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Sassoferrato's Virgin at Prayer - for the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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For today’s feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, here is the Virgin at Prayer by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, generally known simply as Sassoferrato, who lived from 1609 to 1685.

Records of the commemoration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8th go back to the 6th century; the Solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception was later fixed to December 8, nine months prior.

Here is a bit of a commentary on the feast from Fr Matthew Mauriello: “The primary theme portrayed in the liturgical celebration of this feast day is that the world had been in the darkness of sin and with the arrival of Mary begins a glimmer of light. That light which appears at Mary’s holy birth preannounces the arrival of Christ, the Light of the World. Her birth is the beginning of a better world: ‘Origo mundi melioris.’ The antiphon for the Canticle of Zechariah at Morning Prayer expressed these sentiments in the following way: ‘Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, proclaims joy to the whole world, for from you arose the glorious Sun of Justice, Christ our God; He freed us from the age-old curse and filled us with holiness; he destroyed death and gave us eternal life.

“The second reading of the Office of Readings is taken from one of the four sermons written by St. Andrew of Crete (660-740) on Mary’s Nativity. He too used the image of light: ‘...This radiant and manifest coming of God to men needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us...Darkness yields before the coming of light.’ ”

This painting, like the painting of St Gregory the Great by Vignali described last week, is in the baroque style of the 17th century. Again, we see the sharp contrast between light and dark, symbolizing the Light overcoming the darkness, and again like the Vignali painting, the face is in partial shadow, ensuring that this is distinct in style from a portrait (I described the reasons behind this in more detail in the earlier posting).


There is an additional element here in the portrayal of the face that was not so strongly present in Vignali’s painting. The facial features are highly idealized and bear the likeness of the ancient Greek classical ideal.

Sassoferrato’s training and influences were all in the classical baroque school. This is a stream within baroque art that looks to Raphael from 100 years before as its inspiration. Raphael’s faces, in turn, strongly reflected the classical Greek ideal. This was the model for the teaching methods of three related artists of the Caracci family in the late 16th century, (the most famous of the three being Annibale), who founded a school from which most of the influential figures in the classical baroque line emerged.

All Christian sacred art must have a balance between idealism, which points to what we might become, and naturalism, which roots the image in the particular, what we see and know in the here and now. The different styles of Christian sacred art look different from each other because they look to different sources for their ideal, and because of the exact balance of idealism and naturalism they reflect. Baroque classicism is called thus to distinguish it from “baroque naturalism”, which, although still partially idealized, has a greater emphasis on natural appearances. Ribera would be an example of the naturalistic school, and Poussin was one of the most famous proponents of baroque classicism.

We can see the similarities in the facial features of the Sassoferrato Virgin, Raphael’s Alba Madonna, (which I describe in more detail in a posting here,) and the ancient Greek statue the Venus of Arles from the Louvre. This strong idealization is another way that the artist ensures that portrayal of Our Lady does not look a portrait of the girl from next door dressed up in historical costume.



Here is the Venus of Arles:


We can see the difference between the way in which sacred art and mundane art are painted by contrasting these works with Sassoferrato’s self portrait. Notice how in the portrait the image engages the viewer much more directly; we look deeply into his eyes, the deep shadow is absent, and the background is blue rather than black, so that the contrast between light and dark is not so pronounced. There is still some shadow in the face certainly - this is necessary in order to describe form - but it is not so marked. Also there is not such an obvious fusion of the natural features of the face with those of the Greek ideal as we would see in the sacred art.


Sassoferrato’s Virgin is in the National Gallery in London, and I have a great fondness for it. Even long before my conversion, it was one of those paintings that I always made a point of going to look at every time I visited the gallery; the National Gallery has no entrance fee, so I often used to just drop in for 20 minutes on my way home from work, or even sometimes just to escape the rain! The peaceful repose and expression of Our Lady, which is even more apparent if you see the original, always drew me in.

— ♦—


—JAY W. RICHARDS, Editor of the Stream and Lecturer at the Business School of the Catholic University of America said about it: “In The Way of Beauty, David Clayton offers us a mini-liberal arts education. The book is a counter-offensive against a culture that so often seems to have capitulated to a ‘will to ugliness.’ He shows us the power in beauty not just where we might expect it — in the visual arts and music — but in domains as diverse as math, theology, morality, physics, astronomy, cosmology, and liturgy. But more than that, his study of beauty makes clear the connection between liturgy, culture, and evangelization, and offers a way to reinvigorate our commitment to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the twenty-first century. I am grateful for this book and hope many will take its lessons to heart.”

Some Music for the Nativity of the Virgin Mary

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On the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the antiphon of the Magnificat at Second Vespers is borrowed from the Byzantine Rite, in which it is sung as the troparion at the Divine Liturgy. Here is the Greek original, the Latin translation used in the Office, and the English.

Ἡ γέννησίς σου Θεοτόκε, χαρὰν ἐμήνυσε πάσῃ τῇ οἰκουμένῃ· ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ ἀνέτειλεν ὁ Ἥλιος τῆς δικαιοσύνης, Χριστὸς ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν· καὶ λύσας τὴν κατάραν, ἔδωκε τὴν εὐλογίαν· καὶ καταργήσας τὸν θάνατον, ἐδωρήσατο ἡμῖν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον.

Nativitas tua, Dei Genitrix Virgo, gaudium annuntiavit universo mundo: ex te enim ortus est sol justitiae, Christus Deus noster: qui solvens maledictionem, dedit benedictionem, et confundens mortem, donavit nobis vitam sempiternam.

Thy birth, O Virgin Mother of God, proclaimed joy to the whole world; for from Thee arose the sun of righteousness, Christ our God; who released us from the curse, and gave us blessing; and confounding death, He granted us eternal life.

Here is a polyphonic setting of the Latin version by Palestrina.


This is the Greek version:


And the Old Church Slavonic:


Рождество Твое Богородице Дево, радость возвести всей вселенней: из Тебе бо возсия Солнце правды Христос Бог наш, и разрушив клятву, даде благословение, и упразднив смерть, дарова нам живот вечный.

Pinpointing the Origins of the Multi-Year Lectionary (Part 1)

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The treasures of the bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God's word. In this way a more representative portion of the holy scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years. (SC 51)
Where did the idea for a multi-year lectionary come from? Who was suggesting and talking about it before the Second Vatican Council? Why did they suggest it would be desirable?

These are questions that have occupied me almost since I started my researches into the liturgical reforms of the 20th century, specifically the lectionary. And it is only recently that I have gotten closer to answering some of these questions. Here at NLM, and over at Lectionary Study Aids, I will be sharing the results of my research.

Our quest to find out more about the origins of the multi-year lectionary starts a decade before the Council. In 1952, the new (at that time) liturgical journal Liturgisches Jahrbuch published an article entitled "Eine Dreijährige Perikopenordnung für Sonn- und Festtage" by Fr Heinz Schürmann. (Later on, Schürmann would be a member of Coetus XI of the Consilium, the group responsible for the post-conciliar reform of the lectionary). In this article, Schürmann calls the order of readings in the Roman Missal a "disadvantage" (Nachteil), and suggests his own, three-year cycle.

For the benefit of readers who don't speak much German, I have translated the article into English, and this can be downloaded by clicking here. (The article in German can be found at Lectionary Study Aids.)

Interestingly, Schürmann's proposed readings do not particularly exhibit the lectio semi-continua we see in the post-conciliar reforms, and neither is there the approach whereby each year is organised around one of the synoptic Gospels. Rather, his system utilises Gospel pericopes with roughly similar meaning and content for each Sunday ("die Evangelienperikopen durch solche ungefähr gleichen Sinngehaltes zu ersetzen"), so there is an attempt at thematic consistency throughout each year of the cycle and with the Mass formularies. It is worth noting that, with regard to the Ordinary Form, this is an approach the General Introduction to the Lectionary says was ultimately not extended to per annum Sundays, "that is, not to have an organic harmony of themes designed to aid homiletic instruction. Such an arrangement would be in conflict with the genuine conception of liturgical celebration" (GIL 68). The Epistle readings in Schürmann's scheme are, however, thematically linked to the Gospel, much like the Old Testament reading is linked to the Gospel in the Ordinary Form lectionary.

Later on, as a member of the Consilium, Schürmann, along with Heinrich Kahlefeld, would go further and argue for a four-year Sunday cycle.

As we shall see, a number of suggestions were made about lectionary reform (and liturgical reform generally) in the 1950s and earlier. In the next post in this series, we will examine some of these, and afterwards go a little further back in time to trace the history of this particular reform.

The Synaxis of Ss Joachim and Anne

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In the Byzantine Rite, the term “synaxis” (“σύναξις” in Greek, “собóръ – sobor” in Old Church Slavonic), refers to a special kind of commemoration held the day after a major feast. This commemoration honors a sacred person who figures prominently in the feast, but who is, so to speak, overshadowed by its principal subject. The most prominent example is the feast of the Holy Spirit, which is kept on the Monday after Pentecost, since Pentecost itself is the feast of the Holy Trinity. (Incidentally, the Byzantine All Saints’ Day is the following Sunday.) Likewise, the Synaxis of the Virgin Mary is kept the day after Christmas, that of St John the Baptist on January 7th, the day after the Baptism of the Lord, and that of St Gabriel the day after the Annunciation. These are not the principal feasts of the persons honored by these “synaxes”, and one also finds on the Byzantine liturgical calendar the other major feasts of the Virgin (Conception, Nativity, Assumption etc.) the two feasts of St John on June 24 and August 29, and that of St Gabriel on June 11.

Such a synaxis is kept on September 9 to honor both of the Virgin Mary’s parents on the day after Her birth. However, in the specific case of St Joachim, this is also his principal feast. In the Tridentine period, this custom was borrowed by the Ambrosian Rite, which keeps him (by himself) on this day as well. There is no other mention of him on the Byzantine calendar, whereas “the Dormition of St Anne, mother of the Mother of God” is kept as a separate feast on July 25th, the day before its traditional Western date.

An 18th-century icon of Ss Joachim and Anne with the Virgin Mary, from the monastery of the Pantocrator on Mt Athos.
Troparion :Ἡ Δυὰς ἡ ἁγία καὶ Θεοτίμητος, Ἰωακεὶμ καὶ ἡ Ἄννα, ὡς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγχιστεῖς, ἀνυμνείσθωσαν φαιδρῶς ᾀσμάτων κάλλεσιν · οὗτοι γὰρ ἔτεκον ἡμιν τὴν τεκοῦσαν ὑπὲρ νοῦν τὸν ἄσαρκον βροτωθέντα, εἰς σωτηρίαν τοῦ κόσμου, μεθ’ ἧς πρεσβεύουσι σωθῆναι ἡμᾶς.

Let the holy couple, honored by God, Joachim and Anna, as the kin of God, be celebrated with good cheer and beautiful songs; for they bore to us Her who, beyond our understanding, gave birth to One without flesh, but made mortal for the salvation of the world; and with Her they pray that we may be saved.

On September 9th, the Byzantines also commemorate the “Fathers of the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus”, who, led by St Cyril of Alexandria, defended and defined the Virgin Mary’s title “Mother of God.” One might imagine this commemoration would be fixed rather to the Annunciation, the day on which She became the Mother of God, to Her synaxis on December 26th, or to a date in June or July, when the Council itself was actually held in the year 431. It is fixed to September 9th because the liturgical New Year of the Byzantine Rite is on September 1st, and therefore, the Nativity of the Virgin is the first Marian feast of the year.

Photopost Request : Exaltation of the Cross 2015

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Our next major photopost will be for the Exaltation of the Cross, this coming Monday, September 14th; please send your photos (whether of the Ordinary or Extraordinary Form) to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org for inclusion. We are also always glad to receive photographs of celebrations in the Eastern rites, as well as Vespers and other parts of the Office. We will also include any photos which we may receive from of celebrations of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Please be sure to include the name and location of the church, and always feel free to add any other information you think important. Evangelize through beauty!

From our Exaltation photopost last year: Fr John Berg, Superior General of the F.S.S.P., celebrates a solemn Mass at the church of Mary, Help of Christians, in Hong Kong.

A Relic of the Passion in Milan Cathedral

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As one might imagine, the cathedral of Milan, the largest cathedral in Italy and the mother church of one of the largest dioceses in the world, boasts a very impressive collection of relics. Chief among these is the Holy Nail, one of the nails of Our Lord’s Crucifixion, found by St Helena when she discovered the relics of the True Cross in Jerusalem. According to an old tradition, attested by St Ambrose in his funeral oration for the Emperor Theodosius, the holy empress sent one of the nails to her son Constantine, who had it bent into a bridle for his horse. This was then passed on to his son Constantius, who made his capital at Milan, and by him to his successors, until Theodosius consigned it to St Ambrose at the very end of the fourth century.

The reliquary containing the Holy Nail is normally kept in a tabernacle at the very back of the Duomo’s apse, and almost at the ceiling, forty meters above the floor. Its place is marked with a red light which burns before it continually, but the tabernacle itself is often difficult to see when the church is dark. However, each year the reliquary is brought down on Sept. 13, at First Vespers of the Exaltation of the Cross, and left for a week in the main sanctuary of the cathedral for the veneration of the faithful. This was formerly done for the feast of the Finding of the Cross as well, which was historically the more important of the two feasts of the Holy Cross.

A close view of the Nail in its reliquary.
The tabernacle in which it is kept.
St Charles Borromeo Bearing the Relic of the Holy Nail in Procession During a Plague, by Giovanni dall’Orto, 1602. This is one of several paintings of episodes of St Charles’ life which every year are hung from bars between the columns of the Duomo for his feast day (November 4th), and left up until the Epiphany. (Click to enlarge.)
The tabernacle is reached by a small platform, which is pulled up to its height on four ropes that run up into the church’s roof. Before it was motorized in recent times, the platform had to be pulled by hand by twenty-four men, six to each of the ropes, and with great care to keep them moving at an even pace, lest the platform tip and spill out the archbishop, who still to this day retrieves it personally. (At the end of the week, it is replaced by the archpriest of the Duomo.) This platform, made in the 16th century, is called the “Nivola”, Milanese dialect for “nuvola – cloud”, from the large bag which hangs from its bottom, and is painted with angels. The whole operation can be seen in the following videos, both from the year 2011. The first shows the Nivola being raised and lowered; the second shows the complete ceremony, including First Vespers of the Exaltation, in the OF Ambrosian Rite.



Photos from the Pontifical Mass with Cardinal Burke in Steubenville, OH

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Steve Skojec of OnePeterFive posted a nice wrap-up of a busy 48 hours at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Among other things he talks about the highlight, the Pontifical Mass at the Throne with His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke:
For those who think Steubenville and tradition don’t mix, the college has several on-campus TLMs a month. On the particular and quite special occasion of Cardinal Burke’s visit, a Pontifical High Mass was also arranged at St. Peter’s, the local parish. Professor Nicholas Will, who teaches Sacred Music, played the organ in a style that would impress even the most demanding Frenchman, and he also directed the Schola Cantorum Franciscana in the Messe Solonnelle by Louis Vierne. In general, I respect and appreciate the organ as a liturgical instrument, but my preference is for the human voice, sparsely adorned.
          And Oh! Those human voices! It was an absolutely stunning performance. The Kyrie and the Sanctus in particular were incredibly moving. Many of the students who come to Franciscan are musically talented, but not all of them are limited to softly strumming guitars and Christian contemporary ballads. I do not overstate the case when I say this was the most powerful vocal performance I have ever heard in all my travels – including Rome, Vienna, and Salzburg.
          The Mass itself was absolutely packed, despite the somewhat difficult time (Tuesday morning at 10:15AM) and the fact that from beginning to end, it clocked in at nearly three hours. In choir were quite a number of priests, including those from the local diocese, the TORs, the Institute of Christ the King, and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. It was like the United Nations of Liturgical Awesomeness, with any number of priests working together to effect supreme and sacred worship of The Blessed Trinity.
I can second what Steve says about the Mass and the music: just magnificent in every way. We're always told that the liturgy is a foretaste of heaven on earth, but sadly, it only rarely looks and sounds and feels that way. This day was one of those times when it rings true. I would add that it was deeply moving to see many pews full of Catholic schoolchildren (grades 1 to 8 from the look of it), who had been bused in from Pittsburgh to be present at this auspicious pontifical celebration. I thought to myself: This is the Mass that people thought they could bury forever; but they are dead and gone, and it is alive and well. These children were given a feast for their senses and souls. They assisted at the Roman Rite in all its fullness. The New Evangelization takes one small step forward.

Now for one of the things NLM does best: here are some photos from the Mass. There may be more later, but this is a start:













Matthew Alderman on the Camino de Santiago

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One of our long-standing contributor and sacred architecture specialist, Matthew Alderman, is currently on the Camino de Santiago with his parents, and is happy to share some photos of the journey with us. They are doing about 100 kilometers on foot, and Matthew is taking a lot of pictures along the way - this post represents just a tiny selection of the many beautiful places they have visited thus far.

A chapel in Barbelo, one of the many stopping places.
On this arrow spray-painted on a wall to help people find their way, an Italian pilgrim has written the last line of  Dante’s Divine Comedy, “the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
Another of the many little chapels which the pilgrims pass.


A votive cross set up by the road near Sarria.

The church at Portomarin
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”

A clever act of vandalism


A well-deserved break

Recent Articles of Interest to NLM Readers

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At OnePeterFive, I recently published a three part series on the primacy of Gregorian chant in the sacred liturgy and on the participation of the faithful in the singing of the Ordinary. The articles are leavened with many apt quotations from papal documents and the Second Vatican Council:
As readers may also know, this week I gave a public lecture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, the full text of which (including extensive endnotes) is available at Rorate Caeli:
“The Old Mass and the New Evangelization: Beyond the Long Winter of Rationalism”

In the Gentile Gallery of the J. C. Williams Center at FUS

Business, Beauty and Liturgy

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A theology of work and the entrepreneur 


In his book The Wellspring of Worship, Jean Corbon (who also wrote the section on prayer in the Catechism) wrote the following: “Work and culture are the place where men and the world meet in the glory of God. This encounter fails or is obscured to the degree that men ‘lack God's glory’ (Rom. 3, 23)... If the experience is to be filled with glory, men must first become once again the dwelling places of this glory and be clothed in it; that is why, existentially, everything begins with the liturgy of the heart and the divinisation of the human person.” Elsewhere he states that an absence of communion through Eucharistic liturgy “that is at the root of injustices in the workplace, with its alienating structures and disorders in the economy.”(pp. 225, 229)

How can we change society and the culture into one that is beautiful, is just and is built on true community? I say, following on from Corbon, that if we wish to change society, we must look to ourselves first, so that we become the people who are transformed in Christ - transfigured - and show Him to others by our actions and interactions. Society is a network of personal interactions, and we change society, therefore, by changing the way we interact with others. There is no aspect of human life to which this does not apply.


Only God’s grace can do this for us, and it is by prayer, or more precisely, by worship of God that we encounter Christ in such a way that it can happen. When we can be one of those people, then people will be drawn to the Church through us and join us. To the degree that anyone is participating in the divine nature and showing people the transfigured Christ in their daily lives, he is someone who, by grace, will relate to others in properly ordered love. This is what attracts people to the Faith. This will be evident in the workplace as much as anywhere else. All economic interactions ought to be personal and loving as much as any other in a good society. In the sphere of economics this is how the principle of superabundance is invoked that creates prosperity for society. This principle of superabundance is the great untold secret for the creation for wealth; if it isn’t actually the pearl of great price, it will certainly give you means to buy it!

None of us should ignore this, for we are all involved in economic interactions of some sort, and we all need to flourish and make sufficient wealth to live on. However, some people have a particular calling to be entrepreneurs. They have a special grace, an ability to make money beyond their personal needs, and in a way that encourages human flourishing at all levels. When they do this, they are participating in the creative work of God and contributing to the culture by creating something of beauty. However, for that calling to be realized, they need also to be aware not only of how to make money in a way that is in accord with the common good, but also of the end to which that money should be directed responsibly. They must be good stewards. It is the nature of charisms that unless they are directed in love, they evaporate, which is to say, they cannot be misused. So while it is possible for someone to make money selfishly, of course, it also possible for people who do not have this particular calling to develop the skill of entrepreneurship and be driven by good motives. The person who has this charism, however, and special calling, will generate wealth almost effortlessly (compared to others) and in great abundance when he does so in accordance with the principle of love.


Benedict XVI describes this ideal for personal interactions in economic activity in his encyclical, Caritas in veritate. It is a network of such personal interactions that in aggregate form a free society, and the free economy described by John Paul II in Centesimus annus.

Pope Benedict describes how Christians are transformed in Christ in this life by degrees and by grace - transfigured and participating in the divine nature - through a personal encounter with God in the Eucharist. To the degree that human relationships are driven by concern for the other person, they are in accordance with the Trinitarian dynamic of love, which is the model for the loving component of personal relationships. When this Love is present, it is always superabundant. Love is superabundant - fruitful without measure - because of the generosity of God who can give beyond all limitations and creates out of nothing. It is by this principle that wealth is generated in properly ordered economic transactions.

Though we may not think of it as such, the ordinary exchange of goods for money that we are daily engaged in does not redistribute wealth, it creates wealth. By this simple exchange both parties have something they value more than before, and so wealth has been created (otherwise they would not both choose to make the exchange). However, a caveat is necessary here. This is true provided that there is personal freedom, understood not simply as lack of constraint, but also full knowledge of the practicable best.

One of the beauties of the participating in the market in a free economy is that if I am dealing with someone in such a transaction who is genuinely free to choose whether or not he trades with me, then even if I am driven by selfish ends, I am forced to consider his needs and what is good from his point of view. If I don’t, chances are that he will choose not to trade with me because he is free not to do so. So, provided that freedom is present, even the selfish like me are forced to some degree at least into loving action. Even in this minimal form of love there is superabundance. In practice, rarely is someone wholly driven by selfish interests, just as it is rare that is someone wholly loving in action and thought. Superabundance is maximized to the degree that both parties are genuinely interested in the well being of the other as they engage in the transaction. This is when all the aspects for which a price cannot be paid - at a simple level a genuine care and attention, for example are given freely too.


To the degree that the loving component grows, people relate to each other in such a way that the other flourishes. When the conditions exist that allow for this to happen, people will naturally seek out others who interact in this way, and the complexion of the economy gradually changes. Economic prosperity is maximized to the extent that the activity that it creates it is in harmony with a flourishing of the society of human persons. When people are transformed in Christ, then they are more naturally inclined to consider the other in what they do, going beyond the simple contractual elements of trade, and create an economy that is rooted in a love which goes beyond the minimum requirement of justice.

One might refer to this as a covenant economy, one that is ordered to mutual giving, rather than one that is purely contractual and relies on the alignment of self-interest alone. St John Paul II pointed out in Centesimus annus that the market is the most efficient and best way to distribute goods for which a price can be paid. He then stated that this also defines the limitations of the market; it cannot distribute those things for which a price cannot be paid which are also vital in life and the flourishing of the human person. That is why he said that this market will be in the context of what he called a “free economy”. Pope Benedict in Caritas in Veritate connects the two much more directly in each economic transaction, and says that if those aspects for which money is not paid are not also present therein, (he calls this additional element one of gratuitousness), then there is no superabundance. In fact, he goes on to say that gratuitousness must be present if wealth is to be created.

When freedom is lacking, the result is not the superabundant creation of wealth, but an enforced redistribution of wealth that favors one party more than the other inequitably. The party that gains is not just taking advantage of the other person in the exchange, but is parasitical upon society as a whole, drawing from it, rather than contributing to it; one only needs to look at a neighborhood in which drug dealing is rife to see such effects. Similarly, government taxation directed towards paying for activities that go beyond the natural role of government (which should be limited to the regulating for and protecting personal freedom), are also acts against the common good that go against freedom, and are contrary to what a government’s role should be. They will have the same stultifying effects on society as whole that we see, for example, in Venezuela today, and we saw in the Eastern bloc countries of the past so markedly.


Pope Benedict describes in many places in his writings how the personal transformation, by which a person is capable of and inclined to interact lovingly with his neighbors, will occur. Perhaps one of the most simply and concisely present examples is his little paper on the New Evangelization. We must first look at ourselves; we must learn to pray. It is through prayer, and, to be precise, a liturgically centered piety, that we are transformed.

Not all prosperous societies are Catholic societies (whatever we mean by that), and not all Catholic societies are prosperous. But it is to the degree that any earthly city and its people participate in those ideals of the City of God, Catholic or not, that it is prosperous and stable. It is the beauty of the culture, and especially the culture of Faith, that will inspire Christians to pray well, and non-believers to pray at all. Beauty engenders creativity, inspires us to love, and so to participate in the superabundant love in anything we do, including trade. This is why beauty, the free economy and the liturgy are inseparable.


People today yearn for community and for a beautiful culture that they feel is absent from their lives. This is not a new thing; it is what people have yearned for since there were people around to yearn for anything in life. The answer lies in each of us looking to ourselves. We must retreat to the wilderness, symbolically, in prayer, the place where Christ engaged with the devil. Then transformed, we emerge and engage with our fellow man. We do not need to flee further at this point. We engage wherever we happen to be, wherever there are people. In doing so we will create the culture and the community we yearn for around us, where we are, right here and right now. If this is not happening, then we look afresh at ourselves. While this means that work becomes that of the artisan, like St Joseph, which we tend to romanticize today, we do not need to think that this is a process of turning back the clock. Rather, it is one of adding to the workplaces that we are already in, the factory, shop, office, building site and so on, and raising it up to a place of beauty and love.

Even in these workplaces, which are often seen as places that are opposed to Christian values, we can be that person, clothed in glory, who transforms those around them and transform the work culture. This is the message of the Church and of the New Evangelization. It begins with us being transformed in the liturgy, and the hope is that after we engage with them we lead others back to the liturgy. It will be by the grace, beauty and love that others see in our work that they will let us do so.

A word on the pictures: the first is Titian’s Transfiguration; the second, by the 20th-century Italian artist Pietro Annigoni is St Joseph the Worker with Our Lord. The other three photographs are of a car production line, a NYC trading floor, and a clothes factory in India. It is easy in some ways to look back on the work of St Joseph as a carpenter and see this as participating in the Transfiguration, and this is reflected brilliantly by Annigoni. We tend to romanticize the work of the artisan nowadays, and assume that somehow this work is intrinsically different from the work most people do today. This is why, supposedly, the factory worker is more alienated today than the agricultural worker of the 16th century. I am not persuaded of this. I think it depends as much on the people involved as the nature of the work. I suggest that we should not seek to eliminate or escape from the modern workplace, but work for its transformation with our participation in the liturgy at the heart of what we do. Then, by our engagement with them, these places too can be in harmony with the life of the world to come. I hope that when we look back on the work of the sacred artist if the 21st century, it will portray Saints on the trading floor with as much empathy as the man tilling the land; or the seamstress on the shop floor with the same light of grace as Our Lady sewing the curtains for the Temple.

— ♦—

The book, the Way of Beauty is a manual for a formation in beauty that explains how the whole culture is a reflection of divine love, how we can become agents of that change as well as educators who can form offer that formation to others. It is available from Angelico Press and Amazon.

—JAY W. RICHARDS, Editor of the Stream and Lecturer at the Business School fo the Catholic University of America said about it: “In The Way of Beauty, David Clayton offers us a mini-liberal arts education. The book is a counter-offensive against a culture that so often seems to have capitulated to a ‘will to ugliness.’ He shows us the power in beauty not just where we might expect it — in the visual arts and music — but in domains as diverse as math, theology, morality, physics, astronomy, cosmology, and liturgy. But more than that, his study of beauty makes clear the connection between liturgy, culture, and evangelization, and offers a way to reinvigorate our commitment to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the twenty-first century. I am grateful for this book and hope many will take its lessons to heart.”

Guest Article: Taking Summorum Pontificum Out of the Trenches

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(Today New Liturgical Movement is happy to share with our readers an article submitted to us by Juventutem DC in commemoration of this anniversary.--PAK)

Here we are, eight years after Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, came into effect. This is an extraordinary day, both for those who endured long years without the clarity that Summorum provides, as well as for younger Catholics (like those in Juventutem DC) who grew up after Vatican II and were — to the surprise of many — drawn to tradition. So where are we eight years after Summorum took effect?

For context, let’s reflect on some typical comments Juventutem DC has heard.

1.“At our parish, we have had an Indult for nearly 20 years!”

2.Summorum Pontificum has been around for years, but my bishop/diocese/pastor won’t implement it.”

3.“If only the FSSP would be given a parish here, everything would be better.”

As far as Juventutem DC is concerned, Summorum is the biggest thing since the responsorial psalm in E-flat major. A total game changer, it is classic Pope Benedict — pragmatic, intelligent, well reasoned, and has the force of law. Moreover, it presupposes that lay Catholics possess a certain competence, energy, and endurance. It does not, however, promote an “Indult-mentality.”

The Indult was the mechanism to get the traditional Mass before Summorum was issued. The general consensus is that those who didn’t like the traditional Mass used the Indult to limit its celebration. It was a flawed licensing system — completely at the discretion of the bishop. Pope Benedict XVI called out its weaknesses in his letter introducing Summorum. In fact, the very first article of Summorum explains that the documents that created the Indult system are replaced by Summorum. That’s a big deal: eight years ago on this day, the 1984 Indult became a legal nullity.

Yet, to this day, some diocesan authorities have been slow or unwilling to move beyond Indult-style restrictions. It’s wrong. It’s not healthy or helpful, but it’s not really all that surprising.

But what’s with all the laity who still have an Indult-mentality? The three comments above are emblematic and probably, there are a number of reasons for this mentality. Many laity and clergy simply assume that Church law prescribes this state of affairs. Even the focus on obtaining clergy from an Ecclesia Dei priestly society to run local parishes is understandable: they do amazing work and even Juventutem International’s chaplain is an FSSP priest! But the assumption that the Extraordinary Form begins and ends with these societies and orders is a false one. Summorum is meant for everyone, for all parishes and dioceses.

Above all, we think that this mentality is the result of a vague familiarity with certain concepts, but not an in-depth knowledge of Summorum and the 2011 explanatory Instruction of the Ecclesia Dei Commission. Mastery of these two documents will equip laity and priests with the confidence to cease being treated as second-class Catholics as they seek to discover or promote traditional Catholic life in the Church. Summorum is the law, and the Instruction confirms that Summorum is to be given a liberal construction and generous application. In effect, these two documents are the current tools for the restoration of liturgical tradition.

So let’s take a step back, gain our bearings, and once and for all, master Summorum.

Summorum lays out a simple timeline for anyone in a parish to restore the traditional Mass to its altars. Reading the provisions that pertain to parishes in the order in which they appear in the document reveals a robust framework that empowers priests and the laity alike.

Step 1: the lonely priest in a parish. Under Art. 2, any priest can privately (i.e., “without a congregation”) say the traditional Mass. He doesn’t need any permission from the Holy See or his bishop or pastor to do so. Imagine a priest, probably with a server, saying Mass at an unscheduled time in his parish church occasionally. Arguably, this is a low Mass.

Step 2: the not-so lonely priest. Lay faithful see that the priest is saying an Art. 2 Mass in the parish. They say, “Father, thank you! May we assist at this Mass?” Under Art. 4, those lay faithful may assist at the priest’s Art. 2 Mass, and no matter how many people there are, it remains a private Mass and does not require anyone’s permission (neither the pastor nor the bishop may forbid it). Very pragmatic!

Step 3: the popular priest. It turns out that, after steps 1 and 2, a group of faithful stably exists in that parish and wants to assist at the traditional Mass. Under Art. 5, the pastor should “willingly accede to their requests to celebrate Holy Mass according to the rite of the 1962 Roman Missal.” A few points:

That, of course, presupposes that the faithful are requesting it! Have you asked your priest to implement Summorum? Have you told him you’d help him do so?

There's no minimum number of people required to be a group and it doesn't matter how long it's been around as a group – the people don’t even have to be from the same parish. Just go for it!

The careful reader will note a shift from Art. 2 that only mentions Masses “without a congregation” (arguably, a low Mass) to Art. 5 where now we can choose from all the various forms of “Holy Mass according to the rite of the 1962 Roman Missal.” That’s a lot of options beyond a low Mass—pick a Mass, any Mass—Missa cantata? Solemn Mass? Go for it!

These Art. 5 Masses can be said on any feria, Sunday, or feast day. Again, when requested, they are permitted for marriages, funerals, or other reasons, including pilgrimages. In each case, Summorum says that the pastor should grant the request of the faithful.

Step 4: if the pastor doesn’t grant the request. Let’s say things go poorly. If the pastor doesn’t grant the group’s request, then under Art. 7, the group “should inform the diocesan bishop [and] [t]he bishop is earnestly requested to satisfy their desire.” If the bishop doesn’t do so, then the group can petition the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in Rome to help find a solution. The laity does not need any permission from an unsympathetic chancery to do so—Summorum has a check where the Indult system was lacking.

So you see, there is a real framework and there are real protections, at least for the laity. But someone has to ask a priest for the Mass—ask for it! Keep asking for it! Invite your friends, even those who go to Mass in the Ordinary Form. Share your faith with them; help them discover tradition. Buy your priest a 1962 Roman Missal—you’d be surprised how effective that is. If you can’t afford a Missal, find someone who can. Amass a talent pool of singers and servers, even if you have to train people. And if an aging hold-out in the diocese doesn’t like what your priest is doing, be ready to defend him. Zealously advocate for him and for your spiritual needs, keeping charity in your hearts while you do so.

Just as the logic of Summorum is incompatible with the crummy Indult system, it is completely inconsistent with lay inertia, slactivism, and complacency with the status quo ante.

We recommend using the tools of Summorum to your full advantage, with contagious joy and unwavering enthusiasm. Have courage, have guts, and be prepared to talk to a lot of people who have no idea what Summorum says. Help them understand it—both friend and foe. And, lest we forget, birotā vehimini!

*          *          *

Juventutem DC is the local chapter in Washington, DC of the Foederatio Internationalis Juventutem, a Catholic network fostering the sanctification of the young adults and youth worldwide according to the Roman traditions of the Church. If you are interested in starting a Juventutem chapter, please visit www.juventutem.org for more details. (It’s easier than you think.)

FOR THOSE IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA --
NOTE THIS EVENT TONIGHT:


On the Use and Abuse of the Terms “Ordinary” and “Extraordinary” in Summorum Pontificum

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On Friday, October 26, 2007, only six weeks after Summorum Pontificum had become the law of the Church, the founder of this blog, Shawn Tribe, made some perceptive comments about the meaning of the terms ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’ as found in the motu proprio.[1] I remember thinking at the time that he was getting too worried about the possible misunderstanding of this pair of terms, but eight years of experience have convinced me that he was right. I’ve had first-hand experiences with people who argue along these lines: “Benedict XVI was saying that this liturgy is out of the ordinary and should remain that way.”

While “extraordinary form” has become a common way to refer to the traditional Latin Mass (and one can understand why: it has the advantage of brevity and an easy symmetry with “ordinary form,” particularly when one abbreviates them as EF and OF), nevertheless, the phrase can be misleading, because it is an extrinsic description, based on the current liturgical situation, in which one form has de facto prominence over the other: the ordinary is that which is more commonplace, and the extra-ordinary that which is relatively uncommon. But if we put ourselves in mind of a parish run by the Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, or another such society of apostolic life, the opposite situation obtains: the “extraordinary form” is the ordinary liturgy for the people, indeed the only one, for all intents and purposes.

Shawn drew our attention to a point of vital importance that deserves to be brought forward as soon as a conversation starts hinging or fixating on the OF/EF terminology — namely, that Pope Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum and its explanatory letter to the worlds’ bishops makes use of other expressions as well: the Missal of St. Pius V[2], “the Missal of Blessed John XXIII” (in fact, he uses this phrase more often than any other[3]), “the old Missal,” “the ancient Latin liturgical tradition,” and the “usus antiquior.” The clarifying instruction Universae Ecclesiae of 2011 speaks of “the older liturgical tradition” and frequently calls it the “usus antiquior” or “older use.”[4] There is no evidence that Pope Benedict was legally and officially giving a single or a privileged name to the traditional Latin Mass any more than he was doing so for the modern Roman Rite. The official documents of the Church use multiple names for them, and for good reason: each name conveys something important that the other names do not convey. The unofficial names also add to the portrait: Gregorian rite, Tridentine rite, classical Roman rite, etc.

A failure to recognize the diversity and purpose of Pope Benedict’s nomenclature can lead to a situation where the “extraordinary” of “EF” is used to fend off ordinary Catholics who desire, or desire more regularly, that which Benedict XVI asked the clergy generously to offer. “No,” responds the nay-sayer, “the Church says this Mass is out of the ordinary — rare, marginal, exceptional, not the norm for us.” If the nay-sayer went on to suggest that the “E” in “extraordinary form” meant somewhat the same as in the “E” in “extraordinary minister of holy communion,” one could disprove the claim by pointing to the fact that there are whole communities and even an entire diocese (Campos, Brazil) that are permitted to celebrate exclusively the extraordinary form, while there is not a single church in the world where EMHCs are legally allowed to be the ordinary ministers of holy communion — for the simple reason that it is metaphysically impossible for them to become so without first changing their state in life (or, for many, their sex, quod absit). But such an argument would be specious and disingenuous; after all, when’s the last time you saw EF’s multiplied the way that EMHC’s are multiplied? In reality, the “E” of EMHC means one thing and the “E” of EF means another; we call this an analogous use of language. It happens a lot in poetry, and, by the way, in theology, too. Just ask St. Thomas Aquinas.

I knew a priest who took the “E” of “EF” in a restrictive sense, as if it meant “that which should remain marginal or rare,” but the logic of Summorum Pontificum and the wide range of permissions the Vatican has granted since approximately 1988 shows that the “E” has a descriptive rather than a prescriptive force; it is factual, not restrictive. In contrast, the restrictive sense is employed in the phrase “EMHCs,” which are supposed to be for emergency situations and rare.[5] But since there are whole parishes, religious orders, and even a diocese that exclusively employ the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite, the “E” here must not mean for emergency situations or rarely permitted, but simply that, socially and institutionally speaking, it is out of the ordinary. Put differently, OF and EF are sociological or demographic terms: they state what the global pastoral situation is, but do not prescribe how it should be, or imply a judgment on which form should be more normal in a particular community.[6]

The comparison I like to use is this: driving the wrong way down a one-way street is certainly extraordinary and can be justified only by an emergency, but driving to work taking the scenic country road rather than the speedy interstate is also extra-ordinary in that most people don’t do it, but it is completely legal and, in fact, more beautiful. And some people may choose to drive exclusively on the country roads. Perhaps, like Mary of Bethany, they have chosen the better part.

Summorum Pontificum is a fine example of papal diplomacy. It assumes that the OF is the norm for the vast majority of Catholic communities, and that, for now at least, it must remain in currency, while the EF is gradually added back to the life of the Church. Thus, it seems to me that, given standing liturgical law, a pastor of a parish could not, on his own authority, declare that his parish will be exclusively EF from a certain point onwards. On the other hand, it seems equally clear from the motu proprio that if there is a stable coetus fidelium capable of supporting an EF parish (particularly if there is an empty church or a church in danger of closure), the local bishop could not reasonably say: “Sorry, this is not the normal liturgy of our diocese and you can’t have it.” The fact that the OF is, so to speak, the default setting does not mean it must be the default for every Roman Catholic believer or community of believers. We know this cannot be so because of parishes and religious houses that exclusively celebrate the EF, with the Church’s permission.

Let us consider some of the implications of postconciliar Church policy. Under Pope Paul VI, it was thought by most Catholics that the whole liturgical life of the Church had been overhauled, in such a way that the old was definitively retired and the new authoritatively imposed. Gone, defunct, inoperative, impermissible, was anything for which a new equivalent had been created. But this strong line had already started to wane under the Polish pope, and it was permanently retired by the Bavarian. Today, the traditional Roman calendar (as of 1962), the old Martyrology, the old Divine Office (including the Office of Prime), the rite of tonsure, the minor orders, the subdiaconate, all of the sacramental rites and blessings of the Rituale Romanum, the Pontificale—all of this is back in use, deemed fully legitimate[7]; according to Pope Benedict XVI, none of it was ever abrogated or abolished.

Consequently, all of this heritage can be taken up again by a community and become normative for that community. For Catholics who belong to an FSSP parish, Epiphany is not the Sunday after New Year’s, but January 6 (as it had always been, prior to recent decades); Ascension Thursday is not bumped to the Sunday after Ascension, but takes place forty days after the Resurrection (as had always been the case)—and this, regardless of the OF Ordo; the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas is March 7, not January 28; and so forth. The real calendar for these EF-attending Catholics is the 1962 calendar; they are not, as it were, pretending or playacting. There is, at this time in the Church’s life, a unique coexistence of two forms of the Roman Rite, each with its own structure of Mass and Office, feasts and ferials, sacraments and sacramentals—and therefore it cannot be said that one of these forms is normative in an unqualified sense for all Roman Catholics. The OF may be the norm for most Catholics, but it is not obligatory and it is certainly not in itself superior, as if it dictates the conditions under which the EF is to be allowed, or as if it is always to be preferred whenever there is a choice of forms. Such views would contradict the equality of the forms and the now-widespread existence of exclusively EF communities, both parochial and religious, permitted by the Apostolic See.

When Pope Benedict in his Letter to Bishops of July 7, 2007, speaks about “the actual situation of the communities of the faithful” and their “degree of liturgical formation,” he is admitting that the nature of a given community has to be taken into account when determining the proportion of the OF to the EF. There isn’t a “one-size fits all” blueprint that could be superimposed on every group of Catholics. Some will not enjoy the presence of the EF; others may have the EF exclusively. The Church permits both extremes and every permutation in between—although Universae Ecclesiae does imply that every Catholic should be exposed to the EF when it says, apropos Summorum Pontificum, that “the Letter has the aim of bestowing[8] on all of the faithful the Roman Liturgy in the usus antiquior, considered as a precious treasure to be preserved” (8a).

On this eighth anniversary of the going into effect of Summorum Pontificum, we can perform a simple thought experiment. The number of traditionalist priests ordained each year in France is steadily rising and the number of diocesan clergy is falling precipitously. Years down the line, it is almost certain that the former will outnumber the latter.[9] What will the bishops do? Close more and more churches, or bite the bullet and entrust them to priests who celebrate only the EF? If country parishes over time went in the EF direction simply out of necessity, would there not eventually be a tipping point when the OF and the EF were, say, 50/50 in their representation? And if that were possible, why not a century in which the EF becomes the norm and the OF a permitted alternative? Whatever shift takes place, we can be sure that a day will come when the terminology of OF and EF will seem quaintly old-fashioned.

Back on that fateful day of March 7, 1965, when Pope Paul VI celebrated the first mostly-Italian Mass at the parish of Ognissanti in Rome, he said in his homily: “Today’s new way of prayer, of celebrating the Holy Mass, is extraordinary.” Less than five years later, the “extraordinary” vernacular Mass had become altogether ordinary, in spite of centuries of tradition and the clear teaching of Pius XII’s Mediator Dei and the Second Vatican Council. Now, fifty years later, we see a striking reversal happening at the grassroots level: for an increasing number of Catholics, the “extraordinary” Latin Mass is becoming altogether ordinary once again, in a development that can only be called natural, normal, and healthy, with plenty of youthful momentum.


NOTES

[1] Shawn Tribe, “'Ordinary' and 'Extraordinary': A Discussion about Interpretive Keys to Their Meaning.”

[2] In Art. 1: “the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V and reissued by Bl. John XXIII.”

[3] Pope Benedict XVI defines the older form of the Mass in reference to John XXIII eight times in the motu proprio and once in the accompanying letter. In contrast, he uses the expression “extraordinary form” only three times in the motu proprio and twice in the accompanying letter.

[4] See Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Universae Ecclesiae, nn. 5, 8a, and 15.

[5] See my article at EWTN, with all the pertinent statements on EMHCs from 1969 to 1997.

[6] When Benedict XVI cites “juridical norms” as indicative of the status of the OF (“Already from these concrete presuppositions, it is clearly seen that the new Missal will certainly remain the ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, not only on account of the juridical norms, but also because of the actual situation of the communities of the faithful,” Letter to Bishops, July 7, 2007), he is referring to the fact that Paul VI instituted the new Roman Missal for the universal church, and it has been given in such a way that it is understood to be the default. If a new church is built and a priest is assigned to it, the default is that he will celebrate the OF. However, this is a far cry from saying that the OF is “what believers ought to be following,” and they may follow the EF “by way of exception.”

[7] Albeit with some restrictions, most notably this one: “Only [or At least] in Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life subject to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, and in these where  the use of the liturgical books of the forma extraordinaria is maintained, is it allowed to use the Pontificale Romanum of the year 1962 for conferring major and minor Orders” (Universae Ecclesiae 31).

[8] The Latin original says: omnibus largire fidelibus—the usus antiquior should be “bestowed on all the faithful,” not merely “offered” to them, as the official translation at the Vatican website has it. The difference is significant. The official translation is misleading at times, as is the case with many Vatican documents. The Latin Mass Society has prepared a more literal translation.

[9] See the data and projections here.

Recent Discoveries on the Origins of the Stabat Mater

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Nuns Singing in the Bologna MS
On this feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, formerly the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, I thought it would be suitable to present to our readers a transcription of the text and music of a thirteenth-century version of the Stabat Mater, recently discovered by Prof. Cesarino Ruini in a manuscript that once belonged to a convent of Dominican Nuns in Bologna, Italy, and on which I have recently posted. A miniature of the Bologna nuns, from their manuscript, decorates this post.

The discovery of this manuscript, as explained in the article available here (in Italian), shows by the date of the manuscript that the traditional ascription of authorship to Jacopone of Todi can no longer be sustained. The date, however, leaves open the possibility, often mentioned, that it is the work of Pope Innocent III. Perhaps it was composed by the Dominincan nuns of Sant’Agnese in Bologna.

This version is interesting for a number of reasons. First, this is the earliest use of the text as a sequence. Until the discovery of this version, it was only known as a hymn until the late middle ages. This manuscript shows that the earliest known use of the text as a sequence was among Italian Dominican nuns in the 1200s. Next, the text includes not only a number of verbal variants, but also includes two verses absent from the commonly received version. Those who wish to examine these can download my transcription and compare the text to the received version here.

Even more interesting is the music. As pointed out to me by the Dominican nuns of Summit NJ, this ancient sequence borrows, with the exception of one stanza (cf. verses 19 and 20), the melodies of the Sequence of St. Dominic in the Dominican Rite. There are a number of minor musical variants as well. Those interested might want to compare the music to that found in the Dominican Gradual for the Mass of St. Dominic.

Through the kindness of a reader who converted the PDFs of this music into JPGs, here are images of the newly discovered 13th-Century Stabat Mater. I am aware that these images are a bit blurry; if you click on them or download them, you will get a clearer image.




Dominican Sung Mass in Minneapolis This Saturday

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This Saturday, September 19, 2015 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a Dominican Rite Sung Mass will be celebrated by Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, who is a professor at the Angelicum in Rome (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas). The Mass will begin at 10:00 am; click here for further information.

   

Dominican Rite and Chant in Toulouse, 2015-2017

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During the coming year, 2016, the Order of Preachers will be celebrating our 800th anniversary.  Throughout the world the various provinces will be sponsoring celebratory events.  One of these, that would be of interest to readers of this blog will occur in Toulouse, France.  It is:


Events of interest include:
13th-Century Dominican Chant


Lectures on Dominican Chant and Liturgy by  Marcel Pérès (throughout the year).

Office of St. Dominic in Dominican Chant (Jan. 28, 2016)

Mass of Pentecost in the Dominican Rite (May 16, 2016)

Office of St. Thomas Aquinas (Jan. 28, 2017)

Classes and Study Circles on the Chant (throughout the year.

The program (in French) and enrollment forms can be downloaded in PDF format here.

On the same topic, I am pleased to announce that Saturday, Sept. 19, at 10:00 am in the Basilica of St. Mary (Minneapolis), there will be a Missa Cantata in the Dominican Rite celebrated by Fr. Dominic Holtz, O.P., professor of theology at the Angelicum University in Rome.  More information my be found here.

New Web Resource : Blog for the TLM in Vietnamese

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A new blog, published on both wordpress (thanhlemisa.wordpress.com) and tumblr (thanhlemisa.tumblr.com), has been created to provide information and translations of the liturgical texts of the Extraordinary Form in Vietnamese. The creator of the blog had a good deal of difficulty finding a Missal, partly because the climate of Vietnam is extremely humid, which is bad for books, and one which he did find was in very bad shape; partly because not many editions were needed or made before the Council; and partly because many Catholic books were destroyed by the Communists, or had to be gotten rid of by their owners to avoid persecution. The Ordinary of the Mass has been scanned and uploaded, and the author is continually adding the Sundays and major feasts.

Here are a few images sent in by the author. The first is of a procession during a Eucharistic Congress held at the Cathedral of St Joseph in Hanoi in 1931. Note that the priests are wearing hats in procession, since in Vietnam, it was considered shameful for a man not to wear a head-covering. (One of our quizzes was about liturgical head-coverings in China, where a similar custom prevailed.) Below that is seen another view of the same procession, with the minor semiarians at the fore, and below that, a devotional image of Christ and his Vietnamese flock.





Vatican issues new Ordo Cantus Officii

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The Vatican has just issued a newly published Ordo Cantus Officii. This replaces the edition from 1983 with an updated ordo which includes the newly-promulgated Antiphons which were announced in 2008. The Ordo Cantus Officii contains the ordo for the Office of Readings, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline along with Scriptural references. It is cross-referenced to the Antiphonale Romanum, the Liber Hymnarius and the Corpus Antiphonalium Officii giving easy access to the Gregorian settings of the Antiphons.

The book is divided into the following sections :

I. Proprium de Tempore
i) Tempus Adventus
ii) Tempus Nativitatis
iii) Tempus Quadragesimæ
iv) Tempus Paschale
v) Tempus per annum
a) In Dominicis
b) In Sollemnitatibus Domini

II. Psalterium per Quattuor Hebdomadas distributum
i) Hebdomada I
ii) Hebdomada II
iii) Hebdomada III
iv) Hebdomada IV
v) Ad Completorium
vi) Psalmodia complementaris

III. Proprium de Sanctis

IV. Communia

V. Officium Defunctorum

VI. Appendix

VII. Indices

The book, 396 pages, is available now from the Vatican Bookshop priced 40 €.
ISBN 978-88-209-9593-5

Here are some images of the opening pages:






Book Review: Bread from Heaven: English Eucharistic Motets

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Heath Morber, the Director of Music at St. John's Catholic Chapel in Champaign, Illinois, recently published a most handy book of easy Eucharistic motets in English for 2 and 3 voices: Bread from Heaven. As anyone knows who has tried to run an amateur choir, it can be a great challenge (especially at an early morning Mass) having enough repertoire to do a respectable job with polyphony. Sometimes only the women show up; sometimes you'll have only one tenor or bass. Sometimes you have a men's schola and you'd like to teach them a TB or TBB motet -- but it has to be simple.

Unfortunately, the combination of simplicity and beauty has not been very successfully attained by most modern composers. It seems to have been an everyday gift with the likes of Palestrina, Lassus, and Josquin, who are the masters chosen by Morber. He has taken Latin motets or passages from Masses that were already written for 2 or 3 voices and carefully adapted them for English texts suitable for communion time. In all cases he provides us with multiple settings of each text, for a variety of different forces depending on the piece (e.g., SA, AT, TB, SAT, ATB, SAA, AAT, TBB). The adaptations are beautifully done and sing as well as if they had been originally designed as English mini-motets. Each motet features an English psalm-tone verse so that the motet can be repeated. At the back there is a complete text of Psalm 34(33) pointed in such a way that it will work with the psalm tones used in the motets. The result is a lovely meditation for communion that will cover any length of time.

This is the sort of resource the Ordinary Form needs, and it is a resource that most amateur choirs can readily make use of. Heath Morber has priced it at $10 so that multiple copies are not prohibitively expensive. Check it out here.

Samples: "You Gave Us Bread from Heaven" (SAB):


"Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord" (AT):


Photos from the book:


For more video samples, see here, and here, and here.

A Mother Writes about Seeing the Old Mass for the First Time

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We received the following report and pictures from Fr Kyle Doustou, parochial vicar of the Parish of the Precious Blood, in Caribou, Maine, about the institution of a regular EF in his parish, and some thoughts about the Mass by one of his parishioners, which we are glad to share with our readers.
I am the parochial vicar of an extremely large, rural parish comprised of 10 churches in a geographical area of 834 sq. miles in northern Maine. On September 3rd of this year - the feast of St. Pius X - we celebrated a Missa Cantata in the Extraordinary Form with the participation of over 120 of the faithful. This Mass was held at one of our churches - St. Denis in Fort Fairfield - a small, farming community where you’re more likely to see moose or Amish buggies than anything. Since my arrival in July 2014, the people here have been requesting the celebration of the Usus Antiquior, and after obtaining the permission of our pastor, we have been able to begin doing so. As it stands, we will be celebrating the Extraordinary Form on a monthly basis.

There is enormous support for the celebration of Mass according to the Extraordinary Form even in this rural, north-eastern most part of the United States. Since September 3rd, I have had numerous phone calls and e-mails from people expressing their excitement over this and who plan to frequent our monthly Masses. I’d like to share with you the testimony of one of my parishioners, a wife and mother of 7, who has fallen in love with this form of the Mass.




“I had never been to a Latin Mass and I didn’t know what to think. As a convert, my family certainly didn’t talk about the ‘old days’ before Vatican II. Surprisingly, no one in my new church ‘family’ did either. So, when our young, full of the Spirit priest suggested a monthly Latin Mass being held in our parish, I thought ‘there’s no way anyone will come!’ You see, to my mind, it seemed that most people had forgotten everything the Church had been prior to 1968.

The weeks leading up were a bit anxious. Would anyone come? I approached my fellow Daughters of Isabella about refreshments after the Mass. The response was overwhelming. “Of course!” they said and the room erupted in questions and ladies saying they couldn’t wait! But, of course, I still doubted.
My six youngest children are homeschooled. Due to this flexibility in our schooling, our 9-year-old twin boys are learning the Latin Mass. You can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been, right? Due to this, they were asked to be altar boys. I never imagined that I would see them on the altar, serving a Latin Mass. Never in a million years.

Finally, the evening was upon us. When I arrived an hour early to bring the boys, there were many people already in the pews. Would that be all? I stood in the back to hand out missals as parishioners came in. One missal for every two people and the stack of 100 dwindled to less than twenty-five. They had come!! A few faces were unfamiliar, but most were friends. Some I knew would come, but others surprised me with their attendance.

I knew very little about the Mass we were about to attend. What I did know is that I wanted to know more. More about why things were changed, why it was all thrown out and more about why it wasn’t permitted regularly for all those years since Vatican II. I was about to find out.

The Missa Cantata was like nothing I had ever experienced in the Church. The smells and the chants made it a heavenly experience. I wondered how I would feel about the priest standing ‘ad orientem’. Would I be able to see? The answer is, no, I couldn’t really, but it only brought home that the priest is offering the sacrifice FOR us, not TO us. The focus was on God. I have and do know several pious, holy priests, but nothing they have ever done spoke to me as this position of the priest during the Latin Mass. All eyes were on God, and it wasn’t something you saw, but you could almost hear the beat of angel’s wings. Yes, it is that profound of an experience.

As to my questions prior to the mass, I felt they were answered. I understood why some things were changed, like to the native tongue. Latin is very hard to understand, however with the Latin/English missal available with small illustrations along the borders, it was quite simple to catch up if you had gotten lost. I also understood why it wasn’t permitted regularly - I believe you would have more Latin Masses being said every Sunday than Novus Ordo. It is truly that spectacular. Not spectacular like a show or performance, but spectacular in its reverence and focus on God. There are no distractions.

However, the sudden change and acceptance`of the Novus Ordo after Vatican II shows, to me, the dedication of the faithful to our Church and to the Mass. After only attending NO Mass in my 15 years as a Catholic, I am grateful to Pope Emeritus Benedict for recognizing there is room for both forms of the Mass. As I was surrounded by over 120 people at this Mass, I realized how wrong I was to feel that others wouldn’t want to experience it as well. Sometimes where you’re going isn’t as good as where you’ve been.

As a mother, I would be remiss to not mention my boys, the altar boys at their first Latin Mass. The ease at which they did their jobs was astonishing. I would love to tell you I focused on their every move, but I didn’t. They performed their duties I observed with grace and all the reverence the occasion called for-pure, innocent love of Our Lord and His Mass. I am very proud, but I am more grateful for the experience and the opportunity to continue. May God bless our priests may they continue to bring us all to Christ through the Traditional Latin Mass.”






Complete Speakers List Announced - Society for Catholic Liturgy Conference in NYC

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SOCIETY FOR CATHOLIC LITURGY CONFERENCE—JUST A FEW DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER


Don’t forget to sign up for the Society for Catholic Liturgy conference—just a few days left before registration closes on Sept. 22nd!

The Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, will deliver the keynote address: “We Are Bound to Give Thanks to God Always: Worship That is Right and Just” at the Union League Club on Thursday, October 1. And on Friday, October 2, he will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass (Extraordinary Form), accompanied by a sixteen-voice choir, at the historic Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.

Two days of scholarly lectures follow at the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture. Topics range from the justice of worship in St. Thomas Aquinas to the styles and hierarchies of Gregorian chant melodies. The Pastoral Track of the conference, held at the Basilica Parish House, will offer practical workshops for parish and diocesan personnel—everything from financing a parish music program, to liturgical preaching, to "unwreckovation."

Our distinguished speakers are:

Matthew Alderman
Taylor J. Bartlette
Fr Thomas Buffer
Fr Daniel Cardó
Christopher Carstens
Jennifer Donelson
Robert Fastiggi
Carl G. Fougerousse
David Hughes
Fr Paul J. Keller, OP
Fr Bryan Kromholtz, OP
Fr Uwe Michael Lang
William Mahrt
Michon Matthiesen
Denis McNamara
Brandon Otto
Christopher D. Owens
Fr Joseph F. Previtali
Fr George Rutler
Jonathan Ryan
Fr Innocent Smith, OP
Fr Nicholas Zientarski

Among the other beautiful liturgies to be offered, all free and open to the public, Archbishop Cordileone will preside Friday evening at Pontifical Vespers (Extraordinary Form), again accompanied by a professional choir.

And there will be plenty of opportunity to see old friends and make new ones at breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. All are welcome for three days of learning, prayer, and camaraderie.

To see the full conference schedule, and to register, go to: http://liturgysociety.org/conference.html.

Founded in 1995, the Society for Catholic Liturgy is a unique organization that brings together faithful Catholic scholars and artists from around the world to recover, discuss, and promote the rich liturgical tradition of the Church. The Society holds an annual three-day conference, and publishes Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, which deals with important theoretical and practical questions in the fields of liturgy and sacramental theology.

CONTACT:
Dino Marcantonio
Conference Manager
dvmarcantonio@gmail.com
www.liturgysociety.org


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