Dear Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday (May 5, 2024) is the Fifth Sunday after Easter. We are nearing the Ascension now, only four days away, the day of Our Lord’s departure to rejoin His Father in Heaven. Forty days after having risen from the dead, Jesus is to rise from among the living, bringing to an end His earthly sojourn. In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, we see Jesus continuing to prepare the disciples for His final departure. He urges them to turn to the Father in prayer: Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you (John 16:23). Then He goes on to make explicit at last the co-identity of Father and Son: I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father (John 16:28). The disciples rejoice at this plain-spoken self-revelation: Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God (John 16:30). Now is the ultimate grace of the Incarnation made known to man, the gift of God Himself that we acknowledge at Mass by kneeling for the relevant passage in the Credo (“ET INCARNATUS EST DE SPIRITU SANCTO EX MARIA VIRGINE: ET HOMO FACTUS EST”) and at the appropriate moment in the Final Gospel (“ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST”). Deo gratias.
Calendar of Saints and Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962 or on the liturgical calendar of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, May 5 – Fifth Sunday after Easter (II)
Monday, May 6 – Feria (IV) [Rogation Monday (II)]
Tuesday, May 7 – St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, Martyr (III) [Rogation Tuesday (II)]
Wednesday, May 8 – Vigil of the Ascension (II) [Rogation Wednesday (II)]
Thursday, May 9 – Ascension of the Lord (I)
Friday, May 10 – St. Antoninus, OP, Bishop and Confessor (III) [Commemoration of SS. Gordian and Epimachus, Martyrs]
Saturday, May 11 – SS. Philip and James, Apostles (II)
Note: St. Pius V, OP, Pope and Confessor, a third-class feast celebrated on May 5 in most years, is displaced by the Fifth Sunday after Easter this year. St. Gregory Naziansen, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor, a third-class feast celebrated on May 9 in most years, is displaced by the Ascension of the Lord this year. The three Rogation Days (Monday-Wednesday) immediately preceding the Feast of the Ascension are days of penitential prayer focused on the need for favorable weather and protection against calamitous events.
Fifth Sunday after Easter
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Fifth Sunday after Easter with either English or Spanish translation. The English version includes a commentary from The Liturgical Year of Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, highlighting the close relationship between Jesus and Saint James, the apostle whose first letter is the source of the Epistle for today’s Mass. In addition, we offer a link to an essay on “The School of Love in the Orations of the Fifth Sunday after Easter” by Dr. Michael P. Foley for New Liturgical Movement.
Latin Mass Schedule: Fifth Sunday after Easter (May 5th)
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Latin Mass Schedule: Weekdays
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Ascension of Our Lord – Thursday, May 9 (All locations)
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Note: Travelers are advised to contact parish offices to confirm weekday and Saturday Mass times, since local schedules are sometimes subject to change without notice, especially on or around holidays and holy days of obligation.
Spiritual Bouquet for Bishop Emeritus Jugis
As announced earlier this week, in gratitude for Bishop Emeritus Jugis’ leadership and service to the faithful in Charlotte the Carolina Traditional Liturgy Society is organizing a spiritual bouquet for Bishop Emeritus Jugis to thank him for faithfully shepherding us for the past 20 years and we invite our readers to participate.
Much of the interest and devotion of the Latin Mass and sacred liturgy in the diocese would not have taken place without his leadership and care of all his flock, including the Latin Mass faithful.
Please send us your contributions by Sunday May 12.
To learn more and to submit your prayers please click on this link: www.carolinaliturgy.org/spiritual-bouquet
We will also be organizing a spiritual bouquet for Bishop-elect Martin around his ordination – so stay tuned and save up your prayers for him too!
Announcements
First Sunday Food and Fellowship has been canceled, tomorrow Sunday May 5, due to the inclement weather and a lack of space indoors. Stay tuned for next month's fellowship.
Saint Peter of Verona Palms Available This Weekend – This past Monday, April 29th, was the Feast of Saint Peter of Verona (also known as Saint Peter Martyr), a 13th century Dominican martyr. As many readers may know, there is an ancient custom for the blessing of palms on his feast day. The traditional belief is that the palms, when buried on one’s property, can help protect against natural disasters.
Father Reid graciously blessed this year’s Saint Peter palms and they will be available at our Latin Mass tables at Saint Ann and Saint Thomas Aquinas parishes this weekend for those households who do not already have them (while quantities last). To learn more about the great Dominican saint celebrated in this custom please consult the following articles:
Minor Rogation Days This Week: This week, the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension, are called the Minor or Lesser Rogation Days, a period of penitential petition in the 1962 calendar (the Greater Rogation Day was celebrated last week on April 25). Rogare is a Latin verb that can be translated to ask, beg or request. Historically, the prayers of petition associated with the minor rogation have focused on protection against calamitous events. For informative articles on the subject, see Mathew Plese’s Forgotten Customs of Rogation Days on onepeterfive.com or Dr. Michael P. Foley’s article Rogationtide on newliturgicalmovement.org
Fatima Processions – Monday May 13: Saint Ann will host an Our Lady of Fatima procession around 6:30 p.m. on Monday May 13 (after a special 6:00 p.m. Novus Ordo Vespers) to mark the 107th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima’s appearance in Portugal. The Saint Ann's Men's Club will host a cookout afterwards. Saint Thomas Aquinas will host its own Fatima Procession at 7:30 p.m. that evening.
Special Camp for Young Men – Jason Craig and Craig Taffaro, Latin Mass attendees at Saint John the Baptist in Tryon, will be conducting a special camp for young men (18 or older) called Camp Capable from May 12 to May 17. The tagline for the camp is “Be Competent. Be Contemplative.” Inspired by Saint Benedict’s “Ora et labora” and a desire to offer an alternative to the prevailing artificiality of the electronic media-and-technology-driven culture, they have organized the weeklong camp for young men to help them enter into the formative discipline of real work with real men, through which they can develop real competency. Additionally, they will be praying the traditional Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the morning and at night, and plans call for attendance at a Traditional Latin Mass at Saint John the Baptist at least one day during the week. To learn more and to register, please visit Camp Capable.
Holy Face Devotions
Prayers of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus are offered each week at the following churches on the indicated days:
Latin Mass and Liturgical News
The following articles are also recommended to our readers:
Closing Commentary
We close with a commentary excerpted from The Liturgical Year of Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, and provide a link to the full text of the entry for the Fifth Sunday after Easter below. In speaking of the Epistle taken from the First Letter of Saint James, the great Benedictine liturgist highlights the special relationship that existed between Jesus and the Apostle who played such an important part throughout His ministry.
Fifth Sunday After Easter
The holy Apostle, whose instructions these are, had received them from our Risen Jesus: hence the authoritative tone wherewith he speaks. Our Savior, as we have already seen, honored him with a special visit: it proves that he was particularly dear to his divine Master, to whom he was related by the tie of consanguinity on his Mother’s side whose name was Mary. This holy woman went, on Easter morning, to the Sepulcher, in company with her sister, Salome, and Magdalene. St. James the Less is indeed the Apostle of Paschal Time, wherein everything speaks to us of the New Life we should lead with our Risen Lord. He is the apostle of good works, for it is from him that we have received this fundamental maxim of Christianity—that though Faith be the first essential of a Christian, yet without works, it is a dead Faith, and will not save us.
He also lays great stress on our being attentive to the truths we have been taught, and on our guarding against that culpable forgetfulness, which plays such havoc with thoughtless souls. Many of those who have, this year, received the grace of the Easter mystery, will not persevere; and the reason is that they will allow the world to take up all their time and thoughts, whereas they should use the world as though they did not use it. Let us never forget that we must now walk in newness of life, in imitation of our Risen Jesus, who dieth now no more.
The
two Alleluia-Versicles celebrate the glory of the Resurrection; but
they also contain an allusion to the approaching Ascension. Jesus was
born eternally from the Father; he came down to us; but now, in a few
days, he is to return to his Father. [Fifth Sunday after Easter]
We wish our readers a blessed Eastertide. Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere!