I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep (John 10:11).
Dear Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday (April 14, 2024), the Second Sunday after Easter, is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of the message conveyed by Jesus in the Gospel reading: “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth His life for His sheep” (John 10:11). As He is speaking not to the choir but to a hostile group of Pharisees, Jesus also outlines the opposite case: The “hireling” tending sheep that are not his own sees the wolf coming and runs away, abandoning those he was supposed to protect. He does so because, being only a hired hand, “he hath no care for the sheep” (John 10:13). Once again Jesus condemns the Pharisees, and by extension the Jewish authorities, for their lack of charity toward the people.
Speaking as the one who actually owns the flock, Jesus reiterates, “I am the good Shepherd: and I know Mine, and Mine know Me” (John 10:14). As the rightful owner, He is willing to sacrifice all for those entrusted to His care: “As the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for My sheep” (John 10:15). But the claim of ownership made by Jesus extended to limits the Pharisees could scarcely imagine. Certainly they were scandalized by the assertion that it included other sheep “not of this fold” and by His declaration that “there shall be one fold and one shepherd”: One Church, embracing Jew and Gentile alike, under the care and protection of Jesus himself.
Calendar of Saints and Special Observances
Celebrations listed are those on the traditional liturgical calendar found in the Roman Missal of 1962 or on the calendar posted by Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary at fsspolgs.org.
Note: The feast of Saint Justin, Martyr, usually celebrated on April 14th, is displaced this year by the Second Sunday after Easter.
Second Sunday after Easter
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Second Sunday after Easter with either English or Spanish translation. The English version includes an incisive commentary by Don Prosper Guéranger entitled “I Know Mine and Mine Know Me,” excerpted from The Liturgical Year. The great Benedectine abbot interprets the final encounter between the resurrected Jesus and Saint Peter, at the end of Saint John’s Gospel, as the passing of the mantle of the Good Shepherd from Our Lord to the man he had chosen to be the head of his Church. In addition, we offer a link to Dr. Michael P. Foley’s article from New Liturgical Movement on “The Freefall Collect of Good Shepherd Sunday.”
Latin Mass Schedule: Second Sunday after Easter (April 14th)
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Latin Mass Schedule: Weekdays
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Monday-Friday
Saturday
As a reminder, travelers may wish to consult with the parish to confirm Mass times. To see our full Latin Mass times schedule please visit our website.
Announcements
Save the date: Thursday April 25, 7pm: St. Thomas Aquinas will offer a special Rogation Mass, which is an ancient penitential Latin Mass and major petitions occurring each April 25 (and the week of Ascension), instituted against calamities. Rogare is Latin for petitioning earnestly. More details in the week to follow.
Free Latin Mass Booklets - We are pleased to remind our readers that TAN Books has generously provided some of its classic Latin Mass booklets, as well as other notable books about the Traditional Latin Mass, for free distribution. Included in the offering is TAN’s recently reissued In Defense of Latin in the Mass by Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), translated by Fr. Robert Nixon, OSB, with a forward by Joseph Shaw. Limited quantities are available, so please stop by the Latin Mass table in the vestibule of Saint Ann Church Sunday. The books will also be found on the Latin Mass table at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church. We are grateful to TAN Books and encourage our readers to take a look at the other traditional books they offer. [TAN Books]
Special Camp for Young Men
This coming May 12-17, Jason Craig and Craig Taffaro, both 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. 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 media-and-tech-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
Saints and Special Celebrations
Saints and Special Celebrations will not be published this week but we hope to resume it for our next weekend update.
Closing Commentary
We offer in closing an excerpt from Dom Prosper Guéranger’s commentary on the Second Sunday after Easter, followed by a link to the complete text.
Second Sunday After Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday
This Sunday goes under the name of the Good Shepherd Sunday, because in the Mass, there is read the Gospel of St. John, wherein our Lord calls himself by this name. How very appropriate is this passage of the Gospel to this present Season, when our Divine Master began his work of establishing and consolidating the Church, by giving it the Pastor, or Shepherd, who was to govern it to the end of time!
In accordance with the eternal decree, the ManGod, on the fortieth day after his Resurrection, is to withdraw his visible presence from the world. He is not to be again seen upon the earth till the Last Day, when he will come again to judge the living and the dead. And yet, he could never abandon mankind, for which he offered himself on the Cross, and which he delivered from death and hell by rising triumphantly from the Grave. He will continue to be its Head after his Ascension into heaven : but what shall we have, on earth, to supply his place ? We shall have the Church. It is to the Church that he will leave all his own authority to rule us; it is into the hands of the Church that he will intrust all the truths he has taught ; it is the Church that he will make the dispenser of all those means of salvation, which he has destined for the world.
This Church is a society, unto which all mankind is invited. It is composed of two classes of Members ; the governing and the governed ; the teaching and the taught ; the sanctifying and the sanctified. This Society is the Spouse of Christ ; it is by her that he produces his elect. She is the one only Mother of the elect ; out of her bosom, there is no salvation.
But how is this society to subsist ? how is it to persevere through the long ages of time, even to the Last Day ? who is to give it unity and adhesion of its parts ? what is to be the visible link between its members, – the palpable sign of its being the true Spouse of Christ, in the event of other societies rising up and disputing her titles ? If Jesus himself could have remained with us, we should have had nothing to fear, for where he is, there also are truth and life ; but, as he says, he is going, and we may not as yet follow him. Give ear, then, and learn what is the primary quality of the true Spouse of Christ.
Jesus was one day, previous to his Passion, in the country of Cesarea Philippi; his Apostles were standing around him, and he began questioning them about what they thought of him. One of them, Simon the son of John or Jonas, and brother to Andrew, answered in the name of all, and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God! Jesus expressed his pleasure at receiving Simon’s testimony, which was not the result of any human knowledge, but the expression of a divine revelation there and then granted to him; and he immediately told this Apostle that from that time forward he was to be not Simon, but Peter (which means a Rock). Christ had been spoken of by the Prophets under the name of a Rock, or Stone; by thus solemnly conferring upon his Disciple a title so characteristically that of the Messias, Jesus would give us to understand that Simon was to have a something in common with himself, which the other Apostles were not to have. After saying to him: Thou art Peter (that is, thou art the Rock)—he added: And upon this Rock I will build my Church.
Let us weigh the force of these words of the Son of God: I will build my Church. He has, then, a project in view—he intends to build a Church. It is not now that he will build it, but at some future period; but one thing we already know as a certainty—it is that this Church will be built on Peter. Peter will be its foundation; and whosoever is not on that foundation will not belong to the Church. Let us again give ear to the Text: And the gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church. In scriptural language, gates signify the powers: the Church of Christ, therefore, it to be proof against all the efforts of hell. And why? Because the foundation, which Jesus is to give to it, shall be one that no power can shake. The Son of God continues: And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the language of the Jews, keys signify the power of governing; and in the Gospel Parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church built by Christ. By saying to Peter (which is henceforth to be Simon’s name), I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus implied this: “I will make thee the King of my Church, of which thou art to be the Foundation!” Nothing could be clearer. But let us remember that all these magnificent promises regard the future.
That future has now become the present. We are now come to the last days of Jesus’ visible presence here below. The time is come for him to make good his promise and found the Kingdom of God—that Church which he was to build upon the earth. The Apostles, in obedience to the order sent them by the Angels, are come into Galilee. Our Lord appears to them on the shore of the lake of Tiberias: after providing them with a mysterious repast, and while they are all attentive to his words, he suddenly addresses himself to Peter: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Observe, he does not call him Peter; he, as it were, goes back to the day when he said to him: Simon, son of Jonas, thou art Peter; he would have his Disciples note the connection between the promise and its actual fulfillment. Peter, with his usual eagerness, answers his Master’s question: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus resumes, with a tone of authority: Feed my Lambs! Then, repeating the question, he asks: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter is surprised at his Master’s urging such an inquiry; still, he answers with the same simplicity as before: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee: and as soon as he had given answer, Jesus repeats the words of investiture: Feed my lambs!
The Disciples respectfully listen to this dialogue; they see plainly that, here again, Peter is made an object of Jesus’ partiality, and is receiving a something which they themselves are not to receive. They remember what happened at Cesarea Philippi, and how, ever since that day, Peter has been treated by their Master with especial honor. And yet, there is another privilege or office to be added to this of feeding the Lambs. A third time, then, Jesus says to Peter: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? This is too much for the apostle. These three questionings of his love bring to his mind the three denials he had so sinfully made to the servant girl of Caiphas. He feels the allusion to his recent infidelity; and this third time, his answer implies a prayer for forgiveness; his reply bespeaks humility rather than assurance: Lord! says he, thou knowest all things! Thou knowest that I love thee! Then, making Peter’s authority complete, Jesus pronounces these imposing words: Feed my Sheep!
Here, then, we have Peter made Shepherd by Him who says of himself: I am the good Shepherd. Firstly, our Lord gives his apostle, and twice over, the care of his Lambs;—this does not make him the complete Shepherd: but when he bids him feed his Sheep too, the whole Flock is subjected to his authority. Now, therefore, let the Church show herself, let her take her stand, let her spread herself through the length and breadth of the nations: Simon, the son of John, is proclaimed its visible Head. Is the Church a Building? he is the Foundation-Stone, the Petra, the Rock. Is she a Kingdom? he holds the Keys, that is, the scepter. Is she a Fold? he is the Shepherd.
Yes,
this Church—which Jesus is now organizing, and is to be proclaimed to
the world on the day of Pentecost—is to be a Fold. The Word, the Second
Person of the Blessed Trinity, is come down from heaven, that he may
gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed; and the
time is at hand when there shall be but one Fold and one Shepherd. O
Jesus! our Divine Shepherd! we bless thee, we give thee thanks. It is by
thee that the Church thou art now founding, subsists and lives through
every age, congregating and saving all that put themselves under her
guidance. Her authority, her strength, her unity, all come from thee,
her infinitely powerful and merciful Shepherd! We likewise bless and
thank thee for that thou hast secured this authority, this strength,
this unity, by giving us Peter as thy Vicar, Peter our Shepherd in and
by Thee, Peter to whom all, both Sheep and Lambs, owe obedience, Peter
in whom thou, our Divine Head, will be forever visible, even to the end
of the world!
[Second Sunday after Easter]
We wish our readers a blessed Eastertide. Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere!