Fr. Z's PODCAzTs

We welcome as our guest... Peter Kwasniewski and an article he recently posted at LifeSite about Communion in the hand.

Not long ago, surveys from the Pew Research center uncovered that a huge number of Catholics do not believe in the Church's teaching about transubstantiation. This is so even among regular church goers. It seems to me that this could only be so among regular church goers, slightly more likely to have had a little catechesis of value, that the have seen with they own eyes for decades the lack reverence shown by priests and congregants for the Eucharist. Rather, they have not see much reverence shown for the Eucharist from priests or coreligionists. Hence, because lex orandi lex credendi, because they way we pray has a reciprocal relation with what we believe, they just don't believe that under the appearance of bread and wine we have Christ whole and entire, Body Blood Soul and Divinity. They see hosts treated casually, handled by anyone and everyone, literally handled, and they conclude that the hosts must not be that important. They hear the suboptimal music, see the cheap vestments, watch the sloppy ministry at the altar, note the fact that everyone goes to communion without a single admonishment about confession, and they conclude that the Host isn't much after all. Very many people have come to see Communion as, "they put the white thing in our hand and then we sing a song". Communion is a sign of nonjudgmental affirmation a sign that you are in the club.

A major contributor to the diving numbers who believe the Church's teaching on the Eucharist has to be distribution of Communion in the hand. The conga line style, and the gimme gesture to sticking hands out, the fact that hordes of the non-ordained themselves troop up to tabernacles and altars and take sacred vessel all diminish what should be, contrarily, built up and augmented with all possible decorum and gravity. You can't blame people for not believing. They've not been handed down what to believe and how.

At LifeSite, there is a good piece by Peter Kwasnieski dated  26 November 2019: Debunking the myth that today’s Communion in the hand revives an ancient custom

That was one of the canards raised by the innovators, a false archeologizing legitimization of protestant style Communion. They said that in the ancient church that's how it was done, hence, we should do it too. That ignores entirely the fact that, over centuries, as our understanding of the Eucharist grew, so did our rites surrounding the Eucharist. As we learned more and appreciated more and more God's gift, we adjusted our practice. So, when we see a backsliding to Communion in the hand, we know that something is not right. Moreover, Communion in the hand was not, in the ancient, as advertised.

I am going to read this article by Kwasniewski. Some of you don't have a lot of time to read. Some of you have a hard time reading. But you can listen. This information deserves wider distribution. And you can always go to the site and print the piece and hand it out.

As you listen, tune your ear for .... I'll try to mark off the quotes so they are easier to identify.

You hear in this PODCAzT the wonderful Benedictine nuns of Gower Abbey.  US HERE - UK HERE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

(ROME) In a surprise move international recording star and global warming expert ZUHLIO has emerged from retirement at the request of a subgroup of the drafting committee of the initial third working group of the Synod ("walking together) of Bishops formed to Save Amazonian Pagan Statues (SAPS).

Zuhlio, feeling the pain of so many, consented to record a sure-fire hit to make some money, of course, but also in memory of callous boosting of several Pachamama statuettes and their insensitive tossing into the Tiber River.   It is Zuhlio's hope that all will be consoled by this song.

"Don't be sad," a tearful Zuhlio told our correspondent, "Surely they've gone to a better place now.  After doing so much for so many, they can finally rest."

The official Parodohymnodist is the best!

And don't forget the hit from the last Synod ("walking together") on the Family.

UPDATE:

I figured I needed to do more, after I read that.  So, here is an old recording I made of a chaplet of the Most Holy Rosary using the Joyful Mysteries.   I didn't include the "Fatima Prayer" because there seem to be different versions in Latin (it wasn't not composed in Latin, of course).  I've heard some interesting Latin versions out there.  Hopefully, this will help.

 

Yesterday I posted a facetious story about Kukulkan coming to the Vatican... though t'aint that funny, given what we've seen lately.  That was from The Onion.

This morning I received a text... "Is this from The Onion?"

Nope... it's from CNA... no, I couldn't make this up.  Note the involvement of Jesuits:

Vatican promotes 'smart rosary,' selling for $109

Vatican City, Oct 15, 2019 / 09:44 am (CNA).- The Vatican promoted the launch of a ‘smart rosary’ bracelet Tuesday compatible with an iOS and Android app, which costs over $100.

“In a world of indifference and in the face of so many injustices, poverty, elementary rights denied, praying for peace in the world means reconciling ourselves in our daily relationships, with the poorest, with the stranger, with different cultures and spiritual and religious traditions, but also with our land, our forests, our rivers and oceans,” Fr. Frédéric Fornos, SJ said in a press release sent by the Holy See Press Office Oct. 14. [The Press Office, yet.  So someone is backing this.  Wonder why?]

“The rosary is a beautiful spiritual tradition for contemplating the Gospel with Mary, it is a simple and humble prayer,” he said.

The “eRosary” bracelet is activated by making the sign of the cross, and is synced to an app, “Click to Pray eRosary” that tracks the user’s progress and contains visual aids and audio reflections on the mysteries of the rosary. [And what might they include?  How do the want to form people's prayer of the Rosary?]

The bluetooth and water-resistant digital rosary is currently available for pre-order sale on Amazon.it for 99 euros, roughly $109. It is sold by “Click to Pray” -- an initiative of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.  [Hmmm... who are they, I wonder.]

Taiwan-based tech company GadgTek Inc (GTI) developed the “smart rosary” for the initiative.

Pope Francis launched the “Click to Pray” smartphone app in an Angelus address in January 2019, encouraging young people to download the app to pray the “Rosary of Peace.”

Among the “exclusive images and personalized content about the praying of the Rosary” contained in the app is a “themed” rosary option. Themes will include Laudato Si, migrants and refugees, vocations, and young people. [Nothing about the Amazon?]

“Aimed at the peripheral frontiers of the digital world where the young people dwell, the Click To Pray eRosary serves as a technology-based pedagogy to teach the young how to pray the Rosary, how to pray it for peace, how to contemplate the Gospel,” the Click to Pray press release said.  [Why promote people teaching people to pray the Rosary when you can have a environment themed app do it?]

Our mission is the truth. Join us!

Truth, huh?  How about some Veritatis splendor?  Oh, right... that's not fashionable anymore.

Laudato si theme?  Migrants and refugees theme?

Periferal frontiers?

I'll tell you who the perifery is now.  Traditional Catholics who don't want trendy themes constantly shoved down their throats.

I'm surprised that the Jesuit homosexualist activist lobby wasn't able to insert a sodomy theme in there.

eRosary?

How about this?   How about a Rosary that already has themes... perhaps the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries?

I call it...

rEalRosary

 

And it's already water-resistant.  WARNING: It is not tears resistant.

You can get one of these.  They are tough and practical.

You can get one of these.  They are beautiful and bequeathable.

I don't remember the exact locus of the image, perhaps The Lord of the Rings.  I am reminded of the image of a slug crawling across a beautiful lily.

The tech involved is just tech, I know.  Tech is neutral. But the Rosary already has its tech.

It's called "a Rosary".

In fact, a properly blessed Rosary.  What we call, in fact, The Most Holy Rosary.

Today I go back to 8 October 2019 and a piece by Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap., at The Catholic Thing: Pope Francis and Schism.   This is important.

Last night I heard at the official presentation of the book length interview Christus Vincit by Bp. Athanasius Schneider a talk by Roberto de Mattei about the role of lay people in The Present Crisis.  These fit together hand in glove.

So, I will read for you Fr. Weinandy's piece and give a brief summary of de Mattei's main points.   I could bring in a lot more, but this is enough for now.

I am sure you are starting to see signs everywhere.

Today's Roman Sunrise 17:19, Sunset 18:33.  The Ave Maria is fixed these days at 18:45.

Yesterday was about as perfect a Sunday as one could desire.  Not only was John Henry Newman canonized, but the weather was magnificent, everything one wants from an October day in Rome.  Mass was said, prayers recited, lunch obtained, time shared with a friend, an evening stroll was had, really bad sketches were attempted.

The only fly in the ointment was a laundry glitch.   I have no idea how this happened.  An enemy, perhaps, hath done it.   I washed my white beneath cassock shirts together with an entirely incompatible black ink pen.   Think 101 Dalmatians.   So, the next day I am still into spot treating and more washings.   I have almost every damned spot out.   How that pen came to be in that washing machine I cannot fathom.

Some sights from the day.  The Great Roman™ leading the congregation in the Rosary and Litany.

This is what it sounds like in this Roman church.  Let's hear the 5th Glorious Mystery and the Litany of Loreto.  It is the custom in Italy to say the Marian Litany after the Rosary.   It was mostly men, and young men too, saying the Rosary.   None of this weak-ass mealy-mouthed, cringe-worthy "pious voice".   And note the pace of the Litany.

Let's go straight to lunch.   Here are some fettucine with guanciale, artichoke, pecorino and mint.  Wow.

Ricciola (a fish) in cartoccio.

With both of these we had a wine I'd never experienced.  A dry Moscato di Terracina.  The Roman perked up when he saw it on the list, so it was a must try.

And for dessert... no, really, it was on the dessert menu ... ajo e ojo!

Believe me, aglio olio e pepperoncino is not easy to make.   Usually something is out of balance.  Otherwise, you wind up with a lake of oil in the bowl, which is just plain sloppy cooking.   True ajo e ojo should have slightly creamy finish, which is tricky to attain, almost as if butter was involved... but it isn't.  It comes from handling the dry pasta properly and... a secret.

I asked the chef (an instructor for Gambero Rosso) what he did and he revealed his technique.

Moving on, I saw a couple churches which are usually closed.  The first opens one day a month.  It is a little church dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria on the Piazza di Santa Caterina della Rota, and is the seat of a confraternity of men who once carried the sedia gestatoria of the Popes, the Palafrenieri.

This was originally called Santa Maria in Catarina and variations of that last, perhaps riffing on the word for "chain" since there were prisons nearby and, connected, there was a hospital for those who were ransomed from Islamic slavery.   They would leave their chains as ex voto offerings. It's an old parish, dating back to Urban III in 1186.    The present structure is baroque.

Some of the confrat gear.

Next, on the way to Mass, the little church of the Confraternity of the Butchers was open at the Piazza della Quercia (Oak Tree - to the left).

It's a little jewel, well maintained.

The TMSM must get a real faldstool.

Beautiful reliquaries.

The standard the butchers would carry in procession.  This is a Roman word, Beccai, for Macellai.

These guys were quite prestigious back in the day.  There were various "universities", like guilds, which participated in the governance of the City.  They also developed confraternities, which still exist, though the old guilds are long done away with.   The Butchers were famed for their surrounding and defense of an important image of Mary which was carried in processions.  Such was their service that Sixtus V gave them the privilege of freeing a prisoner condemned to death once a year, on 15 August.  Among those freed was certified wild child artist Benvenuto Cellini.

Here is the stone.  You should be able to right-click it for a larger version.

Some relics.

Some very fine intercessors.

Mere days after Francis granted an audience to Jesuit Homosexualist Activist James Martin for a photo op, the same Francis sat in the Vatican gardens in front of a S. American totem of what very much appears to be a man ... ready for sex.  HERE

On the other hand, some say that, from a different angle, what is protruding is an arm.  HERE

You decide.  I might add, does anyone think of the optics of these moments?  Is there no one who walks around it and says, "No... that's not gonna fly!"?

Whether Francis knew that his schedule was going to include the premier homosexualist in the Church on that day, or whether he knew what sort of pagan idols and other B as in B, S as in S, he was going to witness venerated or not... it's beside the point.

Someone close to Francis wants this sort of thing to happen.

The context is at CNS.   It is horrible reading.  HERE

It was a pagan ceremony in the Vatican gardens.  There's no way around it.

Nearby, a while back, Francis stood by at the planting of a "peace tree" during which an imam prayed a prayer associated with claiming territory for Islam.  Yes, really.  HERE

It may be that Francis was shocked at what he saw.  He put aside his prepared remarks and merely said an Our Father.

I would have said a hell of lot more than that.

On the eve of the Synod ("walking together").   What was it we read about in Windswept House before Vatican II.  US HERE – UK HERE

My mind is free associating of course.  Jet lag, you know.  But wasn't there some sort of ceremony?  Memory escapes me.

Ceremony... important meeting heralding upheaval...

Can't shake it.

UPDATE:

I guess you can shake it.  Watch this.   HERE

https://zuhlsdorf.computer/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/19_10_04_Pagan_Vatican_Garden_Amazon_01.mp4

There are many devotions we can use before the Synod.   However, since it is a 1st Friday, perhaps you might use the Way of the Cross.

Here also are a few of my audio projects of the Way of the Cross.

On 1st Fridays, do please pray the Act of Reparation.

What we need right now is PRAYER, especially now.

And remember to GO TO CONFESSION!

For priests, especially, try The Way Of The Cross For Priests from the Benedictines of Silverstream Priory.  HERE.  Would you consider getting copies of this for your priests where you are?  Lay people: pray it for priests.

Below are readings of the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, composed by

Joseph Card. Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, for the 2005 Good Friday observance at the Colosseum in Rome

St. Alphonus Liguori

Bl. John Henry Newman

There are two versions of the Way by St. Alphonsus Liguori. One is plain with just my voice. The other is the same voice recording but with the Gregorian chant Sequence Stabat Mater interlaced between the stations.

You can gain a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions of confession and Communion within a few days of the work and detachment even from venial sin.  From the Handbook of Indulgences:

63. Exercise of the Way of the Cross (Viae Crucis exercitium)

A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful, who make the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross.

The gaining of the plenary indulgence is regulated by the following norms:

The pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of the Cross legitimately erected.

For the erection of the Way of the Cross fourteen crosses are required, to which it is customary to add fourteen pictures or images, which represent the stations of Jerusalem.

According to the more common practice, the pious exercise consists of fourteen pious readings, to which some vocal prayers are added. However, nothing more is required than a pious meditation on the Passion and Death of the Lord, which need not be a particular consideration of the individual mysteries of the stations.

A movement from one station to the next is required.

I believe that if you follow the Holy Father's Way of the Cross on Good Friday, even by television, the indulgence is available.

If the pious exercise is made publicly and if it is not possible for all taking part to go in an orderly way from station to station, it suffices if at least the one conducting the exercise goes from station to station, the others remaining in their place.

Those who are "impeded" can gain the same indulgence, if they spend at least one half an hour in pious reading and meditation on the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For those belonging to Eastern Rites, among whom this pious exercise is not practiced, the respective Patriarchs can determine some other pious exercise in memory of the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ for the gaining of this indulgence.

Meanwhile, from a reader last year...

Just a quick note to say thank you for providing your recordings of the Stations of the Cross. I am completely blind and had committed to making this part of my Lenten practices, only to have the Braille display from which I read promptly die. I had been struggling to find a recording of St. Alphonsus' version. May God bless you!

If these recordings are helpful to you, please say a prayer for me, especially if you use the Way Of The Cross For Priests.

UPDATE:

I read the prayer this morning.  It is a powerful prayer, to be sure.  I hope other priests today will do the same, even if they are late to this post.

Originally Published on: Sep 28, 2019 @ 01:06

I received an email today which must share.

I am writing to let you know of an initiative taking place in Rome tomorrow. It being the Vigil of Michaelmas, various priests will be coming to a church near ___ and privately praying Leo XIII's Prayer of Exorcism (the so-called long prayer to St Michael). The prayer will be made with the intention of expelling diabolical influence from the Vatican, especially in view of the Amazonian synod.

Although I'm not in Rome, I'll be reciting the same prayer privately, and thought that some of you might like to know about the initiative, in case you wish to do the same.

It will take place at around 1530 Roman time, which is 1430 British time and 0930 am in the Eastern USA.

Thanks for this. What a great idea.  This is Chapter 3 of Title XI.

Priests now can recite this privately without special permission.  That is not what it will say in your old Rituale.  The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" wrote in 2018 to Bp. Dewayne of Venice, FL, that "this prayer should not be used publicly or privately over persons without express permission of the local Ordinary. Further, public use over places or objects is also prohibited without the permission of the Ordinary.  The prayer may be said privately by priests as part of their personal prayer."  This draws on the 29 Sept 1985 letter from the CDF concerning exorcisms.

This prayer can be prayed over places, etc., specifically as rite of exorcism, but that would require the permission of the local Ordinary (in this case, the Bishop of Rome or his Vicar).  This, on the other hand, is private recitation by priests who happen to have gathered in the same place - and they can be in other places, too - for the sake of praying against demonic influence in the Vatican.

And who can doubt that the Devil is constantly on the attack?  And who can doubt that prayer against the Devil's attack by priests is a good thing?

I would only add three caveats.

First, if the priests gather in the same place, they can pray the prayer individually, which keeps it private, rather than together, aloud, as a group, which goes beyond private. Also, this shouldn't be when and where the public can walk in.

I've posted before that I made recordings of the Latin of Chapter 3, the long Prayer to St. Michael for the use of priests and bishops to work on their pronunciation. HERE

Laypeople.  I really think it best that you not use that prayer.  Instead, I urge you to pray the beautiful Lorica of St. Patrick.

PRAYERCAzT: The Lorica of St. Patrick - text and recording

Comment moderation is ON.

UPDATE:

I can picture this.

[Scene, a Roman street, with a church facade, not far from the Vatican.]  

A youngish sacristan opens the church a half hour before the customary 4:00 afternoon opening.  He glances up and down the street, eyes fixing on this and that. Raising his mobile phone, he taps for a moment, pockets it and withdraws into the church.

A minute or two later, cassock and saturno clad priests emerge as if casually from around corners, rosaries in one hand, black satchels in the other. With glances up and down the street, looking perhaps for traffic rather than for tails or watchers, they make their way into the church, tipping their hats to passersby who greet or insult them, to fellow clerics whose route they share.

Within the church the sacristan bustles to switch on lights and light candles at the main altar. A beautiful devotional painting of St. Michael the Archangel is already enthroned at the altar rail with votives aflame.

A priest exposes the Blessed Sacrament, the requisite prayers are sung, swelling as more priests enter, perform their double genuflection, and take a pew.

We’ll explore this time the Latin of the Last Rites in the Traditional form.

There is enough evidence that Latin is more effective in our Rite than the vernacular, that the use of Latin, often, is warranted. It would be warranted in any event because it is the official language of the sacred liturgical worship of the Roman Catholic Church. From time to time I have lamented the blatant disobedience in regard to can. 249?

I remind the readership, especially those readers who are diocesan bishops, that the Code of Canon Law, can. 249, requires – it doesn’t suggest or recommend or propose, but requires – that seminarians be “very well skilled” in the Latin language:

I recently had the opportunity to administer the last sacraments to a man deeply committed to the traditional practice of the faith. He wanted the traditional rites and he wanted them in Latin. When I was in his presence, I queried again, and he affirmed that he wanted everything in Latin, even parts that could be done in English. Hence, I absolved him in Latin, anointed him in Latin, and gave him Viaticum in Latin.

On the drive home it occurred that some priests out there might benefit from a recording of the Latin of these rites, just I have made recordings of the Latin of other rites, such as parts of Holy Mass, the Blessing of Water, forms of absolution in both forms, the obligatory Latin parts in a traditional baptism, and so forth. So, why not these rites as well? I’ve done the forms of absolution for the sacrament of penance in the pre-conciliar and post conciliar forms in another podcast, but I’ll say them again here.

The book I will use is the Parish Ritual of 1962, recently reprinted.  US HERE - UK HERE

I toss in some helpful pointers for young guys, such as anointing the backs of the hands of priests, rather than the palms, as you do for lay people. I make distinctions about the sacraments of the living and sacraments of the dead.  Anointing is a sacrament of the living. Therefore it is to be received in the state of grace, except in the case wherein it is impossible to hear the confession of and absolve a person.

I read the Latin deliberately, without trying to be fluid or natural. This is intended as an instructional recording, to help young priests and seminarians with Latin.

Note the pattern of the rite.  The first thing that always happens is the expulsion of the Devil.  Then the sanctification part can begin.  This is the constant pattern of our rites, whether it is the cleansing of the priest's lips before reading the Gospel or the exorcism of salt and water or of a church building before consecration.

The hymn you hear, if you are interested, is from the New English Hymnal - so it's Anglican and perhaps used in the Ordinariate - ? - "Thou To Whom The Sick And Dying" sung by the Edmundsbury Cathedral Choir.  There is a series from great choirs around the UK to record all the hymns of that hymnal.  I have some of them, thanks to the kindness of readers in the past who checked my wish list.  I am still missing some of the series.

Dante can provide wisdom on most of the troubles of our lives.   His wisdom pops up just about anywhere and in timely fashion.

Thus, a wise and respected friend was lunching in Florence in the shadow of the Duomo today and, lunching, captured this image which, in advance of the upcoming Amazonian Synod - or, perhaps a future consistory or even conclave? - provided food for thought together with the darn good food for the body.

What's going on here?

Dante is in the Sphere of Mars in the Fifth Heaven.  He is conversing with Cacciaguida, related to Dante's family, about the situation in Florence.  Cacciaguida blames several families for the corruption of Florence.  When you go about in Florence, by the way, you occasionally spot these plaques from the 1920s with Cacciaguida's thoughts about these corrupting families at the places where they once lived.

With a substitution or two, it's apt.

Così facieno i padri di coloro

che, sempre che la vostra chiesa vaca,

si fanno grassi stando a consistoro.

L'oltracotata schiatta che s'indraca

dietro a chi fugge, e a chi mostra 'l dente

o ver la borsa, com' agnel si placa, ...

"So did the fathers of those

Who, when a vacancy comes in your church,

Fatten by stalling in the consistory.

"The overweening breed that plays the dragon

To one who runs off, but to one who shows

His teeth — or purse — is docile as a lamb....

https://zuhlsdorf.computer/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/dante_par_16_112_01.mp3

For the record, the lunch included vitella tonnata and Vermentino.  A good combination, well chosen.

If you have never read the Divine Comedy, you should.  You could start with Anthony Esolen's excellent translation (Part 1, Inferno US HERE – UK HERE) or perhaps with Dorothy Sayer’s fine version (Part 1, Inferno, US HERE – UK HERE).  There are many renderings to choose from.  I would very much like to teach on Dante someday.  Maybe it’ll happen.

When you make the life-changing choice to read the Divine Comedy, here are a couple tips.  First and foremost, make the decision that you will read the whole thing.  Don’t read just the Inferno.  The really great stuff comes in Purgatorio and Paradiso.

Also, read through a canto to get the line of thought and story and then go back over it looking at the notes in your edition.

Dante was, perhaps, the last guy who knew everything (with the possible exception of Erasmus).  Each Canto is dense with references.  You will need notes to help with the history, philosophy, cosmology, poetic theory, politics, theology, etc.  Really.  You will need help.