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Feast of the Holy Family

Laudetur Iesus Christus! We now are in the 5th day of the ancient octave of the Epiphany (which sadly was eliminated in the 1955 “reforms”).  As Dom Prosper Gueranger notes, this period is one of the four principal seasons of the Church:

The Epiphany shares with the Feasts of Christmas, Easter. Ascension, and Pentecost the honour of being called, in the Canon of the Mass, a Day most holy. It is also one of the cardinal Feasts, that is, one of those on which the arrangement of the Christian Year is based; for, as we have Sundays after Easter, and Sundays after Pentecost, so also we count six Sundays after the Epiphany.

Epiphany Home Blessing kits: We thank Fr. Reid (and Fr. Jones) for blessing Epiphany water, chalk and salt on Wednesday. If you missed out, the CLMC will provide home blessing kits containing chalk, salt, and instructions on how to bless one’s home (a custom during Epiphany season). Please stop by the table today to pick one up. There is also Epiphany water in the silver holy water font in the narthex – you can bring your own bottles to fill while quantities last. 

Feast of the Holy Family: Sunday after Epiphany is also the traditional feast of the Holy Family, and as Dr. Mike Foley notes in his weekly column on Sunday’s collect, it is fitting to commemorate it after Epiphany (as opposed to the Novus Ordo which places it after Christmas) so to give both feasts “breathing room” and due emphasis. With the family under assault from the culture of death, modernism, and the crisis in the Church, there is much that can be said for this important feast day. For now, we share Dr. Foley’s reflection here: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/01/the-collect-of-feast-of-holy-family.html and also include a brief history from Fisheaters.com: https://www.fisheaters.com/customstimeafterepiphany1a.html

Wednesday January 13 – Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord: This Wednesday January 13 is the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Ann will offer its normal 6pm Low Mass. This feast day commemorates the end of the main Christmas season (although the extended Christmas season of Epiphanytide continues traditionally until February 2nd), and marks the octave day of the Epiphany. It was believed the baptism occurred on January 6, hence its connection to Epiphany season. Fisheaters has more: https://www.fisheaters.com/baptism3.html

Sunday January 24 – End of Christmas Season Celebration: Please join us on Sunday January 24 for the annual “End of Christmas” celebration, with the Cantate Domino Latin Girls Choir and some deserts. This will occur after the 12:30pm St. Ann Latin Mass.

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • Counsels on Tithing – by Fr. Chad Ripperger: For those of us St. Ann parish, we are blessed to have the Latin Mass and some of the related customs and traditions (like Wednesday’s Epiphany water blessing). However, we are also aware that not all CLMC readers are St. Ann parishioners and that some parishes are still unnecessarily limiting their sacramental functions due to “COVID”. In short if your parish is embracing strange beliefs or actions that harm the faith – you can always give to traditional religious orders instead of your parish. For those of you who attend such parishes, we share with you an excellent talk by theologian Fr. Chad Ripperger on the Church’s traditional teaching on tithing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZueaGsLUbk4
  • A Traditional Perspective on the Human Face: As the world (and sadly some in the Church) strangely looks towards “science” to save us from a virus, which has roughly a 99% recovery rate, many are continuing to embrace the policy of masking the entire populous to halt a virus spread. While people can decide for themselves how best to protect their health, there are legitimate spiritual concerns about forcing masking upon the entire population, as Bishop Athanasius Schneider observed in this October interview: https://www.cfnews.org.uk/bishop-christians-must-refuse-covid-vaccine-derived-from-aborted-babies-even-if-it-means-martyrdom/
    • “The exterior sign of the mask which all the population has to wear is disproportionate. It’s an exterior sign that the entire population is submitted, and that those who govern us have now in their hands the entire population, really as obedient slaves and marionettes. This is very dangerous and should cause us deep concern.”
  • Fr. James Jackson, FSSP, a Latin Mass priest near Denver, Colorado has, in light of the debate, further examined the traditional dignity and beauty of the human face and its impact on the soul in three wonderful essays:

Rorate Caeli also posted an interesting article last month written by a religious sister on applying St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa to the face mask issue:

  • Naturalistic vs. Supernatural Faith: The issue of Catholics placing false hope in science (and now an aborted-tainted vaccine) instead of God to cure our ills, is a continual problem that permeates the Church – even among some who like the Latin Mass. Sadly, it is the impact of Darwinism and molecules-to-man evolution that continues to falsely lead the faithful away from God and instead erroneously believing that only science and naturalism is the solution. Yet theology and philosophy are superior to the natural sciences – after all how can one study creation and its natural laws without a proper understanding of the Creator?

Darwinism is sadly still a major influence among those “conservative Catholics”, who are orthodox on big ticket doctrinal matters, but still retain elements of Darwinism and modernism in their outlook that limits how they can respond to the culture of death (and other matters such as theology or liturgy). To help counter this error and to gently encourage them to embrace the traditional teachings and theology of the Church, we cannot recommend enough to our readers, the Evolution & the Culture of Death conference the CLMC co-sponsored in November 2019 at St. Mark parish. Only when the Catholic faith is fully reintegrated back into science (and healthcare), can humanity progress:

https://sensusfidelium.us/evolution-the-culture-of-death-unmasking-the-roots-of-todays-abortion-movement/

  • Prayers for Our Country: Lastly, please continue to pray for our nation and the election process as things still remain unsettled at this seemingly dark hour. Continue to pray the Rosary, and these recommended prayers:

As Fr. Ripperger noted in an interview in November, the demon rages the most right before it is exorcised from the person. Let us also pray to St. Michael’s intercession to deliver us from the evil of today and for the full conversion of the United States to the Catholic Church.