June 1, 2025
The Mass: Our Greatest and Best Prayer. The presider, the celebrant, the priest, are all the same person in most Masses. He is engaged in the official prayer of the Church. He is the leader of our prayers during Mass. In Holy Mass his prayers and the prayers of the people are brought together. We join him in expressions of invitation, petition, praise and thanksgiving.
Next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost and close out the Easter Season. We will enter into the second and longest Ordinary Time. For Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, the color is red. The color for Confirmation Mass is also red. Both signifying the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church. It is also the Confirmation of those who were in attendance. Confirmation makes us soldiers for Christ; we put on the armor…we are complete in our initiation in the Church. The name Pentecost comes from the Greek pentekoste (the 50th) meaning the 50th day after Easter. Pentecost was held annually from a very early date although the first mention of it as a great feast was made in the 3rd century. The Paschal, or Easter, Candle, has remained in the Sanctuary since the Easter Vigil. After the last Mass on Pentecost, the Paschal Candle will be processed from the Sanctuary to the Baptismal Font, where it will remain until the next aster Vigil.
Have a good week in the Risen Lord, Gay Snell
June 8, 2025
Next weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Trinity Sunday is celebrated the Sunday after Pentecost and commemorates the mystery of the Holy Trinity: Three Person in One God (see Matthew 28:18-20). A votive Mass for the Holy Trinity dates from the 7th century and an office was composed in the 10th century. (A votive Mass is a Mass celebrated for a special intention or devotion, not necessarily the prescribed Mass of the day.) (The office is the Liturgy of the Hours prayed at least twice daily by all clergy and/or religious.) In 1334 Pope John XXII extended this feast to the universal Church. “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian Faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching” (CCC 234). The Catechism of the Catholic Church also says that “by sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange” (221). Trinity columns were erected in Central European cities and town squares in the 17th and 18th centuries in honor of the Holy Trinity. They typically made of marble or granite and featured Trinitarian symbols and statues of saints who were patrons against epidemics. Gay Snell
June 15, 2025
Next Sunday, June 22, is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We will celebrate the Holy Eucharist but also solemnly bear the Blessed Sacrament in procession, thus “publicly proclaiming that the sacrifice of Christ is for the salvation of the whole world.” (Saint John Paul II) It is customary, as well as desirable, to have a procession on this day. Corpus Christi is Latin for “the body of Christ.” This feast commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist. The feast began in Liege in 1246 and was extended throughout the Church in the West by Pope Urban IV in 1264. The custom of a Corpus Christi Procession dates back to the 14th century. The practice was encouraged by many popes, some of whom granted special indulgences for those who took part. The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent, approved and recommended it as a public profession of faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. During the later Middle Ages, processions had developed into splendid pageants of devotion and honor.
Gay Snell
June 22, 2025
Today let’s look at Incensation. Incensation is the burning of and blessing with incense. The original Roman practice was to burn incense in a brazier which was carried in procession at the beginning and end of the celebration of Holy Mass as well as at the Gospel. In the 7th century some countries introduced an incensation of the gifts on the altar. In spite of Rome’s initial refusal to accept this addition, by the 14th century the rite was fully developed even at Rome. It included a blessing of the incense, and incensation of the gifts and the altar with special prayers and complex gestures, and finally the incensation of the clergy and people. Today this incensation is somewhat simplified. Bread and wine, altar, cross, priest, and people are incensed in silence. “The bread and wine are placed on the altar by the priest to the accompaniment of the prescribed formulas. The priest may incense the gifts placed upon the altar and then incense the cross and the altar itself, so as to signify the Church’s offering and prayer rising like incense in the sight of God. Next, the priest, because of his sacred ministry, and the people, by reason of their baptismal dignity, may be incensed by the deacon or another minister.” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, #75) If incense is used at Holy Mass, it is also used at the Gospel, showing the reverence due to the Word of God. The incense is carried in a boat, named for its shape. The hot coals upon which the incense is placed is carried in a Thurible or censor. As the smoke rises it takes our prayers to heaven.
Gay Snell
June 29, 2025
Today would normally be the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time but instead is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Tradition holds that both Saint Peter and Saint Paul were martyred in Rome around the year 64. This feast has been celebrated on this date since ancient times.
Saint Peter became the spokesman for the 12 Apostles when he boldly declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He became the first Pope and was given the keys to the Kingdom. He is called the first Vicar of Christ, Prince of the Apostles, and founder of the see of Rome (with Saint Paul). He was a fisherman like his brother, Saint Andrew. It was Andrew who introduced Simon (Peter) to Jesus. He is listed first of the Apostles in all New Testament accounts and was among the select few (with John and James the Greater) at the Transfiguration. Tradition holds he was crucified in the circus of Nero on Vatican Hill, having requested that he be crucified upside down.
Saint Paul was a Roman citizen and a Jew of the Tribe of Benjamin. He was a devout Jew and a strong follower of the Mosaic Law. His conversion story is preserved in the Acts of the Apostles. (see Acts 9:3-5, 22:6-8, 26:13-15) Saint Paul was beheaded at the command of the Emperor Nero. The cemetery where he was buried, outside the walls of Rome, is now the Basilica of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls. He was also a tentmaker, which financed his travels.
Both Saint Peter and Saint Paul were instrumental in bringing the Good News to the Gentiles. Saint Peter established a local church in Antioch, presided over the Council of Jerusalem in 51, and wrote two epistles to the Church in Asia Minor. Saint Paul is the patron of preachers and theologians, rope makers, weavers, and tentmakers.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Gay Snell
