Fr. Z's Blog

A 5 minute daily podcast to help you in your Advent preparation.

Today we do a spiritual deep dive into the thematic Introit of Holy Mass which gives this 3rd Sunday of Advent its nickname: Gaudete… Rejoice!

Yesterday’s podcast HERE.

13 December was the darkest day – with the least sunlight – of the old Julian calendar.    In the Gregorian calendar (which corrected the “drift” in the Julian calendar), the shortest day, the Winter Solstice, is 20/22 December.  This year 21 December.

Today in the Gregorian calendar used by the Catholic Church is the feast of St. Lucy, whose name from the Latin lux, for “light”, reminds us who dwell in the still darkening northern hemisphere that our days will soon be getting longer again.

Lucy will usually be depicted in art with a lantern, or with a crown of candles, or – most commonly – with her own eyes on a platter.

This photo is from the Church of St. Lucy in Rome.  It is just around the corner from my place.  It’s bells ring clearly even when my windows are closed.

Some accounts have Lucy slain by having her throat thrust through with sword.

Other accounts say that to protect her virginity she disfigured herself by cutting her own eyes out and sending them to her suitor, a plot likely to discourage him.

St. Lucy is therefore the patroness of sight.

St. Lucy shows up fairly often in Dante’s great Divine Comedy.  She is first in the Inferno.  It is Lucy who asked Beatrice to help Dante.  In Purgatory the eagle that bears Dante upward in a dream is actually Lucy who is bearing him to the gate of Purgatory.  Eagles, of course, are “eagle-eyed” and see very well.  In the Paradiso she is placed directly across from Adam in the Heaven of the Rose.  She can gaze directly at God.

St. Lucy was something of a patroness for Dante and that he was devoted to her because, as we glean from various works, he may have had a problem not just with his eyes but also struggling with sins of the eyes.

Remember, dear readers, you cannot unsee things.  Don’t go looking for things on the internet or elsewhere which can do nothing but wound your soul unto spiritual death and the degradation of your humanity.   Protect children too.

This week coming we have Ember Days, which in Advent come after the Feast of St. Lucy.   Do you remember the little mnemonic poem?  “Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy”, or else “Fasting days and Emberings be / Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie.”

Ember Wednesday will be the Missa aurea.

In the meantime, let’s have a look at Lucy’s Collect in the Ordinary Form since her Collect in the Usus Antiquior isn’t all that interesting.

This prayer was not in the pre-Conciliar editions of the Missale Romanum. It is based on a prayer in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary for St. Felicity (VIIII KALENDAS DECEMBRIS).

Intercessio nos, quaesumus, Domine, sanctae Luciae virginis et martyris gloriosa confoveat, ut eius natalicia et temporaliter frequentemus, et conspiciamus aeterna.

First, you will have immediately caught the elegant hyperbaton, the separation of intercessio and the adjective waaaay down the line that goes with it, gloriosa.

There is also a nice et… et construction.

Confoveo is “to warm, foster, cherish assiduously”  It is a compound of foveo which essentially is “to be hot, to roast”.  It obviously deals with heat, flame, light.  This is a good word for this time of year in the northern hemisphere (unless you are in, say, Florida).

Conspicio is “to look at attentively, to get sight of, to descry, perceive, observe”. We are obviously dealing the seeing and sight.  This word should ring mental bells for the throngs of you readers who attended Holy Mass in the Novus Ordo celebrated in Latin.  Conspicio is in the Collect for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, used in a an extremely clever way juxtaposed to exspecto.  They share a common root.  But I digress.  Anyway, conspicio, I am informed by Blaise’s dictionary of liturgical Latin (in French) has an overtone of seeing invisible realities through visible things.  As Augustine in Gen. ad Man. 1,6,10: invisibilia enim ipsius a creatura mundi, per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta conspiciuntur (cf Rom 1:20) “ce qu’il a d’invisible depuis la création de monde se laisse comprendre et voir par les chose (visibile) qu’il a faites”.

Frequento, is “to visit or use often, to gather in numbers, to celebrate”.  It is used for the gathering of people for liturgical worship.

Natalicia refers to birthdays.  In the Christian adaptation of this word, we are always referring to the saints being “born” into heaven.

LITERALLY:

May the glorious intercession of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, strongly support us, we beseech you, O Lord, so that we may both celebrate her birthday into Heaven in time and also behold eternal things.

I am perplexed about what to do with eius.  Should it carry over into both parts of the et… et…?  Hence, “so that we may both celebrate her ‘feasts’ in time and also behold her eternal (‘feasts’)”.  Dunno.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

Lord, give us courage through the gracious prayers of Saint Lucy. As we celebrate her entrance into eternal glory, we ask to share her happiness in the life to come.

Here is the usual clunky parataxis we know so well from the dreadful obsolete translation.  As usual, the translation is dumbed-down.  Do you see anything of the concept of vision?  Sight?  Is there anything in there that harks to the time of year?

Can you believe that some people want this back?

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

May the glorious intercession of the Virgin and Martyr Saint Lucy give us new heart, we pray, O Lord, so that we may celebrate her heavenly birthday in this present age and so behold things eternal.

We are obviously much closer to the Latin in this new version.  Also, that behold at the end is consoling.   Obviously they went with the easier reading of the Latin.

Perhaps you might say a prayer today to St. Lucy, that she will intercede with God and implore Him, for us in the vale of tears, to open the eyes our Church leaders, for they often close their eyes to the obvious and look away when forced to blink.

BTW… St. Lucy is mentioned in the Roman Canon.  There is a lovely little book about the female saints of the Roman Canon

With Glory and Honor You Crowned Them: The Female Martyrs of the Roman Canon by Matthew Manint

US HERE

Welcome registrant

Paging Dr. Newman

Please remember me when CHRISTMAS shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance, utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

In 2022, the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico shared the first photograph ever taken of the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which miraculously appeared on St. Juan Diego’s tilma (poncho) in 1531.

In a Facebook post, the archdiocese said that “on the afternoon of May 18,… pic.twitter.com/So8PpOCVPB

— Father V (@father_rmv) December 12, 2025

Modern science cannot explain many aspects of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The image shows no sign of deterioration after 500 years. The tilma or cloak of Juan Diego on which the image of Our Lady has been imprinted, is a coarse fabric made from the threads of the maguey… pic.twitter.com/ZAnWEDfoUP

— Father V (@father_rmv) December 12, 2025

Speaking of puzzles…

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

White to move and mate in 2.

The sisters make wonder things which could be charming Christmas gifts. The monks make great beer. Enough said.

Bonus shot…. From some years ago, so it is smaller, the altar in a side chapel in the Church of San Nicola in Carcere (featured at the top) with vestments laid out for a Pontifical Mass with Card. Burke. I was ordained as a deacon in this church and I was the deacon for Card. Burke’s Mass. Over this altar is the oldest image of the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Rome and some of the first gold brought to Rome from the new world. One the header photos on this blog is from the Mass I mentioned.

Welcome registrant:

CuriousCatholic

Please remember me when CHRISTMAS shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance, utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Today, Dec. 10, marks the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Sister Lucia of Fatima in Pontevedra province in Spain, where the devotion of the Five First Saturdays of the month was revealed. https://t.co/8DNoQn5KlC

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) December 10, 2025

Here is a puzzle from a famous game.  Black to move.  Can you spot the move that, in most lines that follow, can either force mate or just win for black?

This is not so easy.

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

And, speaking of sneaky …

And confirms @dianemontagna’s revelation that the survey of global bishops found broad satisfaction with SP. So TC was built on a lie. https://t.co/fP1ZaqeyTL

— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) December 10, 2025

And there’s this.

Maduro “Regime kidnaps Cardinal Baltazar Porras in Venezuela. They prevented him from boarding a plane in Maiquetía [Caracas Airport] and warned him that he will not be able to leave the country again.” https://t.co/5bGyQTy0lR

— Rorate Caeli (@RorateCaeli) December 10, 2025

OH NO! I’ll never use Calibri for my drafts again!

From the NYP:

Marco Rubio instructs diplomats to use Times New Roman font, eliminating Biden-era DEI initiative

WASHINGTON — He’s font and center in the State Department.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed all diplomats to revert to using the Times New Roman typeface in official communications and criticized his predecessor for shifting to Calibri, a font deemed too woke for the Trump administration.

I wonder what fount I should use for drafting… I prefer sans serif for drafts.  Any thought?  I am often prompted to use Aptos.

A few good causes for end of the year giving.

At the end of a calendar year, good people like you readers are looking for good causes to support with their giving dollars.

We can’t trust many organizations which have the world “Catholic” in their title. Off hand, I can think of about… nope, not enough time or room.

I like and trust the Archdiocese for the Military Services. HERE

I like and trust Our Lady of Hope Clinic. HERE

I like and trust the Tridentine Mass Society of Madison. HERE