Fr. Z's Blog

This year I once again offer a short daily podcast to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 12, for the 2nd Thursday of Advent. PS: One of the music cuts I used in the making of this podcast is from Corpus Christi Watershed. It is by Kevin Allen. HERE PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. PPPS: Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading? Share/Bookmark

This year I once again offer a short daily podcast to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 11, for the 2nd Wednesday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. PPPS: Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading? Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 10, for the 2nd Tuesday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 09, for the 2nd Monday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 08, for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 07, for the 1st Saturday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 06, for the 1st Friday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 05, for the 1st Thursday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 04, for the 1st Wednesday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 03, for the 1st Tuesday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. PPS: I think these are available through my iTunes feed. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 02, for the 1st Monday of Advent. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. Share/Bookmark

This year I will do for Advent what did last year: make a short daily podcast to help your preparation for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. These are especially offered as a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! And so, here is ADVENTCAzT 01, for the 1st Sunday of Advent. People may ask about the version of O Come, O Come Emanuel I used.  It is sung by the Benedictines Mary, Queen of Apostles.  It is on their CD of Advent music… yes… music for ADVENT.  It is ADVENT. Wanna know more? Click HERE. PS: My stat counter for this plug is massively screwed up.  Chime in if you listened. Share/Bookmark

At the time of this writing it is still the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, aka the 18th Sunday after Pentecost in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. It has been just a few days since the release of The Big Interview with Pope Francis. In today’s PODCAzT, I give you a taste of St. Augustine of Hippo’s monumental sermon 46, “De pastoribus… On pastors“.  Augustine explores Ezechiel’s comments on the shepherds of the Lord’s flock.  The portion of Augustine I drill into, with an introduction about Donatism, is taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for this Sunday’s Office of Readings. What I call: The biography of Augustine Pope Benedict would have wanted to write. One of the things that Augustine (and I) stresses in the Donatist heresy, that lead to the schism of a false church of the “pure”, is the materialistic error about sacraments. Their heresy lead to schism, a sanctimonius pitting of altar against altar. By coincidence, there is overlap with the Scripture readings from today’s Mass in the Extraordinary Form and the Office of Readings in the Ordinary Form, as will become plain. Finally, I offer my sermon for the Extraordinary Form Mass I celebrated this day, the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, 2013. I talk about reactions to Pope Francis and about what adjustments we are going to have to make and why. WARNING: Sometimes, I don’t know why, the podcast just stops. What I have done, is simply scroll to the end to help the whole thing download. You can download it, too. The "Kyrie" was from this album, from the Canons at Sant'Antimo - CLICK Share/Bookmark

I have wanted to do this for some time. Today we have as our guest, Pope John XXIII. I read for you the whole of John’s address to the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a speech called Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, of 11 October 1962. We hear a little of the Latin too! The whole speech is imbued with a sense of hope and optimism. John describes the situation of the Church in the modern world as he saw it the. He spoke about how the Council was announced. He describes in poetic terms what it felt like to be there in that moment, in the Vatican Basilica. The most important thing he said, however, was The manner in which sacred doctrine is spread, this having been established, it becomes clear how much is expected from the Council in regard to doctrine. That is, the Twenty-first Ecumenical Council, which will draw upon the effective and important wealth of juridical, liturgical, apostolic, and administrative experiences, wishes to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion, which throughout twenty centuries, notwithstanding difficulties and contrasts, has become the common patrimony of men. It is a patrimony not well received by all, but always a rich treasure available to men of good will. Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us, pursuing thus the path which the Church has followed for twenty centuries. [...] … But from the renewed, serene, and tranquil adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness, as it still shines forth in the Acts of the Council of Trent and First Vatican Council, the Christian, Catholic, and apostolic spirit of the whole world expects a step forward toward a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciousness in faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another. And it is the latter that must be taken into great consideration with patience if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a magisterium which is predominantly pastoral in character. He goes on to speak about how in dealing with errors in the past, the Church had often issued severe condemnations.  Now, however, “the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.” Decide for yourselves how well that has worked. Also, I found noteworthy for consideration in our own time: She consider that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations Not, certainly, that there is a lack of fallacious teaching, opinions, and dangerous concepts to be guarded against an dissipated. But these are so obviously in contrast with the right norm of honesty, and have produced such lethal fruits that by now it would seem that men of themselves are inclined to condemn them, particularly those ways of life which despise God and His law or place excessive confidence in technical progress and a well-being based exclusively on the comforts of life. They are ever more deeply convinced of the paramount dignity of the human person and of his perfection as well as of the duties which that implies. Even more important, experience has taught men that violence inflicted on others, the might of arms, and political domination, are of no help at all in finding a happy solution to the grave problems which afflict them. John’s speech rings with optimism about human nature. If you have troubles listening through the imbeded player, which is a little twitchy, you can download it here or from iTunes. Share/Bookmark

Today marks 25 years since Joseph Card. Ratzinger gave a famous address in Santiago, Chile to the Chilean bishops. Context: In the months immediately preceding this address, Archbp,  Marcel Lefebvre of the SSPX had signed an agreement with the Holy See, represented by Card. Ratzinger. Lefebvre abjured his agreement the next day. Then on 30 June 1988 Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the permission of the Holy See, thus incurring a latae sententiae excommunication. That communication would eventually be lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger. Here is an English translation of the text of Card. Ratzinger’s address to the Chilean bishops on 13 July 1988. Then I rant for awhile about the Second Vatican Council as a “superdogma” and about the Biological Solution (a phrase which liberals find appalling – because they have guilty consciences) and about why aging-hippies (in the USA at least) are the way they are. I find Ratzinger’s description of the post-Conciliar “desacralization” an excellent description of what happened in the Church and why. For the music I found a bit of Chilean charango and then an adaptation of … well…you’ll find out. Hint: Here comes trouble! (Which I am sure I will be in as soon as I post this PODCAzT!) There is a lot about the SSPX in the text, but I want to steer you to Ratzinger’s deeper points.  Let’s avoid the fever swamp. UPDATE: Some are reporting trouble with the embedded player.  It now works for me. You can get the PODCAzT through iTunes and you can download it using the links. Share/Bookmark