Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
Peter and Paul had very different characters. Peter was passionate, impulsive and reckless; at one moment ready to die for his Lord, the next denying him in order to escape arrest. Yet Jesus saw in him exactly the qualities needed for the one who would succeed him as the rock on which his Church would be founded and who would guide it through its precarious early years as it became established. In the Acts of the Apostles we find him a man transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and showing all the qualities of a true leader: he took the initiative in finding a replacement for Judas, he was the first to preach the Christian message at Pentecost and he received the first Jewish converts to Christianity.
While Peter dropped everything and followed Jesus without a second thought, Paul was not nearly so easily won. He was the ruthless and relentless persecutor of the Christians making it his life’s work to pursue and eliminate them wherever he found them. He watched impassively and approvingly as Stephen was summarily stoned to death by a crowd, even holding the tunics of the murderers while they set to their task.
It took being blinded by a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus to change him, but what a dramatic change that was! From being the most ruthless persecutor of the Church, Paul became its most fervent champion. He took the Christian message far and wide and had the gift of explaining it in terms adapted to his audience’s understanding and culture, at the same time firing them heart and soul with the desire to follow Jesus.
God calls all sorts of people to serve his purposes and build his Church. It is comforting to know that Peter and Paul, though giants of the Church, were ordinary fallible people like you and me, with their weakness and faults as well as their strengths and gifts. The fact is that God can use us however imperfect, sinful and unworthy we are, to carry on his work today, the same work that Peter and Paul began and gave their lives to. It is never too late to give our lives to God wholeheartedly to share in the work of building and serving the Church to which we belong, and in particular to consider how we might use our gifts to serve the Church here in our parish.
GENERAL NOTES
1. There is a Vigil Mass with its own texts
2. The origin of this celebration is very early – certainly 3rd C and possible 2nd C
3. Holy Day of Obligation
4. Optional Solemn Blessing
5. Song: See Laudate 369-376,379-380
COMMENTARY ON THE TEXTS, MASS DURING THE DAY, ORDINARY FORM
1. Most unusually, the entrance antiphon has no reference, though there are biblical and patristic echoes
2. Ecclesiology: The Church is directly referenced many times: the Entrance Antiphon, Collect, Preface, Communion Antiphon, Prayer after Communion, First Reading, Gospel Acclamation, Gospel.
3. The Preface presents the ministries of Ss Peter and Paul as complementary. The balance is not only in the words themselves but also in the rhetorical cadence at the heart of the prayer:
“Peter, foremost…………. / Paul, its……..
Peter, who……………….. /Paul, master………..”
It is the same device used at the Final Scores on a Saturday afternoon:
“Munchester City, 1 / …Leeds Academicals, 2
Hobbler’s United, 4/ …Hampton Wanderers, nil
4. The Prayer after Communion includes a direct quote from Acts 2:22
PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL
For Pope Francis – may the successor of Saint Peter be so guided by the Holy Spirit and strengthened in faith and charity that the world will be open to listen to his voice.
For those who struggle with their faith – may they be given the grace of faith, like Saint Peter, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Messiah.
For a greater apostolic spirit in our community – may all Christians be inspired by the example of Saint Paul, who became the great apostle to the Gentiles, because of his desire and love to preach the gospel to everyone.
Note: These hymns have been chosen from different sources.
By all your saints still striving (L372)
Faith of our fathers (CFE156, L837, LHON246)
For all the saints (CFE176, L371, LHON260, TCH166)
Into a world of darkness (L380)
Unless a grain of wheat (CFE754, L748, LHON697)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
