The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church: Reflections on a New Memorial

March 8, 2018, 12:04 am

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As readers of NLM are no doubt already aware, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments announced last Saturday in a decree dated 11 February that the obligatory memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church will henceforth be celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost in the forma ordinaria. The Latin texts to be inserted into the Missal, Lectionary, Breviary and Martyrology can be found on the website of the CDWDS.

In brief summary:

• The Mass of the memorial is the Votive Mass of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, which can already be found in the editio typica tertia of the Missale Romanum, and thus will be in any vernacular translation of that edition. 


• The readings at the Mass are as follows: Genesis 3, 9-15, 20 or Acts 1,12-14; Psalm 86 (87), 1-2, 3+5, 6-7 (R. v. 3); John 19, 25-34. These differ slightly from those already suggested in the Ordo lectionum Missae (no. 1002) for the Votive Mass mentioned above. The Alleluia verse, O felix Virgo, is taken from the Collectio Missarum de Beata Maria Virgine, no. 26 (B.M.V., imago et mater Ecclesia, II). However, as the Monday after Pentecost is part of tempus per annum in the Ordinary Form, and none of the readings for the new memorial are indicated as being proper, the weekday readings will normally be used (cf. General Introduction to the Lectionary, 82).


• For the Divine Office, Lauds and Vespers have proper hymns and Benedictus/Magnificat antiphons, and the Office of Readings has a proper hymn and first reading.


• Finally, there is a very brief insertion for the Roman Martyrology.

Our Lady, Mother of the Church (unknown artist)

I would like to make a few observations on the establishment of this new memorial, touching on the “irreversible” liturgical reform, as in some respects it makes for an interesting case-study of certain principles of the post-Vatican II reforms.

1) It should be noted at the start that, as this memorial is fixed on the Monday after Pentecost, it acts as a further obstacle to the potential recovery of the Octave of Pentecost in the forma ordinaria. If the octave were to be re-established in the future, this memorial would need to be moved. Given that one of the options for the first reading is Acts 1, 12-14, where the Blessed Virgin is in the upper room with the disciples after the Lord's Ascension but before Pentecost, I would tentatively suggest that the Saturday after Ascension might be a day in which this memorial could be moved in the future, if desired.

Related to this, as the Octave of Pentecost is preserved in Divine Worship: The Missal (Ordinariate Use), it is difficult to see how this memorial could be incorporated into the calendars of the Ordinariate. On the other hand, in the forma extraordinaria, the 2nd class feast of the Motherhood of the B.V.M. occurs on October 11th, and this feast would already seem to encompass the idea of Our Lady’s motherhood of the Church. [1]

2) One of the operating principles of the post-conciliar reform of the Calendarium Romanum seems to have been to minimise the number of “devotion-feasts” and duplications. [2] Consequently, quite a number of Marian feast days were eliminated in the reforms, including that of the Motherhood of Mary, which the Consilium considered to be part of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1). [3] Indeed, the post-communion prayer for this Solemnity reads as follows (my emphasis):

Sumpsimus, Domine, laeti sacramenta caelestia: praesta, quaesumus, ut ad vitam nobis proficiant sempiternam, qui beatam semper Virginem Mariam Filii tui Genetricem et Ecclesiae Matrem profiteri gloriamur. (MR 1970/2008)

We have received this heavenly Sacrament with joy, O Lord: grant, we pray, that it may lead us to eternal life, for we rejoice to proclaim the blessed ever-Virgin Mary Mother of your Son and Mother of the Church. (ICEL 2011)

This source for this prayer is the Gelesianum Vetus, no. 1262:

Laeti, domine, sumpsimus sacramenta caelestia; intercedente pro nobis beata et gloriosa semperque uirgine dei genetrice Maria ad uitam nobis proficiant sempiternam. 

Joyfully, Lord, we have received the heavenly sacraments; through the intercession of the blessed and glorious ever-virgin Mary mother of God may they profit us to life everlasting.

One can immediately observe that the words in the first clause have been transposed in the post-conciliar Missal, and that the mention of the intercession of the Blessed Virgin has been cut out and replaced with the proclamation of her as Mother of the Son and Mother of the Church. [4] It would not be beyond the realms of possibility to suggest that the insertion of Ecclesiae Matrem into this prayer was the Consilium’s way of ensuring that attention was paid to the declaration of Paul VI, while avoiding “duplications” in the new calendar.

So, the question could be posed: does the introduction of this new memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church not go against a major principle of the “irreversible” liturgical reform?

Mosaic of Our Lady, Mother of Divine Providence - another victim of the  Consilium deserving of restoration?

Admittedly, some other “devotional” celebrations, such as the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Jan 3) and the Most Holy Name of Mary (Sept 12), have already been reintroduced as optional memorials, so this principle has already been undermined to a degree. However, this is the first time since the post-conciliar reforms that there has been a new, obligatory memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary inscribed in the General Roman Calendar. [5] Furthermore, it is one that duplicates particular aspects of other Marian feast days, and according to the decree from the CDWDS has been established explicitly for the devotional benefit of the faithful:

Having attentively considered how greatly the promotion of this devotion might encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety, Pope Francis has decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on the Monday after Pentecost and be now celebrated every year.

In multiple ways, therefore, this new memorial of Our Lady would seem to go against the grain of certain key principles of the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms.

3) Finally, it is notable that, aside from the general reports in the news, there has not (yet) been much in the way of comment and analysis of this decision of Pope Francis. This could be seen in two ways. On the one hand, the lack of immediate comment could indicate the non-controversial nature of this papal act; on the other hand, it could just mean that those who are unhappy with this decree for whatever reason are, for the moment, keeping their peace.

As the first reading at the Office of Readings for this new memorial happens to be part of Paul VI’s speech at the end of the third session of Vatican II (21st November 1964: Latin, English, Italian), in which he proclaimed the Blessed Virgin as Mother of the Church, it is perhaps worth reminding ourselves of the rather visceral reaction in some quarters to the Pope’s speech at the time. Historians of the Council have tended to count Paul VI’s declaration as part of “Black Week”, a week in which many of the hopes of the so-called “liberal conciliar faction” were dashed.

To conclude this article, I present some of these reactions - some well-known, some perhaps less well-known.

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Henri de Lubac, Vatican Council Notebooks: Volume Two (Ignatius Press, 2016), p. 307

After the ritual promulgations and applause, which lacked any enthusiasm, a long speech by Paul VI, which I did not hear well.

But if another priest is to be believed, de Lubac’s reaction was rather different from what he tells us in his notebooks...

H. Denis, Église, qu'as-tu fait de ton Concile? (Paris: Le Centurion, 1985), p. 138 (from Roberto de Mattei, The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story [Angelus Press, 2012], p. 423, fn. 380)

Father de Lubac is horror-stricken. He said to me, Father Denis, this is the end of the Council. There is no more John XXIII, no more aggiornamento.

Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council (Liturgical Press, 2012), pp. 696-697

There followed the Pope’s speech: thirty-seven minutes. I did not see in it the inspiration, the vitality, of his previous speeches... [F]or a quarter of an hour he gave a very devout eulogy of the Virgin Mary. Though his text contained little substance, he spoke at length, then he turned to using words like “declaramus” and announced the title Mater Ecclesiae. The seven protonotaries, sitting just near me, stood up: so also the two cardinals assisting the Pope, the other cardinals, almost all the bishops. The enthusiastic applause was very strongly supported by the mob of insignia-bearers and the various members of the papal court. They gave the impression of believing that the Pope had just made a dogmatic definition. But a definition OF WHAT? What is the CONTENT of “Mater Ecclesiae”?

The Observers have a very bad impression of these last two days and of this final act. They saw, and we saw with them, that no account had been taken of them, that the demands of a true ecumenical sensibility had not been observed. [...] Cardinal Dopfner and the Bishop of Rottenburg [Karl Leiprecht] were equally very much saddened. The session ended badly. I said: they threw ashes on our flowers and then, afterwards, they throw flowers on the ashes!! [...] [L]ooking at things coolly, what took place is VERY serious. We have gone back several years. THE SEPARATED BRETHREN HAVE GONE BACK TO HAVING DOUBTS ABOUT US. [...] The Pope, who is the man for all, wanted to give satisfaction to all. But in doing this he has come to appear like someone who cannot be fully trusted. Once again, he has neither the theology, nor the intellectual backing for his gestures.

Xavier Rynne (Francis X. Murphy), Vatican Council II (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968, one volume edn), pp. 425-426

A final disappointment awaited the bishops and particularly the Protestant observer-delegates. Everyone knew that the pope intended to confer the title of “mother of the Church” on Mary, for he had announced that he would do so at an audience on Wednesday [November 18, 1964], and intimated earlier in the [third] session that that this was his intention. What shocked his theologically perceptive hearers was his response to the highly articulate minority of Italian, Spanish, Indonesian and Polish mariological zealots clamoring for the definition of a new Marian dogma. While the pope was not prepared to go quite this far, his speech... was an indirect rebuke to the Theological Commission for having refused Mary the title which he now gave her. [...] After the Council had gone to so much trouble to achieve a balanced theological statement of an issue disputed among Catholics themselves, it certainly showed poor judgment to appear to be undercutting that statement and reverse a decision of the Council. The pope’s own carefully phrased explanation of the term was, typically, drowned out by the applause from the gallery accompanying the pronouncement. Another case of sacrificing the interests of the whole to the desires of a persistent, well-organised minority, which could count on support in high places.

A. Chandler & C. Hansen (eds.), Observing Vatican II: The Confidential Reports of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Representative, Bernard Pawley, 1961-1964 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 397

The rest of [Paul VI’s] speech was given over to an amazing blast of Mariology which left the Observers quite dumbfounded. He declared the B.V.M. “Mater Ecclesiae”, a title which had been rejected for inclusion in the Schema [i.e. Lumen gentium] by the Theological Commission. He said he would send a golden rose to Fatima etc. etc. It all seemed for the moment quite disconcerting. The Marian fanatics rose and cheered loudly, while the Observers sat glum and despondent.

NOTES

[1] Though the (very!) cautious suggestion could be made that, as the collect for the Motherhood of the B.V.M. is a repetition of that for the Solemnity of the Annunciation (Bruylants no. 320: Deus, qui de beatae Mariae Virginis), in the future it might be replaced with the collect of this new memorial or another suitable collect from the liturgical tradition, in order to better highlight the Blessed Virgin’s motherhood of the Church as part of her general motherhood.

[2] For a first-hand account of the process of the calendar reforms, see A. Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975 (Liturgical Press, 1990), pp. 305-326. The classic example of the Consilium eliminating a feast they evidently considered a useless repetition (Sacrosanctum Concilium 34) is that of the Most Precious Blood (July 1), considered a duplication of Corpus Christi: cf. Calendarium Romanum(Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1969 editio typica), p. 128. Many titles of the Blessed Virgin that were in the 1962 Missale were subsequently recovered (to an extent) in the Collectio Missarum de Beata Maria Virgine (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1987 edtio typica, 2 vols.).

[3] Cf. Bugnini, Reform, p. 312; also mentioned here is the suppression of the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary (September 12), because it is included in her Nativity.

[4] “From a study of the postcommunion prayers in the new missal, it is clear that at most the feast is only commemorated; the petition is not made through the saint’s intercession as was the case in some previous postcommunion prayers of earlier missals.” (Thomas A. Krosnicki, Ancient Patterns in Modern Prayer [Catholic University of America Press, 1973], p. 51). Krosnicki goes on to give a number of examples where the intercession of the saints has been edited out of orations (pp. 51-53), and when one looks at the entire corpus of postcommunion prayers in the post-Vatican II Missal, this pattern of editing is certainly noticeable, with very few exceptions.

[5] The memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary was elevated from an optional to obligatory memorial on 1st January 1996 (cf. Notitiae 362 [1996], pp. 654-656), but this was a pre-existing memorial in the General Roman Calendar.

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“The Fingers that Hold God”: The Priestly Benefits of ‘Liturgical Digits’: Historical, Theological, and Liturgical Conclusions

March 8, 2018, 7:42 am

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In this last part of the series (links to parts 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5), I would like to offer some thoughts that emerge from reflecting on the nineteen priests’ responses to my questions.

According to Jungmann, the custom of holding finger and thumb together arose in the Middle Ages, about the eleventh century, when

we begin to find, hand in hand with an increased care for everything connected with the Sacrament, the first signs of a new attitude. According to the Cluniac Customary, written about 1068 by the monk Bernhard, the priest at the consecration should hold the host quattuor primis digitis ad hoc ipsum ablutis. After the consecration, even when praying with outstretched arms, some priests began to hold those fingers which had “touched” the Lord’s Body, pressed together; others even began this at the ablution of the fingers at the offertory. In one form or another the idea soon became a general rule.[1]

Jungmann also notes that the increased theological attention paid to the Real Presence from the eleventh century onwards, particularly in response to the heresy of Berengarius of Tours (d. 1088) who reduced the Eucharist to a symbol of the Lord’s Body and Blood, prompted ever greater care:

Here [in clerical circles], in any case, and especially in the monasteries, the greatest care was from this time on devoted to the forms with which the Sacrament was surrounded; prescriptions about the choice and preparation of the materials, the custom of keeping the fingers together which—after a special cleansing [at the Lavabo]—had touched the Sacrament, the detailed rules for the ablution of the fingers and of the vessels after Communion.[2]

It is unquestionably true that the gradual rise in devotion to and theological understanding of the Most Blessed Sacrament spontaneously and organically prompted the development of all the many “forms with which the Sacrament was surrounded,” the customs that promoted due care and reverence for this most awesome mystery.

What, then, should we say about the almost flippant abolition of this practice on May 4, 1967? In the Second Instruction on the Orderly Carrying Out of the Constitution on the Liturgy Tres Abhinc Annos, published by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, we read (alongside dozens of other deformations of the rite of Mass): “After the Consecration, the celebrant need not join thumb and forefinger; should any particle of the host have remained on his fingers, he rubs his fingers together over the paten”[3]—with no explanation as to why a custom of at least 800 years’ standing should be discontinued.

Humanly speaking, the 1967 “simplification” probably resulted from the general spirit of antinomianism among the liturgical reformers, animated as they were by a false conception of “simplicity” and “naturalness.” The holding together of the thumb and finger is exactly what we would expect to find in a rite in which the priest really believes he is handling the very Body and Blood of God Incarnate, from the moment he begins to handle it until the moment he has washed his fingers in wine and water, restoring them, so to speak, to ordinary use.[4]

If we take seriously the responses of the surveyed priests, and if we trust common sense, the Church’s faith in the Real Presence is objectively demonstrated and subjectively sustained by just such practices as these. It follows that the desire to abolish this custom, and the actual abolition and cessation thereof, has as its root cause the loss of faith in transubstantiation and the Real Presence. The custom’s absence has become one more factor that supports a culture of unbelief in these mysteries, even as its unexpected reappearance—not only in the usus antiquior, where it remains obligatory, but in the usus recentior, where it is making a comeback—has the opposite effect of heightening the priest’s awareness of the awesome mysteries he, though unworthy, is handling in persona Christi. 

A lex orandi that would strip away this and analogous customs (the many kissings of the altar, the many genuflections) is nothing other than a falsification and a denigration of the faith of the Church as it unfolded under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 16:13), promoted by the dupes of fallen angels and wearing away the faith of the clergy and the people as acid rain wears away great monuments of art and architecture.

Fr. John Hunwicke reminded us that we have seen such anti-rubrical, anti-Catholic antics before:

After the regime of Edward Tudor had imposed the First Prayer Book upon the suffering clergy and people of England, the tyrants discovered that the clergy were assimilating the service as closely as possible to the Sarum Mass. So draft Articles of Visitation ordered “For a uniformity, that no minister do counterfeit the popish mass, as to kiss the Lord’s table; washing his fingers at every time in the communion; blessing his eyes with the paten, or sudary; or crossing his head with the paten; shifting of the book from one place to another; laying down and licking the chalice of the communion; holding up his fingers, hands, or thumbs, joined towards his temples; breathing upon the the bread or chalice; showing the sacrament openly before the distribution of the communion; ringing of sacrying bells; or setting any light upon the Lord’s board...”.[5]

In general, the Church over the centuries adds to the liturgy prayers, chants, and ceremonies expressive of the sacred mysteries. She does not take away deeply-planted, obviously meaningful legitimate customs; she does not deprive God of the reasonable homage owed to Him.[6] The holding together of the fingers from the consecration to the ablutions is not only a practice that should be kept, but one whose abolition should be protested and resisted by any who still believe in the de fide Eucharistic dogma of the Council of Trent. That such resistance did not occur widely in 1967 is a sign of the lobotomizing effects of neo-hyperultramontanism, where any command, however irrational and impious, is accepted “under obedience.”

***

The rubric of holding thumb and forefinger together is not what might be called a “major” rubric. It is probably not noticed by many of the faithful, especially in churches where the high altar is some distance away. Anyone familiar with liturgy could cite numerous other rubrics that seem to be more intrinsic to the Mass or more central to its devout celebration. Nevertheless, our series has vindicated the custom as a simultaneously practical, mnemonic, and symbolic gesture:

• It is practical because it prevents loss of sacramental particles and avoids the careless handling of other objects with the same fingers that have held and hold the species of bread. 
• It is mnemonic in the sense that the slight awkwardness of it, coupled with the fact that fingers are never held together like this at any other time or for any other reason, prompts the priest to have a heightened alertness as to what he is doing. 
• It is symbolic in that it makes of the joined thumb and finger a sign of the One before whom the priest stands—a sign given by the Church who decreed the rubric; a sign of reverence offered to Christ Himself, the Eternal High Priest, whose instrument the ministerial priest is; a sign given by the priest to other ministers around him and to any of the faithful who happen to notice; a sign of the coherence and consistency of the lex orandi.

The priest respondents (for whom we offer God our thanks) help us to see the value of every rubric, including the “little” ones, for cultivating and preserving a sense of awe, awareness, carefulness, priestly identity, doctrinal consistency, in everything that pertains to the handling of the Most Blessed Sacrament—the handling of the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine, present wherever those appearances may be.

In the spiritual life, nothing little is merely little—no more than a fertilized egg is less human or more dispensable than a newborn baby or a fully-grown man. As I argued in the lecture I gave last summer at Silverstream Priory, “Liturgical Obedience, the Imitation of Christ, and the Seductions of Autonomy,” the salutary discipline of the liturgy, at once ascetical and mystical, consists in its demand that the practioner of it deny himself, take up the cross of ceremonial, textual, and musical obedience, and follow the Lord in the path His Bride has traced out in black and red letters—black of self-abnegating ashes, red of self-surrendering blood. “Do the red, say the black” translates spiritually into “Pour out the blood of your time, your energy,  your life, into the Church’s rites; become ashes to your self-will.” A genuine liturgy submerges the individuality of the celebrant in a manner of acting and suffering that belongs more properly to another than to himself; he serves as an instrument in the hands of the master—an intelligent instrument, to be sure, but one that uses its intelligence precisely to submit, to adore, to adhere, and to protect what has been given.

In the book In Sinu Jesu, which has nourished the prayer life of so many priests (may it do so for many more!), there is a striking passage in which Our Lord speaks to the monk about rubrics. These words seem particularly germane to “minor” rubrics, which are more easily neglected—or, sadly and scandalously, even abolished by “reformers” acting on utilitarian and minimalist principles.

The loss of faith that afflicts so many souls is incompatible with a life of adoration. Souls do not stop adoring because they have lost their faith; they lose their faith because they have stopped adoring Me. This is why I would have you hold fast even to the outward forms of adoration. When even these things are cast aside, there is nothing left to invite the soul to the inward adoration in spirit and in truth by which I am glorified. I speak here of the genuflection, the prostration, the profound bow and all the other marks of attention to My presence that provide the soul with a language in which she can express her faith and her desire to adore Me.
          Again, it is for this reason that I call My priests to learn and to practice faithfully the humble rubrics of the sacred liturgy. They are not important in themselves, but they are important in that they contain and express all the sentiments towards Me and towards My sacrifice with which I have endowed My Bride, the Church. One who dispenses himself easily from such practices is guilty of a sin of pride that opens the door of the soul to the cold and hostile winds that would extinguish the flame of faith within.
          Show yourself humble and obedient to My Church, and invite your brother priests to the same joyful fidelity, even in little things. I will reward them with an increase of faith, of hope, and of charity, and reveal to them the mysteries that My Father and I hide from those who think themselves learned and clever according to the world.[7]

NOTES

[1] Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J., The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, trans. Francis A. Brunner (Notre Dame: Christian Classics, n.d.), 2:205. And: “Durandus enjoins that thumb and forefinger may be parted after the consecration only quando oportet hostiam tangi vel signa fieri,” that is, for either handling the host or making signs of the cross (ibid., n. 21).

[2] Ibid., 1:119.

[3] http://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/Rubrics/TresAbhinc.html; see n. 12.

[4] The objection that Byzantine clergy do not observe this custom is quite beside the point. They do not have the ‘canonical digits’ in the Western mode, but they are very careful about particles. One often sees the priests lick their hands and fingers to make sure that nothing is lost or dropped. The care with which I have watched Ruthenian, Ukrainian, and Romanian clergy handling the Sacrament and cleansing vessels and fingers is thoroughly edifying and far in excess of what one sees in all too many Roman Catholic settings.

[5] I asssume the last is a reference to the Sanctus candle. For the quotation, see http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2017/07/cardinal-sarah-and-ordinariate-rite.html. Are we not seeing again today both “suffering clergy…assimilating the service [viz., the Novus Ordo] as closely as possible to the [Vetus Ordo],” and the ever-growing opposition to this Ratzingerian trend on the part of the old guard who stand for Law and Order—of a reductive modern sort?

[6] Even if there were practices of which people had lost the original understanding, it makes more sense to keep them and invest them with a new meaning, as the great medieval allegorical commentators on the liturgy did. This is the true spirit of receptivity rather than the Promethean spirit of revisionism.

[7] In Sinu Jesu: The Journal of a Priest at Prayer (Kettering, OH: Angelico Press, 2016), 87–88.

Roman Pilgrims at the Station Churches 2018 (Part 5)

March 8, 2018, 2:50 pm

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We continue our annual Lenten visit to the station churches with our Roman pilgrims, Agnese and Fr Alek.

Saturday of the Second Week of Lent - Ss Marcellinus and Peter

This church was originally constructed in the 4th century, in honor of two Roman martyrs of the persecution of Diocletian, the priest Marcellinus and the exorcist Peter; they are named in the Canon of the Mass, and their feast is kept on June 2nd. By the mid-18th century it had fallen into ruins and had to be completely rebuilt. It is below the level of the modern street on which it sits, at the corner of the via Merulana and the via Labicana, but not as severely as San Vitale, which we saw in the previous post of this series.

From Fr Alek.

The Third Sunday of Lent - St Lawrence Outside-the-Walls

St Lawrence Outside-the-Walls is one of Rome’s oldest churches, built by the Emperor Constantine in the first years of the peace of the Church, over the site of the great martyr’s burial. Pope St Sixtus III (432-40) built a second church on the site, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, flush with one of the walls of the Constantinian structure; this wall was then taken down at the time of Pelagius II (579-590, St Gregory the Great’s predecessor), transforming the Marian church into the nave of St Lawrence’s. The sanctuary was then rebuilt at a rather higher level than the nave, with a large crypt beneath it; the difference in levels can be seen below. The dedication to the Virgin Mary of what is now the nave is remembered in the traditional Gospel of day, which ends with the verses from Luke 11 commonly read on Our Lady’s feasts, and at Her Saturday votive Mass. “And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to Him: Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck. But He said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

Pilgrims pass in procession though the side aisle of the church...

...down into the crypt...

...pass the slab of marble on which St Lawrence’s grill was set up...

...and the tomb of Bl. Pius IX.

From Fr Alek

Mosaic from Pope Pelagius II’s intervention in the church in the later 6th century.

19th century mosaic work in the crypt

A great shot of the gallery which along either side of the sanctuary.

Monday of the Third Week - St Mark

These are all from Fr Alek: here is the mosaic in the church’s apse. The figure on the left with the square blue halo, which indicates that he was alive at the time the image was made, and not yet a Saint in heaven, is Pope St Gregory IV (828-44).

The church was originally dedicated by Pope Mark, who reigned for less than 10 months in 336 AD, to his namesake the Evangelist. Because St Mark is the Patron of Venice, which nicked his relics from Alexandria in Egypt in 828, it has often been given as the cardinalitial title to the bishops of that city; six Popes have been elected while cardinal of this church, four of whom were Patriarch at the time of their election. (Gregory XII, 1406-15, the last Pope to resign before Benedict XVI; Paul II, 1464-71; Clement XIII, 1758-69; and John Paul I, 33 days in 1978.) The church is now surrounded on three sides by the Palazzo Venezia, formerly the embassy of the Venetian Republic to the Papal States, and later on, of the Austrian Empire to Italy.

Pope Mark, one of the very earliest Confessors to be venerated as a Saint, painted here by Melozzo da Forlì ca. 1470 at the behest of the Venetian Pope Paul II (1464-71).

In the church’s choir is this image by Guillaume Courtois of St Mark the Evangelist, whose martyrdom, according to the traditional legend, began on Easter Sunday, when was dragged away from the altar in the middle of celebrating Mass.

Tuesday of the Third Week - Santa Pudenziana

Like San Vitale and Ss Peter and Marcellinus, the Basilica of Saint Pudentiana is now sunk below the street level, as new layers of buildings have been built up around it. In the 1920s, the church required such an extensive renovation that an alternative station was appointed for this day at the church of St Agatha. From 1556 to 1565, the Cardinal-Priest of this church was Scipione Rebiba; the vast majority of Latin Rite Catholic bishops (and therefore the priests ordained by them) today derive their Apostolic succession from this man through Pope Benedict XIII (1724-30).

The apsidal mosaic was made around the end of the 4th century. It has been heavily patched and restored, and clipped off at the edges by a major renovation of the 1590s; despite this, it remains an important example of the early Church’s use of the iconography of imperial power. Christ is dressed as the Emperor, and the Apostles as the senators. Many of the early Christian Emperors did not believe that their authority ended at the church’s door, and many of the early heresies were either promoted or created by the Roman Emperors. Images of this sort send the message that in the Church, Christ and His Saints are the ruling power.

EF Solemn Vespers in Alexandria, Virginia, This Sunday

March 9, 2018, 5:00 am

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Thanks to Andy Hickman of the Institute of Catholic Culture for letting me know about a Laetare Sunday Solemn Vespers taking place at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Alexandria, Virginia. It will be celebrated by the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem with a choir that glories under the name of the Suspicious Cheese Lords!  (Explanation here.) The church is located at 310 South Royal St; the ceremony begins at 7 pm.

Laetare Sunday Photopost Request 2018

March 9, 2018, 2:45 pm

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Our next major photopost will be for Laetare Sunday. Please send your photos (whether of the Ordinary or Extraordinary Form, Ordinariate Rite etc.) to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org for inclusion. Photos of Vespers and other parts of the Office are always welcome, and for our Byzantine friends, we will be glad to include photos of the Veneration of the Cross on the Third Sunday of Great Lent. Please be sure to include the name and location of the church, and always feel free to add any other information you think important. Evangelize through beauty!

From last year’s second Laetare photopost, Solemn Mass at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome.

Another Chant for the Liturgy of the Presanctified

March 9, 2018, 2:47 pm

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Now the powers of heaven invisibly worship with us, for behold, the King of Glory entereth! Behold, the mystical sacrifice, being perfected, is carried forth in triumph. With faith and love, let us come forth, that we may become partakers of eternal life, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Нынѣ Силы Небесныѧ съ нами невидимо служать, се, бо входитъ Царь Славы: се Жертва тайнаѧ совершена дориноситсѧ. Вѣрою и любовию приступимъ, да причастницы жизни вѣчныя будемъ. Аллилуя, аллилуя, аллилуя. (Sung by the choir of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow.)

We recently shared a setting of the Psalm 140 “Let my prayer rise as incense etc.” by Pavel Chesnokov, composed for the Byzantine Liturgy of the Presanctified gifts, along with a brief description of the first part of the ceremony. For the second part, the Litany of Fervent Supplication and special litanies for the catechumens are said, after which the royal doors are opened. The Presanctified gifts are then carried out the side-door, and back through the royal doors, while the chant above it sung. (This chant, therefore, replaces the hymn “We who mystically represent the Cherubim,” which is sung at the Divine Liturgy as the bread and wine are brought to the altar.) The rest of the service is basically identical to the regular order of the Divine Liturgy.

Here is the Greek version:

Νῦν αἱ δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν σὺν ἡμῖν ἀοράτως λατρεύουσιν· ἰδοὺ γὰρ εἰσπορεύεται ὁ Βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης. Ἰδοὺ θυσία μυστικὴ τετελειωμένη δορυφορεῖται· πίστει καὶ πόθῳ προσέλθωμεν, ἵνα μέτοχοι ζωῆς ἀιωνίου γενώμεθα. Ἀλληλούϊα, Ἀλληλούϊα, Ἀλληλούϊα.

The Feast of the Forty Martyrs

March 10, 2018, 3:04 pm

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The Forty Martyrs were a group of soldiers from the Roman Twelfth Legion, who died for the Faith at Sebaste in Armenia in the year 320. This was seven years after the Edict of Milan and the Peace granted to the Church by Constantine, whose brother-in-law Licinius at that point ruled in the East, and after a period of tolerance, renewed the persecution of Christians. When the Forty had been called to renounce the Faith and refused, they were sentenced first to various tortures, and then condemned to die a particularly horrible death, stripped naked and left to freeze on the ice of a frozen lake. The governor who supervised this execution ordered that a hot bath be prepared at the edge of the lake, by which any one of them who would apostatize might save himself from freezing to death.

A 10-century ivory relief icon of the Forty Martyrs, made in Constantinople, now in the Bodemuseum in Berlin. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The Breviary of St Pius V represents the martyrs praying as their sufferings began, “Forty we have entered into the stadium, let us receive forty crowns, o Lord, lest even one be lacking from this number. This number is held in honor. You adorned it with a fast of forty days; through it the divine Law entered into the world. Elijah, seeking God, obtained the vision of Him by a fast of forty days.” This is a very ancient motif, by which the fast of forty days observed in the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) is associated with that observed in the Gospel by Christ. (For this reason, on the first Sunday of Lent the Roman Rite reads the account of Christ’s fast, and on the second, that of His Transfiguration, at which the Moses and Elijah appear as witnesses to the divinity of Christ. On the Ember Wednesday between them, there are two readings before the Gospel, Exodus 24, 12-18, which tells of the forty day fast of Moses, and 3 Kings 19, 3-8, the forty day fast of Elijah.)

One of the forty, however, did abandon the company and enter the hot bath; in some accounts it is said that he died immediately from the shock. In the meantime, one of their guards had a vision of Angels descending upon the martyrs, bearing thirty-nine crowns; he was inspired by this to become a Christian, take the place of the one who had left, and so fulfill the mystical number of forty. Seeing the martyrs’ constancy, those who were in charge of their execution decided to finish them off by breaking their legs, as was done to the thieves crucified alongside the Lord. Only one of them did not die from this, a young man named Melito, but he was mortally wounded and could not live. His own mother then carried him to the place where the rest of them were taken to be cremated, walking behind the wagon; during the journey he died in her arms, and was laid by her on the pyre among the bodies of his comrades.

Their ashes were scattered to prevent the veneration of their relics, but the Christians were able to recover some of them. St Basil the Great tells of the presence of the relics at Caesarea; his brother, St Gregory of Nyssa, says that their parents, Ss Basil the Elder and Emmelia, were buried in a church at a place called Annesis, which they themselves had built, and for which they had obtained some relics of the Forty. Portions of them were later taken to Constantinople and elsewhere, and devotion to them was brought to the West by St Gaudentius of Brescia, who received a part of the relics from St Basil’s nieces while passing through Caesarea on his way to Jerusalem.

The iconostasis of the Chapel of the Forty Martyrs in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Deror Avi, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Their feast was originally kept in the West on March 9, the same day it still has in the East. St Frances of Rome died on that day in 1440; when she was canonized in 1608 (together with St Charles Borromeo), she was assigned to that day, and the martyrs moved forward to the 10th. In the rubrical reform of 1960, ferias of Lent were given precedence over the majority of feasts, and the Forty were permanently reduced to a commemoration, since March 10th cannot occur outside Lent; notwithstanding the great veneration in which they are held in the East, and the antiquity of the feast, it was abolished from the calendar of the Novus Ordo.

In the Byzantine Rite, they are held in great veneration, and certain features of the liturgy which are reserved for the more important Saints are included on their day. The very strict Lenten fast is relaxed, so that wine and oil may be consumed. A Gospel is read at Orthros, John 15, 17 - 16, 2, in which Christ speaks of Himself as the model of martyrdom, and the martyr as the most perfect imitator of Him. “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. ... If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. ... Yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God.”

If the Vespers of the Presanctified Gifts are celebrated, an Epistle and Gospel are added to the rite, sung as they would be at the Divine Liturgy. The Gospel is that which the Roman Rite reads on Septuagesima Sunday, Matthew 20, 1-16, the parable of the workmen in the vineyard; this was clearly chosen in reference to the guard who joined the martyrs at the last minute, and received the same crown with the rest of the company, just as the workmen who came at the eleventh hour received the same wage as the rest.

In the annals of Christian hagiography, there are many stories of people who were spontaneously converted to the Faith by seeing the constancy of the martyrs in the midst of their torments; it is not rare for such persons to become martyrs themselves, even joining the suffering Christians of their own will right on the spot, like the guard among the Forty. This phenomenon was realized again three years ago in the person of one Matthew Ayariga, a Ghanaian who was seized in Libya by Islamic fanatics, along with a group of twenty Egyptian Copts. Although he was not a member of the Coptic Church, he refused to embrace Islam, even at the threat of being beheaded; seeing how the others prayed and called upon the Holy Name of Jesus as they died, he said of them, “Their God is my God,” and was slain in their company.

An icon of the New Martyrs of Libya, by Tony Rezk. Matthew Ayariga is represented in the middle of the group.

These twenty-one men were canonized as martyrs by the Coptic Pope Tawadros II very shortly after their death; quite recently, a church named in their honor was dedicated in the village of Al-Our, Egypt, where thirteen of them came from, on the third anniversary of the martyrdom. In the following video, members of the martyrs’ families give exemplary testimonies of true Christian forgiveness, speaking not of anger, hatred or vengeance, but rather of the joy and pride which they take in their Sainted relatives. (It should be remembered that these men were all fairly young, and working construction jobs abroad to provide for their families.) “And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor shall sorrow be any more, for the former things are passed away.”

This article is a revised version of one that was originally published in 2015.

Laetare Sunday 2018

March 11, 2018, 4:21 pm

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Laetáre, Jerúsalem, et conventum fácite, omnes qui dilígitis eam: gaudéte cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exsultétis, et satiémini ab ubéribus consolatiónis vestrae. Ps. 121 Laetátus sum in his, quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Dómini íbimus. Gloria Patri. Laetáre... (The Introit of the Fourth Sunday of Lent)

Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and come together, all you who love her: rejoice with joy, you who have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. Ps. 121 I rejoiced at the things that were said to me, We will go up to the house of the Lord. Glory be... Rejoice, O Jerusalem...

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What Would an Ecclesiocentric Society Look Like?

March 12, 2018, 6:17 am

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For the past several centuries, Western man has been constructing bit by bit an anthropocentric society, in opposition to the theocentric society of the Middle Ages—that period when the mystery of the Incarnation permeated the intellectual, cultural, and social fabric as fully as it is ever likely to do short of the Parousia. Pope Leo XIII memorably described this Christian phase of the West in his encyclical letter Immortale Dei of 1885:

There was once a time when States were governed by the philosophy of the Gospel. Then it was that the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people, permeating all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or ever obscured by any craft of any enemies. Christian Europe has subdued barbarous nations, and changed them from a savage to a civilized condition, from superstition to true worship. It victoriously rolled back the tide of Mohammedan conquest; retained the headship of civilization; stood forth in the front rank as the leader and teacher of all, in every branch of national culture; bestowed on the world the gift of true and many-sided liberty; and most wisely founded very numerous institutions for the solace of human suffering. And if we inquire how it was able to bring about so altered a condition of things, the answer is, beyond all question, in large measure through religion, under whose auspices so many great undertakings were set on foot, through whose aid they were brought to completion. (n. 21)

Leo XIII goes on to say that this state of affairs could have peacefully continued if the two powers, the civil and the ecclesiastical, “kingdom and priesthood,” had continued to cooperate towards the common good, both natural and supernatural. Yet rebellion is always possible in beings with free will, whom God does not compel to stand in the blessings they have, but who, like Lucifer and Adam, may throw away their glory out of disordered self-love:

But that harmful and deplorable passion for innovation which was aroused in the sixteenth century threw first of all into confusion the Christian religion, and next, by natural sequence, invaded the precincts of philosophy, whence it spread amongst all classes of society. From this source, as from a fountainhead, burst forth all those later tenets of unbridled license which, in the midst of the terrible upheavals of the last century, were wildly conceived and boldly proclaimed as the principles and foundation of that new conception of law which was not merely previously unknown, but was at variance on many points with not only the Christian, but even the natural law. (n. 23)

To use a phrase of Max Picard, the “flight from God” had begun: the ecclesial order, the political order, the moral order, the very order of reason—each would be compromised and corrupted as the West drifted ever further from its foundational principles. Several major decisions of the US Supreme Court may be taken as symbolic of this descent into madness: Roe vs. Wade, Casey vs. Planned Parenthood, Obergefell vs. Hodges. Is my description exaggerated? Let’s see: if a human being is not a human being just because of its age and location, if everyone has the right to make up reality, and if a man may marry a man or a woman a woman, then I think, if anything, that my description suffers from drastic understatement.

I was thinking about these things while perusing specimens of Austrian Notgeld sent to my son by an old family friend. During and after World War I, Austria was in an economic crisis. The metal out of which coins would have been made had been dedicated to the war effort, where it was more needed. To remedy the lack of currency, bank notes were printed both by the state and by individual towns in the period from ca. 1914–1922. Many towns thus ended up printing their own currency, called Notgeld, “emergency money” or “necessity money.” Although mostly printed on paper, some Notgeld was made out of leather, linen, aluminum foil, wood, compressed coal dust, even porcelain.

Of the hundred or so in my son’s collection, a surprisingly high proportion depict the town center with its Catholic church and prominent steeple, or other religious imagery. Here, in artifacts less than a century old, we find vivid testimonies of a Catholic society—one still attuned to the centrality of the Church and her Faith, and, in more subtle ways, attuned to the primacy of order, nature, and beauty. This highly practical item, a piece of paper currency, nevertheless bore witness to the transcendent realities that nourished the people beyond food and drink. Even in that which was practical and ephemeral, Austrians wanted to pay homage to what was primary and eternal.

I shall present a number of striking examples here, and more at the end.

There is a lesson for us in these colorful bits of paper money. As the English artist Eric Gill frequently pointed out, we have grown accustomed not only to a complete separation of the sacred from the secular, but also to a complete separation of the beautiful from the useful. We expect secular items to be absolutely secular, with no hint of the spiritual; the idea of Christian symbols on kitchen utensils, plates, or aprons, let alone paper money, would strike many as odd, if not actually immoral. Similarly, the useful items we make are generally plain and unremarkable if not positively ugly; seldom, if ever, do they make reference to God or to higher ideals. Efficiency, cheapness, interchangeability are the new ideals—and they are a poor substitute for the old ones. Not surprisingly, the realm of the beautiful has shrunk so that it now seems an ethereal exception, a quirky eccentricity, a luxury.

As Joseph Ratzinger often lamented, this spirit of thoroughgoing utilitarianism together with a skepticism towards the beautiful has crept into the arena of the liturgy, too. We want to “get done with Mass” as quickly as possible. We want things that are “affordable.” We spend enormous amounts on ourselves but count pennies when it comes to churches, furnishings, vestments, music books, musicians, and other necessities. That a pastor would place the category of beauty at the top of his list of priorities for a parish is almost unheard-of. Yet the cultivation of liturgical excellence and serving the poor are the two most pleasing things we can do for the Lord—the one for His sake, just because of Who He is and what He deserves, the other for men made in His image, which also redounds to His glory. Hence, the omission of the former is not merely a regrettable oversight, but is the epitome of practical atheism, the infallible indicator of “religion without religion.”

St. Josemaría Escrivá wrote these apposite words in The Way:

That woman in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany, anointing the Master’s head with precious ointment, reminds us of the duty to be generous in the worship of God. All the richness, majesty, and beauty possible would seem too little to me. And against those who attack the richness of sacred vessels, of vestments and altars, we hear the praise given by Jesus: opus enim bonum operata est in me—“she has done me a good turn.” (#527)

All of this was going through my mind when I read the following verses from Haggai the prophet, a little book that packs a punch for modern utilitarians busy about their commerce:

 2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: This people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD."
 3 Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet,
 4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
 5 Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
 6 You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.
 7 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD.
 9 You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house.
 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
 11 And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hills, upon the grain, the new wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors." (Hag 1:2-11 RSV)

Many examples of Austrian Notgeld may be found in the following images.

A Template for A Liturgically-Oriented General Catholic Education for Children

March 13, 2018, 5:59 am

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Book review: Educating in Christ: A Practical Handbook for Developing the Catholic Faith from Childhood to Adolescence For Parents, Teachers, Catechists and School Administrators, by Gerard O’Shea

This wonderful book, available from Angelico press, describes the principles for teaching methods and curriculum design for young children up to adolescence.

The author is Professor of Religious Education at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia, and the recommendations of the back cover, which I reproduce below, include two from fellow Australians who will be known to NLM readers: Bishop Peter Elliot, and Tracey Rowland.

What delighted me particularly is that Prof. O’Shea is offering something that is deeper and more profound that the usual recommendation of a classical-curriculum, Great-Books or liberal-arts education. For all the nobility of what is taught and read, these can still represent what is essentially a secular education.

In this book, he describes the basis of a uniquely Catholic approach to education that seeks to take students beyond the simple absorption of the material taught in the classrom, and lead them to a supernatural transformation in Christ. As such, and unusually, it is true to what the Church is asking for from our educators. Take for example, St Pius X in Divini Illius Magistri, who tells us that the goal of a Catholic education is the formation of “the supernatural man who thinks, judges and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illumined by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ.”

We are given precise details and concrete measures that are easily followed. Balancing the natural and the supernatural, the theoretical and the practical, and combining the best of traditional methods with modern educational theory and psychology (with great prudence), O’Shea describes how a mystagogical catechesis, rooted in the study of scripture and the actual worship of God, is at the heart of every Catholic education. Then he describes how teaching methods and curricula should reflect these principles for children of different ages.

Another reason for my particular interest in this book is that it provides a basis for the incorporation of the Way of Beauty into education at levels below tertiary education (which is the focus of my book The Way of Beauty). From time to time, parents do ask me about this; now I know where to send them. O’Shea’s focus is more on general education than mine, but he provides a broad educational framework that will nurture the pursuit of creative arts in the way I think ought to be done, because it is based upon the same philosophy of education.

Below you will find the summary of the book from the publisher, and recommendations from the back cover:

EDUCATING IN CHRIST covers the essential practical and theoretical elements of religious education and catechetics for parents, catechists, teachers, and Catholic school administrators. The first part of the book responds to contemporary calls from the Popes for a religious education based upon authentic Christian anthropology. It provides a comprehensive outline of religious developmental stages, indicating activities appropriate for each of these from age three years to adolescence. It also takes into account the call of recent Church documents to approach this task from a “mystagogical” angle, linking the sacraments with the scriptures. In the second part, the best of contemporary teaching practices are linked with sound Montessori principles and the Catholic understanding of a pedagogy of God. Busy Catholic school administrators will find the provided summary of Catholic teaching on education since Vatican II a very useful reference tool. Teachers and home-schooling parents will find the sections on classroom methods, and the curriculum outline based on the liturgical year, especially helpful.

“In anxious times, this practical book is good news for parents, teachers, and catechists who introduce Catholic faith and morals to children and young people. The author offers a way forward that is Trinitarian, Christ-centered, and yet fully attentive to the needs of the child.”
— MOST REV. PETER J. ELLIOTT, Auxiliary Bishop, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

“If you regard the objective of religious education as the formation of a Catholic heart, memory, intellect, and imagination, then you will consider Educating in Christ an indispensable text. Drawing on ideas from Maria Montessori and Sofia Cavalletti, it explains how to hand on the faith at different stages of a child’s development. Every Catholic teacher should read and apply it.”
— TRACEY ROWLAND, University of Notre Dame, Australia

“Rooted in the Church’s sacramental traditions, informed by classical virtue theory, and drawing upon the best of modern developmental psychology, Gerard O’Shea’s work is a gem. I heartily recommend this practical, credible, orthodox, organized, and hopeful guide to educating our children in the faith.”
— RYAN N. S. TOPPING, Newman Theological College, Edmonton

“This masterful work is a much needed addition to the literature of Catholic religious education. It offers an integrated vision, bringing together anthropology, curriculum guidance, questions of school ethos and teacher formation, analyses of research findings in children’s learning—all grounded in a coherent and persuasive account of the aims and nature of Catholic education.”
— PETROC WILLEY, Franciscan University of Steubenville

“Educating in Christ has come out of the substantial educational and research experience of the author. It offers guidance to parents and teachers on all of the significant areas of religious education: Scripture, Sacraments, moral formation, doctrine, and prayer.”
— KEVIN WATSON, Acting Dean of Education, Sydney, University of Notre Dame, Australia

“Gerard O’Shea’s new book is an insightful and eminently useful guide for Catholic school teachers, catechists, and home-schooling parents. It provides not only insights into child development and its relationship to religious instruction, but offers practical, easy-to-follow lessons and applications for the teacher—a wonderful contribution to Catholic education.”
— MICHAEL MARTIN, author of The Incarnation of the Poetic Word

“Gerard O’Shea has written an extraordinary book that will serve catechists well in these challenging times. In language both insightful and accessible, Educating in Christ engages the question of how today’s religious education can lead people into communion with God. O’Shea answers by bringing the movement towards God in religious education into harmony with a reverence for the capacities and potentialities of those we teach.”
— JAMES PAULEY, Franciscan University of Steubenville

You can order the book here.

The Anniversary of the Founding of the Church in Milan

March 13, 2018, 9:00 am

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According to an old ambrosian tradition, March 13 of the year 51 was the date on which the church was founded in Milan, when the Apostle St Barnabas baptized the first Christians of the city anciently called Mediolanum. The story tells that as a challenge local pagan priests, he planted a cross in the middle of a magic circle used in their rites by the Druids, who were still active in the areas outside the city. (Celtic priests did in fact use magic circles, into which they would fix a curved rod to take auspices from the postition of the stars.) This stone, preserved as a relic, is now in the church of Santa Maria al Paradiso, now in the center of the city on Corso di Porta Vigentina. By immemorial custom, on this day a cross is inserted into it, in remembrance of the first wooden cross so fixed by the Apostolic founder of the church of Milan. (Thanks to Nicola de’ Grandi for the pictures and description.)

The stone where St Barnabas fixed the cross, as seen today in S Maria in Paradiso. The inscription reads “On March 13 in year of the Lord 51, St Barnabas the Apostle, as he was preaching the Gospel of Christ to the people of Milan, in a place near the walls at the via Maria by the eastern gate fixed the banner of the Cross in this round stone.”

An historical photo of the wooden Cross fixed into the stone on “el tredesin de Marz”, as it is called in Mlianese dialect.

St Barnabas baptizing the first Christians of Milan.

A graphic showing the relative positions of certain stars and constellations as marked on the magic stone.

Roman Pilgrims at the Station Churches (Part 6)

March 13, 2018, 2:06 pm

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This year’s is the fifth edition of our Lenten Roman pilgrim series of visits to the station churches, and for five years in a row, the station church for the Wedensday of the Third Week, San Sisto Vecchio is closed for restoration. The station is therefore transferred across the street to the Basilica of Ss Nereus and Achilleus. The same holds true for Santa Susanna on Saturday, also closed for a major restoration; the station is therefore held across the piazza at Santa Maria della Vittoria, the home of one of Bernini’s greatest sculptural achievements, The Ecstasy of St Theresa.

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent - Statio at San Sisto Vecchio, currently transferred to Ss Nereus and Achilleus. (I have explained the church’s other name, “Titulus Fasciolae - the title of the bandage”, which is seen here written over the door, in an article on the station churches of Holy Week.)

Fr Alek took some pictures on a visit to San Sisto last year, although the church itself is in such bad shape that no one is allowed into it. This chapel is within the ancient chapter house of the Dominican Sisters who have been at the church since 1219; its columns were taken from the ancient basilica when its size was reduced in the 1200s.

This painting in the cloister depicts an apparition of the devil to St Dominic which is said to have happened at the convent of San Sisto. A demon appeared to him at night in the form of a monkey, which mocked him for ignoring the poor and sick in favor of his studies; in response, Dominic ordered the ape to carry his candle, saying, “Thy name was Lucifer before thy fall, and light again thou now shalt bear and be, at least, of some use.” Powerless, the demon was forced to serve the saint in this manner until the taper burned down and singed his hands, at which point he fled.

Thurdsay of the Third Week - Ss Cosmas and Damian

In the first year of this series, Agnese was unable to make this station because a foreign dignitary of some note was visiting the Colosseum, and the entire area leading up it, including the street by which one reaches this church, was closed. The tradition continues, and this year, she was prevented from getting there by one of the endless strikes which make life in Italy so ... colorful. These are all from Fr Alek, starting with the portraits of the titular Saints in the ceiling of the nave, which was added to the church in the 1620s.

A part of the mosaic of the apse, which dates from 527 AD, with St Peter presenting one of the two Saints (they are distingished from each other) to Christ.

In the 1620s, the church was divided into two parts by the insertion of a floor two stories above the original floor, since the area was within the Tiber’s flood-plain, and the church was a musty ruin. The black columns seen here were removed from the altar of the lower church and reinstalled in the new altar of the upper church, as was the 13th-century fresco of the Madonna and Child.

Friday of the Third Week - San Lorenzo in Lucina

Within this side altar are enclosed the relics of part of St Lawrence’s grill.

In the magnificent painting of the Crucifixion by Guido Reni (1575-1642), the body of Christ is pale and white against a much darker background. The effect is not evident here because of the lighting, but normally, one can see the body of Christ raised above the altar at a distance, even standing outside the church in the piazza, a reminder of the Elevation of the Host during the Mass. (Fr Alek)

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent - Santa Susanna, currently transferred to Santa Maria della Vittoria. (Fr Alek) 

The façade of Santa Susanna

The North American College held its stational Mass in the morning across the piazza at Santa Maria della Vittoria, as did the Vicariate of Rome in the evening. Originally a chapel dedicated to St Paul and administered by the Discalced Carmelites, it was was rededicated to the Blessed Virgin in 1620 after the Battle of White Mountain, which reversed the progress of the Reformation in Bohemia.

Decorations in the ceiling. “Let the victory be ascribed to my name.”

The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Holy Cross “in Jerusalem”

Built in 325 to house the relics of the Lord’s Passion that were brought to Rome by St Helena, the designation “in Jerusalem” refers to the tradition that soil was brought from the Holy Land to Rome and spread over the ground where the church was to be constructed. This was the traditional station church also for Good Friday, where the Pope would venerate the relics of the True Cross. (Also from Fr Alek. Readers may remember that we covered a Mozarabic Mass celebrated here two years ago.)

Part of the fresco of the apse, a work of the late 15th-century variously attributed to Antoniazzo Romano or Marco Palmezzano.

An ancient Roman statue of Juno, found in Ostia and transformed into St Helen by the addition of the Cross (as well as the head and arms, which were missing at the time of its discovery.)

Presentation on the Music and Art of Holy Week in New Jersey

March 14, 2018, 6:00 am

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This Friday, the Ocean County College Music Club will hold a presentation entitled “The Music and Visual Art of Holy Week”, by Fr. Peter Stravinskas, OCC Asst. Professor of Humanities, and Prof. Stephanie Shestakow, OCC College Lecturer of Humanities and Fine Arts, an exploration of the rich tradition of art associated with the observance of Holy Week. The representation will focus includes cultural and theological commentary, Latin usage and translations, and the role of art as illuminator, with images and music from various period. The presentation will take place from 11:30 am - 1:00 pm in Room A117 of the Grunin Center of the Arts, located at 1 College Drive, Toms River, New Jersey; admission is free and open to the public.

“Liturgy, Orality, and Rubricism”: Article by Samuel Nyom

March 14, 2018, 9:00 am

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This article by Samuel Nyom is reproduced here from the website Pro Liturgia with his permission, translated from the original French by Zachary Thomas. This essay certainly provides interesting food for thought, but we do not present it as the last or only possible word on the subject; please act accordingly in the combox.

It is very profitable to read Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). A Canadian and former professor of literature who specialized in the subject of communication, he said some very interesting things that can help us find explanations for the liturgical crisis that ultimately rests on a very profound anthropological crisis.

His works are very numerous and detailed, and require a careful reflection. On a first reading, we have noted that he had the same intuition as many others about the faith and the liturgy. He remarks, I think very truly, that our passage from a traditional civilization founded on orality and oral tradition toward a modern civilization founded on a culture of writing may not have initiated the sort of substantial progress that we are so often sold on.

In this regard, a military officer tells the following anecdote: “During a common meal in the regiment, the printed lyrics of the songs we sing have to be put on the table because almost no one knows them by heart anymore, especially not the youngest. This reliance on writing reveals that a tradition has been interrupted and is thus in some way ‘dead.’ But it wasn’t always that way. The songs used to flow spontaneously during the meal. Today the soldiers sing without joy, without conviction, their eyes riveted on the words written on the sheets provided for each of them. It seems that in just a few years, there will no longer be any singing during these moments of conviviality.” In other words, from orality we pass to writing, and from writing we pass to the loss of the tradition in the noble sense of the term. The same thing came to pass when the staff and notes permitting the transcription of Gregorian chant were invented: memory became lax and the nature of Gregorian chant went out the window. And this event was closely followed by the loss of the melodies of “the chant proper to the Roman liturgy”, and their replacement by polyphony, plainchant, and songs…

All truly vibrant traditional cultures have been oral cultures. It was in this context that Christianity and its liturgy developed.

The beginning of an antiphonary for the Roman Rite, known from the scribe’s name as the Codex Hartker; San Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. San. 339. (CC BY-NC 4.0)

In the Gospels, Christ calls upon us to hear, to listen to the Word of God and remember it. Jesus wrote nothing. Or rather: he wrote a few words… in the sand. They were quickly erased. The Rule of Saint Benedict begins “Listen, my son…” and not “read” or “copy.” This is because the Gospels, just like the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Christian liturgy itself, were originally inscribed into this culture of orality in which chant, psalmody, and melodic-verbal rhythm, united to the “anthropology of gesture”, played a preponderant role. (cf. Father Marcel Jousse, SJ) Even in our own day, the liturgy restored by Vatican II is supposed to be entirely chanted—including the Canon, the readings, and the Gospel—at least recto tono. And why? Because a chanted liturgy allows the sacred words to be raised to a superhuman level, the only level that permits us to grasp their supernatural dimension, something that the simple tone used for a reading or historical narration does not permit. There are very few places where this is understood and practiced.

In the Eastern liturgies, everything is sung: it is not possible to conceive of an office that is not sung because the liturgy must be performed in the mode of proclamation and not of simple reading. In fact, the simple reading in some respect “chains” the sacred words to a written text, while the chanted proclamation renders the word (Biblical or liturgical) living, as if liberated from the written word which is nothing but their material support. One can never be reminded too much that authentic Christianity is not a “religion of the book” but a religion of the Word. At the Mass, after the proclamation of the Gospel, the priest or deacon chants “The Word of the Lord” and not “the book…” The one who goes to proclaim the divine Word raises the Gospel Book very slightly. The same for the entry procession at the beginning of Mass: the deacon who carries the Gospel book raises it very slightly and never over his head (cf. the General Instruction of the Roman Missal).

Thus Martin Luther’s “sola Scriptura” might be something of an error: “Verba sola” would be more in conformity with the teachings contained in the Gospels and the Apostolic Letters…

These considerations lead us to think that in the history of the Western Church, there is a very ancient source (beginning at the end of the Middle Ages, essentially with nominalism) that explains the present crisis. It is possible, as McLuhan thinks, that the printing press accelerated the crisis.

From the 15th century, we perceive the pressing urge to codify, to put in writing, to “fix” the liturgy, because it was thought to be threatened by the false philosophies and dubious theologies that were spreading at that time. This fixing may be designated by the expression “politics of the corset.” In sum, something about the liturgy, its connection with life, with the living Word, was lost. Couldn’t this be the sense of Christ’s warning: “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life?” In the immediate aftermath of this phenomenon, we begin to see the aberrations characteristic of the extreme codification of ritual inherited from the Council of Trent, which led to the normalization of the “Low” or “read” Mass. (how can the sacrifice of the Cross be “read”? Mustn't it be celebrated and lived?), then the “High Mass” which is actually a Low Mass on which a mass chanted by the faithful and the choir is artificially superimposed, thus breaking the unity of the celebration and creating a rift between the celebrant and the people. We point out in passing that in the first missal manuscripts, before Trent, rubrics are very rare… and this did not prevent the liturgy from being respected and faithfully transmitted.

This question of writing naturally poses the question of liturgical books: in the West, priests and faithful feel like they are lost if they don’t have their eyes fixed on some piece of writing: a missal, a Mass leaflet, a booklet, etc. This leads to some very strange attitudes during Latin and Gregorian masses celebrated in certain monasteries (Solesmes, for example, but not only there): at the entry procession, instead of turning toward the rite that is taking place and soaking up the liturgy, everyone “plunges” into his book and pays no attention to what is happening in the choir…

Now take a look at the Orthodox liturgies: there are very few books for the clergy (only the strict minimum, even though their liturgy is much more complicated) and for the faithful, nothing at all. This is explained by the fact that the celebrants know the most important prayers by heart (especially the Eucharistic prayers). Consequently, they can concentrate on the celebration itself and don’t have to shove their noses into some booklet or photocopy from start to finish.

One also notices, among the Orthodox, the absence of pews or rows of chairs that in the West “confine” the faithful in unnatural positions. Among Eastern Christians the faithful enjoy a great liberty to come and go, but always with the dignity and respect, entirely adapting themselves to the rites. We too used to enjoy such things: pews and missals are very late inventions that we owe in part to the Protestant Reformation. The point isn’t to get rid of the pews and missals: that would not be a realistic expectation. Nevertheless, we must all the same reflect on these “rubricizing” tendencies, whether they be “traditionalist” or “progressive”: before Vatican II, the Church was usually seen as primarily a juridical institution (when it is truly a divine-human, spiritual and mystical reality) which affected the liturgy to the point that it was understood more or less as a “solemn ceremony” (something equally applicable to a funeral) and almost never as a celebration. Liturgy was thus reduced to an ensemble of prescriptions to apply the letter of the law, which was justified by giving them an allegorical sense that did not get at the deeper sense or the true origins of the rite.

Necessarily, when one no longer understands the meaning of the liturgy, one tries to save the form by resorting to a strict ritualism, which for a time maintains the illusion...until the day when the “corset” falls and the ignorance is unveiled in full view. That is what happened in the 1970s and led to the present state of disaster.

This subject is vast and complex and many volumes would not suffice to explain all its facets. For those interested in reading more, it has been discussed notably by Aidan Kavanagh in the sixth chapter of his book On Liturgical Theology (Ch 6, pp. 96 -121). Commenting on the gradually shift, brought about by humanism and the printing press, toward a form of Christian piety based on the written word, he writes:

“God’s Word could now for the first time be visualized by all, not in the multivalency of a ‘presence’ in corporate act or icon, but linearly in horizontal lines which could be edited, reset, revised, fragmented, and studied by all--something which few could have done before. A Presence which had formerly been experienced by most as a kind of enfolding embrace had now modulated into an abecedarian printout to which only the skill of literacy could give complete access. God could now be approached not only through burning bushes, sacralized spaces and holy symbols and events, but through texts so cheaply reproduced as to be available to all. Rite and its symbols could be displaced or go round altogether, and so could the whole of the living tradition which provided the gravitational field holding them together in an intelligible union Rite became less a means than an obstacle for the new textual piety” (pg. 104).

Laetare Sunday Photopost 2018 (Part 1)

March 14, 2018, 2:46 pm

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We had a good number of submissions for Laetare Sunday this year, so there will be two photoposts this time. This one starts with something very interesting and unique from Douai Abbey in England, a vestment with pieces of 15th century embroidery, remounted in 1963 on a dark rose-colored cloth. (Special thanks to Dom Hugh Somerville-Knapman!) We also have photos of the Byzantine Third Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, which might broadly be seen as the Eastern equivalent of Laetare, and a blessing of golden roses. Thanks as always to all our readers who sent these in - evangelize through beauty!

Douai Abbey - Upper Woolhampton, England

St Paul - Birkirkara, Malta

St Peter Eastern Catholic Church - Ukiah, California

Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross - Vespers

Divine Liturgy

St Catherine Labouré - Middletown, New Jersey

Annuniciation Catholic Church - Houston, Texas

St Stephen - Exeter, Nebraska

The blessing of golden roses as gifts to parishioners.

St Stanislaus - South Bend, Indiana

Tradition is for the young!

Cathedral of St Eugene - Santa Rosa, California

San Felipe Chapel - Los Angeles, California

St Mary - Kalamazoo, Michigan

Mass in the Ordinary From

Mass in the Extraordinary From

St Mary - Chinatown, Washington, D.C.

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EF Missa Cantata for St Joseph in Newark, New Jersey

March 15, 2018, 6:08 am

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There will be a Traditional Latin High Mass sung for the Feast of St. Joseph, on Monday, March 19th at 7:00 p.m, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Newark, New Jersey. Following the Mass, there will be light Italian refreshments including zeppole and sfinge to celebrate thename day of pastor, Msgr. Joseph Ambrosio. The church is located at 259 Oliver Street.

Muisc for Lent: The Media Vita

March 15, 2018, 9:25 am

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The hour of Compline is far more variable in the Dominican Office than in the Roman, often changing the antiphon of the psalms, the hymn, and the antiphon of the Nunc dimittis. This was true of most medieval Uses, and especialy in Lent, a season in which the Dominican Use brings forth some its best treasures. The most famous of these is certainly Media vita, a piece which will always be associated with St Thomas Aquinas, whose biographers note that he would always weep copiously when it was sung, especially at the verse “Cast us not away in the time of our old age, when our strength shall fail, forsake us not, o Lord.” Although written as a responsory, with verses and the repetition of the second part of the beginning, it was sung in many Uses as an antiphon for the Nunc dimittis. As Fr Thompson has noted previously, it may now be used by the Dominicans as a responsory, rather than as an antiphon, and it is thus that we can hear it sung by the Dominican students at Blackfriars.

R. In the midst of life, we are in death; whom shall we seek to help us, but Thee, o Lord, who for our sins art justly wroth? * Holy God, holy mighty one, holy and merciful Savior, hand us not over to bitter death. V. Cast us not away in the time of our old age, when our strength shall fail, forsake us not, o Lord. Holy God, holy mighty one etc.

The Use of Sarum appointed Media vita to be sung at the same time as the Dominicans, during the third and fourth weeks of Lent, but with more verses, and the division of the refrain as follows:

Aña In the midst of life, we are in death; whom shall we seek to help us, but Thee, o Lord, who for our sins art justly wroth? * Holy God, holy mighty one, holy and merciful Savior, hand us not over to bitter death.
V. Cast us not way in the time of our old age, when our strength shall fail, forsake us not, o Lord. Holy God.
V. Close not Thy ears to our prayers. Holy mighty one.
V. Who knowest the secrets of the heart, show mercy to our sins. Holy and merciful Savior, hand us not over to bitter death.

Many composers have put their hand to this text; one of the finest versions of it is the setting by the Franco-flemish composer Nicolas Gombert. (1495-1560 ca.)

Photos of the Mass of Lyon

March 15, 2018, 7:31 pm

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We recently shared a brief video of part of the Lyonais Mass, offered by Fr Brice Meissonier at the Collegiate Church of St Just, the home of the FSSP apostolate in Lyon. The Facebook page of FSSP Lyon has recently posted several photos which illustrate some of the other proper customs of the Use of Lyon. Our thanks for their permission to reproduce them here on NLM, and our congratulations to them for their valuable efforts to preserve this beautiful tradition. Multa renascnetur quae jam cecidere!

The amice is worn over the alb.

Ash colored vestments (couleur cendrée) are worn on the ferias of Lent.

At the Offertory, the celebrant places the host on the paten; stretching out his hands, he says “Dixit Jesus discipulis suis: Ego sum panis vivus, qui de caelo descendi. Si quis manducaverit ex hoc
pane, vivet in aeternum. Jesus said to His disciples: I am the bread of life. If anyone shall eat of this bread, he shall live forever.” He then makes the sign of the cross in silence.

05 After preparing the chalice at the right side of the altar, the celebrant puts the paten with the host on the chalice, and makes the sign of the Cross over them in silence.

He then lifts them together to chin level, saying “Hanc oblationem, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut placatus accipias, et omnium offeréntium, et eorum pro quibus tibi offértur, peccata indulge. - We ask Thee, almighty God, that Thou may peaceably receive this offering, and forgive the sins of all that offer it to Thee, and of those on whose behalf it is offered to Thee.”

Lifting them up to eye level, he says the prayer “In spiritu humilitatis.”

He then covers them both with the large Lyonais corporal, which serves as both corporal and pall together.

As in many medieval Uses, after the consecration of the chalice, the celebrant extends his arms in the form of a Cross for the “Unde et memores.”

At “Supplices te rogamus”, he bows deeply and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

At “Domine non sum dignus.”

The main altar has behind it a table called in French “l’autel de l’administration - the altar of administration (or ‘service’)”. At a solemn Mass, after the Epistle has been sung, the bread and wine are prepared here by the deacon, with the subdeacon assisting.

Here we see it set up for the Pontifical Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Cathedral of Lyon in 1934. (From this post by Shawn published in 2010.)

Lenten Mission at Holy Innocents in New York City

March 16, 2018, 5:00 am

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The church of the Holy Innocents In New York City will have a Lenten Parish Mission from Monday March 19 to Wednesday, March 21, during the 6 pm Latin Mass, to be preached by Fr Joseph Tuscan, OFM Cap. There will be the opportunity, for all those who attend each evening of the Mission, to gain a Plenary Indulgence. Confessions will be heard after Holy Mass.

The theme of the Mission will be: Saints of the Church; models and methods for overcoming sin & division.
1) Monday – Blessed Solanus Casey; overcoming patterns of personal sin and healing of division.
2) Tuesday – Saint Padre Pio; forgiveness and healing in families and the sacrament of reconciliation.
3) Wednesday – The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Eucharist (with special blessing to impart the plenary indulgence).

Fr. Joseph entered Borromeo College Seminary in 1986 where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Sciences in 1989. In 1990, he professed his first vows as a Capuchin friar, and perpetual vows in 1993, going on to earn his Master’s degree in Theology at the Washington Theological Union in 1995; he was ordained to the priesthood in 1997. His first assignment after ordination was on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea, where he served for four years. Since returning to the US in 2001, he has served in various capacities as parochial vicar, military and hospital chaplain, and Pastor. Most recently, he worked with the friars in the Custody of Puerto Rico and currently serves as a full-time Minister of the Word and Evangelization, offering retreats and reflection days for parishes, religious and priests.

What is the point of a parish mission? Are parish missions necessary? Who benefits from parish missions?

A mission is an opportunity for a parish to experience in a heightened and intense way spiritual services, sermons, and Sacraments focusing on the major themes of our Faith. We all know of parishes where we can find people who habitually neglect Mass on Sunday and on feasts of obligation, even though they could go without any difficulty. Such people, if they go to their annual confession, manifest some kind of sorrow when questioned about this point, and promise to amend. Yet, after having attended Mass twice or three times, miss it again the same as before. Next year they make the same promises, and the same relapses follow.

In these cases, only the plain (but forcible) exposition of the evil of sin and its terrible consequences on the one hand, and the reflection on the mercy and goodness of God on the other, made by experienced missionaries who have experience in dealing with such cases, can make an irresistible impression upon their perverted hearts. Only a good parish mission may be able to bring these souls back to God.

The benefits that grow from parish missions in Christ’s vineyard cannot easily be overestimated. Parish missions are times of extraordinary grace in which the kingdom of God is re-established in the hearts of the faithful, sinners are restored to God’s friendship, tepid souls are re-animated to a life of fervor, and the righteous are encouraged in their efforts to aim at still greater perfection. In a word, a mission well-made destroys the kingdom of Satan, purifies and renovates the parish, and glorifies the Church of God.

With good parish missions, the better portion of the parishioners are strengthened in their faith; they learn to appreciate their religion in greater measure and to practice it more cheerfully; and they are put on their guard against dangers that threaten them at the present, or may rise up against them in the future. The weaker portion of the congregation is animated to greater fervor; the wayward are brought back; the erring are enlightened; the ignorant are instructed; and all classes of sinners are brought to repentance and to true reconciliation with God and His Church.

Roman Pilgrims at the Station Churches 2018 (Part 7)

March 16, 2018, 11:09 am

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The Lenten Station Masses held in the evenings by the Vicariate of Rome are often preceeded by a procession, and accompanied by the exposition of relics; today’s post has some especially good examples of both. Every year, Agnese manages to catch a few particularly good photos of the processions going through one of the cloisters, as we see below at the church of the Four Crowned Martyrs and at San Lorenzo in Damaso.

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent - The Four Crowned Martyrs

The church is reached though a series of three courtyards, which give it the appearance of a fortress; they built in front of the building to serve as a place of refuge for the Pope and Cardinals during the many political disturbances which Rome saw in the later 11th century, and throughout the 12th.

Procession though the cloister - nice work, Agnese!

From Fr Alek: a fresco of the titular Saints in one of the courtyards. The Four Crowned Martyrs are traditionally said to have been stone cutters who were martyred when they refused to make idols for the enormous palace built by Diocletian at Spalatum in Dalmatia; the entire medieval city of Split in modern Croatia was enclosed inside the walls of this palace. They have long been honored as the patron Saints of sculptors and stone-cutters, as noted in the inscription of the chapel door.

Two relics set on the balustrade of the church’s sanctuary for the feast day.

The Last Judgment, depicted on the exit wall of the chapel of St Sylvester. This chapel was built as a place of refuge where the cardinals could elect a new Pope, safely enclosed within the fortress-like constructions around the church, in case political disturbances should make the Lateran a dangerous or impractical place to hold a conclave. (It was never put to this purpose.) In the upper left hand part, note the very literal representation of St John’s words from the Apocalypse, 6, 12-14, “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood: And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind: and the heaven departed as a book folded up.” Below are shown episodes from the legend of Constantine and Pope St Sylvester I.

Tuesday of the Fourth Week - San Lorenzo in Damaso

This church is nicknamed for the Pope who founded it, St Damasus I (366-384), in honor of St Lawrence, who has more churches dedicated to him in Rome than do Ss Peter and Paul. It was rebuilt in the 1ater 15th-century, in such a way that it is almost completely enclosed by the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the Papal chancery building; the procession before the Mass is held within the Cancelleria’s courtyard.

Memento mori! (From Fr Alek)

Wednesday of the Fourth Week - St Paul Outside-the-Walls

These are all from Fr Alek: mosaic on the façade of Christ with Ss Peter and Paul

Statue of St Paul in the large colonnaded courtyard in front of the basilica.

This baldachin over the high altar was made in 1285 by Arnolfo di Cambio, more famous as the first architect of the cathedral of Florence. When the ancient church of St Paul burnt down in 1823, this was one of the very parts of it that survived.

The apsidal mosaic was also mostly spared damage from the fire of 1823. It was executed in the reign of Pope Honorius III (1216-27), who is shown as a tiny figure in white kissing the foot of Christ. Next to St Paul on the left is St Luke, who was of course his companion during some of his missions; on the right, St Peter is joined by his brother St Andrew.

The capitals are decorated withthe head of St Paul, where there would normally be a flower.

Thursday of the Fourth Week - San Martino ai Monti (Ss Sylvester and Martin)

An inscription recording the very large number of Saints who relics were transferred from the catacombs into this church in the early Middle Ages.

From Fr Alek: St Martin shares his cloak with the beggar.

Pope St Sylvester I, who shares the dedication of the church with St Martin, since they were the first two Confessors to be widely venerated as Saints in the West.