Views from the Choir Loft

Learn A New Word, See It Within 24 Hours

Jeff Ostrowski · December 12, 2011

As noted in past blogs, after you learn a new word you will often see it again within 24 hours . . . in a completely different context! I think it has to do with the miraculous way God designed the human mind. The human mind “skips” over things which are not apropos of the thing at hand, as well as things with which the mind is not (yet) familiar. However, once an association is made, the mind is then “on the lookout” to notice the new word or phrase. I don’t know if this is the case for everyone, but it is for me.

Let me give just one example:

I was recently reading the Abyssus Abyssum Invocat Blog, and I read an excellent Foreword by Most Reverence Bishop René H. Gracida. Here is an excerpt:

I had never heard of Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle before. Then, a few hours later, I happened to be reading a book by Patrick Buchanan, and I came to this paragraph:

See? It happens every time!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

List • Responses by each bishop!

This incredible website gives each bishop’s response to the recent MOTU PROPRIO Traditionis Custodes, a decree by Pope Francis which seeks to reduce the number of celebrations of the “Extraordinary Form” (Traditional Latin Mass): traditioniscustodes.info

—Jeff Ostrowski

Tomorrow is Sunday…

When you were in school, you would have gotten in trouble if you wrote the Roman Numeral “9” as viiii. You were supposed to write: IX. But look how an ancient manuscript writes “9” as a Roman Numeral. That’s the Introit Ecce Deus for tomorrow’s feast in the Extraordinary Form: The 9th Sunday after Pentecost.

—Jeff Ostrowski

24 July 2021 • “Two Teams”

Anyone familiar with the so-called “Traditionalist Catholic” movement knows that (like every other group) it contains some bad apples. Anyone can self-identify as a “Traditionalist Catholic”—even those who are mentally ill, those who beat their wives, and even folks who are emotionally disturbed. All of us know TLM Catholics who are so arrogant they make Narcissus look like the most humble guy who ever lived. However, I believe Traditionis Custodes will exacerbate the situation. Under B16, we were “all on the same team.” But this new decree by Pope Francis makes it seem like there are two opposing “teams” in the Church.

—Jeff Ostrowski

The representative Protestant collection, entitled “Hymns, Ancient and Modern”—in substance a compromise between the various sections of conflicting religious thought in the Establishment—is a typical instance. That collection is indebted to Catholic writers for a large fractional part of its contents. If the hymns be estimated which are taken from Catholic sources, directly or imitatively, the greater and more valuable part of its contents owes its origin to the Church.

— Orby Shipley (1884)