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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, in which the Church also subtly marks the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. We share a few reflections for Sunday’s Latin Mass and provide more commentary towards the end of this update:

Latin Masses This Week

  • Wednesday August 2, 6pm – St. Ann (feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor)
  • Thursday August 3, 7pm – St. Thomas Aquinas (Feria, e.g. no feast day)
  • Friday August 4, 7am – St. Ann (feast of St. Dominic, Confessor)
  • Saturday August 5, 10am – St. Thomas Aquinas (Our Lady of the Snows & First Saturday) – a blessing of religious objects in the traditional rite will occur after Mass

1st Sunday Latin Mass in Salisbury, August 6, 4pm: Looking ahead, there will be a Latin Mass at Sacred Heart parish in Salisbury on Sunday August 6th at 4pm. Mass will be offered by Fr. Joseph Wasswa, with Confession starting at 2:45pm. Seminarians from St. Joseph College Seminary will graciously provide sacred music. A potluck will be held in Brincefield Hall afterwards. Please bring a favorite dish, hors d’oeuvres or dessert to share. For more information contact the Salisbury Latin Mass Community: www.salisburylmc.org

1st Sunday Potluck at St. Thomas Aquinas, August 6: On Sunday August 6 there will be a potluck after the 11:30am Latin Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas. 

Feast of the Assumption Latin Masses – Tuesday August 15 (as announced)

Tuesday August 15 is a Holy Day of Obligation.

Portiuncula Indulgence – Wednesday August 2nd

Each August 2nd, there is a plenary indulgence related to St. Francis of Assisi called the Portiuncula Indulgence which originally was only available to those who visited a chapel he rebuilt in Italy, but the indulgence now extends to the universal Church.  The indulgence can be made any time after Vespers the evening of August 1st and until sundown on August 2nd.  A plenary indulgence is available under the usual conditions:

  1. Receive sacramental confession (8 days before or after)
  2. Receive the Holy Eucharist at Holy Mass on August 2nd
  3. Enter a parish church and, with a contrite heart, pray the Our Father, Apostles Creed, and a pray of his/her own choosing for the intentions of the Pope

Please see this link for more details: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/27816/on-aug-2-you-can-get-this-st-francis-themed-indulgence

Community News

Learn the Divine Office – Thursday August 3, 5-5:45pm (St. Thomas Aquinas parish) (CORRECTED TIME)

St. Thomas Aquinas parish announced the following event: It’s been said that the Divine Office is an extension of the Mass throughout the day, meant to sanctify the hours of the day by way of the Psalms. On Thursday, August 3 from 5-5:45 in Room D in the parish building, before the evening Latin Mass, Deacon Kevin Martinez and seminarian Emanuel Martinez will give a brief introduction to any families interested in praying either the Divine Office (according to the traditional form) or the Little Office of Baltimore. The event is open to all and no sign up is necessary.

Mary Days at St. Thomas Aquinas – Thursday August 17, 7pm

St. Thomas Aquinas is hosting its annual Mary Days during August which features Masses, and a sermon on the Blessed Mother by a visiting priest. On Thursday August 17, 7pm, during the regularly scheduled Latin Mass, Fr. Aaron Huber will provide a talk on the Marian title, Star of the Sea. See details in the attached image.

St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Needs Eucharistic Adorers

This weekend at St. Thomas Aquinas, Father is planning to preach about the importance of Eucharistic Adoration and encouraging families to commit to an hour of prayer in their new Eucharistic Adoration chapel. The parish needs only 52 more people to commit to an hour before they launch their perpetual Adoration chapel. For those St. Thomas Aquinas Latin Mass attendees (who are able to commit), this would be a great opportunity to pray for the preservation of the Latin Mass. To see what hours are needed visit: https://staclt.weadorehim.com/ or visit: https://www.stacharlotte.com/perpetual-adoration

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, 9am, in the church
  • Holy Spirit, Denver – Tuesdays 10-11am after the Novus Ordo Mass
  • Don’t see your parish? Why not organize one?

Conversion of the Lost Sheep Novena and Mass Intentions

The St. Alphonsus Liguori Shrine in Baltimore, the Latin Mass shrine staffed by priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, has started its annual novena to St. Alphonsus ahead of his feast day on August 2nd and the Shrine invites all to join them. They are also offering prayers and Mass intentions for the conversion of those who have fallen away from the faith. To submit intentions and join them in praying the last few days of the novena, which started last Monday, please visit this website: https://stalphonsusbalt.org/return#saint-alphonsus-prayer  (please see attached novena prayer for the novena or download it at the link).

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • Funeral Sermon for Charles Anthony Ripperger: In your charity please consider praying for the repose of the soul of Charles Anthony Ripperger, father of Fr. Chad Ripperger, the traditional exorcist who visited St. Thomas Aquinas earlier this year. Father Ripperger offered a beautiful sermon at his father’s Requiem Mass. To watch visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6t2X45w-D0
  • Vatican Grants Plenary Indulgence For St. Thomas Aquinas Jubilee Celebrations: Last week marked the start of the 700th year of the canonization of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Church has granted a plenary indulgence until 2025 which will be the 800th anniversary of his birth. The indulgence can be obtained by visiting any church, chapel, connected with the Dominican Order. Practically speaking, this indulgence can be obtained in cities where the Dominicans have a presence of some kind (if anyone is aware of such locations in our diocese, let us know). To learn more visit: https://www.ncregister.com/cna/vatican-grants-plenary-indulgence-for-st-thomas-aquinas-jubilee-celebrations
  • A Superb Article on St Mary Magdalene: A week ago Saturday was the feast of St. Mary Magdalene (with yesterday, the eighth day after her feast, commemorating the feast of her sister, St. Martha). In reflecting upon the great penitent, we share a recommendation by Greg DiPippo about an excellent article on St. Mary Magdalene.  To learn more visit: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2023/07/a-superb-article-on-st-mary-magdalene.html

The Fall of Jerusalem – Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

The ninth Sunday after Pentecost, through the Gospel reading, marks the fall of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, occuring around this time of the year. This fateful event, prophesized by Our Lord (Luke 19:41-48) and commemorated this Sunday, was one of the more horrific sieges in history and it occurred around this time of the year.  Dom Prosper Gueranger noted that the Temple of Jerusalem flowed with blood, most of its inhabitants killed, not just by Roman soldiers from without, but by the lawless, unspeakable violence of Jewish Zealots (upon their own people) from within the city walls. Further north, the sea of Galilee turned red as bodies piled up along the shoreline after that Jewish revolt was crushed by the Romans. Jewish historian Josephus had reported that years prior to the siege, residents of Jerusalem would see signs in the sky including a flaming meteorite/sword and chariots foretelling the pending doom (Luke 21:11). The Catholics of that day, seeing the signs, were spared the terror as they remembered Christ’s prophecy (Luke 21:21, Matthew 11:21-24), and escaped to safe harbor. We share just one excerpt from Gueranger but one should read his entire description at the link below.

The lamentation over Jerusalem’s woes, the subject of today’s Gospel, has given its name to this ninth Sunday after Pentecost, at least among the Latins. We have already observed that it is easy to find, even in the liturgy as it now stands, traces of how the early Church was all attention to the approaching fulfilment of the prophecies against Jerusalem—that ungrateful city upon which our Jesus heaped His earliest favours. The last limit put by mercy upon justice has, at length, been passed. Our Lord, speaking of the ruin of Sion and its temple, had foretold that the generation that was listening to His words should not pass until what He had announced should be fulfilled. The almost forty years accorded to Juda, that he might avert the divine wrath, have had no other effect than to harden the people of deicides in their determination not to accept Christ as the Messiah. As a torrent, which, having been long pent back, rushes along all the fiercer when the embankment breaks, vengeance at length burst on the ancient Israel; it was in the year 70 that was executed the sentence he himself had passed when, delivering up his King and God to the Gentiles, he had cried out: ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children!’

Feast of the Holy Maccabees – August 1st

Looking ahead a few days to August 1st, the Church has two commemorations set for this day. As noted earlier in this update, the first commemoration of August 1st is that of St. Peter in Chains. However, the second commemoration of August 1st is an often overlooked commemoration, that of the Holy Maccabees – the only Old Testament saints listed in the universal 1962 calendar (parenthetically, the Carmelites do commemorate another Old Testament saint, the Prophet Elijah, on July 20).  These seven holy Maccabee brothers were martyred defending the rights of God and for His public worship in a pagan culture. Their relics are actually buried in the same church that houses the chains of St. Peter, drawing a connection between the two commemorations which share the same day. For more on the liturgical aspects of this feast day visit: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2018/08/the-feast-of-holy-maccabees.html#.XyOweX57nwc

To close this update, we share the words of Dom Prosper Gueranger who writes about the Maccabean martyrs in his entry for August 1 in his book, The Liturgical Year:

The sacred cause of which they were the champions, their strength of soul under the tortures, their sublime answers to the executioners, were so evidently the type reproduced by the later Martyrs, that the Fathers of the first centuries with one accord claimed for the Christian Church these heroes of the synagogue, who could have gained such courage from no other source than their faith in the Christ to come. For this reason they alone of all the holy persons of the ancient covenant have found a place on the Christian cycle; all the Martyrologies and Calendars of East and West attest the universality of their cultus, while its antiquity is such as to rival that of St. Peter’s chains in that same basilica of Eudoxia where their precious relics lie.

St. Peter and the Holy Maccabees, pray for us!