Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre Investiture Mass
Votive Mass of Our Lady of Palestine
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, N.C.
October 24 2026
Introduction
We are gathered for the Eucharistic Liturgy in this beautiful Cathedral Church dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, “the Name above every other name.” Indeed, there is “no other name” by which we are to be saved. In coming together in his Name and around his Table, we find ourselves in profound continuity with the Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Batholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. As these, the Lord’s Apostles, came together for the Breaking of Bread, in their midst was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Mary, the daughter of Zion and the Queen of Palestine. She is with us now.
For whenever we celebrate the Sacred Liturgy, we are united with the great liturgy of heaven where Mary, the Mother of the Lord, the Apostles, martyrs, and prophets sing the unending hymn of praise to the God of glory and majesty. Mary, the humble maiden of Nazareth, is praying with us and for us even as we acknowledge her to be the woman ‘clothed with the sun and crowned with twelve stars.’ She is the woman who gave birth to the One who conquered sin and death, the Virgin Mother, conceived without sin, who enabled Jesus, the Son of the Living God, to become one of us, to teach and heal, to die and rise, and to plead for us at the Father’s right hand.
How, then, did Mary react when the Archangel appeared to announce the astonishing news that she was to be the mother of the Lord? What was her reaction when she learned that her cousin Elizabeth, already in her advancing years, had also conceived a child? Did she decide to sit at home? To stay put? To take care of herself? This morning’s Gospel tells us differently. She dropped everything and made haste to see her cousin, walking some 90 miles across the hill country of Judea, carrying in her womb, as if in a tabernacle, the Savior of the world. When Mary, most blessed among women, encountered her cousin Elizabeth, there was an explosion of faith, an explosion of joy, for these two women realized that God’s promises were being fulfilled in them and through their children. Even the child in Elizabeth’s womb, leapt for joy.
The Joy of the Moment
Let us also leap for joy. For in this Cathedral the same good news that resounded in Mary’s ears resounds in ours, but not only in our ears, but in our hearts. Blessed are we, because like Mary, we believe that God’s promises will be fulfilled. As we gaze upon this woman, clothed in the glory of God, we glimpse the destiny to which God in his mercy is calling us. We glimpse the mystery proclaimed by John the beloved disciple: “God so loved the world that he sent us his only Son.”
With this good news echoing in our depths, what are we to do? To sit home? To ponder our good fortune? To count our privileges? The Gospel would urge us to do otherwise: let us arise and be on our way. Like Mary, we must make haste, traveling as pilgrims through the hill country, no longer to visit an aging cousin favored by God, but to visit with our prayers and charity the Church in those places made holy by the earthly presence of the Lord, those same places where Our Lady of Palestine once walked. For just as Mary reached out to Elizabeth in her hour of need, so too we are called to reach out to Church in the Holy Land – by our prayers, our solidarity, our generosity, our presence.
The Mission of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
Let me therefore turn to you who are being invested as Knights and Dames of our Order. It is a great honor that is being bestowed upon you, a recognition of your strong and active faith, your involvement in the life of the Church, your generosity, and your openness to the needs of the Church universal. As you become Knights & Dames of the Holy Sepulchre, you are taking a new step in your life as disciples of the Lord and members of his Church.
For today, you are declaring your love for the earthly Jerusalem, and for those places where the great mysteries of salvation originated – the Annunciation, the Birth of Jesus, the Mount of the Beatitudes, the Cenacle, the Garden, the Hill of Calvary, and the Empty Tomb. As you read the Scriptures and ponder them, as you celebrate with the Church the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, the significance of these holy places will impress itself upon your soul. Your love for those places will not be the enthusiasm of an archeologist; rather, it will be the love that flows from faith and hope in the Risen One.
And in that faith, hope, and love your heart will open widely to the Christian community in the Holy Land, to the needs of its churches, its schools, and its universities, above all, to the needs of the Christians who, though struggling, remain a bright light of hope amid division and strife. It is a community dedicated to ecumenical and interreligious cooperation, a community that affirms human dignity and seeks the common good. Henceforth, you are called to live in solidarity with that Christian community, (to reiterate) by your prayers, surely by your generosity, and when possible, by your presence.
Last evening, I mentioned my recent visit to the Holy Land. As I met with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, and with the Custos of the Holy Land, I became more keenly aware of the breadth and depth of our Order’s support for the Mother Church of Jerusalsem – for its many ministries that touch the lives not only of Christians but also of Muslims and Jews. I also became deeply aware of how wisely and lovingly the Patriarch, our Grand Prior, is leading the Church in that place which is at once complex, conflicted, and blessed as the place of revelation. Together with our Lieutenant, His Excellency, Mark Chopko, and my fellow Chaplains, Knights, and Dames, I warmly welcome you, our investees, to the Middle Atlantic Lieutenancy. Thank you for accepting the invitation and the challenge it entails.
I close with the beautiful sentiments of the Cardinal Patriarch of Jerusalem: that just as the Apostles returned in joy to Jerusalem after the Lord’s Ascension, so ‘we might return in joy to the daily Jerusalem of our lives,’ to our homes, our communities, our parishes – filled with a new passion for the earthly Jerusalem. Despite its conflict and suffering, let us pray that it may be an apt symbol of the new and heavenly Jerusalem towards which we journey as pilgrims. Our Lady of Palestine, pray for us!