BERJAYA

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TODAY’S WORDLE: 4

Magnus Carlson won the 2025 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship, but he stumbled on Day 1 of the BLITZ Championship. Leading in Blitz are Arjun Erigaisi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Fabiano Caruana with six rounds left in the Swiss portion. The drama! My guy Wesley So is presently #8. He is a Blitz beast.

Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor while he was filming Becket pic.twitter.com/ktC1iof2fX

— Benedict Kiely (@benedict_kiely) December 29, 2025

White 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.

End of year giving? Causes I trust.

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St. David: Musical Poet King, Prophet, Progenitor of Christ

Posted on 29 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Holy Church considers many Old Testament figures to be saints.

Today when you open your trusty copy of the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum you will find, just below the St. Thomas Becket, this interesting entry:

2. Commemoratio sancti David, regis et prophetae, qui, filius Iesse Bethlehemitae, gratiam invenit ante Deum et oleo sancto a Samuele propheta unctus est, ut populum Israel regeret; in civitatem Ierusalem Arcam foederis Domini transtulit ac Dominus ipse mox ei iuravit semen eius in aeternum mansurum esse, eo quod ex ipso Iesus Christus secundum carnem nasciturus esset.

You readers can come up with your renderings of the Latin original, either in a smoother version or perhaps in a slavishly literal way.

Changing tracks slightly, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art there is a series of paintings of Old Testament figures, including King David. These are elements from an altar piece by Florentine painter Lorenzo Monaco (known also as Piero di Giovanni +1422).

Moses is at the top left. Next to him is Abraham. Below him on the bottom right is Noah with his ark.

By thy way, since I took that photo, the paintings have been rearranged… in case you go looking.

Here is David, holding a psaltery. Greek psallo means “to pluck”. While there are also bowed psaltery, this one is plucked by the fingers rather than bowed or struck with a pick or plectrum.

When you get the audio guide at the Met and listen to experts talk about the works, sometimes you get a sample of period music. In this case, you get to hear some music played on a psaltery.

You can hear, below, a sample of a plucked psaltery in a Medieval Lament for Tristan, which would have been in vogue at the time the painter was working on the altar piece.

Listen as you do your translation!

And, just for fun… here is another image of a psaltery bunny from a late 13th c. French manuscript. He even had the audience moved to sorrow.

And a psaltery cat!

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It’s time to stop being “inappropriate”!

Posted on 29 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The hits just keep rolling in. Get this. An “expert” (I know people who know him) has clarified for us what the DDF doctrinal note about titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary mean. CNA has it. My emphases and comments.

Vatican expert: Co-Redemptrix title of Mary not absolutely prohibited

Monsignor Maurizio Gronchi, an expert consultant for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, clarified that the measure established last month regarding the use of the titles “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix” for the Virgin Mary is “not an absolute prohibition” and that these titles can still be used in popular piety, provided their meaning is understood.

“It’s not an absolute prohibition, but it will no longer be used in official documents or in the liturgy. [The 1962 Missale Romanum has in the appendix a formulary for a Mass on 8 May for Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces… just sayin’.] But if used in popular devotion, understanding its meaning, no one will be reprimanded for it,” [Whew! I was worried.] the expert said in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News.

The interview took place after the Nov. 4 publication of the doctrinal note “ Mother of the Faithful People” in which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Víctor Fernández, [author of … well….] stated that the use of the title “Co-Redemptrix” is “always inappropriate” and encourages “special prudence” regarding the title “Mediatrix of All Graces.” The text has sparked controversy among the faithful, especially among those who use these terms within the Catholic Church.

Gronchi explained that “the issue is an old one. This problem has been discussed for 99 years, since 1926. We have studied it on several occasions, and the dicastery has received numerous requests for clarification regarding these terms. These titles present a problem. There is a risk of obscuring, of not clearly explaining that the centrality of the paschal mystery of salvation lies in Jesus Christ.” [? Really?]

“For this reason,” the expert indicated, “now is the time to clarify these titles, so that when it is said that they have been used in the past, it will mean that it was done inappropriately. [pace … John Paul II!] It doesn’t mean that it was wrong, but rather that a definition of these titles was not yet mature and clear.” [What’s the difference between “wrong” and “inappropriately”. Is it sort of like what “time is greater than space” means?]

The consultant emphasized that the pontifical document is a doctrinal note that “deepens, clarifies, and states that these terms are not appropriate, they are not opportune, simply because Mary participates in the redemption, she collaborates in the redemption, but not in the same way as Jesus.” [ZOWIE! We were worried about that. It took the Tucho-led DDF with his acolyte Gronchi to clear up the CONFUSION that we all felt over the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows’s, role in our redemption. It WASN’T the same as Christ’s! Protestants and you woke Catholics, you can relax now. We’re sorry for the past use of these titles. We goofed. Now we know officially that Jesus saves. Just as you Protestants have been telling us Catholics for centuries!]

After noting that the Virgin Mary is like the moon reflecting the light of the sun, a symbol of Jesus, Gronchi said that “Mary gives birth to Jesus, but on the cross, Jesus dies, not Mary. [Who knew?] Mary participates with her heart, with her affection, with all that she is, but it is a participation that the document calls dispositive, meaning that Mary disposes us to receive the grace of Christ, but she is not the source of grace, nor the mediatrix of all graces.” [8 May]

What does he say to those who are confused?

When asked what he would say to those who are confused by the new Vatican document, the expert stated that “they shouldn’t feel any confusion. They should pray to Mary and they should pray to her with the holy rosary. The rosary contains the mysteries of the life of Jesus; therefore, one prays to Mary by meditating on the mysteries of the life of Jesus.”

“This is the simplest, most popular devotion, the one that leads to heaven. The saints have already said it, and we pray to Mary with serenity. If we wish, we can also use the Litany of Loreto, which has very beautiful titles; there is no need to add anything else,” Gronchi emphasized. [Okay, that’s it. JUST the Rosary and the Litany of Loreto. Forget about Our Lady of Sorrows devotion or any of those other things, like Votive Masses. Don’t say the Angelus. Forget about the Miraculous Medal (I’m taking mine off after posting this…. NOT). The Five 1st Saturdays. Novenas. No more traveling to Marian Shrines (sorry Card. Burke!) And, get rid of that Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It’s time to stop being “inappropriate”!]

“What we must say about Mary,” he concluded, “is that she is the mother of the Lord, the mother of God, the mother of the Church, the mother of the faithful people [there’s the downgrade] who accompany us and guide us with tenderness and great love.”

Hey GRONCHI!

St. Bernardine of Siena:

Omnis gratia, quae huic saeculo communicatur, triplicem habet processum; nam a Deo in Christum, a Christo in Virginem, a Virgine in nos ordinatissime dispensatur. … A tempore enim a quo Virgo mater concepit in utero Verbum Dei, quandam ut sic dicam, iusrisdictionem seu auctoritatem obtinuit in omni Spiritus sancti processione temporali; ita quod nulla creatura aliquam a Deo obtinuit gratiam vel virtutem, nisi secundum ipsius piae matris dispensationem.

Every grace that is communicated to this world has a threefold process; for it is dispensed in the most orderly manner from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, and from the Virgin to us. … For from the time when the Virgin Mother conceived the Word of God in her womb, He obtained a certain jurisdiction or authority, so to speak, in the entire temporal procession of the Holy Spirit; so that no creature obtained any grace or power from God, except according to the dispensation of the pious mother herself.

(De Nativitate Beatae Virginis, Sermo 5.8).

Posted in Blatteroons, Our Solitary Boast, Pò sì jiù, What are they REALLY saying?, You must be joking! | Tagged Mediatrix
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28 Dec – Holy Innocents – Childermas: “They were the Church’s first blossoms”

Posted on 28 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Thursday was Christmas.

Today, along with it being the Sunday in the Octave, it is Childermas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

The “Coventry Carol”, a lullaby of mothers to doomed children, dates to the 16th century. It was part of a Mystery Play, “The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors”, about chapter two of the Gospel of Matthew.

The carol is about the Massacre of the Holy Innocents.

Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay.

O sisters too, How may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling,
For whom we do sing,
By by, lully lullay?

Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay.

Herod, the King, In his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might,
In his own sight,
All young children to slay.

Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay, thou little tiny child,
By by, lully lullay.

That woe is me, Poor child for thee!
And ever morn and day,
For thy parting
Nor say nor sing
By by, lully lullay!

We could sing it on every street corner.

The carol came to greater popularity after the BBC broadcast it at Christmas of 1940, after the Bombing of Coventry: it was sung in the ruins of the bombed Cathedral.

Here’s a modern reworking of Lully Lulla Lullay by Philip Stopford which might quite simply make you choke up and then, at the descant about 3:30, completely lose it.

There is sometimes attributed (wrongly) to St. Augustine a quote about the Holy Innocents with some beautiful imagery. Here it is… mind you, attributed to the Doctor of Grace:

These then, whom Herod’s cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers’ bosom, are justly hailed as “infant martyr flowers”; they were the Church’s first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.

Lovely, no? Augustine didn’t say that. It was Caesarius of Arles who preached:

Quos herodis impietas lactantes matrum uberibus abstraxit; qui iure dicuntur martyrum flores, quos in medio frigore infidelitatis exortos velud primas erumpentes ecclesiae gemmas quaedam persecutionis pruina decoxit. [s. 222, 2 in CCL 104]

Literally: Whom the impiety of Herod dragged from their mothers’ breasts; who rightly are called the flowers of the martyrs, whom, having sprung up in the midst of the cold of infidelity, bursting forth as the Church’s first jewels, a certain frost of persecution wasted.

or

Whom the ungodliness of Herod dragged as nursing babies from their mothers’ breasts; who rightly are called the flowers of martyrs, whom the frost of persecution cooked up, grown up in the midst of the cold, bursting forth as the first buds of the Church.

Some interesting things are going on in the Latin. First, you need to know that gemma isn’t just “gem”, but can also be “bud, blossom”. In Latin there are two related verbs, lacto, lactare, “to contain milk, to give suck”, and lacteo, lactere, “to suck milk, to be a suckling”. However, in all periods they swap meanings. We could use one English verb for both, “to nurse”. This is also why we for the famous line “out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings” both “ex ore infantium et lactentium” and “ex ore lactantium”.

By the way, if you like this drilling into Latin, try Latin Synonyms, with Their Different Significations, and Examples Taken from the Best Latin Authors, by M. Jean-Baptiste Gardin Dumesnil, translated into English, with additions and corrections, by the Rev. J. M. Gosset. US HERE – UK HERE

Decoquo is “to waste” or “to reduce by boiling”. I found an interesting reference in Suetonius how Nero made a icy-cold drink decoction, a decocta. Pliny uses decoctum as a medicinal drink. Note the juxtaposition of the heat indicated in decoquo and the cold of frost. The cold heat of persecution brought forth flowers before their day.

Here is the Collect from the 1962 Missale Romanum:

Deus, cuius hodierna die praeconium Innocentes Martyres non loquendo, sed moriendo confessi sunt: omnia in nobis vitiorum mala mortifica; ut fidem tuam, quam lingua nostra loquitur, etiam moribus vita fateatur.

O God, whose public heralding the Innocent Martyrs professed this very day not by speaking but by dying; mortify in us every ill of vices; so that (our) life might confess Your Faith, which we speak with our tongue, also by (our) morals.

Look at the not-so-subtle change made to the Collect by the cutters and pasters who glued together the Novus Ordo:

Deus, cuius hodierna die praeconium
Innocentes Martyres non loquendo,
sed moriendo confessi sunt:
da, quaesumus, ut fidem tuam,
quam lingua nostra loquitur
etiam moribus vita fateatur.

Can you spell “bowdlerize”?

LITERAL VERSION:

O God, whose public heralding the Innocent Martyrs
professed this very day not by speaking but by dying;
grant, we implore, that (our) life might confess Your Faith,
which our tongue declares,
also by (our) morals.

That lingua nostra could, I suppose, be ablative, but it is probably the nominative subject of loquitur. I originally swerved that into “which we speak with our tongue”. There is a strong temptation to reconstruct these clauses when rendering it into English.

NEW CORRECTED VERSION:

O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed
and proclaimed on this day,
not by speaking but by dying,
grant, we pray,
that the faith in you which we confess with our lips
may also speak through our manner of life.

Did the translator not get that fateor is deponent? The subject is vita, no? Accusative fidem is the object, not the subject.

What a mess.

St. Thomas Aquinas dealt with the question of how the Innocents could be considered martyrs if they didn’t yet have use of their free will so as to be able to choose death in favor of Christ and if they were not baptized.

The Angelic Doctor answered that God permitted their slaughter for their own good and that their slaying brought them the justification and salvation that would also come from baptism.

This was a “baptism of blood”. In their deaths they were truly martyrs. And they were indeed for Christ, since Herod, fulfilling the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15, killed them from ill-will for the new-born Christ.

Did you like the Stopford version?

US HERE – UK HERE

Posted in Christmas and Epiphany, Saints: Stories & Symbols, SESSIUNCULA, WDTPRS |
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CHRISTMASCAzT 2025 – 29 – Six Thrones

Posted on 28 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A series of 5 minute daily podcasts for the Octave of Christmas.

Pius Parsch talks about the six throne of Jesus.

Dom Prosper Guéranger on the wonder of adoption.

At the end, a taste of the heartrending Coventry Carol in honor of the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Yesterday’s podcast HERE.

Posted in ADVENTCAzT, PODCAzT | Tagged Christmas, CHRISTMASCAzT, podcast, PODCAzT
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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas

Posted on 28 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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 Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas

Tell us about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A taste of what I offered at 1 Peter 5 this week:

[…]

The Latin Collect reminds us that God has a plan for each of us. From before time and the universe was created, God knew each one of us. Of all the possible universes He could have created, He chose to create this one, into which He called us into existence at the precise moment He foresaw we would be needed in His plan. Along with existence, He gives us work to do. Our Lord, the Incarnate Word, framed this well for us when He taught that we must love both God and our neighbor.

[…]

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IMPORTANT ASK FATHER: Blessing wine on 27 December – St. John’s Day… or “another beverage”?

Posted on 27 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

You usually give your readership an annual reminder for the blessing of wine on St. John’s Day.

The Rituale says “Benedicere… hunc calicem vini et CUJUSLIBET POTUS”- so presumably any hard beverage could be blessed with that blessing? Whiskey would be acceptable right?

Right! Whiskey is “another beverage”.

I hope that you will get organized for this great day and wonderful blessing. First, contact your priest and make sure he is one board. To get him on board, it might be a good idea to to assure him that you will be leaving behind a goodly portion of the large quantity of the “other beverage” you want blessed:

“Hey Father! I have a little too much Laguvulin 16 right now. Could I leave some for you after you bless it? I’d be much obliged.”

That sort of thing.

How did this blessing develop? There was an attempt on the life of St. John the Evangelist by poisoning. He blessed the cup and the poison crawled out in the form of a serpent. You often see St. John depicted this way in art.

Here are a couple texts.

BLESSING OF WINE
on the Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

At the end of the principal Mass on the feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, after the last Gospel, the priest, retaining all vestments except the maniple, blesses wine brought by the people. This is done in memory and in honor of St. John, who drank without any ill effects the poisoned wine offered to him by his enemies.

P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

All: Who made heaven and earth.

P: The Lord be with you.

All: May He also be with you.

Let us pray.
If it please you, Lord God, bless + and consecrate + this vessel of wine (or any other beverage) by the power of your right hand; and grant that, through the merits of St. John, apostle and evangelist, all your faithful who drink of it may find it a help and a protection. As the blessed John drank the poisoned potion without any ill effects, so may all who today drink the blessed wine in his honor be delivered from poisoning and similar harmful things. And as they offer themselves body and soul to you, may they obtain pardon of all their sins; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.
Lord, bless + this creature drink, so that it may be a health- giving medicine to all who use it; and grant by your grace that all who taste of it may enjoy bodily and spiritual health in calling on your holy name; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.
May the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son, + and Holy Spirit, come on this wine (or any other beverage) and remain always.

All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water. If the blessing is given privately outside of Mass, the priest is vested in surplice and stole and performs the ceremony as given above.

4. ANOTHER FORM FOR BLESSING WINE
on the Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

At the end of Mass, after the last Gospel, the following is said:

Psalm 22
(for this psalm see Rite for Baptism of Children)

After the psalm: Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Our Father (the rest inaudibly until:)

P: And lead us not into temptation.

All: But deliver us from evil.

P: Save your servants.

All: Who trust in you, my God.

P: Lord, send them aid from your holy place.

All: And watch over them from Sion.

P: Let the enemy have no power over them.

All: And the son of iniquity be powerless to harm them.

P: Then if they drink anything deadly.

All: It will not harm them.

P: Lord, heed my prayer.

All: And let my cry be heard by you.

P: The Lord be with you.

All: May He also be with you.

Let us pray.
Holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, who willed that your Son, co-eternal and consubstantial with you, come down from heaven and in the fulness of time be made flesh for a time of the blessed Virgin Mary, in order to seek the lost and wayward sheep and carry it on His shoulders to the sheepfold, and to heal the man fallen among robbers of his wounds by pouring in oil and wine; may you bless + and sanctify + this wine which you have vintaged for man’s drink. Let all who taste or drink of it on this holy feastday have health of body and soul; by your grace let it be a solace to the man who is on a journey and bring him safely to his destination; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke of yourself as the true vine and the apostles as the branches, and who willed to plant a chosen vineyard of all who love you, bless + this wine and empower it with your blessing; so that all who taste or drink of it may, through the intercession of your beloved disciple John, apostle and evangelist, be spared every deadly and poisonous affliction and enjoy bodily and spiritual well-being. We ask this of you who live and reign forever and ever.

All: Amen.
Let us pray.
God, who in creating the world brought forth for mankind bread as food and wine as drink, bread to nourish the body and wine to cheer the heart; who conferred on blessed John, your beloved disciple, such great favor that not only did he himself escape the poisoned potion, but could restore life by your power to others who were dead from poison; grant to all who drink this wine spiritual gladness and everlasting life; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water.

By the way, St. John the Evangelist is recognized as a martyr, not because he was actually killed but for his willingness to be martyred while the Romans were actively working on killing him. He was miraculously preserved form harm when they put him into a vat of boiling oil. They were too afraid to try anything else, so Domitian exiled him to Patmos. There is a tiny church by the Porta Latina (that I’ve never been in) called San Giovanni in Oleo. The Feast Day of St. John’s “Martyrdom” is called St. John at the Latin Gate.

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CHRISTMASCAzT 2025 – 28 – St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

Posted on 27 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A series of 5 minute daily podcasts for the Octave of Christmas.

About the Beloved Disciple from Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers: a seven week Retreat on the Mystery and the Meaning of the Incarnation.

John received three gifts from the Lord corresponding to the three “states” Christ experienced, life, death and life and death mingled.

Yesterday’s podcast HERE.

Also, The wonderful Benedictines of Gower Abbey have beautiful Christmas music albums.

Caroling at Ephesus

Christmas at Ephesus

Posted in ADVENTCAzT, PODCAzT | Tagged CHRISTMASCAzT, podcast, PODCAzT
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Daily Rome Shot 1513

Posted on 27 December 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A change of pace.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links. US HERE – WHY? This helps to pay for health insurance, utilities, groceries, etc.. At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

And this… you cannot separate Our Lord from the Cross…