Happy New Year AD 2013!

Thanks, Rodolfo!

Mons Guido Pozzo Mass in Triest

See here from Dec. 15: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5bwqdj4zh8dnm8m/3vzTQmNVyf/Pontifikalamt%20mit%20Erzbischof%20Pozzo%20am%2015.12.2012%20in%20Triest

Thanks, Mr. Patrick Pierron!

Catholic Culture: Beeswax Candles

http://www.holyarchangelcandles.com/

Feast of St. John: Wine Blessing Day

Buon onomastico!

 BLESSING OF WINE
on the Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist (December 27)
At the end of the principal Mass on the feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, after the last Gospel, the priest, retaining all vestments except the maniple, blesses wine brought by the people. This is done in memory and in honor of St. John, who drank without any ill effects the poisoned wine offered to him by his enemies.
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: May He also be with you.
Let us pray.
If it please you, Lord God, bless + and consecrate + this vessel of wine (or any other beverage) by the power of your right hand; and grant that, through the merits of St. John, apostle and evangelist, all your faithful who drink of it may find it a help and a protection. As the blessed John drank the poisoned potion without any ill effects, so may all who today drink the blessed
wine in his honor be delivered from poisoning and similar harmful things. And as they offer themselves body and soul to you, may they obtain pardon of all their sins; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
Lord, bless + this creature drink, so that it may be a health-giving medicine to all who use it; and grant by your grace that all who taste of it may enjoy bodily and spiritual health in calling on your holy name; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
May the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son, + and Holy Spirit, come on this wine (or any other beverage) and remain always.
All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water. If the blessing is given privately outside of Mass, the priest is vested in surplice and stole and performs the ceremony as given above.

Her Britannic Majesty's Christmas Message: Jesus is the Reason for the Season

IN NATIVITATE DOMINI NOSTRI IESV CHRISTI AD SECVNDAM MISSAM IN AVRORA: Statio ad Sanctam Anastasiam

Octauo Kalendas Ianuarii. Luna undecima. Natalis sanctae Anastasiae, quae, tempore Diocletiani, primo diram et immitem custodiam a uiro suo Publio perpessa est, in qua tamen a confessore Christi Chrysogono multum consolata et confortata fuit; deinde a Floro, praefecto Illyrici, per diutinam custodiam macerata, ad ultimum, manibus et pedibus extensis, ligata est ad palos, et circa eam ignis accensus, in quo martyrium consummauit in insula Palmaria, ad quam una cum ducentis uiris et septuaginta feminis deportata fuerat, qui uariis interfectionibus martyrium celebrarunt.

Feast of St. Anastasia today.

St. Anastasia, pray for us!

Happy Christmas. Feliz Navidad. Joyeux Noel. Buon Natale. Froelich Wienachten. Felix Nativitas DNJC!

A Blessed Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

God bless you always!

Saw this statue at a dinner party tonight and thought to share it - "Light of the World" - Christus natus est!

Catholic Culture: Christmas Eve Fast

Went to a Christmas Eve party tonight and this was dinner.

Excellent.  New England clam chowder.  Perfect for Christmas Eve fast.

Pope John Paul II maintained his Christmas Eve fast every Christmas of his life.

We need to do the same.  Advent is penitential.  The party starts at midnight.

Advent Wreath

A great way to teach kids, and adults. 

Mum always had one for us each year.

INTROITVS MISSAE IN NATIVITATE D.N.I.C. AD MEDIAM NOCTEM

INTROITVS MISSAE IN NATIVITATE D.N.I.C. AD MEDIAM NOCTEM

Gift Ideas for Priests

Your priests are very busy this time of the year.

So are you.

It is not too late to drop a card in the rectory mail box with a gift subscription as a way of saying thank you to your pastors.  

Remember: it is still okay to still receive Christmas cards after Christmas!

After all, the Christmas season has only just begun.

Consider these two new ones to support and enjoy:

Convivium:

 http://www.cardus.ca/convivium/print_issues/3722/

Dorchester Review:

http://www.dorchesterreview.ca/

Catholic Culture: Kids Writing a Christmas Letter to Baby Jesus

Wisdom: Wise Men Still Seek the Star

Image from the Internet. 

Arms of Carmel on Chasuble

How it's done seen in Rome.

Roman Banner

Roman Cats

Humeral Veil

Sunday Best for the Lord's Day

Mum taught that all - even the kids - are to be dressed in Sunday best for Mass.

This has to be taught, or it will not be learned.  In the old days, people did this automatically.  Now it has to be explained to people of all ages.

Baby loves her hand made crochet.  And what better occasion to wear it?  Once a week Sunday a.m. is perfect.

Asking for Prayers for My Uncle Floyd

Today Uncle Floyd passed away.

It was lung cancer.

Please pray for the repose of his soul.

Please remember him at your Mass: Floyd Olson.

Reverend Fathers, in your charity, please offer a Requiem Mass for his eternal repose.

There is need.

THANK YOU.

Belgian Vestments

Would be great to witness a revival of this precious craftsmanship.  

Today computers can do this with ease. 

Irish Vestments

Always nice.

Wish they still made these fine treasures in Eire.

Catholic Culture: Fatima Statue in Your Home

A beautiful thing.

When you visit Fatima in Portugal you will see the most lovely statues for sale, many at a very reduced and reasonable price. 

How Do I Teach My Kids the Catholic Faith?

Simple: the same way our parents and grandparents were taught the Faith.

Since the 1880s American Catholics have been taught the Faith from this this small book.

Always worked.  Still works.  Why fix something if it ain't broken?

Buy the set here: 

https://tanbooks.benedictpress.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/371/keywords/baltimore+catechism/

Catholic Culture: Making Christmas Decorations at Home

Like grandma taught us - starched, and made from the heart. 

Annual War on Christmas

Happens every year.

Damn you if you try to set up a manger scene or even wish anybody a merry "Christ"mas.

Meanwhile the Muslim immigrants go wild with their EID celebrations and there is silence from the devil.

Christmas Catechesis for Kids

Feliz Navidad 2012

Paolo Mesto Un Santo?

A bit much if you ask yours truly.

Meanwhile, perke Pio XII (l'ultimo vero romano, diciamo) non e' ancora proclamato beato (e perke ogni cosa in Vaticano diventa politica)?!  I have a hunch this is another Bertone thing.  The Salesians - an Italian order - go wild for Paul VI.

I have a profound respect for Paul VI.

Even though he bungled a lot, I am sure he was a saintly personage.

In any event, this is a bit silly, vero?

St. Paul VI?

Since when?  I mean, c'mon, guys.  Dai ragazzi.

This idea that every dead pope of recent memory should be canonized saint needs to stop.

Let's face it, Paul VI was not a strong character.  Too much too soon and liturgical abuses such as Holy Communion in the hand in the Latin Church will be judged severely by time and generations yet to be born.

To put it simply, too many saints have been canonized in recent memory (mostly founders of religious orders because they are the only ones with enough dough to put forward the big bucks for the "costly" process).

And anybody ever ask why Leo XIII's cause was never put forward?  I can't say, but evidently it was credible.

Popes live and die.  Many are holy.  Great.  They don't all need to be proclaimed canonized saints.  Neither does every great and holy person that we know who has passed before us.

The Way It Is

"Latin Mass" in Rome

To worship in the manner of our ancestors.  

Worked for them.  Still works for us today.

The Holy Spirit was never out to lunch.

God always gets it right.

The immemorial rite of the ages brought a little piece of Rome to the corners of the world.  Still does.

Rome Scene

Remember to always pray for the dead.  Every day. 

Rome's St. Peter Inn

Nero's Twisted Ruins on Caelian Hill

You might imagine St. Peter himself walking along here, while these same arches were being constructed so as to carry water. 

Chubby Cherub with Tiara

Catholic Culture: Curia Stamp in Latin

Curia Archiepiscopalis...

Rome Quotes

"We must strengthen these convictions in ourselves if we are also to avoid another danger which the desire for reform can produce, not so much in us pastors, who are restrained by the proper awareness of our sacred duty, as in many of the faithful, who think that the reform of the Church should consist principally in adapting its way of thinking and acting to the customs and temper of the modern secular world. The fascination of worldly life today is very powerful indeed, and many people regard conformity to it as an inescapable and indeed a wise course to take. Hence, those who are not deeply rooted in the faith and in the observance of the Church's laws, readily imagine that the time is ripe to adjust themselves to worldly standards of living, on the assumption that these are the best and only possible ones for a Christian to adopt."

-Ecclesiam Suam, 48.

How to Understand Human Society and the Social Order?

Begin to read papal encyclicals.

Read here and see for yourself:

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius11/P11QUADR.HTM

Thanks, Richard!

Hotel San Pietro

A nice hotel, located across the way from the Vatican.

Nice to be so easily close to the Vatican - for early 7 am Mass at St. Peter's or to stroll St. Peter's Square in the later evening hours. 

Name That Rome Church

How well do you know Rome?

Can you  name this church?

Hint: located in the old Greek neighborhood.

With Fascist era brick work. 

Hint: the Fascists did a lot of building in this neighborhood.  

Rome Home of Alcide de Gasperi on the Old Via Boniface VIII

Patroness of Palestrina

Every town or village in Italy has a patron/patroness.

Should be the same in the rest of the world, too.  

Once yours truly was walking around Marina di Cerveteri on a crisp autumn evening which just happened to be the feast of St. Francis.

Suddenly I stumbled upon the mother of all street festivals - it was their patronal feast day.  St. Francis of Assisi is the patron of Marina di Cerveteri.  Their parish is the church of St. Francis. 

Then, to my surprise, a guy on his bike called my name.  I look up only to see a kindly man I had met in the Holy Land. 

Pilgrims' Backpack

Biretta of a Canon

Romae. 

Rome Scene

North American Seminarian Icon in Rome: Our Lady of Humility

From the little house on Humility Street, given to the North American bishops by Pius IX, of happy memory.

Rome Harley

Made in the U.S.A.

Rome Quotes

"We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred.  If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other." 

-Mother Teresa

Catholic Quebec

Nuptial Mass in Velletri, near Rome.

Catholic Singapore

Next to Catholic Peru.

Rome.

He Whose Name Was "Della Chiesa"

Romae. 

Caelian Hill (Collis Caelius)

Altar set up for Nuptial Mass. 

Baroque Altar Cards

Would be nice to see some foundry that produces metal castings, perhaps in a place like India, make again quality baroque frames for altar cards. 

Historic 1939 Journey

What is Wrong With this Picture?

1970s liturgical banner. 

Per fortuna most of this is behind us.

Some blame the last Council for ugly vestments and bad taste.  But the poor taste had been festering for years.  

Many have suggested since the end of WWI.  From Anglo-Saxon countries.

The brutality of the war ended but created a generation of fascist leaders and then idealistic intellectuals and finally expressionist artists who twisted the human form into inhuman shapes and colours in an attempt to convey their disorientation.

We see the effects in this image.  It came to touch church art.

War shatters man's sense of the natural order of things. WWI changed Europe.

A Great Pattern for Vestments

Design made in heaven.  The tilma of Blessed Juan Diego.

Once my mother designed a stole of this exact pattern as a gift for a priest.

A heavenly endorsement of the baroque?

Where to Buy Christian Christmas Cards

Heritage House: http://www.hh76.org/default.aspx?pageNum=1&groupID=111

Nelson: http://www.nelsongifts.com/catalog/card_calendar.php

Catholic to the Max: http://www.catholictothemax.com/categories.php?category=Christmas

Life Cycle Books:  http://www.lifecyclebooks.com/usa/categories/Christmas-Cards/

Modern Vestments Done Right

Empress of the Americas, pray for us!

SPQR

Christmas Gift Ideas?

Honor Pius IX of blessed memory.

http://www.thepopescologne.com/

Public Devotion Seen in Rome

Third Order Carmelite?  You never know.  

Just beautiful to see this.  

Taking a stand.  Being identified.  As Catholic. 

Grace and mercy.