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

Flight to or from?

Posted on 4 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Time to get some reading and revising done!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
11 Comments

Earliest Christian inscription identified? Maybe?

Posted on 4 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is an old adage which everyone, people who participate on blogs included, ought to kind in mind: Scripta manent… Things that are written down endure.

In a story posted on Fox News I read about the possible identification of maybe the oldest known Christian inscription. It is in Greek and was found at the 4 mile mark of the Via Latin near Rome. Today it is in the collections of the Capitoline Museums. The dating derives from the shape of the Greek letters, including the sigma and omega, used at Rome in the second half of the 2nd c.

You can read the whole piece there. Here is a translation of the inscription.

As translated by Prof. Gregory Snyder, the inscription reads:

To my bath, the brothers of the bridal chamber carry the torches,
[here] in our halls, they hunger for the [true] banquets,
even while praising the Father and glorifying the Son.
There [with the Father and the Son] is the only spring and source of truth.

It is possibly from the sect called the Valentinianians.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged inscriptions, Valentinians
3 Comments

“Joy fall to thee, father Francis, / Drawn to the Life that died”

Posted on 4 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Last night in our poetry reading group we spent the whole time on Gerard Manley Hopkins’, “The Wreck of the Deutschland“, inspired by a shipwreck in storm in which five Franciscan sisters were drowned. They were fleeing the kulturkampf in Germany to come to America, St. Louis, to teach. It is a difficult and rewarding poem.

St. Francis was mentioned. Here are two stanzas.

23

Joy fall to thee, father Francis,
Drawn to the Life that died;
With the gnarls of the nails in thee, niche of the lance, his
Lovescape crucified            180
And seal of his seraph-arrival! and these thy daughters
And five-livèd and leavèd favour and pride,
Are sisterly sealed in wild waters,
To bathe in his fall-gold mercies, to breathe in his all-fire glances.

24

Away in the loveable west,            185
On a pastoral forehead of Wales,
I was under a roof here, I was at rest,
And they the prey of the gales;
She to the black-about air, to the breaker, the thickly
Falling flakes, to the throng that catches and quails            190
Was calling ‘O Christ, Christ, come quickly’:
The cross to her she calls Christ to her, christens her wild-worst Best.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged Gerarld Manly Hopkins, St. Francis, Wreck of the Deutschland
17 Comments

St. Francis on priests

Posted on 4 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From The Testament of St. Francis:

“…the Lord gave me, and gives me still, such faith in priests who live according to the rite of the holy Roman Church because of their orders that, were they to persecute me, I would still want to have recourse to them…..And I act in this way because, in this world, I see nothing physically of the most high Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others. I want to have these most holy mysteries honored and venerated above all things and I want to reserve them in precious places.”

Posted in Our Catholic Identity |
7 Comments

Platitude Cookie Alert

Posted on 3 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in Lighter fare |
16 Comments

BSOD

Posted on 3 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I got the BSOD the other day. Frightening, considering how I have been patching and mending the mother ship for a couple years now.

Happily, when I rebooted, everything was working.

BSOD

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged BSOD
14 Comments

Video interview with the Secretary of the Pont. Comm. “Ecclesia Dei”

Posted on 3 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On Gloria.TV there is an interesting video interview with the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, Msgr. Guido Pozzo, about many matters concerning the SSPX, the talks with the Holy See, and the traditional form of the Roman Rite. The questions are displayed in English in text and then Msgr. Pozzo responds in Italian. There are English subtitles.

Give it a few minutes of your time.

(This video is no longer available.)

Posted in SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Doctrinal Preamble, Msgr. Pozzo, PCED, SSPX
32 Comments

I sense a trend.

Posted on 3 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at Orwell’s Picnic there is a post entitled “Face it, Hippies”, which this graph.

I sense a trend.

The growth is slow, some will say. But there is growth. There is growth in several important spheres of the Church’s life, including a growth in vocations to the priesthood answered by men who are faithful to the Church’s teachings, many of whom desire traditional liturgy.. In the meantime, the acceleration of the “biological solution” is sweeping a certain vision out of positions of influence. As the Church in the wealthy West seems to in some ways growing in numbers, it doesn’t seem to be growing in numbers of people who know their faith well and practice it diligently. We seem to be moving toward what Pope Benedict referred to as a “creative minority”. Now look at the graph again.

We need a Marshall Plan for the renewal of our Catholic identity, and the New Evangelization. The key to any renewal of any aspect of our Catholic lives must be our liturgical worship.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill, The future and our choices, Universae Ecclesiae | Tagged Biological Solution, creative minority, Marshall Plan, TLM
25 Comments

Your good news and your Sunday Mass sermon comments.

Posted on 3 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Can you share some of your good news with the readers?

And also give us some point from the Sunday sermon you heard.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
61 Comments

ENGLAND – Fr. Finigan’s parish, O.L. of the Rosary’s patronal feast 7 OCT: He has a GREAT idea!

Posted on 3 October 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Are you in England? Anywhere near London?

The great Fr. Finigan has posted on his mighty blog, The Hermeneutic of Continuity, the plans for the patronal feast of the parish, Our Lady of the Rosary. They will have a Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary form on 7 October.

Fr. Finigan has an outstanding idea! He suggests bring non-Catholic friends.

Here are the plans:

Friday 7 October [8 PM] is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and therefore the patronal feast of my parish. We’ll be having High Mass at 8pm (as well as English Mass in the morning and school Mass in the afternoon.)

Cantores Missae will be singing the following:

Mass setting:
Victoria: Missa Simile est Regnum
Motets:
Guerrero: Sancta Maria
Byrd: Ave Verum
Schubert: Salve Regina

Do come along if you can. This year, I thought that I would try a new angle by encouraging people to bring non-Catholic friends to the Mass to hear beautiful music sung for the purpose for which it was composed (the worship of God) and in the setting for which it was composed (High Mass.)

You can gain a plenary indulgence (under the usual conditions) even for just visiting the Church on 7 October and reciting the Pater and Credo. This applies to any parish Church on its titular solemnity.

I have often suggested in preaching that people invite others to come to Mass and to confession. Non-Catholic friends, of course. But also fallen away Catholic friends.

His Hermeneuticalness has proposed a great idea. May I suggest to pastors of parishes and bishops of dioceses to do the same?

New Evangelization starts with small and personal moves.

Brick by brick.