About this blog…
“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
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
PLEASE donate using VENMO!
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
Do you have a faithful Catholic website that needs competent and reliable tech support?
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
651-447-6265YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “Thank you, Father, for this information. In the Cleveland diocese, we have been directed to stand in the orantes posture…”
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “I agree: follow the rubrics. But, actually, the extension of the priest’s hands at the Our Father is not really…”
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “Byzantine Catholics always use the doxology during the liturgy. But it certainly is foreign to Roman tradition and should not…”
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “Semperficatholic @12.59 Not only is there pew jumping, but waving all over the church to any that they chance to…”
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “Holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer is like shaking of hands during the Peace be with You. Virtue signaling Diet…”
on Daily Rome Shot 150: “Is that the Porta Angelica with Sant’ Anna? When we take students to Rome we generally stay at the Albergo…”
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “When I see so many at Mass in the Orans position I want to holler at the priest and those…”
on The CDW added SEVEN new invocations to the Litany of St. Joseph: “For praeses, I hear “guardian, protector” and then “head, ruler”.”
on A missed anniversary: Freedom 7: “On Wednesday May 5 SpaceX Starship prototype SN15 had the first fully successful high altitude test flight of the Starship…”
on The CDW added SEVEN new invocations to the Litany of St. Joseph: “Is “president” a suitable translation for praeses in Almae familiae praeses?”
on ASK FATHER: Extending hands during the Our Father: “I think the “holding hands” was officially “reprobated” by the CDW in 1976. I’ve seen the document but can’t lay…”
on A missed anniversary: Freedom 7: “I just watched the movie “Hidden Figures” and recommend it! It is about the “colored” genius ladies who worked on…”
on “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”: “It is, indeed, good to hear that Fr Corapi has been reconciled with SOLT. I must say though, I would’ve…”
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.
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful.
That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically 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...
Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…
Be a “Zed-Head”!
CHALLENGE COINS!
My "challenge coin" for my 25th anniversary of ordination in 2016.
Want one? I do exchanges with military and LEOs, etc.
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
Loading ...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.
WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
GREAT causes to support
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
I have discovered a simple solution to the platitude cookie: eat pizza.
My brother once got a fortune that said, “One of your friends is a secret enemy.” Sometimes platitudes are preferable!
And don’t forget what happened when Inspector Clouseau got the fortune, “Beware of waitress bringing fortune cookie in a Japanese restaurant.”
This one seems a bit sinister. Like, “Your decisions today are surrounded by doubt.” Chose another cookie.
PS I hope the cookie is not referring to the call of the vocation to the priesthood….
I’ve given up on fortune cookies. I always seem to get the ones that say, “You’re going to meet the woman of your dreams!”
– Rev. Scott Settimo
Backwards. The only important call is the one that doesn’t miss! The rest are nothing.
Hello Fr Z. Please forward said cookie to:
Referee Training Department
National Football League Head Offices
New York City
They would seem to be more in need of this particular revelation than most of us…
Brings to mind this from the Hagakure:
“Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige’s wall, there was this one: ‘Matters of great concern should be treated lightly.’ Master Ittei commented, ‘Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.'”
Fr. Settimo,
The cookie is accurate. The woman of your/our dreams is Our Lady.
Father, you seem to eat more Chinese takeout than I did when I was in college…that’s kind of terrifying, actually.
Father Z.,
I applaud your appellation of Platitude cookie, in lieu of Fortune cookie. I do wish I was the one who had thought of it, but you obviously have the better of me, which may why you were called to the priesthood, for the answering of which call I give thanks, and I was called to the vocation of husband.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
In sync with me;
Some calls (decisions, actions) are far more important than others in reference to the mundane.
My childhood friend’s father (very close to me) passed away the other day (88 yrs.).
I made an important and very close phone call to my friend and his siblings last night.
I once got a fortune cookie that said, “No decision you make this week is a bad decision.” A very bold statement. I guess that meant I didn’t need to go to confession that week. I kid. I had actually just came from confession when I read that.
I think that this platitude is incorrect.
I’ve learned to be happy when it’s just a platitude, though. The worst fortune cookies are the ones that tell you what to do. I once got one that basically told me to get a real job.
After enjoying some Chinese takeout tonight I opened a platitude cookie that said, “Hold fast to your dreams.” I guess I will have to carry on for two or three weeks in a state of perpetual sleep, although any longer than that I will have to change my blog name to Rip Van Winkle.
Every important call is a close one.
Every close call is an important one.
What – over the phone, avoided encounter, an almost accident, or a summons from someone nearby, or from within? No right answer from a random broken cookie … is there? Double check with the daily Gospel msg.
Fr. Z, what would you put in a fortune cookie if you could?
“Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, in in pulverem reverteris”, perhaps?
RomeontheRange: What would I put in?
How about “I’d stay indoors tomorrow, if I were you.”
I need my own line of fortune cookies.
I quite agree!
cavete famulos Sericos (pincernas Sericas?) et crustulos ferentes.