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“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
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Made a successful Malaysian meal!
The Archbishops of Winnipeg and St. Boniface granted the local EF group use of St. Ann’s Parish for Sunday (EF) Mass.
Wife and I expecting number 5 early in the new year :)
My daughter is flying out from Sydney this coming Saturday, to go on a pilgrimage to France (which includes my favourite place; Lourdes) and then on to the World Youth Day in Madrid.
Today felt like Spring, even though it is winter.
Managing to keep the faith even though the devil is sticking so close me that if he was flesh and blood I’d be applying for a restraining order.
In other news my vocation might be moving forward soon
In Christ
Jack
God willing, my husband and I will celebrate our first wedding anniversary in January 2012 with a one-month-old baby boy!
We have finally booked the date of our wedding: 24th of September. The whole ceremony will be in the EF including (hopefully) a solemn nuptial mass.
Great news Mike, I like hearing of new EF Masses. Brick by brick!
I had my first cup of Mystic Monk coffee this weekend!. Wonderful.
I attended a TLM for the first time in my life. I did not know what was going on during the whole thing, but I did know that it felt “right” and I will go from now on. The suggestions from Fr. Z were on attending the TLM for the first time were very helpful. Thanks!
I have been cancer free for two years. Praise God.
At Old St. Mary’s Church in Downtown Cincinnati (Over-the-Rhine), where we have Latin and German Masses (OF and EF) and kneel at the Communion rail to receive Our Lord, we were also privileged yesterday to receive a blessing with two relics of St. (Padre) Pio which were brought by his Brother/Friar.
Yesterday at our EF Mass, a new schola formed by six young men (ages 17-26) sang for the first time at Mass : Missa de Angelis and propers in simplified psalm tones, the Ave Verum and Adoro te Devote. These young men just started attending the EF less than a year ago and listen to them sing prayerfully! The young love the EF! http://www.traditioguam.blogspot.com
Our newest daughter (#6) was baptized yesterday.
Wife & I just celebrated our 27th anniversary.
It’s not July any longer.
The two very good homilies I heard to start last week were bookended by another very good one at Mass Saturday evening.
Upon reflection, I realized that between those ends, I had witnessed at least one eloquently unspoken testimony of Faith which was probably worth a homily of its own.
Long days and late nights of prep work were worth it – a retreat my wife helped organize went fairly well.
I got to spend a little much-needed time with my parents this weekend. Played Scrabble like old times and had a rare treat – got to see a family heirloom which I had never known of.
We’ve got the love and loyalty of a good dog.
We’ve got friends willing to help us out when we need a hand.
I heard one of the readings at Mass Saturday evening as if I’d never read it before. I also heard a lovely hymn at Mass which I seriously think I’ve never heard before.
My youngest son is an official, on the payroll :) Seminarian as of today.
I’ll be cantoring on Wednesday, and I’ll be allowed to sing the communion antiphon instead of a hymn! Brick by brick…
Twelve altar boys –including six torchbearers in the Sanctus procession–at our high Mass yesterday. I recall that among Fortescue’s foibles is a prejudice against a surplus of servers, but virtually every boy of age in a Latin Mass community wants to be an altar boy, and every altar boy wants to serve every Mass, so why discourage their vocations?
I wondered whether any other Sunday Mass in our diocese had as many altar servers yesterday, or whether any other parish will produce as many vocations per capita.
I’ve ordered an altar rail for our country church from a local cabinet maker. It will be portable so I can use it for the traditional Mass without causing confusion at other times.
three weeks and six days until my retreat vacation.
my leg is bad again but i am not as depressed about it. i may be able to drive to the vacation place if it doesn’t improve. but if not it is God’s will anyway.
i made a pizza from scratch and it was edible. it had red onion, red bell pepper and eggplant, extra virgin olive oil. King Arthur bread flour (too lazy to get the Conagra stuff from the special store)
i made it to Mass.
I got to talk to a priest last week. he made sense about this dark night experience i am in for so long.
people are nice to me, generally.
I really didn’t want to work today (it’s a holiday) and I got to work and too many people showed up, so my manager told mento go home. I still get paid because it’s a holiday, plus I get 3 hours of time and a half for minimum call in pay. Interestingly enough, as I pulled into the parking lot, I prayed for today to be quick and go by fast.
Also, for the first time since Pentecost, Mass contained all the required parts yesterday, and the priest kept the frivolous commentary to the bare minimum. Praying is finally starting to take heed !!
We have yet another young man at our parish who has been accepted to seminary. I’ve lost count of how many vocations our parish has produced. And I know there are other young men at the parish (my son included) considering the priesthood.
Today is a special feast day for my family and the birthday of one who passed on our faith in humble circumstances, all the while informed by great joy, for nearly a century now! Also the African violets are blooming next to our antique image of the Sacred Heart, which was enthroned in her home all those years ago. We are so grateful to God for the gift of her faith in the constant prayer of her life. She reminds me of so many witnesses to the faith whom I encounter on a daily basis, even if relatively unnoticed by the world.
I enjoy hearing of the others’ excellent news here as well.
our Low Mass will be changed to a Missa Cantata come October. i can’t believe i willl live within walking distance of a missa cantata when a year and a half ago i had no idea what those words even meant!!!
Good news? Why yes, as a matter of fact. Today my husband and I celebrate 41 years of married life! It is solely by the grace of God. God has blessed us indeed.
It is heartening to read others good news also! Blessings to all.
I am in a conversation with the local Ordinary about correction of liturgical abuse…AND HE’S TAKING ACTION!!!!
Tomorrow is our 42nd anniversary. I know some of you haven’t been alive that long. As Wanda says, it is by the grace of God.
We are excited we’re hosting an english Chant Workshop with Jeffery Tucker and Arlene Oost-Zinner at St. Thomas Aquinas/St. John Student Center in East Lansing, Michigan. If you are within driving distance…the more the merrier – http://chantmichigan.wordpress.com/ Otherwise – prayers for Workshop success very appreciated :)
Made a new friend through WDTPRS. Father, in one of your comboxes, John pined that he wished he could meet DC area WDTPRS-fans. I volunteered. We connected online. Kept missing each other at various Masses. Finally yesterday at the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem Sunday Tridentine Mass in Charles Town WV, we finally met. It was also John’s first experience with the delightful Canons.
Typically as with other fellow z-fans, we hit it off. Fortunately, John has a healthy sense of humor and was able to navigate the crazy people at the Diner table after Mass.
One of my first z-fan-friends I made was His Awesomeness Henry Edwards, two years ago, on a trip.
Its all about that shared Catholic Identity. Thanks for helping with that, Fr Z!
Pregnancy is going along and I am having the fun challenge of finding a name both of us like. Of course, that would be easier if we knew yet if this is a boy or a girl but as we have a boys name chosen, I want to have a girls name lined up just in case we need one.
I FEEL like this is a girl, but I could be wrong.
I had our baby’s 20-week ultrasound last week, and he or she is healthy and developmentally perfect. We were given some lovely pictures, including one of his/her face in 3-D! Very cool.
I got my Mystic Monk coffee and it is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Puts other named brand coffee to shame.
I read over at Catholic Answers (CAF) that the Archdiocese of Dijon, France has opened the canonization process for Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, a Carmelite of that city who died in 1906 and was beatified in 1984! The commission will be investigating the cure of a Belgian woman in 2002.
I’m so excited by this! I have several books on her, some pictures which I bought in France the year after the beatification, and two third-class relics of her.
I got to hold my grandson yesterday! He’s so cute!
I’m going to my home parish today to have the organ serviced and made to sound more like an English cathedral instrument for better congregational support! Granted, it’s just a digital organ . . . but I suppose it’s better than a digital piano + drum set!
In the next few weeks I will also be teaching the parish priest the new chants in the revised Missal. Things are looking up!
Going camping for the first time in years. It’s great.
There’s a pineapple coconut walnut cake in the oven baking…mmm, it smells really good! Cream cheese frosting will top it after it cools.
The Catholic-owned software engineering company I work for secured another contract. Deo Gratias!
Our all male schola chanted as a way to help the faithful prepare before Mass. The Mass took place outside, as part of a family picnic. Since the event is under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we chanted the propers for the Assumption, in English, set to the Gregorian melodies, first meditating on our Lady and then asking for her intercession. We were invited back for next year.
Replaced the wireless network in the administration building and rectory on Friday and it has been rock solid ever since.
irishgirl –
That was exciting news about Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. She made light of her terrible physical sufferings (TERRIBLE!!!!) by noting that even an ordinary good wife in the world would not wish to be anywhere else than suffering alongside her suffering spouse. How much more so she and her divine spouse.
Google for her last photo. That FACE! She is the very image of her words, “My master asks me to go to my passion with the majesty of a queen.” One of the most transcendental photos I’ve ever seen.
Patti Day-congratulations of your anniversary! DH and I celebrated our 42nd last week. Our parish installed a Crucifix and a Tabernacle in the sanctuary. On Sunday, the new items were blessed in Latin. Our priest said it so slowly that I was able to reach back in the brain and actually understand the most of it. It was wonderful seeing the sanctuary lamp. Our parish will have to learn about genuflecting and reverent behavior in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
My 2 year old son had a 2 1/2 hour MRI and MRA under anesthesia and he came out of the anesthesia just fine and is back to his usual mischief. Also someone broke into my husband’s car yesterday while we were at Church but the would be thief didn’t take anything. (He didn’t have anything expensive in there, but he had a book of photos from the Vatican he had brought to share with the Catechism teacher). The best news for us this week is my daughter, who was a preemie and born with respiratory distress and some other problems, celebrates her first birthday on Wednesday and is a happy, healthy little girl.
I got up out of bed, and a lot of people couldn’t.
I went to Mass this morning, and Christianity is banned in many parts of the world.
I went to work today, and a whole lot of people are out of work.
Thank you, God!
My twins will being receiving First Communion this coming weekend!
The newest Priest in our parish said Mass last Sunday, and he can chant! And sing!
This weekend my 7 year old daughter told me (as she was scrubbing the bath tub no less) that she has decided she wants to be a saint rather than President of the United States. I told her that was an excellent choice. Also, a vexing health problem has turned out to be no big deal and treatment is only for a little more than a week.
Thank you God for these and all my other blessings!
Fr. Randall Kasel, formerly of St. Agnes (St. Paul, MN) has been assigned to the parish in my small town. An answer to our prayers.
Only the grace of God enabled me to get my novel’s manuscript finished up and out the door today, about an hour before the editor needed it so he could pitch it to the publishing board. I’m even talking about God caring about it enough that I spontaneously had an extra cup of coffee on Friday at lunchtime, which enabled me to stay up until midnight finishing the first draft.
I would appreciate prayers for the sequelae to getting it done. I have done my part. The rest is in God’s almighty hands. :-)
After several months of a truckload of crosses and very sorrowful circumstances, yesterday I was ready to scrap driving to the monthly EF a hundred miles away and just hide under the covers.
I forced myself to go, sang in the choir, and it was balm for my soul, mind, and spirit. Today I feel a hundred times better and with the Lord’s help I can tackle all the challenges ahead.
Thanks be to God I have found a new job. Although I live in south/Central NJ and my commute is over 2 hours each way, I am no longer part of the unemployed millions. for my 50th birthday, truly a grace from the Lord and His Mother. :-)
God bless you Fr Z for all these posts of blessings! Our granddaughter Zelie Jacinta will be baptised in EF soon after birth and her brother Gabriel now says,”Pray” extending his hands and then says, “Hail Mary, full of grace”–he will be 2 years old in Oct!
I will wed, God-willing, my faithful and beautiful Catholic bride-to-be in 12 days!
My two-month-old slept through the night for the first time — and on a night when I was sick! What a blessing! My oldest never slept through the night until she was more than a year old!
Our 4th child was born this past Thursday at a “healthy” 10 lbs 13 oz. My wife is on her feet and recovering well, and baby boy won’t stop eating. We are blessed!
10lbs13oz! God Bless your wife, nichols.a.t. Wow. Congrats!
My furniture was delivered to my new home. I started my new job today and I love it and my family will be joining me tomorrow!
Daughter safely delivered her first born child, a daughter, Cadence Marie, (7lbs, 3 oz; 20″ on July 24th at 5:10pm in the afternoon) after a very long labor. Mother and child are both healthy and thriving.
Son, is being considered for a special duty assignment, more travel, less often to dangerous places.
And I have a part-time job with a future in which I can use my talents. Husband, and the rest of our families are healthy.
Deo Gratias!
Trip planned to Lourdes with a wonderful group that I have never met! The grace of God is wonderous!
I Fulfilled the Portiuncula Indulgence in a Opus Dei Oratory inside the University!! DEO GRATIAS!!!!
Praise God, a new job came out of the blue, putting an end to a year and a half of lack of permanent employment. This, plus the part-time job I had for the last two months, puts a stop to the financial draining that was occurring.
Michael Val
(who, with the help of my beautiful bride who had a job during this difficult time, had a roof over his head and remained fed, which is good news as well!)
This time next Tuesday I’ll be on my way to Spain for WYD ’11 ^_^
Kateri Rose was born on 7/30 at 7:30am. God’s timing was perfect for her birth. My needs were met. We have another (4th) beautiful baby. Praise to the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Texana-beautiful is the name of your new granddaughter! Zelie Jacinta-great names! I love it that she is named for Blessed Zelie Martin, the mother of St. Therese, as well as Blessed Jacinta of Fatima!
digdigby-yes, I know what you mean about Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity’s face after her death. In 1985, I went on my first trip to France (a pilgrimage in honor of St. Joan of Arc), and when I visited Domremy-la-Pucelle (St. Joan’s birthplace) I bought some Elizabeth of the Trinity items at a Carmelite convent across the road from the Basilica of St. Joan-this was just months after Elizabeth’s beatification in November 1984. One was a book of photos, ‘Recherche de l’Aurore’ (an English edition of the same had the title, ‘Light, Love and Life’-her last audible words). I was shocked when I saw the pictures of her after death! Her face was so thin! No wonder her family and friends were stunned when they saw her laid out in the choir of the monastery! She DID look like a living crucifix….’conformed to the image of His death’, as St. Paul says!
The Monstrance for Vocations, blessed by Blessed John Paul II, is on display in our Sacred Heart Adoration Chapel this week!
I actually had the courage (okay, mixed with anger) to witness briefly but publicly to quite a few of my fellow congregants (during a chant workshop) why, from my own [Roman] experience in many parishes, it is a quaquaversal move to start allowing women to perform leading liturgical roles — like lector — in our Byzantine Catholic Church.
quaquaversal = sloping downward from the center in all directions
I don’t have to make supper tonight, teenage son is making pizza! So, I will be able to finish repairing lace on an alb …..Yeah!!!!
Forgot to mention that I am a woman with 30+ years of experience of singing in church choirs and a mother of several sons who serve the altar daily, so I managed to stifle the knee-jerk “male chauvinist pig” label. It was also very gratifying that several men thanked me later.
Went to mass this morning, as I do if I can during the week, at the Benedictine Oratory of Sts. Gregory and Augustine in St. Louis.
The mass was celebrated by a recently minted priest (FSSP). After mass he gave individual blessings to those who came to the altar rail.
I was not aware that there were special blessings that new priests are empowered to give. All in all a pleasant surprise.
A Priest friend has just heard he is to be made Bishop, and has said he will start saying the de profundis after every Low Mass to remember the Martyrs for the Eucharist!