ROME DAY 25/01 08: Fractal

Posted on 1 February 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At 07:20 the sun rose over Rome and it will set 17:28.

Ave Maria Bell?  Should be 17:45.

It is the Feast of St. Ludovica Albertoni, a Roman widow (+1533).  Her tomb is in the church San Francesco a Ripa, over in Trastevere.  The monument is from the genius of Bernini and reminiscent of his stupendous Transverberation of St. Teresa in Santa Maria della Vittoria.

I may head over the river this afternoon.  I haven’t been across the bridge yet this trip.

Just a few days left.

Yesterday I posted this in an early morning mood.  This is a busy afternoon view.

For a friend.

Speaking of that…

I wish we had this in the States.  Kinda fractal!

Spaghetti with clams, vongole, last night.  I’m getting used to my kitchen.   The basis for the clams.

I’ll spare you the rest.

Kitchen: really hard to work in.  I don’t have adequate work surfaces.   It seems to me that I should get a cart with a wood cutting board top.  I could put a toaster over on the center rack.   As it is now, however, I have underutilized room but no useful space.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Bp. Strickland isn’t happy with his brother bishops…

Which I just have to post this because of its amazing coolness… for Aubrey Maturin fans everywhere.

I have GREAT RESPECT for Dr. Brant Pitre, a fine Scripture scholar.  At Catholic Productions he wandered into liturgical commentary and put his foot wrong about the concept of “active participation”. Gregory DiPippo of NLM has tackled the problem and Peter Kwasniewski has presented his work in a video. HERE

You may not be surprised to learn that huge problems come from ENGLISH mistranslations of the LATIN of the Council documents. Much depends on what the documents really say, really mean, about what in English is “active” or “full” and even “participation”.

In chessy news, here were four decisive games in round 11 of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, three of them won by Indian grandmasters with the black pieces. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju has the sole lead. Nodirbek could’ve climbed in the standings but he couldn’t put down Vincent Keymer in a long end rook and opposite bishop end game, which I watched while I was also following the launch of SpaceX Moon lander mission.

White to move and mate in 3.

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

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
7 Comments

St. Ignatius, martyr, and Bl. Ludovica, widow – Beauty, differently manifested

Posted on 1 February 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My Roman Curia calendar today shows that it is the Feast of Bl. Ludovica Albertoni (+31 Jan 1553).  My (Novus Ordo – 2005) Martyrologium Romanum listed her yesterday, the day of her death, otherwise known as her dies natalis, her birthday into heaven.

Either way, here is her entry in the Martryologium:

Romae, beatae Ludovicae Albertoni, quae, filiis christianis moribus pie institutis, post viri obitum, Tertio Ordini Sancti Francisci adscripta, pauperibus auxilium attulit, ex divite pauperrima facta.

Let’s see your own flawless and yet smooth renderings of the Latin.

Bl. Ludovica wanted to remain a virgin but at the behest of her family, married.  She was widowed at 33 and became a Franciscan Tertiary. She often had spiritual ecstasies and levitated.

Ludovica is rather like St. Francesca of Rome, who as a widow became Benedictine Oblate in the house that she had earlier established.  As a married woman, she used her family’s wealth to help the poor.  When I was first in Rome, I lived in her family house in Trastevere, the Palazzo Ponziani, then a quasi-religious residence for young men, now converted into a rather nice hotel.  In that palazzo there is a chapel and the room where she died.

Bl. Ludovica is someone you should visit when you are in Rome, in her tomb of the church in Trastevere San Francesco a Ripa.  It isn’t too far from Santa Cecilia.  The great sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini made her monument, and it is one of the great sculptures in Rome, reminiscent of his St. Theresa in Ecstasy in S. Maria della Victoria across town.  He made this late in his life.

Here are a couple pics.  The statue depicts her in extremis, in her death throes, simultaneously her last breaths and a spiritual ecstasy.

Bernini Ludovica Albertoni full

Before someone asks, the painting is of St. Ann and the Virgin by Giovanni Battista Gaulli.

Bernini Ludovica Albertoni det01

I remember the first time I saw this.  It was in my earliest days studying Latin with Fr. Foster in the 80’s.  I wandered into the church not knowing that this was within.

st-ignatius-of-antiochOf course in the older, traditional calendar, today is the Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr in the time of Trajan.  His body is also in Rome, in the stupendous San Clemente.

He was probably a disciple of the Apostle John, with Polycarp.  Pious tradition suggests he was one of the children whom Christ embraced.

His death was gruesomely beautiful.  Gruesome in its method, beautiful in its holiness.

Jerome, writing about Ignatius, mentions lions.

In Matins in the Breviarium Romanum, we read:

Ignatius, chosen to be the second successor of Peter as bishop of Antioch, was accused of being a Christian during Trajan’s reign and condemned to be sent to the beasts in Rome. As he was being brought from Syria in chains, he kept teaching all the cities of Asia which he went through, exhorting them as a messenger of the Gospel and instructing the more distant ones by his letters. In one of these letters, which he wrote to the Romans from Smyrna while he was enjoying Polycarp’s companionship, among other matters he said this about his own death sentence: “O helpful beasts that are being made ready for me! when will they come? When will they be sent out? When will they be allowed to devour my flesh? And I hope that they will be made the more fierce, lest by chance, as has happened in the case of others, they may fear to touch my body. Now I am beginning to be Christ’s disciple. Let fire, crosses, beasts, the tearing apart of my limbs, the torment of my whole body and all the sufferings prepared by the devil’s art be heaped upon me all at once, if only I may attain Jesus Christ. When he had arrived in Rome, he heard the lions roaring and, burning with desire for martyrdom, he burst out, “I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of the beasts so that I may be found pure bread.” He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan’s reign.

“Now I am beginning to be Christ’s disciple.”

Let us be humble.

“that I may be found pure bread.”

Eucharistic.

And from his Letter to the Romans, 3:

“Only request in my behalf both inward and outward strength, that I may not only speak, but [truly] will, so that I may not merely be called a Christian, but really found to be one. For if I be truly found [a Christian], I may also be called one, and be then deemed faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world. Nothing visible is eternal. ‘For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal’ [2 Cor 4:18]. The Christian is not the result of persuasion, but of power. When he is hated by the world, he is beloved of God. For says [the Scripture], ‘If ye were of this world, the world would love its own; but now ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it: continue in fellowship with me’ [John 15:19].”

 

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols |
2 Comments

ROME DAY 25/01 07: A martyr

Posted on 31 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This day, the last of the Days of the Blackbird in Rome, the sun rose at 07:21 and it will set at 17:26.

The Ave Maria Bell should ring at 17:45.

In the older calendar it is the Feast of St. John Bosco, a beautiful saint.  It is also the Feast of a Roman St. Marcella, who was a follower of St. Jerome.  Her body is at St. Paolo fuori le mura. She died at 85 in 410.   Does that year ring a non-Ave Maria bell?  The Goths were convinced she had huge treasures, so they …. treated her badly.   Many years before Pope St. Damasus called Jerome to Rome, she had started a prayer and study circle in her home.  Jerome would eventually lodge with her.   We have letters of Jerome and Marcella.    In Letter 127 to Principia, who was with Marcella, Jerome describes what happened to Marcella during Alaric’s Sack of Rome:

When the soldiers entered [Marcella’s house] she is said to have received them without any look of alarm; and when they asked her for gold she pointed to her coarse dress to show them that she had no buried treasure. However they would not believe in her self-chosen poverty, but scourged her and beat her with cudgels. She is said to have felt no pain but to have thrown herself at their feet and to have pleaded with tears for you [Principia], that you might not be taken from her, or owing to your youth have to endure what she as an old woman had no occasion to fear. Christ softened their hard hearts and even among bloodstained swords natural affection asserted its rights. The barbarians conveyed both you and her to the basilica of the apostle Paul, that you might find there either a place of safety or, if not that, at least a tomb.

A glance from my pre-dawn morning walk.

I bought vongole this morning.   I’ll eat vongole tonight.

In churchy news…

This is getting interesting.

This must end. INSIDE the Church as well.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

In chessy news….

At in Wijk aan Zee Tata Steel, Gukesh is still ahead and Nodirbek is on his heels by a half point and Pragg by a full point.   Fabi seems to be out of the running for 1st.   There was a handshake dustup, but it seems to have be amicably settled.     The oldest player in the tournament, GM Erwin L’Ami was pitted against the youngest player, IM Faustino Oro.  Photo HERE

White to move and mate in 4.

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

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
1 Comment

Fr. Charron on Mr. Lofton

Posted on 31 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My good friend (and a good chess player) Fr. Jason Charron has issued a video response to Michael Lofton.

These days I pay zero attention to Michael Lofton.  I’ve seen a few clips and minutes here and there, and those some time ago.  There are better things to do with my time.  Hence, I didn’t see what Lofton did to draw out Fr. Charron’s commentary.   That said, in the past I have probably seen enough of Lofton to understand that Fr. Charron has done everyone a good service, including Mr. Lofton.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

Posted in The Drill | Tagged
4 Comments

ACTION ITEM! 2-10 February – NOVENA to Immaculate Heart for FSSP for their Vatican “Visitation”

Posted on 30 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is a PDF of a Novena which you could pray beginning Candlemas, 2 February, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  More on this at LifeSite.

The Novena and consecration to the Immaculate Heart line up with a visitation of the FSSP from the Vatican.

FSSP-Lourdes-Novena-and-Consecration

It is always a good thing to pray for the graces that can come from a Novena like this.  I am optimistic that the FSSP will weather this well and even receive praise.

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, PRAYER REQUEST, SESSIUNCULA |
2 Comments

ROME DAY 25/01 06: INTERNET

Posted on 30 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On this Feast of St. Martina, Roman Virgin and Martyr (+228), the sun was up at 07:22 and it will set at 17:25.

The Ave Maria Bell should sound at 17:45.

There are 336 days left in the calendar year.

On this day, I had fast internet installed in my place.  However, even as the technician was working, he suggested that I go to the electrician store (there’s one I know nearby) and get some adhesive backed plastic channel for running and protecting the fiber optic cable.  So I did.

It just goes to show that, when in Rome, you do as the Romans do: you never assume everything is going to go without something strange happening.

Meanwhile…

Anyway, my ONE TASK which I came to complete is now accomplished.  I’ll have decent online access down and up for whatever time I have this place.

And now for something completely different.

San Luigi dei Francesi.

This is very cool. The new SecTransport was sworn in by Justice Thomas using the new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Old and New Testaments.  You can get one! (Unboxing HERE – To purchase US HERE – UK HERE)

More HERE on the swearing in by Justice Thomas.

One of the original four bishops consecrated by Archbp. Lefebvre in 1988 has died.

In chessy news…

White can mate in 2.

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

Gukesh Dommaraju has taken sole lead at the Tata Steel Masters after the ninth round.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
5 Comments

“GO TO CONFESSION!” I always say. Another thing I say is that it is CRUEL to leave penitents in doubt.

Posted on 29 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I was out and about in Rome doing errands. I chanced on a posted sign in the penitents’ part of the free standing confessionals that line most Roman churches, often dusty from neglect.   The sign is a little blurry because it was dark and I wasn’t quite patient enough.  However, it is the newer, post-Conciliar form in Italian with some cultural variants.  It was clearly not new, given how yellowed it was.  What is interesting is that it includes a beautiful prayer that priest would say after absolution in the older, traditional rite.   It is an optimistic, hope filled desire for the remission of temporal punishment due for sins that have been absolved:

Passio Dómini nostri Iesu Christi, mérita Beátæ Maríæ Vírginis, et ómnium Sanctórum, quidquid boni féceris, et mali sustinúeris, sint tibi in remissiónem peccatórum, augméntum grátiæ et præmium vitæ ætérnæ. Amen.

May the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the Saints, whatever good you shall have done, and evil you shall have endured, be to you unto remission of sins, increase of grace, and reward of eternal life. Amen.

There is so much richness here, so much incentive for the penitent to do penance and amend.   This is at the end of the rite of Penance in the Vetus Ordo.

In the day, penitents would have known what this prayer really said even if the priest said it in Latin. He could, of course say it in the local tongue. The point being that penitents were instructed from childhood – or adulthood if they were converts – on how to make confession. They were given a structure, a form to follow. That structure makes you freer to make a good confession, because you are not worried about not knowing what to do.

I’ve received the first confessions of little ones who were not prepared. They were confused and terrified. I’ve received first confessions of little ones who were well-prepared, often home-schooled. They might have been a little nervous (that doesn’t go away) but they did well and were happy at the end.

The worst thing you can do to children in the matter of sacramental preparation is NOT PREPARE THEM. It’s downright cruel. Its the same for adults, who as converts desire with all their hearts to do the right thing in the right way.

But there are jackass priests out there who think that they are being with it, or kind, or charmingly avuncular, or unassumingly inviting, etc., by downplaying structure, order, form, clarity. “Just say one thing, whatever comes into your head,” says Father “Just call me Bob!” as he simultaneously shatters any expectation of an examination of conscience. You know, “That mean old thing.”

Today at a Substack (is that how you refer to them?), I read a piece which describes what I am raving about.

I’ve learned over the years that instruction on “the sacrament of reconciliation” in the contemporary Church results the opposite of what one would hope to receive. I’ve realized that in the new rite, there simply is not much of a pattern to follow.

A woman adult convert was frustrated by the formlessness of the new rites, especially of penance. She describes a video by a Franciscan (which figures – I’m not happy with some of them right now) which left her little better informed than before, and indeed scratching her head. All that old structure and formula business was only the stuff of Hollywood that nobody does.

Oh yeah? I’ll be that Franciscan sure doesn’t.

The writer comes to a good point which is concomitant with another thing I say all the time: WE ARE OUR RITES. Get this…

[…]

If we were wondering if our confession is valid — which we weren’t, not yet, because remember? the subject is supposed to be about how to do it — the video would still not really reassure us, because Fr. Cole doesn’t make distinctions on that point and doesn’t dwell on the often tampered-with necessity of the priest saying “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Anyway, the main takeaway from this video, because it’s the main takeaway from the changes brought on by Pope Paul VI’s meddling, is, as I say, an insistence on the absence of form. In Confession, and this is my point, no one really knows how it should go and Fr. Cole does nothing to clear the problem up.

The absence of form results in an absence of meaning.

[…]

That seems to be the point in some of the post-Conciliar reforms. No?

Mind you, the new formula of absolution is VALID. No question, regarding sins. There is a question of absolving censures but, pffffft, who believes in those anymore except when some bishop wants to slam a priest into the ground for wanting the structure and clarity of the Vetus Ordo? THEN censures…. ohhhhh yesssss.

In the older right, the necessary step of removing incurring censures (if there are any) takes place before the absolution of sins. Then, as I mentioned above, there is a prayer about temporal punishment. See how orderly?

Some smarticus pantsicus will say that in the Rite of Reconciliation there are still absolutions of censures. Yeah, which one in 1000 priest knows about and one in 10000 use.

The abuse of the Sacrament of Penance has to stop.  It is abused both in its neglect and in its haphazard administration.

Don’t get me started about priests who don’t accurately use the approved, official formula of absolution in English, thus leaving penitents wondering if they were truly absolved.

What’s a “Eucharistic Rival”… or a revival of anything Catholic… without a revival of the Sacrament of Penance?

The Church for centuries was the greatest expert on humanity ever.  She figured out over generations and generations the effective ways and patterns of prayer and practice for the administration of the sacraments.   Then came the proverbial “Good Idea Fairy” (often emphasis on “fairy”), sprinkling “good idea fairy dust” over things.  Everything went herking and jerking into the fan blades.

Now we need more “good ideas” to fix the problem the “good ideas” caused.

Or maybe not.

Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, GO TO CONFESSION, Pò sì jiù | Tagged ,
15 Comments

ROME DAY 25/01 05: a little discrepancy

Posted on 29 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Roman sunrise was at 07:23.  The sun will set at 17:24.

The Ave Maria Bell is in the 17:45 cycle.

In the older calendar, today is the Feast of St. Francis de Sales.  He was transferred to 24 January in the newer calendar because that was the date of his burial in 1623 in the church of the Monastery of the Visitation in Annecy, which he had founded with St. Jane Frances de Chantal, who was also buried there.  Schuster says because he died on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, he feast day was set for when his remains were translated, namely 29 January, to Annecy.  Apparently there’s a little discrepancy.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

A touching inscription at The Parish™, just inside the door.  Some of you Latinists can have at.   Right click for larger.   Some things in the human condition don’t change much.  We’ve had all too many reminders of this during the most recent “Asian disease”.

Like something from a spy novel.

Time to sell some cheese.  LOTS of cheese.

In churchy news…

In Brainard, MN Masses will be celebrated ad orientem in all parishes periodically during the Jubilee.  You read that correctly.  HERE

The local bishop wrote a longish letter (linked above).   A couple concerns and observations.   First, he quotes the MISTRANSLATED GIRM #299.  Will this ever stop?   Also, he places all sorts of hemming ifs and oh nos on the parish priests who would have ad orientem worship in the diocese… even though, strictly speaking, the Roman Missal is pretty clear that it is the assumed way that Mass is celebrated (given rubrics to turn around to face the people).   Also, the language is a little vague… he “directs” but he “asks”.

The bishop is concerned about any divisions this might cause.   If you write in such cautious terms, could it be that those who are the likely suspects to grouse would be that much more emboldened?   What I would like to see is a bishop who is with their priests, period.  Not “I’m with you ‘win or tie’!”  I’d like to see a bishop say, “Okay!  All in.  Let’s DO this thing!”

Also, there is an interesting passage about priests who are already celebrating ad orientem and that they must go by these guidelines.   Interesting.   I call to mind the letter from the liturgy office of the Archdiocese of New York in which it is lamented that priests want communion rails and they can’t understand where that’s coming from.

Anyway… brick by brick.

And there’s this.

And… the OBVIOUS… but it MUST be said.

Soooo much that’s troubling in this….

There seems to be a little discrepancy in the messages the US bishops are sending.  What’s it going to be?  Keep defending a policy that leaves who knows how many women and children to be used, abandoned, “disappeared”?   I’m no expert, but it seems to me that virtually uncontrolled immigration, spawning more and more uncontrolled immigration, has had really bad effects on lots of the immigrants.  Getting the numbers under control is a start.  Am I wrong?

In chessy news, there is a great write up and video about my guy Wesley So, one of the world’s top players and generally considered to be about the nicest guy in chess.  I am always pleased to hear Wesley praise Christ for his wins. Check out chess.com

How Wesley So Overcame All Odds To Become One Of The Best

And the video…

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

FIDE and Freestyle are still struggling for supremacy. I guess this fight had to happen.

In Tata Steel:

GM Gukesh Dommaraju leads his first tournament as world champion after defeating GM Leon Luke Mendonca in round nine to move to 6.5/9 in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters. He’s half a point ahead of GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who made a draw against GM Fabiano Caruana, and GM Vladimir Fedoseev, whose fourth win in six games came against GM Pentala Harikrishna. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu began the day as co-leader, but now trails Gukesh by a point after losing to GM Anish Giri.

Meanwhile, its black’s move.  Can you find the Zwischenzug… the intermezzo… the “in between” move?

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

Posted in Brick by Brick, SESSIUNCULA | Tagged
3 Comments

Another point of Catholic identity out with the bathwater?

Posted on 29 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Occasionally we have a collision of Holy Days of Obligations and Feasts in the calendar.  Feasts get transferred.   Does the obligation get transferred?  We had this situation recently regarding the Feast/Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception which fell on an Advent Sunday.  In the Novus Ordo the liturgical day was bumped to Monday.  In the Vetus Ordo it remained on Sunday.  In these USA, Immaculate Conception is supposed to be a day of obligation.  So, was the obligation bumped to Monday in the Novus Ordo?  Confusion reigned.

Now there is a new “Note” from the Vatican’s liturgy office under date of 23 January 2025.

Bottom line:  When Feasts/Solemnities which would otherwise be Holy Days of Obligation are transferred to another days, the obligation is NOT transferred.

Message: It is too much to require that people go to Mass twice in a week or two days in a row.

What I fear from this is the subtext.  I fear that a message is being sent that integrating the Church’s calendar, our feasts and seasons, is not important.  Going to church for Mass, together as a worshiping body fulfilling the virtue of Religion, is not important.

These diminutions of expectations matter.  We are our rites.  There are consequences for our identity within the Church and out in the public square.

Ad intra, isn’t this what happened with the eucharistic fast?  Reduction from midnight to 3 hours, to 1 hour?  Maybe it isn’t that important after all.  Ad extra, a diminishing of public identity may have been an effect of no longer asking women to cover their heads in church.  It was an identifiable social phenomenon on Sundays as families made their way to church.   Ad extra et intra, isn’t this what may have happened with Friday abstinence?   Pretty much everyone was acutely aware that Catholics shouldn’t eat meat on Fridays. People adjusted for their dinner guests on Fridays or were mortified if they forgot.

It could be that in the case of this Note, the law was properly interpreted (odiosa restringenda, etc.).   However, it might have resulted in an alteration of the law.

If you keep whittling, pretty soon there’s nothing left to whittle.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, 1983 CIC can. 915, I'm just askin'..., Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, Save The Liturgy - Save The World | Tagged
9 Comments

But people who want the TLM must be suppressed…

Posted on 29 January 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What on earth must this jackass think of the people in that church?

I’m pretty sure this is invalid.

Posted in You must be joking! |
5 Comments