My daughter, aged 5, was playing and I saw she had set up a little altar with bread and fruit juice. I jumped in and went over the mass with her; including why and what the Priest says and how to receive. I was considering how I can foster this desire to know; was looking at mass toys but at the same time making clear she cannot be s priest. Do you or your readers know how I can approach this with my daughter? I have no boys.
A pleasant question.
Certainly some of you parents out there will have some ideas.
One thing that occurred to me might be to focus on making cloths and vestments, linens and so forth, perhaps even small processional banners for a Rosary and Altar Society, gowns for a statue of Mary or the Infant of Prague. Trying to make everything as beautiful as possible. Learning how to do all the care for the linens, such as ironing and getting stains out. BTW… learning to starch a corporal to perfect shiny and stiff perfection is NOT easy. These things are practical skills in any event.
In a rally on Saturday, Salvini kissed his rosary, looked up to statue of the Blessed Virgin atop the 14th-century Milan Cathedral and said on behalf of the Italian people, “I entrust Italy, my life, and your lives to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who I’m sure will bring us to victory.” He said, “I am the last among good Christians, but I am proud to always have a rosary in my pocket.”
Francis’ globalist push for a centralized world government with open borders is unfortunately fueling the increasing insurgent attacks we have seen throughout Europe in recent months. As pope he should scrap his political aspirations and join Salvini in his noble attempt to protect Italy from evil. The fact that he doesn’t support Salvini raises serious questions about his pontificate and calls to mind Christ’s words: “He that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)
Lots of walking today. I purposely guiding my path past Er Belli’s house. You remember him from yesterday’s post.
I went to Gammarelli and picked the lace for Fr. Johnson’s new alb which my Society, through the donations some of you sent, will have made along with the new travel vestments. Remember that he lost pretty much everything useful for travel and Mass in the hold of that airplane that went into the drink at NAS JAX.
Getting a lesson about how to measure for the arm length.
The fabric for the vestments is ready to go to the sewing crew.
I spotted the French edition of Card. Sarah’s new book. It was larger than I thought it would be. It seemed best to buy it later, since I was doing a lot of walking.
On the way toward one of my goals, I went by the Ara Pacis Augusti, now sadly housed in something that looks like a collision of Frank Lloyd Wright and the local convenience store and gas station.
Looking to the right… ah ha! What’s this I see?
A fountain built by Clement XIV, Ganganelli. And you know what he did!
The side of the gas station has the text in inset bronze letters of the Accomplishments or Res Gestae of Augustus Caesar.
At the top of the third panel is the account of how Augustus closed the doors of the Temple of Janus, because the whole world was at peace. You can see it…. IANUM QUIRINUM… in the third line.
The doors of the Temple, later lost to build the Basilica Aemelia, were not closed very often in Rome’s history. Janus Geminus, with two faces, was the god of passages and transits, openings and beginnings, boundaries.
Ianum Quirinum, quem claussum esse maiores nostri voluerunt, cum per totum imperium populi Romani terra marique esset parta victoriis pax, cum prius, quam náscerer, a condita urbe bis omnino clausum fuisse prodátur memoriae, ter me principe senatus claudendum esse censuit.
Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors ordered to be closed whenever there was peace, secured by victory, throughout the whole domain of the Roman people on land and sea, and which, before my birth is recorded to have been closed but twice in all since the foundation of the city, the senate ordered to be closed thrice while I was princeps.
Do you recall what happened when, in Augustus reign, “the whole world was at peace”?
From the Martyrology:
“…in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace,… JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and when nine months had passed since his conception, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made man: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.”
Some days ago I posted about my QSL card, which ham radio operators send to each other when they make long distance contacts. It’s the old fashioned way to confirm contact. One of you sent a note asking me about the image on the card.
Clerics are in a library, gathered about books and a globe, clearly trying to find the location of something. It seemed a good image. This is from a painting by José Gallegos y Arnosa, a Spanish painter who worked for long years in Rome and finally died at Anzio in 1917. He did lots of churchy genre work. Anyway, some of my walking today took me past things associated with his life. First, I walked up the Via di Ripetta where he lived near P.za del Popolo. In my reading about him, I found a hilarious anecdote that involves… Jesuits.
José had an apartment in the Via Ripetta, pictured above, which happened to be directly over the residence of the Superior General of the Jesuits. It was an old building and not terribly sturdy. José’s cook, a woman who was quite large, went through the kitchen floor and, consequently, through the ceiling of the Jesuit’s apartment. As you know, women aren’t supposed to be in there, right? The account I read goes, “The priests … took this as a miracle, and news of the ‘event was published the next day in the official Vatican newspaper, the Osservatore Romano, ‘ … and the priests cried falling to their knees, an angel from heaven.'”
It would be fun to find an archived copy of that original story.
Anyway, José also had a studio in the Via Margutta, known for artists. Here is his place, #54, which now is also graced with one of the fountains that were put up in the different “rioni” of Rome at the time of Il Duce. They are all recognizably by the same hand, but they all have symbols of the area they are in.
Walking the Roman streets sometimes brings waves of fresh jasmine and you can see why.
Into the Church, nay, Basilica of San Carlo al Corso. I had promised to say a prayer for Fr. Charles Johnson, the chaplain. I included all Charleses who read and donate.
What wrong with this picture?
The heart of St. Charles Borromeo!
Young Achille Ratti said his First Mass at this altar. Pius XI of happy memory. Shall we see his like again?
A touching, touching monument. Who will give a perfect rendering of the inscription? Click HERE for large.
Honestly, with a working knowledge of Latin and the patience to stop and read the walls, you have the sense of generations of our forebears living and loving and laughing and losing in these streets and in these churches, which they cultivated for cult like precious gardens that fed them the very finest fruits and foods. They are alive all around you, still asking for prayers.
Also at San Carlo is a crowned image of St. Joseph! Love it. Terror of Demons! Convert the Fishwrap or destroy it utterly! Stop the pernicious work of certain homosexualists, or bring them down in ignominy.
Into San Lorenzo in Lucina, where I prayed for all Lawrences who read and contribute. This church has a beautiful Crucifixion by Guido Reni.
But what’s wrong with this picture?
Make me Pope for a year… just a year….
Heading home.
Later in the afternoon, as per my custom, I went to Ss. Trinità for Mass. Here is a young priest at the altar where St. John Baptist de Rossi was buried, before they moved him to a church with his name. Do you know this saint? HARD CORE, friends. Amazing. Today, being his feast, we turned to the back of the Roman Missal for Masses in “certain places”. On 23 May you find the texts. On wall of this chapel, there is plaque about how the saint was here. I like to think that some of his dust is still there, in the niche under the altar. He would have been that thoughtful, to leave some behind.
Priests. Concelebrating.
And now I am settled in for some supper, opening with little snacks, to be followed by ravioli in fresh pesto, and chicken roasted in rosemary, oregano and lemon, with a nice Grechetto to wash it down. Amaro “del capo” I think, after. I thought about a cigar, but this is the turning point in my jet lag. And a couple tools of the trade. In the background and big bouquet of yellow roses in a cut off water bottle. And the drink is Crodino.
Church Militant filed a FOIA request and obtained the disturbing police audio recordings of Fr. Robert DeLand, now serving time in Michigan State Prison, caught in the act of preying on a 17-year-old male victim.
Get a first-hand glimpse inside the twisted mind of this depraved clergyman, and learn how Detective Brian Berg orchestrated a four-month covert operation to nab this predator priest.
Folks, I went through this and it sent shivers down my spine. Watching an autopsy can be fascinating in a morbid way, but this is the autopsy of an attempt to destroy a soul. This is demonic and not for the weak of heart.
One thing that this perverted, twisted, probably possessed priest said rang in my ears as familiar. To wit: Some of the manipulations that this sicko used on this young man sounded very much like the homosexualist propaganda of a certain highly visible Jesuit. “You’re okay! It’s okay to feel this way! Doesn’t it feel better to say it? Be who you are! I love you anyway”.
It’s diabolical. The twisting of the relationships of mentoring, friendship, authority, for predatory reasons is so evil.
I am reminded of years in the past when I would sometimes be challenged again and again for decisions I had made. I eventually would say, “I have two answers. There’s a short answer and a long answer.” “What’s the short answer?” “No.” What’s the long answer?” “Noooooooooooooo.”
Meanwhile, LifeSite quotes Card. Müller on the topic, who says:
“InfoVaticana: You have written several books on women and the priesthood. There’s been a commission on the female diaconate. Do you believe that there will be an opening to the female diaconate and therefore, in the future, to the priesthood of women? Cardinal Müller: No. Dogmatically it is not possible. The pope does not have the power and authority to change the sacraments. And there was never a sacramental diaconate for women. And some historical data cannot be interpreted in this sense, and the Church has never dogmatically said that it is possible for women to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. There is only one sacrament of Holy Orders: bishop, priest and deacon, and the sacrament cannot be separated or distinguished. [Those who say it can be changed would place themselves against one of their golden calves, Lumen gentium! What’s it gonna be? Which? HUH?]
InfoVaticana: And an intermediate way of a non-sacramental ministerial diaconate, is it possible?
Cardinal Müller:No. Why call it a ministerial diaconate? It would create a confusion of words. Large numbers of our Christians are instructed by the press and do not know how to make theological distinctions because of a lack of education in theology. [In [FILL IN BLANK]] That’s what we have ministries for. Lay ministries too. The same applies to men and women. There is no point in constructing something in the sense of a female diaconate, because we have this word, “ministry,” which comes from Latin. Why create confusion? The word deacon is a technical term for the first degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders. We cannot create a terminological confusion.”
That’s because, at least for a while, words still mean things!
Below, I inserted the Great Roman’s reading of the Belli Sonnet. It’s a hoot.
___
In the rush to get a few things posted yesterday, I forgot this. I saw this chasuble at Gammarelli. I don’t in general like those columns of different fabrics in the center, but this simply works.
And the white fabric has gold threads running through it horizontally. Quite acceptable.
At Ss. Trinità I spotted an oddity. This is the Paschal candle. Pretty plain. Pretty short and stubby. But it is on a very high floor standing candelabra.
Anyway, on a brief errand I had some familiar, and new, sights. Why not post them?
I wonder how many countless times I’ve been up and down this way.
But wait! Here’s something new, above something old! The something old is about not throwing garbage here lest you get fined and/or beaten. The top one… well… I like the older one better. That’s how things are in the Roman way all around. This Novus Ordo poster doesn’t get the job done.
You can read a lot of the city’s history in the walls. Mary Ward was here and founded a school for poor children.
Another garbage sign… but this one is special. More below.
More garbage. The fine is 15 scudi! Whew.
QUAERITUR: Who can figure out how much that would be in today’s dollars?
A Latin inscription over the door of a school when, in happier times, it was the Church’s, not the State’s.
More trash talk. Roman Trash Talk.
This isn’t about trash, and it is REALLY old… set up by the Emperor Claudius, of I, Claudius fame (as in Robert Graves and the incredibly good TV series). This defines the pomerium, or border of Rome beyond which no man with imperium postestas could cross. We’ve seen this stone before. Now, however, it has a new neighbor: a great supplí shop!
Shrines to Mary are simply everywhere. This one is rather grand and it also includes St. Philip Neri, who is Rome’s co-patron. He was busy in this neighborhood and he is not forgotten.
What’s this in the alleyway?
Moooore garbage advice.
And, as a bit of a digression, I was stunned to find antiperspirants in the store! What is the world coming to? Italy? Have you finally found the 20th century?
Back in the day, antiperspirant (not simply deodorant) was unheard of, indeed scorned, as was ketchup. Someday one of you must remind me to tell my Roman seminary ketchup story.
And, as a digression… you never know what you are going to get in a short let apartment. Or what you are not going to get, but should have. One thing I didn’t get this time was a place to park soap and shampoo etc. when in the shower. A minute later, with my Swiss Guard Army knife and one of the twist ties I always keep in my bag, that problem was solved. #RomeHack
And this, dear friends, is the last of today’s Roman Trash Talk.
Today is the very anniversary of the edict that prompted this sign. 22 May 1761.
Ahhh… I remember it well. It was a Friday, so no meat.
It was a warm spring, and we who were in the know were excited about seeing the Transit of Venus in a few days. Jesuits were useful for something other than destroying the faith of young people back then. They had good astronomers and mathematicians… such as Clavius, of happy memory. I would very much like to find where he is buried. He died in Rome and must be here somewhere, under some floor or other. If the Augustinians could honor Onofrio Panvinio, then why wouldn’t the Jesuits have for Clavius something even more impressive? But I digress.
Ahhh… Roma del settecento!
And guess who was felicitously reigning? Why Clement XIV of course! Ganganelli! He who would suppress those Jesuits.
Let’s see… what was a scudo worth back then?
First, let’s have a look at a scudo d’oro. And the first thing to remember is that back in 1728, Benedict XIII, the scowler, had replaced the scudo in the Papal States with the zecchino. But people went right on calling it a scudo because that’s… well… what Romans do. Nihil innovetur, right? Res novae, and all that. Always bad.
So, here is a gold zecchino of 1772, the year after the abovedepicted garbage sign went up.
This coin weighs in at the usual weight for the scudo d’oro of old, 3.39-3.40g. At one point, when the zecchino was introduced, minted by the Banca dello Spirito Santo (which building still stands near where I write), it was so valued that it went out of circulation (this is Gresham’s Law) and was replaced by one with less gold.
So, you can figure out the worth of the coin in melt value, at least, by calculating the grams in today’s rate.
But… when we talk of value, what could you buy?
Moving the clock forward a few years, they started using scudi again in about 1814 when the Pope’s authority was restored. During the time of Pius IX, the Roman poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli was acerbically commenting on life in the day. And on death.
It has the names of coins of the Papal States, such as the quadrino, paolo, grosso, testone, lustrino, papetto.
Not for little kids, by the way. Belli is definitely grown-up stuff. Be advised.
ER CONTO TRA PPADRE E FFIJJO
Che? stammatina t’ho ddato uno scudo,
e ggià stasera nun ciài ppiú un quadrino?!
Rennéte conto, alò, ssor assassino:
cqua, pperch’io nu li zappo: io me li sudo.
Sú: ttre ppavoli er pranzo: dua de vino
tra ggiorno; e cquesti ggià nnun ve l’escrudo.
Avanti. Un grosso p’er modello ar nudo.
Bbe’: un antro ar teatrin de Cassandrino.
Sò ssei pavoli. Eppoi? Mezzo testone
de sigari: un lustrino er pan der cane…
E er papetto c’avanza, sor cojjone?
Nò, ppranz’e vvino ve l’ho mmesso in cima.
Dunque? Ah, l’hai speso per annà a pputtane.
Va bbene, via: potevi díllo prima.
THE ACCOUNT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON
What? This morning I gave you a scudo,
And this evening you are already left without a quattrino?!
Give account of it right now, you squanderer:
Come here, ’cause I don’t grow money: I earn it working hard.
Come on, three paoli for the lunch, two for wine
During the day; and I’m not complaining about these.
Well then. One grosso for the nude model at the Academy.
What else: another one for the theatre of Cassandrino
Makes six paoli. And then? Half testone
For cigars: one lustrino the bread for the dog…
And what about the spare papetto, you blockhead?
No, I counted food and wine as first,
So then? Ah, you spent it on prostitutes.
Well, it’s OK: you should have told me before.
August 30th, 1835
A conversation often conducted between parents and their money spending children, in the fact if not in the details.
Belli was an interesting guy. If you go across the big bridge into the Viale Trastevere, you see a great statue of him, in his grand stove-pipe hat, leaning on the balustrade of the bridge that connects the island to the Ghetto, by the old herm that survives even now. He was terribly anti-Catholic and wrote hilarious anti-clerical stuff about clergy in Rome. Then one day he saw the dominating Masons dragging confessionals out of the Church of San Carlo ai Catinari (where I lived for a bit as a deacon and whose dome I could see if I lean from my window) and burning them in the square in front of the church. That’s why, today, the confessional on one side of the church are different from the others. He had a conversion experience and eventually became the Censor for the Papal States. Ironically, this writer of sonnets in the Roman dialect, banned publication of one of the greatest writer of sonnets of all!
Let’s hear this read by The Great Roman himself!
Really, we need to have this read by The Great Roman himself. I’d do it, and I’d do a pretty job of it, but nothing like The Great Roman.
UPDATE:
Scroll back up a little. I inserted the Great Roman reading the Sonnet.
Sometimes when I post this, people send emails about various places that take Gregorian Masses. That’s not what this post is for.
Also, I am on the road, so I might not react immediately.
___
People sometimes write to me to request Gregorian Masses (i.e., the same Mass intention for 30 straight, uninterrupted days). Many priests have parish Masses, so they cannot do this, but some priests can! Therefore, I have put on my yenta cap to ask if there are priests out there who can take such a request.
I then forward your requests to those priests.
I have nothing to do with the stipend, which the parties work out for themselves.
FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS EXACTLY:
Petitioners/Gregorian Mass seekers:
Drop me a note (HERE) and I will forward your request to a priest on my list. I won’t have anything to do with setting the stipend. Period. In the subject line of the email put: GREGORIAN MASS REQUEST. Put just that, and only that in the subject line so that I will be able to find you in my email: GREGORIAN MASS REQUEST[UPDATE: It is amazing that people write and put something else in the subject line! It’s as if you want me to miss your email. When I try to match people, I search for that title in the email Subject line. Put something else and you are out, unless you are lucky.]
Priests:
Put AVAILABLE FOR GREGORIAN MASS in the subject line. Just that. Not anything else. Just that. Drop me a note (HERE)
Finally, I am not obliged to do this.
Folks, think about this.
Are you looking for a truly spiritual gift to give? How about having Gregorian Masses said for the deceased priests who served you?
Don’t necessarily pick the priests who were holy or kind or good. How about picking priests who were troubled or who were liberal and, therefore, probably not exactly faithful? Have Masses said for the priests who really need your spiritual care?
I would appreciate your prayers after my own death. I appreciate your prayers in this life too! You can have Masses said for both the living and the dead. Pray for your priests, dead and alive. We need your prayers.
At Church Militant, there is a response by Fr. Paul John Kalchik – who was notoriously tossed from his Chicago parish after an infamous and blasphemous “gay” flag was burned – to homosexualist activist Jesuit Fr. Jasmine Martin, SJ. More on Kalchik, who is still in hiding I believe, HERE.
You want to read the whole thing, but here is the peroration.
[…]
So today I make a challenge to you, Fr. Martin, along the lines of Elijah on Mount Carmel. How is it that your new anthropology is better than that given to us by the Fathers of the Church? Why should we brush aside absolutely all of Sacred Scripture to make room for this “new” understanding of how a person is made?
I for one do not believe what you are saying, which boils down to rewriting Genesis to say, “God made them, male and female he made them, some heterosexual and some homosexual he made them, in the divine image he made them.”
I found your personal attack on me unsettling, but your attempt at supplanting the true faith with a funhouse mirror version of it makes me sick. And by the by, before you “demonize” me, or LifeSiteNews or Church Militant, check out your facts. Come judgment day, there will no longer be a leftist press corps to sing your praises.
Father Paul John, in hiding from the homosexuals who hate me.
Precisely in this time of year, it is the anniversary of the Great Siege of Malta, by the invading infidel Muslim under Suliman, called by some “the Magnificent”. This was a key moment in Western history, given the strategic importance of the little islands. Everybody in the day, understood how important this was. Elizabeth I of England said of it: “If the Turks should prevail against the Isle of Malta, it is uncertain what further peril might follow to the rest of Christendom.”
The Siege of Malta began on 18 May 1565 and ended, propitiously, on 11 September with, of course, a Christian victory over the attacking Islamic infidels.
Do you think that Islamicists of today have forgotten?
I am listening to the book from Ernle Bradford: The Great Siege, Malta 1565: Clash of Cultures: Christian Knights Defend Western Civilization Against the Moslem Tide.
It came highly recommended by an Army Colonel whom I met recently at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, who also has a keen interest in chess. As it turns out he was on the hunt for the Latin funerary inscription on the tomb of perhaps the greatest of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta back in the day, Jean Parisot de la Vallette. He found an English rendering and I rooted around in sites that had photos of the restoration of the tomb. Once I picked up a clear phrase in the Latin original, I found it quickly. I had tried to reverse engineer the English, but it turns out that the knight’s epitaph was in verse, so that didn’t work. But I digress.
I have the Audible version of Bradford’s book read by the inimitable Simon Vance, probably my favorite reader out there. Which he also did the magnificent series by Patrick O’Brien.
The person of Jean de la Vallette is amazing. His life demonstrates something of the stakes involved, for he had spent some time as a galley slave. He understood well what awaited the vanquished and he set himself with resolve in the face of the Islamic threat.
For the curious, here is the Latin of the tomb of this great Catholic solider.
HIC ASIAE LIBYAEQUE PAVOR TUTELAQUE QUONDAM
EUROPAE EDOMITIS SACRA PER ARMA GETIS
PRIMUS IN HAC ALMA QUAM CONDIDIT URBE SEPULTUS
VALLETTA AETERNO DIGNUS HONORE JACET
Here are a few links of the books the Colonel recommended about Malta.
It’s always a pleasure to showcase the sacred art of Daniel Mitsui. He works in various media and with a creative fusion of genres. His Archangel Michael as samurai warrior is amazing.
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Undoer of Knots or Untier of Knots is at least three centuries old; Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner made a painting of the subject in Augsburg around 1700.
For this commissioned work, I eschewed the Baroque style of Schmidtner’s painting, while retaining is essential elements. The style is one indebted to Gothic, Northumbro-Irish, Persian and Mexican sacred art.
The Virgin Mary I presented as the Immaculate Conception, standing over a serpent on a crescent Moon. There are twelve stars about her head, inside the halo. A dove Representing the Holy Ghost is also within the halo. Her posture and clothing have some similarity to the image of Our lady of Guadalupe. [Get this!] The cords that she is untying form elaborate knots and braids that fill a mandorla surrounding her figure, and a border to the entire drawing. As in the Baroque painting, the serpent upon which she is standing is tied in a knot; here, I depicted it with a knotted tongue also. [Since the original is in Augsburg, perhaps that depicts the German bishop?]
The Archangel Raphael, Tobias and his dog, who appear in miniature at the bottom of Schmidtner’s painting, I depicted in the background. The spaces between the mandorla and the border I filled with orthogonal letter patterns spelling Salve Regina Virgo Maria.
Daniel’s art always has a lot going on. You need time to look at it. For example, a contemplative priest could say Mass for a couple of hours with his altar cards, there’s so much going on in them.
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
That’s not what this post is for.
Precisely in this time of year, it is the anniversary of the Great Siege of Malta, by the invading infidel Muslim under Suliman, called by some “the Magnificent”. This was a key moment in Western history, given the strategic importance of the little islands. Everybody in the day, understood how important this was. Elizabeth I of England said of it: “If the Turks should prevail against the Isle of Malta, it is uncertain what further peril might follow to the rest of Christendom.”
It came highly recommended by an Army Colonel whom I met recently at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, who also has a keen interest in chess. As it turns out he was on the hunt for the Latin funerary inscription on the tomb of perhaps the greatest of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta back in the day, Jean Parisot de la Vallette. He found an English rendering and I rooted around in sites that had photos of the restoration of the tomb. Once I picked up a clear phrase in the Latin original, I found it quickly. I had tried to reverse engineer the English, but it turns out that the knight’s epitaph was in verse, so that didn’t work. But I digress.
