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The Liturgist Manifesto

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By now, most of our readers have probably already seen or read about the article on the website of The Guardian, in which the actor Bill Murray commented on the post-Conciliar liturgical changes.
One new saint he does approve of is Pope John XXIII (who died in 1963). “I’ll buy that one, he’s my guy; an extraordinary joyous Florentine who changed the order. I’m not sure all those changes were right. I tend to disagree with what they call the new mass. I think we lost something by losing the Latin. Now if you go to a Catholic mass even just in Harlem it can be in Spanish, it can be in Ethiopian, it can be in any number of languages. The shape of it, the pictures, are the same but the words aren’t the same.”
Isn’t it good for people to understand it? “I guess,” he says, shaking his head. “But there’s a vibration to those words. If you’ve been in the business long enough you know what they mean anyway. And I really miss the music – the power of it, y’know? Yikes! Sacred music has an effect on your brain.” Instead, he says, we get “folk songs … top 40 stuff … oh, brother….”
As a side note, St John XXIII was actually from a small village in Lombardy called “Under-the-Mountain (Sotto il Monte)”, near Bergamo; and, as we all know very well, he promulgated Veterum Sapientia, but not one of the documents of Vatican II. It is one of the saddest testimonies to the legacy of Pope Paul VI that so many people “remember” John XXIII as the architect of changes he would never have countenanced, like celebrating Mass entirely in the vernacular. A few years ago, Italian television broadcast a docudrama about Paul VI. (In Italian, a docudrama is called, without any deliberate irony, “un fiction.”) The actor who played him, Fabrizio Gifuni, noted in an interview that,
If you go around the area of St Peter’s Basilica, you will see souvenir shops overflowing with postcards of John XXIII, John Paul I and John Paul II. But you will not find one, not a single one, of Paul VI… This is surprising, when you consider that (he) guided the Church for fifteen years, from 1963 to 1978, perhaps the most critical in its recent history.
While looking through the reportage on the Bill Murray article, I stumbled across some comments made by another fellow named Murray, on changes to the liturgy made even before the Council ended. In a letter to the Tablet published on March 14, 1964, Dom Gregory Murray, O.S.B., of Downside Abbey in England, wrote:
The plea that the laity as a body do not want liturgical change, whether in rite or in language, is, I submit, quite beside the point. … (it is) not a question of what people want; it is a question of what is good for them.
Michael Davies quotes this in his book “Liturgical Time Bombs in Vatican II”, and rightly observes that it reflects the same mentality as that of the Soviet Communist Party. Just as the Party “ ‘interpreted the will of the people,’ so the ‘experts’ interpret the wishes of the laity,” and were willing to inflict any amount of suffering on them to make them accept what they, the experts, had determined was for the people’s good. And so I find myself reminded of two stories from those troubled days.

The first was something which my mother and grandmother told me many times about the first Mass celebrated in English in their home parish in White Plains, New York. Most of the congregation left the church in tears, an episode which disturbed my mother greatly, and which my grandmother, who hated to hear any criticism against the Church, preferred not to comment on. Like many Catholics who grew up before the Council, they were both quietly but decidedly indignant at the idea, so common afterwards, that they must have been ignorant of the Mass because it was in Latin, a righteous and proper indignation which I have encountered in a great many other people since. A former colleague once told me something in a similar vein about her Catholic grammar school: “We all had our missals in Latin and English, and those sisters made darn sure that we knew how to use them!”

The second concerns this commemorative plaque from the church of All Saints in Rome,
which reads in part:
His Holiness Paul VI, as the liturgical reform decreed by Second Vatican Ecumenical Council was beginning, was pleased to celebrate in this church the first Mass in Italian, amid the excited exultation of an entire people…
A Roman friend of mine explained to me this is actually the third version of this plaque, because, in fact, not quite all of the people were excitedly exulting about Mass in the vernacular; after the first two plaques were badly vandalized, the third was placed well out of reach, and above a statue that no one would dare climb on. (The current plaque seems however to have a stain on it, of unknown origin, not visible in the photograph.)

No intelligent person would seriously defend the claim that all Catholic liturgical practice before 1962 was always and everywhere ideal. In the 1950s, my father’s parish had ten or more Masses every Sunday between the upper church and the crypt; the only one with music was the last one in the upper church, which he described as “the one nobody went to.” To me, this is simply unimaginable, (perhaps the choir just wasn’t very good), but the preference for low Mass and the dislike of high Mass was undeniably real in many quarters. But far too many of those who (rightly, in my judgment) saw this as a problem, chose to remedy it, not with patience and charity, not by educating the faithful to a greater love of and appreciation for sacred music. They chose rather to force upon them “what was good for them”: bad but easily singable music, and a vernacular version of the Mass as ugly as it was inept.

For those who wish to remedy these failures, and give back to Mr Murray, and countless others like him, something of what they loved and lost, it is hard not to sympathize with Dom Gregory, and just impose necessary reforms immediately. In many cases, this can be done and should be done; most parishes could probably ban some of the more truly awful hymns, for example, without anyone noticing or caring. Likewise, it is hard to imagine that when the long-overdue ban on the use of the NAB finally comes, we will see resistance and protest comparable to that seen among some Protestants over the use of any Bible other than the King James.

On the other hand, as the great Martin Mosebach recently wrote, we have to a very large degree “lost our liturgical innocence” in the Latin Church. We can no longer simply accept the liturgy as a thing that is what it is, as Mr Murray and my parents did when they were children; we are constrained by our circumstances to treat the liturgy as a thing which we collectively make, more than a thing that makes us. And this means that every Catholic has opinions about liturgy, of a sort which it would never occurred to ordinary people like my parents to have before the reform. I have known priests who would, of their own initiative, correct some of the more grotesque errors of the old English translation of the Mass, before they were officially corrected; conversely, I have met laypeople who passionately defend some of those same errors afterwards.

Every effort to drive out bad liturgical practice with good will probably encounter some resistance; if it is to be a truly Christian reform, resistance must be overcome with patience and charity, but also with fortitude and courage. Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, has recently given the Church an excellent example of this, by having Masses in his cathedral celebrated ad orientem on the Sundays of Advent, and the midnight Mass of Christmas. Other churches in the diocese may do the same, but are not ordered to. God willing, examples like this and proper catechesis will steer us to the day where no Catholic ever thinks that the priest is “turning his back on the people.” And God willing, by following such a model, the liturgy can be reformed without reproducing the tragic experience of the 1960s.

Advent 2014

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Looking from afar, behold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering all the land: * go ye to meet him and say: * Tell us if thou art the one, * who art to rule in the people of Israel.
V. All you that are earthborn, and you sons of men: both rich and poor together, go ye out to meet him and say.
V. Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel: thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep; tell us if thou art the one.
V. Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in, who art to rule in the people of Israel.
Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Looking from afar, behold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering all the land: go ye to meet him and say: tell us if thou art the one, who art to rule in the people of Israel. (First responsory at Matins of the First Sunday of Advent)

The Prophet Isaiah, painted by Raphael in the Basilica of St Augustine in Rome in 1512. On his scroll is written in Hebrew, from chapter 26 of his book, verses 2-3, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Whose mind is stayed on thee, Thou wilt keep him (in perfect peace).” The dedicatory inscription in Greek above reads “To Anne, the mother of the Virgin, to the virginal Mother of God, and to Christ the Redeemer, John Goritz” (hellenized as ‘Joannes Corycios’). Goritz, a merchant from Luxembourg, commissioned the painting on one of the pillars of the basilica, and the altar to St Anne originally located beneath it. The influence of Michelangelo, who was completing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel when Raphael painted this, is very strong in this work; a famous story claims that Goritz complained to Michelangelo about the price of it, and Michelangelo replied, “The knee alone is worth the price!”
R. Aspiciens a longe, ecce video Dei potentiam venientem, et nebulam totam terram tegentem: * ite obviam ei, et dicite: * Nuntia nobis, si tu es ipse, * qui regnaturus es in populo Israël.
V. Quique terrigenæ, et filii hominum, simul in unum dives et pauper: ite obviam et, et dicite.
V. Qui regis Israël, intende, qui deducis velut ovem Joseph: nuntia nobis, si tu es ipse.
V. Tollite portas, principes, vestras, et elevamini portæ æternales, et introibit Rex gloriæ, qui regnaturus es in populo Israël.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
R. Aspiciens a longe, ecce video Dei potentiam venientem, et nebulam totam terram tegentem: ite obviam ei, et dicite: Nuntia nobis, si tu es ipse, qui regnaturus es in populo Israël.

Click here to listen to a beautiful recording of this magnificent text, made several years ago at St Stephen’s in Sacramento, California.

The Book of Revelation: Guide to Catholic Worship

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According to Joseph Ratzinger, the last book of the Bible, Revelation or the Apocalypse of St. John, is showing forth a kind of “archetypal liturgy” to which all our earthly liturgies must bear resemblance:
With its vision of the cosmic liturgy, in the midst of which stands the Lamb who was sacrificed, the Apocalypse has presented the essential contents of the eucharistic sacrament in an impressive form that sets a standard for every local liturgy. From the point of view of the Apocalypse, the essential matter of all eucharistic liturgy is its participation in the heavenly liturgy; it is from thence that it necessarily derives its unity, its catholicity, and its universality. (Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, 110-11)
In a General Audience on November 3, 2004, Pope John Paul II spoke about the Canticle in chapter 5 of Revelation:
The canticle just proposed to us . . . is part of the solemn opening vision of Revelation, which presents a sort of heavenly liturgy to which we also, still pilgrims on earth, associate ourselves during our ecclesial celebrations. The hymn of the Book of Revelation that we meditate today concludes with a final acclamation cried out by “myriads of myriads” of angels (see Rev 5:11). It refers to the “the Lamb slain,” to whom is attributed the same glory as to God the Father, as “Worthy is the Lamb … to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength” (5:12). It is the moment of pure contemplation, of joyful praise, of the song of love to Christ in his paschal mystery. This luminous image of the heavenly glory is anticipated in the Liturgy of the Church. In fact, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, the Liturgy is an “action” of the whole Christ (Christus totus). Those who celebrate it here, live already in some way, beyond the signs, in the heavenly liturgy, where the celebration is totally communion and feast. It is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church make us participate, when we celebrate the mystery of salvation in the sacraments (see Nos. 1136 and 1139).
In The Lamb’s Supper, Scott Hahn writes: “I suspect that God revealed heavenly worship in earthly terms so that humans—who, for the first time, were invited to participate in heavenly worship—would know how to do it” (122). Hahn goes on to suggest that the book of Revelation offered help to the nascent church in discerning what elements of Old Covenant worship to retain within the new worship of the New Covenant, inasmuch as the new both concludes and includes the old. In short: the Church can, and should, have buildings, ministers, candlesticks, chalices, incense, vestments, because her worship, being ordered to and derived from Jesus Christ, is the perfection of all that the old worship pointed to with these typological symbols, as yet to be fulfilled. They do not cease to be the symbols we need in order to perceive and enter into communion with Christ; they acquire a new purpose as symbols that point to a reality accomplished, a salvation won on the Cross, a glory shared with the faithful who may now enter heaven.

Who is the central figure of Revelation? The slain and risen Lamb, the Paschal or Passover Lamb that is given to us in the holy Eucharist, instituted by Jesus at the last meal he celebrated with the disciples before His atoning death. What is the central activity depicted in the book? Worship—either true (directed to God and the Lamb) or idolatrous (directed to Babylon, the beast, the whore, etc.). And what is the central metaphor? Marriage. You are either united as “one flesh” with the Lamb, washed clean in His blood and feasting at His table, or you are fornicating with the devil; the two cities are contrasted as a whore (the old, unfaithful Jerusalem) and a virgin bride (the new Jerusalem, the Church). The very term apokalypsis means “unveiling.” At the time Revelation was written, this term was used to describe, among other things, the unveiling of the virgin bride as part of the wedding festivities.

Barna da Siena, Mystical Marriage of St Catherine
In a nutshell, the book of Revelation is about true worship of the true God, a mystical marriage with Him; and this is brought about through the Church’s worship, that is, the sacramental life, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. Apart from this life, there is error, folly, despair, horror, and destruction—the history of fallen mankind, which wages war against the Lamb. (It is interesting to note that this book has received a title of honor that was subsequently extended to, or rather, recognized in, the entire body of Scripture, namely, “revelation”; and it is not incidental that not just this book, called “Revelation,” is about true worship of the true God, but all of Scripture is about true worship of the true God. Christianity is a religion principally and fundamentally concerned with adoring, loving, and serving the one true God, in which man’s salvation and the very content of love of neighbor consists. Put differently, there is no such thing as an “ethical reduction” or a “philosophical distillation” of Christianity; it is inherently bound up with sacrifice and sacrament, by which we profess our faith in God and yield ourselves to Him in love.)

Now, why does Sacred Scripture end with the Book of Revelation? The reason is as simple as it is profound: Revelation is not merely or even primarily the closure of a written book but the beginning of, or aperture to, something else that is greater than Scripture: the living worship of the living Body of Christ. This is the subtle but poignant response, far ahead of time, to Luther’s invention of sola scriptura: Revelation ends the Bible because it depicts and invites us to the Eucharistic banquet of the Lamb, which is where the things spoken about in Scripture are really present, in their fullest intensity. The written signs lead us to the reality signified; the bread of the word leads to the bread of life, the book to the altar. As Hahn writes:
For most of the early Christians it was a given: the Book of Revelation was incomprehensible apart from the liturgy. … It was only when I began attending Mass that the many parts of this puzzling book suddenly began to fall into place. Before long, I could see the sense in Revelation’s altar (8:3), its robed clergymen (4:4), candles (1:12), incense (5:8), manna (2:17), chalices (ch. 16), Sunday worship (1:10), the prominence it gives to the Blessed Virgin Mary (12:1-6), the “Holy, Holy, Holy” (4:8), the Gloria (15:3-4), the Sign of the Cross (14:1), the Alleluia (19:1, 3, 6), the readings from Scripture (chs. 2-3), and the “Lamb of God” (many, many times). These are not interruptions in the narrative or incidental details; they are the very stuff of the Apocalypse. (The Lamb’s Supper, 66-67)
In these final pages, when we behold the new Jerusalem descending from heaven, where does it descend to? Mount Zion, that is, the place where Jesus had eaten His last Passover and instituted the Eucharist, where the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, where the Christians in AD 70 were spared Roman destruction. “In other words, the new Jerusalem came to earth, then as now, in the place where Christians celebrated the supper of the Lamb” (Hahn, 102). Liturgy is anticipated Parousia, the ‘already’ entering our ‘not yet.’

If Joseph Ratzinger, John Paul II, and Scott Hahn are all correct in what they are saying—and one may wish to note that the connection between the earthly liturgy and the heavenly is a prominent element in the theology of liturgy offered in Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium—this becomes a powerful and truly unanswerable argument for the restoration of the sacred, the recovery of signs and symbols in every aspect of the liturgy from architecture to sacred music, the preservation or reestablishment of continuity with traditional Catholic worship, and the overwhelming need to enrich and “celestialize” the often sterile and impoverished vocabulary of contemporary liturgical life. The music we hear, for instance, should be awe-inspiring, or at very least, effective in elevating the mind to divine things, so that we may catch a faint echo of angelic music; the church building should be an evocation of the heavenly city, the sanctuary a magnificent image of the Holy of Holies. The ceremonies, in their solemn and ordered splendor, should draw the mind upwards into the majesty and mystery of God.

If we do not strive to have and do these things to the extent that it lies within our power, we are not just failing to implement Vatican II (a failure that happens so regularly it has ceased to attract notice or comment); we are not just running away from a tradition stretching back 2,000 years (and even longer, if we taken into account the Jewish background), bad enough as that would be. We are showing that we have not understood, assimilated, and embraced the very teaching of Divine Revelation. We are, in a sense, rejecting the root of our religion as such.

There is good reason, then, to return to a careful study of the Book of Revelation and to ask what this book is really teaching us about our life as Christians here and now and about the essential vocation of the Church, which is the glorification of God and the sanctification of souls in time of tribulation.

Painting the Nude: Was JPII Really as Permissive as Some Have Suggested?

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DB-f25vThis is a summary of the essay published in the festschrift for the late Stratford Caldecott, here,“The Beauty of God’s House”.

When Pope John Paul II presented his Theology of the Body and addressed artists directly, challenging them to portray the human figure “naked without shame”, and in such a way that the beauty of the human form would be revealed in an ordered way, it caused quite a stir.

Here was a Pope, now a saint, it seemed, who was putting his intellectual weight behind the artistic tradition of painting the nude, and not only excusing it, but promoting it. Finally Catholics who fancied themselves as arty and cultured could hold their heads up high at dinner parties among their sophisticated, non-Christian friends and happily say that although there were some puritanical elements in the Church, those who were uncomfortable with nudity were just narrow minded philistines who didn’t really understand Catholic culture. It inaugurated the creation of a wave of contorted Theology-of-the-Body nudes that, the artists told us, communicated human sexuality ‘as gift’ by gesture.


I didn’t get around to doing the paintings, but I did believe for a long time that JPII was a Catholic apologist for the Sixties, who could see the good at its heart and was able to distinguish, deftly, between those elements that were disordered and those that reflected an ordered view of the human person. I also believed that the study of the nude was essential in the training of the human body.

Then I read the Theology of the Body and attended an atelier in Florence in which I did figure painting or drawing every afternoon. Now I am not so sure.

I no longer believe that the study of the nude is necessary in an artist’s training. The method I studied relied on training the eye, not anatomy. In fact we were told not to think deeply about the structure of what we were observing. Moreover, my research indicates that there have been great naturalistic artists who were masters of the academic method and did not train with the nude, such as Velázquez and his contemporaries in the Spanish school of baroque naturalism. I understand that even today, the Russian school of academic art in Florence, Italy teaches today to the highest level without painting the nude (by having carefully placed draping cloth when doing figure drawing).

Also, my understanding of JPII’s writing has changed. What I see now in his writings about art and nudity, which include the ToB, is someone who understands the differing traditions in art very deeply and who is conservative by nature. In fact he was strongly against the portrayal of the nude in naturalistic styles that must, by virtue of their naturalism, portray Historical Man that is, man after the fall. This means the style of the 19th century atelier take note is not appropriate for the nude.

Furthermore, he said that only when the body is shining with the ‘light that comes from God’ can it have dignity when naked. This is a reference to what in the context of the icon is called the ‘uncreated light’. He is proposing therefore that only highly idealised representations of the human form are appropriate such as we might see in the iconographic form. In common with other Christian commentators, he also sees great dignity in the nudes of ancient Greece. It is the correspondence to this idealized form, and not its naturalism, I suggest that causes him to appreciate the work of Michelangelo so highly, especially his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. He sees each as a way of portraying the glory that was present in man before the Fall. After the Fall, the dignity of Historical Man was restored by putting clothes on, not by taking them off.

We must also consider not only the effect of the image on the observer, but also how the process of creating the image affects both the model and artist. It is often stated that the etiquette of the studio, in which the model disrobes behind a screen and no one other than the studio master speaks to him or her when nude, protects the dignity of the model. In fact, if it does to some degree remove the general indignity of baring all in front of others and the erotic charge that is present when the model is attractive, (and I am skeptical about that,) then it does so by objectifying the person. That is, it creates a situation in which we no longer view the model as a person, but impersonally as a flesh shape, a nude. This is therefore participating, albeit in a different way, in the problem of today’s understanding of the human person that the Pope is trying to remedy - it removes the dignity of the person so that they are just forms of flesh to be used.


Only the person bathed in the uncreated light of God, and those artistic styles developed to portray him, are appropriate for nudity, says John Paul II, for, “If it is removed from this dimension, it becomes in some way an object which depreciates very easily, since only before the eyes of God can the human body remain naked and unclothed, and keep its splendor and its beauty intact.” I have not formed a definitive view on this matter. But at the moment my own position is that even if it was possible in the past, in this present age when the dignity of the human person is under attack, we must be more conservative rather than less, and put some clothes on our models.

I am open to arguments that reinforce the place of the naturalistically portrayed nude in the canon of Christian art and in the training of the artist, and would like to hear reactions from those who have studied the writing of JPII especially. This is a very short summary of a much longer article (10,000 words) that appears in The Beauty of God’s House: Essays in Honor of Stratford Caldecott published by Cascade Books. I ask that if you have strong views and wish to comment on the matter you read the full reasoning in the article before doing so.

Above and below, pictures employing legitimate forms of the nude (in my opinion): all the paintings above show the figure in highly stylized form and therefore come under the criteria approved by JPII, or else as a baby. The nudity of babies does not ever offend, I suggest (I explore the reasons why in my article). Right at the bottom is a baroque portrayal of Adam and Eve, highly naturalistic but the composition is carefully arranged so as to avoid giving rise to scandal. I apologize, but I have forgotten who painted that last one and couldn’t find it online again.


Dominican Rite Solemn Mass, Oakland CA

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The High Altar of St. Albert' Priory
I pleased to let our readers know that the Dominican student brothers of the Western Dominican Province will be singing and serving a Dominican Rite Solemn Mass for the First Saturday devotion of December. 

The celebrant and preacher will be Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P., assistant professor of philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley CA. The deacon will be Fr. Ambrose Sigman, O.P., parochial vicar of St. Raymond of Peñafort Church in Palo Alto CA, and the subdeacon will be Bro. Christopher Wetzel, O.P.

 The Mass will be celebrated at Saint Albert the Great Priory Chapel, 6172 Chabot Road, Oakland CA, 94618, on December 6, at 10:00 a.m..  Confessions for the First Saturday Devotion will be heard from 9:30 until 9:50; recitation of the Marian Rosary will immediately follow it.

Visitors and guests are welcome; pew booklets with the text of Mass in Latin and English will be provided. Those driving to the Mass may park in the Tennis Court Parking Lot next to the chapel.  St. Albert the Great Priory is three blocks from the Rockridge BART station, just go north three blocks to Chabot Road, turn right and walk half a block and you will see the chapel on your right.

EF Ordo for Ireland

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The website of the church of Ss Peter and Paul in Cork Ireland, which has often hosted the liturgical activities of the Fota liturgical conferences, has published the Ordo for the celebration of the 1962 Missal in Ireland, noting in their proper places the feasts of local Saints, the dedication feasts of Irish cathedrals etc. The first two months of the current liturgical year are now available; the compiler of it, Mr Shane McAuliffe, notes: “This Ordo is issued with the proviso that it remains a working document. Please feel free to offer advice and suggestion as to its future usage. Every effort and consultation has been attempted prior to its release.” Click here to find the links.

Growing Support for Traditional Liturgical Practices at Catholic Colleges & Universities

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A Mass being celebrated at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts
Today at the Cardinal Newman Society's blog Catholic Education Daily, Karthryn Zagrobelny has a nice article interviewing chaplains at Christendom College, Thomas Aquinas College, and Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, speaking about the desire among students for more traditional liturgical practices and how these things have enhanced their life of prayer and worship. Here are some excerpts:

At Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., the priest celebrates ad orientem during several weekly Masses—two in the Extraordinary form, as well as two in the Ordinary Form in English and one in Latin—College chaplain Father Stephen McGraw told the Newman Society.

Fr. McGraw explained: "The gradual introduction and occasional celebration of Mass 'ad orientem' on campus, along with the celebration 'versus populum,' allows students to experience the traditional and historic way of celebrating the Eucharist without jarring them and helps show and reinforce for them the 'hermeneutic of continuity' (as spoken of by Benedict XVI) between the Masses of the preconciliar and postconciliar periods."

Masses celebrated ad orientem give students “an opportunity to participate in liturgical prayer that leads them to contemplation,” said Father Hildebrand Garceau, chaplain at Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) in Santa Paula, Calif. “All are facing liturgical east in one movement of prayer and offering. It seems to aid greatly in reducing distractions and helping students to focus on the liturgical action of the most powerful prayer in the universe—the Holy Mass.” At TAC, Masses are said each morning in the Extraordinary Form which gives the undergraduates a “reverent, quiet, contemplative Mass,” said Fr. Garceau. ...

Father John Healy at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (TMC) in Merrimack, N.H., told the Society that TMC began to celebrate the Latin Mass ad orientem once a week on Fridays because of student demand. Students continue to tell him that the silence in the Mass “impresses them in a particular way” and is very helpful for them, he said.

Additionally, said Christendom’s Fr. McGraw, ad orientem worship “shows our communion with the Eastern Church, which for the most part cele‎brates the liturgy of the Eucharist ‘ad orientem.’” He also noted that the priests at Christendom have “expressed their appreciation” for the chance to celebrate these Masses for the students.

According to Fr. Healy, bishops in the dioceses that celebrate the Extraordinary Form say that a lot of the participation is from the younger generation. This gives hope for liturgy and Church tradition both in the present and in the future, he said. It is encouraging to see students appreciate the traditional forms of the Mass.

Ave Maria University, the College of Saint Mary Magdalen, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Holy Apostles College and Seminary, the University of St. Thomas-Houston and Wyoming Catholic College also offer Masses ad orientem.
(Link to original article)

A traditional Requiem Mass at Thomas Aquinas College
Solemn Mass with Augustinian Canons at Wyoming Catholic College
Low Mass at Christendom College
Low Mass at Franciscan University of Steubenville

Ambrosian Ordo Missae Now Online for Download

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Signum Ambrosianum, a cultural organization dedicated to the preservation of the Milanese liturgical patrimony, has just published a new edition of the traditional Ambrosian Ordo Missae. The complete Latin text is accompanied by an Italian translation, as well as all of the necessary rubrics; the chanted parts of the Ordinary are noted with their music. The booklet also includes the Asperges, the twelve Kyrie eleisons sung as part of the procession before Mass, the antiphons of the Virgin, and the Litany of Loreto. There are also several illustration with images taken from a 1594 edition of the Missale Ambrosianum; the Curia of the Archdiocese has given its Nihil obstat and Imprimatur to this work.

The e-version may be downloaded free at this link: http://www.signumambrosianum.it/ordinarium-missae/versione-elettronica-in-pdf.html. It may also be freely printed and distributed, provided that proper attribution of the source is given : www.signumambrosianum.it, ISBN 978-88-907422-2-4.

For those who are interested in the Ambrosian liturgy, a reminder that Signum Ambrosianum has a number of publications available, including the Antiphonarium Missae, as we mentioned a while back. There are two editions of the Missale Ambrosianum available on googlebooks, one from 1640 and another from 1712.

The Treasury of Santa Giulia in Brescia

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Our Ambrosian correspondent Nicola de’ Grandi recently visited the monastery complex of Santa Giulia in the city of Brescia, and sent me some great pictures from the church and the adjoining museum. This monastery was founded by the duke of Lombardy, Desiderius, in the year 753, and was formerly one of the most important women’s monastic foundations in northern Italy. The video below, from the Italian website Stile Arte, is about the greatest treasure of the monastery, the Cross of Desiderius, a processional cross made of wood covered by gilded metal, and decorated with 211 gems of various kinds. On the front, the figure of Christ enthroned was probably added in the 9th-century, and most of the gems are medieval; on the back is a figure of the Crucified Christ, added in the 16th century, and many of the gems are ancient Roman works. It is believed that the Roman gems were removed from various earlier pieces of jewelry which were brought to the monastery as part of the “dowry” of the nuns when they entered, and some of them may very well have come from an imperial treasury.

                    

The images that follow are Nicola’s photographs.
An ivory casket formerly used to keep relics, from the 4th century.

A Lombard-era relief carving of the Cross (8th century)
Frescos in the nuns’ choir by Floriano Ferramola (Crucifixion) and Paolo da Caylina the Younger (the Resurrection), both from 1520.

A pax-brede made in Venice in the fiurst half of the 16th-century.
An ivory diptych with scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary, made in Paris ca. 1360-80
Two pieces of cloth found in a reliquary casket under the altar of the church of Saint Afra in Brescia, after it was bombed in 1945. The piece on the left is Middle Eastern, made sometime in the 8th or 9th century; the piece on the right is of Byzantine workmanship, from the 9th-11th century.

The following two photos are of the famous Winged Victory of Brescia, made in the second quarter of the first century A.D., one of the best preserved bronze statues from antiquity. It was discovered in the city in 1826, and is now displayed in the Santa Giulia Museum, but was never part of the church or monastery.


The Post-Communion Prayers of the Roman Missal : An Exhaustive Comparative Study Now Available Online

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It has been a great week for the discovery of online resources for liturgical study. Peter Kwasniewski has brought to my attention a site run by Mr Matthew Hazell, called Lectionary Study Aids. Mr Hazell’s interests lie principally with the lectionary, as may be seen in the various tables and charts he has assembled and posted on the site. He has also produced an exhaustive study of the Post-Communion prayers from the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum, giving the Latin text and its original source, and indicating where else the prayer may be used within the Missal. Each prayer is then given according to four different English translations: the interim translation permitted for use by the bishops of England and Wales in 1972; the 1973 ICEL translation (colloquially known as “the old translation”); the rejected 1998 ICEL translation; and the new version approved by the Holy See in 2010. Those which are also found in the traditional Missal are also given in a variety of English translations from different pre-Conciliar hand-missals, and their original location in the Missal noted as well. At the end, there is a group of statistical charts, noting the sources of each prayer, how often each particular source is used, what portion of the prayer are compiled from bits of other prayers, etc., Finally, there are a number of documents referring to the revision of the Missal and its prayers, such as various address of Pope Paul VI to the Consilium ad exsquendam that produced the revised Missal, and various instructions of the Congregation for Divine Worship etc.

You can see the post to which the documented is attached by clicking here, and then download it. Mr Hazell is much to be congratulated for the remarkable diligence of his work, and thanked for his incredible generosity in making such a useful resource available for free. Ad multos annos!

Dominican Rite Ordo for 2015 Available

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I am pleased to announce the publication of the 2015 Ordo for the 1962 Dominican Rite Breviary.  It is the creation of the proprietor of Breviarium S. O. P. blogspot.

This ordo includes a complete calendar of the Dominican Rite liturgical year for 2015. In addition, it includes the collects for the Dominican blesseds who are not on the Dominican general calendar (so that a votive commemoration can be made of their feast), obits of the deceased Masters General, and announcements of days when Lay Dominicans (Dominican Tertiaries) can obtain plenary indulgences.

Finally, it contains an English translation of the Office of Prime, which was omitted from the 1967 English translation of the Dominican Breviary.

It may be ordered from Dominican Liturgy Publications.

Una Voce Position Paper on Head Coverings at Mass

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Joseph Shaw, President of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, has released today the latest Position Paper of the International Federation Una Voce, "Headcoverings in Church," a magnificent explanation and defense of the custom of women covering their heads in church (and, it seems one must add today, of men uncovering their heads in church). No matter where you stand on this custom, whether you are a strong proponent/practitioner of it, a disinterested observer, a mild skeptic, or a total negationist, I cannot recommend highly enough the reading of the short Position Paper, and, for those interested in pursuing the ramifications, Dr. Shaw's reflections at his blog.

All this, just in time for the upcoming "Wear the Veil Day," Monday, December 8th.

Photopost Request: Immaculate Conception

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We will be doing a photopost for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, upcoming this December 8, for Masses in both forms as well as celebrations of the Office. Please send photos to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.com for inclusion in the photopost.

9 Lessons & Carols in the Newly-Renovated Church of St Pius X in the Archdiocese of Atlanta

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A Service of Lessons and Carols will take place at the Church of St Pius X in Conyers, Georgia in the Archdiocese of Atlanta on Friday, December 19, at 7 p.m. The music will include works by Palestrina and Victoria, as well as Advent hymns and Christmas carols. Admission is free, but donations will be gladly received towards the costs of the music program, in particular for the new Children’s Choir. The address of the parish is on the poster, and more information about the music at St. Pius can be found here. The service will mark the reopening of the newly renovated church and we have been sent some photos of the ‘before’ and ‘during’ passes of the renovations which are not yet complete. Among other improvements, the Tabernacle is being returned to the centre of the Sanctuary. Deo gratias!




The Legend of St Nicholas in Liturgy and Art

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The traditional Roman liturgy assigns to the feast of St Nicholas the common Office of Confessor Bishops Ecce sacerdos magnus, with the proper lessons at Matins recounting his life, and the common Mass Statuit, with proper prayers. The Collect of his feast refers to the “innumerable miracles” wrought through his intercession, for which he is often called by the Byzantines “the Wonderworker”; the Secret is borrowed from the Mass of the first Confessor Bishop venerated in the West, St. Martin.

A Russian icon of St Nicholas, painted ca. 1500-50, showing episodes from his life and his miracles in the small panels that form the border. 
In the Middle Ages, a proper Office was composed for his feast, which is described thus by the liturgical commenter Sicard of Cremona, writing at the end of the 12th century.
The teachers of the Greeks have written down the life of the blessed Nicholas, and the miracles done in his life, … saying that he was born of an illustrious family, and filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, or from his childhood. He delivered three virgins from the infamous dealings of their father; he was promoted to the episcopacy by divine revelation; he came to help sailors in danger of shipwreck; he multiplied grain; … he delivered some people from a death sentence, and others from prison. From his tomb there comes forth an oil, which heals various ailments. … No pen can suffice to write down all the miracles with which he has shone forth after his death, nor can any man’s eloquence tell of them all. Out of this legend, today’s ‘history’ is put together. (Mitrale IX, 2)
In Sicard’s time, and for long after, the Latin word “historia” (history) was the common technical term for what we would now call the proper Office of a Saint. Many such Offices were composed by setting to music texts from the Saints’ lives; a “historia” was the sum of the antiphons, responsories and (somewhat more rarely) hymns, composed for such an Office. The “legend”, on the other hand, (Latin “legendum – something to be read”), is the story of the Saint’s life as read in the lessons of Matins. Therefore, when Sicard says that today’s “history” is put together out of this “legend”, what he means is that the propers of St Nicholas’ Office are composed from texts taken from the account of his life and miracles.

The proper Office of St Nicholas is called O Pastor aeterne, the first words of the Magnificat antiphon at First Vespers; it has been attributed (not with absolute certainty) to a monk named Isembert, of the monastery of St. Ouen in France, who lived in the middle of the 11th-century. It was adopted very widely, but not in Rome; hence it is found in the proper Breviaries of the religious orders (Dominicans, Premonstratensians etc.), but not the Roman Breviary. Writing about a century after Sicard, the liturgical commenter William Durandus tells the following story about the use of this Office.
It is said that in a certain church, … since the historia of blessed Nicholas was not yet sung, the brothers of that place asked their prior insistently that he permit them to sing it; but he refused, saying that it was improper to change the ancient custom with novelties. But since they kept asking, he answered indignantly, “Leave me alone; these new songs, or rather, these jokes, will not be sung in my church!” Now when the feast of the Saint had come, the brethren sadly finished the night vigils (i.e. Matins). And when they had all gone to bed, behold, the blessed Nicholas appeared visibly to the prior in a terrible guise, and, pulling him out of bed by his hair, dashed him to the floor of the dormitory. Then, beginning the antiphon O Pastor aeterne, at each change of note he smacked him heavily on the back with the two rods he held in his hand, and thus sang the antiphon morosely through to the end. Since all were wakened by the noise, the prior was taken to his bed half-alive; and when he had recovered he said, “Go, sing the new historia of St Nicholas.” (Rationale Div. Off. VII, 39)
It must be granted that this behavior seems wildly out of character for the Nicholas described by the Office O Pastor aeterne itself, of which the first responsory says:
R. The confessor of God, Nicholas, noble of birth, but nobler in his manners, * having followed the Lord from his very youth, merited to be promoted to the episcopacy by divine revelation. V. For he was greatly compassionate, and moved by holy pity for the afflicted. Having followed…
And likewise, the fifth antiphon of Matins:
Aña Surpassing the customs of youth with innocence, he became a disciple of the law of the Gospel. 
On the other hand, the Byzantine tradition tells a story that Nicholas, when he was present at the First Council of Nicea, was so moved with righteous indignation at Arius’ denial of Christ’s divinity that he slapped him in the face.

St Nicholas slaps Arius in face, as depicted in a 14th-century fresco within the monastery complex of Panagia Sumela, in modern Turkey.
Th e image above is part of a much larger fresco, only one panel of which is seen here below, depicting the Council of Nicea. The Emperor St Constantine, as he is called in the Byzantine churches, presides over the Council; Nicholas slapping Arius is in the lower left. The monastery has been abandoned since 1923, and the frescos are sadly much damaged by vandalism.
The story to which Sicard refers when he says that St Nicholas “delivered three virgins from the infamous dealings of their father” is of course the part of the legend that has turned him into Santa Claus. As told by Durandus’ contemporary, Jacopo de Voragine, in the Golden Legend, a man of his city could not dower his daughters, and was considering selling them into prostitution.
But when the saint learned of this, he abhorred this crime; and he threw a lump of gold wrapped in a cloth into the man’s house through the window at night, and departed in secret. Rising in the morning, the man found the lump of gold, and giving thanks to God, celebrated the wedding of his first daughter. Not long after, the servant of God did the same thing (again.) And the man upon finding it, burst forth with great praises, and determined thenceforth to keep watch, so that he might discover who it was that had aided his poverty. After a few days, (Nicholas) threw a lump of gold twice as big into the house. At the sound of this, the man was awoken, and followed Nicholas as he fled, … and so, by running more quickly, he learned that it was Nicholas … (who) made him promise not to tell the story while he lived.
This story is also referred to repeatedly in O Pastor aeterne, for example, in the eighth responsory of Matins:
R. The servant of God Nicholas by a weight of gold redeemed the chastity of three virgins; * and put to flight the unchaste poverty of their father by a gift of gold. V. Being therefore deeply rich in mercy, by the metal which he doubled, he drove infamy from them. And put to flight…
For this reason, he is often represented holding three golden balls, as in this painting by Gentile da Fabriano, the Quaratesi polyptych, done in 1425.


In the old chapel of the Lateran complex in Rome known as the “Sancta Sanctorum – the Holy of Holies”, (not because of its status as a Papal chapel, but because it used to contain one of the most impressive relic collection in the world), the story is represented in two parts. On the right, St Nicholas tosses the gold though the window; on the left, the father catches him, and is told by the Saint to keep the story secret. This shows how old the custom really is of staying up late at night to try to catch Santa Claus when he comes to the house to deliver presents. (For some reason, this never works any more.)
Unknown Italian fresco painter, ca. 1278-79. The Pope who commissioned this work was Nicholas III (1278-79).

Christmas Lessons & Carols at Farm Street for Aid to the Church in Need

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Following Aid to the Church in Need's Advent Carol Service which took place at St Mary Moorfields, London, last week, is a Christmas Carol Service, also organised by ACN. This will take place at the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street on Wednesday 10 December at 7pm and the celebrant will be Fr Dominic Robinson SJ. The service will be held by candlelight and amongst the readers will be Lord Alton of Liverpool. The Schola of the London Oratory School will be accompanied by brass and the organ will be played by Peter Stevens, Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral. There will be testimonies from the Syrian and Iraqi communities, and the retiring collection will go towards ACN's work in those troubled regions. The Advent Carol Service was very well attended (see photo here) and it is hoped that the church at Farm Street will also be full. The photo in the poster below was taken at ACN's Lenten Service at Farm Street earlier this year. For details of Aid to the Church in Need's events, how to donate and their online shop, please visit the ACN website.


100 years of The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School

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Founded in 1914, The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The school, a Catholic Secondary school in London, is a State Comprehensive School (what would be called a 'Public School' in the USA) for boys aged 11-18 and girls aged 16-18. Somewhat belatedly I am posting the pictures below which were taken at the Anniversary Mass celebrated by Cardinal Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, at Westminster Cathedral in September.


In the photograph of the Schola, leading Catholic Composer James MacMillan can be seen seated against the wall beside the left hand organ case. He was present to hear the first performance of his motet Emitte Lucem Tuam which had been commissioned for the occasion.

Over on the Catholic Herald's brand-new website is a story about 'The Vaughan', as the school is affectionately known, and its impressive academic record. But league tables and statistics are unable to quantify other aspects of a Catholic school such as this one, aspects which should never be taken for granted. I was privileged to direct the Vaughan's Schola for fifteen very happy and fulfilling years, and I was always struck by the loyalty, support and respect which pervaded all relationships there, between staff and boys, between parents and teachers, between senior staff and teaching staff, and so on. There was a sense that we were all pulling in the same direction, that the ultimate aim of the school was imprinted with absolute certainty in everyone's mind. One often hears about schools which have a 'family atmosphere'. This is no such school - the Vaughan IS a family, and this is where its remarkable strength lies.

One particular memory I have was the day some years ago when a visiting priest was delayed and unable to get there in time for the Lower School's weekly 8.30am Mass. With the boys all seated expectantly, the former headmaster, now retired, stood in front of them and instead of Mass gave an extended extempore sermon on Original Sin. Around two hundred 11-13 year old boys (and I) sat absolutely enraptured by that potent combination of a brilliant teacher who knows how to engage completely the minds of his pupils, and a knowledge, understanding, and above all love of his Faith.

Writing recently in the Catholic Herald about the school's Friday Masses which are celebrated ad orientem, the school's chaplain wrote:

"In a school setting, the idea of a single person facing the assembly is characteristic of, well, an assembly. The dynamic is of power, of instruction, of a certain kind of benign subjugation. It is all too easy to lapse into the confusion that prayer directed towards the assembly is announcement, mere information. We felt that to experience Mass in which everyone faced in the same direction might be beneficial sometimes. We have installed a large and very life-like crucifix on the wall of the hall in which Mass is celebrated. It becomes the point on which our attention converges as we begin the liturgy of the Eucharist."

Amen to that. And here's to the next 100 years.

Madison, WI, Monday, Dec. 8: Pontifical Mass at the Throne

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As regular readers may have noticed, Bishop Robert Morlino of the diocese of Madison has made a point of celebrating Pontifical Masses at the Throne I'm the Extraordinary Form for his diocese on an approximately monthly basis with the assistance of many diocesan priests and the Madison Tridentine Mass Society. I have been blessed to not only have him as a bishop, but to be able to assist with these, both in the planning and preparation side as well as in the execution from the loft.
The next pontifical Mass at the Throne will be tomorrow evening at the Bishop O'Connor center on Madison's west side. Mass begins at 7pm.
Mass IX, Credo III, as well as Juan García de Salazar's Alma Redemptoris Mater will be sung.
It's also worth noting that a full pontifical set of vestments was commissioned for this Mass, and for use with future Masses. Details on those vestments can be found here.

Chestnut Hill, MA: Feast of the Presentation of Mary

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On November 21, the Latin Mass Society of Boston College and Una Voce Boston College (affiliated with Juventutem Boston) sponsored the celebration of a Solemn High Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church, Chestnut Hill (on the campus of Boston College). The celebrant was Fr. Joseph Briody, joined by deacon Rev. Mr. Steven Lundrigan, and subdeacon Mr. Peter Stamm, all of St John's Seminary, Boston.


Thanks to Kathleen O'Connell Salisbury for letting us know about her photographs of the Mass, which are available on-line for viewing (please note: copyright 2014, all rights reserved.)

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception 2014

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Today the rod from the shoot of Jesse went forth; today, Mary was conceived without any stain of sin; today, the head of the ancient serpent was crushed by her, alleluia. (The Antiphon at the Magnificat for Second Vespers)

The Immaculate Conception, by Francesco Maria Schiaffino, 1762; from the Palazzo Doria Lamba in Genoa, Italy. (image from Web Gallery of Art.)
Ant. Hodie egressa est virga de radice Jesse; hodie sine ulla labe peccati concepta est Maria; hodie contritum est ab ea caput serpentis antiqui, alleluia.
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