The Holy Passion-Bearers Ss Boris and Gleb

July 25, 2015, 6:06 am

Since we mentioned the 1000th anniversary of the death of St Vladimir last week, it seems fitting to say a bit about his sons Ss Boris and Gleb, whose feast day is today.

The Italians have a proverb that “Great sinners by repentance become great Saints,” and of this St Vladimir was an outstanding example. The Primary Chronicle, an essential source for the history of Kievan Rus’, records many acts of cruelty and violence before his conversion, and calls him “insatiable in vice”, comparing his desire for women to that of Solomon. (But where the latter “was wise, and yet came to ruin, … Vladimir, though at first deluded, eventually found salvation.”) Among his many children, his dearest were Boris and Gleb, whom the Chronicle says were born from a wife of Bulgarian origin. (It is disputed by modern historians whether Boris and Gleb were in fact sons of the same mother; many believe they were not, and that Boris was much older than Gleb.) Another son, Sviatopolk, was Vladimir’s son by a Greek woman who had formerly been the mistress of his brother Yaropolk, but before that, a nun; the Chronicle says of him “from a sinful root an evil fruit is produced”, and he is now distinguished from a later king of the same name by the epithet “the Accursed.”

A Russian icon of St Vladmir, and his sons, Ss Boris and Gleb. (ca. 1560.)

Already as a young prince, this Sviatopolk had been imprisoned by St Vladimir for plotting against him; released shortly before his father’s death, he would ultimately kill three of his brothers to secure his place on the throne, before being defeated in battle and overthrown by a fourth brother, Yaroslav I, called “the Wise.” Boris was popular as the former chief of his father’s bodyguards, and might have opposed his brother, but was unwilling to take the throne by violence, saying, “Be it not for me to raise my hand against my elder brother. Now that my father has passed away, let him take the place of my father in my heart.” He dismissed his supporters, and was soon killed by Sviatopolk’s men, along with a several of his servants, as he prayed by the banks of the river Alta. The Chronicle records his prayer before he was set upon: “Lord Jesus Christ, who in this image hast appeared on earth for our salvation, and who, having voluntarily suffered thy hands to be nailed to the cross, didst endure thy passion for our sins, so help me now to endure my passion. For I accept it not from those who are my enemies, but from the hand of my own brother. Hold it not against him as a sin, O Lord!”

Sviatopolk then tricked Gleb into coming to him by sending a messenger that their father was dying, but Gleb was warned by Yaroslav that Vladimir was already dead and Boris murdered. He then prayed, again according to the Primary Chronicle, “Woe is me, O Lord! It were better for me to die with my brother than to live on in this world. O my brother, had I but seen thy angelic countenance, I should have died with thee. Why am I now left alone? Where are thy words that thou didst say to me, my brother? No longer do I hear thy sweet counsel. If thou hast received affliction from God, pray for me that I may endure the same passion. For it were better for me to dwell with thee than in this deceitful world.” He was attacked while on a boat, and slain by his own cook, who was forced to the murder by Sviatopolk’s men, “offered up as a sacrifice to God like an innocent lamb, a glorious offering amid the perfume of incense, and he received the crown of glory.”

Ss Boris and Gleb, depicted in a famous icon written about 1340, now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

The deaths of the two princes took place very shortly after their father’s death in 1015. When Yaroslav had secured the throne five years later, Sviatpolk being now defeated and dead, he had the incorrupt bodies of his slain brothers brought to the church of St Basil in the town of Vyshgorod, the royal residence close to Kiev. The tomb at once became a place of pilgrimage, and the site of many miracles, such that Yaroslav asked the Church to formally recognize them as Saints. The metropolitan of Kiev (a Greek, since the hierarchy had only just been established out of Constantinople) was skeptical; Boris and Gleb were not martyrs, since they had not died for the Faith, nor were they ascetics, or bishops, or great teachers. But popular devotion would not be denied, and the brothers were officially recognized as the first of a new category of Saint, called “Passion-bearers” (страстотéрпецъ in Old Church Slavonic, ‘strastoterpets’); that is, Saints who, in imitation of Christ’s humility, have accepted suffering and death, even where they might have resisted it justly, for the sake of His name. By the end of the eleventh century, devotion to them had reached even to Constantinople itself, and an icon of them was exposed in Hagia Sophia.

Prince Igor of Kiev and Chernigov, a great-grandson of Yaroslav the Wise who was murdered in another round of dynastic struggles in the following century, is also called a Passion-bearer. More recently, the title has been accorded by the Russian Orthodox Church to the seven members of the Imperial family who were murdered by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918, exactly one week before the feast of Ss Boris and Gleb. A church has been built in the city of Yekaterinburg over the site of their murder, called “the Church on the Blood”, but their relics are interred in the cathedral of Ss Peter and Paul in St Petersburg. Sadly, the relics of Ss Boris and Gleb were lost when the church of St Basil in Vyshgorod was destroyed by Mongol invaders in 1240.

The Church on the Blood, completed in 2003

The Troparion of Ss. Boris and Gleb

O Passion-bearers and fulfillers of the Gospel of Christ, chaste Boris and guileless Gleb: you did not oppose the attacks of the enemy, your brother, when he killed your bodies, but could not touch your souls. Let him therefore mourn, while you rejoice with the Angels, standing before the Holy Trinity. Pray that those who honor your memory may find grace with God, and that all orthodox people may be saved.

The Kontakion

Today your memory shines forth, noble sufferers, and summons us to glorify Christ our God. Those who come to the shrine of your relics receive healing through your prayers, for you are holy physicians.

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The TLM Returns to Taiwan

July 25, 2015, 9:40 am

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We received this message a few days ago from the Latin Mass group of Taiwan, which has been formed under the auspices of the Diocese of Hsinchu and the Shrine Parish of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, which is served by the Discalced Carmelite Friars.

“We are happy to share our humble beginnings in reviving the TLM with our first Missa Cantata on the Fourth Sunday after the Pentecost, celebrated at Fujen Catholic University, SVD Chapel. The celebrant was Rev. Fr. Jerome Guevara, SJ, who is one of the chaplains of CMLT. The choir was the Fujen Catholic University Music Studies Department, directed by Prof. Pan Tien-ming and Prof. Lionel Hong. We are having our regular Mass monthly usually every third Saturday of the month at 4:30 pm.
Our officers:
President: Mr. Gregory Chen
Schola Coordinator: Prof. Pan Tien-ming and Prof. Lionel Hong
Master of Ceremony: Mr. Aristotle Bulaclac, OCDS
Chaplains: Most. Rev. Luke Liu, DD Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Hsinchu
Rev. Fr. Jerome Guevara, SJ
Rev. Fr. Sinwee Chin, OCD

Currently, we are assisted by the Tridentine Community of Hong Kong for technical and spiritual support. Although we are inter-diocesan, we are officially based in the Diocese of Hsinchu under the leadership of Most. Rev. John Baptist Lee, Bishop of Hsinchu. I am attaching some photos of our first Mass which was a Missa Cantata. Please continue to pray for us as we begin this journey.”

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The Feast of St Christopher

July 26, 2015, 6:24 am

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Ss Christopher, Roch and Sebastian, by Lorenzo Lotto, 1535; from the Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto

Today is the feast of the martyr St Christopher, who was traditionally kept as a commemoration on the feast of the Apostle St James the Greater. One of the legends about him is that his persecutors attempted to kill him in the same manner that would later befall St Sebastian, by tying him to a stake and shooting him full of arrows. In Christopher’s case, the arrows simply stopped moving when they got close to him and hung in the air around him. Arrows were taken as a symbol of the plague, and so he came to be honored as one of the many Saints whose intercession was invoked against it. The Venetian painter Lotto therefore shows him here in the company of two such other Saints.

The Sarum Missal contains a series of votive Masses for Saints invoked for protection against plagues and diseases: Sebastian, Erasmus, Genevieve, Roch, Christopher, Anthony the Abbot, and the archangel Raphael. The Mass for St Christopher in this series contains this beautiful collect, which also refers to the well-known legend that he once bore the infant Jesus on his shoulders across a river.

“Grant, we ask, almighty and merciful God, that we who keep the memory of Thy blessed martyr Christopher, by his pious merits and intercession may be delivered on earth from perpetual death, sudden plague, famine, fear, poverty, and from all the snares of our enemies; through Thee, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, and King of glory, whom the same Christopher merited to bear upon his shoulders. Who livest etc.” (Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens et misericors Deus, ut qui beati Christophori martyris tui memoriam agimus, ejus piis meritis et intercessionibus a morte perpetua, subitanea peste, fame, timore, paupertate, et ab omnibus insidiis inimicorum liberemur in terris; per te Jesu Christe, salvator mundi, rex gloriae, quem idem Christophorus meruit in suis humeris portare. Qui vivis etc.)

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Prayer Request for the Crescat

July 27, 2015, 6:32 am

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I have just learned that Katrina Fernandez, better known to blogdom as The Crescat, has been hospitalized with complications associated with her heart, after experiencing chest pains this weekend. In the next few days, she will be receiving a stent as a corrective measure, after which she expects to be, in her words, “right as rain.” Of your charity, please be so good as to offer a prayer or two for her swift recovery. (The friend who posted this news on her facebook wall asked that people please NOT overload her email with messages. Prayers are sufficient!)

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Catholic Indifference to the Liturgy

July 28, 2015, 6:35 am

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One of the most astonishing things about the Catholic Church is the almost universal indifference of her members (including her clergy) to the sacred liturgy as such. Sure, many parish parking lots are full on Sunday mornings. Many of the laity are “involved” in one ministry or another. Plenty of socializing goes on around the Mass — sometimes, indeed, with excessive enthusiasm in the pews before and after Mass. Coffee hours are not unknown across the land. And priests work very hard, often at thankless tasks. But when it comes to being “thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 14) or “living a liturgical life” (cf. SC 18, 42), the evidence for it is nada.

It was one of the great complaints of the Liturgical Movement prior to the Council that Catholics, generally speaking, did not possess an intimate knowledge of the treasure of their liturgy or cherish a particularly intense desire to live “under the sign” of liturgical seasons and feasts. A combination of clericalism and growing secularization had removed many of the faithful from close contact with the sacred mysteries conducted in the church, and a rift appeared to yawn between the social aspect of Christianity, its mission in the needy world of today, and the ritual enactment of age-old, august ceremonies. In spite of a whirl of contrary currents in the aula, the view prevailed at the Second Vatican Council that the liturgy is the fons et culmen of the Church, the “font and apex” (or “source and summit”) of the Christian life — a conclusion that would surely have sounded fairly strange back then, but not quite as strange as it does now, when it is well-nigh incomprehensible.

Have we not known Catholics who, in spite of their sincere faith, don’t seem to “get it” when it comes to the liturgy? People who could not possibly agree with the statement that it is the “source and summit” of who they are, what they do, why they live, where they are going, and how they will get there? It seems that Cardinal George was so right when he once quipped: “Americans are Protestants who go to Mass on Sundays.” A nefarious combination of individualism and collectivism prevents many Catholics, regardless of their level of education, from perceiving the loss of the liturgical spirit in the context of the Ordinary Form, the loss of the primacy of the transcendent and of adoration. It impedes them, too, from longing for something more authentically Catholic and reaching out for it even when it is available to them in their own neighborhood. The individualism makes us wear blinkers and settle for a minimum criterion, namely, “what works for me”; the collectivism encourages a herd mentality that blocks common sense, legitimate critical thinking, and the desire for better things.

In the end, it simply seems that other things are more important in life than the liturgy. It does not come first and last; it does not take precedence and determine the shape of our days, weeks, years. Let’s face it: for such Catholics, Vatican II was wrong about the “font and apex” business, just as far too many might say Paul VI was wrong in Humanae Vitae, or John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

How, then, might we describe the predominant view, the one we will find in chancery corridors no less than humble homes? It might be summarized thus: the liturgy is one particular means among many for realizing a personal vision of Christian life. The Christian life is a potpourri or hodgepodge of personally meaningful practices, or, at its best, a mosaic of tesserae put together with artistic discretion. The note of modern subjectivism here is unmistakable, and perhaps, also, traces of the scattered, isolated, excessively busy nature of modern life. It can be difficult for people to want to care about something outside the family or outside of work, to stir themselves out of their private world to enter the common and objective world of the liturgy.[1]

It is a great irony of the postconciliar period that the Catholics today who are taking the sacred liturgy most seriously — the ones who are, quite conscientiously, building their everyday lives on it and around it, following its seasons, frequently the sacraments and using the sacramentals — are the faithful flocking to the traditional Latin Mass, especially where it is offered as the daily fare of a dedicated chapel or parish. The churches where the “unreformed” Mass is celebrated are exhibiting to the Church at large what the Council itself meant by “living a liturgical life” by the “spirit and power” of the liturgy itself. They are largely the ones buying books like Mary Reed Newland’s We and Our Children: How to Make a Catholic Home and David Clayton’s The Little Oratory.

Additional ironies include the fact that there is, in many ways, more active participation going on in these communities than is normal throughout the mainstream church (see here), that the magisterium of John Paul II on such topics as marriage and family and the importance of sacramental confession is being much more consistently implemented in them, and that, by every standard of Catholic identity and mission, they are rock-solid and energetic. How could this be surprising, if what Vatican II said about the liturgy is actually true, and that truth is put into practice?

Apart from these enclaves, however, it seems to me that we are further away than ever from recovering a genuinely Catholic perception and experience of the sacred liturgy as the foundational, central, and definitive activity of the Catholic, the origin of our identity, the purpose of our existence on earth. This is not to say our identity is exhausted in the liturgy or that we do not need to pursue subordinate goods as well.[2] What it does mean is that the beginning of our life is baptism and that the culmination of our friendship with God in this life, as well as our most vital means of staying alive, is communion with the flesh and blood reality of our Lord. Apart from these, we have no life within us, and we have no life to give to the world. We are Christians insofar as we are sacramental, liturgical, and eucharistic — and not otherwise. Even our works of charity are Christian only if they are thoroughly steeped in the worship of God and the Spirit of Christ, which we drink in through the liturgy of His Church.

Sursum corda!

What are the prerequisites for living a truly liturgical life? The liturgy demands time. One has to be willing to give up something — be it extra time in the office, extra time in recreation with friends, extra down time at home. One has to be, at least to some degree, at peace — enough to see a need for prayer and meditation as a work more important than the countless “urgent” items of business or pleasure that clamor for attention. One has to believe profoundly in the words of Jesus: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all the rest will be given to you” (Matt 6:33).[3] One has to recognize that the formal, objective, public worship offered to God by the Church is in itself far superior to our private prayers, however indispensable the latter are in their own order.

It seems to me that one reason we are further than ever from developing and practicing these habits is that, with the modern liturgy being so shallow, horizontal, and mutable, we are not really willing to allow it to be the foundational, central, and definitive activity of our lives as Catholics. Unconsciously, we sense that it cannot serve the purpose: it is too exiguous, too amorphous, too human, too insubstantial. As P. G. Wodehouse would say, “It fails to grip.” Not being either the contemplative reservoir of the Low Mass or the majestic pageant of the High Mass, it comes and goes without seizing hold of our imaginations and our hearts. If we continue to attend it week after week, it is from a sense of duty and a fondness for community. If, like increasing numbers of Catholics, we drift away, it is probably because there was not much to drift away from. Modern Catholics have been given “Doctrine Lite” and “Worship Lite,” instead of an all-embracing and all-demanding philosophy of life that aims at total immersion in the Mystery of God. The latter is worth living and dying for. But the former . . . ?

NOTES

[1] I am reminded here of the words of the Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC): “For though all things come into being in accordance with this logos, men seem as if they had never met with it, when they meet with words and actions such as I expound, separating each thing according to its nature and explaining how it is made. As for the rest of mankind, they are unaware of what they are doing after they wake, just as they forget what they did while asleep. What intelligence or understanding have they? They believe the popular singers, and take as their teacher the populace, not knowing that the majority are bad and the good are few.”

On the public, objective, and (in a sense) non-emotional nature of the liturgy, see the excerpts from the opening chapter of Guardini’s Spirit of the Liturgy, posted recently at NLM.

[2] As Vatican II points out: see Sacrosanctum Concilium 9.

[3] See Benedict Constsable, "Attending the Traditional Mass: Well Worth the Effort."

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Proceedings of Fota VI Soon to be Published

July 28, 2015, 9:06 am

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The Proceedings of the Sixth Fota International Liturgical Conference, held in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, will be published by Smenos publications, who are offering it at a special pre-publication price through their website. (click here) The complete list of the essays is given below.

Contents

Preface - John M. Cunningham, O.P.

1. Liturgical Law in Sacrosanctum Concilium and its Implementation - Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
2. Liturgical Translations and Two Instructions in Perspective - George Cardinal Pell
3. The Mass as the Sacrifice of Christ and the Church according to Sacrosanctum Concilium - Robert L. Fastiggi
4. Sacrosanctum Concilium: A Review of the Theological Critique - Mariusz Biliniewicz
5. The Hermeneutic of Sacrosanctum Concilium and the Liturgical Renewal - Helmut Hoping
6. Liturgical Reform and the Unity of Dogma and Prayer - Serafino M. Lanzetta, F.I.
7. Active Participation in the Renewal and Promotion of the Liturgy of Vatican Council II - Paul Gunter, O.S.B.
8. Sacrosanctum Concilium on the Liturgy in the Apostolic Life of the Church - Carmina Chapp
9. The Dogmatic Discussion on Concelebration from Sacrosanctum Concilium to the Present - Manfred Hauke
10. Sharing in Jesus’ Self-gift (Benedict XVI). On the Theology of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in the Light of Vatican Council II - Sven Leo Conrad FSSP
11. The Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari and the Narrative of Institution - Robert Abeynaike, O.Cist.

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Maronites Celebrate A New Priest

July 29, 2015, 6:39 am

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Just a great picture, from the Portuguese-language facebook page Direto da Sacristia, used with their kind permission. Newly ordained Fr Marc Khouryhanna, carried on the shoulders of the faithful in priestly vestments, at Zgharta, in northern Lebanon.

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Drawn through Beauty - Guest Article by Fr Charles Byrd

July 30, 2015, 6:52 am

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Fr Charles Byrd, pastor of Our Lady of the Mountains in Jasper, Georgia, here writes about his encounter with a man who wasn’t quite sure his church was Catholic, because the liturgy was done with some care for beauty. Our thanks to Fr Byrd for sharing this with our readers.

After the 11 a.m. Sunday Mass, I was spending time greeting people beneath the porch and in the narthex. It is a time when most pastors have a hundred or more conversations with folks who wait just to say a few words. There are some regular families who always want to briefly chat. Others might want to comment on the homily, and still others might want a scapular blessed, ask for prayers or for a special blessing before they travel. The narthex after Mass can be a joyful place really. On this particular Sunday, as the crowds grew thinner, I decided it was time to make my exit and go to divest, so I turned to walk towards the vestry.

From the shadows emerged a man I had never met before, who was obviously visiting for the first time, and who had evidently been waiting to speak to me last, once the crowds had cleared out. He was an older gentleman. You could tell by his stance and the diplomatic caution with which he was trying to form his question that he really didn’t want to be rude, but he needed some clarification. I could tell his heart was troubled, so I stopped to hear him out. He asked “Father, excuse me, but might I ask … is this parish under the auspices of the Holy See … that is to say the Pope?” To which I responded, “Yes sir, we are.” But he still needed further clarification “So then this parish is under the Archdiocese?” And again, I assured him, “Yes sir, we are.” He seemed relieved, and smiled, and just to make sure he said “Well, you see, Father, there are some parishes that claim to be Catholic but they really aren’t.” I nodded and assured him we were really Roman Catholic and in communion with the Pope.

Evidently, our guest was trying to make sure we really were not a schismatic parish. The reason this is so ironic is because it was summer, and during ordinary time our Mass parts are ordinarily sung in English. I mean we sung a Kyrie in Greek, but the rest of the Mass was entirely in the vernacular. Looking back over the liturgy in fact, there was not even a peep of Latin in any other part of that Mass. The summer break means there was no choir, and so it was a Mass with a cantor and an organist. All the proper chants were done in English. There was a hymn after communion and a hymn at the recessional, but both of these were in English too. My point is this was a congregational singing Mass … there were none of the anthems or polyphonic offerings we might hear when our choir gathers.

I also recall that some of our altar servers had failed to show up that Sunday so all we had were two servers for that Mass, which is unusual for us. One was the crucifer and the other was the thurifer. Moreover, our deacon’s dear wife was not well, so we had no deacon that weekend either. Consequently the liturgy was a bit sparse for us. I remember that I had preached briefly on the new stained glass windows in the narthex, and that we had prayed the Roman Canon that Sunday (again, in English, and versus populum). We had prayed for the pope and bishops in the anaphora and in the prayers of the faithful, and we had prayed for the cardinals in the upcoming Synod for the Family, that they would uphold the teachings of our Founder, and yet still, this gentleman wanted to make sure that we were Catholic.

This is a funny story, but it is also a sad one. You see this kind man wanted us to be Catholic, but he wasn’t sure we were Catholic because, well, we seemed to be really Catholic. I am not even sure he communicated that Sunday, so concerned was he that we might not really be Catholics (though he came back later that week for a daily Mass, and came up for Communion). Still this story demonstrates a point that needs to sink in. Our little parish does use Latin Mass parts seasonally, and our choirs will sing in Latin motets here and there, but none were heard that Sunday. Our rural parish doesn’t offer the Extraordinary Form Mass, though we might pray the Roman Canon in Latin but once a year. We routinely sing the dialogue prayers and presiding prayers on Sundays, and our cantor or choirs sing every sequence they can throughout the year, but again these are sung in English, and we almost never sing the Gospel. Our Sunday Masses are usually over within an hour, and if they go longer, it is because most folks come to the choir Mass, and those communion lines are longer (I’m sorry, but communion rails were just so much faster). The point is, our parish tries but we aren’t overly fussy about things (especially in the summer). This is not a city parish with lots of money and loads of nearby professional musicians for hire. We like to think of ourselves as poor, but classy, but we are decidedly rural and small. Nevertheless, because we are mindful of the liturgy, and because we sing the propers, and because our liturgies are noble and dignified, this confused guest presumed we must not really be Catholic.

What does that say about what is going on in other parishes?

I later came to find out that our guest was a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus. He was an ordinary Catholic man who wanted nothing more than to be a good Catholic. And I have to say he was so happy to find an ordinary Catholic parish that offered the Mass with dignity. I won’t be surprised if he makes us his permanent home. As a Catholic priest, I would like to challenge other parishes to consider this story. Keep in mind that I have nothing against the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. We’re just so small and rural, and I am all alone as a priest in the county, and swamped, and I want to bring unity to my parish. So we forge ahead the best we can out here. But I get a lot of folks driving up from the suburbs looking for something different. Why? I think it is because too often in the frenetic delirium to be relevant and up-to-date, and to try to reach the masses, we Catholics may just be losing the masses. So maybe it is time we paid more attention to the Mass. Seems to me what we need is stability and sanity. Just saying.

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Book Notice: Phoenix from the Ashes by H. J. A. Sire

July 30, 2015, 7:00 am

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Of considerable interest to NLM readers will be this newly published book from Angelico Press. I have already begun reading it and am finding it a gripping page-turner, brimming with keen insights and strong but well-grounded opinions. The treatment of Church crises (Arianism, Protestant revolt) is beautifully done and I look forward to the author's analysis of Vatican II and aftermath. I don't feel in a position to write a proper review yet, but my initial reaction is very positive.

PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES is a comprehensive look at the state of the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council — one of a series of recurrent periods of moral and intellectual crisis to which it has succumbed in its history. A chapter on the Council describes in detail how Pope Paul VI diverted it by placing it under the exclusive control of European liberals. An equally close study is devoted to the liturgical “reform” entrusted by the same pope to a group of radicals whose work undermined the spiritual and devotional legacy of the faithful. The loss of orthodox teaching and the disorientation following upon these changes produced a grave crisis in both clergy and laity, but the movement of return to tradition visible today promises a revival of the full Catholic life of the Church. Catholic readers now have a complete and eminently accessible account of the last 50 years of momentous changes in the Church, right up to the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Francis I.

488 pages
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-62138-140-2
Link to Amazon.com
Link to Amazon.uk

Praise for the Book

“This wide-ranging account of the self-destruction of the Roman Catholic Church and its identification of her only realistic route back to the land of the living simultaneously strikes a blow at history’s two most prevalent temptations: rejection or twisting of evidence in the service of an ideological thesis, and honest dedication to intense research on subjects whose ultimate existential value the ‘unbiased’ historian somehow fears to reveal to his readers. Henry Sire courageously shuts no doors and stifles no evidence, employing a passionate and lively prose that leaves no doubt regarding his sense of the crucial moral and cultural importance of his topic.”
—JOHN RAO, author of Black Legends and the Light of the World and Removing the Blindfold

“For Catholics feeling lost at sea as a result of the turbulent crisis tossing and flooding the Barque of Peter, Henry Sire’s work identifies clear landmarks to steady our gaze. He situates the present disarray within the larger historical context of the Arian heresy and Protestant revolution, and points to the buoys of tradition — liturgical, doctrinal, and philosophical—as sure guides to our way out. Sire distills entire epochs of history, from the first centuries of the Church through the current pontificate, into a highly readable and thought-provoking story. In the course of his tale he exposes the radical progressivism of the Second Vatican Council and its after-effects as well as the tepid conservatism of the Reform of the Reform and the Hermeneutic of Continuity.”
—BRIAN M. MCCALL, author of To Build the City of God

“Historian H.J.A. Sire has compiled a balanced assessment of the revolution in the Roman Catholic Church. His mastery of the material is complete. The book flows along easily and readers will finish it confident that they have a comprehensive understanding of the last 60 years in the Church.”
—ROGER MCCAFFREY, President, Roman Catholic Books

“Thanks to Henry Sire’s penetrating book, we have some profound answers to nagging questions. How did the West end up so quickly in a post-Christian age, when only decades ago one could still speak of a Christian culture? How did we go from the seemingly healthy Roman Catholic Church of the 1950s to the mass apostasy and grave scandals of recent years? As Sire shows, the antecedents go back quite far, in fact many centuries, but the possibility of healing and regeneration is not as remote as we think.”
—STEPHEN KLIMCZUK-MASSION, Senior Adviser, Hildebrand Project

About the Author

H. J. A. SIRE was born in 1949 in Barcelona of a family of French ancestry and was educated in England, at Stonyhurst College and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took a degree in Modern History. He has written several books on subjects of Catholic history and biography and currently lives in Rome, where he works professionally as a historian.

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Video of Solemn Requiem at St Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, PA

July 31, 2015, 7:08 am

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Saint Vincent Archabbey celebrated a Requiem High Mass in October last year for Br. Nathan Cochran, O.S.B., who passed away on July 30, 2014. H.I.R.H. Archduke Georg Habsburg-Lothringen of Salzburg, Austria, gave an opening address on behalf of the Habsburg Family and the Emperor Karl League of Prayers. It included words from League President, Fr. Marian Gruber, O.Cist., of Heiligenkreuz Abbey.

Br. Nathan was a monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he taught art and music at Saint Vincent College and served as curator and director of The Saint Vincent Gallery for over 20 years. He is most well-known for his works as the Canadian and U.S.A. Delegate for the Kaiser-Karl-Gebetsliga für den Völkerfreiden, (Emperor Karl League of Prayers for Peace Among the Nations). He worked at Vatican City as the special secretary for the Beatification of Emperor Karl I of Austria. He received the Signum Memoriae Civilian Medal of Honor from H.I.R.H. Otto von Habsburg, Archduke and Crown Prince of Austria and King of Hungary; this was the first time the medal had been bestowed since 1898, and was presented in honor of Archduke Otto’s 95th birthday. Br. Nathan also initiated a Nationwide Juried Catholic Art Exhibition; for the such exhibit, he enlisted famed British art historian Sister Wendy Beckett to serve as judge. She praised his endeavors, noting that “artists often come to understand their faith by the actual creation of artworks. We need these artworks, these attempts by artists known or unknown, to share with us their understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Would that there were hundreds of Brother Nathans in all countries!”

In the video of the complete ceremony below, the homilist speaks about this concern for beauty and art in the Church. The Mass had a large attendance and was the first time a Requiem High Mass has been celebrated in the Saint Vincent Archabbey Basilica in over 50 years.

To learn more about Br. Nathan, visit: http://gallery.stvincent.edu/brother-nathan

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A Drinking Song in Honor of St Germanus, by Hilaire Belloc

July 31, 2015, 11:10 am

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Most places which use the Roman Rite keep today as the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, who died on July 31, 1556. But in the Middle Ages, July 31st was kept in France, England and some other places (although not at Rome) as the feast of St Germanus of Auxerre; Ignatius himself would have celebrated this feast during his years as a student in Paris, along with the earliest members of the Company. A 7th-century church dedicated to St Germanus sits directly in front of the Louvre; his feast is also on the calendars of liturgical books of the medieval French and English Uses.

A state of St Germanus in the Parisian church of St Germain l’Auxerrois (image from wikipedia by Mbzt)

Although devotion to him is not as widespread now, St Germanus may well be described as the St Ambrose of the fifth century. Like the great archbishop of Milan, he came from a family of high rank, and after studying law in Rome, served as the civil governor of a Roman province. Like St Ambrose, when the bishop of his provincial capital died, he was chosen to succeed him by popular acclamation, and embraced his new state of life completely; and in that role, he revealed himself as fierce an opponent of the 5th century’s dominant heresy, Pelagianism, as St Ambrose had been to Arianism in the 4th.

Pelagius himself was a Briton, and in the early 5th century his heresy was flourishing in his native place. In 429 Pope St Celestine I and the bishops of Gaul sent Germanus, accompanied by St Lupus of Troyes, to Britain, to combat the heresy; they reduced Pelagius’ followers to silence not only by their overwhelming success in a public debate, but also by their example of holiness and various miracles. St Germanus’ triumph would be capped by a second visit to Britain in 440 to stop a new outbreak of the heresy, after which, (as St Bede will note with pride in the 8th century), Britain remained true to the Catholic Faith until the Reformation.

During his first visit to Britain, the Romanized Britons, whose province had been abandoned by the Roman Empire in 410, were threatened with invasion by the Picts and Saxons. After Easter, as the weather grew milder and an enemy attack seemed imminent, Germanus led the forces of the Britons’ to a place between two mountains with a strong echo. As the Saxons drew near, he had them all shout “Alleluia” as loudly as they could; the resulting noise terrified the Saxons into thinking the Britons’ army was much larger than it really was, and they threw down their arms and fled. In the neo-Gallican Missal of Paris, the Alleluia verse for his feast is chosen based on this story. “Alleluia, I heard the voice of many people, saying: Alleluia. Salvation, and glory, and power is to our God. And again they said: Alleluia.”

The great Catholic writer and apologist Hilaire Belloc, who was French on his father’s side and English on his mother’s, wrote a very funny drinking song in honor of St Germanus and his defeat of the Pelagian heresy; it is included in his novel “The Four Men – A Farrago”, first published in 1911.

Pelagius lived at Kardanoel

And taught a doctrine there

How, whether you went to heaven or to hell

It was your own affair.

It had nothing to do with the Church, my boy,

But was your own affair.

No, he didn’t believe in Adam and Eve

He put no faith therein!

His doubts began with the Fall of Man

And he laughed at Original Sin.

With my row-ti-tow

Ti-oodly-ow

He laughed at original sin.

Then came the bishop of old Auxerre

Germanus was his name

He tore great handfuls out of his hair

And he called Pelagius shame.

And with his stout Episcopal staff

So thoroughly whacked and banged

The heretics all, both short and tall,

They rather had been hanged.

Oh he whacked them hard,

and he banged them long

Upon each and all occasions,

Till they bellowed in chorus, loud and strong

Their orthodox persuasions.

With my row-ti-tow

Ti-oodly-ow

Their orthodox persuasions.

Now the faith is old and the Devil bold

Exceedingly bold indeed;

And the masses of doubt that are floating about

Would smother a mortal creed.

But we that sit in a sturdy youth

And still can drink strong ale

Let us put it away to infallible truth

That always shall prevail,

And thank the Lord for the temporal sword

And howling heretics too,

And all good things our Christendom brings

But especially barley brew!

With my row-ti-tow

Ti-oodly-ow

Especially barley brew!

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For Readers in Southern New England

July 31, 2015, 11:50 am

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The 10th Anniversary of the NLM

August 1, 2015, 7:36 am

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Today, August 1st, 2015, marks the tenth anniversary of this blog. To see the very first NLM post, click HERE.

Here are snapshots of the NLM from different periods of its history.

— 2005 —

— 2007 —

— 2010 —

Many thanks to all of our readers who have supported us over the past ten years. And thanks to NLM founder Shawn Tribe and to all of the writers who have contributed to this blog.

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The Feast of the Transfiguration in Washington DC

August 2, 2015, 8:07 am

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The feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Thursday August 6, 2015, will be marked by a Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite at Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian in Washington, D.C.

The Mass, at 7.30pm, will be celebrated by Father James Bradley, who will also preach. He will be assisted by Father Paul Scalia (Arlington) and Father Daniel Richards (Harrisburg). The Mass will be sung to the plainchant Propers and Ordinary. Further details are available here.

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A Model Letter on the Restoration of All-Male Altar Service

August 3, 2015, 8:07 am

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Sacred Music Colloquium, July 1, 2015

A topic of conversation that often arises among young (and not-so-young) traditionally-minded Catholics is: “Can we do anything about the problem of female altar servers?” It is, indeed, a problem truly worth solving and one that is capable of solution, rather than a sort of fateful mistake about which nothing can be done.

Imagine you are a bishop (okay—you can now get up off of your knees or face and calmly sit back down). Imagine you are thinking about what a wreckage feminism has made of the Church in the Western world, as men continue to feel alienated, women no longer offer themselves to religious life, and a pathetic number of priestly vocations dribble in. Imagine you are planning to write a letter to your presbyterate, explaining why you are abrogating, in your diocese, the use of female altar servers. What might such a letter look like? How would you make the case?

***

Dear Priests and Deacons,

Praised be Jesus Christ! With this letter I announce, after careful consideration and prayerful reflection, an important change in the liturgical praxis of the Diocese of Bromptonville.

As you know, some time ago the Vatican allowed local Ordinaries to permit female altar servers because, due to Pope Paul VI’s suppression of the minor order of acolyte, this type of service appeared to be no longer directly connected with the path to priestly ordination. Indeed, in the old days, laymen, particularly boys, substituted for acolytes in most situations (hence the familiar term “altar boys”). At the same time, the Vatican made it clear that female altar servers are not required, may not be imposed against the will of a celebrant of any Mass, and do not cancel out the good of retaining the traditional practice of male-only service at the altar.

This experiment of admitting females to the service of the altar has proved problematic, for several reasons. First, altar servers are visibly dedicated, both by their responsibilities and by their vestments, to ministering in the sanctuary at the altar of sacrifice. Theirs is a role that appears to be intimately associated with the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It was for this very reason that the discipline of training and working with altar servers was traditionally regarded as—and, in truth, still remains—a means of fostering vocations to the priesthood. To serve at the altar is to be involved in priestlike activities. Operative here is a language of symbols that is more powerful than mere words.

Experience has shown that the now widespread presence of female altar servers in the sanctuary continues to create confusion among the faithful about the roles that women may legitimately play in the life of the Church. Again, the symbolism of a vested altar server ministering at the altar speaks more decisively than any catechesis. It is therefore no surprise that many Catholics, despite the definitive judgment of the Church expressed in John Paul II’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, feel that “altar girls” are a first step towards the eventual allowance of “women priests.” Such confusion on matters bound up with the very deposit of faith is not healthy for our faithful people.

More profoundly, John Paul II’s “theology of the body” helps us to understand that a whole realm of cosmic and metaphysical symbolism is literally embodied in man and woman. Even if we are not always consciously aware of this symbolism, it has a steady formative effect on our thoughts and attitudes at worship. It should not be simply ignored in the assignment and execution of liturgical roles. Modern society has shown a remarkable ability to ignore the obvious natural and God-given differences between the sexes, differences that support their complementarity. As grace builds on nature, so does Christian liturgy build on natural anthropology. Introducing confusion at so basic a level prevents the liturgy from exhibiting clearly the spousal relationship of Christ and the Church, where Christ is represented primarily by the celebrant offering sacrifice at the altar in the sanctuary, and the Church is represented primarily by the assembly of believers gathered in the nave to do Him homage and to receive His gifts.

Finally, on a practical note, the placing together of boys and girls has had the effect, fully consistent with human nature, of driving away boys who might otherwise have been interested in serving or who might otherwise have been persuaded to serve. Boys and girls of certain ages either do not wish to be together, or find one another’s company distracting. A similar distraction is caused for many laymen by older girls or even fully-grown women in the sanctuary. If the “theology of the body” is true, and surely it is, we should have been able to foresee and avoid these problems altogether, simply by not having departed from the constant and universal custom of the Church in regard to altar servers. Moreover, boys enjoy the challenge of a demanding and regimented approach to serving, characterized by a manly esprit de corps. Mixed service cancels out this psychological advantage.

Even beyond these concerns, the expansion of ministries to more and more lay people is characteristic of the “clericalization of the laity” and the “laicization of the clergy” against which John Paul II warned many times. The role of the laity is to sanctify the vast world outside the Church, not to take care of the sanctuary and its tasks. The holiness proper to the laity is best expressed when they participate in the liturgical rites by the responses and gestures appointed for them. This is the “spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1) that corresponds harmoniously to the sacerdotal and diaconal ministries exercised at the altar.

Recognizing that the newly-introduced practice of female altar servers was never to be required but only to be allowed at the discretion of the diocesan bishop, and recognizing also that male altar servers remain normative for the Roman Rite, the Vatican left the decision in this matter in the hands of the diocesan bishop. Accordingly, exercising my right to legislate, I decree that, as of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2015, the use of female altar servers is altogether abrogated in this Diocese, and is to be discontinued without exception, all customs to the contrary notwithstanding.

I shall send you a brief pastoral letter on this subject to be read from the pulpit early in June; it will also be published in the Bromptonville Catholic Register. When and as necessary, please prepare your parishioners for the change, emphasizing that it has nothing to do with a lack of appreciation of the countless gifts that women bring to the parish and to the Church. As John Paul II frequently emphasized, the Church is feminine, indeed motherly, in her deepest identity as Bride of Christ and Mother of the faithful, and this is why the Virgin Mary is the supreme model of the Christian disciple. Those who minister at the altar, on the other hand, do so not merely as disciples, but as representatives of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Eternal High Priest and Servant (Deacon). This role of representation is symbolically shared by other liturgical ministries, especially that of altar server. That is the fundamental basis of my decision, and I am sure that further reflection on it will show the wisdom of the hitherto unbroken Catholic tradition.

I count on your understanding and support in this important step for the renewal of our diocesan liturgical worship, and ask that you speak with me personally if you have any concerns.

Cordially yours in Christ,
etc. etc.

***

So that is how it might be done. One can only hope that, as the years go on, bishops will become more and more aware of the incalculable harm that has resulted from unheard-of innovations in the Roman Rite and will take the necessary steps to restore liturgical tradition, such as all-male service in the sanctuary.

Although in the letter it is mentioned only in passing, I am convinced that part of the crisis of vocations to the priesthood stems from the lack of real “vocational training” in the form of a more demanding ministry for boys and young men in the sanctuary, connected with a richness of public worship that feeds the imagination and the intellect. When the liturgy is celebrated in a more traditional way, that is, with a certain solemnity, ritual beauty, and complexity, it exercises a mysterious and powerful fascination over the minds of youths. This experience of the sacred and its inherent worthiness has drawn more than a few men into the seminary, as I have witnessed in many different communities. In that sense, it is not rocket science to believe that nudging the liturgy towards greater solemnity and continuity with Catholic tradition, while curtailing female altar servers, cannot but be a most effective path to the promotion of priestly and religious vocations.

Altar boys, New York City, ca. 1957

Altar boys, St. John Cantius, today

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A New Home for the TLM in Tampa, Florida

August 4, 2015, 9:01 am

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Three days ago, on the feast of the Holy Maccabees, Epiphany Catholic Church held its inaugural Mass as the new home of the Extraordinary Form in Tampa, Florida and Hillsborough County. The pastor, Fr Edwin Palka, writes on the parish website: “As of August, 2015, Epiphany of Our Lord Catholic Church will become the home for the Tridentine Latin Mass. Mass will be celebrated according to the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the request of -- and with the complete blessing of -- the Bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Bishop Robert N. Lynch. In fact, the idea of my coming to Epiphany to turn it into a center for the Latin Mass did not come from me nor did it come from the Diocesan Priest Personnel Board (whom the Bishop usually consults when making changes of assignments) but rather came directly from him, bypassing all normal protocols. Those who love the Traditional Latin Mass can take comfort in what can only be described here as a great love of this form of the Mass by the Shepherd of our souls. Please, right now, offer a prayer of thanksgiving for this and pray for his sanctification.”

In addition to a daily Mass in the EF, and two such Masses on the weekends, the parish will continue to have daily OF Mass in English, and two Masses in Vietnamese on Sundays. The full schedule is available on the parish website (which is being written by someone with rather a clever sense of humor...) The church is located at 2510 East Hanna Avenue in Tampa; there is also a page with a map on the website. Please be so good to offer a prayer for Fr Palka and for Bishop Lynch that this initiative will flourish.

The inaugural EF Mass at Epiphany Catholic Church; from the parish website.

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Vespers for St Dominic - Guest Article by Fr Innocent Smith O.P.

August 5, 2015, 4:13 am

≫ Next: Mass for the Assumption at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Ohio

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We are grateful to Fr Innocent Smith of the Order of Friars Preachers for sharing with us this explanation of the official texts of First Vespers of the feast of St Dominic. Fr Smith has been studying Dominican chant for many years; he was ordained to priesthood this past May.

On Friday, August 7 at 7:30 pm, the Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena [www.svsc.info] will celebrate Solemn First Vespers for the Feast of St. Dominic. The liturgy will take place at the Church of St. Catherine of Siena, 411 East 68th Street, New York, NY. All readers in the New York City area are cordially invited to participate. Vespers will be celebrated in English, enriched with the proper chants of the Dominican Antiphonarium. In anticipation of this celebration, the following essay provides a brief description of the chants proper to the Dominican tradition which will be sung at this liturgy. Images from the famous 13th century Dominican liturgical codex presently preserved at Santa Sabina (Rome, Santa Sabina Archivum Generale Ordinis Praedicatorum, XIV L1) are provided to give an illustration of the antiquity of each of these chants.

In 1982, the Order of Preachers published the Proprium Officium Ordinis Praedicatorum, a supplement to the Liturgia Horarum. The Proprium was promulgated by Fr. Vincent de Couesnongle, Master of the Order from 1974–1983, and approved by the Holy See. This volume provides a variety of resources for enriching the celebration of the contemporary form of the Divine Office with elements drawn from the Order’s liturgical heritage.

For the First Vespers of St. Dominic, six elements drawn from the medieval Dominican rite are provided: the hymn, three antiphons (for the two psalms and New Testament canticle), the long responsory, and the Magnificat antiphon.

The hymn Gaude, mater Ecclesia, like the other chants offered in the Proprium for St. Dominic, dates back to the mid-13th century office of St. Dominic. The hymn melody, set in mode 7, appears to have been developed in the 1250s, replacing a mode 6 melody which was sung to the same text in at least one earlier manuscript from the 1240s. The hymn invites the whole Church to join the courts of heaven in rejoicing at the reception of St. Dominic into heaven, alluding to the beautiful perfume that rose from his tomb as a sign of his sanctity.

The first antiphon, Praeco novus, was used in the medieval office as the first Matins antiphon of St. Dominic. The antiphon, set in mode 1, alludes to a vision witnessed by St. Dominic’s mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, while she was pregnant with St. Dominic himself: a dog with a torch in its mouth appeared, lighting the world on fire. This vision is the basis for the widespread artistic tradition of depicting St. Dominic with a dog at his feet.

Praeco novus et cáelicus, missus in fine sáeculi, pauper fulsit Domínicus, forma praevísus cátuli. (Foreshadowed in the likeness of a hound, a new and heaven-sent herald in these latter times, Dominic, a poor man, shone afar.)

The second antiphon, Agonizans pro Christi nomine, was the fifth matins antiphon in the medieval office. The mode 5 antiphon likens Dominic to a sower of the divine seed of the Gospel, and describes his poverty as a “protection” or “armor” which preserved him in his efforts of laboring for Christ. In his early efforts to evangelize the Cathars in Southern France, Dominic and his bishop Diego of Osma recognized the importance of authentic poverty as a counter-witness to the simplicity of the Cathar heretics, recognizing that they needed to out-do their opponents in faithfulness to the poverty of Christ.

Agonizans pro Christi nómine, mundum replet divíno sémine, paupertátis degens sub tégmine. [Laboring for the name of Christ, he fills the world with divine seed, living all the time under the protection of poverty.]

The third antiphon, Liber carnis vinculo, was the ninth Matins antiphon in the medieval Dominican office. Like the first antiphon, this too is set in mode 1, although it has a termination on D (re) rather than on G (sol) as in the first antiphon. In this text, Dominic’s entry into heaven is described in terms of drinking deeply from a cup which he has longed to drink from. In addition to alluding to Christ’s desire to drink the chalice of salvation at the Last Supper, this antiphon draws on a wider Dominican tradition associating Dominic with the “new wine of the Gospel,” a tradition which has been beautifully articulated in Fr. Paul Murray’s The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality (Burns and Oates, 2006).

Liber carnis vínculo caelum introívit, ubi pleno póculo gustat quod sitívit. [Free from the trammels of the flesh he entered heaven, where, drinking deeply, he savours that for which he had thirsted.]

After the short reading, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, which emphasizes the need to preach the word in season and out of season, the long responsory O spem miram is sung. In the medieval Dominican liturgy, First Vespers of major feasts were distinguished by the singing of a long responsory in place of the short responsory now usually sung at Vespers. The Proprium provides for the possibility of following this practice in the contemporary office. O spem alludes to the death-bed promise of St. Dominic that he would be more helpful to his brothers after his death than he had been in life. The responsory begs that Dominic will fulfill this promise through his prayers, asking the Lord to not only heal our bodies but even more so our souls.

R. O spem miram, quam dedisti mortis hora te fléntibus, dum post mortem promisisti te profutúrum frátribus! * Imple, Pater, quod dixisti, nos tuis juvans précibus. V. Qui tot signis claruisti in aegrórum corpóribus, nobis opem ferens Christi, aegris medére móribus. Imple, Pater. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spirítui Sancto. Imple, Pater. [R. O wonderful hope, which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death, promising that after your death you would be helpful to your brethren! * Fulfill, Father, what you have said, and help us by your prayers. V. You shone on the bodies of the sick by so many miracles. Bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls. Fulfill, Father, what you have said, and help us by your prayers.]

The Magnificat antiphon, Transit pauper, was also sung in the medieval office for First Vespers of St. Dominic. This mode 7 antiphon makes a series of contrasts concerning Dominic’s entrance into heaven, some of which are opposites (poverty to kingship, death to life, labor to rest, sorrow to joy) and some of which are rather the fulfilment of an earlier tendency (captain to kingship and victor to prize). This antiphon has a comforting message: even in the midst of present difficulties and sorrows, St. Dominic has shown us that all of these struggles can be overcome through God’s grace, with heavenly joy overcoming all earthly sorrow.

Transit pauper ad regni sólium, dux ad sceptrum, victor ad praémium, mors in vitam, labor in ótium: præsens cedit luctus in gáudium. [The poor man passes to the kingly throne, the captain to the royal power, the victor to the prize, death to life, labor to rest: present sorrow gives place to joy.]

May these chants, which have inspired countless Dominican friars, sisters, and lay persons over the past centuries, continue to be an inspiration to those who today ask St. Dominic to bestow on them a double portion of his spirit.

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Mass for the Assumption at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Ohio

August 5, 2015, 5:00 am

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On Saturday, August 15th, the feast of the Assumption, an EF Missa Cantata will be celebrated at 10 a.m. at the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, by the rector, the Very Reverend Monsignor Anthony S. Spinosa. Music will be provided by the Schola Basilicorum and the St Cecelia Chorale. The shrine is located at 2759 North Lipkey Road, North Jackson, Ohio.

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Dominican Rite Sacramental Absolution Wallet Cards Available

August 5, 2015, 1:02 pm

≫ Next: The Dedication of St Mary Major

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I am happy to announce to Dominican Priest readers that Dominican Liturgy Publications is making available wallet-size plastic laminated cards with the Latin formula for Sacramental Absolution according to the Dominican Rite. An image of the front side of the longer Absolution card is to the right. Note that, because of the conversion needed to make the JPG image, a red cross come out as a red square. On the actual cards that figure is a Cross. Sorry the JPG is a bit fuzzy.

The cards are available in two formats. One has the longer four-part absolution that I described here. The other has the "short" absolution for use when there are many confessions or when time is short, as well as the "very short form" for use when there is danger of death and a special form for use during a jubilee. Each card is two-sided. The cards are available two ways.

If you simply want the PDF itself to double-side print and laminate yourself, email me at the address available for me on the left sidebar and I will email you the PDF file you prefer. Tell me whether you want the long version or the short version or both. The text will print double-sided on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, which you then trim and laminate. There is no charge for these PDFs.

Or you can order the laminated card itself. In that case, mail me by U.S. post a self-addressed stamped envelope and $2.00 for each card. (This is the cost of printing and lamination.) I will make the card and mail it to you. Let me know which of the two cards you want or whether you want both. This mail order method is limited to 2 cards maximum per customer ($4.00 total) . The address to which you mail your order is:

Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., Editor-in-Chief
Dominican Liturgy Publications
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618

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The Dedication of St Mary Major

August 5, 2015, 1:06 pm

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The Roman basilica of Saint Mary Major, whose dedication is celebrated today, is also known by several other titles, among them, “the Liberian Basilica”, after its putative founder, Pope Liberius (352-366). I say “putative” because although Liberius did certainly build a church on the site, it was badly damaged in a riot that broke out over the contested election of his successor, St Damasus I; it was then abandoned until the next century, when St Sixtus III (432-440) replaced it with a completely new church. Despite a great many alterations and additions, the nucleus of the structure as we have it today is Pope Sixtus’ building, the oldest church in the world dedicated to the Mother of God; there is no reason to believe that Liberius’ structure was so dedicated. Nevertheless, the title “Liberian” has stuck; the basilica’s chapter of canons is normally referred to in Italian as “il Capitolo Liberiano.”

The Miracle of the Snows, by Jacopo Zucchi, ca. 1580; from the Vatican Museums

Pope Liberius is also a protagonist of the famous legend concerning the church’s founding, which has given it another one of its titles, “Our Lady of the Snows.” The story is that a wealthy Roman patrician named John and his wife, having no heirs, wished to leave their patrimony to the Virgin Mary, and prayed to Her to let them know how they might do so. On the night of August 4th, the Virgin appeared to both of them, and also to the Pope, and told them that in the morning, they would find a part of the Esquiline hill covered in snow, and in that place they should build a church in Her honor. (Snowfalls are exceedingly rare in Rome even in the winter.) The next morning, coming up to the Esquiline, they did indeed find the place covered in snow, and thus the church was founded.

Each year, during the principal Mass of the Dedication, a shower of white jasmine petals, representing the miraculous snowfall, is let fall from the roof of the basilica during the Gloria; the ceremony is repeated in the evening during the Magnificat of Vespers. It is seen here in a video taken by John Sonnen of Orbis Catholicus in 2010.

Painful as it is to impugn the story behind such a beautiful liturgical tradition, it is now regarded as purely legendary. The text of Pope Sixtus III’s dedicatory inscription is preserved, and does not mention it; indeed, the story is not heard of until several hundred years after it supposedly took place. The legendary character of the episode is also implicitly recognized in the Tridentine liturgical reform. In a Roman Breviary printed in 1481, the story is told in six unusually long lessons at Matins, each almost a full column in length; the Breviary of St Pius V preserves the essence of the legend, but reduces it to the bare facts at just over 200 words. The feast also had a proper collect, which reads as follows: “O God, who, to declare the glory of Thy Mother, the glorious Virgin Mary, by a snowfall in the heat of summer didst deign to show forth the place in which a church should be built for Her; grant, we ask, that, devoting ourselves to Her service, by the cooling of concupiscence, we may be cleansed in the brightness of innocence.” In the Tridentine reform, this prayer was replaced by the generic prayer from the common Office and Mass of the Virgin.

The upper left section of the mosaic on the triumph arch of Saint Mary Major, with the Annunciation above and the Adoration of the Magi below. To the right of the Annunciation, the angel comes to reassure St Joseph. In the Adoration of the Magi, Christ is shown as a young child, but not as an infant, since the Gospel of St Matthew does not say how long after the Birth of Christ the Magi came to Him.

In the Liturgy of the Hours, historical lessons are no longer read at Matins, (now called the Office of Readings,) with a few rare exceptions. For today’s feast, the second reading is a passage from St Cyril of Alexandria’s “Homily against Nestorius”, delivered at the Council of Ephesus in 431. In the Breviary of St Pius V, this passage was read on September 15th, the Octave of the Virgin’s Nativity, but it also makes an especially appropriate choice for the Dedication of St Mary Major. The church was built by Sixtus III, and decorated with mosaic images of the Virgin’s life, in the wake of the great controversy stirred up by Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who declared that it was wrong to refer to the Virgin Mary with the title “Theotókos – Mother of God”, and that She ought rather to be called “Christotókos – Mother of Christ.” The Council of Ephesus was called to respond to Nestorius’ heresy, and at that Council, St Cyril was the adamant defender of the orthodox faith, the “unconquered teacher that the most blessed Virgin Mary is Mother of God”, as the traditional collect of his feast calls him.

I see here the joyful company of holy men, all willingly gathered together, called by the holy Mother of God, Mary, the ever-virgin. The arrival of the holy Fathers has brought me from the great grief wherein I dwelled unto joy. Now is fulfilled among us the sweet word of David the psalmist: Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to live together as one.” (Psalm 132)

Therefore, rejoice with us, holy and mystical Trinity, that called us all to this church of Mary, the Mother of God. Rejoice with us, Mary, Mother of God, the venerable treasure of the whole world, the ever-shining light, the crown of virginity, the scepter of orthodoxy, the indestructible temple, the place of Him whom no place can contain, Mother and Virgin; through whom is named in the Holy Gospels the Blessed One, who comes in the name of the Lord.

Rejoice, thou who in thy virginal womb held Him who cannot be held; through whom the Trinity is sanctified; through whom the cross is called precious and is venerated throughout the world; through whom heaven exulteth; through whom the angels and archangels rejoice; through whom demons are put to flight; through whom the devil, that tempter, fell from heaven; through whom the fallen race is taken up to the heavens; through whom all creation, possessed by the madness of idols, hath come to the knowledge of truth; through whom cometh baptism to them that believe, and the oil of gladness; through whom the Church hath been established throughout the world; through whom the nations are led to repentance.

What need is there to say many more things? (This is somewhat ironic, since St Cyril goes on to say a great deal more than can be reproduced here.) Through Thee, the only-begotten Son of God hath shone as a light upon those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death; the prophets foretold, the apostles preached salvation to the nations; the dead are raised to life, and kings rule through the holy Trinity.

The famous icon of the Virgin Mary titled “Salus Populi Romani,” painted in the 6th or 7th century, and now housed in the Borghese Chapel at Saint Mary Major. The jewels and crowns seen here have been removed in subsequent restorations.

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