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The Latin Mass is often called “the closest thing to heaven on earth.” Rich in history with a language that most closely resembles the spirit of the Gospels, the Latin Mass is considered, by many, to most accurately reflect the mystery of the presence of Christ at the altar. After decades of Novus Ordo (Latin for “New Order” is the 1969 Mass of Pope Paul VI in which the Mass was offered in English with additional changes such as the priest facing the congregation instead of the altar), there is a renewed interest in the Latin Mass. Indeed, with Benedict’s 2007 interest in revising the Latin Mass, many Catholics have been introduced to the beauty of the Latin language for the first time while others are recalling their great love for Latin. read more here

Christ Raises the Daughter of Jairus Friedrich Overbeck, 1825 [ Web Gallery of Art ] Today's gospel, Mark 5:21-43, weaves two different healing stories into one, that of the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and that of the daughter of Jairus, aged twelve, who had just died. In the scene below, taken from Franco Zeffirelli's  Jesus of Nazareth , the director focuses only on the story of the little girl. I don't know if the servant of Jairus, whom the latter addresses as 'Thomas' is meant in Zeffirelli's mind to be the future Apostle already showing the honest directness of the saint often referred to as 'Doubting Thomas', the saint who was to make the most explicit act of faith in the whole Bible,  My Lord and my God . In this scene Jesus immediately leaves what he was doing in order to respond to an emergency. Much of our life is like that. Zeffirelli retains words of Jesus that we find in the version of St Mark of this incident a