Blessed John Henry Newman’s 1849 poem “Candlemas”: THE Angel-lights of Christmas morn, Which shot across the sky, Away they pass at Candlemas, They sparkle and they die. Comfort of earth is brief at best, Although it be divine; Like funeral … Read More →
This Sunday, in the Novus Ordo calendar, is called the 3rd Sunday of Easter. Let’s have a look at the Collect. This Sunday’s Collect, it seems to me, reflects a conscious attempt on the part of Holy Church to remind … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: can you have catholic mass without candles The THE GENERAL INSTRUCTION OF THE ROMAN MISSAL – says the following 307. The candles, which are required at every liturgical service out of reverence and on account of … Read More →
Today is the Feast of St. Blaise, about whom we know very little. We have only this very brief entry in the Martyrologium Romanum: Sancti Blasii, episcopi et martyris, qui pro christiano nomine Sabaste in Armenia passus … Read More →
Today we traditionally have the blessing of throats in honor of St. Blaise. Since yesterday was Candlemas it is logical to associate the blessing with candles. Did you receive a St. Blaise Day blessing of the throat? You don’t have … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I recently purchased some beeswax candles which I want to have blessed in order to use them at home. My question is this: is there a preferable material for devotional candles? Is there a difference between, … Read More →
Last night we had a beautiful Candlemas with the blessing of candles, a procession and Pontifical Mass at the Throne. Many heartfelt thanks and kudos to the Extraordinary Ordinary, His Excellency Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, for … Read More →
Every time I get my throat blessed on St. Blaise Day, I get a sore throat or bronchitis. Although… this year I have already had it, so I hope I’ve dodged for February. Ever the optimist, I keep going back … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Dear Father, We have, on occasion, attended Mass at a Novus Ordo parish when we cannot get to the distant Latin Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in our area. We were shocked to see young girl … Read More →
Today is the final “peak” arising from the liturgical cycle of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany. Today, called in the traditional way and according to the older Roman calendar the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Church would cease to … Read More →
Here is an oldie question from a reader… QUAERITUR: If I bring personal candles to the EF mass on Candlemass, must they be made of beeswax? Can they be entirely made of non-beeswax (paraffin)? Not sure if the old regulations … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I was just wondering if there are any documents that specifically require the composition of liturgical candles to be made of beeswax. Quite often I see paraffin candles being used for the sacred liturgy, whether traditional … Read More →
Here is the Pope’s sermon for the Easter Vigil. Dear Brothers and Sisters, Easter is the feast of the new creation. Jesus is risen and dies no more. He has opened the door to a new life, one that no … Read More →
Our liturgical calendar is packed with wonderful opportunties for spiritual benefits. Today there is a special blessing for candles (not just yesterday!) in honor of St. Blaise and then a blessing of throats. I once stood for hours in the … Read More →
Under another entry, a commentator asked: Why [were] the altar candles sometimes in line (as for the Mass of 1 Jan) and sometimes in echelon (as at Christmas Midnight Mass). I think he was asking about putting the candles at … Read More →
From a reader: If I bring personal candles to the EF mass on Candlemass, must they be made of beeswax? Can they be entirely made of non-beeswax (paraffin)? Not sure if the old regulations about things like this still apply … Read More →
From a seminarian: It is becoming increasingly popular to use those fake candles with replaceable oil. Even the side-altars in St. Peter’s use these, and as we know, there are many priests who daily celebrate private Masses in the EF … Read More →
From a reader: My wife recently completed a course on how to make yellow beeswax candles. My pastor has indicated he would love to receive them as a donation for requiem Masses, funerals, Tenebrae, All Souls, Good Friday, etc. (we … Read More →
Our friends over at NLM have a really good entry about sources for unbleached beeswax candles used for Requiem Masses. Here is the post: Sourcing Unbleached Beeswax Altar Candles One of our priestly readers wrote in with the question of … Read More →
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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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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.”
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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.”
“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.
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.