Trad Carmelite Nuns Need Your Help!
All we want is to live a quiet, simple, and private life of prayer and solitude, to participate in the Mass of the Ages.
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 – 9th Sunday after Pentecost: Jesus weeps
The 20th century commentator Pius Parsch remarks in The Church’s Year of Grace, that the Sundays after Pentecost could be divided into three groups. The first group stresses the Lord’s miraculous healings which point to, ultimately, the saving of souls. The second, from the 7th to 14th Sundays, emphasizes the kingdom of God versus the…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 7th Sunday after Pentecost: Operatio medicinalis
This 7th Sunday after Pentecost is the 17th anniversary of the day Pope Benedict XVI released the text of Summorum Pontificum, 07-07-07, the liturgical “emancipation proclamation” for those who desire the benefits of the Vetus Ordo. Let us pray earnestly for those who are charged with the governance of such matters now, that they eschew…
Revisiting the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Above: The Visitation by Flemish painter Willem Vrelant (d. 1481). Today, July 2, is the usus antiquior feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast was instituted in 1389 by, in a way, two popes—Pope Urban VI as the one who intended to institute it, in hopes of obtaining the end of…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 5th Sunday after Pentecost: Have no fear of their fear
The 20th century liturgical commentator Pius Parsch thought that the 2nd and 3rd Sundays after Pentecost showed God’s love inviting us (the Parable of the Supper) and His seeking us (Parable of the Lost Sheep). On the 4th Sunday, God revealed in the calling of Peter and the Apostles the instruments of administering His love…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 4th Sunday after Pentecost: Something from Nothing
In earlier days in the Roman Church one of the calendrical milestones of the liturgical year was the “birthday” of the Apostles Peter and Paul, that is to say, the feast of their martyrdom and birth into new life in Heaven, 29 June. The imagery of being born is commonly used in reference to the…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis: Constant fear and love in equal degree
This week’s offering presented a dilemma. In many places the Vetus Ordo Feast of Corpus Christi will be observed on Sunday as an “external solemnity”. Corpus Christi falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and, in the Vetus Ordo, it had to be celebrated on that day. However, it is permitted to repeat the Mass…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis: Trinity Sunday – We might want to get this one right
The Catechism of the Catholic Church 234 says that the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity is the “central mystery of Christ faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself.” We might want to get this one right. The other mysteries of our faith revolve around what God does and has done. …
The Handbook for Confused Catholics
Catholics of a certain age know things about their religion that many — if not most — Catholics today have never been taught.