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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
- FRLBJ on LENTCAzT 2026 – 22: Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Lent – Don’t let it fester: “So happy for you and your mother! What a great grace!! So heavenly and loving is our Lord and God!…”
- prayfatima on YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS: “Prayers for all these intentions. May God have mercy and hear your prayers! Fr. Z, I’m sorry to hear that…”
- Suburbanbanshee on Daily Rome Shot 1565: “I’m very sorry that all these things have been happening to you all at once. Your mom must be a…”
- Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on LENTCAzT 2026 – 22: Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Lent – Don’t let it fester: “I tried to play it and it worked well for me. Anyone else? Also, try HERE”
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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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Polls
Will you be a "Custos Traditionis" and commit to a DAILY 'Memorare' and WEEKLY penance?
- YES! (66%, 1,905 Votes)
- YES! And I will recruit others! (34%, 974 Votes)
Total Voters: 2,879
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Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“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!
Send Snail Mail to Fr. Z
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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A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
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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
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 25: Saturday 3rd Week in Lent – The spirit of prayer
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 24: Friday 3rd Week in Lent – Evangelize with our lives
- “Days in Rome” Project – Easter 2026 and beyond
- HEAR YE! HEAR YE! New from TAN – “The Matins Lectionary: The Complete Readings from the Traditional Roman Breviary”
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 23: Thursday of the 3rd Week in Lent – Feet on the earth, minds in Heaven
- UPDATE on Fr. Z
- Daily Rome Shot 1565
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 22: Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Lent – Don’t let it fester
- YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 21: Tuesday 3rd Week in Lent – We are not in this alone
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 20: Monday 3rd Week in Lent – The healing bath
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 3rd Sunday in/of Lent 2026
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 19: 3rd Sunday of Lent – Fight the demon of impurity
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 18: Saturday in the 2nd Week in Lent – The Angelic Doctor
- STATIONS OF THE CROSS – Audio from Fr. Z
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 17: Friday in the 2nd Week in Lent – The slow martyrdom of virtue – CORRECTED
- Blog issues after the migration
- Daily Rome Shot 1564 – Madness
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 16: Thursday in the 2nd Week in Lent – Dives et Lazarus
- A Roman Station, Saintly Parallels, a Prayer over the People, and a Painting by Raphael
- Daily Rome Shot 1563 – 2nd class relic SHOE
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 15: Wednesday in the 2nd Week in Lent – We will account for our time
- Daily Rome Shot 1562
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 14: Tuesday in the 2nd Week in Lent – The gateway to salvation
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 1st Sunday in/of Lent 2026
- Daily Rome Shot 1561
- “And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse…”
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 13: Monday in the 2nd Week in Lent – “Everything became clear to me.”
- A ‘Cri de Coeur’ from the heartland
- 2 March – Blog Maintenance & Migration Day – DONE! “Cleanup in aisle 2,5,6…7…9…”
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.
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
The "sign of peace" during Mass in the Ordinary Form...
- I dread it as it approaches and think of ways to avoid it. (36%, 9,555 Votes)
- I tolerate it. (35%, 9,195 Votes)
- I hate it so much I won't go to Mass where it is done. (12%, 3,205 Votes)
- I like it and am happy to do it. (11%, 2,955 Votes)
- I don't care one way or another. (6%, 1,696 Votes)
Total Voters: 26,606
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Should the Bishops of the USA have us return to obligatory meatless Fridays during the whole year and not just during Lent?
- Yes, and I think this is very important. (81%, 15,546 Votes)
- Yes, I guess so. (9%, 1,716 Votes)
- No, I hesitate about such a move. (5%, 900 Votes)
- No, this would be a really bad idea. (3%, 511 Votes)
- I don't care. (2%, 431 Votes)
- What's penance? (1%, 152 Votes)
Total Voters: 19,255
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Tag Archives: sacrament of penance
NCReg: In 2023 the Form of Absolution Will Change for US Catholics.
NCReg: The Prayer of Absolution Will Change for US Catholics in 2023. Here’s How […] The Catholic bishops of the United States in 2021 voted in favor of the new translation of the prayer, with 182 votes in favor, 6 … Read More
8 Comments
ASK FATHER: Monsignor didn’t use the exact form of absolution
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I’ve confessed to a particular priest twice, and both times, he didn’t use the exact formula of absolution. Both times, he did the following things: 1) he omitted the line “and sent the Holy Spirit among … Read More
ASK FATHER: Priest omits some of the words of absolution. Valid?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, if the confessor forgot say “IN THE NAME” in absolution formula, is the sacrament VALID? But, the confessor makes the sign of the cross. Again we have some jackass who doesn’t use the proper “form” … Read More
ASK FATHER: Priest berated me for confessing venial sins and then used the wrong form of absolution. What should I do?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I recently attempted to make a good confession. Aside from the fact that the priest literally berated me for confessing “venial sins” which he said “have no place in the confessional”, after my act of contrition … Read More
A rabbit ran under the wheels of my car. Wherein Fr. Z rants.
The other day I was on my way home from a social engagement and a rabbit ran under my wheels. I did not mourn for the rabbit. I wasn’t happy about it, but I wasn’t especially sad either. I couldn’t … Read More
14 Comments
ASK FATHER: Father said “I absolve you OF your sins” instead of “FROM your sins”.
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I recently made a confession (of mortal sins) where the priest used the full absolution formula, EXCEPT, he said “I absolve you OF your sins” instead of “I absolve you FROM your sins.” Do I need … Read More
A priest’s prayers before and after making his own confession
Firstly, animi caussa, 1st Vesper for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost from the Breviarium Romanum. Try HERE More for the brethren. Here is something I haven’t posted for a while. It’s from an old prayerbook for priests which I’ve had since before … Read More
ASK FATHER: The priest said, “I forgive you” and not “I absolve you”
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Is my confession valid if the Priest says, “I forgive you” instead of “I absolve you”? Everything else sounded normal. Thank-you Once again we have an example of some jackass priest who thinks he is being … Read More
ASK FATHER: If the priest says an invalid absolution and I drop dead after… what happens to me?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, a question – if a penitent is in a state of mortal sin, and they go to confess their sins to a priest, and the penitent does everything necessary on their part for the sacrament … Read More
ASK FATHER: When giving me absolution, Father did not say “ALL your sins”. Was that invalid?
From a reader…. QUAERITUR: At my last Confession, during the absolution, the priest said: “I absolve you from your sins, in the name, etc.” Note that he did not say “from ALL your sins”. Does this mean the absolution is … Read More





















