For centuries, lawyers and judges have celebrated the Red Mass to ask God's blessing on their work of the administration of justice.

The tradition has been observed from ancient times in Rome, Paris and London; and the ceremony officially opens the judicial year of the Sacred Roman Rota, the Tribunal of the Holy See.

On Sunday, lawyers and judges from the local area initiated the custom here with the celebration of the first annual Red Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Atlanta.

Archbishop Donnellan was present to lead the celebration along with the priests of that parish. Father Michael A. Morris, pastor of Sacred Heart is chaplain to the Atlanta Catholic Lawyer's Guild.

The Red Mass is the Solemn Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit. Celebrated generally at the opening of the judicial year, the Mass is attended by the judges, lawyers and legal officials of all faiths to invoke God's blessing on the work of their profession. The celebration takes it name from the color of the vestments worn at the Mass -- the red of the Holy Spirit.

The Red Mass celebration was inaugurated in this country in 1928 in New York City, where the Catholic Guild of Lawyers meets annually at St. Andrew's Church which is located near the State and Federal Courts there.

More recently, the Red Mass has been celebrated annually in California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, the District of Columbia and now in Georgia.

Two local judges read the scripture lessons at the Mass: The Honorable Sam Phillips McKenzie, Judge, Fulton County Superior Court, Atlanta Judicial Circuit and The Honorable Dorothy Robinson, Judge, State Court of Cobb County.