How to Meditate at the TLM.
A few years ago, I had spliced in scenes of the Passion of the Christ into a video on Vimeo of my own low Mass with the words I had thought came from St. Francis De Sales. However, a priest showed me the meditations did not come from De Sales. I believe he said the meditation preceded him in the medieval Catholic devotional life. Either way, you can use these words to meditate at each part of the Traditional Latin Mass: When the priest goes to the foot of the Altar: Jesus enters the garden. O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Who wast pleased voluntarily to endure mortal terror and anguish at the view of Thine approaching passion, give me grace henceforth to consecrate all my sorrows to Thee, O God of my heart! Assist me to [...]
Schism: The Pressure-Release Valve to Heresy.
This is a long one, but I think it's worth the read. Before getting into the recent news in the Vatican, we need to go through a few definitions. Apostasy is the denial of Christ by a person who once claimed to be Christian. Heresy is the denial of one or several dogmas of the Catholic Church. Schism is to break ties with the Pope in Rome and/or the Holy See. However, the last definition requires some qualification. A Catholic cannot be called "a schismatic" for failure to join his heart and mind to a heretic. A Christian cannot be called "a schismatic" for failure to unite to a heretic. When St. Catherine of Siena saw that the Cardinals chose an obvious antipope to call "the Pope in Rome," she wrote them these exact words, among many others: "That evil [...]
PIP 5: Rules #9-10.
-Fr. Dave Nix continues “Peregrino Ignatian Pathways” (PIP) #5: Rules no. 9 and 10 of discernment from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. -Donate with updated status (see first bullet point:) https://www.padreperegrino.org/donate/ -Suscipe: “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own, You have given all to me. To You, Lord, I return it. Everything is Yours: do with it what You will. Give me only Your love and Your grace, that is enough for me.”
The Congressman and the Holy Mass Shooting.
Was this a hate-crime against Christians or not? Is there a connection to abortion in it all? Last year at a Catholic conference in Brazil, I met a Catholic Pakistani man named Joseph. He told me about his friend named Shagufta who was slated to be hung by the Muslim government in Pakistan simply for being a Christian. I immediately asked my friend, Congressman "Captain" Clay Higgins for help. (Congressman Higgins and I have been friends since 2016.) The Congressman quickly wrote this letter to President Biden, asking the US government to put pressure on Pakistan to stop killing Christians, starting with the freedom of Shagufta. Unfortunately, she is still on death-row. But she is alive in prison. Today, the 5th of September 2025, Congressman Higgins called me with a request for spiritual guidance in regards to very different events, [...]
Why Did Christ Establish His Church in Rome?
Why did Christ send two of His greatest Apostles to Rome? The classic answer is still the best answer: Christ chose to conquer the powerful Roman empire with the weakness of the cross of his many Roman martyrs, including Saint Peter and Saint Paul. In addition, the Greek language and the Roman roads united the Mediterranean world for a singular salvific Gospel to be preached to all peoples. While that old and standard answer is still simply the best in my opinion, I'm going to propose a secondary reason as to why the most prolific Church was placed in Rome: The Roman Empire conquered physically the way the Roman Church would conquer spiritually: By wisely choosing which hills to die on. Why Rome? Despite my love of the Eastern Rites that you may have seen in my writings and videos [...]
The Majesty of God or Ecumenism?
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, Who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”—Apocalypse 19:4. I have spent a lot of time around the Mediterranean the last two years in places like Greece, Egypt and Israel. This was primarily a reconnaissance mission to discover what it will take to get Muslims to become Christian, and to find what it will take to get Eastern Christians to become Catholic. The outcome of my travels, research and experiences was this: They will only become Catholic when we take our own patrimony seriously and stop denying our own Divine Revelation. Today's article is going to give some examples from this, especially in my interactions this summer with Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land. (I was also there praying for donors' intentions and being [...]
RCT 65: “The Real Presence in the Eucharist.”
-The Roman Catechism of Trent (RCT) p. 241-250. -The Sacraments, ep. 17. -The most destructive line in the new CCC: https://www.padreperegrino.org/2023/07/destructive/ -Donate to PHL with new “Church status:” https://www.padreperegrino.org/donate/ -Peregrino Hermitage Limited has been recognized as a 501(c)(3) charity-organization for years, but the IRS just granted us the additional “Church Status.” While my chapel, Stella Maris, continues to be recognized by the Archdiocese, this upgraded governmental-status means no more 990s. This means your donations are now much more private. Of course, we will continue to be transparent about how money is used in general.
St. Mariam of Palestine.
She is the only saint I have ever heard of with so many names. Perhaps it's because she was a Greek-Catholic who grew up in Arabic-speaking Palestine in the 19th century, almost got married-off in Egypt and later joined a French Carmel but took her final vows in India. This little Palestinian from the 19th century eventually got canonized and is now known as St. Mariam Baouardy and St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified (her religious name) and The Lily of Palestine (her devotional name.) As you probably know by now, I spent July 2025 living with Eastern Catholics in the Old City Jerusalem. (See the above picture of my balcony at night.) I consecrated this entire trip to my new favorite saint, the Lily of Palestine. St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified's life was absolutely extraordinary, especially for a person trying [...]
Why the “Bifurcated-Papacy” Still Matters.
This summer, Monsignor Nicola Bux claimed that Pope Benedict XVI wrote him about public accusations that he had bifurcated the papacy before he died. Among other things, the late Pontiff allegedly wrote the Italian priest in 2014: "To suggest that I resigned only from the exercise of the ministry and not from the munus is contrary to clear dogmatic and canonical doctrine. If some journalists speak of a 'creeping schism', they do not deserve any attention." Even if Pope Benedict XVI had written that (something I doubt) the late Pontiff is still the one to blame for that rumor that there was a "contemplative Pope" and an "active Pope" over the last decade. I have already written much on this topic, so I'm not going to re-hash it all. But I will remind you that in his last public Wednesday [...]
PIP 4: Rules #7-8.
-Fr. David Nix continues "Peregrino Ignatian Pathways" (PIP) #4: Rules no. 7 and 8 of discernment from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. -Donate with updated status (see first bullet point:) https://www.padreperegrino.org/donate/ -Suscipe: “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own, You have given all to me. To You, Lord, I return it. Everything is Yours: do with it what You will. Give me only Your love and Your grace, that is enough for me.”