Monthly Archives: December 2006

Year end Te Deum and Benedict is “on time”

During the annual Vespers of Thanksgiving and singing of the Te Deum the Holy Father in Rome gave a wonderful reflection on time. I had the chance to read it ahead of time but couldn’t post until now. First, he … Read More

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Latin Foxtrot

The cartoon Foxtrot has some Latin this morning!

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Holy Family – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas: COLLECT (2)

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2004 A liturgical “octave” is an eight day period following and including the feast. In a way, the Church … Read More

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Holy Family – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas: POST COMMUNION (2)

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006 Today is simultaneously the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, Holy Family, and, … Read More

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Sic transit

It is amazing to contemplate the contrast of the lying in state of the late President, the Honorable Gerald Ford with the demise of the late … Saddam Hussein.

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ANSA: Petition AGAINST “Tridentine” Mass a “flop”

There is a report on ANSA today that the internet petition AGAINST the derestriction of the "Tridentine" Mass has been a flop. UPDATE: The instigator of the petition against the old Mass is Fr. Paolo Farinella, a very visible and … Read More

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Donation gratitude

My special thanks are due to kind souls who fired off the last couple donations to keep the blog going.  You have my gratitude and my biretta tip: o{]:¬)

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Would you like to elect a Pope? Check this out and participate!

The Frankfurter Allgemeine is having a poll for "person of the year". You can vote for Benedikt XVI, who is presently winning in the poll! Wer ist Ihr Mensch des Jahres?   18. Dezember 2006 Das zentrale Ereignis des Jahres … Read More

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Sabine snow

Here at The Sabine Farm we are having a bit of snow.  How is this for a contrast to my window back in Roma? The chapel last night, ready for the post supper visit to the Blessed Sacrament. We had … Read More

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Fr. Z’s onomastico.. well…one of them

Tonight I had two exquisite friends at the Sabine Farm. Tonight, my onomastico (I claim both John the Baptist and the Evangelist), I made supper from coniglio in umido, some superb mashed Yukon Gold potatoes with parmiggiano, mixed greens salad … Read More

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Zzzzzzzz

Fr. Z is pretty tired today.  I am just checking in.

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Latin of the Urbi et Orbi

His Eminence Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos read the text of the Holy Father’s Urbi et Orbi address aloud in Latin.  One might think that the Dean of the College of Cardinals would have read the message, if the Pope himself … Read More

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Greetings to the lonely on Christmas

Many years ago I had "hotwired" the phone of the office I working in in Rome so that I could dial out past the Vatican operator and get on Compuserve (Oh… how we thought that was cutting edge at the … Read More

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Translation coordination

Sometimes you have to wonder how the translations of major texts are coordinated between the different offices that cover language groups. Here are the headers for the langauge texts of the Holy Father’s Christmas sermon. ITALIAN:"Salvator noster natus est in … Read More

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24 December revisited

I want to make a brief visit back to 23 December for a moment and give you what I think is a fascinating entry in the Roman Martyrology for the day.  I was pretty busy and didn’t get it posted.   … Read More

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Urbi et Orbi: Christmas 2006

Here is an excerpt from the Holy Father’s message for the blessing Urbi et Orbi.  He is speaking directly to us, I think.  My emphasis: [D]oes a "Saviour" still have any value and meaning for the men and women of … Read More

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Merry Christmas to you WDTPRSers

I have been back in my home town of St. Paul and Minneapolis.  Christmas Eve has been busy.  There were no confessions here last tonight, but last night there were hoards.  This morning I drove over to a nearby parish … Read More

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Christmas Day

EXCERPT:
The first prayer of the Mass set the stage for our active participation in Communion. Though expressed in exalted language, it conveyed an attitude of humility before the creation of man in God’s image, the Eternal Word’s self-emptying in the Incarnation, and the possibility of our transformation both in the Eucharist to be received in the course of the sacred mysteries this day and in the happiness of heaven to come. In the second prayer, before the Eucharistic Prayer and consecration, we recognized how we sinners have need to appease God and how the God made Man, Jesus Christ was the source both of reconciliation and also of the very Mass we are participating in, the perfect form of worship renewing our completed reconciliation. In this final prayer we put book ends around our grasp of today’s meaning. We were able to partake of Communion and actively participate in Mass first and foremost because of our divine regeneration in baptism, deepened in a good reception of the Blessed Sacrament in Mass. At the same time, we see how our rebirth in the life of the Trinity in baptism aims ultimately at eternal life and our ongoing transformation in heaven. The “just as… so too” structure of the prayer shows us how the “Savior of the world born today” is the fulcrum both of all the ages of the world, born as He was in the “fullness of time”, but also of our own lives as individuals. All of the prayers today are connected by the theme of the transformation of man’s human nature from his sinful state to a state of glory in the transforming assumption of our human nature by Second Person of the Trinity who, once born, is Jesus Christ – our brother in our humanity while remaining our God in His divinity. Read More

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4th Sunday of Advent: COLLECT (2)

EXCERPT:
How often do we hear about something or learn a new thing and then rush to know more, to have personal experience, to see? This is a paradigm for our life of faith. There is an interlocking cycle of hearing a proclamation (such as the Gospel at Mass, a homily, or a teaching of the Church) or observing the living testimony of a holy person’s life, and by this experience coming to know and then love the content of that proclamation or living testimony. The content is the Man God Jesus Christ. By knowing Him we come all the better to love Him and in loving Him we desire better to know Him. An act of faith, acceptance of the authority of the content of what we receive, opens unto previously unknown territory, a vast depth otherwise closed to us. For the non-believer, on the other hand, a miracle is simply something inexplicable having nothing of the supernatural. For a non-believer being nice or hard working can never ascend to true virtue or holiness. For him, the content of the Faith itself (both Jesus as well as what we learn and assent to) appears to be pleasant or interesting, but in the end remains naïve or foolish.
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4th Sunday of Advent: SUPER OBLATA (2)

EXCERPT:
Here is a thought for your participation at Mass. During most of the Mass you are called upon to participate actively by receptivity: you receive the Gospel rather than reading it aloud; you receive forgiveness for venial sins in the penitential rite; you receive (not take) Holy Communion. When today’s prayer “over the gifts” or Super oblata is spoken by the priest, you participate actively by giving, by uniting your own sacrifices to those of the priest at the altar who is alter Christus. The priest (Christ the Head) invites and you (Christ the Body) respond. Pour forth your sacrifices. Put them on the paten and into the chalice, so that you, like our model Mary, can be “refilled, made complete” by what they are transformed into, the Body and Blood of the living and true God, the Christ Child who is Coming. Read More

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