This statue was put in place over 500 years ago and it is famous not so much for its artistic value but rather for its defense of free speech – not that it spoke. But, it had and has a voice still. Confusing?
This is one of the city’s famous “talking statues” — perhaps this is the first of several in Rome. In yonder years when free speech was not so free particularly if you wanted to criticise the church or the government or the nobility you left “notes” to be read at the “talking statues”. You can see from the photo that the tradition continues. While much of what is left by the talking statues today is advertising people still “vent” by dropping critical notes at these statues.
This statue is just one block behind the Piazza Navona. If you walked from this statue on the right of the photo you are in the Piazza Navona. If you walk to the left you will walk along the back side of the Brazilian Embassy and along a narrow street filled with smells and sights of old Rome…there are several trattoria along the narrow street. If looking at the statue you turn around and walk you’ll find yourself on a narrow street with a few trattoria and gelato shops, fashion shops and a couple of antique stores. But, if you weave in and out of these streets you’ll have an amazing walk through an very interesting neighborhood. Its never crowded with too many people. The people usually congregate in the Piazza Navona and its immediate back-streets. But this statue is in its own simple little piazza. If you’re in Rome and you come to it leave a note.
I guess the note I should write is thanking God when things don’t happen the way we think they should.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Daily Prayer for Priests
O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the Enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests, for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.
But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
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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
maternalView on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Why, if life was the result of random events, is there such order in everything that exists? And why, if…”
Gregg the Obscure on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Linguine Marinara con Gambieri tonight. In your charity please pray for me. it appears that i will likely be fired…”
SMJ on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Father, may I ask in which church is venerated the beautiful image of St. Joseph in the holy card that…”
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The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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"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
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.
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This statue was put in place over 500 years ago and it is famous not so much for its artistic value but rather for its defense of free speech – not that it spoke. But, it had and has a voice still. Confusing?
This is one of the city’s famous “talking statues” — perhaps this is the first of several in Rome. In yonder years when free speech was not so free particularly if you wanted to criticise the church or the government or the nobility you left “notes” to be read at the “talking statues”. You can see from the photo that the tradition continues. While much of what is left by the talking statues today is advertising people still “vent” by dropping critical notes at these statues.
This statue is just one block behind the Piazza Navona. If you walked from this statue on the right of the photo you are in the Piazza Navona. If you walk to the left you will walk along the back side of the Brazilian Embassy and along a narrow street filled with smells and sights of old Rome…there are several trattoria along the narrow street. If looking at the statue you turn around and walk you’ll find yourself on a narrow street with a few trattoria and gelato shops, fashion shops and a couple of antique stores. But, if you weave in and out of these streets you’ll have an amazing walk through an very interesting neighborhood. Its never crowded with too many people. The people usually congregate in the Piazza Navona and its immediate back-streets. But this statue is in its own simple little piazza. If you’re in Rome and you come to it leave a note.
I guess the note I should write is thanking God when things don’t happen the way we think they should.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Daily Prayer for Priests
O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the Enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests, for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.
But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.