Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost, and the Church, through its readings commemorates the Temple’s destruction and the fall of Jerusalem under Titus’ Roman legions (~August 4, A.D. 70). Below we provide Dr. Mike Foley’s commentary (last year) on this Sunday’s propers (see Fall of Jerusalem section).

Feast of St. Christopher:

Sunday July 25 is also the traditional feast of St. Christopher, the Christ-Bearer, according to the 1962 calendar, but sadly was removed in the Novus Ordo Mass calendar in 1969.  To learn more visit: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/07/the-feast-of-st-christopher.html or

https://sensusfidelium.us/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/july/july-25-saint-christopher-martyr/

Latin Masses for Sunday: All Latin Masses in the diocese of Charlotte are on normal schedule. Of note, we were delighted to see so many new faces at last week’s Sunday Latin Mass and hope that trend continues. Additionally, please continue to pray for our bishop and priests as they discuss the Motu Proprio (also pray for Pope Francis’ conversion too!).

How Should the Faithful in Charlotte Respond to the Motu Proprio?

Many of our readers have been concerned over the new Motu Proprio provisions and have asked what one can do to help support the Traditional Mass in our diocese.  One may consider these effective means for the faithful to express support for the Traditional Latin Mass:

1. Attend the Traditional Latin Mass on Sundays: There can be no greater way to support a Latin Mass than by actually being there – especially on Sundays. We recognize that for some a late Sunday morning or early afternoon time is a sacrifice for families, but offering that sacrifice to God shows Him how grateful one is for this beautiful liturgy.
2. Increase Your Offering: A helpful way to express gratitude to pastors and bishops for their support of the Traditional Latin Mass is to give generously at the Mass (if you are not doing so already) or increase your offering each week.
3. Pray unceasingly: Praying the Rosary daily (and learning it in Latin) would be an excellent place to start.

The Fall of Jerusalem

This fateful event, prophesized by Our Lord (Luke 19:41-48) and commemorated this Sunday, was one of the more horrific sieges in history.  Dom Prosper Gueranger noted that the Temple of Jerusalem flowed with blood, most of its inhabitants killed, not just by Roman soldiers from without, but by the lawless, unspeakable violence of Jewish Zealots (upon their own people) from within inside the city walls. Further north, the sea of Galilee turned red as bodies piled up along the shoreline after that Jewish revolt was crushed by the Romans. Jewish historian Josephus had reported that years prior to the siege, residents of Jerusalem would see signs in the sky including a flaming meteorite/sword and chariots foretelling the pending doom (Luke 21:11). The Catholics, seeing the signs, were spared the terror as they remembered Christ’s prophecy (Luke 21:21, Matthew 11:21-24), and escaped to safe harbor.

As Dr. Mike Foley notes in his article below: “The destruction of the Temple is a stern reminder of divine chastisement and the need for our repentance and conversion. As St Paul teaches in the day’s Epistle (1 Cor. 10, 6-13), we must never think we stand on our own, lest we fall.”. For a fuller account of the siege please see these articles:

• Dr. Mike Foley – Weeping Over Jerusalem: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/07/weeping-over-jerusalem-ninth-sunday.html#.XyYDO357nwc
• Dom Prosper Gueranger: https://sensusfidelium.us/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/the-time-after-pentecost/ninth-sunday-after-pentecost/
• Storm Clouds on the Horizon: A 2014 sermon, from a pious priest in another diocese, on the fall of Jerusalem and how it relates to today’s culture:

Latin Mass & Traditional News

• Holy Face Novena for the Latin Mass (July 28 – August 5): Fr. Lawrence Carney, the Latin Mass priest who walks and evangelizes the streets of St. Joseph, Missouri, is suggesting everyone pray a novena to the Holy Face for the preservation of the Latin Mass. To learn more visit his group’s website at: https://www.martinians.org/novena-to-the-holy-face

• Million Memorares for the Traditional Latin Mass: https://mothersforpriests.org/million-memorares-for-the-traditional-latin-mass/

• Why We Love the Mass of Ages: On August 15, the new game-changing documentary on the Latin Mass, The Mass of Ages, will be released and it has the potential to reach many non-Latin Mass Catholics and enable them to discover the richness of tradition. Here is a preview released in light of last week’s news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyRZBANc9Do

• As a deaf Catholic, the Latin Mass gives me equal access to the liturgy: While America Magazine is a Jesuit publication of the modernist perspective, to their credit, they occasionally publish an article worthy of mention. This article happens to be one of them, which highlights how the Traditional Latin Mass is helpful to the deaf attendees:
  https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/07/20/latin-mass-deaf-catholic-access-liturgy-241084

• Cardinal Burke’s comments on Traditionis Custodes: In an interview about the new Motu Proprio, Cardinal Burke offered some interesting comments starting around 3:35 – particularly his criticism of the implementation of the Vatican II Mass and the “spirit of the council”.  This is a positive development when Cardinals publically speak about the problems of the Vatican II Mass as the Church can only move forward and have true unity when it begins to seriously address the crisis in the church (the liturgy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DijFmK7HJhY

• The Old Mass is Good for Catholic Social Teaching: Rorate Caeli posts a great article on why the Traditional Latin Mass is helpful in promoting the social teachings of the Church: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-old-mass-is-good-for-catholic.html

• An Icon of the Prophet Elijah: This past week was the ancient feast of the prophet Elijah. Although not in the Roman Rite calendar, it is a feast day among the Carmelites who trace their lineage back to him: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/07/an-icon-of-prophet-elijah.html

• ‘Traditionis’: a picture is worth a thousand words. Wherein Fr. Z is deeply moved: https://wdtprs.com/2021/07/traditionis-a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-wherein-fr-z-is-deeply-moved/

Traditionalism vs. Modernism: Traditionis Custodes (Part II)

This week we have seen many cardinals, bishops, and priests come to the defense of the Traditional Latin Mass and provide their own analysis of the Motu Proprio. The amount of coverage is voluminous and other websites are covering it well that repeating it seems unnecessary.  However, there was one article that came out in the last week that was insightful, not only for traditionalists, but particularly for Americans traditionalists.

Writer Hillary White has published an informative piece on why she is joyful about the Motu Proprio which has given her the first signs of hope in a restoration of the Catholic Church – the crumbling of “conservative Catholicism”:

The reason I’m rejoicing is that it is only once this regime of falsehood that has held the Church in its grip for 60 years is totally defeated that anything like the Christian life in this world can resume, and this is the first time in my lifetime that I have seen something concrete happen to that end. There are no more comforting, sweet and soothing lies about the “hermeneutic of continuity” and “reform of the reform” issuing from the papal chair. The end of that nonsense alone should be cause for joy.

She also has a message to American Latin Mass-goers:

The Traditional movement in the US exploded with the issuance of Summorum Pontificum, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t just for your own sakes, but for the whole Body of Christ. You were given what the rest of the Catholic world has rejected so that you could keep and preserve it, but also spread it. And now you’re being asked to suffer for it.

The Purge – by Hillary White: https://hilarywhite.substack.com/p/the-purge

As we have paraphrased often from the late Dr. John Senior, we can’t restore the culture until we restore the liturgy.  For now the Traditional Latin Mass continues in the diocese of Charlotte. Let us consider how we can do more to spread it to even more people in Western North Carolina. Where are you attending Mass today?