Although fading in the secularized West, mass intentions are a major source of funding for priests who receive insufficient financial support from bishops in poor dioceses. Catholic priests are required to note mass stipends they have received, using books like the one pictured above. 
Earlier, they were a part of every priest's routine, as the following document from 1925 shows. It is a report on how many mass stipends a missionary group distributed in 1925. Catholics would order mass intentions, give the money to the church group in the USA, and that group would then distribute the stipends internationally. As a result, the priests who celebrated the masses had to keep a record of the masses they said. 

Such records are immensely valuable historical sources because they show where each priest was on each day, and the altar where he said mass, as explained here.

Idealized portrayals of monastic cells like this one (note the candle burning, above) do not reflect the reality of monastic history. "The term cell is something of a misnomer for these conventual dwellings, as they were not simply single-room constructions," writes Kathryn Santner about Peruvian nuns in the Early Modern period. "[...] they formed an extended network of small houses composed of multiple bedrooms, sitting rooms, servants’ quarters, kitchens, and outdoor patios. [...] a cell built at Lima’s monastery of Santa Catalina in 1638 included a reception room, alcove, oratory, kitchen, patio, chicken coops, balcony, and staircase to the roof. [...] Employing the same materials and construction methods used in secular buildings, these lavish cells had the kinds of amenities and fine detailing seen in Lima’s stately homes, including upper stories," Kathryn Santner, "Money and a Room of One’s Own." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 81.4 (2022) 441-455, at 442.

The Hieronymite nun Juana Inés de la Cruz had in her cell: thousands of books, scientific and musical instruments, paintings, and curiosities. See Octavio Paz, Sor Juana, or, The Traps of Faith, trans. Margaret Sayers Peden (Belknap Press 1988) 247–248, qtd in Santner.

This etching of St. Simeon the Hermit in his tenth-century cell is idealized but at least shows a number of paintings and even more modern books. 

This image is from Yates Thompson MS 3, also known as the Dunois Hours. For a solid introduction to the trope of Bernard's eight verses, click here.

Most of the sources call Rancé the founder of the Trappist movement, students of Cistercian history know that  from the early 1600s, the abbots Denis Largentier (Clairvaux) and Octave Arnolfini (Châtillon) where at the beginning of the movement. Another trope is that the monks of the Common Observance were so depraved in the seventeenth century that God himself called the Strict Observance into being. Actually, the 1600s showed the movement to be flourishing in many, if not all, abbeys. Another error is the claim that La Trappe had survived for "over 900 years," but it was closed and roundly abused in the French Revolution, as were all abbeys, and was a romantic re-foundation of the nineteenth century. 
Pointing to these errors may be nitpicking. Other authors point to the predicted closure of La Trappe as a sign of a far graver matter: "That this venerable monastery cannot find enough vocations to keep it alive is," so writes Bishop Robert Barron, "a sign of the spiritual disaster that has befallen Europe in the last hundred years." And that is much more tragic. 

This drawing from the December, 1921 issue of Chi lo sa? portrays a seminarian holding his first speech, presumably in a class on public speaking. No, he is not looking at his smartphone. The drawing was made by a fellow seminarian at the Venerable English College in Rome. Chi lo sa? is the seminary diarium. The Venerabile is the seminary magazine, old issues are online here. 

The play was „Das Opfer“ (The Sacrifice [of the Mass]) by Ludwig Nüdling (1874–1947), a German priest who wrote several Eucharistic dramas. The photo shows the highly symbolic religious dimensions of the play, which seeks to explain that each Mass re-presents — makes eternally present — the event of the Crucifixion.
The lay brothers at Schlierbach Abbey staged the play from within their own ranks in 1929, casting boys from the abbey school to help with minor roles. 

This portrait of Wenzel Anton Dominik, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (1711–1794) wearing a Franciscan habit around 1759–1761 is an example of European nobility engaging in a religious practice well-known in the baroque era. Aristocrats would dress up as monks and nuns, listen to pious talks held by priests, and then pray. 
Here is an introductory article which offers an overview of similar examples. Pious laity have often sought the privilege of wearing monastic clothing. 
More details about the above portrait to follow in the upcoming publication by Christoph Brandhuber and Oliver Ruggenthaler: Macht, Pracht, Stille. Spiritueller Rückzug am Hof Maria Theresias (Salzburg/Wien 2025).

Das Musical Just Mary (= die gerechte Maria) wurde im Pfarrheim Steinabrückl (Niederösterreich) am 20.12.2025 uraufgeführt. 
Just Mary schildert das Leben der Jungfrau Maria nach Inhalten der Visionen der sel. Anna Katharina Emmerick (1774–1824), die diese dem Schriftsteller Clemens Brentano in mystischer Schau diktiert hat.
Der Text von Doris Schranz wurde überarbeitet von Dr. Andreas Rager und Mag. Dieter Schranz. Lieder sind von Andreas Rager, Dieter Schranz und Agnes Pichler. Von den Liedern wird es bald ein Liederbuch geben.