Septuagesima
The Christmas Decorations, which will be taken down after Candlemas, stand in stark contrast to the purple of Septuagesima.
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Daily Sermons
January 26 – Fr. Cekada – St. Polycarp
January 27 – Fr. Cekada – St. John Chrysostom
January 28 – Fr. Cekada – St. Peter Nolasco
January 29 – Fr. Cekada – St. Francis de Sales
January 30 – Fr. Cekada – St. John Bosco
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Christmas ends, today and tomorrow. Today’s purple vestments announce seventy days until Easter, and to-morrow’s Mass of the Candles bring to a close another Christmas season. Lent looms ahead, with its true Spring for the soul. Meanwhile, Bishop Sanborn tells me that today is considered the first day of Spring in Tampa Bay. It was nice to have some sunny cool days, as usual, for last week’s Seminary Retreat, away from Cincinnati’s cold. Snowy weather was again predicted for today as last Sunday, but we’ve been blessed so far.
Well, we are always blessed, aren’t we? So, “ice and snow, heat and cold bless the Lord.” The retreat went well, in addition to the weather. It’s a nice treat, one for which I try to be suitably grateful, to sit down to a delicious home cooked meal, not just once, but—of the luxury of it!—three times a day, like in the old days. God bless Dorothy who does the cooking.
Of course the whole atmosphere of the seminary speaks of God and the soul and our Faith. It’s silence and chanting, it’s bells and common praying, are a truly wonderful break for busy priests, as well as the best possible atmosphere for young men to pursue their studies for ordination. God grant us many vocations, and the means to educate them and send them throughout the world.
I pray the conferences and sermons I gave were as nourishing for the soul, as the meals were for the body. The seminarians and the young Fathers were joined by Fr. Fleiss, so it made for a good sized group. In addition, there was a Novus Ordo priest from Cuba, who is studying for eventual ordination. Fr. Darovic Caballero-Sosa is very happy to have this opportunity. He has three groups of Catholics who are waiting for him to return. In the meantime, a Mexican priest is visiting them from time to time.
Father assures me that he has never had any problems with the Communist government, but that the Com-munist Church in Cuba really made him suffer. With the easing of regulations, it should eventually be fairly simple to come and go. But he is gone forever from the clutches of the Communist Conciliars.
Fr. Cekada was your parish priest last week, offering the daily school Mass, preaching to the children, taking care of the cats…. I think he rather enjoyed it. Early polls from Miss Patton’s classroom were running three likes to one in favor of his kiddie sermons. Those kindergarteners are a discerning bunch.
Would that Catholics were in general. Those who should know better are swallowing the daily dosages of heresy and scandal from Bergoglio, or rather sleeping through it. Fr. Cekada compiles a running record of the daily outrages, which in turn are used for the monthly Francis Watch, just one of the truly excellent, interesting and in-formative programs on Restoration Radio.
On addition to the above mentioned comforts of seminary life (which is actually pretty intense most of the time) there is also Stanislaus, the Bishop’s cat, who allows anyone at all to pet him, is gentle and never scratches, and is given to purring contentedly as opposed to, say, whining and giving looks. I am going to have to have a little talk with Caravaggio, I think!
Tomorrow, come what may, I will be making soup in the afternoon for our Winter Soup Supper, and assisting at the Solemn Ceremonies for Candlemas. I hope you can be with us. God bless you. Get started on your Lenten planning. I am!
—Bishop Dolan