Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday marks the beginning of the two-week period within Lent called Passiontide, where the faithful focus more specifically on Our Blessed Lord’s Passion. As noted in the below commentary images are veiled, and the Judica Me, and the Gloria Patri, are omitted from the Mass henceforth until Easter, as noted in the commentary on the propers for Sunday’s Latin Mass: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/03/the-secret-for-passion-sunday.html

Latin Masses This Week

• Wednesday March 29, 6pm – St. Ann parish (Feria of Passiontide, e.g. no feast day)
• Thursday March 30, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas (Feria of Passiontide)
• Friday March 31, 7am (St. Ann) & 12:30pm (St. Mark), (Feria of Passiontide or Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
• Saturday April 1, 10am – St. Thomas Aquinas (Feria of Passiontide and First Saturday); traditional blessing of religious objects after Mass

St. Mark Latin Mass Ends This Friday March 31: Sadly, as noted from the pulpit and bulletin over the past few weeks, due to the new restrictions from Rome, the St. Mark parish Latin Mass will end this Friday March 31 on the commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is indeed sorrowful news, but let us offer prayers of thanksgiving for seven years this weekly Latin Mass has been offered by St. Mark priests and the countless souls it has supported and nourished.

Community News

Holy Face Devotions

• St Mark – Mondays at 5pm
• 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?

Latin Mass & Traditional News

• 150 years of St. Joseph: Shrine celebrates historic milestone on patron’s feast day: His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Burke traveled to St. Joseph’s Shrine in Detroit to offer a Pontifical Latin High Mass for the shrine’s 150^th anniversary of its dedication this past week. The Shrine is operated by priests of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a traditional order of priests who offer the Latin Mass exclusively and administer parishes. To learn more and see the inspiring photos visit: https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/150-years-of-st-joseph-shrine-celebrates-historic-milestone-on-patrons-feast-day

• French bishop moves to end Traditional Latin Mass standoff: In an encouraging sign, a French diocese has now allowed a Latin Mass community to use a chapel for their weekly Sunday Latin Masses. For the past several years, the Latin Mass was offered outside on the steps of a hospital chapel near Paris, in various types of weather. This breakthrough development came after the diocese of Versailles and the Latin Mass community met and discussed the situation recently. https://www.pillarcatholic.com/french-bishop-moves-to-end-traditional-latin-mass-standoff/

• Lady Day (March 25): Dr. Mike Foley has penned another informative feast day article. This time it is for yesterday’s feast of the Annunciation (Lady Day), and discusses the history and customs surrounding this important feast day of the Incarnation and Our Lady’s “Fiat”: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2023/03/lady-day.html#.ZB51PvbMKHt

• The angel’s message: meditation on the Annunciation: Voice of the Family, a traditional pro-family Catholic group in the UK, has posted some excerpts by the great spiritual writer, Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen OCD (author of Divine Intimacy) on the Annunciation: https://voiceofthefamily.com/the-angels-message-meditation-on-the-annunciation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/

• Our Holy Emperor in Heaven: This coming Saturday April 1, is the 101^st anniversary of Blessed Karl von Habsburg of Austria’s death. Newcomers to the Latin Mass may ask, why do Latin Mass attendees and groups have a devotion to a recently beatified Catholic Emperor (2004)? What’s the connection to the Latin Mass and tradition? OnePeterFive answers this question with a helpful article examining the link between Blessed Karl and Latin Mass attendees: https://onepeterfive.com/holy-emperor-heaven/

• Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage: Yesterday March 25, was the second semi-annual Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Washington DC – all to defend and support the Latin Mass and Pope Benedict’s 2007 Latin Mass Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum – which liberated the Latin Mass for the faithful. The prayerful and penitential event began in front of St. Thomas More Cathedral in the diocese of Arlington, VA and pilgrims processed the five mile route across the Key Bridge into the Archdiocese of Washington, DC to St. Matthew Cathedral. Rorate Caeli posted a picture here: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2023/03/2023-national-summorum-pontificum.html and OnePeterFive provided some video which one can skim through (it covered all 3 hours), including a speech at the end in Washington: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq0aXIBSkOQ

Passiontide – Dom Prosper Gueranger

To close this update, we share a Passiontide reflection by Dom Prosper Gueranger, OSB, the great 19^th century Benedictine liturgist who wrote The Liturgical Year, which we excerpt for brevity:

During the preceding four weeks, we have noticed how the malice of Jesus’ enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them; and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long nurtured hatred to a head The kind and gentle manners of Jesus are drawing to him all hearts that are simple and upright; at the same time, the humble life he leads, and the stern purity of his doctrines, are perpetual sources of vexation and anger, both to the proud Jew that looks forward to the Messias being a mighty conqueror, and to the Pharisee, who corrupts the Law of God, that he may make it the instrument of his own base passions. Still, Jesus goes on working miracles; his discourses are more than ever energetic; his prophecies foretell the fall of Jerusalem, and such a destruction of its famous Temple that not a stone is to be left on stone.

Everything around us urges us to mourn. The images of the Saints, the very crucifix on our Altar, are veiled from our sight. The Church is oppressed with grief. During the first four weeks of Lent, she compassionated her Jesus fasting in the desert; his coming Sufferings and Crucifixion and Death are what now fill her with anguish.

This Sunday is called Passion Sunday, because the Church begins on this day to make the Sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought. It is called also Judica, from the first word of the Introit of the Mass; and again, Neomania, that is, the Sunday of the new (or, the Easter) moon, because it always falls after the new moon which regulates the Feast of Easter Day.

• Passion Sunday: https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/455-temporal-cycle/passiontide-and-holy-week/passion-week/3492-passion-sunday

This Sunday is Passion Sunday. What Mass are you attending today?