I’ve been getting a lot of questions by email from people in these USA who want to know about the indult that Pius XII gave to Americans to eat meat on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Rorate looked at that HERE, … Read More →
From a reader: I advised a friend that Catholics are either to abstain from meat on Fridays or to substitute another form of prayer, good work, or abstinence; and that she should confess if she failed to do this. In … Read More →
As the U.S. bishops prepare to meet in their autumn assembly, I represent this poll (originally HERE): The bishops of England and Wales did this. You can vote even if you are not registered here. Please give your reasons in … Read More →
Under the entry about our obligation to attend Holy Mass, someone posted this comment (I removed it to here): I’ve always had a fantasy where I make wallet sized Catholic obligation cards. These would have check boxes or punch boxes … Read More →
From a reader: Dear Father, 12 mo ago I accidently scraped a car parked but did not leave a note in the church parking lot because I was scared. I have confessed this 3 times but fear God wants more … Read More →
From a reader: I went to confession at a neighboring parish that had recently received a 70-something priest who I know to be a bit free-wheeling as far as anything liturgical or doctrinal. This made me nervous going, but I … Read More →
From a reader: Dear Fr Z, I’ve been reading back some of your old entries on penance and the efficacy of sacramental absolution, and they have helped clarify many things, so thank you for that! I do, however, have a … Read More →
From a reader: Father, I went to Confession this weekend and the confessor was a man with a very thick [FOREIGN] accent. On top of that, while pronouncing the absolution he seemed… a little out of it (that sounds like … Read More →
Here is the Collect of the 2nd Sunday of Lent, a new composition for the Novus Ordo based on a precedent in the Liber Mozarabicus Sacramentorum.: Deus, qui nobis dilectum Filium tuum audire praecepisti, verbo tuo interius nos pascere digneris, … Read More →
From a reader: Someone told me that it is wrong to do penance on Sundays during Lent. Are Sundays part of Lent? The “forty days” seem to be the week days only. Also, we hear that every Sunday is like … Read More →
Updated: Lent begins in a week, 22 February this year. It is time to make your plans for Lent. You should start thinking about one or more mortifications (and consider something other than chocolate) as well as some corporal and/or spiritual … Read More →
From a reader: Yesterday before mass I went to confession and by the time I was in the confessional, the bells of the consecration were ringing. My pennance was 12 Our Fathers and 12 Hail Mary’s. (I had confessed some mortal sins, and … Read More →
The Bishops have decided to re-establish the practice that this penance should be fulfilled simply by abstaining from meat and by uniting this to prayer On 16 September in England and Wales, Catholics are asked by the Catholic bishops to … Read More →
From a reader: Good morning Father, when I went to Reconciliation this past weekend I received a two part penance– the first part was immediately carried out and the second part I was to perform later at home. [grrrrr] As … Read More →
If perhaps the Conference of England and Wales won’t be enthusiastic about Universae Ecclesiae I read this with pleasure from the site of Peter Jennings: Fish on Friday re-established by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales By Peter … Read More →
From a reader: Due to your blog you singlehandedly managed to get me to my first confession ever (just before this lent, actually); my first, while I’m 30 years old and a cradle catholic. Obviously, that was quite a bit … Read More →
Those who are bound by the law are to do penance on Fridays of Lent. However, tomorrow, Friday is 25 March, the Solemnity (in the post-Conciliar calendar) of the Annunciation. Please attend to can. 1251. Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, … Read More →
In the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary today’s Collect was used on the Friday after Quinquagesima. I assume it was dragged into Lent because of the themes present in the vocabulary. However, the redactors of the Novus Ordo made a substitution. They … Read More →
From a reader: This year, the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on a Friday. In the Extraordinary Form, it’s a first class feast. Meat would normally, therefore, be allowed (despite the Friday). However, in the universal calendar (ordinary … Read More →
From a reader: I haven’t been to Confession in 10 years, and I’ve only gone three times back when I was still in grade school. It’s possible I wasn’t catechized in the sacrament properly because I don’t recall requiring 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
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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I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
“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.
This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
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