Mass for XIII Sunday after Pentecost will take place at
St Winefride's, Well Street, Holywell, Flintshire CH8 7PL
starting 11.30am on 23rd August - Everyone welcome
The Gospel relates the story of the 10 lepers cured by Our Lord. So to speak they represent the baptised of the church, cleansed as it were of the leprosy of Original Sin. The Holy Eucharist is portrayed in the one leper who returned to thank Christ - for what does “Eucharist” mean but giving thanks?
The sad side of the Gospel story concerns the 9 who did not return to thank Jesus and were regarded as ungrateful. Perhaps the parallel here is that the 9 are akin to those who choose a different path in that they are ungrateful and reject Our Lord.
The Gospel is then linked to Psalm 73, the Introit “O God, why hast Thou cast us off unto the end: why is Thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of Thy pasture?” It recalls Our Lord’s complaint against the 9 ungrateful.
The psalm relates how the enemies of God had penetrated the temple environs to destroy and desecrate the House of God, the Holy Temple. Once again, we can draw out that the scripture is telling us that there are many enemies of the Church and the Mystical Body of Christ.
The Offertory is especially apt in the world we live in, as we place our problems of “my times...in Thy Hands.”
The Collect entreats God to grant His children an increase of faith, hope and charity that “we may deserve to gain Thy promises.”
The Epistle reminds us of the promise made by God to Abraham and that we are saved by God’s Graces.
The Secret prepares us for the Sacrifice to come by pleading for His Mercy and requesting our prayers be answered, while the Communion is a prayer of joy for the Holy Eucharist.
In the Postcommunion we request that the Sacraments bring us to Heaven, our true home. In the Postcommunion we request that the Sacraments bring us to Heaven, our true home.
Although not commemorated in the 1962 rubrics of the Mass, today also falls the feast of St. Philip Benizi, Confessor, who joined the Servites in the XIII Century as a simple brother, later was ordained a priest, then elected head of the Order. Elected Pope, he hid himself and refused to serve in that capacity believing he had a mission to convert Italy, France and Germany. He died on the octave day of the Assumption 1285.