Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Posted on 28 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Roman ceremonies of the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage have begun.  We are jammed into a tiny church on the V. S. Giovanni Decollato (a favorite feast).

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For AwhileRome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Card. Castrillon arrived a bit ago.  I’m not sure why the choir sang Tota Pulchra Est.

I’ll have more to say about the day later but mass is about to start.

Card Burke and Archbp Sample are in choro.

Meanwhile, on of the …rare things one could spot while here in these days.

Behold a rarissima avis.  The illusive and abolished cotta griccia.  Which makes one look rather like a sausage.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

UPDATE…

I’ll back track to earlier in this busy day.  First a visit to the lovely Santa Maria della Pace…

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

What’s wrong with this picture?

On my way to lunch with the vocation director of a really important diocese.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

After lunch, a stop in Gammarelli to pick up a couple important things.

There are lots of things being prepared for cardinals.  Here is some lace… this is called “filet”.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

And here is the top of a classic Roman style alb, with arricciatura.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Seminarians waiting for a pre-rehearsal rehearsal.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

What it looks like to be in a nighttime candlelight procession in the streets of Rome.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Entering the church… S.M. in Campitelli.

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

Cardinal Burke after the procession

Rome 2 Day 4&5: My View For Awhile

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
8 Comments

Thanks, Mass for Benefactors and Upcoming Events

Posted on 28 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Thanks, Mass for Benefactors and Upcoming EventsI will say Mass for the intention of benefactors (those who donate monthly, occasionally, send items from wish lists, etc.) here in Rome on Sunday, 30 October, the Feast of Christ the King.   I am very grateful to everyone who sends, be it grand or be it humble.  It is my duty and pleasure to pray for you regularly, during devotions and Masses.  Therefore, I also like to say Masses specifically for your intention.

Also, over the last few days I started receiving birthday greetings.  Thanks!  Some knew that they were precocious, others… not so sure.  Anyway, today’s the day, the Feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude (patron of lost causes).

Other things are going on.

First, tomorrow, 29 October, there will be a Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica following the beautiful procession from San Lorenzo in Damaso, for the annual Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage.  His Excellency Most Rev. Alexander Sample of Portland will be the celebrant.  I have the honor to be the deacon for the Mass.  If I am not mistaken, Card. Burke will be in the procession.  Americans have a good representation this year in what has usually been a pretty eurocentric event.  More on the annual pilgrimage HERE.

Many people send me event items to post.  I can do this occasionally, but not all the time.  Otherwise, the blog would look like a college campus telephone poll or kiosk.

However, lately I received word of …

  • A talk to be given by Peter Kwasniewski on 12 November, sponsored by the Vancouver Traditional Mass Society, also known as Una Voce Canada. HERE
  • In Manhattan, NYC at the Church of the Holy Innocents, Forty Hours Devotion begins today, Friday, 28 October 28, and ends on Sunday, 30 October 30 with all-night adoration on Friday and Saturday.  They are following the Clementine Instruction, so they will have the Votive Mass of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the procession, the traditional Votive Mass Pro Pace, and the closing on the Feast of Christ The King with Mass coram Sanctissimo (which can only be done for Forty Hours) and the final procession.
  • The Catholic artist Daniel Mitsui sent a note and a newsletter explaining that he has to move.  Therefore, if people want artwork done for Christmas, they should contact him right away.  And you should all go look at his art.  It makes for wonderful gifts.  HERE  And take a look at his coloring book for ADULTS!  HERE

Speaking of Christmas, I like to get Christmas shopping done as early as I can, so I can focus on Advent and the Nativity.

Please use my Amazon search box every time you shop via Amazon.

As always, please order LOTS of coffee and tea from the great Wyoming Carmelites.  Every time you need coffee (which is all the time) remember my link on the sidebar of this blog.  You help them build their monastery and you help me.  Again, their small (or large) packs will make good stocking stuffers and gifts.  Get some coffee for your office and for friends.

Remember, too, the “Soap Sisters”, the Summit Dominicans have great stuff for gifts… probably more for women than for men, but they do have shaving things as well as the foofy things.   They, too, are trying to build a new place because they are crammed into a small building with many new aspirants and novices.

And the Benedictine Monks in Norcia, stupendous community, REALLY NEED help now that they have been struck with earthquakes.   Please give them a hand and remember that they have superb beer.

Posted in Events, The Campus Telephone Pole |
Comments Off on Thanks, Mass for Benefactors and Upcoming Events

All Hallows Eve: Doing it right!

Posted on 28 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A few years back a reader sent:

All Hallows Eve: Doing it right!

Given that Halloween is a contraction of All Hallows Eve, and given that “hallows” are “saints”, and given that All Hallows Eve means, therefore, the Eve of the Feast of All Saints, it seems right that children (and others) might dress as saints for their Halloween rather than, you know, awful things.  That doesn’t mean that only saints are allowed, but… it’s All Saints Eve, for crying out loud.

This image stirred spirited comments the last time.

Posted in Be The Maquis, Our Catholic Identity, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged ,
20 Comments

The Lord’s burial place opened for restoration and study

Posted on 28 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is for your Just Too Cool file and for your November viewing calendar.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Aedicule, or structure around the niche carved into the rock that served as Christ’s resting place in the tomb is being overhauled.  Part of the process was to remove marble slabs that for centuries have covered the actual rock shelf.  National Geographic was there to document the work.  There will be a show on it in November.

More from National Geographic, including a video HERE.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged ,
9 Comments

ACTION ITEM: Benedictine Monks of Norcia – affected again, badly, by new earthquakes

Posted on 27 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

action-item-buttonUPDATE:

A reader sent email:

Wednesday Oct 26, according to my Theosis devotional (from Eastern Christian Publications in Virginia) is the Commemoration of the Great and Fearful Earthquake, Constantinople, 740.
For what it’s worth.

___

Last night, 26 Oct, I felt in Rome, the new series of earthquake.

From the Monks of Norcia.

Take care to read down to the part about Archbishop Sample of Portland saying Holy Mass there in Norcia when the quakes hit.

ACTION ITEM: Benedictine Monks of Norcia - affected again, badly, by new earthquakes

Dear friends,

I am hesitant to implore you all again for prayers and support. In the midst of so much suffering, one cannot help but feel a kind of embarrassment to invite your attention to our situation so soon after the first series of earthquakes in August. Since then, we monks have been trying to determine God’s will for our lives and community. Perhaps, at least for us, this second quake is God yelling even louder His will for our lives. We pray for understanding.

Over the past 24 hours, a powerful series of earthquakes passed through Norcia, once again graciously sparing the lives of the monks and inhabitants to Norcia. Unfortunately, however, it has brought many of the townspeople to the brink of despair and more damage than any of us can yet assess. As before, we are busy at work trying to respond to the crisis on multiple levels. Therefore, my time is short to update all of you, even though you each have found so much time to support us through your prayers and donations.??The Basilica fared the worst. Entire walls of decorative plaster crashed to the floor and the dome has begun to cave in. The roof collapsed in two places, leaving the ancient Basilica exposed to all the elements. Most dramatically, perhaps, the Celtic Cross which adorned the 13th century facade came crashing down.

“Most dramatically, perhaps, the Celtic Cross which adorned the 13th century facade came crashing down.”
ACTION ITEM: Benedictine Monks of Norcia - affected again, badly, by new earthquakes
Earlier this week, engineers were examining the falling Celtic Cross, which finally collapsed after the Oct. 26 earthquakes.
The 50% of the monastery which had been considered “habitable” after the August quakes has now been damaged far beyond what one might call safe livable conditions. At 10:30 PM last night, 5 of the town monks escaped to San Benedetto in Monte to join the 8 of us already here, where, after a common sip of Birra Nursia Extra, we camped out for a night of turbulence. After a few scant moments of sleep, we rose at 3:30 AM for Matins and started to accept once more that our life is not our own and God had altered our path once again, solidifying it here on the mountain top. Sadly, for the foreseeable future, this means it will no longer be possible for us to offer Mass in the crypt of the Basilica for the public. But, if God wills it, we will soon offer Mass here on the mountain.

“God will bring good to you out of this suffering and this earthquake will become the cornerstone on which generations of monks will build their monastic life.”
— Archbishop Alexander K. Sample
In closing, and on a note of hope, I want to tell you about a special visitor we had this morning. In an act of both ecclesiastical solidarity and paternal support, and as the ground beneath us continued to tremble, Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, became the first Bishop to offer Mass in the private chapel of our modest dwellings. The Bishop was in Norcia to participate in the fifth annual Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. Following the earthquake, the pilgrimage’s Norcia events were cancelled, and so the Bishop spent time with our community. He was able to join us for coffee and offered soothing words of support, which we in turn repeat and offer to all of those in the region affected by natural disaster:

“God will bring good to you out of this suffering and this earthquake will become the cornerstone on which generations of monks will build their monastic life.”
ACTION ITEM: Benedictine Monks of Norcia - affected again, badly, by new earthquakes
Photo: Populus Summorum Pontificum

Relying, as ever, on your prayers and support,
Fr. Benedict
Subprior
Note: If you want to help the rebuilding process, you can give to the monks by clicking here.
Posted in ACTION ITEM!, SESSIUNCULA | Tagged ,
6 Comments

Camille Paglia on Hillary: “The woman is a disaster!”

Posted on 27 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As some of you long-time readers will recall, I have a grudging respect for Camille Paglia. She’s wrong about a lot of things, but she’s the rarest of the rare: an honest feminist.  She’s a realist. And, like her hate her, she’s a gas to read.

I saw this interview with Paglia at The Spectator:

‘The woman is a disaster!’: Camille Paglia on Hillary Clinton
A wide-ranging interview with the iconoclastic professor

[…]

Talking to Camille Paglia is like approaching a machine gun: madness to stick your head up and ask a question, unless you want your brain blown apart by the answer, but a visceral delight to watch as she obliterates every subject in sight. Most of the time she does this for kicks. It’s only on turning to Hillary Clinton that she perpetrates an actual murder: of Clinton II’s most cherished claim, that her becoming 45th president of the United States would represent a feminist triumph.

‘In order to run for president of the United States, you have to spend two or three years of your life out on the road constantly asking for money and most women find that life too harsh, too draining,’ Paglia argues. ‘That is why we haven’t had a woman president in the United States — not because we haven’t been ready for one, for heaven’s sakes, for a very long time…’

Hillary hasn’t suffered — Paglia continues — because she is a woman. She has shamelessly exploited the fact: ‘It’s an outrage how she’s played the gender card. She is a woman without accomplishment. “I sponsored or co-sponsored 400 bills.” Oh really? These were bills to rename bridges and so forth. And the things she has accomplished have been like the destabilisation of North Africa, causing refugees to flood into Italy… The woman is a disaster!’

[…]

Which brings us back to Hillary and the so-called victory her re-entering the White House would represent: ‘If Hillary wins, nothing will change. She knows the bureaucracy, all the offices of government and that’s what she likes to do, sit behind the scenes and manipulate the levers of power.’

Paglia says she has absolutely no idea how the election will go: ‘But people want change and they’re sick of the establishment — so you get this great popular surge, like you  had one as well… [Brexit] This idea that Trump represents such a threat to western civilisation — it’s often predicted about presidents and nothing ever happens — yet if Trump wins it will be an amazing moment of change because it would destroy the power structure of the Republican party, the power structure of the Democratic party and destroy the power of the media. It would be an incredible release of energy… at a moment of international tension and crisis.’

All of a sudden, the professor seems excited. Perhaps, like all radicals in pursuit of the truth, Paglia is still hoping the revolution will come.

Paglia for Trump?  She doesn’t say so.  But…

If I would vote for the corpse of Millard Fillmore to block Hillary’s disaster, she might opt for the very living Trump.

Posted in The future and our choices | Tagged
35 Comments

ACTION ITEM! Birettas for Seminarians Project! UPDATES

Posted on 27 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

ACTION ITEM! Birettas for Seminarians Project! UPDATES

UPDATE:

From my email…

I just received a biretta from John! [Hastreiter of Leaflet Missal] I am very happy with the biretta, and even more grateful for the work you and Mr. Hastreiter have put into this project.

If you happen to know any of the donors, please assure them that I will pray for them — especially when using the biretta.

Thank you!

(and of course, please keep my name and diocese anonymous in any public posting.)

Always!

I’m glad you were able to benefit from the Biretta Project!
UPDATE:

First off… I am informed that, through this project, YOU, dear readers, have supplied about 100 birettas to seminarians.  Kudos.

Next, I have had a few thank you notes from seminarians, who are receiving their new covers.  Here is one:

I want to thank you for your “Birettas for Seminarians Project.” Today I received my biretta, and I am very grateful!

I have a question though, what is the proper etiquette (birettaquette) for a seminarian? When sitting in choir is it the same as a priest? Also, when can one, seminarian or priest, wear a biretta? Is it only for liturgical use?

Carry it when walking in and out.  Cover after having sat down.  Uncover before standing up.  When holding it, hold it with both hands in front of your chest.  Use ONE hand to put it on.  Do NOT sit on it after the tabernacle is closed, if you put it on your chair during Communion time.

That said, I note that you are in a … place ((arch)diocese) where the local ordinary could be quite antagonistic about seminarians and birettas.  Thus, I urge you to be discreet.

And, yes, the biretta is mostly liturgical, although some priests wore it out and about.

UPDATE:

I received a note from the Incredible John at Leaflet Missal in St. Paul, aka the Biretta Broker for our Project.  To wit:

Hello Father,

Your eyes can stop welling with tears as you write! (At least, temporarily)

Thanks so much for your recent efforts, and thank you to all who contributed over the past year.

We now have enough donors to literally “cover” all of the remaining seminarians on the list…and then some.

As you know, Italy is pretty much shut down in August. But come September…many, many, birettas will be shipped in!

I think the manufacturers are wondering what’s going on in the Americas!

Brick by Brick!

 

UPDATE 16 Aug:

I received the following via email from a seminarian:

I want you to know that I received a Biretta from your action item posts. Thank you and the benefactor who came forward to purchase this for me. Every time I use it I pray for the benefactor who purchased it for me.

Not bad!

UPDATE 7 July 2016:

In honor of the anniversary of Summorum Pontificum I’m moving this to the top of the stack.

____

In the past we have had here a project to get birettas for seminarians.  It was a success (for example HERE) but, alas, it has fallen off the radar.  Let’s get back at it.

I am still getting notes from seminarians hither and yon who need birettas.

That is where YOU come in.

John Hastrieter at Leaflet Missal in St. Paul wrote that he has about 2o seminarians on a “biretta wanted list” but… and my eyes well with tears as I write this… no donors.

Help!

Contact John in church goods at Leaflet Missal in St. Paul – 651-209-1951 Ext-331. 

DON’T WRITE TO ME TO ASK FOR A BIRETTA… CONTACT TO JOHN AT LEAFLET!

If he is away, leave a voicemail with your phone number and he will call you back ASAP.

John is keeping track of the names of the seminarians and their hat sizes. My involvement would only get in the way of the process. Don’t write to me.

Let’s encourage these men.

Call John and buy a biretta for a seminarian.  It’s as easy as that.

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, Seminarians and Seminaries | Tagged ,
12 Comments

ASK FATHER: Bless or exorcize new home?

Posted on 27 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I’m a long time reader of your blog and thank you for your ministry.

My wife and I are in the final stages of purchasing our first house. When we went to see the house the first time we noticed that the current residents were Indian and of the Hindu religion. We know this because not only of the smell of curry throughout the house but also because of the small shrines and altars throughout the house. While I can appreciate ones conviction towards one’s faith, my wife said we should make sure the house is blessed before we move in. My question is, should we just simply bless the house or should more drastic means of blessing and/or exorcism take place since the house was inhabited by those of another faith? If so, what would be the proper thing to do? Thank you for taking the time to answer this question.

First, it is never wrong to have your house blessed!  Let’s put that another way.  It is always right to have your house blessed.  In Italy, for example, parish priests go about in the Easter season to bless dwellings, even putting up posters in neighborhoods saying when he will “strike” on that block, etc.

I doubt that you would need an exorcism of a place for your house.   You should start with the blessing.  Should you have any other concerns after that, then talk to the priest about the exorcism of a place.

Dear readers, talk to your priests about blessings, blessings of objects, places and yourselves.   There are different sorts of blessings (in spite of what the Praenotanda of the dreadful “Book of ‘Blessings'” says).  There are constitutive and invocative blessings.   Some blessings call God’s favor down and others constitute something or some place (and sometimes a person) as sacred or consecrated.

We need to use all the tools in our wonderful Catholic toolbox, including sacramentals, so established by constitutive blessings, and the right use of the Sacraments.

And don’t forget to examine your consciences and…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Congratulations on your new home.  May you thrive in it.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism | Tagged ,
8 Comments

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

Posted on 26 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I stopped in at Gammarelli to talk about the upcoming pontifical set of vestments in white and I saw a relatively inexpensive rose pianera.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

They will make a matching cope and have it to us by Gaudete Sunday. Hopefully in the next year pontifical sets will follow in rose and in a far better black than we presently have.  I’ll start fundraising for that, don’t worry!

And here is a shot of a new fabric they made, based on some that a priest found.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

And another.  I wish they’d have had this green before.  It’s great.  It reminds me of fabrics I saw in Venice.  It has griffons in it.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

They are doing some good things and they are expanding. They remain very helpful and available.

Meanwhile, the fabric I chose for the white pontifical set and the trim to go with it.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

On the other hand, this was in a window of a nearby shop.  No.  Just… no.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

At least they have a scruple spoon.  I like the spoons from Leaflet better.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

I dropped into Santa Maria sopra Minerva on the way back to the apartment.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victualsRome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

The tomb of Leo X who decreed some good excommunications.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

Tomorrow i’ll pick up this reliquary designed for a relic of the True Cross.  it will be wonderful for public veneration of the relic.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

I’m so grateful to a donor who made this possible.

Later, past my old seminary and a view of my window from over a quarter of a century ago.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

I did some shopping around the Campo at shops I know.  Here was something interesting!

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victualsRome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals

My green grocer lady is still going strong!

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals
In my short let apartment I have for cooking only a pot for water and a frying pan and a micro stove with those horrid heating elements under glass.  It’s so small that you can’t have both the pot and pan on at the same time.  But my various odd living circumstances over the years prepared me for these challenges.

Here is a pan of my own amatriciana.

Rome 2- Day 2 & 3: Cooking up vestments and victuals
Tonight I made a blazing arrabiatia followed by a roulade of chicken, prosciutto, rosemary and taleggio.  It’s nice not to have the option to prepare a meal at will without going out.

As I ate I suddenly felt dizzy.  I lasted for some time.  A bit late got texts from a friend here that there was an earthquake sort of between Assisi and Loreto.  That’s what I felt.

May God protect those people affected in that region.

Screen Shot 2016-10-26 at 23.50.15

UPDATE:

A priest wrote:

There is this one I saw in a local supply shop in Vancouver. Yikes!

image1

Posted in On the road, SESSIUNCULA, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged ,
17 Comments

Flash back with Stravinsky’s Mass

Posted on 26 October 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at the increasingly-valuable Crisis there is a great piece about the composer Igor Stravinsky and his sacred music.  Yes, Stravinsky wrote truly sacred music, and I find it quite compelling.  Stravinsky was a deeply religious soul and at times he considered conversion to the Catholic Church.  He wrote a Mass, by the way.  From the piece:

Around the same time as Babel, Stravinsky had begun work on his one and only Mass. Completed in 1948, the Mass for choir and wind instruments was written “from spiritual necessity” (as Stravinsky’s assistant Robert Craft claimed) rather than from a commission. Stravinsky intended the Mass for actual liturgical performance—the score contains intonations for “the priest”—but the premiere performance was at an opera house and it has, regrettably, seldom been performed as part of an actual Mass. [AH HAH!] In this work, Stravinsky created a haunting amalgam of the ancient and the modern. At times the vocal incantations suggest Orthodox chant or medieval polyphony. The wind instruments form a glowing background to the choir, like the gold of a Byzantine icon. Stravinsky explained that the Credo is the longest movement because “there is much to believe.”

I am happy to report that I have been celebrant for Holy Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite with the very Mass mentioned above.  It was almost exactly 6 years ago, this time of year. I was in Detroit at the wonderful Assumption Grotto parish, where the esteemed church-musician Fr. Ed Perrone is pastor.  I had mentioned to him once that I would like to be able to have the Stravinsky Mass and he put it together.  They had it in their repertoire.   It isn’t the favorite, I think, of some of the choir members, but it is a moving experience.  The contrast of the music with the ancient lines and movements, the chants (and some Bach!) and language of the Roman Mass, East meets West, is striking and evocative.  My post on that Mass HERE.

Here is a sample of Stravinsky’s Mass.

Play video

Posted in Both Lungs, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ,
5 Comments