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Fourth Sunday of Epiphany

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Epiphany and this year, the last Sunday of the Christmas season. As custom, we share a commentary on this Sunday’s prayers for the Latin Mass: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2022/01/the-stormy-orations-of-fourth-sunday.html

TODAY Sunday January 29 – Annual End of Christmas Potluck Celebration, 12:30pm St. Ann parish: After today’s 12:30pm Latin Mass, the CLMC will be hosting the annual end-of-Christmas potluck in the plaza with festive food, and a Christmas carol sung by the Cantate Domino Latin Girl’s choir.  Please consider bringing a dish or dessert to share.

Latin Masses This Week

  • Wednesday February 1, 6pm – St. Ann parish, feast of St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr
  • Thursday February 2, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas, feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (See schedule below)
  • Friday February 3, 7am (St. Ann) & 12:30pm (St. Mark) – feria and commemoration of St. Blaise (blessing of throats)
  • Saturday February 4, ***8:30am*** – St. Thomas Aquinas, first Saturday and feast of St. Andrew Corsini, bishop (*** Special 8:30am Mass, no 10am Mass due to talk, no blessing – see below)

IMPORTANT – First Saturday Latin Schedule Change – Saturday February 4

The first Saturday Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas parish will be at 8:30am on Saturday February 4 (not 10am). The blessing of religious objects is canceled for this Saturday. This change is due to a speaker the parish is hosting later in the morning.

Candlemas – Feast of the Purification, Thursday February 2nd (40th day of Christmas)

Candlemas, the 40th and last day of Christmas, is also known as the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and candles were blessed on this day as a symbol of the Blessed Mother presenting the Light of the World to God in the Temple.  The next day, the feast of St. Blaise (February 3), the candles blessed the day prior are used for the blessing of throats. Here are the announced events for February 2nd:

  • St. Ann: Blessing of candles before the 7am Novus Ordo Mass (no Latin Mass that day)
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: 7pm Latin Mass including a blessing of candles and a candlelight procession. If you haven’t attended a traditional Candlemas before, the Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas will be well worth it. If you have candles to be blessed, please arrive early, and one can place their candles on a table in the church.
  • Our Lady of the Lake, Chapin, SC, 6:30pm Latin Mass and procession (2 hours south of Charlotte)
  • Note: Candles should be white/unbleached/natural, unscented and at least 51% or more beeswax.

Customs of Candlemas

Blessing of Bread – Sunday February 5: Next Sunday is the feast day of St. Agatha and the CLMC and St. Ann parish will be organizing a blessing of bread after the 12:30pm Latin Mass. There is an ancient tradition to bless bread on her feast day, and Father will bless bread with a traditional Latin blessing after Mass. Everyone is welcome to bring bread to be blessed – we will have a table available for bread blessing in the plaza.

Septuagesima season begins Sunday February 5: As a reminder, with Christmas/Epiphany season closing, the pre-lent season of Septuagesima will begin Sunday February 5.  This marks the 70-day period before Easter, and the 3 week reminder that Lent is soon coming and to begin preparing. To learn more visit:https://www.fisheaters.com/customsseptuagesima1.html

Holy Face Devotions

  • St Mark – Mondays 5-5:45pm (NEW TIME for JANUARY)
  • St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesdays 6am in the main church
  • St. Ann – Tuesdays 7:30am in the chapel after the Novus Ordo Mass (uses the booklet/chaplet which takes 15-20 minutes)
  • St Michael the Archangel, Gastonia – Tuesdays, 9am, Main Church
  • Holy Spirit, Denver – Tuesdays 10-11am after the Novus Ordo Mass
  • Don’t see your parish? Why not organize one?

Don’t Stop Celebrating: After Christmas Day, Christmas Continues

Although the Christmas season ends in just a few days, the Church through her ancient liturgical calendar continues to celebrate the Christmas season by commemorating saints and blessed who had or reflected devotion to the Infant King. Dom Prosper Gueranger, the great Benedictine liturgist and author of the magnificent, The Liturgical Year, notes two of them over the past few days:

January 28 – Blessed Charlemagne: Gueranger lays out quite convincingly, that contrary to his detractors, Charlemagne, the great eighth century Frankish King and Holy Roman Emperor was indeed a man of virtue after his conversion, and was one of the greatest Kings of Christendom. Although his feast is only kept locally, Gueranger explains why Charles I is connected to Christmas: Charlemagne, then, has been selected by our Emmanuel himself to be the perfect type of a Christian Prince; and we Catholics should love to celebrate his glory during this Christmas season, during which is born among us the Divine Child, who is come to reign over all nations, and guide them in the path of holiness and justice. Jesus has come from heaven to be the model of Kings, as of the rest of men; and so far, no man has so closely imitated this divine model as “Charles the Victorious, the ever August, the Monarch crowned by God.” https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/506-sanctoral-cycle/january/3060-january-29-st-francis-of-sales-bishop

January 29 – St. Francis de Sales:  Of the many things St. Francis de Sales, the great bishop of Geneva (who converted 72,000 protestants back to the faith), was known for, was his devotion to Incarnation, the Infant Jesus. Gueranger shares a reflection St. Francis wrote a reflection about the Bethlehem shepherds to his friend St. Jane Frances de Chantel: “Returning home from celebrating these sacred mysteries, I rest awhile in thus sending you my Happy Christmas! for I dare say that the poor Shepherds took some little rest, after they had adored the Babe announced to them by the Angels. And as I thought of their sleep on that night, I said to myself: How sweetly must they not have slept, dreaming of the sacred melody wherewith the Angels told them the glad tidings, and of the dear Child and the Mother they had been to see!”   https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/506-sanctoral-cycle/january/3059-january-28-the-same-day-the-blessed-charlemagne-emperor

If one hasn’t yet read Dr. Peter Kwasniewski’s uplifting essay on keeping the 40 Days of Christmas, we highly recommend it and re-share it: https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/dont-stop-celebrating-after-christmas-day-christmas-continues-2/

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • Exemplaric Baptism: One of the feasts celebrated in this Epiphanytide is the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which was celebrated on the octave of Epiphany, January 13. Fr. William Rock, FSSP, a priest of the Fraternity of St. Peter offers a reflection on baptism and a reminder to have gratitude for this most important gift of faith: https://fssp.com/exemplaric-baptism/
  • The Irish Fight for the Latin Mass – Part 1: OnePeterFive has an intriguing introductory article on the Irish’s fight for the Latin Mass during the time of King Henry VIII, when he was suppressing the Catholic faith throughout England as well as Ireland. We will try to share Part II when it becomes available. Here is the first part: https://onepeterfive.com/irish-fight-latin-mass-part-1/
  • This Real Exorcist is Revealing Details on Driving Out Satan: At Friday’s Latin Mass at St. Mark parish, Fr. Putnam preached on exorcism and mentioned exorcist Fr. Carlos Martins’ exorcist work. LifeSiteNews recently published an interview with him that can be found here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/episodes/this-real-exorcist-is-revealing-details-on-driving-out-satan/

St. John Chrysostom’s Advice on Threatening Storms

There is much to be seemingly worried today about the crisis in the Church – and even the fate of the Latin Mass. Yet what do the saints think about such times? We can only share the great and timely exhortation by the golden-mouthed doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, whose feast day was this past Friday (January 27). We share a few excerpts from Dom Gueranger’s entry in his book, The Liturgical Year:  

‘Many are the waves, and threatening are the storms, which surround me; but I fear them not; for I am standing on the Rock. Let the sea roar; it cannot wash away the Rock: Let the billows mount as they will; they cannot sink the barque of our Lord Jesus Christ. And tell me, what would you have me fear? Death? To me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain. Exile? The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.  Confiscation of my goods? We brought nothing into this world; and certainly we can carry nothing out. No—the evils of this world are contemptible, and its goods deserve but to be laughed at. I fear not poverty, I desire not riches; I neither fear to die, nor wish to live, save for your advantage. Your interest alone induces me to speak of these things, and to ask of you, by the love you bear me, to take courage…

‘…The devil no sooner saw that your City was tranquillized, than he plotted how he might disturb the Church. Thou wicked and most impious spirit! thou couldst not throw down the walls of a city; and thinkest thou thou canst make the Church fall? Does the Church consist of walls? The Church consists of the multitude of the faithful. Look at her pillars, and see how solid they are, fastened, not by iron, but by faith. Not only is the great multitude itself more vehement than fire, but even one single Christian would conquer thee. Hast thou forgotten the wounds thou receivedst from the martyrs? Oftentimes the combatant was a tender maiden: delicate as a flower, yet firmer than a rock…

‘…If thou wilt not believe his word, believe facts. How many tyrants have sought to crush the Church? They had their gridirons and fiery furnaces, and wild beasts, and swords—and all failed. Where are those enemies now? Buried and forgotten. And the Church? Brighter than the sun. All they had is now past; but her riches are immortal. If the Christians conquered when they were but few in number, canst thou hope to vanquish them, now that the whole earth is filled with the holy religion? Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass. Wonder not at it; for the Church is dearer unto God than the very heavens. He took flesh not from heaven, but from his Church on earth; and heaven is for the Church, not the Church for heaven.

January 27 – St. John Chrysostom: https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/506-sanctoral-cycle/january/3057-january-27-st-john-chrysostom-bishop-and-doctor-of-the-church

CLMC comment: Buried and forgotten. These golden words should provide great encouragement in the face of such worries and anxieties about the crisis in the Church and her ability to overcome her adversaries.  St. John Chrysostom, pray for us!

What Mass are you attending Sunday?