Sunday, May 21st., Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 17,1-11a.
Seventh Sunday of Easter
21 May 2023
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17,1-11a.
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,
and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2022
Image: From Bible Hub
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Seventh Sunday of Easter
21 May 2023
Saints of the day
St. Cristobal Magallanes Jara
Saint Cristóbal Magallanes Jara
Martyr & Priest
(1869 – 1927)
St. Cristóbal Magallanes was born in 1869 in the Archdiocese of Guadalajara. His parents, Rafael Magallanes and Clara Jara, were poor farmers and devout Catholics. Growing up on a farm, young Cristóbal worked as a shepherd, but felt truly called to look after Christ’s sheep. At the age of nineteen, he entered the seminary, and was ordained a priest when he was thirty.
He taught school in Guadalajara for a time until returning to his home village of Totatiche to minister as a parish priest. He served there for nearly two decades, opening a carpentry business to provide jobs for local men and helping plan and construct a dam to aid the people of the area. But Father Magallanes was most interested in bringing the Catholic faith to those who had not heard the Good News of Jesus, in this case the Huichol people in the region.
During this time in Mexico’s history, the government feared the power of the Catholic Church, and it tried to eliminate the practice of the faith. A constitution even banned the training of priests, and the seminary where young Cristóbal had studied was closed and turned into a museum. So in 1915, Father Magallanes opened his own small seminary in Totatiche and soon had more than a dozen students.
The government did not look kindly on this kind of behavior and accused the priest of trying to incite rebellion, even though he preached against violence of any kind. He was on his way to celebrate Mass when he was arrested. Without a trial, he was convicted. He gave away his few possessions to his jailers, and on May 21, 1927, he and twenty-one other priests and three lay Catholics were executed. His last words to his executioners were, “I die innocent, and ask God that my blood may serve to unite my Mexican brethren.”
St. Cristóbal was canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 21, 2000.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2022
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Seventh Sunday of Easter
21 May 2023
Saints of the day
St. Eugene de Mazenod
BISHOP
(1782-1861)
Eugene de Mazenod
Bishop of Marseille, founder of the Congregation
of the Missionaries, Oblates of Mary Immaculate
(1782-1861)
CHARLES JOSEPH EUGENE DE MAZENOD came into a world that was destined to change very quickly. Born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, 1782, he seemed assured of position and wealth from his family, who were of the minor nobility. However, the turmoil of the French Revolution changed all that forever. When Eugene was just eight years old, his family fled France, leaving their possessions behind, and started a long and increasingly difficult eleven-year exile.
The Years in Italy
The Mazenod family, political refugees, trailed through a succession of cities in Italy. His father, who had been President of the Court of Accounts, Aids and Finances in Aix, was forced to try his hand at trade to support his family. He proved to be a poor businessman, and as the years went on the family came close to destitution. Eugene studied briefly at the College of Nobles in Turin, but a move to Venice meant the end to formal schooling. A sympathetic priest, Don Bartolo Zinelli, living nearby, undertook to educate the young French emigre. Don Bartolo gave the adolescent Eugene a fundamental education, but with a lasting sense of God and a regimen of piety which was to stay with him always, despite the ups and downs of his life. A further move to Naples because of financial problems, led to a time of boredom and helplessness. The family moved again, this time to Palermo where, thanks to the kindness of the Duke and Duchess of Cannizzaro, Eugene had his first taste of noble living and found it very much to his liking. He took to himself the title of “Count” de Mazenod, did all the courtly things and dreamed of a bright future.
Return to France: the Priesthood
In 1802, at the age of twenty, Eugene was able to return to his homeland: and all his dreams and illusions were quickly shattered. He was just plain “Citizen” de Mazenod, France was a changed world, his parents had separated, and his mother was fighting to get back the family possessions. She was also intent on marrying off Eugene to the richest possible heiress. He sank into depression, seeing little real future for himself. But his natural qualities of concern for others, together with the faith fostered in Venice, began to assert themselves. He was deeply affected by the disastrous situation of the French Church, which had been ridiculed, attacked and decimated by the Revolution. A calling to the priesthood began to manifest itself, and Eugene answered that call. Despite opposition from his mother, he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, and on December 21, 1811, he was ordained a priest in Amiens.
Apostolic endeavors: Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Returning to Aix-en-Provence, he did not take up a normal parish appointment, but started to exercise his priesthood in the care of the truly spiritually-needy: prisoners, youth, servants and country villagers. Often in the face of opposition from the local clergy, Eugene pursued his course. Soon, he sought out other equally zealous priests who were prepared to step outside the old, even outmoded, structures. Eugene and his men preached in Provencal, the language of the common people, not in “educated” French. They went from village to village, instructing at the level of the people, spending amazingly long hours in the confessional. In between these parish missions, the group joined in an intense community life of prayer, study and fellowship. They called themselves “Missionaries of Provence.” However, so that there would be an assured continuity in the work, Eugene took the bold step of going directly to the Pope and asking that his group be recognized officially as a Religious Congregation of pontifical right. His faith and his persistence paid off, and on February 17, 1826, Pope Leo XII approved the new Congregation, the “Oblates of Mary Immaculate.” Eugene was elected Superior General, and continued to inspire and guide his men for thirty-five years until his death. Together with their growing apostolic endeavors – preaching, youth work, care of shrines, prison chaplaincy, confessors, direction of seminaries, parishes – Eugene insisted on deep spiritual formation and a close community life. He was a man who loved Christ and was always ready to take on any apostolate if he saw it answering the needs of the Church. The “glory of God, the good of the Church and the sanctification of souls” were impelling forces for him.
Bishop of Marseilles
The Diocese of Marseilles had been suppressed after the 1802 Concordat; and when it was re-established, Eugene’s aged uncle, Canon Fortune de Mazenod, was named Bishop. He appointed Eugene Vicar General immediately, and most of the difficult work of rebuilding the Diocese fell to him. Within a few years, in 1832, Eugene himself was named auxiliary bishop. His Episcopal ordination took place in Rome, in defiance of the pretensions of the French Government that it had the right to sanction all such appointments. This caused a bitter diplomatic battle, and Eugene was caught in the middle with accusations, misunderstandings, threats and recriminations swirling around him. It was an especially devastating time for him, further complicated by the growing pains of his religious family. Though battered, Eugene steered ahead resolutely, and finally the impasse was broken. Five years later, he was appointed to the See of Marseilles as its bishop, when Bishop Fortune retired.
A heart as big as the world
While the Oblates of Mary Immaculate was founded to serve the spiritually needy and deprived in the French countryside, Eugene’s zeal for the Kingdom of God and his devotion to the Church moved the Oblates to the advancing edge of the apostolate. His men ventured into Switzerland, England and Ireland. Because of his zeal, Eugene was dubbed “a second Paul,” and bishops from the missions came to him asking for Oblates for their expanding mission fields. Eugene responded willingly: Despite small initial numbers, he sent his men out to Canada, the United States, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), South Africa and Basutoland (Lesotho). As missionaries in his mould, they fanned out: preaching, baptising and caring. They frequently opened up previously uncharted lands, established and manned many new dioceses, and in a multitude of ways, they “left nothing undared that the Kingdom of Christ might be advanced.” In the years that followed, the Oblate mission thrust continued, so that today the impulse of Eugene de Mazenod is alive in his men in sixty-eight different countries.
Pastor of his Diocese
During all this ferment of missionary activity, Eugene was an outstanding pastor of the Church of Marseilles: ensuring the best seminary training for his priests, establishing new parishes, building the city’s cathedral and the spectacular Shrine of Notre Dame de la Garde above the city. He encouraged his priests to lives of holiness, introduced many Religious Congregations to work in the diocese and led his fellow Bishops in support of the rights of the Pope. He grew into a towering figure in the French Church. In 1856, Napoleon III appointed him a Senator, and at his death he was the senior bishop of France.
Legacy of a Saint
May 21, 1861, saw Eugene de Mazenod taken up by God at the age of seventy-nine, after a life crowded with achievements, many of them born in suffering. For his religious family and for his diocese, he was a founding and life-giving source: For God and for the Church, he was a faithful and generous son. As he lay dying, he left his Oblates a final testament, “Among yourselves, charity, charity, charity: In the world, zeal for souls.” He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on December 3, 1995.
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THANK YOU
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Basilica of the National Shrine
YOUTUBE
of
The Sunday Mass
Seventh Sunday of Easter
21 May 2023
Celebrant & Homilist : Rev Richard Mullins
Choir: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Choir Cantor & Organist, Washington, D.C
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ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen
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LORD, FORGIVE THE WRONG I HAVE DONE.
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LORD HAVE MERCY
Image: Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Sam Sen, Bangkok, THAILAND.
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BE MERCIFUL, O LORD, FOR WE HAVE SINNED.
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FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
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FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN 