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Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday)

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday the Church celebrates the 3rd Sunday in Advent, otherwise known as Gaudete Sunday, taken from the first words of the Introit (rejoice). The priest wears Rose colored vestments to indicate hope during this penitential time that Christ in His Incarnation is coming. Dr. Mike Foley has a commentary on Sunday’s Collect: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/12/the-accommodating-collect-of-third.html

Fisheaters.com – Gaudete Sunday: https://www.fisheaters.com/customsadvent13.html

Rorate Mass note: The CLMC expresses our thanks the priests in the diocese for offering the Rorate Masses these past few weekends. One more Rorate Mass will be offered in the mountains next Saturday December 18 at 6:30am at St. Margaret Mary parish in Swannanoa. Please consider offering prayers for our priests this Sunday and Emberweek.

Advent Embertide this week

This Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are the seasonal ember days – when the traditional Church sets aside 3 days each season for prayer, fasting and partial abstinence (the later now voluntary) to thank God for his gifts of creation and to use them in moderation. It’s a good time to also pray for sanctity for the upcoming season. Fisheaters has more commentary here: https://www.fisheaters.com/customsadvent11.html  

Ember Week Masses:

  • Wednesday December 15: St. Ann, 6pm (Low)
  • Friday December 17: St. Ann 7am (Low) & St. Mark, 12:30pm (Low)
  • Saturday December 18: None scheduled at diocesan parishes in/near Charlotte, sadly

St. Ann Annual Blessing of Religious Objects – Sunday December 19

After the 12:30pm St. Ann parish Latin Mass on Sunday December 19, Father will bless religious objects in the Traditional Rite. These items can be, statues, holy water, salt, oil, medals, Rosaries. A table will be placed in the narthex – please place items on table prior to the 12:30pm Mass. Table should be up by 12 noon – 12:15pm. Immediately after Mass, Father will begin blessing – so no new objects can be placed on the table after that point.

Christmas Schedule- Saturday December 25

  • St. Ann, Charlotte – Midnight Latin Mass
  • St. Thomas Aquinas, Charlotte – Midnight Latin Mass
  • St. John the Baptist, Tryon, NC – Midnight Latin Mass (2 hours west of Charlotte)
  • Prince of Peace, Taylors, SC – Midnight Latin Mass (2 hours southwest of Charlotte)
  • St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country, Boone, NC – Midnight Latin Mass (2 hours northwest of Charlotte)
  • Our Lady of Grace, Greensboro – 11am High (1.5 hours north of Charlotte)

(Attending Mass on Christmas does not fulfill Sunday’s obligation on Dec. 26)

Defending Conscience Rights Against Vaccine Mandates – Monday December 20 at 7pm (St. Thomas Aquinas)

This Christmas many Catholic employees and families are threatened with the loss of employment, income, and livelihood due to employer vaccine mandates which go against their conscience and pro-life beliefs.  To support Catholic workers and families and their conscience rights, the Carolina Family Coalition (CFC) is organizing a special Defend Your Conscience Rights event on Monday December 20 at 7pm at St. Thomas Aquinas parish – Aquinas Hall (1400 Suther Road, Charlotte). The event will feature talks by an attorney, impacted workers, and a reflection by a priest on how to suffer for Christ and His teachings.  The event is free. CFC is an organization founded in 2018 by Catholic pro-life leaders in Charlotte to defend the family against the secular culture. 

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Sunday is also feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of all the Americas, when Our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego and her apparition quickly led to the end of barbaric human sacrifices, and the conversion of 9 million people of Mexico. It gives the faithful great hope that pagan civilizations such as ours can also be converted, and in short time, with Our Lady’s aid. To learn more about this great feast day please visit Fisheaters.com:

Cardinal Burke Offers First Public Mass Since COVID

After many prayers, many faithful are rejoicing to see the day when His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke ascended the steps of the of the sanctuary to offer his first Pontifical (Latin) Mass after his brush with death from COVID. That moment occurred yesterday December 11 and fittingly at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse Wisconsin, which he helped build when he was bishop there. The Mass offered appears to be a Rorate or votive Mass of Our Lady (without the candles). Also noteworthy is that when he convalesced for 3 months at the oratory of St. Mary’s in Wausau, which is a Traditional Latin Mass only parish run by the priests of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a Latin Mass order of priests. In his sermon His Eminence notes Our Lady of Guadalupe watched over him in the hospital. We will note that he was also watched over in his rehabilitation by the traditional priests of the Institute. You can watch the Mass accompanied by some helpful commentary at this following link. https://guadalupeshrine.org/event/cardinal-burkes-pontifical-high-mass-december-2021

The sermon begins around the 53:00 minute mark: https://youtu.be/2Fu4-WQXX8w?t=3178

One may consider offering prayers and Mass intentions on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in thanksgiving for her intercession in the Cardinal’s recovery.

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • Mexican Cardinal restores rights of Traditional Latin Mass community: On this Gaudete Sunday, we can also rejoice in another possible intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe as we share the good news that the Cardinal of Guadalajara Mexico has decided to restore the Traditional Latin Mass parish in his city which is operated by the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP – a society of Latin Mass priests). The Cardinal had previously suppressed the parish a few weeks ago and how changed course after the laity expressed their voices. The traditional faithful in Guadalajara want to share this news so that other Latin Mass faithful can have confidence to approach their bishop and have their Masses and parishes restored:  https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2021/12/mexican-cardinal-restores-rights-of.html
  • The Consolation of the Latin Mass in a Foreign Land: Shortly after his visit with us in Charlotte, Dr. Kwansiewski traveled to Poland, and offered his reflections on the unity of attending a Latin Mass in a foreign country where one doesn’t understand the native language (e.g. Polish), but is unified through the Traditional Latin Mass which Poles and their American guest attend and understand simultaneously: https://onepeterfive.com/the-consolation-of-the-latin-mass-in-a-foreign-land/

Bishop Know Thy Dignity

Voice of the Family, an English Catholic pro-family organization posted an insightful piece by an anonymous priest on how powerful the office of bishop is and how much they can change the culture in their own diocese. This priest addresses his remarks not to modernist bishops, but rather to those more faithful or conservative bishops who may be trying to be faithful, but whose efforts seem to be stymied or have not yet achieved that desired spiritual conversion of the laity and culture. He suggests two remedies which we summarize and excerpt:

  1. Bishops should take the lead in teaching the faith and not wait for Rome – they subject to, but are not vicars of the Pope or a bishops’ conference. They need to put on the mind of Christ.
  2. For bishops to truly appreciate the authority of their office, they need to begin offering the Traditional Latin Mass regularly.

Bishops are subject to the bishop of Rome, of course. Yet they are not his vicars. That is to say, although a pope may, where necessary, appoint or even depose a bishop, as well as legislate for the universal Church, their task is not to copy his preferences or to adopt his policies in contingent matters. A bishop must put on not the mind of the pope but the mind of Christ.

I suggest that there are two special causes of the diminishment of bishops which they, but only they, can overcome. I am not thinking here of modernist bishops, but of men who have the Catholic faith in their hearts and who have a love for Jesus Christ and His people, but who are not yet teaching and governing as they might. I suspect that such bishops often feel trapped by the present ecclesial state of things, but it is not so. The door is locked and bolted, but they have the key.

What are these two causes of which I speak? The first is the habit of always looking to Rome to give the lead, in other words, of thinking of oneself, albeit unconsciously, as a vicar of the pope.

Yet I believe there is a second reason why our orthodox bishops do not wield their apostolic power as effectively as they might. They are not saying the Mass of ages, except occasionally, but the Mass of the 1960’s. It is not sufficient to say “the Mass is the Mass”, or “Christ is present whatever the rite”.

But the Mass as a sacrifice is not only the act of Christ, but also the act of the Church. As the act of the Church, this sacrifice will be more or less pleasing to God in function of the holiness of the rite, and in this way, it will bring down more or less grace and mercy upon each local church. Can it really be pleasing to God if His bishops use a rite that has been partly Protestantized, in comparison to the immemorial Mass? By contrast, if our bishops resolve to honour Him by offering Mass in the most perfect manner that they can, graces that He is now withholding from their dioceses will be unlocked, and places that are now like deserts will begin to flower anew.

Can one imagine the abundance of graces that would pour down upon a diocese if a bishop regularly offered the Traditional Latin Mass daily? Please consider praying for our bishop to offer the Mass of Ages regularly.

Today is Gaudete Sunday – a time of hope amidst the violet penitential season of Advent and temporal darkness. If the Traditional Latin Mass – the Mass of Ages – is that hope and that key for a bishop to invite more graces down upon a diocese to restore the faith and culture, what Mass are you attending on Sunday?