Fr. Z's Blog

Rome enjoyed a new sunrise at 06:07 and looks forward to another beautiful building hue changing sunset this evening at 20:08. Seven minutes later the Ave Maria is supposed to ring… but won’t… mostly.

In the Novus calendar it is the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Patroness of Italy. In the Vetus calendar, she is celebrated tomorrow bumping the Sunday of Eastertide. Today, however, is the Feast of St Peter Martyr, who was killed, if memory serves, with a sword to the head by a Cathar assassin.  Those Cathars!  He is said to have, in life, conversed with Sts. Catherine of Alexandria, Agnes and Cecilia.

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RikiPotsticker

There is a new Chinese potsticker place (and other dim sum) nearby at P.za Farnese.

I’m writing this part in the morning.  Today I have to finish a weekly piece for One Peter Five and get into Game 14 between Nepo and Ding.  This is it.  The last classical game for all the marbles.   A draw will result in a tie-break.  This has been a really exciting match.  In a way, I’m sort of glad that what’s his face isn’t in it.

Morning Mass brought me to look longer at a painting by the altar I used that I thought was St. Rita of Cascia.  It is really St. Giacinta (Hyacintha) Marescotti (+1640), a Franciscan.

Here are two photos of the painting, one with my older, Italian iPhone XR and one with my little Canon SX720 which you might remember that I (thanks to readers) repaired. HERE

What do you think?  Which is better?  Same position, same light, default settings. No touch ups.

And this…. 5.67MB

And this 1.91MB.  A quarter of the size of the first.  There has to be more data in the first, right?  However, it gets the colors right.

Here is a touch up of the first, using Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.

What say you?

More about her.  She was a bad nun.

Her given name would have pleased Dr. Lector, Clarice.  She was a frivolous thing even after a life-threatening event.  She had her heart set on a young Marquis who dumped her for her younger sister, so, to whitewash her shame she went into the convent.  She kept stashes of good stuff for herself, had only the highest quality of habits and received lots of visitors.  One day when she was ill a priest brought her Communion, saw her stuff, and read her the riot act.   Total conversion resulted.   She got rid of the stash and finery and during plague served the poor and sick in fasting and great mortifications.  When she died she had a terrific “fama sanctitatis”.  She is one of the patronesses of the Archconfraternity of the Pilgrims and Convalescents which is now revived at the parish.  Surely this is because of her work with the poor and ill.

After Mass I went, as one does, to my fishmonger.  Tonight, I told myself, its spaghetti with clams, vongole veraci, “da Zeta” and not in a restaurant where they charge criminally high prices for things you ought to be able to make yourself.   But, alas, most people roaming about for restaurants are tourists or short-stay folks, constrained to eat out.

This is one of the reasons I am so grateful for your donations so I have have a longer term place with a kitchen: I save huge money by cooking for myself.  Not only save, I enjoy it from the planning to the shopping to the prep to the execution and to the consumption.  Dishes, not so much.  I have, however, learned how to say “I am washing the dishes” in Hungarian: mosogatok (accent on the first syllable).

This morning, therefore, off to the fishmonger where I was greeted by the usual chorus, with a hearty, “What’up?”

Bye to the fish guy:

Hello to the veg stands.  A couple of shots.

Look at these baby artichokes.  Do you imagine them to be good?  Gotta get me some.

Hi to the flower guy, Pippo… and (I think) Milagra.

As usually happens, I catch myself smiling as a progress through the streets which sight, a grinning priest in a cassock carrying the groceries around elicits a great many “Buon giorno, padre!”s, also from the Carabinieri and soldiers on security around the area.

Purging the clams even more.  They say that they are purged.  Uh huh.  Trust, but verify.  You have to be careful with shell fish.

Speaking of, I was invited to a genuinely good restaurant recently and I had a bit of a fit.  Normally when something isn’t quite on par you can shrug and go “meh!” and move on.  However, this was with mussels, cozze.  They sent out some pasta with cozze and about a quarter of them didn’t open.   made serious and pointed comments to the waiter when he asked how it was.

Mussels are not mysterious.  You heat them.  They open.  If they don’t open, do NOT pry them open and – quod Deus avertat! – eat them.

From my point of view, having worked as a cook for years before seminary, it was not the fact that I got fewer mussels in my serving than I should have (that too, of course) but mainly that a cook would send out a dish with something so obvious that could make an unsavvy customer seriously ill.

If you have ever gotten sick from bad seafood, mussels, oysters, clams and the like, you know what I am talking about.  You feel like death might just be an attractive option.

Thus, I shall carefully purge my evening’s vongole for a few hours more. I will be careful not to attempt any that don’t open well.

I still have a few things to gather for the vongole feast this evening: white wine, bread.  I have in the wings some itty-bitty strawberries, fragoline, which I plan to dress with a little sugar and perhaps white wine, as the Romans do, instead of lemon, which is never bad.

Meanwhile,  white to move.

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

GAME 14 TODAY!

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Sunrise 06:09
Sunset 20:07
Ave Maria 20:15

Welcome registrant:

Servatius

In the Novus calendar St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort is celebrated today. In the Vetus, we venerate St. Paul of the Cross, whose tomb is here in Rome at the Basilica of Sts. John and Paul…

After hanging out with the chess guys for a while at the P.za der Fico…

I visited S. Maria della Pace

There are interesting stories about the street leading to this church.  It seems that, back in the day, when the nobility would go from church to church on Sundays for the “sacred glimpse” (the elevation) there would be traffic jams as valets and retainers vied to get passage for their employers’ horse-drawn carriages.  They would not rarely get into massive fights over whose carriage carried the more important Personage.  Tempers could flare.  Swords could be drawn.  People could be stabbed.  Horses could panic.  Carriages could collide.  People could run about screaming.  The usual.  Eventually Pope Alexander VII, Chigi, knocked down some various parts of buildings to widen and straighten the street leading to S. Maria della Pace for the sake of a better view and better public order.

While I was in S.M. della Pace, I noticed that someone hasn’t gotten the memo.  The unfortunate presence of book on display with art by … *gag* … Rupnik.

The Crucifix, marvelous, is 14th c.  The side paintings are by Orazio Gentileschi, father of a favorite of mine – Artemesia.

I wonder about how well-known the Rupnik case is in Rome.

That aside… this is the inside of the ground floor of the place I was looking at on the V. dei Cappellari.

The apartment is a couple doors away where all the green is.

I petition again for the readership to ask St. Joseph and St. Philip to help with … whatever is to happen.  Also, Ven. Mary Ward lived in this neighborhood.  She would be good as ask as well.  There are not all that many places for rent or sale in this “rione”.  Many are in the clutches of Brits, too, it seems.

Anything else of interest today… hmmm… this is fun.

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.

Meanwhile, it’s black’s move.

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

Tomorrow… Game 14!

Pasquino… in a rare moment… has nothing to say. And with that I, too, shall conclude.

Aut tace aut loquere meliora silentio.

Sunrise in Rome was 06:10 and sunset will be at 20:06.  Each day a little longer and they are, right now, beautiful days.

The Ave Maria should ring at 20:15.

It is the Feast of St. Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church.

Last night a couple of retired Navy friends were/are in town.  Here’s one of them when he was at Annapolis.

GO NAVY – BEAT ARMY

We had cocktails at the Campo de’ Fiori – the cocktail culture is being revived in Rome as only the Italians can do followed by supper at a nearby favorite spot with Roman and Sicilian fare.  We started with moscardini and alici fritti with scratch made mayo.

A “bis” divided up… after a while the pasta gets a bit overwhelming.  Behold caccio e pepe and the other with asparagus and truffle.  Very good.

On the way home.

After Mass this morning I noticed something I’ve seen a thousand times.  This time it hit me.  Shell… pilgrims… Trinità dei Pellegrini … DUH!  [Insert forehead slap here.]

Yesterday I followed Game 12.   This is a 14 game match and the first to make it to 7.5 (.5 for a draw and 1.0 for a win) takes Magnus’ title.  As 12 started Ding Liren was down 5 to Nepo’s 6.  Effectively, Nepo would have had a nearly insurmountable lead of 2.o by winning Game 12.

What happened in Game 12 was astonishing.  Nepo with black got a serious positional advantage over Ding and was on the verge of squeezing him like a Boa Constrictor.  Also, knowing that Ding gets into time trouble, he started blitzing out moves.  Bad mistake.  With one misstep, one blunder, he was on the ropes and knew it.  In complete, manifest agony he played a couple more moves and resigned to Ding, who pulled off a stunning victory.  I have bookmarked the video below to just before Nepo’s f5 disaster move.  Watch for a while after as he practically writhes in frustration, talking to himself in sheer disbelief.

Nepo was thunderstruck almost immediately after his error.

That said, think about what goes through the mind of a damned soul in the first few minutes after arrival in Hell.

GO TO CONFESSION.

Here’s a puzzle.  White to move.

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

Oh… in Game 13 Ding with black was up but lost his edge and wound up with a draw.   Tomorrow is a rest day and the final classical Game 14 comes up on Saturday.  The Match is tied at 6.5.

Here in the Eternal City the sunrise was at 0612 in a cloudless sky.  Who knows what the sky shall be when the sun sets at 2005.   The sky will probably be the same at the Ave Maria, still in its 2015 time slot.

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Big Dave
Rock1966

It is the Feast of St. Cletus, Pope and Martyr (+ c. 88).  It is also the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel, after a miraculous image at Genazzano south of Rome.

This morning a couple of the concelebrating priests chose the Mass for Our Lady of Good Counsel, which texts are in the “Aliquibus Locis” section toward the back of the Missal.  Here is a nice view of 6 concelebrating priests done with a pano setting.

Click for larger.  I was facing the church’s central doors.  The one altar without an altar piece… that’s in honor of St. Philip.  The painting is being restored.  Other wise the altars are from left to right St. Giovanni Battista De Rossi, St. Philip Neri, Crucifix and Sorrowful Mother, St. Carlo Borromeo, St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great.  Two other side altars are not visible: St. Matthew and the Blessed Virgin.  The white canopy covers the baptismal font which YOU READERS helped to purchase and install when the church became a parish church!

Here’s a facchino schlepping fruits and vegetables to the stands in the Campo.

Outside church today the rondini were really at it!  Maybe a little hard to see them.  If in my native place my favorites are the chickadees, here in Rome the prize goes to the rondini.

The video is a little kitschy but… meh… the text is there. And for the Italian challenged my rendering:

I would like to enter the wires of a radio
And to fly over the rooftops of cities
To run into dialectal expressions
To blend myself into the smell of a coffee
To stop on the noses of old men while they read newspapers
And with the powder of dreams to fly and fly
To the coolness of the stars…and farther still

Chorus:
Dream, dream in the sea of dreams

I would like to whirl around in the sky like the swallows
And every so often stop here and there
To have a nest under the roofs in the coolness of porticos
And like them, in the evening to close my eyes with simplicity

I want to follow every beat of my heart
To understand what’s going on inside and what moves it
Where this strange sorrow comes from once in a while
I want, in short, to understand what love is
Where it is that it takes you, where it is that it gives you

Chorus:
Dream, dream, in the sky of dreams

My freesia are as happy as rondini this morning.

Meanwhile, today the FIDE World Championship continues in Astana, Kazakhstan to decide who will be called “World Champion” (since Magnus Carlsen abdicated). Game 11 today. Ian Nepomniachtchi will clash with Ding Liren who is down a point and really needs a win. Coverage HERE

White to move. Can you weave the net?

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

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

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE

May I make a recommendation? This morning after Mass I had a quick coffee and cornetto with Eduard Habsburg who has a new book.  Eduard is Hungary’s Ambassador to the Holy See.  The forward is by Viktor Orbán.

The Habsburg Way 7 Rules for Turbulent Times

US HERE – UK HERE

0613 for sunrise today and 2004 for sunset.  The Ave Maria is still in the 2015 cycle on this 115th day of the year.

It is the Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist, liturgically rich.  Today is a Rogation Day.  Latin rogare means “to ask, beg”.  Even before the time of Pope St. Gregory I, “the Great” (+604) this day, 25 April – thought to be the day that Peter began to “oversee” the Church of Rome, was a time for a procession and the singing of solemn litanies, the “Greater Litanies”.

Processions and litanies are ways in which the Church responds to our needs in time of natural disasters or famine or plagues or invasion.  Today in the Church there are some unnatural disasters in key positions, sacramental famine from the closing of churches during Covidian Theatre and restrictions placed on the Vetus Ordo, plagues in the form of sickening parishes and Catholic identity resulting in demographic decline, and invasions from non-Catholics even at the altars in our loftiest places of worship in Rome itself.

Perhaps those sound priests out there should take matters into their own hands and organize processions and the signing of litanies.

In the Rome of old, we would be gathering at San Lorenzo in Lucina, where there is a lovely Crucifixion by Guido Reni.  Then, by way of the Via Flaminia, we would process to St. Peter’s taking the Milvian Bridge.   Later, in the Medieval period, there were two processions to St. Peter’s, one from the Lateran Palace with the ecclesiastical figures and another from San Marco near the Capitoline Hill wherein civil figures participated.   Every aspect of society bringing petitions to God.

Meanwhile, there was concelebration this morning in church.

A bride’s bouquet is still at the Marian altar.  (One might see a list of intentions for the living and for the dead during the Roman Canon.)

The Campo was mighty quiet this morning, though the shops are set up.  It is a national holiday.  You should be able to right-click for a larger version of this “pano”.

Breakfast was had.

I stopped to greet the folks at my regular flower stand, the only one open today.  The owner, Pippo asked if I was going to church and gave me a lovely long-stemmed rose: per la Madonna.

Back to church went I and gave it to Mary Help of the Suffering, a beautiful image at Ss. Trinità.  I gave her that flower – adding it to some tulips – and also lit a candle for the mother of one of my closest and longest friends whose mother is seriously ailing from major kidney problems and quite a few other maladies as well.

Back in the street again and heading home.  Once again I asked St. Philip for help with a place in Rome in this neighborhood.

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Here’s a puzzle.  White to move.   Be sneaky and win material.

Igor has helped my game.

01615 was the sun’s rising and at 2003 will it set.  The Ave Maria is at 2015.

Today is the Feast of, among others, foundress of the Brigidines, S. Maria Elisabeth Hesselblad (+1957 whose tomb is just up the way.  I see their bell tower from my window.

Welcome registrant:

LSL

Today I had a chat with the manager of the place where I am staying in Rome about a couple of things.  First, the washing machine was not draining and needed maintenance and, next, my return next October.

I’ll have to start raising funds for October one of these days.   In the meantime, I also would remind the readership to pray for a more stable Roman solution which I and a couple of priests could use.  St. Joseph!  St. Philip!  Help us!

Meanwhile, my alstroemeria finally went the way of all flesh.  When I went out to the vegetable stand at the Campo de’ Fiori this morning, I got some fresh flowers, some of the same and also …

… freesia.  Is that how it is spelled?

They are so cheery and bright.

My somewhat cramped workspace.  I’ve turned the apartment TV into a monitor.

And as long as we are in still life mode.  I have a plan for the big peppers, beasts of things, heavy, that will probably but not necessarily involve sausages, in honor of friends in Chicago.  They are amazing… both, the friends and the peppers.

The flowers and the veg came at a discount because I’ve been frequenting those stands for decades now, which is nice.  I like supporting these family businesses.  It involves more stops, but that’s okay.  It’s worth every footstep and wave to old acquaintances along the way.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.  As I walk around, I catch myself smiling.  For that… I cannot thank you enough.

Together with my regular list of the “Roman Sojourn” Donors (yesterday’s Mass was for your intention), the “24thers” are remembered in prayers at the the altar but also as I take care of daily things.  For example, today I note for the 24th (down since 2o22):

KC
DD (one of the faithful “200” when I was in serious, immediate need)
MH
PG
MM
MF
TB
DM (thanks muchly)
MT
DG
ML
PK

25thers.  Please don’t be irked if I don’t write about you tomorrow?

When I go through my mail and send out daily thank you notes (provided I have an address) I think, “Okay, that donation bought the vegetables today, that one bought the flowers, that one bought the morning coffee and rolls after Mass with the two newly ordained priests visiting Rome (I really like doing that), this one goes toward the electric bill back home, this one toward car insurance, etc. …”.  I try to think in concrete terms.   Also, there are those who will send a donation and a note, like the other day after I posted the photo of veg stand in the Campo, “For some of those beautiful little tomatoes.” Thanks WH. Or, for example, SAS sent: “With continued prayers for your strength restored… and a good bottle -or two- of wine”, which permitted a good bottle of Nebbiolo for the aforementioned sausages and peppers and a not great but not bad bourbon for the visit to the digs by The Great Roman™ (to whom the “Shave The Great Roman™” items were duly hand delivered, by the way).

Hence, when I go to the shops or pay bills or simply live life, you donors are with me every day.  A glimpse into how I am grateful for every one of you and have your backs in prayers, almsgiving and even, though it is hard to believe it, regular fasting.  Regarding almsgiving: I almost never give money in the street, but I will offer to buy something to eat.  Many of the beggars reject that out of hand.  Fewer immediately accept with urgency.  So, there are times when your donation may have fed someone truly in need of a meal.  I had some hard days in Rome waaaay back in the day and I have an eye for the hungry.

Meanwhile, in Astana, today Nepo and Ding played to a draw.  It was not a very flashy game.  Nepo leads by a full point and games are running out.

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Here’s a puzzle.

White to move.  White’s bishop is hanging.  There are connected pawns which are a threat, but that rook is really agile and your king is on the 1st rank.  What to do?  You have to keep time on your side and avoid getting forked or skewered.  Don’t let that rook get behind your pawns!  This was hard for me.  Many ways to go wrong.

Aren’t end games fascinating?  There must be a lesson for life and our own ends here.  Go to confession.

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

I’m an affiliate now of chess.com shop which is handled by House of Staunton.  Do me a favor and click over there and have a look around.

Meanwhile, the church of St. Bridget on the P.za Farnese.

After Mass I stopped at the grocery for a couple of things, like Aceto di Alcool which is great for cleaning stuff.  The water here is incredibly hard.  I can give the electric kettle or other implements a soak and they clear right up.  Drains, washing machine rinse, fridge shelves.  A little newsprint on glass windows… kiss your fancy sprays g’bye.

I also really appreciate being able in a pinch to get some fresh tentacle, don’t you?   Somewhere Cthulhu is missing a nephew.