Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

QUAERITUR: Sermon by a different priest during TLM

Posted on 15 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

In my parish the pastor does not know the TLM, but our associate pastor does. Our pastor now desires to preach on a regular basis to the TLM community. Do you know what the rubrics are for a non-celebrant preacher? Should the preacher wear choir dress and sit at a sedilia on the sit of the altar? Should he just show-up and disappear before and after the homily?

Father Homilist should wear his proper choir dress and biretta.

Ideally, Father should should sit in choir.

However, he can come in from the sacristy as well. This could be a good solution if Father is hearing confessions before Mass and even during the first part of Mass.

Mark my words, someone will criticize the priest coming from the sacristy to preach with the image of “cuckoo clock”. To which we patiently respond, even with a talking-hand gesture, “Blah… Blah… Blah…”.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Extraordinary Form, homilist, homily, preacher, preaching, sermon, TLM
5 Comments

Some idiot protestors try to occupy St. Peter’s Square

Posted on 14 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A few whackjobs of the International Indignados movement tried to “occupy” St. Peter’s Square.

Protesters unhappy about the Vatican’s wealth clashed with police in St. Peter’s Square, with one of the demonstrators scaling the towering Christmas tree.

A few dozen “indignados” protesters, from Spain, France and Italy, tried to pitch two small tents in the square and shouted slogans Saturday afternoon. After police detained three protesters, including the tree-climber, to identify them in a space behind the square’s giant Nativity scene, a clash erupted, with officers swinging clubs and dragging away some demonstrators.
Vatican spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. The “indignados” movement decries the concentration of much wealth in the hands of relatively few. The Italian news agency ANSA said one protester had a bloody nose.

ANSA reports here.

[wp_youtube]qZlTmgOKOo0[/wp_youtube]

Posted in The future and our choices, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged International Indignados, Occupiers
20 Comments

QUAERITUR: Where to get a ferraiolo? Fr. Z asks help and make a business proposal.

Posted on 14 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From seminarian:

I am a seminarian in first year theology and in my fourth year of seminary formation. A classmate and I will be attending separate weddings and both were asked to wear our cassock. My question is this:
can or does a seminarian wear a ferriaolo for formal occasions?
Secondly can you or readers help us obtain a pattern for the making of said item or contact someone who makes them at a more reasonable cost?
Thank you and God Bless you for all you do.

The ferraiolo or ferraiuolo is used, with the proper cassock, fascia, etc., as part of a Roman clerics’s formal attire as in black or white tie. If you are going to wear a cassock, I think the ferraiolo would also be proper.

Some advice, sonny.

Yes, this is all great stuff and fun to boot. As a first year theologian, don’t allow yourself to get overly enthusiastic about these things just yet. Capisce?

Where can you get one? I am not sure. I got my stuff in Rome.

I’ll open the floor to informed clerics out there. Perhaps they can help you out.

I imagine that a ferraiolo, unlike a cassock, would be rather easy to make. If you could find an old one which someone could copy or find a pattern, you could save a lot of money. Clerical dress suppliers/stores charge ABSURD prices for clerical dress.

However, I think we should do all we can to revive decorum in clerical dress. Not ostentation: decorum. The right dress in the right place and the right time. Some formality, which shows respect for the event and the people who attend… I’m now rambling.

HINT: Perhaps a skillful seamstress or tailor or two out there could start a cottage industry and make some good dough. Get organized and I will push your business here, if I see that you can making a good product.

So… pattern? Ideas? Think, people! Think! Get to work!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged clerical dress, ferraiolo, formal attire
43 Comments

What does “justice and peace” really mean?

Posted on 14 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

People toss the phrase “justice and peace” around.

Biretta tip to Phil Lawler of Catholic World News for a great catch. He noted something interesting about “justice and peace” in a speech Pope Benedict XVI gave to members of the Italian police force (which I was unlikely to rush to read without Mr. Lawler’s alert).

Mr. Lawler has a breakdown and comments, but here is an excerpt:

The Pope made what might have seemed at first to be a routine remark, encouraging the police officers to work for justice and peace. But he added some depth to that message with a short but pointed commentary on what “justice” and “peace” really mean:

Justice is not a mere human convention. When, in the name of supposed justice, the criteria of utility, profit, and material possession come to dominate, the value and dignity of human beings can be trampled underfoot. Justice is a virtue which guides the human will, prompting us to give others what is due to them by reason of their existence and their actions. Likewise, peace is not the mere absence of war, or the result of man’s actions to avoid conflict; it is, above all, a gift of God which must be implored with faith, and which has the way to its fulfillment in Jesus. True peace must be constructed day after day with compassion, solidarity, fraternity, and collaboration on everyone’s part.

If people want a fuller explication by Benedict of Justice and Peace, read what I think is one of the best documents of his pontificate, his 2006 Message for World Day for Peace.

By the way, Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.

Posted in New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Pope of Christian Unity, The Drill | Tagged Benedict XVI, justice, peace, pope, virtue
6 Comments

Jesus saves. So should you! (Save a backup of files, that is, not the human race.)

Posted on 14 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have a disciplined back up routine for your computer? Important files?

I read under another entry a comment from a reader whose mother has recently passed away. Her computer acquired a nasty virus and she almost lost all the photos of her mother in her last months of life.

It sends a shiver up my spine just thinking of the sorrow that would have caused.

Since much of our lives has now gone digital, make back ups of things. If you burn things onto DVDs and keep them in a safe place or if you have an external hard drive or if you send files to an off site server or cloud… whatever… I urge you warmly to develop a disciplined routine of backing up your important files.

I am sure many of you have your own nightmare stories or near disaster tales or happy bullet dodge anecdotes.

Finally, remember that we cannot have final trust in any created thing. All created things and people can be lost in the wink of an eye. Only God, who is eternal, is worthy of the throne of our heart.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes |
14 Comments

Happy Feast of the Ass

Posted on 14 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

No, I am not talking about whom you think I’m talking about.

I picked this up from Southern Fried Catholicism, an amusing blog by Fr. Joe Tonos. I hope you will go spike his stats.

Today on the medieval calendar, Churches celebrated “THE FEAST OF THE ASS”.

This politically incorrect tale tells us more:

The ‘Festival of the Ass,’ and other religious burlesques of a similar description, derive their origin from Constantinople; being instituted by the Patriarch Theophylact, with the design of weaning the people’s minds from pagan ceremonies, particularly the Bacchanalian and calendary observances, by the substitution of Christian spectacles, partaking of a similar spirit of licentiousness,—a principle of accommodation to the manners and prejudices of an ignorant people, which led to a still further adoption of rites, more or less imitated from the pagans. According to the pagan mythology, an ass, by its braying, saved Vesta from brutal violence, and, in consequence, ‘ the coronation of the ass ‘ formed a part of the ceremonial feast of the chaste goddess.

[…]

The rest is over there. I will say, however, that you don’t want to miss the description of the liturgical celebration of the Feast. He also has some possible greeting cards. I include only two of them here.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Lighter fare, Mail from priests |
10 Comments

Wheels coming off the wagon – update

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Update, below.

Originally posted 12 January.
____

There is a particularly annoying pattern in my life’s days. When it comes to my “tech stuff”, life goes along as smoothly as if it were zooming down a newly paved road. Then, all of a sudden and without warning, WHAM, not only do I find I have hit a stretch of deeply corrugated unpaved road but all four wheels are parting from the axles.

And so my day began.

I decided to update my old iPhone. It kacked on me, of course, and froze on the start screen. To make a long story short, after ineffectual trials and errors, I am now going through the process of restoring it and then jailbraking it again, which should take some time. At the same time, my mothership computer and my laptop has overnight both developed a snag without my having done any updates. My car is making a new, and unwanted noise. A usb hub has died.

Etc.

Commiserate with me, O Viator, unhappy wretch that I am, waiting for yet another shoe to drop.

Time for some…

[CUE MUSIC]

Mystic Monk Coffee!

You can still get their Christmas Blend as their Coffee of the Month for a few more days, I think.

Don’t make your next and upcoming Really Bad Day even worse by running out of coffee!

UPDATE 13 Jan 21:13 GMT:

I have managed to fix my spare iPhone 3GS. I successfully restored it’s software, only to find that it had flashed my baseband modems firmware with a new version that has caused problems (involving GPS). Bottom line: the phone’s antenna didn’t work properly and the the phone stayed in search mode looking for a network until it gave up looking… even when there was no sim inserted! To fix it I removed my sim and reflashed the firmware with the iPad baseband. Badda bing. I got the message that there was NO SIM rather than the searching message. It now works properly with my UK and Italian sims.

I have also fixed the desktop and laptop snags.

The usb problem is still a problem and the car noise is still a noise.

Irritation by irritation.

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged bad day, coffee, Mystic Monk Coffee
26 Comments

The Feeder Feed: subdued by cold edition

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The feeder is busy right now, since there has been a cold snap.

This year I have Redpolls.

This cold fellow is a Junco. They are mostly ground feeders. Here is one sitting in a bush outside my kitchen window. He has been surrounded by active Chickadees who are gobbling the little berries on the bush.

Help feed the birds.

Posted in The Feeder Feed | Tagged birding, birds, Common Redpoll, Junco
7 Comments

Tebowing

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I picked this up from The Pulp.it:

Posted in Just Too Cool, Lighter fare, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged Tebow
12 Comments

Bp. Bamerba (D. Scranton) intervenes with Jesuit school and their pro-abortion speaker

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Bishops in the USA are going to have to decide what to do about Catholic politicians who are openly causing scandal by taking a position against the natural law and the Church’s teachings either by public acts or by private choices which are nevertheless quite public.

Can. 915.

I learned this today from the Cardinal Newman Society which keeps an eye on Catholic schools.

Scranton’s Bishop Joseph Bambera issued an important statement today. Following The Cardinal Newman Society’s report that Jesuit University of Scranton’s intended lecturer for an event has been very active supporting abortion rights, Bishop Bambera contacted the University and issued a statement of disapproval. [The person in question is former Rep. Marjorie Margolies (D-PA), Jewish, not Catholic.]

Bishop Bambera expressed his “concern regarding the University’s evolving relationship with me as Bishop of the Diocese of Scranton.” See his full quote here: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Bishop-.html

WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Bambera.

Former Rep. Margolies is not Catholic, but there are plenty of pro-abortion Catholic politicians who are given free rein. That has to stop.