Fact: Two more Missae Cantatae to be held at St. Ann's!!

After just having a Missa Cantata for the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25, word from St. Ann's in Charlotte, lead by Fr. Reid, will be offering two more upcoming Missae Cantatae:

Thursday, May 13

Ascension Thursday

and

Saturday, August 7
XI Sunday after Pentecost (anticipated)

The Ascension Thursday Mass is a second consecutive year that Fr. Reid has offered a Missa Cantata for the Feast of Our Lord's Ascension on the actual feast day.

The August 7 Mass is the regular monthly "Sunday anticipated" Mass, but with chant from the participants of the "Sing Like a Catholic" chant workshop to be held in Charlotte, also at St. Ann's on August 6-7.

I encourage you to share this information with as many as possible. They should be wonderful liturgies. Feedback from those who attended the Annunciation Mass on March 25 has been quite extraordinary. The musical assistance of the schola and choir of St. Ann's at the Mass has been highly complimented as adding awesome beauty and reverence to the Mass.

Grapevine: Missa Cantata for Ascension at St. Ann's

Graces continue to flow out of St. Ann's parish in Charlotte. Recently a Missa Cantata for the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady was confirmed and now sources are indicating the high likelihood that another Missa Cantata will be held on Thursday, May 13, for the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ! Please pray for all of those involved that this wonderful Mass can be confirmed.

Fact: Missa Cantata at St. Ann's - March 25th

It has been confirmed from several sources that the Missa Cantata in honor of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary on Thursday, March 25 at St. Ann's in Charlotte. Please make every effort to attend this solemn event in honor of Our Lady. Please pray for Fr. Reid, the altar servers, and members of St. Ann's Schola Cantorum and Choir as they prepare for this wonderful Mass. (Photo: Church of the Annuciation, Nazareth)

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae... et concepit de Spiritu Sancto
Ecce ancillae Domini... fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

Grapevine: March 25th Missa Cantata at St. Ann's

The next Missa Cantata looks to be planned on Thursday, March 25: Feast of the Annunciation at St. Ann's in Charlotte, NC.

Please continue to pray for Fr. Reid and the Altar servers as they prepare. Also as a reminder, Weekly Mass in the Extraordinary Form offered on Wednesdays at 6.00pm at St. Ann's on Park Road.

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ ....

Christus Natus Est

Greetings of a blessed Christmas to all of you dear Readers. This fall I was blessed with the ability to go to the Holy Land on Pilgrimage with Fr. Reid and other parishioners of St. Ann's Parish in Charlotte. It was an experience of a life-time, and something I will never forget... and I will never be able to hear or read Sacred Scripture again without having a mental picture of it in my mind... what a grace I have been given!

It is especially important today, as the Sunday Mass of our pilgrimage was held in Shepherd's Field, just outside of the cave in which the "shepherds of that region" would have been "keeping watch over their flocks." Our Mass was outside, on the edge of the hill over looking the valley below, and Bethlehem nestled on the other side of the valley. My heart raced and tears flowed as I pictured the sky and that valley filled with light of the angels and the air heavy with their song... Gloria in excelsis Deo" and the bright star standing above the sleepy town on the other side. (It is no mistake either that my favorite English Hymn is "Angels We Have Heard on High")

Following Mass we "followed in the footsteps" (in our motorized coach!) of the shepherds and went to Bethlehem... entering the Church of the Nativity and descended into the cave to the spot where Christ entered the world to save us... marked by the ever-present "Star of Bethlehem".

It is an amazing thing to have experienced, and over the course of this liturgical year, I hope to share more of my pilrimage experiences with you dear Readers. Until then I leave you with the beginning words of my favorite Italian Hymn of Christmas....

"Tu scendi dalle stelle O Re del Cielo, e vieni in una grotta al freddo e gelo"

(You came down from the stars
O King of Heaven;
and came into a cave,
cold and icy)

Et verbum caro factum est...

Identity: Church Militant

I must admit, gentle Readers, that I have been at times sometimes frustrated and saddened; and well, honestly, quite skeptical of the "brick by brick" concept. Things feel like they are moving only at a glacial pace, but then I step back and think about the over 2,000 year old history of Christ's Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and realize that 40 years, while a generation of souls, is very little in the life of the Church. Even at a glacial pace, glaciers move miles when given time.

Part of what helps me is that I love to study history, and in the 2,000 year history of Christ's Church, there have been some really terrible epochs... times when State authorities or popular revolution has tried to extinguish the light of the Church... and at times it has appeared that these evil forces had succeeded, but the Church has survived! -- protected and guided by the Holy Spirit and witnessed by the blood of the Martyrs.

Whether Roman persecutions, English Reformation suppression, French Revolution anti-clericalism, Post-Vatican II liturgical confusion, and Obama administration anti-Catholicism... the Church will survive until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

But we must also defend the Church, and we must be witnesses to her Truth as the martyrs of the past, and frankly, the martyrs of today... look at Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, China, Philippines, Latin America, and so many other places that even in today's "enlightened" world, Christians are tortured and murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

We must stand up to be counted in the public square as well as in the private square of our own homes. We much teach and live the Faith that has been given to us to our children, family, and friends... Pray for our Pope! Pray for our Church and her priests! Let history not record us as deserters of our Faith, weak and lacking in courage; but rather, may it record us as a generation that lived to up to the traditional teaching of the the Church Militant who at the end of the race had fought the good fight.


Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalevunt adversus eam. -- Matthew 16, 18

Fact: Oct. 24: Next Missa Cantata at St. Ann's in Charlotte, NC

And so it continues dear Readers, as Father Z so often says "brick by brick" the fruits of Summorum Pontificum continue to flourish as St. Ann's (and it wonderful priest, Fr. Reid) prepares for its next Missa Cantata on October 24 for the Solemn Feast (anticipated) of Christ the King! This will also be held in the "transformed" church which will be just a perfect setting for this Mass of the Ages.

Please pray for Fr. Reid and the Altar servers in training as they prepare for this next Mass.

"Et adorabunt eum omes reges terrae: omnes gentes servient ei" (Psalm lxxi)