Saint Cletus
White
St. Cletus was the third bishop of Rome. He sat twelve years, from 76 to 89. He was buried near St. Linus, on the Vatican, and his relics still remain in that church.
Entrance Antiphon : Rv 5: 9-10
You have redeemed us, Lord, by your Blood, from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us into a kingdom, priests for our God, alleluia.
Collect
O God, author of our freedom and of our salvation, listen to the voice of our pleading and grant that those you have redeemed by the shedding of your Son’s Blood may have life through you and, under your protection, rejoice for ever unharmed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Acts 13:26-33
Paul stood up in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, held up a hand for silence and began to speak: ‘My brothers, sons of Abraham’s race, and all you who fear God, this message of salvation is meant for you. What the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did, though they did not realise it, was in fact to fulfil the prophecies read on every sabbath. Though they found nothing to justify his death, they condemned him and asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out everything that Scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree and buried him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem: and it is these same companions of his who are now his witnesses before our people. ‘We have come here to tell you the Good News. It was to our ancestors that God made the promise but it is to us, their children, that he has fulfilled it, by raising Jesus from the dead. As Scripture says in the second psalm: You are my son: today I have become your father.’
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 2:6-11
R/ You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.
‘It is I who have set up my king, on Zion, my holy mountain.’ I will announce the decree of the Lord: The Lord said to me: ‘You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.
‘Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations, put the ends of the earth in your possession. With a rod of iron you will break them, shatter them like a potter’s jar.’
Now, O kings, understand, take warning, rulers of the earth; serve the Lord with awe and trembling, pay him your homage.
Gospel Acclamation : Col 3:1
Alleluia, alleluia! Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Alleluia!
Gospel : John 14:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too. You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Accept in compassion, Lord, we pray, the offerings of your family, that under your protective care, they may never lose what they have received, but attain the gifts that are eternal. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Rm 4: 25
Christ our Lord was condemned for our transgressions and was raised again for our justification, alleluia.
Prayer after Communion
Keep safe, O Lord, we pray, those whom you have saved by your kindness, that, redeemed by the Passion of your Son, they may rejoice in his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Meditation
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” These words of Jesus are not a suggestion but a command – for his disciples and all of us. Jesus gave these words to us on the night before he died for our salvation. His disciples would see him arrested, mocked, tortured, crucified, and killed. How could their hearts not be troubled? Jesus is saying that when overwhelmed with tremendous grief, our faith pierces through grief and transforms grief. Faith helps us to gaze into the promised eternity. Faith enabled Paul and Barnabas to embrace the hardship of evangelisation: the anxiety of unknown places and unknown peoples, physical dangers, and mental exhaustion. We are to view all of our earthly sufferings through the eyes of faith. Faith, not naïve optimism, preserves our hearts from being overwhelmed by earthly suffering.