Laudetur Iesus Christus! Tomorrow we enter the 2 week season of Passiontide, the final two weeks of Lent, where we focus on Christ’s passion and death. With many public Masses and Holy Communion now restricted across the globe, it is feeling like 2 weeks of Good Fridays. Yet this situation is curiously similar to the Pre-1955 Good Friday Liturgy which St. Ann offered in 2018 & 2019, where Holy Communion is only received by the priest and the laity’s Communion is the veneration of the Cross. Yet even in this unsettling time, the Church, through the Traditional Latin Mass, gives us hope.

The readings for Mass over the past 2 days (Thursday & Friday) have been about the raising of the dead, both in the Old Testament and the Gospels. As Dom Prosper Gueranger mentioned in The Liturgical Year for Thursday, these readings were to remind the faithful during the depths of Lent that the Resurrection and Easter are soon to come. The New Liturgical Movement blog has a great piece on these readings for this past Thursday & Friday: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/03/raising-dead-in-lent.html#.Xn-27GB7nwc

Passiontide

Passiontide is also when the statues, sacred images, etc. are veiled, the bells are replaced with wooden clackers (crotalus), which also allows the faithful to look forward to the Easter Vigil when the statues are unveiled, the bells return, and the Church rejoices in singing Gloria and Alleluia as they return to the Mass with Easter. See this video of an Easter Vigil Mass: https://youtu.be/LFL2Ea4d2J0?t=8179

Since our homes have become domestic parishes lately, families are invited to cover their statues, sacred images, and begin to look forward to the Easter Vigil (if only broadcast online).  To learn more about Passiontide customs visit: https://www.fisheaters.com/customslent8.html

Sunday Announcement at St. Ann

Per Fr. Reid’s Friday Five Announcement, due to the new “shelter-in-place” restrictions, there will be no public Mass offered Sunday, nor will Holy Communion be distributed. As such, people are asked to stay at home. However, the parish will again live stream the 12:30pm Latin Mass on their public Facebook page (no login needed): www.facebook.com/StAnnCharlotte  Please offer a few prayers for Fr. Reid for this blessing and also don’t forget to tithe to the parish during this time so it can continue its operations and minister to its parishioners: https://www.stanncharlotte.org/home/giving/

Sunday Online Masses & Resources

As a reminder, we have our webpage where you can find various online Latin Masses, and spiritual resources during this time (including spiritual communions). We’ve also included the Institute of Christ the King’s new web stream webpage too (in case you want to virtually travel to another parish).  This page is updated periodically:

https://charlottelatinmass.org/covid-19-latin-mass/

Other Latin Mass News

Vatican gives new directions for 1962 Missal: On Wednesday, the Vatican made an important announcement about the 1962 Latin Mass missal. It has given permission under specific conditions that all saints canonized after 1960 can now be offered in the Traditional Latin Mass (Link). They also allowed 7 new optional prefaces that can be offered (Link). These new changes are entirely optional, and priests can simply ignore the changes and follow the 1962 calendar as it. We include a summary by a few sources on the new changes:

• Dr. Kwasniewski: https://onepeterfive.com/vatican-issues-two-decrees-more-prefaces-and-recent-saints-in-the-tlm/
• UnaVoce: http://www.fiuv.org/2020/03/new-prefaces-and-new-saints-for-ef.html
• Albert P. Marcello: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2020/03/canonical-commentary-on-new-pontifical.html

Family Consecration to the Immaculate Heart: A traditional priest in another diocese is encouraging all families to consecrate their families to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with this prayer. We’ve also attached it as well. http://www.veritascaritas.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Family-Consecration-to-the-Immacualte-Heart-of-Mary.pdf

Adult catechism correction: This week we sent a link to an adult catechism class by the FSSP Latin Mass parish in Idaho, but the link was broken. The correct link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz69ovDv-S4

(N.B. – they also have a bible study on Wednesday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk0i6HHSpjQ&feature=youtu.be)