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Quinquagesima Sunday (Prayers for Sarah Grant)

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is Quinquagesima Sunday, or roughly 50 days before Easter. It is the Sunday prior to the beginning of Lent. As custom, we share commentary on this mini-liturgical season and the reflection on Sunday’s Collect: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/02/the-shrovish-collect-of-quinquagesima.html

Ash Wednesday February 22 – Latin Mass Schedule (as announced)

  • 7am – St. Ann (the 6pm Mass will not be a Latin Mass) – this will likely be the only diocesan Latin Mass in the Charlotte area
  • 10am – Our Lady of the Lake, Chapin, SC (2 hours south of Charlotte)
  • 12 noon – Prince of Peace, Taylors, SC (2 hours southwest of Charlotte)
  • 12:15pm – Our Lady of Grace, Greensboro, NC (1.5 hours north of Charlotte)
  • 6pm – St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country, Boone, NC (2 hours northwest of Charlotte)

Other Latin Masses This Week

  • Thursday February 23, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas parish (feast of the Chair of St. Peter, transferred)
  • Friday February 24, 7am (St. Ann) & 12:30pm (St. Mark), St. Matthias, Apostle
  • Saturday February 25, 8am Respect Life Latin Mass – St. Ann parish (Feria), afterwards prayers at Planned Parenthood or Holy Hour of Reparation in Church

Fasting & Abstinence Guidelines (Modern vs. 1962)

  • A Short Instruction On Fasting & Abstinence (including the difference between modern and traditional fasting rules): The Missionaries of St John the Baptist, an order of Latin Mass priests in Kentucky, published a good guide on fasting and abstinence during Lent: Click to access Rules_for_Fasting.pdf
  • Traditional Sermon – To Love Fasting: A Traditional priest has preached an excellent sermon on having a good attitude towards fasting during Lent:

http://reginaprophetarum.org/audio/20210213-To-Love-Fasting.mp3

Fr. Ripperger: Prayer and Support Needed for Sarah Grant, wife of Ryan Grant

This weekend Fr. Chad Ripperger, (the traditional exorcist who is coming to St. Thomas Aquinas next month) issued a plea for help for the family of Ryan and Sarah Grant, a Latin Mass family who lives in Idaho. The Grants operate Mediatrix Press, a small family-run Catholic publishing company, and have helped translate and publish important moral and theological works by saints and other pious writers into English for the very first time (most of these books were only written in Latin). The CLMC had the privilege of hosting Ryan in 2018 at St. Ann parish for a talk on English Catholicism.

Tragically, Sarah, mother of 8, was diagnosed with cancer during her most recent pregnancy last fall (the tumor was larger than the baby). While the baby was delivered safely, Sarah’s cancer has grown aggressively and she has now sadly received a terminal diagnosis with only have six months to live.  CLMC readers may recall the Grants suffered another tragedy back in 2019, when their eighteen-month old daughter Emma passed away.

Fr. Ripperger is asking for prayers for Sarah – specifically to Servant of God, Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria CMF, an American priest who died in 1970 and whose cause for beatification is being considered. Please see the linked prayer for Fr. Aloysius. Additionally, Father also shares an online fundraising site for the Grants to help them pay for hospice and ongoing bills for childcare.  To learn more please visit these links below:

While the number of Latin Mass faithful across the worldwide Church is still relatively small, one benefit of this situation is that it creates a small knit Latin Mass “parish” family across the world, united in our love of the ancient liturgy. Especially in times like these, the Latin Mass faithful can rally together and support our suffering brethren.

REMINDER: Lenten Spiritual Enrollment – 40 Days of Latin Masses, prayers, and penance (3 days left!)

The traditional Carmelite Hermits of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Fairfield, PA are again offering a special Lenten spiritual enrollment which you can begin to participate in today. The Hermits will be offering 40 Latin Masses, 40 days of praying the Divine Office (and other daily prayers), and 40 days of fasting and penance all for the intention of your family or other enrolled loved ones.  This is an amazing spiritual gift. Here is the link to the enrollment form: https://www.edcarm.org/lenten-enrollment/

Please make an offering of alms along with this enrollment.  Your generous financial sacrifice will bear all the more fruit for your intentions. Enrollment needs to be completed by this Tuesday February 21.

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter – Thursday February 23 (Plenary indulgence)

Normally the feast of the Chair of St. Peter is held on February 22nd to commemorate St. Peter’s episcopacy in Antioch and Rome (1962 missal). However, due to Ash Wednesday falling on the 22nd, this feast has been transferred to February 23. Additionally, this feast day is a patronal feast of the Fraternity of St. Peter (a Latin Mass society of priests) as well as for their lay apostolate, the Confraternity of St. Peter.

For those enrolled in the Confraternity of St. Peter, a plenary indulgence can be obtained under the usual conditions on February 23. To learn more about this indulgence visit the FSSP’s Houston parish: https://reginacaeliparish.org/news/feb-23-plenary-indulgence-may-be-gained-by-csp-members To learn more about the Confraternity and how to join visit: https://www.fssp.org/en/help-us/confraternity-of-saint-peter/

NEXT WEEK: St. Thomas Aquinas Lenten Mission with the FSSP: February 27 – March 1, 7pm (Masses & Talk Added)

St. Thomas Aquinas parish is inviting Fr. Joseph Portzer, FSSP, a Fraternity of St. Peter priest, for the Lenten mission in two weeks (he also gave the Advent retreat).  The schedule will feature a mission talk at 7pm each evening as well as Confessions prior at 6pm.

Additionally, Fr. Portzer will offer and preach at the Sunday February 26, 11:30am Latin Mass, a talk to parents at 6:30pm that evening, and the Thursday March 2nd, 7pm Latin Mass. We can’t express enough the blessing of having this mission and encourage everyone to take advantage of this wonderful event. Please see linked flyer.  

Pre-Mission Talk

  • Sunday February 26 – 11:30am Latin Mass (offered by Fr. Portzer with sermon)
  • Talk for parents – Sunday February 26 at 6:30pm

Mission

  • Monday February 27 – 6pm Confessions, 7pm Mission talk
  • Tuesday February 28 – 6pm Confessions, 7pm Mission talk
  • Wednesday March 1 – 6pm Confessions,7pm Mission talk.

Post-Mission Latin Mass

  • Thursday March 2 – 7pm Latin Mass (offered by Fr. Portzer with sermon)

For those new to the Latin Mass, the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) is a congregation of priests who offer the Latin Mass exclusively and staff chapels and parishes throughout North America and the world. Two members of our community and St. Ann parish are enrolled in the FSSP seminary in Nebraska. We are grateful St. Thomas Aquinas parish for offering this timely mission.

Community News

Holy Face Devotions

  • St Mark – Mondays 5-5:45pm
  • St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesdays 6am in the main church (special Holy Hour of Reparation from 7am – 8am Tuesday February 21 for the feast of the Holy Face)
  • 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?

Latin Mass & Traditional News

Feast of the Flight Into Egypt – February 17

In the ancient calendar, February 17 unofficially commemorated another important part of Our Blessed Lord’s earthly life: His flight into Egypt.  In a beautiful article, Fr. William Rock, FSSP, notes how this feast is beautifully timed as the flight into Egypt likely happened within a few weeks of the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mother, when our Lord was presented to Simeon and Anna in the temple in Jerusalem (and Herod having heard about it). Here are a few comments by Fr. Rock (emphasis ours):

The first part of the oration makes it clear that the Flight into Egypt was part of the Divine Plan of the Father.  It was not something which happened by chance or by accident.  God protects those who hope and trust in Him, even, if at the time, things seem dark and confusing.  The second part of the oration asks for God’s aid, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that the faithful may arrive at their heavenly homeland, mirroring the Flight into Egypt.  Just as God watched over the Holy Family during their flight into exile, may He watch over the faithful as they make their way from this land of exile to their true home.

Because Egypt was full of idols and superstitions.  They worshipped dogs, crocodiles, cats, calves, rams, goats, and what not.  Christ entered into Egypt that He might cleanse it from this filthiness, and consecrate it to the true God. Listen to S. Leo (Serm. 2 de Epiph.): “Then also the Saviour was brought to Egypt, in order that a nation given up to ancient errors might now be signed for salvation nigh to come, for hidden grace, and that she which had not yet cast out superstition from her mind might receive truth as her guest.”  Whence also Isaiah prophesies mystically of the same thing (xix. 1), saying: “Behold the Lord shall ascend upon a light cloud [the Blessed Virgin], and shall enter into Egypt, and all the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence.”  And so S. Jerome and others relate that the idols of Egypt did, in truth, fall down when Christ came into it.

This Mass, with its themes of exile and asking God to guide us to our true fatherland, is well fitted for the time of Septuagesima, in which or near which February 17th will always fall.  For liturgical commentators,3 the season of Septuagesima, which comes from the Latin for 70, brings to mind the Babylon Captivity of the Jews which lasted 70 years and invites the faithful to reflect upon their own exile from both the earthly and heavenly paradises due to sin. 

CLMC comment: Is the Latin Mass, and its faithful, in a situation where, should more restrictions be imposed, we will, like the Holy Family, need to fly into Egypt? Or is it that, after six decades in exile, the Latin Mass and its faithful, like the Israelites, are already in Egypt (or Babylon?) and are being prepared for an Exodus to the “promised land” of full restoration throughout the Church?

In those days: they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and He shall send them a Saviour and a defender to deliver them. – Isaiah 19:20-22 (Epistle from February 17)

What Mass are you attending Sunday?