In Illo Tempore: 3rd Sunday after Easter
The 3rd Sunday after Easter in the Vetus Ordo draws us into that peculiar Christian experience of living between gift and fulfillment, between consolation remembered and consummation promised, between the joy of Easter already given and the greater joy that still presses toward Ascension and Pentecost. The whole formulary has a tensile quality. Expectancy. Movement.…
Beating the Bounds: the Joy of the Rogation Days
Processions take the Faith from inside the churches, and bring it out to where the majority of people are.
Is There Any Tradition More Important than the TLM? Yes. And it’s the “One Thing Necessary”
This tradition is more important than the Latin Mass itself.
In Illo Tempore: Low Sunday, Octave of Easter
We bring to completion the great Octave of Easter this Sunday, though “completion” here is to be understood in the Church’s own liturgical sense. For a full eight days, by that ancient inclusive counting which the Romans knew so well and Christians inherited, it has still been Easter Day. The Church has, as it were,…
The Ascending Way of Prayer, Part II
This is Part II of a two-part series. Click here for Part I. In the first part of this series, I listed the nine levels of prayer and described the first four, which exist along what is called “the Purgative Way.” In this second part, I will explore the second and third ways of prayer…
The Ascending Way of Prayer, Part I
This is Part I of a two-part series. Years ago I was involved in a Protestant apologetics online forum. Unlike many online forums, this one included many very bright and respectful people who expertly debated theology without rancor. Just about every viewpoint was represented: Calvinist, evangelical, liberal, conservative, even Mormon and Unitarian. I, however, was…
In Illo Tempore: Easter Sunday
The Church, in her ancient wisdom, does a striking thing on this greatest of feasts. After the dark austerity of Lent, after the long stripping away of liturgical ornaments and consolations, after the silence and stillness and blackness of the tomb, she sets before us on Easter morning an Epistle that glitters with Paschal theology…
St. Alphonsus on the Fifth Dolor of Mary
St. Alphonsus on the 5th Dolor of Mary.
In Illo Tempore: 1st Passion Sunday
From the pre-Lent Sundays onward, Holy Mother Church has led us into a liturgical dying. First there was the silencing of the Alleluia and the Gloria. Violet appeared on Sundays as a herald of the coming fast. Then Lent itself deepened the deprivation day by day, save for the interruption of the greater feasts. Flowers…
This Obscure Italian Saint Offered His Communions for 50 Years for the Conversion of England
This book changed everything for me. But I also believe it (and this Italian tradition) has a providential role to play in our time.