Quantcast
Channel: New Liturgical Movement
Viewing all 8539 articles
Browse latest View live

Why Developing the Skill of Drawing Is So Necessary for the Artist - And Where You Can Learn to Do It Well

0
0
All figurative Christian art, and especially sacred art, is a balance between natural appearances and idealisation. Idealisation is the controlled distortion from natural appearances that enables the artist to communicate invisible truths.

Some people assume that working in a style such as the gothic or iconographic is easier than in more naturalistic styles, but in fact to be able to work in a style well is takes great skill. The artist must be aware of span the divide between the two worlds he is representing. If there is too great an emphasis on natural appearances, then it lacks mystery. If the distortion so too great, then we lose a sense of the material. Artists should be aware too, that in sacred art the degree of naturalism should be less than in mundane art - for example landscapes and portraits.

Pius XII spoke of this in Mediator Dei (195) he refers to this balance (he uses the word 'realism' for my naturalism; and 'symbolism' for my idealism): 'Modern art should be given free scope in the due and reverent service of the church and the sacred rites, provided that they preserve a correct balance between styles tending neither to extreme realism nor to excessive "symbolism," and that the needs of the Christian community are taken into consideration rather than the particular taste or talent of the individual artist.'

The first step in getting this right is  studying the tradition to develop a sense of where the balance lies. Even so, different artists will have a different sense of exactly where this balance lies, but even recognition of the fact that there can be excessive naturalism and excessive abstraction and that he should seek the temperate mean goes a long way to getting it right.

The second step is getting the skill to represent precisely both the naturalistic and the idealistic (by reflecting accurately the idea of the mind in the artist). The artist who cannot draw well from nature cannot do this, for no matter how well conceived his ideas may be he cannot represent them accurately if he cannot draw well. Therefore learning to draw well is an essential part of the training of any artist. Regardless of the style in which he ultimately intends to paint in, I would recommend everyone to learn to draw rigorously. The best drawing training that I know is the academic method. I spent a year learning this in the Florence atelier of Charles H Cecil with the blessing of my icon painting teacher even though the style is very different. As a result the quality of my icon painting went up by orders of magnitude. A danger of learning the academic technique is that of being so dazzled by how ones drawing improves that one forgets that technique is only the means to an end and not the end. The artist must realise that he cannot succeed on technique alone and so should not neglect the development of his understanding tradition and how to direct those skills in the service of God.

Those who wish to learn this technique can come along to the Thomas More College summer school art program. This is done in conjunction with the world reknowned Ingbretson Studio, featured here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbtBW2T50p0

In this class a day spent in the studio is supplemented by a series of lectures explaining the basis of the tradition and placing the use of it within the context of Catholic sacred art so that you always control the technique in the service of the Church.

Just to illustrate the level of drawing skill achieved by the academic method. Here is work from the Russian 19th century Master Vasiliy Polenov. He is highly skilled. You can see a couple of examples of his drawings including one of a bibilical scene - the raising of the daughter of Jairus. I have also included a couple of his landscapes. In my personal judgement, he was a superb draughtsman and has dazzling technical skill. This works wonderfully in the landscapes. However, it is not sufficiently abstracted or symbolic for sacred art and so his bibilical scenes look more like what we used to seeing as color plates in children's bibles than devotional art. It is interesting to note that in Russia in the 19th century, this is how art for churches was painted and part of process of reestablishing the Russian iconographic tradition, which happened in the 20th century as reaction to this by figures at the turn of the last century such as Fr Pavel Florensky. His analysis was then picked up by painters such as Ouspensky and Kroug in the mid-20th century.

The purpose of this not to argue against the validity of the academic training. In fact it is the opposite, I would argue that it has great value; but if one is to use it in the services of sacred art, one must be aware of how to direct that skill towards the right balance of naturalism and idealism.

Below: a drawing - portrait of an art critic; a superb landscape of a Russian rural scene; then two bibilical scenes - 'he who is without sin' and the boy Jesus found in the temple teaching the teachers. By way of contrast I show Duccio's version of the same subject that has a much more abstracted style.







For those who are interested here the details of Thomas More College's Summer School at the Ingbretson Studio







The Paschal Candle: An Artist Explains

0
0
The paschal candle holds a place of great antiquity in the Roman rite, as well as others. As readers of this blog undoubtedly know, beginning at the Easter Vigil, it is lit at all Masses through the Feast of the Ascension as a symbol of the Risen Christ. In the old rite, it is extinguished after the Gospel on the Feast of the Ascension as a sign of our Pasch's departure to prepare a place for His faithful.
The following pictures are of a paschal candle prepared for use in the liturgy at the FSSP church of St. Francis in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The candle was painted by Mrs. Elizabeth Lemme, a church musician and talented iconographer. Her work (illuminations, paintings, iconography) can be seen at www.adorientemsacredart.com
Regarding her work on this year's Paschal candle for the parish, she offers these reflections:
Symbolism of the Paschal Candle: Christ, the Divine Gardener

While the focal point of a Paschal Candle is the Alpha, Cross, and Omega, the rest of this candle is adorned with theologically symbolic images and ornaments which further elaborate the meaning of our Lord’s Resurrection.

When we process into the dark church at the Easter Vigil, our way is illuminated by one point of light: the flame of holy fire atop the Paschal candle, and we sing “Lumen Christi, Deo Gratias.” This small flame contains within it a portrait of the Heavenly Jerusalem for which we yearn; it is our true home for which we strive. St. John the Beloved Disciple writes about the Heavenly Jerusalem and its celestial light, which is God Himself, in the Apocalypse: “And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine upon it. For the glory of God lights it up, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.” And so, above the Alpha and Omega is pictured the Lamb, the lamp of the Heavenly Jerusalem, Christ, “standing as though slain,” atop the book with seven seals.

The Lamb is framed with vines which wind around blossoming forth flowers and berries. This ornamentation is inspired first of all by the heart of Our Lady, who stood faithfully by the Cross even though almost everyone else fled. She was the “Lily among brambles.”

The ornamentation of vines and flowers also symbolizes the story of our salvation, which began in a garden: “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and put there the man he had formed.” Man was expelled from this garden by sin…however, our means of salvation was won by our Lord Jesus Christ in a garden; a detail which Christ’s beloved disciple notes in his gospel: “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” The very first person who saw the resurrected Christ, St. Mary Magdalene, received this revelation in a garden: “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why art thou weeping? Whom dost thou seek?’ She, thinking that he was the gardener, said to him, ‘Sir, if thou hast removed Him, tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away.’” In the beautiful course of events which followed, St. Mary Magdalene’s words to the mourning disciples were these: “I HAVE SEEN THE LORD.” Thus our Lord’s first revelation of his glorious body took place in a garden, a place of beauty. Flowers should remind us of the entire story of our salvation, from beginning to end.

The vines and flowers symbolize the hidden Christ “peering through the lattice,” as it says in the Canticle of Canticles, present among us on earth. Christ says to His Church on Easter morning: “Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come.” The passing of winter yields to the visual appeal of flowers, and the aural appeal of birds singing. The passing of our day-to-day sorrows yields to the beauty of visual art in our churches, and of beautiful sacred music during the Liturgy. The passing of our earthly life yields to the celestial and surpassing beauty of, please God, eternal life in heaven.

The ornamentation on the Paschal candle symbolizes Christ as the source of all Life. Master iconographer, Nikita Andrejev, writes in The Prosopon Journal Issue No. 10, “In the Christian cosmology, nature is never contemplated in isolation from the mysterious seeds of the divine Presence which are considered as the foundational principles and upholding forces in all created things.” The new life surging forth in a tiny spring blossom preaches the truth that St. John preached in his gospel: “and in Him was LIFE.” And thus the role of ornament in sacred art (and in sacred music, such as melismas in Gregorian chant) allows us to see the depth and meaning of life, which cannot be found outside Christ. Andrejev says that we “perceive through and beyond the visible phenomena to that which is the source of all meaning, the wellspring which never runs dry, and does not allow banality.” Ornamentation is a stylized portrait of vegetation, the “lowest common denominator” of earthly existence, and yet the expression of the presence of God appears even in “the most remote reaches of the universe and into the smallest, molecular spaces of matter as it makes its way into the very tips of newly grown tree branches … ornament is the transposition and functioning of divine Life on even the most insignificant level of the cosmos.” It gets better. Andrejev concludes that “ornament is also the image of a certain blooming forth of divine Ideas within simple natural shapes of creation, as if from the dust of a divine star that has passed overhead. With its intertwining forms, ornament is also a mirror of the rich complexity, unexpected wonderfulness and inimitability of the ‘Ways of the Lord.’”

Because the story of our salvation began in a garden, was fought for and won in a garden, it is supremely important that the very place where we encounter the Person of our salvation is as beautiful as a garden. The garden is a portrait of the inner heart of Our Lady. The garden is the concrete, specific place here on earth where our Lord chose for the most significant events in the story of salvation: the origin and fall of man, the battle for salvation, the victory of our salvation, and the first revelation of the glorious, risen, Christ. The sacred place where we attend Mass should be like a garden full of beautiful objects and beautiful sounds. The melisma heard in our Gregorian chant is echoed in the vines seen in this little Paschal candle, is echoed in every stitch of the sacred vestments, and in each brush stroke on the walls surrounding the High Altar. All of this diligent and meticulously sung, sewn, and painted work points directly to and comes from our Lord, and creates a small portrait of the hope of heaven.







New Missal for the Ordinary Form

0
0
Corpus Christi Watershed just announced their new pew-missal series for the OF. Details can be found below in the embedded video or at their page here. It appears it will be released in May of this year.

EF Pontifical Mass at Mundelein Seminary - Friday, April 25th (Updated)

0
0
The website of St John Cantius Parish in Chicago announces that on Friday, April 25th, at 4 p.m. (Central Time), His Excellency James Timlin, Bishop-Emeritus of Scranton, Pennsylvania, will celebrate a Pontifical Mass according to the Missal of 1962 at Mundelein Seminary. (directions) This will be the first Pontifical in the usus antiquior at Mundelein in almost 50 years; it is part of the program of a national meeting of the Institute of Religious Life. The St John Cantius website also gives the musical program of the Mass, including pieces by Couperin and Charpentier; the Mass setting will be a very new composition, the Missa Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, by Fr. Scott Haynes, one of the Canons Regular of St John Cantius.

I have also been informed that through the generosity of Corey and Katherine Huber of the Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations, the IRL extends a special invitation to all our IRL friends and affiliates, especially cloistered and monastic communities, to participate in the 2014 IRL National Meeting by viewing all the scheduled chapel events online via video streaming. To view select portions of the National Meeting on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you can past this link into your web browser:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrwD_SicR4hbkuvzSzzfw/videoslive_view=502&flow=list&view=2&sort=dd
Or you can go to the www.ReligiousLife.com home page and click on the link there. The link will direct you to a dedicated IRL YouTube channel.

Please note that the times given below are Central Daylight Time. Check the YouTube channel for the times for your particular time zone.
Friday, April 25, 2014
4:00 pm Pontifical High Mass (Extraordinary Form) celebrated by Most Rev. James Timlin
7:15 pm Keynote Address: “Building the Civilization of Love through the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Dr. Timothy O’Donnell
8:15 pm Rosary & Benediction

Saturday, April 26, 2014
1:30 pm “Having Our Answers Ready: Combating the Cultural Climate of Confusion and Scorn,” Sheila Liaugminas
2:30 pm “Our Shepherds Speak,” Panel Presentation featuring Most Rev. Robert F. Vasa and Most Rev. James C. Timlin, moderated by Dr. Timothy O’Donnell
4:00 pm Holy Mass, Main Chapel celebrated by Most Rev. Robert F. Vasa

Sunday, April 27, 2014
9:00 am “True Holiness, True Joy,” Mother M. Julie Saegaert, S.C.M.C.
10:00 am Divine Mercy Chaplet & Relic Veneration
10:30 am Holy Mass celebrated by Rev. Brian Mullady, O.P. 

Holy Week and Easter - Your Photos

0
0
Once again, we wish to thank the readers who sent in photographs of their Triduum and Easter services. If we receive more over the coming week, we will have another photopost sometime during the coming week. A reminder that we are happy to receive photographs and links to videos any time, not just for major occasions, but it is not always possible to publish them all.
Ss. Peter and Paul - Würzburg, Germany
There are many more pictures available on the parish’s facebook page.
Gospel on Maundy Thursday
Mandatum
Good Friday
 

The Exsultet on Holy Saturday
The Gloria on Holy Saturday
Immaculate Conception - Omaha, Nebraska (F.S.S.P.)

St Alphonsus - Baltimore, Maryland
Altar of Repose
Main altar after the Easter Vigil
A representation of the Empty Tomb in a side-chapel
St Basil the Great Greek-Catholic Church - Bucharest, Romania



St Mary’s - Remsen, Iowa






Holy Ghost - Tiverton, Rhode Island



Oratory of Ss Gregory and Augustine - St. Louis, Missouri
First Lamentation of Holy Thursday
St Mary’s - Pine Bluff, Wisconsin
Good Friday Tenebrae


Holy Innocents - New York City
Good Friday Adoration of the Cross
Blessing of the Baptismal Water at the Easter Vigil
St John Cantius - Chicago, Illinois


On Holy Thursday, this image of St John the Baptist’s head was displayed at the Lady Altar to commemorate the fact that the station church for the day is St John in the Lateran.
St Stephen’s - Tarrawingee, Australia


Ordinariate Pilgrimage to Walsingham

Rogation and Ember Days - An Illustrated Guide

0
0
April 25th sees the coincidence of three observances this year: the Friday within the Octave of Easter, the feast of St Mark the Evangelist, and the Major Litanies, or Rogation Days. Traditionally, St Mark would be transferred to the next free day after Low Sunday, but the Major Litanies would be celebrated together with the Easter Octave, with a procession and a Mass. In the Breviary, the Litany of the Saints would be recited after Lauds by those who do not participate in a Rogation process. Our friend Fr Christopher Smith, a priest of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina and one of the writers at Chant Café, put together an excellent illustrated guide explaining both the Rogations and Ember Days, with a number of very useful quotes from various liturgical sources. It can be downloaded from dropbox.


Holy Week at the Ordinariate Church of St John the Evangelist, Calgary

0
0

The report and photos below are from the Ordinariate Parish of St John the Evangelist in Calgary, Alberta. The parish website is here.


The Ordinariate church of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary, Alberta celebrated the sacred triduum with full ceremonies this year. The parish was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church in December 2011, and has over doubled in size since its inception as a part of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The parish uses exclusively the liturgical books authorised for the personal ordinariates, known as Divine Worship, and boasts the public recitation of morning and evening prayer (Mattins and Evensong) daily, alongside the celebration of the Mass.


Maundy Thursday was celebrated with the mandatum (or maundy), together with the traditional procession to the altar of repose at the conclusion of the Mass. The choir sang chant from the Anglican tradition, mainly in English and from the Wantage and English Gradual collections, together with hymns and anthems familiar to the faithful.


A solemn watch was kept at the altar of repose until midnight, and an all night watch was kept by the lay faithful before the Blessed Sacrament until the celebration of the Solemn Liturgy on Good Friday. After the conclusion of the Mass the choir sang Psalm 22 as the altars were stripped and washed, and Evensong was recited by the clergy in quire.


On Good Friday, after Mattins in quire in the morning, the solemn liturgy was celebrated at midday with the passion of Saint John being chanted by three clerics before the rood screen. The choir sang the chants during the veneration of the cross by the faithful, who maintained the tradition of ‘creeping to the cross’ with three genuflections.


Over 150 people ventured through the Good Friday snow to the liturgy. The cross was carried aloft through the church to the elaborate chant of the Behold the wood of the cross, from the Roman Gradual, set to music in many of the Anglo-Catholic chant editions.


The solemn intercessions were sung by the priest, before removing the black vestments and changing into the violet vestments prescribed for the Communion Rite. The Blessed Sacrament was brought from the altar of repose, and the faithful invited to receive Holy Communion kneeling at the altar rail of the sanctuary, as is the parish custom.


After the liturgy, Evensong was recited in quire and the cross and candles remained on the altar for the veneration of the faithful until Holy Saturday. On the morning of Holy Saturday, after Mattins, the church was prepared for the Paschal Vigil.


The vigil began with the blessing of the new fire, incense, and the paschal candle by the entrance to the church as the people gathered outside. The penitential character of the liturgical vigil is marked by violet vestments, except for the deacon who changes into gold in order to bear the paschal candle into the church and to sing the Exsultet.


The blessing of water took place at the epistle corner of the sanctuary, before bring carried to the font for the baptism of a new Christian, who was also confirmed during the ceremony.


After the vigil itself and the ceremonies of initiation, the first Mass of Easter was celebrated at the High Altar of the church. On Easter Sunday morning, a Solemn High Mass was offered, preceded by the Sprinkling with Holy Water (Vidi Aquam) and a procession around the church - one of the traditional characteristics of Anglican worship on feasts.


The choir sang the chant for the rite of sprinkling, and also vernacular settings of the chants of the Graduale Romanum for the Introit and Gradual, and an English setting of the great Easter Sequence.



Maniples, Amices, Cassocks—Lost and Found

0
0
Fr. Richard Cipolla has done us all a great service by translating a fantastic article by Alessando Gnocchi: "Traces of the Hegelian Guillotine in the Liturgical Reform." Gnocchi is speaking primarily about the sudden disappearance of the maniple, the amice, and the cassock after the Council, and what this says about our attitude towards the world, the Church's (and the clergy's) place in the world, and the veneration of tradition. Because each vestment carries, by the force of long-developed tradition, an inherent theological meaning and is a true component of the spiritual profile of the Christian and of the priest as alter Christus, it follows that changing or discarding such vestments amounts to a redefinition of one's identity and mission. Vesture is a form of anthropology: it is not mere clothing but, in some sense, constitutes the wearer as a certain 'what' and a certain 'who'.

On the maniple:
For obscure reasons, it seems as if someone wanted to erase the memory of this vestment that originated from the mappula, the linen handkerchief that the Roman nobility wore on their left arm to wipe away tears and sweat. It was used also to give the signal to begin the combat games in the Circus.  Merear, Domine, portare manipulum fletus et doloris; ut cum exsultatione recipiam mercedem laboris, says the priest as he puts it on while vesting.  “O Lord, may I be worthy to wear the maniple of tears and suffering, so that I may receive with joy the reward of my labors.”  And once again the battle begins against the world and its prince, in which mystically the priest sweats, cries, bleeds, and does battle in so far as he is on the Cross as the alter Christus. But there needs to be that painful and manly interpenetration in the sacrifice, of which the maniple is the sign and instrument.  Meanwhile, instead, if the memory of it has been lost willingly so that one can dedicate oneself to the festal banquet of a salvation lacking any sweat and toil, then there is no place for the signs of the battle to which one must consign one’s own body.
On the amice:
Impone, Domine, capiti meo galeam salutis, ad expugnandos diabolicos incursus.  Place on my head, O Lord, the helmet of salvation so that I may conquer the assaults of the devil”. So prays the priest when, preparing for the celebration of Mass, he puts on the amice, another vestment that recalls the battle and the sacrifice, fallen into disuse in the reformed Mass.  Today, in the post-Conciliar Church, one speaks to speak, one dialogues to have a dialogue, to have an amiable conversation with the world, all made drunk by the illusory and seductive power of chattering.  There is no need any longer for a vestment like the amice that, in addition to symbolizing the helmet of the warrior, symbolizes also the castigatio vocis, or “discipline of the voice”, and banishes from the act of religion every word that is not part of ritual and, therefore, inexorably, too many.   
On the cassock:
The capacity for ritual has been lost, and, therefore, the aptitude for command has been lost, and for this reason priests have abandoned the practice of wearing the cassock as a rule.
And more generally, on the "militancy" of the Christian:
The idea of giving orders and of battle, of arms and the armature of the spirit, have been dismissed by the Christians who love to be rocked in the cradle of acedia, the most perverse of the capital sins. ... Having succumbed to the sickness of acedia, the Church has ended up seeing herself and presenting herself as a problem instead of a solution to the deepest ill of man.  When she speaks of the world she lets show forth her awareness of her incapacity to point to a way of salvation, as if she is excusing herself for having done so for so many centuries.  She has doubts about fundamental and ascetical principles themselves, and, at the very time she proclaims that she is opening up to the world, she declares herself to be incapable of knowing it, defining it, and, therefore, incapable of educating and converting it.  At the most, she makes herself available to interpret it.
        But it is not in becoming like the world or in being wedded to the language of the world that one wins over the world. It is not in the exaltation of the gesture and the word of which ritual is the “castigatio” (correction) that the world is conquered.  For the world has above all an abhorrence of itself, and it is not by secularizing himself that the Christian conquers the world.
(H/t to Fr. Z)
I will say that, although one can sympathize with Gnocchi's pessimism, there are heartening signs of a rediscovery of all of these vestments on the part of younger clergy, at least in certain parts of the Catholic world. I know (and many NLM readers know) quite a few priests who wear the cassock regularly and who don the amice even for the Ordinary Form. In fact, there is a steadily growing number who tie on the maniple, too. But there can be no question that this practice of the hermeneutic of continuity is found predominantly, almost exclusively, in the traditionalist milieu. It is truly a moment of opportunity for all the clergy in the West, even in the context of the Ordinary Form, to rediscover their soldierly part in the apocalyptic battle by wearing the symbolic vestments that remind them of who and what they are.

Anyway, just do yourself a favor and read Gnocchi's essay...

EF Pontifical Mass at the Cathedral of Providence, Rhode Island

0
0
The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence, Rhode Island, (my native city!) will have a Solemn Pontifical Mass next Sunday at 1 p.m., as part of the celebrations for the church’s 125th anniversary. Further details, including the musical program are given in the poster below, and on the cathedral’s website.

John XXIII in His Own Words (4): The Defense of Catholic Truth

0
0
No nonsense when it comes to doctrine
John XXIII’s eight encyclicals are relatively little known and studied today, with the possible exception of Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris. As an avid reader of papal encyclicals issued over the past 250 years, I can definitely recommend John XXIII’s for the contemporary Catholic. They deserve to be dusted off and reconsidered, not least because they show a Pope who is conscientiously and continually linking his teaching with that of his predecessors, especially Leo XIII and Pius XII.

Here, I will quote some splendid passages from John XXIII’s inaugural encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram and some from Mater et Magistra that show the clarity and vigor of his defense of Catholic truth. He is so opposed to relativism, indifferentism, laxism, or muddled thinking that he would probably have caused heart failure in a gathering of ecclesiastics today. His language reminds me a great deal of Pope Benedict’s “dictatorship of relativism” theme.

So, the next time someone praises John XXIII for “opening up the Church” or “moving her into the modern world” or “introducing a new spirit” or some such slogan, you might counter with a depiction of the saint’s intransigent defense of Catholic truth, his insistence on the unity and unicity of the Catholic Church, his urgent invitations to Protestants to let go of their errors and return to their common Mother, his skirmishes against the emerging cult of hedonism, the idolatry of technics, and the dictatorship of relativism—in short, all of the ways in which he prepared for the Paul VI of Humanae Vitae, the John Paul II of Veritatis Splendor, and the Benedict XVI of Deus Caritas Est.

Ad Petri Cathedram(June 29, 1959)
        All the evils which poison men and nations and trouble so many hearts have a single cause and a single source: ignorance of the truth—and at times even more than ignorance, a contempt for truth and a reckless rejection of it. Thus arise all manner of errors, which enter the recesses of men’s hearts and the bloodstream of human society as would a plague.  These errors turn everything upside down: they menace individuals and society itself.
        Some men, indeed do not attack the truth wilfully, but work in heedless disregard of it.  They act as though God had given us intellects for some purpose other than the pursuit and attainment of truth.  This mistaken sort of action leads directly to that absurd proposition: one religion is just as good as another, for there is no distinction here between truth and falsehood.  “This attitude,” to quote Pope Leo [XIII] again, “is directed to the destruction of all religions, but particularly the Catholic faith, which cannot be placed on a level with other religions without serious injustice, since it alone is true.”  Moreover, to contend that there is nothing to choose between contradictories and among contraries can lead only to this fatal conclusion: a reluctance to accept any religion either in theory or in practice.
        The peace, then, which we must seek, which we must strive to achieve with all the means at our disposal, must—as We have said—make no concessions to error, must compromise in no way with proponents of falsehood; it must make no concessions to vice; it must discourage all discord.  Those who adhere to this peace must be ready to renounce their own interests and advantages for the sake of truth and justice, according to the words: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice.” (§95)
        There is one truth especially which We think is self-evident: when the sacred rights of God and religion are ignored or infringed upon, the foundations of human society will sooner or later crumble and give way.  (nn. 6, 17, 95, 140)

Mater et Magistra (May 15, 1961)
        There are some indeed who go so far as to deny the existence of a moral order which is transcendent, absolute, universal and equally binding upon all. . . .
        But the moral order has no existence except in God; cut off from God it must necessarily disintegrate.  Moreover, man is not just a material organism.  He consists also of spirit; he is endowed with reason and freedom.  He demands, therefore, a moral and religious order; and it is this order—and not considerations of a purely extraneous material order—which has the greatest validity in the solution of problems relating to his life as an individual and as a member of society, and problems concerning individual States and their inter-relations. . . .
        Let men make all the technical and economic progress they can, there will be no peace nor justice in the world until they return to a sense of their dignity as creatures and sons of God, who is the first and final cause of all created being.  Separated from God, a man is but a monster, in himself and toward others; for the right ordering of human society presupposes the right ordering of man’s conscience with God who is Himself the source of all justice, truth, and love....
        The most perniciously typical aspect of the modern era consists in the absurd attempt to reconstruct a solid and fruitful temporal order divorced from God, who is, in fact, the only foundation on which it can endure.  In seeking to enhance man’s greatness, men fondly imagine that they can do so by drying up the source from which that greatness springs and from which it is nourished.  They want, that is, to restrain and, if possible, to eliminate the soul’s upward surge toward God.  But today’s experience of so much disillusionment and bloodshed only goes to confirm those words of Scripture: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”...
        Similarly, Our Predecessor, Pius XII, rightly asserted that our age is marked by a clear contrast between the immense scientific and technical progress and the fearful human decline shown by “its monstrous masterpiece. . .transforming man into a giant of the physical world at the expense of his spirit, which is reduced to that of a pygmy in the supernatural and eternal world.”
        And so the words of the Psalmist about the worshipers of false gods are strikingly verified today.  Men are losing their own identity in their works, which they admire to the point of idolatry: “The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men.”  (nn. 205, 208, 215, 217, 243-244)
Is this a clear, forceful proclamation of the truth, in season and out of season? You bet. Is this an example of old-fashioned papal triumphalism? No question; it looks and sounds like the best and noblest of our Catholic Tradition. May the Church of today and her leaders recover this truly humble certainty of proclaiming the truth that saves mankind from his unenlightened arrogance.

Saint John XXIII, pray for us.


Dom Mark Kirby on John XXIII on the Traditional Divine Office

0
0
In company, no doubt, with many NLM readers, I often find very deep spiritual and intellectual nourishment in reading the Vultus Christi blog, maintained by the Prior of Silverstream, Dom Mark Kirby, OSB. Just a few days ago, Fr. Kirby posted a splendid article entitled "Saint John XXIII: The Divine Office & the Council," which, in addition to the author's insights, offers us the full text of Pope John's Apostolic Exhortation Sacrae Laudis of 1962. To read this is quite simply to see, in its full starkness, how bitterly Pope John has been betrayed, how ruthlessly his own piety and doctrine were trampled under foot, and how much rebuilding falls to us if we wish to reconnect with the living stream of worship that comes to us from our forefathers.

Here, then, are some of Fr. Kirby's reflections.
The Apostolic Exhortation Sacrae Laudis (6 January 1962) is, to my mind, wonderfully revealing of the piety of “Good Pope John”. There were and there are many, both in the Church and in the secular media, who would have us believe that Papa Roncalli was a revolutionary, a modernist, an iconoclast. Nothing could be further from the truth. How exactly did this misrepresentation of Pope John XXIII become so prevalent?   It was, it seems to me, a question both of image and of personal style. Pope John XXIII differed in a number of very obvious ways from his predecessor, the Venerable Pope Pius XII. Whereas Pius XII was thin and hieratic–looking, John XXIII was rotund and grandfatherly — not only Papa, but also Nonno. Although both Popes were seasoned diplomats, Pacelli’s diplomacy was aristocratic in style; Roncalli’s diplomacy had the shrewdness of the Bergamasque peasant. Pacelli was convincing; Roncalli was winning.
          The piety of Pope John XXIII was liturgical, priestly, and devotional. (Do not miss Pope John’s lovely proposal that priests pray the Divine Office together with their Guardian Angels!) It was, at once, lofty and childlike.  Sacrae Laudis reveals his profound understanding of the sacred liturgy in the life of the Church and, in particular, of the uniquely exalted quality of the Divine Office, the Church’s daily sacrifice of praise. In reading the holy Pope’s Apostolic Exhortation on the Divine Office for the Council, it becomes clear that he had no intention of overturning the liturgical practice of the Roman Church as it had developed organically, over the centuries, under the gentle guidance of the Holy Ghost. Thus does he write:
          "The Breviary is in very truth a perennial and inexhaustible fount of supernatural light and grace. Small wonder, then, that the Breviary serves this Second Vatican Council as a source-book, as is evidenced in the reports of the careful, unremitting work of the various preparatory Commissions. It is a mine of purest doctrine and wisest counsels of ecclesiastical discipline, admirably adapted to present needs. We are therefore justified in Our assertion that in entering upon a new era we have preserved our ancient heritage intact. It is an era which seems to hold the promise of a great spiritual advance."
          I, for one, am gripped by a certain irony in reading these words. A mere ten years after his splendid Apostolic Exhortation, the very Divine Office that Pope John XXIII extolled in glowing terms had been hacked apart and, out of its dismembered parts, reassembled into something entirely different. Without any respect for the law of organic continuity that had — until the dodgy iconoclastic operations of certain liturgical experts in high places in the 1960s — wisely restrained even the most questionable earlier liturgical reforms, the creation of the reformed Liturgia Horarum, instead of fostering the ongoing renewal of liturgical piety, announced its demise. One of the most bitter fruits of the post–Conciliar liturgical reform (never intended by Pope John XXIII) was the widespread abandonment of the breviary by diocesan clergy, the virtual silencing of countless choirs in the mendicant Orders, and among the monastic Orders, the degeneration of choral prayer into a chaotic diversity of forms that, in no way, reflect the letter or the spirit of Saint Benedict’s liturgical legislation. [ . . . ]
          The aim of the Council was, wrote Saint John XXIII, “to seek to recapture some of that ardor displayed by the Church in her youth, and thus to restore to her the full splendour of her countenance”. We can certainly pray, even now, through the intercession of “Good Pope John,” that this aim of the Council will, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, be realised even at this late hour in spite of the accumulated contradictions, disappointments, and failures of the past fifty years. The full splendour of the countenance of the Church will not be restored until the prayer of the Church is restored to its rightful place and until her bare ruined choirs, warmed and illumined by the flames of a living liturgical piety, begin to resound again with the sound of many voices.
Amen to that!

Fr. Kirby's post then gives the text of Pope John XXIII's Apostolic Exhortation Sacrae Laudis.

Final Images from Holy Week and Easter

0
0
Old Saint Mary’s - Cincinnati, Ohio (Oratory in formation)
Note the photographs of the Good Friday procession with the image of the dead Christ. (6th through 9th of this set.) Processions of this kind are still major events in the liturgical life of Italy, especially in the south, and Spain.
th











Cathedral of Saint John Berchmans - Shreveport, Louisiana


St. Mary MacKillop Church - Keilor Downs, Victoria, Australia



Graffiti in English Medieval Churches

0
0
I bring this curiosity to you courtesy of Deacon Paul Iacono of the Fra Angelico Institute of Sacred Arts. He, in turn, drew on reports that appear in the Guardian newspaper, here. As part of a systematic study of graffiti in Churches in East Anglia they have found some signed by a writer and monk John Lydgate (an admirer and friend of Chaucer). What strikes me about all of these is how timeless the images are. Graffiti, it seems was just a bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) in the 14th century as it is now!

To the left you have a bishop in mitre. Below is an inscription found in St Mary's church, Lidgate, Suffolk. The text on the pillar, a few millimetres high, translates from the Latin as 'John Lydgate made this on the day of St Simon and St Jude'. That feast day is 28 October, with the year some time between 1390 and 1450. Underneath that is the church where the inscription was found. Other examples include devils or dragons and even geometric patterns.

Given the great interest in these, it does make one wonder if the past whitewashing of graffiti in the New York subway might be seen as a destructive act of iconoclasm by future commentators!





This looks like a dragon or a devil



Below, a montage of various compass drawn designs:



Altar Server Training and Chant Conference in Florida - Reg. Deadline This Friday!

0
0
A liturgical and musical renaissance in Florida? Many, including myself, were dubious about it.
When I moved to Ft. Lauderdale six years ago to take an academic position, I was moving from a vibrant diocese to a place that felt dead, like it had nothing to offer for the Catholic serious about his faith, and serious about the revitalization of Catholic culture and liturgy—very few young adult activities, a tiny, nearly-unknown Latin Mass community, very few priests interested in cultivating sacred music and reverence in the liturgy. Indeed, many have suffered for their faith in our state, as elsewhere.
But, that was six years ago - barely after Summorum Pontificum had been promulgated.
As is the case in many other dioceses and states, the gentle example of Pope Benedict XVI inspired many, including seminarians and priests, and the Holy Spirit has prompted the hearts of many to rediscover and help revitalize the Church's traditions and liturgy. But there is still much to be done—the impact of the new liturgical movement has still touched only a small percentage of parishioners in the pews in our state.
One of the initiatives in Florida which has made a difference in bringing about the start of a renewal is the annual Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian Chant conference.
For the past six years, sacred musicians and average parishioners from all over Florida and elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada have been coming to study the Church's sacred music. Since our first conference at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, we've held the annual conference at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida. We've had a great time connecting with others who love the Church's liturgy, developing our chanting skills, singing the Divine Office together, and assisting at fully-sung Masses in both the new and old rite. The conference has spawned new scholas around the state, and connections which help make special liturgies and training for sacred music more widely available in the state.

This year, we've added a special track for altar servers and clergy to learn the assisting roles in the pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. Fr. Scott Haynes (Canons Regular of St. John Cantius) will be teaching a workshop on Thursday, May 15th and Friday, May 16th for all those desirous of learning this liturgy. Participants under the age of 18 accompanied by a chaperone are also welcome to participate (contact Susan Treacy for more details).
Also joining the faculty this year is Mr. Adam Bartlett, composer of the Simple English Propers and the Lumen Christi Missal. He will be presenting a workshop, with Mr. Jeffrey Herbert, on English chant and parish resources.
Other faculty include:

−  Mary Jane Ballou, D.S.M. – Cantorae Saint Augustine
−  Jennifer Donelson, D.M.A. – Nova Southeastern University
−  Jeffrey Herbert, CAGO/ChM – Saint Raphael Church, Englewood, FL
−  Susan Treacy, Ph.D. – Ave Maria University
Special workshop tracks are available in:
  • Singing Gregorian Chant in English & a new parish music program, the Lumen Christi series
  • Gregorian Chironomy – How to conduct Gregorian chant 
  • Instruction for chant directors & aspiring chant directors on learning & teaching new chants 
  • Basic instruction on how to read Gregorian chant notation
The conference also includes: 
  • Choice of scholae for beginning/intermediate (men & women), upper-level men, & upper-level women 
  • Missa cantata in the Extraordinary Form on Friday evening with chants provided by the Schola Cantorum of Saints Francis & Clare (Miami) 
  • Closing Missa cantata in the Ordinary Form on Saturday evening with English & Latin chants provided by conference participants
If you're interested in working for better liturgy and sacred music in your area, join us for this conference! It will give you ideas and inspiration, and help you make connections with other people working hard for the same goal.
The setting of Ave Maria University makes the conference like a retreat - cheap housing on campus and a peaceful town to enjoy. The conference registration is $60, $15 for clergy, seminarians, and full-time students.
The registration deadline is this Friday, May 2nd, 2014. More information is available at the conference website: www.musicasacra.com/florida.
We hope you'll be able to join us!

First Saturday Dominican Rite Mass, May 3, at Carmel of the Holy Family, Canyon CA

0
0
Chapel of the Carmel, Bishop Barbar Celebrant (New Rite Roman)
This is just the briefest of reminders to readers in the San Francisco BayArea that the Dominican Rite Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, sung by the student friars of the Western Dominican Province as part of First Saturday Devotions, will not be at St. Albert's Priory in Oakland, this week.

The Mass will be at the Carmel of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph* in Canyon CA, this Saturday, May 3, at 10:00 a.m.  This Mass will be a Solemn High Dominican Rite Mass to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Profession of Mother Sylvia Gemma, O.C.D., the superior of the Carmel of the Holy Family. This event is open to the public and will be the last First Saturday Mass until the Fall.

*How to find Canyon Carmel, which has no street number: Canyon is just east of Oakand CA. Start from the Canyon U.S. Post Office (99 Pinehurst Road), and go north about one half mile to “John McCosker Ranch Road” on right (easy to miss); take this mostly gravel private road up to the right turn onto “Old Home Ranch Road,” which is signed for “Carmel.” This gravel road ends in the parking lot of the monastery.

Some Liturgical Notes on St Joseph the Worker (and a Few Dominican Saints)

0
0
From Fr Hunwicke, who always manages to combine erudition, wisdom, and a prose style that is truly enjoyable to read.
This week provides a good example of how the Calendar of the Vetus Ordo is starting to to groan a bit because it has been unchanged since 1962. (I bet that’s never happened in liturgical history before; and this sort of unresponsiveness to natural, gradual, evolution is itself, in fact, Untraditional.)
(1) May 1. I'll be fair: I can see why Pius XII had the S Joseph idea in 1956. But it never caught on, and little more than a decade later the Novus Ordo reduced it to it an optional memorial, leaving the poor old Vetus Ordo lumbered with this enormous, innovatory and untraditional whale, marooned and decaying just above the tideline. It would be absurd to do anything other than to clean up the beach and to return pipnjim to May 1 in both Calendars. (Keen Josephites might enjoy the restoration of the Patronage of S Joseph on the Wednesday of the second week after the Octave of Easter. The propers for that feast played quite nice typological games with S Joseph and his OT namesake.)
The references to the Patriarch Joseph as an Old Testament type of Christ’s foster-father are indeed one of the most beautiful features of the old Office and Mass of the feast of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. The Church often applies to him the words “Ite ad Joseph – Go to Joseph”, from the words which the Pharaoh spoke about the Patriarch in Genesis 41, 55, telling the people of Egypt to ask him for grain during the great famine. These words are quoted in the second responsory of Matins, which sums up the story of how Joseph became “as it were, the father of the king, and the lord of all his house” in the first nocturne. The Epistle of the Mass, Genesis 49, 22-26, applies to St Joseph, as the heir of the Old Testament Patriarchs, the words by which Jacob blesses his son Joseph before his death, “The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.” Already in the fourth century, Paulinus of Milan, the biographer of St Ambrose and a faithful follower of his teaching, explains the “desire of the everlasting hills” to be Christ Himself. (De Benedictionibus Patriarcharum, X, 15; P.L. XX 730C)
St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church; this is the image used as the header of the Mass of St Joseph in liturgical books printed by the Pustet company in the later 19th and early 20th century.
The origins of the earlier feast go back to St Theresa of Avila, who had a great devotion to St Joseph; he was traditionally honored as a Patron of the Carmelite Order, even before Bl. Pius IX gave the feast to the universal Church in 1847. The Carmelite supplement to the Roman Breviary has a special hymn for Vespers of the feast, which reads in part, speaking to St Joseph, “Our kindly mother Theresa revered thee in her prayers as a most holy patron, of thy great bounty receiving protection in all her trials.” It also has a special versicle sung three times in the Office, “From my mother’s womb thou art my protector.” In her autobiography, (6.9) St Theresa herself writes:
I took for my patron and lord the glorious St. Joseph, and recommended myself earnestly to him. I saw clearly that both out of this my present trouble, (a temporary episode of paralysis) and out of others of greater importance, relating to my honor and the loss of my soul, this my father and lord delivered me, and rendered me greater services than I knew how to ask for. I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted; and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favors which God hath given me through this blessed Saint; the dangers from which he hath delivered me, both of body and of soul. To other Saints, our Lord seems to have given grace to succor men in some special necessity; but to this glorious Saint, I know by experience, to help us in all: and our Lord would have us understand that as He was Himself subject to him upon earth--for St. Joseph having the title of father, and being His guardian, could command Him--so now in heaven He performs all his petitions. I have asked others to recommend themselves to St. Joseph, and they too know this by experience; and there are many who are now of late devout to him, having had experience of this truth.
From a strictly literary point of view, the liturgical texts of St Joseph the Worker are a clumsy set of pieces, quite inferior to those of the earlier feast. Especially ill-chosen is the Gospel, St. Matthew 13, 54-58, which ends with the words “And He wrought not many miracles there, because of their unbelief.” The Secret of the Mass contains an interesting foreshadowing of changes which would later be made to the Offertory, referring to the “hostias” which are offered as coming “from the works of our hands.” I am given to understand by those who really know chant that the Gregorian Mass-propers are particularly bad. This is due at least in part to the opposition to the feast by members of the Sacred Congregation for Rites, who also objected to the removal of the Apostles Philip and James from their very ancient traditional date of May 1st to what was then the next free day, May 11th. (With the suppression of the Finding of the Cross, they were then moved again in 1969, to May 3rd.)
St Teresa of Avila receives a veil and necklace from the Virgin and Saint Joseph, by Cristóbal de Vaillalpando, 
Fr Hunwicke also notes a problem with the feast of St Catherine of Siena, one of the six “Patrons of Europe” established as such by Pope St John Paul II. “S Catherine being a Patron of Europe, it is weird to have her on different dates in the two Calendars. A choice should be made.” 
St Catherine is kept on the 30th in the traditional Calendar because the day of her death, April 29th, is occupied by another Dominican Saint, Peter the Martyr. St. Peter was killed by Cathars, sectaries of one of the weirdest and sickest heresies the Church has ever known, on April 6th, 1252. Almost venerated as a Saint in his lifetime, (he was often in danger of being crushed by the crowds which came to hear him preach), he was canonized in less than a year, and remains to this day the single most rapidly canonized Saint in history. (I am speaking here of the formal process of canonization, which was of course simpler, but nevertheless very thorough, in the 13th-century.) A walk through any art museum in Europe, but especially in Italy, will easily show how widespread the devotion to him was.
An illustration from a Missal in the Dominican church of San Marco in Florence, ca. 1430, by one of its most famous residents, and another Dominican Saint, the painter Fra Angelico. St Peter is shown writing the Apostles Creed with his own blood as he dies, a testament to the faith in one God against the bizarre dualist theories of the Cathars. One of his assassins, Carino, was eventually converted to a life of repentence, entered the Dominican house at Como, and is now venerated as a blessed.
The day of his death is almost exactly in the middle of the period in which Easter can occur; his feast was therefore assigned to April 29th, where it would only rarely be impeded by the Paschal Octave. This was the date on which St Catherine herself, a Dominican Tertiary, kept the feast of St Peter, and the date on which she died in 1380. In her time, Saints Dominic, Peter Martyr and Thomas Aquinas were the only canonized Saints of the Dominican Order, and it is should be counted as one of the many graces given her that she should die on such a feast.
St Catherine was then canonized by Pope Pius II (1458-64), a fellow citizen of the Republic of Siena who also wrote the proper Office of her in the Dominican Use. Her feast was originally kept on May 2nd, and another Dominican Saint, Antoninus, archbishop of Florence from 1446 to 1459, was granted the grace to die on that day. She was later moved to April 30. St Pius V, yet another Dominican, died on the feast of Ss Philip and James, and was originally assigned to the next free day, May 5th, while St Antoninus was moved to the 10th for the sake of the older and more universal feast of St Athanasius.
Dominicans Leading the Faithful to Salvation; fresco on the east wall of the former chapter hall of the Dominican house of Santa Maria Novella. The hall was later converted into a chapel for the use of the Spaniards in Florence, and is now known as the Spanish Chapel. Andrea da Firenze, 1366-67.
In the post-Conciliar Calendar, the feast of St Peter Martyr has been suppressed, one of its least justifiable changes. This cleared the 29th for St Catherine, and thus the 30th for St Pius V; the latter is kept at the very lowest rank, as an optional memorial, although the Constitution which promulgated the Missal of 1969 begins by stating “Everyone acknowledges that the Roman Missal, promulgated by Our Predecessor St Pius V in the year 1570, by a decree of the Council of Trent, must be counted among the many and wonderful useful fruits that flowed forth from that same most holy Synod to the universal Church of Christ.”
In point of fact, St Vincent Ferrer and Albert the Great are the only Dominican Saints who kept their traditional feast days on the 1969 Calendar, both as optional memorials. Saints Dominic, Thomas Aquinas and Rose of Lima (the last also optional) were all moved to new days, while Antoninus and Hyacinth were suppressed. The feast of the Holy Rosary is a Solemnity for the Dominicans, and may be kept as an external Solemnity on the first Sunday of October in the traditional Rite; on the general Calendar of the Ordinary Form, however, it was downgraded, from the 2nd of six ranks to the 3rd of four.
Fr Hunwicke aptly describes the Calendar of the Extraordinary Form in the title of his piece as “Frozen solid in pack ice”. Of course, feasts have been moved and suppressed before, and will be moved and suppressed again; the original Calendar of St Pius V contained neither Peter Martyr nor Catherine. But it is still something to hope for that a future thaw will be more careful to remember that the liturgical Calendar is not just a list of feast days which we keep, but a list of feast days kept by the Saints before us.

Catholic Artist's Society Mass in New York this coming Sunday

0
0
Here is a final reminder that the Catholic Artists Society invites artists, patrons, friends of the arts and their families to its annual Solemn Mass for Artists. This year's Mass will mark the 15th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II's influential Letter to Artists. A professional choir led by organist Jared Lamenzo and director Joshua South will sing Arvo Part's Berliner Messe, written in 1990. The Mass, according to the Missal of Pope St. John XXIII, will also feature music by Perotin, Hassler, Szamotul and Alain. A reception will follow outdoors, weather permitting. RSVP for the reception by May 2nd to catholicartistssociety@gmail.com

Sunday, May 4th, 3pm-6pm
The Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, Mott Street (between Houston & Prince), New York, NY 10012



The Populus Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage 2014

0
0
The third annual Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage will take place in Rome 23-26 October 2014. This year the highlights include a joint Mass with Juventutem to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Juventutem movement and Pontifical High Mass at St Peter's celebrated by Cardinal Burke. The Juventutem Anniversary Mass will take place at 6.30pm on Friday, October 24, at Trinità dei Pellegrini, and earlier in the day there will be a series of special events for Juventutem led by Fr. de Malleray FSSP, chaplain of Juventutem. Pontifical High Mass in Saint Peter's will be celebrated by Cardinal Burke on Saturday 25 October at 12pm. The closing Mass of the pilgrimage, celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King, will take place at the Monastery of San Benedetto, Norcia. More details of the pilgrimage are available here.

Thursday, October 23, 7.15pm
Solemn Vespers and welcome of the pilgrims at Trinità dei Pellegrini, Rome

Friday October 24, 3.45pm
Via Crucis on the Palatine hill

Friday October 24, 6.30pm
Solemn Mass at Trinità dei Pellegrini (Juventutem Anniversary Mass)

Saturday October 25, 9.30am
Eucharistic adoration at the Chiesa Nuova followed by the procession to Saint Peter’s Basilica.

Saturday October 25, 12pm
Pontifical High Mass in Saint Peter celebrated by His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke.

Sunday October 26
Solemnity of Christ the King, celebrated in Norcia and lunch with the Benedictine Monks.
(Other Masses will be offered in Rome for pilgrims not travelling to Norcia)

If you are in the USA, Fr. Tim Davison, Pastor of SS Peter & Paul in Tulsa, OK, will be leading a pilgrimage to Rome and Norcia, Italy departing from New York. This pilgrimage, which runs from 20-28 October 2014 will join together with the Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome. Details of this pilgrimage can be found here.

Some photographs of last year's Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage:

In Honor of Saint Pius V

0
0
Pope St. Pius V's vision of the Christians' victory at Lepanto
“O God, who for the overthrow of the enemies of Thy Church and for the restoration of divine worship didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Pius as supreme Pontiff: grant that we may be defended by his patronage and so cleave to Thy service, that overcoming all the wiles of our enemies, we may rejoice in perpetual peace. Through our Lord. Amen.” (translation of the Collect for May 5, Missale Romanum 1962)

Today we offer to God our thanks for the life, work, sanctity, and intercession of this great reformer, Antonio Ghislieri (1504–1572), Vicar of Christ from January 8, 1566 to his death on May 1, 1572. Saint Pius V faithfully preserved Tradition and guided the Barque of Peter in tempestuous times. He it was who consolidated the Roman Rite at a time when a coherent, trustworthy, and eminently ancient rite was desperately needed for unity of worship (not to mention unity of doctrine) across Europe.

The Missal of Pius V, in its later editions that affect us more directly, has taught us some of the most fundamental lessons of our lives as Catholics. Through the sacred liturgy, we hallow the name of God, our Father, giving worship and thanks to Him; we pray that His kingdom come and His will be done on earth, in our souls, our families, our nations, as in heaven; we beg that the bread of eternal life be given to us, as well as the bread of earthly goods according to our daily needs; we ask humbly that our sins be forgiven even as we ask for the grace to forgive those who have sinned against us; we implore God to strengthen us in our trials and deliver us from evil.

In an address to the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on September 21, 2001, Pope John Paul II had this to say about the Missale Romanum promulgated by his predecessor in 1570:
The People of God need to see priests and deacons behave in a way that is full of reverence and dignity, in order to help them to penetrate invisible things without unnecessary words or explanations. In the Roman Missal of Saint Pius V, as in several Eastern liturgies, there are very beautiful prayers through which the priest expresses the most profound sense of humility and reverence before the Sacred Mysteries: they reveal the very substance of the Liturgy.
A fact that will no doubt be of interest to readers of NLM (if they don't already know it): prior to Pius V there had been only four Latin Fathers recognized as Doctors of the Church—Augustine, Jerome, Gregory, and Ambrose. In 1567, Pope Pius V elevated St. Thomas Aquinas as the fifth Doctor, and in 1568, added the four Eastern Fathers St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory Nazianzus, and St. Athanasius.

Saint Pius V, pray for us.
A small edition of the Missale Romanum from 1587

Viewing all 8539 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images