The Old Container and the Leaking Sieve
Roger Buck, the author of a pair of charming books featuring a character called “The Gentle Traditionalist” (see here, here, and here), runs a YouTube channel on which may be found a (to my mind) classic episode called “(Catholic) Nectar in a Sieve.” He uses the metaphor of a sieve to explain how it is […]
The Italian Baroque Marian Music of Easter
This month marks 450 years of the Bull Monet Apostolus of Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni († 1585), with which, on April 1, 1573, the worthy successor of Pope St. Pius V († 1572) instituted the solemn feast of the Rosary (festum sollemne sub nuncupatione Rosarii), to be celebrated every year on the first Sunday of October.[1] Following […]
Lucky Indeed to Suffer for the Church
Joyfully Proclaiming the Word of Christ No Matter the Circumstances On March 25, 2023, the Feast of the Annunciation, a group of 100 Catholics embarked on a pilgrimage of penance, prayer, and thanksgiving between the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, VA and the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. – […]
Low Sunday: Quasimodo geniti infantes
We have been celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord for the period of the Octave. We’ve stopped the liturgical clock so that we can rest in the mystery, so that we can contemplate it from different angles, especially in the Office and in the Mass formulas each day. We passed through the preparatory seasons of […]
The FBI Targets the SSPX
Recently it has emerged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had planned a bit of a fishing expedition in Richmond, Virginia, in an apparent attempt to see if any unsavoury or seditious anti-American activity was afoot in one of Marcel Lefebvre’s chapels. Of course, I would imagine that the heresy of Americanism is not […]
Vatican II Failed, Not the Church
Above: Pope Julius II “the Warrior Pope” who convoked the failed ecumenical council, Lateran V. Portrait by Raphael. Here is a counterfactual for you. The year is 1545, and the Catholic Church is in shambles. The Protestant revolt has spread across Germany, France, Scandinavia, and into Eastern Europe. Violent uprisings against the established order during […]
Can We Call Ourselves “Traditional Catholics”?
Painting: “A Mass Scene” by José Miralles Darmanin (1851–1900). Some people object to the phrase “traditional Catholic,” as if it were redundant: Aren’t Catholics by definition adherents of Catholic tradition—and thus, any Roman Catholic has as much right to be called “traditional” as he has to be called “Roman”? How sweet it would be if […]
The Musical Symphony of a Papal Encyclical
Above: Pope John XXIII at a celebration of the Greek rite in 1961. Sixty years ago today, on April 11, 1963, Pope John XXIII († 1963), two months before his death, signed his eighth and last encyclical, “on establishing universal peace in truth, justice, charity, and liberty”: the Pacem in terris. This of course was in […]
History of Paschaltide
Photo by Allison Girone We give the name of Paschal Time to the period between Easter Sunday and the Saturday following Whit Sunday. It is the most sacred portion of the Liturgical Year, and the one towards which the whole Cycle converges. We shall easily understand how this is, if we reflect upon the greatness […]
Easter Sunday: Azymoi!
Our task this year is to look at the first reading of Holy Mass in the Vetus Ordo, usually from one of the Epistles and most commonly from a Pauline Epistle. For Easter Sunday we have a brief reading – not surprising after the last few super-charged liturgical marathon days – from the Apostle to […]