Do you have good news for the elevation and edification of the readership? Let us know.
SHOPPING ONLINE? Please, come here first!
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!
Do you want to show some appreciation?
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
Gregg the Obscure on ASK FATHER: “If a priest blesses something without following the ritual, is it really blessed? (BAD NEWS!): “i am put in mind of the saying by the late Fr. Foster (for whose soul i pray daily) along…”
JakeMC on Priest weeps at irreverence for Eucharist, tells people to receive on the tongue. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Life gets really interesting when you live in a city neighborhood where there are six (count ’em, SIX) Catholic parishes…”
Ages on ASK FATHER: Can we Catholics observe Jewish feasts like Purim?: “That is not a one off insult. St. John preached a number of sermons Adversus Judaeos, against Christians who would…”
Ages on ASK FATHER: Can we Catholics observe Jewish feasts like Purim?: “Is it not strange that those who worship the Crucified keep common festival with those who crucified him? – St.…”
Elizium23 on ASK FATHER: “If a priest blesses something without following the ritual, is it really blessed? (BAD NEWS!): “These discussions make me quite sad. I usually seek out the services of a newly ordained parochial vicar for blessings.…”
Sid Cundiff in NC on ASK FATHER: Can we Catholics observe Jewish feasts like Purim?: “Thank you, Father, for honoring the Elder Brother.”
catholictrad on ASK FATHER: “If a priest blesses something without following the ritual, is it really blessed? (BAD NEWS!): “Once again I see how God has poured His blessings upon my unworthy soul. My beloved priest since Summorum Pontificum…”
happyCatholic on ASK FATHER: “If a priest blesses something without following the ritual, is it really blessed? (BAD NEWS!): “Well, now I’m totally confused. Almost every blessed item I have was blessed in English, even down to the Nativity…”
TomG on ASK FATHER: Can we Catholics observe Jewish feasts like Purim?: “Father, you have really outdone yourself this time. This is ecumenism at its best.”
acardnal on ASK FATHER: Can we Catholics observe Jewish feasts like Purim?: “I wonder if Magilla Gorilla was Jewish.”
Semper Gumby on Terrific podcast at Crisis with Scott Hahn. Don’t delay.: “Fr. Z, writing in 2019 on Archbishop Carroll’s “Prayer for Government”: “Fathers, you might want to have everyone pray this…”
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on Rome Shot 87: “Also Dodici Apostoli is today’s Roman Station. “Even in death he can’t escape them.” Nor can we who live. Did…”
Ms. M-S on LENTCAzT 2021: 10 – Ember Friday 1st Week of Lent: Patience in suffering: “Thanks, Fr. Z.”
ThePapalCount on Rome Shot 87: “This is the tomb of Clement XIV, a Franciscan pope, educated by Jesuits, who in his papacy would issue the…”
Books which you must have.
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.
Get ready…
Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“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.”
- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
Send Snail Mail to Fr. Z
Fr John Zuhlsdorf
Tridentine Mass Society of Madison
733 Struck St.
PO BOX 44603
Madison, WI 53744-4603
For email HERE
- “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.
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...
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
-
Recent Posts
- VIDEO PILGRIMAGE to the Holy Land: Day 5
- STATIONS OF THE CROSS – Audio from Fr. Z
- ASK FATHER: “If a priest blesses something without following the ritual, is it really blessed? (BAD NEWS!)
- ASK FATHER: Can we Catholics observe Jewish feasts like Purim?
- LENTCAzT 2021: 10 – Ember Friday 1st Week of Lent: Patience in suffering
- Priest weeps at irreverence for Eucharist, tells people to receive on the tongue. Wherein Fr. Z rants.
- Rome Shot 87
- VIDEO PILGRIMAGE to the Holy Land: Day 5
- Rome Shot 86
- ASK FATHER: “Any tips about a Last Rites “kit”?”
- LENTCAzT 2021: 09 – Thursday 1st Week of Lent: “The only choice is between fervor and sin.”
- VIDEO PILGRIMAGE to the Holy Land: Day 4
- LENTCAzT 2021: 08 – Ember Wednesday 1st Week of Lent: “A prayer on the way to Mass”
- Rome Shot 85
- Rome Shot 84
- VIDEO PILGRIMAGE to the Holy Land: Day 3
- LENTCAzT 2021: 07 – Tuesday 1st Week of Lent: “Lord, Jesus teach to pray better in all circumstances”
- WDTPRS 22 Feb – Feast of the Cathedra of Peter (2002MR): Antioch or Rome or… somewhere else?
- LIVE VIDEO – 22 Feb 2021 – 1200 NOON CST – Traditional Latin Mass – Cathedra of Peter
- “Gregorian Mass” match ups: available priests with people who have requests
- VIDEO PILGRIMAGE to the Holy Land: Day 2
- LENTCAzT 2021: 06 – Monday 1st Week of Lent: “It had to happen to me!”
- VIDEO PILGRIMAGE to the Holy Land: Day 1
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 1st Sunday of Lent 2021
- LENTCAzT 2021: 05 – 1st Sunday of Lent: “Our Sire God being first served.”
- Rome Shot 83
- 20 Feb – Feast of Sts Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima – We need their intercession now more than ever.
- CQ CQ CQ: Ham Radio – #ZedNet reminder – Sunday 21 Feb ’21
- Daily Rome Shot 82
- WDTPRS – 1st Sunday of Lent (TLM): our season of transforming mystery
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…
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.
Please use my links when shopping! I depend on your help.
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!
GREAT causes to support
My son was accepted to both Seton Hall and Rutgers. Still waiting to hear from Stevens Institute and Montclair State.
While there is not a ton of good church news….this morning I saw the plans for the new church my pastor plans to build and it will be gorgeous! It is to be modeled on the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi and as a Third Order Franciscan I am very pleased about that.
Father, given that even some limitedly and moderately good news is still good …
This evening I came across some bottles of the American Trappist Spencer Pale Ale that you have referred to at least once in your blog, and it is as amazingly delicious as you promised.
Unusually among Trappist beers, it is simultaneously an industrial lager 100% (technically), and an artisan craft beer 100%, because the monks at St Joseph’s in Massachusetts provide all of the craft and industry themselves, and clearly use only the finest and purest ingredients and recipes.
And crikes, it is tasty !!!
Unquestionably the best beer I’ve ever come across from North of the Mexican border (personal tastes might conceivably diverge concerning beers from south of that border), and it is an instant addition to my top 5 favourite beers (two of which now only exist in diminished ersatz form, unless you can actually get to stay in the Monastery in question).
Thank you Father for recommending it, and may I second the recommendation ? Spencer Trappist Indian Pale Ale is amazingly good — I’ve little doubt that their other ales are equally impressive.
After a 10 day hiatus (mom’s doctoring: 88 & daily rosary warrior & my own).. Returned to the Monastery of Bethlehem Livingston manor ny & the sisters are still praying for the Church & the world!
Ooooo, I’ve been waiting for a ‘good news’ post!
On December 12th, St. John the Evangelist parish in Townsend MA celebrated (what I believe is) the first Traditional Latin Mass since the new building was erected. Built as a NO, there is no ‘real’ altar, but Fr. Jason Worthley turned ‘ad orientum
Oops, didn’t finish…
…and did a fine job. Please pray for him & the parish, that this effort may continue.
My mother had a minor heart attack just after Christmas and she is recovering really well.
I snagged a certain priest for my parish Lenten Mission.
Due to a mysterious health problem last year, we racked up thousands of dollars in medical bills. The local hospital, where procedures were done, offers financial assistance, and after only 2 weeks, I got notice that we qualify for 100% financial assistance. The entire balance, $999, was covered!
Another bit of good news: Although we got more than a foot of snow yesterday, as of now all the streets in my neighborhood are plowed, and none of our cars broke down!
Chesterton Academy will soon visit the Byzantine Church of St John.
Our parish in the Archdiocese of Washington has 90 altar boys, which means 5 altar boys per mass. They are well schooled and so reverent in their actions at mass. No sloppiness here. At Holy Thursday Mass, we have a special ceremony where the priest bestows on the new altar boys their altar robes. Last year there were 20 young boys who participated. The altar boys are thriving at our church which is very traditional and that is due to our wonderful priest.
Do I have good news for elevation and edification? – well, maybe not anything that would impress anyone much, unless they are very considerate of the small joys we lesser Christians sometimes are blessed with – but, this Christmas season, all (not many, not most, all) of the old people I know well seemed closer to the Lord than they had the Christmas before. What I mean to say is, I am someone who looks to my fellow Christians, whether they like me or not, with the hope that they will pray – pray effectively – for me — and for some reason that I cannot explain (similar, in its modest way, maybe, to those small miracles of healing that the Blesseds like to provide, even though they are not actual verified miracles and never will be – but who cares?, they made someone happy – I am fairly certain that someone like Solanus Casey has done this, not hundreds of times, not thousands of times, but hundreds of thousands of times), anyway, for some reason I can’t explain, whenever I tried to pray for some of my older friends this Christmas season, I had a feeling of comfort I have never had in any previous Christmas season – a feeling that one or more of the old people I was praying for did not really need my prayers at all, and were in fact praying for me at that exact same time (and I need their prayers!). That being said, at the church I go to, every single sermon was preached with Christian enthusiasm and love, from the first Sunday of Advent on, so maybe all I am relating is the good effect I profited from, due to the prayerful and kind efforts of the priests in my parish. Well I missed one sermon due to the flu, and I wish I hadn’t.
Sorry if this seems like a sloppy and possibly not accurate piece of good news. I would not have written this comment last year, or the year before, or the year before that. So, sloppy or not, it was, to that extent, accurate and heart-felt.
My FSSP parish at home is preparing to build a much-needed larger church, and here at college I have found many more students who are open to or prefer the TLM than I expected, even just in my freshman class.
Our 24 year old daughter has returned to our Catholic faith. She was an atheist and a feminist and we never thought we would see the day that she would return home . She hated the Church.
Thank you Lord. Words can not explain the joy in our hearts. Never give up praying. I consecrated her to Our Blessed Mother and also have a special devotion to The Infant of Prague. I attend daily mass and offered many many masses for her.
Witnessing a conversion is a powerful experience, when it is your child though the joy is almost too much to bear.
Never cease praying especially all of you Mothers . Mothers prayers are special
Into the 2nd round of interviews for a job, please pray people.
Our first child is due on the 10th February, and so far it’s all looking good. Our local(ish) priest is very happy to baptise him/her in the traditional rite, and we’ve got the godparents sorted.
On a very different tack, after reading Patrick O’Brian I’ve got an urge to start drinking sherry, and it seems sherry is underpriced because it’s so unfashionable. Bibulous bargains beckon!
My photo of the confessional at Santo Stefano in Assisi is going to be published in a forthcoming book on church architecture by one of the priest-professors at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. It’s in the galley proofs. I can’t tell you too much about the book itself, as it’s in Spanish, but as Fr Z always says (and I say frequently in my homilies) …
Go to confession.
It really is such a beautiful gift we’ve received.
Transition to forced retirement proceeding well. Schedule of LOTH, daily Mass, lectio divina, Adoration, rosary, going to the gym when it isn’t crowded, what’s not to like?
A family member was diagnosed with ALS early last year. He’s a lapsed RC, and has steadfastly been resisting efforts for spiritual and medical care. He’s down now 60 pounds and has difficulty with all of his normal bodily functions.
The family RC prayer warriors have been storming heaven for months. Finally, two days ago he agreed to see an ALS MD and get palliative care. Hallelujah! Thank you Blessed Virgin, Saint Joseph, Saint Rita and you Guardian Angels! We continue to pray for his reconversion.
I went on the March for Life with the Institute of Christ the King and had a WONDERFUL time! I was so proud to be there!
I have been hired as a full time employee at the company I have been temping at!!! This after 7 years of unemployment/ temp work when I could get it.
The baby I asked for prayers here a year ago because he has a rare chromosomal anomaly and was supposed to die with in a week of birth is almost 14 months old
I had a cancer test last week and everything is clear.
Over the last couple of years, since we welcomed our current pastor, and then when we unexpectedly were granted a parochial vicar as well, the use of Latin at Mass has been steadily moving forward! The last 2 Advents and Lents, we have been singing Latin(/Greek) chant Ordinaries, and starting this past 1st Sunday of Advent, we began singing the “Salve Regina” at the end of every Mass, which is printed in our new Pew Missals in neumes! We sing it just before the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, which our Pastor started almost as soon as he got here! We had a High Latin Mass for the Feast of St. Raphael, which we also did last year. Every First Friday evening is a low EF Mass, and on Wednesdays at 5:30 is what Father calls a “Latin/English” Mass, which is probably the Novus Ordo done partly in Latin. It might not seem like much to those of you who are used to it, but as Fr. Z says, “Brick by brick …!”
frjim4321: Praise be to God, Father.