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{]:¬)

Lovely, drippy, syrupy TLM and vocation video. Then Fr. Z rants about crying.

Posted on 18 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Pope Francis said something along the lines that certain realities can be seen only through eyes that have been cleansed by tears.

At the Italian site Messa in Latino, I saw a little video, beautifully produced, focused very much on the affective dimension of the experience of Holy Mass in the traditional form of the Roman Rite.

It also underscores visually and viscerally what I am constantly banging on about: the knock on effect of the TLM on priests and on people in the pews.

Some may be tempted to say that it is “sentimental”.

A thoughtful person, however, would reflect that the affective compliments the intellective.

There’s nothing wrong with some “sentiment”.

There’s also nothing wrong with our older, traditional prayers dripping with what today we might regard as “flowery” or “syrupy” language. There’s nothing wrong with “flowery” language in prayers. We don’t have to be terse and jejune all the time. That’s not how we are made.

On that note, you should know that there was and is in thing Catholic thing of ours a tradition of praying for the gift, the grace, of tears. In the Missale Romanum there are prayers for the gift of tears.

What comes first? Understanding and then belief? Belief and then understanding? Nisi credideritis non intelligetis… You will not understand unless you first will have believed.

What comes first? The tears and then the understanding?

Why do we bother to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries?

Again, Pope Francis once talked about the gift of tears to the priests of Rome in 2014.

Tell me: Do you weep? Or have we lost our tears? I remember that in the old Missals, those of another age, there is a most beautiful prayer to ask the gift of tears. The prayer began like this: “Lord, who commanded Moses to strike the rock so that water might gush forth, strike the stone of my heart so that tears…”: the prayer went more or less like this. It was very beautiful. But, how many of us weep before the suffering of a child, before the breakup of a family, before so many people who do not find the path?… The weeping of a priest…. Do you weep? Or in this presbyterate have we lost all tears?

Do you weep for your people? Tell me, do you offer intercessory prayer before the Tabernacle?

In about 412 Augustine wrote about prayer in a famous letter to Proba, a weathy Roman widow of the important gens Anicia. She had fled with her family and some pious women to North Africa after the Sack of Rome to found a religious community. She had asked him about how to pray. The bishop, who had a great deal to do in his busy life, took time to exchange letters to her and we, incredibly, have them. She was, after all, one of the wealthiest women anywhere and, more importantly, she had picked up some Pelagianism along the way. Among the deep advice of this long letter, Augustine wrote:

To use much speaking in prayer is to employ a superfluity of words in asking a necessary thing; but to prolong prayer is to have the heart throbbing with continued pious emotion towards Him to whom we pray. For in most cases prayer consists more in groaning than in speaking, in tears rather than in words. But He sets our tears in His sight, and our sighing is not hidden from Him who made all things by the word, and does not need human words. (ep. 130.10.20)

Without additional rambling, here are the prayers “Ad petendam compunctionem cordis .. In order to beg for compunction of the heart” from the 1962 Missale Romanum (in earlier editions Pro petitione lacrimarum) together with my close conversion into the vernacular of this blog. These orations can be added to the other orations of another Mass formulary. Some younger readers here might not know what “compunction” is. In Latin we have a compound of cum+pungo – “puncture severely, sting”. English “compunction” is just that: a strong sense of unease due to regret or hesitation about some act. In Latin it is stronger. It has the effect of, “piercing with remorse, the sting of conscience”.

I might just play a bit with the metaphrasing:

Collect

Omnipotens et mitissime Deus, qui sitienti populo fontem viventis aquae de petra produxisti: educ de cordis nostri duritia lacrimas compunctionis; ut peccata nostra plangere valeamus, remissionemque eorum, te miserante, mereamur accipere. Per Dominum nostrum.

Almighty and most gentle God, who for Thy thirsting people drew living water from forth a rock, from forth our stony hearts do Thou now draw tears of compunction, that we may be able to beweep our sins, and we may merit while Thou dost show us mercy to receive their forgiveness.

First, I like that chiasmus with the de and verbs. Off the top of my head, I wonder if there isn’t an exitus – conversio – reditus pattern underlying that use of produco and educo on either side of the flex. Remember: everything is from God. The very sense of sorrow is prevenient. The very prayer being sung in this moment is God’s first and only truly ours when we raise it back on high as an offering.

Secret

Hanc oblationem, quaesumus, Domine Deus, quam tuae maiestati pro peccatis nostris offerimus, propitius respice: et produc de oculis nostris lacrimarum flumina, quibus debita flammarum incendia valeamus extinguere. Per Dominum nostrum.

Look favorably, we beseech Thee, Lord God, upon the offering which for the sake of our sins we offer to Thy majesty: and from out our eyes draw a river of tears, by which we might manage to quench the ragings of the flames that they deserve.

A master of emotions and of Latin constructed these prayers. Take note of the synchesis in lacrimarum flumina… flammarum incendia. There are other “gift of tears” forumularies through our history, such as those found in the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary. These, however, are lovely.

Postcommunion

Gratiam Spiritus Sancti, Domine Deus, cordibus nostris clementer infunde: quae nos gemitibus lacrimarum efficiat maculas nostrorum diluere peccatorum: atque optatae nobis, te largiente, indulgentiae praestet effectum. Per Dominum nostrum… in unitate eiusdem Spritus.

Into our hearts, Oooh Lord, Oooh God, pour gently the Holy Spirit’s grace: which will cause us to cleanse with sighs the stains of our sins and, so long as Thou dost bequeath it, fulfill for us the effect of forgiveness.

I know what you are thinking. That gemitibus made me do it.

There are tears of sorrow, of mourning, and of joy which all flow from the same source.

Okay.. back to work and…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Cri de Coeur, GO TO CONFESSION, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Priests and Priesthood, Seminarians and Seminaries, Si vis pacem para bellum!, Turn Towards The Lord, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged gift of tears
26 Comments

The image of the badge of the Vendée came to mind today

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day, I saw a stage of the Tour de France that was in the Vendée.

Today is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Carmelites of Compiègne.

I’ve been watching the lunatic frenzy and eruptions of malice from the Left over any word that Pres. Trump utters or doesn’t utter.

Lately some have suggested military coups, free income for people in Chicago, mouthpieces seemingly for the Holy See are undermining Humanae vitae, the Seal is being attacked in Australian, Communion for those in mortal sin is being promoted and forget can. 915 and can. 916 even as Card. Coco wants protection of the environment put into the Code of Canon Law as an obligation of the faithful, homoeroticism is found even first Masses in money-enslaved Germany, priest friends are talking about the increase in demonic activity and calls for help from exorcists, etc.

As I watched the idiocy from the political left tonight on the news – remember, they are stupid, but they are not stupid, if you know what I mean – the image of the badge of the Vendée came to mind. Earlier in the day, I thought about the possibility of being put up against the wall in the future.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Sacred Heart, Vendée
19 Comments

Fr. Z’s Kitchen: Garofolato!

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Summer notwithstanding, I have had a hankering for something Roman that I haven’t had for a while.

Garofolato.

In Italian, chiodi … “nails” are cloves… but indifferent cloves. They could be cloves of garlic (which are spicchi). However chiodi di garofano are cloves of, well, cloves. Be aware that garofano can have to do with dianthus, or carnation, and thus the symbolic “pink” of paintings and, also, cloves. There is etymological give and take between the words. But if you talk about chiodi di garofano, you mean the spice, because as the flowers from the Syzygium aromaticum dry out, they look like little nails.

Again in Italian, if you are going to “clove” something, you wind up with a “garofolato”.

So, what I made was garofolato di manzo, beef. It can done with veal and ox. Since the essence of the humble Roman fare is to make the very best of the humblest ingredients, even the quinto quarto, I opted for the classic cut of beef for the garofolato, the girello, which is the eye of round (in these USA, but in the UK I think it is the silver side).

Off to the store I went to obtain a roast of eye of round. No luck. They only had little pieces. So I entered into a dialogue with the guy at the meat counter and set an appointment to pick up my eye of round the next day. Meanwhile, I got everything else together.

I also started texting with The Great Roman.

I could sense that he came out of his chair when I said that, summer notwithstanding, I was going to make garofolato. “My granny made garofolato to die for,” quoth he. “Here’s the recipe closest to what granny did.” HERE

With recipes like this, it is probably better to get the theory of the dish, understand its inner logic and outcome, rather than go by precise measurements. I gleaned that this is a classic in umido preparation. I had to have that girello and it had to be pilottato, it had to be larded (where’s that larding needle again?). I needed what the Romans call persa or maggiorana, marjoram. I needed red wine from the area: I opted for Montepulciano. I needed to truss the roast, hence string. The usual would be necessary, including onion, carrot, celery, and cloves.

I set myself to the task to make this wintry Sunday dish during a summer week. Why? Because I wanted to. As well, I betook myself back to the Roma and the castelli, thinking about the rhythm of rising, Mass, slow food with slow patience, and slow meals. Would that the Great Roman and family were here for the fare, or I were there.

I had some lard, but the wrong kind: too soft. I did use some in the casserole for browning. I opted for bacon for the larding. Keep it cold, if you want my advice. Salt pork might have been easier to work with. I didn’t have any.

Searching the back of the drawer revealed the needle. With this type of larding needle you grab the lard with its little jaws and then draw it through. Tricky. I have put a different type on my wishlist, into which you insert the lard and then, having pushed it through, you withdraw the needle, leaving the lard behind. I need one of those. I had one once, but it is long gone.

Larding meat, along with barding, or putting a layer of fat around the meat, helps to prevent it from drying out or getting tough in the process. Eye of round is really lean, so larding helps a lot.

So I larded and then I also studded the meat with garlic and cloves and marjoram, as suggested in the prosaic recipe.

Some medical instruments are handy in the kitchen.

I was going to truss as if my life depended on it, but the warning on the string changed my mind.

Browning time. All sides. Because I used bacon, I backed off on the salt.

Out comes the meat and in go the veg.

It would have been irresponsible not to test the wine.

Tomato and cloves. I used more clove than suggested in the prosaic recipe, because, frankly, spices are insipid here.

Marjoram.

Time to check and to turn.

After a few hours…

I extracted the roast and set it to cool. Too often food is served to quickly and too hot. Meat always needs a little time to settle down. Also, food that is too hot shocks your taste buds. Time to make the other thing Romans might eat with this: broccoletti. We don’t have exactly the same thing here, but it’s pretty close. This is done in a smoking hot pan with olive oil and garlic and red hot pepper and a tiny splash of water at the very end to finish the job.

Garofolato di manzo con broccoletti ripassati in padella with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.

If you are wondering, it was fork tender. I could have been bolder with the marjoram, so I added it as a garnish.

After, a little cheese and more wine. Coffee and an amazzacafe.

This is made with variations all over Italy. With cloves it is particularly Roman. Farther north they make stracotto and brasato.

The avanzi or left-overs will make great sandwiches and, along the large quantity of sauce I produced a fantastic way to prepare fettucine all’uovo. I’ll freeze some, too. If I have some time, perhaps I’ll make the fettuccine from scratch. I haven’t done that for a while.

For those of you who want to work your panties into a twist about eating “fancy food”, this is also called “pot roast”. It’s just good pot roast, rather than the jejune, flat, anemic, wearisome, spiritless stuff that most people who get the undies bunched by these posts are used to. What thanks do we show to God by taking good ingredients and making bad food out of them, stale, flat and unprofitable?

Good food doesn’t have to be costly. You just have to know, as our forebears did, what to do with humble, on hand ingredients. Eye of round is certainly not your most costly cut. The rest is, well, simple stuff. There’s nothing fancy about bacon, carrot, etc. I had to buy marjoram, which in happier years I would have walked to the garden to pluck. I bought the wine… as one does, right? The tomatoes were a gift from my wish list (THANKS!).

So, another recipe under my belt. When winter comes, I’ll be able to prepare it with even greater ease and effect.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z's Kitchen | Tagged beef, cloves, garfolato
6 Comments

ASK FATHER: Cremains in funeral Mass, Traditional Requiem

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Thank you for all that you do and say, on this blog and beyond. Here is my question:

Since cremation is permitted, what would be the ritual for cremains if the funeral mass were an EF Requiem?

To my mind, there is something strange about one of those jars or boxes on a little table. It doesn’t feel … right. Granted there are special circumstances.

Years ago I met a clever priest who purchased a coffin for the parish precisely so that the “cremains” could be placed inside, covered properly with the pall, etc. The rite goes on as normal.

I suppose the rite would just go as normal for a box on a table, too.

Perhaps a coffin, or a temporary catafalque, will serve?

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Four Last Things, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged cremation, Requiem Mass
13 Comments

Pontifical Mass in Lake Charles. A brief and yet optimistic rant from Fr. Z.

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw a great entry at NLM about a Pontifical Mass in Louisiana. There are good photos. Check it out.

His Excellency Glen Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles celebrated a Pontifical Mass in their cathedral.

Writing about it, Greg DiPippo aptly adds (me emphases and comments):

Anyone who has ever served this rite of Mass knows that it is especially hard work, something which requires a good amount of organizing and rehearsal to do properly; the reward for such work is, of course, a ceremony which truly impresses upon one, forcibly and unmistakably, the power and majesty of what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass truly is. We can all take encouragement once again from the fact that none of the people who are making the effort and commitment to put this together are old enough to be doing so from any sense of “nostalgia”; what we see here is a true and sincere love for the richness of our Catholic liturgical tradition.

Do I hear an “Amen!”?

And they had to work around that free standing altar, too.

Many kudos to the Bishop and to the priests and servers.

I would like to think that, perhaps, just maybe, there is a chance that the work we have been doing in Madison, and the fine example set by the Extraordinary Ordinary Bp. Morlino has been an influence on priests, groups of lay people who get organized, and even on Bishops. Just maybe? Perhaps priests and lay people out there have looked at the photos here and at the TMSM site and have thought, “Okay. WE can do that!” And they get to work.

It seems to me that – recently – more bishops are willing to celebrate the Traditional Roman Rite than even a few years ago.

In any event, I know that we are all mutually encouraging each other in this effort of ours to promote beautiful and transformative sacred liturgical worship.

We are all helping each other.

UPDATE 18 July:

I have some good news from France…

A priest friend is training up in the TLM the new rector of a seminary. He also wrote about the bishop of a French diocese who says the TLM regularly. I don’t want to add names or just post his text, unless he wants me to. However, let’s just say that his news was very good.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z KUDOS, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Si vis pacem para bellum!, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged D. Lake Charles, Pontifical Mass at the Throne
11 Comments

The last 10 minutes…

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The last 10 minutes…

Haydn’s Farewell is playing.
Request from a priest via text message for the blessing of beehives.
Email from a priest asking about baptizing the child adopted by homosexuals.
Delivery of a deep cycle 12v battery.
Roast out of the fridge and preparation of the lard.
Arranged pick up of new solemn green set.
This email….

Dear Father Z

Today I was in NYC & on the spur of the moment (& your encouragement) I stopped at Holy Innocents & went to confession after many many years. I can not describe the feeling afterwards as the wonderful priest gave me absolution. I cried tears of happiness & joy.

Thank you Father!

Everyone…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, What Fr. Z is up to |
5 Comments

17 July 1794: “Permission to die, Mother?”

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In 1794, the Place de la Nation on the east side of Paris was called the Place du Trône-Renversé… Toppled Throne Square. In 1792 a guillotine was set up here and the killing began. Robespierre and Barère made terror an instrument of governance: “Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue”, quoth Robespierre.

On 17 July of this same year, 1794, 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Carmel of Compiègne, together with three lay sisters and two tertiaries were guillotined and buried in a mass grave in the nearby Picpus Cemetery. They had for a while been living with English Benedictine nuns, who were forbidden their native England. The Carmelites dedicated themselves to prayer for the restoration of peace in France and for the Church. Hence, they were arrested, shifted to Paris, and publicly murdered for the encouragement of the mob. As the nuns, aged 30 to 78, went to the razor, they renewed their vows and sang the either the Salve Regina or the Veni Creator Spiritus, accounts vary.

One by one they knelt before the prioress and asked permission to die.

“Permission to die, Mother?”
“Go, my daughter!”

Here is the dramatized scene.

Some think that’s funny.

On 28 July, Robespierre experienced the guillotine. The Reign of Terror ended a few days after the martyrdom of the Carmelites.

Coincidence?

For more, see To Quell the Terror: The Mystery of the Vocation of the Sixteen Carmelites of Compiegne Guillotined July 17, 1794 by William Bush. US HERE – UK HERE

I wonder if I will have the strength of mind and will in that moment to sing that hymn or antiphon? This is something to make a plan about. Fathers! You might start thinking now about the moment when you are put up against the wall like our brother Bl. Miguel Pro. Make a plan.

Do you suppose the Tricoteuse, the Knitting Women who sat near the guillotine erected at the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde) made side trips? I can see Madame Wile E. Defarge hefting her knitting basket and with her bloodthirsty companions, a sort of Anti-Carmel of Emballage de Poisson (or maybe Poison), heading off to watch the nuns die, perhaps the Little Sisters of the Poor who fought the Obama Administration. I can picture the modern Tricoteuse doing that when the Left wins. After all, they pictures themselves doing that.

Posted in Modern Martyrs, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged 1794, Carmelites, Compiègne, Madame Defarge, Tricoteuse, Wile E. Coyote
12 Comments

17 July 2018 – 100 years after

Posted on 17 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The day after Pres. Trump met with Pres. Putin in Finland, today, is the 100th anniversary of the execution of the last Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Nicholas II
17 Comments

Cobblestones, new vestments, and swag for Zed Heads

Posted on 16 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The last couple of days have involved a lot of TV coverage. The person who invented the DVR deserves prayers. Everything is recorded, so I can blast through commercials and jump around. Yesterday I tuned in – sort of – to Wimbledon, slightly more to the World Cup Final, and really to the 9th Stage of the Tour de France.

Stage 9 of the TdF involves dreaded cobblestones, 15 narrow stretches involving some 13 miles! The cobbles are treacherous enough on foot.

Some don’t make it.

That was an amazing stage.

Today, while working in lunch with a priest, I caught the Trump/Putin Presser, read the NYT piece about the disgusting Card. McCarrick, proofed my weekly column, and unboxed our new green Solemn Mass set from Rome. We needed a Solemn green set so that we would not unevenly wear the rather more precious Pontifical set. DONATE!

This has bronze trim, rather than gold. It looks great!

Here’s the antependium.

Oh… and a new item from my online Z-Swag Store came… I saw that they were now offering a “latte mug”, which has angled sides. I figured it might be good for the live basil plants I keep in the kitchen.

I opted for the Zed-Head version. Sometime ago, one of the haters at the Fishwrap labelled you regular readers as “Zed Heads”. I thought that was pretty good, so I asked the the official graphic guy, also the maker of the wonderful Pius Clock, to whip up something appropriate.

This is really a trip.

I also got the mega-mug from the UOM collection.

And now I will join via Facetime my poetry reading group – which I founded many years agin – in my native place. We are reading Eliot’s “Four Quartets” today.

Posted in Lighter fare, SESSIUNCULA |
7 Comments

More shallow, angry, cliché feminist rubbish from Fishwrap

Posted on 16 July 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Fishwrap is a disgrace. The National Schismatic Reporter today proudly displays:

Yes, Fishwrap pays people to write that.

Notice also their “same-sex marriage” post. Coming from liberal RNS, it is not objective, which suits Fishwrap’s agenda just fine.

Jamie Manson, openly lesbian, disciple of Margaret Farley, writes against Catholic bishops:

But the bishops have only dug in their heels, using their health care facilities, financial resources and political influence to make the church perhaps the most powerful force in the world driving the movement to restrict access to birth control.

When Catholic theologians and ethicists argue against Humanae Vitae, they ultimately appeal to the church’s teaching on individual conscience as the final arbiter in moral decision-making. The problem with this argument is the fact that the Catholic hierarchy is making it increasingly difficult for individuals to exercise their consciences.

Realizing long ago that it had lost its authority over the faithful regarding contraception use, the bishops changed their strategy, investing their energy in promoting laws and policies that force individuals, Catholic or not, to obey their doctrine on conception.

And there’s this:

Most priests were taught three models of female sexuality: the pure and holy virgin, the chaste mother who only engages in sex for the sake of conceiving a child, or the wanton woman who is in need of repentance and the directive to “sin no more.”

These men were never expected to imagine what a women’s real life was like, what kinds of complexity she faces in her decision-making and what capacity she has to make judgments about her own sexuality.

It is little wonder that the hierarchy compulsively acts as if they have been charged as guardians of women’s purity; the ongoing exultation of the ban on contraception positions the church as a bastion of “old-fashioned values.”

What a load of shallow, angry, cliché feminist rubbish.

The Catholic bishops of these USA should immediately instruct this publication to remove the word “Catholic” from their title.

Meanwhile, pray for the conversion of these poor people.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Dear St. Joseph, Terror of Demons and Protector of Holy Church, Chaste Guardian of Our Lord and His Mother, hear our urgent prayer and swiftly intercede with our Savior, whom as a loving father you defended so diligently, that He will pour abundant graces upon the staff of that organ of dissent the National catholic Reporter so that they will either embrace orthodox doctrine concerning faith and morals or that all their efforts will promptly fail and come to their just end. Amen.