Unlocking the Mysteries of the Song of Songs Through the Heart of Jesus Christ

If you’ve ever read the Song of Songs (also called the Canticle of Canticles) in the Old Testament, you probably had more than a few questions about it! What is this very sensuous book about a lover and a beloved doing in the canon of Scripture? 

Three New Publications — The Best Liturgical Catechism, the Best Book on Dressing, and the Best Book on Religious Vocation

Worshiping; dressing; discerning religious life. What do these three topics have in common?

All of them concern our vocation to give glory to God and bring benefit to our neighbors with the powers of our minds and our bodies—whether in the radical form of a total gift of self in the religious life of evangelical poverty, chastity, and obedience, or in the social form of dressing modestly and beautifully, or in the highest act of the highest moral virtue, religion: executing divine worship with all due reverence, honor, and splendor, taking seriously man's sensible condition and the rich tradition that sustains him.

¡Viva Cristo Rey! — Two New Books in Honor of Christ the King: “The Cristero Counterrevolution” and “His Reign Shall Never End”

The centenary of Pius XI's great 1925 encyclical Quas Primas on the divine-human, individual-social Kingship of Jesus Christ has seen the release of two new books of considerable interest to tradition-loving Catholics.

Launching "Theological Classics": Newman on the Virgin Mary, St Vincent on Novelty and Heresy, Guardini on Sacred Signs

At a time of turmoil, nothing could be better or more important than rooting ourselves deeply in the Catholic tradition. One of my favorite quotations is by St. Prosper of Aquitaine (390-455), writing in his own age of chaos: “Even if the wounds of this shattered world enmesh you, and the sea in turmoil bears you along in but one surviving ship, it would still befit you to maintain your enthusiasm for studies unimpaired. Why should lasting values tremble if transient things fall?”

An Exemplary Traditional Catholic Apostolate, Under Persecution and in Dire Need of Help

The following post, by Dan Sevigny, first appeared at OnePeterFive and is reprinted here with permission. I will add that I know Dan personally, have visited the ranch, and have seen the incredible work they are doing. This apostolate fully deserves whatever support people can send their way! - PAK

In a world where traditional Catholic values are increasingly challenged, Sanctus Ranch stands as a beacon of faith and reverence—a sanctuary where souls can retreat from worldly pressures and experience the authentic love of Jesus Christ. Today, this sacred refuge faces an unprecedented crisis, one that threatens its very existence and the vital mission it serves.

Announcing a Complete Guide to the Theology and Use of the Chapel Veil

Os Justi Press's latest release is a revised and expanded new edition of Anna Elissa's Mantilla: The Veil of the Bride of Christ, this time in full color. (It first came out 9 years ago in Indonesia and quickly become a favorite of many readers until it sold out; it was time for a superior presentation, with better distribution channels.)

Mantilla: The Veil of the Bride of Christ is the most thorough, insightful, and serene guide to veiling ever written—one that will equip you with answers to your own questions as well as the never-lacking questions of friends, relatives, and strangers.

Resting her account on Scripture and Tradition as interpreted by the Church Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas, and papal, liturgical, and canon law texts, Anna Elissa—a wife, mother, psychiatrist, and lay Dominican—offers arguments of fittingness on behalf of veiling, responds to common objections against it, offers practical advice for choosing, wearing, and even designing mantillas, and shows how the veil contributes to a Eucharistic way of life that treats femininity as a gift, a treasure, and a mystery.

To illustrate and verify her points, Elissa presents a substantial collection of testimonials from women of all ages about their experience adopting and wearing the veil—and from men, too, including clergy, about why they value the practice and its return.

Appropriately for a work about the language of signs and beauty, Mantilla is graced with exquisite artworks in color.

In his foreword, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi describes the book as a "beautiful surprise." Whether you are a long-time veiler, a skeptic of veiling, or simply curious to learn more, this is the book for you!

Paperback, 5" x 8", 152 pp. $16.95

(Hardcover and ebook also available.)

From Os Justi Press or any Amazon outlet.

Irony Alert: Postconciliar Iconoclasts Arrive at the Feast of St John Damascene and Smash It

So much to observe about today's confluence in the Roman Rite, on this Thursday of the third week of Lent, with a commemoration of St. John Damascene.

Book review: Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the Wonder of the Catholic Worldview

Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the Wonder of the Catholic Worldview by Fr. William Slattery is a stunningly insightful read.

The author, whose name you might recognize from his earlier and also very fine book Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build—and Can Help Rebuild—Western Civilization, is an unusual combination: a fiery Irishman, a cold-blooded PhD in epistemology who specialized in alethic logic, a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, a historian – and a priest who is passionately in love with the Traditional Latin Mass. Listen to these words in the Acknowledgments section of his book:

“Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed” — New Book by Peter Kwasniewski

hardcover on the left, paperback on the right

I'm delighted to announce to Rorate readers that my new book from Angelico Press, Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed, has just been released!

New Books Vindicate Pius X's Teaching on Sacred Music and Show that the Church in Africa Is Not a "Vatican II Success Story"

Os Justi Press is pleased to announce its latest pair of releases.

First, in the "Studies in Catholic Tradition" series, we have Dr. Patrick John Brill's The Great Sacred Music Reform of Pope St. Pius X: The Genesis, Interpretation, and Implementation of the Motu Proprio "Tra le Sollecitudini."

Professional singer and choir conductor Dr. Andrew Childs sums it up well: “Dr. Patrick Brill provides thorough and much-needed support for what many traditional-minded Catholics have long known or at least suspected: that St. Pius X’s 1903 motu proprio Tra le Sollectitudini still provides the surest guide for the restoration of Catholic sacred music. Part I of this book provides a detailed commentary on the motu proprio, enlightening for amateur and expert alike, while Part II examines the document’s fate from the time of Pius to today, looking at its canonical force and status, positive efforts of implementation, and the neglect it has suffered since Vatican II. As tradition continues to make crucial gains, it will be books like this that serve as practical guides for restoration.”

"The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae": A Publication to Assist in Pre-55 Services

Those who are blessed with access to Holy Week in the Tridentine Rite, that is, the rite celebrated for a thousand years and more prior to Pius XII's changes in the mid-1950s, may find helpful a resource published by Os Justi Press: The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae, which contains the liturgy (in Latin with English translation) for Palm Sunday, the Triduum Masses, and the Office of Tenebrae, including complete Gregorian chants. Summary rubrics are indicated. No page turning is required. The book features many medieval illustrations as well.

Just How Different Are the Pre-1955, 1962, and 1969 Calendars Around Christmas and Epiphany? (2024 Edition)

More and more Catholics are waking up to the huge differences between the old and new Roman liturgical calendars—the one, a product of two millennia of organic development; the other, brainchild of a 1960s committee. A subcategory of these folks are waking up to the significant differences between the calendar of the pre-1955 Missale Romanum and the one observed with the 1962 Missale Romanum. The chart above compares all three for the period from December 25th to January 19th.

Announcing "The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hymnal" - 900 pages of Gregorian Chant and Classic Hymns

Os Justi Press is proud to announce the publication of The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hymnal.

Produced by Music Manuscript Service of Denver with the help of a team of expert consultants, the OLMCH provides, at long last, the ultimate Catholic hymnal for a fully traditional Catholic sacred music program, in parishes, schools, or religious houses. Designed primarily with TLM communities in mind, here are some highlights:

Book Release - Turned Around: Replying to Common Objections Against the Traditional Latin Mass

Recently, TAN released my latest book, Turned Around: Replying to Common Objections Against the Traditional Latin Mass.

Here's the idea behind it. I take nine objections Catholics make to the traditional Latin Mass, and turn them around in jiu-jitsu fashion: “You are right—but you don’t realize how right you are!”

“His fruit was sweet to my taste”: On the Proper Mass of St Margaret Mary Alacoque

Almost 100 years ago, in 1929, Pope Pius XI extended the feast of the then recently-canonized St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to the universal Church, giving us a magnificent proper Mass simultaneously honoring the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, who graciously revealed Himself to her, and the saint herself, who faithfully transmitted the message with which she had been entrusted. Even as the Church prays on September 17 that God granted the holy stigmata to St. Francis in order to bring warmth to a world grown cold, so too God raised up this simple nun in France to bring warmth to a nation grown Jansenist. And we are not yet finished with Jansenism, as can be seen in the endorsement of the proposals of the Jansenist Synod of Pistoia by the Second Vatican Council or in the grim defenders of a distorted modesty who joylessly turn people against well-regulated social dancing.

“Christ is no longer to be spoken about—and can no longer be spoken about”: New essay by Vigilius on Pope Francis in Southeast Asia

Rorate welcomes once again the crystal-clear and profound contribution of Vigilius, pen-name of a German theologian. The original text may be found here; the following translation has been approved by the author.

Pope Francis in the “Tunnel of Friendship”

Vigilius

Pope Francis was completely in his element during his trip to Southeast Asia. This is because he was once again able to engage eagerly in “interreligious dialogue”. If you read the Pope’s now published speeches, this dialogue enjoys an almost sacred status of grandeur, which is fed by impressive moral claims. This is because the essence of the intended dialogue is aimed at unity, fraternity, harmony and concord. Central to the Bergoglian concept of dialogue is the “detection of what connects us”, i.e., everything that brings us together by allowing us to discover what is, in truth, always already identical—as symbolized by the underground “tunnel of friendship” between the Istiqlal Mosque and the Cathedral of the Assumption in Jakarta.

New Front in the Liturgy Wars: Rome Requires Dominicans of the Holy Spirit to Hybridize Novus Ordo and TLM

Almost exactly one year ago, Rorate reported on the plight of the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, who from their founding adhered with principled consistency to the old liturgical rites. The Vatican sent Novus Ordo apologist Fr Henry Donneaud, OP to "regularize" them in accord with the Vatican campaign against traditional religious life and traditional divine worship.

Now, there is an important update. On July 25, the community issued the following press release, which we translate here:

Refuting the Exaggerated and Belligerent Claims of the French Bishops’ Survey: Paix Liturgique

Pope Francis with leadership of the French Bishops' Conference, December 2022

EDITOR'S NOTE

Another blog, known for its extreme adulation of Pope Francis, is currently discussing the synthesis the French Bishops' Conference put out in 2021 in response to the Summorum Pontificum Survey. They exaggerate its significance and its pertinence as a document that reflects the true opinion of the bishops. Aside from the forceful misinterpretations, sophisms, and plain exaggeration, the article also shows a desperate attempt to control the narrative on Traditionis Custodes. 

EXCLUSIVE: Dom Alcuin Reid’s Response to Prof. Grillo’s Interview

Wrong, Professor Grillo—Think Again!

Dom Alcuin Reid

Amidst the ‘liturgy wars’ of over a decade ago, Father John Baldovin SJ published an article: “Idols and Icons: Reflections on the Current State of Liturgical Reform.” (Worship 2010, n. 5) He argued that some were given to the idolisation of certain ritual forms, complaining that he found “a paradoxical kind of narcissism in certain attitudes towards the liturgy in which people think they are arguing for more transcendence at the same time as they are promoting an idolatrous attitude toward the liturgy itself.” Borrowing from the French phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion, Baldovin argues that the liturgy should, instead, be iconic whereby (in Marion’s words) “the icon does not result from a vision, but provokes one…[it] summons sight in letting the visible be saturated little by little with the invisible.” Baldovin quotes further: “In the idol the gaze of man is frozen in its mirror; in the icon the gaze of man is lost in the invisible gaze that visibly envisages him.” (p. 389)

"Unresolved Tensions in Papal-Episcopal Relations": New Anthology Maps Out the Terrain

Os Justi Press has just released a new book that will be of interest to many readers of this weblog: Unresolved Tensions in Papal-Episcopal Relations: Essays Occasioned by the Deposition of Bishop Joseph Strickland.

This book brings together essays and articles by 14 authors who wrestle with ecclesiological and canonical questions prompted by some of the tyrannical acts of Pope Francis, using this as a springboard for a broader consideration of the rights and duties of a bishop according to traditional theological sources.

The centerpiece of the book is the respectful but intense debate between José Ureta and John Lamont concerning whether a bishop unjustly deposed should accept his deposition as a valid act of papal jurisdictional primacy (even if it be an illicit or sinful one), or should rather refuse to acknowledge it and remain in his see. Ureta argues for the former position, Lamont for the latter. Each marshals quotes from classic authors on behalf of his side. It’s one of the best high-level debates I’ve seen in years. Several of these pieces by Ureta and Lamont appeared first at Rorate Caeli. They are given definitive form in the book.