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 Christmas?
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.
Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?
I have a few thoughts about the Epistle in the Vetus Ordo for Midnight Mass: HERE
For a couple years I’ve posted about this custom. This year I had pretty much forgotten about it until I got an email from a priest who asked for a recording of this year’s version. The main text does really change but the intro does. It all has to do with the Moon. It’s complicated.
It was a custom for centuries to sing the Kalendas, the solemn announcement of the birth of the Savior at Prime. Since Prime isn’t being sung in many places, and since we need to have these good customs in far greater use, I say go ahead and sing it before Midnight Mass in the Vetus Ordo. Heck, the Novus Ordo too. Why not?
In the proclamation, the birth of Christ follows a list of important events, set points in history, which therefore puts the birth of Christ into the context of the history of salvation, beginning with the Creation of the world and culminating in the Nativity.
Remember that in the ancient world there was no standard calendar. So, one way to pinpoint events was to say what else was going on at the time according to other reckonings of time. The overlap of the dates would then give you the desired result, like a chronological Venn Diagram. The overlapping of the dates of the events cited in the Proclamation results in an accurate dating of the Nativity, that is 3/2 BC. There is good scholarship that reinforces 3/2 BC and cleans up a dating error for the year of Herod’s death.
The older Roman Martyrology has the notation for the Modus Ordinarius. It is rather like the “prophecy tone” and you raise the pitch at certain places.
There is a fancier rendering which is provided by Cappella Gregoriana Sanctæ Cæciliæ olim Xicatunensis. HERE
Here’s what the Kalendas sounds like more or less, if you can stand my singing without much of a review. I also find it interesting that as I started this there was one noisy interruption after another.
And keep in mind there is also on Epiphany the singing of the announcement of the moveable feasts for 2023, the Noveritis, “Let y’all know”, which does change quite a bit from year to year for obvious reasons.
Merry Christmas!
Alas, this is not from the new presepio of Ss. Trinità dei Pelegrini e Convalescenti. I had hoped for a close up of the Holy Family for today, but it was not to be. Instead this is from the same rione of Rome, Regola, but from the little national church of the Neapolitans, whom you would expect to have a Neapolitan style presepio. I appreciate the presence of the Ox and Ass and a Lamb.
Meanwhile, …
Black to move and win material and dominance.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Interested in learning? Try THIS.
Many thanks to DSP for this spiffy Christmas present from my wishlist. This is a mini set, as you can see from the nearby penny. It’s a different color than the one as it appeared on my list. “Different” indeed.
Tiny magnets are in the bases of the pieces and the board itself is bit of flexible magnetic sheet.
Everything can be put inside and the pieces slide together to shut.
This is definitely not a set for blitz! The bishops are a little hard to distinguish from pawns… which is ironic since in some positions your bishops wind up being tall pawns! And you just about need a tweezer to move pieces without disturbing other pieces.
Anyway, it’s fun and it gave me a smile today. Thanks!
The St. Paul’s Boys Choir has a CD of Christmas music. It is available also in MP3. UK link HERE
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From the magnificent new presepio at Ss. Trinità dei Pelegrini. Simply fantastic.
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Meanwhile,…
BLACK to move. Sorry I didn’t put this in at first.
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
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May I now suggest that you order up your discs of CHRISTMAS CAROLS by the Benedictine of Mary, Queen of Apostles? They are building their new daughter house and your purchase will give them income.
Caroling at Ephesus
I received this email.
First, let me say… GO TO CONFESSION! That means PRIESTS too!
Next, use my tips for making a good confession. HERE
Now… I received this email.
Good afternoon, Father.
In the middle of a recent confession, something I said must have triggered the ever-listening Amazon app on the priest’s phone, and Alexa suddenly blurted out, “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that.”
This set me to speculating over the possibility of surveillance through our cell phones. Just think of how many apps we happily grant access to our microphones (including the CCP-beholden TikTok)–I fear a scenario wherein a well-intentioned person can inadvertently undermine the privacy of the confessional through lack of vigilance.
In the past, you have (rightfully) criticized efforts to introduce long-distance phone confession/absolution as a serious threat to privacy. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to consider this angle as well. [It is not only a threat to privacy but the absolution would be INVALID. Absolution cannot be given at a distance over a phone or by ham radio, etc.]
I hesitate to bring this up anywhere because I would hate to discourage anxious penitents or for people to start hounding their priests about it, but might it be prudent for Church leaders to discuss the possible consequences modern technology has for confession privacy and issue guidance for priests, if they haven’t already?
Fathers… is it necessary to take your phone into the confessional? Really?
Lay people… is it necessary to take your phone into the confessional? Really?
Bottom line. It is probably a very bad idea to take your phone into the confessional.
Lastly, Fathers, if you are parish priests, pastors, and you aren’t providing adequate times for people to go confession, and if you are not teaching about confession, you should consider the Four Last Things, and in particular Hell.
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Meanwhile,…
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
If you are looking for a nice last minute gift, how about a 1 year gift diamond membership to chess.com? Heck, who wouldn’t want that? I just had a flash of a bunch of readers here with an online private chess club.
Interested in learning? Try THIS. 60%-80% discounts until 31 Dec.
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.
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A continuation of our look at the O Antiphons for these last few days before Christmas…
LATIN: O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.
ENGLISH: O King of the gentiles/nations and their desired One, the cornerstone that makes both one: come, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the mud.
Scripture Reference:
Revelation 15:3
Psalm 118:22
Isaiah 28:16
Matthew 21:42
Mark 12:10
Luke 20:17
Acts 4:11
Ephesians 2:20
I Peter 2:6
Relevant verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel:
O come, Desire of nations, bind,
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of peace.
During Advent, the Voice of the Word, the greatest man born of woman, St. John the Baptist calls for us to prepare the way for the Lord who is coming. The Lord is coming by the straight path, whether we have straightened it or not.
The Baptist’s message has it its core his own mission statement: He must increase, I must decrease.
In life we experience many different forms of “straightening” and “decreasing”.
Chief among them is rejection, with the pain that comes with it.
The King who is coming sacramentally and liturgically at Bethlehem teaches us how to empty ourselves and how to endure the emptying which comes from the vicissitudes of our fallen state, our face to face and heart to heart meetings with cruelty, malice and indifference.
Allow me to riff on a word or two. Let’s take limus… mud.
In English when we “mud” something, we use a kind of cement. To “lime” something is to put a sticky covering on it. Ezekiel describes the walls that are limed with mud. The Jews in Egypt made bricks from mud and Nahum describes making bricks of mud to strengthen walls. The Lord used mud of saliva to heal a blind man. Of course we human beings were made by God from the mud, sometimes described as mud’s opposite, dust. Hebrew aw-fawr’ means, “clay, earth, mud:—ashes, dust, earth, ground, mortar, powder, rubbish.”
Limus is, ironically, something which falls apart like dust and which sticks things together like cement. Christ, when He comes as Liberator, will free everyone to do as he pleases. Some will be blown like dust in their self-liberation. Others will freely stick to Christ like cement, and in Him be truly free.
Christ is the connector.
He is the cornerstone in the antiphon, which is an allusion to the cornerstone that was rejected. In Acts 4 Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached about the stone that builders rejected. Peter repeated what he heard Christ quote, Ps 118, one of the great Hallel psalms, about the stone rejected by the builders winding up being the corner stone. Ps 118 is one of the six Psalms which were recited at Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, on Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and on the eight days of Hanukkah. Peter uses the image again in 1 Peter 2. Everyone would have recognized the reference. But Peter goes on saying: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
In Ephesians 2:20 Paul has Christ as akrogoniaios – keystone, cornerstone. A cornerstone describes also a keystone, the sort of stone that caps an arch and, by its presence, holds the other stones in their proper places. A corner stone connects and holds together two walls. Christ holds together Jews and Gentiles, that is “everyone”. Holy Church, built on a Rock, is like a temple of living stones, limed and anointed with Christ, our mud mudded by and mortared to Christ. Those who are mud limus are cemented down in Him and we are truly free to be who we are. Those who chose the dust limus are blown away, atomized on the wind, never to with anything or anyone.
In calling Christ the King of the nations, gentiles, we have a reference to the Passion and to the Second Coming. As old Simon saw the Light of the Gentiles in the Infant Christ, we shall see the Light of the Son in glory in the Second Coming. Also, remember that when Christ was wroth that people had taken over a section of the Temple for commerce, etc., His anger stemmed from the fact that they had taken the Courtyard of the Gentiles. But the coming of the gentiles to find the Messiah was one of the signs that Christ’s mission was ready for its fulfillment in the Passion. When the Jews and gentiles joined in this way, “the day” was at hand when He would set us free from our sins.
Shall we hear the monks of Le Barroux? This was recordedin 2018, when 22 Dec fell on a Sunday. Hence, because they are incensing the altar during the Magnificat, etc., which takes a while they repeat the antiphon. Not a problem, of course!
Photo by The Great Roman™
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Meanwhile,…
White to move and win material.
This one made me work! There’s an attractive “tactic” at the beginning.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
I am delighted to announce that Chess House has created a 10% off coupon code for you, my readers! FATHERZ10 (the same code as for the wine that the monks of Le Barroux are producing).
Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. Here’s a generic “catholic” link. US HERE – UK HERE
Need to move? This group helps you find a realtor who will give a percentage of the fee to a prolife group.
Welcome new registrant:
Dave Zengel
Today is 21 December, the Winter Solstice and the Feast of the Old Testament Prophet St. Micah.
Since the beginning of December, Holy Mother Church has been imitating the Lord on the Road to Emmaus.
She has been reminding us of all the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah who would also be incarnate God.
She has done this subtly, through feast days, but feasts that are not generally visible to most of us. Holy Mother Church has used her “album of the saints”, the Roman Martyrology, to teach about the Old Testament Prophets.
Sometimes you hear people – even priests, for shame – use the word “liturgy” when they mean “Mass”. “In today’s ‘liturgy’…”, they say.
No. The Mass is the greatest expression of the Church’s liturgy, but it is not all there is. There are also the canonical hours of the divine Office. The Office also makes use of the liturgical book called the Roman Martyrology.
Paging through the 2005 Martyrology, we find that many Old Testament figures are counted as saints.
If the general calendar of the Church permits, it would even be possible to celebrate them for Mass!
Today, for example, is the Winter Solstice AND the Feast of St. Micah. Micah said (5:2)
But you, O Bethlehem Eph?rathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
About those Old Testament prophets…
Keep in mind that in earlier days, Advent was longer than it is now, from Martinmas. Prophets start popping up in the calendar in the 2005 Martyrology.
19 Nov – Abdia or Obediah. (RomMart 2005, p. 632)
1 Dec – Nahum (p. 652)
2 Dec – Habakkuk (p. 654)
3 Dec – Sophonius or Zephaniah (p. 655)
16 Dec – Haggai (p. 674) and some sources David (others have David on 29 Dec)
18 Dec – Malachi (p. 677)
21 Dec – Micah (p. 680)
24 Dec – “Commemoratio omnium sanctorum avorum Iesu Christi, filii, David, filii Abraham, filii Adam…” (p. 684) Commemoration of all the holy “ancestors” (lit. grandfathers) of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham, son of Adam
Just a little public service announcement.
FYI… other prophets
1 May – Jeremiah (p. 263)
9 May – Isaiah (p. 277)
15 June – Amos (p. 338)
20 July – Elijah (p. 401)
21 July – Daniel (1878 MartRom)
23 July – Ezekiel (p. 408)
4 Sept – Moses (1878 MartRom)
6 Sept – Zachariah (1878 MartRom)
21 Sept – Jonah (p. 528)
17 Oct – Hosea (p. 575)
19 Oct – Joel (p. 579)
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I am delighted to announce that Chess House has created a 10% off coupon code for you, my readers! FATHERZ10 (the same as for the wine that the monks of Le Barroux are producing)
Use FATHERZ10 at checkout
Meanwhile, white to move and win material.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Use your phone’s camera!
3:16 isn’t just in John.
And… it’s great! I really enjoy mine.
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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