The Old Covenant is not abolished. All our male children are circumcised on the eighth day (Lev. 12:3). We make sure to do no work on the seventh day, and we put to death whoever does any work (Ex. 35:2). We offer all our firstfruits to the Lord (Deut. 26:1–2). We keep all the feasts…
On April 11, 250 years ago, on Holy Wednesday, when the Eternal City is the most crowded with pilgrims and visitors, attracted by the papal liturgy of Holy Week and Easter, that musical genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, fourteen years old, and his father Leopold, a good musician, arrive in Rome. The young Amadè — as…
The question may reasonably be asked: why, after fifty years in which the Novus Ordo has been given ample opportunity to “prove its worth” and has singularly failed to do so — years in which a minority of strong-willed priests, attempting to turn the tide against banality and irreverence, have for their pains been sent…
I wanted to learn how to chant. Those inky little square notes zigzagging across the four-line staff were as exciting to me as the markings on a pirate treasure map. My first attempts were in large scholas in which experienced chanters guided the whole group the same way foreign guides shepherd timid tourists: they know…
The French Revolution and its daughter movements defined the social question of the 19th century, which, as I have noted elsewhere, the Magisterium from Pius VI to Pius XII answered with authority and clarity. But, as Pope Benedict observed in his famous “hermeneutic of continuity” address in 2005, it was the legacy of the American…
We have heard it all before. “The Second Vatican Council was not the problem; the problem was the ‘Spirit of Vatican II.’ The documents themselves are not that bad. Modernists hijacked the confusion after the Council, Traditionalists who bash Vatican II probably don’t even know anything about the documents. Archbishop Lefebvre even signed most of…
Twitter is stupid. Change my mind…in 280 characters or fewer. To that I add Instagram; Netflix; Snapchat; and, hypocritically, Facebook as being more or less worthless. Present a meme to convince me otherwise [i]. Our reliance on social media has been amplified to beyond epic proportions since the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown began. This is a…
In this latest episode of the podcast, we’ve got a look at this week’s COVID-19 numbers, and the good news is there’s a silver lining. Steve reports on several interesting developments, including some really surprising results in a universal testing experiment that happened in Boston, as well as an overview of President Trump’s plan to…
Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10 Gospel: John 20:19-31 Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who have completed the Easter holy days, may, through Thy imparting, retain these effects in our ways and our life. – From the Collect for Low Sunday This Sunday could be called the Sunday of Many Names. Along with Low…
As the COVID-19, Chinese communist, Wuhan coronavirus pandemic (pick your modifier) crisis continues, faithful Catholics from all sides have divided on the issue. The spectrum of opinions ranges from those faithful Catholics taking the virus very seriously and advocating for great caution to those other faithful Catholics dismissing the whole thing as an overblown and…
On the night between March 26 and 27, 250 years ago, the great painter, interpreter of the splendors of the Venetian aristocracy, died suddenly: Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770). While the Vatican Post Office celebrates him with a stamp, we approach the greatest artist of the eighteenth-century Venetian painting in our usual way: through passion for music.…
