was the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit grace for you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ with your spirit welcome almighty god have mercy on us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life in this glory almighty every living god who consecrated the st fruits of your apostles by the blood of st james grant we pray that your church may be sprained thinned by his confession of faith and constantly sustained by his protection through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god forever and a reading from the letter of this nd letter of st paul to the corinthians brothers and sisters we hold this treasure in earth and vessels that the suppressing power may be of god and not from us we are afflicted in every way but not constraint perplexed but not driven to despair persecuted but not abandoned struck down but not destroyed always caring about in the body the dying of jesus so that the life of jesus may also be manifested in our body for we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of jesus so that the life of jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh so death is at work in us but life in you since then we have the same spirit  according to what is written i believed therefore i spoke we to believe and therefore speak knowing that the one who raised the lord jesus will raise us also with and place us with you in his presence everything indeed is for you so that the grace be stowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to over flow for the glory of god the word of the lord has done great things for them the lord has done great things for us we are glad indeed restore our fortunes oh lord like the torrents in the southern desert those that sowing tears shall reap rejoicing those  of the sons of zebedee approached jesus with her sons and did him homage wishing to ask him for something he said to her what do you wish she answered him command that these two sons of mine sit one at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom jesus said in reply you do not know what you are asking when you drink the chalice that i am going to drink they said to him we can he replied my chalice you will indeed drink but to sit at my right and my left this is not mine to give but as for those for whom it has been prepared by my father when the ten heard this they became indignant it as the two brothers but jesus summoned them and said you know that the rule is of the gentiles lord it over them and the great ones make their author r t over them felt but it shall not be so among you brother whoever who wishes to be great among you and shall be your servant whether wishes to be st among you shall be your slave just so the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many the gospel the war we don't know a lot about the life of the apostles in fact there's very little that's contained in scripture that gives this background sometimes it's by tradition that we we learn a little bit about their lives and so today we're celebrating the feast of james the apostle whom we're told was rather prominent among the people of jerusalem one of the leaders or those in the forefront prominent for a couple of reasons maybe you heard in the opening prayer today that james was the st among the apostles to accept death for the faith so that's certainly prominence one who the st one who was martyred the reason why we wear the color red today for the apostle in the martyr the nd is that he was he appeared to be a favorite of jesus he was chosen along with st peter and his brother john to witness two significant events one was the raising of the daughter of gyrus we listen to that story in scripture not too many days ago and the other was to be privileged to be a witness on the mountain at the transfiguration so maybe we c james and john were among the inner circle of the disciples so it's right for us to conclude perhaps that james the apostle was a model apostle he r he had shortcomings like we all do and so we heard that in the gospel story today he was rather ambitious he wanted the best seat in the house his mother and to intervene on his behalf and said my two sons lord maybe they should sit on either side of you when you commit here to them so that ambition that perhaps read in the family was enough to anger and  please his brothers the other disciples with whom he lived and in spite of all this in spite of his ambition and spite of the situation that occurred among the disciples today we celebrate the fact that james made it to heaven that in spite of all of those shortcomings all of our all of our humanity all of our liability that we could be safe and james is a good example of that as are many others who came before him so what's the conclusion that we draw from this little story i think it's that there's hope for you and for me let us pray my brothers and sisters just like the christians in the early church that we will demonstrate our hope as we offer these petitions to our heavenly father for catholics around the world who suffer persecution for their faith that they will find strength through god's grace and through our prayers let us pray to the lord for the leaders of nations that they will jealously defend religious freedom let us pray to the lord for the needy that they will find comfort in christ as well as the prayers and support of this faith community let us pray to the lord for ourselves as we gather in prayer that we will continue to be a people of hope faith and love let us pray to the lord for our brother and sister james and marie and for all the faithful departed heavenly father we bring these petitions to you and ask that you hear them and grant them through christ  us lord by the saving baptism of your sons passion so that on the feast of st james whom you will to be the st among the apostles to drink of christ chalice of suffering we may offer a through the blessed apostles watch over it and protected always so that it may be governed by those you have appointed shepherds to lead it in the name of your son and so with angels and archangel our lord jesus christ at the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion he took bread and giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take this all of in a similar way when supper was ended he took the chalice and once more giving thanks he gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the humbly we pray that partaking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of charity together with francis our pope timothy our cardinal archbishop his brother bishops and all the clergy remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all  blessed of hope and the coming of our savior jesus christ or yours own for the lord jesus christ who said to your apostles peace i'd leave you my peace i give you a look