Fr. Z's Blog

UPDATED: There was a link problem.  It’s fixed. These daily 5 minute podcasts are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season. I provide these especially in gratitude to benefactors who help me and this blog. Today is the 1st Sunday of Lent. Our Lenten discipline begins in earnest.   GO TO CONFESSION! Today Benedict XVI helps us understand the root of temptations and Chesterton describes the “mob” in terms that fit our own days to a t. In these podcasts I often use snips from this lovely disc of music for Lent from the wonderful Benedictine Nuns in Missouri, at Gower Abbey. Buying their discs helps them to build their new monastery. I’m just sayin’. US HERE – UK HERE

These daily 5 minute podcasts are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season. I provide these especially in gratitude to benefactors who help me and this blog. Today is Saturday after Ash Wednesday. Our Lenten discipline begins.   GO TO CONFESSION! Today we talk about the Oratio Super Populum during Lent. In these podcasts I often use snips from this lovely disc of music: Motecta Trium Vocum.  Beautiful. US HERE – UK HERE

These daily 5 minute podcasts are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season. I provide these especially in gratitude to benefactors who help me and this blog. Today is Friday after Ash Wednesday. Our Lenten discipline begins.   GO TO CONFESSION! In these podcasts I often use snips from this lovely disc of music for Lent from the wonderful Benedictine Nuns in Missouri, at Gower Abbey. Buying their discs helps them to build their new monastery. I’m just sayin’. US HERE – UK HERE Ps 2 Quare fremuerunt. The vain efforts of persecutors against Christ and his church. [1] Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? [2] The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ. [3] Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us. [4] He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them. [5] Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage. [6] But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, preaching his commandment. [7] The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. [8] Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. [9] Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. [10] And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth. [11] Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling. [12]Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way. [13] When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, blessed are all they that trust in him. If these podcasts are useful to you and yours, perhaps you might consider making a donation.

These daily 5 minute podcasts are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season. I provide these especially in gratitude to benefactors who help me and this blog. Today is Thursday after Ash Wednesday. Our Lenten discipline begins.   GO TO CONFESSION!  

NB: FAST AND ABSTINENCE! We begin now a series of daily 5 minute podcasts for Lent.  They are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season. I provide these especially in gratitude to benefactors who help me and this blog. Today is Ash Wednesday, our Lenten discipline begins.   GO TO CONFESSION!     REMINDER:  At 6:30 PM CST, Ash Wednesday, we will have Mass at St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff WI.  A live video stream should be available.   Emendémus in mélius, quæ ignoránter peccávimus: ne, subito præoccupáti die mortis, quærámus spátium pæniténtiæ, et inveníre non póssimus. Atténde, Dómine, et miserére: quia peccávimus tibi, Adiuva nos, Deus, salutáris noster: et propter honórem nóminis tui, Dómine, líbera nos. Atténde, Dómine, V. Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto. Atténde, Dómine. Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in púlverem revertéris. Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have sinned through ignorance: lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death, we seek space for penance, and are not able to find it. Hear O Lord, and have mercy: for we have sinned against thee. Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name’s sake: O Lord deliver us. Listen, O Lord. V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost. Listen, O Lord. Remember, man, that you are dust and into dust you shall return.

And so we begin again a series of daily 5 minute podcasts for Lent.  They are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season. I provide these especially in gratitude to benefactors who help me and this blog. Today is Shrove Tuesday, a day upon which many would seek to be “shriven” before the beginning of Lent.   In other words GO TO CONFESSION! Today is also called “Fat Tuesday”.  When the discipline of Lent was more serious in the Latin Church, this was the last day you could eat animal fats, etc.   REMINDER: Tomorrow evening at 6:30 PM CST, Ash Wednesday, we will have Mass at St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff WI.  A live video stream should be available.

Gerhald Ludwig Card. Müller, former Prefect of the CDF, has issued a “Manifesto of Faith”.  It has a title reference of “Let not your heart be troubled!” (John 14:1). You can get the text HERE. The idea clearly is that many hearts are, in fact, troubled. Müller clearly explains many points of the Catholic Faith which are weakening, or being weakened, through neglect and through the irresponsibility of the Church’s clergy. It is not long and it is packed with references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  US HERE – UK HERE I’ll read the Manifesto. There are so many references to the CCC that I don’t include them in the reading. You would do very well to go through it with a copy of the CCC at hand, to check on the paragraphs and their own footnotes and references. I also rant before and after. I make a case that the content of the Faith is truly a Person. Just for fun, and in honor of a certain person, you hear some of the Credo from Striggio’s Mass for Forty Voices – yes, 40.  It is performed by I Fagiolini (“the string beans”). US HERE – UK HERE Let’s just say that before Phil Spector and the “wall of sound” there was this! UPDATE: Thus, Beans! And get this… Ladies and Gentlemen, the anti-pope. https://t.co/NpyUwNjVaV — Robert Mickens (@robinrome) February 8, 2019

The terrific and courageous Bp. Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary in Astana, has sent out for wide distribution an essay entitled The Gift of Filial Adoption The Christian Faith: the only valid and the only God-willed religion Clearly, from the title, this is a response to the poorly worded Catholic/Islamic document signed in the UAE by Francis and an imam. You will recall that that document, inter alia, so badly phrases a statement about God’s will that one could, were one to choose to, read it to mean that God willed a diversity of religions not just by His permissive will but by His active, positive will. That would be contrary to reason and the Catholic Faith. Rather than simply reproduce it, you can download it.   This is the Word document that was sent around. HERE Also, to help you out, I’ve recording a reading of it to make it easier for some of you to benefit from it.

Here is a quick PODCAzT partly to get me going again and partly because the topic really got my mind going. Today we hear from Martin Mosebach’s wondrous The Heresy of Formlessness: The Roman Liturgy and Its Enemy (Revised and Expanded Edition)  It am delighted that is in print again by the increasingly excellent Angelico Press. May I warmly urge everyone to read this important book US HERE – UK HERE Mosebach writes about the effects of ruptures in the flow of liturgy, and the moment of the sermon is one of them. This should be a point of reflection for every priest and bishop.

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is CHRISTMASCAzT 31, the Octave of Christmas. These 5 minute offerings were a token of gratitude especially for my benefactors.  Thank you! Today we hear from Joseph Ratzinger and Patrick Troadec. Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is CHRISTMASCAzT 30, 7th day in the Octave of Christmas. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude especially for my benefactors.  Thank you! Today we have Peter Kwasniewski on an important difference between active/actual participation of the faithful in the Novus Ordo and in the Traditional Latin Mass.  I read from Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages (US HERE – UK HERE)   This book has a forward by the great Martin Mosebach, author of The Heresy of Formlessness (a must read, a hard read but richly rewarding). I keep harping on the theme that: WE ARE OUR RITES.  Hence, what is offered today is important for our identity as Catholics. Also, because traditionally we sing the Te Deum on this last day of the calendar year, the year of salvation 2018, and we can gain a plenary indulgence for it’s public recitation, I offer a taste of a magnificent version from the Les Grandes heures liturgiques à Notre-Dame de Paris.  US HERE – UK HERE Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is CHRISTMASCAzT 29, Sunday in the Octave of Christmas. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude especially for my benefactors.  Thank you! Today Pope Benedict explains the ox and the ass at the manger.    You might want to look up Is 1:3, Hab 3:2 and Ex 25:18-20. Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is CHRISTMASCAzT 28, in the Octave of Christmas. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude especially for my benefactors.  Thank you! Today Fr. Troadec (US HERE (English) – UK (French original) HERE) talks about three points of meditation provided by Bossuet and Joseph Ratzinger talks about the ground of true peace: God’s glory.  You will hear some Greek chant for Christmas, Doxastikon, Glory To God In The Highest from Petros Lambadarios by the Choeur byzantin de Grèce and Lycourgos Angelopoulos. US HERE – UK HERE   You’ll hear clearly the first word: doxa… glory. Today we finish with something joyfully sad. Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is CHRISTMASCAzT 27, Holy Innocents in the Octave of Christmas. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude especially for my benefactors.  Thank you!   Today we finish with something joyfully sad. Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is CHRISTMASCAzT 26, for St.John’s Day in the Octave of Christmas. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude especially for my benefactors.  Thank you! St. John Paul II teaches that, at Christmas, adoration of the Child Jesus becomes Eucharistic adoration. . Advent and Christmas Wisdom From Pope John Paul II (Kindle Location 855). Liguori Publications. Kindle Edition. Today we hear one of the beautiful hymns of the Roman liturgy, used in the Season of Christmas, along with a bit of Greek chant. Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?