To Achieve Clarity, to Avoid Scandal: Some Statements on Christian Re-Enchantment
There are two senses in which I use the word ‘magic’ to denote what I’m defending.
Colligite Fragmenta: Pentecost Sunday
Of all the liturgical treasures of Holy Roman Catholic Church, perhaps the feast of Pentecost Sunday is the richest, at least in the pre-Conciliar Vetus Ordo. In the Church’s traditional Roman Rite, Pentecost, like Easter, has a Saturday Vigil which includes the blessing of baptismal water. This was and is also the time to baptize…
Colligite Fragmenta: Sunday after Ascension Thursday
Our Sunday is ensconced in the novena days after the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord and the mighty day of Pentecost. Church’s liturgical calendar gives us … gave us, at least, until about 1970 an Octave for Pentecost was removed which allows us to contemplate the mystery of the Holy Spirit’s descent from…
Colligite Fragmenta: 5th Sunday after Easter
For this 5th Sunday after Easter we are still moving through John 16 and the Lord’s Last Supper Discourse as well as the Letter of James. Liturgically, we are very close now to the Ascension of the Lord, on Thursday, when the High Priest, the Risen Savior, entered the heavenly temple where He continuously renews…
Colligite Fragmenta: 4th Sunday after Easter – Inauguration of Leo XIV’s Pontificate
I write this shortly before the 4th Sunday of Easter in the Vetus Ordo calendar, which is also the day when our new Pope will celebrate Mass (they call it a “Eucharistic Celebration”) for “the Beginning of the Pontificate of the Bishop of Rome Leo XIV” (18 May 2025). In the older traditional Missal there…
Colligite Fragmenta: 3rd Sunday after Easter
From the onset, I am sure we all feel a sense of anticipation about the new pontificate of Leo XIV. There is anxiety in the waiting and there is joy at the fulfillment. This is a theme of today’s Gospel as well, for Christ uses the image of childbirth in speaking to His Apostles in…
Colligite Fragmenta: Good Shepherd Sunday, 2nd after Easter
A few minutes by foot from where I presently write in Rome is the Basilica of St. Peter on the Vatican Hill. This was the traditional Roman Station for this Sunday in ancient times. The present church replaced the original built by the Emperor Constatine in the 4th century. It soars with its vast vaults…
Colligite Fragmenta: Low Sunday – “in albis”
In the post-Conciliar calendar this is the “Second Sunday of Easter”. In the 1962 Missale Romanum and in previous editions this Sunday is labelled: Dominica in Albis in Octava Paschae… Sunday in white garments on the Octave of Easter. In traditional parlance today is called “Low Sunday” or sometimes “Thomas Sunday” because of the Gospel…
Colligite Fragmenta: Easter Sunday
Happy Easter! My hopeful prayer is that you experience, in this Easter Season, true joy in a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. The Church’s firehose of imagery and traditions and sacred liturgy has been blasting fully at our little drinking cups. Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum can overwhelm as we reach the apex…
Adult Classes on Bishop Schneider’s Catechism
Dear OnePeterFive donor, supporters and readers, This summer I am teaching our second annual adult class on Bishop Schneider’s new canonical Catechism CREDO, a canonical text which is unprecedented since Vatican II. This year we are splitting the class into two 6 week sessions to dive deep into all the theological controversies of our age…
Colligite Fragmenta: Passion Sunday – “Iesus autem abscondit se”
From the pre-Lent, “Gesima” Sundays onward, Holy Mother Church began her plunge into liturgical death. At first we lost the “Alleluia”, the Gloria, and on Sundays we dressed in penitential violet to herald the proximity of Lent. With Lent, these privations applied every day, with the exception of our great feasts. Moreover, we became stiller…