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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
- on ASK FATHER: Mass “for the gift of tears”… for someone else?: “When we read the Desert Fathers, they often talk about the necessity of the “tears of compunction”. There is a…”
- on From a reader: “We can sing this, but chant and Latin are ‘too hard’.”: “How about this one? ‘Tis Good LORD to be here!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wNCM8Gw-8o”
- on ASK FATHER: Mass “for the gift of tears”… for someone else?: “I think the prayers are lovely. “ read ‘em and weep.” Do you play five card draw as well as…”
- on From a reader: “We can sing this, but chant and Latin are ‘too hard’.”: “More than one musician has told me that modern hymns are typically too difficult for congregations to sing. One is…”
- on “Pro aris et focis” – Food for thought: ““If Roche’s interview really sounded like an olive branch to some then I’d expect hysterical pressure on him and all…”
- on From a reader: “We can sing this, but chant and Latin are ‘too hard’.”: “In spite of the time signature changes, that hymn isn’t at all difficult to sing. It was entirely new to…”
- on Daily Rome Shot 1269 – Oh great… just what we needed…: ““What is a Caucus-race?” said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if…”
- on O sol salútis, íntimis – a look into the Lenten hymn for Lauds: “Ahh, the Urbanized version of 1632. The original was “Iam, Christe, sol iustitiae”. Some say 10th century, others the 6th…”
- on Daily Rome Shot 1269 – Oh great… just what we needed…: “I’m sure the implementation of this “accompaniment phase” and the drafting of the document were taking up all of the…”
- on Daily Rome Shot 1269 – Oh great… just what we needed…: “Black to move and mate in 2. [NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t…”
- on Daily Rome Shot 1268: “A horde of barbarians living in the remains of Roman built structures, not understanding their original purpose or principles of…”
- on Daily Rome Shot 1268: “Another Hit Job by the former Cardinal of Boston. Beautiful Church. Thriving Traditional Community, relegated to the Lower Church. Good…”
- on LENTCAzT 2025 – 10: Friday 1st Week of Lent – 38 Special: “Suppress the Jesuits; an idea whose time has come again.”
- on Daily Rome Shot 1268: “Archlaic, I have no idea what the good Dominican priest’s exact point was, since he didn’t elaborate beyond the emoji…”
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I think this is my favourite spot in all of Rome. I have a lovely memory of sharing an embrace with my then-fiance at sunset in front of the John Keats and Percy Shelley museum (whatever it’s called, I’m sure a more knowledgeable reader here can correct me) on the Piazza di Spagna.
Is that the church and fountain at 39 Steps?
How is it empty? It reminds of the Rome shots shared during the virus outbreak.
The Spanish Steps and the Chiesa Trinità Dei Monti, TonyO. The fountain is of a stylized trireme or boat of some ancient sort. (The 39 Steps is a classic spy caper film.)
Paradiso, Canto X, St. Thomas Aquinas speaks to Dante.
E dentro a l’un senti cominciar: “Quando
lo raggio de la grazia, onde s’accende
verace amore e che poi cresce amando,
multiplicato in te tanto resplende,
che ti conduce su per quella scala
u’ sanza risalir nessun discende;
St. Thomas Aquinas began his discourse with:
Quando lo raggio de la grazia…
When the radiance of the Lord’s grace…
Dante’s Divine Comedy is written in the vernacular, Italian, and consists of the Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. At the beginning of the Inferno Dante is midway on the journey of life, and finds himself in a dark forest as the straight path had been lost. Dante meets Virgil, who introduces him to famous characters from antiquity. A castle is involved. Adventure ensues.
Dante’s epic poem is a rewarding read. A benevolent God also granted us a Dantesque epic tale in modern vernacular, English, and in cinematic form.
In the concrete jungle of Chicago Jake and Elwood, who showed great promise while younglings at St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage, are midway through life and lost in a dark wood (Jake just finished hard time in the slammer). Then, during a visit with Sister Mary Stigmata they receive a mission from God. The adventure begins at a sort of castle, encounters with poets and bards of the realm ensue.
https://youtu.be/GLUNypEfrFQ&t=15s
[Gotta say… that’s nimble. But anything that brings together the Blues Brothers and the Divine Comedy…]
One wonders where in the Divine Comedy Dante would place: the Office of the Cook County Assessor, Bob’s Country Bunker, Ray’s Music Exchange in Calumet City, the Reverend Cleophus, Mrs. Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Sr. Stigmata and Curtis, Burton Mercer, Illinois Nazis, and Maury Sline who got them the gig at the Palace Hotel Ballroom on Lake Wazzapamani.
The Fontana della Barcaccia – of which Wikipedia tells us, “According to legend, as the River Tiber flooded in 1598, water carried a small boat into the Piazza di Spagna. When the water receded, a boat was deposited in the center of the square, and it was this event that inspired Bernini’s creation.”
Reading the Gesù Nazareno Riscattato ‘Rome Shot’ comments, I went looking for a history of the Trinitarians in the Internet Archive, and was directed to Mrs. Jameson’s Legends of the Monastic Orders as Represented in the Fine Arts, in which she writes that the Pope gave them “the church and convent since called S. Maria della Navicella” – named with reference to yet another ship sculpture, which Wikipedia tells us “has been in this location since ancient times” but was turned into a fountain by Pope Leo X.