Quantcast
Channel: New Liturgical Movement
Viewing all 8535 articles
Browse latest View live

Why Create New Art or Music When There's Plenty of Good Old Stuff Around?

0
0

For me a living tradition in art (and the argument would apply equally to music), is not simply one that preserves and hands on the great work past, it is one also that reapplies its core principles to create new art or music. But one might ask, why bother? With the standard of reproductions in art now, you could have a Fra Angelico in your church at a fraction of a cost of commissioning an original work of art. Similarly, there is so much chant and polyphony already composed, you could have something different but of the highest quality every Sunday for several lifetimes.

Here's why I think it is important. First is variety. It just seems a terrible shame to think of any tradition being a closed door in which there is no possibility of something new. For all that we have much to draw from already, to see how mankind under inspiration can still create something previously unimagined is a wonderful thing. The seemingly limitless variety that is possible, points, I think to the limitless well of grace that is the ultimate source of that inspiration.

Second is that we need new expressions in order to attract more people. All the artistic traditions of the Church reflect timeless principles and so have something within them to which every person, potentially, can respond. Traditional chant and polyphony, or great art even in reproduction or original but pastiche, still has the power to touch many people and draw them into the Faith. The timeless principles that unite all good art and music will always have an effect. I speak from personal experience: I was bowled over by my experience of hearing Palestrina at the London Oratory. With a live performance in unity with liturgy, this was old music, but still fresh and new to my ear.

Nevertheless, a living tradition will be one in which there are artists and composers who are constantly creating new work, without ever compromising on the core principles that define it. In doing so it will reflect and speak to its time and its place in a unique way. When the timeless and the time-bound aspects are in harmony, you have the most powerful effect. When this harmony is present it will appeal to most people. For many, I believe, it will stimulate into life that part that that can respond potentially to all other traditional forms. Once this is done then there is every chance that many who previously would have been unaffected by centuries old chant or polyphony will now respond. This is the special value of 'new traditional' art and music.

If there is an imbalance in the timeless and time-bound aspects (or just a poor attempt at both), you risk creating pastiche on the one hand, or sentimental imitations of modern secular fashion on the other. Iconography demonstrates this perfectly. Aidan Hart, my teacher always says that those who understand iconography well can look at any icon without knowing anything about it, place to a particular geographical location and to a time period within 50-100 years. What is changing here is not the principles that define the tradition - these never waver; but how they are applied. This is how, for example, we can distinguish between Russian icons and Greek icons and within the Russian style Gregory Kroug and Andrei Rublev.

Sometimes the modern expression is not something never seen before, but a re-emergence of an old style, that has its time again. Fra Angelico is an artist who seems to be liked a great deal at the moment, and so any artist who could capture the qualities of his art would do well I think. Having said this, however closely we follow a past form, that time-bound aspect will never be absent altogether. Each artist is a unique individual and even the most cloistered monk will susceptible to the culture of his day. This individual aspect of the work cannot be quashed altogether. The task for the artist, or composer, is to direct it so that it conforms to what is good, true and beautiful. To certain extent this will be an intuitive process but creativity is directed by conscious reason as well. When the artist is responding to a clearly defined need then this latter aspect comes into play particularly.

I think the music of composer Paul Jernberg does this. You can hear is music here. We have been collaborating in developing music for the liturgy of the hours at Thomas More College for the last year and we will be working together at the summer retreat at the college in August where the aim is to teach people how to sing it. What is so great about this is first, how appealing it is and second how easy it is to sing at a satisfying level. This is what the ideal of noble simplicity is all about.

Here's another example. We had a priest who visited regularly and even if celebrating a Novus Ordo would always lead us in reciting the St Michael prayer after Mass. He used to turn to the tabernacle as he said it. I thought that it would be great if we had an image to focus on, so I painted one for the back wall. Then I then asked Paul if he could come up with an arrangement so that we could sing the prayer. Very quickly he adapted a traditional Byzantine tone to it. In this case there is minimal change musically, because he felt it didn't need it.

This arrangement has been very popular. The students have picked up on it and completely on their own instigation now sing it in four-parts harmony every night after Compline. Dr William Fahey has asked that we sing it after each Mass in response to the attacks on the Church in connection with the new healthcare legislation. Dr Tom Larson, who teaches the choir at the college is so enthusiastic about it that took this up to his men's group in Manchester, New Hampshire. Within 15 minutes they learnt it and enjoying it so much they decided to record it on a mobile phone. Next day it was up on YouTube, and this is what you see here. As you listen to it remember that this is a cell-phone recording of an amateur choir of 5 men of varying ability (including myself on bass - right at the bottom in more ways than one) singing it virtually unrehearsed.

Paul Jernerg has just been made Composer in Residence at Thomas More College. He will be composing music for us to showcase and visiting to give master classes in performance and for those who have the ability, composition. One of the things we have asked him to do is to compose a Vespers of St Michael the Archangel and I can't wait to hear it.





16th Sunday, Simple English Propers

0
0

In most parishes, people will sing songs of some sort. At a growing number of parishes, you will heard the actually words of the liturgy sung with Gregorian modes.





New Calvary Chapel at the London Oratory

0
0

This past Friday, the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, the Most Reverend Archbishop Antonio Mennini, visited the London Oratory for the purpose of the blessing of the new Calvary Chapel, which has recently been installed in the Oratory church.

As part of the new chapel, we find sculptures of Christ on the Cross, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist, all work of the Spanish sculptor Darío Fernández of Seville.

You can read more about the event on the Oratory website (see link above) and here too is Fr. Anthony Symondson's piece on the same subject.

* * *

NEW CALVARY, BROMPTON ORATORY
by Fr. Anthony Symondson SJ



English converts once equated the Church with Baroque Catholicism. This impression was fostered by the Oratory of St Philip Neri, brought to Britain at Birmingham by Blessed John Henry Newman in 1848. In 1852 Fr F. W. Faber bought a plot of land in Brompton, then a semi-rural western suburb of London, and established the London Oratory. Earlier, when he had appalled Pugin as much as the Protestant Establishment by turning a dance hall at King William Street, Charing Cross, into a Classical Chapel richly embellished with Italianate church art, he brought full-blooded Continental Catholicism to London.

Second only to the Gothic Jesuit church in Farm Street, Mayfair (where converts imbibed Baroque spirituality), Brompton Oratory, as it is popularly, if erroneously, known, became a Mecca for rich and influential Victorian converts, and Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, became a principle benefactor. This is reflected in the Northern Italian Baroque grandeur of Herbert Gribble’s great church, started in 1874 and sumptuously furnished with new and original Baroque furniture and sculpture, vestments and altar plate.

The Northern Italian character of the Oratory church has remained consistent until modern times. This has, however, been significantly broken by the installation of a new Calvary group with figures of Our Lady and St John, in the Spanish Baroque style, set within the chapel of Blessed John Henry Newman, situated beneath the organ gallery in the south aisle, behind the life-size, seated figure of St Peter. Traditionally this has been the place where a Calvary has been placed since the church was built but a fire in the 1950s destroyed the original crucifix and it was replaced by an austere substitute. The new chapel provided an opportunity to commission a new Calvary.

One of the principle art exhibitions in London in 2009-10 was the landmark The Sacred Made Real at the National Gallery of naturalistic Spanish sculpture and painting executed between 1600 and 1700. It presented a quest for realism of uncompromising zeal and genius which shocked the senses and stirred the soul as no other exhibition bar that of Southern German Rococo art mounted at the Royal Academy soon after the Second World War. Attending the exhibition was a religious as well as an aesthetic experience and one could not fail to notice the devotion and reverence of many Catholic visitors in the presence of these polychromatic (meaning many-coloured because they were painted) masterpieces. These works brought people to their knees and tears to their eyes, so affecting was their spiritual power.

The Sacred Made Real exhibition was mounted by Xavier Bray, the Senior Curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and a leading authority in Spanish Baroque art, and the Oratorians consulted him about commissioning the new Calvary at Brompton. A notable exhibit was a partly-executed modern Spanish Baroque figure of St John of the Cross made to show visitors the processes that went into making these images. This was executed by Darío Fernández, a young Spanish imaginero from Seville who continues to carve in the Baroque manner. His work is influenced by Juan de Mesa and Juan Martines Montañéz, the greatest Spanish Baroque sculptors. The sculpture and subdued painted surfaces, softened by varnish, of the Calvary are combined with spectacular force as good as the originals. When completed, it created a sensation when it was exhibited in Seville town hall.

In the classic Baroque style, the focus is on the person of Christ and the saints. The heightened realism of this group may shock because nothing like it has been done in this country for quite 100 years. That quality is intensified by the angular folds of the clothing of the figures which provide additional drive and vigour as well as depth of shadow. But is this merely religious kitsch or, still more, pastiche? Some critics regarded The Sacred Made Real exhibition as the grandfather of kitsch because of its lifelike, exaggerated fervour. But kitsch means worthless and pretentious and neither could be said of this Calvary group which is instinct with naturalistic religious feeling. Nor is it pastiche because it is part of a living sculptural tradition that uses the Baroque language of art which is indigenous in southern Spain. Its realism is the realism of the Gospels or the imaginative intensity of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola that had a powerful influence on Spanish Baroque art.

The group is contained within a niche on the left of the chapel and the background is delicately painted on canvas with a distant view of Jerusalem flanked by trees beneath a clouded sky, executed by Alan Dodd, a muralist. Dodd has restored and decorated many of the noblest rooms and interiors in the country, often in trompe l’oeil, but here he has subordinated his work to the peace and strength of Fernandez’s Calvary and both are complementary. In this softly-lit, understated way polychromatic sculpture and painting are unified as a whole within an architectural setting.

Currently, major commissions for art are rare in Catholic church architecture in Britain. Exceptions are commissions for mosaics in Westminster Cathedral and the recent exemplary restoration of St Patrick’s, Soho. In recent years the Oratorians have made significant new additions to their London church and this Calvary group marks a milestone for being inspired by an outstanding exhibition and for maintaining the artistic tradition illuminated by it. It exemplifies the Holy Father’s emphasis on traditional Catholic art. Not only is the Calvary a work of art but also a powerful aid to devotion.



Fifth Anniversary Mass, San Tommaso Apostolo, Dolcedo, Italy

0
0

Don Emanuele Caccia of the diocese of Albenga Imperia celebrated the 5th anniversary of his priestly ordination with a Mass in the usus antiquior on Saturday at the church of San Tommaso Apostolo in Dolcedo

Attending the anniversary Mass and giving the homily was Monsignor Giorgio Brancaleoni, the vicar general of the diocese of Albenga Imperia.










Details: Cecchini Chasuble

0
0

Detail from chasuble showing the arms of the Roman-born Domenico Cardinal Cecchini (1589-1656), Cardinal Deacon of S. Sisto


Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, East Harlem, New York

0
0

A reader sends in photos of a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Harlem, New York, on Saturday, July 21.








Dominican Rite in Columbus, Ohio

0
0

One of our Dominican readers let us know of the following event taking place in Columbus, Ohio on August 4th, the celebration of the Dominican rite (Missa Canata) at St. Patrick's Church. The announcement may also be read on the website of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph:

In the wake of a very fruitful celebration this past March of St. Thomas Aquinas’s feast, with a Dominican Rite Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City, the Dominican Friars at St. Patrick’s in Columbus, OH are happy to announce the celebration of the Solemnity of Holy Father Dominic with a Missa Cantata, celebrated according to the Dominican Rite, on Saturday, August 4th at 10:30 AM. In the old calendar of the Mass, the Solemnity of Our Holy Father Dominic fell on August 4.

The Dominican Order has long maintained its own liturgical rite, mostly unchanged since its adoption in the middle ages. With the Missal of Pope Paul VI, the Order largely set aside its own liturgical rite in favor of the new Roman Rite, although retaining the right to celebrate it. However, with the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae, the Holy Father has now given broad permission to all Dominican priests to celebrate the Mass according to the Dominican Rite, as it existed before the Second Vatican Council. It is, in a sense, the ‘extraordinary form’ for the Dominican Order. For more information on the Dominican Rite, see the special section in this website.

This Mass is open to the public.

Might I encourage any readers who are within striking distance of Columbus to consider attending, showing your support for the Dominican rite and, beyond that, support for the broader liturgical patrimony of the Latin rite? Of course, it is also a wonderful opportunity to see a liturgical form that one might not get to see as readily as the Roman rite.


* * *







Patriarch of Lisbon

0
0

It has been a little while since we have shown our readers any archival photographs of liturgical ceremonial, and so I thought I would share these showing the Patriarch of Lisbon.



Amongst the items of interest here are the use of the flabella (which many will recognize from papal ceremonial of old, as well as the Dominican rite -- to namely only two such instances), and some of you may notice the rather "tiara" or "triregnum" like look given to the mitre worn by the patriarch. For a bit more on some of what surrounds this, interested readers may like to travel all the way back to a post published on here in 2006 by Matt Alderman, Curiosities of the Tiara.

Clonfert Diocesan Museum: Treasure Trove of Liturgical Arts

0
0
[The following short piece was sent into us by the author, Mr. William Thomas. Readers of course know my own interest in showing vestments of various stripes and forms, including those which are in someway tied to the traditional vestment arts, but which also show a certain uniqueness or rarity. These particular vestments struck me as falling into this sort of category. The black vestments because of its particular history and the use of a bee motif, and the green because of its adoption of certain Celtic design elements.]

* * *

A Treasure Trove of Liturgical Vestments
The Clonfert Diocesan Museum Loughrea, Galway Ireland

by William A. Thomas


There are many liturgical treasures still to be found around the world, but few would be as impressive as the treasure trove of liturgical vestments dating back centuries, which are to be found in the museum belonging to the Clonfert Diocese in Loughrea County Galway, on the West Coast of Ireland.

Among the many vestments one stands out for both its liturgical use and historical significance. Known as the Napoleon III ‘Requiem Mass set’ these vestments are made of water silk and consists of a cope, chasuble, dalmatic, tunic, stoles, and maniples.


The set is decorated with silver purling braid, and display the Napoleonic ‘bee’ motif. This set was presented to Father William Manning PP of the Aughrim County Galway parish, in 1858, on behalf of the Emperor Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, so that a solemn requiem High Mass might be said for the happy repose of the souls of the French soldiers who died there at the “Battle of Aughrim” on the Sunday the 12th of July 1691. Some 7,000 men died on that day, with French fighting French, while an array of others from England, Denmark, Dutch and Scottish troops made up two armies, one called the Jacobites while the others were known as the Williamite forces. One of the personal chaplains of the Emperor, M. L’Abbe Cruise of Paris was present in 1858 for the presentation, as he had some family connections in Ballinasloe.

Some of the chasubles here go back as far as the late 15th century; with some coming from England while others are French, Spanish, Italian, and Irish.


Some of the most remarkable exhibits of the collection are the altar missals. These are very rare books and include the Incunabulum Missal of 1470, the Folio Missal in white sheep-skin binding, of Paris 1652, the large Quarto Missal of Lyons, 1721 and the Octavo Missal of 1840.

There are also a large collection of chalices, some gold, and others silver. The ‘Matheus Macraith’ chalice is solid gold and dates back to 1500, while the others come from that time onward to the present time.

Further information from Clonfert Diocese: www.loughreacathedral.ie

Student Design for a Proposed Benedictine Monastery

0
0

One of our readers, George Logusch, a graduate student from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, sent in some watercolours and drawings of a project he worked on under Thomas Gordon Smith in the spring of this year, which is a "proposed refounding of an existing Benedictine Monastery located in Morristown, NJ."







Drawings copyright George Logusch

A Reader Challenge (Readers in Spain Take Particular Note)

0
0

I know that many of our readers are interested in older historical photographs and video of the sacred liturgy. Over the years we have presented a number of such things, including some rather rare glimpses of some of the other Western liturgical uses. We have shown images and video from the Pontifical Lyonese liturgy, the Carthusian liturgy, we have shown rare views of the Solemn Papal Mass, video of the Carmelite liturgy so on and so forth.

However, one thing we have never yet shown -- indeed, I have never once run across such a thing -- are historical images or video of the pre-conciliar Mozarabic liturgy -- which would evidently be very rare given the rarity of that form of the liturgy itself.

So then, a challenge to our readers, particularly those of our readers who may be in the area of Toledo, can you come up with such?

Sacred Liturgy (OF, EF, Divine Office), Fr. Aidan Nichols Feature at Australian Catholic Students Conference

0
0

As always, NLM is very interested in liturgical activities involving both forms of the Roman liturgy, especially when this also includes the Divine Office. When one further places this within the context of the Catholic academia, all the better. Accordingly, we were quite interested to receive the following from the Australian Catholic Student's Association (ACSA) -- with NLM emphases:

From Friday July 6th to Sunday July 8th, the Australian Catholic Students Association (ACSA), held its annual conference in the City of Melbourne, Australia. The Conference was held at Queens College, a residential college of the University of Melbourne. The conference was entitled Defending Human Dignity and Fr Aidan Nichols OP was the invited international speaker.

“ACSA with an appreciation and understanding of the full worth of the Sacred liturgy as described by the Church, desires to have its liturgies celebrated with dignity and in accordance with the mind of the Church, particular under the light of the Second Vatican council’s document Sacrosanctum Concilium.” (ACSA Liturgical Guidelines)

The liturgical life of the conference consisted of three celebrations of Holy Mass, three celebrations of the Divine Office and an all-night vigil of adoration.

The Opening Mass was a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit, Missa Cantata, celebrated by Fr Glen Tattersall, chaplain of the Catholic Community of Bl. John Henry Newman and diocesan priest of Archdiocese of Melbourne. The Mass was celebrated at Queens College Chapel. The day was closed by a solemn period of adoration, benediction and then Compline, after which the Sacrament was left exposed for all-night adoration.

Saturday began with Lauds celebrated in Queens College chapel. The Mass of the day was celebrated in the ordinary form by Fr Aidan Nichols OP at Newman College Chapel, likewise another Melbourne University College. It was a votive Mass of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, the Patroness of ACSA. The Mass was celebrated solemnly with all the propers chanted by the Schola of Corpus Christi Seminary, of the Archdiocese of Melbourne and most of the Mass was chanted by the respective ministers. Ad orientem was the chosen position of the Mass. Fr Simon Ckuj, a priest of the Ukrainian Eparch of Australia preached and acted as the principle concelebrant along with Fr Gregory Jordan SJ, ACSA’s national Chaplain.

Sunday also began with a celebration of Lauds in Queens College chapel. The closing Mass of the conference was celebrated in the ordinary form, by Fr Gregory Jordan SJ, at Sacred Heart Church, Carlton, which is attached to Corpus Christi Seminary. This Mass was celebrated Versus Populum, The propers of the Sunday were chanted and the schola was conducted by Mr. Richard Lyons, who earlier that morning was elected with an overwhelming number of votes as the new President of ACSA.

Here are some photos from the weekends events:



Change in the World of Catholic Music

0
0

I am receiving wonderful reports from the annual meeting of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. There is more talk of chant, more emphasis on Mass propers, a greater degree of willingness to rethink prevailing practices. Books published by the Church Music Association of America are being discussed and debated, and there is growing talk of what it means to draw the ordinary form experience closer to the extraordinary form.

This event comes in the wake of the CMAA's own annual colloquium, which was an amazing success in every way. Somehow it seems that something gigantic and momentous is taken place in the world of Catholic music. After so many years, when enthusiasts, scholars, and dedicated musicians have worked to push the rock uphill, against all odds, there’s a new momentum out there, much to everyone’s surprise and relief. The rock is now rolling downhill. It is an energy that is broad, diffuse, and unquestionably authentic. The sacred music movement is set to define the future of Catholic music.

It probably doesn’t seem that way in your parish, not yet. But the times are changing. The ground has shifted. Scholas are starting everywhere today, parish by parish. They are using music that is both free online and sold in beautiful editions. These editions are most published just in the last two or three years. They are mostly published by institutions that have virtually no funding at all, and have either few employees or none. But the power of the idea (sing the liturgy) and the beauty of the liturgical song they embody is making converts by the day.

The Sacred Music Colloquium was held in Salt Lake City, where you will find the Cathedral of the Madeleine, which, to everyone’s shock, turns out to be the home to the best Catholic choir in America. Salt Lake City is probably the last place you would expect to find such a thing but such is the way the reform is turning out: there are delightful surprises around every corner.

When the conference director (Arlene Oost-Zinner) of the Church Music Association of America suggested shifting the annual event from the East Coast to the West, one could detect some degree of skepticism. Nothing like this had ever been tried before. It was a highly risky step for an organizing that is always one small step away from bankruptcy. But look what happened: the conference filled up to capacity (270) weeks ahead and we ended up having to turn people away.

And this was certainly the happiest group of campers I’ve ever seen at the Colloquium. They came from all regions. All ages were represented. There was a nice balance of new singers and professional musicians. They practically floated through the week. The faculty was varied and massive, as never before. More priests were in attendance than ever. The liturgical program was more spectacular than ever.

And the breakouts were amazing. We had sessions on English chant, hymnody, sight singing, vocal production, organ repertoire, chant typesetting, parish administration, and so much more. People left each session with high praise for the teacher and the learning environment. Also, the book that we brought all sold, with an English psalm book (again by Oost-Zinner) and a book for chant for kids (Words with Wings) topping the bestseller charts. Also, of course, all the official music books of the Roman Rite sold well.

We tried a new method for dividing up the chant choirs. We used to do beginning, intermediate, and advanced, but this approach didn’t quite achieve the goal. This year we had two beginning classes, two refresher classes, and two performance scholas that prepared nearly all the music for Mass. In addition, we had two master classes that delved very deeply into the scholarship of the oldest manuscripts, all in an effort to bring more sophistication to chant performance.

I gave a four-part lecture series on the history of sacred music in the United States, based on all my reading and research over the years. I set out to debunk two main myths that are in the air: 1) that all our problems began after the close of Vatican II, and 2) all the problems we face are due to liberal hippies who hate the classics. Once dispensing with those two ideas, we can begin to confront the complex realities of how we ended up in the awful state that we’ve seen for decades, and then, as a result, see that there is a way out of the mess.

The pathway forward is not as foggy as it once was. We finally have liturgical books that we can sing from, primarily the third edition of the Roman Missal, plus books of chanted propers that have recently become available. We are finally seeing hymnals come to print that are actually related to the liturgy itself and not just providing pop music that is external to the rite. Each year the number of people who are interested in making a change grows, and they are learning from other people who have traveled the same path.

In my sessions and many others, there was frank talk about the difficulties of making the transition at the parish level. There are few singers. There is no money. Pastors are afraid of change. Every change inspires some level of resistance from a small pocket of people. We spoke about all of these problems, and offers solutions from our own experiences. Also, this kind of exchange and learning continues daily at the musicasacra.com forums, where members offer each other helpful advise and guidance.

There are too many people who were involved in making this event a great success to name them all. But certainly the Cathedral staff and Gregory Glenn deserve high mention here. What they have done in this city is just spectacular, and they supported the Colloquium in every way. There is a movie soon to come out about their efforts. It’s called “The Choir.” We saw an early screening of it. It was so excellent that it will surely inspired the creation of other choir schools around the country.

I should also mention the contribution of Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, who has provided so much guidance, the brilliant leadership of William Mahrt, and the inspiration provided by Fr. Guy Nicholls of the Birmingham Oratory. Again, it’s dangerous to name names because so many people were involved, not the least of whom were the many attendees who scrimped and saved to raise the money to attend.

So here we have it, a movement with energy, enthusiasm, deep knowledge, true love for the beautiful, and all rooted in a genuine desire to do what the Church intends. There is just nothing else like it out there. This is truly the future, and that future could arrive much sooner than you think.

Details: 19th Century Staffordshire Chasuble

0
0

Detail from an 19th-century chasuble made by the Dominican sisters at Stone, Staffordshire.
Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP.

Newly Ordained Jesuit's First EF Mass

0
0

A reader sends in the following news:


Fr. William V. Blazek, S.J., newly ordained for the Jesuit Chicago-Detroit province, celebrated his first Solemn High Mass (Extraordinary Form) on June 24 (Nativity of St. John the Baptist) at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton, MA. Serving as deacon was Fr. Charles J. Higgins of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor of Mary Immaculate of Lourdes. Serving as sub-deacon was Fr. John Rizzo, FSSP, visiting from his assignment in Australia.

The music for the Mass included Mozart's Missa Brevis in C KV 220 ("Spatzenmesse") and full Gregorian chant propers.

Our congratulations go out to Fr. Blazek. Here are some photos from the happy event:









For more photos:
www.flickr.com/photos/maryblessedmother/
http://dominenonsumdignus.minus.com/mtkwBkXaS/1g

Recently Completed Sacred Art

0
0

Here are two recently completed works of my own. The first is my own version of a Western iconography. It is Christ in Majesty and will go into the chapel at Thomas More College in Merrimack. I have created the basic design on a Romanesque illuminated manuscript. Christ is enthroned in heaven in glory, surrounded by the six winged seraphim and the four angels representing the four evangelists take the Word to the four corners of the world. In considering how to do this, I felt that in this the figure's sitting pose in the original is too unnatural and primitive for the modern eye. So I looked to the 20th century Russian iconographer, Gregory Kroug for the basis of the central figure. Kroug is interesting to study. Although the form is highly stylised, he was a very skilled draughtsman who placed the relative positions of limbs and torso accurately to reflect the gesture he wanted to show. The third inspiration for me is a 16th century Christ in Majesty that I saw at the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts in which the six winged seraphim who surround the throne are portrayed in monochrome in a deep green background. And finally, the face is my own style, but heavily influenced by my teacher, Aidan Hart, the British iconographer. I started this painting over the Christmas break and finished it in early May. The panel upon which it is painted is about six feet long.

The second is an icon of St Victoria. I chose this subject because I painted it to give to a friend for the baptism of her baby daughter, Victoria. It is much smaller, about 10 inches long and painted on good quality watercolour paper. This took me about eight hours to paint. St Victoria according to the source I read, died in 304 and lived in Italy. When she refused marriage and to sacrifice to pagan gods because of her faith, she was martyred (that is why she is holding a cross in the icon). The guard converted because of her witness to the faith and was himself martyred.

It is interesting to not that my source makes two observations. First is that very little is known about her life, and secondly that the story that we do have is 'probably a pious myth, though they did actually live'. I would love know why this final comment is made. I might be wrong, but the word 'probably' makes this sound like the historical-critical method at work to me. Historical-critical analysis is an overly skeptical form of analysis that assumes that something is untrue unless confirmed by historical evidence. So by this method, the main source of this information, which is tradition, is not accepted as a valid source of information. I prefer to work the other way around and assume that tradition is true unless proven otherwise. So in the absence of any other information I say wholeheartedly, St Victoria pray for us!





Statement by the U.S. Ordinariate Around the Extraordinary Form

0
0

Very recently there has been some debate and controversy around some positions attributed to the Ordinary of the American Ordinariate, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson. Particularly, the question circulates around his positions concerning the usus antiquior and those attached to it.

Accordingly, I (and no doubt others) wrote the U.S. Ordinariate asking if they had comment or statement they wished to issue around this matter. The following statement was issued on Sunday:

The Liturgy of the Ordinariate and the Latin Mass


In response to certain questions that have been asked about the use of the Latin Mass in its Extraordinary Form in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary, issued this statement:

"We rejoice in the liturgical richness of the Catholic Church. We in the Anglican tradition certainly welcome the Holy Father's concern that the Mass be understood as a living, continuous tradition. The communio sanctorum compels us to read and engage with the Church's tradition with a hermeneutic of continuity.

"The particular mission of the Ordinariate is to bring into the fuller life of the Catholic Church those enduring elements of the Anglican liturgical patrimony which are oriented to Catholic truth. This liturgical identity seeks to balance two historic principles -- that Christian prayer and proclamation should be offered in the vernacular and that the language of worship should be sacral. This is what Anglicans understand when they speak of the prayer book tradition.

"The liturgy of the Ordinariate is superintended by an inter-dicasterial working group (of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW)). At the time the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was established, the CDW provided important guidance for our liturgical use: The Book of Divine Worship Rite I should be amended to bring it into conformity with the Roman Missal 3rd edition, particularly the words of Consecration. For those congregations that prefer a contemporary idiom, the Roman Missal 3rd edition could be used.

"We have therefore asked that the congregations of the Ordinariate follow this direction. Some of our clergy want to learn also how to celebrate according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. They are certainly encouraged to do so, under the provisions of Summorum Pontificum and under the supervision of the local bishop, to assist in those stable communities that use the Extraordinary Form. But as the Extrordinary Form is not integral to the Anglican patrimony, it is not properly used in our communities. The Ordinariate will remain focused on bringing Christians in the Anglican tradition into full communion with the Catholic Church. We also are pleased that the Church has provided for the continuing use of the Extraordinary Form, particularly as a pastoral response to traditional Catholics, and regard all of this as a well-ordered symphony of praise to the Blessed Trinity."

Source: www.usordinariate.org/on_the_latin_mass.html

The "Lundberry Cope"

0
0

One of our readers, seeing one of our "details" series which showed a detail of a chasuble embroidered by the Dominican Sisters of the Stone Convent in Staffordshire, sends in the following bit of information and photos which has a relation to the same. First, the background:

The exquisite Lundberry cope was executed and superbly embroidered by Dominican Sisters at St Dominic’s Priory in North Adelaide, South Australia, in 1906. The priory was founded from the Stone convent in 1883.

The cope was designed by one of the founding community, Mother Francis Philomena Ullathorne OP, niece of William Bernard Ullathorne OSB, Archbishop Birmingham, England, and reveals her considerable artistic talents. The series of eight embroidered rectangular compartments on the orphreys contain within trefoiled arches Saints Antoninus, Raymond, Augustine, Rose of Lima, Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas, Francis and Vincent. On the hood is a representation of St Dominic, attended by Pope Honorius III, receiving the rosary from the Blessed Virgin, enthroned and with the Christ Child on her knee.

The excellence of the skills involved is revealed in the extraordinary amount of minute multi-coloured detail on the orphreys.

Here then, are the photos provided of the Lundberry Cope:




Ciborium of the Duomo di Sant'Emidio, Ascoli Piceno, Italy

Charlotte: Solemn Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate

0
0

By way of the Momentum Studio, I came across the following photos of the celebration of the Feast of St. Anne at St. Anne Parish in Charlotte; a Solemn Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate. (For those who are interested in these ceremonies and do not own a copy of Fortescue, you may find a brief description of some of these ceremonies here.)







Viewing all 8535 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images