Now this is just too cool....
A Latin prayer to invoke the intercession of St. Isidore of Seville before going on the Internet- and an English translation the same.
Link courtesy of The Inn at the End of the World.

On this day in 1892...
the first child of Arthur Reuel Tolkien and Mabel Tolkien née Suffield was born in Bloemfontein, in what is now South Africa. Happy birthday, Professor !

The Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
is today.
"The martyrs, the confessors of the Church, bishops, evangelists, doctors, preachers, monks, hermits, ascetical teachers,—have they not, one and all, as their histories show, lived on the very name of Jesus, as food, as medicine, as fragrance, as light, as life from the dead?" - Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O.

My online source says that his feast was on Thursday, but I have a print source which says that the feast of St. Joseph Mary Tomasi is actually today. I am particularly interested in him because he was a brilliant scholar and cardinal who was also known for his holiness of life. Sound familiar ?

Just a reminder ...
If you happen to be in Pittsburgh tommorow, the 5:15 pm Mass at the Pittsburgh Oratory will be said for the repose of the soul of 'John, on his 112th birthday'- John being John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

Prayers for your webscribe would be most welcome..
as I am, alas, looking for work again...sigh.....

Finally ....
A valedictorian who actually told it like it is !

Link courtesy of Zorak

The Feast of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church
is today. There is information on them here and here.

St. Gregory Nazianzen
by Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O.,

"Peace-loving man, of humble heart and true
What dost thou here?
Fierce is the city's crowd; the lordly few
Are dull of ear!
Sore pain it was to thee,—till thou didst quit
Thy patriarch-throne at length, as though for
power unfit.

So works the All-wise! our services dividing
Not as we ask:
For the world's profit, by our gifts deciding
Our duty-task.
See in king's courts loth Jeremias plead;
And slow-tongued Moses rule by eloquence of
deed!

Yes! thou, bright Angel of the East! didst rear
The Cross divine,
Borne high upon thy liquid accents, where
Men mock'd the Sign;
Till that cold city heard thy battle-cry,
And hearts were stirr'd, and deem'd a Pentecost
was nigh.

Thou couldst a people raise, but couldst not
rule:—
So, gentle one,
Heaven set thee free,—for, ere thy years were full,
Thy work was done;
According thee the lot thou lovedst best,
To muse upon the past,—to serve, yet be at rest. "


Palermo.
June 12, 1833.

The truth about The Lord of the Rings is finally revealed...
by the astute Mr. Shea.

The Feast of St. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop and Martyr
is today. There is information on him here. It is also the feast of a later English martyr, Blessed William Howard.

For anyone who happens to be in the Pittsburgh area on Saturday...
The 5:15 pm Mass at the Pittsburgh Oratory will be offered " for the repose of the soul of John on the 112th anniversary of his birth", "John" being, of course, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. For readers who cannot attend the Mass, I would suggest that prayers for the Professor would be especially appropriate on that day.

The Feast of the Holy Family
is today.

"When, for our sakes, the Son came on earth and took our flesh, yet He would not live without the sympathy of others. For thirty years He lived with Mary and Joseph and thus formed a shadow of the Heavenly Trinity on earth. O the perfection of that sympathy which existed between the three! Not a look of one, but the other two understood, as expressed, better than if expressed in a thousand words—nay more than understood, accepted, echoed, corroborated. It was like three instruments absolutely in tune which all vibrate when one vibrates, and vibrate either one and the same note, or in perfect harmony. " -Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O.

Also, on this date last year I attended the ordination of Fr. Michael Darcy of the Pittsburgh Oratory to the priesthood. Ad multos annos, Fr. Michael !