Fr. Z's Blog

Even as the sun rose at 0628 and will set at 1953, today the new Ave Maria cycle clicks over to 2015.

It is Saturday, the last day of the Octave of Easter, which ends at Vespers and the Roman Station is St. John Lateran, where last Saturday/Sunday the catechumens were baptized, becoming for this week “geniti infantes”.

This is the day when, at Mass, the Pope would distribute the “Agnus Dei”, a disk of wax mixed with sacred chrism with the impression of the Lamb of God.  (I’ve always wanted one.)   When giving one to a prelate, the Pope would put it into his miter, saying, “Stick that in your hat!”.   Well, maybe not.  I probably would.

Turning for a moment to Bl. Ildefonso, we find this about the last prayer of Mass, the Postcommunion, on this last day of the Octave.

In the Post-Communion the Church shows herself anxious that the new Christians, whilst laying aside their symbolical garments, should carefully guard in their hearts that faith taught them with so much care during the long period of instruction. The holy Eucharist is the sign and sustenance of this faith, the mysterium Fidei, excelling all other, which fed in the breasts of the martyrs that sacred fire that was urging them to endure all things and to confess boldly the Catholic faith.

“Quickened by the gift of our redemption, we beseech thee, 0 Lord, that by the help of these means to eternal salvation, true faith may ever prosper.”

Don’t ever take your Catholic Faith and identity for granted. We can swiftly lose supernatural charity, and more slowly hope. Faith is always the last to fade. But the world, the flesh and the Devil incessantly militate against us from within and without.  We have to guard our precious gifts in ourselves and in those whom we love, fostering them also in those whom we meet.

Make good Holy Communions.  GO TO CONFESSION!

This is Rome today.  Rainy Rome pretty much sucks, so I have no plans to go out except for Mass.

Instead can do some reading and writing and play some chess online.  I also have a couple of books I should work with.  I need to get more into the QGD.  And asl I write, it is pouring rain again.

Yesterday, I made myself a pretty good cheeseburger for supper with taleggio.   No bun, but really good bread did the trick with sharp mustard.   If anyone is puzzled, I eat in, cooking for myself, most of the time in Rome.  It is really expensive to eat out.  This is an advantage to having a kitchen: savings.

Let’s have another selection from the book I mentioned yesterday, Fr. Claude Barthe’s A Forest of Symbols: The Traditional Mass and Its Meaning US HERE – UK HERE

One of the moments at the altar that I find the most significant during the Canon at the “Súpplices te rogámus”. The priest bows low at the altar, kisses it, straightens up and makes the sign of the Cross over the Host, the Chalice and himself. To me, this sequence has always underscored the identity of the priest with the altar and with the Eucharistic species present upon it. The altar itself is a mode of Christ’s presence, as is the priest, who is alter (not altar) Christus. The kissing of the altar and the signs of the Cross show the unity of all these present elements. So, let’s see if Fr. Barthe has a different view:

The Supplices to rogamus (We most humbly beseech thee, almighty God, to command that these things be borne by the hands of thy holy angel to thine altar on high, in the sight of thy divine majesty, that as many of us as, at this altar, shall partake of and receive the most holy Body + and + Blood of thy Son may be filled with every heavenly blessing and grace) thus causes this part of the Canon to close (Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Amen) with the idea of oblation. This is the first ending of the Roman Canon. This prayer is, moreover, the real equivalent of the Eastern epiklesis: “Command that these things be borne by the hands of thy holy angel to thine altar on high: The liturgists speak of a communion epiklesis,” that is an invocation aimed at uniting the earthly altar and the heavenly altar, distinct from the Consecration epiklesis” of the Eastern liturgies, where God is asked to descend on the sacred elements by the power of his Spirit. According to Durandus, the priest in the thirteenth century used to rest his crossed hands on his breast and make a very deep bow.

There have been many discussions of the identity of the “Angel: Durandus wrote, “He is the Angel of Great Counsel, the Counsellor on whose advice the Father created and recreated the world: otherwise known as Christ-Wisdom, the Word incarnate.  But he adds that the altar on high in the presence of God is also the crucified Christ sitting in glory at the right hand of the Father. The Angel brings these “sacraments” to this altar, revealing his wounds, and interceding for us, who bring the sacraments to fulfilment on earth. Olier and Pierre Lebrun take a similar view. It is worth noting that the De Sacramentis refers to angels in the plural (per manus angelorum tuorum) rather than the singular, which would not contradict the idea of a “communion epiklesis,” but would prevent identification of the angels with Christ. St Thomas Aquinas, who thinks that the Angel can be compared to Christ, derives the following mystical etymology: the Mass, missa, takes its name from the fact that, through the Angel, the priest sends (mittit) his prayers to God, or again because Christ is the approved victim sent (missa) to us. All of which underlines that the meaning of the prayer Supplices to rogamus is at the heart of this oblation of the holy victim, which we know as the Canon, and is therefore also at the heart of the whole celebration.

Barthe doesn’t get into what I wrote about.  However, he does dig into the identity of the Angel.  My view is that the Angel in question here is Christ the High Priest Himself, simultaneously, at the earthly altar and upon the earthly altar while being at and on the altar beyond space and time in the heavenly liturgy, perpetually offering the same Sacrifice to the Father, thus enabling us the baptized, through the Sacrament of Orders and Eucharist, to renew it and partake of it here on hundreds of thousands of altars across the globe.

Here are a few more shots of the Vigil of Easter at the wonderful Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini.

I like action shots.  The images are being unveiled.  This is a portrait of St. Philip done, if I am not mistaken, in his lifetime.

After the Epistle.

I was talking with the pastor about anything they might need at Ss. Trinità.  They need a nice white set for Solemn Mass and for when bishops celebrate at the faldstool.  Are we game for a project?  Shall I request estimates?

Our work here is done.

Meanwhile, today the World Championship reengages in Astana, Kazakhstan.  I wonder if Bp. Schneider is following it.  It’s Round 5.  Apart from the prestigious title, FIDE World Champion, there is a €2,000,000 prize fund. Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost to Ding Liren a couple days ago after a massive blunder, plays with white today. The match is tied, 2-2.

Here’s a puzzle.

Black to move.

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

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Today, sunrise was at 0630 and sunset will be at 1952. The Ave Maria is at 2000.

It is Friday in the Octave of Easter, which according to the Novus Ordo calendar is held as a Solemnity. Hence, there is today no obligation for Friday penance.

The Roman Station is at Santa Maria ad Martyres in the Campo Marzio.  It’s other name is The Pantheon.   There is a great account of when St. Pope Boniface IV exorcized this ancient temple to pagan gods (aka demons) on 13 May 609.

That date, 609, got me thinking.  St. Pope Gregory the Great died in 604.  I looked up Boniface and, sur’nuf, he was one of Gregory’s deacons, mentored by Gregory.  You can imagine the sort of men that Gregory surrounded himself with in those difficult and dangerous times.  Gregory himself was highly educated and devout, with a strong inclination to asceticism.   In his governance he was quite practical, though he had that powerful evangelical spirit that comes from love of the Faith.  After all, when you love something you want to share it with others, right?  Surely this is one of the reasons for immense care he lavished on the sacred worship of the Roman Church, which careful alterations are still with us in the Traditional Latin Mass and, to a lesser extent, in the Novus Ordo.   Gregory chose as his collaborators men like Boniface, who would stand in the doorway of the Pantheon and exorcize raging demons. I wonder what Gregory would think of those in certain key positions today.

On another note, for nibbles last night I had some little peppers stuffed with tuna and some marinated anchovies.

Some chicken was roasted with the remains of my enormous caprese tomato.  Note the the traces of feathers.

Today dawned, dreary and cold.  On the horizon to the south and the Castelli are indications of a later sunny day.  When the forecast intermittent rains settle down, I’ll run errands.  Walking around in Rome in the rain is a miserable exercise.

I found a good video on Youtube, one of the best I’ve seen that explains the lay out of the city and who made it happen.

Speaking of beauty, the Grand Masters who commented on yesterday’s game 4 between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Ding emerged victorious after a terrible blunder by Nepo. After that blunder and during the mopping up, the commentators opined about Nepo’s future performance in light of how he collapsed when facing Magnus last time.

One of the most interesting bit in the coverage of Game 4 was a rather philosophical discussion about chess and beauty. Anish Giri opened the topic and they went back and forth with it in quite a thoughtful way. I’d be very interested in your thoughts about what they came up with. In the video, below, I have set the starting point to just before their conversion, about 3:02:10.

Meanwhile,…  white to move.  Tricky position for white.  Use your first principles.

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

I’m an affiliate now. Great service!

Interested in learning? This guy helped my game.  Try THIS.

Meanwhile… I just received a copy of Fr. Claude Barthe’s book, now in English, A Forest of Symbols: The Traditional Mass and Its Meaning

Fr. Barthe was ordained by Archbp. Lefevbre in 1979 and is incardinated in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.

This is published by the wonderful Angelico Press.

US HERE – UK HERE

Here is an excerpt.  I really like approaches like this.  Many of the things we do at Mass developed from ancient uses and then took on spiritual meanings, depending on the loving meditation of the commentator.  Some of the spiritualized interpretations differ, and that’s okay.  There is no reason to force any of them.    Here is Fr. Barthe on the incensation of the offertory gifts.  I went right to this section, because I’ve been looking for some time now for an explanation of the way the priest makes the circular incensations, echoed in, for example, the rite of consecration of a church.

The priest then traces three circles with the smoking censer around the offerings consisting of the bread and the chalice, while saying, Et descendat super nos misericordia tua . . . (and may thy mercy come down upon us) in order to show that this host and this sacrifice are surrounded by the merits of Jesus Christ. This good savor of the merits and prayers of Christ, which fills the entire house (Jn 12:3), also recalls the gesture of Mary Magdalen. We will therefore note that this triple censing recalls the three occasions when she anointed Christ (or, in the case of the last, the anointing prepared for the tomb and which she wished to carry out on Easter morning, the occasion when she wanted to anoint Christ, since the intention is as good as the action): the first being when she anointed Jesus’s feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Lk 7:36–38); the second being when she spread perfume on his hair (Mt 26:6–7) and his feet (Jn 12:3) in the house of Simon the leper; and the third being when she bought aromatic spices to go and anoint Jesus when he had been laid in the tomb (Mk 16:1). The spread of the incense, like that of the perfume spread by Mary Magdalen’s vase, signifies that this action, which heralds the meritorious death of Christ, shines out over all the church: “Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her” (Mt 26:13).

Beautiful.

This pattern of incensation was destroyed for the Novus Ordo by the “experts” of the Concilium who were tasked with a reform that was supposed to make no changes that were a) not organic developments from existing forms and b) truly for the good of the people.

The sun rose over Rome at 0632 and it will set at 1951.  The days are lengthening.  The Ave Maria is set to ring at 2000.

I am sure that you are all fully aligned with and eager to know about the ringing of the Ave Maria in Rome, which is – as you know – not the same as the Angelus… in this season the Regina Caeli.   The old lists say that the Ave Maria at this time of year should ring at 1900.  That was, however, before the “ora legale”… daylight saving time.  Hence, from 2 April until 15 April it is at 2000 instead of 1900.

The Roman Station is at Santi Dodici Apostoli… it is, after all, a Thursday.   You long-time readers will recall the connection of Thursdays with this place.   S12 is also the burial place of Clement XIV of happiest memory.

Last night the sacrament of baptism was conferred by a bishop at Ss. Trinità.  One of the catechumens was brought along by The Great Roman™.  You can bet that that one knows the Faith!

Here is a lovely “oil stock” used for the rite.   Not bad.

Late afternoon on my way home.  There is an idiot offering to do card readings, etc., on the right, thus placing them in danger of demonic attachment.  When I go by him I invoke the Holy Angels to bind him and the demons and to bring all his efforts to nothing.

A view of the window of the shop where I often stop for cheeses, etc.

Here are a few shots from the Easter Vigil, sampled from very many.

Look at all these dangerous people!  They could overturn THE COUNCIL!  They must be repressed!

And then there are these guys!  Archconfraternity.  Arch-VILLIANS, more like! Imagine all that subversive anti-conciliar activity like… like… catechizing and feeding the poor.  Pffft.   They must be dealt with.

Meanwhile,…

Interested in learning? This guy helped my game.  Try THIS.

Black to move and mate.

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

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE  These links take you to a generic “catholic” search in Amazon, but, once in and browsing or searching, Amazon remembers that you used my link and I get the credit.

Moving? Try Real Estate for Life

In the city of Bp. Athanasius Schneider, Astana, Ian Nepomniachtchi yesterday surprised us with an opening d4. With a QGD Ding Liren fought with black for a draw by repetition after 30 moves. Ding has white today against Nepo beginning 1100 CET 0200 EDT. I have found the commentary by Anish Giri (#6 FIDE) to be quite instructive. It is amazing what he sees that the other two GMs don’t, and he explains well.

Also, an interviewer found out that these days Ding Liren has been listening a lot to Bob Dylan.  Not what I would have guessed.

Many thanks to a recent Roman Sojourn donor who mentioned flowers. I got some alstroemeria which is opening up brightly. Flowers always make the place little more cheerful. Thank you. I am praying for all my benefactors here in Rome, regular monthly donors and the goal directed as well (e.g., this Rome trip, help with plumbers bill back home, just because, etc.) especially with Mass intentions. It is my duty and pleasure to pray for you. In the last couple of days, I heard from MM, AB, MK, and MH.

At 0633 – up. At 1950 – down. The Ave Maria is still in the 2000 slot.

The Roman Station is at S. Lorenzo fuori le mura. I was once deacon for the Station Mass there celebrated by my bishop and got to sing the Gospel from high atop the great ambo.

Yesterday involved moving things and starting the basic shopping and some repairs. Today will involve the same, along with some writing and a good walk later. It is unseasonably cool here, which I welcome.

Out with friends the other night.  Which drink is mine?

A few little starters.

I opted for orata.

Last night, however, I opted for caprese with a lovely tomato from my usual veg stand.

In the sacristy, everything is set up for a pontifical baptism.

Here is a bugia.  It is used at different times during Masses by priests when the celebrant is reading from the Missale.  Bishops get them pretty much all the time.

Along the way I thought to share a few photos from last Holy Week.   Not systematically.  Just for nice.

Meanwhile,…

Black to move.

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

Will you remember a few things?

First, do frequent the shop of the lovely Summit Dominicans.

Also, when you use Amazon, please use my link. You get your stuff, and I get a small cut of the sale. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE

Finally, consider sponsoring your priest so he can go to the conference for priests organized by the St. Paul Center.

It seems the whole men-finding-deviant-ways-to-compete-against-women farce has also invaded chess. In the Kenyan Open Championship, a guy wearing a niqab with only his glasses and eyes visible, pretended to be a woman in order to win a prize. Apparently he walked funny and wore shoes worn by men.

Today, Ding and Nepo face off again. Nepo is up 1.5 to .5. Ding’s game yesterday did not go well at all after a really strange 4th move, perhaps – surely, rather – suggested by his second, Richard Rapport, a somewhat erratic Hungarian who plays under the Romanian flag.

The sun rose, and I sometime later, at 635 and it will set, and I sometime after, at 1948.  The 2000 cycle holds for the Ave Maria.

It is Tuesday in the Octave of Easter and the Station is St. Paul’s outside-the-walls.   We celebrate St. Gemma Galgani today, a great saint.

Today I left my temporary digs, useful for Holy Week purposes and with the Chicagoans who have departed and have transferred to the Roman Sojourn Apartment.

I started making my first rounds of collecting things for the place, but a sandwich was necessary.

And a suppli.

I went to my usual veg stand in the Campo.  The PEAS have come in and they are magnificent.  Soooo sweet.

Perhaps more later.   This afternoon I have been getting all the tech set up, bags unpacked, lists made of what to purchase… food stuffs, cleaning things, items someone broke in the meantime, etc.

I may curl up for a power nap before I hit the cobbles again.

Right now my plan for supper is caprese with mozzarella from my most dependable place.  Shall I make something warm, too?   Who knows?

Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Ding Liren in game 2.  Tomorrow is game 3.