Daily Archives: 12 November 2006

Card. Arinze mentions indult

His Eminence Francis Card. Arinze spoke in St. Louis recently and said something (but little) about the timing of the "indult" to free up the older form of Mass. The cardinal was coy about the timing of the indult, which … Read More

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Sabine Farm view

Since I can’t yet get my webcam working here in Rome, I remotely turned on my Z-cam back at the Sabine Farm, with a little Vatican Radio in the background. The sunrise is glorious right now.

It won’t be left on very long.
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The risk of desecrating a Host

The CDW document entitled Redemptionis Sacramentum has the following serious paragraph (my emphasis): [92.] Although each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice, if any communicant should wish to receive … Read More

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Hamlet III, ii, 239

The always vigilant Rorate posted a fascinating statement issued by the French bishops’ conference at the end of their plenary. Read this and think about it. Is there anything about this that seems a little weird to you? (My emphasis) … Read More

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Rainy day

It’s pretty wet here, today. I think November weather has finally arrived. It has been a good run and maybe it’ll clear up. 54.7 °F / 12.6 °C Pluvia Levis   Umor: 90% Frigus in quo Ros apparet: 52 °F … Read More

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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: POST COMMUNION (1)

EXCERPT:
It is not a surprise to find the word sinceritatis in a Post communion prayer because it instantly calls to mind the Biblical phrase azymis sinceritatis, referring to the unleavened bread of the Jews and the admonition to live a moral life in keeping with one’s Christian character. At the time of Holy Communion we partake of what was the unleavened bread of the host, now transformed by the consecration of the priest into the Body and Blood of Christ. Sinceritas, echoing the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, will now have a powerful moral content for us. In today’s prayer the priest begs God the Father through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the interior quickening of the Real Presence in our souls and bodies pleads on behalf of all present for the grace to avoid immorality and cling to what it beautiful, proper and true (sinceritatis et veritatis) in word and action, both within the anointed walls of the church and without its doors in our daily lives. Read More

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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: COLLECT (2)

EXCERPT:
Some years ago I had an experience which confirmed for me the value of the old-fashioned methods of catechism: long and hard practice, memorization, and repetition. I was called to a hospital to assist in a patient’s difficult death. I gave the man Last Rites and talked with the family as they struggled with the reality of the end of the earthly life of a loved one. A daughter of the dying man had been estranged from her faith and her family for a long time. She was beyond her life’s middle years, which clearly had been pretty rough. She was bitter and cursed life, fate and God for the cruelty of such an end as her father was experiencing. She shouted at me, “Why did God make us if this is all there is?” I responded asking, “Why did God make you?” She became very still and stared at me. Then she said, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.” I continued, “What must we do to save our souls?” On cue she responded with something that she hadn’t perhaps thought of for decades, “To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity. We must believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him with all our heart.” “Did your father do that?”, I asked. “Oh, yes…. oh yes.” She had obviously been taught very well as a child. One can imagine that she was at times forced to study and to learn, to repeat over and over what at the time seemed boring and pointless. She had been drilled at school by the Sisters, whom these days we see mocked and abused in the media by ungrateful cads who benefited from their dedication. More importantly, she had parents who fulfilled their obligations to see that she learned her faith. I imagine they had to work hard to make her work hard. Her father had done his duty to give her what she needed when the battle was joined. Whatever they all did worked. In the moment of truth, by the grace of God and the help of her guardian angel, the gift her dying father had given her years before was rediscovered and put to its proper use. Read More

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Great photo of His Holiness

You might remember that last week I was out with some good freinds from the USA.  This was the couple whose little girl was intent on our having Chateaubriand but not Dom Perignon.  They were well positioned during last week’s … Read More

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Banners in support of correct liturgical translation

Over at a German blog called Vigilate et Orate some banners have been created in favor of a correct translation of the Missale Romano.  The new German translation is progressing under the watchful eye of Joachim Card. Meisner and Ecclesia … Read More

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