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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
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MASS INTENTIONS
I'm taking Mass intentions right now. Also, I regularly say Mass for my regular benefactors and special Roman Sojourn Donors. HERE for the form I use.YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
Diane on Prayer request: “God Bless your Mother. I am praying for her.”
Father JCPS on Prayer request: “Father, God bless your mother. I will certainly pray for her. My mother is 94, with health challenges, too.”
ad.nutum.meum on Daily Rome Shot 1272: “I have an issue with Fr. Petri’s argumentation, because I think his arguments are too subjective – ‘what can the…”
MB on Prayer request: “Ah, to see the destination on the horizon … What a welcome she will have; the mother of a priest!…”
sjoseph371 on Daily Rome Shot 1272: “ajf1984 – prie-dieux -. . . I never knew that’s what they were called! Our church does the same thing…”
Padre Pio Devotee on Prayer request: “I am currently in Fátima for a pilgrimage. Please know of my prayers for you and your mother to Our…”
grateful on Prayer request: “May God Bless You Mother Z for 90 years of serving God and giving us a wonderful priest. Eternal Father,…”
hwriggles4 on Daily Rome Shot 1272: “A few Sundays ago I was helping with first communion preparations for CCD kids. Most are between 7 and 12…”
ajf1984 on Daily Rome Shot 1272: “I have made this comment on these pages before, but am re-stating it because I think it’s helpful, and because…”
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- 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.
St. John Eudes
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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.”
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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“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.”- Fulton Sheen
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Fr John Zuhlsdorf
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- “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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frz AT wdtprs DOT comAs 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
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Recent Posts
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 15: Wednesday 2nd Week Sunday of Lent – JOSEPH
- Daily Rome Shot 1272
- Prayer request
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 14: Tuesday 2nd Week Sunday of Lent – Pray!
- Daily Rome Shot 1271
- “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me…” The mighty Lorica of Saint Patrick
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 13: Monday 2nd Week Sunday of Lent – Trinity
- Daily Rome Shot 1270 – slipper
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 12: 2nd Sunday of Lent – What is holiness?
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 2nd Sunday of Lent 2025
- From a reader: “We can sing this, but chant and Latin are ‘too hard’.”
- ASK FATHER: Mass “for the gift of tears”… for someone else?
- Daily Rome Shot 1269 – Oh great… just what we needed…
- “Pro aris et focis” – Food for thought
- 15 March – Annual ramble about the #IdesOfMarch
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 11: Ember Saturday 1st Week of Lent – Patterns
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 10: Friday 1st Week of Lent – 38 Special
- O sol salútis, íntimis – a look into the Lenten hymn for Lauds
- Daily Rome Shot 1268
- Purim 2025 and a Blood Moon Eclipse
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 09: Thursday 1st Week of Lent – Not again.
- WDTPRS – Collect of Ember Wednesday of Lent (Vetus Ordo & Novus)
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 08: Ember Wednesday 1st Week of Lent – My precious!
- Daily Rome Shot 1267
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 07: Tuesday of the 1st Week of Lent – cheeky
- Daily Rome Shot 1266
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 06: Monday of the 1st Week of Lent – Good Sheep
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 1st Sunday of Lent 2025
- LENTCAzT 2025 – 05: 1st Sunday of Lent – Resolved!
- Daily Rome Shot 1265
Let us pray…
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.
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Tag Archives: altar boys
Male service at the altar
A friend and long-time internet colleague – once a member of the staff of the ancient Catholic Forum on Compuserve! – sent the following from a blog called Harvey Millican 2.0: Musings of a Trad Dad: “These Our Men“. I … Read More
ASK FATHER: Can a deacon serve as acolyte in the Extraordinary Form Mass?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Can a deacon serve as acolyte in the Extraordinary Form Mass? Sure. If there are not enough servers for the sake of a Solemn Mass, and for some reason you have a plethora of deacons and … Read More
ASK FATHER: Color of altar boys’ cassocks
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I grew up in the 1950’s. All the illustrated “Children’s Missals” had photos showing altar servers wearing red cassocks and white surplices. I never saw red cassocks in person, however. Now, they seem to be making … Read More
Bad priesthood vocations numbers? Not by accident. Wherein Fr. Z rants.
I posted this last year, to the day. Any additional thoughts? ___ Originally Published on: May 3, 2016 ___ And yet, do other parishes and dioceses and religious groups change what they are doing? Not much. It is if they really … Read More
ASK FATHER: “Today I was an Alter Server at Mass…”
I confess that I initially sent back a terse note to this one: “You are wrong.” Having Reconsidered, more can be said… From a reader… QUAERITUR: Today I was an Alter [sigh] Server at Mass and upon returning home … Read More
Altar girls and liturgy dominated by women: bad ideas
I’m Fr. Z.. and I endorse this essay by Rachel Lu at Crisis! My emphases and comments: In 1994, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued a letter officially specifying that it is licit for females to serve the altar in … Read More
ASK FATHER: Liturgy director tries to forbid altar boys from wearing cassock and surplice.
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Our diocesan liturgical director is trying to prevent parishes from having altar servers wear cassocks and surplices, claiming they’re “clerical garb,” so lay people can’t wear them. Is his claim legitimate? Is there any official statement … Read More
ASK FATHER: How to talk to other mothers about male only altar service?
From a reader… Our parish priest does not care for girl servers but allows it. Today we went to daily Mass and a new girl was serving (which was arranged by one of the moms, I don’t believe Father knew about it), … Read More
The Last Altar Boy
The often amusing Eye of the Tiber has this: The last male altar server in the United States has officially called it quits, the boy’s family is reporting this morning. The 3-year altar server veteran, who remained at his post as cross bearer despite pressure … Read More
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Key stats for vocations to the priesthood – POLLS
The USCCB released survey results of the 2014 class of ordinands (from Latin, ordinandi, or “men to be ordained”). HERE 82% were altar boys 73% attended adoration of the Blessed Sacrament regularly Suggestion to parish priests… heck… let’s include bishops, too: … Read More
Airsoft Altar Boys
From a reader: Howdy from the heart of Texas Fr. Z! We decided to get our Altar Boy group together to play airsoft (military simulation that fires plastic pellets) at a local airsoft field. This is why we’re referred to … Read More
D. Trenton: Guardians of the Altar
Watch the libs have a spittle-flecked nutty about this one! I see that at the Cathedral of the Diocese of Trenton, where Bp. David O’Connell reigns, there is a group called the “Guardians of the Altar”. This, according to the … Read More
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Why don’t as many men go to church as women?
Today is the 50th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium. What great fruits the liturgical reforms have produced! Jammed churches, long confession lines, full schools, lots of weddings and baptisms, convents bursting, seminaries churning out priests as fast as they can be … Read More
Altar Boy Stats FOLLOW UP (and fun photo)
Remember the post about the number of altar boys increasing when there are no girls on the team? HERE A reader sent this: I’ve attached as proof a “sacristy selfie” the rascally rascals (including our #2 son) took yesterday ~ … Read More
ACTION ITEM! All male altar service prompts increases in numbers of altar boys.
I have some homework for all you readers, below. But first, this introduction. A friend sent a link to On This Rock where there is a post about how the number of altar boys increases dramatically once all-male service at … Read More
QUAERITUR: Something that should be heard in every sacristy in the world.
From a reader: I’ve been having a friendly disagreement with a priest that I know, and maybe you can give me an answer: at the end of Mass, the priest will say the word “Prosit,” and the servers respond “Pro … Read More
QUAERITUR: Can Father require all servers to stand to receive Communion?
From a reader: My 10-year-old son, who daily receives Holy Communion on his tongue while kneeling (and in fact has never received standing) just completed altar server instruction. He was told that when he serves, he must receive standing!!! (for … Read More
WDTPRS POLL: All-male sanctuary/altar service and vocations to the priesthood.
I have posted this poll before, but in light of another post, I thought I would revisit the question. Please select a response and make comments on this subject in the combox, below. And, yes, I know that some churches … Read More
QUAERITUR: The colors of altar boy cassocks
From a reader: Is there any significance between altar boys who wear black cassocks as opposed to those who wear red ones in the TLM? No, there is no significance. This is a matter of aesthetics. Back in the … Read More
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