Daily Mass - the seventh Sunday of Easter

Mass was offered this morning for the deceased members of the Coleman family, may they be eternally blessed in the Risen Christ. And it's the memorial day of our Lady under the title Mary, Help of Christians, a devotion promoted especially by the famous Turinese priest Saint John Bosco (in the picture above). Here's an information page on the basilica with that dedication built by Saint John, containing among other things his tomb and the tomb of his protegé, Saint Dominic Savio. 

In our first reading at Mass today, Saint Luke carefully counts up the eleven remaining Apostles, returned after the Ascension to the upper room where the Last Supper took place: 

"Coming in, they went up into the upper room where they dwelt, Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James. All these, with one mind, gave themselves up to prayer, together with Mary the mother of Jesus, and the rest of the women and His brethren." - Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1

It was very important to maintain the count because of the two vital things that were about to happen. First, Judas the traitor was to be replaced, to make up the number of the Twelve. Twelve was and is essential to the self-understanding of the Church, for the Church was intended to reassemble symbolically the twelve tribes of ancient Israel. The Twelve would form the very pillars of the Church, as given by the book of the Apocalypse of Saint John (the 'holy city of Jerusalem' is here the Church):

"And he carried me off in a trance to a great mountain, high up, and there shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, as it came down, sent by God, from heaven, clothed in God’s glory. The light that shone over it was bright as any precious stone, as the jasper when it is most like crystal; and a great wall was raised high all round it, with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and the names of the twelve tribes of Israel carved on the lintels; three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, three on the west. The city wall, too, had twelve foundation-stones; and these, too, bore names, those of the Lamb’s twelve Apostles." - the Apocalypse of S. John, 21: 10-14

The final member of the twelve by the Apostles, Saint Matthias, was carefully chosen in council, as the rest of the first chapter of Acts tells us. The second thing that would follow the count, once the number of the Apostles was made up is what we will celebrate next Sunday: the eruption onto the people in that Upper Room of the Holy Spirit, and the explosion (if not the birth) of the Christian Church. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Strengthener, would help the newly-created community to suffer through its first years, which would feature severe persecution. 

In the midst of the present affliction, with sickness and disease, economic uncertainty, etc., we are being called to suffer in a way that we haven't before. In the midst of this, we are called to belong joyfully to Christ by the gospel reading today, to trust in His goodness and mercy because we belong to him: 

"'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...'" - Gospel of S. John, chapter 17

Meanwhile, the novena continues...

NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT: DAY 3

"Thou of all Consolers best,

Visiting the troubled breast,

 Dost refreshing peace bestow."

Come, O Blessed Spirit of Piety, possess my heart. Enkindle therein such a love for God, that I may find satisfaction only in His service, and for His sake lovingly submit to all legitimate authority. Amen.

One Our Father and one Hail Mary,

Seven times the Glory be.

On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself soul and body to Thee, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Thy purity, the unerring keenness of Thy justice, and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength and Light of my soul. In Thee I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve Thee by unfaithfulness to grace, and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against Thee. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Thy light and listen to Thy voice and follow Thy gracious inspirations. I cling to Thee and give myself to Thee and ask Thee by Thy compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore Thee Adorable Spirit, helper of my infirmity, so to keep me in Thy grace that I may never sin against Thee. Give me grace O Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to say to Thee always and everywhere, Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Amen.