ROME 23/05 – Day 19: Prayer request

The sun rose over Rome, or would have were it not cloudy… AGAIN… at 05:44 and it will set… will we enjoy it? … at 20:30.

The Ave Maria should be rung at 20:45 now.

In your kindness, pray for my mother.

Lot’s of saints on the calendar. St. Peter Celestine (+1296) whose resignation gave the Church Boniface VIII. Just sayin’, Urban I (+230). Ss. Partenio and Calogero (+304). St. Ivo (+1303) who was around in the time of Boniface VIII. S. Crispin of Viterbo (+1750). The traditional calendar includes S. Pudenziana, who gets a commemoration.

There was a beautiful Solemn Mass at the parish last night for the Feast of the Ascension.

Omnia praeparata sunt ad sanctam Missam celebrandam.

ACTION SHOT!

Another ACTION SHOT!  At the end of the Gospel on Ascension THURSDAY the Paschal Candle is snuffed out.  Another beautiful, meaningful liturgical gesture.   Also, it emphasizes the importance of the mystery of the Ascension.  That was obliterated in the “reform”.  Another thing lost.  Small?  Sure.  But powerful.

The Great Roman™ came over for spaghetti alle vongole.  What a pleasure to be able to get these so easily and relatively inexpensively.

We had our own bowls of pasta and then helped ourselves to the clams as we went.  The wine was really interesting a DRY Moscato from Terracina.  Yes, you read that right.

Meanwhile, there isn’t a lot of chess news of note at the moment. I know that the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix is on, but I’m not sure where. I believe that the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) – Rapid & Blitz – starts tomorrow in Warsaw and I think my guy Wesley So is there. If I remember he was going there after Romania.  Go Wesley!

Here’s a puzzle.  White to move.  Mate in 2.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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6 Comments

  1. maternalView says:

    Prayers for your mother.

    I love the little details like the candle being snuffed out. Being a child of VII I am sad I missed out on even something as simple as that. At our low Mass yesterday it was done even though my original 1962 missal said it was done at the high Mass. I was delighted.

    My old missal is full of indulgenced prayers too. And while they may be “null and void” I pray them anyway. Why invent the wheel? Or pretend it’s not even needed?

    [That is wisdom. I’m reminded of something of Chesterton. Didn’t he say something along this line: Before tearing something down because you don’t see the point of it now, find out why it was put there in the first place. Then and only then think about tearing it down. The Fathers of the Council said that 1) nothing was to be changed that wasn’t truly for the good of souls and 2) that whatever was done should stem from that which was already in place. Is that what we got? It strikes me that little attention was paid to the first principles of making changes just because you have what you think is a good idea.]

  2. JonPatrick says:

    Father I have added prayers for your mother to my intentions.

    I spent a lot of time yesterday on that chess puzzle am I’m darned if I can figure it out. I even sent it to my wife and son both of whom are much better players than I and they can’t figure it out either.

  3. My take…

    Mate in two. White to move.
    1. Qg1 Ke5
    2. Qc5#

    or

    1. Qg1 e5
    2. Qg5#

  4. JonPatrick says:

    Mrs. JonPatrick figured it out, as you show above.

  5. JonPatrick says:

    Except that the 2nd case (where black moves the e6 pawn) should be Qg4#

  6. Denis Crnkovic says:

    [Mate in two. White to move.
    1. Qg1 Ke5
    2. Qc5#

    or

    1. Qg1 e5
    2. Qg5#]
    My take as well.

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