Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Daily Rome Shot 501

Posted on 11 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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There’s a back story, too.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Another promising book from Fr. Cliff Ermatinger

Posted on 11 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I don’t know how he does it.

My friend Fr. Cliff Ermatinger has another promising book, now available.

Who’s Speaking?: Discerning the Good Shepherd’s Voice from that of the Stranger

US HERE – UK HERE

The title and image are references to John 10:27-28: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.”

I’ve done some reading of the book in PDF format which he sent me. It is very good.

And check these out as well.

The Trouble with Magic: Our Failed Search for More and Christ’s fulfillment of our Desires
by Fr. Cliff Ermatinger

US HERE – UK HERE (newly added)

From the description:

The original temptation of Adam and Eve is often depicted as a trivial thing, with our first parents gaining more than they had lost – the ability to choose for themselves good and evil. In this book Father Cliff Ermatinger shows us how what was lost, was far more precious than realized, what was acquired far more reaching in its damage than suspected, and the lengths that God would undergo to restore His lost creation more majestic than imaginable.

The reader is enjoined to come along on an examination of everything that brought humanity to this point in time: from a tree in the garden long ago, mankind’s tendencies towards superstition and turning to gods that cannot save, to the modern shaman in the corner shop that goes by other names: Tarot reader, Yoga guru, , Healer, Social Engineering Overlord. In the end, it is all the trouble with magic.

But this is not the end, for, as Father Ermatinger lays out, God’s ways are not our ways, and He will make straight that which we have broken while bringing the broken human person beyond the lost Eden into perfect communion with Himself.

His other titles are also worth your time! For example:

Rescued from Satan: 14 People Recount their Journey from Demonic Possession to Liberation

The Devil’s Role in the Spiritual Life: St. John of the Cross’ Teaching on Satan’s Involvement in Every Stage of Spiritual Growth

If a bishop would apply can. 915 to someone who hires a hitman, then how not to politicians who actively promote the killing of innocent children?

Posted on 11 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My good friend Fr. Gerald Murray, a fine canonist, has a forthright offering today at The Catholic Thing.

Excerpt:

When confronted by Speaker Pelosi and President Biden’s obstinate and scandalous public rejection of the Church’s teaching on the inherent immorality of abortion, the aim of the Church’s pastors must be the putting to an end of such scandal by convincing the offending parties to repent and recant.

Any word or deed, any silence or passivity of the Church’s shepherds likely to create the impression that Pelosi and Biden’s support for abortion is not really a serious offense against God’s law, and therefore does not render them ineligible to receive Holy Communion, is in fact a grave scandal that leads to great harm to the pastoral mission of the Church.

Read the whole thing there, but here is one more taste…

On the matter of killing unborn children, Pope Francis on the one hand forcefully condemns it, and on the other hand criticizes bishops who take steps to end public support for such killing by Catholic political leaders such as Pelosi and Biden. This puzzling dissonance frustrates bishops and others who see no good reason to avoid enforcing canon law in a matter of such gravity.

If Francis and the rest of these bishops won’t follow or apply the Church’s laws, why should we worry about the Church’s laws?

Posted in 1983 CIC can. 915, Emanations from Penumbras | Tagged can. 915
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Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 5th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O. 15th Sunday)

Posted on 10 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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 the 5th Sunday after Pentecost (15th Ordinary in the Novus)?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A few thoughts of my own, HERE.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Sunday sermons
12 Comments

Daily Rome Shot 500

Posted on 10 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE

Buying or selling a home? Contact Real Estate for Life: a portion of the commission will go to pro-life causes.

Meanwhile, someone saw the consistory list.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Rome Shots
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9 July: St. Veronica Giuliani – amazing saint – MOVIE

Posted on 9 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is the Feast of a saint about whom, when Padre Pio learned of her and her writings, said, “Someone who understands me.”

This is in Italian with subtitles. You will be riveted, so that’s okay.

This is super hard identity Catholicism.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged St. Veronica Giuliani
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ASK FATHER: Selling freely obtained tickets to Francis’ Mass in Canada

Posted on 9 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Pope Francis is coming to my city in Canada and having a large Papal Mass at the football stadium. Tickets to attend are being given away free, but now on our Archdiocese’s Facebook page people are trying to sell (for money not give away) the tickets they got for free. Is this the sin of simony?

My first thought is that for it to be simony, there has to be a market for it, that is, the thing has to be worth something.

But then again, maybe there will be an exciting halftime show.

Seriously, simony is the deliberate intention to buy and sell or traffic in sacred things. We can distinguish two kinds of simony. There is simony of divine law: the buying and selling of things that are intrinsically spiritual (e.g., indulgences). There is simony of ecclesiastical law: the buying and selling of temporal goods attached to the spiritual.

A seat for an event in a stadium is a temporal good. In this case it is attached to a spiritual good: the ability to be present at Mass.

I would inform your Archdiocese of what is going on.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged simony
13 Comments

When you think you cannot go on, you can’t do it, you can’t bear it or forgive it,…

Posted on 9 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It was by the shedding of Christ’s Blood that we are redeemed. The smallest of drops of the Precious Blood of Christ is our sinful race’s ransom, and now our guerdon unto hope for Heaven.

Special veneration of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord is by now a long-standing tradition during the month of July.

There is a Feast of the Most Precious Blood in the Roman Church’s traditional calendar, leading the way into the second half of the year on the 1st day of the 7th month. However, it was removed from general calendar by Paul VI, supposedly because Christ’s Blood is already venerated enough through the feasts of Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, and the Exaltation of the Cross. I’m unconvinced.

Neither do I think that St Gaspar del Bufalo is impressed with that decision. As I write, I have with me his 1st Class relic, ex ossibus. With Fr. Francesco Albertini, St Gasper founded a Confraternity of the Precious Blood at the Roman Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere, where I served for some years, directed a choir, and was ordained to the diaconate. With Gaspar we rightly exclaim: “I wish that I could have a thousand tongues, to endear every heart to the Precious Blood of Jesus.”

Christ shed his Blood for the forgiveness of our sins and our reconciliation with God. If He, in whose image and likeness we are made, will do that for us, and renew that for us on our altars, then how much more should we be willing to do that for each other.

Weigh also that, though we all may be different in height or sex or shape of eye and color of skin, we all bleed the same red Our Savior bled for our sins. Our unifying human blood, divinely infused, courses ruddy within His Sacred Heart, His risen veins.

As July streams on turn your own life’s blood-beating heart towards the Most Precious Blood of Christ. His beating and dying Heart, His flowing and draining blood, is liquid forgiveness.

Ask Mary, who bore His Heart beneath her heart, whose Blood is in His veins, to help change your heart.

When you think you cannot go on, you can’t do it, you can’t bear it or forgive it, let the Sacred Heart of Jesus lend the heavy pulsing you need to get through.

Posted in Hard-Identity Catholicism | Tagged Precious Blood, Sacred Heart
3 Comments

Daily Rome Shot 499

Posted on 8 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Help the wonderful Summit Dominicans!

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. – US HERE – UK HERE

On a personal note, if that last part wasn’t personal enough, I’ve been sick for a couple days, so posting has been thin. Aches, fatigue, fever (not too high). I had half a dozen naps yesterday. This morning, too, I couldn’t stay up. Perhaps partly from the fever I had an odd dream: I had taken in a Catholic Tradition loving chess Grand Master a bit down on his luck in exchange for serving Masses and giving lessons, thus sparking the beginning of a chess club. Who knows! I had earlier been looking for different chess clubs in different cities via the interwebs. Perhaps it was auto-suggestive.

I’ve also been giving thought to and reading around the lie that to be attached to traditional worship is “against the Council”, or that the Traditional Latin Mass is “against the Council”. It’s a lie, of course. But this is Big Lie Theory in action. It takes a thousand words to counter 10 word lies. Hence, they have to shut down the living proof by shutting down access to the lived experience of attending such Masses. More on this later.

Time for a nap.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Rome Shot
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