Laudetur Iesus Christus! Tomorrow Wednesday January 11 is the sixth day within the ancient octave of Epiphany and St. Ann parish will be offering the Epiphany water blessing after the 6pm Latin Mass.
The blessing will take around 40 minutes and will be in the narthex. We also heard the blessing may be accompanied by chanting by the schola. You are welcome to bring empty water bottles and fill them at the containers in the narthex. If one wishes to bring filled water bottles to be blessed, they must be one gallon or larger in size (smaller ones will not be blessed). One is welcome to bring salt and chalk to be blessed as well.
March for Life Charlotte – Latin Mass This Thursday 7pm
The annual March for Life Charlotte will be on Friday, January 13, 2023. Attendees can gather at the parking lot across from the diocese’s pastoral center (1123 South Church Street) beginning at 11am. The march begins at 12 noon, and a rally will occur at the corner of Trade and Tryon Streets. The evening prior, on Thursday January 12, the normal 7pm Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas part will be offered for the unborn, as part of the event. For questions visit: https://www.marchforlifecharlotte.com/
Reflection for the Fourth Day Within the Octave of Epiphany
To close this e-mail we share some excerpts for the fourth day within the octave of Epiphany (yesterday) taken Dom Prosper Gueranger’s book, The Liturgical Year:
The star foretold by Balaam having risen in the East, the three Magi, whose hearts were full of the expectation of the promised Redeemer, are immediately inflamed with the desire of going in search of him. The announcement of the glad coming of the King of the Jews is made to these holy Kings in a mysterious and silent manner; and hereby it differs from that made to the Shepherds of Bethlehem, who were invited to Jesus’s Crib by the voice of an Angel. But the mute language of the star was explained to them by God himself, for he revealed his Son to them; and this made their Vocation superior in dignity to that of the Jewish Shepherds, who, according to the dispensation of the Old Law, could know nothing save by the ministry of Angels…
..The Magi, therefore, would be called Kings if they exercised authority over a considerable number of people; and that they were persons of great importance, we have a strong proof in the consideration and attention showed them by Herod, into whose palace they enter, telling him that they are come to pay their homage to the new-born King of the Jews. The city of Jerusalem is thrown into a state of excitement by their arrival, which would scarce have occurred had not the three strangers, who came for a purpose which few heeded, been attended by a numerous retinue, or had they not attracted attention by their imposing appearance.
These Kings, then, docile to the divine inspiration, suddenly leave their country, their riches, their quiet, in order to follow a star: the power of that God, who had called them, unites them in the same path, as they were already one in faith. The star goes on before them, marking out the route they were to follow: the dangers of such a journey, the fatigues of a pilgrimage which might last for weeks or months, the fear of awakening suspicions in the Roman Empire towards which they were evidently tending—all this was nothing to them; they were told to go, and they went.
Their first stay is at Jerusalem, for the star halts there. They, Gentiles, come into this Holy City, which is soon to have God’s curse upon it, and they come to announce that Jesus Christ is come! With all the simple courage and all the calm conviction of Apostles and Martyrs, they declare their firm resolution of going to him and adoring him. Their earnest inquiries constrain Israel, who was the guardian of the divine prophecies, to confess one of the chief marks of the Messias—his Birth in Bethlehem. The Jewish Priesthood fulfils, though with a sinful ignorance, its sacred ministry, and Herod sits restlessly on his throne, plotting murder. The Magi leave the faithless City, which has turned the presence of the Magi into a mark of its own reprobation. The Star reappears in the heavens, and invites them to resume their journey. Yet a few hours, and they will be at Bethlehem, at the feet of the King of whom they are in search.
Charlotte Latin Mass Community 