What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Our friend Cacciaguida (one of the best online handles I have ever seen) has an interesting post about GOP VP candidate Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) – who she is, what she has done, and what people are saying about her.



My very favorite line picked up from LadyBlog:

I had the honor today to say Holy Mass (Novus Ordo) for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time at the Church of St. John in St. Paul, Minnesota, where my friend of many years Fr. Geo. Welzbacher is the parish priest.  His Pastor’s Page each week is just about the only one I have ever seen on a weekly basis worthy of both the name and of close attention.

Mass at St. John’s is in English with the Novus Ordo, and versus populum, but reverently served by altar boys and there is a communion rail at which 99% percent of the people kneel and receive upon the tongue.

In any event, with not terrible long notice, I did manage to gasp out a sermon today since it was Sunday and, well, people expect that sort of thing on Sunday’s.

[podcast_display]

Another resource. 

I just picked this up from The Inn At The End Of The World, and I find it ironic, for reasons I shall explain forthwith.

Saturday, August 30, 2008
How To Tell When You’ve Read Too Much Patrick O’Brian

Instead of answering the wife with a perfectly sensible 21st century American "no, thanks", you say "Never in life, my dear".

First, I must object to his premise.  You cannot read too much O’Brian.

That said, shall tell you something?  

It is ironic that he should raise this question just a day after I finished my listen through of the Aubrey/Maturin books on audio. 

 

As I was swooping down into St. Paul in my hurtling car, I concluded my hearing of Simon Vance reading Blue At The Mizzen on Blackstone Audiobooks.  

You must give yourself the pleasure, before death, of listening to the whole series read by this estimable gentleman.

Also, I know what "gralloch" means and I say things like "progidious great mew", "belay there!", and occasionally even write things like "Shall I tell you something?", which and it’s a common phrase in the book, ain’t it?  I have also slid into thinking of some less than pleasing people less as … well… some of the things you might hear from the foremast jacks as, indeed "reptiles".  A fitting description for some people I know. 

But I digress…

The dear knows that I also have recently been the recipient of gifts from the wishlist sent by generous readers.  Kind souls sent me a cookbook based on recipes from the series, done with regard both for historical accuracy and modern feasibility, which and it’s called Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels. 

Sometime this winter, I shall have to attempt Spotted Dog, or a Sea Pie.

I also received A Sea of Words, Third Edition: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O’Brian (and I attest that it included "gralloch") and also Harbors and High Seas, 3rd Edition: An Atlas and Georgraphical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O’Brian, Third Edition.

You could start your seafaring and societal adventures by listening, if you wish, to Master and Commander [UNABRIDGED – Audio CD). 

You’ll clap on, mind you, so have a care.

I worked through the whole series by checking them out through the public library by interlibrary loan: I use that service so much in a month that they have put me on a library diet for interlibrary items: I must now start tapping a friend’s card!  As well as that may be, howeverso much I should give you joy to have the series on disks, it would be dear, to be sure.

If you think that movie based on episodes in the books was good, wait’ll hear them read by a master with true command of the language and of differentiating voices according to class, character and regional accent.

If you do decide to get the disks, however… how I would hope you do, for I shall soon hear of you kicking up Bob’s a dying once you’ve started, let me know and I will put up direct links to help you… and me.

I’m thinking of starting over again!

I recently had the pleasure of a guest for about a week at the Sabine Farm.  And when there are guests, I cook.

The Sabine Farm has been quite lovely these days, with cool morning, warm days, and – for a while yet – prolonged evenings.

Rosy-fingered dawn will typically develop in this guise:



For me, my morning fast break is generally pretty simple, some toast and espresso or very strong filtered dark roasted coffee, but – when there are guests – I will often do more.  Here we have some tomatoes from the garden and a small piece of steak, grilled, and a mess of eggs scrambled with some fines herbes, whole wheat toast and various sauces, when desired to zip it up.  I have a couple that are nearly worthy of the flames of eternal perdition, and which tend to evoke a very sincere act of contrition, but they weren’t set out for this crew.

Supper.  

For the Feast of St. Augustine I picked a passle of pacchino, very zippy small savory tomatoes, and lots of basil, along with sprigs of green fennel seeds, sauteed them over extreme heat in a cold press olive oil from California, through the Olive Press this time I think, put it over linguine into which I had cut pieces of fontina cheese, since it melts nicely.  Adding just a dash of the water from the pasta, with the bit of starch and moisture created a smooth background for the tomatoes and fresh herbs. 



We managed to get it down.

Then I produced the coniglio in umido.  I had only kalamata olives to work with, but they were abundant.  After browning the whole rabbit, cut up, with the innards of course, I added white wine and springs of rosemary, again the green fennel seeds, sage parsley and thyme.  At the end I put in some few strips of bell peppers, of varied color, part green part red.  About half way into the hour or so of cooking time, I added the olives.  It was all done on the stove in a large cast iron skillet.  In the meantime, I had soaked some peeled sliced potatoes in salt water and, then, dried off, stirred through with olive oil, salt and chopped rosemary and put them in the oven at 400F to brown.  Which they did.  And which we ate with the rabbit.



A meal like this needs a cigar, afterwards, with the necessary port, etc.  Here is a fine Macanudo with a splendid ash, which has developed nicely in the Sabine humidor.  They were a gift of the inimitable Fabrizio when he came to visit in June.  Penjing looks on with approval, as does Irohamomiji.



The day ends with a nice view and compline.  The Sabine Chapel is nice when lit up.

Graciously hear us, O Lord,
when we call upon You,
and grant unto our supplications a calm atmosphere,
that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins,
may, by Your protecting mercy,
experience pardon.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Fr. Blake informs us that now Fr. Aaron Spinelli has been ordained!  He is a friend from Rome and a fine fellow.

The diocese of Arundel and Brighton rejoiced today at the ordination of Father Aaron Spinelli to the priesthood.Father Aaron is from the parish of our Lady of Ransom Eastbourne and rejoices in his Phillipino and Sicilian origins.It was a joy to see his mother and father with tears of joy (sorry no pics).

 

 

 

I received a copy of a letter sent out by His Excellency Most Reverend Donal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, DC to the priests of the Archdiocese.

It is, I believe, his response to the remarks of Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Meet The Press on Sunday 24 August.

The Archbishop speaks of what St. Augustine said, what the Catholic Church teaches, what science indicates and what the duties of pastors of the Church are regarding preaching the sanctity of life.

I hope you would consider using this Sunday’s liturgy as an opportune time to present to the Catholic faithful of this archdiocese a number of elements of our Catholic faith. ...

This is an opportune time simply to reaffirm with all of our Catholic faithful and others who may be interested in what the Church has to say that abortion is and has always been considered a serious evil, that the destruction of innocent human life at any stage is wrong and that it is the task entrusted to the bishops of the Church to proclaim and whatn necessary clarify this constant teaching.

Bishops like the word "opportune".

But never was there a time more opportune than this!

Here is the letter, which I am too tired to transcribe.  People send me stuff by pdf file when what I need are pdfs and transcripts! ... sigh

 



Gigantic WDTPRS kudos to Archbishp Wuerl!

The Mulier Fortis is spreading scandal.   This is starting to get amusing... er um… really serious.  o{]>:¬(

She posted this on her blog, 

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa… ... Oh dear, what have I done? I may have led other traddy womyn astray! I wonder if that’s an excommunicable offence?

Ekurlowa must be seriously traddy… she not only understands Latin, she can blog in Latin too!

She wants to join me as a traddy womynpriest. To that end, she suggests sending the following petition to the Bishops. It’s in Latin verse, so we shall have to enlist the services of Fr. Z to find out what it means…

Sooo…. what did she read that has worried her?

Go over to Levabo oculos meos.  Here it is, with my simple corrections of spelling:

Feminarum personant saepius clamores:
sumusne servitio sancto digniores?
Quaesumus te, optime antistites domne
te petentes feminas ordinare omnes.

Ubi nunc invenies zelum animarum? -
matronarum cordibus atque puellarum!
Paenitentem audient, lacrimas abstergent,
statim pro consilio ad amicam pergent.

Et quam pulchre possumus Missam celebrare,
pretiosis vestibus corpus adornare,
illa aureos capillos, ista habet nigros
vestimento virido atque rubro dignos.

Introibit tenera ad altare Dei,
quaesumus, considera gravitatem rei:
quam libenter venient Missam audire
(et spectare, clara res) juvenes et viri!

Ordinare feminas Anglicani solent,
feminae catholicae ordinari volunt:
Aut tu putaberis malus et obscurus
ignorans et rigidus, severus atque durus!

I think someone is going to give Timothy of Parodist a run for his money!

In the meantime, I would like to see if any of those silly wymyn of fake ordination notoriety could read any of that.

I said that bloggers must unite in a cause.   The cause is keeping the Communion – pro-abortion Catholic politician issue in the public eye.

Diane of Te Deum Laudamus is doing a great service by aggregating the response made by US bishops to Speak Pelosi’s incredible remarks on Meet the Press.

The list of bishops issuing personal statements is growing. I found more and will update this list, as I get them. Check for updates! St. Augustine would be proud (and his feast day is tomorrow). Most of these links are direct to the respective diocese.

• Archbishop Chaput and Bishop Conley of Denver
• Cardinal Egan of New York (probably the strongest statement)
• Archbishop Donald Weurl of Washington D.C.
• Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia and Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport on behalf of the USCCB (on USCCB homepage)
• Bishop Sheridan of Colorado Springs
• Bishop Zubik of Pittsburgh (on homepage)
• Archbishop Neinstadt of St. Paul, MN (on homepage)
• Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Contu of San Antonio, TX (on homepage)
• Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, ND
• Bishop Farell of Dallas, TX NEW
• Bishop Murphy of Rockville Centre (Long Island) NEW
• Bishop Listecki of LaCrosse, WI NEW (added Aug 30)

Please! Pray for our Bishops! May God give them the courage to do all that they must to prevent others from being led into scandal.

I highly recommend that you check in at the following blogs daily for updates. I can’t keep up with the many posts they are making.

• Blog of Fr. Z
• Blog of Tom Peters – American Papist

UPDATED: Some other great writeups on the topic of politicians and Catholicism:

• Biden’s Bishop Says He Cannot Speak in Catholic Schools (NEW)
• Pope Pelosi at the gate
• Pelosi gets unwanted lesson in Catholic theology (WTOP News)
• Pelosi defends comments on beginning of life as more bishops warn against them George Weigel about Obama, Pelosi, Biden on human life (Fr. Z)
• Fox News Forum: The Speaker Blew It! Nancy Pelosi and the Catholic Church on Abortion (Lauren Green)
• Italian Journalist Sandro Magister: Obama’s Pick for Vice President Is Catholic. But the Bishops Deny Him Communion
• What Makes a Speaker Catholic? (Kathryn Jean Lopez – National Review)
• Pelosi’s Abortion Statements a Scandal Says EWTN Program Host (Christian News Wire)
• Fr. Z: BLOGGERS UNITE! Keep shaping the conversation on pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Also, if you want to find lots of excerpts of Fathers of the Church on the issue of life and abortion, check out this post on the blog Cathlidoxy.

Here is a part of a column I wrote for The Wanderer to which you ought be subscribing.
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This Sunday’s dense Collect survived the scissors and paste-pots of the Consilium during the 1960’s and lived on in the post-Conciliar Missale Romanum: it is the Collect for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  This prayer, used for centuries, in the Sacramentarium Hadrianum, a form of the ancient Gre