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

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Pietà. Michelangelo.



File:Michelangelo's Pieta 5450 cut out black.jpg

Bearbeitung: Aus dem Original herausgeschnitten 
und mit schwarzem Hintergrund versehen.
Photo: 6 March 2008.
Author: Stanislav Traykov, Niabot (cut out).
(Wikimedia Commons)



Pieta,
by Michelangelo.
Available on YouTube at



Pieta,
by Michelangelo.
Available on YouTube at



Pieta,
by Michelangelo.
Ave Verum Corpus,
by Mozart.
Available on YouTube at


Tuesday 25 February 2014

Ottobeuren Abbey.


RORATE CAELI reports the following:

The Seminarians of the European Seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), in Wigratzbad, Bavaria, visited one of the most glorious Abbatial Churches in the world, in Ottobeuren, Bavaria, Germany, for the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter.




Mass at Ottobeuren Abbey, Germany.
Photo from RORATE CAELI


File:Ottobeuren Basilika Fassade.jpg

English: The façade of the Basilica, designed by Johann Michael Fischer,
has been hailed as a pinnacle of Bavarian Baroque architecture.
Deutsch: Fassade der spätbarocken Basilika in Ottobeuren. 
Erbaut von 1737-1766 von Simpert Kramer (bis 1748) 
und Johann Michael Fischer.
Русский: Оттобойрен.
Photo: 19. Mai 2004 / erste Veröffentlichung 
in Wikimedia Commons: 11. Juli 2005).
Source: Own work.
Author: Simon Brixel Wbrix.
(Wikimedia Commons)


File:BasilikaOttobeurenHauptschiff02.JPG

English: Ottobeuren Abbey, Bavaria, Germany.
Deutsch: Blick in das Hauptschiff von der Eingangshalle aus 
mit Sicherungsnetz in der Vierung von der großen 
Restauration, Basilika Ottobeuren.
Photo: 3 March 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Johannes Böckh & Thomas Mirtsch.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Monday 24 February 2014

Memento Mori.


This Illustration and Prayer can be found on TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS


+ Behold how He loved!  He died for me. +


Missa Pange Lingua. Composer: Josquin Des Pres (1450-1521). The Tallis Scholars.



1611 woodcut of Josquin des Prez, 
copied from a now-lost oil painting done during his lifetime.
A facsimile copy of the famous woodcut
from Petrus Opmeer's Opvs chronographicvm orbis vniversi a
mvndi exordio vsqve ad annvm M.DC.XI. (Antwerp, 1611).
Date: 22 July 2003 (original upload date).
Source: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.
Author: Original uploader was Clattuc at en.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Josquin des Prez (or Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez; 1450/1455 – 1521), often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Netherlands composer of the Renaissance. He is also known as Josquin Desprez and Latinised as Josquinus Pratensis, alternatively Jodocus Pratensis. He himself spelled his name "Josquin des Prez" in an acrostic in his motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix. He was the most famous European composer between Guillaume Dufay and Palestrina, and is usually considered to be the central figure of the Franco-Flemish School. Josquin is widely considered by music scholars to be the first Master of the High Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music 
that was emerging during his lifetime.


Missa Pange Lingua.
Josquin des Pres (1450-1521).
Kyrie.
Gloria 2:57.
Credo 7:17.
Sanctus & Benedictus 14:00.
Agnus Dei 22:19.
The Tallis Scholars,
directed by Peter Phillips.
The Pérussis Altarpiece (1480).
Available on YouTube at

Sunday 23 February 2014

Sexagesima.


Italic Text and Illustrations, unless stated otherwise, are taken from 
The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
and are reproduced there with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Sexagesima Sunday.
Station at Saint Paul-without-the-Walls.

Semi-Double.
Privilege of the Second Class.
Violet Vestments.

The Seed is the Word of God.


As on Septuagesima Sunday, and on those which follow until Passion Sunday, the Church teaches us "to celebrate the Paschal Sacrament" by "the Scriptures of both Testaments" (Prayer of Holy Saturday after the Seventh Prophecy).

Through the whole of this week, the Divine Office is full of the thought of Noah. God, seeing man's wickedness was great upon the Earth, said: "I will destroy man, whom I have created"; and He told Noah: "I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt enter into the Ark."

For forty days and forty nights rain fell on the Earth, while the Ark floated on the waters which rose above the mountain tops and covered them; and in this whirlpool all men were carried away "like stubble" (Gradual); only Noah and his companions in the Ark remaining alive.

Then, God remembered them, and, at length, the rain ceased. After some time, Noah opened the window of the Ark and set free a dove, which returned with a fresh olive leaf, and Noah understood that the waters no longer covered the Earth.



Exsurge, quare obdormis, Domine ?
The Introit for Sexagesima Sunday.
Available on YouTube at


And God told him: "Go out of the Ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of thy sons, with thee" (Communion). And the rainbow appeared as a sign of reconciliation between God and men.

That Noah's story is related to the Paschal Mystery is shown by the fact that the Church reads it on Holy Saturday [Second Prophecy); and this is how she, herself, applies it, in the Liturgy, to Our Lord and His Church. "The just wrath of the Creator drowned the guilty world in the vengeful waters of the Flood, only Noah being saved in the Ark.

But then the admirable power of love laved (washed) the world in blood" [Hymns for the Feast of the Precious Blood]. It was the wood of the Ark, which saved the human race, and it is that of the Cross, which, in its turn, saves the world.

"Thou, alone," says the Church, speaking of the Cross, "hast been found worthy to be, for this shipwrecked world, the Ark which brings safely into port" [Hymn at Lauds in Passiontide]. "The open door in the side of the Ark, by which those enter who are to escape from the Flood, and who represent the Church, are, as is explained in the Liturgy, a type of the Mystery of Redemption; for, on the Cross, Our Lord had His Sacred Side open and, from this gate of life, went forth the Sacraments, giving true life to Souls. Indeed, the Blood and Water, which flow from thence, are symbols of the Eucharist and of Holy Baptism" [Lessons from Saint Chrysostom and Saint Augustine, Matins of the Feast of The Precious Blood].



Sexagesima Sunday.
Sacred Heart Church,
United States of America.
Available on YouTube at


"O God, Who by water didst wash away the crimes of the guilty world, and by the overflowing of the deluge didst give a figure of regeneration, that one and the same element might, in a Mystery, be the end of vice and the origin of virtue: Look, O Lord, on the face of Thy Church and multiply in her Thy regenerations, opening the fonts of Baptism all over the world for the renovation of the Gentiles" [Blessing of the Baptismal Font on Holy Saturday].

"In the days of Noah," says Saint Peter, "eight Souls were saved by water, whereunto Baptism, being of the like form, now saveth you also."

On Maundy Thursday, when the Bishop Blesses the Holy Oil from the olive tree, which is to be used for the Sacraments, he says: "When of old, the crimes of the world were atoned for by the waters of the Flood, a dove, foreshadowing the gift to come, announced by an olive branch, the return of peace to the Earth.

And this indeed is made clear by its effects in latter times: When the waters of Baptism, having washed away all guilt of sin, the unction of the oil makes us joyous and serene." The Blood of Christ is the blood of the New Covenant, which Almighty God has made with man, through His Son. "Thou," cries the Church, "Who, by an olive branch, didst command the dove to proclaim peace to the world."



Commovisti, Domine, terram . . .
The Tract for Sexagesima Sunday.
Gregorian Chant notation from the Liber Usualis (1961).
Latin lyrics sung by the Benedictine Nuns 
of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation, 
Le Barroux, France.
Available on YouTube at


Peace is often mentioned in the Mass, which is the memorial of the Passion: "Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum." And we shall find the Collect for Easter Friday, speaking of the Paschal Sacrament, as the Seal of Reconciliation between God and man.

Above all, however, in his divinely-appointed mission as father of all succeeding generations, Noah is a figure of Christ [Sixth Lesson of Septuagesima Sunday]; he was truly the second father of the human race and he remains the type of life continually renewed. We are told in the Liturgy that the olive branch, by means of its foliage, is a symbol of the prosperous fertility bestowed by Almighty God upon Noah when he came forth from the Ark, and the Ark, itself, is called by Saint Ambrose, in today's Office, the "seminarium," or nursery, that is, the place containing the seed of life which is to fill the world.




Now, Christ, much more than Noah, was the second Adam, peopling the world with a race of believing Souls, faithful to God. On Holy Saturday, in the Prayer following the Second Prophecy, which is concerned with Noah, the Church humbly asks Almighty God to "peacefully effect," by His eternal decree, "the work of human salvation," and to "let the whole world experience and see that, what was fallen, is raised up; what was old, is made new," and that "all things are re-established, through Him from Whom they received their first being, Our Lord Jesus Christ".

It was through the Word that God made the world in the beginning (Last Gospel), and it is by the preaching of His Gospel that Our Lord came to bring men to a new birth. "Being born again," says Saint Peter, "not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the Word of God, Who liveth and reigneth for ever . . . And this is the Word, which, by the Gospel, hath been preached unto you".



Benediction after Mass.
Sexagesima Sunday,
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Available on YouTube at


From this, we can see why today's Gospel is taken from the Parable of the Sower, for "the seed is the word of God". If, in Noah's days, men perished, Saint Paul tells us, it was because of their unbelief, while, at the same time, it was by Faith that Noah "framed the Ark . . . by the which he condemned the world, and was instituted heir of the justice which is by Faith".

In the same way, those who believe in Our Lord's words will be saved.

According to Saint Augustine's exposition, "as there were three floors in the Ark, so there are three different spiritual harvests". In today's Epistle, Saint Paul recounts all that he did and suffered in the course of preaching the Faith to the Gentiles and, indeed, he, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was the outstanding preacher of the world.




He is the "minister of Christ", that is, the one whom God had chosen to unfold to all nations the good news of the Incarnate Word. "Who will grant me", cries Saint John Chrysostom, "to walk around Saint Paul's body, to embrace his tomb, to behold the dust of that body which filled up what was lacking in Christ's sufferings, which bore the marks of his wounds, which everywhere spread abroad, like good seed, the preaching of the Gospel ? [In the Office for the Octave of Saint Peter and Saint Paul].

The Roman Church has fulfilled this desire, in the case of her own children, by making a Station on this day to the Basilica of Saint Paul-without-the-Walls. "Through the Church's Neophytes", we read in the Liturgy, "the Earth is renewed, and thus renewed, she brings forth fruit as it were from the dead ! [Easter Monday at Matins].


Saturday 22 February 2014

Flos Carmeli.


Text is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Flos Carmeli is a Marian Catholic Hymn and Prayer. Flos Carmeli literally means "Flower of Carmel". In the Carmelite Rite, this Hymn was the Sequence for the Feast of Saint Simon Stock, and, since 1663, for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is said to have been written by Saint Simon Stock (1165 - 1265). The Prayer is taken from the first two stanzas of the Hymn.





Flos Carmeli.
Available on YouTube at



Flos Carmeli.
Available on YouTube at





Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera, splendor caeli, virgo puerpera singularis.

Mater mitis sed viri nescia Carmelitis esto propitia stella maris.
Radix Iesse germinans flosculum nos ad esse tecum in saeculum patiaris.
Inter spinas quae crescis lilium serva puras mentes fragilium tutelaris.
Armatura fortis pugnantium furunt bella tende praesidium scapularis.
Per incerta prudens consilium per adversa iuge solatium largiaris.
Mater dulcis Carmeli domina, plebem tuam reple laetitia qua bearis.
Paradisi clavis et ianua, fac nos duci quo, Mater, gloria coronaris. Amen. 
Alleluia.

FLOWER of Carmel, Tall vine blossom laden; Splendor of heaven, 
Childbearing yet maiden. None equals thee.
Mother so tender, Who no man didst know, On Carmel's children 
Thy favours bestow. Star of the Sea.
Strong stem of Jesse, Who bore one bright flower, Be ever near us 
And guard us each hour, who serve thee here.
Purest of lilies, That flowers among thorns, Bring help to the true heart 
That in weakness turns and trusts in thee.
Strongest of armour, We trust in thy might: Under thy mantle, 
Hard press'd in the fight, we call to thee.
Our way uncertain, Surrounded by foes, Unfailing counsel 
You give to those who turn to thee.
O gentle Mother Who in Carmel reigns, Share with your servants 
That gladness you gained and now enjoy.
Hail, Gate of Heaven, With glory now crowned, Bring us to safety 
Where thy Son is found, true joy to see. Amen.
Alleluia.


Friday 21 February 2014

Lichfield Cathedral.


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



File:Catedral de Lichfield.jpg

English: Lichfield Cathedral has three Spires.
Português: Catedral de três torres de Lichfield.
Photo: June 2005.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only Mediaeval English Cathedral with three Spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands. The present Bishop is the Right Reverend Jonathan Gledhill, the 98th Lord Bishop of Lichfield.

The Cathedral is dedicated to Saint Chad and Saint Mary. Its internal length is 113 metres (370 feet), and the breadth of the Nave is 21m (68'). The Central Spire is 77m (252') high and the Western Spires are about 58m (190').

The stone is sandstone and came from a quarry on the South side of Lichfield. The walls of the Nave lean outwards slightly, due to the weight of stone used in the Ceiling Vaulting; some 200 – 300 tons of which was removed during renovation work to prevent the walls leaning further.


File:Lichfieldnave.jpg

The Nave of Lichfield Cathedral.
Photo: 29 December 2007 
(30 December 2007 (original upload date)).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.
Attribution: Excalibur at English Wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Lichfield suffered severe damage during the English Civil War, in which all of the Stained Glass was destroyed. In spite of this, the windows of the Lady Chapel contain some of the finest Mediaeval Flemish painted glass in existence. Dating from the 1530s, it came from the Abbey of Herkenrode in Belgium, in 1801, having been purchased by Brooke Boothby, when that Abbey was dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars. It was sold to the Cathedral for the same price. There are also some fine windows by Betton and Evans (1819), and many fine Late-19th-Century windows, particularly those by Charles Eamer Kempe.

The Lichfield Gospels, also known as the Book of Chad, are the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and the early part of Luke, written in Latin and dating from around 730 A.D. There were originally two volumes, but one went missing around the time of the English Civil War. It is closely related in style to the Lindisfarne Gospels. The manuscript is on display in the Chapter House from Easter to Christmas.

The Close is one of the most complete in the Country, and includes a Mediaeval Courtyard which once housed the men of the Choir. The three Spires are often referred to as 'the Ladies of the Vale'.


File:Lichwestfrontdetail.jpg

Detail of the West Front of Lichfield Cathedral.
The West Front is covered in statues of Norman and Saxon Kings,
Disciples of Jesus and Prophets of the Old Testament.
Photo: 17 February 2006 (original upload date).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Early history and elevation to Archbishopric.

When Chad was made Bishop of Mercia in 669 A.D., he moved his See from Repton to Lichfield, possibly because this was already a holy site, as the scene of Martyrdoms during the Roman period. The first Cathedral to be built on the present site was in 700 A.D., when Bishop Hedda built a new Church to house the bones of Saint Chad, which had become a sacred shrine to many pilgrims when he died in 672 A.D. Offa, King of Mercia, seemed to resent his own Bishops paying allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Kent, who, whilst under Offa's control, was not of his own Kingdom of Mercia.


File:Lichfield cathedral, sunset.JPG

Lichfield Cathedral
at Sunset.
Photo: October 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Tony Grist.
(Wikimedia Commons)


File:LichCathedral5.jpg

The Cathedral Church of The Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad.
Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, England, is the only
Mediaeval English Cathedral to have three Spires.
Photo: March 2007 (17 February 2008 (original upload date)).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons 
by User:Leoboudv using CommonsHelper.(Original text : self-made).
Author: Roger Robinson. Original uploader was Scu98rkr at en.wikipedia.
Attribution: Scu98rkr at en.wikipedia
(Wikimedia Commons)


Offa, therefore, created his own Archbishopric, in Lichfield, which presided over all the Bishops from the River Humber to the River Thames. All this began in 786 A.D., with the consent of Pope Adrian. The Pope’s official representatives were received warmly by Offa and were present at the Council of Chelsea (787 A.D.), often called "the Contentious Synod", where it was proposed that the Archbishopric of Canterbury be restricted, in order to make way for Offa's new Archbishop.

It was vehemently opposed, but Offa and the Papal Representatives defeated Archbishop Jaenbert, installing Higbert as the new Archbishop of Lichfield. Pope Adrian sent Higbert the Pallium, denoting his support for this move. In gratitude, Offa promised to send an annual shipment of gold to the Pope, for alms and supplying the Lights in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. However, The Archbishopric of Lichfield only lasted for 16 years, ending soon after Offa's death, when it was restored to Archbishop Aethelheard of Canterbury.


File:Lichfield Cathedral nave1.jpg

The Nave, Lichfield Cathedral.
Photo: January 2008.
Author: Nick from Chelmsford, Essex.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Starting in 1085, and continuing through the 12th-Century, the original wooden Saxon Church was replaced by a Norman Cathedral made from stone, and this was, in turn, replaced by the present Gothic Cathedral, begun in 1195. It was completed by the building of the Lady Chapel in the 1330s. The Choir dates from 1200, the Transepts from 1220 to 1240, and the Nave was started in 1260. The octagonal Chapter House, which was completed in 1249 and is one of the most beautiful parts of the Cathedral, with some charming stone carvings, houses an exhibition of the Cathedral's greatest treasure, the Lichfield Gospels, an 8th-Century illuminated manuscript.

Devastation of the English Civil War.

There were three great sieges of Lichfield, during the period 1643–1646. As the Cathedral was surrounded by a ditch and defensive walls, it made a natural fortress. The Cathedral authorities, with a certain following, were for the King, but the townsfolk, generally, sided with Parliament, and this led to the fortification of The Close in 1643. Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke, led an assault against it, but was killed by a deflected bullet from John Dyott (known as 'Dumb', because he was a deaf mute), who, along with his brother, Richard Dyott, had taken up a position on the battlements of the Central Cathedral Spire, on 2 March 1643.


File:Southwestview of Lichfield Cathedral.jpg

The view of Lichfield Cathedral from the South-West, 
over the Minster Pool. From an 1888 postcard.
Current File: January 2013. 
User: Hogweard.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Brooke's deputy, Sir John Gell, took over the siege. Although the Royalist garrison surrendered to Gell, two days later, The Close yielded and was retaken by Prince Rupert of the Rhine on 20 April of the same year. Rupert's engineers detonated the first mine to be used in England to breach the defences. Unable to defend the breach, the Parliamentarians surrendered to Rupert the following day. The Cathedral suffered extensive damage: The central Spire was demolished, the roofs ruined and all the Stained Glass smashed.


File:Lichfield Cathedral (7527807204).jpg

Lichfield Cathedral.
Photo: July 2012.
Uploaded by russavia.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Bishop Hacket began the restoration of the Cathedral in the 1660s, aided by substantial funds donated by the restored Monarch, but it was not until the 19th-Century that the damage caused by the Civil War was fully repaired. Up until the 19th-Century, on top of an ornamented gable, between the two Spires, stood a colossal figure of Charles II, by Sir William Wilson. Today, it stands just outside the South doors.

Victorian restoration.

Although the 18th-Century was a golden age for the City of Lichfield, it was a period of decay for the Cathedral. The 15th-Century Library, on the North side of the Nave, was pulled down and the books moved to their present location above the Chapter House. Most of the statues on the West Front were removed and the stonework covered with Roman cement. At the end of the Century, James Wyatt organised some major structural work, removing the High Altar to make one worship area of Choir and Lady Chapel, and adding a massive stone Screen at the entrance to the Choir. Francis Eginton painted the East window and was commissioned by the Chapter to do other work in the Cathedral. The ornate West Front was extensively renovated in the Victorian era by Sir George Gilbert Scott.


File:LichCathedral4.jpg

A view of Lichfield Cathedral 
from the North-West.
Photo: March 2007.
Source: Own work. Transferred from en.wikipedia.
Attribution: Scu98rkr at en.wikipedia.
Author: Roger Robinson (Scu98rkr at en.wikipedia).
(Wikimedia Commons)


It includes a remarkable number of ornate carved figures of Kings, Queens and Saints, working with original materials, where possible, and creating fine new imitations and additions, when the originals were not available. Wyatt's Choir-Screen had utilised Mediaeval stonework, which Scott, in turn, used to create the Clergy's seats in the Sanctuary.


File:Lichnorthtrancept.jpg

The interior of Lichfield Cathedral. 
View from the North Transept, in the 1880s.
19th-Century Print.
Current File: January 2013. 
User: Hogweard.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The new metal Screen, by Francis Skidmore and John Birnie Philip, to designs by Scott, is a triumph of High Victorian art, as are the fine Minton tiles in the Choir, inspired by the Mediaeval ones found in the Choir foundations and still seen in the Library.

Lichfield Angel.

In February 2003, an 8th-Century sculpted panel of the Archangel Gabriel was discovered under the Nave of the Cathedral. The 600mm tall panel is carved from limestone, and originally was part of a stone chest, which is thought to have contained the Relics of Saint Chad. The panel was broken into three parts, but was still otherwise intact and had traces of red pigment from the period. The pigments on the Lichfield Angel correspond closely to those of the Lichfield Gospels, which have been dated to around 730 A.D. The Angel was first unveiled to the public in 2006, when visitor numbers to the Cathedral trebled. After being taken to Birmingham for eighteen months for examination, it is now exhibited in the Cathedral.


File:Cathedral Close, Lichfield.jpg

The entrance to the Cathedral Close, 
Lichfield, Staffordshire, England.
The three Spires of Lichfield Cathedral 
can be clearly seen.
Photo: October 2011.
Source: Own work.
Author: Bs0u10e01.
(Wikimedia Commons)


File:Fan vaults in the Chapter House - geograph.org.uk - 1640346.jpg

Fan Vaulting in the Chapter House,
Lichfield Cathedral.
Very-deep-set Fan Vaults. The elongated octagonal two-storey design makes the Chapter House unique. It was completed in 1249 and was the only part of the Cathedral with a roof intact, following the ravages of the Civil War. The Chapter House houses an exhibition of the Cathedral's greatest treasure, the 8th-Century manuscript, known as The Lichfield Gospels.
Photo: November 2009.
Source: From geograph.org.uk.
Attribution: Trevor Rickard.
Author: Trevor Rickard.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Tuesday 18 February 2014

Pontifical Solemn High Mass.



File:Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.jpg

in Washington, D.C., America.
Photo: 14 October 2008.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)



A Traditional Roman Catholic Mass (Pontifical Solemn High Mass) on the 5th anniversary 
of the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI. Celebrated at the Basilica of the National Shrine 
of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on Saturday 24 April 2010, 
by His Excellency Edward J. Slattery, Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa. 
Fr. Calvin Goodwin, FSSP is commentating along with Fr. John Zuhlsdorf.
Available on YouTube at


Monday 17 February 2014

In Britain, You Can Lose Your Job For Wearing A Crucifix, And Nobody Cares. Compare This With The Situation In Dartford In 1906 . . .


The following Article is taken from DARTFORD TOWN ARCHIVE



Dartford Salvation Army Brass Band.
Picture Credit: Dartford Museum.


In defence of the Salvation Army - wild scenes on the streets of Dartford.

There was a massive and fervent response to the arrest of Dartford's Salvationists. A defence committee was formed to co-ordinate the protest campaign. Public meetings of protest attracted large crowds; protest marches were held and banners, slogans and posters appeared all over the town.

Banners declared 'IMPRISONED FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE'; 'DEFEND RELIGIOUS AND PERSONAL LIBERTY' and 'WE DEMAND LIBERTY TO PREACH CHRIST'. 15,000 people gathered at Dartford Station to welcome home the prisoners when released from jail, two of them still wearing their prison uniforms bearing broad arrows.

During the course of the exuberant celebrations the Dartford police were stoned and pelted with rotten fish heads and bad eggs. Hooligans used the occasion to vent their spleen on the local constabulary. Dartford's Superintendent Poole was pelted for four hours. Policemen were stoned to the station. There were violent speeches at the Drill Hall - a torrent of rancorous abuse.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT FROM THE DARTFORD PAPER.


Sunday 16 February 2014

Septuagesima.


Italic Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 
1952 edition, with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Septuagesima Sunday.
Station at Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls.

Semi-Double.
Privilege of the Second-Class.
Violet Vestments.

Roman Text is taken from "The Liturgical Year" by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 4. 
Septuagesima.


Go you also into my Vineyard.


In order to understand fully the meaning of the Text of today's Mass, we must study it in connection with the Lessons of the Breviary, since, in the Church's mind, the Mass and the Divine Office form one whole.

The Lessons and Responses in the Night Office are taken this week from the Book of Genesis. In them is related the story of the Creation of the world and of man, of our first parents' fall and the promise of a Redeemer, followed by the murder of Abel and a record of the generations from Adam to Noah.

"In the beginning," we read, "God created Heaven and Earth and upon the Earth He made man . . . and He placed him in a garden of paradise to be mindful of it and tend it" (Third and Fourth Responses at Matins).

All this is a figure. Here is Saint Gregory's exposition. "The kingdom of Heaven is compared to the proprietor who hires labourers to work in his vineyard. Who can be more justly represented as Head of a household than our Creator, Who governs all creatures by His Providence and Who, just as a Master has servants in his house, has His Elect in this world, from the Just Abel to the last of His chosen, destined to be born at the very end of time ?



De Profundis (Septuagesima Sunday, Tract).
Gregorian Chant notation from the Liber Usualis (1961), p. 499.
Latin lyrics sung by the Benedictine Monks 
of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain.
Available on YouTube at


The vineyard which He owns is His Church, while the labourers in this vineyard are all those who, with a true Faith, have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing good. By those who came at the first, as well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are meant the ancient people of the Hebrews, who, from the beginning of the world, striving in the persons of their Saints to serve God with a right Faith, ceased not, as it were, to work in cultivation of the vineyard.

But, at the eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words: "Why stand ye here all the day, idle ?" (Third Nocturn). Thus, all are called to work in the Lord's vineyard, by sanctifying themselves and their neighbour in glorifying God, since sanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him, alone.

Adam failed in his task and God told him: "Because thou hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed is the Earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee . . . In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the Earth out of which thou was taken."



Septuagesima, 2008.
Gradual and Tract.
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Available on YouTube at


Being exiled from Eden," says Saint Augustine, "the first man involved all his descendants in the penalty of death and reprobation, being corrupted in the person of him from whom they sprung. The whole mass of condemned humanity was therefore, plunged in misery, enslaved and cast headlong from one evil to another" (Second Nocturn). "The sorrows of death surrounded me," says the Introit, and, as a matter of fact, it is in the Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls, close to the cemetery at Rome, that the "Station" for this Sunday is made.

The Collect adds that we are "justly afflicted for our sins". In the Epistle, the Christian life is represented by Saint Paul as an arena, where a man must take pains and strive to carry off the prize, while the Gospel bears witness that the reward of eternal life is only given to those who work in God's vineyard, where work is hard and painful since the entrance of sin.

"O God", prays the Church, "grant to Thy people, who are called by the name of vines and harvests, that they may root out all thorns and briars, and bring forth good fruit in abundance" (Prayer on Holy Saturday, after the Eighth Prophecy).




Homily on Septuagesima Sunday
and getting ready for Lent.
Father speaks about the significance of Lent,
and the Fast, and why we Fast.
Getting ready for Lent.
Available on YouTube at



"In His wisdom", says Saint Gregory, "Almighty God preferred rather to bring good out of evil than never allow evil to occur". For God took pity on men and promised them a Second Adam, who, restoring the order disturbed by the First Adam, would allow them to regain Heaven, to which Adam had lost all right, when expelled from Eden, which was "the shadow of a better life" (Fourth Lesson). "Thou, O Lord, art our helper in time of tribulation" (Gradual); "with Thee, there is merciful forgiveness" (Tract).

"Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant and save me in Thy mercy" (Communion). "Show Thy face, O Lord, and we shall be saved", the Church cries similarly in the Season of Advent, when calling upon her Lord. The truth is that God, "Who has wonderfully created man, has more wonderfully redeemed him" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after the First Prophecy), for "the creation of the world in the beginning was not a more excellent thing than the immolation of Christ our Passover at the end of time" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after the Ninth Prophecy).

This Mass, when studied in the light of Adam's fall, prepares our mind for beginning the Season of Septuagesima, and understanding the sublime character of the Paschal Mystery for which this Season prepares our hearts.


File:Sto Dom de Sil-0.JPG

Español: El Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos es una abadía benedictina ubicada en el municipio de Santo Domingo de Silos, en la provincia de Burgos.

English: Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery in the village of Santo Domingo de Silos in the Southern part of Burgos Province in Northern Spain. Its Cloister is a magnum opus of Romanesque art in Europe. [Editor: Listen to the Tract for Septuagesima Sunday, sung by the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey. See, above.]
Deutsch: Kreuzgang - links eine der gedrehten Vierersäulen.
Photo: 25 July 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: Juergen Kappenberg.
This File: 6 August 2007.
User: Schweigen
(Wikimedia Commons)


In response to the call of the Master, Who comes to seek us even in the depths wherein we are plunged, through our first parents' sin (Tract), let us go and work in the Lord's vineyard, or enter the arena and take-up with courage the struggle which will intensify during Lent.

The "Gloria in excelsis" is not said from this Sunday until Maundy Thursday, except when the Mass of a Feast is said.

From Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the Tract is said only on Sundays and Feast Days. On Ferias, when the Mass of the Sunday is said, the Gradual is said, without the Tract.

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


File:Monastery santo domingo silos twisted column.jpg

Cloister, with twisted Columns, Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey, Burgos, Spain.
The Cloister is a magnum opus of Romanesque art in Europe. [Editor: Listen to the Tract for Septuagesima Sunday, sung by the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey. See, above.]
Photo: 15 January 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mark Somoza.
(Wikimedia Commons)


THE HISTORY OF SEPTUAGESIMA.

The Season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of The Liturgical Year, and is, itself, divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: The first week is called Septuagesima; the second week is called Sexagesima; the third week is called Quinquagesima.

All three are named from their numerical reference to Lent, which, in the language of the Church, is called Quadragesima, that is, "Forty", because the great Feast of Easter is prepared for by the Holy Exercises of forty days.

The words Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima, tells us of the same great Solemnity as looming in the distance, and as being the great object towards which the Church would have us now begin to turn all our thoughts, and desires, and devotion.



Kyrie for Septuagesima Sunday,
Mass XI (Orbis Factor),
2010.
Saint Andrew's Roman Catholic Church,
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Celebrant: Fr. Emerson, FSSP.
Available on YouTube at


Now, the Feast of Easter must be prepared for by forty days of recollectedness and Penance. Those forty days are one of the principal Seasons of The Liturgical Year, and one of the most powerful means employed by the Church for exciting, in the hearts of her children, the spirit of their Christian vocation. It is of the utmost importance that such a Season of Grace should produce its work in our Souls — the renovation of the whole spiritual life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the Holy Time of Lent.

She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us at the commencement of Lent by marking our foreheads with Ashes.

This prelude to the Holy Season of Lent was not known in the early ages of Christianity: Its institution would seem to have originated in the Greek Church. Besides the six Sundays of Lent, on which by universal custom the Faithful never Fasted, the practice of this Church prohibited Fasting on the Saturdays, likewise; consequently, their Lent was short by twelve days of the forty spent by Our Saviour doing penance in the desert. To make up the deficiency, they were obliged to begin their Lent so many days earlier.


Saturday 15 February 2014

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Nine).


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




Bede, translating the Gospel
of Saint John on his deathbed.
Date: 1902.
Author: James Doyle Penrose.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Another educational work is De schematibus et tropis sacrae scripturae, which discusses the Bible's use of rhetoric. Bede was familiar with pagan authors, such as Virgil, but it was not considered appropriate to teach Biblical Grammar from such texts, and in De schematibus . . . Bede argues for the superiority of Christian texts in understanding Christian Literature. Similarly, his text on poetic metre uses only Christian poetry for examples.



Death of Saint Bede.
(From the Original Picture at Saint Cuthbert's College,
Ushaw, Durham, England).
Death of Saint Bede. Project Gutenberg eText 16785.
From The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Catholic Heritage
in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days, by Emily Hickey.
(Wikimedia Commons)


According to his disciple, Cuthbert, Bede was also doctus in nostris carminibus ("learned in our songs"). Cuthbert's Letter on Bede's death, the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae, moreover, commonly is understood to indicate that Bede also composed a five-line vernacular poem known to modern scholars as Bede’s Death Song:

And he used to repeat that sentence from Saint Paul: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and many other verses of Scripture, urging us thereby to awake from the slumber of the Soul by thinking in good time of our Last Hour. And, in our own language — for he was familiar with English poetry — speaking of the Soul’s dread departure from the body:

Facing that enforced journey, no man can be
More prudent than he has good call to be,
If he consider, before his going hence,
What for his spirit of good hap or of evil
After his day of death shall be determined.

Fore ðæm nedfere nænig wiorðe
ðonc snottora ðon him ðearf siæ
to ymbhycgenne ær his hinionge
hwæt his gastæ godes oððe yfles
æfter deað dæge doemed wiorðe.



Tomb of The Venerable Bede,
The Galilee Chapel,
Durham Cathedral.
Photo: 4 May 2008.
Author: robert scarth.
(Wikimedia Commons)


As Opland notes, however, it is not entirely clear that Cuthbert is attributing this text to Bede: Most manuscripts of the Letter do not use a finite verb to describe Bede's presentation of the song, and the theme was relatively common in Old English and Anglo-Latin literature. The fact that Cuthbert's description places the performance of the Old English poem in the context of a series of quoted passages from Sacred Scripture, indeed, might be taken as evidence simply that Bede also cited analogous vernacular texts.

On the other hand, the inclusion of the Old English text of the poem in Cuthbert’s Latin Letter, the observation that Bede "was learned in our song," and the fact that Bede composed a Latin poem on the same subject, all point to the possibility of his having written it.

By citing the poem, directly, Cuthbert seems to imply that its particular wording was somehow important, either since it was a vernacular poem endorsed by a scholar, who evidently frowned upon secular entertainment, or because it is a direct quotation of Bede’s last original composition.



The Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral,
where Saint Bede's Tomb is located.
Photo taken by James Valentine, circa 1890.
This File dated 17 July 2005.
Source: en-WP.
Author: en:User:Bhoeble.
(Wikimedia Commons)


There is no evidence for cult being paid to Bede in England in the 8th-Century. One reason for this may be that he died on the Feast Day of Augustine of Canterbury. Later, when he was Venerated in England, he was either Commemorated after Augustine, on 26 May, or his Feast was moved to 27 May. However, he was Venerated outside England, mainly through the efforts of Saint Boniface and Alcuin, both of whom promoted the cult on the Continent. Boniface wrote repeatedly back to England during his missionary efforts, requesting copies of Bede's theological works. Alcuin, who was taught at the school set up in York by Bede's pupil, Egbert, praised Bede as an example for Monks to follow and was instrumental in disseminating Bede's works to all of Alcuin's friends.

Bede's cult became prominent in England during the 10th-Century Revival of Monasticism, and, by the 14th-Century, had spread to many of the Cathedrals of England. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (circa 1008 – 1095) was a particular devotee of Bede's, Dedicating a Church to him in 1062, which was Wulfstan's first undertaking after his Consecration as Bishop.

His body was 'translated' (the Ecclesiastical term for relocation of Relics) from Jarrow to Durham Cathedral around 1020, where it was placed in the same tomb as Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Later, Bede's remains were moved to a Shrine in the Galilee Chapel, at Durham Cathedral, in 1370. The Shrine was destroyed during the English Reformation, but the bones were re-buried in the Chapel. In 1831, the bones were dug up and then re-buried in a new tomb, which is still there. Other Relics were claimed by York, Glastonbury and Fulda.



English: Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathedral.
(Saint Bede's Tomb can be seen on the right,
with a Prie-Dieu in front of it.)
Norsk: Durhamkatedralen, Galilee-kapellet.
Photo: 19 November 2004.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)


His scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognised in 1899, when he was declared a Doctor of the Church. He is the only Englishman named a Doctor of the Church. He is also the only Englishman in Dante's Paradise (Paradiso X.130), mentioned among Theologians and Doctors of the Church in the same canto [Editor: a division in a long poem] as Isidore of Seville and the Scot, Richard of Saint Victor.

His Feast Day was included in the General Roman Calendar in 1899, for celebration on 27 May, rather than on his date of death, 26 May, which was then the Feast Day of Pope Saint Gregory VII. He is Venerated in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Church.

Bede became known as Venerable Bede (Latin.: Beda Venerabilis) by the 9th-Century, but this was not linked to consideration for Sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. According to a legend, the epithet was miraculously supplied by Angels, thus completing his unfinished epitaph. It is first utilised in connection with Bede in the 9th-Century, where Bede was grouped with others, who were called "Venerable" at two Ecclesiastical Councils held at Aix-le-Chappelle in 816 A.D. and 836 A.D. Paul the Deacon then referred to him as "Venerable", consistently. By the 11th- and 12th-Centuries, it had become commonplace. However, there are no descriptions of Bede, by that term, right after his death.


THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON THE VENERABLE BEDE.


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