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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

audetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is the fourth Sunday after Pentecost and we share a commentary on the orations for Sunday’s Latin Mass: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/06/rebel-wills-fourth-sunday-after.html

Latin Masses This Week

  • Wednesday June 28, 6pm – St. Ann (Vigil of Ss. Peter & Paul)
  • Thursday June 29, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas (Solemn feast of Ss. Peter & Paul)
  • Friday June 30, 7am – St. Ann (Commemoration of Ss. Peter & Paul)
  • Saturday July 1, 9am (Low) – St. Ann & 10am (High) St. Thomas Aquinas (Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ/First Saturday)

Vigil and Feast of Ss. Peter & Paul – June 28/29

The feast of Ss. Peter & Paul this Thursday June 29 is an important feast in the Church’s liturgical calendar, and is preceded the day prior by the Vigil of Ss. Peter & Paul on Wednesday June 28. Traditionally, the vigil ahead of a solemn feast is a separate liturgical day of preparation and penance (now voluntary) for the solemn feast the next day. To learn more about the Mass of the Vigil of Ss. Peter & Paul, please see this article by Greg DiPippo at New Liturgical Movement: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2022/06/the-vigil-of-ss-peter-and-paul.html#.YrvcY4TMKHs

Feast of the Precious Blood Saturday – July 1

As mentioned above, this Saturday July 1 is the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and St. Ann will be offering a special Low Mass at 9am to honor this feast. Additionally, St. Thomas Aquinas will be offering its regular 1st Saturday 10am High Mass, followed by a blessing of religious objects in the traditional rite.

The feast of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a feast that is distinct to the Traditional Latin Mass. You can pray the litany to the Precious Blood here: https://www.fisheaters.com/litanypreciousblood.html

Holy Face Devotions

  • St. James, Concord– Mondays 10-10:30am in the cry room in the church
  • St Mark – Mondays 5pm in the church
  • St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesdays 6am in the church
  • St. Ann – Tuesdays 7:30am in the main church after the Novus Ordo Mass (uses the booklet/chaplet which takes 15-20 minutes)
  • St Michael the Archangel, Gastonia – Tuesdays, after the 8am Novus Ordo Mass, in the cry room
  • Holy Spirit, Denver – Tuesdays 10-11am after the Novus Ordo Mass
  • Don’t see your parish? Why not start one up?

2023 Women’s Traditional Silent Retreat (July 21-23)

The Legion of Mary in Raleigh is sponsoring a traditional silent women’s retreat at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, northwest of Charlotte from July 21-23. The retreat will feature Fr. Sean Kopczynski of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, a Latin Mass order of priests in Kentucky. Masses will be offered each day. Cost is around $280 and the flyer is attached. To register or for more details please see the below flyer.

2023 Silent RetreatDownload

The Octave of St. John the Baptist (June 24 – July 1)

Sunday June 25 is also traditionally the 2nd day within the ancient octave of the Nativity St. John the Baptist (whose feast yesterday was also called “Summer Christmas” – due to its connection to the Incarnation) which fittingly is placed just days away from the great feasts of Ss. Peter and Paul (Thursday June 29), and this symbolism linking these two feasts was not missed by Dom Prosper Gueranger, who notes:

John the Baptist, placed on the confines of the two Testaments, closes the prophetic age, the reign of hope, and opens the era of faith which possesses the long-expected God, though as yet without beholding him in his Divinity. Thus even before the octave is ended wherein we pay our homage to the son of Zachary, the confession of the apostles is added to the Precursor’s testimony to the Word the Light.

https://fsspatl.com/liturgical-year/520-sanctoral-cycle/june/3188-june-28-the-vigil-of-the-holy-apostles-sts-peter-and-paul

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • Relic of St. Thomas More Faces Destruction Unless Anglican Church Opens Vault: While feast of St. Thomas More is celebrated in the Traditional Rite on July 9 (in some local calendars), the Novus Ordo calendar celebrated it last week (June 22), and as such articles about the patron of statesman and politicians appear a few weeks earlier in late June. Despite the different feast dates, we share an article about the status of his relics which is housed, ironically, at an Anglican (formerly Catholic) chapel in Canterbury, England: https://www.ncregister.com/news/relic-of-st-thomas-more-faces-destruction-unless-anglican-church-opens-vault

Ss. Peter & Paul: The New Founders of Rome (Part I)

As we prepare for the great solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul this Thursday, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP)’s newsletter posted an intriguing article comparing the original founding brothers of Rome, Romulus and Remus in 753 B.C., with the new founders of Rome, Ss. Peter and Paul, two brothers in Christ, who were martyred on June 29 around 68 A.D., and helped establish Christ’s empire (e.g. the Church) at the seat of the Gentile empire, Rome. We share a few excerpts:

According to legend, the city of Rome was founded on April 21st, 753 B.C. by a pair of twins named Romulus and Remus. When Remus made sport of Romulus’s still rudimentary defenses and leapt over them, he was killed for the slight, and so it was Romulus who gave his name to the city, became its first king, and established so many of its civic institutions, including its calendar and its religion.

…In the late stages of an increasingly decadent Roman Empire, the Christian martyrs’ courage stood in stark opposition to the conduct of the age. Even though they served a different deity, the martyrs recalled by their courage a bygone Rome, appealing to those citizens who lamented the dissolution of the old Roman pietas that was in very short supply among their contemporaries.  Thus was the mind of pagan Rome opened to the revelation of Christ. And through her most famous martyrs of all, the Eternal City would inherit a new set of founding fathers to replace the ones they lost.

The Apostles Peter and Paul–a Galilean fisherman and a scholarly Pharisee–might be thought extremely unlikely candidates to replace Romulus and Remus. They were not even brothers in flesh, although they were brothers in Christ. Yet they were very well situated for a Christian recalibration of the founding myth. As Pope St. Leo the Great said in his homily for their feast:

    “The whole world, dearly-beloved, does indeed take part in all holy anniversaries, and loyalty to the one Faith demands that whatever is recorded as done for all men’s salvation should be everywhere celebrated with common rejoicings. But, besides that reverence which today’s festival has gained from all the world, it is to be honoured with special and peculiar exultation in our city, that there may be a predominance of gladness on the day of their martyrdom in the place where the chief of the Apostles met their glorious end.

    For these are the men, through whom the light of Christ’s gospel shone on you, O Rome, and through whom you, who was the teacher of error, was made the disciple of Truth. These are your holy Fathers and true shepherds, who gave you claims to be numbered among the heavenly kingdoms, and built you under much better and happier auspices than they, by whose zeal the first foundations of your walls were laid: and of whom the one that gave you your name defiled you with his brother’s blood.

    These are they who promoted you to such glory, that being made a holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal state, and the head of the world through the blessed Peter’s holy See you attained a wider sway by the worship of God than by earthly government. For although you were increased by many victories, and extended your rule on land and sea, yet what your toils in war subdued is less than what the peace of Christ has conquered.”

To read more visit: https://fssp.com/the-new-founders-of-rome-part-1-the-feast/

Ss. Peter and Paul, pray for us!

What Mass are you attending Sunday?