Fr. Z's Blog

The weather here should be perfect for the rest of my stay.   Thus say the forecasts.

On this 305th day of the calendar year and the 31st of my Roman Sojourn, the sun rose at 06:40.   It will set at 17:07.    Such short days, each shorter.

The Ave Maria ought to ring at 17:30 for a few more days before the cycle changes.

Thank you for this day, O Lord.

Apartment sleuthing news: I have consulted with the wonderful rather senior lady with the realty agency in the area.   I have suspected a rat about the place I had been looking at.  However, they found me another possibility that will work very well, though it won’t be as luminous.  It will have a very quiet address, across from a place guarded by the police, with a small interior courtyard I can use freely.  The rent is good.  Ground floor.   I had yesterday in a Holy Votive Mass of St. Joseph asked for help again.  He is so powerful as an intercessor and he was my guy when, some time ago, I needed a place with urgency.  I am hopeful.  The next few days will tell.   If it goes, I’ll let you know.   The way I figure, even if I cannot spend a great deal of time here, it’ll still be less expensive in the long run than the way I am doing it now.   Sure, my place now is really nice.  But, damn.

Please say a prayer for this, perhaps quickly, to St. Joseph: Help Fr. Z with his apartment project.

Since it is Reformation Day, we might observe it by checking out a book about Martin Luther.  It was written by someone just a couple decades after Luther, hence firmly within living memory.  It was originally in French, vetted by the University of Paris, and then Latin. The title (with apologies to a priest friend and piper) is:

The Devil’s Bagpipe: The True Life of Martin Luther by James Lang (Author) and Fr. Robert Nixon (Translator)

US HERE – UK HERE

It is a short read, but packed, as is consistent with writers before the age of word processors.

On 1 Nov, All Saints at The Parish™, there will be an exposition of the relics here.  The World’s Best Sacristan this morning was doing some work on reliquaries of St. Erasmus, martyr and St. Agapitus, martyr.

Something is definitely afoot.   Maybe this saint can help with my pied-à-terre?

Spotted last night at the Campo… at the bar restaurant “Eretico” next to the statue of the heretic Giordano Bruno.

They are also against spelling.

Something has to be done about the pedana at the vestment cases in the sacristy.   It is getting really bad and one day it is going to hurt someone.

Last night I wanted chicken… so I made chicken.

Thank you to a reader who made it possible to get bottles of hot sauce from my amazon wish list before I came over. US – HERE I brought a couple.   It was a nice addition to the chicken.

In churchy news… after the end of walking together about walking togetherity there is a 3 days of darkness … conference on walking together about walking togetherity.  HERE

“From the Council to the Synod: Rereading a Church’s Journey, 60 Years on Since Lumen Gentium (1964–2024)” — was hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from Oct. 28–30.

In chessy news…. HERE

(White to play and mate in 2)

QUAERITUR: How’s it going having the chessy stuff in a comment?

The Roman Church for centuries observed a vigil before the Feast of All Saints.

All Saints is a Holy Day of Obligation.  Make a plan.

We Roman fast before our feasts. The fast was intended also as a way to help the poor, in that it was a time also to deny one’s self and give alms not from one’s excess, but from one’s own need. Vigils – which are penitential – were/are held before feasts and ordinations and also for the sake of pressing petitions. In the Roman Rite the Masses were somewhat simplified and shorn of more joyous elements, for example, no Gloria, Alleluia or Ite.

On 30 October, after the priests have said their usual morning Masses, The World’s Best Sacristan is already setting up Missals and vestments for observance of the Vigil, though strictly speaking it is not in the 1962 calendar. That said, if the Triduum can be used from earlier books and if new saints since 1962 can be incorporated into the older schedule, there shouldn’t be a compelling reason to be worked up about saying the Vigil of All Saints rather than texts of … whatever, since it is a “dies non“. What? A Mass for of Alfonso Rodriguez, SJ (+1617) with the common of a confessor? A Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit? Why not the Vigil, in the true Roman style?

We are our rites… and we are flexible and reasonable.

As Schuster wrote of this day:

When we pray to the saints in heaven they do as Joseph did when his brothers arrived in Egypt. He went before Pharaoh and, full of joy, announced : Fratres mei et domus patris mei . . . venerunt ad me. And the King out of love for Joseph gave to them the land of Gessen.

COLLECT:

Dómine, Deus noster, multiplica super nos grátiam tuam: et, quorum prævenimus gloriósa sollémnia, tríbue subsequi in sancta professione lætítiam.

Multiply Your grace upon us, O Lord our God, and grant that by our holy profession of faith we may attain to the bliss of those whose glorious celebration we anticipate.

On 30 October, after the priests have said their usual morning Masses, The World’s Best Sacristan™ is already setting up Missals and vestments for observance of the Vigil on the 31st, though strictly speaking it is not in the 1962 calendar.

The purple vestments at The Parish™ seem to be in good shape.  I don’t think we will need a Purple Project.  However, it is possible that The World’s Best Sacristan™ put out one of the better ones here.

Recently I’ve said Masses from DMcN, from AS, from LK, from DvH, from EW, from VD, from FQ, from AW, from TE… upcoming… from JF, from LD, from SH.  I have also said Masses for my parents and my benefactors.

Apartment news… I am anxious.

I went to see a place and there were EIGHT other people there to see it, which was an annoying surprise. There is something not altogether right with the paperwork and the way this is being done and I am perplexed. I have an expert realtor giving me a hand to maneuver in these waters.

Meanwhile… please, someone, send me 2,000,000 euro so I can buy instead of rent and be rid of this … thing.   A little help.   Thanks.

In the meantime…

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 churchy news….

This priest really gets it.

This election has been and continues to be about voting to limit evil. pic.twitter.com/KSZ3p3SevT

— Father V (@father_rmv) October 28, 2024

Yes, that can be filed under “churchy news”, particularly because we need pastors of souls to say what is what.

The Bernini baldichin over the main altar of St. Peter’s was cleaned.

“Trick or treat!”  Francis again cut the salaries of the cardinals who live in Rome. HERE    It seems that people – mainly Americans – aren’t giving like they used to.

Remember Barry’s war on the Little Sister of the Poor?  To force them by fining them to pay for contraception, etc., for employees?  (The late Charles Krauthammer quipped that it was bad optics; after all, they were picking on the Little Sisters of the Poor … not even the Big Sisters of the Middle Class).   He is missed.  A great chess player, too.   At The Federalist there is a piece about what an future dem admin in the White House would do to Churches under the Queen of Abortion.

Speaking of the Queen of Abortion, did you see the photos of her with that hideous anti-Catholic drag perv group in California – the one that the traitorous dogs of the Dodgers snuggled up to and only Bp. Strickland of the bishops protested?   I can’t tell which I dislike more, the Yankees or the Dodgers.  However, I know what I think about the Queen of Abortion and her crowd.

Speaking of the Yankees and the Dodgers…
This… I’ve never seen.

In other news…

This is the most blatant fan interference in the history of not only the World Series but of all sports.

Unreal. pic.twitter.com/2jindbtLRG

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 30, 2024

The Carmelites in Texas have been booted out of the officially recognized consecrated religious life for bucking the system. HERE I suspect they just wanted to be left alone and things got out of hand. Pretty sad.

The Archbp. of Cincinnati has cut diocesan ties with the Girl Scouts because of their twisted gender trash. Good for him. HERE

The Diocese of Jefferson City (Missouri, for those of you in Columbia Heights) has issued a list of banned hymns! It isn’t nearly long enough. I have suggestions. But it is a good thing. HERE I noted with pleasure that anything by David Haas is a no no. “Dear Father, do you have a reason for such a thought?” Yes, apart from the fact that he lived with us at my US seminary and we suffered his music in agony, he was a heretic and perv. So, yeah… no music by him.

In chessy news…. HERE

(Black to move and mate in 2.)

Meanwhile, the actual teenagers… https://t.co/Fem7TaV6vC pic.twitter.com/iFZFsZq64t

— Samuel J. Howard (@Jahaza) October 28, 2024

UPDATE:

The boomers at the Vatican have no idea what they have unleashed. https://t.co/Df7wFB19N9

— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) October 29, 2024

UPDATE:

Once the Church inspired the young with noble models like St. Dominic Savio and his motto “Death rather than sin.” Now we have… whatever the hell this “Luce” thing is. Infantilizing the young with a dumbed down version of Catholicism does them a disservice pic.twitter.com/33dwpdomuo

— Edward Feser (@FeserEdward) October 29, 2024

On this Feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude, when some of our thoughts turn to impossible causes, the sun rose NOT at 07:36 as the screwed up Vatican calendar says, but rather at 06:38 at 107° East.  It will set, again NOT as the curial calendar suggests at 18:11, but rather at 17:09 at 253° West.

The Ave Maria they got right at the 17:30 cycle which lasts until 4 November.

Speaking of impossible causes, my friend Fr. Carlos Martins is taking the relic of the arm of St. Jude – Apostle of the Impossible – all around the country.  I spoke with him the other day: he was in Colorado.

Click – pre-order
20% off

Fr. Martins has a book coming out.  I’ll write about that in a different post.  However, you don’t have to wait to get it. The Exorcist Files: True Stories About the Reality of Evil and How to Defeat It. As I write it is available for PRE-ORDER at 20% off! US HERE  Card. Burke wrote the forward.  I’ve read it.  It is highly instructive and practical!

Also with impossible causes, today is my natal day.  I’m officially old.   It may just have happened that Sts. Simon and Jude came through for me in the apartment search.  Something came in the email today which is perfect.  I immediately swarmed over to the wonderful octogenarian lady realtor whose shop was miraculously open and with her in it!   She was introduced to my by my octogenarian vegetable stand lady.   These old ladies in the area know everything and everyone.  I’ve been so frustrated with my hunt because no one responds.  So, I went into the little office begging for help.  She got on the phone and we have an appointment to see the place.   It would be perfect.

Today I ask you humbly for prayers for my parents.  For my mother in her ongoing struggle with her grave and progressive malady.  For my father who, as a text this morning at 4AM indicated, was taken to the hospital for some emergency surgery – which went well.  Both are 89.

A prayer please also for me, also an impossible cause.  My Jesus, mercy.

Thank you, Lord, for this day.

The tomb of the Apostles Simon and Jude in the Vatican Basilica.

A detail from the Pontifical Mass for the Feast of Christ the King. Some of you will know what is going on here.

After Mass at The Parish™ the incense lingers.

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.

Here’s a nice inscription from Saturday at the Pantheon.  For me, its the fire extinguisher that really adds dignity to the view.

Getting things laid out for today. In the morning, many priests – some still around for the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage – have their Masses.  NB: A few of you readers donated for these beautiful red vestments, contributing to the decorum of the sacred liturgy and edification of the faithful and of the priests who wear them.

In chessy news… HERE

In churchy news… my friend Robert Royal has a great piece at The Catholic Thing.
Cardinal Müller’s talk for the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage.

The people who put out the three movies about the Traditional Latin Mass have a new offering. (I spotted The World’s Best Sacristan™ in the first minute.

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for this Feast of Christ the King, or the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time?

Tell us about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A couple thoughts: HERE  A taste…

[…]

The theme of the Kingship of Christ was further stressed in his 1925 encyclical Quas primas.  With this encyclical Pius established the Feast of Christ the King, fixing it on the last Sunday of October, a month which Communists had hijacked for the exaltation of their “permanent revolution”.

“Permanent revolution” is the strategy in Communist praxis that goals should be pursued without compromise with the opposition.  Some might point to a possible parallel with the now seemingly endless “walking together” in October after October after October of trying to create a stable process in the Church of re-doing pretty much everything (which seems like a not inaccurate definition of “revolution”).  Create listening groups to isolate voices which might run counter to the determined ends and issue concluding statements.

By the way, the Latin for “revolution” is res novae… “new things”.  “New” was perceived by the ancient Romans as bad by default.

[…]