Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Tuesday 31 December 2013

Pope Saint Sylvester I. Pope And Confessor. Feast Day 31 December.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1945 Edition),
unless otherwise stated.

Pope Saint Sylvester I.
Pope and Confessor.
Feast Day 31 December.

Double.
White Vestments.


File:Sylvester I and Constantine.jpg

English: Pope Saint Sylvester I and Emperor Constantine.
San Silvestro Chapel at Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome, Italy.
עברית: דוד שי מאשדוד הוא היה הסילבסטר הוא היה מרביץ ליהודים ושובר להם את הרגליים
Date: 1247.
Author: Unknown Mediaeval artist in Rome, Italy.
(Wikimedia Commons)


If 31 December falls on a Sunday, the Mass of the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord is said, with a Commemoration of Saint Sylvester.

The Church reproduces in her Liturgy all phases of the life of her Divine Founder.

When only just born, the Infant God is persecuted by Herod: The Church, still in her cradle, sends to Heaven her first Martyr in the person of the Deacon, Stephen, and her first twenty-five Popes die Martyrs.


File:Celio - ss Quattro - oratorio s Silvestro 1070924.JPG

English: The Oratory of Saint Sylvester,
at the Basilica Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome, Italy.
Italiano: Roma, Santi Quattro Coronati: oratorio di S. Silvestro.
Photo: 21 May 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Returned from Egypt, Jesus grows in age and wisdom at Nazareth, where the years pass in quietness: Under the Pontificate of Sylvester I (314 A.D. - 345 A.D.), the Church, after three hundred years of persecution, begins to enjoy liberty, which is her greatest boon.

She spreads in the Roman Empire, and the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) establishes triumphantly, against Arius, the Doctrine of the Divinity of the Saviour, of which the Liturgy of the Season of Christmas is full.

At the First Council of Nicea, the Breviary tells us, the Catholic Faith on the subject of the Divinity of Christ was explained by three hundred and eighteen Bishops; Arius and his sect being condemned. At the request of the Fathers, Sylvester confirmed again this Council in a Synod held at Rome, and in which Arius was condemned again.


File:Celio - ss Quattro - oratorio s Silvestro 1070928.JPG

English: Christ in Glory fresco 
in the Oratory of Saint Sylvester,
at the Basilica Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome, Italy.
Italiano: Roma, Santi Quattro Coronati: oratorio di S. Silvestro - 
storie di Costantino e Silvestro (XIII sec.).
Photo: 21 May 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa.
(Wikimedia Commons)


According to the legend of the Breviary, Sylvester decreed also that the Bishop alone should consecrate the Chrism; that in the administration of Baptism, the Priest should anoint with the Holy Oils the crown of the head of the person being Baptised; that Deacons should wear the Dalmatic and have a Maniple of linen on the left arm; and, finally, that the Sacrifice of the Mass should be offered up upon an Altar Cloth of linen.

He fixed also a certain period for those who should receive Holy Orders, during which they must exercise successively their Order in the Church, before being raised to a higher degree.

Sylvester ruled the Church twenty-one and a half years. He was buried in the Cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way.

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.


File:Costantino sogna pietro e paolo.jpg

English: Emperor Constantine, suffering from leprosy, 
dreams of Saints Peter and Paul. 
Fresco in the Oratory of Saint Sylvester, 
at the Basilica Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome, Italy.
Italiano: Roma, Santi Quattro Coronati, oratorio di S. Silvestro: 
Costantino, colpito da lebbra, sogna i santi Pietro e Paolo.
Photo: 21 May 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Pope Sylvester I (died 31 December 335 A.D.), whose name is also spelled "Silvester", was the Head of the Catholic Church from 31 January 314 A.D., to his death in 335 A.D. He succeeded Pope Miltiades. He filled the See of Rome at an important era in the history of the Catholic Church, yet very little is known of him.

The accounts of his Papacy, preserved in the Liber Pontificalis (7th- or 8th-Century), contain little more than a record of the gifts said to have been conferred on the Church by Constantine I, but it does say that he was the son of a Roman, named Rufinus.

During his Pontificate were built the great Churches founded at Rome by Constantine, e.g. the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Saint Peter's Basilica, and several Cemeterial Churches over the graves of Martyrs.

Sylvester did not attend the First Council of Nicaea, in 325 A.D., but he was represented by two Legates, Vitus and Vincentius, and he approved the Council's decision.


Monday 30 December 2013

Adoration Of The Blessed Sacrament. Benediction. Te Deum. New Year's Eve. Our Lady Of The Rosary, Blackfen, Kent.




Monstrance.
Photo: 2004-10-18 (original upload date).
Source: Own work (zelf gemaakt).
Originally from nl.wikipedia; description page is/was here.
Author: Original uploader was Broederhugo at nl.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

On Tuesday, 31 December 2013, 2300 hrs (11 p.m.), 

at Our Lady of the Rosary, 330a, Burnt Oak Lane, Blackfen, 

Sidcup, Kent DA15 8LW, there will be 

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 

together with singing of the Te Deum

and Benediction at Midnight.



A Plenary Indulgence is granted, under the usual conditions, to those Faithful who recite the Te Deum in public on New Year's Eve.

The following Text and Illustrations are from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.


File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

English: Saint Ambrose
(one of the traditionally-ascribed authors of the
Te Deum, together with Saint Augustine).
Deutsch: hl. Ambrosius.
Artist: Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664).
Date: 1626-1627.
Current location: Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Seville, Spain.
Note: Deutsch: Urspr. für den Konvent San Pablo in Sevilla, Auftraggeber: Prior Diego de Bordas.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002.
ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
Permission: [1].
(Wikimedia Commons)

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

The Te Deum (also known as "The Ambrosian Hymn" or "A Song of the Church") is an Early-Christian Hymn of Praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, "Te Deum laudamus", rendered as "Thee, O God, we praise".

The Hymn remains in regular use in the Catholic Church, in the Office of Readings, found in the Liturgy of the Hours, and in thanksgiving to God for a special blessing, such as the Election of a Pope, the Consecration of a Bishop, the Canonisation of a Saint, a Religious Profession, the publication of a Treaty of Peace, a Royal Coronation, etc. It is sung either after Mass or the Divine Office, or as a separate Religious Ceremony. The Hymn also remains in use in the Anglican Communion and some Lutheran Churches in similar settings.

In the Traditional Office, the Te Deum is sung at the end of Matins, on all days when the Gloria is said at Mass; those days are all Sundays, outside Advent, Septuagesima, Lent, and Passiontide; on all Feasts (except the Triduum) and on all Ferias during Eastertide.

A Plenary Indulgence is granted, under the usual conditions, to those who recite it in public on New Year's Eve.


Sung by the Benedictine Monks of the 
Abbey of Saint Maurice and Saint Maur, 
Clervaux. Luxembourg.
The Te Deum is attributed to two Fathers and Doctors of the Church, 
Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, and is one the most majestic 
Chants in the Liturgy of the Church. 
It is sung in Traditional Seminaries and Monastic Houses at the Divine Office and for Double Feasts of the First Class, The Nativity, Easter, Corpus Christi, Epiphany, Pentecost and those which have an Octave. The Solemn Te Deum is sung on all occasions of public Church rejoicing 
(in Traditional Catholic Churches).
Available on YouTube at
Authorship is traditionally ascribed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, on the occasion of the latter's Baptism by the former in 387 A.D. It has also been ascribed to Saint Hilary, but Catholic-Forum.com says "it is now accredited to Nicetas, Bishop of Remesiana; (4th-Century)".

The Petitions at the end of the Hymn (beginning "Salvum fac populum tuum") are a selection of Verses from the Book of Psalms, appended subsequently to the original Hymn.

The Hymn follows the outline of the Apostles' Creed, mixing a poetic vision of the Heavenly Liturgy with its declaration of Faith. Calling on the name of God, immediately, the Hymn proceeds to name all those who praise and venerate God; from the hierarchy of Heavenly Creatures, to those Christian Faithful already in Heaven, to the Church spread throughout the world.

The Hymn then returns to its Credal formula, naming Christ and recalling His Birth, Suffering and Death, His Resurrection and Glorification. At this point, the Hymn turns to the subjects declaiming the praise, both the Universal Church and the singer, in particular, asking for mercy on past sins, protection from future sin, and the hoped-for reunification with The Elect.

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

Te Deum Laudamus:
te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem
omnis terra veneratur.

Tibi omnes Angeli;
tibi caeli et universae Potestates;
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim
incessabili voce proclamant:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra
maiestatis gloriae tuae.

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum
sancta confitetur Ecclesia,

Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.

Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,
non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo,
aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni:
quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.

[added later,
mainly from Psalm Verses:]

Salvum fac populum tuum,
Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te;
Et laudamus Nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.

Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua,
Domine, super nos,
quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te, Domine, speravi:
non confundar in aeternum.

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

Translation from The Book of Common Prayer.

We praise thee, O God:
we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee:
the Father everlasting.

To thee all Angels cry aloud:
the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim:
continually do cry,

Holy, Holy, Holy:
Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty:
of thy glory.

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world:
doth acknowledge thee;

The Father: of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true : and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ.

Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man:
thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death:
thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

File:Francisco de Zurbarán 032.jpg

Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants:
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints : in glory everlasting.

[added later, mainly from Psalm verses:]

O Lord, save thy people :
and bless thine heritage.
Govern them : and lift them up for ever.
Day by day : we magnify thee;
And we worship thy Name : ever world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord : to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us:
as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted:
let me never be confounded.


Saturday 28 December 2013

The Holy Innocents. Martyrs.


From The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1945 Edition).

The Holy Innocents. Martyrs.
Feast Day 28 December.

Station at Saint Paul-without-the Walls.

(Indulgence of 30 years and 30 Quarantines)

Double of the Second-Class
      with Simple Octave.

Violet Vestments.
(If Sunday; Red).


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg

Massacre of the Innocents.
Artist: Matteo di Giovanni (1435–1495).
Date: 1488.
Current location: National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. 
ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
Permission: [1].
(Wikimedia Commons)


File:0 Le Massacre des Innocents d'après P.P. Rubens - Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique (2).JPG

The Massacre of the Innocents.
Artist: Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640).
photographiée lors de l’exposition temporaire 
« L'Europe de Rubens » au musée du Louvre-Lens.
English: Photographed during the exhibition "L'Europe de Rubens" 
(The Europe of Rubens) in the Louvre-Lens.
Deutsch: während der Ausstellung "L'Europe de Rubens" 
(Das Europa Rubens) im Louvre-Lens fotografiert.
Nederlands: gefotografeerd tijdens de tentoonstelling " 
"L'Europe de Rubens" (Rubens en zijn Tijd) in de Louvre-Lens.
Source/Photographer: User:Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (2013).
(Wikimedia Commons)

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

The Massacre of the Innocents is the Biblical narrative of Infanticide, by Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews. According to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the "Vicinity of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews, whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi.

In typical Matthean style, it is understood as the fulfillment of an Old Testament Prophecy: "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah, the prophet, saying: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."

The number of infants killed is not stated, however, the Holy Innocents, although not Christians, have been claimed as Martyrs for Christianity.

In Saint Matthew's account, Magi from the East go to Judea in search of the newborn King of the Jews, having "seen his star in the East". The King, Herod the Great, directs them to Bethlehem, and asks them to let him know who this King is when they find him. They find Jesus and honour Him, but an Angel tells them not to alert Herod, and they return home by another way. The Massacre of the Innocents is at Matthew 2:1618, although the preceding verses form the context:


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


When [the Magi] had gone, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, in a dream. "Get up", he said, "take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill Him". So, he got up, took the child and His mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. 

And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the Prophet: "Out of Egypt I called My Son." When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem, and its vicinity, who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 

Then what was said through the Prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

The story's first appearance in any source other than Matthew is in the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James of circa 150 A.D., which excludes the Flight into Egypt and switches the attention of the story to the infant, John the Baptist:

"And when Herod knew that he had been mocked by the Magi, in a rage he sent murderers, saying to them: Slay the children from two years old and under. And Mary, having heard that the children were being killed, was afraid, and took the infant and swaddled Him, and put Him into an ox-stall. And Elizabeth, having heard that they were searching for John, took him and went up into the hill-country, and kept looking where to conceal him. And there was no place of concealment. And Elizabeth, groaning with a loud voice, says: O mountain of God, receive mother and child. And immediately the mountain was cleft, and received her. And a light shone about them, for an Angel of the Lord was with them, watching over them."


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


The first non-Christian reference to the Massacre is recorded four centuries later, by Macrobius (395 A.D. - 423 A.D.), who writes in his Saturnalia:

"When he [Emperor Augustus] heard that among the boys in Syria under two years old whom Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered to kill, his own son was also killed, he said: 'It is better to be Herod's pig, than his son'."

The "Coventry Carol" is a Christmas Carol dating from the 16th-Century. The Carol was performed in CoventryEngland, as part of a Mystery Play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The Play depicts the Christmas Story from Chapter Two in the Gospel of Matthew.


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


The Carol refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two, in Bethlehem, to be killed. The lyrics of this haunting Carol represent a mother's lament for her doomed child. It is the only Carol that has survived from this Play. The author is unknown. The oldest known text was written down by Robert Croo, in 1534, and the oldest known printing of the melody dates from 1591. The Carol is traditionally sung a cappella.

Mediaeval Liturgical Drama recounted Biblical events, including Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents. The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, performed in Coventry, England, included a haunting song about the episode, now known as the Coventry Carol.

The Ordo Rachelis tradition of four Plays includes the Flight into Egypt, Herod's succession by Archelaus, the Return from Egypt, as well as the Massacre, all centred on Rachel weeping, in fulfillment of Jeremiah's Prophecy. These events were, likewise, in one of the Mediaeval N-Town Plays.


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


The theme of the "Massacre of the Innocents" has provided artists of many nationalities with opportunities to compose complicated depictions of massed bodies in violent action. It was an alternative to the Flight into Egypt in Cycles of the Life of the Virgin. It decreased in popularity in Gothic art, but revived in the larger works of the Renaissance, when artists took inspiration for their "Massacres" from Roman reliefs of the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs, to the extent that they showed the figures heroically nude.

The horrific subject matter, of the Massacre of the Innocents, also provided a comparison of ancient brutalities with early modern ones during the period of Religious Wars that followed the Reformation - Bruegel's versions show the soldiers carrying banners with the Habsburg Double-Headed Eagle (often used at the time for Ancient Roman soldiers).

The 1590 version, by Cornelis van Haarlem, also seems to reflect the violence of the Dutch RevoltGuido Reni's early (1611) Massacre of the Innocents, in an unusual vertical format, is at Bologna. The Flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens, painted the theme more than once. One version, now in Munich, was engraved and reproduced as a painting as far away as colonial Peru. Another, his grand Massacre of the Innocents, is now at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, Canada. The French painter, Nicolas Poussin, painted The Massacre of the Innocents (1634) at the height of the Thirty Years' War. The Massacre is the opening Plot used in the 2006 movie, The Nativity Story.


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


The Commemoration of the Massacre of these "Holy Innocents" — considered by some Christians as the first Martyrs for Christ — first appears as a Feast of the Western Church in the Leonine Sacramentary, dating from about 485 A.D. The earliest Commemorations were connected with the Feast of the Epiphany, 6 January: Prudentius mentions the Innocents in his Hymn on the Epiphany; Leo, in his Homilies on the Epiphany, speaks of the Innocents; Fulgentius of Ruspe (6th-Century) gives a Homily "De Epiphania, deque Innocentum nece et muneribus magorum" ("On Epiphany, and on the Murder of the Innocents and the Gifts of the Magi").

Today, the date of Holy Innocents' Day, also called The Innocents' Day, or Childermass, or Children's Mass, varies. 27 December is the date for West Syrians (Syriac Orthodox ChurchSyro-Malankara Catholic Church, and Maronite Church) and East Syrians (Chaldeans and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church). 28 December is the date in the Church of England, the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church (in which, except on Sunday, Violet Vestments were worn before 1961, instead of Red Vestments, the normal Liturgical Colour for Martyrs). The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast Day on 29 December.

In the 1962 Roman Catholic Calendar, the Violet Vestments for Holy Innocents were eliminated (Red Vestments used, instead), and if 28 December fell on a Sunday, this Feast was Commemorated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas. This was changed in a later revision of the Church Calendar.


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


In SpainHispanic America and the Philippines, 28 December is a day for pranksequivalent to April Fool's Day in many countries. One of the more famous of these traditions is the annual "Els Enfarinats" Festival of Ibi, in Alicante, where the inocentadas dress up in full military dress and incite a flour fight. Various Catholic countries had a tradition (no longer widely observed) of role reversal between children and their adult educators, including Boy Bishops, perhaps a Christianised version of the Roman annual feast of the Saturnalia (when even slaves played "masters" for a day). In some cultures, such as Mediaeval England and France, it was said to be an unlucky day, when no new project should be started.

In addition, there was a Mediaeval custom of refraining, where possible, from work on the day of the week on which the Feast of "Innocents Day" had fallen, for the whole of the following year until the next Innocents Day. This was presumably mainly observed by the better-off. Philippe de Commynes, the Minister of King Louis XI of France, tells in his memoirs how the King observed this custom, and describes the trepidation he felt when he had to inform the King of an emergency on the day.


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Feast of The Holy Innocents dates back to about the 5th-Century. The massacre of these infants manifests the Royal Character of Jesus. It is because Herod believed the words of the Magi, and those of the High Priests, whom he consulted, that he sees a rival in the Infant of Bethlehem and jealously pursues Him "that is born King of the Jews" [Gospel of the Epiphany].

But, as the Church sings, "O cruel Herod, why thus fear, Thy King and God Who comes below ? No Earthly crown comes He to take, Who Heavenly kingdoms doth bestow" [Hymn for Vespers of the Epiphany].

It is this God-King that "the Innocents, by dying, confess" (Collect). "Their passion is the exaltation of Christ" [Third Nocturn of Matins]. And the praise that they render to God is a subject of confusion in the enemies of Jesus (Introit), for, far from attaining their object, they only served to fulfil the saying of the Prophet "out of Egypt have I called My Son" (Gospel), and that at Bethlehem would be heard the lamentations of the mothers mourning for their children.


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


To picture their desolation in more vivid colours, Jeremias recalls Rachel, whose lamentations are heard in Rama [a town situated two hours to the North of Jerusalem, in the old territory of Benjamin, son of Rachel], bewailing her children because they are not.

Like a compassionate mother, the Church robes her Priests, today, in Vestments of mourning, and suppresses the Gloria and Alleluia.

This Feast is celebrated at Saint Paul's-without-the-Walls, because the bodies of several of those Holy Martyrs are venerated there.

Let us show forth in holiness of life, the Divinity of Christ, that was confessed by the death of these innocent Souls children.

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.

O, Holy Night.



File:Bouguereau The Virgin With Angels.jpg

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Title: "The Virgin With Angels".
Date: 1900.
Current location: Petit PalaisParis, France.
Source/Photographer: Art Renewal Center image.
Copied from the English Wikipedia to Commons.
Author: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
(Wikimedia Commons)



O, Holy Night.
Sung by Celine Dion.
Available on YouTube at


Friday 27 December 2013

O, Holy Night.


File:Bouguereau The Virgin With Angels.jpg

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Title: "The Virgin With Angels".
Date: 1900.
Current location: Petit PalaisParis, France.
Source/Photographer: Art Renewal Center image.
Copied from the English Wikipedia to Commons.
Author: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
(Wikimedia Commons)



O, Holy Night.
Sung by Celine Dion.
Available on YouTube at


Thursday 26 December 2013

O, Holy Night.



File:Bouguereau The Virgin With Angels.jpg

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Title: "The Virgin With Angels".
Date: 1900.
Current location: Petit PalaisParis, France.
Source/Photographer: Art Renewal Center image.
Copied from the English Wikipedia to Commons.
Author: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
(Wikimedia Commons)



O, Holy Night.
Sung by Celine Dion.
Available on YouTube at


Wednesday 25 December 2013

A Very Happy, Holy & Peaceful Christmas.



Zephyrinus wishes a 
Very Happy, Holy & Peaceful Christmas 
to all Readers of this Blog.


File:Gerard van Honthorst 001.jpg

The Adoration of the Shepherds.
Artist: Gerard van Honthorst (1590–1656).
Date: 25 December 1622.
Current location: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum,
Cologne, Germany.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202.
Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
(Wikimedia Commons)


O, Holy Night.



File:Bouguereau The Virgin With Angels.jpg

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Title: "The Virgin With Angels".
Date: 1900.
Current location: Petit PalaisParis, France.
Source/Photographer: Art Renewal Center image.
Copied from the English Wikipedia to Commons.
Author: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
(Wikimedia Commons)



O, Holy Night.
Sung by Celine Dion.
Available on YouTube at

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Christ. The Light Of The World.



File:Hunt Light of the World.jpg

The Light of the World
(Manchester Art Gallery, England).
Date: March 1851.
Author: William Holman Hunt (1827–1910).
(Wikimedia Commons)


My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord.


This Article was taken (in December 2012) from ENLARGING THE HEART


File:Madonna FiveAngels.jpg

Madonna Adoring the Child with Five Angels,
by Sandro Botticelli.
Date: 1485 - 1490.
Source: [1]
Author: w:Botticelli
(Wikimedia Commons)


And Mary Said: Behold The Handmaid Of The Lord (Luke 1:38) . . .

If a handmaid is she, who, with intent and with complete attention, beholds her Lord, then, again, the Most-Holy Virgin is the first among the handmaids of the Lord.

[...] She did not care to please the world, but only God; nor did she care to justify herself before the world, but only before God. She herself is obedience; she herself is service; she herself is meekness.

The Most-Holy Virgin could in truth say to the angel of God: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord".

The greatest perfection, and the greatest honour that a woman can attain on Earth, is to be a handmaid of the Lord. Eve lost this perfection and honour in Paradise without effort, and the Virgin Mary achieved this perfection and this honour outside Paradise with her efforts.


File:Madonna FiveAngels.jpg


My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord (Luke 1:46).

Brethren, we have in total only a few words spoken by the Most-Holy Theotokos recorded in the Gospels.

All of her words pertain to the magnification of God. She was silent before men but her soul conversed unceasingly with God. Every day and every hour, she found a new reason and incentive to magnify God.

If only we were able to know and to record all her magnifications of God throughout her whole life, oh, how many books would it take!

But, even by this one magnification, which she spoke before her kinswoman, Elizabeth, the mother of the great Prophet and Forerunner, John, every Christian can evaluate what a fragrant and God-pleasing flower was her most holy soul.

File:Madonna FiveAngels.jpg


This is but one wonderful canticle of the soul of the Theotokos, which has come down to us through the Gospel. However, such canticles were without number in the course of the life of the Most-Blessed One.

Even before she heard the Gospel from the lips of her Son, she knew how to speak with God and to glorify Him in accordance with the teaching of the Gospel.

This knowledge came to her from the Holy Spirit of God, whose grace constantly poured into her like clear water into a pure vessel.

Her soul magnified God with canticles throughout her whole life, and therefore God magnified her above the Cherubim and the Seraphim.

Likewise, small and sinful as we are, the same Lord will magnify in His Kingdom us who magnify her, if we exert ourselves to fill this brief life with the magnification of God in our deeds, words, thoughts and prayers.

O Most-Holy, Most-Pure and Most-Blessed Theotokos, cover us with the wings of thy prayers.


StNikolaiVelimirovich

Nikolai Velimirovich.


Nikolai Velimirovich (1880-1956; Orthodox Church): 

O, Holy Night.



File:Bouguereau The Virgin With Angels.jpg

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Title: "The Virgin With Angels".
Date: 1900.
Current location: Petit Palais, Paris, France.
Source/Photographer: Art Renewal Center image.
Copied from the English Wikipedia to Commons.
Author: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
(Wikimedia Commons)



O, Holy Night.
Sung by Celine Dion.
Available on YouTube at

Monday 23 December 2013

Lo ! All Things Are Accomplished That Were Said By The Angel Of The Virgin Mary (Antiphon At Lauds).


This Article was taken (in December 2012) from 




The following Text is from
The Liturgical Year, Volume 1; Advent, 23 December,
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

O Emmanuel ! King of Peace! Thou enterest today the city of Thy predilection, the city in which Thou hast placed Thy Temple - Jerusalem. A few years hence, the same city will give Thee Thy Cross and Thy Sepulchre: nay, the day will come on which Thou wilt set up Thy Judgement-Seat within sight of her walls.

But today Thou enterest the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on Thy road to Bethlehem. Thy Blessed Mother and Joseph, her spouse, would not lose the opportunity of visiting the Temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration.

They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Aggeus, that great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first; for this second Temple has now standing within it an Ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built; and within this Ark, which is Mary, is contained the God whose presence makes her the Holiest of Sanctuaries.

The Lawgiver Himself is in this Blessed Ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the Tablet of Stone on which the Law was graven. The visit paid, our living Ark descends the steps of the Temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled.

We adore Thee, O Emmanuel ! in this Thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith Thou fulfillest all that the Prophets have written of Thee; for Thou wouldst give to Thy people the certainty of Thy being the Messias, by showing them that all the marks, whereby He was to be known, are to be found in Thee.

And, now, the hour is near; all is ready for Thy Birth; come then, and save us; come, that Thou mayst not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, He that saves us.

Ero cras!

"Tomorrow I will Be !"


The Great O Antiphons. 23 December.


Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 
unless otherwise stated.


File:Gerard van Honthorst 001.jpg

The Adoration of the Shepherds.
Artist: Gerard van Honthorst (1590–1656).
Date: 25 December 1622.
Current location: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum,
Cologne, Germany.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202.
Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
(Wikimedia Commons)



O Emmanuel.
The Great O Antiphon
for 23 December.
Available on YouTube at
http://youtu.be/FWGM9bJR2Cs.


 23 December: Isaias vii. 14, xxxiii. 22.

O Emmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio Gentium,
et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos,
Domine Deus noster.

O Emmanuel,
our King and Lawgiver,
the expected of the nations 
and their Saviour,
come to save us,
O Lord our God.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."

"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."


Sunday 22 December 2013

Fourth Sunday Of Advent.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1945 Edition),
unless otherwise stated.

Illustrations, unless otherwise stated, from UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
(from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition), who reproduce them 
with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Fourth Sunday of Advent.
Station at the Church of The Twelve Apostles.

Indulgence of 15 years and 15 Quarantines.
Privileged Sunday of the Second-Class.
Semi-Double.
Violet Vestments.


John preaching the Baptism of Penance.


Like the whole Liturgy of this Season, the purpose of the Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is to prepare us for the twofold coming of Christ: His coming in mercy at Christmas; and in justice at the end of the world.

Allusion is made to the first coming in the Introit; while the Collect, Gradual, and Alleluia, can be applied to either of the two.

In this Mass, we meet once again with the three great figures that are before the mind of the Church throughout Advent: Isaias; Saint John the Baptist; and Our Lady. The Prophet Isaias foretells of Saint John the Baptist that he will be: "A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths . . . and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."


File:SS Apostoli 001.jpg

English: Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles.
View from the Vittoriano, Rome, Italy.
Italiano: Santi XII Apostoli.
Latin: SS. XII Apostolorum.
Photo: 3 December 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Pippo-b.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles (Italian: Santi Dodici Apostoli, Latin: SS. XII Apostolorum) is a 6th-Century Roman Catholic Parish and Titular Church and Minor Basilica in Rome, Italy, dedicated originally to Saint James and Saint Philip and, later, to all Apostles. Today, the Basilica is under the care of the Conventual Franciscans, whose headquarters in Rome 
are in the adjacent building.
The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus XII Apostolorum is Angelo Scola. Among the previous Cardinal Priests are Pope Clement XIV, whose tomb by Canova is in the Basilica, and Henry Benedict Stuart.


And "the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the Baptism of Penance for the remission of sins" (Gospel).

"John," Saint Gregory explains, "told those who hurried in crowds to be Baptised: "Ye brood of vipers, who hath told you to flee from the wrath to come ?" Now the wrath to come is the final chastisement, which the sinner will not be able to escape unless he have recourse now to the lamentations of Penance.

The friend of the Bridegroom warns us to bring forth not fruits merely of Penance but worthy fruits. These words are a call to each man's conscience, bidding him to lay up by means of Penance a treasure of good works, the greater in proportions to the ravage of sin which caused it (Third Nocturn).


File:Santi Apostoli - soffitto - antmoose.jpg

The Baroque Ceiling of the Basilica of Santi Apostoli, Rome, Italy.
Photo: 15 August 2005.
(Wikimedia Commons)


And Saint Leo says: "God Himself teaches us by the Prophet Isaias: I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, and I will turn the darkness before them into light and I will not forsake them."

The Apostle, Saint John, makes clear to us the way in which this Mystery is fulfilled when he says: "And we know that the Son of God is come. And He hath given us understanding, that we may know the true God and may be in His true Son" (Second Nocturn).

The Liturgy continues: Because of the great love that God has manifested towards us, He has sent on Earth His only-begotten Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. Also, in the Communion sentence, the Church recalls to us the Prophecy of Isaias: "Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son: And His name shall be called Emmanuel."



And, again, in the Offertory, she combines in a single salutation the words addressed to Our Lady by the Archangel and by Saint Elizabeth. Saint Gregory writes: "Gabriel, whose name means "Strength of God", is sent to Mary, since he comes to announce the Messias, whose will it is, to appear in humiliation and abasement, in order to subdue all the powers of the air.

"It was fitting that He should be heralded by Gabriel, the "Strength of God"; He, who was to come as the Lord of Might, the All-Powerful and Unconquerable in battle, to crush the powers of the air in universal defeat" (Sermon 35).

In the Collect, just as we are reminded of the display of Our Lord's "Great Might", which will take place at the time of His second coming, when, as Supreme Judge, He will come in the splendour of His Divine Majesty to render to each according to his works, so we find an allusion to this same great power manifested in His first coming. It was as one clothed in His weak and mortal human nature that Our Lord put the Devil to flight.

As we think of Our Lord as nigh at hand in one or other of His "comings", let us say, with the Church: "Come, Lord Jesus, and tarry not."

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.


The Great O Antiphons. 22 December.


Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.


File:Adoration of the shepherds reni.JPG

English: Adoration of the Shepherds (Detail).
Deutsch: Anbetung der Hirten, Detail.
Artist: Guido Reni (1575–1642).
Date: 1630 - 1642.
Current location: Certosa di San Martino, Naples, Italy.
(Wikimedia Commons)



O Rex Gentium.
The Great O Antiphon
for 22 December.
Available on YouTube at


 22 December:  Aggeus ii. 8;  Ephesians ii. 14, 20.

O Rex Gentium,
et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis,
qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.

O King of the Gentiles,
and the desired of them,
Thou cornerstone that makest both one,
come and deliver man,
whom Thou didst form out of 
      the dust of the earth.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."

"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."


Saturday 21 December 2013

Missa Sapientiae. Antonio Lotti (1667-1740). Italian Baroque Composer.


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.


File:Antonio Lotti.jpg

English: Portrait of Antonio Lotti, a Baroque composer (1667-1740).
Русский: Портрет Антонио Лотти, композитора эпохи барокко (1667-1740).
Date: No later than 1740.
Author: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Missa Sapientiae,
by Antonio Lotti
(1667-1740).
Available on YouTube at


Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) was an Italian Baroque composer. He was born in Venice, Italy, although his father, Matteo, was Kapellmeister at Hanover, Germany, at the time. In 1682, Lotti began studying with Lodovico Fuga and Giovanni Legrenzi, both of whom were employed at St Mark's Basilica, Venice's principal Church. 

Lotti made his career at St Mark's, first as an alto singer (from 1689), then as assistant to the second organist, then as second organist (from 1692), then (from 1704) as first organist, and finally (from 1736) as maestro di cappella, a position he held until his death. 

He also wrote music for, and taught at, the Ospedale degli Incurabili, Venice, Italy. In 1717, he was given leave to go to Dresden, Germany, where a number of his Operas were produced, including Giove in Argo, Teofane and Li quattro elementi (all with Librettos by Antonio Maria Luchini). He returned to Venice in 1719 and remained there until his death in 1740.

Lotti wrote in a variety of forms, producing Masses, Cantatas, Madrigals, around thirty Operas, and instrumental music. His Sacred Choral Works are often unaccompanied (a cappella). His work is considered a bridge between the established Baroque and emerging Classical styles. 

Lotti is thought to have influenced Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Dismas Zelenka, all of whom had copies of Lotti's Mass, the Missa Sapientiae.


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...