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Winter Issue of Sacred Music

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The CMAA has just sent out the latest issue of Sacred Music to members and subscribers, the contents of which would be of interest to readers of the NLM. To subscribe to the journal or become a member, click here.

EDITORIAL
Sing the Mass | William Mahrt
ARTICLES
Liturgical Music: The Medium and the Message | Fr. Richard Cipolla
Mystery in Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony | Daniel J. Heisey O.S.B.
A Brief History of the Ward Method and the Importance of Revitalizing Gregorian Chant 
and the Ward Method in Parochial School Music Classrooms | Sharyn L. Battersby
DOCUMENT
Words of Thanks of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the Occasion of the Conferral of a Doctorate honoris causa by John Paul II Pontifical University of Krakow and the Krakow Academy of Music | Pope Benedict XVI
REPERTORY
In paradisum, the Conclusion of the Funeral Mass | William Mahrt
REVIEW
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sämtliche Orgelwerke, Volumes 1 & 2: Preludes and Fugues | Paul Weber
COMMENTARY
Black | William Mahrt

Proclamation of the Movable Feasts 2016

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From our friends at the Schola Sainte Cécile.



Know, dearest brethren, by the gift of God’s mercy, as we have rejoiced for the birth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, so also we announce to you joy for the Resurrection of the same Our Savior. On the twenty-fourth day of January will be Septuagesima Sunday. On the tenth of February, the day of Ashes, and the beginning of the fast of most holy Lent. On the twenty-seventh of March, we will celebrate with joy the holy Easter of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. On the fifth of May will be the Ascension of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. On the fifteenth of the same month, the feast of Pentecost. On the twenty-sixth of the same month, the feast of the most holy Body of Christ. On the twenty-seventh of November, the first Sunday of the Advent of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, to whom belong honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Music for the Epiphany

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The Latin hymn for Vespers


Hostis, Herodes impie,                      Why, impious Herod, vainly fear
Christum venire quid times?             that Christ the Savior cometh here?
Non eripit mortalia,                            He takes no earthly realms away
qui regna dat caelestia.                      Who gives the crown that lasts for aye

Ibant Magi, quam viderant,                To greet His birth the Wise Men went,
stellam sequentes praeviam:              led by the star before them sent;
Lumen requirunt lumine:                called on by light, towards Light they pressed,
Deum fatentur munere.                      and by their gifts their God confessed.

Lavacra puri gurgitis                           In holy Jordan’s purest wave
caelestis Agnus attigit:                        the heavenly Lamb vouchsafed to lave;
peccata, quae non detulit,                  That He, to whom was sin unknown,
nos abluendo sustulit.                         might cleanse His people from their own.

Novum genus potentiae:                     New miracle of power divine!
aquae rubescunt hydriae,                   The water reddens into wine:
vinumque iussa fundere,                     He spake the word: and poured the wave
mutavit unda originem.                       in other streams than nature gave.

Jesu, tibi sit gloria,                                All glory, Lord, to Thee we pay
qui apparuisti gentibus,                       for Thine Epiphany today;
cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,                  all glory as is ever meet,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.              to Father and to Paraclete. Amen.

(Translation by J.M. Neale. Note that the first line of the hymn is slightly different from the revised version of Pope Urban VIII found in the Roman Breviary, which begins “Crudelis Herodes, Regem.”)

The Troparion and Kontakion of the Byzantine Rite


Тропарь : глас 1Во Иордане крещающуся Тебе, Господи, Тройческое явися поклонение: Родителев бо глас свидетельствоваше Тебе, возлюбленнаго Тя Сына именуя, и Дух в виде голубине извествоваше словесе утверждение. Явлейся Христе Боже и мир просвещей, слава Тебе.
Troparion : Tone 1 When Thou, O Lord, were baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest: for the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee, and called Thee His beloved Son. And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the truthfulness of His word. O Christ, our God, Who hast revealed Thyself and enlightened the world, glory to You!
Ἀπολυτίκιον· Ἦχος α´ Ἐν Ἰορδάνῃ βαπτιζομένου Σου, Κύριε, ἡ τῆς Τριάδος ἐφανερώθη προσκύνησις· τοῦ γάρ γεννήτορος ἡ φωνὴ προσεμαρτύρει Σοι, ἀγαπητόν Σε Υἱὸν ὀνομάζουσα· καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς ἐβεβαίου τοῦ λόγου τὸ ἀσφαλές. Ὁ ἐπιφανεὶς Χριστὲ ὁ Θεός, καὶ τὸν κόσμον φωτίσας, δόξα Σοι.

Кондак : глас 4 Явился еси днесь вселенней, и свет Твой, Господи, знаменася на нас, в разуме поющих Тя: пришел еси и явился еси, Свет Неприступный.
Kontakion : Tone 4 Today Thou hast shown forth to the world, O Lord, and the light of Thy countenance hath been marked on us, as we sing Thy praises in knowledge (of Thee). Thou hast come and revealed Thyself, o unapproachable Light.
Κοντάκιον· Ἦχος δ´ Ἐπεφάνης σήμερον τῇ οἰκουμένῃ, καὶ τὸ Φῶς Σου, Κύριε, ἐσημειώθη ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς ἐν ἐπιγνώσει ὑμνοῦντάς Σε. Ἦλθες, ἐφάνης, τὸ Φῶς τὸ ἀπρόσιτον.

The Acta Synodalia of Vatican II - Second Session Available for Download

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Back in May on NLM, I started a project to make the Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilii Oecumenici Vaticani II easily available for anyone who is interested in precisely what was said and discussed at the Second Vatican Council. Diaries and memoirs written by some of those who were periti at the Council have recently been published (e.g. Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, Lawrence McReavy), some for the first time in an English translation. But as interesting and valuable as these are in their own right, ultimately they cannot substitute for the speeches and written submissions of the Council Fathers themselves.

My intended schedule has had to be lengthened, but I am happy to announce that the second session of Vatican II (29th Sep - 4th Dec 1963) is now available to download from the links below:
2nd Session, Part 1:
Introductory material
Summary of General Congregations XXXVII-LXXIX
Public Session II (29th Sep 1963)
General Congregations XXXVII-XXXIX (30th Sep - 2nd Oct 1963)
2nd Session, Part 2:
General Congregations XL-XLIX (3rd - 16th Oct 1963)
2nd Session, Part 3:
General Congregations L-LVIII (17th - 30th Oct 1963)
2nd Session, Part 4:
General Congregations LIX-LXIV (31st Oct - 11th Nov 1963)
2nd Session, Part 5:
General Congregations LXV-LXXIII (12th-25th Nov 1963)
2nd Session, Part 6:
General Congregations LXXIV-LXXIX (25th Nov - 2nd Dec 1963)
Public Session III and Conclusion of the 2nd Session (4th Dec 1963)

(The links to the four parts of the first session can be found here on NLM.)

Once again, be aware that the Acta are almost all in Latin, so if your language skills are a little rusty, you may need to brush up before reading or keep a grammar and dictionary close to hand.

Since Sacrosanctum Concilium was promulgated at the end of the second session, this means that all the speeches and written submissions of the Council Fathers regarding the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, as well as all the drafts and modifications made to the text during Vatican II, are now freely available to anyone who is interested!

Christmas 2015 Photopost - Late Entries

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Just a couple of late submission from Christmas and its octave.

Church of St Anne (Damenstiftkirche) - Munich, Bavaria (FFSP)
Midnight Mass and the Feast of St Stephen





Church of the Holy Innocents - Manhattan, New York City
Solemn Mass on the Patronal Feast











The Synaxis of the Holy Forerunner John the Baptist

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In the Byzantine Rite, a “synaxis” (“σύναξις” in Greek, “собóръ – sobor” in Old Church Slavonic) is a commemoration held the day after a major feast, to honor a sacred person who figures prominently in the feast, but who is, so to speak, overshadowed by its principal subject. The most prominent example is the feast of the Holy Spirit, celebrated the day after Pentecost, since Pentecost itself is the feast of the Holy Trinity. Likewise, the Synaxis of the Virgin Mary is kept the day after Christmas, that of St Gabriel on the day after the Annunciation, etc. For those of the Byzantine Rite who follow the Gregorian date of Epiphany, today is therefore “The Synaxis of the Holy and Glorious Prophet and Forerunner, John the Baptist.” A synaxis is a commemoration, and does not replace the principal feast of the person honored thereby; the Byzantine Rite celebrates the same two principal feasts of St John as the Roman Rite, the Nativity on June 24, and the Beheading on August 29. This is also a feast of his conception, kept on September 23rd, and of the various occasions on which the relics of his head were lost and recovered, the “First and Second Finding” on February 24, and the “Third Finding” on May 25th. (The Conception of St John is occasionally found on ancient liturgical calendars in the West, but never really caught on.)

John the Baptist as the Angel of the Desert, with stories of his life, from the Church of St. Nicholas in Yaroslavl, 1551. 
Troparion: The memory of the righteous (is celebrated) with hymns of praise, but the testimony of the Lord will be sufficient for thee, O Forerunner. For, being received in truth as the most honorable of the prophets, thou wert deemed worthy to baptize in the streams the One foretold (by them). And therefore, having suffered for the truth, with joy thou proclaimed even to those in hell God who was made manifest in the flesh, who taketh away the sin of the world, and granteth us great mercy.


Тропарь Память праведнаго с похвалами, тебе же довлеет свидетельство Господне, Предтече: показал бо ся еси воистинну и пророков честнейший, яко и в струях крестити сподобился еси Проповеданнаго. Темже за истину пострадав, радуяся благовестил еси и сущим во аде Бога, явльшагося плотию, вземлющаго грех мира и подающаго нам велию милость.


Τροπάριον Μνήμη δικαίου μετ’ ἐγκωμίων, σοὶ δὲ ἀρκέσει ἡ μαρτυρία τοῦ Κυρίου, Πρόδρομε. Ἀνεδείχθης γὰρ ὄντως τῶν Προφητῶν σεβασμιώτερος, ὅτι καὶ ἐν ῥείθροις βαπτίσαι κατηξιώθης τὸν κηρυττόμενον, ὅθεν τῆς ἀληθείας ὑπεραθλήσας, χαίρων εὐαγγελίσω καὶ τοῖς ἐν Ἅδη, Θεὸν φανερωθέντα ἐν σαρκί, τὸν αἴροντα τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, καὶ παρέχοντα ἡμῖν τὸ μέγα ἔλεος.

Pope St Gregory the Great on the Gifts of the Magi

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The wise men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold becometh a King, frankincense is offered in sacrifice to God, and with myrrh are embalmed the bodies of the dead. Therefore, by these mystical gifts did the wise men preach Him whom they adored; by the gold, that He was King; by the frankincense, that He was God; and by the myrrh, that He was to die.


There are some heretics who believe Him to be God, but do not at all believe that He reigns everywhere; these offer unto Him frankincense, but refuse Him gold. There are some others who think that He is King, but deny that He is God; these offer Him gold, but refuse Him frankincense. There are some who profess that He is both God and King, but not deny that He took up mortal nature. These offer Him gold and frankincense, but not myrrh for the mortal nature which He assumed.

Let us, therefore, offer gold unto the new-born Lord, that we may confess His universal rule; let us offer unto Him frankincense, that we may believe that He Who hath appeared in time, was God before time was; let us offer Him myrrh, that, just as we believe Him not subject to suffering in His divinity, we may also believe that He was mortal in our flesh. (From Pope St Gregory the Great’s 10th Homily on the Gospels; read in the Breviary of St Pius V on the third day within the Octave of Epiphany.)

Summer Chant and Polyphony Institute at Eastman School of Music

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Prof. Michael Alan Anderson of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester will offer a summer course called “Singing Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Polyphony” from July 25-29 of this year. The course will balance exposure to the genres and styles of traditional Western plainchant with the study and execution of Renaissance vocal polyphony. Sessions will center not just on performance but also on historical background, notation, and contemporary theory and practice. In a short concert at week’s end, students will present – as an SATB choir – an unpublished sixteenth-century polyphonic Vespers, which incorporates both chant and polyphony. This course is appropriate for church music directors, choral directors, and singers wishing to gain a stronger foundation in early music.

Prof. Anderson is also the director of the professional early music ensemble Schola Antiqua of Chicago, which has been an artistic resident since 2007 at the Lumen Christi Institute, a center for Catholic social thought. For details about enrollment and tuition, please visit this link to the Eastman School of Music’s website.

How is Your TLM Doing?

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Over at the National Catholic Register, Msgr Charles Pope published an article yesterday called “An Urgent Warning About the Future of the Traditional Latin Mass.” The warning is that in many places, the congregations attending the EF Mass are not growing, and may well be in danger of declining in the future, perhaps the fairly near future. Msgr himself admits that his “sense that the Traditional Latin Mass has reached its peak in terms of numbers attending” is based on “only anecdotal evidence.” But for example, “In my own archdiocese, although we offer the Traditional Latin Mass in five different locations, we’ve never been able to attract more than a total of about a thousand people. That’s only one-half of one percent of the total number of Catholics who attend Mass in this archdiocese each Sunday.”

As may be imagined, this has generated a bit of controversy, with plenty of comments on the original article both in agreement and in disagreement. Corpus Christi Watershed and Fr Zuhlsdorf have both weighed in on his piece, and raised some points in contrast. As CCW points out, the absolute number of TLMs offered in the United States has risen to the point where 92% of our dioceses have at least one weekly EF Mass. This is a remarkable degree of progress, considering the miniscule number which were available when the Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei came out in 1988.

In that letter, Pope St John Paul II’s wrote that “respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See (in the 1984 decree Quattuor abhinc annos) for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.” There is no point in denying that under the Ecclesia Dei indult, which lasted for just over 19 years, these words were met in a great many places with a shameful lack of generosity, and that in such places, the traditional Mass has really only been available since Summorum Pontificum handed control of the matter to individual priests, less than nine full years ago.

Fr Zuhlsdorf rightly points out that Msgr Pope’s article takes as its starting point some excessively and naively optimistic predictions about the results that the TLM might have on a given diocese or a community. Msgr writes “But one of the promises was that if parishes would just offer the Traditional Latin Mass each parish would be filled again,” to which Fr Z comments in his well-known bold red type, [“Filled”? Not in my circle they didn’t.] Such predictions, to whatever degree they were made, were simply not realistic to begin with. I say this with all due respect: we need to measure the progress of the TLM by more realistic yardsticks.

Nevertheless, I think the good Monsignor is absolutely right when he says:
This is why evangelization and effectively handing on the faith to the next generation is so critical. Simply having a beautiful liturgy, or a historic building, or a school with old roots in the community, is not enough. Attracting, engaging, and evangelizing actual human beings who will support and sustain structures, institutions, and even liturgies is essential. No one in the Church is exempt from this obligation.
If we who love the Traditional Latin Mass thought that it would do its own evangelizing, we were mistaken. It is beautiful and worthy of God in many ways. But in a world of passing pleasures and diversions, we must show others the perennial value of the beautiful liturgy.
The honest truth is that an ancient liturgy, spoken in an ancient language and largely whispered, is not something that most moderns immediately appreciate. It is the same with many of the truths of our faith, which call for sacrifice, dying to self, and rejecting the immediate pleasures of sin for the eternal glories of Heaven. We must often make the case to a skeptical and unrefined world.
I would like to invite NLM readers to sound off on this. (See paragraph below first.) What is your church or apostolate doing to promote greater interest in, understanding of, and love for the Traditional Mass, and is it working? And conversely, if your TLM congregation is shrinking or failing, why do you think this is happening, and what do you think could be done to change it?

Please read this before commenting: I believe I can trust our readers to contribute to such a discussion in a constructive manner, without bashing people or airing grievances. If you want to report that your local TLM is not doing well for whatever reason, DO NOT mention anything specific to identify it, such as the names of people (clergy or lay), dioceses, churches, congregations, choir directors etc. Comments which stray out of these boundaries will be deleted.

Christ Among the Doctors

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When Jesus was twelve years old, they going up into Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast, and having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and His parents knew it not. And thinking that He was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought Him among their kinfolks and acquaintance. And not finding Him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass that after three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers. And seeing Him, they wondered.

Christ Among the Doctors, by Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto), in the Baglioni Chapel of St Mary Major in Spello, Italy; 1501.
And His Mother said to Him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. And He said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And His Mother kept all these words in Her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men. (Luke 2, 42-52, the Gospel of both the Feast of the Holy Family and the First Sunday after Epiphany in the EF, of the Holy Family year C in the OF.)

In the same chapel, the painter Bernardino di Betto signed his work by including this portrait of himself. He is often referred to as “Pinturicchio”, which means “tiny little painter”, because he was remarkably short.


He originally trained as a miniaturist and illustrator of devotion manuals, often working on hand-sized pages under magnifying glasses, and using brushes with a single hair to create incredibly fine details. The same level of detail appears in his fresco works; note the elaborately painted trees and tiny buildings in the background of Christ Among the Doctors above, or the string of beads hanging from his signature plate below, to which are attached two paint-brushes and a scalpel.

Two Recordings of Syriac Liturgical Music

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Via a friend’s facebook page, I stumbled across these links to recordings made in 2011, both of Vespers in Syriac Orthodox monasteries in Turkey. Very sadly, the occasion for which they were posted was an article in Newsweek about the Islamic persecution and dispersal of the Christian communities which have kept this musical tradition alive for so many centuries; the Mor Gabriel monastery was established at the end of the 4th century, and the Mor Hananyo (St Ananias) at the end of the fifth.

Vespers in the Monastery of Mor Hananyo (also known as “The Saffron Monastery” from the color of its stone. The Turkish version of this nickname, “Deyrulzafaran,” is the name used on the website where these links are posted.)

The Mor Hananyo Monastery (image from Wikipedia)
Vespers in the Monastery of Mor Gabriel

The Cappa Magna in the Light of Nature, Rationality, and Mystery

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I. The Realm of Subrational Nature

God the Creator is often extravagant in the decorations with which He supplies His creatures. Of course, there are plenty of insects and beasts whose humble appearance enables them to hide effortlessly in the mud or among the rocks or vegetation in which they live. This kind of camouflage gives less scope to the artist’s paintbrush. But there are also organisms at the opposite extreme: the ones that are patently designed to be noticed, even marveled at.[1] The zoologist Adolf Portmann has a lot of interesting things to say about such animal forms and patterns.
Peacock
Marvellous Spatuletail
Peruvian racquet-tailed hummingbird
Frilled coquette hummingbird
Lyrebird
Octopus (sorry about the poor resolution)
Blue dragon sea slug
Small spotted genet
The king of the beasts
Examples of such opulent organisms could be easily multiplied. We may take it as a given, therefore, that in the natural order, humble plainness is not the default position; brilliant colors, intricate patterns, and outrageous structures are just as plentiful. They, too, give glory to God by their very outward show. They are the pomp and circumstance of the dumb creation.

II. The Realm of Rational Nature

We see that the human body has an order, complexity, and beauty well suited for the life of a rational animal (as St. Thomas nicely argues in Summa theologiae I, q. 91, a. 3), but it cannot be denied that it is rather plain compared to the vesture of the foregoing creatures. Making use of our reason, we compensate for and transcend our born condition: in addition to our hairstyles, we wear clothes, lots of them, and lots of different styles with varying meanings.

This much is obvious to everyone: special clothes are worn on special occasions. People at weddings spare no effort to look their best. People at funerals still dress respectably, if not as formally and somberly as in the past. The same holds for important meetings with dignitaries, certain office parties and holiday gatherings, and, at least for opening night, classical concerts or operas. I’m sure other examples could be given. The connection between the level of dressing and the perceived importance of the occasion has remained, even in our democratic times.

Clothing has always taken two steps beyond utility: first, from the cheap and practical to the formal and elegant; second, from the formal and elegant to the showy, splendid, unusual, and even extravagant. And it is this last step that I am most interested in. We do not seem to think it objectionable that opera devotees should look not merely well-groomed but even a bit “over-the-top,” as one can see in these examples of the branch of haberdashery known as the opera cape:

Wearing such a cape is rather old-fashioned, I’ll admit, but one might still be able to get away with it in a major city without raising too many eyebrows (indeed, it would probably call forth compliments from those who remember a more civilized time — or who can dream of a civilized future).

When we move into the realm of wedding dresses, however, we are definitely in a realm where excess, ornament, drapery, and a certain extravagance are quite normal and expected, even if we should recognize the sinister influence of a money-hungry wedding industry joining forces with an inflated romanticism that thrives in proportion to society’s loss of religious orientation. The point is, even in modern Western culture a wedding is usually (and rightly) seen as a most special day, and the bride and bridegroom dress to the hilt for it, particularly the bride.

III. The Realm of Supernatural Symbolism

Now, it seems to me that it’s not a large step from capes, trains, and other “lyrebird” habiliments to the more colorful and even hyperbolic ecclesiastical clothing characteristic of Catholic tradition. This is not a matter of strutting and showing off, as the ignorant say. It is a simple matter of dressing in accord with one’s metaphysical dignity and as a manifestation of the spiritual beauty of one’s office— let us say, that of a priest, who bears the sacramental character of Christ the High Priest, or that of a bishop, who rules in the name of God over His People, or that of a cardinal, who ministers directly to the pope and gives the Church her pope when the need arises; dressing for the noble occasion, let us say a solemn Pontifical Mass, where the faithful behold an image of the courts of the heavenly Jerusalem; dressing for the One to be honored, Our Lord Himself, the King of kings and Lord of lords, fairest of the sons of men, awesome, wondrous, and superabundant in grace, and all His company of angels and saints, who deserve far greater reverence, external and internal, than all the kings, queens, and great ones of the earth from the dawn of time until the day of judgment.

With the foregoing in mind, it is easy to see that the cappa magna— a garment about which some progressive Catholics make such a ruckus — is a perfectly reasonable and fitting development of a deeply human tendency, intensified by the high accomplishments of European culture, and fully consistent with the logic of creation, the Incarnation, and the grammar of worship as the most special of all special occasions.

(Just had to throw this one in for fun.)

As Catholics, we rejoice in the natural beauty of colors and forms; we rejoice in the rational capacity to highlight personal dignity, elevated office, and earnest ritual; we rejoice in the supernatural symbolism that draws our minds beyond this earthly realm to the heavenly kingdom and its majestic Sovereign. It is a perfect example of the harmony of nature and grace — the hidden depths of visible nature and the sensible signs of invisible grace.

NOTE

[1] I do not deny that certain animal forms and patterns have utilitarian benefits, too, but I concur with Portmann that the most important value is precisely their "presentation value," namely, what they convey to other organisms. They are meant to be seen and appreciated, to convey something to others, whether friend or foe. It is an irrational likeness of rational discourse.

UPDATE (1/11/16 at 6:22 EST)

A reader drew my attention to this pertinent passage in the Prophet Isaiah:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. (Is 6:1-4)

Announcing the Sheen Center Catholic Artist Residency in New York City

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Cole Matson, Artist-in-Residence, at the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, the Archdiocese of New York's new arts center in downtown Manhattan, recently contacted my to tell me about the residencies that it is offering for early- and mid-career Catholic artists (of all disciplines, including the visual, literary, musical, cinematic, and performing arts). They invite graduating and recently-graduated Catholic arts students to apply. 
Artist residents receive two to four months of free housing at the Sheen Center, a partially or fully subsidized work space (depending on artist medium and space availability), plus free invitations and tickets to Sheen Center events when available. There will be at least one showcase of the artist's work at the Sheen Center (depending on artist medium and stated goals).
The residency does not include board, travel expenses, or a stipend. 



Cole tells me: 'The purpose of the residency is to support the development of Catholic artists, as well as to further the Sheen Center's mission of exploring the true, the good, and the beautiful. The residency should culminate in a final public project suitable to the artist's medium and goals, and the artist should expect to contribute to the life of the Sheen Center during his or her residency.'
Catholic artists of all disciplines are invited to apply. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, with a limit of 3 artists-in-residence at one time. 

Those interested should apply by email only to Cole Matson at submissions@sheencenter.org. Applicants will be asked to supply a covering letter (no more than two pages) and a statement of intent. The statement of intent should include the number of months requested, how you envision using your time at the Sheen Center, and how this residency will further your artistic goals. He asks that you include in this discussion of the Sheen Center mission, how your faith informs your work, and what benefit this period in New York City would have on your work as an artist right now. In addition you will be asked to supply one to three short samples of your work, or photographs of your work.

For more information, visit: http://sheencenter.org/about/submissions/artist-residency/.


Epiphany Photopost 2016

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As always, we are very grateful to all those who sent in photos of their Epiphany liturgies and blessings. We have a few photos of the Blessing of the Waters in the Maronite Rite, and I am also including, at Fr Kocik’s suggestion, a video of the Byzantine version of the same blessing, filmed by a river in Slovakia. The next photopost will be for the feast of the Purification/Presentation on February 2nd. Evangelize through beauty!

Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory - London, England
Organized by Juventutem London, and sung by their schola. Follows these links to visit their blog, Facebook page and Flickr stream.


Genuflection at the words of the Gospel “...and falling down they adored Him.”
Proclamation of the Movable Feasts

Blessing of Chalk
Church of St Francis - Hyannisport, Massachusetts

Our own Fr Kocik sings the Gospel from an Evangeliary given to the church by Bishop James Cassidy of Fall River in 1931.



Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - Tolentino, Italy






Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon - North Jackson, Ohio
The feast of the Holy (Theophany) was celebrated according to the Maronite Syriac Rite, including the Blessing of the Epiphany Water, which may be taken home by the faithful. Characteristic of the water blessing is the infusion of three lighted charcoal discs, which produce a dramatic and explosive effect signifying the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Lord and the thundering of the Father’s voice from heaven. The Syriac tradition, like the Byzantine, principally commemorates on this feast the Baptism and manifestation of the Lord.



Blessing of the Waters by Archbishop Ján Babjak, Metropolitan of Prešov in Slovakia (Byzantine Rite)

St Mary’s Catholic Church - Salem, South Dakota



Church of the Holy Innocents - Manhattan, New York City

Blessing of the Waters on the eve of Epiphany




Genuflection at the Gospel


Blessing of Chalk
Parish of the Holy Family - Diocese of Cuba, Philippine Islands




“Aquinas, Liturgy, Prayer” Lecture to Celebrate Dominican Jubilee - Feb. 1

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Celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Order of Preachers, the Theology/Philosophy Department at Caldwell University will continue its Sister Maura Campbell, O.P., Lecture Series on Feb. 1 with a talk on St. Thomas Aquinas.

Father Innocent Smith, O.P., of St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in New York City will speak on “Aquinas, Liturgy, Prayer” 4 to 5 p.m. in the Alumni Theatre. Father Smith, O.P., a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph, serves as parochial vicar at the Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. (We have featured his work and liturgical research here on NLM.)

He will speak about how St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the most influential theologians in the history of the Catholic Church, was deeply influenced by his life of communal prayer in the Dominican order. He will explore the connection between Thomas’s prayer life and his theological writing, drawing on the rich resources offered throughout the “Summa Theologiae” and the saint’s other writings. The talk will draw from Father Smith’s research for his licentiate of sacred theology thesis “In Collecta Dicitur: The Oration as a Theological Authority for Thomas Aquinas” for which he received the 2015 Circolo San Tommaso d’Aquino Veritas et Amor thesis prize.

Father Smith studied music and philosophy at the University of Notre Dame before entering the Order of Preachers in 2008. He studied theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and was ordained to the priesthood in May 2015.


The lecture series will continue on Tuesday, April 12, when Sister Judith Miryam Boneski, O.P., will present on “Dominic’s First Daughters: In the Heart of the Holy Preaching.” Sister is director of advancement at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey, and is a Caldwell College alumna. The lecture will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Student Center Gym.

The lecture series is named after Sister Maura, who was a Sister of St. Dominic of Caldwell. She was a theologian, philosopher, professor, researcher and national leader in education whose scholarship and teaching spanned 50 years. For further information, call 973-618-3931.

Caldwell University is a private, Catholic coed four-year university with a strong liberal arts core curriculum that enhances critical thinking and analytical reasoning. Caldwell offers 25 undergraduate and 30 graduate programs, including doctoral, master’s, certificate and certification programs, as well as online and distance learning options that prepare students for today’s global marketplace. The university has 15 NCAA Division II athletic teams and numerous clubs, fraternities, sororities and activities. It is located on a beautiful 70-acre campus in Caldwell, New Jersey. Caldwell was founded by the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell. Its core values of respect, integrity, community and excellence influence academic and campus life. (For more information about Caldwell University, visit caldwell.edu. Follow the university on Twitter @CaldwellUniv, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/caldwelluniversity, and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/caldwelluniversity.)

EF Pontifical Mass for Christmas in the Diocese of Lake Charles, LA

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Out thanks to Barbara Wyman for sharing with us in these photographs, and an account of the Pontifical Mass celebrated by His Excellency Bishop Glen Provost during the Octave of Christmas. The ceremony took place in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Seasonably cool temperatures, at last, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on the night of December 30, 2015, found the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception comfortably full on the occasion of a Solemn Pontifical Mass for the Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas. Indeed, it was one of the largest crowds to date since His Excellency Bishop Glen John Provost, D.D. began celebrating this Mass in the diocese. From the time of his installation as 3rd Bishop of Lake Charles on April 23, 2007, Bishop Provost has celebrated eleven Solemn Pontifical Masses in the Extraordinary Form throughout the diocese. This was the fourth from the throne of his own cathedral. His Excellency was vested in his pontificalia, the vestments and ornaments proper to a bishop, which include the pectoral cross and ring, the miter and crozier, gloves, tunicle and dalmatic beneath the chasuble. Located in the niche of the high altar is a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Aug. 22, 2013, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from the Holy See, officiated at the crowning rite of the statue. With the splendor of both the surroundings and of the liturgy, and with the carefully orchestrated pageantry of the Solemn Pontifical Mass, for nearly two hours, time seemed to stand still -- intimations of Heaven.




One thing particularly evident in an Extraordinary Form Solemn Pontifical Mass is that the Bishop appears not as a sort of figurehead, a church CEO, but as a leader, our General, with us, the soldiers of Christ behind him, along with the differing ranks of officers in the persons of priests, deacons, seminarians, and on this occasion, the fully vested Knights and Dames of St. Gregory the Great, the Knights bearing actual swords. The reality of spiritual warfare and this our battle against principalities and powers is made visually present. The Bishop’s message on this day was that we, like Holy Mary, must ponder the mystery of the Incarnation in our hearts, leading us to the contemplation of the other mysteries of the Faith, especially the saving mystery which is reenacted at every Mass.

What struck this writer particularly on that happy night was the mystery and power of prayer, and, how the Holy Spirit works through individual fiats to effect His purpose on earth. It just so happened that as I looked around, I noticed many familiar faces. These friends were the very same people who welcomed us, a Protestant family, fleeing not the beauty of Anglicanism, but the heterodoxy, 17 years ago. This faithful bunch in the 80s had petitioned then Bishop Jude Speyrer (RIP) to allow the “indult” traditional Latin Mass. Bishop Speyrer’s fiat along with those of two brave priests, Fr. Roland Vaughn and Fr. Marty Martineau (RIP) was the beginning of a little parish which grew. Although the group was moved about the diocese, it soon found a semi-permanent home at a cinder-block mission church way out by the airport. It was there that my family and I found them in 1999. We marveled as week in and week out, the tiny chapel was transformed: banners temporarily removed and a crucifix and statue of Mother Mary set in place. Portable kneelers were moved in from a van, and a small but strong schola stood in the back, chanting the Mass.

Time passed, and for a period, the indult was canceled. Nevertheless, the whole family eventually converted, and the core Latin Mass group stayed in touch, offering prayers and sacrifices for the return of the Traditional Latin Mass to the diocese. The rest of the story is beautiful: after the motu proprio of Pope Benedict, the diocese of Lake Charles received Bishop Provost and with him, the glorious Mass of the Ages returned and now, is celebrated at the Cathedral. Vocations are soaring, and many young priests offer the Extraordinary Form in the diocese. Two young men in particular stood out to this musing writer on that December night, small boys at the time of the cinderblock indult Mass, sons of one of the original families: one is now a seminarian and was assisting at the Solemn Pontifical Mass, the other was leading the schola. Deo Gratias!

For more pictures of this and other Pontifical Masses, please see the website: http://www.immaculateconceptioncathedral.com/events-1








Some Home-Made Vestment Work

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Reader Rev. Timothy Matkin, an Anglican priest from Texas, sent in these photos of a vestment which he made for a friend who is a Catholic priest in Missouri. “He requested a white set, trimmed in blue and silver, made in the more ample style of St. Charles Borromeo or St. Phillip Neri. The fabric came from a store in Dallas, the galloon came from Istok in Russia, and the appliques came from LaLame in New York.

I am an Anglican priest in rural Texas. I’ve been making vestments since college as a hobby. I’m not in business, but make them for myself and have made them for friends. It is a blessing to be able to further the worship of God in this way. I’ve made vestments for people all around the country. The most remote place my work has been used is the Anglican cathedral in Zanzibar.”








George Weigel Vs. Liturgical Improvisation

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In an article published yesterday on the website of First Things, George Weigel takes the clergy to task for the less-than-happy results of the widespread habit of liturgical improvisation. The tone of the article is such that I am sure that Fr Zuhlsdorf is correct when he says about it, “He must have had an experience recently which set him off.”

Citing the words of Sacrosanctum Concilium that “no . . . person, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority,” Prof. Weigel writes,
… Auto-editing or flat-out rewriting the prescribed text of the Mass is virtually epidemic among priests who attended seminary in the late Sixties, Seventies, or early Eighties; it’s less obvious among the younger clergy. But whether indulged by old, middle-aged, or young, it’s obnoxious and it’s an obstacle to prayer. …
… after more than four decades of priest-celebrants trying to be Johnny Carson, Bob Barker, Alex Trebek, or whomever, this act is getting very old. Father, you’re just not very good at it. …
So please, fathers in Christ, spare us these attempts at creativity, or user-friendliness, or whatever it is you think you’re doing. They just don’t work. Please just pray the black and do the red. And the worship Vatican II intended will be much enhanced thereby.
Of course, priests should Say (or “Pray”, if one prefers) the Black and Do the Red, as Fr Z has been very rightly exhorting them to do for years. But I cannot help but think that Dr. Weigel has diagnosed a symptom, while referring only obliquely to the disease which has caused it. He is right to say that “… in metaphorically thumbing his nose at the Council’s clear injunction (not to mention the rubrics in the Missal), Father Freelance is … asserting his own superiority over the liturgy.” But the simple fact of the matter is that where such a sense of superiority exists, it is both de jure and de facto very much encouraged by the current liturgical discipline of the Church.

De jure, the post-Conciliar liturgical reform gave the clergy a degree of liberty to decide what shall be said or sung, how it shall be said or sung, whether it shall be said or sung, and with what rituals accompanying, that was far broader than anything known within the Church before 1969. (Yes, St Justin Martyr says in the mid-2nd century that the celebrant of the Eucharist “offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability.” There is a very good reason why this passage of the First Apology, chapter 67, is always cited by those who favor liturgical improvisation; it is the only such passage available to cite.)

Just to give an example or two: prior to the reform, every sung Mass of the Roman Rite on the First Sunday of Advent began, as it had begun for centuries, with the Gregorian Introit Ad te levavi, and every low Mass began with the prayers before the altar, after which the priest read Ad te levavi. Since 1969, the ubiquitous and fatal rubric “or another suitable song” has given him (or the persons to whom he has delegated responsibility) permission to sing more or less anything, since inevitably, everyone has their own ideas about what sort of song is really suitable.

There are also plenty of places where the priest is permitted to make up what he will say, like the supposedly “very brief” (brevissimis) words by which he, or a deacon, or a lay minister (as options multiply) may introduce the day’s Mass to the faithful, and the exhortations which begin rites such as the prophecies of the Easter vigil or the processions on Candlemas and Palm Sunday. One formulation of this permission, “vel similibus verbis – or with similar words,” occurs eight times in the rubrics of the 2002 Latin edition of the Missal. The Prayers of the Faithful have a fixed form, but no fixed content at all.

Even discounting these permissions, it is impossible for a Catholic priest to celebrate the modern Rite without having to continually choose among options. Examples could be given almost without end, but I am sure they are well known to our readers. Suffice it to say that the multiplication of options is not even excluded from the very heart of the Rite, the Eucharistic Prayer. Here, Father is compelled, whether he will so or not, to make a choice among at least four options, often many more, guided by almost nothing.

When the novelty of multiple Eucharistic Prayers was introduced into the Roman Rite, it was often justified by appealing to the practice of the other ancient rites of Christianity, especially the Eastern rites, which all have more than one anaphora. Very rarely did anybody bother to point out that although the Byzantine Rite, for example, does indeed have two anaphoras, each is appointed for certain days; that of St Basil the Great is said on ten days of the year, and that of St John Chrysostom on every other day. A Byzantine priest is not at liberty to say, “It may be the First Sunday of Lent, but I’m in a Chrysostom mood today,” and decide to use the latter. But when a priest uses the modern Roman Rite, he is never required to choose any particular Eucharistic Prayer, not even the venerable Roman Canon. The rubrics of the Missal offer no more than suggestions as to when they may be “suitably” chosen.

Now there is, of course, a significant difference in theory between choosing among licit options, or making up things to say where this is permitted by law, and the improvisations which Prof. Weigel rightly decries. But in practice, once the clergy were given such a broad degree of liberty to fashion and refashion so much of the liturgy as they saw fit, it was completely unrealistic to imagine that they would NOT apply this liberty to the rest of the liturgy as well. Basic experience of human nature should have made it obvious that in almost any climate, but especially in the revolutionary atmosphere which prevailed in the Church in the later 1960s, the bounds set by liturgical law would be effectively ignored.

And now we come to the de facto part. The abuses of this new-found liberty were for a long time encouraged by an almost complete absence of will to restrain them. In many parts of the world, this is still very much the case to this day. Prof. Weigel is certainly correct, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned, to say that the problem is now greatly lessened among the younger clergy. But his appeal to Pray the Black and Do the Red will almost certainly fall on deaf ears among those priests “who attended seminary in the late Sixties, Seventies, or early Eighties.” It is completely unrealistic to imagine that they will suddenly agree to obey the law if their bishops did nothing to restrain their breaking of it in a matter of such importance for so many years. Truth to tell, many of those bishops were in fact the very same men who put their signatures to Sacrosanctum Concilium in the first place, almost none of whom could later be found to say to their priests, “Thus far shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.”

Where I write above “encouraged by the current liturgical discipline of the Church”, I wish to emphasize the word “current.” Taking St Justin’s description of the “improvised” Eucharist as a starting point, experience must surely have taught the Church in antiquity the same thing which it is teaching Her now – that giving people broad liberty to fashion and refashion the liturgy is a terrible idea. There is absolutely no reason why this lesson cannot be applied to the post-Conciliar liturgical reform. There is no reason why the Church cannot say to Her priests, “You will say this Eucharistic Prayer on this day, and no other, that one on that day, and no other. These are the words that are said before the Candlemas procession, these and no others. This is the only vernacular hymn in this language that may substitute Ad te levavi on First Advent.” And so on.

Of course, the Church must also be willing to train Her priests to be obedient sons, to recognize themselves as the servants of the liturgy, not its masters, as men called to be formed by the liturgy, not to form it. But She must also be willing to give them a liturgy that truly forms them, and does not need to be formed by them, one that spiritually rewards its faithful servants, and needs no master other than Herself. Until this lesson is relearned, She has sown the wind, and must now continue to reap the whirlwind.

The Philology Institute's Summer Courses in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew

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This news comes to us from a reader:
The Philology Institute in Wilmore, KY will offer intensive, six-week summer courses in Latin, ancient Greek, and biblical Hebrew from July 5 to August 12, 2016. The cost is $2500 for the equivalent of two semesters of regular coursework, and we offer a limited number of $500 scholarships. The course enrollment is capped at 12 students, and we are already accepting applications. More information at www.thephilologyinstitute.com.

St Maurus, and a Famous Miracle of St Benedict

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January 15th is the feast day of St Maurus, a disciple of St Benedict who is famous for his role in one of his master’s more impressive miracles. This is recounted by St Gregory the Great in chapter 7 of the Second Book of his Dialogues, which is devoted to the life of St Benedict.

“On a certain day, as the venerable Benedict was in his cell, the young Placidus, one of the Saint’s monks, went out to draw water from the lake; and putting his pail into the water carelessly, fell in after it. The water swiftly carried him away, and drew him nearly a bowshot from the land. Now the man of God, though he was in his cell, knew this at once, and called in haste for Maurus, saying: ‘Brother Maurus, run, for the boy who went to the lake to fetch water, has fallen in, and the water has already carried him a long way off!’

St Maurus Saves St Placid from Drowning, by Spinello Aretino, 1388, from the sacristy of San Miniato al Monte in Florence. The church is still to this day the home of a community of Olivetan monks; in accordance with a common medieval custom, St Benedict and his contemporaries are depicted in white Olivetan habit.
A marvelous thing, and unheard of since the time of the Apostle Peter! Having asked for and received a blessing, and departing in all haste at his father’s command, Maurus ran over the water to the place whither the young lad had been carried by the water, thinking that he was going over the land; and took him by the hair of his head, and swiftly returned with him. As soon as he touched the land, coming to himself, he looked back, and realized that he had run on the water. That which could not have presumed to do, being now done, he both marveled and was afraid of what he had done.

Returning therefore to the father, he told him what had happened. And the the venerable Benedict did not attribute this to his own merits, but to the obedience of Maurus. Maurus, on the contrary, said that it was done only in accord with his command, and that he had nothing to do with that miracle, not knowing at that time what he did. But in this amicable contention of mutual humility, the youth who had been saved came as judge; for he said, ‘When I was being drawn out of the water, I saw the Abbot’s garment over my head, and perceived that it was he that drew me out of the water.’ ”
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