Above: Greek icon depicting Christ with the Winnowing Fan from an Orthodox monastery in Arizona, United States. Photo by Fr. Lawrence, OP. This coming Saturday will be the third of the Advent Ember Days in the Roman Rite. (As always, the Ember Days come in threes: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, the ancient penitential rhythm.)…
It is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you invoke as Father him who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every one’s work: converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here. – 1 Peter 1:16-17 The Judgment. It’s something that few wish to think about in our…
Above: Archbishop Lefebvre with Pius XII. Lefebvre and other members of the Coetus were respected by the popes before Paul VI, including by John XXIII. There will be factions. This is the first rule of all voting assemblies, from the Roman Senate to the US House of Representatives. To believe that this rule does not…
Above: the old and new basilicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe. All photos by the author. In the year 1527 King Charles V of Spain spent Holy Week at the Franciscan Monastery of Barajo near the city of Burgos in northern Spain. Friar Juan de Zumarraga was the prior of the monastery at this time.…
In the movie Bridge of Spies, set in the depths of the Cold War, Tom Hanks’ character is a lawyer assigned to defend an accused and obviously guilty Russian spy. Meeting in prison for the first time, Hanks explains to the spy that everyone wants to send him to the electric chair. The Russian spy…
Above: the tomb of César Franck in Paris. Today is the bicentenary of the birth, which took place in Liège, in eastern Belgium, on December 10, 1822, of a composer and organist who, having lived almost always in Paris, was one of the most significant personalities of the French nineteenth century: César Franck. We remember…
The sin of Peter recounted in Matthew 16 — “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee” (v. 22) — is the archetype of papal sins against the Mass. Note that Peter’s “rebuke” hinges on the avoidance of the Cross. The…
Last week I sent a message to you and other subscribers about our need for donations, but unfortunately very few of you responded. I am exceedingly grateful to those of you who did, but because our need is so urgent, I must write to you again. I must also stress how much we depend upon…
The team behind the popular Mass of the Ages documentary trilogy has announced our plans to create an online platform designed to increase Latin Masses worldwide. The platform will host the popular “Mass of the Ages” documentary trilogy; stunning short films; free training for priests, servers, and choirs; a global TLM finder that works at…
For this 2nd Sunday of Advent the Roman Station church is the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem where the wooden beams of the Cross and relics of the Passion brought to Rome by the Empress Helena were deposited and are venerated still today. Last week we were stationed at St. Mary Major where…
In the traditional calendar, December 2 is the feast of St. Bibiana, Virgin and Martyr. Having been imprisoned for her faith, she refused the sexual advances of her jailer, and was beaten to death with lead-loaded thongs. The Collect for her feast is magnificent: Deus, omnium largitor bonorum, qui in famula tua Bibiana cum virginitatis…
