Friends in Christ,
This Sunday is the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. In the Gospel reading for Sunday, Jesus heals the daughter of Jarius, the synagogue’s ruler (Matthew 9:24), but not before first healing a woman suffering from an issue of blood. The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, notes the rich symbolism in these verses.
The woman with the blood issue of twelve years represents the Gentiles, while Jarius’ daughter, twelve years old, represents the Jews. “Now while our Lord was on His way to the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, this woman troubled with the issue of blood approached Him, so that while on His way to one person, healed another.”
This prefigures the end times “for just as the Gentiles were healed by their faith in Christ, like the woman with the issue of blood, so the Jews, disillusioned as regards [to the] Antichrist, will return to Christ Himself, who will restore life to their souls as He gave back bodily life to Jarius’ daughter.”
The commentary concludes with a sobering yet hopeful end: “This return of the daughter of sin to the Truth after her period of temporary death, will be a sign that the Last Day is near at hand, for it will put the final seal on the fulfillment of prophecy. Then freed, at last, from the bonds of sin which by frailty we have contracted we shall glory in God and give thanks to Him forever.” An important reflection as we approach the end of this liturgical year, when the Church, for the next three Sundays focuses on the end times and the coming of the Messiah.
Calendar of Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, November 16 – Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost (II)
Monday, November 17 – St. Gregory the Wonder-worker, Bishop and Confessor (III)
Tuesday, November 18 – The Dedication of the Basilicas of Ss. Peter and Paul (III)
Wednesday, November 19 – St. Elizabeth, Widow (III) – Commemoration of St. Pontian, Pope and Martyr
Thursday, November 20 – St. Felix of Valois, Confessor (III)
Friday, November 21 – The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (III)
Saturday, November 22 – St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (III)
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost with either 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 will be offered at the Chapel. All other Sunday and daily Traditional Latin Masses at the other diocese of Charlotte parishes have been discontinued. These changes only affect Latin Masses in the diocese of Charlotte.
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
Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Monday December 8)
The following are announced Traditional Latin Masses for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation and the patronal feast day of the United States. If additional Masses are announced we will share them in our email updates and post them on our website.
Diocese of Charlotte
Diocese of Charleston
Chapel of the Little Flower Announcements
Next Phase of the Chapel Construction: Sacred Art
As the initial phase of construction comes to a close Father Jones announced last Sunday he will begin focusing on sacred art for the chapel. Quoting the catechism, he noted “Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation.” Father asked for patience as this new project gets underway. In the interim, Father reminds us to “beautify the Church with our lives.”
Mass intentions for the Chapel of the Little Flower
Mass intentions should open up this Sunday November 16 and a table will be set up in the narthex to sign up. Due to limited spots, attendees are asked to sign up for one Mass at a time. Only one Mass per Sunday will be available for intentions.
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 on one of the Sundays in November. Seating is
adequate at both Masses, and there is plenty of parking; a cry room;
open space outside for the kids after Mass.
Announcements
New Traditional App, Sanctifica – With the Latin Mass offerings limited these days, some are looking for alternative ways to stay connected to the ancient liturgy. One excellent way worth knowing is a new traditional Catholic app, Sanctifica. It’s filled with treasures of tradition including: daily Latin Mass readings, daily Divine Office, an audio guided Rosary in Latin or English, Dom Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year, novenas, saints' lives, Latin Mass locations, and more—all in one place. Available in the iPhone app or Google Play stores: http://download.sanctifica.com
P.S. – Sanctifica goes well with the local Sensus Fidelium app, which has rich repository of traditional sermons, catechetical and scripture classes, and audio books. To try Sensus Fidelium click here
Support Our Parishes – Father Reid noted that Saint Ann parish will bear much of the financial costs of keeping the Chapel of the Little Flower open and encourages our continued generosity (and our occasional visits!). Parishioners from other parishes should continue to support their own parish.
Prayer Request – In your charity, please continue to pray for the healing of Tony Reitz from a rapidly progressing Lymphoma. He is the brother-in-law of Amanda Banville who attends Our Lady of Grace parish. Pray also for Tony’s wife and young children.
Enroll the Souls of the Faithful Departed – The Traditional Carmelite Hermits of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s (Colorado and Pennsylvania) All Souls Enrollment is underway for the month of November. Throughout this month, the community will dedicate Holy Masses (Traditional Carmelite Rite), along with the daily prayers and sacrifices of the Brothers, for the souls of the faithful departed who are enrolled. To enroll during this month, click here.
Rosary for the Traditional Latin Mass – A rosary will be 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
Saint Gertrude the Great was a Benedictine nun born on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1256 at Eisleben in Thuringia (then part of the Holy Roman Empire). She may have been an orphan, as at the age of four she was enrolled in the monastery school of Saint Mary at Helfta. Her care was entrusted to 15-year-old Mechtild, the younger sister of Gertrude of Hackeborn, abbess of the Benedictine convent at Helfta conformed to the original Rule of Saint Benedict.
Over time the two future saints, Gertrude and her mentor, Mechtild, would pursue the same spiritual path and become the closest of friends. Gertrude was an ardent student who achieved fluency in Latin while acquiring extensive knowledge of the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Having committed herself to religious life at the age of ten, she would later write, "Until the age of 25, I was a blind and insane woman . . . but you, Jesus, deigned to grant me the priceless familiarity of your friendship by opening to me in every way that most noble casket of your divinity, which is your divine Heart, and offering me in great abundance all your treasures contained in it." It was at that age that she experienced the first of the supernatural visions she was to have for the rest of her life.
Devoting herself to prayer and meditation, she also undertook to achieve a deeper understanding of theology and wrote spiritual theses for the benefit of others. Her mystical experiences included an encounter with Christ on the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist. Leaning against Our Lord, as Saint John had done at the Last Supper, she heard the beating of his heart and became devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Among her surviving works, the second book of the Herald of Divine Love describes her mystical visions in considerable detail and develops at some length the theology of the Sacred Heart.. Her Spiritual Exercises remains a valuable resource for those seeking to achieve a deeper spirituality through prayer and meditation. Gertrude died around 1302 and was added to the Roman Calendar by Pope Innocent XI in 1677. The title of “the Great” was attached to her name by Pope Benedict XIV both to distinguish her from her original benefactor, Gertrude of Hackeborn, and to grant her the special recognition her life and works merited. In the 19th century the theology of Saint Gertrude was a notable influence on Dom Prosper Guéranger in reestablishing Benedictine monasticism in France after its destruction by the French Revolution.
Among the many prayers attributed to Saint Gertrude there is one widely used in various devotions that is especially familiar to those who pray for the dead in the month of November:
Eternal Father, I offer you the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home, and in my family. Amen.
The feast day of Saint Gertrude the Great is normally celebrated on November 16th (except this year when it is displaced by the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost).
Closing Commentary
We offer, in closing, an excerpt from Dom Prosper Guéranger’s commentary on the “Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.” A link to the full text from The Liturgical Year follows.
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
[F]ormerly, the Church, without losing sight of the Last Day, used to lend a thought to the new season which was fast approaching, the season, that is, of preparation for the great feast of Christmas. There used to be read, as Epistle, the following passage from Jeremias, which was afterwards, in several Churches, inserted in the Mass of the first Sunday of Advent: Behold! the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a King shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In those days, shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call Him: The Lord our Just One. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, and they shall say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But: The Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither, the seed of the house of Israel, from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth! And they shall dwell in their own land.
As is evident, this passage is equally applicable to the conversion of the Jews, and the restoration of Israel, which are to take place at the end of the world. This was the view taken by the chief liturgists of the Middle Ages, in order to explain thoroughly the Mass of the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. First mentioning to our readers, that, originally, the Gospel of this Sunday was that of the multiplication of the five loaves, let us listen to the profound and learned Abbot Rupert, who, better than anyone, will teach us the mysteries of this day, which brings to a close the grand and varied Gregorian Melodies, that we have been having during the whole year.
“Holy
Church,” says he, “is so intent on paying her debt of supplication, and
prayer, and thanksgiving, for all men, as the Apostle demands, that we
find her giving thanks also for the salvation of the children of Israel,
who, she knows, are one day to be united with her. And, as their
remnants are to be saved at the end of the world, so, on this last
Sunday of the Year, she delights at having them, just as though they
were already her members! In the Introit, calling to mind the prophecies
concerning them, she thus sings every Year: My thoughts are thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. Verily, his thoughts
are those of peace, for he promises to admit to the banquet of
his grace, the Jews, who are his brethren, according to the flesh; thus
realizing what had been prefigured in the history of the patriarch
Joseph. [Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost]
(Ed. note: The above commentary refers to the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost as the last Sunday of the liturgical year, however this year, next Sunday is the Twenty-fourth and last Sunday of the liturgical year.)
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“[L]et us make use of our treasures, and exercise mercy towards the poor suffering souls.” - Dom Prosper Guéranger (All Souls Day Reflection)