“The Office of the Holy Spirit” Prayed by the Bridgettine Nuns
The Bridgettine nuns once prayed, every Sunday, a specialized Office in honor of the Holy Ghost. Its arrangement is more complete than that of most Little Offices, but less complete than that of the...
View ArticleSt Maurus, and a Famous Miracle of St Benedict
January 15th is the feast day of St Maurus, a disciple of St Benedict who is famous for his role in one of his master’s more impressive miracles. This is recounted by St Gregory the Great in chapter 7...
View ArticleWhen Tabernacles Had Wings
Abbot Suger was one of those monumental men whose lives and personalities would seem almost incredible had they not lived in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Well known today as a pivotal...
View ArticleHistorical Photos of a Byzantine Episcopal Ordination
Our thanks to reader Gian Marco Talluto for sharing with us these pictures of the ordination of a bishop in the Byzantine Rite, which took place in Sicily on this day in 1938. Giuseppe Perniciaro was...
View ArticleThe Deus qui humanae substantiae
Lost in Translation #117 After offering the host, the priest prepares the next gift by pouring wine into the chalice, and water into the wine. In addition to remaining faithful to the customs of the...
View ArticleSt Anthony the Abbot in the Isenheim Altarpiece
One of the most famous late medieval depictions of the Crucifixion is the central panel of the Isenheim altarpiece, painted by the German artist Matthias Grünewald (1470 ca. - 1528) between 1512-16. I...
View ArticleThe Two Feasts of St Peter’s Chair
The feast of St Peter’s Chair was originally kept on one of two dates. Some sources, going back to the fourth century, attest to it on January 18th, among them, an ancient Martyrology formerly...
View ArticleHistorical Falsehoods about Active Participation: A Response to Dr Brant...
This is the third part of my response to a video by Dr Brant Pitre of the Augustine Institute on the subject of popular participation in the Mass. In the previous part, I explained the errors of his...
View ArticleMonastic Chants for the Sundays after Epiphany
In the season after Epiphany, the texts of the Matins responsories are all taken from the book of Psalms, rather than from the Epistles of St Paul with which they are read. This group of responsories...
View ArticleThe Pope Elected by a Bird
In his Ecclesiastical History 6.29.2-4, Eusebius of Caesarea recounts the following story about the election in A.D. 236 of Pope St Fabian, whose feast is today.Pope St Fabian and St Sebastian, who...
View ArticleNew Leadership for the CMAA
Dear Friends of the Church Music Association of America and The New Liturgical Movement, We know that, along with those of us on staff and on the board of directors, you have been mourning the recent...
View ArticleFaith and Reason Harmonized in the Logos - A Commentary on a 16th-Century...
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him. (John 1, 1-2)I have been invited to contribute to the...
View ArticleLecture by Dom Benedict Nivakoff, Abbot of Norcia, January 28th in Northern...
I would like to cordially invite all readers in the Bay Area/Northern California to the next event in the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music’s Public Lecture and Concert Series. Tuesday, January 28,...
View ArticleRevisiting a Dominican Theologian’s Appeal for Mutual Understanding in the...
I am grateful to my colleague Gregory for pointing out to me this interesting article by a French Dominican, published by E.S.M. on December 16, 2007—thus, reacting to the initial fallout from the motu...
View ArticleAnother New Latin Hymn for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
In July of 2023, we shared a new hymn composed by a very talented young Latinist, Mr Sean Pilcher, commissioned by the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in honor of its patron...
View ArticleThe Offerimus tibi
Lost in Translation #118 At the middle of the altar, the priest offers the new mixture of water and wine. Holding the chalice at about eye-level and raising his eyes to the altar cross, he says the...
View ArticleThe Feast of St Timothy
Today is the feast of St Timothy, bishop of Ephesus and martyr, the disciple to whom St Paul addressed two of his letters; he is also mentioned four times in the Acts of the Apostles, and eleven times...
View ArticleLiturgical Notes on the Conversion of St Paul
In light of the Church’s very ancient tradition of celebrating the Saints’ feasts on the day of their death, when they attain to their heavenly reward, the Conversion of St Paul is almost unique in...
View ArticleHistorical Falsehoods about Active Participation: A Response to Dr Brant...
This is the fourth part of my response to a video by Dr Brant Pitre of the Augustine Institute about popular participation in the liturgy. (part 1; part 2) At the conclusion of the third part, I stated...
View ArticleDurandus on the Third Sunday after Epiphany
In his treatment of the Third Sunday after Epiphany (Rationale Divinorum Officiorum 6, 20), our friend William Durandus is more than a little obscure, so this excerpt is to some degree a paraphrase...
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