The gospel for the Mass of the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost presents the parable of the unmerciful servant. Like many of the liturgical texts for the final weeks of the church year, this gospel alludes to the time of reckoning and judgment. We are reminded by Our Lord with severity that if we are to be forgiven our debts in the final accounting, we must forgive the debts owed to us by others.

In the prism of the liturgy, all the other proper texts of the Mass focus on an exhortation to patience in the endurance of suffering and utter reliance on the support of God for our sustenance and salvation.

Music for the service will include the Gregorian Mass Ordinary XI (“Orbis factor”), the proper Gregorian chants for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, the Antiphon “Salve Regina,” a setting of the hymn “Aures ad nostras deitatis preces” by Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474), and organ music by Jean Titelouze (1563-1633).

The second offering will be for the benefit of the St. Gregory Society.