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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
- Charles E Flynn: “Acc ompanyR 21; is the verb that for some Catholic officials has the same importance as the noun “inc lusiveness ” has for some secular officials.
- Gerard Plourde: Dear cbmiamiens is, I heartily agree. Quality ingredient s prepared by a good chef is good food.
- hilltop: Finito! Or “whateva” This is a great discussion and two negronis tipped to Fatha Z for prompting this discussion . GREAT reading!
- ArthurH: Had a friend, on the surface a devout Catholic and usually behaving so– he’s now deceased 8211; who years ago went to an abortion facility with a friend who asked him to...
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- cbmiamiensis: 53 year old NY-Miami Sicilian-A merican/Ba rese-Ameri can. Priest, one-time profession al restaurant critic and home/recto ry cook. Growing up we called the “sauce” sugo or gravy when...
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- Bryan D. Boyle: Offered at the foot of St. Anne in her shrine: “Sei gneur, accorde-lu i le repos éternel, et que la lumière perpétuell e brille sur lui. Que son âme et les âmes de tous les...
- Anita Moore, O.P.(lay): Taylor Marshall did a very interestin g interview about the history of the traditiona list movement with Michael Matt, the son of Alphonse Matt. He talked about his fathe...
- Charivari Rob: Interestin gly, LGA was NYC’ s home to seaplanes. The old clippers flew in and out using the still-stan ding, still-used Marine Air Terminal.
- Charivari Rob: In fairness, I should have added that an Airtrain link to subway and commuter railroad is in the planning pipeline (though I have no idea how long that might take)
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- Danteewoo: Hold the hand of the person committing suicide, and then tell him that this is the first time you have held the hand of a person as he went to Hell.
- Anita Moore, O.P.(lay): No surprise here. Isn’t Paglia the one with the blasphemou s mural in his cathedral, in which he himself is depicted?
- Semper Gumby: abdiesus: It’s “Ebe rstadt. 221; She’ s written “Pri mal Screams: How The Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics 8221;, and “How the West...
- scoot: I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Card. Burke some years ago when he visited the Diocese of Arlington. This was pre-conver sion, I think maybe even right before I started RCIA. I was...
- Amerikaner: Paglia: Even though he considers it wrong, he will help hold a bank robberR 17;s bags o’ money. One must promote the culture of cash.
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- William: Likewise, instead of protesting abortion clinics, we should be escorting women into them.
- Gerard Plourde: To follow up on the comments made by Suburbanba nshee and Fr. Z. upthread, the observatio n that the linguistic usage may reflect that of an earlier time, this phenomenon was also...
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- teomatteo: “ 230;suppor t SSAd persons 230;” ; That is next. “One can attend a homomarria ge as to accompany them.̶ 1; Theses clergy are snakes.
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 IICLICK and say your daily offerings!
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Recent Posts
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- Note the twisted moral logic of those in power today
- URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: Alphonse Matt, publisher of The Wanderer – R.I.P.
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 11: Tabernacling Himself in His own creation.
- VIDEO: @BishopHying of @MadisonDiocese in Rome for the ad limina visit 1 & 2
- NYC Day 1: Italian Sauce or Gravy
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 10: “Some candle clear burns somewhere I come by.”
- Pontifical Mass with Card. Burke
- STUDIES: When highly developed cultures undergo sexual revolution and license they collapse with monotonous regularity within three generations
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 09: Head and heart
- My View For Awhile: Gotham Assault
- Happy 14th Birthday, Blog!
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 08: “How beautiful thou art, O Lady”
- More homosexualist rubbish from – wait for it! – German bishops!
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 07: “O Come Redeemer of the Earth”
- ASK FATHER: Do I sin if I think that Benedict XVI on purpose didn’t resign the papacy?
- Reflections on the symbolism of the altar rail or Communion rail and some practical suggestions
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 06: “Jesus thirsts for us to thirst for Him.”
- Stepping on the Third Gear
- Newly Received! Challenge Coin – Coloring Books – Bibles – 2020 Ordo
- ASK FATHER: Are vestments made of materials other than silk tolerated for Mass in the Extraordinary Form?
- APR [Abortion Pill Reversal] 1,000 babies saved since 2012
- Sending snail-mail 2019 Christmas cards
- Solemn Requiem Mass for the late Bp. Robert C. Morlino, prayers also for Bp. Paul Sirba – VIDEO/AUDIO sermon
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 05: Angelic suggestions or our own thoughts?
- MADISON – 4 Dec – 6:30PM – Solemn Requiem Mass for Bp. Robert C. Morlino
- ADVENTCAzT 2019 04: When liturgical participation became “doing”
- Fulton Sheen’s Beatification put on hold at the request of “some bishops”.
- ACTION ITEM! #GivingTuesday suggestions from @FatherZ
Let us pray…
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.Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…
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Our pastor preached a VERY good strong solid sermon on the evil and wrongs of artificial contraception and the positivness of Natural Family Planning. It was a sermon that needed to be heard by everybody.
Working from the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price (the OF Gospel), our priest spoke on how neither of those people earned that wealth, just as we don’t earn our the grace God gives us, but to use it, they had to be willing to sacrifice. So it is both a free gift of God that costs us nothing, but also something that requires everything from us.
A visiting priest from Africa gave a meaty homily that I could remember after I left Mass, as is not always the case. He spoke of the parable of the treasure, asking us to decide what is the most valuable treasure in our lives, as we examine all the treasures we have. He fleshed it out beautifully, challenging us.
Our sermon was delivered by a deacon from the FSSP. I don’t remember everything he talked about as I had a three-year old to contend with, but a few things he mentioned is that to “love Christ is to love the Church, and to love the Church is to love Christ.” He also reminded us that outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation. It was a very beautiful sermon and one with a lot of excellent points.
My two year old gave the sermon this week…Chucking a tantrum in the car park. Still, it was better than any heretical sermon I’ve heard. Apparently the real sermon was on eternity and our time we have to prepare for it.
OF: To many Catholics only live on the surface. We need to dig and dive into the depths of our souls to meet the living Lord Jesus Christ. It takes courage to go beyond being Sunday Mass only.
EF: Based homily on Introit. Talked about the temple and how it was all pointing to new temple the Church. The sacrifice pointed to the new perfect sacrifice. All to worship in spirit and truth. And, how our churches must raise our minds, hearts, and souls to heaven.
My homily was on the treasure/pearl. The treasure, of course, is Christ. But we must go all in; we don’t just get handed the treasure.
I tied it in with a special event this coming Friday and Saturday, when we’ll welcome a Fatima statue with special devotions, a renewal of parish consecration to our Lady, an all night vigil before the Blessed Sacrament, all following the Traditional Latin Mass. I made the point that if the TLM is challenging, well — what did we just hear in the Gospel? I moved onto saying that Mary’s heart is the field where the treasure of Jesus’ heart is “hidden” — but not really: she offers us Jesus constantly.
Anyway, I tried to make the devotions around the statue visit appealing. Let’s see what happens.
17th Sunday Ordinary Time-
Father C decided to focus just on the parable of the pearl merchant. The merchant owned many fine jewels, but decided to sell all of them in order to get the finest pearl. Fr said the point was that our choices are often not black or white—a clear good, instead of a clear evil. Often, it is sacrificing something good, perhaps everything, so that one can have something far better.
He cited a story of a parish family he knew: the non-Catholic father was becoming irreversibly blind, and the Catholic mother was dejected over this. But the son piped up “Don’t worry, God will not take something good away without offering another good in its place.” Later that year, the father was baptized into the Catholic Faith, the pearl of great price.
Over the course of our lives, we are often –somewhat reluctantly– giving up our good things (health, family and friends, material wealth) while preparing for our meeting with Jesus Christ, the only treasure that matters.
The great price is a great sacrifice. Those on the parable gave up everything they had for the treasure. The treasure is the Church, and the Eucharist. The Lord calls us to give up many things, maybe everything. He does not promise a reward on Earth or comforts. He does not promise we will have friends or a job on this path. We may be asked to give up knowing what the future holds for us.
Those who are willing to give up everything to obtain the Eucharist Desiree I. We too must desire the Lord. Our other desires, if good, all point to the Lord. If bad, lead us away. We cannot obtain what we do not desire. It is desire that moved us to make the sacrifice.
Ours was an FSSP Mass. The priest talked about the parable of the “Unjust Steward”.
Ours was an NO Mass at the parish near our vacation place. Very good sermon based on the parable of the pearl merchant. At sermon’s end he invited a young woman to join him and say a few words. A CUA graduate, she has finished one year’s work in a school in the South Bronx, and was preparing to leave on a two-year mission to Honduras to teach, build housing, clothe, feed, etc. Quite moving, and she has given up a lot of what would be a normal life for a 25-year-old in order to find her pearl. It was a good end to a good sermon.
On a side note, it appears that the recently appointed 29-year-old pastor is slooooowly making the service less Protestant-wannabe and more actual Catholic. The five-piece jazz combo that previously gigged near the altar is gone, replaced with a pianist and seven-voice choir. No more guitarist, sax player, drummer, keyboardist, or tambourine shaker. And he chants some prayers. He mentioned (gasp!) that it’s not a requirement to dash across the aisle in crack-the-whip style holding hands while beginning the Pater Noster. Progress.
Excellent homily, as always, in our NO mass (in Latin, ad Orientem, Roman Canon aloud, all parts sung in Gregorian, ends with Salve… truly an excellent sight of what the “reform of the reform” should be). Father, reminded us that the Kingdom of Heaven is God Himself, and we are called, as the second reading reminded us, to know God in order to participate in His glory in heaven; knowledge of God which starts here and which we should ask God to grant us -as Salomon did- by asking Him to inhabit in us, as the seed of said future glory.
I attended the bilingual Mass at our parish yesterday (I try to attend at least once a month, since it helps me practice my Spanish and it has also helped me learn bits and pieces of Latin) and the deacon preached on the parable that God is king (Reino de Dios) and that God comes first. It’s a way of thinking before taking action. The deacon also reminded the congregation that the Eucharist unites us Catholics together.
My wife and I attended Our Lady of Grace in Pasadena, a new and small Anglican Ordinariate outreach, for the first time. Father preached on understanding the Kingdom of Heaven not just as where you hopefully go after you die, but as both already with the faithful on earth, and as the eternal, physical heaven that will occur after the Final Judgment and the general Resurrection. My wife is Presbyterian and strongly considering converting, and Father, who also was once Presbyterian, offered during fellowship after to meet with us for RCIA-like discussions weekly in the coming months. A very wonderful Sunday altogether.
We have to bring forth the Kingdom on Earth and how we can do that, using examples from the parish and community.