Updates from Average Catholic – Blog, TLM Finder, general thoughts

Posted on February 5, 2019 by

This blog has not been real active lately. This is mainly due to a lack of time on my part.

I am hoping to make this blog more active again. I am doing a lot to try to free up additional time. One thing to that affect is deleting social media accounts – FaceBook, Instagram, etc. Those, to me at least, are time wasters, and create a lot of unnecessary “noise” in my life. I am also not real fond of the social media companies themselves. And I have ways to keep in touch with the people I care about on these platforms.

Another thing to do to free up time is trying to control email better. Somehow I seem to have collected a number of email accounts over the years. I am cleaning those up, redirecting my email to just one account, and slowly deleting the others. I am also not real fond of how two of the main email providers (yahoo and gmail) scan your emails, in order to provide you ads. I understand they need to make money, but emails should be private, to the greatest extent possible. (protonmail is a good, private provider).

Traditional Latin Mass Finder – I am behind on updates again, but those are on my radar. Hopefully this coming weekend I should be able to catch up some. I am looking to, in the future, create a web app to replace the Android and iOS apps, probably using Python. That is still in the works though. Using a web app would make the TLM Finder fully cross plaform, not just usable from phones, but from all desktops as well. I am also interested in the Librem 5 phone (coming out soon), which runs neither iOS or Android, but a version of GNU/Linux called PureOS.

I hope to finish that in the next few months.

Plans for this blog – I originally saw this blog as a way to just share my thoughts on the Catholic faith, and the news in the Catholic world (there is a lot of it). I hope to re-orient the blog in that direction. Also, as a computer programmer, I am very into technology, and I hope to share a lot more information on that as well.

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Saint Narcissus (October 30)

Posted on October 29, 2018 by

Saint Narcissus from his youth applied himself with great care to the study of both religious and human disciplines. He entered into the ecclesiastical state, and in him all the sacerdotal virtues were seen in their perfection; he was called the holy priest. He was surrounded by universal esteem, but was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem only in about the year 180, when he was already an octogenarian. He governed his church with a vigor which was like that of a young man, and his austere and penitent life was totally dedicated to the welfare of the church.

In the year 195, with Theophilus of Cesarea he presided at a council concerning the celebration date of Easter; it was decided then that this great feast would always be celebrated on a Sunday, and not on the day of the ancient Passover. 

God attested his merits by many miracles, which were long held in memory by the Christians of Jerusalem. One Holy Saturday the faithful were distressed, because no oil could be found for the church lamps to be used in the Pascal vigil. Saint Narcissus bade them draw water from a neighboring well and after he blessed it, told them to put it in the lamps. It was changed into oil, and long afterwards some of this oil was still preserved at Jerusalem in memory of the miracle.

The virtue of the Saint did not fail to make enemies for him, and three wretched men charged him with an atrocious crime. They confirmed their testimony by horrible imprecations. The first one prayed that he might perish by fire, the second the he might be wasted by leprosy, the third that he might be struck blind, if the accusations they made against their bishop were false. The holy bishop had long desired a life of solitude, and at this time he decided it was best to withdraw to the desert and leave the Church in peace. But God intervened on behalf of His servant, when all three of the bishop’s accusers suffered the penalties they had invoked. Narcissus could then no longer resist the petitions of his people; he returned to Jerusalem and resumed his office. He died in extreme old age, bishop to the last.

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Updates going slow for TLM Finder

Posted on June 3, 2018 by

Updates to the Traditional Latin Mass Finder database are behind right now.  I hope to catch up quite a bit over the next week.  I want to thank everyone who provides updates!  With over a thousand churches listed in the app (and I will be adding more), there will always be some information that is out of date.  One of my primary sources of information are those who email me when the schedule changes for their church :). I do try to go to church websites (and websites for Latin Mass associations – any sources I can find), but there are a ton out there to track!

I am also trying to keep up with the Mass readings in the ‘news’ section of the app, and here on Average Catholic.

However I may miss some of the Mass readings, as I am doing some traveling, and that may keep up for the next month or so.  There may be news related to that in the near future.  All good things, but it keeps me busy.

Again, I very much appreciate the updates everyone sends in!  I apologize for when the changes are slow.  But hopefully the activity dies down going forward, and I will be able to put more time into maintaining the data for the app.

God bless,

Average Catholic

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Michael Matt of Remnant Newspaper Interviews Father Linus Clovis

Posted on May 19, 2018 by

There is a lot of information here on Father Clovis, his work in the pro-life movement, the Tridentine Mass, his views on Amoris Laetitia, his vocation as a priest, and more.

It is a fascinating interview!

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Liturgy: Sunday after the Ascension – Awaiting the Descent of the Holy Ghost – District of the USA

Posted on May 13, 2018 by

Liturgy: Sunday after the Ascension – Awaiting the Descent of the Holy Ghost – District of the USA
— Read on sspx.org/en/news-events/news/liturgy-sunday-after-ascension-awaiting-descent-holy-ghost-37605

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Archbishop Alexander Sample at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Posted on May 7, 2018 by

Archbishop Alexander Sample celebrated the Holy Mass in the Tridentine Form at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. He gave an excellent sermon defending the Mass of the Ages.

An excellent archbishop, Alexander Sample used to be my parents’ bishop in Marquette Michigan!  He is now the archbishop of Portland, Oregon.

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Short History Saint Pius V (May 5)

Posted on May 5, 2018 by

Michael Ghislieri, a Dominican friar from his fifteenth year, a teacher of religion at twenty, as a simple religious, as inquisitor, bishop, and cardinal, was famous both for the spotless purity of his own life and for his intrepid defense of the Church’s faith and discipline.  Surrounded in his time by great men and great Saints, in apostolic virtue he was surpassed by none.

 

As Pope, his first concern was to reform the Roman court and the capital city by the strict example of his own household and the punishment of offenders.  He next endeavored to obtain from the Catholic powers recognition of the decrees of the Council of Trent, two of which he strictly enforced: the obligatory residence of bishops in their sees, and the establishment of diocesan seminaries.  He revised the Missal and Breviary, and reformed ecclesiastical music.

 

He was not less active in protecting the Church outside Italy.  We see him at the same time supporting the Catholic King of France against the Huguenot rebels, and encouraging Mary, Queen of Scots in the bitterness of her captivity.  It was he who excommunicated her rival, the usurper Elizabeth, when the best blood of England flowed upon the scaffold and the measure of her crimes was full.  

 

The intrepidity of this Vicar of Christ found enemies.  The holy Pope was accustomed to kiss the feet of the crucifix on leaving or entering his room.  One day the feet moved away from his lips.  Sorrow filled his heart, and he made acts of contrition, fearing that he must have committed some secret offense, yet he still could not kiss the feet.  It was afterwards discovered that they had been poisoned by an enemy.

 

It was in the Lepanto victory that the Saint’s power was most plainly manifest.  There, in October 1571, by the holy league which he had formed but still more by the prayers of the aging Pontiff to the great Mother of God, the defeat of the advancing Ottoman forces was obtained and Christendom was saved from the Turk.  Six months later Saint Pius V died, having reigned only six years.

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