From the Laudator:
Frederic De Forest Allen, quoted by J.B. Greenough in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 9 (1898) 31:
We call the Romans ancient, but when they were alive they thought themselves as modern as anybody.
Fr. Z’s Podcasts RSS Feed
About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “There was a time when if you wanted to know the miracles of the Church, the great teachings, the stories…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Out of my wife and my siblings & spouses, half are not RC anymore but are probably still on the…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 24: Fave and vongole with The Great Roman™: “1. Bxf7+ Kxf7 2. Qd5+ and black is toast no matter what 2. … Ke8 3. Qh5+ g6 4. Qxg6#…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Dear ex seaxe, While it may have been falling off worldwide (I haven’t plotted the data), the fall-off of priests…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 27: a stroll and a sandwich: “There is still a single bizarre scenario under which Firouzja could win the Candidates, but I think it’s safe to…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: ““the progressive spectacularization of Vatican liturgies that has occurred over the past three pontificates” Really? One of the very few…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “I praise God, even in the midst of these persecutions, for the TLM, the priests who say it, the bishops…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Dad of Six – True. Check out the plummeting of baptisms and marriages over the last several decades. Which means…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: ““Sure but …. The Faith is growing in Africa ! “ And thank God for their priests who are sent…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “I think that the loss of Mass attendance is partially related to the post-Vatican II era of “feelings”. I remember…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Besides the obvious hemorrhaging of attendance and religious, the other thing that comes to mind is what figures are they…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “I have heard for years that the Province of Quebec in Canada has many beautiful churches and was once a…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Yes, following the Attorney General of Maryland’s detailed report on the extensive sexual predation and cover-up by the Archdiocese, Bill…”
- on 15 April 2019 – Notre-Dame de Paris: “@ Anita Moore, O.P.(lay): The Tour Montparnasse’s only redeeming quality is the view from its top, but wishing to trade…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “If the FSSP owns some of the churches that they staff, it may be wise to figure out a different…”
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
Polls
Loading ...Use FATHERZ10 at checkout for 10% off
Donate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
NEW OPPORTUNITY – 10% off with code: FATHERZ10
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
This REALLY helps! And it’s great coffee (and tea)
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT comBe a “Zed-Head”!
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
Loading ...This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
GREAT causes to support
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
Loading ...
And there’s the rub: so often, their mistakes are our new ideas. I am working my way thru Augustine’s CITY OF GOD and I have been struck, time and again, how the errors he refutes sound as if they were raised yesterday–in my Religion Class!
A good number of the innovations in secular society and in the Church are recycled failures and old heresies (but lacking the elequence of those who erred early.)
The font of troubles today is prosaic: ‘ME ME ME! It’s all about ME!’
I read accounts of bishops who refuse customs of their positions such as beautiful clothing and elaborate ceremony. Now, I don’t mean to put down those who do this; generally the subjective intentions are to show piety and poverty, but in a warped manner.
These bishops make the same mistake made by heretics who demand all sorts of positions in conflict with the Church: that is, it is all about the individual person in question.
The high ceremony and riches that go with an office such as a bishopric are about the office and not the man lending himself to that office. Surely there is the temptation to abuse the office (as there is a chance to abuse any authority whether it is labor related, parental, or legal) but there is just as grave a threat that in watering down the sacred, the faithful lose sight of what is true.
Some Protestant leaders have opinined that if Christ really is in the Eucharist, then we ought be on our knees beggind forgiveness for our sins, and receive only because Jesus told us to. Maybe a bit too Calvinistic (re: the false position of Total Depravity), but this mentality is generally correct.
Of course Christ is completely in the Eucharist and we should behave like it by not chit chatting in Mass, making an altar becoming of the highest king and High Priest, and adopting an attitude of graditude rather than expectation.
Bit of a rant there…
Anyway, what is called ‘progressivism’ is really just a wild ripping apart of fundamental institutions that were given to us and revealed over time. The arch-secularist Arthur C. Clarke summed up well what modernism seeks to do in his book Childhood’s End. Indeed, he saw this nightmare as praiseworthy.
At risk of paraphrasing a certain bishop who does not possess legal faculties, the answers to the modern age is found by looking to the past.
They ARE as modern as anybody. Read any of their historians…