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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
- 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”…”
- Gaby Carmel on Ite ad Ioseph… Go to Joseph!: “Father, I am fascinated by the statement that Mary was descended from David’s son Nathan: where is that written? I…”
- leftycbd on Ite ad Ioseph… Go to Joseph!: “Greased poles? Sounds like what happens in Philadelphia, PA after a major sports win by the Eagles, Phillies, et al.…”
- Imrahil on LENTCAzT 2026 – 30: Thursday 4th Week in Lent – St. Joseph: “Indeed! I had never thought of that. Thank you, as of course also for the your effort in general. Although…”
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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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“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
- 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
- YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 21: Tuesday 3rd Week in Lent – We are not in this alone
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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Time to buy a lottery ticket?
Another Vatican white paper, hidden in a cookie?
If you see an Experian truck, RUN!
Yes, I think that is a fortune. Phrased otherwise, some action you are contemplating will bring credit upon you.
Maybe somebody will actually shell out $1,000,000 for your picture. It is very well-done by the way, but way out of my price range.
God bless you!
I don’t think it counts as a ‘fortune’ when it is what we have come to expect of you.
As opposed to contemplating an action which will DIScredit you.
Oy Vey!
Semper (236th year) Fi!
That looks like a fortune-cookie-type-fortune to me, Fr. Z. They never make any sense, and there’s no such thing anyway. I’d try the almond cookies from the front counter. They’re usually much better anyway.
Credit?
Okay.
Congratulations on your recent blog posting! :-)
Finally! A fortune!!
What if you actually don’t WANT the credit….?
Bring credit? You’re applying for an AmEx card?
Whether this is a fortune or not plays crucially on what I can assume was a poorly chosen grammatical structure. “which will bring you credit.” By using ‘which’ as opposed to ‘that’, all that follows is nonessential to the sentence. It is a nonrestrictive phrase, and plays no bearing on the meaning of the sentence. We can thereby reduce your “fortune” to:
“You are contemplating some action.”
Which is not only a fortune, but should be so plainly applicable to any person at any time to be devoid of real meaning
No, it’s simply telling you what you’re doing. The second part is not necessarily a fortune, as it could easily be known.
The “which” clause modifies “action,” not the verb “are contemplating,” since it is not preceded by a comma.
Question: Are you contemplating while knowing the action will bring credit, or totally unaware of the potential credit? Plus, is it a good action or bad action, thus bringing good or bad credit? You don’t want credit for something bad, so best to avoid any contemplation until the “period of fortune” passes. I think you get three days to avoid any contemplation, after that the “fortune” is null and void. However, if you are willing to take the risk in hope that it is a good form of credit…
I think it is amazing that a fortune cookie “fortune” can generate such an interesting amount of interpretations…Father Z, you should, after your bird and recipe book, write one on fortune cookie discussions. You may be thinking of this already and you may get credit for it…
‘You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you.’
It is not a fortune, as other commentators have rightfully pointed out, this is infact just a result of the work of one self. Credit where credit is due.
Well……..I’like to see you prove that cookie wrong!
I meant “I’d”
“You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you”
a)Credit in which world?If this one, worry, already.
b) this could be very close to the road to hell is paved with good intentions- which is a warning, hence prophetic in the biblical rather than foreseeing sense.
c) I’d rather be DOING the right thing for the wrong reasons..
d) This is fortune? doom? angst?
e) This is “contemplative” as in “orantes”, discalced carmelites a nd suchlike?
f) I think I prefer chinese food in Korean restaurants
g) No such thing as a bad cookie?
h) If this is fortune, so is ” I have not yet begun to fight”- I’m contemplating it.
i) If you go Anglosaxon rootwards this Xmas and feast on Xmas pud, have Xmas crackers too, they’ve more often than not got really bad jokes inside than this sort of thing, tho’ the old cracker-mottoes -ohmy!Your mother sure’d tell you not to!
wanted to get to Z in tribute to father Z , but can’t!
Whenever I get a fortune cookie I always read the same thing with great surprise and emotion: “It says “Help! I’m a prisoner in a Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory!”” This is from the late comedian Alan King who wrote an amusing book of the same name. It always gets lots of groans but is usually more interesting than what is really printed therein.