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Society for Catholic Liturgy - October in NYC - Call for Proposals

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The Liturgy: It is Right and Just
October 1-3, 2015

​New York City
Keynote speaker: Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone

​The Society for Catholic Liturgy will celebrate its twentieth anniversary at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in the heart of Manhattan ​with a conference exploring how the Church’s sacred worship is dignum et iustum, right and just.
​ ​
​​Questions arising from this topic may include but are not limited to:

A. Translation:
  • What is the history of the phrase dignum et iustum in the Western liturgical tradition?
  • What are the principles of sound liturgical translation?
  • Issues surrounding the 2011 translation of the Roman Missal
  • Issues surrounding the translation of the Lectionary
  • Issues surrounding the translation of the Liturgy of the Hours

B. The Rightness and Justice of Sacred Liturgy:
  • What does it mean to say that giving thanks to the Lord is “right” and “just”?
  • Liturgy and morality are usually treated as unrelated subjects. How is liturgical worship “just”?
  • How does one “do justice” to God with sacred art, sacred music, or sacred architecture?
  • Dignum means “meet” or “right,” but it also means “appropriate, suitable, worthy.”
  • What is “appropriate” worship, or what is worship that is worthy of God?
  • What is “appropriate” in sacred art, sacred music, or sacred architecture?

Other proposals will be considered, but primary consideration will be given to proposals that are related to the conference’s theme.

+ + +

Submissions: Paper proposals of approximately 250 words should be emailed to secretary@liturgysociety.org or mailed to Mr. Christopher Carstens, Board Secretary – Society of Catholic Liturgy, Diocese of La Crosse, PO Box 4004, La Crosse, WI 54602-4004.

Proposals must be received by June 30, 2015.

Presentations will be 45 minutes in length, followed by 15 minutes of discussion. Papers presented will be considered for publication in the Society for Catholic Liturgy's journal Antiphon.

Presenters must register for the conference and will be responsible for their own expenses.

“Advertising” the Lectionary - An Insight into its Reform

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Dom Adrian Nocent, O.S.B. (1913-96), was a liturgist and monk of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium. He was drafted as an additional member into Coetus XI, the group of the Consilium responsible for the reform of the lectionary, soon after they had started their work.

Shortly before his death, Nocent contributed various articles to a 5 volume set of books entitled Handbook for Liturgical Studies, and one of those was on the lectionary. As a member of the group who worked on the lectionary reform, one might have hoped that he would give some first-hand, detailed insight into how and why Coetus XI made the decisions they did in the process of the reform. Unfortunately, for the most part, Nocent seems happy merely to recount the origins of the Roman Rite lectionary and tell us about the structure of its post-conciliar form; sadly, there’s not a lot in this article that can’t be found elsewhere (and in more detail) in other books.

However, we do get one, small, tantalising glimpse into the mind and workings of Coetus XI. Describing the arrangement of the readings for Sundays, feast days and weekdays, Nocent writes that:
This entire arrangement was not accomplished without objections and differing ideas. Some, for example, arguing from modern advertising methods, wanted to have only the ipsissima verba Christi proclaimed in a single sentence. This could have made a deep impression on the hearers. (p. 185 of A. Nocent, “The Roman Lectionary for Mass” in A. Chupungco [ed.], Handbook for Liturgical Studies [Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1997-2000, 5 vols.], vol. 3, pp. 177-188, my emphasis)
I have to admit that, upon first reading this sentence, I had to do a double-take because I thought I’d misread it: the idea seemed so outlandish! But I can imagine how such an idea might have been argued at the time: if we require a liturgical reform for ‘modern man’, one that requires that rites “should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation” (SC 34), why shouldn’t such a reform integrate modern advertising methods? If there’s anything ‘modern man’ understands, it is advertising slogans, and they certainly don’t require much explanation!

What the reformed lectionary could have been like
It should go without saying that importing any sort of secular consumerist attitudes into the sacred liturgy is a terrible idea – not least because it goes completely against the principle of organic development (cf. SC 23) and is not at all in accord with the authentic spirit of the liturgy (cf. SC 14).

As well as this troubling notion, the level of confidence some members of Coetus XI evidently had in the historical-critical scholarship of the time is, to my mind, astounding.[1] If this idea of only having the ipsissima verba Christi, ‘the very words of Christ’, had actually been implemented, would we have ended up with a lectionary where the Gospel readings changed with the whims and vagaries of critical scholarship, where the ‘very words’ spoken by our Lord were subject to alteration every 20-30 years or so? How would such a lectionary have paid even lip-service to one of the Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitutions, Dei Verbum?
Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held, and continues to hold, that the four Gospels just named, whose historical character the Church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ, while living among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day He was taken up into heaven. (DV 19)
The very fact that this idea was even subject to a “long discussion” tells us quite a bit about the liturgical and biblical presuppositions that some members of Coetus XI evidently brought to their work.

Nocent goes on to tell us, thankfully, that:
After long discussion, the idea was not accepted for various reasons. First, the liturgy cannot go into the technical details of a text’s composition, determining the ipsissima verba Christi and separating them from what the evangelist wrote. A gospel is already, at least in part, a composition involving the free and inspired choice of the evangelist. Thus it seemed that any further choice in the manner of determining the text to be proclaimed must be excluded. Finally, from a liturgical point of view, it would have been rather strange to have the deacon walk to the ambo to proclaim a single sentence ("Roman Lectionary", p. 185).
Well, at least there were some members of the group who were thinking “from a liturgical point of view” in this instance!

As interesting as this very small insight into Coetus XI is, it would be great to know more about how the views of biblical scholarship at the time influenced the working methods of Coetus XI and the composition of the reformed lectionary. In this regard, if readers know of any pertinent quotes, books, or other resources, please share them in the comments below!


NOTES

[1] Pope Benedict XVI/Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has contributed a huge amount with regard to the proper relationship between critical biblical scholarship and the Church, and the necessity of a “criticism of the criticism”. See, for example, “Biblical Interpretation in Conflict” in God’s Word: Scripture–Tradition–Office (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008), pp. 91-126; The Nature and Mission of Theology: Essays to Orient Theology in Today’s Debates (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995), pp. 61-69; Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (London: Bloomsbury, 2007), pp. xi-xxiv; the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s document “The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church” (1993); and the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (2010), esp. nos. 29-49.

Corpus Christi at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini

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This year’s coverage of the Corpus Christi Mass and procession at the FSSP’s Roman parish comes from our good friend Agnese, who also provides the photographs of the stational processions and Masses in Lent. This is the third year in a row that the parish has been able to celebrate the traditional Corpus Christi procession by going out of the church and into the streets nearby, accompanied by a marching band, and of course a large number of the clergy and faithful. The Blessed Sacrament is carried by priests wearing chasubles on a specially decorated float made for this purpose; Benediction is held at a station half-way through, using a temporary altar set up on the façade of the Monte di Pietà. When it returns to the piazza in front of the church, the signal to enter is a large explosion of firecrackers, as you can see in this video from two years ago. A second Benediction is held in the church itself. The tabernacle of the main altar of Trinità dei Pellegrini is on runners by which it can be pushed backwards away from the mensa, and a large macchina, as the Italians call it, an elaborate throne for Benediction, set in front of it. This year was the first year in which the recently-restored macchina was used on the feast day.
















   

Abp. Sample to Participate in 2016 Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome

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From the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum, organizers of the annual Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome:

In 2016, the fifth pilgrimage of the Populus Summorum Pontificum to the Tomb of the Apostle Peter will coincide with the closing of the Holy Year of Mercy decreed by our Holy Father Pope Francis. Today, on the Feast of Corpus Christi in 2015, the CISP gladly announces to all the pilgrims that Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, has accepted an invitation to join them, to guide them throughout this pilgrimage, and to cross the threshold of the Holy Door with them. The CISP thanks His Excellency for his availability and assures him of its fervent prayers, as well as of those of the pilgrims, for his apostolate and the faithful of Portland.

INFORMATION FOR 2016: Since the See of Peter will attract even more pilgrims than usual during the Holy Year, the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum has already settled the dates of its 2016 pilgrimage, in order to help the faithful from overseas make reservations ahead of time for lodgings in Rome. As usual, the pilgrimage will take place on the weekend of the Feast of Christ the King, i.e. from Thursday, October 27 to Sunday October 30, 2016.

REMINDER FOR 2015: The fourth annual pilgrimage of the Populus Summorum Pontificum in Rome will take place from Thursday, October 22 to Sunday, October 25, 2015. The pilgrimage begins as usual with Pontifical Vespers in the church of the personal parish of Santa Trinità dei Pellegrini and ends with the celebration of the feast of Christ the King in the same church on Sunday.

“Golden Gloves” Chaplain Floors 3 Berlin Thieves - Historical Headline from 1947

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A few days ago I posted a photograph of Mass celebrated on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. A reader then sent me this scan from the June 28, 1947, issue of the American military newspaper Star and Stripes. At the top of the page (see scan below; click to enlarge) is the story of how her uncle, American military chaplain Maj. Maurice Powers, surprised some thieves in more than one sense while stationed in Berlin in 1947.

“Maj. Maurice E. Powers, U.S. Army chaplain, who fought in Golden Gloves tournaments while a student at Notre Dame University, last night threw three punches and knocked flat three of five Germans he found looting his Berlin billet.

The Catholic chaplain, already enraged at the discovery (that) the thieves had desecrated the Blessed Sacrament, went into his old boxing routine as one of the Germans attacked him with a souvenir sword taken from a wall.

Powers knocked down three of the German while the other two fled. MPs took them into custody.

‘I was so angry on seeing the Blessed Sacrament desecrated that I could have whipped Joe Louis,’ Powers said. He described the tussle as his first bout since he became a priest.”


Who’s Afraid of Pomp and Splendor?

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Obviously, not the zealous Catholics who participated in the Sacra Liturgia 2015 conference and its liturgies. According to some left-leaning news reports, the conference was an esoteric gathering of a tiny elite. Interesting. I was there for the whole time and I saw hundreds of people, mostly young and middle-aged, including families with small children who came for the Corpus Christi procession through the streets of Manhattan — the vast majority born after the annus horribilis of 1970. When one looks at photos of more liberal gatherings, one tends to see a disproportionate representation of graybeards and aging hippies, longing nostalgically (one might say) for the good old days.

In truth, the Sacra Liturgia conference was a glimpse of the future of the Church. Even as the statistics tell us that bored, uncatechized, unchallenged, and utterly secular faithful are leaving the Church in droves, we see renewal coming from a joyful and serene embrace of the Church’s patrimony of liturgy, doctrine, morality, beauty, and holiness. Experience, a good teacher yet seldom heeded, tells us that most of the reforms following in the wake of Vatican II have been a resounding failure; experience is also telling us that the way forward is the recovery of Tradition.

Let us return to our question. Who, after all, can be afraid of or offended by pomp and splendor? Well, some of the bishops at the Second Vatican Council were certainly nervous about it, at times indignant. In the first volume of his Vatican Council Notebooks,[1] Henri De Lubac notes a number of speeches of council fathers who seemed to be calling for a “church of the poor” in a manner strikingly reminiscent of recent papal statements:
Bishop Argaya, Spanish, expressed a wish “de solemnibus . . . formis simplificandis” [concerning the solemn forms to be simplified]. The norms should be: pietas, simplicitas, et dignitas. Let everything be brought back to the spirit of the Gospel, especially in the Pontifical. We should eliminate everything that in dress and ceremonies resembles “alicui pompae humanae et mundanae” [some human and worldly pomp]. (p. 177)
Bishop Pham Ngoc Chi of Quinhen, Vietnam. No. 47: the ceremonies are too long and too complicated. (244)
Too long and too complicated? Not for this consummate MC!
A bishop from Vietnam. … Let us eliminate the maniple and the amice, useless. (277) [Note 2]
A bishop from Chile, in the name of numerous bishops of South America: on the necessity of poverty. Renounce all “vanitas”; vestments should be simpler. We must be Ecclesia docens, non verbo tantum, sed re [the teaching Church, not in word alone but also in deed]. (278)
An Italian bishop. … We can accept greater simplicity in the vestments. (278)
Bishop Paul Gouyon of Bayonne. Evangelical poverty. Simplify the vestments, even the liturgical ones, etc. (278)
Archbishop Joseph Urtasun of Avignon: on no. 89. (1) Missa pontificalis simplicior reddatur; minuantur honores externi. [Let the pontifical Mass be made simpler; let the external gestures of honor be reduced.] (281-82)
Archbishop Henrique Trindade of Botucatu, Brazil. … “humana vanitas” [human vanity]: yes, alas! … Remember that true beauty lies in simplicity; it is compatible with austerity and poverty. Remember also the demands of our times. … The temporal princes have disappeared, but, proh dolor! the Church preserves princely baubles. The legitimate tradition is the antiquissima et genuina liturgia [the most ancient and genuine liturgy]; that is, the life of Christ, consummata in cruce. For a serious reform, nunc est tempus opportunum [now is the opportune moment]. … All of us are acquainted with the social situation, the aversio a luxu et ostentatione [the aversion towards luxury and ostentation]. Reducantur res ad antiquam formam [Let things be brought back to the ancient form]. (283-84)
Traditional liturgies abound in signs of honor
Here we can see how ideas prevalent among the Modernists resurfaced at the Council. For Pope St. Pius X had written in Pascendi Dominici Gregis:
Regarding worship, they [the modernists] say, the number of external devotions is to be reduced, and steps must be taken to prevent their further increase … They ask that the clergy should return to their primitive humility and poverty …
From a more positive angle, Pope Pius X had praised the Church's cultivation of fine art in his encyclical on St. Gregory the Great, Iucunda Sane:
The arts modeled on the supreme exemplar of all beauty which is God Himself, from whom is derived all the beauty to be found in nature, are more securely withdrawn from vulgar concepts and more efficaciously rise towards the ideal, which is the life of all art. And how fruitful of good has been the principle of employing them in the service of divine worship and of offering to the Lord everything that is deemed to be worthy of him, by reason of its richness, its goodness, its elegance of form. This principle has created sacred art, which became and still continues to be the foundation of all profane art. We have recently touched upon this in a special motu proprio [viz., Tra Le Sollecitudini] when speaking of the restoration of the Roman Chant according to the ancient tradition and of sacred music. And the same rules are applicable to the other arts, each in its own sphere, so that what has been said of the Chant may also be said of painting, sculpture, architecture; and towards all these most noble creations of genius the Church has been lavish of inspiration and encouragement. The whole human race, fed on this sublime ideal, raises magnificent temples, and here in the House of God, as in its own house, lifts up its heart to heavenly things in the midst of the treasures of all beautiful art, with the majesty of liturgical ceremony, and to the accompaniment of the sweetest of song.
Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam
Not all of the council fathers were as short-sighted as their confreres quoted above; indeed, many would have concurred with the sentiments of Pope Pius X. In addition to the large number of prelates who expressed grave concerns over the negative pastoral effects of rapidly changing liturgical texts, ceremonies, and customs and who, appreciating the need for better catechesis and formation, saw nothing really broken in the liturgy that needed “fixing,” there were at least three — in de Lubac’s telling — who directly addressed the “simplifying” trend of thought:
Bishop Luis Hernandez Almarcha of Léon (Spain). No. 99: do not allow ancient works of art to be destroyed. Revere and preserve ecclesiastical traditions. Guard our treasures. Found institutes of sacred art and practical schools. (282)
The Abbot of the Olivetans. De sacra supellectile [on sacred furnishings]. In our regions, no scandal; on the contrary, populus christianus videt cum magna laetitia [the Christian people regard with great joy] everything that contributes to the splendor of the ceremonies. Jesus, who was poor in his private life, received ointment on his feet. Cf. Saint Thomas, Prima Secundae, q. 102, art. 5, ad 10. And the holy Curé of Ars. The Church has always loved beautiful churches, etc. We must preserve our sacred patrimony, see to it that sacred objects do not become secular possessions. (282-83)
The Abbot of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. … Propter splendorem cultus divini [On account of the splendor of divine worship], do not suppress the usus pontificalium [the use of pontifical insignia]. He claimed to speak in the name of several canons regular and even of the Benedictine and Cistercian abbots. (283)
Another archbishop warned of “the new iconoclasts” (p. 282) who wanted to strip the churches of their sacred images.

The Procession entering St. John Nepomucene
Thanks be to God, sacred images most broadly understood — all the sensible signs that draw our minds and hearts to the transcendent beauty of God, conveying to us something of His divine attributes and powerfully expressing our own acts of faith, hope, and charity — these images were alive and well in the “treasures of all beautiful art” with which we were surrounded in the first week of June in New York City, in the churches of St. Catherine of Siena, St. John Nepomucene, and St. Vincent Ferrer. Laus Deo!

NOTES

[1] Henri de Lubac, Vatican Council Notebooks, vol. 1, trans. Andrew Stefanelli and Anne Englund Nash (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015). Note that de Lubac writes in a blend of Latin (when quoting the council fathers) and French. The French was, of course, translated into English, but the Latin was left intact; English has been supplied in brackets. In the Ignatius Press edition, the Latin is not italicized.

[2] This, in itself, speaks volumes: all of the vestments are, in a certain sense, useless. They are not worn because they are useful; jeans and a T-shirt might suffice if utility were the only criterion. See my article "Maniples, Amices, Cassocks--Lost and Found."

All photos from the Sacra Liturgia Conference in New York City, June 1-4, 2015. Courtesy of Stuart and Jill Chessman/Sacra Liturgia. The complete photo set may be accessed here.

“Mediator Dei? Never heard of it!” Sacrosanctum Concilium's Disappearing Footnotes

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[T]he idea that the council was a continuation of work already begun was obscured by numerous commentaries that treated SC as a departure from the past, the beginning of a “new” liturgy for the “new” post-Vatican II church.
So states Susan Benofy towards the beginning of her recent article “Footnotes for a Hermeneutic of Continuity: Sacrosanctum Concilium’s Vanishing Citations” (Adoremus Bulletin 21.1 [2015], 8-9). Of course, this is not a particularly new or revolutionary statement; readers of this blog will undoubtedly know of various commentaries on SC from the late 1960s and 1970s that took the approach of rupture and discontinuity towards the liturgical tradition. [1]

However, Dr Benofy backs this up with a particularly interesting and unique observation, something that I haven’t seen anyone else notice or comment on: the drastic differences in the footnotes between the final draft of SC and the definitive text as promulgated by Pope Paul VI.

In the various drafts of SC discussed by the Council Fathers in the first and second sessions of Vatican II, documents such as Tra le sollecitudini, Divini cultus, and especially Mediator Dei were cited quite often in the footnotes, but all of these references ended up being removed from the final text of SC. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the footnotes present in previous drafts (around 115) were cut out of the final text of SC (which has 42 footnotes) – the only references left are to the Bible (23), liturgical texts (8), the early Church Fathers (6), and previous councils (5).

Why were so many notes removed from the final text? Dr Benofy cites Pierre-Marie Gy, O.P., an influential liturgist and member of the Council’s Liturgy Commission, who says that it was merely a matter of the “proper style” for a document of an ecumenical council to only cite quotations from biblical, liturgical and patristic sources – even when other sources are quoted or referenced. [2] It is curious, however, that all the notes referring to St Pius X, Pius XI and Pius XII were removed from SC when the other dogmatic constitutions of Vatican II have various citations from the recent papal magisterium and curial texts. [3]

All this might at first seem somewhat inconsequential. After all, we’re only talking about footnotes here! However, as Dr Benofy tells us:
Readers of SC who are not familiar with the liturgical teachings of earlier twentieth-century popes and are not led by footnotes to the documents that explain them will almost certainly see SC as a document with no connection to the recent past. They are thus unable to see SC as the Council Fathers did – as the continuation of reform begun by Saint Pius X.
Alongside the article is a handy table of citations that were removed during the final revision of SC. [4]

Had even some of these references to documents such as Tra le sollecitudini and Mediator Dei been kept in, it would certainly have been harder to interpret SC with a hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity. As it stands, Vatican II's Liturgy Commission - inadvertently or by design [5] - made it a lot easier for various people to interpret SC as advocating a kind of 'year zero' liturgical reform, disconnected from the reforms of the earlier 20th century popes.

Dr Benofy is to be congratulated for bringing this important information to light – go to the Adoremus Bulletin now to read her eye-opening article!


NOTES

[1] A good example is that of Joseph Gelineau, S.J., in his book The Liturgy: Today and Tomorrow (New York: Paulist Press, 1978): “the Roman rite as we knew it exists no more. It has gone. Some walls of the structure have fallen, others have been altered; we can look at it as a ruin or as the partial foundation of a new building... The liturgy is a permanent workshop” (p. 11).

[2] For instance, SC 22 depends very heavily on Mediator Dei 58-59 (which, incidentally, give the reasoning behind Pius XII’s condemnation of archaeologism in liturgical matters found in MD 61-62). However, unless one has read MD, one wouldn’t necessarily be aware of this, as since MD is not a biblical, liturgical or patristic source, the footnote in SC 22 that referred to it was removed by the Council’s Liturgy Commission.

[3] For example, Dei Verbum cites Leo XIII, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, and various curial offices and commissions; Gaudium et spes cites Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII, St John XXIII, and Paul VI; Lumen gentium cites (albeit in the “supplementary notes”) Benedict XIV, Pius IX, Leo XIII, St Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, and Paul VI. GS especially is not shy about quoting St John XXIII in particular – so was it just the Liturgy Commission that was concerned about “the proper style”?

[4] For those who don’t have access to the very useful (but rather expensive!) synopsis of SC edited by Francisco Gil Hellín (in the Concilii Vaticani II Synopsis series published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana), which parallels the various drafts alongside the final text, the first draft submitted to the Council Fathers with its footnotes can be found in the Acta Synodalia of the first session of Vatican II (General Congregation IV, 22 Oct 1962: cf. AS I/1, pp. 262-303). This is available for free download – see this article on NLM for the links.

[5] The intentions of the individual members of the Commission would take a lot of research to begin to uncover. I would imagine that, just like with the minutes of the Consilium, there is a lot of hidden, behind-the-scenes material for future historians to uncover!

Corpus Christ 2015 - First Photopost

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Feliciter! As was also the case last year, we received a very large number of submissions of your Corpus Christi celebrations, enough for a few photoposts. Thank you very much for sending them in; they are posted here in no particular order. The next one will appear in a day or two.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish (FSSP) - Littleton, Colorado




Parish of the Holy Family - Diocese of Cubao, Philippines





Cathedral of St John Berchmans - Shreveport, Louisiana

St Martin of Tours - Louisville, Kentucky



Holy Family Church - Singapore


Cathedral of St John the Baptist - Turin, Italy
St Matthew’s Church - Dix Hills, New York

Eucharistic Procession in San Francisco


St Mary’s Parish - Kalamazoo, Michigan



Parish of Our Lady of Eden - Carlisle, England (EF and OF)







Corpus Christi 2015 - Second Photopost

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As always, many thanks to our readers who sent in these photographs! (There are six other sets of photographs below the break, including some from Paris sent in by our own Henri de Villiers.)

Madison, Wisconsin
Pontifical Mass, celebrated at the throne by His Excellency Robert Morlino, Bishop of Madison, at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center. (photos courtesy of the Tridentine Mass Society of Madison; click here for the full photoset.)






Church of Our Savior - New York City



Shrine of Our Lady of the Garden Enclosed - Warfhuizen, Netherlands
This shrine is the chapel of a hermitage; the hermit served as the deacon of the Mass, and will be ordained a priest in September. For more information see the shrine’s website: www.mariabroederschap.nl/








Saint Eugène - Paris








St Edmund - Philadelphia







Mother of Divine Mercy Parish - Detroit, Michigan
The first four photographs were taken on Sunday June 7 at the church of the Sweetest Heart of Mary (OF), the rest at the church of St Joseph on June 4 (EF.)







Immaculate Heart of Mary - Glasgow






Dionysius Alive and Well: On Hierarchical Incensation

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At the Solemn Vespers held on the opening day of the Sacra Liturgia conference, June 1, 2015, I witnessed a memorable sign of the true nature of the Church and of the cosmos: the elaborate incensation during the Magnificat.

I have seen incense used at Vespers before, but never so elaborately, or, one might say, to such a Baroque extent (with “Baroque” as an altogether laudatory appellation). After all, incensing, like every sign used in worship, must be done properly, according to the order of persons involved — and we had in our midst a major prelate at the throne, His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke; several bishops and an abbot; ranks of clergy; platoons of religion, seminarians, and laity. It was a microcosm of the Church universal.

The incensations commenced during the Canticle of Our Lady, beginning with Our Lord at the high altar; then moving to Cardinal Burke at the throne; and then, cascading downwards, in their various echelons, the celebrant, clergy in choir, the other ministers, the religious, the laity. The censer must change hands at certain times so that ministers may both give and receive according to their specified place. It was slow, solemn, and beautiful — a real representation of ecclesiastical hierarchy and a perfect ceremonial reflection of cosmic hierarchy. As Dionysius the Areopagite teaches us: “God radiates upon inferior natures through superior natures: and to say all in one word, it is by the ministry of the highest powers that He comes forth from the depths of His adorable obscurity.”

As the days of the week went on, each liturgy of the conference featured the same lengthy, graceful, comprehensive incensation of every rank, every person, from the Head of the Mystical Body to its lowliest member. The fire burned in the thurible and the clouds of smoke rose up as a sensible sign of an ardent offering of wordless praise, of our desire to raise our prayers to God in humble homage, and of Christ’s perfect mediation on our behalf, since He offered Himself as a holocaust for our sins and a pleasing fragrance before the Most Blessed Trinity. As a contemporary commentator on Dionysius says:
Christ offers the very source and norm of ecstatic being within the order of hierarchy. Finite, hierarchical being now shows itself as a being through which we stand within ourselves as outside of ourselves—offered up, or given over, in sacrifice. . . . To die with Christ (and thus to be saved) is to become an offering through fire, a burnt sacrifice. The desire that burns within all hierarchical beings is the fire of holocaust, in which those beings are offered ecstatically to their source. Such an offering ignites the true movement of death, realized first in Christ and offered through Christ for imitation. Christ saves the finite being whose very identity consists in self-transcendence.[1]
Taking one’s time with an action like this gives it its full weight. There are no excuses or apologies for the lengthy ceremony. No one is in a rush; no one’s private agenda is permitted to dictate that we must get done as quickly as possible. If individuals need to come and go, they are free to do so; but the liturgy proceeds on its own time, in its own domain, with a blessed freedom and a sort of holy indifference to the world. Spurning the utilitarianism of our time, we should not want to “get things over with” as quickly as possible, so that we can get back to our oh-so-important secular lives; and the liturgies in New York City taught us that preeminently valuable lesson.

The world is tearing itself apart in a demonic frenzy of self-indulgence, envy, and violence, and we cannot stop it from lying and killing, for its father is the father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). But we can do the one thing for which we were made: praise, adore, glorify, magnify the Lord, for His own name’s sake, and for our salvation. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world: to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tim 1:15). This is why He ascended into heaven: that, in spite of the world, the flesh, and the devil, we who are His faithful disciples would follow Him heavenward in our thoughts, desires, actions — above all, in the theandric action of the liturgy, which joins man to God, earth to heaven, sinner to salvation.

I saw this throughout the conference liturgies: each was of a mighty stature that seemed to be a slice of the eternal motions of the heavens, or like a living thing breathing on the scale of the redwood forests or the ocean reefs. We were catching a glimpse of something far greater, far more ancient and at the same time well ahead of us and beyond us, into which we were permitted to enter for a time, as a gracious favor. The liturgy was what it had to be and we submitted our minds and hearts to its rhythms, its logic, its mysteries. God was present and we served Him. That is all — and that is enough to make everything else real and worthwhile.

Near the conclusion of an absolutely sublime Votive Mass in Honor of the Holy Angels (in the usus antiquior), I was struck by the paradox of the Postcommunion prayer: “We who are filled with the heavenly blessing humbly beseech Thee, O Lord, that the mysteries we celebrate with this poor worship [fragili officio] of ours may be profitable to us by the help of Thy holy angels and archangels.” This — all that we had just done, all the glorious music, the noble prayers handed down to us by countless saints, the very offering up of the Holy Sacrifice in a church filled with worshipers in rapt and adoring silence — was our poor worship? And yet, it was a poor service compared to the bright, sleepless, ecstatic worship of the angels in the heavenly Jerusalem, compared to the perfect intercession of the wounds of Jesus Christ in His divine humanity at the right hand of the Father. But it took the very splendor of this liturgy to throw into bold relief the distance between us and the ineffable vision of peace for which we long.

Shakespeare’s Duke Orsino famously says: “If music be the food of love, play on. / Give me excess of it” (Twelfth Night, I, 1.1-3). For Abbot John of Ford, “praise is the food of love,” and there can never be too much of it:
Without any doubt, praise awakens love and preserves it. Hence it is that the citizens of Jerusalem feed the flame of eternal love by eternal praises. They cease not to cry aloud so as to be steadfast in love. Their cry has no rest, because love knows no intermission. So praise is the food of love.  And you, too, if deep within you there is a little spark of sacred love, do all you can to apply to this spark the oil of your praise, so that your tiny fire may live and grow.[2]


NOTES

[1] Thomas A. Carlson, Indiscretion: Finitude and the Naming of God (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 173-74.

[2] Commentary on the Song of Songs, Sermo III, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Maediavalis, Vol. XVII, 48; courtesy of Sancrucensis.

Photos courtesy of Stuart and Jill Chessman/Sacra Liturgia.

The Hermeneutic of Continuity in Sacred Art - A Lecture by Clemens Fuchs in New York City, June 27

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Clemens Fuchs, the Austrian artist who works in the baroque tradition, will be giving a lecture at the Catholic Center at New York University, 238 Thompson Street, New York City, on June 27th at 6pm.

I met Clemens first about 10 years ago. He and I were both studying the academic tradition at an atelier in Florence. We had a lot in common and became friends, as we were both interested in how to direct the skills we were learning to the service of the Church. We grappling with the idea of working within tradition on the one hand and avoiding a limited, backward looking historicism on the other. This promises to be a very interesting lecture by someone who is both a talented and committed artist and a deep thinker.

Clemens is exhibiting in the One Faith: East Meets West art exhibition and this the closing event for an exhibition that has traveled from New York, through Europe to China and Russia and back again in past months. RSVP to onefaithexhibition@gmail.com by June 24th to reserve a place for the lecture and reception.

The event is co-sponsored by the Catholic Artists' Society, the Catechetical Institute and the Catholic Center at NYU.

A Mass of Thanksgiving for Ordination, Sunday June 21, in Louisville, Kentucky

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From the local Juventutem chapter: Fr Jason Stone will celebrate an EF Mass at the Church of St Martin of Tours in Lousiville, Kentucky, this coming Sunday, in thanksgiving for his recent ordination to the priesthood. Full information in the poster.

Recent Masses of Thanksgiving in the San Francisco Bay Area

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The newly-ordained Fr. Gabriel Thomas Mosher, O.P., a priest of the Western Dominican Province, celebrated three Masses of Thanksgiving around the Bay Area over the past few days. 

Chanting the Gospel, St. Albert the Great Priory, Oakland CA
Last Saturday, June 6, 2015, he celebrated as a Dominican Rite Missa Cantata the Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Saint Albert the Great Priory, Oakland, CA. He was served by Bro. Christopher Brannan, O.P., and Bro. Andrew Dominic Yang, O.P.  Music was provided by a chanter, Bro. Gregory Liu, O.P. and the congregation.  More photos of his Mass may be found here.

Elevation of the Chalice, St. Dominic Church, San Francisco CA
On June 11, 2015, he celebrated as a Dominican Rite Solemn Mass the Votive Mass of the Holy Name of Jesus at St. Dominic Church, San Francisco, CA.  He was assisted by Bro. Christopher Brannan, O.P. (deacon), Fr. Peter Hannah, O.P. (subdeacon).  Bro. Gregory Liu, O.P. (senior acolyte), Br. Joseph Selinger (junior acolyte), Br. Damien Lach (thurifer), and Br. Matthew Heynen (crucifer). Music was provided by the St. Dominic’s Schola Cantorum. Fr. Michael Hurley, O.P., Pastor of St. Dominic's, was the homilist. More photos of this Mass may be found here

Elevation of the Chalice, St. Margaret Mary Church, Oakland CA
Finally, Fr. Gabriel celebrated a Extraordinary Form Roman Rite Solemn High Mass at St. Margaret Mary Church, Oakland, CA, on June 14, 2015. The Mass was that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The preacher was Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., professor of history at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.  There was a beautiful reception following the Mass in Fr. Kozina Hall.  More photos of this Mass will be found here.

Regular Weekly TLM Announced for the Diocese of Nashville, TN

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Beginning on August 9, a regular celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of St John XXIII will be held every Sunday at 8:30 a.m., at the Church of the Assumption in Nashville, Tennessee, located at 1227 7th Ave. North. The parish’s website (www.assumptionchurchnashville.org/) contains further information and a googlemaps link for directions. Thanks to His Excellency Bishop David Choby and Fr Terence McGowan, who will be the regular celebrant, for their pastoral care of the faithful attached to the Extraordinary Form!


Corpus Christi 2015 - Third Photopost, from Sacra Liturgia in New York

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Once again, we are grateful to Mr Arrys Ortanez for sharing some of his great photographs with us, this time from the celebration of Corpus Christi as part of the recent Sacra Liturgia conference in New York City. The Mass was celebrated by H.E. Joseph Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, with Bishop John O’Hara attending in choir and delivering the sermon. The Blessed Sacrament procession then went from the Church of St Catherine, where the Mass was celebrated, through the streets of New York to the Dominican church of St Vincent Ferrer, concluding with Benediction.

We can only post a small selection of the photos here; do go and check out the rest of them (over 100), which Mr Ortanez has made publicly accessible, as they give a better idea not only of the ceremony itself, but also the large number of clergy and faithful in attendance.


















A Show in Florence on the Oldest Codex of the Vulgate

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From June 29 until October 3, the Laurentian Library in Florence will have a special show on one of its most important manuscripts, the Codex Amiatinus, the oldest complete text of St Jerome’s Bibilical translation, which we now call the Vulgate. (This is the text of the Biblical readings still used in the EF Missal and Breviary.) The manuscript was executed at the English monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria, England in the early 8th century, at the behest of the Abbot, Ceolfrid, whose most famous subject was St Bede the Venerable; it is reasonable to imagine that Bede, one of the most learned men of his age, would have been directly involved in the production of the manuscript. It was originally given as a gift to the Basilica of St Peter in Rome, but later donated to the Abbey of the Holy Savior on Mount Amiata in Tuscany, whence its nickname ‘Amiatinus.’ When Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790, decreed the suppression of innumerable religious houses and orders within the Grand Duchy, and the concomitant theft of their property, the great library founded by the Medici family, and housed in the Laurentian, was enriched with a many such manuscripts. (Pietro Leopoldo was not a Medici himself, but one of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family that inherited the Grand Duchy from the last Medici duchess.)

Codices of such an age are too precious to be put on display, but a facsimile will be displayed along with a digital copy, of which viewers can turn the pages themselves. (I have seen a similar facsimile of the Codex Vaticanus, one of the oldest Greek Bibles in the world, and was assured by a very knowledgeable scholar that it a remarkably accurate reproduction.) The show will also include the originals of 7 very early printed Bibles of particular rarity.


One of the illustrated pages of the Codex Amiatinus,  showing Christ in majesty, surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists.
The Amiatinus is an immense book, over 19 inches tall by over 13 wide, 7 inches thick and weighing 75 pounds, containing 1040 sheets of  the durable calf-skin parchment known as vellum. (Image from wikipedia by Remi Mathis.)

Book Review: Michael Foley's Drinking with the Saints

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Michael P. Foley. Drinking with the Saints: The Sinner's Guide to a Holy Happy Hour. Washington, DC: Regnery History, 2015. Hardback. xx + 487 pp. List: $26.99. Available at Amazon.com. Also available in Kindle format.

For me, one of the greatest joys of the Sacra Liturgia 2015 conference was finally meeting in person the legendary liturgical calendar expert, Augustinian thinker, and pillar of Baylor, Dr. Michael P. Foley. Dr. Foley has been a long-time contributor to the cause of liturgical piety and restoration through his print publications, including a series of wonderful articles in The Latin Mass Magazine, mostly concerning the traditional calendar and its many obvious and subtle virtues.

Given his intimate knowledge of the traditional calendar and its saints, seasons, cycles, feasts, fasts, and odd corners and curiosities, and given that he is a Catholic who proudly follows in the footsteps of such thoughtful wine-bibbers as G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, Dr. Foley's new book, Drinking with the Saints: The Sinner's Guide to a Holy Happy Hour, has the quality of something both delightfully surprising and utterly inevitable. In this beautifully-produced tome filled with saints' biographies, classic works of art, quips, quotations, and toasts, and drink recipes new and old, the extraliturgical celebration of the liturgical year has acquired a fantastic new resource. After all, if, as the Council reminded us, the liturgy is the beginning and the end, what about the middle? We should not forget the saints after we have left the church building, but bring them into our times of leisure and recreation as well.

While I would hesitate to recommend Drinking with the Saints for RCIA programs, as it might send the wrong signal, it is a must for all Catholics who appreciate these words of Scripture: "Thou dost cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart" (Ps 103:14-15). (As an aside, I can also recommend a book that is a kind of secular/scientific counterpart to Foley's, namely, Amy Stewart's The Drunken Botanistwhich I have found both fascinating and entertaining, and which has often left me in a state of wonder at the bounty the Lord has left for us in his good creation.)

The publisher, Regnery History, offered me some data on the book, which I now pass along to you. In Drinking with the Saints the reader will discover:
  • over 370 entries, covering all major holidays and feasts of the Catholic calendar;
  • almost 350 cocktails, from forgotten classics to original creations
  • a wide array of beers and ales, including ones made by monks
  • hundreds of wines named after the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints
  • the Catholic origins of whiskey, tequila, sparkling wine, and more
  • everything you need to know about the drinking preferences of the saints (and believe me, they had their preferences!)
Below are a few enticing photographs to whet the appetite. To read more, visit the book's page, which makes available, among other things, an app with searchable liturgical calendars, recipes, and indices.

Congratulations to Dr. Foley on this entertaining book, which should become a standard feature of Catholic households and their apostolate of hospitality for friends and strangers alike. Na Zdorovie! Prost! Cheers! 








First Solemn Mass of Fr. David Franco, FSSP – St Kevin’s, Warwick, R.I.

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O
n Thursday, June 11 (Feast of St. Barnabas), newly ordained Father David Franco, FSSP, celebrated his first Solemn Mass at St. Kevin’s Church in Warwick, Rhode Island (his home parish). These photos illustrate how the usus antiquior of the Roman Rite, by virtue of its proper orientation and clear hierarchical arrangement of the sacred ministers, can contribute a strong sense of transcendent mystery and “verticality” even in modern, relatively plain (albeit not undignified, in this case) liturgical settings. Photos by Mark Garrepy of the Garrepy family choir, Schola Cantorum Sanctæ Cæciliæ, who provided the sacred music.




Photopost Follow-Up

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As a follow-up to various photoposts, here are some photographs covering some of the recent liturgical seasons and events: Ascension, Corpus Christi and Sacred Heart, along with Confirmations and Ordinations.

St Mary’s Catholic Church - Salem, South Dakota
EF Confirmations and Missa Cantata on the feast of the Ascension

From the pastor, Fr Martin Lawrence: The bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Most Reverend Paul Joseph Swain, came to the parish on the Feast of the Ascension to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form to twelve of the young people who attend the traditional Latin Mass every Sunday at noon. His Excellency stayed to attend the Mass in choir; this is the third time Bishop Swain has administered Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form. I began the process of renovating and restoring the church in 2008. Shortly after completion of the project, I began parish-wide catechesis on offering the Ordinary Form of the Mass ad orientem (since we have a lovely high altar, and the people fought to keep it in the 1960s.). After two years of catechesis, and offering the Ordinary Form at the high altar during Lent and on other Feasts, etc., I finally gave a date when the free-standing altar would be removed (All Saints Day 2011) and we would celebrate ad orientem all of the time. Needless to say, it worked; a year later, we started using the Communion Rail for weekday Masses! (Complete photogallery at the parish website.)





Collegiate Church of St Juste - Lyon, France (FSSP)
Corpus Christi Mass and Procession, with First Communions
The children who received first communion (about 20 of them) were also charged with strewing flowers before the Blessed Sacrament in the Procession. Note the form of the processional canopy, which has a solid frame that can be set on the ground. (More photos on the FSSP Lyon facebook page.)




Colle Santa Lucia - Diocese of Belluno, Italy
Feast of the Sacred Heart
In the Tirol region of northern Italy, the feast of the Sacred Heart is celebrated with a procession, in accordance with a vow taken by the people of the region on May 31, 1796, to beg deliverance from the French invasion under Napoleon.






Basilica of St Paul - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Solemn Mass on the Feast of the Sacred Heart
Photos courtesy of Mr Emad Alfred, sent by Mr Julian Barkin. (Complete photogallery on the facebook page of St Patrick’s Gregorian Choir.)






St Anthony of Padua Chapel - Seminaire St Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Priestly Ordination of Frs. Jacques Breton and Fr. Alexandre Marchand FSSP, celebrated by H. E. Terrence Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa, on June 13, the feast of St Anthony. (Photos courtesy of Jacinthe Soulard Photographie)



The CMAA Comes to Pittsburgh

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The CMAA, the Church Music Association of America, will invade Duquesne University and Saint Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh, PA, for the next two weeks. A Chant Intensive will be held June 23rd through June 26th, and the 25th Colloquium will be held from June 29th through July 4th. Registration is closed for both events, but everyone is invited to the Sacred Liturgies, which are listed on www.musicasacra.com.

The late Msgr. Richard J. Schuler described the foundation of the CMAA at Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska. "In the late summer of 1964, the Society of Saint Gregory of America and the American Society of Saint Cecilia merged and formed the Church Music Association of America. Some members who were present: for the Society of Saint Gregory - Msgr. Richard Curtin, Frs. Benedict Ehmann, Joseph F. Mytych, Cletus Madsen, Joesph R. Foley, C.S.P., Vincent Higginson and Ralph Jusko: for the Society of Saint Cecilia - Msgr. Francis P. Schmitt, Frs. Richard J. Schuler, Francis A. Brunner, C.Ss.R., Sister Theophane, O.S.F., lay members Paul Koch, Alexander Peloquin, Roger and Lavern Wagner, James Welch, James Keenan, Frank Szynskie, Norbert Letter and Winifred Flanagan."  It is interesting to note that Archabbot Rembert Weakland, O.S.B. was also present and became the first president.
A provisional constitution was drafted and two resolutions, submitted by Father Brunner, Father Robert A. Skeris and Father Schuler, were adopted: 1) "We pledge ourselves to maintain the highest artistic standards in Church music;" 2) "We pledge ourselves to preserve the treasury of sacred music, especially Gregorian chant, at the same time encouraging composers to write artistically fine music, especially for more active particiption of the people according to the norms of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council and the wishes of the American Hierarchy."
At this meeting, the "Catholic Choirmaster" of the Society of Saint Gregory, begun in 1913, in its fiftieth volume, merged with "Caecilia," of the Society of Saint Cecilia, begun in 1874, then in its ninety-fourth volume, to form "Sacred Music." "Sacred Music" is, therefore, the oldest scholarly journal on sacred music published in the United States. The CMAA has also branched out to the internet with this blog, the Chant cafe and our website mentioned above, musicasacra.com.
Msgr. Schuler writes in 1977, "The CMAA has been in existence for thirteen years. The period of its existence coincides with the years of ferment following the close of the Vatican Council. Many of the hopes eagerly embraced in 1964 have been shattered by the course of events. The music in this country today can hardly be hailed as the realization of the association... In every area a regression has occurred: performance, composition, education. Deep theological controversies surfaced early after the council and soon became apparent in liturgical music, a fact that brought the conflicts growing out of the council into the focus of most of the faithful producing many doubts and worries.
...The documents themselves were clear and attainable; but the path along which liturgical music in this country has been drawn (or pushed) reflects little of what is set forth in the instructions from Rome."
All hell broke out. Perhaps the documents were not as clear as they may have seemed. Michael Davies talks of "time bombs" in the documents that would eventually allow things that were never dreamed of. Through very tough years Msgr Schuler, Dr. Theodore Marier, and Father Robert Skeris kept the CMAA afloat against all odds. Msgr wrote in 1977, "What has been the role of the CMAA during this development? A quiet one. Yet one that eventually will be seen to be the true one." - Truly prophetic words.
Well, the CMAA has gotten a little louder and more well known, but the task is far from over. Saint Caecilia, Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Pius X, pray for us!
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