Colligite Fragmenta – 4th Sunday of Advent: Let us “Pry”!
A formulary was pieced together from the Masses of the Ember Days, which gave people who couldn’t attend on those days themselves an opportunity to have something of an Ember Day experience.
Colligite Fragmenta – 3rd Sunday of Advent: “Be Strong, Fear Not!”
Whether we are Western Latin Catholics or Eastern Catholics we ought to be interested in what our forebears did in Rome for these Sundays of Advent. Our traditions run deep. We know better who we are by knowing who they were. On this 3rd Sunday of Advent the Roman Station is at St. Peter’s on…
Colligite Fragmenta – 2nd Sunday of Advent: “Slap in the Face Obvious”
On the 1st Sunday of Advent it was the Church’s duty, which as a good Mother she fulfilled, to urge us to do penance in view of the end times and judgement at the Second Coming. This week she points to the joy that awaits us after penance and judgement, encapsulated in “Jerusalem”. We are…
Colligite Fragmenta – 1st Sunday of Advent: Be Uplifted
Dom Prosper Guéranger wrote in his The Liturgical Year: The whole world is in expectation of its Redeemer; come, dear Jesus, show Thyself to it by granting it salvation. The Church, Thy bride, is now commencing another year, and her first word is to Thee, a word which she speaks in the anxious solicitude of…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost: Get ready
With the exceptions of God’s loving mercy and the eternal joy of Heaven, all good things come to their end. This year’s series concludes with a glimpse into the Church’s final Sunday of our liturgical whirl about the Sun. Although this Sunday is – this year – numerically the 27th after Pentecost, we use the…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 6th Sunday left after Epiphany: Exams are due
“Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” With the coming and passing of the nationwide elections in these USA, this question surely was on the minds of the many who were paying at least a little attention to the necessities of living. With the coming of the resolution of the Church’s…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 5th Sunday left after Epiphany: The Church is all mixed up
Sowing the aggressive and ruinous tare or darnel was an act of biological terrorism.
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 4th Sunday left after Epiphany: Eternal Father Strong To Save
We have come to that time of year in which Holy Church has to “mind the gap”, as it were. Because of the vagaries of the moon in relation to Spring, and therefore when Easter falls, there are often not quite enough formularies for Sundays after Pentecost to get through to the final green Sunday…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – Christ the King: all nations under His most sweet sovereignty
The Collect prayers for the Feast of Christ the King in the Vetus Ordo and in the Novus Ordo differ dramatically.
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 22nd Sunday after Pentecost: Face off
NB: I tried to post this on Friday: On 17 October, as I write, it is the anniversary of John Paul II’s election as Vicar of Christ, Bishop of Rome, Supreme Pontiff. As a young priest and bishop then-Bishop Karol Wojtyła participated in the Second Vatican II and, indeed, as part of the group which…
Diebus Saltem Dominicis – 21st Sunday after Pentecost: Restitution
This Sunday, the 21st after Pentecost in the traditional Roman calendar, Holy Church gives us the Lord’s Parable about the Wicked or Ungrateful Servant from Matthew 18:21-35. Christ uses this parable to instruct His future Vicar, Peter, and therefor all future Vicars, the need for being forgiving. In how many ways does the Lord underscore…
