The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Give peace, o Lord, to those who wait for Thee, that Thy prophets may be found true: hear the prayers of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel. Ps. 121 I rejoiced in what was said to me, ‘We will go...
View ArticleOur Lady’s Saturday
Since today we celebrate the Saturday Office of Our Lady, here is a polyptych representing Her coronation as the Queen of Heaven, painted in the 1390s by the Florentine artist Cenni di Francesco di Ser...
View ArticleRelics of St Padre Pio (Part 2)
Following up on a post from two days ago, here are pictures of some more relics of St Padre Pio, this time from the town where he was born, Pietrelcina. After his priestly ordination in 1910, due to...
View ArticleBlessed Joaquín de Albocácer
Because the Church has such a glorious history of early martyrs (think of St. Stephen being stoned or St. Lawrence being roasted alive on a gridiron), it is easy to forget that the twentieth century...
View ArticleThe Feast of St Thecla, First-Martyr Among Women
In the Byzantine and Ambrosian Rites, today is the feast of the virgin and martyr St Thecla; in the Roman Rite, she is kept as a commemoration on the preceding day.Image from Wikimedia Commons by...
View ArticleSingCon 2026 Gathers in Brampton, Ontario
We are very glad to share this report from the recently concluded SingCon musical conference, an annual gathering of cantors, choristers, choir directors, and anyone interested in the musical tradition...
View ArticleRelics of St Padre Pio (Part 1)
Today is the feast day of St Pio of Pietrelcina, known to all the world simply as “Padre Pio”, who died on this date in 1968, and was canonized in 2002. Six years ago, I had the very good fortune to go...
View ArticleA Missal for the Use of Braga, 1558
Recently when visiting Milwaukee, I met a friend for coffee, who after we sat down pulled out from a box three marvelous treasures: a 1558 missal for the Use of Braga ; a 1616 Missale Romanum printed...
View ArticleThe Iconographic Style, #2: Images Not Made with Human Hands
Does an icon truly resemble our heavenly destiny, or only symbolize it — and what does Our Lady of Guadalupe tell us about the answer?This is the second of two related articles on the iconographic...
View ArticleSymbols of the Four Evangelists
In Jewish tradition, the vision which the Prophet Ezekiel has in the first chapter of his book is called by the Hebrew word “merkabah – a chariot”, even though this word does not occur in the text...
View ArticleDr. Kwasniewski’s Midwest Lecture Tour, Sept. 30 - Oct. 4
I am pleased to announce here at NLM my upcoming Midwest Lecture Tour (taking Midwest in a rather broad sense). Click on the images to see the details.September 30 • Burr Ridge, Illinois (Chicago...
View ArticleDurandus on the Book of Judith
As the book of Judith is read, we sing of how victory was given by the hand of a woman, and by this, the Church exhorts us to holiness, that is, to continence, by the example of Judith. For just as she...
View ArticleThe Hymn of the Ember Saturday Masses
At all four of the Ember Saturday Masses, the fifth Old Testament reading is the same, taken from the third chapter of Daniel, in which the three young men, Ananiah, Azariah and Misael, are thrown into...
View ArticleAn Old Documentary about Chartres Cathedral
Here’s another win for the YouTube suggestion algorithm, which showed up after the post which I made on September 10th that included a recent documentary about the cathedral of Chartres: namely, a...
View ArticleThe Priest’s First Prayer before Holy Communion
Lost in Translation #169 After the Kiss of Peace, the priest prepares for his Holy Communion with two prayers in the Orations style. Both are “shoots that grew from the still living roots of the...
View ArticleThe Rite of the Transitus of Saint Francis: Restoring True Devotion to One of...
On this feast of the Stigmata of St Francis, we are very glad to share this announcement sent to us by Fr Joannes Smith, about the rite of the Transitus of St Francis, a commemoration of the Saint’s...
View ArticleThe Desert Great-Great Grandfathers
One stumbles across the most remarkable things on the internet. Today I learned that September 17 is the feast day of an Orthodox Saint named Joachim, a Chalcedonian Patriarch of Alexandria, (formerly...
View ArticleSt Satyrus, the Brother of St Ambrose
On the calendar of the Ambrosian Rite, today is the feast of St Satyrus, the brother of St Ambrose. Our only sources for his life are two orations delivered by his brother, one on the day of his death,...
View ArticleThe Ember Wednesday of September 2026
Truly it is worthy and just, right and profitable to salvation that we should give Thee thanks always and everywhere, o Lord, Holy Father, almighty and eternal God: because Thou didst beneficially...
View ArticleInvalidating the Mass Is Not as Easy As Some Seem to Think
Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew OP (source)Not long ago, a priest wrote to me with some questions prompted by recent events:Does Saint Thomas teach that the intention of the priest pertains only to the words...
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