Pre-55 Halloween & the Octave of All Saints
...the Vigil of All Saints regularly appeared among the obligatory fast days.
In Illo Tempore: All Saints
On Sunday, 1 November in both the Vetus Ordo and the Novus Ordo Holy Mother Church celebrates the great feast of All Saints, Omnium Sanctorum. We honor all who have attained the Beatific Vision, including the vast multitude of blessed souls whose names and histories are known to God alone. It is a beautiful bouquet…
In Illo Tempore: Christ The King
When Benedict XV died unexpectedly of pneumonia in 1922, Achille Ratti, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, was elected to the See of Peter. His election to the See of Peter came on the fourteenth ballot. It is said that when asked whether he accepted Ratti remained silent for several minutes. One Cardinal reportedly quipped that they…
In Illo Tempore: 21st Sunday after Pentecost
As October gives way to November, Holy Church chants in autumnal tones. The end (of the Church year) is near. In the Vetus Ordo our remaining Sundays after Pentecost lead us toward our reckoning with the King, that is, the King of EVERYTHING and not just Heaven. The King will return, open the books, and…
The Many Octaves of the Pre-55 Roman Missal
They lost a habit of prolonged attention.
In Illo Tempore: 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Context is always important, as I am wont to say. For example, where are we in the liturgical year on this 20th Sunday after Pentecost? Historically, in an earlier reckoning before the concretization of seasons, this was the 5th Sunday after the feast of St. Cyprian. Bl. Ildefonso Schuster explains that Rome once reckoned Sundays…
In Illo Tempore: 18th Sunday after Pentecost
As summer yields to autumn in the lands where the Roman liturgical year took shape, the Church turns our attention toward harvest and reckoning. The shortening days give a certain urgency to the Epistle of the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. St. Paul thanks God for the grace bestowed on the Corinthians, even as they await…
In Illo Tempore: 16th Sunday after Pentecost
It was pride that brought down Satan and the other apostate angels. It was pride that brought down the human race in our First Parents. Pride turned angels into devils and Paradise into this vale of tears. St. Bernard of Clairvaux called pride “initium omnis peccati … the beginning of every sin” (De gradibus humilitatis…
In Illo Tempore: 15th Sunday after Pentecost
We come now to the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, known in the older Roman reckoning as Quinta post Sancti Laurentii, the fifth Sunday after St. Lawrence. The Romans loved their deacon martyr, whose basilica stood beyond the walls along the Via Tiburtina. In the ancient arrangement, Sundays throughout the year had their station churches, not…
In Illo Tempore: 14th Sunday after Pentecost
“So every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit…. Thus you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:17, 20 RSV). Our Lord’s scriptural lantern illuminates the Epistle for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Galatians 5:16-24, where St. Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the…
Four Questions for the Traditionalist Discourse from the East
Why did Martin Luther hate the Roman Mass?