Since today is the Transitus of St. Francis and tomorrow is his feast day (he is co-patron here, so Sunday Mass will be in white), here is an image from an altar painting at The Parish™, which features St. Augustine and St. Francis, because two brothers, Agostino and Francesco, paid to decorate it. Makes sense. There’s a lot more to be said, and I will probably make a couple of videos about the side chapels… with NEW ILLUMINATION!!!… for Roman Donors.
Welcome Registrants:
40MartyrsSebaste
sparticus
Makes sense pic.twitter.com/IGbigExxC8
— MedievalistMatt (@medievalistmatt) October 3, 2026
And…
“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.”
-Rudyard Kipling pic.twitter.com/H7aQCyvQ8R
— The Ways of A Gentleman (@Gentleman_Ways) October 3, 2026
Heading home from Mass with a stop at the grocer. The blue light is a little spooky.
What’s for supper? A cheeseburger. I’m in Rome, but I wanted a cheeseburger. So there.
Great beef. As my late-mother liked, strong mustard and a slice of raw onion, bun buttered and grilled. Alas, these pickles can’t hold a candle to the robust stuff of the new world. Arrogant, effete cornichons.
I’m still not great. Today, with DO’R, we worked on getting special characters, especially Greek and Latin with accents, etc., to post.
I’ll be getting out and around soon, I hope.
Meanwhile… YOU GO GIRLS!
Three defiant Austrian nuns in their 80s—Sister Bernadette (88), Sister Regina (86), and Sister Rita (81)—fled an involuntary retirement home in September 2025 to break back into their shuttered historic convent, Schloss Goldenstein in Elsbethen, Austria. The sisters gained… pic.twitter.com/HR86zo0R2D
— Archaeo – Histories (@archeohistories) October 3, 2026
We need a lot more of this.
I had an image of a couple dozen priests in a diocese on a given Sunday celebrating either the TLM or NO ad orientem with kneelers out if there is no rail.
White… 4.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Re: your vision. Half an hour away from me is a parish which provides kneelers for Communion and has a “new” hymnal full of Catholic music. They also observe the 1st Saturdays with Mass, rosary, and Confession. Granted, they do unfortunately maintain rituals like the odd YPLW custom during the school year. Young people are escorted out of Mass to do their own thing during the Young People’s Liturgy of the Word — “they play games” some grandmother said behind my pew last week, “you better go or you’ll miss the games” — while schoolchildren read the first two readings anyway…who decided that made sense? But I see a few sparks of hope.
Can you find no gherkins in Rome ? Any Russian/Polish/Jewish grocery shops there ?
Re: The Austrian Augustinian Nuns.
Over three quarters of a century I’ve observed the administrative arm of the Church treat many persons, men and women, mostly clerics and religious but not exclusively by any means, with an appalling lack of charity and disrespect. Today I read of the lack of preparation for the care of retiring priests in Africa.
We observe an institution with its head in a fog…I wish I could say in the clouds. Despite their proximity to the ground, they aren’t actually on it.
Can we cease the sixty year attempt to square the circle, be simply kind, humane, and exhibit a bit of common sense and integrity?
Luke 16:10 comes to mind. Its simple wisdom is prophetic and groundbreaking.
@Benedict Joseph:
The enemies of the Church within the Church are cruel, hiding their malice under a cloak of smiles and soft, benevolent sounding words, publicly pretending to have honorable intentions, but the harshness and vindictiveness of their actions are truly horrifying. They reserve their most vicious attacks for the true and sincere followers of Christ. Sorry to say, what is happening in the Church in these instances is not ineptitude. Just ask some canceled priests.
@fac:
You articulate the absolute truth and boldly. God reward you.
1. Qb7+ Rc7 (if … Nc7 then 2. Qc8#)
2. Nxe5+ forcing e6xe5
3. Qd5+ forcing Bd6
4. Re7#