We’ve had so much bad news lately. How about some good news?
It has been some time since I’ve inquired.
What is your good news?
For my part, I built some shelves in the garage and survived the heat and dehydration and I made a good start on getting the “live stream” going again. Brick by brick.
CAPTION:
St. Ann: “Enough playing with the Holy Spirit now, time for your bath, and mommy still has to pray her psalms” – Mary: “Obey your granny.”
Photo by The Great Roman™
BTW… The Great Roman™ and I had a terrific exchange about the significance of this painting, its symbolism, its history, including delving into Proverbs 31 and the great Jesuit theologian Cornelius a Lapide.
Excerpt: “Anyone of these old painters would make a better theologian than the whole Gregorian University combined.”
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass for your Sunday (obligation or none), either live or on the internet? Let us know what it was.
Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
What was attendance like?
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I was getting reports that it was way up. But now COVID… again…. Tell me it doesn’t have a demonic component.
Was the Motu Proprio mentioned? Any local changes or news?
In honor of my desire to study Hungarian, I came down with a serious craving for Hungarian food. When I travel, I always look to see if there is a Hungarian restaurant. There aren’t many, alas. A proof of the effects of Original Sin and the attacks of the Devil and probably also Traditionis custodes… in advance. Pretty soon most of our problems will be traceable to that abhorrent, heartless document.
I flipped a coin to determine between the famous Gulyás (Gulash, pronounced Goo-yash)
or its famous rival Paprikás Csirke (pronounced Paprikash Cheer-ke).
The mise en place. Do not be alarmed at the amount of paprika in the little bowl in front. I didn’t use nearly that amount. I used about five times that amount. I didn’t have any pork lard, but I had some salt pork.
I determined to make only two pieces, which, seeing how well it turned out was a really stupid decision.
First, brown the chicken. I used thighs. Some pork bits took a ride
Onions in the fat that was rendered… I left the bits of pork in.
Too bad we don’t have “smellovision” yet.
The peppers and tomatoes and garlic go in.
Speaking of garlic… big Fr. Z kudos and thanks go to a reader here, CS.
I have sometimes complained about the “weak ass” garlic we have in these USA. A reader grows garlic and sent me some! I now experience true garlicky joy. What a difference it makes for your, say, Spaghetti aglio olio pepperoncino. Speaking of which, I know a place in Rome where you can have that for dessert. And it is worth it.
Back to the chicken…. in it goes with all the paprika and broth.
About half way through I decided to add a small bouquet garni of savory herbs I am growing.
Meanwhile, a refreshing beverage . One of the six components was an item from my wishlist (it isn’t presently on the list because I have a pretty good amount right now… but it’ll be back). Thank you to the readers who sent it! (No, not the Crodino.)
Extract the chicken in order to thicken.
To thicken, not only will I reduce, but I use a kind of fake roux of flour and sourcream.
Mixed really well, the sourcream keeps the flour from getting lumpy.
Paprikás Csirke wouldn’t be Paprikás Csirke without Nokedli, pretty much like Spätzle. Here are mine. Alas, they were a touch over done.
The sauce thickens.
Chicken Paprikash.
I would like to have had a Hungarian red, or at least something from the, say, Burgenland. However, I did have a red Rhine – an unusual thing to see – which was very much like to some of the Hungarians I’ve had, very fruit forward and easy tannins.
I haven’t been cooking anything interesting for a while now. Sandwiches. Bowls of cereal. Salads. Yawn.
This really hit the spot. I’ll make the Gulyás or maybe Pörkölt soon.
And thus I also fulfill the recent request from a reader to make something using a dutch oven.
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
I’m currently scheduled to work on both Saturday and Sunday and this doesn’t give me to time to attend a full mass in person. However, I would be able to leave work during scheduled lunch break to drop by a mass in session to receive Holy Communion.
Is this acceptable if I am able to watch an entire Sunday mass for that weekend or am I not allowed to receive Holy Communion because I wasn’t there for the entirety of the Holy Mass?
There’s no Mass at any church when you are not working? That’s rough. I hope that doesn’t happen very often, given the importance of Sunday. Holy Church recognizes that life is messy. That is why she has canons such as can. 1245.
Watching Mass over the internet or some other means does not fulfill your obligation (if you are in a diocese where the COVID dispensation is no longer in force)
You might contact your local pastor and ask him to dispense you from the Sunday obligation. According to the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church in canon 1245, pastors of parishes have the ability to dispense your obligation in individual instances or commute your obligation to some other pious work.
You can’t just assume that you have the dispensation or commutation. You have to receive it. But such a dispensation should not be too hard to obtain.
Canon 136 clarifies that the exercise of executive power (e.g., a dispensation) is valid over one’s subjects, even when they are outside of one’s territory, as well as over travelers who are present in one’s territory.
Many bishops grant this dispensing power to all priests, not just to pastors of parishes.
Hence, if you are looking for a dispensation or commutation, you generally need not look too far.
If you are outside of your parish, or not able to contact your parish priest for whatever reason, you might inquire of another priest. Ask if he has the faculty to dispense or commute. Otherwise, you can call the local chancery office and speak to the vicar general (who would have power to dispense), the chancellor (who would either have it or would know who does), or someone in the tribunal (who would usually know who has dispensing power).
As far as receiving Communion is concerned. I, frankly, don’t have an objection to the occasional Communion outside of Mass. The Church has a rite for it in the traditional books. It was and is done for, for example, choir members who couldn’t come to the rail at Communion time. But to pop into church at Communion, receive, and then dash out again just seems… off. First, it could scandalize people. Also, it could scandalize you! Weaken your sense of reverence, even though you originally did this out of desire for the Eucharistic Lord!
Keep in mind, also, that many of the greatest saints we venerate today received Communion only a few times a year. Perhaps you could take a page from their manual for holiness and wait a week.
Let’s look at the Collect for the upcoming 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis id amare quod praecipis, id desiderare quod promittis, ut, inter mundanas varietates, ibi nostra fixa sint corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia.
A master crafted this prayer. In the 1962 Missale Romanum we use it on the 4th Sunday after Easter. It is also in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary. Listen to those “eee”s produced by the Latin “i”.
Savor those parallels.
Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis
id amare quod praecipis,
id desiderare quod promittis,
ut, inter mundanas varietates,
ibi nostra fixa sint corda,
ubi vera sunt gaudia.
Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis
id amare quod praecipis,
id desiderare quod promittis,
ut, inter mundanas varietates,
ibi nostra fixa sint corda,
ubi vera sunt gaudia.
Varietas means “difference, diversity, variety.” It is commonly used to indicate “changeableness, fickleness, inconstancy.” I like “vicissitude”. The adjective mundanus is “of or belonging to the world”.
LITERAL RENDERING:
O God, who make the minds of the faithful to be of one will, grant unto Your people to love that thing which You command, to desire that which You promise, so that, amidst the vicissitudes of this world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are.
CURRENT ICEL (2011):
O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.
Let us revisit that id…quod. We can accurately say “love that which you command,” or “love what you command”, but that strikes me as vague. Can we be more concrete and say “love the thing you command… desire the thing you promise”?
We are called to love and desire God’s will in concrete situations, in the details of life, especially when those details are little to our liking.
We must love God in this beggar, this annoying creep, this Jesuit, not in beggars, creeps, and Jesuits in general. We must love Christ and His Cross in this act of fasting, this basket of laundry, this ICEL translation. I said it was a challenge!
We must not reduce God’s will to an abstraction or an ideal. “Thy will (voluntas) be done on earth as it is in heaven”… or so it has been said.
Lest we forget why we needed new translation….
OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):
Father, help us to seek the values that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise make us one in mind and heart.
Good riddance! “Values”. Very slippery. Typical of the obsolete translation.
To my ear, “values” has a shifting, subjective starting point. In 1995 Gertude Himmelfarb wrote in The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values that “it was not until the present century that morality became so thoroughly relativized that virtues ceased to be ‘virtues’ and became ‘values.’”
In this post-Christian, post-modern world, “values” seems to indicate little more than our own self-projection.
John Paul II taught about “values”, but in contradiction to the way “values” are commonly understood today. For example, we read in Evangelium vitae 71 (emphasis added):
“It is urgently necessary, for the future of society and the development of a sound democracy, to rediscover those essential human and moral values which flow from the very truth of the human being and express and safeguard the dignity of the person: values which no individual, no majority, and no state can ever create, modify, or destroy, but must only acknowledge, respect, and promote.”
In his 1985 letter to young people Dilecti amici 4, John Paul II taught:
“Only God is the ultimate basis of all values…. in Him and Him alone all values have their first source and final completion… Without Him – without the reference to God – the whole world of created values remains as it were suspended in an absolute vacuum.”
Benedict XVI has spoken about the threats we face from the “dictatorship of relativism”, from the reduction of the supernatural to the natural, from caving in to “the world”.
Christ warned His Apostles about “the world”, saying said: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). He spoke about this world’s “prince” (John 12:31; 14:30 16:11). St Paul wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
If what “the world” offers gets priority over what God offers the world through His Holy Church, we produce the situation Paul VI described on 29 June 1972, the ninth anniversary of his coronation:
“Through some crack the smoke of Satan has entered into the temple of God.”
Our Collect today asks God to grant that His will be the basis of our “values” in concrete terms, not in mere good intentions or this world’s snares.
Of course today, we are seeing more than ever what Satanic smoke in the Lord’s House has done.
John XXIII and Paul VI wanted to throw the windows open to the world. Be careful what you wish for. Now we have to throw the windows and doors and maybe the roof also open to the renewing light and rushing wind of the Holy Spirit of Truth to clean out the slimy residue the smoke left on just about everything.
If the explanation about the Collect helped you in some way, chime in.
BTW… here is the 1928 Book of Common Prayer version:
O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Check out this piece at the National Catholic Register (not to be confused with the National Schismatic Reporter aka Fishwrap).
Background: A Chicago – Murder Central USA – police officer was killed in the line. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a non-Catholic Christian in a same-sex marriage, went up for Communion and a priest gave her Communion.
More about that. The priest is a chaplain to the Chicago Police Department. Gotta be a tough job. He says he is “mortified” that he gave Communion to someone like Lightfoot, and well he should be.
In an interview Friday with CNA, Father Dan Brandt said just moments prior to Communion he was asked by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, the main celebrant, to take his place distributing the Eucharist and became flustered when he saw the mayor step forward as the first in his line.
“You know something, I am to blame for that, and I am mortified,” Father Brandt said.
“I actually gave her Communion, but she was the very first one up there, and I wasn‘t supposed to give out Communion, and at the last second Cardinal Cupich said, ’I‘m going to sit out Communion; you take my spot.’”
“And so, I didn‘t know where I was going. I mean, I was totally, the whole weekend was a blur. I was going on very little sleep,” the Catholic police chaplain explained. “And, anyways, I’m making excuses, but, yes, she came up, and I put the sacred Host in her hand, and I was like ‘Oh!’ — and, of course, it was too late at that point. And I was like, ‘Oh, dear God, have mercy.’”
Father Brandt added that he is deeply apologetic toward those who were offended by the mayor receiving Communion.
First, I believe this priest. Frankly, I think you would have to be pretty tired and distracted not to recognize the highly distinctive and visible Mayor. Think about it. But I believe he is really sorry for having given Lightfoot Communion.
However, notice details.
Lightfoot was sitting in the front, “a front pew”, a noticeable place and, of course, an early pew for Communion time.
“Moments before”, Cupich (in Chicago because of McCarrick -must see video HERE) told this priest to distribute for him, that is in the principle place for Communion where the people of distinction and family would be.
So the PRIEST is the one seen to refuse or to give Communion to Lightfoot not the CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP safely sitting and watching to see what happens next. All live-streamed on the internet and local TV.
Imagine the press had the priest refused her Communion. Imagine the statement issued by Cupich’s office.
I wonder if Lightfoot’s office contacted Cupich’s office beforehand, to say that she would be there.
And… NO… the provision in Canon Law for the possibility of Communion for non-Catholics doesn’t apply here. Not. At. All. As the NCREg article says:
Under canon law, for a Protestant to be given Communion, he or she must be unable to approach a minister of their own community; express their adhesion to the Catholic faith regarding the sacraments; and be properly disposed.
Proper disposition to receive Communion includes freedom from mortal sin and actual devotion, and it is dogma that the state of grace is necessary for the worthy reception of the Eucharist.
Firstly, be a CUSTOS! Join NOW! HERE
Two pieces of news come to my box today, along with the news that Card. Burke is off the ventilator and moving out of the ICU – Laus Deo!
Bp. Toal
On 8 August in the Scottish Diocese of Motherwell, Bp. Joseph Toal, with the generous and open heart of a true shepherd of souls, suppressed the TLM in Cleland, telling people to go to the Novus Ordo where they live. Not controlling at all. Now he has also suppressed the Mass at Coatbridge, reducing it from monthly to 1st Saturdays only. What a “guardian of Tradition”!
By contrast, something I didn’t think I would see is happening in San Diego, where there is an ultra-liberal bishop, idolized by the Fishwrap (“brilliant mind and the heart of a pastor”), Robert McElroy. There were Masses at St. Mary’s and St. Margaret’s in the northern part of the diocese. With the excuse that “the Extraordinary Form has become a source of division” – a premise we are just supposed to accept – McElroy euthanized those Masses. In the south, there is a personal parish staffed by the FSSP, St. Anne’s. However, given the size of the diocese and the distance people would have to travel, he has received requests from people to consider another place in the northern part of the diocese. He wants a committee of lay people to find an “appropriate” location is that “non-parish” setting. That’s not nothing and that not nothing is a little unexpected, given that this is Bp. McElroy.
It is truly a sad situation. Find a “non-parish” setting for the Mass that has been celebrated continuously for centuries.
Where’s the charity for these people, who are the most marginalized group in the Church? Has either Toal or McElroy ever gone to be with these people who want the Traditional Mass? Have they celebrated Mass for them?
Imagine a bishop saying to a group of, say, Catholic Afghani refugees, “Find a place on your own, but not in a parish.” What a “guardian of Tradition”!
I suspect that if there were a handful of authentic Catholic Afghani refugees shipped to San Diego, the bishop would do Olympic-level floor exercise routines to reveal his pastoral heart for them.
Perhaps the folks in San Diego and in Coatbridge, Scotland should buy a church that’s being sold. Maybe they could build one. Maybe they could get some pointers from the SSPX priest in San Diego who celebrates Mass at a hotel.
Friends, we have to pray for these bishops. Pray, and fast. Pray, fast, and take on additional mortifications and performance of works of mercy. GO TO CONFESSION!
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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