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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
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YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: ““the progressive spectacularization of Vatican liturgies that has occurred over the past three pontificates” Really? One of the very few…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “I praise God, even in the midst of these persecutions, for the TLM, the priests who say it, the bishops…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Dad of Six – True. Check out the plummeting of baptisms and marriages over the last several decades. Which means…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: ““Sure but …. The Faith is growing in Africa ! “ And thank God for their priests who are sent…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “I think that the loss of Mass attendance is partially related to the post-Vatican II era of “feelings”. I remember…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Besides the obvious hemorrhaging of attendance and religious, the other thing that comes to mind is what figures are they…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “I have heard for years that the Province of Quebec in Canada has many beautiful churches and was once a…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Yes, following the Attorney General of Maryland’s detailed report on the extensive sexual predation and cover-up by the Archdiocese, Bill…”
- on 15 April 2019 – Notre-Dame de Paris: “@ Anita Moore, O.P.(lay): The Tour Montparnasse’s only redeeming quality is the view from its top, but wishing to trade…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “If the FSSP owns some of the churches that they staff, it may be wise to figure out a different…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “What I find most irksome is Catholics who see all this happening and then say, “it’s time of renewal”. No,…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Is it simply a coincidence that church attendance began to decline just after the introduction of the Novus Ordo? It…”
- on Card. Sarah: “Many Western prelates are tetanized… the dream of being loved by the world”: “Oh, yes. My hearty AMEN! We are very privileged to still have brave, vocal, devoted, and blessed shepherds such as…”
- on Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 2nd Sunday after Easter (N.O. 3rd of Easter) 2024: “I’ll note (in case people question) I had the Eucharist in one of the masses (not both as they were…”
- on Card. Sarah: “Many Western prelates are tetanized… the dream of being loved by the world”: “Spot on I’d say.”
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I am off all meds now, including antidepressants, and am feeling…normal. And unmedicated. I thank all those who prayed for me when I was too weak or mad or whatever. And I credit the Rosary, which I tried to recite (prayer was too hard) when I was in pain.
Hooray for Allan!
My eye infection is better and the vision is clearing. The PT for my foot injury is going well and is sorta fun. My neighbor from Kentucky said my banjo playing was nice. The butterfly bushes are starting to get flowers. I saw a goldfinch yesterday.
My two year old godchild’s adoption was finalized on Friday. She now joins three other adopted teen and adult siblings in a very stable family. Thanks be to God.
My good news is reading what Allan just wrote!! God bless you Allan!! The rosary is so wonderful (and powerful!) Also…we planted a “Mary” garden last year – it is absolutely spectacular this year! The statue is of Our Lady of Victory. I am so happy to be able to do something for Our Blessed Mother who love us all so much!!!
Thanks to this blog I have decided to give TLM a go. Loved it! I pray that more people will will discover its beauty and depth. I’m now a supporter of communion on tongue and all other practive that increases reverence for the Eucharist.
My 5 yo son, who was hit by a car and in traction with a broken femur for six weeks, is now home and on the mend. We’d sent the 2 yo son to stay with his grandparents while this was going on and I was able to go get him back on Saturday, so I’ve got both of my little monkeys here, again.
I just returned from my first visit to the Eternal City! On Friday for morning Mass at Saint Peter’s there were no less than 5 priests celebrating the TLM at various altars (including St. Gregory the Great’s). Happy belated Feast of St. Peter and Paul!!!
My home-brewed Oatmeal Stout is really, really good!!
I think Oatmeal Stout is the definitive proof that God exists and that He loves us very much.
One son was married and the other was accepted into the seminary last week. A good week.
Married eight years today, by the grace of God, to my lovely wife, with two beautiful girls and one more on the way!
I’m slowly working my way out of Plato’s cave , Deo Gratias
Finally the Diocese of Rochester, NY will have the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Traditional Rite after 15 years. Bishop Clark has delegated a priest to confer the sacrament. Perhaps someday we will have an actual Bishop that will confer the sacrament. Until this time, all of our confirmandi went to Scranton, PA.
In thanksgiving and humility I was ordained (along with 16 other men) to the Permanent Diaconate serving the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee 20, June 2009. Our Diocese was also blessed with three new priests, they were ordained 13 June, 2009. Please pray and rejoice with us as we begin our service to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, and all the people.
I went to the FSSP ordinations in Wigratzbad, Germany, and fully enjoyed it! And then got three first blessings. :-D Yay FSSP!
I’ve been waiting for you to put a “good news” post up! I have been absolutely about to burst from wanting to share this with you, Father Z, as you’ve been quite a big influence on the development of my faith.
****I was baptised, confirmed and received my first Holy Communion last weekend in the traditional rite in my FSSP chapel!****
I’m finally home! [Fantastic! Welcome!]
Thanks to St Joseph of Cupertino for another successful Novena on behalf of a set of students I put in for an exam who all passed today!
My son graduated high school!
pray for him to find a job ;-)
Rain! Sweet smelling rain!
Oh brilliant, I was hoping for one of these entries! I was having a talk with my pastor yesterday, a very enlightening talk you might say, about why I felt I needed to start attending a different church for Sunday Mass. I told him that I really did not want to leave the parish as I do feel like it is my own, but the Sunday Masses are greatly lacking in, well, Catholicism. And you know what? He completely agreed with me, which is something I was not expecting. He laid out his game plan about how he intends to change things, both in a liturgical sense and in a general physical restructuring of the church grounds themselves (adding crucifixes and statuary, etc.). We’re getting a huge crucifix to be hung over the altar in a couple of months, the church is getting new carpet, bells are being added, it goes on. Suffice it to say, I was quite relieved and excited after our meeting. There is hope after all! Brick by brick!
Welcome home BLC! We’re happy to have you!
Since I “lost” my job in MN (as a music director for a, shall we say, wonderful parish with a, shall we say, highly dysfunctional staff and school), I’ve lost 10 pounds, stopped drinking, cut my blood pressure meds in half and found not-quite-gainful but highly supportive employment with a Catholic parish that isn’t highly dysfunctional. Deo gratias!
I’ve already told you this, Father, but since many of your readers were praying for me, this past Tuesday I was officially accepted into the Order of Saint Augustine. It’s been a good three and a half years of serious discernment leading up to this, and lots of prayers from the entire communion of saints, on earth and in heaven. What a blessing this has been! Thanks to everyone for your prayers, and please continue them so that I may grow into this vocation and serve the Church humbly and fervently.
Wow, such good news all around! Deo gratias!
My news is that, down at the Passionist convent in KY, Sr. Rose Marie of the Merciful Heart of Jesus just received the holy habit! And it is 50 days exactly until I fly out there myself to join the merry band.
To quote a friend, I am “still soaking in the joy of last week’s CMAA Colloquium. Stunning music and liturgy, polyphony and chant.”
The Veritatis Praeco blog (http://veritatispraeco.wordpress.com) exceeded 6,500 hits in June. I received a raise not too long ago. Tomorrow should see even better news, regarding a certain Catholic institution of higher education.
I’m heading down to College Station today for my New Student Conference at Texas A&M.
May God help me prepare well for this fall.
We had a beautiful High Mass last evening for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The choir is going on vacation until fall and outdid itself in gorgeous polyphony. We’ll have the schola through July; then they also take off – no high masses in August except for the Feast of Assumption. After Mass there was an ice cream social, a staple after evening Mass on a feast day. Two of our late teen altar boys, brothers who live on a farm, dress as 40s and 50s style soda jerks – white shirt and pants, white cap and black bow tie, and serve the assemblage in the gym. It was 104 degrees in Sacramento. The ice cream was a real plus. More good news. This week we have a brand new, and newly ordained, priest joining us. Our fine Spanish speaking (originally from Argentina) priest is transferring to San Diego. The new FSSP parish down there needs a Spanish speaker badly. Because one of the TLM Sunday Masses there is almost solidly filled with Latinos, the Epistle, Gospel and Sermon are delivered in Spanish. God Bless the FSSP and their continuing expansion.
Our new priest has arrived… with a crucifix in tow for our church, which in 30 years has never had one!
My SIL, Theresa, is currently in labor with her first baby! This will be my 22nd niece/nephew! Prayers for a healthy Mom, baby and for the stressing Dad!
Our pastor announced on Sunday that starting on October 25th, he will offer
Mass in the Extraordinary Form, a Missa Cantata, every Sunday at noon. Here I
was hoping he’d reinstate use of the altar rail so those who wished to do so
could kneel for Communion and instead, he announced this! So many prayers
have been answered in so many ways with this one awesome announcement. Praised
be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
Gig’em aggies! Paul, hope you love Aggieland as much as I did!
Also, once you get the hang of things, there is a Latin Mass celebrated every Sunday in a town called Brenham about 30 minutes outside College Station. (at St. Mary Immaculate Conception Church)
My good news: finally got a job interview! Praying that it leads to an offer.
My boyfriend and I went to our first NFP class on Saturday and loved it! It is a year long program to learn the Creighten Model and we are both excited to use it with our future family to follow our Faith and stay within Church teaching.
I just finished a city-wide Novena to the Blessed Mother yesterday. It’s a nearly 300-year-old annual event and is absolutely the most beautiful devotion in the world. I haven’t posted my thoughts and reflections to my blog yet, but I will do so soon along with the history. I also have pictures to post from one of the processions and the different days of Masses.
Maria in Santa Fe
Our pastor says he wants to learn to say Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form, and we have three young men who want to learn to serve the Mass, and an organist who has played for Low Mass previously in another parish. Everything is falling into place for us to have the Extraordinary Form in our parish at least once a month. At least two other parishes in our area are experiencing these same graces.
Did I mention that we’re in the Los Angeles Archdiocese?
I’m going to visit the Diocese of Great Falls/Billings on July 25ths-Aug 2nd for potential of being seminarian for that diocese and becoming a priest in the Catholic Church :)
Jayna: I was having a talk with my pastor yesterday…
I think you might have had an influence. Good work!
Hopefully your parish liturgist will start to come around too.
I got to go to a Low Mass on Sunday & the kids were actually quiet enough I could pretty much just pay attention to the Mass! That’s a first!(only my 3rd EF)
Also, there were about twice as many people in the congregation as the last time we went.
This past Sunday my husband and I attended the first TLM mass at Immaculate Conception in Fitchburg and it was amazing! What a gift from God for us to have a TLM parish within easy driving distance and for our diocese, to have another TLM to attend! And, my husband and I have spoken with Father Phillipson about beginning our conversion process to the Holy Catholic Church, Thanks be to God!
My 11 month old son took a step on his own AND it’s cool enough to open the windows!
Twenty five years ago today I married the girl of my dreams. Today my dreams are still being fulfilled.
Today is my 48th Birthday!
We had a lovely Latin Mass this past sunday in Tallahassee, Florida; celebrated by Fr. Richard Schamber – his first Latin Mass! He did a fantastic job, and we hope to be having them more regularly here.
*Baby priests :D*
Our newly-ordained returned this week (and was promptly mobbed by the boys) and was greeted by the ordained-two-years-ago (I think) with the words ‘C’est drôle d’être prêtre, n’est-ce pas?’. Very thankful, not only for hopefully-gained plenary indulgences (yay! on behalf of the hopefully suffering-no-longer souls) but for the fact that this sort of thing puts things back into perspective and makes me look once more to the Lord in the midst of all my messiness.
I have found a job. It isn’t ideal, but *it is a job*. I am being sent out like a little baa-lamb, but hopefully only for a time. Modicum et modicum… Still, it seems easier when you cross the path of a newly ordained priest who hasn’t yet forgotten what he is and is still very much in awe. Fathers, NEVER FORGET!!! “If we understood the priesthood, we would die of love”.
I am NOT correcting papers today! That’s good news for me. Even better news: Will be praying the Rosary with my children in about 2 minutes from now.
I met a number of priests this past week at the CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium.
Good liturgy is possible this side of Heaven.
Brick by brick, we’ll get there through this Vale of Tears.
In other good news, I can now sing Compline. Yay!
The kind and efficient librarians in Duke Humfrey’s Reading Room brought me all of the early printed Glagolitic Missals I requested, without any questions. These included a little octavo gem, the Missal Rimski of Bishop Kozicic printed in Venice by Bindoni and Passini in 1528. It was a good day, but hot, spent AMDG.
My son’s girlfriend broke up with him and he is heartbroken and depressed – he loved her very much. Please pray for him. For good news, I have had the opportunity this summer to go to Mass two days a week which has been a blessing.
Our Chaplain for the Latin Mass Community of San Juan Bautista, CA, Father Nicholas Milich, celebrated the 7th anniversary of his Ordination and First Mass at Sacred heart, Salinas on the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul.
Images can be found at http://monterey-tlm.blogspot.com/2009/06/feast-of-st-peter-and-paul-at-sacred.html
All of the volumes of the old Borgnet edition of St. Albert the Great’s complete works have come online, and I’m poking through them. Mwahaha!
+Grech of Sandhurst, Australia, conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Trad form last Friday night. First time in 40 years Confirmation had been conferred in the Ex-form in the diocese of Sandhurst.
Go to wlms.blogspot.com to see pictures of the huge step forward in rural Australia!!
Went to my first ever TLM this past Sunday. 3 days later and I am still overwhelmed. I may never get to attend again, as it is the only TLM within 1,500 miles of here and after July, the priest is leaving. The monastery is a 3 hour drive away from my home. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have gone even one time and I just have to keep reminding myself of what I saw posted here before by Father Z: Pray, Hope and be Patient.
Hopefully your parish liturgist will start to come around too.
Well, she’s liable to quit before that happens. I said as much and he said he didn’t care – actually, he said they could all quit and he could replace them tomorrow (bad as it sounds, I’m kind of hoping someone will quite and make a job opening). And good for him, he’s the pastor and I’m glad he’s finally acting like it. (Though, to be fair, he had very good reasons to go easy up until now.)
In other good news, the seminarian interning at our parish for the summer starts tomorrow! I’ve not met him yet, but I know that he is 26 and currently studying at the NAC, so I like him already!
I went to Mass a week ago Sunday to find a Communion rail in the church. I went to Mass last Sunday to find it being used!!!
Fr. Eric Anderson, ordained just two weeks ago, will be offering Holy Mass in the extraordinary form in celebration of the feast of the Precious Blood (from the old calendar) at 9:30 AM, July 1st, at Holy Rosary Parish here in Portland, OR.
You could say this is somewhat atypical for this diocese.
Separately, we attended the simple profession of my daughter as a Carmelite last weekend in Nebraska.
We got to discussing their recreation times, and she mentioned nuns who play various instruments such as the cello and the violin, etc. And THEN she mentioned a nun who was a gymnast before entering, and who occasionally does cartwheels and backflips for them…in full habit…which she has pinned beforehand. It is difficult to think of a more joyful image than that. It seems a particularly happy and fitting image for that convent, which is so ascetic and so joyful.