Apples

Posted on 4 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I just have to say something about the Sabine Apples from the Chapel Apple, as a matter of fact.

By the chapel there is an apple.  These are the best apples I have ever tasted.

They are hard and tart/sweet, and perfect for eating or baking.

Each time I come back from the chapel, I bring a basket.  I will soon get out the Sabine Ladder.

"But Father! But Father!", you are clearly saying by now.  "What do you do with all those apples?"

I eat them.

I have a pie on the schedule. 

I am making apple sauce.

Here I am making some savory apple sauce for use with a pork chop.  Rosemary, thyme, savory, a touch of hot pepper and cinnamon and a dash of gin and honey.

Simply the best apples anywhere.

Posted in "But Father! But Father!", Fr. Z's Kitchen, My View | Tagged
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Sons and daughters of St. Francis

Posted on 4 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On the Feast of St. Francis, I thought it appropriate to post something several readers wrote about by e-mail.

This is done by the Friars of the Immaculate at Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary.  The music is by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate in Italy, probably the group in Castello, Umbria, the Suore Francescane dell’Immacolata.

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Brick by Brick with the US Marine Corps

Posted on 4 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A note from a reader about a friend of mine, Fr. Aidan Logan, chaplain for the Marine Corps Camp Lejeune, NC:

Great news in the Wilmington, NC area – another Mass in the Extraordinary Form!  Fr. Aidan Logan (a Trappist monk/Navy chaplain) is a very holy priest, and was the Catholic chaplain at the Naval Academy during my last two years there (2005-2006).  He and I became good friends, and I ran into him in the Charlotte, NC airport before my pilgrimage to Lourdes last Summer.  He is one of the very patient priests (along with Fr. Parkerson) who "set me straight" towards the seminary while I was in college.

Here is Fr. Aidan in action.  I hope many Catholics in that area of NC can take advantage of this weekly Mass:
Here is the notice from the Diocese of Raleigh’s website:
The Forma Extraordinaria of the Mass will be celebrated every Sunday at the Catholic Chapel at Camp Lejeune beginning October 4.  Father Aidan Logan, one of the Catholic Chaplains on the Marine Base will be the celebrant.  At this time the Mass will be at 12:30 PM.
The Catholic Chapel is located in the St. Francis Xavier Building 17.  To get on the base, a temporary pass is needed and can be obtained by stopping at the Visitor’s Center.  A valid driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance are needed to receive a pass.

At present, five churches in the Diocese of Raleigh have scheduled regular celebrations of the Forma Extraordinaria:

Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh at 4:30 PM, fourth Sunday of every month.
Sacred Heart Church in Dunn at 12:00 PM every Sunday.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rocky Mount at 6:00 PM every Sunday.
Saint Mary Church in Wilmington at 7:00 PM, the last Sunday of every month.  
Posted in Brick by Brick |
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URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: mother dying

Posted on 3 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

Here in ___ , a young Catholic mother is in the final stages of breast cancer. While pregnant, Debbie ___ was diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctors wanted to abort the baby, but Debbie refused. The baby  (a healthy boy) is now two years old, but the mother is near the end, save divine intervention. Perhaps you could request prayer.

 

WDTPRSers… perhaps in your goodness, you would again think to ask God for a miracle in this concrete case of urgent need.

May I suggest that you ask this miracle through the intercession of Ven. Pauline Jaricot?

    Almighty God, who knew us all from before creation
    called us into being according to Your plan,
    and knit us together in our mother’s wombs,
    we humbly beseech You,
    through the intercession of Venerable Pauline Jaricot,
    who cared for the sick during her earthly life,
    that the young mother Debbie be swiftly and completely cured of her cancer
    for her sake,
    for her child’s sake,
    for her family’s sake,
    for our sake,
    and that Your glory and mercy may be manifest.

    Venerable Pauline, we ask you in this urgent need,
    pray now before God’s throne
    that Debbie be completely and swiftly healed by God’s miraculous act,
    that He be glorified in its working,
    that we be edified by His mercy,
    that you may be better recognized as God’s good servant.
    Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we thank you for your gifts and mercy.
    In Jesus’ Name we beg that this be done according to God’s will.

    Amen.

May we have ALL WDTPRSers do this?

Those of you who are registered, chime in.

Also, remember that praying to many saints and angels, while praiseworthy, makes the authentication of the miracle for more difficult. 

Posted in Pray For A Miracle |
130 Comments

FLORIDA

Posted on 2 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Visiting family.

Posted in What Fr. Z is up to |
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Project: “Support a Catholic Speaker Month”

Posted on 2 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at Fallible Blogma there was an interesting poll about Catholic speakers.

Now there is a project called "Support a Catholic Speaker Month".

He writes:

I thought it would be really cool if we could do a joint promotion effort of a lot of the great Catholic speakers out there and the many Catholic blogs.  Introducing…Support a Catholic Speaker Month.

The goal is to create a rising Catholic tide on the internet that lifts all boats [Good image and good sentiment.] (websites, speakers, and all those who participate).  This giant, sudden influx of catholic material and interlinking between Catholic websites should get some attention and raise awareness about all of these great Catholic speakers while also promoting the many wonderful Catholic blogs out there that perhaps you haven’t heard of yet either.

The primary goal of our Favorite Catholic Speakers Poll of 2009 was not to find out who is better than somebody else.  It was to raise awareness about the many Catholic Speakers out there and to support them.  They are all sharing the same, one Truth.  And as talented and effective as the top favorites are at doing what they do, we need many more like them if we’re going to reach everyone.

That’s precisely the motivation for Support a Catholic Speaker Month.

 

I think this fellows instincts are good.  I would like to see a greater synergy between bloggers who are on the same page.  

Posted in Brick by Brick, Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity |
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A note from a priest about his first TLM

Posted on 2 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As I have said before, when the younger clergy learn the older form of Mass, it changes who they are and how they say both forms. 

This is the terrible nightmare of the aging liberals.  The biological solution is pushing them aside and bringing up these younger priests who have a healthier and more integrated vision of our liturgical worship.

On that note, I want to share a  nice brick by brick note from a priest, Fr. Ryan Hilderbrand in Montgomery, IN.  I asked him if I should "anonymize" his note and he said I could post away.  My emphases and comments.

I’m dropping a quick note to give you further hope in the new priests of our age. I am Fr. Ryan Hilderbrand, and I was ordained to the priesthood on 6 June 2009. My first Mass in the ordinary form was that evening. The next morning, I was the celebrant of a Solemn High Mass in the extraordinary form; in effect, this was my second "first" Mass, and my pastor billed it as such. The people of the parish had requested such a Mass, and one of the best things about it was the fact that, with a few exceptions, this was entirely an "in-house" job – the servers were trained for this Mass, and the parish choir chanted. The deacon and subdeacon were classmates of mine from Mundelein, and the assistant priest was a good friend of mine from the south side of Chicago. Please find two photos, attached, of the Mass. Credits to my brother-in-law, Mr. Richard W. Morris, Jr. [Excellent.  I think the work of specialist groups is important, but the real work will be done when diocesan priests and seminarians make the provisions of summorum Pontificum and the vision of Pope Benedict their own.]

My own reflection on the Mass is not particularly deep. I remember thinking ahead of time being afraid of dropping something, turning left instead of right, &c. However, the nerves stopped as soon as the "Asperges" was finished. Assuming the grace of the Holy Spirit, of course, I believe this was because I realized quickly that I didn’t have to "act," that the people’s eyes weren’t "on" me, but "with" me. The old joke is that people go to first Masses and to NASCAR races for the same reasons – to see the accidents. When the "actor" feeling dissolved with ad orientem worship, all of the nerves went along with it. I remember PRAYING the Mass that morning.

Incidentally, I had a "first" Spanish-language Mass in the OF that afternoon. We didn’t bother to take down the setup for the EF Solemn Mass, so that was done "ad orientem" as well. No one complained! Peace!

Brick by brick.

Thanks, Father, for that great note.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Mail from priests, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged
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China’s One Child Policy… Pres. Obama’s “science czar”

Posted on 2 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

60 years ago, Communists seized China.

What sort of thing is the management of the Empire State Building celebrating by turning on the red and yellow lights?

Inter alia, the One Child Policy… now being relaxed in some places as a disastrous and dangerous failure.

Here is an interesting note about the One Child Policy from The Western Confucian:

While "[m]ost Westerners attribute the one-child policy to Communist ideology and its top-down authoritarianism," writes Michael Cook, "the single most influential person [in creating this cruel policy] was not a Marxist ideologue, but a brilliant computer expert named Song Jian" — Raining on their parade. The story:  [It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea.  A Communist regime imposed it.]

      Song was a missile expert who had survived the Cultural Revolution because China needed a strong military even during the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution. His particular expertise was cybernetics and unlike many of his colleagues, he was able to travel overseas.

      In 1978 he attended the Seventh Triennnial World Congress of the International Federal of Automatic Control in Helsinki. There he met two Dutch control theorists who had contributed to the Club of Rome report, Limits to Growth. This was an influential computer model which forecast catastrophe if world population were not limited. Song found their work compelling and when he returned to China he set to work developing a population model for his own country.

      Unfortunately, Song was completely unaware of the hammering which Limits to Growth was receiving in the West. [Now why would that be?  Could it have something to do with repression?  Something beyond China’s historic xenophobia?] Greenhalgh says that he imported what had been merely a scientific exercise in Europe and transformed it into a concrete policy proposal for use on a real population.

      After the ideological lunacies of the Maoist era, Song’s supporters in the Communist Party were searching for scientific solutions to social problems. What Song offered them confidently was the illusion of precision. In their isolation from the West, these Chinese officials had never even seen computer modelling and graphs. They found ideas like "spaceship earth" and mathematical control of childbearing utterly compelling. Song once confided to a group of American population specialist that because he was a mathematician, anything he said would be believed. His models were real science, not social science or spurious ideology.

      Marxist theorists were actually the most trenchant opponents of Song’s mechanistic approach, but in the wake of the disasters engineered by Mao and the Gang of Four, no one listened.

Mr. Cook concludes that "the real villain of China’s oppressive one-child policy is scientism, the belief that science and technology can solve all human problems."

That’s fine, Mr. Cook.  But someone implemented those theories and then perpetuated them.

And millions suffered and are suffering as a result.

Consider the number of girls who were killed or abandoned and the anguish of couples.

As I read this, I thought of Pres. Obama’s choice for "science czar".

Pres. Obama’s “science czar”: compusory involuntary abortion because of climate change

Pres. Obama’s choice for science is John Holdren.

Why does the President choose people like this to advise him?

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
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Brick by Brick at Boston College

Posted on 1 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

Dear Fr;
 On the Feast of St Michael the Archangel, Fr Agustin Anda Celebrated a Traditional Mass according to the 1962 Missal, granting the request of  two student organisations, the Boston College Thomas More Society (Law) and the (conservative) Boston College  Observer. Organizers  were Michael Williams and Philip Micele, who also Served on the Altar. Assisting Fr Anda was the Thomas More Society adviser, Fr. Gary Gurtler, SJ,  and Gregorian Ordinary, Propers and supplementary Sequences Hymns and Responsories were sung by the Cathedral of the Holy Cross choir, Schola Amicorum. This event was not widely publicized in advance, but nevertheless was attended by approximately 50 very devout congregants, mostly students.

Event Photos

Tridentine Latin Mass sponsored by the Thomas More Society of Boston College, Celebrated in St Mary’s Chapel by Fr Agustin Anda, assisted by Fr. Gary Gurtler, S.J.. Chant choir Schola Amicorum, from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Feast of St Michael the Archangel. Acolytes Philip Micele, Michael Williams

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30 Sept: St. Jerome – where is he buried?

Posted on 30 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I posted this last year, but a) there are new readers now and b) I put so much work into it that it deserves recycling on this feast of St. Jerome.

Some time ago, there was a discussion on one of our splendid Catholic blogs making mention of the burial place of St. Jerome perhaps in the Major Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. This is an interesting story and I dug into it a little. This is what I found.

We read in J.N.D. Kelly’s work Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (Duckworth, 1975, p. 333 – emphasis mine) :

Apocryphal lives extolling [Jerome’s] sanctity, even his miracles, were quick to appear, and in the eighth century he was to be acclaimed, along with Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, as one of the four Doctors of the Church.[2] In the middle ages his works were eagerly copied, read, and pillaged; while towards the end of the thirteenth century the clergy of Santa Maria Maggiore, at Rome, were to persuade the public, perhaps themselves too, that his remains had been transported from Bethlehem to Italy, and could be venerated close to certain presumed fragments of the Saviour’s crib.[3]

Note 2: This was formally ratified by Pope Boniface VIII on 20 Sept. 1295: see Corpus iuris canonici II, 1059 (ed. E. Freidburg, Leipzig, 1879-81). The original number four (the list was later to be greatly expanded) was chosen so that the Doctors could match the Evangelists.

Note 3: The story of their alleged translation, in response to a visionary appearance of Jerome himself, is set out by J. Stilting in Acta Sanctorum XLVI, Sept. VIII, 636 (Antwerp, 1762); it is reprinted in PL 22, 237-40. Stilting also provides a discussion of its date, veracity, etc. on pp. 635-49.

In the Acta Sanctorum for 30 September, under the entry for St. Jerome, we find the following section with its articles:

LXV. Corpus Sancti ex Palestina Romam translatum, depositumque in basilica s. Mariae Majoris. The body of the saint was brought to Rome from Palestine, and put in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
LXVI. Inquiritur tempus quo Sancti corpus Romam delatum. An investigation is made into the time when the body of the saint was brought back to Rome.
LXVII. Corpus Sancti depositum prope aediculam Praesepis, conditum deinde ibidem altare, sub quo positum, ubi mansit usque ad pontificatum Sixti V, quando dicitur clanculum ablatum & absconditum. The body of the saint was placed near to the small chamber of the Crib, established then right at the same altar, under which it was placed, where it remained until the pontificate of Sixtus V, when it is said to have been secretly taken away and hidden.
LXVIII. Corpus Sancti clanculum ablatum & absconditum dicitur, ne transferretur alio a Sixto V: deinde frequenter frustra quaesitum. The body of the saint is said to have been secretly taken away and hidden lest it were to be transferred to another place by Sixtus V: aftward it is frequently sought in vain.
LXIX. An reliquae, sub altari principe S. Mariae Majoris inventae, videantur illae ipsae, quae ut corpus S. Hieronymi ad illam basilicam fuerunt translatae. When the relics found under the main altar of St. Mary Major which had been transferred to that Basilica seem to be the very same as the body of St. Jerome.
LXX. Admodum verisimile & probabile inventas esse S. Hieronymi. Clearly the [relics] found are most like and probably of Saint Jerome.
LXXI. Respondetur ad objectionem ex reliquiis Nepesinis: reliquiae, quae verisimiliter sunt S. Hieronymi sub mensa principis altaris depositae. An objection is answered about the relics at Nepi: relics placed under the main altar which more than likely are those of St. Jerome.
LXXII. Reliquiae Sancti in pluribus civitatibus Italiae, Galliae, Germaniae, Belgii, & aliis provinciis. The relics of the saint in more cities in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium and other provinces.
LXXIII. Cultus S. Hieronymi: festivitates eius & Officia. The veneration of St. Jerome: his feasts and offices.

Here is the page where these articles begin. If you want to have a fuller experience of the joys (the chore) of reading the Acta Sanctorum for any length of time click here for a larger image.

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