Diebus Saltem Dominicis – Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel – We are at War
We are at war. No one can be neutral without imperiling his soul. All around us combat is waged upon us by the Enemy of the soul, the Devil and the fallen angels. When at the end of a human life, that person winds up on the wrong side of God’s saving friendship, an unheard…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 18th Sunday after Pentecost: Walking Together for Real
As our planet whirls along we are walking together from summer into autumn in the still dominating Northern Hemisphere, where Holy Church arose and formed our liturgical rites and calendar. With our shift into the harvest and dying season, the Church now presents end of the world themes and glimpses of the Second Coming. For…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 17th Sunday after Pentecost: Swords of Sorrow and of Joy
In the northern hemisphere, the solar rhythm of which dominates the development of the Roman Church’s calendar, we are moving inexorably toward autumn. With that autumnal mindset it is not a surprise that we begin, as the 20th century commentator Pius Parsch reflects, to receive more hints at the Church’s harvest time, the Second Coming.…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 16th Sunday after Pentecost: Snap goes the trap
On this 16th Sunday after Pentecost according to the calendar of the Vetus Ordo we go with the Lord into what is obviously a trap. In Luke 14 Christ goes to the house of a leader of the Pharisees for a Sabbath meal. Many were present including other Pharisees and nomikoi, experts in the Law,…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 15th Sunday after Pentecost: We are Viscera from His Viscera
The readings we are given by Holy Mother Church, repeated year in, year out, have contexts. When you begin, perhaps on Thursday or Friday, to prepare your participation at Sunday Mass, preview the readings and orations so that you can actively receive them as they are pronounced or sung. Look at the surrounding contexts of…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 14th Sunday after Pentecost: Pick some fruit
17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. 18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:17-20 RSV) Thusly I…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 13th Sunday after Pentecost: Be A Backwardist
The Law in Leviticus 13:45-46 required that people with “leprosy” must wear torn clothing, live outside the camp, leave their hair unkept, cover the lower part of their face and cry our “Unclean! Unclean”. This treatment hasn’t yet made its way into the Holy See’s documents oppressing the faithful who desire the Traditional Latin Mass. …
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 12th Sunday after Pentecost: Mugged by the Truth
Often in the Gospels, when Christ associates Himself with the Father in such a way that He suggests that He, too, is divine, some scribe or Pharisee, that is, an expert on the Law and Prophets, get up in His face and interrogates Him. This is what happens in the Gospel reading from Luke 10:23-37…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 11th Sunday after Pentecost: Dog Days
Bl. Idefonso Schuster (+1954) wrote about this 11th Sunday after Pentecost, “now the heavy clusters are taking on luscious color upon the smiling hills of the Roman Campagna.” In our northern hemisphere, however you calculate their duration, we are deep into the Dog Days, the dies caniculares, when serious heat imposes on the terrestrial with…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 10th Sunday after Pentecost: Varieties of Gifts
Last year, when we were working mostly on the Epistle readings for Sunday Masses in the Usus Antiquior, the Gregorian Rite, the Pian Rite, the Tridentine Rite, the Traditional Latin Mass – the Vetus Ordo, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost was supplanted by the Feast of the Transfiguration. Therefore, let’s circle back and fill in…