I’m getting a lot of questions about something that Francis said to seminarians from Barcelona. Story at the Catholic Herald HERE. As the tale goes, Francis delivered profanity-studded “off the cuff” remarks to seminarians, including “not to be clerical, to forgive everything”, adding … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I went to confession the other day to get back into the state of grace with the plan to get my spiritual life back in order after slacking and falling into habitual mortal sin during the … Read More →
I had a note from a reader about the need to do penance on this coming Friday, which is the Octave of Christmas. The short answer is NO. Why? Because according to Canon Law, Catholics are bound to do penance … Read More →
Fr. Jerabek, at his blog, has a good reminder about Lenten penance, and Fridays, and fasting and abstinence. All Fridays of the year are days of penance. Fridays of Lent are more specific. All Catholics who have completed 14 years … Read More →
The other day, Archbp. Vigano, bless him, issued a public letter in which he calls for disgraced Theodore McCarrick publicly to repent. I have on various occasions opined that bishops should prostrate themselves in the steps of their cathedrals in … Read More →
Today is Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation, the instant of the Incarnation… and we would be celebrating it if it were not for the vagaries of the Moon. Palm Sunday and Holy Week have pushed our observance to another … Read More →
For those of you who may think that Lent is a pretty tough time to be a Catholic, giving up chocolate and so forth, this is what our forebears did for Lent in these USA (my emphases and comments): DIOCESE … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: In my 14.75 years as a Catholic, I’ve heard that Advent: 1) Is a penitential season 2) Is a semi-penitentials season 3) Is no longer a penitential season but was before Vatican II 4) Never was … Read More →
I think that what happened at Fatima is an event that is ongoing, with urgent ramifications for us today. Taken all together, the central message of Our Lady in her apparitions at Fatima is the urgent need to pray, do penance, … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I am responsible for a brunch which is served after the Saint Patrick’s Day Mass at the Cathedral in my Archdiocese. This year, Saint Patrick falls on a Friday of Lent. I believe this means I … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Is it grave matter to laugh or joke when in need of Confession? (That is, when one has committed mortal sin and intends to go to Confession at the next opportunity.) Aristotle points out that man … Read More →
Each year during the Octave of Easter – and of Christmas – there is a Friday. Fridays are days of penance, usually observed by abstinence from meat. So, can one eat meat on Friday in the Octave of Easter? The … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Every First Friday, a neighboring parish hosts a fundraiser dinner at which they serve beef or chicken, except during Lent. Many of our friends (homeschooling families) are parishioners there and attend every month. We hear that it’s delicious fare and … Read More →
I suspect that some of you clicked on the link when you saw the headline because you want to read my predictable rant about the “gay” thing in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York and the local archbishop’s … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I am struggling with food and alcohol addiction. After confessing this, my penance was to fast the next day after such indulgences. I was discouraged. My confessor did not know my circumstances. I have successfully done … Read More →
What is it I have been shouting? From CNA: Pope: Be courageous, go to confession Vatican City, Feb 19, 2014 / 04:57 am (CNA).- During his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis encouraged the pilgrims filling St. Peter’s Square to receive the … Read More →
From a reader: im getting married on friday may 31st the day after Corpus Christi. can i eat meat at the reception or do i need a dispensation? All Fridays, except for liturgical Solemnities, are days of penance even if … Read More →
From a priest: For those that follow the 1962 calendar or simply follow the traditional penitential days, are the ember days in the octave of Pentecost days of fast? It would seem not since the octave days, similar to Easter, … Read More →
From a reader: I listen to the Catholic Channel on Sirius/XM a lot and yesterday a priest who is usually fairly reliable made the comment that it is a sin to fast during the Octave of Easter. My wife started … Read More →
From a reader: I have a question regarding what kind of penances I should do as a married layperson. I feel a strong desire to do penance both for personal sins and as a sacrifice for the conversion of my … 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
I'm finishing up a batch of Mass intentions right now. I'll have room in my register for more while I am in Rome. Also, I regularly say Mass for my regular benefactors and special Roman Sojourn Donors. HERE for the form I use.
TonyO on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “If this is the kind of messages that people who attend the extraordinary form write, we better cancel it, the…”
Son of Saint Alphonsus on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “I fear what happened in Tyler will happen in Boston. Cardinal O’Malley basically ignored TC and the TLM is currently…”
tgarcia2 on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “Fr. Mawdsle in a reply blamed the loss of his ministry on “ jewish organised covid tyranny and the jewish…”
ProfessorCover on Catholic Unscripted on FIRE: “They are very good and very orthodox. I think Gavin could have been accepted as a priest in the Anglican…”
TheCavalierHatherly on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “@Fr. Reader The cruelty of the modern world is that it both demands that every man, woman, and child speak…”
Fr. Reader on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “Regarding the message of Fr J Mawdsley to bp Vazquez. I don’t think this is the kind of messages that…”
TheCavalierHatherly on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “Persecution totally works. Just ask Diocletian. It totally worked. “Strickland was sacked on the Feast of St. Martin, 11 Nov.”…”
A.S. Haley on Rome 24/10 – Day 41: Another heartbreak: “I pray things are working out for you in Rome, Father. As for the chess problem: 1. Qa6 leaves Black…”
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.
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.