Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is Pentecost, also known as Whitsunday (for the Easter catechumens who would again wear white at Mass). Benedictine liturgist Dom Gasper Lefebvre OSB wrote in the St. Andrew Missal that Pentecost is the second most important feast day in the Church’s liturgical year (next to Easter), was called “Red Easter” and has its own Octave to commemorate the foundation of the Church.
The Benedictine monk also notes that the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles occurred at nine in the morning, and by Divine Providence, occurred on the same day as the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which was established around 1,600 years prior and commemorated the promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai. In Jerusalem on this day in 33 A.D., many Jewish pilgrims were in the city to mark the feast day, and witnessed the new Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Ghost.
There is much that can be shared on this solemn feast day, and we include but a few:
- Orations of the Feast of Pentecost: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/05/the-orations-of-feast-of-pentecost.html
- Dom Prosper Gueranger’s Reflection for Pentecost: https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/469-temporal-cycle/paschal-tide/whit-sunday-the-day-of-pentecost/the-octave-of-pentecost/3558-whit-sunday-the-day-of-pentecost
- Traditions of Pentecost: https://www.fisheaters.com/customseastertide7.html and https://onepeterfive.com/forgotten-customs-octave-pentecost/
Plenary Indulgence for Pentecost
There is a plenary indulgence today, Pentecost Sunday, to all who pray the Veni Creator – ‘Come Holy Spirit’ under the usual conditions. This will normally be prayed during the Sunday Latin Mass.
Latin Masses this Week (Whit Embertide)
For more information about the Whit Ember Days, please see Embertide section below.
- Wednesday May 31, 6pm – St. Ann (Ember Wednesday within the Octave of Pentecost)
- Thursday June 1, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas (Thursday within the Octave of Pentecost)
- Friday June 2, 7am – St. Ann (First Friday/Ember Friday within the Octave of Pentecost)
- Saturday June 3: Note: St. Thomas Aquinas Latin Mass & blessing of objects is canceled due to diaconate ordinations – see note below
Cancellation: No First Saturday Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas for Saturday June 3: Due to the transitional diaconate ordinations occurring on Saturday June 3 at St. Mark parish, Fr. Codd is unable to offer the 1st Saturday Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas that morning. He and the other Latin Mass priests will be attending the ordination. Please pray for the seven men being ordained to the transitional diaconate.
Deacon Jose Palma Torres to preach at St. Ann Latin Mass – Sunday June 4, 12:30pm: On the topic of new deacons, the day after the diaconate ordinations, Trinity Sunday, newly ordained deacon Jose Palma Torres will preach during the 12:30pm St. Ann Latin Mass.
1st Sunday Latin Mass in Salisbury – Sunday June 4, 4pm: Fr. Joseph Wasswa (Our Lady of Grace parish) will offer the 1st Sunday Latin Mass at Sacred Heart parish in Salisbury on June 4 at 4pm. There will be a potluck social in Brincefield Hall afterwards. One is welcome to bring a favorite dish, hors d’oeuvres or dessert. For more information contact the Salisbury Latin Mass Community at: www.salisburylmc.org
Feast of Corpus Christi – Thursday June 8: For the traditional feast day of Corpus Christi (Thursday after Trinity Sunday), St. Ann parish will be offering its annual Corpus Christi Latin Mass at 7pm, which will begin the parish’s annual 40 Hours of Adoration devotion. To sign up for one of the 40 hours please use this signup sheet: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0544a8af29a4f94-40hours2#/ St. Thomas Aquinas will also be offering its regular 7pm Latin Mass that evening as well.
Holy Face Devotions
- St. James, Concord (*NEW*) – Mondays 10-10:30am in the cry room in the church
- St Mark – Mondays 5pm in the church
- St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesdays 6am in the main church
- St. Ann – Tuesdays 7:30am now in the main church after the Novus Ordo Mass (uses the booklet/chaplet which takes 15-20 minutes)
- St Michael the Archangel, Gastonia – Tuesdays, 9am, Main Church
- Holy Spirit, Denver – Tuesdays 10-11am after the Novus Ordo Mass
- Don’t see your parish? Why not organize one?
2023 Women’s Traditional Silent Retreat (July 21-23)
The Legion of Mary in Raleigh is sponsoring a traditional silent women’s retreat at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, northwest of Charlotte from July 21-23. The retreat will feature Fr. Sean Kopczynski of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, a Latin Mass order of priests in Kentucky. Masses will be offered each day. Cost is around $280 and the flyer is attached. To register or for more details please see flyer below.
Whit Ember Days (This Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday)
As our readers may recall, the Ember Days are the 3 penitential days in the 1962 calendar, occurring at the beginning of each season, that offer thanksgiving and prayers for holiness in the upcoming season. This week is the Whit Ember Days for the summer season and occurs on the following dates below. Though the below fasting/partial abstinence days are now voluntary, with all the problems occurring in the world (and in the Church), it may be worth participating in the traditional fasts if you have not done so before.
- Whit Ember Wednesday – Wednesday May 31 (fasting, partial abstinence), St. Ann, 6pm Low Mass
- Whit Ember Friday – Friday June 2 (fasting and since its Friday, complete abstinence from meat), St. Ann, 7am Low Mass
- Whit Ember Saturday – Saturday June 3 (fasting, partial abstinence), no Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas scheduled due to ordinations
The “Whit Ember” days are named after Whit Sunday (“white”), which was an ancient name for Pentecost Sunday and the robes worn by catechumens that day. To learn more about the Whit Ember days visit: https://www.fisheaters.com/customseastertide8.html
Latin Mass & Traditional News
- Archbishop Lori celebrates Pontifical Vespers at FSSP Baltimore: His Excellency William Lori, archbishop of Baltimore recently visited the Latin Mass parish in his city, St. Alphonsus Liguori Shrine, staffed by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), and led the Pontifical Vespers of 1962 and offered some brief remarks before the liturgical service began. It should be noted Archbishop Lori is also the Supreme Chaplain for the Knights of Columbus and also visited Charlotte in 2018 to offer the funeral Mass for late bishop of Charlotte H.E. William Curlin (+). The FSSP notes that their parish had the prior distinction of hosting the episcopal consecration of St. John Neumann in 1852. We share the article here: https://fssp.com/archbishop-lori-celebrates-pontifical-vespers-at-fssp-baltimore/ The video of the Archbishop’s remarks, vesting ceremonies, and Vespers can be seen at this website: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2023/05/a-video-of-solemn-pontifical-vespers.html#.ZG1LxaXMKHs
CLMC note: It has been reported that His Excellency Lori also visited the Shine on Good Friday to participate in stations of the Cross. He was at least the second American bishop to pay a visit to an FSSP parish on Good Friday, as the new bishop of Phoenix His Excellency John Dolan also visited his FSSP parish that afternoon (according to the April 23 parish bulletin). What a blessing that more bishops are publicly supporting the Latin Mass in this time of uncertainty. As Archbishop Lori encouraged in his message to Shrine parishioners (see video above), let us pray for the Pope and the bishops.
- A miracle in Missouri? Body of Benedictine Sisters’ foundress thought to be incorrupt: Sister Mary Wilhelmina, the late foundress of the traditional Benedictine nuns in Gower, Missouri, Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, who died in 2019, was recently exhumed as part of the community’s reinternment plan and to the nuns’ amazement her body seems to be found incorrupt: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254384/a-miracle-in-missouri-body-of-benedictine-sisters-foundress-thought-to-be-incorrupt Sr. Wilhelmina founded the Benedictines of Mary in 1995, with the assistance of a Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) priest and the nuns follow the traditional Latin Mass and breviary exclusively.
Thousands of faithful over the past week have flocked to the Abbey in Gower to view Sister Wilhelmina’s body. However, the nuns issued a statement welcoming the visitors but also reminding everyone that further investigations and scrutiny by competent medical authorities and the Church still remain (nor has a formal canonization process been opened yet). To view the statement visit: https://benedictinesofmary.org/srwilhelmina/ To learn more about Sr. Mary Wilhelmina please visit: https://benedictinesofmary.org/product/gods-will-the-life-and-works-of-sr-mary-wilhelmina/
CLMC note: Fr. Lawrence Carney, who visited several parishes in Charlotte last month to promote the Holy Face devotion, is currently serving as the nuns’ chaplain. Separately, as mentioned in our update a few weeks ago, the architect of the new Holy Spirit church building in Denver, William Heyer, designed the nuns’ new Abbey church where the remains Sr. Wilhelmina are currently resting.
- St. Philip Neri: A Patron Saint of Traditionalism: This past Friday May 26 was the feast of St. Philip Neri, otherwise known as the “Apostle of Rome” who helped reconvert (along with Pope St. Pius V and others) Rome back to the faith during the 16th century. Dr. Mike Foley writes a great piece on this saint who also founded the 40 days devotion (which St. Ann will host next week). He also founded the Congregation of the Oratory, “a community of secular clergy living under obedience but not bound by vows”. Dr. Foley concludes his essay on why St. Philip Neri would also be a good patron for Traditionalism: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2023/05/st-philip-neri-patron-saint-of.html#.ZHFx_6XMKHs
- Our Lady Weeps: Firsthand Account of Notre Dame Cathedral’s Restoration: Photographer Ron St. Angelo has recently shared about his trip to Parish where he examines and captures the restoration efforts of the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was damaged in a fire during Holy Week 2019. St. Angelo shares that the reconstruction will be faithful to the traditional medieval designs: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/our-lady-weeps-firsthand-account-of-notre-dame-cathedral-s-restoration
The Solemn Feast of Pentecost
To prepare us for the great feast of Pentecost today, we close this update with Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflections for today:
Jerusalem is filled with pilgrims, who have flocked thither from every country of the Gentile world. They feel a strange mysterious expectation working in their souls. They are Jews, and have come from every foreign land where Israel has founded a synagogue; they have come to keep the feasts of Pasch and Pentecost. Asia, Africa, and even Rome, have here their representatives. Amidst these Jews properly so called, are to be seen many Gentiles, who, from a desire to serve God more faithfully, have embraced the Mosaic law and observances; they are called proselytes. This influx of strangers, who have come to Jerusalem out of a desire to observe the Law, gives the city a Babel-like appearance, for each nation has its own language. They are not, however, under the influence of pride and prejudice, as are the inhabitants of Judea; neither have they, like these latter, known and rejected the Messias, nor blasphemed His works whereby He gave testimony of His divine character. It may be that they took part with the other Jews in clamouring for Jesus’ death; but they were led to it by the chief priests and magistrates of the Jerusalem which they reverenced as the holy city of God, and to which nothing but religious motives have brought them.
It is the hour of Tierce, the third hour of the day,[4] fixed from all eternity for the accomplishment of a divine decree. It was at the hour of midnight that the Father sent into this world, that He might take flesh in Mary’s womb, the Son eternally begotten of Himself: so now, at this hour of Tierce, the Father and the Son send upon the earth the holy Spirit who proceeds from Them both. He is sent to form the Church, the bride and the kingdom of Christ: He is to assist and maintain her; He is to save and sanctify the souls of men; and this His mission is to continue to the end of time.
Suddenly is heard, coming from heaven, the sound of a violent wind; it startles the people in the city, it fills the cenacle with its mighty breath. A crowd is soon round the house that stands on Mount Sion; the hundred and twenty disciples that are within the building feel that mysterious emotion within them, of which their Master once said: ‘The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice’.[5] Like that strange invisible creature, which probes the very depth of the sea and makes the waves heave mountains high, this Breath from heaven will traverse the world from end to end, breaking down every barrier that would stay its course.
The holy assembly have been days in fervent expectation; the divine Spirit gives them this warning of His coming, and they in the passiveness of ecstatic longing, await His will. As to those who are outside the cenacle, and who have responded to the appeal thus given, let us, for the moment, forget them. A silent shower falls in the house; it is a shower of fire, which, as holy Church says ‘burns not but enlightens, consumes not but shines.’[6] Flakes of fire, in the shape of tongues, rest on the heads of the hundred and twenty disciples; it is the Holy Ghost taking possession of all and each. The Church is now not only in Mary, but also in these hundred and twenty disciples. All belong now to the Spirit that has descended upon them; His kingdom is begun, it is manifested, its conquests will be speedy and glorious.
Whit Sunday: The Day of Pentecost: https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/469-temporal-cycle/paschal-tide/whit-sunday-the-day-of-pentecost/the-octave-of-pentecost/3558-whit-sunday-the-day-of-pentecost
What Mass are you attending Pentecost Sunday?