Fr. Z's Blog

This was for the “Madonna de Noantri” festival that takes place around 16 July ti the end of the month for Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Eight days after the procession along the streets of Trastevere – when she exits Sant’Agata in Trastevere and returns to S. Crisogono, she is carried on a boat on the Tiber, disembarked at Lungotevere degli Anguillara and brought to St Maria in Trastevere. This is when she’s called “Madonna fiumarola”. The statue was found by Corsican sailors at the Tiber’s mouth after a storm in 1535. St. Philip arrived in Rome in 1534. This is why there are always also Corsican confraternities participating. The tradition of carrying the statue on a boat started in the early 1600s when the Archconfraternity of the Madonna del Carmine was founded.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Many thanks to the early donors using wavy flag (Zelle is even better) for my October Roman Sojourn, JL being the most recent:

VF, JL, MR, DVDH, DC, LG, MMcM, MH, SB, PG, HL, MM, SAS, JL

ALERT: I received a new Zelle donation from a mysterious GJD…… and there is no email address attached to the email.  That’s a problem with Zelle.  So, who ever is behind mysterious GJD….., please drop me a note.  HERE

I’ll start a campaign in earnest during August. Also, thanks to several thoughtful folks, mostly stream viewers, who requested Mass intentions. I can take a few right now. NB: Don’t assume that priests can take stipends and just send them the intention and stipend without checking with them. That’s a public service announcement to make life easier for you and for priests.

In chessy news, Carlsen crushed Tuan Minh Le in a blitz game the other day with the King’s Gambit, deadly if you play it right, deadly if you play it wrong.  I can’t figure out how to embed it.  It is HERE.  Scroll down to the last of the Carlsen/Le games.

White to mate in 2.  How long did it take you?

Sign up! I am an affiliate.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Photo from The World’s Best Sacristan™.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Thanks to readers GG and AV and RK for items from my wishlist.  Much appreciated.

Black to move and win material. Name the tactic.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

In chessy news… I played like a imbecile in Saturday. Frustrating. The 2024 Speed Chess Championship is underway. I haven’t been paying much attention. Perhaps Monday when Wesley is at bat.

A priest friend recommended a book about Jehovah’s Witnesses. You might have your own suggestions. I’ve been getting into this one, which is helpful about their history, how they operate, and what they believe. It seems to have different covers in different printings.

Answering Jehovah Witnesses. I have the 2001 in hand.

US HERE – UK HERE

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for this 10th Sunday after Pentecost, or the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A couple thoughts about the sign of the cross: HERE  A taste…

[…]

When we have a pericope at Mass, a cutting of Scripture for sacred worship, we have to spill out over the edges of that pericope to glean the context and to see where it is going.  This means spending time before Sunday, identifying the antiphons and readings to come and then opening those Bibles and looking into them.  In this way, when you are at Sunday Mass, and the reading is spoken or sung, you can most beneficially gain what Holy Church wanted you to have through your full, conscious and active receptivity, which is the highest form of participation.

FATHERS!  When you are not in your cassock, you might try a new thing which I saw first in Rome (though in limited sizes) available now through My Cuban Store.

Clerical polo shirt!

As I write they are taking pre-orders for September delivery.  Regular price $55, pre-order for $24.75.

And consider a clerical guayabera.

Lots of clothes, hats, etc., for lay people too.  Check them out.

Right now, as I write, they are having a 2-day FLASH SALE.

My thanks again go out to donors who are switching from Continue to Zelle or Wise.

I bring to you attention a new book published by Emmaus Press, a branch of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

On The Demonic by Archbp. Fulton J. Sheen.

US HERE – UK HERE (not yet)

The forward explains that, toward the end of his life, Sheen was ever more convinced that we are living in a demonic age and that we may be seeing the “first cells of the Anti-Christ”.

He wrote that he wanted to write a book about the demonic, but he passed away before he could accomplish it.   The editor of this book has gone through all of Sheen’s material and collated what he found about the topic.

The volume includes not only excerpts from known published works but also from Sheen’s own handwritten notes, kept in his archive, for conferences, etc.

In chessy news, chess.com’s Speed Chess Championship is underway … blitz and bullet… the strongest speed chess players in the world.

Black to move and mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Hey sa*****@*********king.ws !  My email note was kicked back as undeliverable.  New email address?

In chessy news, I read that lots of dosh has been raised to fund more “freestyle” tournaments (aka 960 aka Fisher Random).  Also, Liem Le prevailed in Biel.  In St. Louis there is a US Senior and Junior Championship underway for the top 10 players across three divisions – juniors, girls, and seniors – competing for more than $135,000 in prizes.

I, on the other hand, spent some time with the pesky King’s Gambit yesterday.

Black to move, win material and a winning position.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

I’ve been working a little more with my Federated build of “Element”, which is a sort of Zoom substitute. Zoom, as you might now, is AI mining everything… everything you say. Federated has replacements for all sorts of SaaS (Software as a Service) for a great deal less money and your data is YOURS. I’ve been using YouTube for daily Mass streams and I’d like to move away to a more secure mode, thus I am looking more at Federated’s “Element”. Yesterday I got it working with OBS. Brick by brick.

If you have a business or web presence and you are paying mucho denaro for SaaS, I’d look in Federated.  Frankly, every parish and even dioceses should get the heck away from all the popular services which are expensive and mining data for AI.

Hey Fathers!  How about a clerical Guayabera shirt for the hot summer days?  I have one.  Super practical and cooler in more ways than one.  All sorts of lay clothes and hats, too.

Our Price: $58.50 – Reg Price: $90.00