The Holy Mass, as I have been trying to make clear, is one of the greatest and most carefully composed artistic constructions in the history of human civilization. However, the object of this great art is not entertainment or even instruction, but the praise of God and the salvation of the participants.
The attornery-general of Maine has joined the Colorado Supreme Court in ruling that the name of Donald Trump may not be put on the ballot. The justification is article three of the Fourteenth Amendment:
Well, here we are again, on the isthmus between Catholicism and Orthodoxy – shall we call it Christhmus? – as all around us the Italians stock up on panettone and prosecco while we fast. No worries, because in two weeks’ time, when our Christmas comes, we infidels can buy those festive trappings discounted.
The Pater Noster is the greatest and most familiar prayer of the Church, taught to us by our Lord himself. Incessant repetition of a prayer is a very good and necessary thing, but if we are not careful, we may cease to ponder on it. There are many fine commentaries by St. John Chrysostom, St. Thomas, et alii, which bring out the spiritual riches. I am only a philologist, a student of languages, and will confine myself to elucidating the words. Some of what I have to say—and more—can be found in the podcasts we did on the subject.
The Washington Post, owned by centibillionaire Jeff Bezos, is rabidly anti-Trump. Yet here’s the key part of its editorial on the Colorado Supreme Court throwing President Trump off the state’s primary ballot; albeit stayed until it’s taken up by the adults on the U.S. Supreme Court. WaPo:
Why does the Church authorize four Gospels? Of course there were many other versions, and some of them, surely, contained useful details. And, on the other hand, if we could not be permitted to read a dozen, why not one comprehensive story, which would avoid confusion and discourage the sneers of skeptics who search the texts for discrepancies?
Imaginary Conversation between an imaginary philosopher—let’s call him Socrates—and an anonymous Pontifex Maximus of Republican times—let’s call him Frank.
Cardinal Medina Estévez drew attention to the omissions in the translation of the Novus Ordo, but far more serious are the omissions in the Novus Ordo itself. If you compare the two masses, laid out side by side, you sometimes note that the blank spaces in the new mass go on for a page.
My thesis last week was that the ambition to create world caliphates on the part of groups or regimes with totalitarian methods and aims often breaks on strategic mistiming, of which the invasions of Israel and Ukraine are examples currently in the news. Peace, peace, peace is the war by which the West is won, whereas those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind.
In our latest in the 1990-present day segment of this series, Dr. Fleming gives his take on the iconic 1993 Tombstone, very popular among Gen-X men. Homework for the next episode is The Last Samurai.
