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Low Sunday

Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere! Sunday is Low Sunday, the Octave of Easter, otherwise known as Quasimodo Sunday, taken from the first words of the Introit.  As custom, we provide Dr. Mike Foley’s commentary on the orations for Sunday’s Mass: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/the-orations-of-low-sunday.html#.YmTFGtPMKHs

Additionally, to learn more about the history and customs of Low Sunday, we share these links:

Also in Sunday’s Mass, as it has been for the past 8 days, is chanting of the beautiful Victimae Paschali Laudes Easter sequence,which Dr. Mike Foley describes in another commentary:
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/the-easter-sequence-victimae-paschali_01217123189.html

Feast of St. Peter of Verona – Friday April 29

In the Traditional Rite, April 29 is the feast of St. Peter of Verona, the 13th century Dominican and inquisitor. There is an ancient custom to honor St. Peter by having palm leaves blessed in his honor.  Tradition holds that when these blessed palm leaves are made into crosses and buried in the four corners of one’s property, they are to guard against natural disasters (we hope to provide them next weekend). To learn more about the patron saint of inquisitors, visit: http://reginamag.com/saint-peter-of-verona-martyr/  

The Latin Masses for the feast day Friday April 29 will be 7am (St. Ann) and 12:30pm (St. Mark).

Major Rogation Day – Monday April 25

Although no Latin Masses are scheduled tomorrow in Charlotte, Monday April 25 is the Major Rogation Day, which, unique to the traditional calendar, is a day instituted of petitions and formerly penances to God to protect against natural disasters and plagues. It comes from the Latin word “rogare” which is to ask or petition. Sometimes it is accompanied by a procession and the chanting of the litany of the saints. There are two types of Rogation days – major and minor. The major day is April 25, Roman in origin, and was established by Pope St. Gregory the Great in 590 A.D. for deliverance from plagues as Fisheaters.com notes: 

“Rogation” comes from the Latin “rogare,” which means “to ask,” and Rogation Days are days during which we seek to ask God’s mercy, appease His anger, avert the chastisements He makes manifest through natural disasters, and ask for His blessings, particularly with regard to farming, gardening, and other agricultural pursuits. They are set aside to remind us how radically dependent we are on God through His creation, and how prayer can help protect us from nature’s often cruel ways.  Hence, its mood is somber and beseeching; its liturgical color is purple.

Source: https://www.fisheaters.com/customseastertide3.html

Rogation Mass in Taylors, SC: There will be a special 7pm Rogation Day Mass at Prince of Peace Parish in Taylors, SC (the regular 12 noon TLM is canceled for Monday) followed by a Rogation procession to beg God’s blessing on crops. The parish is 2 hours southwest of Charlotte.

Relics of St. Bernadette Coming to Linville, NC:

St. Bernadette parish in Linville (2 hours northwest of Charlotte) will be hosting the relics of its patron, St. Bernadette provided by the Sanctuary in Lourdes, France from May 9 – 11.  This will probably be one of the most important relics visiting the diocese in recent years – perhaps exceeding St. Maria Goretti’s relics a few years ago. To attend, one needs to be familiar with the special transportation setup for the relic visit. To learn more visit and about the parking arrangements please visit: https://www.catholicnewsherald.com/88-news/fp/8166-lourdes-to-linville  or visit: www.lourdestolinville.org

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • The Emperor of the Church and the Worldwide Devotion to Blessed Karl: A few weeks ago, on April 1, the Church (and the CLMC) marked the 100th anniversary of Blessed Karl Von Habsburg of Austria’s death. The last Catholic monarch in Europe, deposed by Woodrow Wilson and his cronies, exiled this virtuous leader, who sought unsuccessfully for a peaceful end of World War I, to the Portuguese Island of Madeira. 100 years later, on that archipelago, the Habsburg family and friends gathered together to commemorate Blessed Karl’s life and death. Author Charles Coulombe, who wrote a book on Blessed Karl (and published TAN Books), also attended the event a few weeks ago and gave this account of the events surrounding the anniversary: https://onepeterfive.com/emperor-church-worldwide-devotion-karl/
  • Supporting Traditional Contemplative Religious Life for Women: A Call for Help: As the growth in traditional religious orders continues to develop, Rorate Caeli and Dr. Peter Kwasniewski have shared that there is now a new traditional religious community for women forming – that of a Carthusian order. This update explains its charism and why its so needed in the Church today. If you know a woman interested, or simply want to help support this foundation, please see the article and contact information: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2022/04/supporting-traditional-contemplative.html#more
  • Hong Kong Catholic priest speaks out publicly for the first time about the persecution of the Church in China: Last month was the 22nd anniversary of Cardinal Ignatius Kung’s death. The former bishop of Shanghai was imprisoned for three decades, released in 1985, and came to the United States in exile in 1988. Before his death in 2000, he frequently offered the Traditional Latin Mass. To commemorate his death, the Cardinal Kung Foundation, which helps supports the underground Church in China, organized a Solemn Requiem Mass in Washington DC. The celebrant was a priest from Hong Kong who spoke openly about the persecution in China and the need to pray for the Chinese Catholics. The sermon was posted here: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2022/04/hey-hong-kong-pre-speaks-out-publicly.html

Feast of St. George and the Dragons

Saturday April 23 was the feast of St. George, a saint which enjoys devotion both in the east and in the Latin Church. Although there is scant details about his life, he was reportedly a solider in Diocletian’s army and his martyrdom inspired Diocletian’s wife to convert to Catholicism, and also receive the martyr’s crown. His devotion grew mainly in the eastern Church until the Crusades when the armies of Europe were impressed by the devotion to this saint in the Holy Land. and brought it back to Europe. As Dom Prosper Gueranger notes:

[D]evotion to St. George dates from a very early period. St. Gregory of Tours gives us several proofs of its having taken root in Gaul. St. Clotilde had a singular confidence in the holy martyr, and dedicated to him the Church of her dear Abbey of Chelles. But this devotion became more general and more fervent during the Crusades, when the Christian armies witnessed the veneration in which St. George was held by the Eastern Church, and heard the wonderful things that were told of his protection on the field of battle. The Byzantine historians have recorded several remarkable instances of the kind; and the Crusaders returned to their respective countries publishing their own experience of the victories gained through the Saint’s intercession. The Republic of Genoa chose him for its patron; and Venice honored him as its special protector, after St. Mark. But nowhere was St. George so enthusiastically loved as in England. Not only was it decreed in a Council held at Oxford, in the year 1222, that the feast of the Great Martyr should be observed as one of obligation; not only was the devotion to the valiant soldier of Christ encouraged throughout Great Britain by the first Norman Kings; but there are documents anterior to the invasion of William the Conqueror which prove that St. George was invoked as the special patron of England even so far back as the ninth century.

https://sensusfidelium.com/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/april/april-23-st-george-martyr/

St. George is also frequently represented in imagery as killing a dragon, and though Gueranger seems to place this legend as symbolic, it does raise the topic of what exactly is a dragon? This creature was mentioned in several places in scripture, notably in Daniel 14:22-27. If all the creatures of the world were created on the same day as Adam and Eve, could it be possible that dragons are simply types of dinosaurs, which co-existed with man? The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, whom the CLMC co-sponsored in 2019, has published several pieces examining this question. Most recently, it looked at evidence that the fiery serpents which attacked the Israelites in the Sinai (Numbers 21:6) may have actually been pterosaurs, e.g. small flying serpents.

If indeed dragons, also known as dinosaurs, were around in biblical times, could it be possible that St. George, who died in the early 4th century, did actually slay a dragon?

In closing, we expand on Dom Prosper Gueranger’s entry for Low Sunday (linked above), which recounts St. Thomas the Apostle’s doubting of Our Lord’s appearances to the disciples since Easter and noting the similarities of the future saint’s initial naturalistic mindset to the rationalists of today who doubt the Word of God because it does not align with modern “scientific” narratives:

To return to our Apostle — Thomas had heard Magdalene, and he despised her testimony; he had heard Peter, and he objected to his authority; he had heard the rest of his fellow-Apostles and the two disciples of Emmaus, and no, he would not give up his own opinion. How many there are among us, who are like him in this! We never think of doubting what is told us by a truthful and disinterested witness, unless the subject touch upon the supernatural; and then, we have a hundred difficulties. It is one of the sad consequences left in us by original sin. Like Thomas, we would see the thing ourselves: that alone is enough to keep us from the fullness of the truth. We comfort ourselves with the reflection that, after all, we are Disciples of Christ; as did Thomas, who kept in union with his brother-Apostles, only he shared not their happiness. He saw their happiness, but he considered it to be a weakness of mind, and was glad that he was free from it!

How like this is to our modern rationalistic Catholic! He believes, but it is because his reason almost forces him to believe; he believes with his mind, rather than from his heart. His faith is a scientific deduction, and not a generous longing after God and supernatural truth. Hence, how cold and powerless is this faith! how cramped and ashamed! how afraid of believing too much! Unlike the generous unstinted faith of the saints, it is satisfied with fragments of truth, with what the Scripture terms diminished truths. (Psalm 11:2) It seems ashamed of itself. It speaks in a whisper, lest it should be criticised; and when it does venture to make itself heard, it adopts a phraseology, which may take off the sound of the divine…

Now, it was the for the instruction of persons of this class that our Lord spoke those words to Thomas: Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed. Thomas sinned in not having the readiness of mind to believe. Like him, we also are in danger of sinning, unless our faith have a certain expansiveness, which makes us see everything with the eye of faith, and gives our faith that progress which God recompenses with a superabundance of light and joy.

Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere! What Mass are you attending Low Sunday?