First Sunday of Lent

Friends in Christ,

Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. In the Gospel for the First Sunday in Lent (March 9, 2025) we are told that after Jesus had fasted forty days in the desert, the devil confronted Him with three temptations. When Our Lord rejected the first two, the tempter (whom Jesus would later call “the prince of this world”) offered Him nothing less than all the kingdoms of the world if He would but fall down and worship him. “Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).

There is a powerful echo of the vade Satanas (“Begone, Satan”), spoken by Christ in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, to be found in the sixteenth chapter of the same Gospel. When Simon Bar-Jona acknowledges Jesus to be the Christ, Our Lord responds by naming him Peter, calling him the rock upon which He will build his church, and giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:16-19). But when Jesus begins telling his disciples how He is to suffer at the hands of the Jewish authorities and be put to death when they reach Jerusalem, Peter takes him aside and rebukes Him. Turning to confront the apostle, Jesus tells Peter, “Go behind me, Satan (vade post me, Satana); 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).

We are only at the beginning of Lent, but as we approach the end of the season we will be reminded in the liturgical readings for Holy Week that Peter was tempted three times as he stood in the court of the high priest while Jesus was interrogated and convicted of blasphemy. As foretold by Our Lord, he succumbed to temptation each time, denying he knew the one who was the Truth three times before the night was over in a futile attempt to conceal his own identity (Matthew 26:69-75).

As we fast and pray in this season of penance, we are called to acknowledge our own failure to savor the things that are of God rather than the things that are of men. Jesus rejected the world in order to save men, while Peter clung to the world for a time, seeking to save himself. Now is the time to turn away from the temptations of the world, as the apostle did after that terrible night, in order to seek the forgiveness of sins by which we can be reconciled with God.

***Daylight Saving Time Begins Sunday*** – A friendly reminder that this Sunday (March 9th) is the day that man makes the sun rise (and set) an hour later than it did the day before, so be sure to rise at 2:00 a.m. in order to reset your clocks to 3:00 a.m.

Calendar of Special Observances

Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962.

DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)

Sunday, March 9 – First Sunday of Lent (I)

Monday, March 10 – Feria of Lent (III) – Commemoration of the Forty Holy Martyrs

Tuesday, March 11 – Feria of Lent (III)

Wednesday, March 12 – Ember Wednesday of Lent (II)

Thursday, March 13 – Feria of Lent (III)

Friday, March 14 – Ember Friday of Lent (II)

Saturday, March 15 – Ember Saturday of Lent (II)

First Sunday of Lent

The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for the First Sunday of Lent with English or Spanish translation, followed by commentary by Dr. Michael P. Foley. We also provide a link to an article from Greg DiPippo on “The Station Churches of the Ember Days of Lent”.

• English

• Español

• Fasting and the Orations of the First Sunday of Lent

• Station Churches of the Ember Days of Lent

Ember Week: This week includes the Ember Days of Lent, according to the traditional liturgical calendar: three days of prayer and penance (now voluntary), anticipating the arrival of Spring, giving thanks to God for the gifts of creation and consecrating the season ahead. The Lenten or Spring Ember Days, like those designated for the other three natural seasons, are celebrated on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in Ember Week. To learn more about Ember Days we direct readers to Dom Prosper Guéranger’s Reflection for Wednesday in Lenten Ember Week.

Latin Mass Schedule: First Sunday of Lent (March 9, 2025)

Charlotte Area Latin Masses

• 11:30 a.m., Saint Thomas Aquinas (offered by Lenten Mission priest Fr. Chad Ripperger)

• 12:30 p.m., Saint Ann

Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses

• 8:30 a.m., Saint John the Baptist (Tryon)

• 9:00 a.m., Our Lady of the Angels (Marion)

• 1:00 p.m., Church of the Epiphany (Blowing Rock)

• 1:30 p.m., Our Lady of Grace (Greensboro)

Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses

• 12:00 p.m., Prince of Peace (Taylors SC)

• 1:00 p.m., Our Lady of the Lake (Chapin SC)

Note: Travelers are urged to consult parish websites or offices for up-to-date information regarding possible changes in the regular schedule of Sunday Mass times.

Latin Mass Schedule: Weekdays (March 10-March 15)

Charlotte Area Latin Masses

• Saint Ann – Wednesday 6:00 p.m.

• Saint Thomas Aquinas – Thursday, 7:00 p.m.

• Saint Ann – Friday, 7:00 a.m.

Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses

• Our Lady of the Mountains (Highlands) – Tuesday, 9:30 a.m.

• Saint John the Baptist (Tryon) – Cancellation: The normal Friday, 8:30 a.m. Mass is canceled for Friday March 14.

• Church of the Epiphany (Blowing Rock) – Friday, 9:30 a.m.

Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses

• Prince of Peace (Taylors SC) – Monday-Friday, 12:00 p.m.

• Prince of Peace (Taylors SC) – Saturday 8:00 a.m.

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, holy days of obligation and other special feast days.

Feast of Saint Joseph: Wednesday March 19

The following is a listing of announced Latin Masses for the Feast of Saint Joseph. If more Masses are announced we will include them in future updates.

Wednesday March 19

• Saint Ann – 6:00 p.m. (Low)

• Our Lady of Grace (Greensboro) – 6:30 p.m. (High)

• Our Lady of the Lake (Chapin SC) – 6:30 p.m. (Low)

SAVE THE DATE: Saint Joseph Altar – Wednesday March 19

On Wednesday, March 19th, after the 6:00 p.m. Low Mass at Saint Ann parish, there will be a Saint Joseph’s altar set up on the piazza near the entrance to the Allen Center. Please join us as we celebrate some of the rich customs surrounding Saint Joseph. “St. Joseph’s Day is a big feast for Italians because in the Middle Ages, God, through St. Joseph’s intercessions, saved the Sicilians from a very serious drought. So in his honor, the custom is for all to wear red, in the same way that green is worn for St. Patrick’s Day.” (Fisheaters.com)

Customarily, a beautifully decorated table is filled with delicious Italian treats, meatless foods like minestrone, pasta with bread crumbs (symbolizing the sawdust on St. Joseph’s floor), a basket for prayer intentions, symbolically shaped breads, and more!

A list of ideas for those who wish to contribute to the celebration will be sent out in an email this coming week.

Please join us for our celebration of St. Joseph!

Prayers for the Holy Father

The U.S. Bishops Conference is asking for prayers for Pope Francis during his illness and has published the prayer below, which can also be found at this link. [Prayers for Pope Francis]

~

O God, shepherd and ruler of all the faithful, look favorably on your servant Francis, whom you have set at the head of your Church as her shepherd;

Grant, we pray, that by word and example he may be of service to those over whom he presides so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care, he may come to everlasting life.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Latin Mass Novena to Saint Gregory the Great

There is still time to join us in praying our novena to Saint Gregory the Great ahead of his feast day this Wednesday March 12 (suppressed this year due to Ember Wednesday in Lent). Let us honor the Pope who codified the Latin Mass and the sacred Chant which bears his name (Gregorian), and to pray for the continued preservation of the Traditional Latin Mass. The novena concludes on March 11, the day prior to Saint Gregory’s Feast Day. The prayer is below and can also be downloaded as PDF at this link.

Novena to St. Gregory the Great

Pray daily March 3- March 11 (Feast Day March 12)

St. Gregory, you are known for your zeal for the Catholic faith, love of liturgy, and compassion and mercy toward those in need. Please help and guide us so that we may share in these virtues and thereby bring Jesus into the hearts of our families and all we encounter.

We especially ask for blessings on our parish family, our priests and our deacons. We also ask that you graciously intercede for us before God so that we might be granted the special assistance and graces that we seek:

(Intention: Continued preservation of the Traditional Latin Mass).

Help us to live as a faithful child of God and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven. St. Gregory the Great, pray for us. Amen.

Announcements

Saint Ann Parish Lenten Mission – Saint Ann parish will host a Lenten mission Sunday March 23 - Wednesday 26 featuring Fr. Basil Cole, OP (who spoke at Saint Thomas a few months ago). The mission will feature talks each night at 7:00 p.m. (the same talks will be offered each weekday morning at 10:30 a.m.). The last night of the mission, the 7:00 p.m. talk will be preceded by the 6:00 p.m. Latin Mass. A flyer is posted at the end of this update.

FSSP Saint John Bosco Camps – The Fraternity of Saint Peter has announced an expansion and new name for their annual Saint John Bosco Camps (SJBC). The new name is Bosco Ministries and they will continue to host outdoor summer camps for boys (for various ages) organized and run by FSSP priests as well as seminarians from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. The camps are intended to help participants grow in faith and virtue while experiencing God’s grandeur in His creation. Additionally, Bosco Ministries is hosting excursions for young adult men. They also closed on property in South Dakota to permanently host the camps. To learn more or to sign up, please read this announcement.

Young Adult Retreat by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest – The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a religious order which, like the FSSP, offers the Traditional Latin Mass exclusively and operates parishes in several dioceses, is also hosting their own youth and young adult retreats this year. [Youth Retreats] [Young Adults Sursum Corda Annual Retreat]

Fasting and Abstinence Disciplines During Lent – For those looking to practice the traditional Lenten disciplines in place prior to 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 and the current rules. [Discipline of 1962 for Fast during Lent]

St. Michael's Abbey Great Fast Program for Lent – For those looking for guided meditations and extra structure for their Lenten practices, Saint Michael's Abbey in California (whose priests offer both the Latin and Novus Ordo Masses) have announced their Great Fast Program. This daily regimen encourages the faithful, if they can, to adopt the ancient practice of daily Lenten fasting (one principal meal daily, except Sundays) and additional prayers. They offer daily meditations and videos. To sign up click here. [Introduction Video]

Consecration of those Governing to the Blessed Virgin Mary – Fr. Chad Ripperger has composed a prayer for our nation and government, Consecration of those Governing to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which may be found at the end of this update or downloaded here.

Holy Face Devotions

Prayers of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus are offered each week at the following churches on the indicated days:

• St. James (Concord) – Monday, 10-10:30 a.m. (in the cry room)

• St. Mark – Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.

• St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesday, 6:00 a.m.

• St. Ann – Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. (following 7:00 a.m. Novus Ordo Mass)

• St. Michael the Archangel (Gastonia) – Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. (following 8:00 a.m. Novus Ordo Mass)

• St. Vincent de Paul – Tuesday, 8:40 a.m.

• Holy Spirit (Denver) – Tuesday, 10-11:00 a.m. (following the 9:15 a.m. Novus Ordo Mass)

• Saint Elizabeth of the Hill Country (Boone) – First Tuesday, 5:15 p.m. in the Youth Room

• St. John the Baptist (Tryon) - First Saturday, 9:30 a.m. (after 8:30 a.m Latin Mass)

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).

Latin Mass and Liturgical News

• Ave Regina Caelorum: A Monastic Introduction to the Chant by Clear Creek Abbey (March 1, 2025). [Ave Regina Caelorum]

• St. Stanislaus’ New 40 Hours Banner by Fr. William Rock, FSSP, The Missive (February 24, 2025). [St. Stanislaus’ New 40 Hours Banner]

• The Unfinished, Yet Magnificent Cathedral of Beauvais by Shawn Tribe, Liturgical Arts Journal (February 27, 2025). [Unfinished Cathedral of Beauvais]

• Pope Francis Declares Korean War Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun ‘Venerable’ by Kristina Millare, National Catholic Register, (February 25, 2025). [Emil Kapaun Declared ‘Venerable’]

• Meménto: Newsletter for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, Published by the North American Province of the FSSP (Septuagesima & Lent February 2025 Newsletter). [Meménto]

Saints and Special Observances

Saint Gregory, Pope, Confessor and Doctor of the Church, the first pope to take that name, has been revered by the faithful since his death in 604 A.D. as Saint Gregory the Great. A monumental figure in ecclesiastical history, he was one of the four saints originally proclaimed to be Doctors of the Church.

Born around the year 540, Gregory was the son of a wealthy patrician named Gordianus who served as prefect of Rome and also held a position in the administration of the Church. His mother, Silvia, was the daughter of prominent landholders in Sicily. Gregory’s great-great-grandfather was Pope Felix III who ruled as primate of the Church from 483 to 492.

The years prior to Gregory’s birth had witnessed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. During his early childhood, the region around Rome was decimated by plague. In 546 the city was sacked by the barbarian Ostrogoths, and eight years later the Franks attacked Rome.

Well-educated and an expert in the field of law, Gregory rose in the civil administration of Rome to become prefect of the city at the age of thirty-three; but he longed for the monk’s life of solitude and contemplation. When his father died, Gregory turned his family’s Roman villa into a monastery under the patronage of Saint Andrew and lived as a monk during what he would later call the happiest years of his life.

This happy period of religious seclusion ended in 578 when the pope ordered Gregory to submit to ordination as one of the seven deacons of Rome. In the following year, with the Lombards closing in on the city, the pope sent Gregory with a delegation to Constantinople to ask the Byzantine emperor for military assistance. He remained in the Eastern capital, as permanent ambassador to the Court of Byzantium, for about six years. While there, Gregory engaged in a theological dispute with Eutychius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, regarding the latter’s claim that the resurrected bodies of the elect would be substantially less material than they had been prior to death. Gregory successfully countered Eutychius by referring to Scriptural passages that described the risen Christ coming into physical contact with his apostles and other followers in ways that manifested the materiality of his body.

Gregory returned to Rome convinced that the West could no longer look to Constantinople for aid when needed. Happily back in the monastery he had established, he was elected abbot of Saint Andrew’s. An encounter at the Forum with a group of youths from Britain inspired in Gregory a great desire to evangelize the Angles in that distant corner of what had once been the Roman Empire. But when he left Rome with a missionary contingent of monks, the local populace, incensed at the pope for allowing his departure, demanded his return. Acceding to public pressure, Pope Pelagius II sent men to overtake Gregory; they caught up with the would-be missionaries on the third day and succeeded in turning them back.

In 589 devastating floods followed by the onset of pestilential disease carried off thousands in Italy and wrecked the Roman economy. Then, in February of the following year, Pope Pelagius died. In their time of need the clergy and people of Rome turned to Gregory as their unanimous choice to succeed Pelagius. Horrified at the prospect of having to leave his quiet life at Saint Andrew’s forever in order to rule the Church, Gregory attempted for some time to prevent the formal confirmation of his election as pope. Thwarted in his efforts to escape the papacy, he was consecrated pope on the third day of September in the year 590.

The achievements of Pope Gregory I during his fourteen years as primate are rendered all the more remarkable by the fact that he suffered almost continually from ill health. He refused to rest from his labors despite the ravages of indigestion, bouts of fevers and the onset of gout in his later years.

The collapse of imperial rule in the West left a gap in the administration of public affairs that Gregory filled as pope, establishing a new model of the papacy which was to prevail throughout the medieval era. Rome was overrun at the time by indigent refugees who crowded into the city to escape the advancing Lombards. Gregory provided for their relief by drawing on the sizable patrimony of the Church and organizing the seven diaconate districts to handle the distribution of food and other necessities to those in need.

Even as pope he continued to lead a life of monastic simplicity, fasting and foregoing the material comforts his predecessors had taken for granted. The charity he manifested in directing the affairs of the Church was mirrored in his personal life: Each day he would share his main meal with twelve needy individuals invited to sit at his table.

The first monk to be elected pope, his performance as primate revealed an unparalleled ability to manage ecclesiastical finances and supervise the undertakings which produced increasing wealth for the use of the Church. His dream of evangelizing the Angles was realized when he sent a mission headed by the future Saint Augustine of Canterbury to convert the inhabitants of Britain to Christianity. While it is uncertain to what degree he was responsible for the adoption of plainchant as the music of the liturgy, after fourteen centuries it continues in use under the name Gregorian chant. Gregory can certainly be credited with a number of lasting liturgical modifications, such as moving the Pater Noster to its present location immediately following the Canon of the Mass.

His extensive writings represent the only comprehensive body of work produced by a pope in the second half of the first millennium of Church history. They include dialogues, sermons, Scriptural studies and pastoral works, as well as more than 850 letters written during his papacy.

Saint Gregory the Great died on March 12th in the year 604 and was interred in Saint Peter’s Basilica the same day. His remains were subsequently relocated within the basilica on several occasions. Immediately proclaimed a saint after his death, his feast day is celebrated annually on the anniversary of that event.

Closing Commentary

Finally, as we move into the penitential season of Lent, we offer a commentary by Dom Prospér Guéranger for the First Sunday of Lent, which is technically the official beginning of the season.

First Sunday of Lent

Lent solemnly opens today. We have already noticed that the four preceding days were added since the time of St. Gregory the Great, in order to make up Forty days of fasting. Neither can we look upon Ash Wednesday as the solemn opening of the Season, for the Faithful are not bound to hear Mass on that day. The Holy Church, seeing her children now assembled together, speaks to them, in her Office of Matins, these eloquent and noble words of St. Leo the Great: “Having to announce to you, dearly beloved, the most sacred and chief Fast, how can I more appropriately begin, than with the words of the Apostle, (in whom Christ himself spoke,) and by saying to you what has just been read: Behold! now is the acceptable time; behold! now is the day of salvation. For although there be no time, which is not replete with divine gifts, and we may always, by God’s grace, have access to his mercy, - yet ought we all to redouble our efforts to make spiritual progress and be animated with unusual confidence, now that the anniversary of the day of our Redemption is approaching, inviting us to devote ourselves to every good work, that so we may celebrate, with purity of body and mind, the incomparable Mystery of our Lord’s Passion.

“It is true, that our devotion and reverence towards so great a Mystery should be kept up during the whole year, and we ourselves be, at all times, in the eyes of God, the same as we are bound to be at the Easter Solemnity. But this is an effort which only few among us have the courage to sustain. The weakness of the flesh induces us to relent our austerities; the various occupations of every-day life take up our thoughts; and thus, even the virtuous find their hearts clogged by this world’s dust. Hence it is, that our Lord has most providentially given us these Forty Days, whose holy exercises should be to us a remedy, whereby to regain our purity of soul. The good works and the holy fastings of this Season were instituted as an atonement and obliteration of the sins we commit during the rest of the Year. [First Sunday of Lent]