is a celebration proper to the evening before. The Vigil Mass also fulfills the Sunday obligation.

Vigil Mass

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Mass During the Day

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 16:13-19 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Leo XVI preaching at inaugural Mass

[Wikipedia; photo]

Jesus says to Peter in today's gospel: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Those same words are sung as the Gospel Acclamation.. The first part of that verse is sung again as part of the Communion Antiphon.

St Augustine speaks very eloquently in one of his sermons on the reasons Jesus chose this fisherman to be the first leader of his Church:

If Christ had first chosen a man skilled in public speaking, such a man might well have said: 'I have been chosen on account of my eloquence.' If he had chosen a senator, the senator might have said: 'I have been chosen because of my rank.' If his first choice had been an emperor, the emperor surely might have said: 'I have been chosen for the sake of the power I have at my disposal.' Let these worthies keep quiet and defer to others; let them hold their peace for a while. I am not saying they should be passed over or despised; I am simply asking all those who can find any ground for pride in what they are to give way to others just a little.

Christ says: give me this fisherman, this man without education or experience, this man to whom no senator would deign to speak, not even if he were buying fish. Yes, give me him; once I have taken possession of him, it will be obvious that it is I who am at work in him. Although I meant to include senators, orators, and emperors among my recruits, even when I have won over the senator I shall still be surer of the fisherman. The senator can always take pride in what he is; so can the orator and the emperor, but the fisherman can glory in nothing except Christ alone.

I was particularly struck by St Augustine's observation that perhaps a senator mightn't bother to speak to a fisherman even when buying fish from him. I remember being at a birthday party in the Philippines for a boy aged ten or eleven, an only child. His paternal grandmother, a wealthy woman, whom I'll call 'Lydia', had invited me when we happened to cross each other's path in the city where her son's family lived. Her late husband had lingered for ten years after a stroke that left him totally incapacitated. During those years Lydia joined a prayer group, most of the members of which were people who had to struggle financially from day to day. They prayed regularly with Lydia's husband and gave her great support.

At her grandson's birthday party she asked her daughter-in-law if her driver had eaten. Then she turned to me and said, Before, I wouldn't even have noticed him. She had been changed by the faith community in her parish, especially by the members of the prayer group.

Benedict XVI with Pilgrims, World Youth Day 2011, Madrid

[Wikipedia; photo]

At the closing Mass of World Youth Day in Madrid on 21 August 2011 today's Gospel was proclaimed. In his homily Pope Benedict XVI spoke about what I see as the experience of Lydia [emphases added]:

Dear young friends, as the Successor of Peter, let me urge you to strengthen this faith which has been handed down to us from the time of the Apostles. Make Christ, the Son of God, the centre of your life. But let me also remind you that following Jesus in faith means walking at his side in the communion of the Church. We cannot follow Jesus on our own. Anyone who would be tempted to do so 'on his own', or to approach the life of faith with that kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.

Having faith means drawing support from the faith of your brothers and sisters, even as your own faith serves as a support for the faith of others. I ask you, dear friends, to love the Church which brought you to birth in the faith, which helped you to grow in the knowledge of Christ and which led you to discover the beauty of his love. Growing in friendship with Christ necessarily means recognizing the importance of joyful participation in the life of your parishes, communities and movements, as well as the celebration of Sunday Mass, frequent reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation, and the cultivation of personal prayer and meditation on God’s word.

Friendship with Jesus will also lead you to bear witness to the faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference. We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others. So do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith. The world needs the witness of your faith, it surely needs God. I think that the presence here of so many young people, coming from all over the world, is a wonderful proof of the fruitfulness of Christ’s command to the Church: 'Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation' (Mk 16:15). You too have been given the extraordinary task of being disciples and missionaries of Christ in other lands and countries filled with young people who are looking for something greater and, because their heart tells them that more authentic values do exist, they do not let themselves be seduced by the empty promises of a lifestyle which has no room for God.

During the ten years of her husband's illness where he couldn't do anything for himself, Lydia was drawing support from the faith of  her brothers and sisters, even as they drew support from hers.

Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam.

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.

This text from today’s Gospel is used in both the Gospel Acclamation and the Communion Antiphon. 

Traditional Latin Mass

Saints Peter and Paul

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-29-2025 if necessary).

Lesson: Acts 12:1-11. Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19.

Saints Peter and Paul 

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16; Gospel).

Two young Eucharistic saints. Sunday Reflections, Corpus Christi, Year C

 

Blessed Carlo Acutis

3 May 1991 - 12 October 2006

Beatified 10 October 2020; to be canonized 7 September 2025

[Wikipedia; photo]

In the countries where this blog is read the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated on Sunday 22 June rather than on Thursday 19 June, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday being the traditional day.

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 9:11-17 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus spoke to the crowd of the kingdom of God and cured those who needed healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the Twelve came and said to him, ‘Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.’ But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish — unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, ‘Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ And they did so, and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

                     

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

6 April 1901 - 4 July 1925

Beatified 20 May 1990; to be canonized 7 September 2025

[Wikipedia; photo]

I've told the story here before of a German woman I met in Canada in 1997. I was visiting Irish friends and through them was invited to give a talk to a prayer group. After the talk I was having coffee with the woman who had gone to Canada from Germany in her younger days. She was a Lutheran then. For a long time she had been thinking of becoming a Catholic but could not take the final step. One weekday afternoon she felt unsettled about this and went for a walk. She happened to be passing a Catholic church and went in to pray. While she was there, a group of teenage boys, around the same age as Blessed Carlo Acutis above who died aged 15, who came into the church went up to the front, genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament, knelt down and prayed silently for a few minutes. Then they got up, genuflected again and went out.

That was the moment of grace for the woman that led her to decide to become a Catholic. God spoke to her through a group of teenage boys whom she didn't know and who, quite possibly, hadn't even noticed her.

Blessed Carlo and Blessed Pier Giorgio had many things in common, though they were born 90 years apart. Both were Italian, though Carlo was born in England but grew up in Italy. Both grew up in affluent families but their parents were not particularly devout Catholics. Yet both from their childhood had a sense of God's love for them and an awareness of the poor whom they helped from their pocket-money and from befriending them. They also developed a life of prayer centred on the Holy Eucharist. Carlo from his young days would visit the Blessed Sacrament on his way to and from school and befriend beggars he met on the way.

Pier Giorgio sometimes spent the whole night in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament during his university days.

Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo brought persons much older than themselves to know Jesus Christ. The story of Carlo's influence on Rajesh Mohur, a Hindu immigrant from Mauritius to Italy, is inspiring. And Carlo was somewhat of a 'geek' when it came to the internet, developing sites devoted to Eucharistic miracles and apparitions of Our Lady. 

Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo died within days of a very painful serious illness being diagnosed, In Pier Giorgio's case polio, which he probably got from a poor woman whom he had been visiting, and in Carlo's case leukaemia.

These two young men truly believed in the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, body, blood, soul and divinity. They took to heart the words of Jesus in today's Communion Antiphon: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (John 6:37). So did the teenage boys in Canada whose quiet faith led the German woman to the Catholic Church and faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the reality that today's feast celebrates.

There is a wealth of material online about these two young men on. The video below is one I have watched a number of times. Each time it has uplifted me and drawn me into prayer.

Carlo Acutis Web Missionary (Original version with subtitles)

Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-22-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 3:13-18. Gospel: Luke 14:16-24.

Christ in Agony on the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16; Epistle).

'God is the Trinity, he is a communion of love; so is the family.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, Year C

 

The Two Trinities 

Murillo [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

My apologies for having printed the wrong gospel earlier. Here is the correct gospel.

Brothers and Sisters: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

                      

Holy Family and Trinity

Jacob de Wit [Web Gallery of Art]

During my kindergarten, primary and secondary school years, 1947 to 1961, on schooldays my brother Paddy and I had breakfast and dinner - a midday meal for almost everybody in Ireland in those days - with our mother. In the evening we had 'tea', as that lighter meal is known in some English-speaking countries. The four of us were together for tea, my father having his dinner and tea combined. I often heard my mother 'complain' about having to prepare two dinners on weekdays. It would never have occurred to her or to any other working-class housewife in urban Ireland in those days to have dinner for the whole family in the evening. Now that is the norm.

However, we did have dinner together on Saturdays and Sundays. My father, like other construction workers, had a half-day on Saturday. Saturday was the only day when we had soup, usually barley soup, served in cups, not in bowls. Sunday dinner was special and the only day when we had dessert.

People's Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin

[Wikipedia; photo]

Sunday dinner was special, as it was for all families, and meant extra work for my mother who would spend the whole morning after Mass and breakfast preparing it. My father would take the two of us to meet our paternal grandfather and then for a walk in the nearby Phoenix Park. 

I don't ever recall my parents telling us that we were a family. We just knew. But it was only as an adult and after ordination that I realised that it was at our evening meals on weekdays and at our midday meals on Saturdays and Sundays that I experienced, without being aware of it, what family is. And our Sunday walks with my father were what is now called 'bonding'. Another part of that was Dad taking us to soccer games from time to time in nearby Dalymount Park. 

When in 1968 I went as a young priest to the USA to study I discovered that families there had to really work at being families, as the family couldn't be taken for granted, as it still could be in Ireland at that time.

Pope Benedict XVI was probably familiar with Murillo's painting above, The Two Trinities. In his Angelus talk on 27 December 2009, the Feast of the Holy Family, he said, The first witnesses of Christ's birth, the shepherds, found themselves not only before the Infant Jesus but also a small family: mother, father and newborn son. God had chosen to reveal himself by being born into a human family and the human family thus became an icon of God! God is the Trinity, he is a communion of love; so is the family despite all the differences that exist between the Mystery of God and his human creature, an expression that reflects the unfathomable Mystery of God as Love. In marriage the man and the woman, created in God's image, become 'one flesh' (Gen 2: 24), that is a communion of love that generates new life. The human family, in a certain sense, is an icon of the Trinity because of its interpersonal love and the fruitfulness of this love. [Emphases added above and below].

Pope Leo XIV

[Wikipedia; photo]

Two weeks ago in his homily during the Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Families, Pope Leo XIV said: Christ prays that we may 'all be one' (John 17: 21). This is the greatest good that we can desire, for this universal union brings about among his creatures the eternal communion of love that is God himself: the Father who gives life, the Son who receives it and the Spirit who shares it. 

Further on Leo XIV speaks of marriage and the family in this way: For this reason, with a heart filled with gratitude and hope, I would remind all married couples that marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful (cf. St Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 9). This love makes you one flesh and enables you, in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life.

And in this sentence the Pope summarises my own experience and that of so many others: In the family, faith is handed on together with life, generation after generation. It is shared like food at the family table and like the love in our hearts. In this way, families become privileged places in which to encounter Jesus, who loves us and desires our good, always.

Holy Family with the Infant St John 

Murillo [Web Gallery of Art]

Almost every Catholic in Ireland went to Sunday Mass when I was growing up and our Protestant neighbours also went to church. When I was a small child it was usually my father who took me to Mass on Sunday morning. My mother, who had to take care of my baby brother Paddy went to a later Mass. (Paddy is 79 this Sunday and is now in a nursing home. You might say a prayer for him. I remember my Dad taking me up to my parents' bedroom to see my baby brother the day he was born.) And on special days such as Easter Monday, Whit (Pentecost) Monday, which were public but not Church holidays, Dad would take me to High Mass in one of the churches in Dublin belonging to religious orders such as the Capuchins and the Dominicans. 

Before Pope Pius XII changed the Holy Week liturgies in 1955 the ceremonies on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday were held in the morning. Not too many would attend these. But on the afternoon of Holy Thursday my mother would take my brother and me to visit seven churches for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of Repose. That practice disappeared after 1954 in Dublin but is alive and well in the Philippines in the larger cities where it is called Visita Iglesia and is done at night with thousands of young people walking from one church to the next. On those childhood Holy Thursdays I experienced, as I look back, being drawn into the wider family that is the Church and into the life of the Trinity.

I must confess that as a child I didn't appreciate too much my father bringing me to High Masses or my mother bringing me to visit seven churches on Holy Thursday. But I could see clearly how Dad loved the solemnity of the High Mass and how central the Mass was to his life. He went to Mass every day of his life right up to the day he died. I am grateful now for the way my parents brought me into the life of the Blessed Trinity in this way. But I am also grateful for the way they drew me into the life of the Trinity, without my being aware of it, through our daily family life, especially our evening meals together.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are often referred to as the three monotheistic faiths. Those who belong to these three faiths believe in only One God. I have often heard Catholics say in a well-meaning way, 'We all believe in the same God.' But that is not so. Only Christians believe in a God who is a communion of persons. And only Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God who became Man, who died for us on the Cross and rose again from the dead on Easter Sunday.

Firmly I believe and truly

Words by St John Henry Newman

Traditional Latin Mass

Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-15-2025 if necessary).

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

Holy Trinity

Jusepe de Ribera [Web Gallery of Art]

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 (Matthew 28:19; Gospel).

'The world is charged with the grandeur of God.' Sunday Reflections, Pentecost, Year C

Pentecost

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Pentecost Sunday, at the Vigil Mass 

(Saturday evening), Years ABC

NB: The Vigil Mass has its own prayers and readings which should be used at the Vigil Mass. The prayers and readings for the Mass During the Day on Sunday should not be used only on Sunday, not at the Vigil Mass, 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, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

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 C

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

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA

Gospel John 14:15-16, 23-26 (English Standard Version Anglicised: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever,

‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

^‘These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’

Or

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

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

Pentecost

Master of the Dominican Effigies [Web Gallery of Art]

Here is what Pope Benedict XVI said in his Regina Caeli talk on Pentecost Sunday, 27 May 2007, to the people in St Peter's Square. The emphases are mine.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, in which the liturgy has us relive the birth of the Church, according to what St Luke narrates in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (2: 1-13).

Fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit descended on the community of disciples - 'with one accord devoted themselves to prayer' - gathered with 'Mary, the mother of Jesus' and with the Twelve Apostles (cf. Acts 1: 14; 2: 1). We can therefore say that the Church had its solemn beginning with the descent of the Holy Spirit.

In this extraordinary event we find the essential and qualifying characteristics of the Church: the Church is one, like the community at Pentecost, who were united in prayer and 'concordant': 'were of one heart and soul' (Acts 4: 32).

The Church is holy, not by her own merits, but because, animated by the Holy Spirit, she keeps her gaze on Christ, to become conformed to him and to his love.

The Church is catholic, because the Gospel is destined for all peoples, and for this, already at the beginning, the Holy Spirit made her speak all languages.

The Church is apostolic, because, built upon the foundation of the Apostles, she faithfully keeps their teaching through the uninterrupted chain of episcopal succession.

What is more, the Church by her nature is missionary, and from the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit does not cease to move her along the ways of the world to the ends of the earth and to the end of time.

This reality, which we can verify in every epoch, is already anticipated in the Book of Acts, where the Gospel passage from the Hebrews to the pagans, from Jerusalem to Rome, is described. Rome represents the pagan world, and hence, all people who are outside of the ancient People of God. Actually, Acts concludes with the arrival of the Gospel to Rome.

It can be said, then, that Rome is the concrete name of catholicity and missionary spirit, it expresses fidelity to the origins, to the Church of all times, to a Church that speaks all languages and extends herself to all cultures.

Dear brothers and sisters, the first Pentecost took place when Mary Most Holy was present amid the disciples in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and prayed. Today, too, let us entrust ourselves to her maternal intercession, so that the Holy Spirit may descend in abundance upon the Church in our day, fill the hearts of all the faithful and enkindle in them the fire of his love.

+++

Pope Benedict notes: the first Pentecost took place when Mary Most Holy was present amid the disciples in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and prayed. In the three paintings I have chosen for this post  Mary is in the centre. We must never forget that from all eternity God the Father had chosen Mary to be the one to bring the Divine Word, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, into the world as Jesus Christ, God who became Man. John 1: 14 tells us: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In Luke 1:34-35 Mary asks How will this be, since I am a virgin? and the angel replies, 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. Luke 2:51 states: And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them, 'them' being Mary and her husband St Joseph.

The Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed are shared by all Christians. In the former we pray and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man; in the latter we proclaim I believe . . . in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary . . .

God's Grandeur

by Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ, read by Samuel West 

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Ordinary Time resumes on 9 June: Monday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time. That day is the Memorial of Mary Mother of the Church, established by Pope Francis in 2018. The special readings are here and here.

In Ireland and Scotland Monday is the Feast of St Columba (Colum Cille).

Traditional Latin Mass

Pentecost or Whitsunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-08-2023 if necessary).

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

The Octave of Pentecost runs from the Vigil of Pentecost till the Saturday after Pentecost.

Pentecost

Jean Restout II [Web Gallery of Art] [Commentary on this painting]

These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things,[and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (John 14:25-26; Gospel).