With the appointment of Bishop-Elect Paul Joseph Swain to the See of Sioux Falls, that means that H.E. Samuel Aquila, Bishop of Fargo, is no longer to be the Apostolic Administrator of Sioux Falls.
Old new to you? I learned today that Pope Benedict XVI has cancalled the 12 year annual Christmas concert because, get this, "he does not share his predecessor’s taste for pop music and wants to avoid scandal" or so it … Read More →
On the blog Wormtalk and Slugspeak I was astonished to see a word not so many people use or even know: Gomer. “Well!” quoth I, “It is time to talk about Fat Man’s Laws of the House of God!” “But … Read More →
Today is the feast of Sts. Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus: 1. Hierosolymae, commemoratio sanctorum Ioseph de Arimathaea et Nicodemi, qui corpus Iesu a cruce depositum acceperunt, involverunt in sindone et posuerunt in monumento. Ioseph, nobilis decurio et discipulus Domini, … Read More →
The USCCB issued a program for formation for US seminaries. Inter alia the conference has codified that Patristics (study of the theology of the Fathers of the Church) is to be included. Here are the relevant paragraphs: 201. Patristic studies … Read More →
Today is the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist. I consider this (also) my name day, and in a way it is even more appropriate than the Nativity of John in June. Here is the Roman Martyrology entry … Read More →
Today I have been thinking about the impact of Augustine. (Actually, I think about that nearly every day.) This morning in a chat with a friend who is a true scholar of Augustine, I gleened something. If you want to … Read More →
Augustine died on 28 August 430. His friend and biographer Possidius describes his last days during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals. Sometime before the early 8th century, Augustine’s remains were translated from N. Africa to Sardinia for fear … Read More →
Many bloggers and certainly patristibloggers will be posting today about St. Augustine. Rather than relate the same old stuff you already know, you might be interested in other less known episodes from the life of this titanic figure who so … Read More →
This morning at the Sabine Farm Holy Mass was celebrated with the 1962 Missale Romanum in the presence of both St. Augustine and his mother St. Monica. Before Mass began, the great saint was honored with a parade in front … Read More →
Other saints today: Today is, incidently, the feast of St. Edmund Arrowsmith, one of the English martyrs. In his entry in the Martyrologium Romanum (below) you will find an item, which refers to entry no. 11 for William Dean and … Read More →
This is the chapel in the church of St. Augustine in Rome (literally across the street from my back door) on the day when the bones of St. Augustine were brought from their resting place in Pavia to Rome. For … Read More →
Turning again to Serge Lancel’s excellent Augustine, the best biography I know of the great Bishop of Hippo (p. 11 ff) we can get a view of Monica and her son and their relationship (my emphasis): In the course of … Read More →
From Serge Lancel’s Augustine, the best biography I know of the great Bishop of Hippo (p. 8 ff): Before devoting himself entirely to Mother Church, as he approached the age of forty, Augustine had had a concubine for about fifteen … Read More →
EXCERPT:
Let me ask you. What would the last thirty some years have been like if we had had better translations all along? What would our Church be like today had the mandate of the Council to maintain Latin been obeyed? Would we have a different sense of our identity as Catholics? Would those things have helped us better influence the society we live in? Would we be better prepared to handle the pressures of daily life? Would so many people, including clergy, have been acquiescent in the face of popular cultural trends and the destruction of our education system? I think much of what we see going on today could have been averted. We can’t know anything for sure, but I have little doubt that things would have been very different indeed. This is because I believe that the true Actor at Mass is Christ Jesus the High Priest. Mass is effective and nourishing. Had things been in better shape, Catholics would be different today. Lex orandi, lex credendi! The way we pray has a reciprocal relationship with what we believe. Read More →
Posted inSESSIUNCULA, WDTPRS| Comments Off on 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time: SUPER OBLATA (2)
During today’s Angelus at Castel Gandolofo, the Holy Father spoke about St. Monica and St. Augustine. Pope Benedict is a deeper learner about the Fathers and he is sharing wonderful insights with us now. You can hear the enthusiasm in his voice, even though he stubles in his text once. I think he might have inserted a parenthetical.
Benedict XVI referred to Monica as an example of encouragment to parents who are suffering from watching their children stray on the wrongs paths. Augustine was a long seeker after the truth, even from his youth.
Download the mp3 of his address. I don’t know how long this address will be valid. Probably one week. Read More →
Posted inPatristiblogging, SESSIUNCULA| Comments Off on Holy Father’s Angelus on St. Monica and St. Augustine
Reverently opening your copy of the Roman Martyrology you find in the first entry for today 1. Commemoratio sancti Melchisedech, regis Salem et sacerdotis Dei altissimi, qui Abraham benedicens salutavit a victoria regressum, Domino sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam, offerens, atque … Read More →
Sometimes you have to scratch your head and then just accept things. Such is the case of the interesting St. Pope Zephyrinus (c. 199-217), Roman born, who lived, as the Chinese put it, "in interesting times". First, here is the … Read More →
My friend John Thavis in Rome has a CNS story entitled: Lefebvrite bishop says no progress on reconciliation with Vatican. Click here for the whole thing. My emphasis. EXCERPTS: "I think probably the pope would like things to go quicker, … Read More →
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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
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
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“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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[T]he even more mainline Catholic Fr. Z. blog.
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