Pentecost

Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Easter 7B, Sunday 12 May 2024, on John 17:11-16

On this last Sunday of Eastertide before Pentecost, we reach the climax of the Last Discourse of Jesus, given in St. John’s Gospel. This is the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus: Chapter 17. This year we read the central section of this prayer, which is concerned above all with the 11 disciples sitting there with Jesus at the Last Supper.

Homily for Pentecost, Year C, 2022

In days gone by there were very many sequences, but in the Missal of St. Pius V these were reduced to 3, for Easter, Pentecost and Corpus Christi, plus Masses for the Dead, if you count the Dies Irae as a sequence. Nowadays we sing it more often than in the past, as we use it as a hymn for the last week of the Church’s year. We also sing a variety of sequences, in whole or in part, at Benediction or under the guise of hymns. In addition, of course, as Benedictines we have a special sequence for the feasts of St. Benedict.