Holy Week Schedule

Please see the bulletin for the Holy Week schedule.

 

Traditional Latin Mass in Atlanta

A parish of the Archdiocese of Atlanta entrusted to the FSSP and dedicated to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

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Dear St. Francis de Sales parishioners,

Please know that as a directive from the Archdiocese, Bishop Konzen has postponed public Masses through the First Sunday of Easter (Low Sunday), April 19, 2020.  If we should be granted the ability to return to public gatherings sooner, we will, of course alter this plan.  As always, the priests continue to privately offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for your sanctification. 

Please also know that Cobb County has limited gatherings to ten persons.  The church is open daily from 8:00am – 5:00pm.  If there are already ten people in the church when you come to visit please come back at another time. 

Up to this time in Lent, Holy Mother Church has asked us to turn our eyes upon our own soul and look deep and search out our own shortcomings and sins.  This Passion Sunday, the Church asks us to raise our sights and fix our eyes on the olive grove in Gesthemane, the blood-strewn streets of Jerusalem, and the barren mount of Calvary, with its three crosses standing forth, black and cruel against a grey sky. 

In the Gospel for Passion Sunday, Our Lord angered His listeners by telling them He was the Eternal Son of God, and that, as such, He pre-existed their father Abraham.  The people took up stones to throw at Him and He hid himself and went out of the temple. 

It is a terrible thing to think that anyone would be so bold as to dare to stone the Savior of the world, the very Son of God.  But when we commit a deliberate mortal sin, we not only stone Him, but crucify the Son of God again.  We should resolve never to stone Our Lord by venial sin or crucify Him by mortal sin. 

“We ought to conform to God’s will in all public calamities such as war, famine, and pestilence, and reverence and adore His judgments with deep humility in the firm belief that, however severe they may seem, the God of infinite goodness would not send such disasters unless some great good were to result from them. Consider how many souls may be saved through tribulation which would otherwise be lost, how many persons through affliction are converted to God and die with sincere repentance for their sins.  What may appear a scourge and punishment is often a sign of great grace and mercy. 

As far as we are personally concerned, let us mediate well on this truth of our faith that the very hairs of our head are numbered (Matt. 10:30), and not one of them will fall except by the will of God.  In other words, we cannot suffer the least harm unless He wills and orders it.  Relying on this truth we can easily understand that we have nothing more or less to fear in times of public calamity than at any other time.  God can just as easily protect us in the mist of general ruin and despair as He can deliver us from evil while all around is peace and content.  The only thing we need to be concerned about is to gain His favor, and this is the inevitable effect of conforming our will to His.  Let us therefore hasten to accept from His hand all that He sends us, and as a result of our trustful surrender He will either cause us to gain the greatest advantages from our misfortunes or else spare us from them altogether.”  (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, The Secret to Peace and Happiness by Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure, S.J. and St. Claude de al Colobiere, S.J.) 

May God bless you,

Fr. DeGuzman