Universalis
Sunday 21 May 2023    (other days)
7th Sunday of Easter 

Using calendar: Denmark - Greenland. You can change this.

Christ the Lord has promised us the Holy Spirit: come, let us adore him, alleluia.

Year: A(I). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: White.

In other years: Saint Christopher Magallanes and his Companions

Cristóbal Magallanes Jara was born in the state of Jalisco in Mexico in 1869. He was ordained priest at the age of 30 and became parish priest of his home town of Totatiche. He took a special interest in the evangelization of the local indigenous Huichol people and founded a mission for them. When government persecution of the Catholic Church began and the seminaries were closed, he opened a small local “auxiliary seminary.” He wrote and preached against armed rebellion but was falsely accused of promoting the Cristero rebellion. He was arrested on 21 May 1927 while on the way to celebrate Mass at a farm. He was executed without a trial, but not before giving his remaining possessions to his executioners and giving them absolution.
  With him are celebrated 24 other Mexican martyrs of the early 20th century.
  See the article in Wikipedia.

In other years: St Eugène de Mazenod (1782 - 1861)

He was born at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France and had to flee together with his family when the French Revolution broke out. He returned in 1802 in a penniless and uncertain state, but after a period of depression he began to develop a concern for the French Church, which had been attacked and half destroyed by the Revolution. He discerned a vocation to the priesthood and was ordained in 1811.
  He returned to Aix-en-Provence and lived as a wandering priest with no parish church. He and the companions he gathered round him went from village to village, preaching in Provençal, the language of the people. Facing opposition from the local clergy, Eugène went straight to the Pope and obtained official recognition of the “Oblates of Mary Immaculate,” of which he was then elected Superior General. He continued to guide the order until his death.
  He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Marseilles in 1832, provoking a furious and debilitating five-year diplomatic row with the French government. At length he became Bishop of Marseilles in 1837, on the retirement of his predecessor. He continued to rebuild the strength of the French Church, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were persuaded to send missionaries to other parts of the world, so that they are now active in 68 countries.
  See the biography on the Vatican web site.

About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:

Second Reading: St Gregory of Nyssa (335 - 395)

Gregory of Nyssa was the younger brother of St Basil of Caesarea (“St Basil the Great”). He, Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, “Gregory of Nazianzus”, are known as the Cappadocian Fathers. They were active after the Council of Nicaea, working to formulate Trinitarian doctrine precisely and, in particular, to pin down the meaning and role of the least humanly comprehensible member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Basil was the leader and organizer; Gregory of Nazianzus was the thinker, the orator, the poet, pushed into administrative and episcopal roles by circumstances and by Basil; and Gregory of Nyssa, although not a great stylist, was the most gifted of the three as a philosopher and theologian. Together, the Cappadocian Fathers hammered out the doctrine of the Trinity like blacksmiths forging a piece of metal by hammer-blows into its perfect, destined shape. They were champions – and successful champions – of orthodoxy against Arianism, a battle that had to be conducted as much on the worldly and political plane as on the philosophical and theological one.
  The works of Gregory of Nyssa whose extracts appear as Second Readings are not as rhetorically beautiful as those of Gregory of Nazianzus, who was an acclaimed orator; but they are helpful and clear. Most of them are commentaries on Scripture passages. They involve the mind and deepen the understanding.

Liturgical colour: white

White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
  In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)(1 Corinthians 15:3-5) ©
Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; he was buried; and he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures. He appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve.

Noon reading (Sext)Ephesians 2:4-6 ©
God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

Afternoon reading (None)Romans 6:4 ©
When we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.

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Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.
 
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