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
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on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: “All things aside, I can’t help but wonder what place is depicted in the painting. Is it a Roman basilica?…”
on 17 September 1621 – St. Robert Bellarmine – Doctor and Pot Scrubber of the Church – 400th anniversary of his death: “When visiting Rome several years ago, discerning a possible vocation to the Society of Jesus, a good friend of mine,…”
on 17 September 1621 – St. Robert Bellarmine – Doctor and Pot Scrubber of the Church – 400th anniversary of his death: “Everybody wants a translation. So disappointing. Isn’t there one person – at least one – who might want to read…”
on 17 September 1621 – St. Robert Bellarmine – Doctor and Pot Scrubber of the Church – 400th anniversary of his death: “Thank you for this! Wondering what – if any – audiobooks of works of Doctor St. Robert there are, I…”
on 17 September 1621 – St. Robert Bellarmine – Doctor and Pot Scrubber of the Church – 400th anniversary of his death: “If you live in Cincinnati, the blasted shame is that when you hear the name “Bellarmine” you instinctively think of…”
on 17 September 1621 – St. Robert Bellarmine – Doctor and Pot Scrubber of the Church – 400th anniversary of his death: “In case some do not know, you can buy Kindle books and then use the Amazon app to read them…”
on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: “The SSPX has an amazing podcast series (Crisis in the Church). The podcast dedicated a couple hours to this question.”
on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: “That painting looks like the Map Room scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/indianajones/images/2/29/Staff_of_Ra.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070623021844”
on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: “The “spirit of V-2” is the modernist attempt to weaponize the Council via the hermeneutic of rupture. One could wonder…”
on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: “I think it goes back to a correct understanding of the operation of the Holy Spirit on the Church, or…”
on Biden, Abortion and Can. 915: “KateD: Good point, thanks. “There’s a new restaurant on the moon, Buzz Aldrin’s BBQ Shack. Great food, no atmosphere.””
on Benedict XVI breaks silence: intro to new volume in an anthology series – includes thoughts on “same-sex unions”: “The La Nuova Bussola piece really puts it well concerning the present pontificate.”
on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: ““My point is that just because an authority does something authoritative, that makes what he did good.“ You meant to…”
on ASK FATHER: Is it sinful to make or use fake papers, vaccine passports, or false documents?: “To Sportsfan: Check out Amateur Scholastic and Man o’ words. :) :) And there are always ways to mislead without…”
on Can Ecumenical Councils ever be failures?: “A very important distinction: The Church and her personnel. Not everything that the personnel do, that a churchman does, is…”
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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.