From a reader… QUAERITUR: I have a frustrating problem that has plagued me for years without fail. Throughout the week, all my faults and sins that a I’ve committed since my last confession ruminate through my mind clearly and distinctly. … Read More →
I had an email from a Portuguese blogger, with the interesting site, Senza Pagare. He has a post about 50 of Luther’s ideas which are against the Catholic Faith. Also, recently in Rome, he told me about a vision of a … Read More →
His Hermeneuticalness, my good friend Fr. Tim Finigan, has reposted his good Examen pamphlets. Perpend: Confession leaflets back online People quite often ask me for the confession leaflets that I published on the website of my previous parish. Fr Zuhlsdorf … Read More →
I am often asked for a good Examination of Conscience resource, or Examen. Some time ago my good friend Fr. Tim Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, had posted on the website of his former parish 3 good PDFS for a small trifold … Read More →
The analogy of the Church Militant as a spiritual field hospital is pretty good, provided that we remember that in field hospitals lots of people don’t make it. We are like pilgrim soldiers in the Church Militant, on the march to our … Read More →
Each year it is customary for the Roman Pontiff to meet and greet members of the Roman Curia just before Christmas. The Pope gives an address. Often that address is a kind of “State of the Union”, describing things that … Read More →
From a reader: During Confession, the parochial vicar at my parish insists that I say the Act of Contrition after absolution, when I have left the confessional. So I say it in the pew prior to doing my penance. I … Read More →
Terrible things happen to people through natural disasters or attacks or human error. We now see the images virtually in real time splashed on our screens. Misery, loss, pain come in the blink of an eye to people who, the … Read More →
Pope Francis continues to talk about sin and confession. I have no idea if Francis’ little fervorini are going to wind up published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, but they have some real meat. He is speaking more or less “a … Read More →
Lent is a time for introspection and conversion. Has it been a while since you have made a good confession? Here are some tips. Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession o{]:¬) We should… 1) …examine our consciences regularly … Read More →
Last year I posted about some sheets developed by my friend the great Fr. Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, to help people with an examination of conscience before going to confession. He made them available at the blog of his parish, Our … Read More →
From a reader: Hello Father! An examination of conscience asks, “Have I spoken against a priest, or against anyone consecrated to God? (This is a sacrilege).” I am not sure what constitutes “speaking against”, but I have made fun of … Read More →
We are headed into a time of true spiritual warfare. The signs of this are thick in the air about us now. We would do well to get ourselves ready. We need good examinations of conscience, good confessions, good Communions – always GOOD … Read More →
From the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald. Many Catholics in Britain do not grasp how important and rewarding regular Confession can be Why has the practice dropped off so dramatically here, but not in Italy, say, or Kenya? … Read More →
A while back I linked to the site of Fr. Tim Finigan’s parish where he has made available different examinations of conscience. Thank you for this invaluable advice. I found a check-box style examination of conscience similar to the one … Read More →
From a reader: If i forget to confess a mortal/grave sin in the confessional, when i fully intended to confess it before i walked in, is it still absolved? If you truly forget to confess something, but otherwise make a … Read More →
We recently saw from the Congregation for Clergy a guide for confessors along with an examination of conscience for the confessor himself. While sorting through some things I ran across a fascinating old confessional aid for priests. It is an … Read More →
Yesterday I posted about the entry at the blog of the USCCB about the benefits of confession. In that post the subject of “structural sin” came up. “Structural sin” is something liberals use to mask the reality of personal responsibility … Read More →
The Congregation for Clergy issued a guide for confessors entitled The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy – An Aid for Confessors and Spiritual Directors. I have read through this once and will eventually comment on it more. I invite priests … Read More →
From a reader: Hi. I am convert. [… S]ince being brought up in a protestant tradition and only becoming catholic as an adult, I was never exposed to the traditions, the formality. In our confirmation classes we was taught the … 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
A.S. Haley on Daily Rome Shot 1204 – What … is THAT?: “The problem with the previous solutions is that they allow Black’s Bishop to move (“any move”, they say). But if…”
Clinton on Daily Rome Shot 1205 – completed: “Burch’s nomination is sending all the best people into a spittle-flecked nutty. You just know our President-elect has made a…”
Gregg the Obscure on Daily Rome Shot 1205 – completed: “thank you Fr. Z for the Titan video. that had escaped my notice until now. it does one good to…”
BeatifyStickler on Daily Rome Shot 1204 – What … is THAT?: “I feel bad for them. An emotional maturity issue I suspect. We need strong men, they need strong men. A…”
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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.