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{]:¬)

Day 5: St. Ann Novena – “take the present affair which I commend to you…”

Posted on 21 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Share and re-tweet, please.

17 July through 26 July, Ann’s feast day in both traditional and post-Conciliar calendars, we can pray a NOVENA to the grandmother of God, the mother of Mary.

Here is one novena prayer to St Ann. There are others. Pray it (or others) every day from 17 through 26 July. You will have your own petitions as I have mine.

I ask St Ann to:

Soften the hearts of all those who will now be involved with the implementation of Traditionis custodes.

I will ask Ann to “guard the guards”.

Say this each day.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glorious St. Anne, we think of you as filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer. Heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which I commend to you under your special protection

(Mention the (above) intention here…)

Deign to commend it to your daughter, our Blessed Lady and lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy conclusion. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face. With you and Mary and all the saints, may I praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Good St Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray for me.

Say 1: Our Father…
Say 1: Hail Mary…
Say 1: Glory Be…

Who will join me in this Novena?

And…

GO TO CONFESSION!

(I did.)

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
2 Comments

I’m pretty good with flags. I am scratching my head over this.

Posted on 21 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’m pretty good with flags. I am scratching my head over this.

I saw this during a mountain stage of the Tour de France. I seems to be for Asturias and… ?

Anyone?

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged flags
1 Comment

20 July: International CHESS Day!

Posted on 20 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Before it isn’t the 20th any longer (soon, where I am), I wish all of you a happy International CHESS Day!

In honor of this esteemed occasion, I repost…

Animi caussa… the names of the pieces.

1 rex, sive scaccus
1 regina (vel virgo, vel amazon, vel domina), sive dama (unde damicus ludus), vel fercia
2 turres, vel elephantes, sive rochi
2 episcopi (vel satellites, vel signiferi, vel cursores, vel sagittiferi), sive alfīni
2 equites
8 pedites, vel pedini, sive pedones.

And how does the regina move, you ask?

Regina est potentissima omnium militum. Ei sunt potestates et episcopi et turris. Potest moveri passim quemlibet numerum quadratorum prorsum (sive sursum), rursum (sive deorsum), dextrorsum, sinistrorsum, et quemlibet in obliquum.

There are also descriptions of the history of the game, the notation for recording moves, etc.

If you are at all interested in chess and Latin, check it out.

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged chess
2 Comments

NEW SWAG: “Molon labe!” … Missale Romanum

Posted on 20 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Knowing that we would have to keep up morale, the other day I put together a design for some new Z-Swag. HERE

My first copies arrived today. They are nice, so I’m making the shop public

There are shirts and mugs (righty and lefty) and some other doohickeys.

Here are the 11 oz (with black edge) and the big 20oz.

For those of you who do not know what those superimposed scribbles are, they are an older form of the ancient Greek for “μολὼν λαβέ” or “molon labe”, the legendary words said to have been uttered by the Spartan leader Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. According to Plutarch, the Persian invader Xerxes demanded that the Spartans surrender their weapons. Leonidas replied “Come and take them!”

Well, that’s sort of what he said. To be really geeky about it a Spartan at that time would have said it differently than 1st c. AD Boetian (near Delphi) Plutarch. In any event, the concise phrase consists of an aorist active participle (molon), which is “having come” and an imperative (labe), literally, “Having come, take!” The aorist participle establishes the condition that must pertain for the action. The action, the imperative, “take!” is second person, so it is directed personally at Xerxes, not at the army.

In any event, “Molon labe!” is now a classic expression of determination and defiance. Alas, its use is a little melancholy, in that the Spartans, through they held out for days, were eventually defeated and slain. They were able, however, delay the Persians for long enough time for the Athenians to escape to Salamis, where the great naval battle – one of the most important in history – would take place led a massive rout of Xerxes fleet by Themistocles. Hence, while Thermopylae was a defeat for the Spartans, it was a strategic, long-term victory and it served to fire up the morale of the Greeks against the aggressors.

At Thermopylae there is a monument to Leonidas, inscribed with those famous words, in the form I used on the swag.

Finally, please consider becoming a Custos Tradionis. HERE

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Be The Maquis, Hard-Identity Catholicism, I'm just askin'..., The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged molon labe
4 Comments

Problem in the Italian of the 2021 Plessy v. Ferguson document, Traditionis custodes.

Posted on 20 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw on twitter an interesting point about the English and Italian versions of the 2021 Plessy v. Ferguson document, Traditionis custodes.

My many years in Rome inform me that the second, “alternative” translation is more accurate.

I consulted with a highly educated native Italian speaker whose knowledge of Italian (and world) literature and poetry is amazing. He said that the second translation is more accurate.

When asked whether the first was possible, his reaction, the same as mine, was “barely”.

That said, there is an disconnect between the Italian and English texts. And there is no indication of time, long or short. (There was no vacatio legis, either.)

In short, whether it was originally drafted in Italian (which I strongly suspect) or in English, the English-Italian translation discrepancy, along with the internal incoherence of the document, reveal both haste and lack of proper competent consultation.

Unless… it was purposely botched so that it would be largely ignored.

Possible?

Yeah… right.

Posted in Save The Liturgy - Save The World, Traditionis custodes | Tagged Traditionis custodes
17 Comments

Clarity from @Card_R_Sarah

Posted on 20 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

« I am an African. Let me say clearly : the liturgy is not the place to promote my culture. Rather, it is the place where my culture is baptised, where my culture is taken up into the Divine. » The power of silence, against the dictatorship of noise. pic.twitter.com/MrS34lIiKQ

— Cardinal R. Sarah (@Card_R_Sarah) July 20, 2021

Exactly.

Inculturation is inevitable and necessary and a nature dynamic of who we are as Catholic Christians. But inculturation must be properly understood and applied.

There is a two-way street between the influence of the world on the Church and the Church on the world. It is always going on and always will and always must. But where modern inculturation has gone dreadfully, tragically, destructively wrong, is that all too often what the world has to give to the Church has been given logical priority over what the Church has to give to the world.

The process of the exchange is chronologically simultaneous, but the Church must have logical priority.

The Church shaped cultures. Those cultures gave things to the Church, which reshaped them and gave them back, which resulted in more exchanges yet. Modern inculturation stiffed the healthy process in favor of one in which the world, especially the immanent was given priority.

Now think about what the bishops and Rome collectively did during COVID Theater and what they are doing about politicians and other public figures who advance objective evils.

Now think about the attempt to suppress the Traditional Roman Rite and look at the choices being made in dioceses.

ACTION ITEM! Be a “Custos Traditionis”! Join an association of prayer for the reversal of “Traditionis custodes”.

¡Hagan lío!

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, "How To..." - Practical Notes, ACTION ITEM!, Save The Liturgy - Save The World | Tagged inculturation, Robert Card. Sarah
2 Comments

Day 4: St. Ann Novena – “I humbly beg of you…”

Posted on 20 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Share and re-tweet, please.

17 July through 26 July, Ann’s feast day in both traditional and post-Conciliar calendars, we can pray a NOVENA to the grandmother of God, the mother of Mary.

Here is one novena prayer to St Ann. There are others. Pray it (or others) every day from 17 through 26 July. You will have your own petitions as I have mine.

I ask St Ann to soften the hearts of all those who will now be involved with the implementation of Traditionis custodes. I will ask Ann to “guard the guards”.

Say this each day.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

(Mention your intention here…)

Say 1: Our Father…
Say 1: Hail Mary…
Say 1: Glory Be…

Who will join me in this Novena?

And…

GO TO CONFESSION!

(I did.)

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
Comments Off