Daily Rome Shot 1280 – Card. Pell miracle?

Posted on 27 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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…

Another something beautiful…

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.

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LENTCAzT 2025 – 23: Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent – Do you hold grudges?

Posted on 27 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today the Roman Station is at Sts. Cosmas and Damian at the Roman Forum.   Fr. Troadec speaks forthrightly about being defensive, harboring resentments and holding grudges.

HERE

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Daily Rome Shot 1279

Posted on 26 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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.

Elsewhere…

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

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“the foundations of social order have been demolished”

Posted on 26 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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.

 

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LENTCAzT 2025 – 22: Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent – Don’t be a jerk. – FIXED

Posted on 26 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

THE FILE WAS FIXED

If you still get the short version, refresh your page (CTR-F5)

The Roman Station is San Sisto Vecchio.  Fr. Troadec explains why it is spiritually a really bad idea to be a jerk.

HERE

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“Days in Rome” Project – April/May 2025 – UPDATED

Posted on 25 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATED 27 March 17:50 EST:

Friends, thank you.  You hit my first goal for travel, a laptop, daily groceries and a portion of my rent, unending beggars.  Additional donations are welcome!  They will make life a lot easier and maybe allow me to eat out occasionally.  Rome is expensive.  One fellow earmarked his donation for flowers from the great Pippo at the Campo de’ Fiori.  Flowers help.  They will be necessary now.  While the place I have had over the last few years has been bright and sunny, my place now is the exact opposite.  I’ve been making a careful list of all the Roman Sojourn donors with emails so I can send out some “premium content”.  The last time I was there, I had made a few “walking talking” (more authentic “walking together”) videos.  I want to do that again in a more disciplined way.  You are all a great consolation to me.  Thank you.   If you don’t mind my audacity… keep going!

Published on: Mar 25, 2025

It’s time for another appeal.

Long-time readers know that I try to get back to Rome in (March/April/May for Easter and my ordination anniversary.  This year I will be there for Holy Week and beyond for most of the month of May.

This is my way to keep my brain alive, identity strong and – having been significantly but not entirely cancelled (let’s say under-utilized against my will) – my liturgical batteries recharged. It keeps me fighting.

Hence, another fundraiser.

This fundraiser must cover two things.

First, listen to this.

That’s the sound my laptop is making.  Not all the time, but often enough to be really alarming.  Bottom line: I need a new laptop and I need it now.   I think my laptop is almost 10 years old.  I am floundering in the options right now and must seek informed counsel.  I would like it to handle editing videos with open-source Blender.  NO am I not going back to Apple.  No.  Also, I want it to be able to deal with chess analysis.

Next, I have “days” to cover.  My time won’t be as costly as last time, because I won’t – sniff – be in the same place where I have been.  I really liked it.   My “days” will also defray some of the travel cost, flights.   Because I usually only eat out when invited out, and I stay in and cook for myself, I save quite a bit.  I’ll have to cover US phone use in Italy (I changed from ATT to T-Mobile).

Since money is fungible, I’ll blend the two together.

My plan is, once again, to head to Brooklyn for a couple of days at the beginning of April (soon!) and then arrive in Rome before Holy Week begins, hopefully to get over jetlag before the heavy days start.

As always, I will record the names of all those who contribute for this.  I will celebrate Holy Mass for the intention of my benefactors as well as for other intentions which readers have requested through my form.  As I go about in Rome, I will remember you in my prayers at the tombs of saints.  Another benefit for all is some enhanced content here and the knowledge that I occasionally realize that I am smiling while I am going about my day.

My goal is to cover 50 days in Rome.

Right now my mom’s health seems pretty stable (the power of prayer?) and she is positive about my spending time in Rome in my place while I can.

The usual ways of donating are available.  Some of you know them already.

  • Zelle, through your US bank, works best.  Drop me a note HERE   PLEASE use this if you can!  Add a note “Days in Rome” in the “memo” and your email.
  • For international donations there is a service called WISE which is very good and has the lowest fees and best conversion rate I’ve seen and I can accept any currency with it, convert it, and either move it or withdraw it using an ATM in Rome.  Also, this is the service that I use to pay my rent in Rome. Try WISE. HERE

  • There’s also waaavy flag (PayPal). Add a note “Days in Rome” and your email if you want me to write back.

  • Venmo is an option, also. Drop me a note HERE  Or use this QR code…
  • PayPal takes a service fee percentage.  Therefore…
  • For larger donations checks by snail mail would be better.  TIME IS SHORT and MAIL IS SLOW.  Contact me HERE about that.  There is a faster route than through the old P.O. Box.  This is the best way for any significant amount, and there were a few of you, last time, who were quite generous.

As this project progresses, the Enemy will probably – as usual – screw around with my life in annoying ways.  To that end, I have repurposed an old iPhone perpetually to play my recitation of the Rosary in Latin at a low volume in the house.  I won’t hear it but the nasties will and it can drive them nuts.

Come to think of it… it’s probably my laptop this time, with a narrow window to deal with it.

Dear readers, making appeals like this isn’t pleasant for me.  What is consoling is the kindness you show.  Above all I ask for your prayers, earnest, for a particular intention I have.

DONORS (please notify me if you donated and I didn’t write back with a note)

UPDATED 27 March 17:50 EST

MH, IGD, RK, IGD, BMR, LD, DC, TE, MS, AC,
DE, MD, VR, JH, HL, JL, GS, WH, LP, LG,
LW, DMcN, LJ, KH, MH, CW, JM, KK, KM, TJG,
DM, RL, SF, SN, AK, JK, BP, JH (no email), SMcG, JM,

Above and beyond…

MM, FrCJ, CH, SS, DLS (no email), RG, WW

 

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Daily Rome Shot 1278 – The Parish™

Posted on 25 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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:

And this…

The Ring was destroyed on 25 March…

Very cool…

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.

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Questioning the “success” of frequent Communion

Posted on 25 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At Crisis find a piece by Michael Ortiz which delves into the long term effect in the Church of the practice of frequent Communion.   He reasonably points out what the intention of Pius X was and, in good circumstances, the benefits of frequent Communion which are hardly to be questioned.

However, he also underscores that when Pius X made the changes by lowering the age for Communion and promoting frequent reception there were two major differences from today.  

Consider how I often write that “we are our rites”.

Ortiz points to the fact that at the time of Pius X there was a true Eucharistic fast.  In fact, people were to fast from midnight.   Hence, there was bodily hunger.  Pius XII reduced the fast to 3 hours in 1957.

Elsewhere, I’ve written that we, being both soul and body and not soul only, should be properly disposed to receive in both body and soul.

In soul we are disposed to receive by going to confession and being in the state of grace.

In body we are disposed to receive by fasting.

Immediately after the Resurrection, Christ began to teach the disciples (Mary Magdalen, the men at Emmaus) that they had to learn a new way of Him being with them: the Eucharist.  When He was with the disciples in His earthly ministry, they were “feasting”.  When He ascended they were going to “fast”, but He was still with them in the Eucharist.

Let us simply admit that today’s Eucharistic fast (one hour before Communion) is a joke.

A subtle message is imparted: if we only have to fast for an hour, what we are receiving must not be very important.

Another point Ortiz makes is that, in Pius X’s time down to the 60’s we had the Roman Rite’s Vetus Ordo in which substantial sections of the Mass were in silence.

I’ll add that they required stillness.

It is in the difficult moments, the “apophatic” moments” of deprivation that we encounter mystery in a special way.

Being in the state of grace and fasting prepare us for these transformative moments.

Being unconfessed for (usually) years and being entirely unaccustomed to denying appetites and being inundated in a brightly illuminated space that looks like a municipal airport lounge while being shouted at by people with amplifiers… doesn’t.

We had not long ago an effort at “Eucharistic Renewal”.  It seems to me that a great deal of serious soul searching about reality is needed.

Moreover, there can be no Eucharistic Renewal without a renewal of the Sacrament of Penance.  PERIOD.

Ceterum autem censeo sacramentum paenitentiae redintegrandum.

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LENTCAzT 2025 – 21: Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent – Annunciation

Posted on 25 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today the Roman Station is Santa Pudenziana.  It is also the Feast of the Annunciation.  We have some notes about the Feast from Card. Schuster. Card. Bacci talks about what make love of God authentic.

HERE

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ASK FATHER: Is speeding a sin?

Posted on 24 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I am a leadfoot driver, have been for decades. My wife says I could have been an Indy racer. My driving record is solidly good and I drive a well-handling sedan. To limit speeding, I set my cruise control on the highway at 10 miles above speed limit, which seems to me where about 40% of the other drivers are at (another 40% set it at 5 above, 10% maybe go exactly the speed limit, and the last 10% go even faster than I do). However, some times when I’m on a very long trip or impatient to get home, I will go as much at 15 miles over speed limit, and that’s when my conscience starts to bother me. Is this sinful? How sinful is it? What do the manuals say? I tried to find something in Prummer but there was nothing (as far as I could see).

We can start by making a distinction. There are different kinds of laws. There are laws which come from God and those which come from man. Those which are man-made laws reflect what Augustine talks about in City of God: they are, in a sense, punishment for the Fall. Also, they present to us a much lower bar except insofar as we don’t also thereby violate God’s laws. I recall from my study of St. Augustine that he finds no exception to the commandment against lying. On the other hand, I recall a debate online between the esteemed Janet Smith and … someone else, a religious I think, maybe a Dominican, about whether there are exceptions: Can one lie to a Gestapo Jew hunter about the Jews you are hiding in your attic? The answer is… yes, probably. It can be complicated, especially if your own family’s lives are on the line.

Back to speeding.

Speeding laws are sort of “one-size fits all” laws. But that’s not reality. There are times when you need to get to the hospital, for example. There are times when driving the posted limit can make you the hazard on the Interstate. Moreover, as you mention there is praxis to consider. It seems like a social convention that LEOs allow some fudging, up to a certain point (5-10 mph). Unless they don’t in Black Duck County. Then you pay a penalty. You can always challenge in traffic court and argue that your wife was having a baby (if that was true).

However, it seems that even though speeding laws seem to be one-size-fits-all laws, they seem also to be just laws, established by (in most places) legitimate authority and they seek to uphold the common good by keeping motorists, pedestrians and property safe.  The spirit of speed limits is clearly for the sake of safety.

Except when it wasn’t.  Do I remember correctly that once there was a 55 mph limit for the sake of saving fuel?   However, in states like Montana, limits were not posted because… well… driving in Montana takes a while.  The national imposed limit was certainly more honored in the breach than the observance.  It seems that a law that cannot be enforced in the face of mass violation is no law at all.

Sinful and how sinful?  Hard to say.  All things being equal, it seems that so long as your driving doesn’t endanger the common good, giving the social conventions, some additional mph are probably not mortally sinful.  Much also depends on attitude: why are you speeding?  Is it from contempt for the law and the rights of others to a safe roadway or is it from the fact that you were just struck by a nasty case of food poisoning?   Is it that you pay little or no attention while driving or because you are, precisely, paying attention and you see that the majority of drivers, including large trucks are going quite a bit faster than the posted signs and that you are becoming a hazard?  The negative attitude about your speed could shift the immortality of the instance of speeding over into the mortal sin category.

To conclude, here some Sammy Hagar from that mostly awful decade of the 1980’s. Just to make a point, the subject in the lyrics is clearly committing mortal sins.

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Daily Rome Shot 1277

Posted on 24 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Just off the Via dei Coronari is a little stair leading to the last vestige of the only church in Rome for the Apostle Simon.  Just the door remains.

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.

People are good…

In high culture…

In chessy news… HERE

White to move and mate in 3. Fun.

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24 March – Feast of St. Gabriel, Archangel – images – EXPANDED

Posted on 24 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Last year I posted some images of the Announcing Archangel St. Gabriel, whose feast day it is in the Vetus Ordo, appropriate in the presence of tomorrow’s Annunciate, the Feast of the Annunciation.   NB: The Feast of the Annunciation, as all Marian feasts, are intended always to redirect our eyes and hearts to the Lord, as hers were.  Nevertheless we delight in reflecting on the role of Our Lady.

I’ll repost, with additions.

Today, the day before the Feast of the Annunciation, is the Feast of the announcing Archangel Gabriel.  He is one of three holy angels whose name we know from Holy Writ.  His name means roughly “God is my strength”.

Gabriel shows up in Daniel and helps to interpret his visions.   Gabriel later announces the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias (Luke 1:5-7).  Then he announces the birth of the Lord (Luke 1:21-25).  He is named in some apocryphal works as well.  He is sometimes associated with the angel in Revelation who will sound a trumpet for the resurrection of the dead.

There are innumerable depictions of Gabriel before the Annunciate, sometimes more glorious and sometimes more humble.  All interesting.  Do you have a favorite?

Here are a few of mine.

Sandro Botticelli has Gabriel placing himself below the Annunciate.  Note the colors of their robes and the position of their hands, the echo of the tree and lily, the perspective created with the flooring.

I have a soft soft for Barocci and his colors, and his tenderness and depiction of awe. Here the angel seems to be in awe even as he announces. Dove-winged Gabriel is in the very moment of explaining while pointing to the prayer book, Scripture, in her hand.  And there’s a cat, ignoring the whole thing, which would be the usual thing for a cat to do in such a moment, for in paintings cats are often symbols of infidelity and fickleness.  I also dig Mary’s hat, hanging up.

Years later we have this.   From Glyn Warren Philpot, early 20th c.

Mary is not even seen except in the eyes of the angel.

No longer groveling below, he swoops in from above…

This is in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. I once knew the Maestro Grande and had a private tour to all the nooks there. Fascinating. Tintoretto emphasizes the poverty of the Holy Family and sense of surprise. Heaven suddenly pours into the wreckage of human living.

And Caravaggio with that light and that characteristic hand

Henry Ossawa Tanner, “The Annunciation,” 1898

Gabriel is more like himself, I think. He reminds me of the “pillar of fire by day”. Mary would become in this moment the tabernacle of the presence foreshadowed by the tent of meeting in Exodus.  The angel is like the fire in the bush.

George Hitchcock… here the angel is the most like himself.  He cannot be seen.   This isn’t one of my favorites, but it is thought provoking.

Many will emphasize the dialogue.  Could this be the most famous?

San Marco, Florence.  Beato Angelico.  I like the raptor wings and the lovely hortus. Note the hands of the Announcing and the Annunciate.   I think you can right click and get a larger.  You need it.

Leonardo seems also to emphasize the dialogue.  Again with the hands.  The Annunciate Virgin seems to be marking her place for reading when the interview is done.  If not for her raised hand there seems to be little surprise, only slightly enigmatic attention.  The raptor-winged angel is all business.

One could multiply these nearly beyond count.

Perhaps you have your favorites.

2025

Some of you did have favorites posted in comments last year.

Here’s one by Carlo Crivelli in the National Gallery in London.

There’s so much going on.  Right click for a larger and be amazed.

A couple of guys on that arch are getting some business done.  Perhaps a couple of birds are being purchased.  Carrier pigeons, perhaps, and a dovecot given the topic of “message”.  Next to that the portal to Heaven is open like something from Star Trek and a phaser of grace from the Holy Spirit is zapping down through the window.  In the upper story, a rug is being aired and there is a pigeon, again, and in a cage a Christological Goldfinch.  Oh yes, and a peacock which is a symbol of the resurrection because ancients believed that peacock flesh did not decay.  The shelf in the Virgin’s rooms seems uncharacteristically disordered but the bed is made to military specs.  Note the carpet on which she kneels is sort of scrunched.   Perhaps because she was suddenly surprised?  Gabriel didn’t even go inside and St. Emidius is photobombing with a model of his city Ascoli Piceno like a realtor.   The motto “Libertas Ecclesiastica” is the title of the papal bull that gave the city its rights.  On the feast there was a procession to the monastery of the Observant Friars, whom you see on the left.  Is the guy in red and black the patron of the artist who commissioned this?  Maybe with his child?  More details.  A guy in the street seems to be either trying to figure out what he has to buy at the market or he’s eyeing the strangely garbed loiterers along the way.  Through a tiny gap in an archway, a women is talking with a bucket on her head.  And in the foreground, it wouldn’t be Crivelli without some seemingly random veggies, here an apple (the Fall of Man) and a squash or cucumber (Redemption).  They also given depth to the painting by an optical illusion.

Annunciation by George Hitchcock, Philadelphia.

This seems to be more of an interior locutions. The Medival and Renaissance idea of a hortus inclusus might be going on here. Often when the Virgin is reading, the text is thought to be from the Prophet Isaiah. I can’t make out what the Hebrew says, if anything.

Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s “Ecce Ancilla Domini”. A rather sparse palette for this pre-Raphaelite painter. The embroidery she is working on is feature in another of his paintings about Mary’s childhood.

Note: No wings and his feet are on fire. His hand is raised slightly as if to say “Do not be afraid”. The Holy Spirit is barely noticeable. Her hair is messy and she is staring at the lily (or beyond) as if she has never seen one. She’s all drawn up and pulling back. It is an odd painting, to me. Is Gabriel casting a shadow?

A fine young artist who does fusion stuff, Daniel Mitsui, did a samurai version of Gabriel coming to Joseph for the second time in a dream telling him to get outta Dodge.  Check out his site.  His version of the war in Heaven is worth your time.

 

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LENTCAzT 2025 – 20: Monday of the 3rd Week of Lent – Gabriel

Posted on 24 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today’s Roman Station is San Marco near the Piazza Venezia and Capitoline Hill. Today is the Feast of St. Gabriel the Archangel. Card. Bacci gives us a stern talking to about doing penance along the lines of, “Do it or you will probably go to Hell”. He put’s it better than that. To help you do penance, I included a little bit of a modernist pipe organ riff on the Lenten chant “Attende Domine”.

HERE

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Notes on a curiosity in today’s Gospel reading from Luke 11

Posted on 23 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On this 3rd Sunday of Lent in the Vetus Ordo we have a Gospel reading from Luke 11:14-28 in which Our Lord refutes an accusation that He cast out demons because He was aligned with the Devil.

It is helpful to look at parallel Gospel passages for additional details.  In this case we have parallels in Matthew and Mark.

One element of the episode popped out at me.  It wasn’t in Mark, but it is in Luke and Mark.  Here is the RSV:

Matthew 12:27 Mark Luke 11:19
27 And if I cast out demons by Be-el?zebul, by whom do your sons (Greek huioi) cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 9 And if I cast out demons by Be-el?zebul, by whom do your sons (Greek huioi) cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.

The DRV has “children” in both instances.

One could get fancy with Greek huioi and make it to mean any male Jews, young or adult.  A plain reading of both passages is “children”.   Ancient Jews, as the Greeks and Romans, had classifications of age groups.  While the “seven ages” goes back to Solon, in general there was boyhood, youth and old age.  One moved from being at boy to being a youth at about 13.

It seems that the earthly time of the Lord, 1st century Jews had also children, not just adults, doing exorcisms.

A couple of things are to be drawn from this.

Firstly, the Jews practiced exorcism.   As a matter of fact, in the Gospel reading we hear on the 1st Sunday of Lent, the Devil quotes a psalm that the Jews used in their exorcisms!  That said, the remark about children hints that there was great need for exorcisms then, so much so, that they needed the assistance of the young.  That suggests that manifestations of possession were obvious to them.   It is not a coincidence that in many instances of the Lord casting out demons He was also healing, as in the Gospel today wherein the man was mute.  In Matthew the demoniac is both mute and blind.   One might ask: Are there fewer instances of possession now?  Or are they simply not as obvious?  Why would that be?  Is it because our times are so numbed that we don’t notice it?

Secondly, exorcist is one of the Minor Orders, the second after acolyte.    In ancient times the function of those in minor orders fit the name of the order.   Minor orders could be received at quite a young age. In more recent times that ceased.  Way back, exorcists exorcized.   This exercise of exorcism was needed particularly at this time in the liturgical year because catechumens were being “scrutinzed” and exorcized several times during the second part of Lent (3rd Sunday onward). Pope Cornelius (+253) in a says that in Rome there were 52 exorcists. Scrutinies and exorcisms are all compressed into the modern (traditional) Rite of Baptism.  For example, the ancient practice of exsufflation (out-breathing) remains in the rite.  It is mentioned by St. Augustine for the baptism of infants.  The traditional rite has several exorcisms while the Novus Ordo still retains one though it is not nearly as explicit as those in the Vetus Ordo form.

If memory serves the ancient child St. Cyricus may have performed an exorcism when his mother St. Julitta was undergoing oppression by the Enemy after she was tortured.  However, the tales of these ancient saints vary quite a lot.

 

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 3rd Sunday of Lent 2025

Posted on 23 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

It is the 3rd Sunday of Lent in the Novus Ordo and in the Vetus Ordo.   Surprisingly, the experts of the Consilium didn’t do away with Lent completely.

The Roman Station is St. Lawrence outside-the-walls.

QUESTION: At the Mass you went to, was the Station mentioned?  Let us know in the combox.

As of this Sunday we are in the SECOND stage of Lent.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

I have a few thoughts about the orations in the Vetus Ordo for this Sunday: HERE

A taste:

Welcome to the second part of Lent.  As Pius Parsch puts it in The Church’s Year of Grace, in the first two weeks we put ourselves on guard against attacks by the Prince of this world, the Devil and fallen angels, with the weapon of mortifications.  On this Sunday we move from defense against the Enemy to attack: Christ casts out a demon and refutes any connection with the Enemy.  He then explains how not to allow the demons – and maybe “our demons” in the form of memories of past sins that haunt us – to return to trouble us.   On that note, Paul inveighs against sins that not only will haunt us for the rest of our lives, but are also avenues through which demons can attach themselves to us to oppress us and also attach to the places where those sins occurred.    We have to put our “houses” in order.

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Daily Rome Shot 1276

Posted on 23 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US 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 is a public service announcement… and it is true.

Imagine…

This is strangely alarming even though it conveys more accurate information…

In chessy news…  HERE

White to move and mate in 4.

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LENTCAzT 2025 – 19: 3rd Sunday of Lent – Bitter sweet

Posted on 23 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Roman Station today is at St. Lawrence outside-the-walls. We were here on Septuagesima Sunday.

Card. Bacci aand St. Francis de Sales give us a lesson about overcoming our character faults and progressing in the spiritual life.

HERE

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Daily Rome (video) 1275 – a trip to the tailor

Posted on 22 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Instead of a static photo today, here’s a video about Gammarelli in Rome (ecclesiatical tailor).

You will recall several vestment projects here on the blog, which caused a great deal of joy and continue to enrich sacred worship.

And there’s this…

In chessy news…

Chess.com (I have an affiliate tag… sign up now and I’ll get credit… posted a jocular post inviting suggestions for renaming the bishop. (I immediately thought of a few which I can’t write here.) The joke provoked a hurricane of comments. Some got creatively funny. Other’s took it seriously. Some took it seriously and had a spittle-flecked nutty. BTW… the piece is called a bishop in English but that is not it’s equivalent in other languages. In Italian, for example, it’s an alfiere or “standard bearer”, in French it’s a fou “fool” (ehem), in German it’s a laufer “runner” and in some tongues it’s the word for an elephant. At chess.com suggestions for a change included “truck driver” and “Bob”.

Tomorrow will see the end of the American Cup in St. Louis. The winners of the lower brackets is set to take on the winner of the upper.

Here’s a cool thing that I don’t really want and don’t at all need but would be cool to have anyway.

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.

Meanwhile, …

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LENTCAzT 2025 – 18: Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent – Brothers

Posted on 22 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Roman Station is at Santi Marcellino e Pietro.  Fr. Parsch comments on how the antiphons of the office, based on the Gospel’s parable of the Prodigal Son, lines up with our lives.  Fr. Troadec remarks on God’s tremendous mercy.

HERE

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A quick reminder…

Posted on 21 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in Just Too Cool, Priests and Priesthood, Save The Liturgy - Save The World | Tagged
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