The Last Gospel is the passage from the Gospel according to St. John in chapter i, verses 1 to 14 inclusive, where Jesus is described as the Logos. It is so named because it is part of the concluding rite of the low Tridentine Mass[1] of the Roman Rite.
The Last Gospel began as a private devotional practice on the priest's part, but was gradually absorbed into the rubrics of the Mass.[1] Immediately, after the blessing, the priest goes to the Gospel side of the altar. He begins with the Dominus vobiscum as at the proclamation of the Gospel of the Mass. But, since he reads from the altar card, he makes a sign of the cross with his right thumb on the altar rather than on the Gospel text before signing his own forehead, lips, and chest. At the words Et Verbum caro factum est (And the word became flesh), the priest genuflects.
The text of the Gospel is perhaps best known for its opening lines: