Tradicat

+ JMJ Just a reminder that I haven't given up blogging - just really busy with a number of activities. As with the last time I had to step back from blogging for a while, there seems to have been an up-tick in things that I'd like to write about as well as re-post. But ... it will have to wait (I guess this is a form of self-denial). I hope to return with articles in June. In the meantime, keep a good perspective on the crisis and how it is affecting people around you! God Bless and don't forget: P^3! Tradical

+ JMJ One thing that comes up periodically is the inclusion of Woman in the schola (not the choir) for singing Gregorian Chant. There are important distinctions to be made in reading the next passages.  First, choral music is not Gregorian.  Second is congregational singing. The guidelines for Schola that I was given decades ago are summed up as: If there are men capable of forming a schola, then they should with the exclusion of women. If there are not then, a female or mixed schola could be used. Now there are three passages to consider: 12. With the exception of the melodies proper to the celebrant at the altar and to the ministers, which must be always sung in Gregorian Chant, and without accompaniment of the organ, all the rest of the liturgical chant belongs to the choir of levites, and, therefore, singers in the church, even when they are laymen, are really taking the place of the ecclesiastical choir. Hence the music rendered by them must, at least for the gr

+ JMJ My family has a long history of devotion to St. Anthony (aka St Antoine) and some friends  suggested that I relate a first-hand experience with St Anthony's efficacy in finding lost objects. I have a pair of winter mitts that I received as a hand-me-down when I was a child.  Meaning - these things are 40+ years old. I have also treasured these mitts as they've kept my hands warm on many a cold Canadian winter day! One winter day, as I was placing the kids in their car seats, I placed my mitts on the roof of my van. ... and forgot they were there and drove off. I wasn't until I returned home after driving for 20 minutes that I realized my loss. I returned a couple of days later and went to Mass. After Mass I prayed for St. Anthony's help and, in spite of my wife's doubts, began retracing the path I drove a couple of days earlier.  We drove about a kilometer, turning from the side street upon which our SSPX church was located, onto a main tho

+ JMJ Remember, even in these days of brazen impiety when the Catholic Church seems to be all but dead, we've been here before and we know that we're on the winning side! P^3 Courtesy of SSPX.org Haec dies, quam fecit Dominus: exsultemus, et laetemur in ea  - This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it As at Christmas, the station is made at Saint Mary Major, on this greatest feast of the whole year. The Church never separates Jesus and Mary, and today, in one and the same triumph, she honors the Mother and the Son. Before all else, the Risen Christ offers the homage of His gratitude to His Father in Heaven (Introit). In her turn the Church gives thanks to God inasmuch as by the victory of His Son, He has reopened the way to Heaven, and implores Him to assist us that we may attain this, our final goal (Collect). For this, Saint Paul tells us, just as the Jews eat the Paschal Lamb with unleavened bread, so we must feast