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Thanksgiving Week Update

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Wednesday November 25 6pm Low Mass at St. Ann was just canceled late Wednesday afternoon.

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Blessed Feast of St. John of the Cross, the great Spanish Carmelite mystic, doctor of the Church, and contemporary of St. Theresa of Avila, and author of the dark night of the soul. Years ago Fr. Reid (a Third Order Carmelite himself), gave a great homily (which we can’t find online) on these two Carmelite saints and how their lives intertwined, and the suffering they both endured. Instead, we share with you Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflection today:
https://sensusfidelium.us/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/november/november-24-st-john-of-the-cross-confessor/

Thanksgiving Week Mass Schedule

  • Wednesday Nov. 25, St. Ann: 6pm Low Mass (Now canceled)
  • Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, St. Thomas Aquinas: 7pm Mass canceled due to Thanksgiving
  • Friday, Nov. 27, St. Ann: 7am Mass canceled
  • Friday, Nov. 27, St. Mark: 12:30pm scheduled as normal
  • Saturday, Nov. 28, St. Ann: 4th Saturday Respect Life Mass canceled

Veterum Sapientia Institute Kick-off

Thank you to everyone who attended the Veterum Sapientia Institute kick-off on Sunday.  We hope to have more to share about this initiative in the weeks and months ahead. If you’ve missed the kick-off event, please see the video recorded by Sensus Fidelium: https://youtu.be/W3LpammSy1c

Rorate Masses

This Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Advent, and as such we have a special Masses and events to share this season. Notably, the Rorate Masses – a candlelight Latin Mass at dawn to herald the arrival of the Light of the World and honor the Blessed Mother (Very beautiful Mass if you never have attended)

  • Saturday December 5: St. Thomas Aquinas, 6:00am
  • Saturday December 5: Our Lady of Grace, Greensboro, 6:00am
  • Saturday December 12 (also the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe): St. Ann, 6:30am

Feast of the Immaculate Conception 

  • Tuesday December 8: St. Ann, 6:00pm, Solemn High Mass

Feast of the Nativity (Christmas)

  • Friday December 25: St. Ann, 12 midnight

Annual Blessing of Religious Objects & Gifts

Sunday December 20, after 12:30pm Mass at St. Ann: Each Sunday before Christmas, the CLMC sponsors an annual blessing of religious objects and gifts. Fr. Reid has again generously agreed to bless religious objects according to the traditional blessing (Rituale Romanum) after the 12:30pm Mass. Please plan to bring religious objects such as sacramentals, statues, medals, Rosaries, chaplets prior to Mass (we will have a table in the narthex) and Father will bless them immediately afterwards.

The Mythical Thanksgiving Indult

As we prepare for the Thanksgiving Day holiday, we again share with you a magnificent piece by former St. Ann choir member, Sharon Kabel, who examined the mysterious legend of the Friday-After-Thanksgiving Indult, supposedly granted by Pope Pius XII to allow American Catholics to eat meat on the day after Thanksgiving. It should be stated this is a moot point now since the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the US Bishops Conference has sadly allowed a “substitution” for Friday abstinence. Anyhow, for traditionalists, this is an occasionally debated each Thanksgiving and Sharon does good research to find out the truth: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/11/on-mythical-pius-xii-thanksgiving.html

Support Traditional Carmelites

Lastly, since today is a great Carmelite feast day of St. John of the Cross, if you are looking to support a Carmelite religious order that offers the Latin Mass, you can look no further than the Carmelite Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Fairfield, PA. These Hermits subsist solely on almsgiving and many of you may remember them when they visited us in Charlotte a few years ago. They are a traditional order and offer the Traditional Carmelite Mass exclusively (similar to our Traditional Mass, but with a few variations. To learn more about them and support them, please visit:
https://www.eremitaednmc.org/donate/

We also wanted to share with you some excellent traditional & Catholic aspects surrounding the American Thanksgiving holiday, which was actually Catholic in origin. We share them below.

Thanksgiving Book

First, a member of our community (and the St. Ann Respect Life Coordinator), Mary Richardson, just wrote a wonderful children’s booklet on the Catholic origins of the first Catholic Thanksgiving on American soil which occurred years earlier than the Protestant Thanksgiving in Plymouth. It also contains some suggested traditions to sanctify the day and includes prayers from the votive Mass of Thanksgiving (not connected to the American holiday but certainly appropriate). It’s great book to read to children tomorrow and can be printed out on legal size paper. (We link a PDF copy to this post here)

Thanksgiving Day Mass: Thanks or No Thanks?

Speaking of Catholic traditions for Thanksgiving Day (above), Dr. Mike Foley explores the question further by providing an excellent liturgical history of the Catholic effort “baptize” the secular Thanksgiving holiday and where the Church has fallen short. Dr. Foley draws heavily upon Fr. Thomas Kocik’s article from 2009 (second article). Also of note is how the feast of St. Martin (Martinmas) on November 11 may have influenced the use of turkey.

Thanksgiving History: Catholic Origins

While the American Thanksgiving holiday is protestant in origin, the first true Thanksgiving was actually Catholic in origin, and held 50 years earlier in newly discovered San Augustine, Florida in 1565 by Spanish explorers. Their priest offered Mass (TLM of course) – the first on American soil, and then held a feast. Here are a few articles that explain the origins:

On behalf of the CLMC, we wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.