Fr John Zuhlsdorf, Author at Catholic Herald

Fr John Zuhlsdorf

This Sunday, sing your Hosannas with a difference

April 11, 2019

With our Jewish forebears singing at Passover, and with countless Catholic generations, at every Mass we cry to the Lord, “we beseech You, save us! … hôšîʿâ-nā!”. This Sunday we say “Hosanna” with a difference. On that first Palm Sunday, pilgrims swarmed the holy city, swelling its numbers to a million. As they walked to

Priests need your prayers this Passiontide

April 04, 2019

Catholics journeying towards the New Jerusalem through the sacrament-season of Lent, our mysterious New Exodus, from this Sunday onward especially via the Roman Rite’s Extraordinary Form, begin to undergo severe liturgical kénosis, or emptying. Images are covered over to deprive the sense of sight, prayers are pruned from Mass. When the Triduum strikes, more and

Omnium Gatherum: a water break on the Lenten marathon

March 28, 2019

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is known by the first word of the Introit, the first chant of Mass, “Laetare … Rejoice”! This is one of two days in the year when we use rose (rosacea) coloured vestments. We momentarily relax the penitential character of our Lenten Sundays. The tradition of rosacea vestments grows from

Keep Fridays meat-free – but alligator is fine

March 21, 2019

Last week I concluded with the Latin adage, plenus venter non studet libenter (“A full stomach doesn’t willingly apply itself to study”). Remaining a little hungry – both physically and morally – is beneficial. Constant satiation of bodily and other undertakings brings torpor and weakness in the face of more dire temptations. Lent is a

The meaning of ‘The world, the flesh and the Devil’

March 14, 2019

In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite this Sunday we are served a bracing slap of reality. Holy Mass begins with an antiphon taken from Psalm 25 (24) in which David invokes God’s mercy upon him, a sinner, beset with enemies. Then we have the Collect: “Deus, qui conspicis omni nos virtute destitui: interius

Lent is drill practice for our spiritual battle

March 07, 2019

Each day during Lent has, traditionally, assigned a church in Rome called a “station”. In ancient times the people and clergy would process singing litanies to the station church for Mass. This Sunday’s station is Rome’s cathedral, St John Lateran. “Concede nobis, omnipotens Deus, ut, per annua quadragesimalis exercitia sacramenti, et ad intellegendum Christi proficiamus

We can all strive to live without mortal sin

February 28, 2019

“We are in a fight for our lives.” This was part of the message ancient converts received as they approached their reception into the Church. The sober tone and images of the traditional pre-Lent Sundays (Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and this Sunday Quinquagesima) compelled prospective catechumens to ask, “What am I getting into?” We are in a

St Thérèse understood the spirit of Sexagesima

February 21, 2019

In the traditional Roman calendar this Sunday is called Sexagesima, Latin for the “Sixtieth” day before Easter. These three purple-draped Sundays of pre-Lent encourage us to prepare for the discipline to come. In the Novus Ordo of Paul VI there is no more pre-Lent, a real loss. The Roman Station is the Major Basilica of

What does Septuagesima mean?

February 14, 2019

Easter falls late this year because of the vagaries of the Moon. But Easter will come, and before it our serious penitential “Fortieth” season, Quadragesima, Lent. From time immemorial we have, traditionally, observed the pre-Lent Sundays. They begin this week, in the traditional calendar, with “Seventieth” Sunday, Septuagesima. On the Saturday before, we sing “Alleluia”

The Church is not afraid to combine images of family and soldiering

February 07, 2019

A couple of weeks ago, we met a “liturgical unicorn”. Unicorns do pop up once in a while. He’s back this Sunday too: the same collect in both forms of the Roman Rite, for the Fifth Ordinary Sunday and the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. Our prayer today presents imagery of a family and, on the

Omnium Gatherum

January 31, 2019

In the traditional Roman Rite’s Extraordinary Form, depending on when Easter falls, the collect for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany is sometimes postponed to the liturgical year’s conclusion, filling in for Mass formulae lacking in the season after Pentecost. This year, because Easter is rather late, we enjoy it now. Deus, qui nos in tantis

Even in Japan, the Traditional Mass was reassuringly familiar

January 24, 2019

It was an age of the great charity which impelled missionaries to cross both endless seas and narrow channels. They bore in their hands the greatest tool for evangelisation Holy Church has ever wielded, the Roman Missal. St Pius V issued it in 1570 at the behest of the Council of Trent, and great saints

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