Last Gospel

The Last Gospel began as a private devotional practice on the priest's part, known well in the Sarum Rite in Catholic England, but was gradually absorbed into the rubrics of the Mass.

However, as the priest reads from an altar card and not a book, he traces a Sign of the Cross with his right thumb on the altar's surface instead of the Gospel text, then signing his own forehead, lips, and chest.

Omnia per ipsum facta sunt: et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est: in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum: et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt.

Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Ioannes.

Non erat ille lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine.

Erat lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum.

Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri, his, qui credunt in nomine eius: qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt.