Dear Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday (September 15, 2024) is the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. It has been called the Sunday of Love because of the response made by Jesus when confronted by the Pharisees in the Gospel reading for the day (Matthew 22:34-46). One of the Pharisees sought to test both the orthodoxy of Our Lord and His knowledge of Scripture, asking Him, “Master, which is the great commandment of the law?” Jesus answered by quoting first from Deuteronomy and then Leviticus: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.” Sadly, as St. Alphonsus Liguori noted of the first, “But this, which is the greatest of the commandments, is the most despised by men” (Sermon XLVI). And it is in this lack of love for God that the source of all the world’s ills, from legalized abortion to genocide, and even the corruption existing within the Church, is to be found.
Calendar of Saints and Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, September 15 – Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (II)
Monday, September 16 – St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop (III); and Commemoration of St. Euphemia and Companions, Martyrs
Tuesday, September 17 – Commemoration of the Stigmata of St. Francis, Confessor
Wednesday, September 18 – Ember Wednesday/St. Joseph of Cupertino, OFM, Confessor (III)
Thursday, September 19 – St. Januarius, Bishop, and Others, Martyrs (III)
Friday, September 20 – Ember Friday/Commemoration of St. Eustace and Others, Martyrs
Saturday, September 21 – Ember Saturday/St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (II)
Note: The Seven Sorrows of Our Blessed Lady (II) and commemoration of St. Nicomedes, Martyr, which are usually celebrated on September 15th in accordance with the traditional Roman Calendar, are displaced this year by the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost with either English or Spanish translation. The English version includes a commentary on the Gospel reading excerpted from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB (1805-1875). We also offer a link to a New Liturgical Movement article by Dr. Michael P. Foley on “Unity versus the Devil: The Collect of the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost.”
Latin Mass Schedule: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (September 15, 2024)
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Latin Mass Schedule: Weekdays
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
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, holy days of obligation and other special feast days.
Ember Week: This week includes the Ember Days of Autumn, which according to the 1962 calendar, are three days of prayer and penance (now voluntary) near the beginning of fall to give thanks to God for the gifts of creation and to consecrate the upcoming season. The autumn 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 please see related articles in our Latin Mass and Liturgical News section.
Announcements
Doughnuts and Coffee at Saint Ann Parish
Beginning this Sunday, September 15th, Saint Ann Parish and the Saint Ann Hospitality Ministry will be sponsoring doughnuts and coffee after each Mass – including the 12:30 p.m. Latin Mass – on the third Sunday of every month.
Members of the Carolina Traditional Liturgy Society have volunteered to help serve, but we are also looking for a family or two to assist us either in serving doughnuts and coffee after Mass or helping to clean up around 2:45p.m. If you can help please contact us at info@carolinaliturgy.org or by reply to this email.
This is a great way to give back to the parish that has hosted the Traditional Latin Mass for nearly 15 years!
Meal Assistance for Families with New Arrivals
Two Latin Mass families at St. Thomas Aquinas have recently been blessed by new arrivals. Congratulations to the Shoup and Simmers families on their new babies, both boys, born on August 18th and 22nd respectively. Please consider signing up to provide a meal for either one or both of these expanding families during this period of adjustment. A Meal Train link is provided below for each. [Meal Train for the Shoup Family] [Meal Train for the Simmers Family]
Update on the Jacksonville Carmelite Sisters Affected by Hurricane Debbie
In an email update, the Jacksonville Carmelite Sisters thanked everyone who contributed to their new roof to replace the one damaged by Hurricane Debbie a few weeks ago. The Sisters reported the new roof work began this past week. During their historic move from New York to Florida this past January, the Jacksonville Carmelites were hosted by Saint Ann Parish for an overnight stay in Charlotte. At the new location in Jacksonville, the Carmelite convent is probably the nearest to Charlotte of any traditional contemplative religious community. To continue supporting the sisters, please click here.
Prayers for the Election
54-Day Rosary Novena: In the September 6th issue of his weekly “The Friday Five from Father Reid,” the St. Ann pastor encouraged recipients to participate in a 54-Day Rosary Novena in connection with the upcoming national election. The novena began Friday (September 13th) and will conclude on Election Day (November 5th). Participants are asked to pray the Rosary daily for the intention that God’s will may be done in the election. “But also pray,” Fr. Reid urged his readers, “for the respect and protection of life in all its stages; for the sanctity of marriage and families; for the upholding of constitutionally protected religious freedom; and for a return of our nation to God and holiness. And, of course, we should pray for peace in our world.” Fr. Reid also encouraged those who join in the 54-Day Rosary Novena to fast during this period, giving up something to reinforce their dedication to the prayer intentions.
Fr. Chad Ripperger’s Prayer for the Election: Fr. Chad Ripperger, who spoke at Saint Thomas Aquinas last year, is asking the faithful of the United States to pray for our nation as the election approaches. He has written a special prayer consecrating the election and its outcome to Our Lady. The text of the prayer may be found at the end of this update or downloaded at this link.
Fr. Ripperger is a Latin Mass priest and former member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) who left the order to found the priestly community known as the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother (the Doloran Fathers). He is widely known for his work as an exorcist.
Holy Face Devotions
Prayers of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus are offered each week at the following churches on the indicated days:
“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
The Commemoration of the Stigmata of St. Francis, Confessor is celebrated annually on the 17th of September in accordance with the traditional liturgical calendar of the Church. This year is actually the 800th anniversary of St. Francis receiving the stigmata. What follows is an excerpt from Chapter XIII (“Of the Stigmata”) of St. Bonaventure’s biography, The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Those wishing to read the complete text, in which the many miracles associated with the stigmata are described, can make use of the following link to download a copy of E. Gurney Salter’s English translation posted online by e-Catholic 2000: The Life Of St. Francis Of Assisi by St. Bonaventure.
The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Bonaventure
Translated by E. Gurney Salter: 1904 by E.P. Dutton, New York, US.
Chapter XIII OF THE SACRED STIGMATA
1. It was the custom of that angelic man, Francis, never to be slothful in good, but rather, like the heavenly spirits on Jacob’s ladder, to be ever ascending toward God, or stooping toward his neighbour. For he had learnt so wisely to apportion the time granted unto him for merit that one part thereof he would spend in labouring for the profit of his neighbours, the other he would devote unto the peaceful ecstasies of contemplation. Wherefore, when according unto the demands of time and place he had stooped to secure the salvation of others, he would leave behind the disturbances of throngs, and seek a hidden solitude and a place for silence, wherein, giving himself up more freely unto the Lord, he might brush off any dust that was clinging unto him from his converse with men. Accordingly, two years before he yielded his spirit unto heaven, the divine counsel leading him, he was brought after many and varied toils unto an high mountain apart, that is called Mount Alverna. When, according unto his wont he began to keep a Lent there, fasting, in honour of Saint Michael Archangel, he was filled unto overflowing, and as never before, with the sweetness o£ heavenly contemplation, and was kindled with a yet more burning flame of heavenly longings, and began to feel the gifts of the divine bestowal heaped upon him. He was borne into the heights, not like a curious examiner of the divine majesty that is weighed down by the glory thereof, but even as a faithful and wise servant, searching out the will of God, unto Whom it was ever his fervent and chief desire to conform himself in every way.
2. Thus by the divine oracle it was instilled into his mind that by opening of the Book of the Gospels it should be revealed unto him of Christ what would be most pleasing unto God in him and from him. (Wherefore, having first prayed very devoutly, he took the holy Book of the Gospels from the altar, and made it be opened, in the name of the Holy Trinity, by his companion, a man devoted unto God, and holy. As in the threefold opening of the Book, the Lord’s Passion was each time discovered, Francis, full of the Spirit of God, verily understood that, like as he had imitated Christ in the deeds of his life, so it behoved him to be made like unto Him in the trials and sufferings of His Passion before that he should depart from this world. And, albeit by reason of the great austerity of his past life, and continual sustaining of the Lord’s Cross, he was now frail in body, he was no whit afeared, but was the more valorously inspired to endure a martyrdom. For in him the all-powerful kindling of love of the good Jesu had increased into coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame, so that many waters could not quench his love, so strong it was.
3. When, therefore, by seraphic glow of longing he had been uplifted toward God, and by his sweet compassion had been transformed into the likeness of Him Who of His exceeding love endured to be crucified,—on a certain morning about the Feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross, while he was praying on the side of the mountain, he beheld a Seraph having six wings, flaming and resplendent, coming down from the heights of heaven. When in his flight most swift he had reached the space of air nigh the man of God, there appeared betwixt the wings the Figure of a Man crucified, having his hands and feet stretched forth in the shape of a Cross, and fastened unto a Cross. Two wings were raised above His head, twain were spread forth to fly, while twain hid His whole body. Beholding this, Francis was mightily astonished, and joy, mingled with sorrow, filled his heart. He rejoiced at the gracious aspect wherewith he saw Christ, under the guise of the Seraph, regard him, but His crucifixion pierced his soul with a sword of pitying grief. He marvelled exceedingly at the appearance of a vision so unfathomable, knowing that the infirmity of the Passion doth in no wise accord with the immortality of a Seraphic spirit. At length he understood therefrom, the Lord revealing it unto him, that this vision had been thus presented unto his gaze by the divine providence, that the friend of Christ might have foreknowledge that he was to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ Crucified, not by martyrdom of body, but by enkindling of heart. Accordingly, as the vision disappeared, it left in his heart a wondrous glow, but on his flesh also it imprinted a no less wondrous likeness of its tokens. For forthwith there began to appear in his hands and feet the marks of the nails, even as he had just beheld them in that Figure of the Crucified. For his hands and feet seemed to be pierced through the midst with nails, the heads of the nails shewing in the palms of the hands, and upper side of the feet, and their points shewing on the other side; the heads of the nails were round and black in the hands and feet, while the points were long, bent, and as it were turned back, being formed, of the flesh itself, and protruding therefrom. The right side, moreover, was—as if it had been pierced by a lance—seamed with a ruddy scar, wherefrom ofttimes welled the sacred blood, staining his habit and breeches.
4. Now the servant of Christ perceived that the stigmata thus manifestly imprinted on his flesh could not be hidden from his intimate friends; nevertheless, fearing to make public the holy secret of the Lord, he was set in a great strife of questioning, to wit, whether he should tell that which he had seen, or should keep it silent. Wherefore he called some of the Brethren, and, speaking unto them in general terms, set before them his doubt, and asked their counsel. Then one of the Brethren, Illuminato by name, and illuminated by grace, perceiving that he had beheld some marvellous things, inasmuch as that he seemed almost stricken dumb with amaze, said unto the holy man: “Brother, thou knowest that at times the divine secrets are shewn unto thee, not only for thine own sake, but for the sake of others also. Wherefore, meseemeth thou wouldst have reason to fear lest thou shouldst be judged guilty of hiding thy talent, didst thou keep hidden that which thou hast received, which same would be profitable unto many.” At this speech, the holy man was moved, so that, albeit at other times he was wont to say “ My secret to me,” he did then with much fear narrate in order the vision aforesaid, adding that He who had appeared unto him had said some words the which, so long as he lived, he would never reveal unto any man. Verily we must believe that those utterances of that holy Seraph marvellously appearing on the Cross were so secret that perchance it was not lawful for a man to utter them.
5. Now after that the true love of Christ had transformed His lover into the same image, and after that he had spent forty days in solitude, as he had determined, when the Feast of Saint Michael Archangel came, this angelic man, Francis, descended from the mountain, bearing with him the likeness of the Crucified, engraven, not on tables of stone or of wood, by the craftsman’s hand, but written on his members of flesh by the finger of the Living God. And forasmuch as it is good to keep close the secret of a King, the man that shared this so royal secret did ever hide those sacred signs as best he might. Howbeit, since it pertaineth unto God to reveal the great things that He doth for His glory, the Lord Himself, Who had imprinted those seals upon him in secret, wrought divers miracles openly by means thereof, that the hidden and wondrous power of those stigmata might be demonstrated by the well-known fame of the signs that followed.
[The Life Of St. Francis Of Assisi by St. Bonaventure]
Closing Commentary
We offer, in closing, an excerpt from the commentary of Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, on “The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost,” followed by a link to the full text of the commentary from The Liturgical Year.
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Gospel, which is now assigned to the Mass of the seventeenth Sunday, has given it the name of the Sunday of the love of God, dating, that is, from the time when the Gospel of the cure of the dropsy and of the invitation to the wedding-feast, was anticipated by eight days. Previously, even, to that change, and from the very first, there used to be read on this seventeenth Sunday, another passage from the New Testament which is no longer found in this serial of Sundays: it was the Gospel which mentions the difficulty regarding the resurrection of the dead, which the Sadducees proposed to our Lord.
Mass.—The judgments of God are always just, whether it be, in his justice, humbling the proud or, in his mercy, exalting the humble. This day last week, we saw this Sovereign disposer of all things allotting to each his place at the divine banquet. Let us recall to mind the behavior of the guests and the respective treatment shown to the humble and the proud. Adoring these judgments of our Lord, let us sing our Introit; and as far as regards our own selves, let us throw ourselves entirely upon his mercy.
The most hateful of all the obstacles which divine love has to encounter upon earth is the jealousy of Satan, who endeavors, by an impious usurpation of his own, to rob God of the possession of our souls—souls, that is, which were created by and for Him alone. Let us unite with holy Church in praying, in the Collect, for the supernatural assistance we require for avoiding the foul contact of the hideous serpent.
The Church, by thus giving the words from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, again takes up the subject so dear to her—the dignity of her children. She beseeches them to correspond, in a becoming manner, to their high Vocation. This Vocation, this Call, which God gives us is, as we have been so often told, the call, or invitation, made to the human family, that it would come to the sacred nuptials of the divine Union; it is the Vocation given to us to reign in heaven with the Word, who had made himself our Spouse, and our Head. The Gospel read to us eight days ago, which was formerly the one appointed for this present Sunday, and what thus brought into close connection with our Epistle—that Gospel, we say, finds itself admirably commented by these words of St. Paul to the Ephesians, and it, in turn, throws light on the Apostle’s words about the Vocation. When thou art invited to a Wedding (“cum vocatus fueris”) sit down in the lowest place! These were our Lord’s words to us last Sunday; and now, we have the Apostle saying to us: Walk worthy of the vocation in which ye are called, yes, walk in that vocation with all humility!
Let us now attentively hearken to our Apostle, telling us what we must do, in order to prove ourselves worthy of the high honor offered to us by the Son of God. We must practice, among other virtues, these three—humility, mildness, and patience. These are the means for gaining the end that is so generously proposed to us. And what is this end? It is the unity of that immense body, which the Son of God makes his own, by the mystic nuptials he vouchsafes to celebrate with our human nature. This Man-God asks one condition from those whom he calls, whom he invites, to become, through the Church, his Bride, bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. This one condition is that they maintain such harmony among them that it will make one body and one spirit of them all, in the bond of peace. “Bond most glorious!” cries out St. John Chrysostom, “bond most admirable, which unites us all mutually with one another, and then, thus united, unites us with God.” The strength of this bond is the strength of the Holy Spirit himself, who is all holiness and love; for it is that Holy Spirit who forms these spiritual and divine ties; He it is who, with the countless multitude of the Baptised, does the work which the soul does in the human body, that is, it gives it life, and it unites all the members into oneness of person. It is by the Holy Ghost that young and old, poor and rich, men and women, distinct as all these are in other respects, are made one, fused, so to say, in the fire which eternally burns in the blessed Trinity. But in order that the flame of infinite love may thus draw into its embrace our regenerated humanity, we must get rid of selfish rivalries and grudges and dissentions which, so long as they exist among us, prove us to be carnal, and therefore, that we are unfit material for either the divine flame to touch, or for the Union which that flame produces. According to the beautiful comparison of St. John Chrysostom—when fire lays hold of various species of wood which have been thrown into it, if it find the fuel properly dry, it makes one burning pile of all the several woods; but if they are damp and wet, it cannot act on them separately nor reduce the whole to one common blaze: so is it in the spiritual order; the unhealthy humidity of the passions neutralizes the action of the sanctifying Spirit; and Union, which is both the means and end of love, becomes an impossibility.
[The Liturgical Year – The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost]
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CONSECRATION OF THE ELECTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the eternal Wisdom lies hidden to be adored and served by angels and men, Queen of heaven and of earth, beneath whose sway are subject all things that are lower than God, Patroness of the United States of America, sorrowful and mindful of our own sinfulness and the sins of our nation, we come to thee, our refuge and hope.
Knowing that our country cannot be saved by our own works and mindful of how much our nation has departed from the ways of thy Son, we humbly ask that thou wouldst turn thine eyes upon our country to bring about its conversion.
We consecrate to thee the integrity of the upcoming election and its outcome, so that what is spiritually and morally best for the citizens of our country may be accomplished, and that all of those who are elected would govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of thy Son.
Give grace to the citizens of this land so that they will choose leaders according to the Sacred Heart of thy Son, that His glory may be made manifest, lest we be given the leaders we deserve. Trusting in the providential care of God the Father and thy maternal care, we have perfect confidence that thou wilt take care of us and will not leave us forsaken.
O Mary Immaculate, pray for us. Amen
Fr. Chad Ripperger
To download a PDF copy of this prayer please visit this link.