Tomorrow is, of course, the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo. Today, however, is the birthday of The Hobbit. On 21 September 1937: J.R.R. #Tolkien‘s The Hobbit was published. The book tells of a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, and his journey with … Read More →
Today is the 50 anniversary of the death of J.R.R. Tolkien. I owe a great deal to Tolkien, whose books formed a major foundation of my world view and my eventual life-choices. The news of his death hit me hard, … Read More →
On this day in 1954 the first part of The Lord of the Rings was published: The Fellowship of the Ring. The LotR was one of the most important influences in the topography of my life, though its influence was karstic. Once there, … Read More →
Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE From a letter I received, a game from 1921. White to win. Meanwhile, there was a development in the Magnus Carlson v. Hans Niemann drama. In the Julius Baer … Read More →
This is fantastic advice! With first images from Amazon’s RINGS OF POWER series beginning to pop up on all social media and a trailer looming, do yourself a favour and read the SILMARILLION once more without THEIR images in your … Read More →
I found this tidbit to be a nice change of pace on a day without much good news. Very cool. https://t.co/Vp21Aeq21M — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (@fatherz) October 19, 2021 This is one thing that the Jackson movie got pretty much … Read More →
After several decades, and not of the Rosary in this context, along with other things I had loved to do and that I was good at and I that I had shelved because of seminary and priesthood, I’m getting back … Read More →
Okay… this is getting seriously ridiculous now. It’s time to put a stop to the Wuhan Devil. From the Daily Telegraph I learned that the Lamb and Flag in Oxford is to close. That’s just plain WRONG!
I saw – HERE – an excerpt from a letter of J.R.R. Tolkien to his son in the 60’s, about the time of the Council. He writes about the Church and bad or stupid priests. You speak of ‘sagging faith’, … Read More →
I am receiving one cri de coeur after another. Lots of people are confused and angry and sad about what they are hearing. Instead of firm foundations from bishops, we got sand. Yes, can can make cement with sand, but … Read More →
From the OED Online’s Word of the Day: Your word for today is: maril, n. Your word for today is: maril, n. maril, n. [‘ An ornamental binding material with a variegated grain, made from scraps of coloured leather mixed … Read More →
Reading The Hobbit was a pivotal moment in my young life. I saw at the blog The Art of Manliness a great post about this influential book. Here is are the bullet points. You can read the rest there. The Hobbit has … Read More →
For all you fans of The Professor, J.R.R. Tolkien, … he has a new book! The Fall of Arthur US link HERE US Kindle HERE UK link HERE UK Kindle HERE Here is the blurb from amazon: The Fall of … Read More →
We have had a couple serious weeks around here, and so I am having a little fun with my blog today. Therefore, please go to read this VERY COOL piece at the History blog. HERE. It has to do with … Read More →
Reading The Hobbit was one of the most important things I did in my life. In another book, Tolkien used the image of the pebble that starts the avalanche. That is what The Hobbit was for me. Among the rocks The … Read More →
Today is Bilbo Baggins’s Birthday and yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit. I found an image of the edition that I first read. I first read The Hobbit when I was in 7th grade. I … Read More →
We are in “the dog days of summer”. This phrase, for what is supposed to be the hottest part of the summer, believed by the ancients to be a time of bad omens, stems from the name of the bright … Read More →
A comment from a reader in my email: This talk of the bishops, and lots of talking, and going to war somehow calls to my mind the Ents. If our Entish bishops were to rouse themselves to war, they could … 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
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
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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“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.
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Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a scrappy blogger popular with the Catholic right.
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[T]he even more mainline Catholic Fr. Z. blog.
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