You will hear a great deal in the next few days about the early death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, who seems to have been a practicing Catholic. It might even bump some impeachment coverage off the waves. A death … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: if god forgives sins why cant i confess my sins to god and ask god to forgive me does that suffice for confession This is one of the oldest and most common Protestant objections to the … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Long ago I went to confession and was given and reluctantly agreed to\ a rather onerous penance not required by justice. I didn’t end up doing it after thinking about it for a while and went … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I saw a tweet about a question on confession. The person said the penance she got from the priest in confession was hard but she didn’t completely do it. She wanted to know if she was … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I am inspired by your words about the importance of regular confession and preparing our soul for the end of our earthly pilgrimage, as well as your blunt Truthfulness about the pains and anguish of Hell. … Read More →
From the site of my friend Marcus Grodi, the Coming Home Network Carlos Zamora was raised Catholic, and went to confession a few times, but never took it seriously. When he returned to the Church later in life, and finally … 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 →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Hello, Father. I have a request. Since you often exhort people to go to confession, and since many haven’t gone in years and have anxiety about the form it takes, what to do or what to … Read More →
You might take some time to take in several of the daily videos from Bp. Donald Hying of Madison on a topic dear to this blog: the Sacrament of Penance. HERE GO TO CONFESSION! Here is the first of 5 … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I went to Confession yesterday, and the priest asked me to suggest a good penance for myself. I was completely taken aback. I hate vague penances like “give to the poor,” so I suggested three Hail … Read More →
Every once in a while, some legal case pops up whereby one side tries to undermine the Seal of Confession. These attempts usually go down in defeat. However, each time they are advanced, the needle is bumped ever so slightly … Read More →
My friend Fr. Martin Fox has a good post – directed at priests – about hearing confessions. HERE I like his peroration… Yes, it’s hard work, especially when you’ve got lots of other things to do, and that’s certainly true … Read More →
From a priest: QUAERITUR: Father, you stated: “Create a vacuum and something else will rush in to fill it. Think of this in our human, lived experience. If you have a bad habit, you will more than likely never break … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I have a frustrating problem that has plagued me for years without fail. Throughout the week, all my faults and sins that a I’ve committed since my last confession ruminate through my mind clearly and distinctly. … Read More →
My mail box is filled – as are my instant messages – with the “news” that 20 Catholic notables issued an open letter arguing that Francis has committed heresy by word, deed and omission. I haven’t read the letter yet, … Read More →
There is a good piece at La Bussola Quotidiana (in Italian) about the Sacrament of Penance. I’ll give you a sample, but I don’t have the energy to translate the whole thing. Prelude: Apparently there was recently something called “Earth … Read More →
This is the Sword of Damocles that hangs over the heads of law enforcement officers, who deserve our thanks. Here is an amazing video of how cops can go from contact to shots fired in 3 seconds. The reader who … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I haven’t been to confession in a long time, and I’d like to go soon. But I’ve also been very depressed and considering suicide. So I feel like one of my motivations to go would be to prepare … Read More →
I received this from a reader, photos and text. First, some photos. It’s good to go to confession at this time of the year, please consider doing so. If it has been many years, no worry, just ask the priest … Read More →
There is a good piece at Crisis today about the Sacrament of Penance. It touches on many issues, including availability of confession times, some poorly formed confessors who don’t acknowledge certain sins as sins, and the lack of support some … 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
An Old Historian on WDTPRS – Spy Wednesday: The final prayers: “Father: Every Paragraph, Sentence, and Word is Majestic, Meaningful, Uplifting, Promising, Humbling, and it all provides a full measure of…”
Sportsfan on ROME 24/3– Day 7: Oooops!: “From the video it looked like Rapport smelled blood in the water but deliberately slowed down to either twist the…”
Sid Cundiff in NC on ROME 24/3– Day 7: Oooops!: ““Last night ossobuco at humble but reliably good place which hasn’t ever disappointed” Where? Name?”
grateful on ROME 24/3– Day 6: Quiet Day: “It looks like that is loaded with healthy food… hope there are no potholes in Rome.”
teomatteo on ROME 24/3– Day 7: Oooops!: ““…Full moon over Campo De’Fiori” and in a half of moon cycle it will be the New moon over Richmond,…”
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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Books which you must have.
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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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