Text, Illustrations and Captions taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, unless stated otherwise.
English: Milan Cathedral, dated 18 May 1856.
Italian: Milano, Il Duomo.
Anonymous etching, colourised. Dated 18 May 1856.
This File: 9 February 2006.
User: AndreasPraefcke.
(Wikimedia Commons)
In 1500 to 1510, under Ludovico Sforza, the octagonal Cupola was completed, and decorated in the interior with four series, of fifteen statues each, portraying Saints, Prophets, Sibyls and other characters of the Bible. The exterior long remained without any decoration, except for the Guglietto dell'Amadeo ("Amadeo's Little Spire"), constructed 1507-1510. This is a Renaissance masterwork, which nevertheless harmonised well with the general Gothic appearance of the Church.
During the subsequent Spanish domination, the new Church proved usable, even though the interior remained largely unfinished, and some Bays of the Nave and the Transepts were still missing. In 1552, Giacomo Antegnati was commissioned to build a large Organ for the North side of the Choir, and Giuseppe Meda provided four of the sixteen Pales which were to decorate the Altar area (the programme was completed by Federico Borromeo). In 1562, Marco d' Agrate's Saint Bartholomew and the famous Trivulzio Candelabrum (12th-Century) were added.
After the accession of Carlo Borromeo to the Archbishop's Throne, all Lay Monuments were removed from the Duomo. These included the tombs of Giovanni, Barnabò and Filippo Maria Visconti, Francesco I and his wife, Bianca, Galeazzo Maria and Lodovico Sforza, which were taken to unknown destinations. However, Borromeo's main intervention was the appointment, in 1571, of Pellegrino Pellegrini as Chief Engineer, a contentious move, since, to appoint Pellegrino, who was not a Lay Brother of the Duomo, required a revision of the Fabbrica's statutes.
Portrait of Carlo Borromeo (Saint Charles Borromeo), Archbishop of Milan.
Borromeo and Pellegrini strove for a new, Renaissance, appearance for the Cathedral, that would emphasise its Roman / Italian nature, and subdue the Gothic style, which was now seen as foreign. As the façade still was largely incomplete, Pellegrini designed a "Roman" style, with Columns, Obelisks and a large Tympanum. When Pellegrini's design was revealed, a competition for the design of the façade was announced, and this elicited nearly a dozen entries, including one by Antonio Barca. This design was never carried out, but the interior decoration continued. In 1575-1585, the Presbytery was rebuilt, while new Altars and the Baptistry were added. Wooden Choir Stalls were constructed by 1614, for the High Altar, by Francesco Brambilla.
In 1577, Borromeo finally consecrated the whole edifice as a new Church, distinct from the old Santa Maria Maggiore and Santa Tecla (which had been unified in 1549 after heavy disputes).
At the beginning of the 17th-Century, Federico Borromeo had the foundations of the new façade laid by Francesco Maria Richini and Fabio Mangone. Work continued until 1638 with the construction of five Portals and two Middle Windows. In 1649, however, the new Chief Architect, Carlo Buzzi, introduced a striking revolution: The façade was to revert to original Gothic style, including the already finished details within big Gothic Pilasters and two giant Belfries. Other designs were provided by, among others, Filippo Juvarra (1733) and Luigi Vanvitelli (1745), but all remained unapplied. In 1682, the façade of Santa Maria Maggiore was demolished and the Cathedral's roof covering completed.
The Emperor Napoleon in his Study at The Tuileries, Paris.
Napoleon was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.
Source/Photographer: Google Art Project: Home - pic.
This File: 18 October 2012.
User: DcoetzeeBot.
(Wikimedia Commons)
In 1762, one of the main features of the Cathedral, the Madonnina's Spire, was erected at the dizzying height of 108.5 metres. The Spire was designed by Carlo Pellicani and sports, at the top, a famous polychrome Madonnina Statue, designed by Giuseppe Perego, that befits the original stature of the Cathedral. Given Milan's notoriously damp and foggy climate, the Milanese consider it a fair-weather day when the Madonnina is visible from a distance, as it is so often covered by mist.
On May 20, 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte, about to be crowned King of Italy, ordered the façade to be finished by Carlo Pellicani. In his enthusiasm, he assured that all expenses would fall to the French Treasurer, who would reimburse the Fabbrica for the real estate it had to sell. Even though this reimbursement was never paid, it still meant that, finally, within only seven years, the Cathedral had its façade completed. The new architect, Carlo Pellicani Junior, largely followed Buzzi's project, adding some Neo-Gothic details to the Upper Windows. As a form of thanksgiving, a statue of Napoleon was placed at the top of one of the Spires. Napoleon was crowned King of Italy at the Duomo.
The Gothic Cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the fifth largest Cathedral in the world and the largest in the Italian state territory.
Milan's layout, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies what was the most central site in Roman Mediolanum, that of the public Basilica facing the Forum. Saint Ambrose's 'New Basilica' was built on this site at the beginning of the 5th-Century, with an adjoining Basilica added in 836 A.D. The old Baptistery (Battistero Paleocristiano, constructed in 335 A.D.) still can be visited under Milan Cathedral. It is one of the oldest Christian buildings in Europe. When a fire damaged the Cathedral and Basilica in 1075, they were later rebuilt as the Duomo.
In 1386, Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo began construction of the Cathedral. Start of the construction coincided with the accession to power in Milan of the Archbishop's cousin, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and was meant as a reward to the noble and working classes, who had suffered under his tyrannical Visconti predecessor, Barnabò. Before actual work began, three main buildings were demolished, the palace of the Archbishop, the Ordinari Palace and the Baptistry of Saint Stephen at the Spring, while the old Church of Santa Maria Maggiore was exploited as a stone quarry.
Enthusiasm for the immense new building soon spread among the population, and the shrewd Gian Galeazzo, together with his cousin, the Archbishop, collected large donations for the work-in-progress. The construction programme was strictly regulated under the "Fabbrica del Duomo", which had 300 employees led by First Chief Engineer, Simone da Orsenigo. Orsenigo initially planned to build the Cathedral from brick in Lombard Gothic style.
Visconti had ambitions to follow the newest trends in European architecture. In 1389, a French Chief Engineer, Nicolas de Bonaventure, was appointed, adding to the Church its Rayonnant Gothic, a French style not typical for Italy. He decided that the brick structure should be panelled with marble. Galeazzo gave the Fabbrica del Duomo exclusive use of the marble from the Candoglia quarry and exempted it from taxes.
Ten years later, another French architect, Jean Mignot, was called from Paris to judge and improve upon the work done, as the masons needed new technical aid to lift stones to an unprecedented height. Mignot declared all the work done up till then as in pericolo di ruina ("peril of ruin"), as it had been done sine scienzia ("without science").
In the following years, Mignot's forecasts proved untrue, but, anyway, they spurred Galeazzo's engineers to improve their instruments and techniques. Work proceeded quickly, and at the death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402, almost half the Cathedral was complete. Construction, however, stalled almost totally until 1480, for lack of money and ideas. The most notable works of this period were the tombs of Marco Carelli and Pope Martin V (1424) and the windows of the Apse (1470s), of which, those extant portray Saint John the Evangelist, by Cristoforo de' Mottis, and Saint Eligius and Saint John of Damascus, both by Niccolò da Varallo. In 1452, under Francesco Sforza, the Nave and the Aisles were completed, up to the Sixth Bay.
The chronology of Tertullian's writings is difficult to fix with certainty. It is, in part, determined by the Montanistic views that are set forth in some of them, by the author's own allusions to this writing, or that, as ante-dating others (cf. Harnack, Litteratur ii.260–262), and by definite historic data (e.g., the reference to the death of Septimius Severus, Ad Scapulam, iv). In his work against Marcion, which he calls his third composition on the Marcionite heresy, he gives its date as the fifteenth year of the reign of Severus (Adv. Marcionem, i.1, 15)—which would be approximately the year 208 A.D.
The writings may be divided with reference to the two periods of Tertullian's Christian activity, the Catholic and the Montanist (cf. Harnack, ii.262 sqq.), or according to their subject-matter. The object of the former mode of division is to show, if possible, the change of views Tertullian's mind underwent. Following the latter mode, which is of a more practical interest, the writings fall into two groups. Apologetic and polemic writings, like Apologeticus, De testimonio animae,Adv. Judaeos, Adv. Marcionem, Adv. Praxeam, Adv. Hermogenem, De praescriptione hereticorum, and Scorpiace were written to counteract Gnosticism and other religious or philosophical doctrines. The other group consists of practical and disciplinary writings, e.g., De monogamia, Ad uxorem, De virginibus velandis, De cultu feminarum, De patientia, De pudicitia, De oratione, and Ad martyras.
Among his apologetic writings, the Apologeticus, addressed to the Roman magistrates, is a most pungent defence of Christianity and the Christians against the reproaches of the pagans, and an important legacy of the ancient Church, proclaiming the principle of freedom of religion as an inalienable human right and demands a fair trial for Christians before they are condemned to death.
Tertullian was the first to break the force of such charges as that the Christians sacrificed infants at the celebration of the Lord's Supper and committed incest. He pointed to the commission of such crimes in the pagan world and then proved by the testimony of Pliny that Christians pledged themselves not to commit murder, adultery, or other crimes. He adduced also the inhumanity of pagan customs such as feeding the flesh of gladiators to beasts. He argued that the gods have no existence and thus there is no pagan religion against which Christians may offend. Christians do not engage in the foolish worship of the emperors. They do better: they pray for them. Christians can afford to be put to torture and to death, and the more they are cast down the more they grow; "the blood of the martyrs is seed" (Apologeticum, 50). In the De Praescriptione, he develops as its fundamental idea that, in a dispute between the Church and a separating party, the whole burden of proof lies with the latter, as the Church, in possession of the unbroken tradition, is, by its very existence, a guarantee of its truth.
The five books against Marcion, written 207 A.D. or 208 A.D., are the most comprehensive and elaborate of his polemical works, invaluable for gauging the early Christian view of Gnosticism. Of the moral and ascetic treatises, the De patientia and De spectaculisare among the most interesting, and the De pudicitia and De virginibus velandis among the most characteristic.
Theology
Though thoroughly conversant with the Greek theology, Tertullian was independent of its metaphysical speculation. He had learned from the Greek apologies, and forms a direct contrast to Origen of Alexandria, who drew much of his theories regarding creation from middle platonism. Tertullian, the prince of realists and practical theologian, carried his realism to the verge of materialism. This is evident from his ascription to God of corporeity and his acceptance of the traducian theory of the origin of the soul.
He despised Greek philosophy, and, far from looking at Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek thinkers whom he quotes as forerunners of Christ and the Gospel, he pronounces them the patriarchal forefathers of the heretics (De anima, iii.). He held up to scorn their inconsistency when he referred to the fact that Socrates in dying ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Aesculapius (De anima, i).
Tertullian always wrote under stress of a felt necessity. He was never so happy as when he had opponents like Marcion and Praxeas, and, however abstract the ideas may be which he treated, he was always moved by practical considerations to make his case clear and irresistible. It was partly this element which gave to his writings a formative influence upon the theology of the post-Nicene period in the West and has rendered them fresh reading to this day. He was a born disputant. It is true that during the 3rd-Century no mention is made of his name by other authors. Lactantius, at the opening of the 4th-Century, is the first to do this, but Augustine treats him openly with respect. Cyprian, Tertullian's North African compatriot, though he nowhere mentions his name, was well read in his writings, as Cyprian's secretary told Jerome.
Specific teachings
Tertullian's main doctrinal teachings are as follows:
The Soul was not pre-existent, as Plato affirmed, nor subject to metempsychosis or reincarnation, as the Pythagoreans held. In each individual it is a new product, proceeding equally with the body from the parents, and not created later and associated with the body (De anima, xxvii). This position is called traducianism in opposition to 'creationism', or the idea that each soul is a fresh creation of God. For Tertullian, the Soul is, however, a distinct entity and a certain corporeity and as such it may be tormented in Hell (De anima, lviii).
The Soul's sinfulness is easily explained by its traducian origin (De anima, xxxix). It is in bondage to Satan (whose works it renounces in Baptism), but has seeds of good (De anima, xli), and, when awakened, it passes to health and at once calls upon God (Apol., xvii.) and is naturally Christian. It exists in all men alike; it is a culprit and yet an unconscious witness by its impulse to worship, its fear of demons, and its musings on death to the power, benignity, and judgment of God as revealed in the Christian's Scriptures (De testimonio, v-vi).
Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal. Illustrations and Captions are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, unless otherwise stated.
There are four main Marian Anthems (you will note that they are in alphabetical order and are used, thus, during the Liturgical Year).
Alma Redemptoris
(From First Vespers of Advent until Second Vespers of 2 February, inclusive.)
The authorship of this Anthem is attributed to Hermann Contractus, a monk of the Abbey of Reichenau (+1054);
(From Compline on 2 February until Maundy Thursday, inclusive.)
The authorship of this Anthem is attributed to Hermann Contractus, a monk of the Abbey of Reichenau (+1054).
The insertion of this Anthem in the Divine Office is attributed to Pope Clement VI (1342 - 1352);
Salve Regina
(From First Vespers of Trinity Sunday until Advent.)
This Marian Anthem is attributed to Adhemar de Monteil, Bishop of Le Puy, France, (+1098). The three final invocations were added by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 - 1153).
Denver, Colo., Apr 14, 2013 / 04:02 pm (CNA).- A group of contemplative Benedictine nuns have recorded an album in honor of the angels and saints, all of the songs of which were selected out of their daily liturgical life.
“We learned a heavenly piece entitled Duo Seraphim by Tomas Luis de Victoria in the fall for the investiture of three novices,” Mother Cecilia, prioress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, told CNA April 12.
“Since we knew and loved many other songs written in honor of the angels and saints, or written by the saints themselves, we realized we could make another album based on this theme without too much extra practicing,” she laughed.
Angels and Saints at Ephesus features 17 songs, and “every selection comes out of the liturgical life here at the Priory.” The Gregorian chants on the album are sung by the sisters during the Divine Office, and the pieces containing harmony are sung during Mass at the offertory or as a recessional.
The album is being released on the De Montfort Music label, which was founded last year by Kevin and Monica Fitzgibbons. Monica told CNA that the album includes songs composed by St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Francis Xavier. “A Rose Unpetalled” is a text by St. Therese of Lisieux for which the nuns wrote accompanying music.
Music is an integral part of the nuns' lives, being “entirely bound up with our Benedictine vocation…most especially in the chanting of the Divine Office,” said Mother Cecilia.
The community is in the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph, and their life is marked by obedience, stability, and “continually turning” towards God. They have Mass daily according to the extraordinary form and chant the psalms eight times a day from the 1962 Monastic Office. They also support themselves by producing made-to-order vestments.
Singing the Office “takes pride of place” in their spirituality, and they take pains “to make the liturgy as beautiful as possible for God.”
Last year the community recorded “Advent at Ephesus,” a collection of music for the liturgical season which spent six weeks at #1 Billboard's Classical Music Chart.
“This music really uplifted a lot of hearts,” Fitzgibbons said. “It brought a lot of families together, and it got people talking about Advent...I think it really elevated a lot of souls toward heaven.”
De Montfort Music was “pummeled” with requests for an album from the nuns which could be played appropriately throughout the year, and the community came up with the concept of the present album.
Christopher Alder, former executive producer of Deutsche Grammophon and a nine time Grammy-award winning producer heard the Benedictines' Advent album and expressed interest in helping them with a second album.
Alder ended up traveling from Germany to Missouri to produce “Angels and Saints at Ephesus.” He was “really moved, blown away, by their level of expertise” and their quality of singing, Fitzgibbons said.
“Through their beauty, they have turned hearts toward heaven, because when one hears it ... they do have to contemplate something much larger than this world.”
Mother Cecilia continued discussing the place of music in life of her community, explaining that the singing of the Divine Office “truly forms the life-blood of our devotion. St. Benedict calls it 'the Work of God' and says that nothing is to take precedence over it, no matter how important it may seem.”
“The loveliness of the chants are set off by the silence that we keep during the day, but the Office also feeds that silence of prayer. It is a joyful burden the Church asks of us, and we take it up with tremendous love, knowing we are the beneficiaries, along with the entire Church.”
Mother Cecilia mentioned two musical saints important to the Benedictines. One is St. Hildegard, herself a Benedictine abbess and composer of the 12th century.
The prioress called St. Hildegard “a shining example of the liturgical spirituality of Benedictines.”
Yet more important to the community at the Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus is St. Cecilia, the patroness of musicians.
“We continue to invoke her whenever we have a music practice, knowing that she can help us to sing to God from our hearts with great purity and love, so that we may deserve to sing to Him for all eternity in heaven with the great multitude of angels and saints.”
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian (circa 160 A.D. – circa 225 A.D.), was a prolific Early-Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature.
He also was a notable Early-Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy. Tertullian has been called "the Father of Latin Christianity" and "the founder of Western theology." Though conservative, he did originate and advance new theology to the early Church. He is perhaps most famous for being the oldest extant Latin writer to use the term "Trinity" (Latin, trinitas), and giving the oldest extant formal exposition of a Trinitarian theology. Other Latin formulations that first appear in his work are "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae,una Substantia" (itself from the Koine Greek "treis Hypostases, Homoousios"). He wrote his Trinitarian formula after becoming a Montanist.
However, unlike many Church Fathers, he was never Canonised by the Catholic Church, as several of his later teachings directly contradicted the actions and teachings of the Apostles. His Trinity formulation was considered heresy by the Church during his lifetime, however, it was later accepted as Doctrine at the Council of Nicea.
Scant reliable evidence exists to inform us about Tertullian's life. Most history about him comes from passing references in his own writings.
According to Church tradition, he was raised in Carthage and was thought to be the son of a Roman Centurion, a trained lawyer, and an Ordained Priest. These assertions rely on the accounts of Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, II, ii. 4, and Jerome's De viris illustribus (On famous men), Chapter 53. Jerome claimed that Tertullian's father held the position of 'centurio proconsularis' ("aide-de-camp") in the Roman Army in Africa. However, it is unclear whether any such position in the Roman military ever existed.
Further, Tertullian has been thought to be a lawyer, based on his use of legal analogies and an identification of him with the jurist, Tertullianus, who is quoted in the Pandects. Although Tertullian used a knowledge of Roman law in his writings, his legal knowledge does not demonstrably exceed that of what could be expected from a sufficient Roman education.The writings of Tertullianus, a lawyer of the same cognomen, exist only in fragments and do not denote a Christian authorship. (Tertullianus was misidentified only much later with the Christian Tertullian by Church historians.) Finally, any notion of Tertullian being a Priest is also questionable. In his extant writings, he never describes himself as Ordained in the Church and seems to place himself among the Laity.
Roman Africa was famous as the home of orators. This influence can be seen in his style with its archaisms or provincialisms, its glowing imagery and its passionate temper. He was a scholar with an excellent education. He wrote at least three books in Greek. In them, he refers to himself, but none of these are extant. His principal study was jurisprudence and his methods of reasoning reveal striking marks of his juridical training. He shone among the advocates of Rome, as Eusebius reports.
His conversion to Christianity perhaps took place about 197 A.D. – 198 A.D. (cf. Adolf Harnack, Bonwetsch, and others), but its immediate antecedents are unknown except as they are conjectured from his writings. The event must have been sudden and decisive, transforming at once his own personality. He said of himself that he could not imagine a truly Christian life without such a conscious breach, a radical act of conversion: "Christians are made, not born" (Apol, xviii).
Two books, addressed to his wife, confirm that he was married to a Christian wife.
English: Ruins of Carthage, modern-day Tunisia, where Tertullian lived.
Русский: На фото не развалины Карфагена, а Римские бани.
In middle life (about 207 A.D.), he was attracted to the "New Prophecy" of Montanism, and seems to have split from the mainstream Church. In the time of Augustine, a group of "Tertullianists" still had a Basilica in Carthage, which, within that same period, passed to the orthodox Church. It is unclear whether the name was merely another for the Montanists or that this means Tertullian later split with the Montanists and founded his own group.
Jerome says that Tertullian lived to a great age, but there is no reliable source attesting to his survival beyond the estimated year 225 A.D. In spite of his Schism from the Church, he continued to write against Heresy, especially Gnosticism. Thus, by the doctrinal works he published, Tertullian became the teacher of Cyprian and the predecessor of Augustine, who, in turn, became the chief founder of Latin theology.
WRITINGS
General character.
Thirty-one works are extant, together with fragments of more. Some fifteen works in Latin or Greek are lost, some as recently as the 9th-Century (De Paradiso, De superstitione saeculi, De carne et anima, were all extant in the now-damaged Codex Agobardinus in 814 A.D). Tertullian's writings cover the whole theological field of the time — apologetics against paganism and Judaism, polemics, polity, discipline, and morals, or the whole reorganisation of human life on a Christian basis; they gave a picture of the religious life and thought of the time, which is of the greatest interest to the Church Historian.
The Penitential Psalms, or Psalms of Confession, so named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the 6th-Century A.D., are Psalms6, 32, 38, 50, 102, 130, and 143 (6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142 in the Septuagint numbering).
Psalm 6. Domine ne in furore tuo (Pro octava). Psalm 32.Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates. Psalm 38.Domine ne in furore tuo (In rememorationem de sabbato). Psalm 50.Miserere mei Deus. Psalm 102.Domine exaudi orationem meam et clamor meus ad te veniat. Psalm 130.De profundis clamavi. Psalm 143.Domine exaudi orationem meam auribus percipe obsecrationem meam.
A Setting by Lassus of Psalm 130, "De profundis clamavi ad te Domine",
("Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord").
These Psalms are expressive of sorrow for sin. Four were known as 'Penitential Psalms' by Saint Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th-Century. Psalm 51 (Miserere) was recited at the close of daily Morning Service in the Primitive Church.
Translations of the Penitential Psalms were undertaken by some of the greatest poets in Renaissance England, including Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Sir Philip Sidney. Before the Suppression of the Minor Orders and Tonsure in 1972 by Pope Paul VI, the Seven Penitential Psalms were assigned to new Clerics after having been Tonsured.
Musical settings.
Orlande de Lassus' "Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales" of 1584.
This is a Setting of Psalm 6, "Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me",
("O Lord, do not reprove me in Thy wrath, nor in Thy anger chastise me").
Psalm 6 is the first of the Seven Penitential Psalms.
Perhaps the most famous musical setting of all Seven Penitential Psalms is by Orlande de Lassus, with his Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales of 1584. There are also fine settings by Andrea Gabrieli and by Giovanni Croce. The Croce pieces are unique in being settings of Italian sonnet-form translations of the Psalms by Francesco Bembo. These were widely distributed. They were translated into English and published in London as Musica Sacra and were even translated (back) into Latin and published in Nürnberg as Septem Psalmi poenitentiales.
William Byrd set all Seven Psalms in English versions for three voices in his Songs of Sundrie Natures (1589). Settings of individual Penitential Psalms have been written by many composers. Well-known settings of the Miserere(Psalm 51) include those by Gregorio Allegri and Josquin des Prez. Settings of the De profundis (Psalm 130) include two in the Renaissance era by Josquin.
Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia, unless otherwise stated.
Psalm 50 (Greek numbering), traditionally referred to as the Miserere, its Latin incipit, is one of the Penitential Psalms. It begins: "Have mercy on me, O God".
The Psalm's opening words in Latin, Miserere mei, Deus, have led to it being called the "Miserere Mei" or, even, just "Miserere". It is often known by this name in musical settings.
Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam. Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea: et a peccato meo munda me. Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco: et peccatum meum contra me est semper. Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci: ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris. Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum: et in peccatis concepit me mater mea. Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti: incerta et occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi. Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. Auditui meo dabis gaudium et laetitiam: et exsultabunt ossa humiliata. Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis: et omnes iniquitates meas dele. Cor mundum crea in me, Deus: et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis. Ne proiicias me a facie tua: et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui: et spiritu principali confirma me. Docebo iniquos vias tuas: et impii ad te convertentur. Libera me de sanguinibus, Deus, Deus salutis meae: et exsultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam. Domine, labia mea aperies: et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium, dedissem utique: holocaustis non delectaberis. Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus: cor contritum, et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies. Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion: ut aedificentur muri Ierusalem. Tunc acceptabis sacrificium justitiae, oblationes, et holocausta: tunc imponent super altare tuum vitulos.
This version is from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer translation of the masoretic Hebrew text.
Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness
According to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.
Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged.
Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me.
But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.
Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.
Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.
Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness.
Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew Thy praise.
For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.
O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness,
with the burnt-offerings and oblations:
then shall they offer young calves upon Thine altar.
Liturgical use.
The Psalm is frequently used in various Liturgical traditions because of its spirit of humility and repentance.
Judaism.
In Judaism, several verses from this Psalm are given prominence:
The entire Psalm is recited in the Arizal's rite of the bedtime Shema on weekdays, and is also part of the regular tikkun chatzot prayers.
Verse 13 (11 in the KJV), "Cast me not away from thy presence...", forms a central part of the selichot services.
Verse 17 (15 in the KJV), "O Lord, open thou my lips...", is recited as a preface to the Amidah, the central prayer in Jewish services.
Verse 20 (18 in the KJV), "Do good in thy will unto Zion...", is recited in the Ashkenazic liturgy as the Torah is removed from the Ark before being read on Sabbath and festivals.
The Psalm is recited along with Parshat Parah, the Torah portion describing the ritual of the "red heifer" that is read in preparation for Passover.
Orlande de Lassus (1535-1594). Composer.
Wrote an elaborate Setting of the Miserere, in the 16th-Century,
as part of his "Penitential Psalms".
Artist: Da Massmil.
Date: After 1593.
Current location: Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, Bologna, Italy.
Source/Photographer: Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica (Bologna).
Other Versions: scanned from Robbins-Landon, H.C. & Norwich, J.J.
"Five Centuries of Music in Venice" New York: Schirmer Books, 1991. p. 45.
It is typically included during the Mystery of Repentance (corresponding to the Sacrament of Confession), in personal daily prayers, and many of the Liturgical Services. The various Services of the Daily Office may be combined into three aggregates (evening, morning and noonday), and are so arranged that Psalm 50 is read during each aggregate.
In the Agpeya, Coptic Church's Book of Hours, it is recited at every Office throughout the day as a Prayer of Confession and Repentance.
In the Roman Catholic Church, this Psalm may be assigned by a Priest to a Penitent as a Penance after Confession. Verse 7 of the Psalm is traditionally sung as the Priest sprinkles Holy Water over the Congregation before Mass, in a Rite known as "The Asperges me", the first two words of the verse in Latin. It also is prayed during Lauds (Morning Prayer) every Friday in the Liturgy of the Hours.
In Orthodox Christianity, Psalm 50 (as numbered in the Septuagint) is used in the Holy Services. It starts, "Gr: (Ἐλεήμων) Ἐλέησόν με, ὁ Θεός", and is specifically recited by the Priest during the Divine Liturgy, when he Censes the Holy Altar and the Iconostasis before the Great Entrance.
Musical Settings.
The "Miserere" was a frequently-used text in CatholicLiturgical Music before Vatican II. Most of the settings, which are often used at Tenebrae, are in a simple falsobordone style. During the Renaissance, many composers wrote settings.
One of the best-known settings of the Miserere is the 17th-Century version by Roman School composer, Gregorio Allegri. According to a famous story, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, aged only fourteen, heard the piece performed once, on 11 April, 1770, and, after going back to his lodging for the night, was able to write out the entire score from memory. He went back a day or two later with his draft to correct some errors. That the final Chorus comprises a ten-part Harmony, underscores the prodigiousness of the young Mozart's musical genius. The piece is also noteworthy in having numerous High Cs in the Treble solos.
Modern composers, who have written notable settings of the Miserere, include Michael Nyman, Arvo Pärt, and James MacMillan. The album "Salvation" (2003), by the group Funeral Mist, included the song "In Manus Tuas", which used verses 3–16 in Latin from Psalm 51. Also, the Antestor song, "Mercy Lord", from the album Martyrium (1994), also cites Psalm 51. The song "White As Snow", by Jon Foreman, from his Winter EP, includes lines from Psalm 51. In the Philippines, the Bukas Palad Music Ministry include their own version of "Miserere" in their album "Christify" (2010).
Egyptian parallels.
Parallels between the Ancient Egyptian ritual text, Opening of the mouth ceremony, and Psalm 50, are pointed out in "Psalm 50 and the 'Opening of the Mouth' Ceremony," by Benjamin Urrutia, Scripta Hierosolymitana: Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, volume 28, pages 222-223 (1982).
The parallels include:
Mention of ritual washing with special herbs (Psalm 51:2,7).
Restoration of broken bones (verse 8).
"O Lord, open Thou my lips" (verse 15).
Sacrifices (verses 16,17, 19).
WASHINGTON D.C., April 9 (CNA/EWTN News) .- A fellow prisoner of war has fondly recalled the heroism of Father Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain who died in a North Korean camp and is posthumously receiving the Medal of Honor April 11.
Eighty-five year-old veteran Mike Dowe still remembers the day in 1950 when he marched nearly 90 miles to the prison camp in Pyoktong after being captured at the battle of Unsan.
“There was this one character who kept going around encouraging people to carry the wounded, and helped in every way he could,” Dowe told CNA.
“Finally they marched us into a valley, and as we started out I was on the front end of a stretcher...and I said 'I'm Mike Dowe, who's that on the back?'”
“He says 'Fr. Kapaun,' and I said 'Fr. Kapaun, I've heard about you,' and he said 'Well don't tell my bishop.' That's how I met him.”
Fr. Kapaun was born in Pilsen, Kansas, to a farming family, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wichita in June, 1940. He became an Army chaplain in 1944, and served through 1946, and then re-joined in 1948. He was sent to Korea in July 1950, where was noted for his service to his compatriots.
The priest was captured by the Chinese in November at Unsan because he was in the habit of going back for the wounded.
“He would run across the fields rescuing the wounded...including sometimes 50-100 yards outside the American lines to drag some kid back,” Roy Wenzl, co-author of “The Miracle of Father Kapaun,” told CNA on April 8.
“At Unsan, he stayed back with the wounded and allowed himself to be captured so he could protect them.”
“He didn't go around witnessing verbally about Catholicism and Christianity much...instead, he'd be on a march with the unit and he'd see guys digging a latrine, and he'd go out and dig with them.”
“It's not like he avoided Christianity; I think he was the finest witness to Christianity I've ever heard of,” Wenzl said, “but what he did, is he first established a relationship with these guys, who were busy doing really dirty work, of helping them, finding ways to help them.”
Wenzl noted that Fr. Kapaun would stay up at nights writing letters to the families of deceased soldiers and writing home on behalf of wounded soldiers.
“He put on a virtual clinic about how to be a leader, and how to be an effective witness for Christianity...there's a shortage of Catholics who behaved like him,” Wenzl observed.
For Wenzl, Fr. Kapaun's witness is a “phenomenal” demonstrating that there are “real Christians” in the world. “If there were more of him, there'd probably be a lot more people in church on Sundays, because that's the way to do it.”
The author said that Fr. Kapaun “treated everybody just the same way he treated the Catholics, and he treated Catholics like loved ones.”
Fr. Kapaun's upbringing on a farm contributed to his ability to help his fellow prisoners at the prison camp at Pyoktong, on the Chinese border. In addition to his spirituality, Fr. Kapaun was the “most practical and resourceful problem-solver,” Wenzl said. These were skills he had learned growing up on a Kansas farm, where he was forced to find creative solutions to challenges presented to him.
Dowe said that the death rate of prisoners in nearby valleys was some ten times that in the valley where he and Fr. Kapaun were held, and so one “can see the kind of effect he had on people.”
“He taught them to maintain their will to live, by teaching them to hold to their beliefs, honor, integrity, and keeping with their conscience, their loyalty to their country and their God.”
A “good majority” of the men who survived Pyoktong “owe their life to Fr. Kapaun,” said Dowe.
The priest was known for celebrating the sacraments for his fellow prisoners – baptizing, hearing confessions, giving extreme unction, and saying Mass.
Fr. Kapaun was also always volunteering to do the most menial and laborious tasks at the camp, said Dowe. Each day he would help to take the frozen corpses of those who had died the preceding night to an island in the Yalu River for burial.
That winter was one of the most brutal in Korean history.
“He would always volunteer for this most heinous detail,” Dowe related. Fr. Kapaun would then bring back some of the dead's clothes, wash them, and distribute them to the people who needed them.
Fr. Kapaun already has been awarded several military honors, but Thursday's presentation of the Medal of Honor to his relatives is the highest military honor in the U.S., and is awarded for bravery.
His cause for canonization is open, and already several cures may have been due to his intercession. When asked if he believes if Fr. Kapaun is in heaven, Dowe responded, “I sure do.”
Fr. Kapaun died May 23, 1951, and was buried in a mass grave on the Yalu river.
“When he was being carried away, they took him to a place, a death house...and left him where they left people to die,” Dowe remembered.
“As he was leaving, I was in tears, and he said to me, 'Mike, don't be sad, I'm going where I always wanted to go, and when I get there I'll be saying a prayer for all of you guys.'”
Permission: This image is in the public domain; PD-US; PD-ART.
(Wikimedia Commons)
There will be a National Pilgrimage in honour of Saint Margaret Clitherow on Saturday, 4 May 2013, in York, England, commencing at 1330 hrs in Saint Wilfrid's Church, York.
For more information, please contact:
The Latin Mass Society, London (Tel: 020 7404 7284 ) www.lms.org.uk
Pilgrims are expected to converge on York, on Saturday 4 May 2013, to pay their respects to Saint Margaret Clitherow, a former resident of York, who was crushed to death rather than deny her Catholic faith. The pilgrimage is being organised by the Latin Mass Society, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of the Mass in its more traditional Latin form.
There will be a Solemn High Mass at Saint Wilfrid's Church, York, at 1.30pm. This will be followed at 3pm by a procession which will pass through The Shambles, where Margaret Clitherow lived, over Ouse Bridge, where she was executed, and finish up at the Church of the English Martyrs in Dalton Terrace, York. Benediction will be given there at around 4pm, followed by Veneration of the Relic of Margaret Clitherow, which is normally kept at the Bar Convent.
Margaret Clitherow, who is often referred to as the "Pearl of York", converted to Catholicism at the age of 18. She would also have been familiar with the Latin Mass, in its traditional form, as she harboured Priests at her home in The Shambles, where Mass was regularly said in that form. Indeed, it was for harbouring Priests that she was arrested and put to death in 1586 by crushing under a great weight of stones.
The Mass, on 4 May 2013, will have Liturgical Music provided by the Rudgate Singers www.rudgatesingers.co.uk
The Mass will be open to all, regardless of religious denomination, and no tickets are required. Similarly, it is hoped that the public will join in the Procession and attend Benediction at English Martyrs’ Church at 4p.m.
NOTES FOR EDITORS.
Information about the Latin Mass Society can be found at www.lms.org.uk It is a Catholic organisation dedicated to the promotion of the Latin Mass in the form used universally by the Church prior to 1970. It is active throughout England and Wales.
Information about Saint Margaret Clitherow can be found on the internet on a Wikipedia site.
