Laudetur Iesus Christus! Blessed feast of St. Stephen, and a Merry Christmas on this the 2nd day of the Octave of Christmas.
Blessing of Wine – Tomorrow Sunday December 27 at 12:15pm (sharp), St. Ann
Sunday December 27th is the feast of St. John the Beloved and there is an ancient tradition to bless wine this day as St. John once escaped death from wine that was poisoned. This Sunday at St. Ann, Fr. Reid has kindly agreed to bless wine at 12:15pm in the narthex at St. Ann. Please bring your wine shortly before 12:15pm and place it on or near the blessing table in the narthex. Father will bless the wine promptly at 12:15pm. Fisheaters provides some excellent background and customs for this feast day: https://www.fisheaters.com/customschristmas4.html
Additionally, as tomorrow is also the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, Dr. Mike Foley has a reflection on this Sunday’s Mass:
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/12/divine-adoption-sunday.html
January 1 and Epiphany Mass schedule: At the end of this e-mail we include the Masses for January 1, and Epiphany.
Traditional Christmas Proclamation
If you attended St. Ann Midnight Mass yesterday, you may have heard the beautiful chanting of the traditional Christmas proclamation in Latin by the St. Ann schola. This ancient proclamation was in use for centuries until the late 1960s when it was eliminated. In the mid-1990s, Pope St. John Paul II brought back the proclamation, but modernized the text a bit. The traditional proclamation is based on Septuagint (Greek) Old Testament chronology which lists the years from creation of the world to the Nativity of Christ as 5,199 years. The modern proclamation however is instead based on sort of a modernist evolutionary version which presumes long ages of the earth (unknown ages). There are some transcribing errors with the Septuagint version, but it more closely aligns with the opinion of the ancient Church fathers who believed the age between creation and the Nativity was around 4,000 years (hence the 4 weeks of Advent to represent the 4,000 years between creation and Christ). To learn more about this and how the Venerable Bede corrected this please read this great report from the Kolbe Center for Creation (whom the CLMC co-sponsored a year ago at St. Mark parish):
https://www.kolbecenter.org/kolbe-report-9-7-19/
To see the differences between the traditional and modern proclamations visit: https://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/ChristmasProclamation.htm
Prayers for the Underground Church in China
This Christmas season, please consider praying for the underground Catholic Church in China. The Cardinal Kung Foundation is the main apostolate in the U.S. helping to support the underground priests and faithful. Sadly, with the new Vatican-China accord, many of the Communist-installed bishops (who are part of the above-ground Communist “ Patriotic Catholic” Church) are taking over Rome-loyal dioceses – sadly with Vatican approval. A few faithful bishops have chosen to resign or step away rather than violate their consciences. The Church in China is complex (and often hard to understand) situation but you can read more in their Christmas letter below. The Foundation was named after Cardinal Ignatius Kung who was imprisoned for nearly 30 years for his fidelity to Rome/Pope, before being exiled to the U.S. in 1988. He offered the Traditional Mass periodically before his death in 2,000. To learn more or to support the Cardinal Kung Foundation with a year end gift, please visit: http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/
Cardinal Kung Foundation Christmas Newsletter: http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/nl/pdf/currentnl.pdf
Christmas Reflection by the Carmelite Hermits
Lastly, in this Octave of Christmas, we are pleased to share with you the Christmas reflection of our friends, the traditional Carmelite Hermits in Fairfield, PA (whom many of you visited during their visit to Charlotte in 2017). The reflection is attached as a PDF. If you are looking for other excellent Catholic apostolates to support, this would be a great one as they subsist entirely on donations and have no business to generate funds. Their business is strictly to pray and sacrifice for God (in the traditional Carmelite Rite). To learn more or make a year end gift visit: https://www.eremitaednmc.org/
Christmastide Special Masses
- Friday January 1 (Feast of the Circumcision):
- Our Lady of Grace, Greensboro, 12 midnight (High)
- St. Ann, 9am (Low)
- St. Mark, 12:30pm (High) (Note: Due to an annual “quirk”, the Latin Mass at St. Mark is offered pro-populorum (facing the people) during Christmastide due to the Crèche blocking the front of the altar)
- St. Thomas Aquinas, 7pm (High)
- Tuesday January 5 (Vigil of Epiphany)
- St. Thomas Aquinas 6pm (Blessing only – No Mass). A blessing of Holy Water, chalk and salt will be performed*. You are invited to bring your filled water bottles to be blessed. Arrive a few minutes early.
- Wednesday January 6 (Epiphany):
- St. Ann, 6pm (High Mass) & afterwards the blessing of Epiphany holy water, chalk and salt*. You are invited to bring your filled water bottles to be blessed.
The Epiphany blessing of water, chalk and salt takes approximately 45 minutes – please arrive early to ensure your bottles of water, salt, and chalk are properly placed at the blessing table.
For more Latin Mass & traditional Catholic news, please see our Christmas Eve update: https://charlottelatinmass.org/2020/12/24/christmas-schedule-blessing-of-wine-sunday/
Charlotte Latin Mass Community 