22 04, 2023

The Feast Day for Two Early Papal-Martyrs

By |2023-04-22T15:09:42+00:00April 22nd, 2023|Theology|

One of the most interesting arguments I hear against traditionalists these days goes something like this: "The lifestyle and liturgy of the early Christians was much more like that of modern charismatics than that of modern traditionalists." I too believed such silly arguments for a long time in my Catholic formation. Of course, there's mountains of evidence against such an assertion. The Roman Breviary for today's saints is just one such piece of evidence.  Pope Saint Soter was martyred around AD 174 or 177. Pope St. Pope Caius (aka Gaius) was martyred in AD 296. Notice what the old Roman Breviary says about today's saints, but also notice what it also [...]

27 09, 2022

The Early Church Was More Rigorous Than the Medieval Church

By |2022-09-26T00:35:36+00:00September 27th, 2022|Theology|

The above picture is one of the earliest discovered paintings of Madonna and child in the catacombs of Rome.  It is found in or near the Church of St. Priscilla.   The earliest Christians were certainly full of the fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) but that does not mean that they were shallow, smiley, happy or clappy in their approach to life.  The notion that the early Church's liturgy was simplistic is overturned in these videos I did on Antiquarianism and Archaeologism.  (In these videos I show that the ancient Mass is closer to the TLM [...]

28 04, 2022

When One Island Converted the Other (and Vice Versa)

By |2022-04-28T21:18:24+00:00April 28th, 2022|Theology|

St. Patrick was a Celt of Roman Briton (possibly Wales?) and was taken as a slave to Ireland by the Irish themselves.  As a young man, he then escaped Ireland and returned to the land of his birth.  But after a small conversion on a moral matter, he gave his entire life to Christ, was ordained a priest (and later a bishop) and then he returned to his land of slavery to convert them.  St. Patrick nearly-singlehandedly converted the entire Island of Eire to Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church. Very early on in the history of Christianity in the UK, the UK still needed a huge conversion.  Up until [...]

7 12, 2021

The First Week of July 1963

By |2022-04-28T17:57:54+00:00December 7th, 2021|Theology|

My mother's four grandparents moved from Ireland to Chicago in the first half of the 20th century,  so I grew up hearing from extended family and peers what great men Cardinal Bernadin and President Kennedy were.  I also graduated Boston College in 2000.  So, even though I was raised in Denver, the fact is that Chicago Catholicism and Boston Catholicism are in my bloodstream.   I trusted this version of Catholicism.  But to rebuild traditional Catholicism and understand who to trust, perhaps we have to expose some of this evil, for St. Paul writes, "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them."—Eph 5:11.  The following [...]

26 01, 2021

How Our Age of Church History Is Different From All Others in the Past

By |2021-01-26T01:08:16+00:00January 26th, 2021|Theology|

As I finished up Vespers tonight for the Conversion of St. Paul and got my ribbons ready for tomorrow on my old-school Divine Office for the third-class feast of St. Polycarp, I realized something tonight: Whereas St. Paul probably prayed all 150 Psalms by memory in Hebrew every day or every week, and whereas St. Paul probably asked for intercession for the people he killed before his own conversion and perhaps even asked intercession for all those he names in his letter to the Hebrews (ch. 11-13) there is something St. Paul and St. Polycarp did not have: 2000 years of saints and martyrs in the Catholic calendar and roll-call [...]

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