Laudetur Iesus Christus! Tomorrow is August 1st and it is also first Saturday. Since many of the Latin Mass faithful have a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, we enclose a link to some details about the devotion and its requirements: https://www.mdrevelation.org/rosary-crusade-for-peace/how-to-practice-the-five-first-saturdays-devotion/
August 1st also happens to have two other commemorations, St. Peter in Chains, which you can read more about here: https://fssp.com/the-golden-legend-of-st-peters-chains/
Mass for August 1st: The only Latin Mass in Charlotte tomorrow will be St. Thomas Aquinas at 10:00am (High Mass).
Feast of the Holy Maccabees
The second commemoration of August 1st is an often overlooked feast day, that of the Holy Maccabees – the only Old Testament saints listed in the universal 1962 calendar (The Carmelites do commemorate the Prophet Elijah). These seven holy Maccabee brothers were martyred defending the rights of God and for His public worship in a pagan culture. Their relics are actually buried in the same church that houses the chains of St. Peter. For more on the liturgical aspects of this feast day visit: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2018/08/the-feast-of-holy-maccabees.html#.XyOweX57nwc
It’s also a good time to be thankful for the many of the modern day Maccabees in the Church (some who have passed on to their eternal reward) who in the dark/confusing liturgical days of the 1970s and 1980s defended the Traditional Mass when most in the Church were opposed to it. Yet their perseverance through the years (see 1971 Agatha Christie indult, 1984 Quattuor Abhinc Annos indult, and 1988 Ecclesiae Dei Moto Proprio, and 2007 Summorum Pontificum Moto Proprio), has enabled us to benefit from their sacrifices here in Charlotte each Sunday and on select weekdays.
The Maccabean Saints give us much to reflect on as a religious persecution is shadowing over many faithful today and yet their actions only help increase our faith. Here are some select commentaries on the Maccabees:
Dom Prosper Gueranger writes:
The sacred cause of which they were the champions, their strength of soul under the tortures, their sublime answers to the executioners, were so evidently the type reproduced by the later Martyrs, that the Fathers of the first centuries with one accord claimed for the Christian Church these heroes of the synagogue, who could have gained such courage from no other source than their faith in the Christ to come. For this reason they alone of all the holy persons of the ancient covenant have found a place on the Christian cycle; all the Martyrologies and Calendars of East and West attest the universality of their cultus, while its antiquity is such as to rival that of St. Peter’s chains in that same basilica of Eudoxia where their precious relics lie.
Their faith is also echoed in a sermon given by New York priest, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D, S.T.D. in 2017:
First, we see how important it is to fight against assimilation into a pagan culture. Initially, the Jews of that time were subjected to a “soft” persecution, which offered them rewards for abandoning the traditions of their fathers (for example, circumcision and refusal to eat pork). When that didn’t work, “hard” persecution ensued. Don’t we find the same modus operandi today? How many would-be Catholic politicians have sold their Catholic souls for acceptability in a political party of death, which also promotes a vision of marriage inimical to both the natural law and divine revelation? How many Catholics work in offices and public service in this city yet are completely unknown as Catholics since their lifestyle blends in seamlessly with that of the secular culture (or anti-culture)? In effect, they are content to be crypto-Catholics, even though Our Lord commanded us: “What you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops” (Mt 10:27).
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/08/01/lessons-from-the-holy-maccabees/
Holy Maccabees pray for us!
Charlotte Latin Mass Community 