Here's why I offer the old Roman Sacraments: Mass:  The Traditional Latin Mass uses only the Roman Canon, which the Counsel of Trent infallibly states is something Jesus Christ Himself gave to the Apostles as I wrote about in this article. Confession:  The old-rite absolution automatically includes the lifting of excommunication of certain sins like abortion by the very fact that it includes the word "excommunication" as what is relieved just before the words of absolution, as I explained in this podcast.  This is not the case in the new formulation of absolution, but apparently a "tag on" prayer has been added for just such sins. Extreme Unction:  In the old Rite, the book containing Extreme Unction includes very powerful exorcism prayers surrounding the "Commendation of the Soul" and "On Expiration" prayers.  Essentially, the priest is there for hours to [...]

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever is not just, is not of God, nor he that loveth not his brother. For this is the declaration, which you have heard from the beginning, that you should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and killed his brother. And wherefore did he kill him? Because his own works were wicked: and his brother's just. Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his [...]

I just finished reading an outstanding book called God's Will.  It's about the incorrupt African-American Benedictine nun, Sr. Mary Wilhelmina, Foundress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles.  She was born Mary Elizabeth Lancaster on the 13th of April 1924 in St. Louis.  She died on the 29th of may 2019.  She was found incorrupt on the 18th of May 2023.  To be "incorrupt" means the body of the deceased has miraculously refrained from the normal post-mortem decomposition process. I (top-right) have no plans on being incorrupt like her (top-left) but I noticed a few similarities in our intellectual conversions from modernist Catholicism to traditional Catholicism.  Before entering the contemplative live, Sr. Mary Wilhelmina was in the active life.  As a black woman, she was encouraged to "Give'em gospel."  This didn't work.  She wrote:  "One just sang or [...]

With the beginning of a new liturgical year, we heard in the Epistle today from St. Paul, "The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light."—Rom 13:12 Seeking what resolutions to pursue for the new year, I recently heard this talk by Fr. Ripperger. That talk opened my eyes to the depth of graces offered to people who endure temptations from enemies invisible (and probably visible.)  Also, as in other talks, Fr. Ripperger encouraged his listeners to ask Our Lady of Sorrows to reveal their primary defect. This time the answer in prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows in regards to my primary defect was immediate, even as I started this new liturgical year: Thanksgiving. "Lack of thanksgiving" probably sounds like a [...]

The above picture is a Latin-Rite (Western) Church in an Eastern Orthodox country.  More specifically, it's the Franciscan run "Church of Our Lady of Victory" in Rhodes, Greece.  I spent time praying there as well as helping with corporal works of mercy.  Above the altar within the above Church is a plaque found from centuries ago when the Holy Theotokos showed up to liberate the island from a Turkish Muslim invasion. Rhodes is an island where St. Paul visited (and he apparently loved it.) Over a millennium later, the island was built up by the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani) who were a Catholic military order (henceforth in this blog just referred to ask "The Knights.")  The Knights were on the Greek Island of Rhodes from 1310 until [...]

We landed on 7 Oct 2023 in Tel Aviv, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  As most of you know, this feast commemorates the Naval defeat of the Turks by the European armies after Pope St. Pius V got all of Europe praying the Rosary for a miraculous defeat.  That is exactly what was granted.  But just before landing in Tel Aviv five hundred years later, one boy (of our group of 60 pilgrims) saw in the distance smoke coming up from the Gaza Strip from the initial strikes at the beginning of the war. As we landed, an Israeli woman next to me helped me interpret the news:  These bombings were more than the yearly skirmishes in the Middle East.  This was going big.  As we got off the plane, there was a tense silence as people [...]

The above is a picture I recently took while walking and praying my Divine Office (Psalms) at a rather-empty beach in Florida.  It always brings me so much peace. Most of you do not know this, but several times in seminary I felt called to leave my studies for the Catholic priesthood and go live as a homeless, celibate, Catholic preacher in front of abortion centers in Florida.  I felt called to live as a mendicant (beggar) without marriage, but also without Holy Orders.  Now as a priest doing some of those things as a monk-missionary on my own, I have also been overwhelmed by the issues of politics that pertains only to the priesthood. Some of my recent crosses have been getting raked over the coals by the liberal media, figuring out what happened with an issue with my [...]

The above is a picture of my friend, Fr. Fidelis CFR, being arrested for his pro-life work.  For peaceful pro-life work, I have been arrested in Wash DC and New Jersey with Fr. Fidelis under a group called Red Rose Rescue (RRR.)  I thought I was pro-life before I met those associated with RRR.  But the way that RRR changed my thinking was this:  Whereas most pro-life organizations know in their brains that the unborn are really children, the members of RRR know in their hearts that children are really being killed. Here's what I mean:  Imagine if you found out in the nearest big city that somewhere downtown there was a conveyer-belt with three-year old toddlers on it, and these kids were were systematically rolled-out under a machine which crushed them with a sledgehammer.  Imagine you find this was [...]