Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links. US HERE – UK 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.
It felt like a chickeny day, so I made chicken last night. A view of the butcher case. The inclusion of a head lets you know what sort of chicken it is. What kind of chicken is it, you ask? Dead, so far as I can tell. Other than that, not a clue. They do this in France, too, to guarantee that that Bresse chicken is the real deal and not some counterfeit interloping poseur.
I, however, opted for one of these small spatchcocked birds that had some seasoning already.
A view of the day’s last light on the dome of Sant’Andrea della Valle on my way home. All the domes in Rome are turning dark.
Let’s do some prep. First, some color/flavor for the veg with the bird.
The same for the onion.
Meanwhile, which drink is mine?
After browning the bird a bit, reassemble. I’ve added rosemary and a couple of cloves of garlic, smashed. A slosh of wine, Trebbiano, and into the oven.
The just out of the oven.
Supper was half of this. Now I have great leftovers either for another, similar plate or perhaps for soup. Decisions decisions.
Dessert: taleggio.
Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 4. Can you name any of the techniques used to obtain this victory?
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
CLICK!
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In chessy news, the Candidates Tournament has begun in Toronto! Eight players are duking it out. Yesterday saw quite a few draws, all of the men and all but one for the women’s side. You all know my position, of course. Ceterum censeo Firouzja delendum esse.
Give support to the good Benedictines in Norcia. I found out that they operate on the solar calendar and clock for their days. See my post the other day about the solar clocks in Rome.
UPDATE: Finally, extreme thanks to DM for a lovely donation for my time in Rome. I bought flowers for the apartment today without the slightest twinge of concern.
Here are the new resident blooms.
The alstroemeria haven’t fully opened yet. They should be good for more than a week if tended well.
Michael Mazza is both a civil lawyer and a canon lawyer (a successful one, too).
The article highlights both the level of frustration (and even desperation) that exists among priests and lay faithful regarding accusations and the way they are handled AND how pursuing a path of civil litigation has its own hazards. This is an important and timely topic, so please feel free to circulate.
Dear Father Z,
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul for your constant exhortations to “Go To Confession.” It has taken me quite a while (years) to step up to the confessional but with the help of the Holy Spirit and your prayers, I finally did the deed on Holy Saturday. It has been an unbelievable and (hopefully, with prayers) life-changing blessing. Please keep up your so-very-necessary apostolate. You are in my special prayers, as is the priest who heard my confession.
With thanksgiving for Christ’s mercy and forgiveness,
Please, merciful God, let this reckoned against my Judgment, which could be at anytime according to Thy will.
If this blog has accomplished nothing else, I thank Christ the High Priest, Mary the Refuge of Sinners, and Joseph, Patron of the Church for the chance to bring people back to the confessional.
This beautiful sunny yet cool Roman day started by the sun’s rising at 06:45 and it will end at 19:42.
The Ave Maria (which you know all about now) is at 20:00
It is the feast of St. Isidore, Bishop and Doctor as well as that of St. Francisco Marto (+1919) the apparition seer of Fatima.
I will say Holy Mass today for my Roman Sojourn donors.
Also, thank you to ML for shifting from “Continue” to Zelle. And a huge thanks to
I had a note from a priest friend who has people help to keep stats on certain feasts. He wrote that they heard 2100+ confessions during Passiontide, 727 confessions in 10 hrs on Good Friday, and 1,400+ on the Easter vigil.
Fathers! If you have a parish, and you are not preaching about morals, sin and the Sacrament of Penance, if you are not scheduling reasonable, accessible, adequate hours for confessions – which will increase when people know and trust that you will be hearing – then you are probably going to go to Hell.
That said, here’s a lovely little vehicle, a Fiat 500L, probably late 60’s with a roaring 18HP!
On the way home from shopping, down the wonderful V. dei Cappellari.
Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links. US HERE – UK 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.
Meanwhile, black to move and mate in 3.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
CLICK!
I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com.
In chessy news, TODAY beginneth the Candidates Tournament in Toronto! This is an eight-player double round-robin clash. Eight grandmasters (including one whom I hope loses in with significant defeats) will compete to play against present World Champ Ding Liren, who defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi when Magnus wouldn’t defend his title. This should be good watchin’!
My prediction: Fabiano Caruana will prevail. It’s either he or Hikaru Nakamura. Nepo is not to be ruled out as a spoiler, but the way Fabiano has been playing, and Hikaru… whew.
We are now in the Easter Octave – Happy Easter! Let’s get out in front of this before the calendar clicks over to Friday.
First, allow me to post a shot of last night’s (Wednesday’s) repast.
The beef is so good here in Rome, where I write, at least from the butcher I use at the Campo de’ Fiori. It tastes like I remember beef used to taste. And probably a little cheaper than in my usual US grocery. I managed a pretty much perfect cottura this time, with an excellent Maillard reaction and rare center. The veg are mushrooms and cicoria in padella with garlic and hot pepper.
I could eat this again tonight, Thursday. I could eat this again on Friday. On this Friday, that is.
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
My wife and I recently returned to the traditional Friday abstinence from meat year round.
Traditionally, would the Friday abstinence from meat also apply during Fridays of the whole Easter season?
What about just the octave?
Congratulations for wanting to adhere to the traditional practices. Kudos.
You’ve asked a good question.
Here is canon 1251:
Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
24. The first eight days of Easter Time constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as Solemnities of the Lord.
The days of the Octave of Easter are celebrated as Solemnities (in the Novus Ordo calendar). Therefore, there is no obligation for Catholics for the Friday abstinence on this coming Friday.
Note well that the other Fridays of Eastertide are not Solemnities. The relief from abstinence applies only to the Friday in the Octave of Easter.
BTW… this does not apply to the Octave of Christmas, for those days of that Octave are not counted as “Solemnities” as are those of the Easter Octave.
This is how the 1983 Code of Canon Law handles Friday in the Octave of Easter, and this applies also to those who prefer the Extraordinary Form (which did not have “Solemnities”).
As far as other Fridays are concerned, outside the Octave of Easter or some other Solemnity, you can ask your parish priest to dispense you or commute your act of penance.
Can. 1245 Without prejudice to the right of diocesan bishops mentioned in can. 87, for a just cause and according to the prescripts of the diocesan bishop, a pastor [parish priest] can grant in individual cases a dispensation from the obligation of observing a feast day or a day of penance or can grant a commutation of the obligation into other pious works. A superior of a religious institute or society of apostolic life, if they are clerical and of pontifical right, can also do this in regard to his own subjects and others living in the house day and night.
Abstinence from meat has good reasoning behind it. For some, however, abstinence from other things can be of great spiritual effect.
Certainly you would never abstain from reading this blog… or from ordering…
I often forget to pray before using the internet. I sometimes fail in charity when using the internet.
This tool of social communication and research and entertainment has amazing upsides, but it also has spiritually deadly perils. We all should be very careful in how we use it – and through it – use each other, “use” in the finer sense of “treat” each other.
Today is the feast of St. Isidore of Seville, Bishop and Doctor (+4 April 636).
He is not to be confused with St. Isidore the Farmer.
St. Isidore defended the faith against the Arian heresy, which was still around.
It is amazing how tenacious heresy can be. It still is around.
Some years ago – quiet a few years, now that I think about it, in the late 90’s when Compuserve was still the thing – there was chat about having St. Isidore proposed as the patron saint of the internet. He has NOT, however, officially been named such. Keep that in mind.
I was asked to write a prayer people could recite before using the internet. I wrote the prayer in Latin and submitted it, with a translation into English, to a bishop who gave it his approval.
This prayer is now all over the same internet, both with and without attribution.
You will want to know why some people proposed St. Isidore for this role.
St. Isidore’s most notable work, the Etymologiae, us a massive encyclopedic work of 448 chapters in 20 volumes indexing just about everything people thought it was important to know at the time, rather like a primitive database. I think that’s the connection.
You can, of course, pray to any saint in this matter, and nothing official about any patron for the internet has been handed down from the Congregation Dicastery for the Causes of Saints (which is the competent dicastery of the Holy See in those matters).
Bottom line: people wanted a prayer for St. Isidore, and I wrote one. You should feel free to change the name to whatever saint you prefer. Others have proposed St. Maximilian Kolbe (+1941), St. Bernadine of Siena (+1444), St. Rita of Cascia (+1457), and the Archangel Gabriel (still around).
I am happy for people to use this prayer. I ask that you give attribution if you repost.
To see all the versions of the prayer which are now available, go
If you can offer a new translation with the title (and audio recording by a native speaker) into a language missing from those I’ve archived, please send it. To email me, click HERE.
I would also like a video of the prayer in ASL, American Sign Language.
Meanwhile, here is the English.
A prayer before logging onto the internet:
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Finally, I’m still waiting for an improved version in Klingon.
Today, 3 April, Easter Wednesday, at 6:47 the sun rose over the Eternal City. The sunlight day will begin to end at 19:40.
I got a little screwed up with my days in posting, so this is a sort of leap-date.
The Ave Maria Bell … or as one reader wrote to ask:
“What the heck is the ‘Ave Maria Bell’ and why do you post about it if nobody does it?”
The Ave Maria Bell is a relic of time calculation from when accurate clocks were not simply everywhere. Also, the clocks were different than now. The Ave Maria sounded a single bell struck 3 times, then 4 times, 5 times, and then 1 time.
The “Ave Maria” indicates the change of the religious day from day to night. It was a way of calculating the day using a 6-hour clock that the Church developed in the 13th c.. the 6-hour dominated until Napoleon imposed the 12-hour clock (which predominates today). If, when walking about in Rome and if you are in the know, you will spot old 6-hour day clocks. For example, at the interesting church in Trastevere, Santa Maria del Orto, the “university church”, there is a 6-hour clock in the façade.
This is an interesting church. It was for the “universities” or professional associations especially having to do with food because of its location near the bank of the Tiber where there were wharves. There were 13 Università, including the Fruttaroli (like the vegetable vendors in Campo de’ Fiori), the Pollaroli (chicken guys) and the Vermicellari (pasta makers). Santa Maria del Orto is also now the church for the Japanese in Rome.
A quick digression. The other day I noticed that scaffolding has been taken down in the Via Pollarola where there is an exceptionally mediocre restaurant of the same name and, across the way, a very good place which is one of my favorites these days, Elle Effe. Anyway, in Chicken Vendor Street, there is an inscription which was hard to see until again recently.
There is still a butcher shop nearby that primarily advertises chicken, though they have everything. Last year I got a great rabbit there for supper with The Great Roman™. But I digress.
The Collegio Romano has a six-hour clock, too. The most visible is in the bell tower of the Quirinal Palace. They are all over Rome, but you have to pay attention and sometimes they are in inner courtyards or in sacristies.
The Ave Maria is rung in the ballpark of half an hour after sunset. If the Ave Maria is rung at 20:00, as it is from 2-15 April (in truth it’s 19:00, but “ora legale… daylight savings”) and therefore is today, then 19:00 (really 18:00) is 23rd hour of the religious day and 21:00 (really 20:00) is the 1st hour of the next day. This older calculation of the day’s hours meant that, as the year progressed the length of “an hour” changed.
In Italian there are a couple of phrases that still ring with ancient usage of the Ave Maria. For example, “portare il cappello sulle ventritre… wear your hat at the 23rd (hour)” means to bring the brim of your cap down to shield your eyes from the light of the low sun. The day divided in 4 blocks of 6 shifting-length hours is represented in a phrase, “la merenda a vent’un ore… a snack at 21 hours”. In the summer working day are very long. There would be for laborers a mid-afternoon snack, at “21 hours” which would be roughly between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. This would carry you through to the end of the work day. In fact, it was the custom when I was on a work schedule in Rome to have a snack at about 4-4:30 PM, maybe after a post-lunch nap, before heading back to work in the Curia office until 7-7:30 PM (and the non-ringing Ave Maria Bell).
In the Roman Curia, Cardinals and other officials would still receive people in audience for the hour after the Ave Maria Bell rang. An hour after the Ave Maria, a single bell would toll, thus ending all business for the day, since it was the first hour of “night”. When there were large religious communities in Roman churches and chapters of canons, Vespers would be sung an hour before the Ave Maria Bell. Obviously daylight savings screws this up.
Finally, another relic of the six-hour clock is the recitation of the Angelus, now Regina Caeli, at 0600, 1200, and 1800. Get it?
Thus, the Roman Ave Maria Bell. More than you ever wanted to know.
Why do I post about it? I want it back. Also, I admire that the Roman Curia calendar (of which I post pics when in Rome, still provides this precious item of information connecting us to our forebears.
It wasn’t all that long ago that time was calculated quite a different way, more connected to the rhythm of the seasons, the coming and going of the sun, the time for work in the open and the time for rest, the time for prayer to punctuate the whole rounding of the hours. Even as I typed those words the bell in the campanile across from my window chimed the 3/4 hour with three double chimes on two differently pitched bells and then the hour with another. In my lodging back over the pond, I have a clock that chimes the naval bells, in their cycle of 4 rings of pairs of chimes. My phone is set to play Evening Colors at sunset, as well as the Angelus/Regina caeli as recorded at The Parish™.
Tempus fugit, friends. Memento mori.
GO TO CONFESSION.
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HEY!
ni**********@fuse.net – My thank you note was kicked back. This email doesn’t exist anymore. Can I have an update?
Speaking of the hour of the sunrise this morning… here we go!
Out in the early hours. I couldn’t resist. I posted a still of this same guy a couple days back.
There will be pontifical baptism at The Parish™ and confirmation in the evening. Item’s are being prepared.
A visit to the Sacred Heart this morning to ask healing for an ear issue.
One of the fruttaroli stands (and now you know a little more about them helps with preparation of Roman-style artichokes. Tomorrow I may get some and try my hand, if they also have mentuccia. Otherwise, I might have to wait until I see The Great Roman™ to get some.
On my way home from the stands, butcher, and bakery.
As I write, it is time for la merenda a vent’uno.
Speaking of coffee…
Black to move and mate in 3.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
CLICK!
I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com.
I was alerted to a manipulative piece at Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) with a massively ironic headline and intro. The Institute of Christ the King took over a parish in Cleveland that has Hungarian roots. Of course they started to make changes that some people didn’t like. Enter a lib writer offering a piece to Fishwrap in order to harm the Institute.
Not an April Fool’s shot. At first I wasn’t sure. I checked the date.
A Latin Mass community moved in. Then wrecked a historic Vatican II altar. [“Historic”? That’s rich.]
Cleveland — April 2, 2024
Shaking his head, Bob Purgert tilted one of the pedestals that supported the top of what is now a dismantled altar, stored in an unheated hall on the property of his beloved St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Cleveland’s economically struggling Buckeye neighborhood.
He showed a visitor the casters under the pedestal that allowed for the altar to be rolled aside for special events. [Yeah, the casters also make it really special.] Chipped and splintered wood could be seen atop and along the sides of the pedestal, a second one next to it and the altar top resting on a table nearby.
“They didn’t have to do this,” a disappointed Purgert, 71, said of the damaged altar. Parishioners are deeply proud of the altar, which parish priest Fr. Julius Zahorszky built in 1966 to accommodate the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. [Golly! 1966? Boy oh boy, that’s sure historic. I’m reminded of when in 2010 the late Bp. Trautman was defending the old, obsolete 1973 ICEL translations on the lead up to the new one. He claimed that, by now, they were traditional. Card. George wryly called him on that, suggesting that Trautman had embraced a “Lefebvrism of the Left”.]
Hungarian Cardinal József Mindszenty celebrated Mass at the altar during a 1974 visit to the parish. Pope Francis declared the cardinal, who resisted Hungary’s communist government after World War II, venerable in 2019, making the altar a second-class relic if he is canonized a saint. [Ummmm…. Not everything a saint has touched is a second class relic. think about it.]
“They didn’t have to do this,” Purgert repeated. “They could have moved the altar. They could have moved it to the vestibule if they didn’t want to see it, and then it could be moved back for weddings or funerals for our parishioners.” [Yeah… that’s the Institute’s style… let’s keep a versus populum altar on casters from 1966 around just in case we want to use it in the main church.]
Purgert’s ire is focused on the Chicago-based Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, which since July has been establishing its presence at St. Elizabeth for Latin Mass adherents. The group celebrated its first Latin Mass at the shrine on Sept. 24.
[…]
There are a few things that pop up in a fair reading of the piece. One thing is that this church has a connection with Hungarian heritage. Whoever has use of the place, diocesan or Institute, whatever, ought to play that up and foster it… if they are smart. To ignore it or whitewash it is not just insensitive, it’s stupid. So, if that’s the approach, forget about the Hungarian connection – and we have just this article (so far) to go on – not good.
At the same time, if the community hasn’t been able to keep the place going, then when a solution is found, they really don’t have a lot to complain about. That’s the cold reality part of this. If you don’t pay the bills, etc., then you are not going to keep your church they way you prefer.
In this hyper-sensitive, uber-tense time we are in, it behooves everyone to be careful.
Anyone, circling back to the destruction of the “historic Vatican II” altar, it is hard not to burst out laughing in a dark, ironic way. Think of all the truly historic altars that were quite simply trashed in the name, the “spirit” of Vatican II when Vatican II said NOTHING about altars. It stirs rage to think of what treasures in churches were squandered with zero sensitivity about the people and their parents and grandparents who paid for those things with their money, sweat and time. Think of the money that must be spent now to renovate the wreckovations.
I sent out a note to my “Roman Donors” list with a video. Three mails were undeliverable, because of the video size.
It was a quiet day for me. I caught up on some sleep, which was welcome, and did some reading.
In the late afternoon, as the rain subsided…
The main event of the evening was a wonderful meal out with a group of 10. My friends from the US – who departed today – had me and the priests of The Parish™, along with The World’s Best Sacristan™, and The Great Roman™ along with The Great Roman Wife™. Very congenial. Languages varied.
The venue was an excellent Sicilian/Roman place that never disappoints.
Some of the meal shots.
First, which drink is mine?
A typical assortment for Easter was brought on multiple plates for sharing.
For a starter, I passed on pasta and had a sort of soup of sea critters.
My neighbor had fried anchovies. Yum.
I continued with orata. I think all the priests of The Parish™ had the poppy seed encrusted seared tuna steak. I’ve had that in the past and it is excellent.
Meanwhile, black to move and mate in 4.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
CLICK!
I am now a chess.com affiliate. So, click and join! Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com.
Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links. US HERE – UK 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.
Now that we are out of Lent, try some wonderful beer from the traditional Benedictines of Norcia.
And now, what you have been eagerly looking for, chess news. Firstly, I have a board set up in the apartment for some study: flank openings right now. In other exciting news, Magnus Carlsen won the Grenke Chess Classic (for the 3rd time) and the Candidates thing is soon to begin in Toronto. FIDE released the April ratings of the top 100. HERE The big climber was surely Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who is now ranked at 4.
Looking at my queue in the admin area, I realized that I left the Easter Sunday post as a draft!
Hence, I will quickly add some points and move on.
Lunch at the nearby place, now a favorite, featured an interesting hybrid pasta, a cross between gricia (with guanciale) and cacio e pepe (but without pepper) and fried artichokes on top (alla giudia).
The texture was creamy like a properly made cacio e pepe which had a good contrast in the crunchy artichoke bits.
I had little appetite as it turned out and took most of it back to the apartment. It is nice to have a kitchen while here. Thank you donors!
One of my dining companions had these lovely chicken rolls with olives and capers. I took one of these home too.
Beautiful. You can tell what they believe here by the care they take of every detail of the church.
Very old processional banners were unfurled, recently restored.
Fathers… here is a lesson on how to wear a stole. I know what you are thinking. “I’m a priest. I’m an expert at these things.” Oh, yeah? Most priests wear their stole hanging from the neck. The stole, in the Roman fashion, should lie upon the shoulders.
Also, when it is a straight stole, as in this lovely Roman set the central bit is folded under and bound down by the cincture, as the two appended parts in front, crossed over the breast right over left, are also bound down.
A sausage made at this time of year. I don’t recall the name. It’s good.
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The Lord of Life is the slayer of the death that is perpetual. In doing so, He was like the new Adam putting to right what the old Adam had failed to do. Consider how Adam, who was given guardianship of the garden and all that was in it, had also been given guardianship of Eve. Christ overturned the old defeat of our human nature and undid what Adam and Eve had done: St. Jerome has more to say about the new Adam and the curse of Eve:
Two different feelings occupied the minds of the women: fear and joy. Fear came from the magnitude of the miracle they had witnessed and joy from their desire for the resurrection. Nevertheless both feelings impelled their steps. They continued on to the apostles so that through them the seed of faith would be scattered. “And behold, Jesus met them, saying, ‘Hail!’” They who sought Him out and ran to Him deserved to be the first to meet the risen Lord and to hear Him say “Hail!”. Thus it happened that Eve’s curse was undone by these women. [Commentary on Matthew 4.28.8-9]
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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
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.
maternalView on Daily Rome Shot 1565: “I’m sure it’s me or my computer but I left a comment on another post that I can’t find now.…”
maternalView on Daily Rome Shot 1569: “Father, I just sent $ for your days in rome but was unable to send you a note via the…”
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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.”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
Your support is important. Thanks in advance.
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GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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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.”
“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.
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)
CLICK!
This beautiful sunny yet cool Roman day started by the sun’s rising at 06:45 and it will end at 19:42.
Today, 3 April, Easter Wednesday, at 6:47 the sun rose over the Eternal City. The sunlight day will begin to end at 19:40.
The sunny part of the day began at 06:50 and ended at 19:38. I’m writing on the 2nd.
Looking at my queue in the admin area, I realized that I left the Easter Sunday post as a draft!
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