The photo below shows the altar prepared for High Mass at Midnight at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore last night where I had the privilege of offering special intentions on behalf of everyone who visits this space, from the most prolific commenters to the most casual viewer.
I truly appreciate all of the kindness and support I’ve received from you this year, and I’m especially grateful for all of the passion that so many readers bring to the discussion. Of course there are heated disagreements at times, but the one thing everyone here has in common is a sincere love for Christ the King and a desire for “the liberty and exaltation of the Holy Mother the Church,” and for this I cannot thank you enough.
May the Prince of Peace pour out His grace upon you and your loved ones in this blessed season.
Buon Natale!
Merry Christmas to you. Your analyses of the situation in the Church are useful to me.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, and the brothers and sisters in Christ Our Lord, the King of us all.
To me such a setting for the Holy Mass begs for beautiful music that is fitting for the King!
A Blessed Christmas and Holy New Year to all!
Merry Christmas and thank you for your defense of Holy Mother Church!
CHRISTMAS
GOLD
If I had a big house
As a rule-of-thumb
At Christmas I’d have loved-ones
And others if they’d come.
If I had a big house
A cupboard warm and round
Would feed my Christmas guests
The staff of life here found.
If I had a big house
All men I would let in
At Christmas shed their burdens
Learn losses can be wins.
If I had a big house
All Christmas linens laced
And men who came to visit
Would yield a certain grace.
But I don’t need a big house
I’m in the biggest home
Where hindered senses are enhanced
By way of Christmas-Rome.
For Christmas-Rome’s eternal
Shall not be bought or sold
And yule-logs in perpetuum
Glow red fore Christmas-gold!!
Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Here is a treat for you Mr Verrechio and for visitors to this site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNP1feE010w&list=PL7D1D4B821046C1D5
“Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.”
Merry Christmas full of joy and blessings to All!
May GOD enable us all thus to walk by faith, not by sight, and live in the past and future, not in the present!
Long-Skirts, thank you for the courage you give me.
Tradical, me too ! God love you.
To Mr. V., and all dear friends, Buon Natale !
de Maria numquam satis-St. Louis de Montfort
Dear Linda,
God grant you a blessed Christmas season. Allthough, if I may gently correct you, the maxim “De Maria numquam satis” is actually from the great St Bernard of Clairvaux (although no doubt St Louis de Montfort repeated it countless times). ; )
St Stephen’s blessings. Saint Stephen, First Martyr, Pray for us. St. Stephen, who suffered for preaching the Name of Jesus Christ, Pray for us.
interesting video on the liturgical input of the children of the fin de siecle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LjDX2sOi1c#t=915 (it’s an hour long so get some Christmas leftovers and a cup of coffee.)
‘It was Pius XII who found Bognini, it was Pius XII funded Bognini, it was Pius the XII gave him his power…John XXIII got rid of him, Paul VI reinstated him.’
Pope Pius XII, in 1929 he discovered Bognini at the Laterin University in Rome. Bognini, with Pius XII approval, changed the Good Friday Mass of the ‘Priest Sanctified’ which is the oldest part of the entire Roman Liturgy…probably goes back to the time of the Apostles…the first time any Pope dared to touch the oldest part of the Liturgy…in the Eastern Church, you still have pre-sanctified Masses on the Ember Days, but in the Catholic Church the Mass of the pre-sanctified Good-Friday is the last one left.’ (or was). If you can discover a Missal printed before 1949, compare with a Missal printed after 1955. There are many changes…in 1958 when Pius XII died, the only part of the Roman Liturgy that was intact and well preserved all over the world was the Canon…nothing else.”
I don’t know enough to agree or disagree but surely some of you guys do.
Thanks Louie, and Merry Christmas.
dear Saluto-
I know.
splendid !!
c’est magnifique !
with Puerto Rican coffee and Italian pastries at 2AM, your treatise was super.
God love you.
And St. Stephen’s blessings to you as well, and all dear friends here !
dear Saluto,
Being Italian, we do have Melkite Catholics in our ancestry, Byzantine Catholics. Sometimes one of my sons and I go when the nervous odious is the only other . The pre sancitied gifts, as you know, is a most awesome partaking-and I hope more Catholics will become aware of the beauty of Eastern Catholicism. Here in nyc, in Bklyn where we go sometimes, the faithful are mostly mostly Italian & Syrian. The suffering their relatives currently endure is unfathomable-yet their faith is as fervent as can be.
When I first heard the words of consecration in Aramaic, I wept.
de Maria numquam satis-St.Louis de Montfort
you too, Linda. God bless your Christmastide.
de Maria numquam satis-St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
thank you, dear Edu.
I think my devotion to St. Louis de Montfort caused a bumping up.
This is what Catholics do, admonish, fraternally correct, out of love and protec tion primarily for the Faith, and then for the brethren.
I love my Catholic friends here.
If you have a chance, please say one Ave for my four adult children.
Merry Christmas Mr. V. Your faithfulness of maintaining the Bonds of Unity while still striving for the fullness of Tradition will be rewarded in due time; and, as you well know, that reward will, most likely, arrive anon (if it already hasn’t) in the form of additional Crosses you must bear.
You are in my prayers daily, brother.
I join with the comment by Spartacus exactly, Mr V, and may the blessings of the Christ Child be upon you and your family.
In his Christmas message, Pope Francis asked atheists to join usi n the desire for peace. Peace can only come by praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace! Atheists have no one to pray to. Maybe some one could inform the Pope of this!
Thank you, Louie, for sharing your Christmas thoughts with us and for your prayers.
You are blessed with a beautiful Church and the True faith!!!
Buon Natale!!
Merry Christmas and thanks for the blog. St. Alphonsus is always amazing but it’s even more beautiful at Christmas.
El jubileo es el cumpleaños de Jesús. Las primeras Navidades fueron fiestas sencillas, de familia. José y María habrán festejado solos, en el destierro, los primeros cumpleaños de Jesús. El “Dios con nosotros” parecía que era sólo de ellos dos; pero –si escuchamos el Magnificat- nos damos cuenta de que María amó siempre a Jesús con corazón de pueblo, con corazón de Iglesia. Y así fue que, después de la Resurrección del Señor, de a poquito, la Navidad comenzó a ser una fiesta para todo el pueblo fiel de Dios.–Homilia de Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 1999 en La Navidad
http://www.arzbaires.org.ar/inicio/homiliasbergoglio.html