Baseball season is coming soon!

“I want the broadcast to sound like two guys sitting at the ballpark, talking about the game, with the viewer eavesdropping. It’s not High Mass, and it’s not a seminar — it’s a ballgame.”

-Joe Garagiola

Rest In Peace, Mother Angelica

She fought the good fight even when it was difficult.  May God grant her eternal rest.

How fiiting is that that she leaves earth on this most solemn of Feasts.

"Oh death, where is thy sting?"

Happy Pascha!

Twelve Prophecies

One of my favorite aspects of the traditional Holy Week is the Easter Vigil.  It is the august Vigil for us Catholics and it is rightly called the "Vigil of Vigils."  In the Old Rite, there would be twelve prophecies which the Church would give to Her children to meditate on as the build up would continue towards the Resurrection.  I have attached a link on the bottom where Dom Prosper Gueranger in his The Liturgical Year expounds on these prophecies and writes fantastic points of mediation.

It starts on page 566.

http://tinyurl.com/z5sgjov

Summa by Arvo Part

One of my favorite compositions by Part.  I felt like the readers would be edified by listening to this musical masterpiece over Holy Week.

Dominica in Palmis

We now begin the most solemn of days in the year.  Ask the Lord for the graces to detach more fully so that our hearts may unite to Christ in these sorrowful days.

I will be serving for the Sacred Triduum at my FSSP parish and so please pray for me! 

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"Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.

The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’ [Zach. ix. 9]. Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Beth phage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.

The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat [St. Mark xi. 2], is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God’s people, and become docile and faithful.

The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Saviour, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him [Ibid. 7, and St. Luke xix. 35.], and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King [St. Luke xix. 38]. They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethania, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. Hosanna is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King."

-The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger 

You can't make this stuff up

Early today, I went into a Novus Ordo parish around lunchtime just so that I could pay my debt to Our Lady by saying Her Rosary.  During my prayers, I overheard three old ladies conversing along the following lines,

Women 1: "There was a Priest who was giving a sermon to kids about hell?  Can you believe it?"

Women 2 and 3: "Oh no, what a shock." 

Women 1: "I know, can you really believe it?  I am thinking, these are little kids, why are you talking to them about that?  The proper approach is to teach them that God is a loving Father who will embrace them with a big hug at the time of their deaths."

Women 2: "You are right.  My mother had the same old fashioned view since that's how tough the Church was regarding these matters in the old days."

Women 1, 2, and 3: All shake their head as if lamenting that past generations had to suffer with priests who were not cowards.

I was so close to blurting out the truth regarding these matters but since they were old and I did not see that it was fit to destroy their preconceived motions in such a delicate environment.  I must also remember, it is the Year of Mercy, is it not?

How the hell could I ever forget?

Passion Sunday

"This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more impressive than this solemn Invitatory of to-day’s Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every feria between this and Maundy Thursday? She says; To-day, if ye will hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from heaven; His death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into yourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy; for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. To-day, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!"

-The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger

Laetare, Jerusalem!

"This Sunday, called, from the first word of the Introit, Laetare Sunday, is one of the most solemn of the year. The Church interrupts her Lenten mournfulness; the chants of the Mass speak of nothing but joy and consolation; the Organ, which has been silent during the preceding three Sundays, now gives forth its melodious voice; the Deacon resumes his Dalmatic, and the Subdeacon his Tunic; and instead of purple, Rose-coloured Vestments are allowed to be used. These same rites were practised in Advent, on the third Sunday, called Gaudete. The Church’s motive for introducing this expression of joy in to-day’s Liturgy, is to encourage her Children to persevere fervently to the end of this holy Season. The real Mid-Lent was last Thursday, as we have already observed; but the Church, fearing lest the joy might lead to some infringement on the spirit of penance, has deferred her own notice of it to this Sunday, when she not only permits, but even bids, her children to rejoice!"

-The Liturgical Year, Dom Prosper Guéranger