Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Posted on 16 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Novena to the Holy Spirit
From Friday after Ascension Thursday to Vigil of Pentecost
HERE

WDTPRS – Pentecost Sunday – Vetus Ordo: Savvy?

Posted on 23 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In Acts 2 Peter addressed the crowds and unfolded to them the ramifications of what had been done to Christ and the consequences of his Resurrection in the light of the descent of the Holy Spirit like illuminating tongues of fire.

The darkness of their minds and hearts was dispelled as their eyes were opened and they saw and they stepped into the light of the Light from Light.

At Easter man was redeemed by Christ. At Pentecost the redeemed were claimed by the Spirit.

The Collect for Pentecost Sunday sings as follows:

Deus, qui hodierna die
corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti:
da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere,
et de eius semper consolatione gaudere.

This ancient prayer, from at least the time of the Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis and probably older, survived the Consilium’s expert scalpels to live in the Novus Ordo only as the Collect for a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit. It is also recited after the Veni Sancte Spiritus.

That sapio (infinitive sapere) means firstly “to taste, savor; to have a taste or flavor of a thing”. Logically, it is extended to “to know, understand a thing”. It is often paired in literature with the adverb recte, “rightly”, when wisdom is indicated. Think of the English word “insipid” (the sap- shifts to sip-) for something without flavor as well as a person without taste or wisdom. A homo sapiens is someone of “good taste”, who knows the savor of life, as it were. Sapiens is thus connected with Greek sophos, or “wise”, or “sage” which is also a savory herb. Sapientia, “Wisdom”, is a figure for the Holy Spirit as well as the greatest of His Gifts. The Holy Spirit, Parácletus, is our Counselor, leading us rightly, and He is Comforter, bringing us consolation.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, who on this day
taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant to us, in the same Spirit to know/savor things that are right,
and always to rejoice in His consolation.

That hodierna die connects this oration directly with similar language on Easter, showing the continuity between them. Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus!

I love that play of meanings in sapere. We know and we savor what we know. We relish what is right. We taste and see. Savvy?

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

The theme of sight is also thrilling within the Collect.

The Holy Spirit brought illustratio to the “hearts of the faithful”.

The Apostles were believers but the multitudes there, around the Temple precincts during the festival of Shevuoth, were not. They came to believe from preaching. They became part of the fideles as their hearts were illuminated by grace from the Holy Spirit and teaching from Peter informed their minds. The illumination received allowed them to savor and savvy even deeper the words Peter preached. In ancient rhetoric descriptive speech brought vivid images to the “eyes” of the listeners. This vivid presentation, such as what Spirit-breathed Peter thunders – in the Temple – imparts evidentia (note the root – vid– “to see”) in his argument, illustratio (note the root – lux – “light”). They had to know something before they could believe it. As they were illuminated, they believed. When they believed, they then understood the deeper meaning of what Peter explained and, with the movement of grace, they became believers in the deeper sense. As we hear in Acts 2, they were “added”. There is an Augustinian concept expressed in Latin, nisi credideritis non intelligetis… unless you will have first believed you will not understand.

With illustratione ringing in your ear, we are then struck consolatione. Consolatio is the Third Person of the Trinity, just as He is Illustratio. The Gospel reading today say in John 14:26s:

Paráclitus autem Spíritus Sanctus, quem mittet Pater in nómine meo, ille vos docébit ómnia … But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything….

In the Latin Vulgate the Lord calls the Holy Spirit the “Paraclitus”, from the Greek parákletos (para “beside” + kaleo “call”), which is Counselor, Advocate, one who stands by you and intercedes. In Matthew 2:18 and 5:4 we have two uses of the passive form of the same verb ????????. Both times, the context is mourning. The meaning is ‘to be comforted’. The Hebrew equivalent of parakletos, menahhem, means “comforter”. The RSV version translates parákletos as “Counselor”. The KJV says “Comforter”. Parákletos is a multi-layered term and title. Across many different translations, “Comforter” is strongly represented. English “Comforter” is rooted in Latin fortis, “strong”. That points to the role of the Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation. A “Counselor” or Advocate” makes you and your case stronger. The Spirit of Truth is the Strengthener, the Fortifier. Hence, it was to the advantage of the disciples that the Lord should depart and the Fortifier Comforter Advocate would come! It is to our advantage that we can be confirmed with the Holy Spirit as so many are at this time around Pentecost.

You would do well in this grace-filled time of the Octave of Pentecost, to make a review of the effects of the Sacrament Confirmation. There are good points in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well as many other venerable and still useful compendia. I’m certain that you will find them both illuminating and consoling

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WDTPRS – Pentecost Sunday – Novus Ordo: Weaving the warp and the weft

Posted on 23 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Fiftieth Day Feast, Hebrew Shavuot or Greek Pentekosté, for the Jews commemorated the descent of God’s Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, wreathed in fire, fifty days after the Exodus. But Jewish feasts also looked forward even as they looked back to an historic event. At Shavuot they looked forward to the return of the fiery glory cloud of God’s presence in the Temple.

Fifty days after Our Lord’s Resurrection, the tenth (the number of perfection) from His Ascension, the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and first disciples to breathe grace-filled life into Christ’s Body, the Church.

The Spirit descended as “tongues of fire”, on the very day they memorialized the descent of God like fire on Mount Sinai.

The Jews at that time would also have thought of the vision of the temple in the Book of Enoch, made of tongues of fire.

Hence, this Pentecost event would have really got the the attention of the multitudes, perhaps a million people, thronging Jerusalem for the feast. Jewish Pentecost, Shevuot, was one of the three great pilgrimage festivals when men were obliged to go up the Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices.

This magnificent Sunday in the Roman Rite’s Vetus Ordo retains its Octave along with the special Communicantes and Hanc igitur.

In the Ordinary Form a lot was chopped out. However, the Collect is rooted in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary.

Deus, qui sacramento festivitatis hodiernae universam Ecclesiam tuam in omni gente et natione sanctificas, in totam mundi latitudinem Spiritus Sancti dona defunde, et, quod inter ipsa evangelicae praedicationis exordia operata est divina dignatio, nunc quoque per credentium corda perfunde.

I like that defunde and perfunde. Spiffy.

Cor is “heart” and corda “hearts”. Sacramentum translates Greek mysterion. Sacramentum and Latin mysterium are often interchangeable in liturgical texts. Defundo means “to pour down, pour out”. Perfundo, is “to pour over, moisten, bedew”, and “to imbue, inspire” as well as “to dye”.

Exordium means “the beginning, the warp of a web”. Exordium invokes cloth weaving and selvage, the cloth’s edge, tightly woven so that the web will not fray, fall apart.

Exordium, also a technical term in ancient rhetoric, is the beginning of a prepared speech whereby the orator lays out what he is going to do and induces the listeners to attend.

From Pentecost onward Christ the Incarnate Word, although remote by His Ascension, is the present and perfect Orator delivering His saving message to the world through Holy Church. “He that heareth you, heareth me”, Christ told His Apostles with the Seventy (Luke 10:16).

Much hangs on exordia.

LITERAL VERSION:

O God, who by the sacramental mystery of today’s feast do sanctify Your universal Church in every people and nation, pour down upon the whole breadth of the earth the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and make that which divine favor wrought amidst the very beginnings of the preaching of the Good News to flow now also through believers’ hearts.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God our Father, let the Spirit you sent on your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe.

Really? REALLY? Year in and year out the perpetrators and defenders of this dreck made the English-speaking Church stupider and weaker.

Moving on…

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

O God, who by the mystery of today’s great feast sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers.

Unity and continuity are keys to this Collect.

The Holy Spirit pours spiritual life into the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit wove the early Church together through the preaching of the Apostles and their successors and, in the Church today, extends their preaching to our own time.

The Holy Spirit guarantees our unity and continuity across every border and century.

The Holy Spirit imbues and infuses, tints and dyes the fabric of the Church as He flows through it.

When the Holy Spirit’ fire poured over the Apostles, they poured out preaching in public speeches to people from every nation. I think they were not in the “upper room” but in the Temple, as the Law required Jewish men. In Greek, oikos can mean “temple” or “house of God”, not just “house”. More on that in my piece at 1 Peter 5. HERE

That makes greater sense of the immediate reaction they received.

The Holy Spirit, in the preaching of the Apostles, began on Pentecost’s exordium to weave together the Church’s selvage, that strong stable edge of the fabric, through the centuries and down to our own day.

Also, for Shavuot, Pentecost, the Jews at harvest were commanded by God to leave the edges of the fields unharvested for the sake of the poor.

The bonds of man and God symbolically unraveled in the Tower of Babel event, when languages were divided (Gen 11:5-8).

Ever since the Pentecost exordium’s “reweaving”, though here and there and now and then there may be rips and tatters, Holy Church’s warp and weft hold true.

Let our hearts and prayers be raised for unity. Sursum corda!

In the Collect we pray that our corda may be imbued with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Sacrum septenarium!

Let them be closely woven into, knit into Holy Church and even over-sewn with her patterns, not ours.

Let our hearts be bounded about by her saving selvage, dyed in the Spirit’s boundless love.

Let us also pray for the unwitting agents of the Enemy of the soul, hanging onto Holy Church’s edge but in such a way that they tear at and fray the Church’s fabric.

Pardon my homographs, but though they be on the fringe, they endanger necessary threads, precious souls of our brothers and sisters who through their work of unraveling can be lost in the fray.

When we mesh with the Holy Church and remain true in the Faith and charity, our holy selvage and our salvation will not be undone.

ROME 26/5– Day 57 & 58: doubled up

Posted on 22 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My heavens… my days in Rome are numbered, unless I change my flights. Another double post. I’m getting slammed. And I am bone weary.

Sunrise: 5:4…

Sunset: 20:3…

A… yeah yeah… 20:45

Welcome Registrant:

Dom Anselm Marie

Yesterday was the Feast of St Cristóbal Magellanes Jara, a victim of the anti-Catholic regime during the Cristeros rising.

Imprisoned for a crime he did not commit because of his Catholic faith, St Cristóbal Magellanes Jara was heard to cry out from his cell: “I am innocent and I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those responsible for my death, and I ask God that the shedding of my blood… pic.twitter.com/PEkQ30dJbN
— Catholic Truth Society (@CTSpublishers) May 21, 2026

I find it interesting that Leo signed the decree for the beatification of SPANISH martyrs just before he goes to SPAIN and one of the WORST governments in the EU. Heh.

Meanwhile…

Vatican II ?? Springtime SUCCESS
????? ? Dance Mass ??
No Latin Mass for you Schismatic ??pic.twitter.com/BtJB7YWHHL
— AdVoluntasTua ?????? ?? ?? ? (@AdVoluntasTua) May 20, 2026

On my way the morning to get myself a treat for supper! The sky was/is impossibly blue.

I went to the fishmonger. But what did I get?

Just around the corner from the fishmonger there is a little shop, a Tabac, where you get the usual things that you get in those places. It is also an Amazon pick up point for packages, FWIW. I stopped and bought a post card for a correspondence chess game I am playing. (While in Rome, we are sending photos of our cards for obvious reasons.). The guy in this shop, P.za Pollarolla, across also from a favored restaurant, Elle Effe, is a really nice fellow and the card was .50. But there’s more…

There there’s a little shop in the rather narrow street that lets out from Campo de’ Fiori into the Piazza Farnese, the Via dei Baullari, next to a decent restaurant which has changed hands last year. The guy is this shop is a rude as the other is nice and he charged 1.50 for a card.

Plus, there’s a sign. When I was in there, two guys came in after and he shouted, “Can’t you read?!?” This fellow is a jerk. Go to the other place for postcards… or anywhere.

At my regular fruit and veg stand I couldn’t help but get some apricots along with garlic and parsley (for the treat).

Still life, with keys.

My treat.

They are purging (more).

In Bucharest, Round 7 is today. Firouzja dropped out because of his injury. Hard to blame him. However, Keymer picked up a full point because of the forfeit. Yesterday, Wesley and MVL drew… darn it. Today So plays Anish Giri. Van Foreest will get a point from Firouzja. Doesn’t quite seem fair.

Black mates in 4.

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

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ASK FATHER: “Ghost” or “Spirit”, which is it? Wherein Fr. Z Rants.

Posted on 22 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Something I’ve wondered about for a while. Old books and hymns have Holy Ghost and new ones have Holy Spirit. I know they are the same third person of the Trinity, but what’s going on with the change?

Good question, especially as Pentecost is a couple days away. This is something I just delved into a bit over at 1 Peter 5 where I post a weekly column. It’s older material, I’ve addressed it before, but repetita iuvant! Repeated things help!

“Holy Spirit” and “Holy Ghost” … which?

It is hardly to be doubted that we English speakers have traditionally used Holy Ghost because of early English translations of Holy Writ, namely the King James (KJV 1611, 1769, etc.) and the Douay-Rheims (DRV OT 1609–1610, NT 1582, revised 18th c.) versions even though both those Bibles use both Ghost and Spirit.

The supremely influential KJV capitalized “Ghost” when it certainly referred to the Third Person of the Trinity. Our English “ghost”, related to German Geist (which is used in German for the Holy Spirit), in its roots is any sort of spirit. “Ghost” is used often to translate Biblical Greek pneuma and Latin spiritus. It became a matter of common parlance and traditional prayers, which people memorized and handed down. We sang and still sing hymns – mighty memory markers – with Ghost.

In short, “Holy Ghost” became archaic because “ghost” changed in common speech over time. “Ghost” narrowed in ordinary English to mean most often an apparition of a dead person, a specter, something haunted or spooky. Meanwhile, “Holy Spirit” became dominant because modern Bible and liturgical translations standardized it. There is also an ecumenical factor. “Holy Spirit” is now the common term across most modern English-speaking Christian bodies, so it became the standard for official and academic theology.

But “Ghost” is still correct and useable, archaic though it may ring.

We should feel free to use archaic words in our prayers, private and congregational.

Prayer should be from and of the heart, but we can use the richness of our language to express ourselves also in solidarity with our forebears.

There’s nothing wrong with using unusual or out of date language in our prayers. To our 21st century ears, it can seem a little flowery, saccharine.

However, this is how our forebears prayed and look what they built as they prayed: pretty much everything we Catholics have today.

When the pointy-headed liturgy experts flattened prayer by updating it to sound more like what we hear at Walmart or on the news, our architecture, vestments, preaching, formation, ars celebrandi, not to mention vocations, have pretty much gone to… you know… the “other place”. Churches were built in the style of municipal airports, vestments were made of plastic with who-knows-what that decoration is, preaching… please… I’ll stop.

Christians have always prayed with stylized language and not humdrum daily parlance. I mean always. The pencil-heads and those who listened to them will justify the deflowering of liturgical and devotional prayer because:

You know, in the ancient church they, you know, changed from Greek to Latin because it was, you know, the language the people spoke, the vernacular. If they could do it then, you know, so should we!

WRONG! When the shift was made from Greek to Latin, it was not to the Latin spoken in the street, as if in a play by Plautus. Liturgical prayer shifted to a highly stylized Latin, a Latin which was decidedly not the “vernacular” (from Latin verna, a native slave born within the house rather than born abroad). “Vernacular” came to indicate national language or mother-tongue. But liturgical Latin was not what was spoken in the houses and streets by our forebears. The choice of the ancient Church was a form of Latin redolent of ancient Roman prayer, filled with ornamental tropes, technical and philosophical vocabulary and images which was, so-to-speak, “baptized” to express an ever-deepening identity and theology.

My WDTPRS offerings here show again and again how rich and structured our orations are, beautiful jewels handed down to us with love. Jewels which the pencil-heads pretty much hacked up.

But that’s another rant.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, WDTPRS, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged Ghost
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ASK FATHER: If a bishop and also priests confirm at the same time, who is the minister of confirmation?

Posted on 21 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

This is from the Archdiocesan website,
“Why do priests anoint candidates for confirmation alongside the bishop?
The Sacrament of Confirmation is conferred by the bishop presiding over the liturgy. When there are a
large number of candidates to be confirmed, Church law allows the presiding minister to associate priests
with himself in the celebration of the sacrament, by assisting him with the anointing of the candidates with
chrism. Because these priests are associated with the presiding bishop, the minister of confirmation is the
bishop, rather than the priest assisting him with the anointing.”
In this senecio who is the actual Minister of the Sacrament?

Hmmm… in this senecio…. I’ve never seen confirmation conferred in a patch of ragwort. That’s different. There is also a senecio which in Italian is called “pianta del Rosario… a Rosary plant” because of how its leaves are spaced on tendrils.

That said, I’ll work with the “scenario” (?) you sent.

The claim is mostly accurate, but the conclusion needs improvement.

In the Latin Church, the ordinary minister of Confirmation is the bishop. However, a priest who has the faculty to confirm, whether by law or by grant of competent authority, validly confers the sacrament. Can. 882 states: “The ordinary minister of confirmation is a bishop; a presbyter (i.e., priest) provided with this faculty … also confers this sacrament validly.”

Can. 884 is the key text for your ~~senecio~~ … scenario. It says that, if necessity requires, the diocesan bishop may grant the faculty to one or more priests “who are to administer this sacrament.” It also says that, for a grave cause (which can seem a bit “elastic”), the bishop, and even a priest already endowed with the faculty, can “associate presbyters with themselves to administer the sacrament.”

Therefore, when an associated priest anoints a confirmand with chrism and says the sacramental form, that priest is the proximate minister of Confirmation for that confirmand. The bishop remains the ordinary, principal, and presiding minister of the celebration, and the priest acts in association with him and by the necessary faculty. However, the priest is not merely the bishop’s “auxiliary oily thumb” in such a way that the bishop alone is the sacramental minister of each confirmation.

Canon 880 also matters: Confirmation is conferred by the anointing with chrism on the forehead, with imposition of the hand, and the prescribed words. The one who performs that essential sacramental act for a given confirmand is the minister of that sacramental conferral.

The Catechism makes the same distinction. It says the bishop is the “original” and, in the Latin Rite, “ordinary” minister, while priests may be given the faculty to administer Confirmation for grave reasons. It also explains that when a priest confers Confirmation, the link with the bishop is expressed through the priest as the bishop’s collaborator and through chrism consecrated by the bishop. The Compendium states this even more plainly: “When a priest confers this sacrament…,” the episcopal link is expressed through his collaboration with the bishop and the sacred chrism.

So, in the proposed scenario:

For candidates anointed by the bishop: the bishop is the minister.

For candidates anointed by an associated priest: the priest is the minister, acting with the required faculty and in association with the bishop.

Hence, a better formulation of the statement at the top could be:

The bishop is the ordinary and principal minister of Confirmation and presides over the celebration. For a grave cause, he may associate priests with himself to administer the sacrament. Those priests, when they perform the anointing with chrism and pronounce the sacramental form, are true ministers of Confirmation for the candidates they confirm, although they act by faculty and in hierarchical communion with the bishop.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, 1983 CIC can. 915, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged can. 880, confirmation
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ASK FATHER: Is it a sin to take a 15 minute leave during a terrible homily?

Posted on 21 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Is it a sin to attend Sunday Mass and be irritated during bad homilies or take a 15 minute leave during the terrible homily?

Probably not. However, you can usually tease out some good point from a bad sermon, if you want to.

That said, this “terrible” is pretty open ended. What is “terrible”? Decent content, but terrible/bad delivery? We’ve all had classes/courses from profs who have great material, but are bad teachers/deliverers.

It is bad because of the content? Is there heresy? Is it just plain stupid or irrelevant?

Is it bad because it cannot be heard or understood? Bad sound system? Accent to strong?

Again, you can usually tease out some good point from a bad sermon, if you want to. Sometimes, as Augustine points out in De doctrina christiana, the holiness of the preacher teaches something.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged homily, sermon
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ROME 26/5– Day 56: All that Jasmine… no, not the…

Posted on 20 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At 5:43 the sun rose upon Rome. I was already up (and not because I wanted to be) It will set at 20:31 (I’ll be up then, too).

Were the Ave Maria Bell to ring, it would do so for the Curia at 20:45. But it won’t, just like a lot of things don’t ring in the Curia these days.

I stopped in at Pippo’s and Anastasia’s Flowers in the Campo de; Fiori today after Mass. They told me that they have gotten lots of notes from you readers. I had mentioned the other day to drop them a line: “Ciao da un lettore di don John”. Anastasia said that they received so many they can’t respond to them all. They were delighted. I hope that when people come to Rome and the visit the Campo (they should) they will stop and say “hi”. Anastasia speaks English. info@pippocampodefiori.com

Today is the Feast of St Aurea of Ostia, martyr. St. Monica was first interred in her church before she was moved into Rome to Sant’Augustino.

It is also the Feast of St. Bernardin of Siena (+1444), the most dynamic speaker of his era. He was deeply devoted to the Most Holy Name. Bernardin was a fierce preacher against the sin of sodomy.

For example:

“No sin in the world grips the soul as the accursed sodomy; this sin has always been detested by all those who live according to God.… Deviant passion is close to madness; this vice disturbs the intellect, destroys elevation and generosity of soul, brings the mind down from great thoughts to the lowliest, makes the person slothful, irascible, obstinate and obdurate, servile and soft and incapable of anything; furthermore, agitated by an insatiable craving for pleasure, the person follows not reason but frenzy.… They become blind and, when their thoughts should soar to high and great things, they are broken down and reduced to vile and useless and putrid things, which could never make them happy…. Just as people participate in the glory of God in different degrees, so also in hell some suffer more than others. He who lived with this vice of sodomy suffers more than another, for this is the greatest sin.” (Prediche volgari s. 39)

Another great Saint and Doctor of the Church from Siena, St. Catherine, in her Dialogues (ch 124 her conversations with God), writes that the Enemy, demons, incite people to unnatural sins (homosexual acts) but that they don’t stick around for them to happen, because those acts are too repulsive even for them. Those acts are so contrary to nature that they offend their angelic intellect, even though they are fallen and apostate. They want the sin to take place and they incite it, but it is so offensive to them that they absent themselves when it is happening.

There are those in high and influential roles in the Church who not only excuse and soft-peddle such things, but by their silences and winks and mollifying ways, and open simply openly and relentlessly, promote them. I refer them to St. Bernardin and St. Catherine.

On a far happier note, I wanted some Calabrese for later, so after Mass I stopped at Ruggieri at the Campo. These are some of the delights on hand.

Into the stands!

The jasmine (no, not the Jesuit – speaking of Sts. B and C) is spectacular now and its fragrance is everywhere.

A little farther up the way…

And a little farther…

Pretty impressive. I wonder how many years old that is.

For lunch today, I wanted a BLT and so I made it happen. I got some bacon, which I transformed to crispy goodness. I had a really ripe tomato saved for the purpose. There were salad greens. GREAT mayo. And “pane di Lariano” from Roscioli. This may have been the best BLT I’ve ever had. It’s flaw was that it was too small. I’m tempted as I write to start over.

I assure you…

GCT Superbet Classic Romania 2026, Bucharest continues today. I hope my guy Wesley – with white – will get a win today against MVL, a tall order. MVL is dangerous. “Puer” Firouzja withdrew due to what looked like a nasty ankle injury. I’ve had plenty. I know them when I see them. The games start in a few minutes as I write: HERE

Interim, motus ad lusorem cum militibus albis pertinet. Scaccus mattus, scilicet mors regis, IV in motis veniat.

NB: Detineam explicationes in crastinum, ne vestrae interrumpantur commentationes.

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ROME 26/5– Day 54 & 55: double

Posted on 19 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On this 19th day of the month we celebrate Feast day of one counted as a saint, but whom Dante put in Hell for having made “the great refusal”. St. Peter Celestine (+1296)/

Just goes to show that quitting the papacy is not recommended. After Celestine V came Boniface VIII. After Benedict XVI came… well… you remember.

Sunrise today was at 5:44. Sunset: 20:30.

You won’t hear an Ave Maria Bell ring for the Curia at 20:45. It will, however, ring on your ultra-cool Ave Maria Clock App!

It was also the feast of Crispin of Viterbo and Ivo. Yesterday in Rome some of us observed the Feast of St. Felice of Cantalice according to Rome’s proper calendar. Coming up are great saints for Rome, including Giovanni Battista de Rossi and Filippo Neri, both connected to The Parish™.

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The Super Chess Classic Romania is the second stage of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour. It is one of two classical chess tournaments, alongside the Sinquefield Cup, of the series. Yesterday we saw the odd sight of young Sindarov playing against “Puer” Firouzja in a hotel room where Puer is laid up with an ankle injury (looks pretty nasty). My guy Wesley has been drawing. He needs a couple wins!

Black mates in 4.

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

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Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra

Posted on 18 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

While texting with a priest friend recently an idea came up.

Picture if you will…

SSPX Superior Fr. Davide Pagliarani going to the Sant’Anna gate of the Vatican every day asking that Pope Leo grant him an audience.

Rain or shine, there’s Fr. Davide, with an increasing number of people, every day.

They say the Rosary. They sing litanies. They sing the Pro Pontifice chants.

Soon it is live streamed on the interwebs.

Each day larger and larger crowds join in. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.

They keep it up until …

Posted in SESSIUNCULA, SSPX |
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ROME 26/5– Day 53: Persevere!

Posted on 17 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

5:46 – this was sunrise

20:28 – this was sunset

20:45 – this is for the Ave Maria Bell

St. Paschal Baylón is remembered on his feast day. He was a model of perseverance in pursuing his vocation. He also declined to be pushed into a vocation he did not think he had. He served as a Franciscan brother in the capacity of porter and official beggar.

It is Sunday after Ascension. Today we hear from St. Peter, “above all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covers a multitude of sins.” How often do we fail in mutual charity? Mutual charity. Think about it. I have in mind especially in most obvious situations of marriages, families and friendships. Charity is sacrificial. The one who loves, never asks for sinful things, provokes. One who loves does what he can to help others to get the Heaven. Sometimes that means stuffing down the desire to run around in a circle imposing one’s raised voice on those vulnerable to having their faith shaken.

Welcome registrants:

bobba_dwj
jollyrogers
Mikey Mike.

Breakfast.

I’m following the classical tournament in Bucharest. My guy Wesley So is playing.

In the video coverage here is a brief view of Wesley.

For nice.

The restoration of the side chapels in church is nearly done. They need to be cleaned up and then the altars can be vested again. This will be so much better. Before, some of the altars had loose slabs and broken or problematic, unstable predella.