The liturgical preparation for the greatest feast of Christianity -- Easter -- proceeds in five periods of penitential character. As the observance of this preparation apporaches the feast, the penitential note grows progressively deeper and stricter. The first period of this season of pre-Lent, from Septuagesima Sunday to Ash Wednesday; the second extends from Ash Wednesday to Passion Sunday; the third comprises Passion Week; the fourth includes the days of Holy Week up to Wednesday; the fifth consists in the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.) In these three days, which are devoted entirely to the commemoration of the Lord's Passion, the penitential observance reaches its peak, until it ends (at the Easter Vigil) in the glorious and joyful celebration of the Resurrection. (p. 154-5)

Church Music Transgressed is a book on the Catholic music scene published in 1977. It is by Msgr. Francis P. Schmitt, former director of the Boys Town Choir, one-time editor of Sacred Music, major mover and shaker in Church music circles before and during the Second Vatican Council. You can get it from online sellers for $1.

It is short. It achieved very little circulation in those days, and is mostly not talked about today. It is very depressing. In fact, it is almost unbearable to read because the story he tells is so shocking, so alarming, so mind blowing. His famed wit from the old days is barely noticeable through the fire and heat of his nearly despairing prose.

It’s the story of a revolution that began after the Council who words elevated Gregorian chant and sacred music to musical primacy in the Mass. The reality is the story that Msgr. Schmitt tells. Music directors were fired. He was let go of his job. Cathedral musicians with positions lasting back decades were sent packing. Choirs were disbanded. Children’s music programs were defunded. University posts were shut down. Old organizations went bankrupt. Music books were trashed. Whole libraries were hurled into the dumpster. This happened all over the U.S., Canada, England, and even the North American College in Rome.

New publishers, organizations, singing stars, and events emerged to take their place. The ethos was entirely different. Instead of professionalism, amateurism was strangely exalted. Everything old was regarded as outmoded and ridiculous, stuffy, pompous, unsuited to the new age. All that was new, even if it had nothing to do with the Mass, liturgy, or even religion, was given a pass. Choirs in general were put down as elitist and contrary to full participation. Organs were locked and gathered dust.

What caused all this? It was the perfect storm of culture changes, confusions, mania, demographic shifts, rebellion, and a crisis of confidence on the part of bishops and priests. It was a time of intense fear from all those who knew what was right but felt powerless to do anything about it. Those who stuck their neck out to defend tradition were taught a lesson for others to see. They lost every struggle. There were survivors, but they lived lives of isolation and deprivation. They suffered as hardly anyone suffers today.

This is the story that the author tells in great detail. Do you see what I mean that you probably don’t want to read this book? It’s very hard to take. Remember too that no one under the age of 60 even remembers much about these days. Young musicians today know nothing about this period. Probably they don’t care to. I can see why. It’s good to think about the future and not dwell in this past.

However, I don’t want to give the wrong impression about Msgr. Schmitt’s book. He is not entirely one-sided in placing the blame on the goofballs of the progressive camp. He has plenty to say about the sacred music camp too. He blasts their elitism and inflexibility in dealing with the new liturgy, the new language demands, the insistence on the part of the council that the music of the Mass not remain the exclusive work of the choir and organist. In his view, the sacred music camp of this period saw their whole agenda as attempting to prolong the exact model of the before the Council with very little if any thought put to even the smallest adaptions in light of the times. Their bet everything they had on turning back the clock and, in the end, lost everything. (If that description offends you, don’t blame me: I’m just reporting what the author writes.)

But consider that all of this was long ago. Surely we’ve turned the corner. Surely we have. In the last weeks, I’ve been taken aback by all the parishes seeking serious musicians to lead a real reform of the music programs in their parishes. I’ve been contacted by many pastors seeking advice, benefactors looking to help, musicians who report the types of things you want to hear. CMAA programs are filling up early. Scholas continue to spread. January jobs postings are up significantly.

I’ve worried for some years that the successes of the CMAA’s efforts might be leading to an emerging gap in the supply and demand for full-time Church musicians. So many young people feel the call and are making career plans. How tragic for them to spend years in training only to find a barren land when it comes time to turn their vocation into a career! These markets can never be perfectly adjusted, but I’m starting to feel confident for the first time that making this career choice is not a mistake. The jobs are appearing.

To be sure, there are plenty of problems remaining. Salaries are too low. There are few serious singers left in any parish. The musical capital is so low that the director of music spends a vast amount of time doing remedial eduction. Sometimes these musicians show up in parish situations with the support of the pastors, but small pockets of parish resistance then shake the pastor’s confidence. An agenda can fall apart quickly under these conditions. Then there is the problem that pastors can get transferred with little notice, replace by someone new who does not share the reformist point of view.

So the whole field is strewn with landmines. These are problems of the transition. It cannot happen all at once. What matters most here are the trendlines. The good news is that times have really changed. The momentum is in the right direction. How long will be rebuilding take? The rest of our lifetimes.

The driving force here are the young pastors. I’ve never met a newly ordained priest who is not very interested in chant and sacred music. My rough-and-ready model for understanding this runs as follows. In the 1980s, the new priests were focused on theology. In the 1990s and 2000s, they started getting interested in liturgy. In our times, the focus is music. This is the way the rebuilding is taking place.

Another important change: that inflexibility of the old guard in the 1960s is changed to a new spirit of liberality. For the first time, we are seeing major efforts toward providing music for English propers and ordinary parts of the Mass. Msgr. Schuler once described the vernacular as a “gift” of the Church to the world. His view on this matter is now being taken seriously. This does not mean that Latin is being forgotten; on the contrary, it is being upheld as a goal and ideal to which we need to transition. But the means of that transition are just as important as the goal.

Truly, it is a different world today for Church musicians from ten years ago. We have tens of thousands of free scores available, dozens of new websites and resources, chant camps occurring nearly fortnightly in places around the country. The enthusiasm and excitement seems to build by the day. Sometimes it looks to me almost like the opposite process that Msgr. Schmitt describes in his harrowing book but it is all happening in a more humane way. This is not a “counterrevolution” but rather a serious, sincere, and loving effort to improve and progress with openness and sensitivity. And it is working toward the benefit of everyone.

The Diocese of Monte Cassino includes most of the Abruzzi, and is one of the most extensive in Italy. It was formed by uniting seven ancient dioceses, a fact which is borne in mind by the interesting custom that, when the abbot sings pontifical High Mass, he uses seven different precious mitres in succession. As ordinary the abbot is directly subject to the Holy See, and the choir monks take rank as the chapter of the diocese, of which the abbatial basilica of Monte Cassino is the cathedral. The conferring of sacred orders, blessing of Holy Oils, and administration of the Sacrament of Confirmation are the only pontifical functions which the abbot does not exercise. The vicar-general is usually one of the community.

Source

The institution of the three Sundays before Lent, Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, is attributed to Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who reigned from 590 to 604. The plague which killed his predecessor, St. Pelagius II, and lead to his election, was only one in a long series of disasters that befell the city of Rome and the Italian peninsula in the course of the sixth century. Constant warfare between the Goths, the Lombards and the Byzantines had brought to ruins much of the former Capital of the World, which in Gregory’s time was also largely abandoned. In the year 546, the Gothic king Totila had expelled most of the inhabitants from the city; small numbers of people returned, but the city would not be properly re-populated for centuries. The introit of the first of these Sundays, Septuagesima, reflects the turbulent and mournful age in which it was composed: “The groans of death have surrounded me, the pains of death have surrounded me, and in my tribulation I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from His holy temple.” The theme of calling upon the Lord in a time of tribulation is repeated frequently though the Masses of these Sundays. (Pictured right - a penitential procession lead by St. Gregory the Great, from the Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Berry)

The station churches of this pre-Lenten period comprise a series of visits to the tombs of the major patrons of Rome, invoking their aid and protection for the beleaguered city. On Septuagesima, the station is kept at the church of Saint-Lawrence-outside-the-Walls, built over the tomb of the famous deacon and martyr. On Sexagesima, the station is at Saint-Paul’s-outside-the-Walls, and on Quinquagesima at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, both of which have the tombs of the Apostles for whom they are named under the main altar. On the following Sunday, the first of Lent, the station is at the cathedral of Rome, the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior, commonly called Saint John in the Lateran. The stations of the pre-Lenten period therefore repeat those of the Easter octave in reverse order: Saint John on the Easter vigil, Saint Peter on Easter Monday, Saint Paul on Tuesday and Saint Lawrence on Wednesday. The station at Mary Major for the feast of the Purification, which often falls within the season of Septuagesima, corresponds to the same stational observance on Easter Sunday.

The epistles of the three Masses are chosen in reference to the station churches. On Septuagesima, St. Paul compares the Christian life to the athletic contests of the ancient Romans: “but they contend for a corruptible crown, we for an incorruptible one.” (1 Cor. 9, 24 – 10, 5) From the earliest times, the martyrs have been called the ‘athletae – champions or combatants’ of Christ par excellence, and the word ‘athleta’ is used in countless liturgical Offices. The symbol of victory in the Roman athletic stadium, the palm branch, is still used as a symbol of martyrdom; this epistle is therefore fittingly read at the tomb of St. Lawrence. Over the course of Lent, stations will be kept at four different churches dedicated to this most renowned among Rome’s many martyrs; a great many other churches and chapels, including the private chapel of the Papal household, were dedicated to him in the Middle Ages.

The entrance to the tomb of Saint Lawrence at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura

The epistle of Sexagesima is the longest Sunday epistle of the year. (2 Cor. 11, 19 – 12, 9) The collect of this Mass is one of two in the temporal cycle that refer to the saint in whose honor the stational church is dedicated; it may have been borrowed from a group of collects originally used on the Commemoration of Saint Paul on June 30th, also celebrated with a station at his church. At the tomb of Saint Paul, the Church reads his lengthy apologia for his works as an apostle, in which he recalls the sufferings he has undergone in his mission to proclaim the Gospel. In the Ambrosian rite, this same epistle is read on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29th; the church of Milan seems to have borrowed this reading from the Mass of Sexagesima.

On Quinquagesima, although the station is at St. Peter’s, the epistle is not taken from either of his Biblical letters; rather, the so-called Hymn of Charity from the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians is read. (chapter 13) The Vatican is not only the site of Saint Peter’s tomb, but also of his death in the circus of Caligula, in the area on the south side of the Basilica. An ancient tradition tells us that Peter was crucified upside-down at his own request, saying to the Roman executioners that he was unworthy to die in precisely the same manner as the Lord, and wished his cross to be turned so that he might look towards Heaven. This happened in fulfillment of the words of Christ to Peter, “thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another will gird thee, and lead thee where thou wouldst not.” This prophecy was given just after Peter had three times answered the question “Simon, do you love me?” with the answer, “Lord, you know that I love you”, rendering a threefold confession for his threefold denial, as Saint Augustine says. At the place where the sacred relics of the Prince of the Apostles are kept and venerated, it is his fellow Apostle and co-founder of the Roman Church who speaks of the love of God, for the sake of which St. Peter embraced his martyrdom, a stone’s throw away from his tomb.

These same three Roman patron saints, Peter, Paul and Lawrence, were also essential to the transformation of the heart of pagan Rome into a Christian sacred space. The main street of the Roman Forum was called the Via Sacra, the Sacred Way, because it passes by several of the most ancient and notable temples. Close to the Capitoline Hill, from which the great temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus looked down over the city, it comes very close to the Mamertine Prison, where important prisoners awaited judgment and execution. In 141 A.D., the Emperor Antoninus Pius built a new and imposing temple on the Via Sacra about half way through the Forum, in honor of his recently deceased and divinized wife, Faustina; when Antoninus died in 161, he was in due course divinized himself, and added to his wife’s temple.

Saint Justin Martyr and other early Church fathers knew of the tradition that Simon Magus, who sought to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from St. Peter (Acts 8), was in Rome at the same time as the Eternal City’s founding Apostles. The apocryphal Acts of St. Peter tell the story that Simon sought to win the Emperor Nero to his teachings, which he would prove to be true by flying off a tower built in the Forum specifically for this purpose. As he was lifted up into the air by the agency of demons, Peter and Paul knelt on the street and prayed to God, whereon Simon was dropped, and soon after died of his injuries.

The Fall of Simon Magus, by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1461-62

The legend goes on to say that the enraged Nero arrested Peter and Paul and threw them into the Mamertine prison before their execution. There they converted the two wardens, Processus and Martinian, in whose acts it is told that St. Peter caused a well to spring up from the ground so that he could baptize them. The site has been venerated as the place of the Apostles’ imprisonment for many centuries, and pilgrims can still visit it to this day; a plaque near the door lists the famous Roman prisoners, such as King Jugurtha of Numidia, who were killed there, the saints who suffered and died within its walls, and the later saints who have come to venerate the site. On the opposite end of the Via Sacra, Pope St. Paul I built an oratory dedicated to Peter and Paul, nicknamed ‘ubi cecidit magus – where the magician fell.’ This oratory contained as its principal relic the stone upon which St. Peter knelt to pray for the defeat of Simon Magus (pictured right) and the vindication of the Christian faith. The oratory was later demolished, but the stone itself is preserved in the nearby church of Santa Maria Nuova. (Photo courtesy of J.P. Sonnen.)

Some of the numerous churches in Rome dedicated to Saint Lawrence are connected with the events of his martyrdom, such as San Lorenzo in Panisperna, which is venerated as the place where he was killed by being grilled over a fire. A tradition of uncertain origin claims that the great deacon-martyr was tried and sentenced to death on the steps of the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. Sometime in the seventh or eighth century, the central part of this temple was complete rebuilt and transformed into a church, called San Lorenzo in Miranda.

The Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, within the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina

The Mamertine, the Oratory of Ss. Peter and Paul, and San Lorenzo in Miranda are not the first Christian sites in the Roman Forum. Indeed, the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian fronts on the Via Sacra, and was dedicated in 527 A.D., less than twenty years before the depopulation of the city. However, Cosmas and Damian, although highly venerated throughout the Christian world, were Arabians, not Romans, and are depicted as such in their church. The later churches discussed here are particularly important, partly because they are on the Via Sacra, but much more so because they are dedicated to three Roman saints, honoring Peter and Paul on either end of the Forum, and Saint Lawrence right in the middle. Regardless of the truth or falsehood of the legends with which they are associated, by the end of the eighth century, the Sacred Way itself had become sacred to Christ, and to the memory of some of His most illustrious and most Roman ‘athletae’.

A Little Piece of History

It is always a thrill to think of the centuries and millennia that have gone into making the venerable Liturgy we have today; how many saints, holy monks, nuns, priests and lay folk have sanctified themselves while celebrating or assisting at this Liturgy.

It is even more of a thrill when you can put your hands, so to speak, on evidence that much of that Liturgy is the same now as it was all those years ago.

This page of the manuscript St Gall 339, written around the year 1000, shows part of the Holy Mass for today, Septuagesima Sunday.

When comparing the text of that ancient Mass to the text used in today's celebration you can see that they are exactly the same.

Clearly the interpretation of the chant is a little different today (yes, those markings above the words are the neums of Gregorian Chant!), but the words of the Mass have remained unchanged for over 1000 years! Have a look at the Offertory, for example (highlighted in the manuscript):

Bonum est confiteri Domino et psallere nomini tuo Altissime.

It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to thy name, O most High.

The Holy Family by Rembrandt

In this painting we ponder particularly on Our Lady, as Mother of God, Mother of the saviour of the world, Mother of her Son.We can discern a triple revelation here.

The first act of revelation is from the Old Testament Scriptures to Mary. The light picks out the eager attention on Mary’s young face and on the Scriptures that she is reading. Mary has suddenly but quietly turned in her chair from the text she has been reading to the fulfilment of those words that she now contemplates as ‘made flesh’ in the basket cot beside her. The Scriptures are telling her who her Son is.

But both her face and the book have parts in shadow too. Similarly Christ’s face is part in shadow and part illuminated. The shadows remind us of the shadow of the suffering and death he will endure, as she will, suffering foretold also in the Jewish Scriptures – the Old Testament.

The second act of revelation is by Mary to the world. She holds back a richly embroidered veil: by this she reveals Christ to us the onlookers. Mary has a place in God’s revealing of his Son.

The third act of revelation is by the sleeping child himself. In his sleep, he holds back a bright red coverlet revealing a lining of lamb’s fleece. Christ reveals himself, even as an infant fast asleep. The red coverlet, as we have seen in paintings before, flows over the edge like blood poured out, and it is highlighted further in its brightness in its juxta-positioning against the richly deep red of Mary ‘s skirt. Mary and the child both wear red. By the fleece Jesus is revealing himself as the lamb of God who is to be led silently to the slaughter.

The revelation taking place at the centre of the painting, through an interplay of light and movements, cloths and colours, is reinforced by other details surrounding Mary and the crib. Firstly, of course in the top left hand corner are the angels bursting in on the scene revealing to us that this is no ordinary carpenter’s child. Where are they looking? One is looking lovingly at Mary, the other looking soberly at the baby. Diagonally opposite the angels in the bottom right hand corner is the fire which, together with the angels is the main source of diffused light across the bare boards of the floor and the barren wall behind, with what look like further parts of the yoke being made by Joseph. A contemplative scene, which, despite looking so humble and ordinary is nonetheless imbued throughout by the grace of the Incarnation of the Son of God through Mary, Theotokos, Mother of God.

For immediate release – 13 February 2012
Ecclesiastical Treasures Saved

The Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev Peter Smith, and the Abbot of Farnborough Abbey, the Rt Rev Dom Cuthbert Brogan OSB, are delighted to announce that through a private treaty sale a number of key historic items from the former Benedictine Abbey at Ramsgate in Kent are to remain in Catholic hands. The majority will return to the church of St. Augustine in Ramsgate, the magnificent Grade I church which Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) designed and built next to his own house, The Grange. Pugin designed and fitted out the church in every detail and the items returning to St. Augustine’s church complement the rich collections already there. Equally, the items acquired by Farnborough Abbey complement the Abbey’s important collections of sacred silver.

The Archbishop of Southwark and the Abbot of Farnborough would particularly like to thank Abbot Paulinus Greenwood, Abbot of the Benedictine Community formerly based in Ramsgate, and auctioneers Dominic Winter for their full cooperation and support in facilitating this happy outcome.

Amongst the historic items returning to St. Augustine’s is a beautiful monstrance of around 1850 which is very similar to one which Pugin designed for his other famous church, St. Gile’s, Cheadle, and a watercolour sketch by Pugin of the interior of St. Augustine’s, Ramsgate. This sketch was a preparatory study for a large drawing which Pugin sent for display at the Royal Academy in 1849. The monks at Benedictine Farnborough Abbey have acquired an important silver recusant chalice dating from 1633. English recusant silver of this early period is extremely rare due to the prohibition on Catholic worship following the Reformation. This chalice is engraved with scenes from the Passion of Christ. It was given to the monks at Ramsgate in the nineteenth century by a member of the Hales family, who were recusants. It had been in the Hale family for generations.

The sale of contents from Ramsgate Abbey came about because of the Ramsgate monks’ recent move to smaller premises at Chilworth in Surrey and on account of their need to raise sufficient funds to continue their work and mission. The Archdiocese of Southwark took back responsibility for St. Augustine’s church from the monks in 2010 and has instigated a major programme of repair with generous grant support from English Heritage. An appeal was launched last November in the River Room at the House of Lords, a room also designed by AWN Pugin. The parish priest, Fr Marcus Holden, has established a Friends of St. Augustine’s and patrons of the appeal include the broadcaster, Alistair Stewart, and the architectural writer, Clive Aslet. With the new acquisitions added to the existing collection, the Friends are planning to put on an exhibition.

Father Marcus Holden, said, “We have a major programme to bring St. Augustine’s back to as it was in Pugin’s day and the acquisition of these items contributes in a significant way to what we are seeking to achieve here in Ramsgate. Pugin decided to build this church here because St. Augustine had landed nearby in 597AD. We want St. Augustine’s to become a fitting place to commemorate both the towering achievements of Pugin and the coming of Christianity to England which captivated him. As we recall Pugin’s bicentenary on March 1st we will be celebrating not only an iconic national architect but a central figure of the Catholic revival”.

Nathan Winter of Dominic Winter Book Auctions said, “We are delighted to have been of assistance to the Archdiocese of Southwark in the retention of a number of key historic objects from St. Augustine’s Abbey in Ramsgate and to know that they will feature in the important restoration project now underway at the wonderful Pugin church there, widely regarded as one of the architect’s greatest achievements”.

The Abbot of Farnborough said, “Dominic Winter Book Auctions, the auctioneers, are to be commended for their professionalism and patience in negotiating this sale and for their sensitivity to the concerns of the wider Catholic community. All sacred vessels are important. The recusant chalice communicates with a particular eloquence the hardships suffered by Catholics in what are described in the inscription on the chalice as ‘cruel times’. We are relieved that this chalice will remain in appropriate hands.”

Relics of St. Valentine in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, decorated for February 14th
(Photo by Br. Lawrence Lew, O.P.)

At Rome, on the Via Flaminia, the birthday of St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr, who, after many wondrous works of healing and teaching, was scourged with rods and beheaded under Claudius Caesar.

-- The Roman Martyrology, February 14th

Mass was then celebrated according to the Anglican Use, and it was quite something to see two cardinals of the Catholic Church kneeling with us to recite the Prayer of Humble Access..."Lord we do not presume to come to this Thy table, trusting in our own goodness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies..."

Music was provided by combined choirs of the Catholic community in Houston led by the eminent organist and composer Dr. Kevin Clarke, himself a convert from Anglicanism--now an organist of St Theresa's, Sugarland. Among the classic pieces of English music was Byrd's Mass for Five Voices, Parry's great anthem, I Was Glad, O Sacrum convivium by Thomas Tallis, and Bl. Cardinal Newman's great hymn Praise to the Holiest in the Height.

Appropriately, for the establishment of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, the readings were the passage from Isaiah about the steward of the King, I Peter 5. 1-4, in which St Peter encourages his bishops to be 'fellow shepherds' and Matthew 16 on which Christ founds his church on Peter the Rock.

Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson