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About this blog…
“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
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- 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
Recent Comments
- BeatifyStickler on ROME 26/3– Day 18: Flowers!: “The only appropriate names for those two dogs is Ketchup and Mustard.”
- BeatifyStickler on Nuns of Gower Abbey have a NEW music disc/download!: “We just downloaded onto our Spotify playlist. Will loop through the night! One of our fellow parishioners has a sister…”
- revueltos67 on ROME 26/3– Day 17: Itadakimasu: “White to move and mate in 4 1) Qf5+ g6 (or Kh6) 2) Qf7+ Kh6 (forced) 3) Rh8+ Kg5 (forced)…”
- revueltos67 on ROME 26/3– Day 18: Flowers!: “Black to move and mate in 4 1) … Qxf2+ 2) Rxf2 (or Kh1) Rd1+ 3) Qe1 (or Rf1) Rxe1+…”
- grateful on ROME 26/3– Day 18: Flowers!: “I knew it, I knew it. As soon as I saw the flowers, I knew there would have to be…”
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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.”
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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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.”- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
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Fr John Zuhlsdorf
Tridentine Mass Society of Madison
733 Struck St.
PO BOX 44603
Madison, WI 53744-4603
For email HERE
- “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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frz AT wdtprs DOT comAs 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
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Recent Posts
- ASK FATHER: We can eat meat on Easter Friday, but do we have to do some other penance?
- ROME 26/3– Day 19: Claming up
- Nuns of Gower Abbey have a NEW music disc/download!
- St. Augustine on military service and prayer in time of war
- ROME 26/3– Day 18: Flowers!
- ASK FATHER: Can we eat meat on Friday in the Octave of Easter? (Hint: YES!)
- ROME 26/3– Day 17: Itadakimasu
- ROME 26/3– Day 16: chores
- From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-04-03 – Aftermath of foot washing
- ROME 26/3– Day 15: foods and views and shoes
- ASK FATHER: Can the “Dies Irae” be used in the Novus Ordo Requiem Mass? Wherein Fr. Z rants.
- ASK FATHER: Grounding for the “harrowing of Hell”
- From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-03-28 – A bold statement for foot washing
- ROME 26/3– Day 12-13-14: whew (lots of photos)
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Easter Sunday
- PASCHALCAzT 2026 – 47: Easter Sunday – Joy
- “He descended into Hell” – Notes on “The Harrowing of Hell”
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 46: Holy Saturday – The last indignity – UPDATED
- ROME 26/3– Day 11: Good Friday
- From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-04-01 – A scare
- 3 April: Feast of St. Richard of Chichester. A comment about science.
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 45: Good Friday – Christ and our moral suffering
- ROME 26/3– Day 10: Thursday in Holy Week
- ASK FATHER: 9 1st Fridays but how do Good Friday (April 3) and St. Joseph (May 1) impact that?
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 44: Holy Thursday – Why we eat the victim
- ROME 26/3– Day 09: Wednesday in Holy Week
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 43: Spy Wednesday of Holy Week
- Following years of abuse Knights of Malta to formally split with the Holy See
- ROME 26/3– Day 08: Tuesday in Holy Week
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 42: Tuesday of Holy Week – Peter’s Passion
Let us pray…
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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Tag Archives: sacrament of penance
Prep Wednesday: All Bleeding Stops – Spiritual and Physical “Blow Out Kits”
The analogy of the Church Militant as a spiritual field hospital is pretty good, provided that we remember that in field hospitals lots of people don’t make it. We are like pilgrim soldiers in the Church Militant, on the march to our … Read More
ASK FATHER: When you remember, past, forgotten sins?
From a reader… I’m a convert to the Church, so I have a large span of my life with sins that I’m not entirely sure of. I confessed a series of sins (all of the same kind) as doubtful, but then a while … Read More
ASK FATHER: Getting “paid” to go to confession and “selfies” with confessor
From a reader… QUAERITUR: My youth minister has been offering “S.P.Y.S Points” (basically, points that add up to a discount for events like NCYC and Steubenville Conferences) if we go to Confession and take a “selfie” with our confessor. First of all, would … Read More
ASK FATHER: Father didn’t make Sign of the Cross at absolution
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I went to confession this morning preparation for Ascension Mass, the priest was wonderful, yet when it came to the absolution part, i could see through the holes of the screen that the priest didn’t make the sign of … Read More
ASK FATHER: Can a penitent “release” priest from Seal of Confession?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, as a follow up to your recent post on who is bound by the seal of confession, I have two more related questions: 1. Can the penitent release the priest from the seal? I would think not, … Read More
ASK FATHER: To whom does Seal of Confession apply?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Does the seal of confession bind the penitent in any way? Background: Talking with a friend awhile ago I mentioned something I was told in confession. My friend said he was very uncomfortable with this – implying that … Read More
ASK FATHER: My son’s best friend is Presbyterian
From a reader… My son asked me about his best friend a Presbyterian when I told him in response to his question that Presbyterians do not have confession do they not receive forgiveness for their sins do they have all the time. … Read More
Pope Francis did two really cool things
First, yesterday, Pope Francis went to a parish near Ostia (Rome’s ancient port where St. Augustine’s mother, St. Monica, died – today is her feast in the traditional calendar). Before saying Mass, His Holiness heard confessions! Fathers… hear confession! Second, … Read More
ASK FATHER: Can non-Catholics go to confession?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: My mother is a non-Catholic who sometimes attends mass with me (a convert). She has considered entering the Church (her mother–as a side note–became a Catholic in her late 80’s, with me as her sponsor.) A good friend of … Read More
Feedback and a confessional story
From a reader… I went to confession! It had been 10 years. Your encouragement helped me get up the nerve to go. The hardest part was actually going to the church. I wrote down every single thing I wanted to … Read More
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