Fr. Z's Blog

Photo from The World’s Best Sacristan™.

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.

New advances in science give us new insights into … scientia.

Particle physicist studies the Shroud of Turin. “In the burial shroud of Christ we have nothing less than the creation of a new universe” pic.twitter.com/Gt4dIsXx0O

— Anthony (@Catholicizm1) March 27, 2025

May God forgive these men for what they are doing to the faithful and to themselves.

The mockery of the Faith is the point. Don’t let anyone try to convince you that these are just out of touch oldsters who think they are making the Mass relevant to young people. No! They hate the Church and they are ridiculing Her and trying to destroy the faith of children. https://t.co/vU6mwmWbdR

— Lepanto Institute (@LepantoInst) March 28, 2025

And therefore…

“Behind each Priest there is a demon fighting for his fall. If we have the language to criticize them, we must have twice as much to PRAY for them.”

St. Theresa of Avila

** Pray for your parish priest and for good and holy vocations to the priesthood** pic.twitter.com/ytORwx3abq

— St. Maximilian (@Totvs_tuus51320) March 27, 2025

Please support the wonderful Summit Dominican’s by visiting their store.

In chessy news… FIDE has opened up online a “digital museum”. HERE

Black to move.

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

Hey Fathers!  How about a clerical Guayabera shirt?

Photo from The World’s Best Sacristan™.   This is the cupola of the Chiesa Nuova, depicting the Triumph of the Trinity.  New illumination.

Welcome registrants:

RETIRED
prrgttx

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.

I had a note from the monks of Norcia with a photo of a brewing action shot. Not so long ago, monks would fast during Lent with only beer. I’m not a huge beer fan, but this stuff is fantastic. They have three kinds.

Meanwhile…

First miracle due to intercession of Cardinal George Pell

The recovery of a boy who stopped breathing for 52 minutes after ­falling into a swimming pool is being credited by senior Catholic clergy to the intercession of Cardinal George Pell

Pray for us, Cardinal Pell!

H/T… pic.twitter.com/kSdITjZSdD

— Nick Donnelly (@ProtecttheFaith) March 27, 2025

Another something beautiful…

This single leaf comes from a magnificent missal made for the use of Beauvais Cathedral (ca. 1300). The two large decorated initials illustrate parts of the Preface of Lent.
The first shows a priest celebrating Mass and an acolyte carrying a liturgical fan (flabellum).
In the… pic.twitter.com/MyIVkw0HZ2

— Vir Desideriorum (@VirDesideriorum) March 27, 2025

Visitation in 5…4…3…2…

Archbishop Aguer: Vatican too full of ‘self-praise’ to recognize the serious decline of the Church

White 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.

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.

An American hero. Storied astronaut #JimLovell is 97 today. The veteran of 2 Gemini flights, the first crew to orbit the moon (Apollo 8) and commander of the miraculously rescued Apollo 13. Jim’s nephew Scott Nichol sends this beautiful photo from his home in Illinois. pic.twitter.com/fNbK4SXrWT

— Mark Davis (@MarkDavis) March 25, 2025

Elsewhere…

NAZARETH

Cardinal Pizzaballa leads celebrations to mark the Feast of the Annunciation pic.twitter.com/Evdud2e190

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) March 25, 2025

In chessy news… yesterday I split a pair of games in OTB. The second had me in serious trouble, as my opponent kept reminding me. I fought back in the endgame with a rather clever maneuver to promote a pawn even as his four pawn juggernaut was moving up the board at my beleaguered king and pawn defender.  Victory was sweet.

White to move and mate in 4. HERE

Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, the great liturgist, Benedictine and once Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, has an interesting comment in his entry for today’s Mass, for the Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent.  He takes a cue from the Oratio super populum… the Prayer over the People which follows the Postcommunion on weekdays of Lent.  Here’s the prayer, first, and then Schuster.

Prayer over the people
Let us pray.
Bow your heads to God.
Grant, almighty God, we beseech You, that we who seek the grace of Your protection, delivered from all evils, may serve You with untroubled minds.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen.

Note: The Station Church is San Sisto Vecchio which is where the body of Pope Sixtus II is found.  He is the Pope murdered with his deacons, one of whom was St. Lawrence.

Schuster:

In the final Blessing the priest—as though still moved by the cruel death of Sixtus II and his deacons who were martyred not far from there–again implores the protection of God, that being freed from danger we may with an un-troubled mind devote ourselves to his holy service. Respect and deference to parental authority, which is the first of all natural authorities, are the essential conditions and the basis of all social order. The child—and in many ways humanity is still a child—before he can understand must believe in the authority of those who teach him and guide him. Without this obedience all education and progress is impossible. If modern society is now beginning to realize all the horror of the state of anarchy into which it has fallen, it must seek the first cause of this evil in the fact that the foundations of social order have been demolished, and that the law of egoism and the worship of the State have taken the place of the Decalogue.

The schedule at The Parish™ where I will be for Holy Week, Easter and beyond.  It will be a profound sojourn and participation, as I know from experience.

Welcome registrants:

FormerlySBC
JRLandman
Salty Muskoxen

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.

This from the great Cardinal Zen:

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On this day nineteen years ago, we give thanks and renew our commitment to walk courageously in faith and truth.
(Photo from the Holy Mass for the elevation to the College of… pic.twitter.com/VT6k6yKatv

— Joseph Zen (@CardJosephZen) March 25, 2025

And this…

A reminder that the Consilium originally intended to eliminate even more of these “useless repetitions” (SC 34) that could “no longer be tolerated”, reducing the genuflections to one only, after the consecration of the Precious Blood: Schema 113 (De Missali, 14), Adnexum I, p. 23 https://t.co/5MQiCDh0uf pic.twitter.com/tsUCvEzAXD

— Matthew Hazell (@M_P_Hazell) March 25, 2025

The Ring was destroyed on 25 March…

Today is #TolkienReadingDay!

Founded by the Society and held on the date the Ring was destroyed, Tolkien Reading Day is an opportunity to read your favourite #Tolkien passages. This year’s theme is “Fellowship and Community”. But what will you be reading?https://t.co/PA8JcPK5Sa

— Tolkien Society (@TolkienSociety) March 25, 2025

Very cool…

The glowing spiral appeared in the sky over the UK and Europe last night.

It was caused by the frozen fuel released from a SpaceX Falcon 9's second stage after launch. pic.twitter.com/XJ69hfq4Id

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 25, 2025

In chessy news…

CRAZY PUZZLE. White to move and mate in 6.

Yesterday, I watched the Blitz tournament after the close of the American Cup in St. Louis.  Fun!   OTB for me today.