I have been pretty tied up today with things like press conferences, a conference of the Acton Institute here in Rome, gett ready for a flight tomorrow and losing my glasses… so…. there is "Tridentine" news. From the Italian agency … Read More →
I was at the press conference presenting the Holy Father’s Message for the World Day of Peace (1 January). You might recall that I think last year’s was a foundational document for this Pontificate, as it spelled out many of … Read More →
Here it is. This is what Pope Benedict told the Swiss bishops back in November. Do you remember the flap about the Holy See issuing the wrong text. EXCERPTS: (My emphasis) VATICAN CITY, DEC. 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a … Read More →
Posted inSESSIUNCULA| Comments Off on What did the Pope REALLY say to the Swiss?
Here is the Collect of Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Advent: COLLECT:Deus, qui salutare tuum cunctis terrae finibus declarasti,tribue, quaesumus,ut nativitatis eius gloriam laetanter praesolemur. The wonderfully apt verb praestolor, deponent (passive in form but active in meaning), is … Read More →
Along with the news (posted here) that the Patriarchal Basilicas are now to be called "Papal", there was an interesting bit of news that popped out. His Eminence Card. Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Archpriest of the Basilica, explained that … Read More →
I see that there is a blurb going around from a Reuters story that His Eminence Card. Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Archpriest of the Basilica, "belittled" reporters. What happened in the conference was that one reporter after another was … Read More →
I attended the press conference today about the excavations of the tomb of St. Paul in the Basilica St. Paul’s outside the walls. The presser was interesting, but there was nothing really earth shattering about the excavation. What was interesting … Read More →
La Repubblica had an article that the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" will meet in plenary session tomorrow (12 Dec) to discuss the derestricting of the older form of Mass. Here is my translation of the article: The Pope: Time drawing … Read More →
Here is the Collect for Monday of the 2nd Week of Advent COLLECT:Dirigatur, quaesumus, Domine,in conspectu tuo nostrae petitionis oratio,ut ad magnum incarnationis Unigeniti tui mysteriumnostrae vota servitutis illibata puritate perveniant. This prayer is in Rotulus 13 which is published … Read More →
Blogger John Sonnen at Orbis Catholicus as photos of an interesting Mass at the Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere, in Rome. I directed a Gregorian chant schola there years ago and was ordained deacon in that basilica. Sonnen has … Read More →
Posted inSESSIUNCULA| Comments Off on Memories of San Nicola
I am back from my little jaunt to Tuscany, where there was good scenery, good food, less noise and far better air than Rome. A priest friend from my residence and I rented a car and drove around for a … Read More →
EXCERPT:
St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) beat up some Donatist heretics and dismantled their argument that all clerics ordained by a sinful bishop would be automatically stained in the same guilt. He used imagery like that of our prayer today (Ad Donatistas post collationem in CSEL 53:19.25, p. 123 my translation): “The sludge (lutum) their feet are stuck in is so thick and dense that, trying in vain to tear themselves out of it, they get their hands and head stuck in it too, and lingering in that sticky mess they get more tightly enveloped.” The Donatist argument was based in worldly, not heavenly, wisdom.
Sticky lutum is a metaphor of worldly life. Neglecting God, who speaks in the Church and our conscience, we weak sinners can convince ourselves of anything, over time: down becomes up, back is made front, black turns into white, and wrong is really right. We justify what we know, or knew, to be sinful. Once this becomes a habit, it is a vice in more than one sense of that word. Occasionally our consciences will struggle against the grip of self-deception, but quite often the proverbial “Struggle”, Novocain for the conscience, supplies permission: “I really ‘struggled’ with this, … before I did it!” If we go off the true path into the murky twisted woods, thoroughly mired in sticky error we will not escape the Enemy, the roaring lion seeking whom he might devour (1 Peter 5:8). Nor will we elude Christ the Judge, who will come through dark woods by straight paths. Advent reminds us to prepare for the coming of both the Enemy lion and the Lion of Judah who will open the seals and read forth the Book of Life (Rev 5:5). Read More →
EXCERPT:
Salvation is a gift freely given by God through the merits of Christ’s Sacrifice, but salvation is not a free gift in the sense that we don’t have to do anything to obtain it. We must cooperate. Christ died “for all”. “Many” will be saved, thanks be to God. We have through Christ the free opportunity of salvation. Good works cannot merit salvation in themselves, but we are required to perform good works to merit salvation. In today’s translation I used the phrase “favorable points of merits” but never imagine God as a celestial accountant “up there” keeping books on what we do or haven’t done. Salvation is not based on a ledger’s bottom line. How God disposes all things is mysterious, though He has revealed something of His plan through the Catholic Church. Until our final judgment God alone knows what our good works merit and how they balance against our sins. In fact, the Church hazards to offer indications of only “partial” or “plenary” indulgences for works we perform. The only thing we can be sure of is that we must not become lax or presumptuous. If we want salvation, God must be appeased by our prayers, sacrifices and works, which all must be joined to Christ’s Sacrifice. At Holy Mass we join all we do and are to the Sacrifice being renewed in God’s sight by the priest. The priest raises the paten with host and then the chalice with water tinged wine. He prays: “In a spirit of humility and with a contrite heart may we be accepted by Thee, O Lord; and may this sacrifice today be of such a kind in Thy sight as to please Thee.” Place yourselves and your needs in that chalice, on that paten, to be transformed. Read More →
Posted inSESSIUNCULA, WDTPRS| Comments Off on 2nd Sunday of Advent: SUPER OBLATA (2)
At Vespers during Advent we priests recite (or ought to) a hymn entitled Conditor alme siderum. This is perhaps from the late 6th or early 7th c. In Pope Urban VIII’s revision of the hymns of the Roman Breviary in … Read More →
Here is out Collect for Saturday of the 1st Week of Advent: This is an ancient prayer found in the Rotulus of Ravenna, which is included by Mohlberg in his edition of the ancient Veronese Sacramentary. COLLECT:Deus, qui, ad liberandum … Read More →
Today is the 1st anniversary of the first entry on this blog. What a year! I might finally be getting the hang of things. Thank you all for helping to make this blog a success. Thanks to all of you … Read More →
Here is shot from the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome, where there is a famous Novena before the Immacolata. A bishop is about to celebrate Mass.
While today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, for the sake of being complete let us look at the Collect for Friday of the 1st Week of Advent: This prayer was in the 1962 Missale Romanum and is taken … Read More →
Today is the feast of St. Ambrose of Milan (+4 April 397), a titanic figure of the late 4th century who changed the shape of Church and State relations for a thousand years, who brought much of the wisdom of … Read More →
Here is the Collect for Thursday of the 1st week of Advent. COLLECT:Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam,et magna nobis virtute succurre,ut, quod nostra peccata praepediunt,gratia tuae propitiationis acceleret.This prayer was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary and other sacramentaries. It was in … Read More →
Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.
“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
ex seaxe on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Charivari Rob – Unfortunately I have been forced to switch computers twice recently and have lost the reference. The numbers…”
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
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.
St. John Eudes
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT com
Daily Quiz
Use FATHERZ10 at checkout for 10% off
Donate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
NEW OPPORTUNITY – 10% off with code: FATHERZ10
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
Books which you must have.
This REALLY helps! And it’s great coffee (and tea)
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
“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.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“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
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT com
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.
This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
Please use my links when shopping! I depend on your help.