White Mass for the Healing Professions

The White Mass (livestreaming)

5:30 pm

The Archdiocese’s first annual White Mass will be celebrated at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 17, in St. Mary's Cathedral. All are welcome to attend. The celebrant will be Most Reverend Robert F. Christian, O.P., Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco.

The White Mass celebrates the unique contributions made by all Catholic health care professionals, and takes its name from the white coat most commonly worn by those in the medical field.

HISTORY:

The Catholic Medical Association website says:  "The tradition of the White Mass in the United States finds its origins in the development of the national Catholic Medical Association in the early 1930s. From its inception, the medical profession has been understood as a healing profession, a way in which Christ’s work continues upon the earth. Moreover, since the apparitions at Lourdes in the late 19th century, the plight of the infirm, and of those who care for them, have taken on renewed appreciation in participating in the mysteries of Christ’s own life. The White Mass, so named by the color worn by those in the healing profession of medicine, gathers health care professionals under the patronage of St. Luke to ask God’s blessing upon the patient, doctor, nurse, and caregiver alike."

PRAYER:

Lord God, our Father and Creator, we ask You to look with favor upon Your servants gathered here today to pledge themselves to Your service as Catholic physicians. We ask You to forgive their sins, enlighten their minds, strengthen their wills, and open their hearts to Your grace.

Catholic physicians, you are called to imitate Christ, the Divine Physician, to make your work His work and His work yours, to dedicate yourselves to the needs of your patients, keeping all financial and political interests secondary to the personal needs of each patient.
 
[from Catholic Medical Association website]
 

Image: photograph by Lawrence OP (Creative Commons);
Stained glass window "St. Peter at the Beautiful Gate", in Peterhouse College Chapel, made by Max Ainmuller (c. 1855); In Acts 3:1-10, Peter heals the lame man: "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk."