Fr. Z's Blog

The Roman sunrise was slated for 6:15 and the sunset for 20:03.   On a weather website, these are listed as 06:18 and 20:00.  I supposed that means for the price location of the site, considering elevation etc.   That said, in Roman Curia terms the Civil Twilight today would be 05:45 and 20:27, Nautical 05:09 and 21:03, Astronomical 4:31 and 21:41 PM

Tomorrow will be 2 minutes 34 seconds longer.  The Moon is at fullest full, tomorrow and tonight it is 99% illuminated.

We celebrate the feast of St. George on this 114th day of the year.   I send my best to my dear nonagenarian friend Fr. GW on his name day.

Thank you, Lord, for this day.

This cappuccino was fully illuminated through it resembles more a gibbous Moon than Full.

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.

Barriers have been set up around the fountains in the Piazza Farnese.  Later I saw a truck from the office for restoration of ancient fountains.  Hmmm…. I wonder what they are going to do?

No chess news today.

I know, I know.

You are sad.

However, The Great Roman™, who misses nothing, passed on something from the newspaper of the CEI, Avvenire.  Get this!

The Herculaneum papyri reveal Plato’s burial site

In over a thousand words, corresponding to 30% of the text, read thanks to the cross between modern technologies and philological science, of the carbonized Herculaneum papyrus containing the History of the Academy of Philodemus of Gadara (110-after 40 BC), the Plato’s burial place.

New technologies are progressively making it possible to read the library found charred in the so-called Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. If the Vesuvius Challenge project is the one best known in the news, also because it is a sort of competition with prizes for those who decipher portions of text through artificial intelligence, it is not the only one working on the precious finds. Today in Naples, at the Vittorio Emanuele III National Library, the state of progress of the research of the “GreekSchools” project was presented.
[…]
Among the news that has emerged there is also the information that Plato was buried in the garden reserved for him (a private area intended for the Platonic school) of the Academia in Athens, near the so-called Museion or sacellum sacred to the Muses. Until now it was only known that he was buried generically in the Academia.
[…]

Very cool.

In honor of that coolness, coolly solve this.

Black to move. Hey!  Can you find mate in 4?

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

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

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 the 3rd Sunday Sunday after Easter?  Novus Ordo – 4th Sunday of Easter.

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A taste of my thoughts from the other place: HERE

[…]

Inherent in Christ’s teaching in His Farewell Discourse is that, if He must go to where He belongs, to the Father, they too (therefore, we too) do not fully belong here anymore.  The Son has His place with the Father.  They, too, have their “father place”, their patria as the early Latin Church Father’s described our heavenly destination, our “fatherland”.  This is also a theme in this Sunday’s Epistle taken from 1 Peter 2:11-19. The writer calls his listeners – letters were read aloud to ancient communities – “pároikoi kaì parepídemoi… ádvenae et peregríni… strangers and pilgrims (DRV) … aliens and exiles (RSV) ”.  The Catholic novelist and mystic Michael D. O’Brien rendered this phrase for the title of his book Strangers and Sojourners, part of a series (Children of the Last Days) which branches out from Father Elijah.

This beautiful sunny yet cool Roman day started by the sun’s rising at 06:19 and it will end at 19:59.

The Ave Maria (which you know all about now) is at 20:15.

This is the 111st day of the year.  On this day in 1303 Boniface VIII founded the Sapienza University, which still exists today.

In the Novus Ordo calendar it is the feast of Pope St. Anicetus (+c. 166).   In the Vetus, he was commemorated on the 17th.  According to St. Irenaeus, St. Polycarp of Smyrna (a disciple of St John the Evangelist), came to Rome to discuss the date of Easter with Anicetus. They didn’t conclude anything at that time.  This eventually became a big controversy.   It was a massively complicated matter, still disputed today.   Anicetus opposed Gnostics and priests with long hair.  Really.  Tradition says that Anicetus was martyred during the reign of the Emperor Lucius Verus, who is the boy in the movie Gladiator.  I understand that Gladiator II is in the works.  There were originally some really stupid ideas for the film.  Now, however, it is a little better grounded.  It is slated for November.

Speaking of Popes, yesterday we celebrated another saintly pontiff, Leo IX (+19 April 1054).  He militated against simony and decreed clerical celibacy to the rank of subdeacon.   As Pope he travelled all over the place, attending “walking togethers” which dealt with concrete issues, rather than dreamy bloviating.   During his time as Pope, relations broke down with Constantinople.  He also had a hard time with the Normans in the south and led an army against them.  He lost and was held captive until he recognized the Normans in Calabria and Apulia.

Why do I bring him up?  Because yesterday was his feast day and because TAN recently published a work by him,

The Battle of the Virtues and Vices: Defending the Interior Castle of the Soul. 

US HERE – UK HERE

Just as Card. Richelieu’s book, which I used for this year’s LENTCAzTs, was quite practical, so is this.  Here’s the table of contents.  See if there isn’t a point in there for you.  Or … maybe more than one?  You can right click this for a bigger image in a new tab.

I said Holy Mass today for my monthly donors.  Also, thank you to RE for shifting from “Continue” to Zelle.

Tomorrow, if nothing urgent comes up, I will say Mass for my dear “200!”s and “100!”s.  These are people who signed up for a monthly donation when I was in a tough place.  My otherwise cold, black heart always warms a little when a notice from one of these arrives.

Breakfast at the little Sicilian place today.  The roll on the left is a maritozzo.   Whose was the OJ, from those wonderful red oranges?

The façade of The Parish™ has finally been restored and illuminated.   The next stage is a renewal of the interior of the church!   Here are two cleaning tests in the San Carlo chapel, first (closest to the main doors) on the Gospel side.

As I understand it, three chapels will be done at once, then the scaffolding will be moved to another area.  The sacristy will be included in the project.  Very exciting, of course, though it will make the daily, especially morning, operations a little complicated.

But complications can often be softened by the presence of beautiful flowers.  Here are more peonies.

A follow up to the “Ivy Report” (really Virginia Creeper, I was informed by a priestly writer in a comment).   It does like to climb!

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.

White to move.  Mate in 3.  You had better do something and fast.  Look at black’s deadly rooks.

1. Nxh7+ Kf7 2. Rd7+ Ke8 3. Nf6# (2… Ke6 3. Nf8# or 2… Kg8 3. Nf6#)
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Hostilities resume today in Toronto at the Candidates Tournament.  As I write, Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh are tied with Ian Nepomniachtchi in the lead. Fabiano Caruana is a half-point from the leaders.  Prag v. Fabi and Nepo v. Naka should both be dynamic.  I look forward to Gukesh beating Firouzja.