The Narthex
Liturgics & Vesting Prayers
Post-1969 there are no 'revised' vesting prayers. Indeed, there are no prayers at all
By John M. Grondelski | July 28th 2025 11:41 AMThe July-August NOR features my article "Two Immediate Threats to Contemporary Liturgics." In it, my thesis is that three disciplines employed in the methodology of modern liturgical studies are not in proper relationship: there is a limited perspective on history, an overwrought but selective focus on canon law, and too…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRandom Ruminations #27
Parishes & Commandments of the Church... Adapting Just War Principles... Name-calling... more
By John M. Grondelski | July 17th 2025 5:55 PMParishes & Commandments of the Church Archbishop Edward Weisenberger of Detroit has supposedly told priests to remind Catholics attending Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at one of the four non-parish venues in the Archdiocese where the TLM will at least occasionally be available that those attendees are nevertheless members of some…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Sunday Commute
New urban planning eschews suburban sprawl. Parish consolidations push parochial sprawl
By John M. Grondelski | June 17th 2025 11:40 AMWhile post-pandemic Sunday Mass attendance in the United States has increased, it has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Adoremus asked me to write about whether, post-COVID, parish Masses should still be televised or made available online. My judgment was that, while broadcast Masses help the sick and shut-ins, they have…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Eternal Father, Strong to Save'
God’s solicitude for man comes not from any merit of ours but from His Love
By John M. Grondelski | May 26th 2025 1:03 PMThe recessional for Sunday Mass at my parish this week was “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” popularly called the “Navy Hymn” (linked below). It was written by English Protestant William Whiting, although Catholics should find no issue with its theology. It was initially adopted by the British Royal Navy, at…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGet Your Ashes within a Liturgy
Forgiveness of sins is not just 'between me and God'; it involves the Church and Confession
By John M. Grondelski | March 5th 2025 12:32 PMFive years having passed since the COVID lockdowns, I do hope that some of the worst practices that emerged in conjunction with the flight from human contact might be finally put to rest. Seeing, however, how bad ideas tend to acquire a life of their own, I offer a few…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMore Holy Day Havoc
Canonical alchemists can turn every Mass-attendance 'burden' into a dispensation
By John M. Grondelski | January 31st 2025 1:20 PMWelcome to today’s episode of “As the Holydays Turn.” When last we tuned in, the Catholic bishops of the United States were in a quandary. In 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 fell on a Sunday. According to the norms of the liturgical calendar, when a…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Pope on Easter
Claims that a common Easter would foster ecumenism are exaggerated
By John M. Grondelski | January 29th 2025 12:46 PMRecently Pope Francis repeated an idea he has been floating for some time: setting a common date for Easter. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox mark Easter on different dates because the Orthodox use a different calendar (the Julian, which is 13 days out-of-sync from the sun) and formula to fix Easter.…
READ FULL BLOG POSTBehavior at Funerals
At Jimmy Carter's state funeral, much attention was focused on the living presidents
By John M. Grondelski | January 15th 2025 12:00 PMWatching the Carter state funeral at National Cathedral, I couldn’t help but notice how much attention was focused on the five Presidents. One of the few times Americans see all their living former, current, and -- at Carter’s funeral -- future presidents in one place is when one of them…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLost Opportunity
The rich young man kept his wealth. But what opportunity cost did he pay?
By John M. Grondelski | October 18th 2024 2:18 PM"Opportunity cost” is the term economists use to define the forgone benefit that would have been derived from an option other than the one that was chosen. My choice of X over Y, for example, may be cheaper right now. But over the long run, due to hidden costs, inferior…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPost-Communion Thanksgiving
After his work at the altar, the priest should sit and allow a period for silent thanksgiving
By John M. Grondelski | August 9th 2024 2:01 PMTomorrow is the Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. St. Lawrence is probably best known popularly for being martyred alive on a gridiron and for his remark about being “well-done on this side, turn me over!” The jocularity tends to obscure just how barbaric a death Lawrence died during…
READ FULL BLOG POSTTransfiguration Is What Christian Life Is All About
The Transfiguration points towards the Resurrection and the Last Day
By John M. Grondelski | August 6th 2024 11:49 AMToday is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Celebrated in the midst of summer, it perhaps gets short shrift from many Catholics. Catholics more regularly are reminded of the Transfiguration each year on the Second Sunday of Lent, when we read of it in one of the three Synoptic Gospels. It’s…
READ FULL BLOG POSTAscension: Learning to Prayerfully Wait
Tampering with Ascension Thursday warps both Scripture and our preparation in God's time
By John M. Grondelski | May 9th 2024 1:01 PMOnce more, Ascension Thursday is upon us and once again we see the liturgical and theological incoherence the Catholic bishops of the United States caused, in the name of being “pastoral” while exercising canonical fiat, in the liturgical calendar. I have three major criticisms of what they have done --…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Future of Easter
If the Pope aims to fix a 'common' Easter with the Orthodox, then discussion is long overdue
By John M. Grondelski | May 6th 2024 12:01 PMThis past Sunday, May 5, was Easter in various parts of the Orthodox Church which still use the Julian Calendar for liturgical purposes. To these Orthodox: Christos voskrese! Voistinnu voskrese! (Christ is risen! He is truly risen!) I mention Orthodox Easter because while this year (as is typical) it falls…
READ FULL BLOG POSTImmanence Dominance
We need regularly to puncture our secular, flattened time to let God in
By John M. Grondelski | April 25th 2024 12:10 PMIn the wake of Vatican II, all sorts of Catholic practices and popular devotions were deconstructed. The process often occurred for simplistic and callow reasons, with no thought to why those practices and devotions had become so established or what would be lost -- including in terms of follow-on effects…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA 'Come to Jesus' Message
Christian 'welcome' goes through sin, repentance, and conversion
By John M. Grondelski | April 15th 2024 11:48 AMThe past few years have seen a preoccupation in various ecclesiastical quarters about the Church’s “welcome.” It’s a strange preoccupation for an institution that has been around roughly two millennia and hitherto seemed to lack neither clarity about its welcome message nor success in its promotion. This year’s readings for…
READ FULL BLOG POST