Well, y’all did it. This is a dozen brand new, Baronius Press, 3 volume Roman Breviaries, and there are probably another three in the post, for a total value of US $5400. How to use the internet correctly. Note from Sister: “Please tell everyone how grateful we are. This is just totally overwhelming.” “We are going to try to design some nice labels to put in the front of each breviary on which we’ll write the name or names of the donor/donors of that particular set.

UPDATE January 26: That’s six. ~ Well, that was amazing. About 50 people responded since we started January 12th, and there have been a LOT of breviaries purchased and shipped by Baronius Press, plus a few previously-owned copies, sent to the monastery. So, well done youse!! I think we’ve got the full number filled, but as of today only five have actually arrived at the destination. This isn’t cause for alarm, since some have been shipped from the UK and some from the US, and even a couple coming from further afield like New Zealand and Germany.

Hint: Morgoth doesn’t win. I have been wondering why I and a few other Trads haven’t experienced the slightest temptation to give up on the Church, despite the monstrous turn of events over the last 6 years. I don’t think it’s because of any greater levels of faithfulness or courage or determination. I think it has to do with the mentality that we started with; that we never expected anything to go well.

Shot: Deleted this one… Replaced it with this… Chaser: Most U.S. bishops say they would ordain women deacons, if Vatican gives OK   The Covington debacle shows us once again that a willingness to throw the sheep to the wolves and ignoring facts when it seems to serve the immediate interest of the supposed shepherds is a primary feature of the episcopacy, not a bug. Not just about sex abuse, it's about bad men — Creative Minority (@CMReport) January 22, 2019 Aaand we’re done.

Once upon a time, not a very long time from now, all the people in the world lived in a great vast complex of underground cities, a system that spread all over the world, and was controlled and connected all together by a great, intelligent Machine. All the people’s needs were taken care of by this Machine, that circulated air into their compartments, provided food, water, light and clothing. It automated their little homes, told them when to wake and sleep and eat and bathe, and all of this great meticulous care was exactly the same in every home, millions of people all living in identical comfort.

In the last week or so, I had a LOT of emails from people who wanted to know what’s up with the Breeves for Nuns project, and could they still help. Below is the group email I just sent out to everyone who contacted me. Additional news is that we should know in a day or so how many there are left to send, but given how many people have already contacted me I think we should have enough now to cover the whole project.

So, remember just before Christmas we took a break here while I worked on a painting commission? Well, here it is. Still not done though. I promised four miniatures and only managed to finish two by the deadline of get-it-into-the-post-before-Christmas. The cool part is that with every one I do the level goes up. Painting-as-video-game. I’m doing it to learn traditional Renaissance egg tempera painting techniques, mostly by cobbling it together from Youtube videos, close and prolonged examination of the original Fra Angelico and other medieval and Renaissance paintings in the Perugia National Gallery, and by reading the one and only contemporary book on classical egg tempera techniques that a friend bought online for me a while ago.

Max helpfully helps us to understand what all the softy-softy Vaticanese means in the pope’s Ecclesia Dei letter: With his decision on #EcclesiaDei, Pope Francis said to the traditionalists: you can have pre-conciliar liturgy, but you cannot have pre-(anti)Vatican II doctrine — Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) January 19, 2019 As I think we’ve been saying for years: if you love and adhere to the Faith of All the Ages, you can’t adhere to the New Paradigm of VaticanTwoism.

LAST UPDATE: (because my attention span has wandered off somewhere…) A response was immediate from the SSPX (to whom it must be assumed the news was not a surprise) One conclusion is evident: as the so-called Ecclesia Dei communities have preserved “their spiritual and liturgical traditions”, they clearly do not count in this discussion. If they remain attached to a section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it is incidental.

toil and Trouble. Double-trouble. Just a few pics from the Roman Forum week in Gardone Riviera, all the way back in 2011. Basically two straight weeks of Aperol spritz, 5 course meals and shop-talk. Looooots of shop-talk. (Seriously, WAY too much shop-talk!) Just for fun.