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{]:¬)

CCC 2499

Posted on 14 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

2499 Moral judgment must condemn the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political control of opinion through the media, manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider “thought crimes.”

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 2499
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12-15 July 2021: “LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS” Conference for Priests

Posted on 14 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For the last couple of years I have attended great summer conference for priests held in West Virginia, at a beautiful location. The conference is sponsored by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

I’ve been much enriched by what I picked up in the talks and the time with priests was, both times, terrific.

My life is chaos at the moment, but I am going to try to go this year, too. I’m planning about it.

A few factors to help you consider.

First, while there is a chance to concelebrate, there is also a large chapel set up with individual altars so that priests can say Mass in either form on their own schedule. Last year they did a great job of putting that together and the Blessed Sacrament was reserved there as well.
Second, there are ample opportunities for confession with good, solid confessors who are not from your own area.
Third, the food is great.
Fourth, the evening fellowship is outstanding.
Fifth, if you care for such things there is this game called “guelph” or “gulf” or something like that.
Sixth, the region where the conference center is, Oglebay Resort near Wheeling, is quite beautiful.
Seventh, there is an outstanding bookstore.

MORE HERE

Posted in Events, Mail from priests | Tagged Conference, St. Paul Center
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14 May: Sts. Victor and Corona, martyrs. (How to get her statue.)

Posted on 14 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum for 14 May, we find that, in the first place, St. Matthias, Apostle, is honored on his Novus Ordo feast. In the Vetus Ordo, Matthias is celebrated on 25 February.

His scriptis, in the 2005 MartRom we find in entry 4. : “In Syria, sanctorum Victoris et Coronae, martyrum, qui simul passi sunt… Of saints Victor and Corona, martyrs, who suffered together in Syria.”

St. Corona is also known in Greek as St. Stephanida.

Since 14 May is, in the traditional calendar, a Feria in Paschaltide, we could celebrate Sts. Victor and Corona at Holy Mass, using the formulary in the Common of Martyrs in Paschaltide, which is “Sancti tui“, using the orations, “Pro pluribus Martyribus tantum” would be used. And, in a very Novus Ordo-y fashion, there are two options for the orations. There are also options for a different Epistle and different Gospel.

As you may know in this time of Chinese Corona planned-demic some people think that that St Corona has been invoked against plague. I don’t believe there is any strong evidence for that practice in the Latin Church. But the “can’t hurt, might help” principle could apply.

The older Martyrology has a somewhat more extended entry.

You can get your statue of St. Corona. HERE

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols |
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Daily Rome Shot 157

Posted on 14 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Rome Shot
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13 May 609: Dedication of the Roman Pantheon, “Santa Maria ad martyres”. An account of Boniface IV’s exorcism of the temple and the screaming of the demons.

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In keeping with a couple of other recent posts about the supernatural battle going on around us, between the holy angels and apostate demons, here is something to chew on for your Catholic identity.

In 609 the Emperor Phocas gave the magnificent ancient Roman Pantheon, the temple to “all the gods” to the Church. Pope Boniface IV got rid of all the pagan stuff and consecrated it to the Mother of God and the martyrs on this day, 13 May.

Of course before anything is to be consecrated, it first had to be exorcized. This is especially the case with church buildings. And the Pantheon had been a pagan temple dedicated in reality to demons.

We have an account of the exorcism of the Pantheon before it was consecrated this day. In Italian HERE.

“In 608 the Byzantine emperor Phoca gave [the temple] to Pope Boniface IV and there was organized an evocative ceremony to consecrate it to the Christian God. On 13 May 609 a huge crowd gathered near the Pantheon to witness the event. Chronicles recount chaos and chilling screams that were felt from within: the pagan demons were aware of what was about to happen. The doors were thrown open and the Pope, in front of the entrance, began to recite the formulas for the exorcism. The screams from the idols increased in intensity, and the commotion deafened the ears of the onlookers. Fear gripped the crowd and no one was able to stand on their feet, looking and hearing that terrible spectacle. Only Boniface IV resisted and, undaunted, prayed and consecrated the Pantheon to Christ. It is said that the demons left the ancient temple chaotically and with a great din, fleeing from the open “eye” of the dome or from the main doors. Once the ceremony was over, the Pope dedicated the building to the Mad

onna dei Martiri, in memory, perhaps, of the many Christians killed in honor of those filthy idols … “

Messa in Latino also calls to mind a vision of Catherine Ann Emerich:

One of the visions of Bl. Catherine Emmerich was precisely about the exorcism and consecration of the Pantheon: “… I saw again the whole ceremony of the consecration of the temple: the holy martyrs assisted with Mary at their head. The altar was not placed in the middle, but was was up against the wall. I saw carried into church more than 30 carts of holy bones. Many of these were put into the walls. Others could be seen, where there were round holes in the wall, closed up with something that looked like glass. (p. Schmoeger, ‘Vie d’Anne Catherine Emmerich’, tomo III, pp. da 69 a 71)

Battles with the Enemy are fought on many levels. Let is not forget that demons are territorial and legalistic. Once they claim a toehold, it requires effort to break their hold and get rid of them from places, things and persons.

And Pachamama is a DEMON and use of those demon idols was idolatry.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, Save The Liturgy - Save The World | Tagged Boniface IV, Pantheon
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“Our ordinary world, the one in which we work and fall in love and watch TV—it’s thinner than paper, and the demons pour through it in hordes.”

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

According to the Talmud, the demons are more numerous than we are. “They stand over us like mounds of earth surrounding a pit.” Rav Huna teaches that “each and every one of us has a thousand demons to his left and ten thousand to his right.” Abba Binyamin tells us that “if the eye had the power to see, no creature would be able to withstand the demons.” Fourteen centuries before Lovecraft, the Talmudists knew that what we see is only the tiniest portion of what’s really there, and the rest is monsters. Our ordinary world, the one in which we work and fall in love and watch TV—it’s thinner than paper, and the demons pour through it in hordes. This planet isn’t our home; it’s a hive. And though seeing the demons is fatal, the rabbis tell you how it may be done. Scatter a circle of fine black ashes around your bed at night, and in the morning, you will see their footprints, their claws like a rooster’s, their terrible number. What they don’t tell you is how you will ever sleep comfortably again.

[…]

click

At First Things this is the first paragraph of a review of an English translation of Dostoevsky’s Demons: A Novel in Three Parts.

I post this link not because I am entirely satisfied with the Jewish angelology, but because of something I wrote yesterday.

Yesterday I mused about the number of priests and bishops who truly believe in the spiritual battle being waged around us at every moment, who truly believe in the difference between the sacred and the profane. Their actions and inactions, the manifest choices of many of the brethren, lead me to suspect that they don’t. There is a strong current of Modernism even among the well-meaning and even devout, well-meaning, hard-working clerics. They can hardly be blamed, given their formation and the domination of the world we live in. They’ve been taught to set aside the supernatural in favor of the natural.

Anyway, I posted that paragraph because – I’ll admit – I want to scare you a little.

If I am not entirely on side with Jewish angelology, that snippet conveys something of the attitude we should have about demons. Putting aside that disturbing imagery of their claw marks in the dust around your bed… yeah… they are around, alright. They are all around.

It has been surmised that for every moving thing in the cosmos, there is an angel. It is thought that a third of the angels fell and apostatized. I’ve seen one estimate that there are 10⁸⁰ atoms in the universe and atoms are not the smallest moving particles. The angelic realm is far vaster than our imaginings. I sometimes wonder if God didn’t make the material cosmos so big so as to give us little humans some inkling of eternity.

Demons are relentless. They see everything. They never forget. They watch and learn about us from our outward actions and, like supernatural FBI profilers, know our ways and weaknesses.

Happily, demons are restrained by God. They are weaklings compared to the Holy Angels who guard us. They can be commanded to depart by priests.

The Devil, the Enemy, wants us to be prostrate with fear. But joy is one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. If we don’t manifest joy, it may be that we should examine our consciences and get to confession soon. Yes, it is possible to get to confession for most people. Otherwise, try to make a perfect Act of Contrition.

Si vis pacem para bellum!

I think that bishops should exorcise their dioceses using the Rituale Romanum with Title XI Chapter III, the long St. Michael Prayer. Lay people should not use this prayer. Ever.

Bishops should give permission to all their priests to use the Rituale Romanum with Title XI Chapter III even publicly. (They can use it now privately, but it helps to have the bishop’s explicit authority. It must be done in Latin. I have some help for that. HERE For priests only.)

Priests should go around all the buildings of their parish grounds and bless them and the grounds. They should go through every room of their rectories and every nook and cranny of their churches. Say the exorcism (in Latin) and bless with Holy Water (properly blessed in Latin with the Rituale Romanum). Even use incense if you won’t set off the alarms.

This should be done in Latin. The Rituale Romanum states that the blessings and exorcisms must be done in Latin.

This is REAL, brothers. And you priests and bishops are in this war whether you want to be or not. To paraphrase, you might not be interested in demons, but demons are interested in you. Get into the fray.

How do you, as the point at the top makes, ever sleep comfortably again?

GO TO CONFESSION!

Use sacramentals well.

Ask for the priest’s blessing.

Receive the Blessed Sacrament in the state of grace.

Say your prayers and perform good works.

Be confident in the Church and in Christ’s promises.

That’ll do it.

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, "How To..." - Practical Notes, Be The Maquis, GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Save The Liturgy - Save The World, Si vis pacem para bellum! | Tagged demons
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BOOK RECEIVED: Card. Pell’s – Prison Journal, Volume 2: The State Court Rejects the Appeal

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I received the second volume of George Card. Pell’s “prison journal”.

I am nearly finished working my way through the first volume. It is inspiring. I read a little each night and reflect on my own lot. It’s humbling.

This man was falsely accused. The accusations were so obviously ludicrous that Card. Pell returned to Australia from Rome for the trial. However, anti-Catholic bias ran deep and he was eventually sentenced and spent over 400 days in prison until the land’s highest court overturned the previous sentence.

The Cardinal kept a good journal during his time in prison, noting the events of the days and also making comments on spiritual issues, readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, correspondence. Each entry ends with a prayer relevant to one of the points he made.

Like I said, it’s humbling.

Prison Journal, Volume 1

US HERE – UK HERE

Prison Journal, Volume 2: The State Court Rejects the Appeal

US HERE – UK HERE

I am thanking St. Joseph in a special way these days. I sang his Litany today after Holy Mass. I would like to help to spread devotion to him. A good way to do that, is to clue you in about a marvelous book:

Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father by Fr. Donald Calloway

US HERE – UK HERE

St. Joseph is a mighty intercessor. I’ve been blessed several times by his help in times of real need and stress. I have zero doubt that he was the one who intervened, so concretely that it’s amusing.

I will also add another good book for priests.

And because the priest’s self-understand is tied to everything in the Church…

In Sinu Iesu

US HERE – UK HERE

Posted in REVIEWS | Tagged Card. Pell
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Sign of the Times #8470

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This from American Conservative:

The ‘Terrorist’ Chaplain by Rod Dreher

The Rev. Dr. Bernard Randall is a Church of England priest who worked as a chaplain at a private British school, one founded on the Evangelical tradition, where an LGBT activist gave a rousing talk on the importance of “smashing heteronormativity” and suchlike. In a subsequent sermon, he told students that there was nothing wrong with them if they disagree with LGBT ideology. The school reported him to the government’s anti-terrorism agency. The program to which he was reported is one in which people are encouraged to report those believed to be at risk of radicalism and terrorism. The agency ruled that the vicar was not a terrorism risk. But that wasn’t the end of the story.

[…]

You don’t suppose that the ideologues will make his life a living hell and continue to persecute him. Do you?

Posted in Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged homosexualist agenda
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Daily Rome Shot 156

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Rome Shot
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“Quam pulchri super montes pedes adnuntiantis et praedicantis” – Ascension Thursday and Lordly Feet

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There are many images of the Lord’s Ascension to heaven through history, and rightly so. This is probably the greatest of all the Feasts of the Lord and for our own humanity. Imagine! Our humanity is seated – RIGHT NOW – at the right hand of the Father.

The depictions I like the most are the medieval illustrations which show the Apostles, often with Mary, looking upward as a pair of lordly Feet at all that remains to be seen.

The Ascension of Christ, historiated initial ‘C’, Italy, 15C (State Library of Victoria, RARES 096 IL I)

Who better to turn to for some insight into this than Ratzinger?

From the site Ignatius Insight, providing an excerpt from “The Ascension: The Beginning of a New Nearness,” from Joseph Ratzinger’s Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts (Ignatius Press, 2006 – UK HERE). My emphases and comments:

You are surely familiar with all those precious, naïve images in which only the feet of Jesus are visible, sticking out of the cloud, at the heads of the apostles. The cloud, for its part, is a dark circle on the perimeter; on the inside, however, blazing light. It occurs to me that precisely in the apparent naïveté of this representation something very deep comes into view. All we see of Christ in the time of history are his feet and the cloud. His feet—what are they?

We are reminded, first of all, of a peculiar sentence from the Resurrection account in Matthew’s Gospel, where it is said that the women held onto the feet of the Risen Lord and worshipped him. As the Risen One, he towers over earthly proportions. We can still only touch his feet; and we touch them in adoration. Here we could reflect that we come as worshippers, following his trail, close to his footsteps. Praying, we go to him; praying, we touch him, even if in this world, so to speak, always only from below, only from afar, always only on the trail of his earthly steps. At the same time it becomes clear that we do not find the footprints of Christ when we look only below, when we measure only footprints and want to subsume faith in the obvious. The Lord is movement toward above, and only in moving ourselves, in looking up and ascending, do we recognize him.

When we read the Church Fathers something important is added. The correct ascent of man occurs precisely where he learns, in humbly turning toward his neighbor, to bow very deeply, down to his feet, down to the gesture of the washing of feet. It is precisely humility, which can bow low, that carries man upward. This is the dynamic of ascent that the feast of the Ascension wants to teach us.

Let’s have a few more, animi caussa!

From the Parisian Missal