Fishwrap and Pelosi. What a pair.

Posted on 12 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fishwrap says that Pelosi appealed to Rome regarding Archbp. Cordileone’s application of can. 915 in her regard as a scandalous recalicitrant public supporter of abortion.

Cordileone notified Pelosi in a public letter that stated: “You are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.”

She has simply defied him, and continued to receive Communion, apparently in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Fishwrap and Pelosi. What a pair.

Posted in 1983 CIC can. 915 |
8 Comments

Face to face with Our Lady of Guadalupe

Posted on 12 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Church, as God’s Subcreator, has given to the world two great gifts which reflect God’s love, truth and beauty.  Art and Saints.  In art, truth, beauty and love are manifested in the arrangement of matter or physical sound waves.  In saints, love, beauty and truth are manifested in the actions of one of God’s images, a person.

Studying the lives of saints and gazing at an image crafted by a true master, hearing a composition of a devout composer who intended to open us up into mystery can, over time, produce great fruits.

For example, consider the famous 6th c. Byzantine icon of Christ Pantocrator.  Christ’s face is odd.  One might be inclined to say that the artist botched it.  On deeper inspection we see that His face reveals two attitudes, in the two halves of His face.  On the right side He holds perhaps the Gospels – perhaps the Book in which all things are written – and His attitude is that of the severe Judge whom nothing shall escape.  On the left, His hand blesses and his face is gentle.

This artistic treasury yielding spiritual dividends is made by a man.

How much more might it be true of an image made by God?

First and foremost, we contemplate Christ Himself, the Eternal Word made flesh.  The Son is the perfect invisible image of the invisible Father, begotten but not made.  In His Incarnation and Birth, the Son takes His Body, made with the Virgin Mother, and becomes the perfect visible image of the invisible Father.  In contemplating Him we find infinite mysteries, awesome and alluring.

Next, each one of us are images of God.   Each person reflects mystery, as do especially the saints who beautifully reflect God in living flesh.

However, our fallen nature’s solitary boast, Mary the Mother of God, presents mystery to us in her own way.

Let’s see the the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast it is.

The tilma has revealed many mysteries.  As science advances, more and more fascinating – and hitherto unknown elements – are discovered in it, much as what is happening with the image of Mary’s crucified Son, the Shroud of Turin (which I happen to accept as being authentic).

That said, there are things to be discovered not through tech, but through attention.

The writer, Pete Baklinski, gazed at the image of Mary in the tilma.  It eventually occurred to him that one side of her face looked happy, pleased, while the other side looked said.

The left side

The right side

He explored Mary’s message at Guadalupe and found themes of both joy and sadness.  He suspects that her image means to reflect both.

You might go over there and read the whole account.

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged
3 Comments

Daily Rome Shot 1197 – Another note to donors

Posted on 12 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Another angle from the wonderful nativity scene at The Parish™ in Rome, Santissima Trinità del Pellegrini.  Terrific.

A NOTE TO DONORS / BENEFACTORS:

If you are using CONTINUE TO GIVE to send donations, please contact me.  I really want to end my relationship with them (fees… clunky… complicated).  Please help me out.  Drop me a note?   Reply to one of my thank you notes or use this link HERE.

This is interesting… in churchy news…

What do you think of it?

Please remember me when Christmas shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Oh dear… the bloated bureaucracy is running out of dosh? What a shame! Maybe it’s time to go back to the basics?

Eucharistic miracles… Hosts are truly flesh, the blood is AB… HERE

Chris Wray, the Director of the FBI, which harassed Catholics has resigned.  HERE

Meanwhile, I saw that there is a Nativity scene at the US Capitol for the FIRST TIME.

This is out of this world.  The Mars Rover reached another goal.  The rim of Jezero Crater.  It took 3.5 months of 1,640 feet (500 m) of vertical climb. HERE

In chessy news… BIG NEWS…. HERE

The sisters’ shop is only open for a couple more days. Great stuff! My mother approves.

By FSSP seminarians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
8 Comments

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 11 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

PLEASE use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

In your charity would you please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

Let’s remember all who are ill, who will die soon, who have died recently, who have lost their jobs, who are afraid.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Some are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below.

You have to be registered here to be able to post.

In your kindness continue prayers for my mother, who has been diagnosed with something grave, progressive and incurable.

Pray for me, for my circumstances and wisdom in my decisions.

Also, I received this note:

Posted in Urgent Prayer Requests |
12 Comments

Daily Rome Shot 1196 – A note to donors

Posted on 11 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In Rome at The Parish™, the beautiful presepio has been set up. I would like to see it in person. It is without doubt one of the finest in Rome and it underscores also the history of the church and the Archconfraternity which St. Philip Neri founded there.

This is entirely Roman but the figures are in the “Neapolitan” style of nativity scenes.  Here you see, in the right, two members of the Archconfraternity in their red habits, a pilgrim, and St. Philip, seated.

There are two clerics, one a priest one a prelate, in the foreground.  Note the buckles on their shoes.

A NOTE TO DONORS / BENEFACTORS:

If you are using CONTINUE TO GIVE to send donations, please contact me.  I really want to end my relationship with them (fees… clunky… complicated).  Please help me out.  Drop me a note?   Reply to one of my thank you notes or use this link HERE.

As you may know Nancy Pelosi has openly stated to Fishwrap – who else? –  that she disregards her Archbishop’s letter that she should not receive Communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

“I received Communion anyway. That’s his problem, not mine. My Catholic faith is, Christ is my savior. It has nothing to do with the bishops.”

How should Archbishop Cordileone respond?

Here’s an idea.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

There there’s this:  HERE

An AI companion suggested he kill his parents. Now his mom is suing.

In just six months, J.F., a sweet 17-year-old kid with autism who liked attending church and going on walks with his mom, had turned into someone his parents didn’t recognize.

He began cutting himself, lost 20 pounds and withdrew from his family. Desperate for answers, his mom searched his phone while he was sleeping. That’s when she found the screenshots.

J.F. had been chatting with an array of companions on Character.ai, part of a new wave of artificial intelligence apps popular with young people, which let users talk to a variety of AI-generated chatbots, often based on characters from gaming, anime and pop culture.

One chatbot brought up the idea of self-harm and cutting to cope with sadness. When he said that his parents limited his screen time, another bot suggested “they didn’t deserve to have kids.” Still others goaded him to fight his parents’ rules, with one suggesting that murder could be an acceptable response.

Skynet is setting the board.

Speaking of setting in the board, in chessy news… HERE

White to move and mate in 3.

Please remember me when Christmas shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
5 Comments

My View For Awhile: Wind Bound – UPDATED – ADVENTURE!!!

Posted on 10 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A few days in the cool breezes of the Second City will be good.

A little anxiety passed on his morning. Power was going on and off. Not knowing what was up, I got my car out of the garage and power went down for about an hour.

I don’t like starting trips like that. Hopefully, that will be the sole glitch.

In the other hand I got to the airport about a half hour earlier than I needed because in my distracted state I took the boarding time as the departure time. Hence, here I am, hungry.

And another thing! Must people speak so loudly on their phones? REALLY?

UPDATE

Good soup in the lounge.

So far so good.

UPDATE

Remember that part about “sole glitch”?

On planes they relentlessly tell you about seat belts and tray tables in the upright and locked position.

We landed in Chicago, whereupon, a few seconds later – BAM!

Did you know that airplanes can brake really fast?

Everyone lurched forward in their seats as the brakes brought us to an abrupt stop.

After a few seconds the pilot turned the plane about 45° to port, whereupon there was a bright white light shining in the our starboard windows. Being on the the starboard side, I could see less about 100 yards away the nose of an aircraft with its headlight on. It seems we were playing chicken.

It took a while to sort out, but eventually we did a 180 on the runway and went to the gate. No one was hurt.

Objects may have shifted in the overhead compartments!

That took care of our “early arrival”.

But we got here.

Why no pic?  Because I was, alas, in a middle seat, and the guy at the window, who was the size of a refrigerator, never budged from blocking it long enough for me to grab anything.

Posted in On the road |
Comments Off on My View For Awhile: Wind Bound – UPDATED – ADVENTURE!!!

Daily Rome Shot 1195 – Better shot

Posted on 10 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Right click for larger.   A better shot of the vestments for the Immaculate Conception at The Parish™ in Rome.  Spiffy.

This is interesting…

This…

A favorite… I miss them.

Please remember me when Christmas shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

3:16 isn’t just in John.

In chessy news… HERE

White to move and mate in 2.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
9 Comments

Daily Rome Shot 1194 – OH MY!

Posted on 9 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the Via dei Pettinari alongside The Parish™.  From The World’s Best Sacristan™.

He wrote: “We had put the white (candle) up this summer but it would go out with the wind, so it remained there all these months blown out, but a few days ago we found it lit and strangely, even if the wind is blowing, it doesn’t go out.”

Please remember me when Christmas shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

The wonderful Dominican sisters of Summit, the “Soap Sisters” will keep their shop open for a few more days before they close for the end of Advent.   They have great gift options.  I get candles for my chapel from them and things for my mother.  Fr. Z’s Mother Approved.

We all saw the consistory list.  I couldn’t watch it.  However, I’m told that, through Radcliff showed up in the habit he slept in, he did get a hair cut.

Andrea Gagliarducci has a piece on the College.  HERE

Catholic Unscripted reacted to the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris.  Regarding the music and the furnishing, let’s just say GMTA.  They echoed what I wrote.  Interesting discussion HERE

In chessy news… OH MY!  HERE

Also, white to move and mate in three.

UPDATE:

Okay… that pushes it a bit. I was also reminded the the Google thing and the Microsoft logo.

However. What I find most alarming is the dash to infantalize the Catholic people through use of what you do to get the attention of babies: primary colors and critters with big eyes, like that dreadful “mascot” for the Jubilee. I’ve ranted for years, decades, about “dumbing down” worship. The result has been “dumbing down” the devotion of the rank and file. If you change how we worship, over time you change what we believe. The massive contrast between the space, Notre Dame, and the new accoutrement is a massive chaotic clash. It’s the liturgical (and therefore doctrinal) slithering of the “smoke” of the Enemy that poison’s the clarity and quality of the Faith-air.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
11 Comments

If it’s Immaculate Conception, then BLUE vestments on the 2nd Sunday of Advent… RIGHT??!? – POLLS

Posted on 8 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Remember the BLUE vestment craze during Advent?   Does anyone still see that?

Anyone can vote. You must be registered and approved to comment.

In Advent 2024 have you seen any BLUE vestments for Advent Sundays?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Meanwhile, at The Parish™ in Rome, this is what people say today, but NOT for ADVENT. Rather, for Immaculate Conception! Members of the Archconfraternity in their habits are the torchbearers.

Not too shabby.

Meanwhile, remember the blue vestments during Advent? The use of blue vestments during Advent has been dying out for several years as the aging hippies drop.

Of course there is a basis for blue vestments for Marian Feasts.  There was an indult, though I haven’t seen the text, for Spanish territories.  I saw once reference: “This privilege was granted to Spain, its colonies, and Latin America by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites on Feb. 12, 1864.” I suppose you would also have to demonstrate that your territory was under Spanish control on 12 Feb 1864.

Apart from whether their use is licit, it is clear that they were used in some Spanish territories and that they probably survive in the Rite of Toledo and in other regions too.

I learned from a commentator here that the Spanish bishops approved, in their liturgical Ordo, the use of blue (“azul”) for the Marian Feast of the Immaculate Conception. A couple years ago it read:

8 LUNES. LA INMACULADA CONCEPCIÓN DE LA VIRGEN MARÍA, patrona de España, solemnidad
(…)
Misa de la solemnidad (blanco o azul).
bl az MISAL: ants. y oracs. prop., Gl., Cr., Pf. props. No se puede decir
(…)

That’s something.

There was an old argument that the purple to be used in Lent should be on the red side of purple and the purple for Advent the blue side.

I dunno.  Frankly, I’ve gotten to a point where, in the time of Francis and the approval of Pachamama Rite, etc., just do what you want.

Over at NLM there is an interesting and serious post about Latin Rite blue vestments in Spain.

But let’s have a walk down nostalgia lane and the Official Parodohymnodists famous

LITURGICAL BLUE!

Sing this to the tune of O Come, O Come Emmanuel:

Sing along!  Lemme help you out.

O come, o come liturgical blue;
out with the old, and in with the new.
Let’s banish purple vestments from here,
the color blue is very HOT this year.

REFRAIN:

Gaudy, gaudy, gaudy chasubles,
in baby, navy, powder-puff and teal.

Since Advent is the Blessed Virgin’s time,
we’ll wear blue, though it’s canonic crime,
and in the third week, we’ll wear white.
Although it’s wrong, we’ll say that it’s alright.

R.

Around the wreath we’ll place blue candlelight,
and in one corner, we will place one white.
We’ll drape blue over our communion rail,
and use blue burses with blue chalice veils.

R.

Yah… we can and should have a little fun with this, for all the seriousness of the role of worship in our lives.

Posted in Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, POLLS |
8 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 2nd Sunday of Advent – Immaculate Conception

Posted on 8 December 2024 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for this traditional 2nd Sunday of Advent (Novus Ordo), or, in the Vetus Ordo, the Feast Immaculate Conception?

Tell us about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

Posted in Sermons | Tagged
6 Comments