May 21, 2023
Seventh Sunday of Easter
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
This Sunday we celebrate first communion for some of our youngest parishioners! Make sure to pray for them as they receive the graces God gives through the Eucharist, The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s only through these graces that we can live our spiritual lives and grow in the holiness God calls us to, and those graces are what lead us to eternal life. Those receiving first communion are making an important step on their journey to heaven: pray that they will live well the grace they receive for the first time today.
This week our summer brothers arrive. Br. Cornelius will be our summer deacon and Brothers Cassian and Augustine will join him. They will be with us until August. Fr. Jonah will arrive early June, so we have many friars coming soon!
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
Mass Tidbit:
After the preface we sing the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy…). The Preface gave thanks to God and asked that our praise be joined to that of the angels—here we give that praise.
The first line is “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.” This line is a quote from Isaiah 6:3. ‘Holy’ is repeated three times because in Hebrew an adjective is tripled for the superlative form, so ‘holy, holy, holy’ means ‘most holy.’ The original Latin Sanctus reads ‘Dominus Deus Sabaoth,’ where ‘Sabaoth’ is an untranslated Hebrew word. ‘Sabaoth’ has a military connotation and means armies or hosts. It shows the power of God, and so in the previous English translation of the mass it was translated as ‘of power and might.’ The current translation is more accurate to the original language. Heavenly armies are throughout Scripture, such as when Christ said that He could call down a dozen legions of angels if He wanted (Matthew 26:53).
The next line of the Sanctus reads “Heaven and earth are full of your glory.” This adds to the original Isaiah 6:3 the word ‘heaven,’ which is important because we see in the Mass the union of heaven and earth in a new way, such as when the veil in the Temple was rent in two at the Crucifixion (Matthew 27:51), which revealed that heaven and earth are now again reunited through Christ.
The last part of the Sanctus is: “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” This part is from Matthew 21:9, Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as the people in joy cry ‘hosanna’ to their savior. And so do we at every Mass.
