In the movie Bridge of Spies, set in the depths of the Cold War, Tom Hanks’ character is a lawyer assigned to defend an accused and obviously guilty Russian spy. Meeting in prison for the first time, Hanks explains to the spy that everyone wants to send him to the electric chair. The Russian spy…
For this 2nd Sunday of Advent the Roman Station church is the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem where the wooden beams of the Cross and relics of the Passion brought to Rome by the Empress Helena were deposited and are venerated still today. Last week we were stationed at St. Mary Major where…
In 589 Deacon Aigulf trekked home to Tours with relics he had collected in Rome. St. Gregory of Tours relates in his Historia Francorum that Aigulf saw with his own eyes the disasters that struck Rome that year. The Tiber rose to such a flood that buildings were washed away, ancient temples destroyed, and the…
The onset of Hansen’s Disease comes with patches of skin that change color and become numb. If left untreated, it can result in paralysis, the reabsorption into the body of the extremities, ulcerations, blindness, disfiguration. It is not highly contagious, but it can spread through contact or breathing in airborne droplets from coughs. Most people…
Let’s have a peek at the Gospel for this 12th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo. Context. In Luke 10, the Lord has sent out the 72, two by two, with instruction about how to travel and behave. He pronounces a terrible destiny, worse than Sodom, for Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum which had…
Because the Gospel for this 11th Sunday after Pentecost concerns the miraculous healing of a man’s deafness and inability to talk, before I drill into the Sunday passage and risk losing most of you because I go on and on and on, let me offer this from the top. St. Gregory Nazianzen (+390) says that…
My apologies for a rather briefer offering for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, although I have in my mind’s eye an image of you doing a fist pump while exclaiming, “yesssss”. This is in part a gesture of self-defense. In the Epistle reading, Paul tackles for the Corinthians the issue of idolatry. Idolatry is contrary…
Let us be swift. In the Gospel reading for this 9th Sunday after Pentecost, we hear that the Lord was getting closer to Jerusalem. What you should remember is that He was making His triumphal “Palm Sunday” entrance seated like a Davidic Priest King on the colt of an ass. The people, having heard about…
This week’s task is scary. The Gospel for this 8th Sunday after Pentecost presents probably the most difficult of the Lord’s parables to explicate. This week we hear the Parable of the Unjust Steward from Luke 16. Context: For the last few chapters of Luke we have been presented with Our Lord telling many parables.…
With this 7th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo Holy Church began a series of contrasts. She shows us the difference between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, between the divine and the mundane. Context is called for. The Gospel passage in Matthew 7 is at the end of the…
As I write, it is the anniversary of the imposition of Traditionis custodes, certainly the legacy document of the Francis pontificate. While it seems, ultimately, destined for dusty irrelevance, it is now a neuralgic sign of the times. Almost by way of a celebration of TC, bad news comes from Chicago for the faithful who…
