Saint Patrick only celebrated the Holy Mass in Latin and converted the entire island of Ireland.
He didn't need the vernacular for Mass. He preached in the vernacular but prayed the mass in Latin.
When Ireland switched to vernacular and changed the liturgy, it began to lose the Catholic Faith in a single generation. Time to rethink evangelization.
Prayer to St. Joseph
over 1900 years old
O St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your divine son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers. O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us.
Amen.
One of the earliest explicit mentions of “the Catholic Church” is found in a letter by Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop and martyr, written around 107-110 AD. In his *Letter to the Smyrnaeans* (Chapter 8), Ignatius writes:
"Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
Keep in mind that St. Ignatius of Antioch was a student of the Apostle John!
St. Ignatius also wrote in his letters about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist!
When the nearly 300 years of Roman Persecution of the Catholic Church ended with the Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313 AD, the Catholic Church arose, in many cases literally underground, not as hundreds or even thousands of different groups worshiping God in different ways, but as One Church with one form of Worship and one Spiritual Leader who was the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of St. Peter!
Need Proof?
Here is a portion of a letter sent from St. Justin Martyr to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) around the year 155, explaining what Christians did:
“On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place.
The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits.
When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things.
Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves . . . and for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation.
When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss.
Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren.
He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been judged worthy of these gifts.
When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: ‘Amen.’
When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the “eucharisted” bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.”
This is the Catholic Mass of today!
The Catholic Church is without question the Church of the Apostles!
Whatever conflicted feelings one may have about Pope Francis, in what is reported to be the final hours of his earthly pilgrimage, it is in an imperative of Christian charity to pray for his happy death.
May the holy angels lead him forth to paradise,
And may the martyrs greet him coming home.
May Pope Francis find welcome within God’s dwelling-place, the radiant city, the New Jerusalem.