17+ hour, 32+ min ago (698+ words) The winds of change have long blown through the Church and the world, and they do not seem to be diminishing. Living in Rome as I did for years taught me that when a door or window is opened, the pressure in the house shifts and other door or winder slams violently. So it is in the spiritual order. Holy Church deliberately opens the liturgical year with the unsettling eschatological discourse from Luke 21." It is as if Holy Mother is calling us back to reality from worldly distraction." She awakens, as the German commentator Joseph Z'llner wrote, Ernst (seriousness), Wachsamkeit (watchfulness) and Bu'gesinnung (a penitential spirit). This is the proper interior disposition for Advent. We do not cower. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of Christ will not pass away. (12) " Thus the priest, as is said with…...

1+ day, 22+ hour ago (1646+ words) Editor's note: join the Fellowship of St. Nicholas (in English or Espa'ol) to join traditional Catholics around the world striving to fast according to the traditional norms of our forefathers. In the first part of this essay on the Russian Trads we learned the basics of their self-identity. Now let's move on to the more real, practical aspects of Catholicism: fasting and prayer. It is with some regret that one must note a crisis regarding bodily fasting, which is observed even among traditionalists. 27.6 per cent of respondents observe minimal observance / only the obligatory minimum: "I follow only the minimum rules.I don't fast.I don't observe it at all.Sometimes I forget about Friday abstinence.I keep small personal restrictions.On Fridays and fasting days I avoid meat; at other times I try to limit myself in something.' A quarter…...

2+ day, 22+ hour ago (320+ words) The year decays, November's blastThrough leafless boughs pipes shrill and drear;With warmer love the home clasps fastThe hands, the hearts, the friends most dear. On many seas men sail the fleetOf hopes as fruitless as the foam;They roam the world with restless feet,But find no sweeter spot than home. To-day with quickened hearts they hearOld times, old voices chime and call;The dreams of many a vanished yearSit by them at this festival. Though hearts that warmed them once are cold.Though heads are hoar with winter frostThat once were bright with tangled gold "Thanks for the blessings kept or lost. Indeed, that air of decay eventually became part of Catholic institutions in the six New England States." The many closed Catholic churches that once boasted thriving congregations is only the most obvious sign of this decline,…...

3+ day, 22+ hour ago (381+ words) How could a distinguished modern university professor of philosophy believe in God, the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints? The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 abruptly ended Manuel Garc'a Morente's brilliant career. Not only did he lose all his positions and privileges, but in an environment where communism sought tyrannically to impose its own ideology, his passion for "idealist" German philosophy and "bourgeois" thinkers like Henri Bergson made him a target of the Red power. Around me'or rather, above me and independent of me'my entire life was being woven, without the slightest intervention on my part () I remained completely passive, knowing nothing of what was happening to me. As if an unknown power, absolute master of human destiny, were putting in order, without me, all that was mine. The sublime music unleashed a flood of images'all drawn from the…...

6+ day, 40+ min ago (591+ words) The Holy Father has released an apostolatic letter title "In Unitate Fidei: On the 1700th Annivesrary of the Council of Nicaea." The opening lines affirm the essence of why we should be "rigid" about Tradition: In the unity of faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy. The very concept of unity in faith is welcome to all traditionalists, as we have continually sounded the alarm that there is a sacrifice of truth for unity, as our Trad Godfather, Dietrich von Hildebrand once wrote so cogently: The valuing of unity over truth plays a central role in the crisis of the Church; for the Church of Christ'the Holy, Roman, Catholic, Apostolic Church'is based on this fundamental principle: the absolute primacy of…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (773+ words) Never has it been more necessary for Catholics to relearn the basics, deepen their grasp of doctrine, and avoid the snares of false teachers regardless of the colors of the trim on their cassocks. Nowhere is this learning so embodied, nowhere is doctrine so lived, as in sacred liturgical worship, "the perfect "good work," theologia prima. The disorders we see in the Church today arise largely from a rupture of continuity in both believing and worshipping. All true reform begins in rightly ordered worship; all apostolic action flows back into the Sacrifice. "We are our rites." Fittingly, the Collect for this final Sunday expresses this entire spiritual program in compact majesty: A literal rendering is: Rouse up, we beseech You, O Lord, the wills of Your faithful: that, pursuing more earnestly the fruit of the divine work, they may obtain…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago (248+ words) Above: a colossal statue of Carlo Borromeo erected in'Arona, Italy'in 1697. The streets which had lately been paced by penitents in sackcloth now reeled with crowds of maskers in the gaudy liveries of the world. These were evidences of a lightness and instability of purpose which wounded the heart of the saint. Great indeed was the grief with which he foretold the punishments which would shortly come upon his infatuated flock.[1] How often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? (Matthew 23:37). Then mirth was changed into mourning. The prince, in whose honour this unseasonable merry-making was held was the first to take fright and fly to Genoa in hot haste, followed by the Governor and many of the nobles, leaving the city full of dismay.[3] His final…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (1220+ words) "Admission to concerts in churches must be free of charge." Fees for Church Entrance & the Dwindling Funds for Sacred Music Some people traveling around Italy have found themselves in front of churches and basilicas that require an entrance ticket for admission and visitation. Of course, this fee is not for participation in liturgical celebrations. However, if someone wished to enter for a devout visit (that is, not purely touristic, but inspired by a spiritual desire) in order to pray before the works of art preserved in those churches, they would still have to pay an entrance fee. It is true that churches and basilicas sometimes face very high maintenance costs, so one can understand that some of them must find ways to raise the funds necessary for proper upkeep. That said, charging admission to enter a church is not without…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (258+ words) I will end this article with a quote from the great integralist thinker Cardinal Pie of Poitiers: [1] Joy, John P., "The Teaching of Quanta cura is Definitive: A Reply to Robert T. Miller" at Dialogos Institute, at www.dialogos-institute.org. [2] Schindler, David L., Heart of the World, Center of the Church: Communio Ecclesiology, Liberalism, and Liberation (United States, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996) 73, 74. [3] Miller, Robert T., "The Mortara Case and the Limits of State Power: First Things Should Disavow Fr. Cessario's Defense of Pius IX in the Mortara Case" at Public Discourse (January 11, 2018). [4] Miller, Robert T., "Why Harvard Was Right Not to Ban the Black Mass" at Public Discourse (May 22, 2014). [5] Zmirak, John "Illiberal Catholicism" at Aleteia, (December, 31, 2013). October, 2007) 15, 16. [7] Sanchez, Gabriel, "Gregg Contra Corporatism," at Opus Publicum, (October 20, 2022). [8] John Paul II, Ecclesia in America (January 22, 1999), 56. [9] Payne, G. Stanley, Palacios, Jes's, Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, (London, United…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (177+ words) And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten " Musical training " and exposure to music in general " fastens itself "to the soul. Whether it elevates the soul or drags it down further is another matter, and one in need of real discussion.I recall having lunch with a philosophy professor at a small traditional Catholic College. He said: My students are truly the best. They are largely home-schooled, well-raised, relatively well-read, and always ready to have challenging and penetrating discussions on any topic under the sun. Save one topic, of course: music. They are already so entrenched in their personal musical preferences, that they take any attempt to critically assess their taste as a personal…...