Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday, the second in Passiontide, is Palm Sunday. For centuries this last Sunday in Lent has celebrated the triumphal entry into Jerusalem made by Jesus just days before his arrest and crucifixion. In the Gospel reading for Palm Sunday, Saint Matthew quotes the directions given by Jesus to His followers regarding the manner of his entry into the city. “Now all this was done,” the Gospel writer tells us, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: Tell ye the daughter of Sion: Behold thy king cometh to thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke.”
This is a somewhat condensed version of what the prophet Zechariah actually said in his own book, differing from the original in certain particulars:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass (Zechariah 9:9).
What matters is the manner of the entry into Jerusalem: In adhering to the prophecy, Jesus clearly meant to present himself as both king and savior. But by riding upon an ass, He showed Himself to be no ordinary king. His mode of arrival in the Holy City emphasized His poverty, meekness and humility, presaging the mildness of His rule as savior-king. He is not to be the triumphant ruler many expected to ride in on a white horse and conquer the day. What He promises is something less satisfying for many – and infinitely greater for all.
The stipulation added in the Gospel that the colt be “the foal of her that is used to the yoke” is a reminder of something Jesus said once in urging all who “labour, and are burdened” to take up his yoke. “Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light” (Matthew 11:29-30).
Calendar of Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, March 29 – Palm Sunday (I)
Monday, March 30 – Monday of the Holy Week (I)
Tuesday, March 31 – Tuesday of the Holy Week (I)
Wednesday, April 1 – Wednesday of the Holy Week (I)
Thursday, April 2 – Holy Thursday (I)
Friday, April 3 – Good Friday (I)
Saturday, April 4 – Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil (I)
Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday of Lent)
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for Palm Sunday with English or Spanish translation, followed by commentary by Dr. Michael P. Foley.
Traditional Latin Mass Schedule
Diocese of Charlotte Sunday Masses
Chapel of the Little Flower (757 Oakridge Farm Road, Mooresville, NC)
Note: Only Sunday Latin Masses and Holy Days are offered at the Chapel. This is the only Diocese of Charlotte location which offers the Traditional Latin Mass.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, the Little Flower, pray for us!
Diocese of Raleigh Sunday Masses
Diocese of Charleston Sunday Masses
Diocese of Charleston Daily Traditional Latin Masses
Palm Sunday note: For Palm Sunday, March 29, Prince of Peace Church (Taylors SC) will begin their Latin Mass 30 minutes late, at 12:30 p.m. The blessing of palms and procession will begin in the Parish House.
Holy Week cancellation: Due to Holy Week, the Thursday (April 2), Friday (April 3), and Saturday (April 4) Latin Masses are canceled at Prince of Peace (Taylors SC). Latin Masses will resume Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday note: The Latin Mass at Prince of Peace (Taylors SC) for Easter Sunday will begin 30 minutes late, at 12:30 p.m.
As a reminder, travelers are urged to consult parish websites or offices for up-to-date information regarding possible changes in the schedule of Mass times.
Upcoming Special Latin Masses and Liturgies (as announced)
Sunday March 29: Palm Sunday (Special Mass Times only)
Wednesday April 1: Wednesday of Holy Week
Sunday April 5: Easter Sunday (Special Mass Times only)
For additional Lenten Masses and events please see our Lenten Masses webpage.
Traditional Fasting and Abstinence Disciplines During Lent
For those looking to practice the traditional Lenten disciplines in place in 1962, we share a helpful 2010 document from Mater Ecclesiae Latin Mass Chapel in Berlin, New Jersey, which explains the differences between the traditional Lenten rules for fasting and abstinence (now voluntary) that accompanied the Traditional Latin Mass and the current rules. [Discipline of 1962 for Fast during Lent]
Chapel of the Little Flower Announcements
Mass Intentions for Sunday
Sunday March 29, 12:00 p.m. - Private Intention
Donations for Easter Flowers
The Chapel of the Little Flower will be accepting donations for Easter flowers. There will be envelopes available for you to use for your cash or check donation. You may donate in honor or in memory of a loved one. More details available in the narthex at The Chapel. Checks should be made payable to Saint Ann Catholic Church, and write in the memo “Chapel of the Little Flower Easter Flowers”
Donations for the Chapel of the Little Flower
There is a new procedure for making donations to the Chapel of the Little Flower. Please make out a check to “St. Ann Catholic Church” and carefully earmark it for “Latin Mass” or “Chapel of the Little Flower”. It can be mailed to the parish (3635 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209). To donate online, please visit the parish’s “Chapel of the Little Flower” online donation portal at this link.
Update on Mass intentions
Mass intentions have now been filled through the spring and new Masses are currently unavailable. The Mass intentions book will be opened sometime later this spring for the next quarter of Masses.
Lost and Found
The Chapel has a growing collection of items left behind after Mass. If one is missing a missal, book, or other item, please see the new table in the cry room.
Father Jones’ Contact Info
If one has questions about the Chapel of the Little Flower, that are not related to one’s parish, please email Father Jones directly at: tlmchapel(at)rcdoc.org
Visiting the Chapel of the Little Flower
If you haven’t attended Mass at the Chapel of the Little Flower yet, you are welcome to join us in Lent or during Eastertide. Seating is adequate at both Masses, and there is plenty of parking; a cry room; open space outside for the kids after Mass. Bulletins from Saint Ann and Saint Thomas Aquinas parishes are usually available.
General Announcements
LiveMass.net – Want to watch a Latin Mass online? The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) has a broadcast apostolate which streams its Latin Masses across the world at various times of the day. To view visit: https://www.livemass.net/
(New) Reprinted Book on The Holy Face – Sensus Fidelium Press has just released a reprint of Father J.B. Fourault’s 19th century book, The Month of the Holy Face. According to the description, April is the month of the Holy Face and the book offers meditations for each day in honor of the Holy Face of Jesus. This book is a perfect opportunity to continue to practice the Holy Face of Jesus devotion to pray for the preservation of the Traditional Latin Mass. To learn more or to order, click here.
Support Saint Ann and Saint Thomas Parishes – Our parishes remain the anchor of our spiritual and community lives and continue to promote the sacred traditions, devotions, speakers and catechesis important for the spiritual growth of ourselves and our families. They also need our continued financial support (and occasional visits!). Both parishes would appreciate our continued generosity - especially in Lent.
Rosary for the Traditional Latin Mass – A Rosary is offered for the restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass in the church on Sundays after the 11:30 a.m. Novus Ordo Mass at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church.
Daily Holy Face Chaplet for Sacred Liturgy (perpetual novena) – For the preservation of the Traditional Latin Mass, it has been recommended to all friends of the sacred liturgy in the diocese to consider continually praying the powerful Holy Face chaplet, under the banner of Our Lady of the Holy Name. To pray the chaplet, please see this link.
Cardinal Burke’s Prayer for Pope Leo XIV – His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Burke has released a prayer for Pope Leo XIV. Please see the prayer at the links below and consider praying this daily for the Holy Father as he leads the Church. PDF copies can be accessed at these links: [English] [Español] [Latin]
Holy Face Devotions
Prayers of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus are offered each week at the following churches on the indicated days:
Note: Days and times may be subject to change due to holidays.
“Jesus, Your ineffable image is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth” (from Canticle to the Holy Face by Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, the 19th century Discalced Carmelite nun who took the name in religion, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face).
Traditional Latin Mass and Liturgical News
Saints and Special Observances
Saint Peter, the fisherman born Simon Bar-Jona whom Jesus rechristened Cephas to be the rock on which his Church was to be built (Matthew 16:17-18), figured prominently in the events of Holy Thursday night and the early hours of Good Friday, as he had throughout Christ’s ministry.
According to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Peter and his brother, Andrew, were the first fishermen called by Jesus to become “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:18-19). He was, along with James and John, included in the select trio of Apostles present at the Transfiguration of Our Lord (Matthew 17:1-2, Mark 9:1). It was on him that the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were bestowed (Matthew 16:18-19). But it was also Peter who suffered a singular rebuke when he dared to come between Christ and His Cross and was told, “Go behind me, Satan: thou art a scandal unto me, because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men” (Matthew 16:23). The inner conflict manifested in that moment, arising from Peter’s attachment to this world, became sadly evident in the things he said and did on Holy Thursday and Good Friday which he would later have to repent before assuming leadership of the Church.
On the night He was betrayed, after Our Lord had eaten the Paschal feast with His Apostles, He knelt down and washed their feet. Only Peter dared to object, insisting, “Thou shalt never wash my feet” (John 13:8). For the Master to wash the feet of His followers was unseemly from Peter’s perspective, as it would have been in the eyes of the world. It was only when Jesus made it clear that Peter could no longer be His follower, if he did not allow Him to wash his feet, that the Apostle relented. Ricocheting to the opposite extreme with characteristic impetuosity, the mercurial Peter declared, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head” (John 13:9).
Afterwards, Jesus told His Apostles that He was about to be betrayed and spoke of His coming death in terms of departure. It was characteristic of Peter to ask where He was going. Jesus replied, somewhat cryptically, “Whither I go thou canst not follow now: but thou shalt follow hereafter” (John 13:36). Disputing his inability to follow immediately, Peter insisted he would lay down his life for Jesus. Foreseeing the triple denial that lay ahead, Jesus responded with bitter irony: “Wilt thou lay down thy life for me? Amen, amen, I say to thee, the cock shall not crow till thou deny me thrice” (John 13:38). Stung by this prediction, Peter doubled down on his claim of unshakable fealty: “Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee” (Matthew 26:35).
When Jesus led His Apostles out to Gethsemane, He took aside the three who had been privileged to witness the Transfiguration and said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death. Stay you here and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). Then He went off a little way and, prostrating Himself, prayed: “My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Returning to the three Apostles, he found them asleep and asked Peter, “What? Could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40-41). Jesus went off to pray alone again, only to return and find the Apostles sleeping as before. The same sequence was repeated once more. Three times did Peter – along with James and John – fail to watch and pray while the Lord struggled to accept the fate that awaited Him.
Then those who sought the life of Jesus, led by Judas Iscariot, came to arrest Him; and it was Peter who sought by violence to forestall the fate the Lord Himself had already embraced. Although the authors of the synoptic Gospels refrain from naming him, saying only that one among the Lord’s followers drew his sword to strike a blow, John does not shirk saying what he himself witnessed.
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. And the name of the servant was Malchus. And Jesus therefore said to Peter: Put up thy sword into the scabbard. The chalice which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18:10-11)
John says that as the Prisoner was led away to be interrogated by Annas, He was followed by Simon Peter and another disciple who was known to the high priest and went in with Jesus. The other disciple was certainly John who never names himself or uses the word apostle in his gospel. He was familiar enough with the household of the high priest to know the name of the servant whom Peter had struck and wounded.
When Peter stood outside, afraid to go in, John spoke to the woman who kept the door and had her bring him in. She asked him if he was one of the prisoner’s disciples, and he said he was not. Then, after Jesus had been sent bound to Caiphas, as Peter was standing by a fire where servants and ministers of the high priest were warming themselves, he was asked again if he was a disciple of Jesus; and again he denied it and said he was not. According to John, one of the servants – who happened to be a kinsman of the wounded Malchus – pressed him harder, asking if he had not seen him in the garden with the man who had been seized. “Again therefore Peter denied: and immediately the cock crew” (John 18:27).
Then, as Jesus was led away to Pilate, and the night of the agonizing day we now call Holy Thursday was giving way to the terrible day we know as Good Friday, Peter slipped away, having thrice denied Our Lord and three times renounced his own identity.
Closing Commentary
As Holy Week begins, we close, finally, with an excerpt from Dom Prosper Guéranger’s commentary on the mysterious day between that on which Our Lord suffered death and that on which he rose from the dead, taken from The Liturgical Year (with a link to the full text below).
Holy Saturday
A night has passed over the Tomb, wherein lies buried the Body of the Man-God. Death is triumphant in that silent cave, and hold captive Him that gives life to every creature—but his triumph will soon be at an end. The Soldiers may watch, as best they will, over that Grave: they cannot hold Jesus prisoner, as soon as the moment fixed for his Resurrection comes. The holy Angels are there, profoundly adoring the lifeless Body of Him whose Blood is to reconcile all things, both on earth, and in heaven. This Body, though, for a brief interval, separated from the Soul, is still united to the Person of the Son of God; so likewise, the Soul, during its separation from the Body, has not, for an instant, lost its union with the Word. The Divinity remains also united with the Blood that lies sprinkled on Calvary, and which, at the moment of the Resurrection of the Man-God, is to enter once more into his sacred veins.
Let us, also, return to the Sepulcher, and adore the Body of our Buried Jesus. Now, at last, we understand what sin has done: By sin, death entered into the world; and it passed upon all men. Though Jesus knew no sin, yet has he permitted Death to have dominion over him, in order that he might make it less bitter to us, and, by his Resurrection, restore unto us that eternal life, of which we had been deprived by sin. How gratefully we should appreciate this Death of our Jesus! By becoming Incarnate, he became a Servant; his Death was a still deeper humiliation. The sight of this Tomb, wherein his Body lies lifeless and cold, teaches us something far more important than the power of death: it reveals to us the immense, the incomprehensible love of God for man. He knew that we were to gain by his humiliations—the greater his humiliations, the great our exaltation: this was his principle, and it led him to what seems like an excess! Let us, then, love this sacred Sepulcher, which is to give us Life. We have thanked him for having died for us upon the Cross; let us thank him, but most feelingly, for having humbled himself, for our sakes, even to the Tomb!
And now, let us visit the Holy Mother, who has passed the night in Jerusalem, going over, in saddest memory, the scenes she has witnessed. Her Jesus has been a Victim to every possible insult and cruelty: he has been crucified: his precious Blood has flowed in torrents from those Five Wounds: he is dead, and now lies buried in yonder Tomb, as thou he were but a mere man, yea the most abject of men. How many tears have fallen during these long hours from the eyes of the Daughter of David! and yet, her Son has not come back to her! Near her is Magdalene; heartbroken by yesterday’s events, she has no words to tell her grief, for Jesus is gone, and, as she thinks, forever. The other Women, less loved by Jesus than Magdalene, yet still dear to him, stand round the disconsolate Mother. They have braved every insult and danger in order to remain on Calvary till all was over, and they intend returning thither with Magdalene, as soon as the Sabbath is over, to honor the Tomb and the Body of Jesus.
John, the adopted son of Mary, and the Beloved Disciple of Jesus, is oppressed with sorrow. Others, also, of the Apostles and Disciples visit the house of mourning. Peter, penitent and humble, fears not to appear before the Mother of Mercy. Among the Disciples are Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. We may easily imagine the conversation—it is on the Sufferings and Death of Jesus, and on the ingratitude of the Jews. The Church, in the 7th Responsory of today’s Tenebræ, represents these men as saying: “Behold! how the Just One dieth, and there is none that taketh it to heart. Iniquity has had its way. He was silent as a Lamb under his shearer, and he opened not his mouth. He was taken away from distress and judgment: but his memory shall be in peace.”
Thus speak the men!—the women are thinking of their morrow’s visit to the Sepulcher! The saintliness of Jesus, his goodness, his power, his Sufferings, his Death—everything is remembered, except his Resurrection, which they had often heard him say should certainly and speedily take place. Mary alone lives in expectation of his triumph. In her was verified that expression of the Holy Ghost where, speaking of the Valiant Woman, he says: Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. Her courage fails not, because she knows that the Sepulcher must yield up its Dead, and her Jesus will rise again to Life. St. Paul tells us that our religion is vain unless we have faith in the mystery of our Savior’s Resurrection: where was this faith on the day after our Lord’s Death? In one heart only—and that was Mary’s. As it was her chaste womb that had held within it Him whom heaven and earth cannot contain, so on this day, by her firm and unwavering faith, she resumes within her single self the whole Church. How sacred is this Saturday, which, notwithstanding all its sadness, is such a day of glory to the Mother of Jesus! It is on this account that the Church has consecrated to Mary the Saturday of every week.
But it is time to repair to the House of God. The Bells are still silent: our faith must speak to us, and make us eager to assist at the grand Mysteries which the Liturgy is about to celebrate. Surely, the Christian sentiment must be dead in them who can be willingly absent from their Church on such a morning as this. No, it cannot be that we, who have followed the celebration of the Mysteries of our Religion thus far, can flag now, and lose the graces of this Morning’s magnificent Service. [Holy Saturday]