We bid farewell to Archbishop Burke at his last official event in St Louis at Kenrick the other day. His homily and his words to the seminarians after Mass brought tears to my eyes. I don’t think many people realize how much he cared about the people of the archdiocese, how much he prayed for them, and how hard he worked. It was very hard to see him go, and I don’t think I will ever really know how much of an influence he had on me. Though he was not my own bishop, I studied in his archdiocese, and he always took great paternal interest in and care for the seminarians here.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for everything.

“Quantum potes, tantum aude.”

People in adoration at a nearby parish.

Zacharias and I in an alley.

A motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic.

Part of the garden of the place we are staying in Mexico City.

The cathedral of Mexico City.

Part of the reredos behind the high altar at the cathedral.

I in the sacristy of the cathedral.

Since you can’t drink the water.

Cat-5’s name is now officially spelled with a hyphen.

Some of you may know how fond I am of the ancient and medieval bestiaries. From Aristotle to Isidore of Seville to Aberdeen, I love reading the ancient descriptions of animals, seeing the illustrations in the manuscripts, and reading the allegorical Christian interpretation. The Christian bestiaries give such a great sense of the awareness the ancients and medievals had of Christ being the center of cosmology. That awareness is closer to reality. After all, he is the first born of all creation.

I found online today a project which reproduces online the Physiologus among other works. The Physiologus is a very ancient bestiary from which many medieval bestiaries drew. It’s definitely worth it to check out the facsimile of the Physiologus.

Yesterday, on All Souls’ Day, Father Keller celebrated Mass in the extraordinary form. It was crowded with that catafalque in the nave, but it turned out pretty well. The music was beautifully chanted as well.

There are photos on kenrickparish.com.

Apparently, Members of Atheist Alliance International are considering a new symbol.

The last time I checked, this symbol meant ‘at’ as in dylanschrader@gmail.com rather than ‘atheist.’ I hope the fact that it’s capitalized won’t introduce confusion when giving out email addresses: “Is that a capital ‘at’ or a lowercase ‘at’?” We already have some people making the distinction between “upper caps” and “lower caps.”

In part of a collection of religious and liturgical images from Musica Sacra, I found this image containing the opening words and symbols of each of the four Gospels surrounding the Lamb of God as well as various figures which signify Christ.

It even contains explanations of the Christological symbols:

“The monoceros (The Greek word for “unicorn”) figures the form of the birth of Christ of the Most Holy Virgin.”

“The eagle figures the form of the ascent of Christ into Heaven to the Father.”

“The pelican figures the form of the suffering of Christ for the salvation of men.”

“The lion figures the form of the raising of Christ from the dead on the third day.”

This morning, in accordance with the provisions of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, there was celebrated a solemn high Mass at Kenrick. The priest was Father Lenhardt of the ICRSP, and the deacon and subdeacon were some of our own seminarians.

I was the thurifer, which I enjoyed because I got to be closer to the sacred ministers and assist them.

Of course, many of us had to learn what to do, having never assisted besides possibly in choir at a Mass in the older use, but everything went very well.

Update: See many more pictures from Jeff Geerling.

I met Father John Trigilio from EWTN at the vigil Mass.