Monthly Archives: February 2006

My best wishes to you for Lent

Posted on 28 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
Each day during Lent has its proper Collect. I will do my best to keep up with these. I promise, this is not what I consider my lenten penance, though it might be for your to read them. Continue reading →

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28 (27) Feb: St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows

Posted on 28 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
While still young was contracted tuberculosis. He remained always in good spirits, never quitting hisShrine harsh mortifications however. Before he could be ordained a priest, he died embracing an image of Our Lady of Sorrows. Continue reading →

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8th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Super Oblata (2)

Posted on 27 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
Pope Benedict himself wrote some years ago (and we have given this to you a couple times before):

“The fact that in Hebrew the expression “many” would mean the same thing as “all” is not relevant to the question under consideration inasmuch as it is a question of translating, not a Hebrew text here, but a Latin text (from the Roman Liturgy), which is directly related to a Greek text (the New Testament). The institution narratives in the New Testament are by no means simply a translation (still less, a mistaken translation) of Isaiah; rather, they constitute an independent source” (emphasis added – God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (Ignatius Press, 2003, pp. 37-8, n. 10). Continue reading →

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8th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Post Communion

Posted on 27 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
Having gone through this examination and exploration of vocabulary, and having made some associations with Scripture and with other literature, that version above is more or less what I hear in my head now when I read aloud our sonorous Latin. Never let it be said that the new compositions for the Novus Ordo are lacking in depth and dignity. I find this Latin prayer deeply satisfying indeed. It does not leave me wishing for more. Then I read the version we still, alas, hear in our churches on Sunday and I am brutally snapped back into these hard times of ours as if by the cold damp thwack of the twist in a kitchen towel:

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):…
Continue reading →

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8th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Collect (1)

Posted on 27 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
Try reading this prayer with the mental image of a ship. Its great Captain sets its course upon the sea. So great is the Captain that He can command calm waters and a favorable wind as well. The ship can be seen as the word. In this case I see the ship as the Church in the world, the Church Militant, which is not an unfamiliar image to those familiar with the Barque of Peter. The sea it sails upon is the deep and turbulent world we live in. The Captain is our Lord Jesus Christ, who calmed the stormy waters and commanded Peter to walk to Him upon them. He entrusted His ship to Peter, to steer it in His stead. Once all has been put into proper order, made “ship-shape and Bristol fashion”, our own sense of loyal zeal, our devotion, is the wind that the Captain uses to steer the ship upon the course He sets, carrying us its crew to the port and safe haven. Continue reading →

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26 Feb: convalescing

Posted on 26 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Well, I am not well enough to update everything day.  I will get to it, however.
While I am here in my valetudinarium as a valetidinarius (a sick man in my sick room) you might be interested to know that … Continue reading →

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25 Feb: St. Walburga

Posted on 25 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
Today in the Martyrologium Romanum there is an interesting entry about St. Walburga, which make me think of a now deceased friend, Fr. Michael McGlaughlin, who died young of cancer. I will give you the entry first, then an excursus on something vile, and finally a fun story about the late Fr. Mike. Continue reading →

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Annoying elimination of a beautiful custom

Posted on 24 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
I am truly annoyed at something, and alarmed. On 22 February, the Feast of the Cathedra of Peter, I went to the Basilica of St. Peter in order to enjoy the sight Bernini’s great monument to the Chair bedecked with candles (which happens one a year) and also of Arnolfo di Cambio’s (+1310) dark bronze statue of the Apostle dressed in papal regalia, including the tiara (twice a year, 29 June being the other date). While Bernini’s monument was indeed laden with its many candles, the statues was NOT dressed in the papal finery as it has always been in the past. No cope, no episcopal ring, no tiara. Continue reading →

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Crunchy Conservatism

Posted on 23 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For weeks now I have been pretending to know what a "Crunchy Con" is without really having the slightest idea of what people were talking about.  I finally took the advice I give everyone else and looked it up.
I went … Continue reading →

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23 Feb: St. Polycarp of Smyrna, martyr

Posted on 23 February 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
To give you something of the character of St. Polycarp, when he ran into Marcion in Rome, Marcion asked Polycarp if he knew who he was. Polycarp responded: “I know you for the first-born of Satan.” Far from being a simple insult, these words were spoken in charity, to shock the man into repenting his sinful positions and actions. Continue reading →

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