Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday is the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel reading for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost tells how Jesus healed a man afflicted by dropsy, a painful and potentially debilitating condition characterized by the excessive collection of fluid in bodily tissues. The nature of the ailment is of secondary importance; the significance of the event is to be found in two details regarding its setting: (1) The miracle was performed on the sabbath day, in defiance of the Mosaic Law, out of compassion for the sufferer. (2) It was done in the presence of notable religious figures who were bound to disapprove of what Jesus did. The Gospel reading tells us, “Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day to eat bread,” adding rather ominously, “that they watched him” (Luke 14:1). They were waiting for Him to do what He did – heal a man as an act of charity – so that they could condemn Him once again for violating the sabbath.
Calendar of Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, September 13 – Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (II)
Monday, September 14 – The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (II)
Tuesday, September 15 – Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary (II) – Commemoration of St. Nicomedes, Martyr
Wednesday, September 16 – Ss. Cornelius, Pope; and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs (III) – Commemoration of St. Euphemia, Virgin and Martyr; and Ss Lucia and Geminianus, Martyrs
Thursday, September 17 – Feria (IV) – Commemoration of The Stigmata of St. Francis
Friday, September 18 – St. Joseph of Cupertino, Confessor (III)
Saturday, September 19 – St. Januarius, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs (III)
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for the Sixteenth 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
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.
Chapel of the Little Flower Announcements
Mass Intentions for Sunday
Sunday September 13, 10:00 a.m. – +Repose of the souls of John and Frances Brosnan by Kimberly Brosnan
Fall/Winter Mass Intentions
The Mass Book will be open for October, November, December, and January Mass intentions on Sunday September 20th between the 10:00 and 12:00 Masses. Mass stipends, either cash or check, will be collected that day for the Mass intentions.
If one is available to help on the 20th with the collection of the Mass intentions, please sign up on the signup sheet on the table in the narthex.
Support Sacred Music at the Chapel by Joining the Schola and Choir
The Church teaches us that singing is praying twice. Please consider lending your musical talents to the beautifying of the sacred liturgy here at the Chapel of the Little Flower. If one would like more information about joining the schola and choir, please contact the Chapel music director whose contact information is at the bottom of the hymn sheets found on the table in the narthex. Thank you for your generosity.
Saint Ann Parishioner Catholic School Check In
If one is a parishioner at St. Ann parish and has children enrolled in the Catholic schools, please scan the QR code found on the table in the narthex of the Chapel. This is the new attendance check in system.
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 Lost and Found 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
SAVE THE DATE Saturday October 3: Saint Ann Carnival – The Saint Ann 2026 Carnival will be held on October 3rd from 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. featuring family fun for everyone with rides and games, food and drink, bingo, bake sale, church tours, and a brand-new toddler fun zone. More information can be found in the St. Ann's bulletin, website, and social media pages. The parish hopes to see you there! Learn more at this link.
Relic of True Cross at Saint Ann - Monday September 14 – On the Feast of the Holy Cross, Monday September 14, St. Ann parish will expose a relic of the True Cross in the church from 7:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Please come and venerate the instrument of our salvation. And please treat the relic as one would the Eucharist by genuflecting before it.
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.
Bishop Martin issues Pastoral Letter to the Faithful Associated with the Society of Saint Pius X
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/
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
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. 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 “September 14 – The Exaltation of the Holy Cross,” followed by a link to the full text of the commentary from The Liturgical Year.
September 14 – The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
“Through thee the precious Cross is honored and worshiped throughout the world.” Thus did St. Cyril of Alexandria apostrophize our Lady on the morrow of that great day, which saw her divine maternity vindicated at Ephesus. Eternal Wisdom has willed that the Octave of Mary’s birth should be honored by the celebration of this Feast of the triumph of the holy Cross. The Cross indeed is the standard of God’s armies, whereof Mary is the Queen; it is by the Cross that she crushes the serpent’s head, and wins so many victories over error, and over the enemies of the Christian name.
By this sign thou shalt conquer. Satan had been suffered to try his strength against the Church by persecution and tortures; but his time was drawing to an end. By the edict of Sardica, which emancipated the Christians, Galerius, when about to die, acknowledged the powerlessness of hell. Now was the time for Christ to take the offensive, and for his Cross to prevail. Towards the close of the year 311, a Roman army lay at the foot of the Alps, preparing to pass from Gaul into Italy. Constantine, its commander, thought only of revenging himself for an injury received from Maxentius, his political rival; but his soldiers, as unsuspecting as their chief, already belonged henceforward to the Lord of hosts. The Son of the Most High, having become, as Son of Mary, king of this world, was about to reveal himself to his first lieutenant, and at the time to discover to his first army the standard that was to go before it. Above the legions, in a cloudless sky, the Cross, proscribed for three long centuries, suddenly shone forth; all eyes beheld it, making the Western sun, as it were, its footstool, and surrounded with these words in characters of fire: In hoc vince: by this be thou conqueror! A few months later, the 27th of October 312, all the idols of Rome stood aghast to behold, approaching along the Flaminian Way, beyond the Bridge Milvius, the Labarum with its sacred monogram, now become the standard of the imperial armies. On the morrow was fought the decisive battle, which opened the gates of the Eternal City to Christ, the only God, the everlasting King.
“Hail, O Cross, formidable to all enemies, bulwark of the Church, strength of princes; hail in thy triumph! The sacred Wood still lay hidden in the earth, yet it appeared in the heavens announcing victory; and an emperor, become Christian, raised it up from the bowels of the earth.” Thus sang the Greek Church yesterday, in preparation for the joys of today; for the East, which has not our peculiar Feast of the 3rd of May, celebrates on this one solemnity both the overthrow of idolatry by the sign of salvation revealed to Constantine and his army, and the discovery of the holy Cross a few years later in the cistern of Golgotha.
But another celebration, the memory of which is fixed by the Menology on the 13th of September, was added in the year 335 to the happy recollections of this day; namely, the dedication of the basilicas raised by Constantine on Mount Calvary and over the holy Sepulcher, after the precious discoveries made by his mother St. Helena. In the very same century that witnessed all these events, a pious pilgrim, thought to be St. Silvia, sister of Rufinus the minister of Theodosius and Arcadius, attested that the anniversary of this dedication was celebrated with the same solemnity as Easter and the Epiphany. There was an immense concourse of Bishops, clerics, monks, and seculars of both sexes, from every province; and the reason, she says, is that the Cross was found on this day; which motive had led to the choice of the same day for the primitive consecration, so that the two joys might be united in one.
Through not being aware of the nearness of the dedication of the Anastasia, or Church of the Resurrection, to the feast of the holy Cross, many have misunderstood the discourse pronounced on this feast by Sophronius, the holy patriarch of Jerusalem. “It is the feast of the Cross; who would not exult? It is the triumph of the Resurrection; who would not be full of joy? Formerly, the Cross led to the Resurrection; now it is the Resurrection that introduces us to the Cross. Resurrection and Cross: trophies of our salvation!” [September 14 Exaltation of the Holy Cross]