UPDATED: See end. Did you know that Canon 16 of the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215 forbade priests from playing chess? It was considered a game of chance (clearly by non-chessplayers). That canon also forbade participation of clerics … Read More →
Tomorrow, 1 October, begins a month which traditionally calls for daily recitation of the Most Holy Rosary. Dear readers… please consider, if you don’t already, daily recitation of the Rosary during October. How wonderful it would be if you took … Read More →
Here is my now “oldie” PODCAzT from 2009. As I listened to this, I was struck by how timely it still is, especially about how some are trying to banish Christ and the Church from the public square. ORIGINAL 11 June … Read More →
Around the time of the Second Vatican Council some of our sound practices were simply dropped, as if they were no longer needed. For example, the Leonine Prayers after Low Mass which included the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I will appreciate your help in leading me to a prayer to protect us from terrorism (specifically Muslim, if possible) that can be recited by our parish weekly during these threatening times. I do this at the behest of … Read More →
For this 15oth PODCAzT I offer Pope Leo XIII’s 1888 Encyclical Exuente iam anno, On Right Christian Conduct. Despite the claims of many, the Church began neither with the Second Vatican Council nor the Pontificate of Francis. There are inestimable treasures available … Read More →
I have recently received from a reader in Blighty a rather nice porcelain tea pot and a little crate of tea. Remember: You can buy TEA from the Wyoming Coffee Monks. That said, I am determined to make tea properly. … Read More →
I spotted a cool article at CNS about four Italian sisters who helped to map a half million stars for the Vatican’s part in a vast mapping project. Mapping with the stars: Nuns instrumental in Vatican celestial survey VATICAN CITY … Read More →
Recently I read this quote from Pope Leo XIII’s 1899 Letter (sometimes called Encyclical, sometimes Apostolic) on the heresy of Americanism Testem benevolentiae: The underlying principle of these new opinions [Americanism] is that, in order to more easily attract those who differ … Read More →
I have known about Pope Leo’s poetry for quite a long time. But this is great! From CNS: Papal puzzler: Leo XIII anonymously published riddles in Latin Pope Leo XIII, born in 1810, is credited with being the founder of … Read More →
If only I could put THIS on my amazon wishlist! This is an 1849 Colt .31 caliber revolver made for the Pontifical Swiss Guards! Documentation indicates that some of these revolvers were sent “either to Vatican guards or possibly to … Read More →
From a reader: Today in the old calendar is the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. [Indeed, it is.] It’s also September 29, the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Michael. [Indeed, it is.] Propers for the TLM I … Read More →
From a reader: Recently I spoke with someone, who said Catholicism and Freemasonry would be compatible. I don’t really believe this. What’s the teachong of the Church about this matter? Catholics may not be Masons or belong to masonic organizations. … Read More →
Pope Leo XIII in Au Milieu des Sollicitudes 24 (1892): “Here is precisely the ground on which, political dissensions aside, upright men should unite as one to combat, by all lawful and honest means, these progressive abuses of legislation. The … Read More →
When I make a new item of Z Swag, such as a coffee mug, I am always a bit nervous that the image won’t be clear, or there will be something wrong with it. That is why I generally will … Read More →
The other day I posted a quote about civil authority and freedom from an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII called Diuturnum illud. I was happy to see that Bp. Slattery also quoted that enecyclical in his outstanding response to Pres. … Read More →
From a reader at Wyoming Catholic College comes this: In our Catholic Social Teaching course at Wyoming Catholic College, we are currently reading a number of the great encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. These paragraphs from Diuturnum Illud (1881) struck … Read More →
From a reader: Leo XIII condemned Anglican orders and succession as invalid since 1552. Even after re-admitting the prayers regarding the “work and office of a priest” in the ordination 100 years later, the line had become extinct so it … Read More →
The other day when Benedict XVI was at Westminster Abbey, together with Anglican Archbp. Williams for an Anglican service, I just about sprayed my Mystic Monk Coffee on the screen when I heard that the Holy Father chose to wear … Read More →
Here is a rapidly made project to take advantage of the fact that today, 11 June, is the 110th Anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Consecration of human race to the Sacred Heart. Today we hear the encyclical Annum Sacrum 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
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
“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.”
grateful on 8 December: Happy Birthday BLOG!: “May God continue to shower you with blessings. Thank you for your faithfulness. I’m sure Our Blessed Mother is happy…”
Venerator Sti Lot on 8 December: Happy Birthday BLOG!: “Echoing the five comments I see as I write – indeed! Many thanks (for such fruitful and delightful variety), and…”
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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“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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