Palm Sunday

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, April 13 – Palm Sunday (I)

Monday, April 14 – Monday of Holy Week (I)

Tuesday, April 15 – Tuesday of Holy Week (I)

Wednesday, April 16 – Wednesday of Holy Week (I)

Thursday, April 17 – Holy Thursday (I)

Friday, April 18 – Good Friday (I)

Saturday, April 19 – 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.

Latin Mass Schedule: Sundays

Charlotte Area Latin Masses

  • 11:30 a.m., Saint Thomas Aquinas

  • 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

  • 12:30 p.m., Prince of Peace (Taylors SC) **Special Time for Palm Sunday. Blessing of Palms and Procession begin in the Parish House**

  • 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 (April 14 - 19)

Charlotte Area Latin Masses

  • Saint Ann – Wednesday, 6:00 p.m.

  • Saint Thomas Aquinas – Holy Thursday, No Latin Mass due to Holy Week

  • Saint Ann – Good Friday, No Latin Mass due to Holy Week

Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses

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

  • Saint John the Baptist (Tryon) – Good Friday, No Latin Mass due to Holy Week

  • Church of the Epiphany (Blowing Rock) – Good Friday, No Latin Mass due to Holy Week

Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses

  • Prince of Peace (Taylors SC) – Monday-Wednesday, 12:00 p.m. (No Latin Mass Thursday, Friday or Saturday due to Holy Week)

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.

Note: For Palm Sunday, April 13, 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.

Due to Holy Week, the Thursday (April 17), Friday (April 18), and Saturday (April 19) Latin Masses are canceled. 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.

Cancellation: There will not be a Latin Mass at Saint Thomas Aquinas on Easter Thursday (April 24th).


Announcements

Congratulations to Deacon David Carter, FSSP – Please pray for newly ordained Deacon David Carter, FSSP, a Saint Ann parishioner who is a seminarian with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) and was ordained last Saturday April 5 to the diaconate in Nebraska. [Diaconate Ordination Photos]

Doughnuts on Fourth Sunday in April – Due to Easter, the normal Third Sunday doughnuts after Mass at Saint Ann parish is moved to Fourth Sunday April 27.

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]

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) – Third Tuesday (starting April 15), 5:15 p.m. in the Youth Room **NEW DATE**

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

  • League of St. Martin Monthly Meeting in Gastonia - The League of St. Martin is a Holy Face apostolate that meets monthly to pray the Chaplet of the Holy Face of Jesus. For additional information regarding the League contact ericpieper@me.com.

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


Saints and Special Observances

Saint Peter, after figuring prominently in the events that transpired on the night of the Last Supper, as described in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, is entirely absent from the evangelist’s account of what happened after dawn on the day Our Lord was crucified. The last we hear of him is Matthew’s terse description of Peter’s response to the crowing of a cock immediately after his third denial of any association with Jesus: “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said: Before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice. And going forth, he wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).

In the second Gospel, Mark records Peter’s response to the crowing of the cock in similar fashion (“And he began to weep”) but quotes Jesus as having said, “Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny me” (Mark 14:72) [emphasis added]. Peter does not appear again in the Gospel, although his name is mentioned one time. When Mary Magdalen and her companions come on Easter morning to anoint with sweet spices the body of Jesus, they find the stone that had sealed the sepulchre rolled away. Upon entering the tomb, they encounter a young man wearing a white robe who tells them Jesus is risen: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. There you shall see him, as he told you” (Mark 16:7). Note that he does not say, “But go, tell Peter and his other disciples. . . .” The implication is that Peter has, in effect, separated himself from the body of followers by his triple denial of both Jesus and his own identity.

It is left to Luke to rehabilitate Peter by bringing him back into the narrative after describing his response to the crowing of the cock in the same way as Matthew and Mark: “And Peter going out, wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62). Unlike the first two evangelists, Luke makes him an active participant in the events of Easter morning, although he mentions him only once. When Mary Magdalen and the other women return with news of the empty tomb, Luke tells us, “But Peter rising up, ran to the sepulchre and, stooping down, he saw the linen cloths laid by themselves: and went away wondering in himself at that which was come to pass” (Luke 24:12). We see, at least, the beginning of a return to faith in Jesus.

Only in the Gospel According to Saint John do we get the full picture of Peter’s involvement in the events of the Resurrection. There, we get what amounts to the eyewitness testimony of “the other disciple,” as John styles himself in demurring from use of his own name. He says nothing about Peter’s response when the cock crowed at dawn on the day Our Savior died, only noting with regard to the third denial, “Again therefore Peter denied: and immediately the cock crew” (John 18:27). But where the other evangelists essentially write Peter out of the script following his defection, John reveals him to be a major actor in the rest of the story sketched in the last two chapters of his Gospel.

It is “to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved” that Mary Magdalen runs with news of the discovery of the empty tomb (John 20:2). Peter and John then run together to see for themselves that the body of Jesus is no longer in the sepulchre. John outruns the older disciple but then steps aside to let Peter enter before him: “Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre: and saw the linen cloths lying” (John 20:6).

In the last chapter of his Gospel, John tells the story of the dramatic encounter between Peter and the resurrected Christ on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. Peter and James and John have seemingly gone back to their former lives as fishermen. When Peter announces his intention to go fishing, several of the disciples present join him. They fish all night but catch nothing. When the sun comes up, they see a man standing on the shore; he asks if they have any meat. The fishermen admit they have nothing, and the man tells them to cast their net to the right of the ship. When they do so, they are unable to lift the net into the boat because of the “multitude of fishes” it contains. Then John realizes the man on the shore is Jesus. “It is the Lord,” he tells Peter who promptly jumps into the water and swims ashore to greet Jesus.

When the boat bearing John and the other disciples reaches the shore, Jesus tells them to bring the fish they had caught. “Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not broken” (John 21:11). Jesus, having prepared a fire, proceeds to cook for them. Then, turning to Peter, he says, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these?” and Peter replies, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.” “Feed my lambs,” Jesus tells him. This exchange is repeated not once but twice in essentially the same words, Jesus extracting a threefold confession from Peter to counter his triple denial in the dark hours before dawn on the day of Our Lord’s crucifixion. Each time, he addresses his wayward follower not by the name he had given him but by the name he bore before Christ called him to be the rock on which his Church was to be built.

After speaking of the martyrdom Peter was fated to endure, Jesus says to him, “Follow me.” As they walk along the shore, Peter turns and sees “that disciple whom Jesus loved” following them. Stung by the revelation of his own fate, he asks about the other disciple: “Lord, and what shall this man do?” (John 21:21). Then, rebuking Peter, “Jesus saith to him: So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee? Follow thou me” (John 21:22).

And John, who clearly heard every word exchanged between Jesus and Peter that day as they walked along the shore, is unmasked at last in the penultimate verse of his Gospel: “This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things and hath written these things: and we know that his testimony is true” (John 21:24).


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]