Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

New music CD from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, near Kansas City MO (where Bp. Finn reigns), make beautiful vestments. They also make beautiful music, too.

I have mentioned them before HERE. I did a review of their Christmas CD HERE.

They now have a new album for Advent! It is available for PRE-ORDER. It will be released on 19 November.

I am putting this new CD on my Wish List. I’ll “wish” for several disks so that I can keep one and give some away. Perhaps a vocation will come of it!

You should take a look at their site, HERE.

Help with sisters – real women religious – with lots of orders.

Here’s a nice video to inspire you.

[wp_youtube]ZSZQceNbZLA[/wp_youtube]

NB: Augustine did not say “When you sing, you pray twice.” He did say, however, that “Singing belongs to one who loves…. Cantare amantis est” (s. 336, 1 – PL 38, 1472).

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole, Women Religious | Tagged ADVENT, Benedictine of Mary, D. Kansas City-St. Joseph
15 Comments

NYC Mayor Bloomberg donates big time to promote unnatural “marriage”

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A blatteroon at the Strib, the ultra-liberal newspaper of my native place, Minneapolis, had a nutty about the Knights of Columbus contribution money in support of the Minnesota Marriage Amendment. How dare they! How dare those outsiders get involved in local politics!

Will the STrib have a nutty over this too? This is from the enemy paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press (not really less liberal than the Star and Sickle.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating $125,000 to defeat the constitutional gay marriage ban on Minnesota’s November ballot.

Bloomberg announced the donation Monday, Oct. 22, on his website. He has made similarly large donations in three other states where the definition of marriage is on the ballot.

Bloomberg’s donation is one of the single largest individual contributions to Minnesotans United for All Families, the group opposed to the amendment. His so-called “challenge grant” lets the campaign urge other donors to match the donation dollar for dollar.

Bloomberg was a vocal backer of the successful effort to legalize gay marriage in New York state in 2011.

Minnesotans United is seeking a “no” vote on the amendment, which if passed would insert the state’s existing gay marriage ban into the state constitution.

Bloomberg also pledged a total of $325,000 to groups backing ballot initiatives that would legalize gay marriage in Maine and uphold it in Washington. He announced a $250,000 contribution to a Maryland gay marriage initiative earlier this month.

Posted in Liberals, One Man & One Woman | Tagged DOMA, homosexuality, marriage, Mayor Bloomberg, Minnesota Marriage Amendment
27 Comments

REVIEW: Norcia Benedictines’ cool new calendar

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I think the Benedictine monks at Norcia are wonderful.

They revived the Benedictine tradition, in a traditional way, in the place where St. Benedict is said to have been born. They make available, on demand, recordings of some of their sung monastic hours. They are making beer! They Say The Black and Do The Red (not all Benedictines on the internet are so faithful). They have, therefore, vocations.

Today I received a nifty new calendar for 2013 which includes day by day liturgical information for both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Forms and some special Benedictine feasts!

A link to their calendar page is HERE. The price varies according to where you live (US – $20). You can pay by Paypal.

Buying a calendar will really help them out.

Here is the front.

Here is the back. It shows the images within.

Most of the photos concern the life of the monastery.

Here is an example of the information on both Forms: 27 January.

And, yes, they will figure out that whole resolution thing for their photos. As in the following pic of a statue of St. Benedict. Ooops.

It is not a large, wide, calendar. Open, it is only (in inches) 9 x 18 ! Being small, it could fit more easily in an office cubicle or other places where many calendars won’t fit.

I’ll be keeping my copy near at hand to help me keep track – at a glance – of the traditional and the post-Conciliar differences in the liturgical calendar.

You can DONATE to them. They have 501-c-3, so your donation would be tax deductible:

Mailing Address
The Monks of Norcia Foundation
P.O. Box 3748
Des Moines, IA 50323 – USA
+1 (515) 974-4253 (office)

Or in Italy

Monastero di S. Benedetto
via Reguardari 22
I-06046 Norcia (PG)
ITALY

Christmas is coming soon. Think about giving this useful calendar as a stocking stuffer, along with Fr. Z stuff and Mystic Monk Coffee and Tea and soap from the Dominicans! Nice gifts which are also ways to help.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, REVIEWS | Tagged Benedictines, calendar, Norcia, review
7 Comments

Card. Burke’s Election Year Prayer For The Faithful Witness of Catholics in the USA

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Card. Burke wrote a prayer which the Catholic Vote folks have posted:

AN ELECTION YEAR PRAYER FOR THE FAITHFUL
WITNESS OF CATHOLICS IN THE UNITED STATES
By His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke,
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
O Lord Jesus Christ,
You alone are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In Your Church You show us the Way,
You teach us the Truth, and You give us Your Life.
Grant, we humbly beg You,
that, always and in all things, we may
be faithful to You in Your Holy Church,
and to Your Vicar on Earth, the Supreme Pontiff,
Pope Benedict XVI.
Grant also, we beg You,
that, in these times of decision,
all who profess to be Catholic
and who are entrusted with the sacred duty
to participate in public life,
may, by the strength of Your grace,
unwaveringly follow Your Way and
faithfully adhere to Your Truth,
living in You with all their mind and heart,
for Your greater glory, the salvation of souls,
and the good of our nation. Amen.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America,
Pray for us.
Saint Thomas More, Patron of Religious Freedom,
Pray for us.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices | Tagged 1st Amendment, Card. Burke, election, November 2012, religious liberty, vote
6 Comments

Another thing about the Holy Father’s Mass on Sunday (hint: not about the Fanon!)

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I just watched the on-demand video of the Holy Father’s Mass on Sunday with the canonization of seven new saints. This is the Mass for which the Holy Father wore the fanon. See my comments about the fanon and what the Pope is up to HERE.

First, the Sistine Chapel choir’s Gregorian chant has improved. Thanks be to God. The pace could be a little less lugubrious. C’mon, people! Pick it up a little? It’s speech! Prayer! Not just melody! And it’s too bad they had to sing outside in the big parking lot in front of the Basilica. They belong in the Sistine Chapel, after all. Right?

Also, just to freak out some liberals, you can see that the kids in the choir are sporting clerical collars.

Second, apart from the restoration of the fanon, another traditional practice was restored.

Notice something in this shot? It is a little small, but there is an ambo where the arrow is pointing. That is where the first readings were read.

The first readings were done on one side, the Gospel on the other. The Epistle side and the Gospel side of the altar were recognized.

The restoration of continuity continues.

Now what we need to see is the suppression of the “prayers of the faithful” in the Novus Ordo and the older form of the Roman Rite celebrated coram Pontifice… coram Romano Pontifice.

Posted in Benedict XVI, Fr. Z KUDOS, Just Too Cool, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged canonization, Epistle side, fanon, Gospel side
37 Comments

More about liturgical abuses

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A friend sent this, probably as a gift for this great feast of Sts. Nunilo and Alodia.

Posted in Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged liturgical abuse, Say The Black - Do The Red
4 Comments

Pres. Obama has promoted abortion 241 times. Do you want him to choose two more Supreme Court Justices?

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

If re-elected, Pres. Obama would probably get to nominate two more Supreme Court Justices.

Think about that.

No vote at all is a “yes” vote for Obama.

Now read this from Life News:

President Obama’s Abortion Record: Promoting Abortion 241 Times

Dear LifeNews.com Readers,

We truly appreciate the generous response from LifeNews readers to help us with our campaign to educate and inform people about President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion record.

The election is now down to the final two full weeks before Election Day.

We know many of you are spending countless hours telling voters about the differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney on abortion.

Mitt Romney has campaigned on a pro-life platform — overturning Roe v. Wade and appointing the right kind of judges to reverse that horrible case, de-funding the planned Parenthood abortion business, stopping taxpayer funding of abortions, signing pro-life laws that will continue providing legal protection for unborn children, and doing everything possible to reverse and repeal pro-abortion Obamacare.

But President Obama continues to ad dto his pro-abortion record: Did you know he has taken 241 actions to promote abortion or destroying human life via embryonic stem cell research?

These actions range from bill signings to speeches, and the include major appointments and placing pro-abortion judges on the Supreme Court and other important courts. Many of them involve using your tax dollars to pay for or promote abortion or pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood. 241 times! Virtually every month President Obama has been in office, he has done something to promote abortion.

[…]

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, The future and our choices | Tagged abortion, November 2012, Pres. Obama, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
111 Comments

Quislings for Obama

Posted on 22 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Phil Lawler at CWN picked this up:

On the web site of Catholics for Obama [Quislings for Obama] right above the story blasting critics of the Plan B contraceptive—you’ll find a photo of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, roaring with laughter, with a smiling President Obama beside him, at the Al Smith dinner. (You won’t see Mitt Romney; he’s cropped out of the photo.)

Gee, that wasn’t predictable!

Posted in Biased Media Coverage, Liberals, The future and our choices | Tagged abortion, Catholics for Obama, HHS mandate, liberals, quislings
13 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 21 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a great point in the sermon you heard at Holy Mass for your Sunday obligation?

Let us know!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
31 Comments

When your cat gets stuck somewhere, who knows what you’ll find!

Posted on 21 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From The History blog:

On the night of Tuesday, October 16th, 25-year-old bartender Mirko Curti left his apartment building at 196 Via di Pietralata in the Tiburtina neighborhood of Rome with his friend Raimondo Turnu in search of a missing cat. They heard meowing and followed the sound to an aperture that, due to heavy rains, had recently appeared in a low volcanic tufa cliff nearby. It was the entrance to a cave. Inside they found a number of human bones and a wall of niches called a columbarium which once held the ashes of Roman dead. “It was impressive,” said Curti. “I felt like an explorer. You go behind your house and you end up feeling like Indiana Jones.”

You might think this sort of thing happens all the time in a city as ancient and layered as Rome, but it really doesn’t, hence their elation. Tiburtina is within the current boundaries of the city, not in the historic center. It’s a relatively modern residential neighborhood, outside of the pomerium, the ancient sacred boundary that marked what was Rome and what was just land Rome owned. It was prime real estate for burials, though, since by law people could not be buried inside the pomerium. Plenty of archaeological finds have been made in the area (especially along the ancient Roman road), but you wouldn’t expect to stumble on one while looking for your cat behind your building.

[…]