The Name. We are in Septuagesima season, which began last week, with Septuagesima Sunday — the name comes from the word for seventy. It’s about seventy days before Easter. Today is Sexagesima Sunday: about 60 days until Easter. The Gospel. … Continue reading
Category: Mass and the Liturgy
The Mass Does Not Hinder Our Work, But Helps
We may go farther, and say, not only does holy Mass not hinder our work: it does more, it furthers it, as experience has often proved. It is related of St. Isidore, a Spanish saint of comparatively humble birth, that he was engaged by a wealthy nobleman of Madrid to cultivate his lands for a fixed annual salary. He fulfilled his duty with exemplary industry, but without discontinuing Continue reading
Our Lady of the Expectation, Lady of ‘O’
Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Expectation. This feast has an interesting history that Brother Andre reviewed for us this morning in his morning meditation in our chapel. In Spain, this feast day is Nuestra Senora de … Continue reading
Mary Mary, Quite Military
From the pen of the intrepid Dom Guéranger, that monkish powerhouse of Catholic piety and erudition, comes this brief rundown of the two battles in whose memory the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary was gratefully instituted: Manicheism, revived … Continue reading
Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci on Liturgy
Three days ago, I posted a notice concerning a significant book by Monsignor Brunero Gherardini. Today, I would like to give a hat tip to Carlos Antonio Palad at Rorate Caeli for making public another major monsignoral moment for tradition. … Continue reading
He Was Transfigured Before Them (Mark 9:1)
There were three occasions when Our Lord singled out Saints Peter, James the Greater, and John from among the Twelve that they might be more intimate witnesses of certain miraculous events. Each of these events was completely different from the … Continue reading
The Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
If there is one common theme in today’s Mass it is confidence: confidence in God, in the promise of the Holy Ghost which we received at Pentecost, confidence in the Church, and confidence that present difficulties can and will come … Continue reading
Delivering What We Have Received
We are still in what used to be the Octave of Corpus Christi. Even though this octave was done away with in the 1962 rubrics, its ghost still lurks about the liturgy. We will, this Friday, have the feast of … Continue reading
On the Feast of the Holy Trinity
The British author and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dorothy Sayers, once wrote a spoof catechism based upon what most people really know of their Faith. When she came to the doctrine of the Trinity she has this question and … Continue reading
Monseigneur Saint Michel
Two feasts every year. One a double major, the other a double of the first class!
Lex Orandi Lex Credendi
This ancient Latin axiom is quoted so often, I thought a little explanation of it on our web site would be helpful. A paraphrase of a longer patristic expression, the phrase means, “the law of praying is the law of … Continue reading
The Women, The Apostles, and the Tomb: Easter in Review
On Easter Sunday, during its Octave, and on the first Sunday after Easter, the Roman Missal presents us with a different Gospel reading every day. All of these relate what happened on the day of Our Lord’s triumphant Resurrection. The … Continue reading
A Yoke of Love and Peace
My thoughts are full of the recent wedding of my son. There is a great deal involved leading up to this major event: the prayerful choice of a vocation, the months of courtship, the endless details, the physical and emotional … Continue reading
Saint Joseph: The Hero of Christmas
(The following meditation on Saint Joseph was recently sent out as our Christmas Letter. I hope you enjoy it.) Contemplating a Nativity scene, we behold a divine Infant, an immaculately conceived Mother, and a foster father who somehow remains the … Continue reading