Fr. Z's Blog

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.

Photo from The Great Roman™.

I don’t think The Enemy likes what they are doing.  It took me six attempts to upload this pic, when I usually have no problems.  In fact, I know that The Enemy doesn’t like anything about this place.  Whenever I am there, all sorts of stuff starts up through the human agents of the demons.  I am sure that this March and April will be no different.  Hence, I will depend even more on your prayers in that time.

Meanwhile, black to move and mate in four.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

The 8 players Fischer Random 960 invitational – the 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge – is still underway in N. Germany at the spa.  Puer beat Magnus yesterday.  Poor Ding lost to Nodirbek, the Uzbeki steamroller. Fabi beat Gukesh is a crazy game. Levon and Vincent drew. Action continues today. The big names need wins to stay alive.

At the venue there is a “confessional” into which players can isolate themselves and make comments about their game for transmission to the watching world – but not, of course, to anyone in the venue!

CARUANA,FABIANO (2804) – GUKESH D (2725), FREESTYLE GOAT CHALLENGE KO 2024 WEISSENHAUS 11.02.2024

Only 14 moves.

Meanwhile, I am a great fan of all the “Musketeer” books, ever since I was a kid.

Did you know that the Three Musketeers had not just one sequel – Forty Years After – but several?  Yes, indeed.

Did you know that the dastardly enemy of D’Artagnan, Card. Richelieu, was pretty much the opposite of how he is portrayed in the book and, especially, in the movies. (Though I did like Charlton Heston’s – who wouldn’t?)

In fact, I just received a copy of the new book of Card. Richelieu’s – the real one – Treatise On Perfection put out by the great folks at TAN Books.   It has a view-cleansing introduction with a more accurate biography of Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke de Richelieu.

A Treatise on Perfection Saintly Counsel on Obtaining Salvation

US HERE – UK HERE

Also, D’Artagnan, who is based on a real person who lived in the Rue du Bac, has a cameo in Cyrano by Edmund Rostand.   An adventure of D’Artagnan and Cyrano together could be fun.

Ceterum censeo Firouzja delendum esse.

For this Ordinary Form calendar Sunday, we have reached the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

In the Extraordinary Form this Sunday is the sober but helpful, purple-draped pre-Lenten Quinquagesima Sunday.  The calendar is helping those who follow the TLM to prepare for a fruitful Lent.  The Gloria is already gone and the Alleluia has been buried until the resurrection.

In the Ordinary Form – still in cheery green with its Gloria and Alleluia – we have a Collect based on a prayer in the 8th c. Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis  for the Sunday after Ascension Thursday… yes, Thursday, not Ascension Thursday Sunday.

Deus, qui te in rectis et sinceris manere pectoribus asseris, da nobis tua gratia tales exsistere, in quibus habitare digneris.

Take note of the word gratia.

Pectus signifies a range of things from “the breast bone, chest”, “stomach” and therefore moral concepts like “courage” and other “feelings, dispositions”.  More on men with “chests” HERE. It also refers to the “spirit, soul, mind, understanding.” In the ancient world, the heart was thought in some ways to be the seat also of the mind and understanding, not just of feelings and emotions. It is reasonable to translate this as “upright and pure hearts”. Exsisto “to step out, emerge” and also “spring forth, proceed, arise, become.” It also means “to be visible or manifest in any manner, to exist, to be.”

LITERAL RENDERING:

O God, who declared that You remain in upright and pure hearts, grant us to manifest ourselves to be, by Your grace, the sort of people in whom You deign to abide.

NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011):

O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.

I think they did a back-flip here to avoid using the word “deign”.  We need more “deigning”.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God our Father, you have promised to remain for ever with those who do what is just and right. Help us to live in your presence.

No reference to “grace”, even though it is at the heart of the original.

In today’s Collect the distinction between “be” and “show forth” is tissue thin.

We must be on the outside what we are inside.  Or rather, outwardly pious and practicing Christians must be sincerely and truly on the inside what we strive to show on the outside.

At baptism the Holy Spirit enters our lives in the manner of one coming to dwell in a temple.

Click!

With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit comes “habitual” or sanctifying grace and all His gifts and fruits by which we live both inwardly and outwardly in conformity with His presence.

We manifest His presence outwardly when He is present within. There is nothing we do to merit this gift of His presence and yet, mysteriously, we still have a role to play in His deigning to dwell in our souls.

If you (and others) don’t see the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit in your words and deeds… could it be asked if you are really in the state of grace?

We can make choices about our lives. We can make use of the gifts and graces God gives, allow Him to make our hands strong enough to hold on to all He deigns to bequeath, and then cooperate in His bringing all good things to completion.

That phrase in today’s prayer, in the literal rendering, “the sort of people in whom you have deigned to dwell” forces us to reflect on our treatment of and conduct towards our neighbor, whom Christ commands us to love in accord with our love of God and self.

Paul writes in 2 Cor 13:11-13:

“Finally, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Of this verse St. John Chrysostom (+407) said,

“What is a holy kiss? It is one that not hypocritical, like the kiss of Judas.  The kiss is given in order to stimulate love and instill the right attitude in us toward each other.  When we return after an absence, we kiss each other, for our souls hasten to bond together.  But there is something else which might be said about this.  We are the temple of Christ, and when we kiss each other we are kissing the porch and the entrance of the temple.”  (Homilies on the Letters of Paul to the Corinthians 30.2).

When we reflect on our treatment of other as temples, we might think about our comportment when “kissing the porch” within temples, our churches.

In the Ordinary Form, the “sign of peace” before Communion is an option a priest can chose or not chose to invoke.

Given its proximity to Communion, and given that the Blessed Sacrament is upon the altar, avoid long, distracting, undignified “signs of peace”, which are the formal liturgical echo of the “holy kiss” of which Paul speaks.

In Roman liturgical practice, the “kiss of peace” has a dignity which we must strive to reclaim.   And, importantly, the liturgical kiss doesn’t involve waving,  a handshake or running about to hug people.

Otherwise, please, let’s not do it at all.

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.

At the parish, the Forty Hours Devotion has begun. This is an important devotion that must be revived.

A taste, thanks to The World’s Best Sacristan.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in three.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

The 8 players Fischer Random 9060 invitational is still underway in N. Germany at the spa.  Nodirbek beat Magnus yesterday.  He is undefeated at 5.5/7.  He plays Ding today who, poor, man, is now .5/7, the opposite of undefeated, unvictorious.  You read that right.    In the game between Magnus and Ding – gosh, wouldn’t it be… no, let’s no go there… there was great long castle.  NB: The rules of 960 permit this.

Yup.

The matches are live on YouTube.

The traditional monks of Norcia make three kinds of beer.  When you get their beer, they get to build.

I just received a new book which I am eager to get into.  Use my affiliate link.

On Job: Reflections of an Accomplished Sinner on the Suffering of the Just

US HERE – UK HERE

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.

Welcome registrant:
Chief Engineer Marc

Meanwhile, white can mate in 2.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge continues in Germany at the spiffy Weissenhaus Luxury Resort in Germany. This is a 960 Fischer Random tournament with longer time control, an innovation. Yesterday, Gukesh beat the presumptive GOAT, as well as Ding, World Champ. Poor Ding lost all four games. German young Vicent Keymer was 3.5/4.

How they choose from the possible 960 set up positions. Keep my post of yesterday in mind. The “natural position” is excluded

What a way to choose the new @chess_freestyle position! pic.twitter.com/qTI6cZkpbv

— Peter Doggers (@peterdoggers) February 9, 2024

I’m not sure what they are aiming at with this…

The multi-colored jackets are a vibe…#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/r9BD0tzYf2

— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 9, 2024

… but I wish they would put down what they are shooting.

No news yet about the concluding bollywood number (for which I am not so secretly hoping).

OTB today.  Pray for us, who have recourse to thee.

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.

Photo from The Great Roman™

Welcome registrant:
Typasius

Magnus Carlsen won the Chessable Masters after pasting Alireza Firouzja in the Grand Final Reset of Division I. The Boy had two wins in a row and a draw in game 4 to set up a rematch. In the Reset, Carlsen struck first and went on to destroy Firouzja 2-0.

Meanwhile, white to mate in 2.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

Ceterum censeo Firouzja esse delendum.

When in Middle School I took Spanish (the third language I was studying at the time along with German and Russian – because at the time we were at a High School with Russian), our teacher nicknamed me Zorro, no doubt because of my name.

There is a new series called Zorro.

How to describe?

Apart from the dubbing, which is sort of like the Holy See Press Office and L’Osservatore on a normal day…

It seems that there is now a “spirit of Zorro” which was released from the body of the previous Zorro who was a Mexican Indian when his body was burned -with all due Pacha rites, it was bestowed with the help of a rather mottled zorro (fox) spirit guide on a young Spanish blue-eyed blond who looks like a cross between Chris Pine Kirk and a Hitler Youth Poster.

The action… the costumes are great.

It is well… original but woke Batman meets Spaghetti Western, channeling moments and camera angles from The Patriot.

It is ecclesiologically up to date.   There is an angry woman in it who wants to be Zorro.  No.  Really.  She stole his black suit and beat him up.  She is native American.  Therefore she’s good at Kung Fu.

I haven’t figured out the angle yet ’cause she’s the bad guy right now.  Girl. It. Them. And.. who’s bad, anyway?

So, we have an active Zorro and a contemplative Zorro. It’s ecclesiologically up to date.

One of them is in his hathhhsiana (I think the series in made in Granada), but he get’s out and around. The other is from the southern hemisphere peripheries.  She wants to make a mess.  And she has a cool make up.  Dialogue paint.  The stripe on her face tells you she is different … sort of.. but not in a like male female way… under the mask.

Angry fem Kung fu Mexi-Cali face-stripe Zorro, channeling her inner modern Bat Man.

And the Captain trying to catch him is named: Monasterium.

What hangs in the balance is the fate of California.

Also, I noticed that when the dialogue is in Chinese, I can get about half of it.  That means that it is rudimentary Mandarin, and therefore an indication that there might be a certain country’s money involved… though it is made in Spain.   In one episode, the Chinese victim girl escapes Zorro’s protection with Tornado, but Tornado comes back. Zorro, knowing Chinese proverbs, cites “the horse knows the way”… as in “lao ma shi tu… an old horse knows the way”.

Zorro’s Tornado is no doubt wise, and knows that it has to be this way.

Eclessiologically it’s up to date with original woke Batman and Tarrantino camera angles.

I did not keep up with my Spanish.

The series, so far, lacks only, “My name is Diego de la Vega.  You killed my father!”

Finally, Tornado is … beautiful.

Really finally, I liked it when he carved the Z in the forehead of the slimy rapist and said, “I’ll be back.

PS: The evil Governor wears a vest of paisley.