The calendar of feasts during this part of the liturgical year is very complicated because it has undergone a great deal of adjustment in a relatively short period of time. Popes moved things around over the last seven decades or so. Our Christmas cycle that began with Advent now continues with the Epiphanytide which embraces…
By Antoine and Maria Ménoret Many things have been printed on the history and debate over distributing the Eucharist in the hand or on the tongue.[1] One topic we have never seen discussed is why Catholic priests do not mandate communicants to check for Eucharistic fragments when they receive in the hand. This negligence has…
As a cradle Catholic, my younger years look a bit different than the average Catholic child being raised in the 1980s and 1990s. I was raised a traditional Catholic, but not as it looks today. The term “Trad” was unknown. The Latin Mass was not found at local diocesan parishes, the ICKSP and FSSP had…
On 6 January we celebrate Epiphany, the day three kings bowed low and presented gifts to the King of kings. Many commemorate the event with different family traditions. However, our familiarity with the story may lead us to overlook important lessons. So, let us look at Epiphany more deeply, for it has much wisdom to…
By Dom Prosper Guéranger The Feast of the Epiphany is the continuation of the mystery of Christmas; but it appears on the Calendar of the Church with its own special character. Its very name, which signifies Manifestation, implies that it celebrates the apparition of God to his creatures. For several centuries, the Nativity of our Lord was…
On December 18, 2021, the Vatican released the text of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments’ “Responsa Ad Dubia on certain provisions of the Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes [TC] issued ‘motu proprio’ by the Supreme Pontiff Francis, to the Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops.” The Responses were prefaced by…
To justify his repeal of Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, Pope Francis charged that many Latin Mass communities were regarding themselves as superior to the Church. Francis’ letter accompanying the motu proprio is clear: …[E]ver more plain in the words and attitudes of many is the choice of celebrations according to the liturgical books prior to…
In the history of the crusading movement we can observe certain factors which contributed to success or failure, whether in the early crusades of the so-called “Byzantine Empire,” or in the Reconquista, the Eastern Crusades and the Northern Crusades of Western Christendom.[1] One of these factors is rootedness about which I spoke last week. The…
Flash back to simpler, happier times. I refer to a time long past, when neighbor talked with neighbor – never discussing letters from the Greek alphabet. A time long past when people breathed air freely – unless the neighbor had a love for garlic. A time long past when it wasn’t illegal for someone like…
What are we doing here? The top of a new calendar year, and the Octave of the Nativity, invite some self-reflection for this column. This column is work: both work to write and work to read. Let’s start with that. The word “liturgy,” broken down into its Greek components (leitourgia), is about “work” (ergon) and…
For many Catholics, the Year of St. Joseph has been a light in our darkest hour. Between political and civil unrest, attacks on the clergy, and never-ending variants and lockdowns forcing us all to relearn the Greek alphabet, the conclusion of the Year of St. Joseph is bittersweet. Our Lord never said following Him would…
