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

Wednesday 31 December 2014

Wonderful News. New Church In Milan For Those Attached To Traditional Ambrosian Rite. Nouvelle Église Pour Les Milanais Attachés Au Rit Ambrosien Traditionnel.


This Article is taken from RORATE CAELI



The Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione,
Milan, Italy.
(Editor: If Chartres Cathedral is anything to go by, don't even think of giving this Milanese Church
a fresh look by re-painting the facade. Parishioners will be divided within days.
It's fine just the way it is.)
Illustration: RORATE CAELI


It is with great joy that the Milan Faithful, attached to the Traditional Ambrosian Rite, welcomed the announcement that His Eminence Angelo Cardinal Scola, Archbishop of Milan, has given them a new Church, more suited to the needs of their Liturgy and of their Community.

It is the Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione, also known as Santa Maria al Castello and Madonna del Castello (as it is located close to the Sforzesco Castle), which will host the Liturgies Celebrated in the Venerable and Ancient Rite of Saint Ambrose.

This Church was built on the esplanade of the Castle, as its Oratory, in 1471, by Galeazzo Maria Sforza, and Dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation, by declaration of the Duke of Lombardy. The Church was entrusted in 1492 to the Augustinian Friars, who added a small Convent, which was probably demolished during expansions of the Castle. In 1599, the present Church was rebuilt where it stands today.



Santa Maria della Consolazione,
Milan, Italy.
The Altarpiece of The Virgin of Consolation (1502)
and the Coffered Ceiling with paintings
by Camillo Procaccini (1561 † 1629).
Illustration: LITURGY


The Interior was decorated by some of the most prominent artists of 17th-Century Lombardy. The Coffered Ceiling has paintings by Camillo Procaccini (1561 † 1629). The exquisite Altarpiece, of the High Altar of the Virgin of Consolation, dates back to 1502. The third Chapel, on the Right, contains a valuable painting of Enea Salmeggia (1558 † 1626), the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew the Apostle, painted in 1604. The neo-classical façade was rebuilt in 1836 by Giovan Battista Chiappa.

The Church is ideally located in the centre of Milan, close to the Milan Cadorna subway station and several bus lines. By contrast, the traditional Milanese Community was previously housed in a modern concrete Church of little historical or architectural interest, San Rocco al Gentilino, which is relatively far from the City Centre. The Saint Cécile Schola (Parish of Saint-Eugène – Sainte Cécile in Paris) had the honour of singing in this Church, for Sunday Mass, Celebrated in the Ambrosian Rite by Fr Federico Gallo during his Pilgrimage to Milan in 2013.

The Traditional Ambrosian Office begins at Santa Maria della Consolazione on Sunday, 11 January 2015, the First Sunday after Epiphany. As before, the Mass will be sung every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation at 10 a.m.

Schola Saint Cécile, 29 December 2014.

Saint Sylvester. Pope And Confessor.


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

Pope Saint Sylvester I.
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.

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Ordo MMXV. Now Available.


The Ordo MMXV is priced at £10, plus Postage.


Zephyrinus is delighted to be able to strongly recommend, to all Readers, the availability, now, of the new Ordo MMXV, from THE SAINT LAWRENCE PRESS LTD ONLINE SHOP

An excellent Review of this Ordo can be read on the Blog of Fr John Hunwicke, which is available at FR HUNWICKE'S MUTUAL ENRICHMENT

Fr Hunwicke's Review includes the following Text:
"This little book will show you, day by day, a wonderland in which Festivals have:
Octaves and Vigils;
Humble Festivals have First Vespers, in accordance with a Tradition which goes back even behind the New Covenant to the Judaic system;
Commemorations enable you to remember Festivals which are partly obscured by other observances;
The Last Gospel is sometimes changed to enable a different Gospel to be read;
Newman's favourite Canticle "Quicumque vult" (the 'Athanasian Creed') is said; et cetera and kai ta loipa.
 
What you will get a glimpse of is The Roman Rite as it was in 1939, before the Pius XII changes got under way. Not many, of course, will feel able to observe this Calendar in their Mass and Office. But you will understand the 'reformed' rites of 1962 and 1970 so very much better by seeing what they replaced.
Rather like understanding a diverse landscape all the better, by having the geological knowledge of what's underground, so as to understand why the visible contours and strata are the way they are.
You will see, give or take some details, the skeleton and structure of The Daily Prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman, Bishop Challoner, The English Martyrs, all The Saints (and sinners and common ordinary Christians) of The Western Church in the 17th-Century, 18th-Century and 19th-Century.
You will get some surprises !
Go for it !!!"
Zephyrinus recommends this Ordo to all Readers. It contains so much information that is not mentioned, or available, to today's Catholics in their present-day "single sheet Newsletters".



St Andrew Daily Missal (Traditional Mass)

Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from


The Sunday Within The Octave Of The Nativity Of Our Lord.


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

Semi-Double.

White Vestments.







This Mass is said on the Sunday, if this falls on 29 December, 30 December, or 31 December. In this case, every Parish Priest Celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.

If the Sunday falls on 25 December, 26 December, 27 December, or 28 December, this Mass is said on 30 December (a weekday).

The Mass tells us that "the Word that came down from Heaven during the night" (Introit) of Christmas, is "the Son of God, Who has come that we might participate of His heritage and receive the adoption of sons" (Epistle).

Before His coming, man was as "a child, who, during his minority, differeth nothing from a servant" (Epistle), On the contrary, now that the New Law has emancipated him from the tutorship of thee Old Law, he is no longer a servant, but a son" (Epistle).




In revealing to us this supernatural Filiation of Christ, which affects our Souls more especially at this Season of Christmas, the Liturgy makes the Divinity, under the aspect of Paternity, resplendent in our eyes. Also, the worship of the sons of God is summed up in that word spoken with Jesus, "Father !" (Epistle).

The Gospel also discloses to us the glorious mission which the future has in store for this Child, the manifestation of which begins today in the Temple.

"It is the King" (Gradual), "whose Reign" (Alleluia) "will reach the very depths of the heart" (Gospel). For all, it will be a touchstone, a stumbling block for those who will persecute Him (Communion), a cornerstone "for many in Israel" (Gospel).

Mass: Dum médium siléntium . . .



St Andrew Daily Missal (Traditional Mass)

Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from



Monday 29 December 2014

Saint Thomas Of Canterbury. Bishop And Martyr.


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

Saint Thomas of Canterbury.
Bishop and Martyr.
Feast Day 29 December.

Double.

Red Vestments.



This miniature, from an English Psalter, presents an account of the murder of Saint Thomas of Canterbury. Three of the four Knights attack the Archbishop, who is kneeling in Prayer before the Altar. One of the Knights kicks Saint Thomas to the floor, and sends his Mitre flying.
Artist: Anonymous.
Date: Circa 1250.
Current location: Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore, Maryland,
United States of America.
Credit line: Acquired by Henry Walters.
Source/Photographer: Walters Art Museum.
(Wikimedia Commons)


If 29 December falls on a Sunday, the Mass of the Sunday within the Octave of The Nativity is said, with a Commemoration of Saint Thomas.

The Season of Christmas, by manifesting to us the Divine Filiation of The Child in The Crib, as the Epistle of the Day reminds us, shows that He is a Priest. His Priesthood consists in making the Life of God penetrate our Souls and in defending, even at the cost of His Life, the Divine Rights of this Beloved Spouse.

The Feast of Saint Thomas Becket shows us that in participating in the Dignity of The Christ Priest, as Archbishop of Canterbury, he knew how to prove himself, like Christ, the Shepherd who defends his flock against the ravages of the wolf (Gospel).




A Seal of the Abbot of Arbroath, Scotland, showing the murder of Saint Thomas Becket.
Arbroath Abbey was founded eight years after the death of Saint Thomas and Dedicated to him. Arbroath Abbey became the wealthiest Abbey in Scotland.
Date: Mediaeval Seal. Photo from the 1850s.
Source: Cosmo Innes and Patrick Chalmers (eds.), Liber S. Thome De Aberbrothoc; Registrorum Abbacie De Aberbrothoc, Volume 2, Edinburgi (Bannatyne Club) 1848-1856, front.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Henry II, King of England, wished him to sanction customs contrary to the liberties of The Church. Saint Thomas knew that to make this Divine Society subservient to the secular power would be to violate her very constitution, and so he declared that "as a Priest of Jesus Christ, he would willingly suffer death in defence of The Church of God".

He was slain in his Cathedral by the King's soldiers on 29 December 1170.

Against those who seek to enslave the Church, let us neither employ the craft of politics nor the weapons of warfare, but, after the example "of the glorious Thomas, who fell by the swords of the wicked in the defence of The Church" (Collect), let us know how to withstand them resolutely with all the moral strength that the defence of the Rights of God inspires.

Mass: Gaudeámus omnes in Dómino.

"At The Park Gate".



"At The Park Gate".
Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893).
Date: 1878.
Current location: Private Collection.
Source/Photographer: Bonhams.
(Wikimedia Commons)

"Canny Glasgow".




"Canny Glasgow".
Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893).
Date: 1887.
Current location: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum,
Madrid, Spain.
This File: 19 February 2011.
User: Donan.raven.
Source/Photographer: Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza
en depósito en el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Sunday 28 December 2014

The Holy Innocents. Feast Day 28 December.



"The Coventry Carol".
The Carol refers to
The Massacre of The Innocents.
Sung by Charlotte Church.
Available on YouTube at


From The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

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."


File:Matteo di Giovanni 002.jpg


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 (lived 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.

Saturday 27 December 2014

Humber Docks, Hull.



Humber Docks,
Hull, Yorkshire,
England.
Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893).
Date: 1884.
This File: 9 November 2008.
User: Staszek99.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Something Quintessentially English: London Pride And Noël Coward.


File:Saxifraga x urbium.JPG

English: "London Pride".
LatinSaxifraga x urbium ‘Variegatum’.
Latvian: Lietuvių: dekoratyvinė apvalialapė uolaskėlė.
Photo: 2007.06.02.
Source: Own work.
Author: Hugo.arg.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Fr Timothy Finigan ("His Hermeneuticalness") has previously Posted a very witty, funny, and extremely "British", Post on his Blog, THE HERMENEUTIC OF CONTINUITY, entitled "Weather almost reaches "Rather Tiring" level". Here it is: The Hermeneutic of Continuity: Weather almost reaches "Rather Tiring" level.

Fr's Post put Zephyrinus in mind of this Noël Coward 1941 composition, "London Pride" (see, below).




"London Pride",
sung by Noël Coward.
Available on YouTube at
http://youtu.be/aTsIMVIWjlQ.


See if you agree whether the two things match up.


File:Noel Coward Allan warren edit 1.jpg

Portrait for Noël Coward's last Christmas Card.
Photograph by Allan Warren.
Date: 1972.
Source: Own work / allanwarren.com
Author: Allan Warren.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Coward wrote "London Pride" in the Spring of 1941, during the Blitz. According to his own account, he was sitting on a seat on a platform of a damaged railway station in London, and was "overwhelmed by a wave of sentimental pride". The song started in his head, there and then, and was finished in a few days.

The song compares the pride of wartime Londoners to the flower, "London Pride", which can grow anywhere and was often found growing on bomb sites.

Coward gave many morale boosting broadcasts to people in wartime London, via the BBC.

Saint John. Apostle And Evangelist. Feast Day 27 December.


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

Saint John.
Apostle and Evangelist.
Feast Day 27 December.

Station at Saint Mary Major.
Indulgence of 30 Years and 30 Quarantines.

Double of the Second-Class
with Simple Octave.

White Vestments.



Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist
at Patmos.
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640).
Date: Circa 1611.
Source: http://www.artbible.info/art/topics/rubens-apostles-series.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Four Holy Men
(Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Peter)
(Detail).
Artist: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).
Date: 1526.
Current location: Alte Pinakothek,
Munich, Germany.
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Station was held at Saint Mary Major, in honour of her to whom Jesus on The Cross entrusted to Saint John: "Woman, behold thy son."

It is God Whom we adore at Bethlehem during Christmas time. Thus, it was natural that Saint John, the chief Evangelist of The Divinity of Christ, should be found beside the Crib, to disclose the greatness of The Infant Who reposes therein.

It is to him that Jesus wished to entrust His Mother when Joseph will have passed away. The Liturgy, therefore, loves to show together, beside The Child and His Mother, him whom the Gospel calls The Apostle, the Just Man, and whom The Church today honours with the same title (Offertory).


The Infant God in the Crib gathers around Him pure Souls: Mary is The Blessed Virgin; Joseph The Chaste Spouse; Saint Stephen The First Martyr, who washes his robe in The Blood of The Lamb. Now, behold Saint John, The Virgin Apostle.

Crowned with the halo of those who knew how to to conquer their flesh, for this reason he became "the Disciple whom Jesus loved, and who also leaned on His breast at Supper" (Gospel). Thanks to his Angelic purity, he imbibed that wholesome wisdom of which the Epistle speaks and which won for him the halo of Doctor.

The Introit of his Mass is the one The Church uses in the "Common of Doctors". It is to Saint John, who wrote a Gospel, three Epistles and The Apocalypse, that we owe the most beautiful pages on the Divinity of The Word Made Flesh; and it is for this reason that he is symbolised by the eagle which soars in the heights.


Finally, he received the halo of Martyr, since he only escaped a violent death by that special protection of which the Gospel speaks and which made many believe that the beloved Disciple would not die. Actually, he did not depart this life until all the other Apostles had passed away. His name is mentioned with theirs in The Canon of The Mass (First List).

The desire to connect the great Saints with The Feast of The Nativity was the cause of Celebrating on this day, except at Rome, the Feast of Saint James, brother of Saint John, and on 28 December that of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

"On this day, wine offered by The Faithful is Blessed in Remembrance and in honour of Saint John, who, without any ill effects, drank a cup of poisoned wine" (Roman Ritual).

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



Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from


"November".



"November".
Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893).
Date: 1879.
This File: 19 September 2013.
User: Austriacus.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Friday 26 December 2014

"My Lord And My God".



"My Lord and My God".
Illustration: THE CATHOLIC HERALD

12th-Century Stained-Glass Window. Church Of Saint Peter Mancroft, Norwich.



The Nativity.
12th-Century Stained-Glass Window in the
Church of Saint Peter Mancroft,
Norwich, England.
Illustration: VIDIMUS

Lichfield Cathedral’s Beautiful Herkenrode Glass Renovation.


This Article is taken from VIDIMUS
the only on-line magazine devoted to Mediaeval Stained-Glass.


Herkenrode Glass: Update.


A Tracery panel being installed by a member of the Barley Studio team.

We reported in issue 84 that Lichfield Cathedral’s beautiful Herkenrode glass was being readied for re-installation, and we can now bring you the news that installation is under way and going well.

Plain glazing was installed in the window openings when the panels were removed, and the historic glass is now being installed to the inside of this plain glass as part of the isothermal glazing system, meaning that it no longer has to function as a weather shield for the building.

This internally ventilated external protective-glazing system prevents damaging moisture – atmospheric moisture on the outside and condensation on the 
inside – from reaching the original glass


.

Fig. 2. The re-installation.

A BBC East Midlands Video, on the installation, can be accessed via the 

Thursday 25 December 2014

Thank God For Little Children.




The Virgin of the Lilies (La Vierge au lys).
Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Date: 1899.
Source: PaintingHere.com
Author: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
(Wikimedia Commons)




Zephyrinus wishes a Very Happy,
Holy, and Peaceful Christmas
to all Readers.

A Very Happy, Holy, And Peaceful, Christmas.



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)

Zephyrinus Wishes
Very Happy, Holy, And Peaceful, Christmas 
To All Readers.

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