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{]:¬)

DAILY ROME SHOT 956 – Exotic

Posted on 3 March 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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.

Two shots today, to get at the exotic nature of these “Spanish vestments” (as they were identified to me) in use at The Parish™ (Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in the Regola zone of Rome) to which I will soon return thanks to you wonderful donors. Up to 85 of you!

Doesn’t that look like a broad stole on that deacon?

I had the idea that Spanish dalmatics were like the Roman but a bit more angular. These look like small copes. I don’t have many photos to go on, however.

Photos from The World’s Best Sacristan™.

A little strange.

I suppose I’ll find out more when I get there.

To those who have donated for red vestments for Ss. Trinità and who are interested in a BLACK set project… nope… they won’t be like these, that’s for sure. Nope. That’s a “no”.

Meanwhile, in chessy news, Nodirbek is doing well in the Prague Chess Festival. That would be fun to attend. I’ve never been in Prague. I understand it is beautiful. The last part of the September pilgrimage is to end up in Prague. That should be great. Nodirbek has moved up in the live ratings to world #5 at 2761.1. Also, there’s a big tourney in Shenzhen China, with Anish and Arjun, etc. Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. A simple little town of only 17 million people.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 3.

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

Click!

Interested in learning? Try THIS. Buying chessy stuff? Try HERE.

I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

I had a funny dream that I was in the Prancing Pony in Bree playing chess. That got me thinking about the whimsical teams of the Pro Chess League, such as the Brazil Capybara’s and the Spain Maniac Shrimp. I suppose the chess team of the Prancing Pony would be the… duh… Prancing Ponies, the logo involving… hmmm… which piece? Same for the Riders of Rohan. The Gondor Kings? The Minas Tirith Masters? The Green Dragons of Hobbiton? The Orthanc Isen Guards (sort of like the St. Lous Arch Bishops)? The Lothlorien Mallorns? The Gondolin Vales (no one knows where they play). The Mordor Orcs? The Moria Minors (the logo has only minor pieces)? I suppose that Erebor should have a team, and Rivendell. Maybe you have your own ideas. Now I need a graphic artist.

Speaking of the Prancing Pony and the Green Dragon, you should get yourself some beer from the traditional Benedictine monks of Norcia. They have three types of excellent beer. I can attest to how good it is. With savory things like ~~chess~~ cheese and sausage it is amazing.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged noad
7 Comments

Your Good News

Posted on 2 March 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have good news for the readership?

I haven’t asked this for a while. However, today is of such a kind that good news would help.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Good news
14 Comments

DAILY ROME SHOT 955

Posted on 2 March 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

HEY! a******900@charter.net! My thank you note was kicked back as undeliverable. Do you have a new email address?

Meanwhile, in chessy news, Team So and Lee – Minnesotans – were bested by Team Caruana and Chirila – who also team up in a podcast “C-Squared” – in the Semi-Finals of the 2024 Team Chess Battle. Too bad. I was backing the Minnesota team. Team C-Squared almost blew the first gam in which they were a piece up. In the second game, the defended for 50 moves an exchange-down end game. The next Semi-Final will pit Hikaru and Levy against Danya and Robert Hess on Tuesday 5 March.

Meanwhile, black to move and mate in 4.

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

Click!

Interested in learning? Try THIS. Buying chessy stuff? Try HERE.

I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

I try to catch some or all of the offerings of Catholic Unscripted, three smart and devout Brits who comment on what’s going on today. Their latest video includes an interview with Bp. Strickland. The Episode is entitled, “Enemies are in the Church but STAY FAITHFUL.”

Do I hear an “Amen!”?

Meanwhile, I saw that the wonderful nuns of Gower Abbey, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, are presently recording a a new disc and digital download of, I suppose, Gregorian chant and other pieces. We shall have to be patient. But DON’T be patient about ordering this! They recorded the Responses for Tenebrae.

Tenebrae at Ephesus

US HERE – UK HERE

These are the RESPONSORIES of Tenebrae for all three days of the Triduum. They are, arguably, the most beautiful chants of the entire liturgical year.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
2 Comments

DAILY ROME SHOT 954

Posted on 29 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

HEY! a***********@erickson.com! My thank you note to you got kicked back as undeliverable. New email?

Meanwhile, white to move. Mate in 5. Perhaps tricky.

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

Interested in learning? Try THIS.

I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com. Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

In physio-chessy news, at Chessbase there is an interesting piece about the heart rates of players even in classical chess (long format). At the recent Fisher Random “Freestyle” event in Germany, the players had heart monitors. Some players had rates above 130. Magnus, 75-95 for whole games. Blunders provoked spikes. Rapid and Blitz, they generally run higher. I read an article years ago about how many calories chess players can burn in a game. Pretty impressive. It pays to be in good shape.

Chess boxing, anyone? Back in the day, I would have enjoyed that, but my things were fencing (sabre and epee) and taekwondo (Jhoon Rhee). That could be fun.

And since it is leap year, let’s review the nutty stunt of Hikaru Nakamura v. Ian Nepomniachtchi on 9 Jan 2024. This is even longer than the game with Dubov that got them into “trouble”.

Happy Leap Day! Have a nice knight!

[Event “January 9 Late 2024”]
[Site “”]
[Date “2024.01.09”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Hikaru Nakamura”]
[Black “Ian Nepomniachtchi”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Nd4 Nd5 3. Nb3 Nb6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Ne4 Ne5 6. Ng5 Ng4 7. Nf3 Nf6 8.
Ng1 Ng8 9. Nd4 Nd5 10. Nb5 Nb4 11. Nc3 Nc6 12. Nb1 Nb8 13. Nf3 Nf6 14. Nd4 Nd5
15. Nb3 Nb6 16. Nc3 Nc6 17. Ne4 Ne5 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. Nf3 Nf4 20. Ng1 Nh5 21. Nh3
Nf6 22. Ng1 Ng8 23. Nd4 Nd5 24. Nb5 Nb4 25. Nc3 Nc6 26. Nb1 Nb8 27. Nf3 1/2-1/2

After all that some beer is in order. So order some beer!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Leap Year
2 Comments

MASS STIPENDS, INTENTIONS – Do’s and Don’ts

Posted on 29 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Dear readers,

Occasionally someone sends a donation but it is marked for Mass intentions.

You should never send money for Mass intentions without first discussing it with the priest involved. Perhaps sending to an order or institute, sure, you can do that: they can find a priest within the group who can say the Mass.

However, don’t assume that an individual priest is able to accept the intentions: his schedule might be full.

This has happened twice in this last week or so.

Sending money without first communicating about it places the priest in an awkward situation. If he accepts the money, knowing you sent it for Mass intentions, he is obliged either to say the Masses himself or to find another priest and give the stipend to him. There are quite strict rules about this, and for good reason.

So, please do not send Mass intentions/stipends without first contacting me (or any priest) and coming to a clear agreement about your desires and his availability.

This is a problem. With the decline in the number of priests, there is also a decline in the number of Masses. Also, priests in parishes often have little or no control over their Mass intentions or what they, personally, can accept as a stipend, because these things are regulated by their dioceses. Often there isn’t “room” in the parish Mass schedule for people’s intentions. And yet people would like to have Masses said, in particular for their lost loved ones.

Pray for an increase in vocations.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box |
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ANNUS BISEXTILIS – Leap Year and You

Posted on 29 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day I had a text exchange with a priest friend asking about why, because it is a leap year, we didn’t celebrate St. Matthias. He wasn’t sure about why the leap year changed the date.

I responded that it was that it was an Ember Day in Lent, so we observed it, but I explained something about the leap year. I’ll give you a nutshell version, leaving out all the stuff about the Julian and Gregorian Calendar reform.

It has to do with the ancient dating. Matthias was/is in the Vetus Ordo calendar on 24 February in today’s way of dating. However, on the Roman calendar, which is still listed in Novus Ordo books, it was/is slated for the vi a.d. Kal Martii (the 6th day before the Kalends of March). A leap year adds a day at the end of February but it doesn’t change the date of vi a.d. Kal Martii. Instead it adds an additional vi a.d. Kal Martii… a Second Sixth… Bisextilis. That means that there are TWO 6th days before the Kalends of March. The Vigil of Matthias would be on the 24th and the Feast on the 25th.

Poor Matthias can get bumped around in the Novus Ordo, too, since his Feast can coincide with Ascension Thursday.

St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin – celebrated on iii a.d. Kal. Martii – also moves because of leap year. He is, in the Novus Ordo, on 27 February (iii a.d. Kal.). In the Vetus Ordo, on regular years St. Gabriel is on the 27th (iii a.d. Kal.) but the addition of the “Second Sixth”, this year he is on 28th (iii a.d. Kal.)

In the 2005 Roman Martyrology, we find entries today, 29 February, for the Pope St. Hilarius (+468), St. Oswald, Bl. Anthony of Florence, and in China St. August Chapdelaine a priest of the Paris Mission Society, who was arrested with many neophytes, beaten with 300 blows, partially buried, and later beheaded.

BTW… here is an page from the amazing Smithfield Decretals (France – 14th c) which is known for its fantastic marginal drawings of battling rabbits, a medieval Yoda, and Reynard the Fox – certainly inspirations for the online game base on medieval manuscript figures in which figures such as St. Hildegard of Bingen duke it out with warring marginalia – I digress. On this page, about half way down the right side column is an explanation of the leap year and St. Matthias the Leap Saint.

A standard solar year has 365 days and six hours, so in four years’ time these hours make 24 extra hours, which must be added as a new day to every fourth year. This additional day is what we call “double-sixth-day”, because, although it is counted as an addition, it stands under the same number as the previous day in the calendar, so that the two days are regarded as one and the same. The extra day is inserted in the calendar after 24 February (six days before the first day of March) so that we celebrate the memory of St Matthias the Apostle (24 February) on the next day, too.

Other points.

Bisextilis is not a Jesuit feast day.

Ember Days were often the days for ordinations.

People born on leap days are called “leaplings”.

Most of the Apostles Feasts seem to be distributed through the year toward the end of the month.

Ash Wednesday has not yet fallen on a 29 February and it won’t until 2096.

Tidal friction in the system of your planet and its moon slows your planet’s rotation down so that a day is lengthened by some 1.4 milliseconds per century. In about 4 million years, we can stop with the bisextilis correction.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged calendar, Leap Year
10 Comments

VIDEO INTERVIEW with a Canon Lawyer specialized in penal law who defends priests

Posted on 28 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is a valuable, highly instructive interview with Dr. Michael Mazza, a civil lawyer and canon lawyer who defends priests in canonical processes.

His workload? “Swamped.” Consider the implications of that.

Some of the things he deals with.

Above all: JUSTICE

Rights of priests who are falsely (or justly) accused.
Daily fear of priests to be falsely accused.
The disconnect of trust between priests and bishops.
The difference between an Anglo-Saxon view of “law” and Roman view. Lex and Ius. Important. (20:48)
Dallas Charter and Norms
Problem with slogans
Break down in the in the USA in the system of priest’s rights and how they are treated (1:18:00 ff)
Priests being bullied out of ministry without process
Judicial process or administrative process (1:28:00)
The initial days
Book 6 (1:45:00)
Solicitation in the confessional (means more than the mere obvious!)
Priests from different cultures
Financial crimes
Restorative Justice v Retributive (2:01:00)
Spanish Inquisition v. Protestants

I’ve known Michael Mazza for almost 30 years. He’s an upright guy.

As I write, there are 95 views. Let’s change that. Send this out to people to watch.

One thing that struck me toward the beginning when he was in his “biography” section of the interview, he spoke about how, when their youngest child (of 8 kids) was bigger and ready to move out, he and his wife considered how they could thereafter better serve the Church. Just recently I wrote of a book letters of St. Jerome to people who were in mourning. One of his counsels is that, now that you are a – for example – a widow, now that your life has changed, you consider what can you do to serve the Church.

In the Preface for the Dead we have a phrase, “life is changed, not ended”. That’s true for those who die. That’s true for those who are still alive!

Anyway, this interview is extremely instructive about an important aspect the Church’s life.

There is an organization called Men of Melchizedek, which you might look at. Dr. Mazza is on the board and I know one other board member, who is an upright guy.

Posted in 1983 CIC can. 915, Cancelled Priests, Priests and Priesthood, The Drill | Tagged canon law
6 Comments

DAILY ROME SHOT 953

Posted on 28 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

WELCOME REGISTRANTS:

KathleenB
SuperFlumina

Yesterday, in chessy news, in the Team Chess Battle, where pairs of players who can discuss moves battle it out, Hikaru Nakamura and Levy Rozman (aka Gotham Chess on YouTube) defeated Jorden van Foreest and Eric Hansen 2-1. Next, they face off with Daniel Naroditsky and Robert Hess. It is interesting to hear the thoughts of the players as they analyze the positions and come up with moves.

Meanwhile, white to move. Mate in 3.

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

Interested in learning? Try THIS.

I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com. Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Do you have to move? Looking to relocate? They hook you up with realtors who give a portion of the fee to a pro-life cause.

Also, if you have a some online presence or business, Church or otherwise, and you are paying for various SaaS (Software as a Service), you should look into Federated Computer. If I were running a DIOCESE I’d shift to Federated. Why use companies that hate us and mine our data?

Click!

UPDATE: I have a Chess House affiliate.

RIGHT NOW save 15% for two days only with coupon code S6215

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged noad
6 Comments

DAILY ROME SHOT 952 – And a book

Posted on 27 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Welcome registrants:

semper et ubique
psalms119

NB: A couple items arrived from my wishlist, but there were no packing slips. I don’t know whom to thank. So, thank you, whoever you are.

Yesterday, in chessy news, hostilities/pleasantries resumed in the Team Chess Battle, where pairs of players who can discuss moves battle it out. Robert Hess and Daniel Naroditsky (who had a 48 game win streak the other day) were matched against Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson. Today there should be Eric Hanson and Jorden van Forrest against #2 ranked Fabiano Caruana and his podcasting partner Cristian Chirila. It is interesting to hear the thoughts of the players as they analyze the positions and come up with moves. Also, in chessy news, British Bodhana Sivanandan is now the 3rd highest rated 8-year-old ever

Meanwhile, white to move. How to proceed? What’s the key move?

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

Interested in learning? Try THIS.

CLICK!

I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com. Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Possible name: St. Teresa of Avila Chess Society

She is, you know, the patroness of chess and chess players.

I direct the readership’s attention to a podcast by my friend Robert Royal of The Catholic Thing. He interviewed the editor of a FANTASTIC little book put out by Sophia Institute Press

Jerome’s Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning (US HERE – UK HERE) by David Bonagura.

As a patristicist, this was an excellent idea and I could kick myself that I didn’t think of it first.

The volume has a brief biography of Jerome, a great deal briefer than J.N.D. Kelly’s, for sure.

Among ancient writers there was a genre of literature: consolatio. That is what it looks like. Consolation literature. It could include different forms, including personal letters. A good deal of consolation literature dives into philosophy, which was considered an antidote to the ever-pervasive “fear of death” (which Augustine called “our daily winter”). For example, Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations and much later Boethius’ Consolation of Philisophy are in this category. Ambrose wrote On the death of his brother. In any event, it is interesting to see how the irascible and sometimes venomous Jerome has a sweeter edge, though he is not one to advise mourning, but rather rejoicing that someone has exited this vale of tears for something better.

Here’s the video interview I mentioned, above.

Ceterum censeo Alirezam esse delendum.

Posted in Patristiblogging, SESSIUNCULA |
4 Comments

DAILY ROME SHOT 951

Posted on 26 February 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

NB: A couple things came recently (a book, a table) from my wish list but there were no slips to let me know who sent them. Whoever you are… thank you.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 3.

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

Interested in learning? Try THIS.

CLICK!

I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com. Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Lent doesn’t last forever. Even if you have given up on things like wine or coffee or beer during Lent, Easter will soon arrive! Order now and help the communities.