"Saint Philip! I have never known
A saint as I know thee;
For none have made their wills and ways
So plain for men to see!"
F. Faber: St. Philip's Picture (19th cent.).
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The American seminarian in Rome...
You know he's from the Pont. North American College when you see a cleric in a cassock leading a jam session of praise and worship on the streets of Rome.
ROMA = AMOR
"There are many other things which rightly keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me, her authority keeps me, inaugurated by miracles, nourished in hope, enlarged by love, and established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, from the very chair of the apostle Peter (to whom the Lord after His resurrection gave charge to feed His sheep) down to the present episcopate."
St. Augustine: Contra Epistolam Manichaei (4th cent).
Cardinal Ottaviani: breadth and depth of a saint...
Charisma of leadership is always essential. He had it and others envied him for it. He saw that Europe was a Christian category. But he also saw and knew others who planned the demise of this category and the danger of freelance attempts at reform.
The European commonwealth today is pagan. Cardinal Ottaviani died in 1979. Lacking the necessary leadership mediation from hierarchial government, in these recent years the Catholic voice has been vulnerable to distortion and chaotic misinterpretation.
The recourse of the centuries has always been to the theology of the Church. We have a hereditary task as Catholics to PROTECT and PRESERVE the framework of our theology as the Chruch has given it to us.
The tomb of Cardinal Ottaviani...
Al Card. Ottaviani was a born leader. It is said that his gift was to get those around him to perform at the top of their talent. He was resilient and energizing and even inspires us from the grave.The cultural revolution overwhelmed many Catholics of that epoch. Having been schooled in the history of the Church, His Eminence saw this unsurpassable tidal wave coming and so he did what all good helmsmen do, he shouted: "To the Alamo and let the games begin!"
The killjoy enemies of the Church are many. Everything good in Europe shoots from the Christian root. Why replace this root? The ever-greater Catholic voice was Card. Ottaviani and may he continue to teach each us not to be a tool of despairing optimism while at the same time to have a sense of humor in the face of the freak attacks on the Church.
The tomb of Cardinal Ottaviani...
Al Car. Ottaviani was from Rome. He had been born in Trastevere in 1890. He, like other Romans, had never completely forgotten the lessons of the persecutions.
The Herculean strength of the enemies of God and His Holy Church is nothing new. Card. Ottaviani warned of this and so was jeered at in his day. While I tarried at his tomb in the Vatican, I thought of the circuitous march through the Catholic world that modernism has made.
He, in his wisdom, taught us to safeguard the sacred deposit of faith as we are the trustees of this inheritance that was destined for us and now entrusted to us as God willed it to us as a gift addressed to us.
Lettera Enciclica di S.S. Pio X Sul Modernismo...
If you ever find yourself in Venice, be sure to take the short ride on the train to Padova and then a bus to Riese. Who was born in Riese? Well, Pivs X was!
Anyways, this year marks the hundreth anniversary of the papal declaraion of war against the modernists by Pius X.
For our Italian audience: Quest'anno รจ il centesimo anniversario della promulgazione della Lettera Enciclica di S. S. Pio X circa le dottrine moderniste "Pascendi Dominici Grecis" 8 settembre 1907 - 8 settembre 2007.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Rome Holy Week 2007 in Tridentine Rite...
The Triduum rites in the Classical Roman Rite will be held this year at the Church of Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte on the Via Giulia, near to Piazza/Palazzo Farnese.
Maundy Thursday: 6:30 pm
Good Friday: 6:30 pm
Holy Saturday: 10:30 pm
Easter Sunday: yet to be announced
N.B. The rites will be held in this larger church so as to accomodate the crowds. Tenebrae will be held at 9:00 am at the Church of San Gregorio dei Muratori.
The Catholic pilgrim in Lazio...
As a kid growing up in Protestant America I knew what a "pilgrim" was. It was, as we were instructed, one of the 102 separatists from the Church of England who landed from the Mayflower in 1620. Then, as that little lion pup got older, he learned what a true "peregrinus" was. The pilgrim is not just a wanderer of the besieged modern world who is on a weary journey here and there and only in Europe.
Welcome to the quest. To search the trail of the pilgrim the world over is of no medieval romance, but a real spiritual experience in journeying as a devotee from one shrine to another.
Bring your kids on a pilgrimage to your local cathedral to see the throne of the bishop, take them to the altar of your parish church to pray before the relics of the entombed saints there, visit the local monastery, visit the Shrine of the North American Martyrs, etc.
Rome marathon...
Here the police band gets ready to play just as the winners of the marathon approach the Vatican. Rome marathon...
Every March they have the Rome marathon. Here we see the soon-to-be winners who are in the lead as they approach the Vatican. The victors are usually from Africa. Acton Institute Lecture in Rome...
This is the Chinese Ambassador to the Holy See. It was a joy to chat with him. He just converted to Catholicism (through Opus Dei friends). Acton Institute in Rome...
Know and be involved with the Acton Institute. They do a lot of good in educating average persons about important issues and they even have an office in Rome: www.acton.org .
When they die in Catholic Italy...
Isn't this great? When an Italian dies they put up these nice posters all over town. This lady, named Marinella, just died this month. She was ninety-one. Pray for this soul.
Habit watching...
The Norbertine habit is just great. Of course I only say this because I just love the little hood which is about large enough to keep a can of soda in!
I stranieri che commandano...
On the top on the right lives Bill Cardinal Baum and on the top on the left lives Bill Cardinal Levada. These two American prelates, while each on their respective terrace, can wave to the other over the great divide of the Via della Conciliazione.
The Pope's tailor in Rome...
When you're in Rome be sure to visit Signor Gammarelli on the Via Santa Chiara to see where the Pope gets his clothes from. The Pope is only measured and fitted in the Vatican and only by the senior member of the Gammarelli family. If you're a seminarian order your casscok from here for some qualita.
Eucharistic Adoration in Rome...
When you study in Rome at the Dominican Univeristy (a.k.a. the Angelicum) you can pray in this chapel every day from 8 am until 6 pm M-F as our Blessed Lord is exposed for the veneration of the faithful in the sacred monstrance.
A "No Smoking" sign in Latin...
You'd have to be in Rome at a Pontifical Univeristy to see a sign as nice as this in the library!
Study Thomism in Rome: l'Angelicum...
Did you know that you can study philosophy in Rome, in English, for only two years and then graduate with a B.A. degree? Welcome to the Angelicum! Tuition is only 1,100 euro dollars per year. See: www.pust.it .
See the new Ara Pacis...
The Ara Pacis is now open again for tourists. It had been closed for some years as they had torn down the former building that Mussolini had built over it and now they have constructed a new building that makes the Mussolini one look great.
Veil images for last two weeks of Lent...
On Saturday the images were veiled at my parish in Rome just in time for Passion Sunday. See more images on the parish blog: www.fsspinurbe.blogspot.com .
Monday, March 26, 2007
From the cobbles of Rome...
In the capital city one sees Catholic leaders from the globe over. The strength of the assailed Church lies in large part with the fidelity of our leadership. Blessed we are to have such happy warriors such as this Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, F. Card. Arinze.
The clerical hat: borne alive from bygone ages...
"For inquire, I pray you, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have found; for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days on earth are shallow. Will they not teach you and tell you, and utter words out of their understanding?"
-Job 8: 8
Capvt Mvndi:la marcia per la gloria...
Preparatevi alla gloria! With mille emozioni, we always remember that, "Tutte le strade portano a Roma!"Clothed in majesty: bird attack...
When I was last in Venice as a teen the counsel I received was to never feed the birds. So I then fed them and was dismayed as I got attacked by the lot of them.This time I wore shades so my eyes wouldn't get taken out. Wondrously, I was attacked again and at first I was confuted, but then just realized that these jackals would never take me alive.
Once it got to be too much I wished I had brought along a liberal tambourine from a charismatic liturgy so as to seize them away.
To catch a rabbit in Venice...
The poor student in Venice lives on the scant fare of bread, fish and water. Once I saw the rabbit I just thought it would be nice to have some meat, too, but now I adjure others not to attempt the same.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Tell them to keep quiet in Latin...
Sometimes people babble in church before or after Mass. As you attempt to pray, it might be difficult as you hear others chat and giggle (even sometimes heard from the sacristy). Thus the polite sign in Latin! 
To see Catholic Italy: even in/on the home...
We can, with God's grace, bring custom such as this to the far corners of the globe. What is enjoyed of Catholic culture in Italy can be implemented the world over...
Another corner in Catholic Italy...
Whenever I pass a street shrine in Italy the first thing I notice is if the flowers there are fresh (or plastic?). Then I simply bow and make a silent prayer for the conversion of sinners (as well as for the freedom and exultation of our Holy Mother the Church).
Requiem Mass in Venice: at sunset...
The sojourner/wayfarer in Venice must visit this nice parish just across the street from the main train station. It's the F.S.S.P. parish in Venice, San Simon Piccolo (www.sansimon.info).
Tridentine Rite on Grand Canal in Venice...
Holy Mass in Venice is always a treat...especially in Venice with the F.S.S.P. (www.fssp.org).
You can pray in Latin: Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto et pro Patriarcha Angelo!
Beauty: even inside the hat of a cleric...
Ever wondered what the inside of a Capello Romano looks like?
To extol the labors of the dear sisters...
Prodotto in Italia! Back in the day when there was craftsmanship in this category, the good sisters gave these gifts to the Almighty. One can still admire these antique surplices all over Europe and even in the New World here and there (albeit often in antique shops in Toronto, Chicago, etc.).
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sweet nuns in Venice...
In this epoch when so many of our sisters have sought to forego the religious habit (each piece of which is blessed and carries a meaning), I just had to thank our Blessed Lord for this witness to us brethren on the canals of Venice.Sweet nuns in Venice...
I always obligate myself to pray for our dear sisters. They are the angels who taught me, my parents and grandparents the Faith. They are the firstlings of our flock!
F.S.S.P. in Venice...
When you arrive in Venice on the train and exit the station this is what you see! It's the F.S.S.P. parish of San Simon Piccolo (www.sansimon.info). It was in this church that the Ambrosian Rite Mass was sung on Sunday, March 11. The celebrant was a Canon from the Cathedral of Milan, Mons. Angelo Amodeo. The Mass was well attended and the photos follow here below.
F.S.S.P. in Venice...
San Simon Piccolo is a lovely parish. Every day they have Holy Mass here in the Tridentine Rite and Vespers every Sunday afternoon. It's a must to see this church so venite.
F.S.S.P. in Venice...
Here I am on the front steps of the F.S.S.P. parish in Venice, the Chiesa di San Simon Piccolo (www.sansimon.info). I guess it's the best location ever as it's just across the Grand Canal from the Venice train station built by il DVX (as seen in the photo).
The "stylin" surplice...
Yes, Italians know fashion design and such an interesting surplice I had never seen in all my days. Although we romani all prefer the cotta griccia, this one might deserve a close second.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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