Fr. Z's PODCAzTs

Welcome to the 15th edition of News of the Church.

It’s 15 June 2025 and it is Trinity Sunday, most feasts tell us what God does, but this one tells who God is. Some time ago, I saw a movie called News of the World. in the movie, years after the Civil War, a former confederate officer travels from town to and town and reads aloud stories from different newspapers. He scratches out a living as a gazetteer. People pay a dime .10c a head to listen, which is about $2.50 today. The idea of a wandering gazetteer caught my imagination and here I am, a gazetteer for you.

00:14 Init

Today is Saturday in the Octave of Pentecost, or at least it ought to be in in the Novus Ordo as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar. 

This is the sixth and final PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave. 

Sermon 80 of St. Leo the Great (+442), was preached on one of the fast days in the week after Pentecost. It is incredibly short, so we hear it in its entirety in English first and then in Latin.  I give some pointers for how to listen to both the English and what to listen for in the Latin as well.

Please forgive me for a slip… I forget what century we are presently in.  Oh well…

Then, I just ramble.  More than I usually do, that is.  I wasn’t even going to make this PODCAzT today, but at the last said… what the heck.  So, I look around at the books on my desk and pick things up and just start talking, and creating links between them and what pops into my mind.  This is a bit of an experiment.

For music, we have Come, Holy Ghost from the Choir of Queen’s College, Oxford, then O, Come Holy Spirit by the King’s Consort, then Veni Creator Spiritus by a whole bunch of Franciscans.  Toward the end we hear Veni Sancte Spiritus again from Queen’s College. To wrap it up, Veni Sancte Spiritus, the whole thing, the Sequence in Gregorian Chant sung by the Norbertines at Sant’Antimo in Italy. 

as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar.

This is the fifth PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave. 

Thanks to your feedback for the last couple days.  Stats dropped yesterday, so this may be the last one.

Today we will look at some customs associated with Pentecost, very beautiful.  These customs informed the rhythm of people’s lives for centuries.

Then we will drill into the image of the dew of the Holy Spirit (which some bishops sadly think people are too thick to understand and therefore want to eliminate the image from liturgical translations…).  To help we enlist the help of a very wise Bishop, the great Ambrose of Milan (+397) who always tried to explain hard things to his people rather than make them out to be too stupid to get the point.  Ambrose wrote a work On the Holy Spirit in which he explains the dew that descended on Gideon’s fleece in the Book of Judges.  So, we will hear Judges 6 and 7 and then Ambrose allegorical commentary.  Fascinating stuff, I can tell you.

This reading from Scripture and the patristic commentary, gives you a sense of how some of the Father’s worked with Scripture and how their reflections can be useful for us today.

Of course, I have lots of comments along the way.

For music, we have an antiphon for Pentecost in Gregorian chant, and a bitter sweet song Dancing at Whitsun, a folk song, which speaks of the rhythm of our lives and the challenges we endure.  There is a Fastasia super Kom, Heiliger Geist BWV 651 by J.S. Bach on the pipe organ, which Holy Church recommends above all other instruments.  We hear a haunting Byzantine Communion for mid-Pentecost, in other words this very week and at the end a real change of pace, which you can listen to yourselves.

From 15 May 2008:

This is the fourth PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave.

Today we learn what St. Leo the Great (+461) thought about the fasting Christians should engage in after Pentecost, in other words on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this very week! These are our Ember Day’s those beautiful days which helped Catholics for may centuries regulate the rhythm of their lives in the consecration of the seasons of the year, and learn to use God’s creation with moderation. Leo has a fascinating insight about how we cannot truly be Christians, in a deeper sense, without fasting and almsgiving. These two necessary practices, shape in inner man in Wisdom…Sapientia.

Then we hear the Pentecost sermon of Pope Benedict XVI, [once] gloriously reigning. He speaks about the diversity of our Church which must, as a necessary characteristic have unity, without which a group cannot truly be called a Church. This has ecumenical implications, bet on it!

Of course, I have lots of comments along the way.

For music, there is a festive paschal Alleluia from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, just to remind us of the connection of Easter and Pentecost. We have some Gregorian chant from the Monastery of Sant’Antimo is Tuscany, an Alleluia: Veni Sancte Spiritus and also the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is one of my very favorite of all the chants of the year. Also, there is a text of Hildegard von Bingen, an O Sapientia. Moreover, Thomas Tallis‘s Loquebantur variis linguis helps us stay focused on what this Octave is about.

Finally, we have a prayer invoking the help of the Holy Spirit, appropriate in this Octave of Pentecost.

This is the third PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave.

Today we learn about what Ember Day’s are, these beautiful days which helped Catholics for may centuries regulate the rhythm of their lives in the consecration of the seasons of the year, and learn to use God’s creation with moderation. 

Then we hear from St. John Chrysostom (+407) on the choice of St. Matthias to replace Judas who had fallen away.  I have comments about bishops.

Finally, we hear a marvelous old prayer invoking the help of the Holy Spirit, appropriate in this Octave of Pentecost.

ORIGINAL NOTES: Today is Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, or at least it ought to be in in the Novus Ordo as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar.

Today we dig into John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit Dominum et vivificantem and what he teaches about the unforgivable sin, “blasphemy” against the Holy Spirit. I add digressions, including one the self-enclosed circle created in versus populum worship rather than the opening out to the coming of the Lord in ad orientem worship. Then we hear Our Lady of Fatima, on this her feast day. We hear Lucia’s description of the vision of Hell, which Our Lady showed the children.

ORIGINAL NOTES:

I dig in to what a liturgical Octave, is adding my own comments.

The we hear from the great St. Augustine (+430) on the feast of Pentecost, preaching on 12 June 412. He has interesting wine imagery and talks about what it means to be a living member of the Body of Christ.

An audio “gazette” of Catholic things.

00:14 - Init

In this PODCAzT I dissect the Pentecost Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus, also used during the Octave of Pentecost in the traditional Roman calendar.

I give you some background on what a sequence is, what an octave is and then we start drilling.

First we hear the Latin text and a good translation.   Then see start looking at the structure of the prayer.

That is when things get interesting.  I found a few things I had never noticed.

An audio “gazette” of Catholic things.

00:14 - Init