LENTCAzT 2024 – 27: Monday of the 4th Week of Lent – My little sacrifices

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, we hear about Lord foretelling His greatest miracle.

You can continue your video spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, Santi Quatro Coronati HERE.

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DAILY ROME (sort of) SHOT 961 -profound

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.  NB: Today is, I believe, the day with the fewest subscribed donors.  I’d sure like to remedy that.  Zelle (preferred), Venmo, Paypal…  HERE

Today, something amazing I saw in a tweet – yeah, I know it’s X now – from Vir Desideriorum. From a 14th c French book of hours, a priest prays intently during Mass. His head is surrounded by angels as the Father listens.

It is sort of a Rome shot, since, based on his tweets, I think the one who posted it is perhaps a seminarian or priest in Rome perhaps studying at the Gregorian University.  He could be a lay student.  There’s no information in the X “bio”.  His timeline has amazing images from medieval manuscripts.

I’m grateful for this profound image.

Meanwhile, 12-21 March in St. Louis is the American Cup with an open and a women’s division.  Double-elimination.  They go from classical time control to rapid, and blitz for playoffs.  My guy Wesley So will compete.  He is slated against Sam Shankland in the first round, tomorrow.  Nakamura won last year.  He isn’t on the roster this year, probably because he is preparing for Candidates.  However, Fabiano Caruana is playing.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 3.  BTW… Often these position images are scaled down to 400×400 (more or less) from larger images.  If you open in a new tab (right click, etc.) you can get a larger view.  Just sayin’.

Click!

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

Get yourself some beer from the traditional Benedictine monks of Norcia. They have three types. I can attest to how good it is. With savory things like cheese and sausage it is amazing.

And I haven’t given up on finding a good graphic artist out there who could help with some projects, perhaps make some dosh.

Ceterum censeo Alirezam delendum esse.

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News of the Church 10 – 10 March 2024

The inaugural edition of this series is HERE, in which I explain a lot more.

Some time ago, I saw a movie called News of the World in which after the Civil War a former confederate officer earns a meager living by wandering about reading to crowds  articles from newspapers he has gathered.  People pay a dime a head to listen, which figures to about $2.50. In those days news was scare and many couldn’t read at all, so there was great interest and emotion over the news of the world he brought. The idea of this travelling gazetteer caught my imagination and here I am. The word Gazette came into English through French but it’s origin is Italian, gazzetta, which is the name of the Venetian coin which paid for the first first Venetian newspapers in the 16th century. Here is today’s audio “gazette” of Catholic things.

00:15 – Init
01:11 – The Wanderer – It’s possible foreign priests will have to leave because of changes to immigration policy.
05:26 – Benedictines of Silver Stream Priory – Life in the monastery
12:15 – A Lenten Christmas card
16:40 – Inside The Vatican – Changes to slow down the new conclave?
30:53 – The Wanderer – Kidnapped Nigerian priests released
33:30 – Voyager I has gone mad.

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DAILY ROME SHOT 960

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. 

A glimpse from The Parish.™ Photo from The World’s Best Sacristan™

Meanwhile, in chessy news, it seems that Canada finally granted the necessary visas to players in the Candidates to be held in Toronto. Indian and Russian players were being held up. FIDE finally made a major public appeal. There were political reasons behind the delays it seems. ChessBase wrote that an Indian immigrant to Canada had been assassinated and Canada blamed India. Arguments ensued. A lot of Indian players visas were held up. Also, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina are Russian citizens. Canada has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters after the Russian attack. Happy ending. All the players have visas now.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 2.  How long did it take you?

Click!

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

3:16 isn’t just in John.Ceterum censeo Alirezam delendum esse.

Oh… and another thing.  The other day I mentioned something about a new chess variant called chess boxing, which is a real thing.  Play some rapid, then box a round.  Repeat. You can win in either activity, on the board or in the ring.  But fatigue becomes an issue with the clock.  I opined that I would have been interested, back in the day, in chess karate or chess fencing.  WELL… at a recent event in Charlotte NC where there is a large chess club, there was help a festival called Chess Kids.  They had chess fencing.  Yup.  That would be fun.

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Laetare Sunday 4th of Lent 2024

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

It is the 4th Sunday of Lent., “Laetare”.   The Roman Station is Holy Cross of Jerusalem.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?  (Even when sermons or homilies aren’t great, you can find at least something good to take away.)

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.  I hear that it is growing.  Of COURSE.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?  We all have heard the bad news.  How about good news?

I have a few thoughts about the orations in the Vetus Ordo for this Sunday: HERE

A taste…

God the Son fed the multitudes miraculously multiplying bread and fish in a remote place away from other food sources.    The superabundance of the miracle reveals a pattern of deprivation before bounty.   We fast before our feasts.  Holy Mother Church, the greatest expert in humanity that there has ever been, understands this pattern, reinforced and required by divine revelation.  It is reflected in our calendar and in our rites.  We are our rites.

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LENTCAzT 2024 – 26: Laetare Sunday 4th of Lent – The Rose

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, Pius Parsch the symbolism of the rose with the season of Lent and the life of the Lord.

You can continue your video spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme HERE.  UPDATED

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9 March – St. Frances of Rome

I have great affection for St. Frances of Rome, Santa Francesca Romana.

When I was exiled from these USA to Rome, I lived at first in her house, the Palazzo of the Ponziani family into which she married, where you find a chapel where she died in 1440.  I feel as if she took me under her wing in those first critical months in Trastevere, where Romanaccio was being fused into my marrow with great intensity.

I went from the tutelage of a Roman virgin martyr, St. Agnes (in St. Paul) to a Roman widow (in Rome).

She is patroness of Rome, along with Sts. Peter and Paul, and St. Philip Neri (on whose feast I was ordained).

She had the grace of being able to see her Guardian Angel.  How cool is that?

As mentioned, young Frances married into the Ponziani family, whose medieval palazzo is still in Trastevere close to the Basilica of Santa Cecilia.

At the death of her husband she founded a convent of Benedictine nuns, Oblates of the Benedictine Congregation of Monte Oliveti, headquartered in the nearby Tor di Specchi.  This convent is open once a year, today, for the public to enjoy.

St. Francis body is in the church in the Roman Forum called S. Maria Nova al Foro Romano.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia,

“With her husband’s consent Frances practiced continence, and advanced in a life of contemplation. Her visions often assumed the form of drama enacted for her by heavenly personages. She had the gift of miracles and ecstasy, (as) well as the bodily vision of her guardian angel, had revelations concerning purgatory and hell, and foretold the ending of the Western Schism. She could read the secrets of consciences and detect plots of diabolical origin. She was remarkable for her humility and detachment, her obedience and patience[.]”

During life she was renowned for her works of mercy, almsgiving, and miraculous healings.

St. Frances, pray for us.  Help especially the Church in Rome!  Ask your guardian angel to guide our pastors.

Here is her entry from the Martyrologium Romanum:

Sanctae Franciscae, religiosae, quae, adulescentula nupta, in matrimonio quadraginta annos vixit, uxor et materfamilias probata, pietate, humiltate et patientia admirabilis.  Temporibus calamitosis, bona sua paurperibus distribuit, aegrotis ministravit et, coniuge defuncto, inter oblatas, quas sub Regula santi Benedicti Romae congregaverat, secessit.

Who wants to take a crack at it?

Today in the Vetus Ordo Santa Francesca receives a commemoration. Here is her collect:

Deus, qui beátam Francíscam fámulam tuam, inter cétera grátiæ tuæ dona, familiári Angeli consuetúdine decorásti: concéde, quaesumus; ut, intercessiónis eius auxílio, Angelórum consórtium cónsequi mereámur.

My 1st Class Relic of the Saint.

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LENTCAzT 2024 – 25: Saturday of the 3rd Week of Lent – The essential part was, “Sin no more!”

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, we connect the OT and NT readings.  Fulton Sheen explores the last part of the episode of the Woman Taken In Adultery and what Christ really did.


You can continue your spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, Santa Susanna (observed at Santa Maria della Victoria), with a video visit (not the same guy) HERE and HERE and HERE.

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STATIONS OF THE CROSS – Audio from Fr. Z

Here are some of my audio projects of the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross.

I am redoing them with my new podcast setup.

I’ll be adding some that I’ve done, so watch this post.

And remember to GO TO CONFESSION!

With this devotion you can gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions of confession and Communion within a few days of the work and detachment even from venial sin.  From the Handbook of Indulgences:

63. Exercise of the Way of the Cross (Viae Crucis exercitium)

A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful, who make the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross.

The gaining of the plenary indulgence is regulated by the following norms:

  1. The pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of the Cross legitimately erected.

  2. For the erection of the Way of the Cross fourteen crosses are required, to which it is customary to add fourteen pictures or images, which represent the stations of Jerusalem.

  3. According to the more common practice, the pious exercise consists of fourteen pious readings, to which some vocal prayers are added. However, nothing more is required than a pious meditation on the Passion and Death of the Lord, which need not be a particular consideration of the individual mysteries of the stations.

  4. A movement from one station to the next is required.

If the pious exercise is made publicly and if it is not possible for all taking part to go in an orderly way from station to station, it suffices if at least the one conducting the exercise goes from station to station, the others remaining in their place.

Those who are “impeded” can gain the same indulgence, if they spend at least one half an hour in pious reading and meditation on the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For those belonging to Eastern Rites, among whom this pious exercise is not practiced, the respective Patriarchs can determine some other pious exercise in memory of the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ for the gaining of this indulgence.

If these recordings are helpful to you, please say a prayer for me.

For priests, especially, try The Way Of The Cross For Priests from the Benedictines of Silverstream Priory.  HERE.  Would you consider getting copies of this for your priests where you are?  Lay people: pray it for priests.

These podcasts are now provided by my Federated Computer! You can get one too by clicking the link.  Have a web presence?  Save lots of money and get away from corporations who mine your data.

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DAILY ROME SHOT 959 – Chant Alert

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. 

I watched the State of the Union last night while texting with a priest friend. He wrote:

“I feel dirty having watched it.”

Entirely apart from the appalling content, after weeks of lowering expectations – for clear reasons – the take away story on the left will be that he did better than expected. Faint praise, but not nothing.

In far more pleasing news, in the Prague Chess Festival Nodirbek Abdusattorov prevailed. He gained enough rating to surpass World Champion Ding Liren to take 4th place in the live world ratings.  However, due to play in Shenzhen, Anish Giri dropped out of the top 10 edged out by Arjun Erigaisi.

The famous William Steinitz was from Prague. I look forward to seeing Prague in the TLM pilgrimage in September if God wills – and few more sign ups – allow that I can go.

Meanwhile, white to move and obtain an piece advantage in


1. Qe2+ Kd8 2. Qxb5 Bxc3 #.3. Qxa5 Bxa5 4. Bxa5
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

We are well along into Lent.  Soon we will arrive at Passiontide and then the Triduum with the wondrous Tenebrae, the Office of Matins in the Triduum.  The wonderful nuns of Gower Abbey, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, have a disc and digital download:

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.  Sung beautifully.  Gregorian chant sung by women has special quality all its own and this is the best.

Want a little taste?

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LENTCAzT 2024 – 24: Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent – Avoid novelty and change

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, we hear the 16th Counsel from Card. Richelieu, in A Treatise on Perfection Saintly Counsel on Obtaining Salvation [US HERE – UK HERE]: Novelty In The Spiritual Life Should Not Be Sought For Its Own Sake.     I’ll leave you to form your own applications of his wise counsel.

You can continue your spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, San Lorenzo in Lucina, with a video visit HERE.

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7 March – Two Prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas (podcast) and a 1st class relic – 750th Anniversary of his death

Today is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor (+7 March 1274 – 750 years ago at 49 years of age), the only saint mentioned in Canon Law apart from feasts.  Canon Law requires that seminarians be formed especially according to the thought of St. Thomas.  HA!

Here is an oldie but goodie from 2016.

___

In the post-Conciliar, Novus Ordo calendar 28 January is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.  Let’s hear two prayers from the Angelic Doctor, his Prayer Before Mass and Communion and his Prayer After Mass and Communion in both Latin and English.

Some of the music came from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

As a bonus, here is my 1st class relic of the saint.


http://www.wdtprs.com/podcazt/16_01_28.mp3

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DAILY ROME SHOT 958

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.  NB: Today, the 6th, is one of the leanest days of the month for subscribed donations.

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.

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

In the 2024 Team Chess Battle on Tuesday Daniel Naroditsky and Robert Hess won their semifinal match against Hikaru Nakamura and Levy Rozman.

In OTB yesterday, I played as if I had never seen chess pieces before in my life. Really frustrating. I can’t figure out my pattern.

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CLASSIC: Fr. Z’s Kitchen: fun new, old book and fun new, old post.

I ran across this post from the past and had to share it again. Fun.  From November 2020.


The other day a friend of mine was driving through town on his way to his ancestral place and he dropped by for some supper. Astute and considerate, he had spotted in a used bookstore a slim volume he thought I might enjoy, both for the fact of of the practical application of its contents but also for the sake of its ethos.

I present the Nero Wolfe Cookbook

US HERE – UK HERE

Less expensive newer edition: HERE and HERE

There are some great breakfast ideas within along with great old photos of New York City.

I’m glad to have this.  On Amazon it seems to be pretty spendy, but it could be that you can find a used copy or even get it from a library, which often have lots of cookbooks.

It also spurred in my memory an old post about memorable meals in literature, which I repost hereunder.

___

A friend – quite the eclectic reader – sent an interesting piece from The Telegraph of a few years back.

10 Great Meals In Literature

Wow.  Great idea.   How did the selector do?    Let’s see.

1) Mad Hatters Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2) The Episode of the Madeleine in In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust
3) Apple Pie and Ice Cream in On The Road by Jack Kerouac
4) Please, Sir, can I have some more from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
5) Gifts of Food in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) Try Pots’ steaming chowder in Moby Dick by Herman Melville
7) Melting Raclette cheese on a fire in Heidi by Johanna Spyri
8) Sandwiches and coffee in Millennium by Stieg Larsson
9) Cheese Sandwich and Malted Milk in The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
10) Avocados in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

How did he do?

I can think of a few others.

    1. The Last Supper in The Gospels of the New Testament
    2. Lotuses in The Odyssey by Homer
    3. The Appearance of Banquo’s Ghost in Macbeth by Shakespeare
    4. Ugolino and His Children in The Inferno by Dante
    5. The Christmas Goose in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
    6. The Feast in Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen
    7. Liver, Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti in Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
    8. Toasted Cheese which its in the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian
    9. The Tears Cake in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
    10. Meal on the Raft in Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
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LENTCAzT 2024 – 23: Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent – “The executioners expected Jesus to cry…”

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, Card. Bacci talks about St. Thomas Aquinas, whose Feast it is.  Fulton Sheen on the Crucifixion.

You can continue your spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, Sts Cosmas and Damian, with a video visit HERE.

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ASK FATHER: FSSP leaders had a meeting with Francis. Wherein Fr. Z rants.

This is what the FSSP released after the meeting. My emphasis.

Published 1 March 2024

Official communiqué of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter – Fribourg, March 1st, 2024.

Following a request from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Pope Francis invited Fr. Andrzej Komorowski, Superior General of the FSSP, to meet with him. He received him in private audience at the Vatican on Thursday, February 29, 2024, accompanied by Fr. Benoît Paul-Joseph, Superior of the District of France, and Fr. Vincent Ribeton, Rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in Wigratzbad.

The meeting was an opportunity for them to express their deep gratitude to the Holy Father for the decree of February 11, 2022, by which the Pope confirmed the liturgical specificity of the Fraternity of St. Peter, but also to share with him the difficulties encountered in its application. The Pope was very understanding and invited the Fraternity of St. Peter to continue to build up ecclesial communion ever more fully through its own proper charism. Fr. Komorowski informed the Holy Father that the decree of February 11, 2022 had been given on the very day of the Fraternity of St. Peter’s consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Holy Father hailed this coincidence as a providential sign.

First, “the difficulties encountered in its application”.  The FSSP use the liturgical books in force as the Council began.  They have to work with diocesan bishops in order to function within dioceses.  Some bishop are better in this regard than others. Sometimes they can obtain their own churches.  Sometimes they have to be hosted by some parish that has the Novus Ordo, share space.  The harsh Traditionis custodes perhaps has made functioning at a parish church problematic even though the harsh document wasn’t aimed at them.

Those could be some difficulties.

Second, Francis “invited the Fraternity of St. Peter to continue to build up ecclesial communion ever more fully through its own proper charism”.

What does that mean?

That is precisely what quite a few people have written to ask me.   They include their fears, stirred up by voices in the interwebs, videos, that the FSSP is going to be forced to say the Novus Ordo or at concelebrate at diocesan Chrism Masses as a sign of “building up ecclesial communion”.  “Communion”… get it?  Communion?  As in “Mass” and therefore the Novus Ordo?

That pushes way beyond the plain sense of the text of the statement.

I will be the first one to reaffirm the Fat Man’s Laws of the House of God:

VIII. They can always hurt you more.

It would not surprise me if such measures have been considered.   As a matter of fact, the issue of concelebrating at Chrism Masses has been brought up at every meeting of the FSSP leadership and Rome for 30 years.  It comes up.  And … that’s it.

For now, I suspect “Rome” will use the slow strangulation of the baby in diocesan parishes, rather than a hammer blow in the Fraternity or Institute.   They will aim at diocesan priests.  They are the weakest and easiest targets.  Rome sent bishops the garrots.

For many years I’ve written that the true renewal will begin when diocesan priests learn to celebrate the TLM.  Even if they don’t use it all the time, it will deeply affect their ars celebrandi, in turn producing a knock on effect in their congregations.  That’s just one benefit.   Tradition leaning diocesan priests are the real target, along with the people they serve.

This is something for other posts.

What was Francis’ invitation in that audience about?   He referred to the FSSP’s “proper charism”.   Let’s start there.   What is their “proper charism”?

The early documents of the FSSP can be helpful.

The Declaration of intention by the founders (2 July 1988) states that they viewed themselves – which speaks to their charism – as the as “pars sanior of this same Fraternity [from which they were now independent, that is, of the SSPX]”, that – this speaks to their charism – “they have but one desire: to be able to live as a religious society in this Church and place themselves at her service under the authority, of course, of the Roman Pontiff, her supreme head” and then also, they describe their “own particular vocation” – which speaks to their charism – “to dedicate themselves to the People of God and [NB] above all to the formation of future priests in an authentic Catholic spirit, and in so doing, as befits the venerable tradition of the Catholic Church, to celebrate Divine Worship according to the guidelines of immemorial tradition.”

So, three main things in there: they have maintained the spirit of the SSPX, to which they think they are connected but in a “pars sanior” way. This is a term that is found often in the context of electoral contests, about majorities, etc. There can be a pars maior and a pars sanior which could be a minority. The sanus does not mean “sane” or even necessarily “healthy”. In some contexts it might be those who have great authority by way of seniority or wisdom or role. In this context the founders of the FSSP seems to see themselves as a minority, but who have won the “contest” because they chosen the path of obedience to John Paul II. If it has to do with “health”, then perhaps it aims at a desire to be a “healing” element in relation to the Society.

They also have the work of formation of priests which will, of course, always be difficult.

In the FSSP’s Act of Foundation they say that the Constitutions will be “inspired by the approved statutes of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X”.    Furthermore, they request swift approval of the Fraternity “in order that they may act effectively for the unity and the good of the Church”.    That last part, about “unity of the Church” points to their charism.

In the Declaration of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, in which the Commission says that the FSSP has been approved, adds that they are to “serve the Good of the Church and Her unity”.  Again, there is the point of unity.

In the Excerpt of the Constitutions of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, there is a part called “Aim of the Fraternity”.  This says,

“The object of the Fraternity of Saint Peter is the sanctification of priests through the exercise of the priesthood, and in particular, to turn the life of the priest toward that which is essentially his raison d’être, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, with all that it signifies, all that flows from it, all that goes with it.”

Because of that…

“The members of the Fraternity will in this way take it to heart to do everything to prepare, spiritually and materially, the Sacrifice of the Mass”

Certainly Traditionis custodes makes all of that very difficult.

Lastly, there is the Decree of Pope Francis Concerning the FSSP (11 Feb 2022).

Without prejudice to [the grants] above, the Holy Father suggests that, as far as possible, the provisions of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes be taken into account as well.

In statement after after the audience that the FSSP superiors at the time of that Decree, the FSSP said (my emphases):

During the very cordial meeting, they recalled the origins of the Fraternity in 1988, the Pope expressed that he was very impressed by the approach taken by its founders, their desire to remain faithful to the Roman Pontiff and their trust in the Church. He said that this gesture should be “preserved, protected and encouraged”.

I don’t want to go any farther into the weeds.  That’s enough.

It seems to me to be that the plain reading of the the FSSP Statement about the meeting with Francis is the correct meaning.

When Francis “invited the Fraternity of St. Peter to continue to build up ecclesial communion ever more fully through its own proper charism” surely that meant – at the very least – to be the pars sanior, to be a alternative for sake of unity with the Roman Pontiff for the priests of the SSPX (and anyone else who desires Tradition), to foster the use of the traditional liturgical books for the celebration of all the sacraments, and to form priests for this work into the future.

That it is not some sort of code about forcing the priests of the FSSP to concelebrate the Chrism Mass with the Novus Ordo or to say the Novus Ordo themselves.

For now, at least, the cross hairs are not on the so-called Ecclesia Dei groups, but rather on the most vulnerable figure in the Church, diocesan priests with traditional inclinations. May God help them.

 

 

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LENTCAzT 2024 – 22: Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent – Actions not words

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, Card. Bacci talks about the joy of the saints.  Card. Richelieu has practical observations about moral perfection.

You can continue your spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, San Sisto Vecchio, with a video visit HERE. (Not the usual guy with Crux Stationalis.)

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DAILY ROME SHOT 957

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.

Meanwhile, the combines chessy news and the puzzle.

In the big tournament in Prague, Pragg (Praggnanandhaa) defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov and, due to a blunder, Vincent Keymer beat Vidit Gujrathi who is slated to play in the Candidates.

After 33. Bb4, black to play.

So, black plays the killer move.  Now what do you do?  Vidit resigned.

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

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

If you have to move to deal with real estate, consider Real Estate For Life.

Lastly, it’s a big deal.

Ceterum censeo Alirezam esse delendum.

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LENTCAzT 2024 – 21: Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent – You are not in this alone

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Lenten discipline.

Today, Fr. Troadec talks about belonging.

You can continue your spiritual pilgrimage to today’s Roman Station, Santa Pudenziana, with a video visit HERE.

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DAILY ROME SHOT 956

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.

HEY! nick********@fuse.net HEY! j******@nethere.com Did you email change? My thank you notes were “undeliverable”.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 4.


1. Gh7+ Kf8 2. Qh8+ Kf7 3. Bg6+ Kxg6 4. Qxh5#
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 was sent more, different, coffee by the Papist Coffee guys.  This time their Pius V.  It is a darker roast than the last batch, which was welcome.  However, I still got the same taste notes as the last batch.  Here’s the different in the roast:

 

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