This time of year many new priests are being ordained and, consequently, many priests observe their own anniversaries. In the traditional, Vetus Ordo of the Roman Rite a priest can add orations for himself, Pro seipso sacerdote, on the anniversary … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: To validly take up holy orders, must a Catholic also be confirmed in addition to being baptized? There are two absolutely necessary things for valid ordination to Holy Orders… all three Holy Orders, Diaconate, Priesthood, Episcopate: … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, I’ve done some reading on whether Novus Order orders are truly valid or not and am confused. Would love to get your learned comments on the matter. Thanks for your work. You ask if ordinations … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Do you have an example of a program for a priest’s first Mass? Specifically, one that could catechize non-practicing Catholics or non-Catholics who might attend by explaining what goes on during the Liturgy? Thank you and … Read More →
At the UK’s best Catholic weekly, the Catholic Herald there are lots of great photos of the recent priestly ordination of a young man in the FSSP at Warrington in England by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool. Really… the photos are … Read More →
Well… this is it. I made it this far. That’s what I say to myself when this date rolls around. Many priests observe the anniversary of their ordination at this time of year. It is a common time for ordinations, … Read More →
This is pretty bad. Let’s call it Reason #9577 for Summorum Pontificum. This is the ordination of a man of Tamil origin in the Diocese of Rodez, in France. One must ask how it was that they thought that some … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I attended the sacerdotal ordination of 5 priests for my diocese last Saturday. After the bishop imposed hands, other priests participating in the Mass also imposed hands on the candidates. Since priests lack the fullness of … Read More →
This is ordination season in many places. I’ve been getting news about priestly ordinations and some of it is good. While my impression is that diocesan vocations are down in the last few years, some places there is growth. In … Read More →
I’m off to another ordination. This time it is the ordination to the priesthood of one of the frequent commentators here, soon-to-be Fr. Tim Ferguson. He is, as you might remember, the author of the parody songs I’ve … Read More →
Many priests observe the anniversary of their ordination at this time of year. It is a common time for ordinations, probably because Ember Days were common times for ordinations and Ember Days fall during the Pentecost Octave. It is my … Read More →
From a reader: Being that it’s ordination season and there’s lots of new young priests eager to do priestly things, there’s something that crossed my mind recently. My understanding is that in order to hear confessions and absolve sins, priests … Read More →
From a son-to-be ordained deacon: Many years ago, as I was beginning in seminary, I made a private vow to the Blessed Virgin that I would offer the first liturgically free Mass in her honor if she would help me … Read More →
I have a request. Let’s have some first Mass tales. This is the season for ordinations to the priesthood in many places. I would appreciate notes especially from new priests about their choices for their first Masses. I am especially … Read More →
In the last couple weeks I have had posts about boys playing “Mass”, one had a great video, one had a photo I took of a photo at the funeral of a 60-year priest. Yesterday I posted in a review of … Read More →
From a seminarian: As ordination season is fast approaching, I am hoping you can enlighten me concerning a custom relating to priestly ordinations which has become a topic of discussion among seminarians of late. Specifically, I am wondering whether you … 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 →
From the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald, comes this news. Archbishop calls off Methodist ordinations By David V Barrett on Wednesday, 25 May 2011 The controversial proposed ordination of Methodist ministers in Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral in July has … Read More →
From a reader: I know a pro-choice seminarian, (he told me himself he believed that abortion was ok in certain circumstances-such as the health of the mother and very large families). do I need to tell the bishop? Can I … Read More →
From a reader: I realize this must be a sensitive topic for anyone especially a priest ordained after 1969 but please know we are just seeking an objective answer. We have done our "homework" on this but who can we … 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.”
monscarmeli on Daily Rome Shot 870: “The best theremin players I’ve seen always seem to have painfully-flexible fingers, as they contort them nearly beyond what seems…”
Anneliese on Send 2023 CHRISTMAS CARDS to Fr. Z!: “Father, I pray that one day you’ll appreciate the beauty of glitter on a Christmas card.”
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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