Pentecost Sunday

My Mother’s Missal:

I remember this missal in my mother's hands all of my childhood, as we attended Holy Mass at my school's chapel and at the Abbey of St. Benedict in Rio. I was so pleased when she gave it me. I have been using it for many years, and recently dearest friends had it rebound for me. Thank you, John and Sister Stephen, O.S.B.!

Having my mother’s missal in hands during Mass is an intimate experience of worship and of family through time. When John Paul the Great died, I found marks of my mother’s tears on the Funeral Mass pages. Seldom in life tears so sorrowful are shed. During that mass they were tears for the dearest pope and for the years of living in such great distance of my mother and father.