SUNDAY AFTER THE ASCENSION; BLESSED JOHN HALE (1535 A.D.) Martyr; ST. ANDREW BOBOLA (1657 A.D.); ST. GODRIC (1170 A.D.)

 

SUNDAY AFTER THE ASCENSION

BLESSED JOHN HALE - CRANFORD'S MARTYR

 

DOUBLE / WHITE
Today's Mass has a touch of Good Friday, a sense of loss, a note of resignation that Christ's visible presence was not meant to continue. There was also a brave facing of the real world of Christian mystery, wherein charity is a constant need and violent opposition is a possible threat. But grace in the human heart is divine life shared with men: it is the seed of glory, the beginning of heaven. Mysteriously, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- tabernacled in every soul that is alive with grace -- are with every Christian as he goes on his missionary way to heaven.

INTROIT Ps. 26:7, 8, 9 
Hear, O Lord, my voice as I cry to You, alleluia! my heart has spoken to You; I have sought You. Your presence, O Lord, I will seek; hide not Your face from me, alleluia, alleluia! 
Ps. 26:1. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
O Almighty and Eternal God, make our wills devoted to You so that our hearts may sincerely serve Your majesty. Through Our Lord . . .

Commemoration of SAINT JOHN HALE
Blessed John Hale was an English martyr who suffered martyrdom at the same time as the Holy Cathusians.

He was a secular priest who became Rector of Cranford on 11th September 1505. On 20th April 1521 he was appointed Vicar of Isleworth. It was there that he was arrested on the orders of King Henry VIII, being accused of  treason for speaking out against the King's divorce from Katherine of Aragon and his subsequent remarriage to Anne Boleyn.

Father Hale was executed at Tyburn where he was hanged, drawn and quartered on 4th May 1535.

He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that through the intercession of blessed John Hale, Thy Martyr, we may be delivered from all harm to the body and all uncleanness of mind. Through our Lord . . .

 

EPISTLE I Peter 4:7-11
Beloved: Be prudent therefore and watch in prayers. But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins. Using hospitality one towards another, without murmuring, As every man hath received grace, ministering the same one to another: as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak, as the words of God. If any minister, let him do it, as of the power which God administereth: that in all things God may be honoured through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia! V. Ps. 46:9
God reigns over all the nations, God sits on His holy throne. Alleluia!
V. John 14:18. I will not leave you orphans; I go away, but I will come to you, and your heart shall rejoice. Alleluia!

GOSPEL John 15:26-27; 16:1-4 
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me. And you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning."These things have I spoken to you things have I spoken to you that you may not be scandalized. They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you; because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 46:6
God ascends His throne amid shouts of joy, the Lord is taken up with the sound of trumpets, alleluia!

SECRET 
Cleanse us through this spotless offering, O Lord, and let our souls be made strong by Your heavenly grace. Through Our Lord . . .

 

Commemoration of SAINT JOHN HALE 
May our offering be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, and may it benefit us by the prayer of him on whose feast it is offered. Through our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON John 17:12-13, 15
Father, while I was with them, I kept them whom You gave Me, alleluia! but now I am coming to You; I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil, alleluia, alleluia! 

POSTCOMMUNION 
Grant, O Lord, that we may always be grateful for the Sacramental Gift that we have just received. Through Our Lord . . .

 

Commemoration of SAINT JOHN HALE 

 Refreshed by partaking of Thy sacred Gift, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our God, that through the intercession of blessed John Hale, Thy Martyr, we may perceive the fruit of the rite which we celebrate. Through our Lord . . .

Saint Andrew Bobola (1657) 

[Historical]

Jesuit missionary and martyr. He was born a member of a noble Polish family in 1590. Entering the Society of Jesus at Vilna in 1622, he preached in the church of St. Casimir there. He took solemn vows in 1630 and was made superior of the Jesuits in Brobuisk. There he preached and distinguished himself by his work of mercy during a plague. In 1636, Andrew was sent to the Lithuanian missions. A house was provided for him in Pinsk, Belarus, by Prince Radziwell, and he worked there despite attacks by Protestants and schismatics. On May 10, 1657, Andrew was kidnapped by two Cossacks who beat him and tied him to the saddles of their horses so they could drag him to a place of torture. He was partially flayed alive and finally decapitated. His remains were buried in Pinsk and then moved to Polosk. St. Bobola was canonized by Pius XI on April 17, 1938.

Saint Godric of Finchale (1170) 

[Historical]

Oldest three children born to a freedman Anglo-Saxon farmer. An adventurous seafaring man, he spent his youth in travel both on land and sea as a peddler and merchant mariner first along the coast of the British Isles, then throughout Europe. Sometime sailor, sometime ship's captain, he lived a seafarer's life of the day, and it was hardly a religious one. He was known to drink, fight, chase women, con customers, and in a contemporary manuscript, was referred to as a "pirate". Convertedupon visiting Lindisfarne during a voyage, and being touched by the life of Saint Cuthbert. 

Pilgrim to Jerusalem and the holy lands, Saintiago de Compostela, the shrine of Saint Gaul in Provence, and to Rome. As a self-imposed austerity, and a way to always remember Christ's lowering himself to become human, Godric never wore shoes, regardless of the season. Lived as a hermit in the holy lands, and worked in a hospital nearJerusalem. Hermit for nearly sixty years at Finchale, County Durham, England, first in a cave, then later in a more formal hermitage; he was led to its site by a vision of Saint Cuthbert. It was a rough life, living barefoot in mud and wattle hut, wearing a hair shirt under a metal breastplate, standing in icy waters to control his lust, living for a while off berries and roots, and being badly beaten by Scottish raiders who strangely thought he had a hidden treasure. 

Noted for his close familiarity with wild animals, his supernatural visions, his gift of prophecy, and ability to know of events occurring hundreds or thousands of miles away. Counseled Saint Aelred, Saint Robert of Newminster, Saint Thomas Beckett, and Pope Alexander III. Wrote poetry in Medieval English. The brief song Sainte nicholaes by Godric is one of the oldest in the English language, and is believed to be the earliest surviving example of lyric poetry. He was said to have received his songs, lyrics and music, complete during his miraculous visions. He died of natural causes on May 11, 1170.