Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday is the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. In the Gospel reading for this Sunday Our Lord cautions us against anger: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22). "Do not be angry" may not be found among the Ten Commandments, but the sinful character of anger is all too obvious in a world where its consequences abound in incidents of road rage, domestic strife, civil discord and so much more. To give in to sinful anger is an offense against the second greatest commandment given us by Our Lord: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:39). Thus, when we sin in this way, it is necessary that we not only be reconciled to the brother, sister, spouse, friend, enemy or other individual whom we have offended, but that we make our peace with God Himself.
Calendar of Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, June 28 – Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (II) – Vigil of Ss. Peter and Paul, Apostles
Monday, June 29 – Ss. Peter and Paul, Apostles (I)
Tuesday, June 30 – The Commemoration of St. Paul, Apostle (III)
Wednesday, July 1 – The Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (I)
Thursday, July 2 – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (II) – Commemoration of Ss. Processus and Martinianus, Martyrs
Friday, July 3 – St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr (III) – Sacred Heart of Jesus (III)
Saturday, July 4 – Immaculate Heart of Mary (III) – Commemoration of All Holy Popes (IV) – Our Lady on Saturday (IV)
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost 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
Note: The summer Mass schedule for Prince of Peace parish is in effect and according to the bulletin there will be no daily Latin Masses at Prince of Peace during Monday-Saturday this summer.
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.
Feast of the Precious Blood, Wednesday July 1
The following is the announced Latin Mass for the traditional Feast of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Wednesday July 1. If more Masses are scheduled, we will post them on our website.
Chapel of the Little Flower Announcements
Mass Intentions for Sunday
Sunday June 28, 10:00 a.m. – Repose of the soul of JoAnn Nigro by Lynne Bridges
Donations for the Chapel of the Little Flower
To donate 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.
Lost and Found
If one is missing a missal, book, or other item, please see the 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. 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/
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.
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
Saints Peter and Paul have been connected by popular devotion since the early days of Christianity. Evidence of this combined veneration has been found in writings on the walls of the catacombs in Rome. The two saints have been honored on the same date, June 29th, since at least as early as the fourth century. In his History of the Church, written in the early decades of that century, Eusebius noted that Peter and Paul had been martyred in Rome “at the same time” during the Neronian persecution. Writing near the end of the same century, St. Jerome went further, claiming in De Viris Illustribus that the two had been put to death on the same day.
Saint Irenaeus (whose feast is July 3), in his second-century work, Adversus Haereses, credited Peter and Paul with having been the co-founders of the Church at Rome. They might aptly be called co-founders of the Christian religion, provided we keep in mind that Christ Himself is the source and substance of Christianity. Certainly, the two were united in their zeal to spread the salvific message of Christ crucified and resurrected from the dead; but they could hardly have differed more widely in terms of their personalities and the circumstances of their lives.
Saint Peter was almost certainly the older of the two. Given the name Simon when he was born in the Galilean town of Capernaum, he was the son of a fisherman named Jonah and worked on his father’s boats, plying the waters of the inland Sea of Galilee, until Jesus called him to be a fisher of men. It is likely he had little or no formal education and may have been illiterate in spite of the fact that two canonical letters in the New Testament carry his name. He is mentioned by name so many times in the Gospels, and in the Acts of the Apostles, that we are able to derive from the things he said and did a fully developed portrait of the man. Impetuous at times, headstrong at others, subject to strong emotions and never afraid to speak his mind, he was fiercely loyal to Our Lord and the first among His followers to recognize Jesus as the “Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
Arising from somnolence in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night Jesus was betrayed, his anger aroused, he drew his sword to strike out in violence. But as the events of that night unfolded, he withdrew in fear and then succumbed to bitter remorse at his failure even to acknowledge his association with the prisoner. In an emotional meeting with the resurrected Jesus, again on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Peter purged his triple denial of Our Lord with a threefold assertion of his love. Following the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the one-time fisherman proved to be a bold, and sometimes imperious, leader of the burgeoning community of believers: the first Bishop of Rome, he became the Rock upon which the Church was founded.
While Saint Peter was likely somewhat older than Jesus, Saint Paul was probably a few years younger than Our Lord. Unlike the untutored son of a Galilean fisherman who would one day become the first Bishop of Rome, Paul (born Saul) was the son of a Roman citizen in the Hellenized Mediterranean coastal city of Tarsus. His family was able to send him to Jerusalem to be educated in the rabbinical school of the famous scholar of the Judaic Law, Gamaliel. Paul emerged from his studies a rigid defender of Jewish orthodoxy dedicated to exposing those not strictly observant with regard to the Law. His zeal was such that he took a particular interest in ferreting out and calling to account followers of the emerging new Way espoused by those who proclaimed Jesus to be the long-expected Messiah. His conversion was a hard case. Unlike Peter who cast aside his nets immediately to follow when Jesus called, Paul had to be knocked off his high horse. It was on the road to Damascus, where he was going to arrest adherents of the heterodox cult, that Paul was struck down as by a bolt of lightning out of the blue and heard a voice demanding, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4).
Blinded by the blast of light, Paul was led into the city by those who accompanied him on his mission to the Syrian city. He remained unable to see for three days until the Lord sent a disciple named Ananias to cure him and see that he was baptized.
Unlike his more impulsive counterpart, Simon Peter, who was sometimes inclined to act first and weigh the consequences later, Paul tended to think things through, following the frequently circuitous path of his own reasoning to its logical conclusion. He used the power of his thought to win untold converts to the Faith. As the author of half the books in the New Testament, he has continued to bring new believers into the fold even into our own time. He was also an indefatigable traveler who narrowly escaped death at the hands of men and the elements of nature on several occasions. Like Peter, he made it to Rome eventually, but only after decades spent traversing the world to carry the Good News of Christianity to every nation.
Closing Commentary
In closing, we offer an excerpt from the commentary on the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles in The Liturgical Year of Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, followed by a link to the full text.
June 29 - St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles
Since the terrible persecution of the year 64, Rome had become for Peter a sojourn fraught with peril, and he remembered how his Master had said to him, when appointing him Shepherd of both lambs and sheep: Follow thou me. The Apostle, therefore, awaited the day when he must mingle his blood with that of so many thousands of Christians, whom he had initiated into the faith, and whose Father he truly was. But before quitting earth, Peter must triumph over Simon the Magician, his base antagonist. This heresiarch did not content himself with seducing souls by his perverse doctrines; he sought even to mimic Peter in the prodigies operated by him. So he proclaimed that on a certain day, he would fly in the air. The report of this novelty quickly spread through Rome, and the people were full of the prospect of such a marvellous sight. If we are to believe Dion Chrysostom, Nero seems even to have entertained at his court this wonderful personage, who pledged himself to soar aloft in mid-air. More than that, the emperor would even with his own presence honor this rare sight. The imperial lodge was reared upon the Via Sacra, where the scene was to be enacted. But cruel for the impostor did this deception prove. “Scarce had this Icarus begun to poise his flight,” says Suetonius, “than he fell close to Nero’s lodge which was bathed in his blood.” The gravest writers of Christian antiquity are unanimous in attributing to the prayer of Peter this humiliation inflicted on the Samaritan juggler in the very midst of Rome, where he had dared to set himself up as the rival of Christ’s Vicar.
~
The
filial devotedness of the Christians of Rome took alarm, and they
implored Saint Peter to elude the danger for a while, by instant flight.
“Although he would have much preferred to suffer,” says Saint Ambrose,
Peter set out along the Appian Way. Just as he reached the Capuan gate,
Christ suddenly presented himself, seemingly about to enter the city.
“Lord, whither goest thou?” cried out the Apostle. “To Rome,” Christ
replied, “to be there crucified again.” The disciple understood his
Master; he at once retraced his steps, having now no thought but to
await his hour of martyrdom.
[June 29 -- St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles]