Fr. Z's Blog

Today the Ave Maria Bell ring time has moved into a new stage of its cycles, now scheduled – and ignored – at 2-:30.

The Roman sunrise was 06:01. The Roman sunset will be at 20:14.

Welcome new registrant:

deaconchuck

It is the traditional Feast of St. Monnica (the more Punic spelling, or regular Monica), mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. She died in Ostia where she took ill on the way back to N. Africa with her family and friends. As she lay dying in Ostia, Monnica told Augustine (conf. 9):

“Lay this body anywhere, let not the care for it trouble you at all. This only I ask, that you will remember me at the Lord’s altar, wherever you be.”

Could I ask the same of you when you hear about me?

She was buried there in Ostia. Her body was later moved to the Church of St. Augustine in Rome across the street from where I lived for many years.

There’s a great deal to say about this remarkable women.

Did you know that Monnica was the first woman to have an active role in an ancient philosophical dialogue? Indeed, Augustine includes her pivotal remarks in the dialogues before his baptism, because she was the baptized person there!

I’ll remind you of a newish book on Augustine:

REVIEW: The book on Augustine which Pope Benedict would have wanted to write.

Also, if you want a really interesting, different, book on the Doctor of Grace, check out Serge Lancel‘s volume.

It is also the Feast of the Martyrs of England and Wales.  I think there are some 280+ beatified and canonized martyrs from those horrible years of Protestant hatred and ferocious persecution.

Right now, as I write, I am looking beyond my monitor to the bell tower of the Venerable English College, where many of the priest martyrs studied before returning to England and glory.

That might not be a cheerful bit of new, more sobering than cheerful.  This is always cheery.  I posted the dear rondini the other day and I’m posting them again because I like them.  They always lift my spirits, and they need lifting.

Last night I saw a documentary of sorts about USS Gerald R. Ford which is finally out and about.  A buddy of mine was chaplain on her during the shakedown.   When they were talking about things the crew did for entertainment….

It reminds me something another military friend passed on some years ago, a soda can cozy with “Navy Chess: Anytime – Anywhere – Anyone” on it.   I tried in vain to find the organizers, though – if memory serves – there was an old brochure for recruiting new team members for tournaments.  Anyway, I tweaked the design a little and made a one-off mug for myself in my Cafepress store.  I turned that shop “on” for public view … temporarily.

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

Here’s another thing that make me happy.

Thank you flower donors!  You brighten my days.

These make me happy, too.

Radicchio

a) from Earth and

b) from the recently, perhaps not quite successfully terraformed, Exomoon LV-426.

NEWS:

The wonderful Benedictine nuns of Gower Abbey, who have the great music albums, have a book for girls about the religious life they live.

The story is about a postulant being introduced to all the aspects of life of the nuns at the Abbey. It is very sweet. I am reminded of one of my favorite books Little Saint Placid.

Brides of Christ.

US HERE – UK HERE (not yet)

The text is in poetry, good for reading aloud to a little girl, I should think.

Use FATHERZ10 at checkout

Last night for supper I had some chicken and fries and sauteed peppers.

The “bed” for the spatchcocked galletto, sure to make some good juice for the fries and peppers.

Okay, a few of them got a little doner than others. I got distracted.

I stuffed some celery that needed using around the galletto. It all worked.  Cramped space.

And the result.

I have some leftovers, too.

Here’s a puzzle.

Black to move.  May the force be with you.

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

06:03 was sunrise. 20:12 will be sunset.

On this Feast of St. Athanasius the Ave Maria bell should ring at 20:15.

A big shout out to Bp. Athanasius Schneider, whose name day it is.  Check out his book.

US HERE – UK HERE

What to report from my Roman Sojourn?

Today Holy Mass was for a man with stage 4 cancer.  May God give him and his friends and loved one many graces to persevere.  Through the intercession of Bl. Pauline Jaricot, if it be God’s will, I pray that he will receive miraculous healing, sudden, complete and lasting.

I’ve been very social lately.   Quite a few people have been in contact to meet up and I’ve rather uncharacteristically made more social engagements than for quite some time.   This resulted in eating out more times than during my last few Roman Sojourns.  That has taken some pressure off of my stove, though I enjoy the tasks of cooking (except for dishes).

Here was something I had “in”.  Insalata caprese.  I was in my favored “deli” and the mozzarella looked so good and oozy that I had to have one.

This is an object lesson about how we human beings react to seeing things.  We tend to want what we see.  This is why it is important to maintain “custody of the eyes”, especially in regard to certain alluring things.

The other day a new restaurant opened in a space that had an eatery I had frequented for some decades.  I had the pleasure of being their first paying customer: as they were setting up for their first evening, I bought a glass of wine, thus making me their first paying customer.   The wine that time was the same as the wine in the photo below, from lunch yesterday, a Lazio white called “Arciprete”.   Yesterday lunch was with a young man from NY who has been a reader for some time.  We met at this new place.

I was favorably impressed.  One of the things on the menu for starters is fava beans with pecorino!   This is super Roman!

The key is to eat the raw beans with the same amount of cheese.  The white wine, dry and minerally, binds it all together in springy Roman perfection.

For primi we wound up having two courses, each divided in two so we could each try more than one thing.  This was interesting and quite good and hearty: a Milan-Rome fusion, risotto with saffron, alla milanese, and Roman ossobuco with marrow.

Serving the coffee in little moka pots is a little gimmicky but fun.

The evening took me to a favorite neighborhood place for another meet up.  This resto has Roman and Sicilian dishes.  Behold their sea critter soup.  I hadn’t had it before.  It was terrific. (NB: All mussels and clams were open.)

My friend had a spaghetti concoction with critters of the sea.

The waiter nearby was dressing out an orata.  Gotta be careful with those orata bones, sonny.

Lest I be overwhelmed with food, my main course was an appetizer: a small slice of eggplant parmigiana and caponata and an arancino (which I opted to take home).

You’ve seen my favorite flower stand by day.  Here it is by night.

My freesia has gone to its reward.   I want to pick up more tomorrow after Mass and post office errand.

It rained most of yesterday afternoon and evening.

Tonight it’s going to be eating in: LEFT OVERS!  Do not pity me.  No, really.  Don’t.  That’s not so bad, since that means tidying up  slices of sausage and a little taleggio and gorgonzola, some olives and a few remaining marinated anchovies and the tail end of a good red.  Should I make a spaghetto? Or maybe two? … Nah.  I could make aglio olio pepperoncino with just a touch of acciughe. Nah.  Another day, for lunch maybe.  Although… it is also a great dessert option.

Meanwhile, I worked on the QGD a bit today (so many lines to look at – how do they do it?  For one thing they start when they are FIVE and then don’t stop for several DECADES) along with my daily quota of puzzles.

Here is a puzzle for you.  White to move.  Your eye sees that black’s king is still centralized, uncastled.  You see that black has offered a queen trade, hoping to simplify into an end game to get those pawns moving without that terrifying queen to deal with.  Black’s M40 episcopal sniper rifle is zeroed in long distance on the g pawn and his M252A1 81mm rook can fire for effect on h4 when Her Majesty wanders away.  And what are those ponies doing back in the Rank 3 Corral?  They’d be a lot more useful if they were centralized, especially against an inevitable black pawn storm on the king’s side, charging when the whistles blow, afraid to be shot if they don’t run forward to pick up the rifle left by fallen comrades.  Such drama on these boards.

What to do?

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

Will you visit the Dominican sisters’ shop and see what is available? Help them out.

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.

And I hope you will get some chess gear.  I heard from someone that a bunch of the seminarians at the North American College are playing OTB, which warms by beady black heart.

Chess is a thing.

I can imagine St. Athanasius spending evenings playing chess while in exile.   Of course he didn’t have modern chess, did he.  He died in 373.  But I can picture it, him drinking coffee (which he didn’t have any coffee as Preserved Killick would say) out of one of my Clement XIV mugs (who wouldn’t be Pope for well-over another thousand years).  St. Athanasius, too, would have suppressed the Jesuits (who also wouldn’t be founded for another thousand years).   But in exile he would have been playing chess with coffee from a Clement mug because that’s the sort of guy he was, no question!  I see him now: St. Athanasius scanning through my little online shop for Papa Ganganelli gear: HERE and ordering one of the shirts with the text of Clement’s Bull that suppressed the Society, sending one to St. Hillary over in Poitiers.  Maybe sending a Custos Traditionis shirt to St. Basil of Caesarea.  So many things to choose from, but always using Father Z’s links when shopping online.

Thanks, Athanasius!

And thanks to all of my benefactors who made this time possible  You are dear to me.  Mass for your intention Thursday at 0700.

I have often asserted in these pages that St. Joseph is a powerful intercessor.  I have received amazing interventions by this great saint, who is the earthly father of the Son of God.  I recently committed my material cares to him in this time of need.  Since then I have experienced his intercession as at no other time in my life.  He has interceded in ways that are so obvious – it is so clear that it is he doing things – that it’s funny.

Pray to St. Joseph, especially in your needs concerning your work and your vocation.  St. Joseph is a powerful intercessor.  He comes through for you especially when you are specific about what you need and when you need it.

I recommend St. Joseph especially for fathers in families.  Fathers, GO TO CONFESSION!  I think that would please Joseph.

May I suggest that you pray, often, the Litaniae Sancti Ioseph?

And remember the mighty Bux Protocol™.  This is more needed today than ever before.  Joseph is the Patron of the Church, after all.

Today’s feast of St. Joseph, the Worker, is modern.  It was given to the Church by Ven. Pope Pius XII in 1955.

We celebrate Joseph today especially as a patron of workers.  No doubt the thought behind the feast was, among other motives, to offset the incorrect atheistic, materialist view of work and workers presented by Socialism and Communism.

May Day had been a civic feast in many places since ancient times and festivals were held.

COLLECT 1962MR:

Rerum conditor Deus, qui legem laboris humano generi statuisti: concede propitius; ut, sancti Ioseph exemplo et patricinio, opera perficiamus quae praecipis, et praemia consequamur quae promittis.

Do not to confuse the verbs condo, condere and condio, condire, both of which give is “conditor“… one being cónditor and the other condítor.

SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:

O God, creator of things, who established the law of labor for human kind: grant, propitiously; that, by the example and patronage of Saint Joseph, we may bring to completion the works which you command, and we may attain the rewards which you promise.

At the heart of our vocation as images of God we all have work to do.  God, our Creator, “worked” and then rested and saw that His work was good.  This is also our paradigm as His images.

When our First Parents revolted against God’s command, the entire human race fell.  The human race consisted of only two people, but it was the whole of the human race.  In their fall, we fell.

As a consequence of the Fall, man is now out of sync with God, himself, others and nature.  We do not live in the harmony that would make the tasks of stewardship of the gift of life and the honor of being at the pinnacle of material creation without sorrow, toil and pain.

And yet even before the Fall man had been given labor by God the Father.  Man had duties in the Garden.  It was our Fall that transformed that labor into toil.

God knew every one of us from before the Creation of the universe.  He calls us into existence at the exact point and place in His plan He foresaw in His providence.  We have a role to play in God’s plan.  We have work to do.

When we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling our part in God’s plan according to our vocations, whatever they may be in our own circumstances, God will give us every actual grace we need to do His will and come to our perpetual reward in heaven.

He gives us the work, the grace and the glory.  The harder the times and work, the greater the honor and glory.

With our wounded nature, our disordered passions and appetites, it is hard to understand that the work we do in life is a manifestation of both present grace and anticipated glory.

As an early American preacher once said,

“grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected”.

Put another way, God gives us the work and then He makes our hands strong enough for the task.  The achievement is therefore both His and truly ours.

As St. Augustine says, God crowns His own merits in us.

Two last things.

Try to wrap your head around the paradox in the vocation of St. Joseph.  Firstly, he was a relatively poor craftsman, a tekton, which in Greek is “builder” and certainly includes “carpenter”. However, when you consider the implications of the genealogy at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph was also the true heir to the Davidic throne!  And we don’t have in Scripture a single word spoken by him.  Hidden vocation and hidden thought.  The fine scripture scholar Brandt Pitre has a recording of talks he did on St. Joseph which I highly recommend: HERE.

Also, you will love Fr. Calloway’s book on Joseph.

We being the month dedicated to the Mother of God by venerating St. Joseph, under the title of Worker.

If not for the clouds, today we would have seen the sunrise at 06:05.  It will probably still be cloudy at 20:11 when the sun is to set.

The Ave Maria doesn’t depend on clouds and it should ring at 20:15.

Please consider saying the Rosary daily during May if you don’t already.

The last couple of days have been rainy.  Rome is a rather awful place when it rains.  The cobbles, “san pietrini”, can be slippery.  Cars passing splash you.  Etc.

Rome at its most treacherous, when it starts to rain after a long dry period, before rain can wash the dust, and the grease and oil of vehicles away.

Sun one way and clouds in the other.

Just a great view.

You can see in this typical Roman fountain, “nasone”, the little hole on the top of the curved spout.  By blocking the spout, water squirts up and you can drink from the stream. It is very good water.

Mary, help us all.  Help me with my petitions.  Intercede for my benefactors.

There are different ways to lay out vestments for the priest.  Here is one way (mine).

Here is another way (the sacristan’s).

Here’s a puzzle.

White to move.  You are down a piece but that enemy king is exposed to attack.

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

I’m now a chess.com affiliate, which uses House of Staunton, which is super-reliable.

Get some training from Igor.  Try THIS.

And get some great beer from the traditional Benedictines of Norcia! Invite friends over for a Rosary and to play chess over the board while enjoying a brew with savory sausage and cheeses.