The Feast of St Thérèse at the Little Flower Basilica in Michigan

October 5, 2016, 10:07 am

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On the traditional feast day of St. Thérèse, October 3, there was a beautiful celebration at the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak, Michigan. This marked the first time since the post-Conciliar liturgical reforms that her feast was kept according to the old rite on the traditional date at the Shrine Basilica. (NLM note: St Thérèse died on September 30, the feast of St Jerome, in 1897; at the time of her canonization, Oct. 3 was the first free day following. She was moved to October 1st in the new rite after the suppression of the feast of St Remigius.)

Following a Rosary with meditations in honor of St. Thérèse, a Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form was celebrated by Fr. Ryan Adams, the associate pastor of the Shrine Basilica, with Fr. Robert Slaton serving as deacon, and Fr. Joseph Tuskiewicz as subdeacon. The altar servers were from St. Josaphat Church, which is part of the Mother of Divine Mercy Parish in Detroit, and from the St. Benedict Tridentine Catholic Community in Windsor, Ontario. The St. Joseph Cappella, Chant Schola and Soloists (also from Mother of Divine Mercy Parish, but very soon to be of St. Joseph Oratory, along with said St. Josaphat altar servers) sang as guests in the Shrine Basilica. 

Following the Holy Mass were devotions in honor of St. Thérèse, an outdoor procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the basilica, Benediction, and veneration of a relic of St. Thérèse. About 500 people attended this incredible evening; as the flyer for the event stated, it was truly an “evening of exquisite beauty and reverence giving glory to God,” celebrating “the Holy Mass in the same form as our the church’s patroness of the Church herself used to pray.” The National Shrine of the Little Flower was granted the title of Minor Basilica by Pope Francis; founded in 1926, and dedicated on October 3, 1936, the church was one of the first named after St. Thérèse, who was canonized in 1925.

(Our thanks to reader Theresa Chisolm for sending us the description of the ceremony and these beautiful photos; in the 5th and 6th ones you can see the preacher at the rather unusual pulpit.)

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Upcoming Events with Bishop Schneider in the Eastern US

October 6, 2016, 12:08 am

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Later on this month, Bishop Athanasius Schneider will be visiting several locations in the eastern part of the United States. Here is the link to the schedule on the blog of the Bl. Titus Brandsma Guild, where you will find more links with details of the individual events. His talks will focus on the importance of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the current times, and the social reign of Christ the King. The high point of his trip will be the Solemn Mass for the Feast of Blessed Karl of Austria in Washington, DC. The Masses are all in the EF unless otherwise noted.

Tuesday, 18 October 2016, 6:00 PM
Pontifical Low Mass, Dinner & Conference, St. Titus Church
Aliquippa, PA

Wednesday, 19 October 2016, 2:00 PM
Lecture, St. Vincent de Paul Church
Berkeley Springs, WV

Thursday, 20 October 2016, 6:00 PM
Lecture, Cosmos Club
Washington, DC

Friday, 21 October 2016, 7:00 PM (Feast Day of Blessed Karl of Austria)
Solemn Pontifical Mass & Reception, St. Mary Mother of God Church
Washington, DC

Saturday, 22 October 2016, 8:30 AM
Pontifical Low Mass & Morning of Recollection, St. Thomas Apostle Church
Washington, DC

Sunday, 23 October 2016, 10:30 AM
Solemn Pontifical Mass & Conference, Mater Ecclesiae Church
Berlin, NJ

Monday, 24 October 2016, 6:00 PM
Solemn Pontifical Mass, Church of the Holy Innocents
Manhattan, NY

Tuesday, 25 October 2016, 6:00 PM
Pontifical Low Mass & Conference, Church of the Holy Innocents
Manhattan, NY

Thursday, 27 October 2016, 10:00 AM
Solemn Pontifical Mass, St. Peter Church
Steubenville, OH (Evening lecture.)

Introibo: A New App for EF Altar Servers

October 5, 2016, 1:00 pm

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Mr William Redic writes to let us know about a about a new, free application for the Apple iPad which may be of assistance in the training of new altar servers for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Back in 1995, he produced (under the auspicies of Una Voce Pittsburgh) an audio cassette tape of the Latin prayers and responses of the Mass. On Side One both the priest’s and server’s part were heard. The apprentice server practiced by reciting the responses along with the voice of the server on the tape. With Side Two of the tape, the new server would test himself. There, only the priest’s parts are recorded, and the server practiced by reciting the responses alone.

Over the course of several years, hundreds of the tapes were sold by mail order, with virtually no advertising. In 2001 or so, the Pittsburgh Latin Mass Community Inc. began distributing the same recordings on audio CDs. The recordings and accompanying pamphlet have long been available for free downloading from the Internet, at UnaVocePittsburgh.com.

Last summer, the same recordings were be integrated into an application for tablet computers; as of September 3, 2016, the first version of this new app, named “Introibo”, was released to the public in the Apple App Store. It costs nothing, and can be installed on almost any iPad (those running version 8.0 or newer of iOS; that covers 97% of iPads, according to Apple).

If you’d like to see screenshots of the Introibo app, please visit this page: two5two.com.
Also, the App Store link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/introibo/id1144724679?ls=1&mt=8

The Feast of St Thérèse in Madera, California

October 6, 2016, 10:16 am

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St Thérèse of Lisieux seems to have been especially popular this year. In the Diocese of Fresno, California, where she is honored as the diocesan Patron Saint, the church of St Joachim in the city of Madera celebrated an EF Solemn High Mass for her feast day, the first Solemn Mass held in the church since since the post-Conciliar reforms were instituted. These photos come to us courtesy of a local professional photographer, Mr Paul Flores.

The Charterhouse of Pavia

October 6, 2016, 2:18 pm

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For the feast of Saint Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order, here are some pictures recently taken by Nicola of one of the most beautiful of the order’s monasteries, that of Pavia in Lombardy, about 8 kilometers north of the city. It was founded by the Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconi, in 1396, partly to fulfill a vow made by his wife for a safe childbirth, partly as an expression of the artistic patronage which was so important to powerful Italian courts of Italy in that era, and partly because the Carthusians were regarded as the best kind of monks to have praying for you. The monks were more than once expelled from the complex and replaced by other religious orders, until they definitively left in 1947; since 1968, it has been home to a Cistercian community. Notwithstanding the theft of its land endowment by the Emperor Joseph II, and damage to the complex itself from the troops of Napoleon, it is an almost indescribably rich collection of artworks, of which we can only give a small idea here. (Although the Carthusian were so widely esteemed for their extreme austerity of life, it is interesting how many of the Italian charterhouses were founded by royalty who welcomed them, apparently, on condition that their austerity would not be expressed in the design or decoration of the church itself.)

The main entrance to the complex, which was originally with the park of a fortress of the Visconti; the fortress itself no longer exists.

The rising sun in the middle of the ceiling, the symbol of the Visconti, is also present in several places in the Duomo of Milan, another project of Gian Galeazzo.

The façade was constructed in the early decades of the 16th century, but never completed, and is missing its upper part, as will be seen from a design shown in another photograph below. It is incredibly rich in decoration, including not just Saints, but a series of medallion portraits of famous figures from classical history.

Although the central nave and side aisles are relatively simply, each of the side chapels in the latter is fully decorated.

This metal screen separates the nave from the transepts and the main choir. The cross seen above it stand over a marble portal at the entrance to the choir, which is shown in another photo below.

The cupola seen from behind the metal screen.

The entrance to the choir.

The altar of the choir.

The tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti

If you look carefully, you can see a cleverly playful painting of a man peeping into the church from one of the windows.

The counterfaçade

The church seen from the cloister

The individual cells of the monks are seen from within the great cloister

Among the medallion portraits of great classical figures is the Emperor Nero, under whom Ss Peter and Paul were martyred. The positioning of the Holy Innocents behind him is certainly not accidental, although they died in the reign of Augustus: a reminder that great power can be used both for great good and for great evil.

In the panel on the façade, Gian Galeazzo Visconti is represented laying the first stone of the church. Above, workman carry a model of the building, which shows what the completed façade was supposed to look like, and above that, the city of Pavia is seen with many of its medieval towers still intact.

Just above the main entrance.

The Charterhouse of Pavia seen from a distance.

Pope Leo XIII on the Holy Rosary 2016

October 7, 2016, 10:27 am

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In the course of his Papacy, the fourth longest in history, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) issued eleven encyclicals on the Rosary, in the years 1883, ’84 and ’87, and then each year from 1891-98. All of them were published in September (except one, at the very end of August), looking forward to the feast of the Holy Rosary, which in his time was kept on the first Sunday of October. The feast was later fixed by Pope St Pius X to October 7, the date of the famous Battle of Lepanto which it commemorates, inter alia. Much of what Pope Leo writes is every bit as germane to the condition of society and the Church as it was when it was written over a century ago. The following is an excerpt from the 1897 Encyclical Augustissimae Virginis Mariae; on the Vatican’s website you can read the full text in Latin, or in English. (Last year I published an excerpt from the Rosary encyclical of 1891, the English translation of which given on vatican.va is terrible, and which I had to correct extensively. The version of this one is much better, but I did make a few small adjustments.)

Whoever considers the great height of dignity and glory to which God has raised the Most August Virgin Mary, will easily perceive how important it is, both for public and for private benefit, that devotion to her should be assiduously practiced, and daily promoted more and more.

God predestined her from all eternity to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word, and for that reason so highly distinguished her among all His most beautiful works in the three-fold order of nature, grace and glory, that the Church justly applies to her these words, “I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures” (Sirach 24, 5). And when, in the first ages, the parents of mankind fell into sin, involving their posterity in the same ruin, she was set up as a pledge of the restoration of peace and salvation. The Only-begotten Son of God ever paid to His Most Holy Mother indubitable marks of honor. During His private life on earth He associated her with Himself in His first two miracles: the miracle of grace, when, at the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in the womb of Elizabeth; the miracle of nature, when He turned water into wine at the wedding-feast of Cana. And, at the supreme moment of His public life, when sealing the New Testament in His precious Blood, He committed her to his beloved Apostle in those most sweet words, “Behold, thy Mother!” (John 19, 27)

The Madonna of the Rosary, by Guido Reni, 1598

We, therefore, who, though unworthy, hold the place of Vicar of Christ upon earth, shall never cease to promote the glory of so great a Mother, as long as life endures. And since, as old age draws on apace, We feel that life cannot now last much longer, We are constrained to repeat to each and all of our beloved children in Christ those last words of His upon the Cross, left to us as a testament, “Behold, thy Mother!” Greatly rewarded indeed shall We deem Ourself, if Our exhortations succeed in making every one of the faithful hold nothing greater and dearer than devotion to Mary; so that those words which St. John wrote about himself may be said of each one, “the disciple took her to his own.” …

So far from this derogating in any way from the honour due to God, as though it indicated that we placed greater confidence in Mary’s patronage than in God’s power, it is rather this which especially moves God, and wins His mercy for us. We are taught by the Catholic faith that we may pray not only to God himself, but also to the Blessed in heaven (Conc. Trid. Sess. xxv.), though in different manner; because we ask from God as from the Source of all good, but from the Saints as from intercessors. “Prayer,” says St. Thomas, “is offered to a person in two ways – one as though to be granted by himself; another, as to be obtained through him. In the first way we pray to God alone, because all our prayers ought to be directed to obtaining grace and glory, which God alone gives, according to those words of Psalm 83, 12, “The Lord will give grace and glory.” But in the second way we pray to holy angels and men, not that God may learn our petition through them, but that by their prayers and merits our prayers may be efficacious. Wherefore, it is said in the Apocalypse (8, 4), “The smoke of the incense of the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.” (Summa Theol. 2a 2ae, q. 83. a. 4.).

Now, of all the blessed in heaven, who can compare with the august Mother of God in obtaining grace? Who sees more clearly in the Eternal Word what troubles oppress us, what are our needs? Who is allowed more power in moving God? Who can compare with her in maternal affection? We do not pray to the Blessed in the same way as to God; for we ask the Holy Trinity to have mercy on us, but we ask all the Saints to pray for us (Ibid.). Yet our manner of praying to the Blessed Virgin has something in common with our worship of God, so that the Church even addresses to her the words with which we pray to God: “Have mercy on sinners.”

(Addressing the bishops) We have gladly blessed this devotion, and We earnestly desire that you would sedulously and strenuously encourage its growth. We cherish the strongest hope that these prayers and praises, rising incessantly from the lips and hearts of so great a multitude, will be most efficacious. Alternately rising by night and by day, throughout the different nations of the earth, they combine a harmony of vocal prayer with meditation upon the divine mysteries. In ages long past this perennial stream of praise and prayer was foretold in those inspired words with which Ozias in his song addressed Judith: “Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord, the Most High God, above all women upon the earth... because He hath so magnified thy name this day that thy praise shall not depart out of the mouth of man.” And all the people of Israel acclaimed him in these words: “So be it, so be it!”(Judith 13, 25 et seq.)

The Carthusian Rosary

October 8, 2016, 10:29 am

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Since today is the feast of the Holy Rosary, and yesterday was that of St Bruno, it seems like a good day to share an article I stumbled across some time ago on the Carthusian Rosary. Many religious orders have traditionally used a form of rosary different from that of the Dominicans, which is of course the most widely known and practiced; the Franciscans have a Crown of the Seven Joys, the Servites that of the Seven Sorrows. Tomorrow is the EF feast of St Bridget of Sweden, and Monday was St Thérèse of Lisieux, both of whose orders have a rosary that is like the Dominican one, but with six mysteries per set; the Immaculate Conception is added as the first Joyful Mystery, the removal of Christ’s body from the Cross as the last Sorrowful, and the Virgin’s Patronage of the Order as the last Glorious.

The Carthusian Rosary, with the austerity which characterizes everything about the Order’s way of life, has 50 Aves, and a different “mystery” for each one. In some places, it is the custom to interpolate into the Hail Mary a few words which refer to the particular mystery, as e.g. “Ave Maria, gratia plena... Jesus, qui resurrexit a mortuis. Sancta Maria etc.” for the Resurrection, or “Jesus, quem Virgo concepisti” for the Annunciation. In the article, you can find a list of fifty such interpolations, along with a bit more history of the Carthusian rosary; here are just the first three.

1. …Jesus, conceived of the Holy Spirit during the Annunciation of the Angel.
2. … Jesus, who together with you who has conceived him, visits Saint Elizabeth.
3. … Jesus, to whom you, virgin in body and soul, have given birth with joy.

From our post in last July of historical images from the Charterhouse of Barcelona, these photos show Carthusians with their rosaries, in choir in the first image, and in the cell in the second.

Missals from Silverstream Priory (1): Maria Laach Altar Missal of 1931

October 10, 2016, 5:00 am

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In my family’s week-long visit to Silverstream Priory this past July — a visit that I can only describe as a time of profound grace for me, my wife, and our children[1] — my son Julian and I (not too surprisingly) spent a fair amount of time in the library of the good monks. Like the best libraries in the world, this one is not large in number of volumes but prizes quality over quantity. In addition to books of theology and spirituality, the shelves house a treasure-trove of monastic and liturgical literature. Of this genre, we were particularly impressed with the altar missals we found, and photographed many pages from them:

My plan is to share, over time, pictures of the very best of these missals, to show the kind of care and artistry that used to be invested in books for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,[2] to rejoice in their wonderful aesthetic qualities (which ought to be imitated and revived), and to document this piece of liturgical history, which is quickly being forgotten as the decades inexorably pass by. My commentary will be minimal; the pictures can speak for themselves.

Today's featured missal is a magnificent altar missal published in 1931 under the auspices of the Benedictine monastery of Maria Laach, which, as many will recognize, played an important role in the early phase of the Liturgical Movement. When we look at this missal, we see a number of noteworthy features. First, its artwork, though based on traditional models, is distinctively modern; it can be taken as an example of "the Other Modern."[3] Second, the craftsmanship is impeccable, sturdy, meant to last for centuries. Third, the content of the missal, its age-old prayers, is treated with what might be called artistic reverence: initials are beautifully decorated, texts are laid out thoughtfully and proportionately, and the images, where they appear, are bold and refreshing. It shows the original Liturgical Movement's deep love for the Church's traditional liturgy -- that is, the actual inheritance of our rite, instead of the thought experiments of innovators -- and the desire to rediscover it, re-present it to a new generation as the treasure it is and will always be.

The preface by Abbot Ildefons Herwegen

Silverstream's library also has a copy of the companion Requiem missal, of which I took a single photo. One can see how it has dropped the use of colors for the illustration.

NOTES

[1] My wife has written about her experience here, as a guest article at NLM; my son about his, here, at OnePeterFive. I have yet to write anything comparable to their reflections, but it is certainly not for lack of desire or material; rather the opposite.

[2] We have fortunately seen a modest elevation in the artistic quality of most of the versions of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal in English (see here, here, and here for Shawn Tribe's incomparably thorough reviews), but in general, they still fall far short of the best of the old missals. The biggest problem remains the stubborn preference for a single column of text rather than two columns (see here for Shawn's discussion). If this Cartesian “clear and distinct” prejudice is ever given up, we might once again see true works of book art emerge.

[3] If one searches NLM archives with the keyword "other modern," one can find many interesting articles about architecture, vestments, vessels, furnishings, and books.

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Abp Sample to Celebrate Pontifical Low Mass This Sunday in Portland, Oregon

October 11, 2016, 5:00 am

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Archbishop Alexander Sample will celebrate a Latin Pontifical Low Mass, according to the Missale Romanum of 1962, in Portland, Oregon, this coming Sunday, October 16th, beginning at 7:45 am.

The Mass will be at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church, located at 1112 SE 41st Avenue.

More details can be found on a Facebook page for the event, here.

St Stephen’s Church was the place where the archdiocese held a conference on the liturgy just over a year ago, at which Archbishop Sample spoke and celebrated Mass. You can read his address to the conference, and see more pictures, in the report from Fr Eric Andersen which was posted on the New Liturgical Movement shortly afterwards, here.

Spanish-Language Workshops on Sacred Music and the Sacred Liturgy - Long Island, NY

October 11, 2016, 11:10 am

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“La Belleza de la Liturgia” 

Descubra los misterios profundos y hermosos de la misa, la liturgia, y la música sagrada en tres días de charlas, música, y canto que culminaran con una celebración de la Santa Misa.

La Parroquia de Nuestra Santo Redentor
37 South Ocean Drive, Freeport, NY
Viernes 14, 21, y 28 de Octubre
Sábado, 29 de Octubre
7:00 p.m.

No se necesita tener experiencia música. ¡Todos están bienvenido!

Presentador: Sr. Heitor Caballero (Director de Música Sacra, Santa Inés, Manhattan)

St Augustine and the Translation of His Relics

October 12, 2016, 1:32 am

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Many Augustinian congregations, both canons and friars, have traditionally celebrated October 11th as the feast of the Translation of the Relics of St Augustine. For centuries, the Premonstratensians even kept this feast with an octave, although this was suppressed after Pope St Pius X’s breviary reform.

The calendar for October from a Premonstratensian Breviary printed in 1490. The Translation of St Augustine is marked on the 11th; note that because the octave day, the 18th, is permanently impeded by the feast of St Luke the Evangelist, it is permanently anticipated to the 17th. (This may seem like an odd thing to do, but it was a common enough practice once upon a time, and the same is done with St Ursula and Companions on the 21st, since their octave is impeded by Ss Simon and Jude.)

St Augustine died in August 28, 430 A.D., as the barbarian Vandals were besieging the city of Hippo, where he had ruled as bishop for thirty-five years. The Vandals were Arians who often persecuted the Catholics of north Africa, and about 50 years later, their king Huneric expelled many of the Catholic bishops from his territory. Several of them fled to Sardinia, bringing Augustine’s relics with them to Cagliari on the south of the island, its major port and largest city. By the early 8th century, the Saracens had seized control of several coastal cities of the western Mediterranean, including Cagliari, while subjecting many others to continual raids and plunder. The king of the Lombards in northern Italy, one Liutprand, was able to ransom the relics from them in 724, and bring them to his capital city of Pavia, about 21 miles south of Milan. Since that time, they have been kept in the romantically-named church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, “St Peter in the Golden Heaven,” where Liutprand himself is also buried.

From about 1360 to 1400, a monumental reliquary tomb for the Saint was made, of the type which is called an “arc.” (‘Arca’ in Italian; in the past we have shown similar arcs made for Ss Dominic and Peter Martyr.) It is attributed to a group of sculptors working under the brothers Matteo and Bonino da Campione, and Balduccio da Pisa. Originally kept in the sacristy, it was dismantled during the Napoleonic wars, and reassembled as the church’s altarpiece only in 1900. At four meters high, and covered with 90 statues, it is one of the most impressive monuments of late Gothic sculpture in Italy, with a remarkable richness of iconography. These photos were all taken by Nicola de’ Grandi.

Inside the altar is a silver box made by Liutprand for the relics of St Augustine, which were moved to a reliquary in 1833. They are exposed for the veneration of the faithful twice a year, on his principal feast day, August 28th, and the feast of his Conversion, April 24.

Inside the central register of the arc is depicted the death of St Augustine, who is shown in pontifical robes, with a Bible in his hand, surrounded by six deacons who hold his funeral veil. Above him, on the “ceiling”, as it were, of the open space, Christ appears to him, surrounded by Angels and Saints who are about to receive him into heaven. (Details can be seen by clicking the photo to enlarge it.)

The lower register shows the virtues of Faith (with the upside-down cross of the church’s titular Saint, the Apostle Peter, and a chalice), Hope (looking up to heaven), Charity (with a baby) and Religion, (founded on a rock, another reference to Peter.) On the panels between them are paired Ss Peter and John, James the Lesser and Andrew, Thomas and Bartholomew, each holding a scroll with a few words of the Apostles’ Creed. On the upper register are the episodes of St Augustine’s conversion: listening to the preaching of St Ambrose; the famous “Tolle, lege” episode; and the reading of St Paul’s words “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences.” (Romans 13, 14) In the triangles at top are shown various miracles of St Augustine.

On the lower register of the left side are Chastity, Ss Stephen, Paul the Hermit and Lawrence, and Obedience (holding a copy of a religious rule.) In the center, St Ambrose and St Possidius, bishop of Calama, are seen from behind; the latter was indeed an eyewitness to St Augustine’s death, and later wrote a biography of him. The upper register depicts Augustine when he was a teacher of rhetoric at Milan.

St Ambrose died 33 years before Augustine; he is represented as present, along with Ss Jerome and Gregory the Great on the opposite side, to make up the company of the four Saints first recognized as Doctors of the Church. (St Jerome died about 10 years before Augustine, while Gregory was born about a century after his death.)

On the right side, the lower register depicts Meekness with a lamb, and the Evangelists Mark and Luke, with St Paul between them, and Poverty on the right. Above them, Ss Jerome and Gregory the Great (with a dove on his shoulder) are seen from behind. In the upper register, the panel on the right shows Liutprand bringing the relics from Sardinia, and then on the left, into Pavia.

At the back of the arc, the four Philosophical Virtues are depicted: Prudence, with three faces; Justice with sword and scales; Temperance, carefully pouring water from one vessel to another without spilling it; and  Fortitude in a lion skin; between them, the remaining Apostles in pairs. Above the funeral scene are the funeral of St Monica, Augustine reading his rule to his disciples, and Augustine as bishop, catechizing and then baptizing the faithful. In the left triangle, he is shown in prayer, and then in the middle disputing with three people who have the feet of chickens, a curious medieval device to indicate the heretics Arius, Donatus and Pelagius, whose errors St Augustine did so much to combat.

Another view of the arc from the side.

Some of the original Lombardic capitals of the church.

The stone marking the tomb of Liutprand, who reigned as king of the Lombards, and hence much of northern Italy, from 712-744.

The church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro houses the relics of another Saint, whose feast day is coming up later this month; pictures will be posted on the feast day.

An Invitation to the Clergy in Rome for Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage

October 12, 2016, 4:00 am

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On Saturday, October 29, the Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, will celebrate the Pontifical High Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the Populus Summorum Pontificum international pilgrimage, with His Eminence William Cardinal Levada, Prefect Emeritus of the Doctrine of the Faith and former Archbishop of Portland, giving the homily.

After the Mass, members of the clergy are cordially invited to gather for a standing lunch at the Palazzo Cesi (via della Conciliazione, 55) with the celebrants and Archbishop Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. All priests, religious and seminarians are welcome, but are asked to sign up by October 15, in order to help the organizers prepare for the event.

Please follow the link and fill in the online module:
https://www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-priests-buffet-26785624524

All Saints and All Souls in Philadelphia

October 12, 2016, 7:00 am

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The Philadelphia TLM Community will hold Masses for All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day in the Cathedral Basilica of Ss Peter and Paul, located at 1723 Race Street. The former will feature Victoria’s Mass O quam gloriosum, which was written for the feast; the latter with be in chant, followed by the Absolution at the Catafalque. Both Masses begin at 7 pm.

An Anglo-Catholic Prayer Card of the Angelus

October 12, 2016, 11:38 am

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This beautiful card with the Angelus on one side, and the Regina caeli on the other, was made in the 1910s or ’20s by the Society of Ss Peter and Paul, an Anglo-Catholic publishing company (now-defunct), which also produced the original Anglican Missal. The decorative border is obviously made from the same stamp on both sides, but the illustration accompanying the two prayers is different, the Annunciation with the Angelus, the appearance of Christ to the women at the tomb with Regina caeli. (Many thanks to Mr Richard Hawker for sharing this with us.)

It is really a pity that decorative elements of this sort have essentially disappeared from liturgical books; many medieval Missals and Breviaries have them on almost every page, a tradition which carried over into the early printed editions of the 15th century, and the first editions of the Tridentine period. Here, for example, is the first page of liturgical text in a Premonstratensian Missal printed in 1578, which has at least one such decoration, very often two or three, on almost every page.

Fr. Hunwicke Visits Norwalk, NYC

October 13, 2016, 12:08 pm

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Popular blogger and eminent classicist the Rev. John Hunwicke is visiting the Northeast this weekend and into next week for two talks, sponsored by the St. Hugh of Cluny Society.

Fr. Hunwicke will celebrate the 9:30 Solemn Mass (Extraordinary Form) at St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut on Sunday, October 16, and then give a talk in the school hall at 7 p.m, entitled, “Could A Pope Abolish the Extraordinary Form?” St. Mary’s is located at 669 West Avenue.

He continues his visit on Tuesday, October 18, in Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, discussing, “Kasperism and the Aspirations of Episcopal Conferences.” That talk is at 7 p.m.; the church is located at 263 Mulberry Street.

Fr. Hunwicke is a priest of the Anglican Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom. He is author of the popular blog, “Mutual Enrichment,” known for its pithiness and straightforward opinions on issues facing the Church.

Those wishing more information can call St. Mary’s, (203) 688-5546, or go to www.sthughofcluny.org.

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Lecture in NYC on the English Martyrs Next Monday

October 13, 2016, 12:14 pm

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Next Monday, October 17th, the church of the Holy Innocents in New York City will host writer Joanna Bogle for a lecture on “The English Martyrs Viewed from a Contemporary Perspective,” after the 6 pm EF Mass. Full details are given in the poster below.

Edward the Confessor and John the Evangelist

October 14, 2016, 8:08 am

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St Edward the Confessor, king of England, died on January 5, 1066, after a reign of over 23 years. He is called “the Confessor” to distinguish him from King Edward the Martyr (died 978), another Saint who was very popular in pre-Reformation England. He is the last monarch of England honored as a Saint; Henry VI (1422-71) was the subject of a strong popular devotion, with many miracles attributed to him, but his cause for canonization was broken off at the Reformation, and subsequent attempts to revive it have failed. (This was a favorite subject of the great Mons. Ronald Knox.) The numeration of the English monarchs begins with the Norman Conquest, which took place shortly after, and largely because of, Edward’s death, and therefore neither he nor the Martyr is included in it. (Edward I reigned in the later 13th and early 14th centuries.)

Ss Edmund the Martyr (a 9th century King of East Anglia, also very popular before the Reformation), Edward the Confessor and John the Baptist present King Richard II to the Virgin and Child (The Wilton Diptych, 1395.) The Confessor holds a ring in his hand, in reference to the story recounted below.

He was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III, who had a remarkably long reign (one week shy of 22 years), and lived to canonize another very important Englishman, St Thomas Becket. Since he died on the vigil of the Epiphany, which was considered far too important to displace, his feast was assigned to October 13, the day on which St Thomas himself translated his relics from their original place in Westminster Abbey to a shrine in the choir. They were later moved to a different shrine within the abbey behind the altar, where they remain to this day, one of two such shrines in all of England not destroyed by the impiety of Henry VIII and his successors. (The other is of a Saint called Wite of whom nothing is known.) In 1689, the year after the last Catholic monarch of England was dethroned, Bl. Pope Innocent XI extended his feast to the general calendar.

A Catholic Requiem Mass celebrated at the shrine of St Edward in Westminster Abbey in 2013 (from an NLM post by Charles Cole.)

The Sarum Breviary tells a charming story of St Edward and his devotion to St John the Evangelist. While attending the consecration of a church, Edward was approached by an elderly man who asked him for alms in the name of God and of St John. The royal almoner was not present, and having nothing else on him, Edward gave him his ring. Many years later, two English pilgrims in Jerusalem met an elderly man who, on learning where they were from, said to them “I ask you brothers, return to your king, and give him the message which I shall send by you. I am John, the Apostle and Evangelist, and I love the holy king Edward for his chastity, for I know him to be near to God.” He then explained to them how he received the ring from Edward, “which I have kept unto this day for love and reverence for the man of God; I now send it back to him with glory, and within a short time, shall render even more pleasing gifts. For within half a year’s time, he will be clothed as I am in the robe of immortality…”

The pilgrims, cleverly described in the breviary as “apostolic legates”, returned to the king, delivering both the message and the ring. And indeed, St Edward took ill on Christmas night of that year, and by Childermas, was too sick to attend the consecration ceremony of the abbey of St Peter, which he himself had founded and built. The original Romanesque building was replaced by the famous Gothic church now known as Westminster Abbey in the mid-13th century. The only surviving representation of the original church is in the section of the Bayeux Tapestry which shows the body of King Edward being brought into it for burial.

“Here the body of King Edward is brought to the church of St Peter the Apostle.”

The Antiquity of Liturgical Tradition - An Example from the Ambrosian Rite

October 14, 2016, 12:11 pm

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This article is mostly the work of our Ambrosian writer Nicola de’ Grandi; I translated it from Italian, and added the paragraphs on the Ambrosian arrangement of the Sundays after Pentecost, and the Roman Rite’s use of the pericope of the adulteress.

In the Ambrosian Rite, there are only fifteen Sundays formally named “after Pentecost”, and if Pentecost is very late, as few as eleven may be actually celebrated. The series is interrupted by the Sundays “after the Beheading of John the Baptist,” of which there may be four or five, followed by the first and second Sundays of October. On the third Sunday, the church of Milan commemorates the dedication of its cathedral, followed by three Sundays “after the Dedication.” The largest possible number of Sundays after Pentecost is therefore 26, whereas it is 28 in the Roman Rite, since the Ambrosian Advent begins two weeks earlier, on the Sunday following St Martin’s day.

This past Sunday, the second of October, is named in the most ancient Ambrosian missals “the Sunday before the Dedication,” or else “before the Transmigration of the church.” Until the middle of the 16th century, the city of Milan had two cathedrals, on either end of the great modern Piazza del Duomo. The second title, “ante Transmigrationem Ecclesiae”, refers to an ancient tradition, attested in the 12th century Ambrosian Ordo of Beroldus, that placed on the Sunday of the Dedication one of the liturgical year’s most solemn events. All of the liturgical furnishings and books were taken in a grand procession, led by archbishop, from one of the two cathedrals, in this case the “summer church” dedicated to St Thecla, to the “winter church”, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The other such occasion was no less than Easter itself, on which the procession was reversed.

A page of an Ambrosian Missal printed in 1522; the Mass of the Sunday before the Dedication.

The Gospel of the second Sunday of October is John 8, 1-11, the famous “wandering pericope” of the woman taken in adultery. This passage occupies a uniquely important place in the Ambrosian tradition, since it is attested, together with three others, in the most ancient source directly related to the rite, the Codex Sangallenis, sometimes called the “king of palimpsests.” (A palimpsest, from the Greek for “scraped again”, is a manuscript whose original writing has been scraped off so that the paper or parchment can be reused. In many cases, the original writing can be recovered; several palimpsests are valuable witnesses to certain ancient texts.) A portion of this extraordinary codex, which is kept in the library of the monastery of San Gallen in Switzerland. contains what the most recent scholarship considers to be the remains of an ancient Ambrosian “libellus missarum,” (small book of Masses), dating back to the 7th century.

What makes this a witness of such exceptional importance is that St Ambrose comments upon the same passage in the so-called “Second Apology for King David,” a stenographer’s record of sermons which he preached over two or three days in the year 388. At the very beginning, he says “The reading of the Gospel … in which you heard of the adulteress brought before Christ, and sent away without condemnation … (Apol. David altera 1,1).

St Ambrose creates a parallel between the David’s adultery with Bathsheba, in which he sees a prefiguration of Christ’s love for the Church, and the adultery of the sinful woman justified by Christ. He justified the adulteress of many husbands, as he says, because she is a figure of the Church, (in the broader sense of God’s people, in the Old and New Testaments) that sought the Word of God in many places until she found it in Christ, and was absolved and purified by Him.

Christ and the Adulteress, by Rocco Marconi, ca. 1525

The adulteress, therefore, is the Church, whom Christ hastens to meet on the following Sunday, on which He is united to Her, consecrating and sanctifying her. “And therefore she was waiting about,” says St Ambrose, “and everywhere sought the Word of God, because she was wounded, because she was naked, because she was an adulteress in all things, although without blemish in Christ, as she sought a redeemer in her wretched body. Christ joined her to Himself, in order to make her immaculate; He united Himself to her, in order to take away her adultery.”

The ecclesiological interpretation which St Ambrose gives to this passage is also suggested by its placement in the traditional Roman lectionary, on the Saturday of the third week of Lent. The Epistle at that Mass is the longest in the entire Missal, the story of Susanna (Daniel 13), who already in the early third century was seen as a symbol of the Church, and the two elders who wish to seduce her as a symbol of Church’s persecutors. Susanna. Therefore, is the symbol of the Church in her fidelity to Christ, and the adulteress of the Church redeemed by Christ when she has been unfaithful to him.

But even more noteworthy is the fact that St Ambrose, as he continues his preaching, then cites the Gospel passage John 10, 22-30, in which Christ pronounces the words “I and the Father are one”, which the Ambrosian Missal assigns the following Sunday of the Dedication of the Church. This episode takes place during the Jewish feast of the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, known in Greek as “Encænia – the renewal.” As St Ambrose explains it, “What belongs to the nature of divinity is set forth in the reading of the Gospel, which you have devoutly followed, when you heard read out the word of the Son of God, ‘I and the Father are one.’ ” The same passages, with the same interpretation, and similarly placed next to each other, are therefore found in the writings of St Ambrose himself, before the long gap in the written sources after the 4th century, only to reappear after this long silence in the 7th century “libellus” contained with the codex at San Gallen.

This forms an exceptional witness to the Milanese church’s ability to jealously guard and preserve not only the essential characteristics of its own order of readings, but also the traditional interpretation of the scriptural passages contained therein, even over the course of the centuries from which no written liturgical source survives.

The Preaching of St Ambrose, by Bernaerd van Orley, 1515-20

New Apostolate for the ICK in Detroit - First Mass This Sunday

October 15, 2016, 12:32 pm

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Our thanks once again to Teresa Chisholm, this time for sending in this report on the newest apostolate of the Institute of Christ the King, in the Archdiocese of Detroit. A special first Mass will with some very good music be celebrated tomorrow in the St Joseph Oratory (details in the article and in the poster below); the church has been featured many times in our photoposts for their exemplary Masses in both forms of the Roman Rite.

This week the Archdiocese of Detroit officially announced that Archbishop Allen Vigneron has created a new parish at historic St. Joseph in the heart of Detroit. Called St. Joseph Oratory, this new parish is under the pastoral care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.

From the press release: “We are grateful for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and the dedication they have to evangelizing through use of the Extraordinary Form,” said Archbishop Vigneron. “The Institute has shown tremendous energy in conveying a sense of the sacred through their ministry around the country and the world. We are especially encouraged that their ministry may also be instrumental in preserving St. Joseph, one of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s most beautiful and historic worship sites.”

St. Joseph Oratory is the Institute’s thirteenth church in the United States. Rev. Canon Michael Stein has been appointed rector, assisted by Deacon Jonathon Fehrenbacher. They will reside in the rectory, a stately building dating to 1896 which has not been home to a priest in over ten years, since St. Joseph was clustered in 2004 and then merged in 2013 with two historic Polish churches in Detroit, St. Josaphat and Sweetest Heart of Mary.

The rectory and church

Rev. Canon Michael Stein and Deacon Jonathon Fehrenbacher arrived in Detroit on October 11.

The festive First Mass of the Institute is Sunday, October 16 at noon, celebrated by the Very Rev. Msgr. R. Michael Schmitz, vicar general of the Institute. Also present will be Rev. Canon Matthew Talarico, the provincial superior. St. Joseph Cappella, Soloists and Chamber Orchestra will present Mozart’s Missa Brevis in G major and Jubilate Deo, Bruckner’s Locus Iste, and the Gregorian chant propers. A celebration to welcome the Institute to Detroit will follow in the hall. The weekly St. Joseph Oratory schedule, including two Sunday Masses, daily Mass and confession, Vespers and Benediction, and catechism classes for all ages, will be announced shortly.

St. Joseph was founded in 1855 by German immigrants. The present church, dedicated in 1873, was designed by German-American architect Franz Georg Himpler, whose works include, among others, Ss Peter and Paul in St. Louis (located a mile and a half from the Institute’s St. Francis de Sales Oratory) and St. Francis de Sales in Cincinnati.

side altar of the Virgin Mary

The exquisite interior of St. Joseph has remained virtually unchanged. The church celebrated a Latin Novus Ordo Mass ad orientem on Sundays since the post-Conciliar liturgical changes; over the decades, the regular schedule also included English and German Masses. The Ordinary Form Masses were enriched by the spirituality of the Extraordinary Form, and beginning in 2007, EF Masses were celebrated on certain feast days, most notably Christmas Midnight Mass, and for a time even monthly on Sundays. In recent years, the sole weekly Sunday Mass was the Latin Novus Ordo with polyphonic, orchestral, or chant Mass settings, polyphonic motets, Gregorian chant propers, and use of the Gregorian Missal as pew book. Traditional vestments, beautiful sacred vessels, incense, bells, altar server men and boys, and reception of Holy Communion at the altar rail were standard.

Final Latin Novus Ordo Sunday Mass on October 9

Archbishop Vigneron’s invitation to the Institute is being hailed as a miracle for St. Joseph and an answer to prayer. Parishioners look forward with hope to a full and vibrant parish life, continued and expanded devotions to St. Joseph, and a campaign to support critical restorations. The community which has celebrated the Tridentine Mass every Sunday at St. Josaphat for the last twelve years is grateful now to have a parish where all the sacraments will regularly be celebrated according to the old rite. For the faithful of St. Joseph, it will be a fascinating spiritual journey to move from the weekly Latin Novus Ordo to the Traditional Latin Mass with the Institute of Christ the King.

side altar of St Joseph

“Deeply grateful to Archbishop Vigneron for his gracious invitation, our entire Institute family is very glad for this new apostolate in Detroit. St. Joseph Oratory will be a unique spiritual home offering Masses with sacred music, daily confessions, days of recollection, classes in spirituality and doctrine, and youth formation activities among others,” said Canon Matthew Talarico, provincial superior of Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. “With the help of God and the prayerful support of His people, the Institute seeks to carry on the traditions of St. Joseph with the truth and charity of Christ so very much needed in our world of today.” [From the press release]

Missals from Silverstream Priory (2): Regensburg

October 17, 2016, 9:21 am

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For an explanation of this series, see this article from last week.

Today, we will look at a German altar missal.

Unfortunately, I did not record the date of this particular missal printed in Regensburg by the famous publisher Friedrich Pustet, but judging from the artistic style and the use of color printing, it is likely from the 1920s or 30s. (It certainly must predate the dogmatic definition of the Assumption, for reasons that will become clear later.)

This missal takes the prize for the largest number of thematic drawings I have ever seen in any altar missal. An incredible attention to detail governs every page, with capitals illuminated in reference to the particular day of the liturgical calendar rather than generically styled.

There is a luxuriant creativity at work here, perhaps at times distracting and whimsical, but full of vitality and boldness, that bespeaks a laudable desire to produce a new work of art rather than merely regurgitate past conventions. I cannot show all of the artwork (I took about 150 photos of this missal!), but the selection below will give a good sense of this missal’s uniqueness.

I wonder: Could we ever commission another such missal, where every saint had his or her proper emblem, where each solemnity was graced with an illumination? Perhaps one day, in better times, it will happen again -- once we are no longer fighting about such arcane questions as whether sacramental marriage is between one man and one woman for life, or whether it is permissible to murder unborn humans (or to elect officials who think it is). We need a little Pax Romana first. But I digress...

It is charming to see how the Gospel of the day is often worked in.

A perfect image of the “Sursum corda” of the Mass.

I love how the serpent is entwined around the initial.

St John Damascene with an icon; the introit reminds us of his miraculously restored hand.

St. Paul of the Cross, with the introit perfectly illustrating both the saint and the text.

St. Boniface: the image recalls his chopping down of a “sacred tree.”

St. Camillus shown caring for the sick.

S. Anne teaching the Virgin Mary the Ten Commandments.

(Note how the old Assumption prayers are crossed out, because of the new Propers of 1950.)

For the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

This is one of my favorites: only black, with the “lion” of the Offertory.

The Prophet Isaiah looking a bit like a hippie street preacher

The Holy Innocents: their bodies in black below, their souls in red above.

Joseph and Jesus building the letter E while Mary spins the distaff

The illumination for Passion Sunday

Holy Thursday: mandatum, institution, and Judas on the outside

Look closely at the left side: Abel, Abraham, Melchisedek, the Passover, and the Crucifixion

Remarkably, the care for detail extends even to the use of different illustrations for the same Introit. Thus, on three different pages where “Puer natus est” is used, and again, at the repetition of “Adorate Deum” on the later Sundays after Epiphany, each bears its own image. Here is the “Adorate” series:

Next up: an Augustinian Missal from 1716.