Recta Ratio

I have been trying for the last two hours to repost Thursday's lenten daily post, but for some reason, Blogger just will not publish it, no matter what I do with it.

The weird thing is that it has published Friday's and today's almost without a hitch. What is it about Thursday, March 10 that Blogger does not want to post that particular blog?

Update 2 hours later: OK, it finally did it. But that was very strange.

Station Church:
S. Nicola in Carcere

Prayers, Readings, and Relections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Saturday Holy Hour
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of Saint Thomas More
Threnus Prayer of Saint Augustine (scroll down)
Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Litany of Our Lady of Sorrows
Sorrowful Mysteries

Just to make our joy complete.

Tried to post yesterday, but no luck at all. Just as I was publishing what I had typed, Blogger went down, apparently swallowing my post whole.

Even today, it is taking more than 3 minutes to go from the "Dashboard" to the "Edit" screen. And with the connections I'm using, it should take no time at all.

And Blogrolling, which provides my list of links, has been down, too.

Still, Blogger and Blogrolling are free, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Station Church:
S. Eusebio all'Esquilino

Prayers, Readings, and Reflections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Friday Holy Hour
Dies Irae
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of Saint Thomas More
Threnus Prayer of Saint Augustine (scroll down)
Devotions To the Holy Cross (scroll down)
Stations of the Cross

Station Church:
SS. Silvestro e Martino ai Monti

Prayers, Readings, and Reflections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Thursday Holy Hour
Dies Irae
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of Saint Thomas More
Threnus Prayer of Saint Augustine (scroll down)
Devotion To the Holy Face

Is that the snow should not last long.

At 7am, it was 8 degrees Fahrenheit, with a windchill of -6 degrees.

Oh yeah, and there is more snow that may arrive Friday night into Saturday.

Station Church:
St. Paul outside the Walls

Prayers, Readings, and Reflections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Wednesday Holy Hour
Dies Irae
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of Saint Thomas More
Threnus Prayer of Saint Augustine (scroll down)
Seven Prayers of Saint Gregory

From Sacramento.

Is it really such a man-bites-dog situation? Hasn't it become pretty clear that the biggest audience for this is younger people who have been starved of ritual and reverence for the last 30 years?

It is drizzling now. We are expected to see it become heavy rain this afternoon, and then turn to snow over night, with 2-4 more inches added by morning.

Nine days until St. Patrick's Day and no hint of spring in sight.

The effort to keep Holy Trinity Church in Boston's South End as the Indult Mass parish for the Archdiocese has received some help in the press lately. There was a piece in the South End News, one in the Boston Herald, and now Channel 5's Chronicle is doing a story on it. June 30 is the scheduled closing date.

It will be an uphill battle, because in the instances where the parish has successfully resisted closing, it was because they had the full support of their pastor, which Holy Trinity does not. In fact, its administrator is also in charge of a nearby Asian parish, more anemic that Holy Trinity, but he has lots of ties to the Asian business community, and, astonishingly, Holy Trinity replaced that other parish on the list of parishes to be closed at the last minute. It is safe to say that there is not much trust between the Indult Mass community and the administrator.

I think there is a great deal of sympathy, both here in the Boston area and outside it, for the effort to keep this historic church open, lest it fall into the clutches of the evil one. Discussions I have seen at other blogs have been very sympathetic, very little of the, "well, parishes have to be closed, so let it be written, so let it be done" attitude. After all, reality has to be accounted for:
a) Holy Trinity is located on the edge of Boston's homosexual neighborhood, the South End
b) converting closed church buildings into condos is one of the hottest trends of the upscale real estate market, and
c) Gay "marriage" is legal in Massachusetts (God help us put a stop to that!)

So, basically, if we don't keep Holy Trinity open, its building will end up as a place for rich homosexual "couples" to nest in. Agreed, the building will have been "de-consecrated," but that is still practically sacrilege.

And, if we don't keep the Latin Mass at Holy Trinity, the community will be deprived of the ideal venue for its needs: central location, parking (as most of the parishioners drive in from outside Boston), a magnificent high altar with reredos, and a communion rail, together with a traditional and apropriate array of statues, candles, stations, stained glass, ambo, pews with kneelers, and a parish hall and chapel downstairs.

There is an active Yahoo Group devoted to the cause of saving Holy Trinity.

Add your voice. We have seen time and again that the Archdiocese does cave in to pressure. Let them feel the heat over trying to turn Holy Trinity over to perverts.

A year ago, the Archdiocese of Boston had to sue its liability insurers, because they refused to participate in the settlement of the pervert priest claims. Now, the state of war between the Archdiocese and Lumberman's, which was the underwriter for Kemper, is settled for $20 million.

That is a disappointingly low figure, and probably is a truer estimate of what the settlement of the claims was genuinely worth. But other claims against other insurers are still out there unsettled, but there are also new pervert priest lawsuits also unsettled.

Station Church:
S. Lorenzo in Damaso

Prayers, Readings, and Reflections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Tuesday Holy Hour
Dies Irae
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of Saint Thomas More
Threnus Prayer of Saint Augustine (scroll down)
Devotion of the Seven Last Words

Keep up the good work down there.

Comes from the British Isles, where liberal clegy and failure to make the traditional Christian case is blamed for the declining relevance of Christian institutions and declining attendence and vocations.

The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska's controversial excommuniction of members of 12 groups, including Catholics for a Free Choice, Call To Action, and Planned Parenthood has been upheld by the Vatican.

Liberals are bad.

Over at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group, the more visual and more easily archived counterpart to this blog, I've created and partially filled a new photo album. This one features the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Guido Reni.

Enjoy!

Everyone's life is their own story, and each of us tends to think of himself as the hero of his own story. But what if we are the villain, not the hero? All our vices, our sins, our pride, our selfishness, our base inclinations are the villains, and we are the villains to the extent that we let them dominate our lives.

Well, to be precise, in a Christian sense, our story is not about us, but is just a part of a larger story about salvation and God's love and mercy. We, in fact, are not the hero of "our" story. God is. And we are not the villain, that is the devil and the sins he prompts us to. At best, we are a supporting actor, though one who has some influence about how the plot develops.

That thought just popped into my head this morning, apropos of absolutely nothing at all.

Station Church:
SS. Quattro Coronati al Celio

Prayers, Readings, and Reflections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Monday Holy Hour
Dies Irae
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of St. Thomas More
Threnus Prayer of Saint Augustine (scroll down)
Devotion of the Five Sacred Wounds

This fourth Sunday of Lent is one of the two "pink" Sundays of the year (the other being Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. The message of the Church today is to be glad, Easter is coming. Sunday is never a fast day, even during Lent. But this Sunda especiallyy, take a brief break from your lenten sacrifices.

Station Church:
S. Croce in Gerusalemme

Prayers, Readings, and Reflections for today

My devotions for a Lenten Sunday Holy Hour
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Seven Penitential Psalms
Prayer of St. Thomas More
Psalter of St. Jerome
Threnus Prayer of St. Augustine (Included as conclusion to above)