Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is the second Sunday of Lent, and we share a commentary on the Collect prayer for Sunday’s Latin Mass: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/02/the-transformative-collect-of-second.html

Latin Masses This Week

• Wednesday March 8, 6pm – St. Ann parish (Feria, e.g. no feast day)
• Thursday March 9, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas parish (Feria)
• Friday March 10, 7am (St. Ann) & 12:30pm (St. Mark – preceded at 12 noon by Stations of the Cross), (Feria)

1st Sunday Potluck at St. Thomas Aquinas

Today there will be the monthly potluck after the 11:30am Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas parish. Attendees are asked to bring a dish, desert or drink to share.

1^st Sunday Latin Mass at Sacred Heart in Salisbury

Sacred Heart parish in Salisbury will offer its 1^st Sunday Latin Mass at 4pm today. Mass is offered by Fr. Carlson and Confessions will be offered 30 minutes prior to and after Mass. Afterwards a potluck will be held in the Brincefield Hall. Please bring a Lenten dish or dessert to share. For more information please contact Mark Hartley with the Salisbury Latin Mass Community at: www.salisburylmc.org

FSSP Lenten Mission Talks

Thank you to everyone who made the sacrifice to attend the Lenten Mission with Fr. Portzer at St. Thomas Aquinas parish. This was a spiritual fruitful event. If you missed out or want to hear the talks, the parish has recorded them but its only available upon request. To obtain a link to watch the videos contact the parish here: https://www.osvhub.com/st-thomas-aquinas-rc-church/forms/contact-us

Support St. Thomas Aquinas parish: St. Thomas Aquinas has brought in many engaging speakers that appeal to all Catholics, but especially Latin Mass attendees, including Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, David Rodriguez from the Fatima Center, Fr. Portzer, and next week, Fr. Chad Ripperger (and more events scheduled!). These informative and educational talks aren’t easy to organize, and they do cost money.  Please consider making a donation to the parish’s speaker fund so they can continue hosting events: https://www.osvhub.com/st-thomas-aquinas-rc-church/giving/funds/guest-speaker-fees

Please also be sure to thank Fr. Codd for his support of these lectures, and offering up a decade of your Rosary for him. 

• CLMC note: Between Fr. Portzer’s talk, and Fr. Ripperger’s visit this coming weekend, these two back-to-back events may end up being a source of great consolation at an uncertain time for Latin Mass attendees.

Community News

Holy Face Devotions

• St Mark – Monday at 7pm (special time for Monday March 6 only) (Other dates/times for March: March 13, 5pm; and March 20, 2pm)
• 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?

Update on Sarah Grant: Thank you for the prayers for Ryan Grant’s wife, Sarah Grant last week. Very sadly, according to his social media account, this week the cancer has aggressively spread and she may only have a few weeks to live. The prayer for a miracle that Fr. Chad Ripperger recommended a few weeks ago for Sarah can be found here: https://charlottelatinmass.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/prayer-to-father-aloysius.pdf

Annual CLMC Novena to St. Gregory the Great (March 3 – 11)

Our annual novena is underway to pray for a full sacramental life in the Traditional Rite. Please join us if you haven’t begun to pray (see link below). With the future of Latin Masses uncertain, it’s a great opportunity to pray for its protection. Here’s how it works:

1. Pray a Rosary each day beginning tomorrow Friday March 3 and ending Saturday March 11 (the day before St. Gregory’s feast day).
2. At the end of each Rosary, add this novena prayer:

St. Gregory, you are known for your zeal for the Catholic faith, love of liturgy, and compassion and mercy toward those in need.  Please help and guide us so that we may share in these virtues and thereby bring Jesus into the hearts of our families and all we encounter.  We especially ask for blessings on our parish family, our priests and our deacons. We also ask that you graciously intercede for us before God so that we might be granted the special assistance and graces that we seek (full sacramental and parochial life in the Extraordinary Form for the Charlotte faithful and that Our Lord will send more Latin Mass priests to our diocese).  Help us to live as a faithful child of God and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.  St. Gregory the Great pray for us.   Amen

Intention: Full sacramental and parochial life in the Extraordinary Form for the Charlotte faithful and that Our Lord will send more Latin Mass priests to our diocese. 

10-Year Anniversary of the St. Ann Sunday Latin Mass: This past Friday March 3rd marked the ten-year anniversary of the first Sunday Latin Mass at St. Ann parish. We attach an image of that first Mass on Sunday March 3, 2013 (and a much younger Fr. Reid!). Please keep him in your Mass intentions this week as he has dutifully ensured a Sunday Latin Mass each week these past 10 years (no easy feat).

Latin Mass & Traditional News

• The Second Semi-Annual DC Latin Mass Pilgrimage on Saturday March 25: On the feast of the Annunciation, Saturday March 25, the second DC Latin Mass pilgrimage will occur in our nation’s capital. The goal is to march from the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, Virginia to the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, DC – all to pray and generate support for the Traditional Latin Mass. If you wish to travel please see the website for specific details: https://www.tlmpilgrimage.com/ To learn more about the purpose of the pilgrimage please visit this website: https://onepeterfive.com/the-second-semi-annual-dc-pilgrimage-on-march-25/ and watch an informative interview with the organizer here: https://savethelatinmass.org/2023/03/03/onepeterfive-the-national-summorum-pontificum-pilgrimage/

• “Everywhere You Turn, There’s Incredible Need” How Mission Tradition Is Carrying the Cross in Nigeria: As we’ve noted in prior updates, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a society of Latin Mass priests which staff Latin Mass parishes and chapels across the world, also operates a mission in Nigeria where it serves the poor while introducing them to Traditional Latin Mass. Recently, one of the FSSP priests in Nigeria gave an interview about their work and the suffering the people are enduring due to lack of money, water, and resources. This community (and its priest) would literally starve without support from the faithful: https://www.missiontradition.us/carrying-the-cross-in-nigeria-2023/  

CLMC note: For those looking for places to send alms this Lent, the FSSP’s Nigerian mission is a worthy candidate. https://www.missiontradition.us/donate/

• Theistic Evolution vs. Creationism: A Catholic Debate: Crisis Magazine has done an excellent service to the Catholic faithful – it has hosted one of the first formal debates between Catholics on the topic of evolution vs. traditional doctrine creation. Dr. Kevin Mark with the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation (whom the CLMC co-sponsored their Charlotte visit in 2019), debated Dr. Douglas Darnowski a Catholic molecular biology professor: https://www.crisismagazine.com/podcast/theistic-evolution-vs-creationism-a-catholic-debate

• New Edition of Dom Benedict Baur’s 1937 Classic on the Liturgical Year: If one is looking to read daily liturgical reflections based on the Latin Mass during Lent (or any other season), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, who visited us last fall, wholeheartedly recommends this new reprint of Dom Benedict Baur’s 1937 book, Light of the World: Daily Meditations on the Traditional Latin Mass. To learn more about this great masterpiece visit: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2023/03/new-edition-of-dom-benedict-baurs-1937.html#.ZAQ5ux_MKHs

• A Formidable Apologia for Traditional Catholicism, by Dr Joseph Shaw: Dr. Kwasniewski also recommends another recently published book, The Liturgy, the Family, and the Crisis of Modernity, by Dr. Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass Society of the UK. In his book, Dr. Shaw examines the crisis in the Church, and how the absence of the Traditional Latin Mass has helped to contribute to problems in the culture and in the Church: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2023/03/a-formidable-apologia-for-traditional.html#.ZAQ8yx_MKHs

• Sub tuum praesidium – a polyphonic video recording: Mr. Nicholas Lemme, professor of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony at the FSSP Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska (where two members of our community/St. Ann parishioners attend), pens a brief explanation of the origins of the Marian chant, Sub tuum praesidium (Under your patronage) and includes a video of FSSP seminarians chanting at St. Cecilia’s Cathedral in Omaha, NE: https://fssp.com/sub-tuum-praesidium-a-polyphonic-video-recording/

Lent – The Badge of Christian Warfare: Pope Benedict XIV

The first full week of Lent is finished, and as the second one is about to begin, it can seem difficult to continue the Lenten practices for the next five weeks. However, Dom Prosper Gueranger, in his history of Lent, taken from his book, The Liturgical Year, quotes Pope Benedict XIV from 1741 on how important these Lenten fasts are not just for ourselves, but for the stability of society. Gueranger shares this quote to encourage the faithful to continue on in the Lenten practices:

The same Pope [Benedict XIV], whose spirit of moderation has never been called in question, had no sooner ascended the papal throne, than he addressed an encyclical letter to the bishops of the Catholic world, expressing his heartfelt grief at seeing the great relaxation that was introduced among the faithful by indiscreet and unnecessary dispensations. The letter is dated May 30, 1741. We extract from it the following passage: ‘The observance of Lent is the very badge of the Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the cross of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.’[21]

• Encyclical by Pope Benedict XIV, Non ambigimus, May 30, 1741

https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/501-commentary-on-the-seasons/lent/3636-chapter-1-the-history-of-lent

What Mass are you attending Sunday?