From a reader: I have a problem. Whenever I go to confession (traditional screened booth), my confessors can recognize my voice, and sometimes indicate that they know it’s me. I abhor this with a deep purple abhorrence, and am now really self-conscious … Read More →
From CNA: Pope urges Curial officials to hear confessions at local parish Vatican City, Dec 18, 2013 / 12:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has strongly encouraged the bishops and cardinals of the Roman Curia to spend time hearing confessions … Read More →
From a reader: Since you like to hear of such things…my wife and I are “reverts”. For about a year now. Last year we made a pact to not miss mass for all of advent, which started us down the … Read More →
From a transitional deacon: I’m an avid reader of the blog. I have noticed how often you mention confession in the blog and wanted to relay this short little bit of my experience this weekend. I’m a newly ordained transitional … Read More →
From a reader: I know you have a lot on confession here, but I can’t find an answer for my question. Several months ago I went back to the Church after 30 some years, and gave what I thought a good and thorough … Read More →
This is the sort of note I live for: I hadn’t been to Confession in seven months because I had an uncomfortable experience with the priest afterward the last time and was nervous about going back. However, your endless repetition of GO TO … Read More →
In the Big Interview (my first thoughts HERE), Pope Francis spoke on a range of issues, including homosexuality. The MSM and catholic left and the squishy center is running with Francis’s jump-out quotes (traddies could maybe call them “scare quotes”). … Read More →
GO TO CONFESSION! Now that I have that out of the way, I saw an incoming link from my friend, the great Fr. Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, to my page Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession As I … Read More →
Pray for the victims of the killer at the Navy Yard. Friends, this could be you. Please! Develop the good practice of examining your conscience every day and going to confession regularly. I implore you! Teach your children to examine their consciences and take … Read More →
From a reader: I know that the use of Latin is good for large international Masses (and for parish Masses, too…!), but what if, say, a priest and penitent didn’t speak the same language? Could a confession be made in … Read More →
From a reader: I woke up this morning and had an epiphany from the Holy Spirit- I’m an ass. I don’t want to be one anymore, so I would like to confess this and amend my life ASAP. One problem. … Read More →
From a reader: In confessing a sin is it necessary to describe (giving some details of) the sin rather than merely indicating the name (species) of the sin? You don’t have to go into great detail, but you ought to … Read More →
Pope Francis in Rio, spoke to young people at the Copacabana beach. Inter alia, dixit: Dear young people: “Put on Christ” in your lives. In these days, Christ awaits you in his word; listen carefully to him and your heart … Read More →
From a reader: During Confession, the parochial vicar at my parish insists that I say the Act of Contrition after absolution, when I have left the confessional. So I say it in the pew prior to doing my penance. I … Read More →
From a reader: When going to confession, if you know the priest is a Monsignor (name plate on confessional) would you begin, “Forgive me, Monsignor, for I have sinned,” or stay with the simple, “Forgive me, Father, for I have … Read More →
On several occasions Pope Francis has spoken about the importance of the Sacrament of Penance. Remember: Our Lord Himself established the Sacrament of Penance. This is the ordinary means by which JESUS desires you to ask for forgiveness of sins. During … Read More →
Terrible things happen to people through natural disasters or attacks or human error. We now see the images virtually in real time splashed on our screens. Misery, loss, pain come in the blink of an eye to people who, the … Read More →
From a reader down-under: Thank you for the work you do as I have learnt much from your blog. I have been to Confession twice recently, having put it off until the constant encouragement from you helped me to go. … Read More →
From a reader: I wanted to share with you my great joys. My wife returned to confession last night for the first time in over a decade, and only the third time ever. On Saturday evening, I will be baptized and received … Read More →
From a reader in my email: Message: Dear Fr. Z, My sincere thanks and gratitude to you for your ministry. After a 16 year absence I returned to the Sacrament of Holy Confession for the first time this evening. After … 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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