… during Mass.
SHOPPING ONLINE? Please, come here first!
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
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
Fr. Z’s Podcasts RSS Feed
- 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
- Philliesgirl on Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Passion Sunday, 5th in/of Lent 2026 – POLL about veils: “Our deacon gave the sermon today. He started by talking about the precepts of the Church. Go to Mass on…”
- Michael on Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Passion Sunday, 5th in/of Lent 2026 – POLL about veils: “Can’t access the poll. Everything was covered at St. Patrick parish in Grass Valley, CA.”
- Q7 on I love this story and it makes me sad: “I cannot tell you what hope this gives me — despite its dark clouds. I was under the impression that…”
- Not on Ite ad Ioseph… Go to Joseph!: “In Gloucester MA. We have a horizontal pole on a platform in the harbor with a flag on the end.…”
- jhogan on SSPX in Italy sent a book all Italian Bishops about the upcoming consecrations: “I do not know much about the bishops of Italy. When it comes to correcting or righting the so-called “modern”…”
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
“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
Do you want to show some appreciation?
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
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
Your support is important. Thanks in advance.
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT comDonate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
Good coffee and tea. Help monks.

CLICK and say your daily offerings!
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.
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
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
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
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.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
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
-
Recent Posts
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Passion Sunday, 5th in/of Lent 2026 – POLL about veils
- ASK FATHER: John 8:55
- I love this story and it makes me sad
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 33: 1st Passion Sunday (5th Lent) – “Christ entered once into the Holies…”
- WDTPRS – 5th Sunday of Lent: The Church, liturgically dying
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 32: Saturday 4th Week in Lent – Approaching Passiontide
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 31: Friday 4th Week in Lent – The 3rd Station
- Ite ad Ioseph… Go to Joseph!
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 30: Thursday 4th Week in Lent – St. Joseph
- Daily Rome Shot 1569
- In the ancient Roman Church today, Wednesday “in mediana” was a big day for catechumens.
- (no title)
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 29: Wednesday 4th Week in Lent – Purity and Mud
- SSPX in Italy sent a book all Italian Bishops about the upcoming consecrations
- Daily Rome Shot 1568
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 28: Tuesday 4th Week in Lent – Mass and Cross
- Daily Rome Shot 1567 – It was worse than we thought
- Such wealth and depth we have in the traditional Roman Rite
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 27: Monday 4th Week in Lent – The truth and you
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Laetare Sunday, 4th in/of Lent 2026
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 26: Laetare Sunday, 4th in Lent – The goal
- Daily Rome Shot 1566
- 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
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
WDTPRS POLL
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























Lace is nice!
Notice the Jewish star of David in the lace and St. Andrews crosses.
Nice lace, but it would be nice for a better explanation for those less informed :-P
I saw the Star of David immediately as well. Wonderful!
Archeology is not my forte, but, as far as I remember, the first usage of the Star of David, with a round ball in the middle of it, is to be found along the remains of the Synagogue next to Simon Peter’s house, where our Lord preached and worked miracles for those who built the synagogue.
Jesus is the Son of David, a title of faith accepted by our Lord, for He is the Son of David.
That’s what this cleric sees!
I can see everyone’s bald spot from the choir loft.
Not like that’s what I focus on in my contemplation during the Mass or anything, but I’d assume most clerics have better things to ponder than geometric lace patterns as well.
When I say Mass ad orientem I see the Crucifix for most of the Mass. When I say Mass versus populum I see the exit sign over the main doors of the church for most of the Mass. Personally, I find the crucifix more inspiring.
Claire…
lighten up…I think Father was going for a little levity.
Is there a stain on that lace?
Is this cleric kneeling behind another cleric or altar boy? (you know, if you aren’t in the front of the pack, the view never changes…)
Is this an altar linen ? Most I have seen in over 30 years as an altar server are plain cloth.
I’ve seen some lace ciborium covers and even surplices, but this picture really has me stumped.
If you don’t try and just let your imagination take over, the pattern takes on the appearance of, figures of…………people (souls?) At least to me they do.
Does that mean he does NOT see my children squirming in the pew? I hope.
You look at your sleeves all Mass-long?
Lace mantilla on extraordinary ministrix of the Holy Eucharist?
“When I say Mass versus populum I see the exit sign over the main doors of the church for most of the Mass.”
Just curious – do you not put a standing crucifix on the altar? The pastor at the church I attend puts a large crucifix on the altar when he offers the Ordinary Form Mass. Two summers ago, there was a visiting priest at the parish. I usually saw this particular priest in khakis and a button down shirt outside of the Mass, seldom in clerics. At any rate, one morning, the visiting priest came in to the church to offer the Mass and whipped the standing crucifix off the altar. He placed it on a side table. Not trying to be overwrought, but I almost felt like I felt it physically when he yanked the crucifix off the altar. What a bizarre thing to do.
Patterns of course are in the eye of the beholder. If there are stars of David in the lace, they either overlap or are joined by extraneous bits of lace. The ambiguous nature of this symbol, namely its ancient Jewish origin, and its distinct though related provenance in Freemasonry, argues against the propriety of its incorporation into a Roman Catholic alb, the vestment which symbolizes not only the purity of the priest who wears it, but the purity of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. The one represents an incomplete and superceded theology, as revealed by the life, death and resurrection of Christ; the other an inimical and amorphous deism which has infected the Church, il fumo di Satana entrato nel tempio di Dio as Papa Montini rued.
I see another pattern: a reticulation of equilateral triangles joined at their apices. The meaning of the pattern is this: the triangles are the coequal hypostaseis of the Trinity. The upper triangle represents the Trinitarian formula ex Patre Filioque, the Holy Spirit proceeding from both Father and Son, represented as the upper two vertices. The bottom triangle represents the Father at the apex with the Son and Holy Spirit at the lower vertices. This is the formula ex Patre. But this latter is doubtful for there is confusion between begetting and proceeding.
The first formula is the Roman Catholic modification of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; the second is the Eastern Orthodox preservation of the original wording. Dogma develops naturally in response to challenges either to objective Truth itself or to the perfection of the expression of the Truth. That the Roman Catholic triangle surmounts the Eastern Orthodox is a symbol of the ascendancy of the completeness of the Perfect Truth in the Roman Church over the inchoate truth of Orthodox theology. The union of the triangles expresses the hope for the reunion of the Latin and Greek churches, the First Rome regnant, the Second Rome coadjutant: Petrus victurus.
Claire, That’s not a bald spot, that’s a tonsure. 8-)
Sorry, Claire. I was distracted… but with good things! Yeah!
Actually, I was hoping that someone with a little acheology could help me out with my distraction detailed above.
“When I say Mass ad orientem I see the Crucifix for most of the Mass. When I say Mass versus populum I see the exit sign over the main doors of the church for most of the Mass. Personally, I find the crucifix more inspiring.”
LOL, if I were a priest I would have to agreee. (Although I would recommend the “Benedictine” altar arrangement for versus populum, with the crucifix at the centre of the altar with the corpus facing the priest during Mass.)
this picture really has me stumped.
It looks like the bottom of Fr.’s alb.
I wish they were tonsures :) never seen someone with a tonsure in person.