'She had faith that did not shake.' Sunday Reflections, Ascension, Year B

The Venerable Edel Quinn

14 September 1907 - 12 May 1944 [photo]

Solemnity of the Ascension

The Ascension is celebrated on Ascension Thursday, 9 May, in England & Wales, Scotland. In the USA it is celebrated on Ascension Thursday in the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, Philadelphia. In all of these places Ascension Thursday is a Holyday of Obligation.

The Ascension is observed on Sunday, 12 May, in Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Philippines, USA (apart from the jurisdictions mentioned above).

Ascension, Year B 

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.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B

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

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.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Servant of God Frank Duff

7 June 1889 - 7 November 1980 [photo]

In her biography of her godfather Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, Finola Kennedy has a chapter with the heading Edel, Fr Aedan, Alfie. Under the title is a quotation from today's First Reading: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Edel, Fr Aedan and Alfie were the Venerable Edel Quinn, Columban Fr Aedan McGrath and Servant of God Alfie Lambe.

This Sunday, 12 May, is the 80th anniversary of the death of Edel Quinn in Nairobi, Kenya.

Both Edel and Alfie Lambe felt called to religious life. Because of her tubercolosis (TB) Edel could not enter the Poor Clares. Alfie spent some time in the novitiate of the Irish Christian Brothers, known officially as the Congregation of Christian Brothers whose ministry is teaching, but had to leave for health reasons. Both became witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth, Edel in East and Central Africa and Alfie in South America. Both died young, Edel at the age of 36 and Alfie at the age of 26. Alfie is buried in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers in Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, a touch of what I call 'the thoughtfulness of God', something I first became aware of after my mother's sudden death in 1970.

Edel left for Africa in December 1936. Some in the leadership of the Legion of Mary thought it was a bad idea to send a young woman in poor health on such a difficult mission. After seven years of intense work involving long journeys on poor roads, an intense spiritual life focused above all on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our Blessed Mother's central role in God's plan of salvation for all of us, Edel's TB caught up on her and she died on 12 May 1944 where she is buried in the Missionaries' Cemetery.

The cause for her beatification began in 1957 and in 1994 Pope St John Paul II declared her Venerable. The cause for her beatification continues.

Frank Duff said of Edel Quinn: She had a faith that did not shake. Without that foundation you would not have that special characteristic of devotion to Our Lady, whose faith is singled out for praise in the Gospel . . . Things like fear would naturally assert themselves in her. Why did they not carry her away as they do with most people? I suggest that in her case the ground was so drenched with the Holy Ghost that the sparks of temptation did not start a conflagration.

Servant of God Alfie Lambe

24 June 1932 - 21 January 1958 [photo]

Alfie went to South America in July 1953 and served in Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. Because of his family name and short stature he acquired the nickname El Corderito, 'The Little Lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires introduced the cause of his beatification in 1978.

Fr Aedan McGrath with Pope St John Paul II

Fr Aedan McGrath was born in Dublin on 22 January 1906 and died suddenly at a family gathering on Christmas Day 2000. He spent two years and eight months in solitary confinement in China for his work with the Legion of Mary. I remember his return to Ireland in 1954 after being expelled from China. He was met at Dublin Airport by the President, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and thousands of others. He told me that when he saw the large crowd when the plane landed he said to himself 'There must be somebody important on board'.

Father Aedan spent the rest of his life promoting the Legion of Mary. Based in Manila from 1979 he visited many countries in the Pacific Rim. His story was one of the reasons I became a Columban missionary priest and I was graced to have come to know him very well as a friend during my years in the Philippines and as an inspiring brother Columban priest.

These three missionaries took to heart the words of Jesus in the gospel for the Ascension: Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. The 80th anniversary of the death of Edel Quinn reminds us of this and of what we are all called to be, proclaimers of the gospel by the way we follow Jesus in our daily lives.

You can find quite a bit of material on these three great missionaries by googling their names.

Fr Aedan tells the story of the bird that befriended him in prison

I saw two extraordinary things at Father Aedan's funeral in our cemetery here. During the prayers of commendation before the coffin was lowered a robin redbreast was hovering all the time over it. Then as it was being lowered into the ground a flight of birds in V formation approached from the southwest. Just before they passed over our cemetery one of the birds flew into the middle turning the 'V' into 'A'. You can learn more about this in A Heavenly Farewell, a video I made while still in the Philippines.

Traditional Latin Mass

Ascension Thursday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-09-2024 if necessary).

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

Ascension

Lorenzo Ghiberti [Web Gallery of Art]

Sunday after the Ascension

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-12-2024 if necessary).

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

 

Honouring the Queen of Heaven during the Easter Season

 

The Coronation of the Virgin

Blessed Fra Angelico, Musée du Louvre, Paris [Web Gallery of Art]

Compline, the official Night Prayer of the Church ends with an anthem  of antiphon to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In monasteries this is sung. In the traditional liturgical calendar there are four of these, all in Latin.

Alma Redemptoris Mater is sung from Saturday before the 1st Sunday of Advent through February 1.

The anthem from 2 February, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, through Wednesday of Holy Week is Ave, Regina caelorum.

Regina caeli is the Easter anthem, sung from Easter Sunday through Friday within the Octave of Pentecost.

The best known anthem, sung on many occasions apart from Compline, is Salve, Regina. It is the anthem for Compline from Saturday after the Octave of Pentecost through Friday before the 1st Sunday of Advent.

Regina Caeli

Sung by Schola Gregoriana Medioalanensis, under Giovanni Vianini

V. Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia. 

R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia. 

V. Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia. 

R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia. 

R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

[Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.]

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. 

R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia. 

V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia. 

R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. 

R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

[Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.]

The original text is in Latin. The Regina Caeli, with the prayer in square brackets, replace the Angelus during the Easter Season.

Regina caeli

Setting by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

Sung by Voces8

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.

Little girl to priest: 'Father, are you angry with God?' Sunday Reflections, 6th Sundah of Easter, Year B

The Little Fruit Seller

Murillo [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  John 15:9-17  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The video above is from the Ecumenical Evening Prayer in Westminster Abbey, London, on 17 September 2010 during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain. He is with Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury.

This is a setting by Thomas Tallis (c.1505 - 1585) of today's Communion Antiphon with the first part of John 14:17 added.

If ye love me, keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another comforter,
that he may 'bide with you forever,
e'en the spirit of truth. (John 14:15-17)

Communion Antiphon   Antiphona ad communionem (Jn 14:15-16) 

Si diligitis me, mandata mea servate, dicit Dominus. Et ego rogabo Patrem, et alium Paraclitum dabit vobis, ut maneat vobiscum in aeternum, alleluia.

If you love me, keep my commandments, says the Lord, and I will ask the Father and he will send you another Paraclete, to abide with you for ever, alleluia.

Christ Blessing the Children

Nicolaes Maes [Web Gallery of Art]

In May 2015 I gave a retreat to the Missionary Sisters of the Catechism in Lipa City, south of Manila. The Sisters have a house dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe where they take care of elderly and sick women whom they refer to as the lolas, the 'grandmas'. In another part of the compound they had at the time a group of orphans, five young boys and six young girls. (If my memory is correct the Sisters were planning to build an orphanage). Four of the boys served Mass every morning, including 'Zacchaeus', as the Sisters called him, the youngest of them and small, proudly wearing his white cassock like the others. 'Zacchaeus' wasn't yet old enough to make his First Holy Communion or First Confession. His role as a server was to hold up the small white towel - and he really had to stretch to do so - when the priest washed his hands during the Offertory.

The youngest of the girls was Chiara, aged four or five at the time. The children were present at lunch on the last day of the retreat, which had a celebratory air to it. I noticed after I had said Grace Before Meals that Chiara was somewhat tearful. Then I discovered that on such occasions she led the community in a Hail Mary as part of Grace. So the Sisters encouraged her to do so even though this visiting priest had pre-empted her. After a little hesitation and the drying of her tears she prayerfully led us all in the Hail Mary and then invoked the protectors of the Congregation - Our Lady of Good Counsel, St Joseph, St Veronica Giuliani, St Gemma Galgani and St Bernadette Soubirous.

The Prayer Before Meal

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin [Web Gallery of Art]

During the retreat I told a number of stories of seemingly insignificant events where God had revealed himself to me through the actions of children and of older persons without their being aware of it. Then on the way back to Manila after the retreat Sister Evelyn Cortes SMC, whose family I have known since she was in high school in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, and Sister Eppie Resano SMC told me a story about Chiara where she showed an understanding of what this Sunday's Second Reading is all about, without being aware of it.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:7-10).

Some time before I gave the retreat a missionary priest visited the Sisters and celebrated Mass for them. Little Chiara saw him as being very severe in his demeanour. After Mass she tugged on his cassock and asked him, Father, are you angry with God? It seems that the following morning he wasn't quite as severe looking!

Some may be angry with God. I don't think that God is too perturbed about that when he knows that the source of our anger may be bewilderment over tragedies in our lives, for example, just as we allow those whom we love to vent their anger on us because basically they trust us and we have some idea of the source of their anger.

Perhaps a more common experience, especially among persons who are serious about following Jesus faithfully but who try to live as if God's love had to be earned, as if it could be earned, is the idea that God is angry with us or very distant from us.

St John tells us so beautifully what the situation really is: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Most of the Gospel readings on the Sundays and weekdays of Easter are taken from John 13-17, the Last Supper Discourse in which Jesus speaks to each of us with intense love about the intimacy into which he calls us personally through our baptism. In today's Gospel Jesus says to each of us, speaking from his heart to ours - Cor ad cor loquiter, 'Heart speaks to heart', as St John Henry Cardinal Newman emphasised on his coat-of-arms - As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love . . . This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you . . . You are my friends . . . You did not choose me, but I chose you . . . The initiative comes from God. Love comes from God and our loving response to that love is itself a gift from God. We do not and cannot earn God's love. God who is love gives us himself as pure gift.

How can such a God be angry with us and how can we be angry - choosing to remain angry as distinct from a spontaneous feeling - with such a God?

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).  

For the LORD takes delight in his people; 
he crowns the poor with salvation (Psalm 149:4, Grail translation).

Alleluia from Exsultate, jubilate

Composer: Mozart

Soprano: Khánh Ngọc, pianist: Phuc Phan

St Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 December 2021

Although this was recorded during Advent, Alleluia - Praise God is preeminently an Easter song. The Hebrew word Alleluia is the same in whatever languages Christians sing or pray. In the Northern Hemisphere Easter always falls in springtime which produces many yellow flowers, of which the blouse worn by singer Khánh Ngọc reminded me. And an ancient Hebrew word, set to music by an 18th-century Austrian who died at the age of 35, is sung to praise God in the cathedral in Hanoi by a young Vietnamese in a country where the Church has undergone persecution and where the people suffered from war for many decades. We truly are called to be disciples of Jesus crucified and now risen from the dead, with the hope of eternal life that that brings. Alleluia!

Traditional Latin Mass

Fifth Sunday after Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-05-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:22-27. Gospel: John 16:23-30.

St Elizabeth of Hungary

Sándor Liezen-Mayer [Web Gallery ofArt]

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27; Epistle).

Bring Flowers of the Fairest to Mary in the month of May

 May, the Month of Mary

Garland of Flowers with the Madonna and Child

Christiaen Luyckx [Web Gallery of Art]

You can also find this painting on Wikipedia here.

O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!

Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.

Bring Flowers of the Rarest (Queen of the May)

Composed by Mary E. Walsh, sung by Frank Patterson

Bring flowers of the rarest
bring blossoms the fairest,
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts are swelling,
our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale!

Refrain:
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.

Their lady they name thee,
Their mistress proclaim thee,
Oh, grant that thy children on earth be as true
as long as the bowers
are radiant with flowers,
as long as the azure shall keep its bright hue

Refrain

Sing gaily in chorus;
the bright angels o'er us
re-echo the strains we begin upon earth;
their harps are repeating
the notes of our greeting,
for Mary herself is the cause of our mirth.

Refrain

Request for Prayers

May I ask your prayers for Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder and her husband Pieter. Mariette frequently comments on my blog. Pieter is very ill at the moment. Mariette blogs at Mariette’s Back to Basics.

Mariette and Pieter on 17 March this year

'Such is the Church, this communion of life with Jesus Christ and for one another . . .' Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Easter, Year B

 

The Red Vineyard

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  John 15:1-8  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Vineyards with a View of Auvers

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Today’s gospel was the one used by Pope Benedict when he celebrated Mass in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on 22 September 2011. In his homily the Pope used these striking words [emphases added]: In the parable of the vine, Jesus does not say: 'You are the vine', but: 'I am the vine, you are the branches' (John 15:5). In other words: 'As the branches are joined to the vine, so you belong to me! But inasmuch as you belong to me, you also belong to one another'. This belonging to each other and to him is not some ideal, imaginary, symbolic relationship, but – I would almost want to say – a biological, life-transmitting state of belonging to Jesus Christ. Such is the Church, this communion of life with Jesus Christ and for one another, a communion that is rooted in baptism and is deepened and given more and more vitality in the Eucharist. 'I am the true vine' actually means: 'I am you and you are I' – an unprecedented identification of the Lord with us, with his Church.

So many are caught in a ‘Jesus and me’ mentality, which ignores the reality of the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation, words from the Second Vatican Council that Pope Benedict quotes.

As I was reading the Pope’s homily I was thinking that he could have been speaking directly to the people of my native Ireland where there is a deep crisis in the Church. He says to the congregation in Berlin, Many people see only the outward form of the Church. This makes the Church appear as merely one of the many organizations within a democratic society, whose criteria and laws are then applied to the task of evaluating and dealing with such a complex entity as the ‘Church’. If to this is added the sad experience that the Church contains both good and bad fish, wheat and darnel, and if only these negative aspects are taken into account, then the great and beautiful mystery of the Church is no longer seen.

It follows that belonging to this vine, the ‘Church’, is no longer a source of joy. Dissatisfaction and discontent begin to spread, when people’s superficial and mistaken notions of ‘Church’, their ‘dream Church’, fail to materialize! Then we no longer hear the glad song ‘Thanks be to God who in his grace has called me into his Church’ that generations of Catholics have sung with conviction.

The Virgin of the Grapes

Pierre Mignard [Web Gallery of Art]

I sometimes feel discouraged at happenings in Ireland. I sometimes feel discouraged at happenings in the Philippines, where I spent most of my life as a priest, especially within the Church.

But Jesus tells us clearly that separated from him we can do nothing. Each of us has to decide whether or not we wish to remain united to the life-giving vine who is Jesus himself. Pope Benedict says, Every one of us is faced with this choice. The Lord reminds us how much is at stake as he continues his parable: ‘If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned’ (John 15:6).There is nothing of the ‘meek and mild’ in these stark words of Jesus.

Yet the Gospel, the Good News’ is by definition a message of joyful hope, as the Pope reminded the people in Berlin:

The decision that is required of us here makes us keenly aware of the fundamental significance of our life choices. But at the same time, the image of the vine is a sign of hope and confidence. Christ himself came into this world through his incarnation, to be our root. Whatever hardship or drought befall us, he is the source that offers us the water of life, that feeds and strengthens us. He takes upon himself all our sins, anxieties and sufferings and he purifies and transforms us, in a way that is ultimately mysterious, into good branches that produce good wine. In such times of hardship we can sometimes feel as if we ourselves were in the wine-press, like grapes being utterly crushed. But we know that if we are joined to Christ we become mature wine. God can transform into love even the burdensome and oppressive aspects of our lives. It is important that we ‘abide’ in Christ, in the vine. The evangelist uses the word ‘abide’ [‘remain’] a dozen times in this brief passage. This ‘abiding in Christ’ characterizes the whole of the parable. In our era of restlessness and lack of commitment, when so many people lose their way and their grounding, when loving fidelity in marriage and friendship has become so fragile and short-lived, when in our need we cry out like the disciples on the road to Emmaus: ‘Lord, stay with us, for it is almost evening and darkness is all around us!’ (cf. Luke 24:29), in this present era, the risen Lord gives us a place of refuge, a place of light, hope and confidence, a place of rest and security. When drought and death loom over the branches, then in Christ we find future, life and joy. In him we always find forgiveness and the opportunity to begin again, to be transformed as we are drawn into his love.

To abide in Christ means, as we saw earlier, to abide in the Church as well. The whole communion of the faithful has been firmly incorporated into the vine, into Christ. In Christ we belong together. Within this communion he supports us, and at the same time all the members support one another. We stand firm together against the storm and offer one another protection. Those who believe are not alone. We do not believe alone, we believe with the whole Church of all times and places, with the Church in heaven and the Church on earth.

Pope Benedict finished his homily in Berlin with these beautiful words: Dear Sisters and Brothers! My wish for all of you, for all of us, is this: to discover ever more deeply the joy of being united with Christ in the Church, with all her trials and times of darkness, to find comfort and redemption amid whatever trials may arise, and that all of us may increasingly become the precious wine of Christ’s joy and love for this world. Amen.

Still-life

Sébastien Stoskopff [Web Gallery of Art]

Antiphona ad communionem  Communion Antiphon (Cf John 15:1,5)

Ego sum vitis vera et vos palmites [dicit Dominus];

I am the vine and you are the branches, [says the Lord].

qui manet in me et ego in eo, hic fert fructum multum, alleluia.

Whoever remains in me and I in him, bears fruit in plenty, alleluia.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday after Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-28-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:17-21. Gospel: John 16:5-14.

Apostle St James the Less

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

St James the Less, first Bishop of Jerusalem, is considered to be the author of the Letter of St James.