Fr. Z's Blog

5:32

20:51

21:15

It has been so hot here, it is hard to have an appetite.  Not many food posts, as a result.

A great inscription from the church where we had the first Benediction yesterday during the procession.

The famous eatery that serves only baccalà at the little Dar Filettaro da Santa Barbara.

One of my favorite shops in Rome.  A cartoleria on the V. Arenula.

According to a tweet the Vatican office for “Integral Human Development”, the Church “sta nel digitale… is in the digital world because people “live” there, and the Church is where men and women who live and work are.

Yeah, I when I worked in a Vatican office I used to say that the Church updates her tech every 75 years, whether it needs it or not.

Here’s the photo with the tweet, showing how integrally humanly developed the Church is in the digital world, which sounds a little like Tron.   And that’s about the right year, too.  My additions in red.

Tell me that logo doesn’t look like a snail rushing towards the future.

No?  The Future!

Which is to the Left.

And look at that painting in the background.  I suppose the painter wanted to depict Pius XI, of happy memory, with a microphone apparatus – early lavalier, perhaps – but… sheesh, they managed to make him look like Davros.

In Rome the sun rose at 5:32 and it will set at 20:51.  The Ave Maria is to be rung at 21:15 for the Curia and 21:21 for the rest of Rome. Today is the Feast of Santi Marco e Marcelliano, who were Roman martyrs in the 4th c.  Their bodies are in San Nicola in Carcere, where I served as a seminarian and was ordained a deacon.

I was in the neighborhood where guys play chess in the afternoon.  No, I still haven’t stopped to play yet.  They set up outside a bar which has a large and shady fig tree.  Thus, the place is called the Pizza der Fico.  As I was watching a game, I caught odd, vertical movement out of the corner of my eye followed by a distinct *splat*.

Ripe figs were falling off the tree about every minute or so.   All around us and among us.

I did not, as the Lord did, curse the fig tree, since it is clearly doing its job.  I did, however, back out from under it.

You would need to wash up after getting fig-splatted.  So…. remember the wonderful Dominican Soap Sisters in Summit!

And, please, if you are shopping online with Amazon, use my links to enter. Thanks in advance. It really helps me out.  US HERE – UK HERE  I haven’t been mentioning often these days some of the groups I really like to help out, the monks at Norcia and Le Barroux, etc.  And the earnings this month from the Amazon affiliate have been way down. Thank you if you are remembering without prompting.  I’d rather not have to mention it at all.

Also, for those of you who contributed to my Rome Sojourn for June, I have been regularly saying Holy Mass for your intention as special benefactors.  I also have the intention at the altar of all you who are so kind as to donate and pray for me.

A member of the chess club had planted the fig.  I find it charming that these guys went to the effort to put a plaque up, even such a humble one, perhaps homemade by a member.   I hope they pray for him too.  Perhaps in your goodness you would right now.

When I go into the churches here in Rome and see the funerary monuments and inscriptions, I often pray for the person.   Sometimes there are specific requests. Yesterday we saw one in the inscription at the Ponte Sisto.  Here is one that talks directly to you, as they sometimes do…  The angle was a little hard.

A D G
LECTOR SISTE
NEC VIVVS NEC MORTVVS
HIC HAEREO HIC MOEREO
FILIO ERAM DESTITVTVS
CONIVGEM AMISERAM
HIC
FILIO REDDOR
ET A CONIVGE NON SEIVNGOR
ET DVM
MORTVOS SPECTANS
MORTEM EXPECTO
PRAE TIMORE LAPIS
HVNC LAPIDEM ERIGO
NEC SENSV CAREO
NAM ET IPSI LAPIDES
SVAS LACRYMAS HABENT
GABRIEL PRATVS ASTENSIS

SAECVLO XVI
POST MORTEM REGIS VITAE

To the glory of God.
O, reader, stop! / Neither alive nor dead / Here I am stuck, here I grieve / I had been left by my son / I had lost my wife / Here I am returned to my son / And I am not separated from my wife / And while / Looking at the dead / I await death / like a stone out of fear / I erect this stone / But I’m not without feeling / In fact even these very stones / have their own tears / Gabriel Prato from Asti
In the sixteenth century / after the death of King of life

Speaking of Kings…

In the afternoon I caught part of Round 1 of the Candidates Tournament in Madrid.  The winner will face Magnus.

There was a lot of drama yesterday.  I really felt for poor Ding Liren, who had such a hard road to get into this competition.  He wasn’t at his best and lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi … with white! I don’t really mind when Nakamura loses, as he did to Caruana. I’m pulling a bit for the Hungarian, Richard Rapport, though he is unlikely to emerge on top unless something extraordinary happens.

There was exciting action, of course.  High drama.

Supper involved telline and lupini.

Oil, wine, garlic.  I like to let it simmer for a while to get all that garlicky goodness.

Get the parsley ready for chopping.  There may be traces of a singular Gin and Tonic in this photo.

I soaked and purged the little beasties for about 8 hours, changing the salty water a couple of times.

Put them into the hot pan, cover, wait a little while.

At this point I carefully left them out and into a bowl, leaving the liquid behind in the pan, which I reduce, with just a touch of starchy pasta water.

Telline are smaller than lupini, which are a kind of vongola, though vongole are a little bigger.  They also siphon differently, but that doesn’t matter much once they are in the pan.

Meanwhile, here are a few cool things.

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Registered here or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

Let’s remember all who are ill, who will die soon, who have lost their jobs, and who are afraid.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Some are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below.

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I ask a prayer for myself.  I’m dealing with a particular challenge right now.

Also, please pray for “A” and her family.  She is having a really tough time.