The sun rose over Rome at 06:45 and it set some time ago at 17:02
The Ave Maria is still in the 17:30 cycle.
It is the Feast of Holy Relics and the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost.
I have two full days left here.
Welcome new registrant:
Gregory M.
I renew my request for prayers for a friend, Giancarlo, for a miracle through the intercession of B. Luigi Maria Monti.
I ask prayers for myself.
I spotted something a bit unusual for this neighborhood: a few of the green parrots who are mostly in the Vatican Gardens, big parks.
Hard to see in the photos, but they are there. It was their noise that attracted my attention.
Anyway… flying things. A couple of the Italian formation fighters went by the other day in preparation for their bigger holiday fly over.
Also, there’s this.
Today I flew back and forth between my digs and the parish. The last time because I got a phone call that the TAILOR was in the sacristy waiting for me.
He didn’t tell me ahead. No one told me anything. I had no idea. So back I went, along with my damaged cassock, hoping that he would take it.
The surprise was that HE BROUGHT MY NEW CASSOCK. I thought I would have to wait until March. What a surprise.
It fits perfectly, is great fabric, and it has that new cassock smell.
Therefore, I will soon offer a Mass for my cassock contributors. Thank you.
A couple sights from today.
Note in this inscription (some can take a stab at it), there is an abbreviation for TWO “Pontifices Maximi”. Note how it is done.
This is of course a reference to another post.
I wonder what it is like to be the SUMMUS SCRINIARIUS.
I’ll bet someone can do this. Then I have another one, even more interesting.
People are getting interested in The World’s Best Sacristan™. Here’s what I means when I say he is a stickler for details.
Today he came up to the vestment case next to me and tisked and rearranged the chalice veil.
“What?”, quoth I, using on the standard hand gesture.
It seems that the pattern of the moiré was running the wrong direction.
Because the cross on the veil (it is really more Roman in the old sense not to have one at all) is directly in the center of the veil, it would be easy simply to drape it and scamper. No no. Things must be done properly. The “stain” of the moiré must run the other way.
These, my friends are the important things that we ought to be worrying about. Almost all the other stuff is really settled, isn’t it. The Church’s teachings on morals are clear, for example. Ordination of women.. married priests… hash it out again and again and again… cui bono? But the direction of moiré. THAT’s worth getting into.
White to move. Work it out. Good one. Really think about this.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Buy some beer and work on chess problems… with a little savory sausage… cheese, a nice chair, some quiet. …. Yup. And THANKGIVING is coming. Norcia beer.
Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE These links take you to a generic “catholic” search in Amazon, but, once in and browsing or searching, Amazon remembers that you used my link and I get the credit.
Finally, here is an audio recording of the end of Mass. You can hear what the church sounds like in the sanctuary for some of the prayers, the organ and the congregation singing the Salve Regina.
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I don’t think this will happen in our present Pontificate but in the past when a Doctrine (something we have always believed, i.e. Priest are Men, Priest should not be married.) ,Comes under fire, the Holy Father makes an Excathedra statement declaring a Dogma.
This hasn’t happened since Pope Pius XII in 1950 With the Dogma of the Assumption of Our Lady. The Six Popes after him have not made a Dogmatic pronouncement.
Having been stumped by Friday’s problem and educated by your solution, Father, I was prompted to consider 1. Qa7 for today’s puzzle. White threatens mate with Bb5 if black’s queen moves away, so white at least wins material. I can’t decide which of 1. … Nge7, 1. … Ra8 and 1. … Be7 is least bad for black.
I appreciate that sacristan and hope his name is in for the next conclave. As it turns out there are no small details and if we had a church filled with men like that we would still have an intact and healthy Roman Catholic Church instead of the splintered and ailing one we have. We needed exactly that sacristan. Everywhere, God bless him. That tsk was worth more than volumes of utterances in the last so many years in the Vatican.
Fr. Z I am going to try to remember to send you, via snail mail with your Christmas card, photos I took of our local seagulls in flight, hovering like Blackhawks for a morsel. It’s poetry, they were gorgeous, so white and clean, as they are, against a cobalt sky, and in still shots it was like beholding a lovely ballet performance. I’ve had occasion to rescue two seagulls at different times, I had to grab them and put them in a box to transport, and they were surprisingly mild mannered, gentle and resigned to their fate. I expected bad pecks, and didn’t get them. Maybe they were two oddballs and didn’t represent, I don’t know, but they hardly fought me. Surprising. And they’re smart, the way they take clams high up and drop them on concrete to open them. They’re bold, for sure. I took my Mom to the beach and one came down and grabbed a cookie right out of her hand. They get fed a lot so the gull probably thought it was meant for him. I remember Mom’s expression well.
I live in a large city in Central Texas, and we’ve had a growing population of Monk Parrots since several were (accidentally? Deliberately?) released back in the 80’s. The city estimates we have 400-500 of them now. They’re noisy, but pretty and friendly.
Monk Parrots are unusual because they build community nests— this far north of their native habitat, they like to build those massive nests in cell phone towers. Apparently they like the warmth the electronics give off in winter. The phone company doesn’t mind, because while the nests are large masses of sticks, they don’t damage the cell towers.
Father, If the parrots you saw were about a foot long, with a green upper body and a cream-gray breast, they might also be Monk Parrots.
GregorD says: You are onto it. Well done. Yes, the key is to distract that black queen with a queen sac. Then white’s light bishop goes for the kill shot. The key is, I think, to see that black’s kind doesn’t have anyplace to go. So, we ask the question, how can I get a check in on that black king?
As the sacristan for St. Anne’s (not that we have a line of priests to arrange the sacristy for…), I take pride (not in the bad sense, but the sense of doing my best to arrange the sacristy and sanctuary properly) in noting the little things: are the vessels in proper condition to hold the precious body and blood of our Lord, are the linens cleaned, pressed, and (for the corporal) properly conditioned, are the cruets clean, and veils, vestments, etc. in good order, candles placed properly, trimmed…there is a lot involved in maintaining a sacristy and sanctuary. But nothing more important, considering what happens there.
There is a lot to take care of (and it’s only me who takes care of these things…so everything is where it should be when it needs to be…) Those who pay attention to the little things will be rewarded with greater responsibilities, I guess. But, NOTHING is too small to be as perfect as we can make if for the Mass. Just my $.02; it is a labor of love, not just ‘something that has to be done”.
[Well said.]