A terrible thing happened recently. A young priest, almost certainly reacting badly to medication, committed suicide. Fr. Evan Harkins, of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, had been on medication for an ailment. It seems to have affected … Read More →
Today, Sunday 4 August, in the Novus Ordo calendar Feast of St. John Vianney, Patron of Priests, a Letter of Francis to priests was released. Perhaps it was released in anticipation of the Feast of St. John Vianney celebrated on … Read More →
Congratulations, reverend and dear gentlemen and welcome to the priesthood. We older guys are all for you, except when we are against you. That’s going to happen, now and then. If you are straight and you are faithful, some guys … Read More →
At Complete Christianity (a member of the new FOEDUS – League of Catholic Bloggers) Shane Schaetzel, a lay convert to the Church, wrote a post that I wish that I had written. Let me just say- as a forward to … Read More →
I have heard great things from a couple priests about the St. Paul Center’s East Coast Priest Conference. This year, 2019, it is to be held at Oglebay Resort and Conference Center in Wheeling, WV, which looks like a really … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: What’s the deal with priests carrying their emergency cellphone on them? [Hmmm… I don’t know what the deal is!] I was disturbed to learn that our priest doesn’t keep it with him. When I asked him … Read More →
At Crisis there is posted an open letter from an anonymous young priest to bishops. It is a cri de coeur. Where Are the Bishops Who Will Defend Faithful Priests? I read this letter today, so that it will have … Read More →
I recently received a book by Fr. William J. Slattery which has been truly intrigued. Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build—and Can Help Rebuild—Western Civilization US HERE – UK HERE What’s this about? Our author says: With stubborn … Read More →
From an old prayerbook for priests which I’ve had since before my ordination. They are dense with old wisdom. Here are two prayers, in Latin and English, for priests, for before and after they make confession their own confession. I’ve … Read More →
This has gone immediately on my wishlists. It seems to be slated for publication on 1 August. Some of his books include an appendices of sermons. It will be great to have them in one volume. Get copies as gifts … Read More →
I posted this last year, to the day. Any additional thoughts? ___ Originally Published on: May 3, 2016 ___ And yet, do other parishes and dioceses and religious groups change what they are doing? Not much. It is if they really … Read More →
I have often written about how priests are never the same after having learned how to say the older, traditional form of Holy Mass in the Roman Rite. Many priests have related to me about how, once they learned, or … Read More →
I am in Denver, preaching for a Forty Hours Devotion following, of course, the Clementine Instruction in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. On Thursday we had a Sung Mass, after which I exposed the Blessed Sacrament, we had … Read More →
In June and into July, many newly ordained priests have reported to their first assignment as associate or assistant (as my old pastor used to say, “The first three letters are the same”). These days we hear often the … Read More →
This applies to priests as well. From LifeSite: Why some bishops behave the way they do June 14, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Why can’t 40 Days for Life in my home town get any support from our local bishop? Why does … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: One of our priests is moving on, and yesterday he gave his farewell at Mass. Instead of a homily, he talked up St. Francis’ contributions to social justice, and about how our faith is represented in … Read More →
I’ve had a couple emails lately with questions about forms or texts of blessings by priests. ‘Tis the season: new priests are darting about, leaving whiffs of still-fresh chrism in their wakes, imparting “first blessings”. As it turns out, I … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, our parish priest is a good man, well versed in Scripture, in the encyclicals. He is also charismatic. However, his preaching is dreadful. He uses the homily as an opportunity to teach and goes on … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: As you mentioned in one of your other posts, it’s the the season of ordinations. It’s also the season for priest transfers. Our pastor of 12 years is being transferred to a different parish in another … Read More →
Today I watched the video of the Pope who made his own confession before hearing the confessions of others. HERE That juxtaposition brought forcefully into my mind both the prayers I usually say before and after making my own confession, … 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.
Imrahil on Rome 24/10 – Day 38: fast: “1. Nd7+ Ka7 2. Qc7+ Ka8 3. Qb7++ The only alternative for black is the even briefer mate 1. ……”
A.S. Haley on Rome 24/10 – Day 38: fast: “Sacrificing White’s Knight (while threatening Black’s Queen) forces Black to move his Rook, and then it’s all over: 1. Nd7+…”
VocoVeritas on Rome 24/10 – Day 37: Wherein Fr. Z rants: “Fr. Z; the observations by Abbe Mouraux in the WM Review article where he suggests post-conciliar consecrations are invalid seems…”
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.