Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 2. win. [Sorry, I mislabeled it or got the wrong puzzle or something.]
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From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
I’m going to entirely recast this question in my own words because I need to address the answer to priests, rather than to the laymen who sent the original query.
It seems that a priest recently baptized using Latin for the form.
Nothing wrong with that! As a matter of fact, I often recommend the use of Latin so that people don’t have to wonder about the validity of translations, etc.
HOWEVER… FATHERS… If you are going to use Latin, GET IT RIGHT.
Fathers, you may have noticed that in Latin, the endings of words change, depending on their function in the sentence. If you change those endings you change the meaning into a) something else that can be understood, b) something wrong but whose meaning we can guess at fairly confidently c) something incoherent which makes you look dumb as we stare at you without comprehension about what you were trying to say.
In the case brought to me, a priest goofed up on the endings of a couple of the names of the Trinity in form of baptism.
Serious? YOU BET!
Did that invalidate the baptism? Probably not, at least in this case.
Being an Unreconstructed Ossified Manualist I checked the manual by Prümmer about invalid forms (Tract II, Art II “De forma baptismi“). I found something that put me at ease about the case presented to me.
According to Prümmer what is essential in the form is that there must be expressed the act of baptizing made by the minister (taken care of with the word(s) “(ego) … baptizo“), the subject of the baptism whom he intends to baptize (“you… te“), the unity of the divine nature (expressed in the phrase “in the name… in nomine“), and the distinction of the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity (“(of the) Father (and of the) Son (and of the) Holy Spirit… Patris (et) Filii (et) Spiritus Sancti).
If over in the Diocese of Black Duck at the SSPX Chapel St. Joseph Terror of Demons, Fr. Rocco Firm were perhaps to be momentarily distracted by, say, an aardvark running across the floor during the pronunciation of the baptismal form, prompting Father in his astonishment at the aardvarkial epiphany to say, “in nomine Patris et [ENTER AARDVARK] FiliO et Spiritus SanctOOO!” [EXIT AARDVARK] instead of “Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti”, nevertheless the form of baptism would be VALID. He would have expressed his intent to baptize the person present in the name of the TRIUNE God.*
Fathers… make a review of the forms of the sacraments you administer, in whatever languages you may need to use. REVIEW. MEMORIZE and REVIEW.
GET IT RIGHT. There’s NO EXCUSE.
*It is likely that Fr. Firm would, ad cautelam, repeat the form prefaced by “Si non es baptizatus (-a), ego te baptizo…” etc. Of the things that could warrant such a repetition, I imagine an aardvark would be at the top of the list.
Meanwhile, BLACK to move and win.
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World Cup… Magnus.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler has issued a pastoral letter to the faithful of the diocese entrusted to his care. It is about the Synod (“walking together”) about Synodality (“walking together-ity”).
The full text is at LifeSite:
[…]
I urge you, my sons and daughters in Christ, that now is the time to make sure you stand firmly upon the Catholic faith of the ages. We were all created to seek the Way, the Truth and the Life, and in this modern age of confusion, the true path is the one that is illuminated by the light of Jesus Christ, for Truth has a face and indeed it is His face. Be assured that He will not abandon His Bride.
[…]
I post this a day in advance in case you might want to do some shopping for tomorrow.
I have an affection for tomorrow’s (24 Aug) saint not only for the way in which he died (a way of being treated familiar to many priests of more traditional leaning) but also because my first ecclesiastical office was as rector of a small 700 year old church in Italy named for Sts. Peter and Bartholomew. Why it was named for that pair of saints is lost in time, I fear.
Here is the Roman Martyrology entry for today’s saint, the Apostle Bartholomew:
Festum sancti Bartholomaei, Apostoli, qui idem ac Nathanael plerumque creditus, Canae Galilaeae ortus, apud Iordanem a Philippo ad Christum Iesum ductus est; postea Dominus ad se sequendum eum vocavit et Duodecim aggregavit; post Ascensionem Domini Evangelium in India ipse praedicasse traditur ibique martyrio coronatus esse. …
The feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle, who is commonly believed to the same person as Nathaniel, sprung from Cana in Galilee, he was led by Philip to Christ Jesus at the Jordan; later the Lord called him to follow Him and we was reckoned among the Apostles; after the Ascension of the Lord it is traditionally held that he preached the Gospel in India and there was crowned with martyrdom.
St. Bartholomew is also known as Nathanael. One of the things that the Martyrology does not include is that Bart/Nate was the first person recorded to confess faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Find verses about him at Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; John 1:45-49, 21:2; and Acts 1:13.
St. Bartholomew is depicted in art either being flayed (his skin being peeled off his body while still alive) or holding a knife and sometimes his own skin. In the Sistine Chapel in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement you see the artist’s self-portrait in the face part of the skin which the Apostle is holding.
St. Augustine speaks about today’s Gospel reading which concerns Bartholomew and the meaning of the fig tree under which the future Apostle was sitting.
This passage might be a good point of reflection for somewhat loftier ecclesiastics.
It also returns us to our often encountered theme of Christ as Physician of the soul.
This is from Augustine’s Tractate on the Gospel of John 7 (on John 1:34-51 – emphases and comments mine, but not the translation).
20. Jesus then saw this man [Nathaniel = Bartholomew?] in whom was no guile, and said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” Nathanael saith unto Him, “Whence knowest Thou me?” Jesus answered and said, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig (that is, under the fig-tree), ….
21. We must inquire whether this fig-tree signifies anything. Listen, my brethren. We find the fig-tree cursed because it had leaves only, and not fruit. In the beginning of the human race, when Adam and Eve had sinned, they made themselves girdles of fig leaves. Fig leaves then signify sins. Nathanael then was under the fig-tree, as it were under the shadow of death. The Lord saw him, he concerning whom it was said, “They that sat under the shadow of death, unto them hath light arisen.” What then was said to Nathanael? Thou sayest to me, O Nathanael, “Whence knowest thou me?” Even now thou speakest to me, because Philip called thee. He whom an apostle had already called, He perceived to belong to His Church. O thou Church, O thou Israel, in whom is no guile! if thou art the people, Israel, in whom is no guile, thou hast even now known Christ by His apostles, as Nathanael knew Christ by Philip. But His compassion beheld thee before thou knewest Him, when thou wert lying under sin. For did we first seek Christ, and not He seek us? Did we come sick to the Physician, and not the Physician to the sick? Was not that sheep lost, and did not the shepherd, leaving the ninety and nine in the wilderness, seek and find it, and joyfully carry it back on his shoulders? Was not that piece of money lost, and the woman lighted the lamp, and searched in the whole house until she found it? And when she had found it, “Rejoice with me,” she said to her neighbors, “for I have found the piece of money which I lost.” In like manner were we lost as the sheep, lost as the piece of money; and our Shepherd found the sheep, but sought the sheep; the woman found the piece of money, but sought the piece of money. What is the woman? The flesh of Christ. What is the lamp? “I have prepared a lamp for my Christ.” Therefore were we sought that we might be found; having been found, we speak. Let us not be proud, for before we were found we were lost, if we had not been sought. Let them then not say to us whom we love, and whom we desire to gain to the peace of the Catholic Church, “What do you wish with us? Why seek you us if we are sinners?” We seek you for this reason that you perish not: we seek you because we were sought; we wish to find you because we have been found.
[I wonder what Augustine would have thought about the public embarrassment and timidity of some Catholics today?]
22. When, then, Nathanael had said “Whence knowest Thou me?” the Lord said to him, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.” O thou Israel without guile, whosoever thou art O people living by faith, before I called thee by my apostles, when thou wast under the shadow of death, and thou sawest not me, I saw thee. The Lord then says to him, “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou believest: thou shalt see a greater thing than these.” What is this, thou shalt see a greater thing than these? And He saith unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye shall see heaven open, and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Brethren, this is something greater than “under the fig-tree I saw thee.” For it is more that the Lord justified us when called than that He saw us lying under the shadow of death. For what profit would it have been to us if we had remained where He saw us? Should we not be lying there? What is this greater thing? When have we seen angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man?
I can’t think of a better way to honor the saint than eating ficchi e prosciutto that is, figs with prosciutto, both for the image from the Gospel and also for the thinly sliced strips of raw meat, which is more than appropriate today, and wondrous to taste I must say.
Given that it is Friday, perhaps you can do this tomorrow. I don’t think the saint would mind.
Here is the Church in Rome where the body of the Apostle is found. San Bartolomeo is on the island in the Tiber River.
Here is a very interesting video from a former Swiss Guard about the influence and saintly character of St. John Paul II.
Shall we see his like again? I wonder.
During my time as a seminarian and young(er) priest in and around those Vatican spaces I had the chance many times to talk to JP2. There is one particular anecdote in the video which struck me. It was so…. John-Pauline.
It is also interesting that the video brings in Mother Teresa, whom I also met and who was at my ordination. To be clear, I didn’t know these two epic figures as well as this Swiss Guard, but I knew them enough to attest to the authenticity of what he says.
There is something in here to which every man should pay close attention.
August 22nd, 2023
Dear Diary,
Went up to the regional seminary for the start of the new academic year. The rector invited me to celebrate Mass and then stay for lunch and offer some reflections. I drove. I didn’t recall that it was such a long drive to get there. Tommy read his book almost the whole time. The seminary is such a lovely place, it’s worth the trek. Too bad we have only Dustin and Vijay in formation now. They’re doing okay and I think they’re getting along with the men from the other 22 or 23 dioceses that send their seminarians there. Hope they are learning more than Fr. Dave. Still scratching my head over that one.
It’s always been a gorgeous old-style chapel and now they have cushy chairs! And the seminarians can really sing.
Lunch was terrific. They expanded the all-you-can-eat buffet since I was there last time. There’s a new soda machine, too. I overdid it on the Mountain Dew, but it did the trick for washing down the ribs and mashed potatoes, plus ice cream bars for dessert. Looking around, there were a few young guys who were nearly my size so I was in really good company!
The theme of my talk was “Courage!” So important for a man’s time in seminary.
I told the guys, “I want all of you to be courageous! Courage, men!”
Fr. Tommy nearly ruined my talk when he busted into a coughing fit. He turned that unhealthy shade of red and then real pale again. Honestly! Maybe I brought him back too soon? The rector was very gracious and asked me to come back and maybe leave Tommy home next time.
22nd August, 2023 evening
Dear Diary,
This afternoon I found a brochure on the corner of my desk. It had the word “COURAGE” on it. Quite an eye opener. But God love ’em what a great organization for people who, you know, have that thing going on. As great-uncle Pete said, “as long as they don’t frighten the horses!” Words to live by. Poor Pete. Ha! Maybe he read something from a Jesuit! We talked about that Jesuit guy who’s always in the news – sick of him really – during one of the region bishops get togethers. Jude was absolutely dead set against him talking anywhere in any of our dioceses. He was pretty serious about it. Tone of his voice was a little scary so we went along.
Anyway, life is hard enough as it is. Why stir things up? The Church’s job is, after all, to make people feel good and be happy.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For some background, HERE
At Crux there is a piece about a new booklet published on 22 August by TFP concerning the upcoming Synod (“walking together”). Card. Burke wrote the intro…
Burke claims Pope’s synod will foster ‘confusion, error and division’
Keep this in mind, however… at First Things…
CRITICS, ENEMIES, AND THE DIFFERENCE
Critics are not always enemies. Some speak out of love, even when their words are heated.
Circling back to the first one at Crux…
In the foreword to a new booklet by a conservative group criticizing Pope Francis’s looming Synod of Bishops on Synodality, American Cardinal Raymond Burke has slammed the process surrounding the synod, calling it deeply harmful and potentially schismatic.
Burke, a hero to the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church, has been a frequent Francis critic.
In his foreword, Burke said the booklet touches on “a most serious situation in the Church today” which he said “rightly concerns every thoughtful Catholic and persons of good will who observe the evident and grave harm which it is inflicting” on the church’s members.
“We are told that the Church which we profess, in communion with our ancestors in the faith from the time of the Apostles, to be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic is now to be defined by synodality, a term which has no history in the doctrine of the Church and for which there is no reasonable definition,” he said.
Both the term synodality and its adjective, synodal, he said, “have become slogans behind which a revolution is at work to change radically the Church’s self-understanding, in accord with a contemporary ideology which denies much of what the Church has always taught and practiced.”
Titled “The Synodal Process is a Pandora’s Box: 100 Questions & Answers,” by José Antonio Ureta and Julio Loredo de Izcue, the booklet is an initiative of the conservative American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), which also has repeatedly criticized Pope Francis.
The 100-page booklet was published in various languages, including English, Spanish, and Italian, on Tuesday, Aug. 22, less than two months before the synod is set to begin, and includes answers to questions insisting that Catholic doctrine cannot be changed and suggesting that the current Synod on Synodality is implementing at a universal level the same ideas as the recently-concluded national German synodal process, called the “Synodal Path.”
[…]
My view is that there are two, not three, possible outcomes for the Synod (“walking together”). They are a) it’ll fizzle into pointless posturing after which there will be a mainly yawn-inducing document with a couple of crowbar-inviting ambiguities or b) something disastrous will swiftly emerge out of a spirit of radical discontinuity.
What will not happen is c) sound, pastoral proposals will be brought to light based on a clear ecclesiology rooted in tradition.
As a chess game begins there are 3 outcomes possible: win, tie, and loss. We are looking at two outcomes, not three, for the Synod (“walking together”).
Either way, it would be better if it didn’t happen at all. I turn for inspiration to a great Father of the Church…
St. Gregory of Nazianzus writing to Procopius in 382.
I am, if the truth be told, in such a tone of mind that I shun every assemblage of bishops, because I have never yet seen that any Synod had a good ending, or that the evils complained of were removed by them, but were rather multiplied….
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White 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.
Yesterday, Pragg and Magnus drew their 1st classical game in the FINAL of the World Cup. Today they resume, changing colors. Abasov defeated Caruana after Fabi committed a real error which would lead to checkmates. He must win on demand today to take 3rd. The winner also qualifies for the Candidates (pace Magnus).
Today is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, in the new-fangled, Novus Ordo calendar.
Here is an oldie post from 2006, the final installment of my Patristic Rosary Project.
___
We conclude our Patristic Rosary Project today with the:
5th Glorious Mystery: The Coronation of Our Lady
Can we be certain of our final judgment?
Those who say they are run the risk of the sin of presumption. We must proceed always with humbly confident perseverance.
Salvation is possible.
Our Lord has taken our humanity to the heavenly throne, where it (and we in it) already are glorified. The saints the Church has discerned through our long earthly pilgrimage, demonstrate that virtue and perseverance are possible. The saints intercede before God’s throne for us. Our greatest example and intercessor is the Blessed Mother of God, our Mother and Mother of the Church, who was assumed body and soul into heaven and is now reigning as heaven’s Queen.
In the time of the Davidic Kings, the Mother – not the wife – of the King was the Queen, who sat by the King’s side and interceded with Him. Christ is the ultimate Davidic King. It is fitting that Mary by at His side reigning in Heaven as Queen.
In our recitation of the Rosary we gaze at Mary our motherly Queen who redirects our gaze to the source of her beauty, the Lord Himself. Their glory is our promise.
But first, with tools such as the Rosary in hand, we must make our way through this world and persevere to the end and our judgment.
Cassiodorus (+c. 585) writes:
The holy man demands judgment because he is certain of the Lord’s mercy. As Paul has it: “As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me in that day.” He walks in his innocence because… he puts his trust in the Lord. The presumption he shows is not in his own powers but in God’s generosity. [Explanation of the Psalms 25.1]
The idea of judgment can make us at times shivers. But we approach it knowing that Mary is our advocate. We can come to heaven with some measure of humble confidence. St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) wrote to Hesychius a bishop in Dalamatia:
I have received the letter of your Reverence in which you urge on us the great good of loving and longing for the coming of our Savior. In this you act like the good servant of the master of the household who is eager for his lord’s gain and who wishes to have many sharers in the love which burns so brightly and constantly in you. Examining, therefore, the passage you quoted from the apostle where he said that the Lord would render a crown of justice not only to him but to all who love His coming, we live as uprightly as he and we pass through this world as pilgrims while our heart constantly expands with this love, and whether He comes sooner or later than He is expected, His coming is loved with faithful charity and longed for with pious affection. [ep. 199.1.1]
In heaven Mary has been crowned with glory. This is the reward of her faithfulness, a faithfulness beyond all others which merits a crown more glorious than any other. 
The reward of the crown is often, mostly associated with the struggle ending in bloody martyrdom. Our Lady is also crowned as the Queen of martyrs. Not all of us will be graced with the final perseverance that ends in the perfect charity which is bloody martyrdom for the sake of God and neighbor. We must persevere in far more mundane details of ongoing life, in prayer, work, and contemplation. Cassiodorus mentions something in this regard, however, which is very useful for us:
As someone has said, you will scarcely ever find that when a person prays, some empty and external reflection does not impede him, causing the attention which the mind directs on God to be sidetracked and interrupted. So it is a great and most wholesome struggle to concentrate on prayer once begun, and with God’s help to show lively resistance to the temptations of the enemy, so that our minds may with unflagging attention strain to be ever fastened on God. Then we can deservedly recite Paul’s words: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, i have kept the faith. [Explanation of the Psalms 101.1]
Our Blessed Mother exemplifies perfectly the struggle of perseverance.
Given exceptional graces, Mary was open with perfect focus to all God offered her, including her sufferings in unity with her Son. Her willing participation in the Passion of the Lord makes her the greatest of the martyrs, and while she did not physically receive the Lord’s wounds, she suffered by them nonetheless.
St. John Chrysostom (+407) speaks of crowns:
We see no garments or cloaks, but we see crowns more valuable than any gold, than any contest prizes or rewards, and ten thousand blessings stored up for those who live upright and virtuous lives on earth. [On the incomprehensible nature of God 6.7]
The many beautiful things of this world can take our attention and affection so much that they begin to displace in us our hunger for the reward of heaven. We must keep always firmly in mind that everything in this world fades and passes. Our hope of lasting happiness is found only in heaven with God.
Venerable Bede (+735) speaks to this:
The flower of the field is pretty and its smell is pleasant for a while, but it soon loses the attraction of its beauty and charm. The present happiness of the ungodly is exactly the same – it lasts for a day or two and then vanishes into nothing. The rising sun stands for the sentence of the strict Judge, which puts a quick end to the transient glory of the reprobate. Of course it is also true that the righteous person flourish, though not in the same way. The unrighteous flourish for a time, like glass, but the righteous flourish forever like great trees, as Scripture says: “The righteous flourish like the palm tree.” [Concerning the Epistle of James]
Didymus the Blind (+398), the teacher of St. Jerome and Rufinus expands this:
James does all he can to encourage people to bear their trials with joy, as a burden which is bearable, and says that perfect patience consists in bearing this for their own sake, not for the hope of some better reward elsewhere. He nevertheless tries to persuade his hearers to rely on the promise that their present state will be put right. The person who has fought the hard battles will be perfectly able to handle anything. Someone who comes through his troubles in this way will be duly prepared to receive his reward, which is the crown of life prepared by God for those who love him. [Commentary on James]
The Rosary teaches us to gaze, with Mary as our guide and companion, always upon the face of Christ, who reveals man more fully to himself.
In crowning our Lady as Queen, the Lord does in an unsurpassed way what He does in each one of us: He crowns His own merits. But in doing so, Christ reveals more and more about who we are and what we were made for.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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22. When, then, Nathanael had said “Whence knowest Thou me?” the Lord said to him, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.” O thou Israel without guile, whosoever thou art O people living by faith, before I called thee by my apostles, when thou wast under the shadow of death, and thou sawest not me, I saw thee. The Lord then says to him, “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou believest: thou shalt see a greater thing than these.” What is this, thou shalt see a greater thing than these? And He saith unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye shall see heaven open, and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Brethren, this is something greater than “under the fig-tree I saw thee.” For it is more that the Lord justified us when called than that He saw us lying under the shadow of death. For what profit would it have been to us if we had remained where He saw us? Should we not be lying there? What is this greater thing? When have we seen angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man?