Daily … Catania Shot 1242 – Christmas cards!

Some views from Catania and the feast of St. Agatha.    Thanks to The World’s Best Sacristan™.

More CHRISTMAS CARDS have been delivered.

Season’s Greetings from…

N. Fort Myers, FL
Wasilla, AK
Fort Collins, CO
Slovakia

In the case of the last card, there was also a hand-written note with a fountain pen. Nice.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HEREWHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

I’m always in favor of some good news.  We need it.

Quite a few…

Meanwhile, a Catholic hero…

In chessy news… HERE

Can you destroy the One Ring and bring down Sauron?

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“An enemy has done this.”

Sunday’s Gospel in the Vetus Ordo… read for many hundreds of years so that we would know it well, so that it would be part of our Catholic marrow.

As I read the Gospel again for this Sunday, I am minded of what has been going on in the Church for a while now.  It is chilling to see.  However, we have the assurance from the Lord that He will sort things out in the end.

Let’s see the Gospel.  Read aloud if you want!  It’s the Word of God.

Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (RSV)

One of the themes of artwork depicting the Parable of the Wheat and Tares is the indolence of those who should be tending to the field.   In the image above shows the workers not only asleep, but also in a state of post-debauch.   Right click it for larger.   Not only are they debauched, there is a goat nearby symbolizing what they’ve been up to, a horse is untethered showing their lack of care, there’s disorder in the equipment.  A horned figure is in the field.

Here’s another.  Large HERE

The Latin couplets at the bottom:

Segnitiem ut fugiant, sitque ut vigilantia cordi
His, quibus imbellis Christi concreditus est Grex;
Admonet, en, placidae Sator indulgere quieti
Dum satagit, mox hostis adest, qui subdolus inter
Germina legitimae segetis sparsum iacit illam
Ut lolium infelix sterili pessundet arista.

Another great image, and along the lines of the theme I will push on, below.  The background in the building are various figures of different walks of life.  In the privileged place is someone with a three-fold tiara.  Who could that be?  There is also a man in the background with a cardinal’s galero.  There are a couple of bishops and a man with a scholar’s cap, like a Dominican friar. There are a few religious.  Everyone’s hanging out, lying down, leaning on things, snoozing.   Meanwhile, the ugly figure going about, clearly demonic, is a parody of all of them, with its two miter like horns and the religious tonsure.

To get at the serious nature of this parable, which would have made Christ’s listener’s blood run cold, we have to grasp the nature of the crime, the sowing of “tares” in an enemy’s field.

Above ground they look just like the wheat.  Below ground they twine around and suffocate other root systems.

Above – benign.  Below – deadly.

A field sown with tares, darnels, cockles, zizania, a rye grass Lolium temulentum … call them what you will… would be useless for a long time.  That would be financially devastating because of the loss of crops.  It could endanger people with famine.

The sowing of tares was so serious that the Romans made it a crime to sow them in enemy fields.

You can sense the desperate conversation that might have taken place amongst the servants until the master of the house makes the call.

“How could be?  Isn’t our field good?  Isn’t our seed wonderful?”

“How could this have happened?”

“We were just asleep for a little while and look what happened!”

The householder hearing it all, including that part about them being asleep says:

An enemy has done this.”

On a micro level, we must consider vigilance.  We note with Gregory the Great that, “If by habit we become acquainted with venial sins, we shall afterwards not be afraid of falling into great ones.”  It doesn’t take long for sins to root and choke.  An examination of conscience is critical in getting out of this mess.

On a macro level, we must examine – the Church.  The Church is in the state that it is in… why?  Clearly “we” were not vigilant.  We were asleep. Athenagoras, addressing the problem of false teaching which contradict true doctrine said,

“false opinions are an aftergrowth from another sowing.”

An enemy has has sown deadly seed in the fields of the Church.

It has always been so.  St. Augustine used the image of the wheat and the tares when dealing with the Donatist controversy.  The Church is a “corpus permixtum malis et bonis… a body mixed-through with good men and evil.”

It has always been so.  Out of the Twelve, there was one.

The Church today?  An enemy has done this.  An enemy has always done this.

And it seems like we always always always going to sleep and letting him sow.

We can’t go back in time, only forward.  We can bring the correctives of the past forward to the present.  The tried and the true must be the starting point, the reference. Corrections are needed.

Harvest time will come. The reapers will one day reap.  There will be gathering, separating and, without question, burning.

Gathering, separating and burning is what we do in an examination of conscience and a good confession.  That which is burned is gone.   Sins confessed and absolved are GONE.

Gathering, separating and burning is what we are going to have to experience in the Church for it to pass from its present state.  An enemy is planting weeds that choke off the good.

It is no small matter to be asked to stand by and watch as the wheat struggles in its battle with the enemy, in the form of suffocating, life thieving tares.

There is only so much that can be done as individuals except in one’s one sphere of weeding, and then with great care for the wheat.

Do not sleep.  Be vigilant.  Examine your conscience.  Weed your plot.  Gather your tares.  Take them to the fire, the raging and unquenchable fire of God’s love.

GO TO CONFESSION.

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 5th Sunday after Epiphany (N.O. 5th Ordinary) 2025

In the Vetus Ordo, it’s the 5th Sunday after Epiphany.  In the Novus Ordo, it is the 5th Sunday in Ordinary (Ordered) Time.    Green vestments for one more Sunday in the Vetus Ordo.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?

Share the good stuff.  Quite a few people are forced to sit through really bad preaching.  Even though you can usually find – if you are willing to try – at least one good point in a really bad sermon, that can be a trial.  So… SHARE THE GOOD STUFF which you were fortunate enough to receive!

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?  We really need good news.

I have some thoughts posted at One Peter Five.

[…]

“Put on the bowels of mercies”.   That sounds great.  So great does it sound to modern ears that most contemporary translations choose “heart of compassion”, or some such.   The Greek σπλάγχνα (splágchna) means the viscera: intestines, lungs, other internal organs.    We get our word “spleen” from the Greek.

[…]

 

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Look at these poor backwardists

Look at these poor backwardists, kneeling to receive Communion. Don’t they understand that there would be bishops in these USA who know better?!? At least there’s no terrible Communion rail!

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Daily Rome Shot 1241 – a lucky man

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HEREWHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

This man is lucky that The Great Roman™ isn’t in charge of his subsequent treatment.

In chessy news… HERE

White to move and mate in 3.

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Daily Rome Shot 1240

 

I’m on the road still.   Last night we made a food foray into deepest darkest Queens for Chinese at a now favorite place.

Starting with soup dumplings.

The spoons at the restaurant (blue and white on the left) are too small to eat these dumplings with anything like efficiency.   Hence, I ordered larger spoons (white) with a deeper bowl and a little wider.    The gals at the restaurant were amused and got into it by offering the spoon on the right, but it wasn’t any larger than the white one and it was more awkward, since it could not stand on its own.

One of our number wanted the crispy shrimp in mayo.

A wonderful and very spicy stew with chicken.   In this case, I hit something which brought flaming spicy tears and a clear sinus.

Crispy beef.

The traditional Benedictines of Le Barroux can send you great wine.

OPPORTUNITY
10% off with code:
FATHERZ10

Cumin lamb, which we usually get.  It was excellent this time.

What a pleasure to get great Chinese before heading south to the worst Chinese anywhere.  Well… maybe not the very worst.

Please remember me when Christmas shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HEREWHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

A very cook picture of Venus, where there is no Chinese food option at all.

In chessy news… HERE

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VIDEO: Can a bishop forbid Communion at a Communion rail? A canonist responds.

I light of sad development I posted on recently, there’s this.  It’s not long.

Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, OP, is an accomplished canonist. I think he makes the right point also about the moral issue involved. The question is to be asked. If the bishop says no Communion at the rail, and people go to the rail anyway, what is the priest to do? Deny them Communion? That CAN’T be right.

As a matter of fact, Redemptionis Sacramentum forcefully underscores that people have the right to receive kneeling and on the tongue. If there is a Communion rail, where should a person kneel to receive?

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity |
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Has anyone had a problem with the “combox” form?

Every once in a while, I’ve seen someone mention that they could not leave a comment.   As a matter of fact, a few days ago I noticed that there was no combox form under a post.  Then it was back.

It’s maybe optimistic to ask people to leave a comment about a possibly faulty comment form, but… here goes.

Has anyone had a problem?   If you can’t see a combox form, write to me HERE.

NB: Only those of you who are registered and approved can leave comments.   Also, all comments automatically go into a queue for moderation.

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Daily Rome… er um… Catania Shot 1239

From Catania for the Feast of St. Agatha…


Another parish is being bullied by the bishop. They are using the Communion rail at the parish and the people like it and want it. The bishop comes, sees what they are doing (aka “sees they are happy”?) and says “Stop using the rail”.

“I am the good shepherd”.

The pastor’s comment in their parish bulletin HERE.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

This is a MUST SEE.   The guest, Fr. Kirby, hits it outta da’ park:

More of this will happen, I think.  Parishes should have a consideration for security.

As we say in Rome on reading of this… “MA VA!”

In chessy news… HERE

My guy Wesley So is in Düsseldorf to play in the Bundesliga.  He did a video interview.

White to move and mate in 4.

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Daily Rome Shot 1238

The Ave Maria Bell doesn’t ring in Brooklyn.  At least, I’d wager that it doesn’t.   But if it did, it would ring in the 17:45 cycle until 9 February, when it would shift to 18:00.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Last night we went to a great pub. It was taco night, so …

… they were definitely NY tacos, if you get my drift. Not bad. Pretty good as food, just not …. tacos, properly understood.

The burger, on the other hand, was excellent. There’s nothing like a cheeseburger after a transatlantic flight and over 10 days of ketchup deprivation.

In churchy news…

Protected for years…

In chessy news… HERE

Black to move and mate in 2. Find it in … 30 seconds! GO!! CLICK

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PENTIN on “Trump’s Early Decisions Expose Damage Caused by Vatican Complicity With Democrat-Run Globalism”

Ed Pentin has an important post at his blog: HERE

Trump’s Early Decisions Expose Damage Caused by Vatican Complicity With Democrat-Run Globalism, Says Italian Scholar

A taste…

In sum, Fontana said the Church’s alignment with these policies of globalism has resulted in damage to society, economic crises, social tensions, and a weakening of the Church’s teaching on key moral issues.

It isn’t long, but it is packed. It isn’t happy new, but it is necessary.

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ROME DAY 25/01 11: Time to go. My View For A While

The sun rise is about a half hour away as I write this sentence, at 07:17.  It will set long after my departure: 17:31.

The Ave Maria Bell is still in the 17:45 cycle.

All is ready in the apartment.  My ride to the airport is booked.

I achieved everything on my list that I wanted to do during this short trip.    Not bad for Rome, which has a tendency to fight you, if you do not know her ways.

A couple last glances of The Parish… sniff. It’s always hard to leave.

I don’t always carb in the morning but today I was pressed for time. A bar I know across from where I used to stay makes their own cornetti. This was still so wonderfully warm from the oven and the smell in the place was terrific. Perfection.

Lots of inbound traffic today but once we got out of the Trastevere Tangle the trip to FCO went quickly. I had a terrific woman driver whose brother took me last time. Punctual and nice. Driving since 2008 I think she said. I’ll use them again anytime.

A330-900

I am hoping there will be an empty seat by me. Who knows.

Last flight had no WiFi so I am not optimistic about this one.

If you in your kindness will think of it, occasionally say a prayer for the safety of this flight over the next 10 hours or so, to get us off the the ground and back (gently).

Itinerarium clericorum.

UPDATE

Doors are closed!

 

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Hey Fathers!  How about a clerical Guayabera shirt? (Tariff

Hey Fathers!  How about a clerical Guayabera shirt?

Yeah, I am a cassock guy, at least when I am in Rome.

Think about it.   If there are going to be tariffs on things made in Mexico, where these are made, the price will eventually rise.

Frankly, I think that the big tariff will be avoided through timely and self-interested negotiation.  Still… think about it.

It’s cold now, in most places, but it will warm up.

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ROME DAY 25/01 10: Last meal out (and a tintinabular explication)

On this 34th day of the calendar year the sun rose over Rome at 07:18.  It set a little while ago at 17:30 and the Ave Maria Bell was to ring out at 17:45.

I was asked again about the Ave Maria Bell.  The question is “What is the Ave Maria Bell?”    I wrote about that in greater detail HERE.

In short, the Ave Maria Bells signals the end of the “religious” day and the beginning of “religious” night.  It is rung in the ball park of 30 minutes after sunset.  Usually the Ave Maria was rung in a way not dissimilar to how the Angelus is rung…  3x… 4x…5x… 1x.

If the Ave Maria rings at, say, 17:45h, then 16:45h would be the 23rd hour of the day and 17:45 would be the 1st hour of the new day’s “evening and morning”.   In Roman churches, Vespers were usually sung about an hour before the Ave Maria Bell.  Hence, in the example above, at about 16:45 at the 23rd hour.

It’s all tied into a different way of calculating the hours of the day.  It also ties into the old Six Hour Clocks, you can still see around Rome.  The Six Hour Clock influenced the recitation of the Angelus at 06:00 – 12:00 – 18:00.

In the Roman Curia, Cardinals who were Prefects (the offices of the Congregations had/have throne rooms, btw) and other “pezzi grossi” around the place would receive visits for an hour after the Ave Maria. An hour after the Ave Maria was rung to signal the change of religious days, another bell was struck to denote the 1st hour of the new day.

The Ave Maria could follow the sun, and ring precisely one half hour after sunset.   So, following the sun strictly, the solar Ave Maria would ring at 16:30.   To simplify this for the Curia – ’cause who had watches, right? – they adopted 15 minute cycles.  We are in the 27 Jan – 9 Feb cycle at 17:45 now.  There is another 17:45 cycle, which lasts from 13-22 October.  BUT… there’s the “ora legale” here, the European “daylight savings” in force which moved the hour hand forward.   That changes things.

It is the Feast of St. Blaise and time for the blessing of throats.   Here is the link to last year’s packed post about St. Blaise Day.  HERE

I have barely gone out to eat since I have been in Rome.  As a matter of fact, I’ve been out precisely twice, two days straight, because people come to town and that’s what we do.

Last night I was at a nice place (decorations a bit over done for my taste) near the parish.  It is the sister restaurant of a favorite of mine on that same street, and it is somewhat fancier.   The food was exceptionally good and the service was superb.  It was a nice meal, to be sure.

Starting, which drink is mine?

I started with an appetizer of pheasant with an apple/mustard garnish.

Cannelloni.   Delightful.   We had a Grechetto Nero for it.  Perfect.

This place is not the typical osteria.  It tends toward novella cucina, and as such it is a little edgy.  The menu as I read it suggests that the chef is playing with sweet and savory together.  When it works, it works.

My cena di congedo will consist of caprese with fresh ozzy mozzarella and a ripe tomato I picked by from my dear old fruttarola.

Hear are candles readied yesterday for the clergy servers and members of the Archconfraternity.  Let me tell you, going up and down those steps with that carpet… you take your life in your hands.

Slightly blurry, but I wanted you to have a sense of the true Roman purple, which is on the red end of the spectrum.

Another look.  The fabric shows up differently according to the angle of the light.

Distribution of candles.

And the Mass begins in white… it is Feast of the Lord, really.

Those Roman purple vestments might look red to you, but here are the red vestments that YOU READERS bought.

So, which set up is mine?

(Trick question… none of them!)

How beautiful this is.  And there is decorum.   The Illustrious Pastor™ is doing amazing things here.

Here’s one… not that hard.  White mates in 2.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Tata Steel… PRAGG WON! He beat Gukesh in sudden death tie breaks. Is that a good way to resolve such a long tournament? I don’t think so. I want a return to longer classical formats, but that is not going to happen in this age of short attention spans and stratospheric costs. But it was an Indian ending, o my prophetic soul. There is a video of the final dramatic… yes, dramatic game. Even if you don’t know much about chess, you can follow the ebb and flow. You see how they blitz out early moves and then something new happens. There are mistakes because of time pressure. Surprises abound.

I’m itching to scrape off the rust and play OTB again. I think that when I come back in April, I might actively engage the guys at P.za der Fico. Some have talent, but they are – sorry to say – rather hacks, because they never play anything other than 5 min blitz. So, tricky trappy schtick. They know their openings because, damn, you have to. Anyway, it might be fun. I know I will increase my Roman vocabulary. I heard some extremely unwoke stuff the other day about “criptofrocci”. LOL No Jesuits in sight… and yet….

It’s odd. Tonight is the first night I really feel like I’m totally over jet lag.

Arrivederci Roma.

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ROME DAY 25/01 09: 1st meal out

I’m dead tired so this is what I can muster…

Yesterday I ate out for the first time…

I had an artichoke, and it was good.

I had fettucine with a sauce from coda alla vaccinare.  Wine, Cesanese.

I was so tired then that I took half of it home!

Time to hit the rack.  Tomorrow, a couple more photos of eating out tonight (always more of that before I leave) and from Candlemas.

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Notes about the Candlemas procession: the link between the Nativity and the Passion

First, the celebrant places incense in the thurible, then the deacon turns to the people and says:

V. Let us go forth in peace.
R. In the Name of Christ. Amen.

The thurifer goes first, carrying the thurible, followed by the vested subdeacon, who carries the cross between two acolytes with lighted candles, then the clergy in order, finally the celebrant with the deacon at his left. All hold lighted candles in their hands.

During the procession, anthems are sung beginning with a wonderful antiphon.  Remember the Gospel.  Mary would have been brought within the Temple, carrying the Lord, the Light of the World, and led to a place of sacrifice, the offering of her Firstborn.   The firstborn had to be redeemed, bought back as it were, through a substitute sacrifice, in the case of Christ two doves, one for holocaust and one for sacrifice.  It is at the Presentation that Simeon speaks of the rhomphia, the heart-piercing sword, and Mary becomes the Sorrowful Mother through the first of her sorrows.

This moment of Candlemas, the Presentation of the Lord, is link between the Nativity and the Passion, the reason why Christ was born.

The 1st Antiphon:

Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion, et suscipe Regem Christum amplectere Mariam, quae est coelestis porta: ipsa enim portat Regem gloriae novi luminis: subsistit Virgo, ad ducens manibus Filium ante luciferum genitum: quem accipiens Simeon in ulnas suas, praedicavit populis, Dominum eum esse vitae et mortis, et Salvatorem mundi.

Adorn thy bridal-chamber, O Sion, and welcome Christ the King: with loving embrace greet Mary who is the very gate of heaven; for she bringeth to thee the glorious King of the new light: remaining ever a Virgin yet she bearest in her arms the Son begotten before the day-star: even the Child, whom Simeon taking into his arms, declared to the peoples to be the Lord of life and death, and the Savior of the world.

At Christmas we receive the Lord.  At Candlemas we offer Him.

In the Churching of woman after child birth, they are met a the entrance to the church and then led forward. This same antiphon is used.

In addition to the theme of light functioning throughout the rite there is also another echo of Christmas and Epiphany.  God meets man.  God comes to us, and we go to Him.  Today there is another meeting of God and man, expectant man, symbolized by Anna and Simeon.  The hymn sung in the procession frames our meeting, our Encounter as the liturgy of the Greek East calls this say, in nuptial terms.

In the Mass itself, we have the with its emphasis on the place, the Temple, a strong theme in the Mass’ texts:

COLLECT (1962MR):

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, maiestatem tuam suppliciter exoramus: ut, sicut unigenitus Filius tuus hodierna die cum nostrae carnis substantia in templo est praesentatus; ita nos facias purificatis tibi mentibus praesentari
.

This is an ancient prayer, going back at least to the 9th c. and is found Liber sacramentorum Romanae ecclesiae ordine excarpsus.

Presentation Mantegna

You will quickly see what is happening if you are a student of Latin. Take careful note of the ut in the second part, which leads to a subjunctive down the line.  Also, there is a typical sicut…ita construction, the ita part having the subjunctive result of the ut.

There is a nice turn of phrase at the end, using the trope hyperbaton, whereby that tibi separates the two elements of the ablative absolute purificatis … mentibus.  I also like that use of praesentatuspraesentari, a trope called, if memory serves, polyptoton.

The word maiestas is associated with gloria, a divine characteristic which transforms us who encounter it.  Thinks of the transformation of Moses’ face after he met with the Lord in the tent or on the mount: he had to wear a veil because his face was too bright to look at.  Also, Romans liked addressing people in indirect ways.  We still do this in some formal discourse and letters.  It is courtly, courteous.  Here maiestas can be heard as a form of address: Your Majesty.  So, maiestas has layers on layers of meaning.

Note the philosophical language of substantia.  Some times people will argue that the switch from Greek to Latin, the spoken language in ancient Rome, is justification for using the “vernacular” today.  The problem with that argument is that the Latin used in the Church for prayer, was not the language spoken by the people. It had technical vocabulary (e.g., maiestas, substantia) and turns of phrase nothing like everyday speech (e.g., hyberbaton, polyptoton).

See what happens?  It all seems straight forward.  Then you start to drill.

Candlemas is a beautiful feast full of meaning and symbols.

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A Poetry ‘Encounter’ for Candlemas: “A Song For Simeon” by T.S. Eliot

Tomorrow is traditionally the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is also known as Candlemas.   There are references to light in the liturgy and we bless candles.

Candlemas is the conclusion of the Advent/Christmas cycle.  We are 40 days from the Nativity of our Lord.  The Law required that first-born sons were to be presented, offered in the Temple and the ritual purification of the mother took place.  Mary and Joseph fulfilled the Law and encountered the prophetess Anna and old Simeon, who had been awaiting the Messiah.  Simeon takes the Child in his arms and pronounced his Nunc Dimittis, which we repeat each night at Compline, and told Mary that a “sword” would pierce her heart.

Greek Christians call this Hypapanti or “encounter”, that is, of the young and old, Christ and Simeon, the New covenant and the passing Old.

Liturgically, the Marian Antiphon and response changes.  We have been singing Alma Redemptoris Mater since the beginning of Advent.  This ends on Candlemas.   Hereafter we sing Ave Regina Caelorum through Lent until Spy Wednesday of Holy Week.

Because of the antiquity of the feast, there are many cultural traditions for its celebration.  For example, in some French speaking regions it is customary to eat crêpes, in Mexico tamales.

There is some lovely poetry connected to Candlemas, such an evocative day.  Robert Herrick has his “Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve”, the last stanza of which was set to music by Kate Rusby.  Christina Georgina Rossetti has her “A Candlemas Dialogue”.  St. John Henry Newman wrote a poem “Candlemas”.

Here is “A Song For Simeon”, in free verse, by the greatest poet of the 20th century, T.S. Eliot:

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
The stubborn season has made stand.
My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace.
I have walked many years in this city,
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have taken and given honour and ease.
There went never any rejected from my door.
Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children
When the time of sorrow is come?
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation
Grant us thy peace.
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now at this birth season of decease,
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant Israel’s consolation
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow.

According to thy word,
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation
With glory and derision,
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair.
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,
Not for me the ultimate vision.
Grant me thy peace.
(And a sword shall pierce thy heart,
Thine also).
I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.
Let thy servant depart,
Having seen thy salvation

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Candlemas / Purification (N.O. Presentation) 2025

 

In the Vetus Ordo, it’s the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, also called Candlemas.  The texts reveal that this is a feast that emphasizes the Lord.  In the Novus Ordo, it is the Presentation of the Lord (which is the same biblical event).

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?

Share the good stuff.  Quite a few people are forced to sit through really bad preaching.  Even though you can usually find – if you are willing to try – at least one good point in a really bad sermon, that can be a trial.  So… SHARE THE GOOD STUFF which you were fortunate enough to receive!

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?  We really need good news.

I have some thoughts posted at One Peter Five.

[…]

Candles are beautiful symbols of our sacrifices.  They are like living things.  They eat and drink the wax from the bees, made collectively in association with sweetness.  They breathe air.  They move in their flames as they flicker.  They communicate to our eyes a beautiful light and give contrast to their surroundings by illumination.  They burn out at the end of their span.  So do we.  They are consumed for the Lord in the liturgy.  So should we be.  We do all these things.   And so, using candles in important times is a very wholesome and Catholic practice.  Leaving one of these little candles in a Church, as a symbolic sacrifice of your prayers and petitions is entirely natural.

[…]

 

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ROME DAY 25/01 08: Fractal

At 07:20 the sun rose over Rome and it will set 17:28.

Ave Maria Bell?  Should be 17:45.

It is the Feast of St. Ludovica Albertoni, a Roman widow (+1533).  Her tomb is in the church San Francesco a Ripa, over in Trastevere.  The monument is from the genius of Bernini and reminiscent of his stupendous Transverberation of St. Teresa in Santa Maria della Vittoria.

I may head over the river this afternoon.  I haven’t been across the bridge yet this trip.

Just a few days left.

Yesterday I posted this in an early morning mood.  This is a busy afternoon view.

For a friend.

Speaking of that…

I wish we had this in the States.  Kinda fractal!

Spaghetti with clams, vongole, last night.  I’m getting used to my kitchen.   The basis for the clams.

I’ll spare you the rest.

Kitchen: really hard to work in.  I don’t have adequate work surfaces.   It seems to me that I should get a cart with a wood cutting board top.  I could put a toaster over on the center rack.   As it is now, however, I have underutilized room but no useful space.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Bp. Strickland isn’t happy with his brother bishops…

Which I just have to post this because of its amazing coolness… for Aubrey Maturin fans everywhere.

I have GREAT RESPECT for Dr. Brant Pitre, a fine Scripture scholar.  At Catholic Productions he wandered into liturgical commentary and put his foot wrong about the concept of “active participation”. Gregory DiPippo of NLM has tackled the problem and Peter Kwasniewski has presented his work in a video. HERE

You may not be surprised to learn that huge problems come from ENGLISH mistranslations of the LATIN of the Council documents. Much depends on what the documents really say, really mean, about what in English is “active” or “full” and even “participation”.

In chessy news, here were four decisive games in round 11 of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, three of them won by Indian grandmasters with the black pieces. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju has the sole lead. Nodirbek could’ve climbed in the standings but he couldn’t put down Vincent Keymer in a long end rook and opposite bishop end game, which I watched while I was also following the launch of SpaceX Moon lander mission.

White to move and mate in 3.

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]

 

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St. Ignatius, martyr, and Bl. Ludovica, widow – Beauty, differently manifested

My Roman Curia calendar today shows that it is the Feast of Bl. Ludovica Albertoni (+31 Jan 1553).  My (Novus Ordo – 2005) Martyrologium Romanum listed her yesterday, the day of her death, otherwise known as her dies natalis, her birthday into heaven.

Either way, here is her entry in the Martryologium:

Romae, beatae Ludovicae Albertoni, quae, filiis christianis moribus pie institutis, post viri obitum, Tertio Ordini Sancti Francisci adscripta, pauperibus auxilium attulit, ex divite pauperrima facta.

Let’s see your own flawless and yet smooth renderings of the Latin.

Bl. Ludovica wanted to remain a virgin but at the behest of her family, married.  She was widowed at 33 and became a Franciscan Tertiary. She often had spiritual ecstasies and levitated.

Ludovica is rather like St. Francesca of Rome, who as a widow became Benedictine Oblate in the house that she had earlier established.  As a married woman, she used her family’s wealth to help the poor.  When I was first in Rome, I lived in her family house in Trastevere, the Palazzo Ponziani, then a quasi-religious residence for young men, now converted into a rather nice hotel.  In that palazzo there is a chapel and the room where she died.

Bl. Ludovica is someone you should visit when you are in Rome, in her tomb of the church in Trastevere San Francesco a Ripa.  It isn’t too far from Santa Cecilia.  The great sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini made her monument, and it is one of the great sculptures in Rome, reminiscent of his St. Theresa in Ecstasy in S. Maria della Victoria across town.  He made this late in his life.

Here are a couple pics.  The statue depicts her in extremis, in her death throes, simultaneously her last breaths and a spiritual ecstasy.

Bernini Ludovica Albertoni full

Before someone asks, the painting is of St. Ann and the Virgin by Giovanni Battista Gaulli.

Bernini Ludovica Albertoni det01

I remember the first time I saw this.  It was in my earliest days studying Latin with Fr. Foster in the 80’s.  I wandered into the church not knowing that this was within.

st-ignatius-of-antiochOf course in the older, traditional calendar, today is the Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr in the time of Trajan.  His body is also in Rome, in the stupendous San Clemente.

He was probably a disciple of the Apostle John, with Polycarp.  Pious tradition suggests he was one of the children whom Christ embraced.

His death was gruesomely beautiful.  Gruesome in its method, beautiful in its holiness.

Jerome, writing about Ignatius, mentions lions.

In Matins in the Breviarium Romanum, we read:

Ignatius, chosen to be the second successor of Peter as bishop of Antioch, was accused of being a Christian during Trajan’s reign and condemned to be sent to the beasts in Rome. As he was being brought from Syria in chains, he kept teaching all the cities of Asia which he went through, exhorting them as a messenger of the Gospel and instructing the more distant ones by his letters. In one of these letters, which he wrote to the Romans from Smyrna while he was enjoying Polycarp’s companionship, among other matters he said this about his own death sentence: “O helpful beasts that are being made ready for me! when will they come? When will they be sent out? When will they be allowed to devour my flesh? And I hope that they will be made the more fierce, lest by chance, as has happened in the case of others, they may fear to touch my body. Now I am beginning to be Christ’s disciple. Let fire, crosses, beasts, the tearing apart of my limbs, the torment of my whole body and all the sufferings prepared by the devil’s art be heaped upon me all at once, if only I may attain Jesus Christ. When he had arrived in Rome, he heard the lions roaring and, burning with desire for martyrdom, he burst out, “I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of the beasts so that I may be found pure bread.” He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan’s reign.

“Now I am beginning to be Christ’s disciple.”

Let us be humble.

that I may be found pure bread.

Eucharistic.

And from his Letter to the Romans, 3:

“Only request in my behalf both inward and outward strength, that I may not only speak, but [truly] will, so that I may not merely be called a Christian, but really found to be one. For if I be truly found [a Christian], I may also be called one, and be then deemed faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world. Nothing visible is eternal. ‘For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal’ [2 Cor 4:18]. The Christian is not the result of persuasion, but of power. When he is hated by the world, he is beloved of God. For says [the Scripture], ‘If ye were of this world, the world would love its own; but now ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it: continue in fellowship with me’ [John 15:19].”

 

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols |
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