VIDEO: TLM – Low Mass – by Card. Burke!

Posted on 1 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I am not able to live stream Mass at Noon (CDT).   However, I can post this as a substitute.

Cardinal Burke! He says the Votive Mass of Christ the High Priest. He gives a “fervorino”.

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42 views as I post this, 11 hour after the recording.

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#ASonnetADay – 50. “How heavy do I journey on the way…”

Posted on 30 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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A way to get at the Most Holy Trinity from C.S. Lewis

Posted on 30 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

May I make a recommendation?   A friend of mine – who happens to be right now mobilizing and quarantined at Ft. Bliss – sent me the recent C.S. Lewis “doodle”.  These are GREAT.

Try this… From Mere Christianity – US HERE

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His essential books. Everyone needs these!

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WWII Bomb discovered in central Rome

Posted on 30 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At the site of Wanted In Rome, there is a piece about an unexploded WWII bomb discovered in a well-known street, the Via dei Cappellari, near my old stomping grounds Campo de’ Fiori, in the Regola zone. As a matter of fact, I had an apartment near to the place and the location, as I recognize from the photos, is just across from where I attended a couple dinner parties with friends at the home of interesting if eccentric self-described spinster. More at La Repubblica.

I was curious about how that bomb wound up there, because Rome centro was rarely attacked.  Most of the runs were at the periphery.   There was the infamous Verano in 1943 that produced the amazing photo of Pius XII.

However, there were a couple that grazed the centro including one that damage a building at the train station inside Vatican City.  My friend John Sonnen once posted on that HERE. I can imagine an early bomb dropping as they drew close to their target.

In 1944 there was another accidental bombing by Brits that grazed Vatican City.  As a matter of fact I found an amusing article about that.

Who Bombed the Vatican?: The Argentinean Connection
Patricia M. McGoldrick
The Catholic Historical Review
The Catholic University of America Press
Volume 102, Number 4, Autumn 2016
pp. 771-798

I need someone at Catholic University of America to use their library access and get me a copy of that article.

Who knows what details it has?

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Remind me. Whose administration went after the Little Sisters of the Poor?

Posted on 30 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I watched the first debate last night between Pres. Trump and former-VP Biden. It was not edifying. There was a line, however, that said a lot to me, how on one side, the dem side, they just make things up. There is a transcript at the Daily Mail.

BIDEN: “It’s a little bit like how this guy and his friends look down on so many people. They look down their nose on people like Irish Catholics, like me, who grow up in Scranton.”

Ummm… whose administration went after the Little Sisters of the Poor?

Will I watch the next debates? Probably. It’s a manifestation of Road Kill Syndrome. As you are driving, done the way a bit you see a dark lump by the road. You know it is going to be pretty nasty, but when you get there you look anyway.

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#ASonnetADay – 49. “Against that time, if ever that time come…”

Posted on 29 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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REVIEW: Spectacular old NEW books for children’s preparation for Confession and Communion. Beautiful, traditional!

Posted on 29 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Our forebears loved their Faith.  They lovingly handed it on because of love.. for the Faith and for us.

Some of things (including churches) have been abandoned or forgotten, though they still have real value.

St. Augustine Academy Press has been reprinting – beautifully – old books.  Today I received two new old books, one for First Confession and First Communion.

These were originally done in the 1902’s.

These are lovely books, which are probably meant to be read with children at an early age and then reviewed by them as they get older.

They tell stories of different children on their way to the sacraments.

Compare and contrast.  Naughty or nice!  Look at God’s reaction!

They contextualize the examination of conscience and confession.

The Holy Communion book has a slightly different approach, bringing in devotions.

For scale and regular envelope.

STUNNING.

I sat in my car for a half hour after picking them up from my P.O. Box.

(For you stalkers… I didn’t stay at the Post Office!)

Please consider these!  They would be GREAT for sacramental prep programs for parishes or homeschool groups.

One for First Confession

and one for First Communion.

And don’t forget…

And the deep but utterly charming …

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ASK FATHER: Giving money to Peter’s Pence

Posted on 29 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Father, I keep hearing about Peters Pence.  The Vatican is misusing the collection.  Can a Catholic give to Peters Pence in good conscience?

Modern Peter’s Pence started in the time of the Papal States.  People were asked to contribute for support not just for their parishes or dioceses but for Rome, “the Vatican”.  Eventually the collection was to be used for philanthropy.

Remembering always that money is fungible, nevertheless there have been problems lately with how Peter’s Pence has been applied.

Recently, we heard of the dressing-down of Card. Becciu (is he a Cardinal or isn’t he?) for using Peter’s Pence to buy luxury real estate in London and to fund a movie about openly homosexual Elton John.  It is hard to understand either of those moves as “philanthropic” or as related to the operation of the Roman Curia… the wholesome operation, that is.

It could be argued that because the Vatican City State has very little income, therefore Peter’s Pence has to be invested so as to create funds the Church can work with.  Okay.  But flats in Sloane and Elton John?   And how was the money handled?

No, this is very bad indeed.

Consider also the nightmare stories about money that Card. Wuerl and Mr. McCarrick were involved with through the Papal Foundation.

Speaking personally, I cannot see myself contributing anything to Peter’s Pence, no matter how plaintive the plea.   I now need some evidence that the right people are handling the money and that it is going to things that can be explained with a straight face.

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29 Sept: St. Michael, Angels, and chapel veils

Posted on 29 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In these days of The Present Crisis a few bishops took a step towards sanity and asked their people once again to pray the St. Michael Prayer after Mass.

I think we should bring the Leonine Prayers back… all of them.  St. Michael was one of the prayers of the Leonine Prayers.

C’mon, guys!   DO IT!

Like few periods in the history of the Church do we need to be on our knees asking for the help of the Mother of God, invoking the Sacred Heart, and asking for angels to help us in this horrible battle against the forces of Hell.

In the older Roman calendar today is the Feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel, which refers to a basilica dedicated in his honor.

This has been the time of year to honor angels for a long time in the Roman Church. The ancient Veronese Sacramentary has an entry for “Natale Basilicae Angeli via Salaria” for 30 September. The Gelasian Sacramentary has a feast for “S. Michaelis Archangeli”. The Gregorian Sacramentary has “Dedicatio Basilionis S. Angeli Michaelis” for 29 September. It is possible that the basilica they were talking about was a long-gone church out the Via Salaria north of Rome. However, there is the monumental statue of St. Michael that looms over the City at the top of Hadrian’s mausoleum, known as Castel Sant’Angelo, placed there after the archangel signaled the end of a plague that had ravaged Rome.

Today at Matins in our Breviarium Romanum, in the 9th reading in the 3rd Nocturn, St. Jerome instructs us:

Oh, how great is the dignity of souls, whereof every one hath from its birth an Angel appointed to guard it! Hence, we read in the Revelation of John unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, (and so of the others,) write, ii. I And the Apostle (Paul) also saith: The woman (that is, in the Church) ought to have a covering on her head, because of the Angels. i Cor. xi. 10.

Hence… chapel veils!

The theology of chapel veils is a little complicated.  Perhaps in another post…   In any event, it is a good custom, though not obligatory.

From Scripture we know the names of three Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

There are other, apocryphal names of angels, but we are not to use them or invoke them.

Here is a nice depiction of all three angels easin’ elegantly on down the road with Tobias, Fido and the Fish.  Note their courtly bearing!

Our perennial Catholic thought is that the angels are in a hierarchy of nine “choirs”.  This goes back to the writings of St. Dionysius and of Gregory the Great.  St. Thomas Aquinas developed their foundational teachings.   According to the Angelic Doctor the choirs, which designate offices and roles, are

  1. Seraphim
  2. Cherubim
  3. Thrones
  4. Dominions
  5. Virtues
  6. Powers
  7. Principalities
  8. Archangels
  9. Angels

Note that Archangels are second from the last.  That St. Michael seems to be the commander of the heavenly host shows that even among angels (who are created persons, but without bodies), so vastly above us in the order of creation, God chose the lowly for His own plans.

In a few days we will have the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

Guardian Angel is a role assigned by God. Your angel or angels could be from the ranks of any of the choirs.

Do you think about angels?

Do you consider your Guardian Angel or ask for help?

Do you remember that there are also fallen angels?

In our day, I believe we are witnessing in our cities – and veins – the sharp rise of the demonic.  All around us a spiritual war is being waged.

Finally, one of my favorite depictions of St. Michael as a samurai warrior by Daniel Mitsui.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices |
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911 emergency phone system was down in Minnesota. Wherein Fr. Z muses.

Posted on 28 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

911 numbers in Minnesota were unavailable for quite a while.

A news outlet posted the 10 digit 24/7 numbers for the counties in Minnesota.  HERE

You know, if I were the People’s Army, thinking in terms of unrestricted asymmetrical warfare…. which I sort of do even though I am not CCP… I would probe these systems.

I didn’t pull that image of “unrestricted and asymmetrical warfare” out of the blue. Years ago I read a book by a couple of Chinese colonels about how they could take down the USA.  A friend of mine, a Marine Corps Lt. General who had been J3 on the Joint Chiefs, gave it to me. It describes a way of fighting with limited resources a much greater power. US HERE – UK HERE

I wonder… what can we learn from this book for good initiatives in the Church?  For Tradition?   I think some of us are doing things from native intelligence, but.. were we to hone our efforts?

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