Gougane Barra (Irish: Guagán Barra, meaning "the rock of Barra") is a settlement, West of Macroom in County Cork, Ireland.
The name Gougane Barra comes from Saint Finbarr, who is said to have built a Monastery, on an island in the lake, during the 6th-Century. The present ruins date from around 1700, when a Priest, called Denis O'Mahony, Retreated to the island.
During the times of the Penal Laws, Gougane Barra's remoteness meant that it became a popular place for the celebration of the Roman CatholicMass. The 19th-Century Oratory, which stands near the original Monastery, is famous for its picturesque location, and richly decorated interior, and is a popular place for weddings.
Saint Finbarr's Oratory, Gougane Barra, West Cork.
Part of a Monastery founded by Saint Finbarr in the 6th-Century,
It is a popular pilgrimage destination, with pilgrims coming to Pray a 'Round' of Prayers, described in a 'tablet' at the entrance to the island. This 'Round' includes Prayers at a series of stone cells, in a small walled court, as well as the Oratory. There is a hotel near the Oratory, with a coffee shop and a gift shop.
Afforestation of the area, around the settlement, began in 1938, and Gougane Barra is now home to a 1.42 square kilometre (or 138 hectare) forest park, with 20 different species of tree, mainly Sitka Spruce, Japanese Larch, Scots Pine and Lodgepole pine, and a large number of native species of flora and fauna. The source of the River Lee rises in the hills above the park and flows into Gougane Lake. The forest park has 5km of motor trail and 10km of hill walks, nature points and vista trails.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal. Feast Day 22 August. Double of the Second-Class. White Vestments.
The Blessed Virgin Mary.
According to a tradition, sanctioned by authority, it was at Jerusalem, near the room of the Last Supper, at the spot where now stands a Church committed to the care of the Benedictines, that Mary breathed her last (Secret).
And it is at the foot of the Mount of Olives, in a place where, about 1130, a Monastery of the Benedictine Monks of Cluny was built, that her mortal remains were laid and "she was carried up to Heaven" (Alleluia).
The pilgrimages made to this tomb originated the Feast of the Assumption, which was already solemnised in the East at the end of the 6th-Century. At the beginning of the 7th-Century, the Feast was also solemnised at Rome, and it spread with the Roman Liturgy over the whole West.
Pope Leo IV instituted the Octave in 847 A.D.
"We have accompanied thee with all our Prayers, when thou didst ascend towards thy Son," says Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, "and we have at least followed thee at a distance, O Blessed Virgin ! May thy goodness make known to the world the Grace bestowed on thee by God: Obtain by thy Holy Prayers, the forgiveness of the guilty, health for the sick, strength for weak Souls, consolation for the afflicted, help and deliverance for those in peril.
O Mary, Queen of Clemency, on this joyful Solemnity, may thy humble servants, who praise and invoke thy sweet name, be overwhelmed with Graces by Jesus Christ thy Son, Our Lord, who is the Sovereign God, Blessed throughout the ages. Amen." [Fifth and Sixth Lessons at Matins.]
Let us honour Mary with special confidence during these Feasts which celebrate her triumph.
The Central Portal is a more conventional representation of the End of Time, as described in the Book of Revelation. In the centre of the Tympanum, is Christ within a mandorla, surrounded by the four symbols of the Evangelists (the Tetramorph). The Lintel shows the Twelve Apostles, while the Archivolts show the twenty-four Elders of the Apocalypse.
Although the upper parts of the three Portals are treated separately, two sculptural elements run horizontally across the Façade, uniting its different parts. Most obvious are the jamb Statues, affixed to the Columns flanking the Doorways – tall, slender, standing figures of Kings and Queens, from whom the Portail Royal derived its name.
Although, in the 18th- and 19th-Century, these figures were mistakenly identified as the Merovingian Monarchs of France (thus attracting the opprobrium of Revolutionary iconoclasts), they almost certainly represent the Kings and Queens of the Old Testament – another standard iconographic feature of Gothic Portals.
Less obvious than the jamb Statues, but far more intricately carved, is the Frieze that stretches all across the Façade in the sculpted Capitals on top of the jamb Columns. Carved into these Capitals is a very lengthy narrative depicting the Life of The Virgin and the Life and Passion of Christ.
The Te Deum.
As per the recent Post on Rievaulx Abbey,
Zephyrinus respectfully suggests listening to
this YouTube offering, whilst perusing the
photographs, herewith, of Chartres Cathedral.
Be aware that this Te Deum would have been sung on
many occasions at Chartres Cathedral over the centuries.
In Northern Europe, it is common for the iconography on the North Side of a Church to focus on Old Testament themes, with stories from the Lives of the Saints and the Gospels being more prominent on the physically (and, hence, spiritually) brighter Southern Side. Chartres is no exception to this general principle and the North Transept Portals, with their deep sheltering Porches, concentrate on the precursors of Christ, leading up to the moment of his Incarnation, with a particular emphasis on The Virgin Mary.
The overall iconographic themes are clearly laid-out; the veneration of Mary in the centre, the Incarnation of Her Son on the left and Old Testament pre-figurations and prophecies on the right. One major exception to this scheme is the presence of large Statues of Saint Modesta (a local Martyr) and Saint Potentian on the North-West corner of the Porch, close to a small doorway where Pilgrims, visiting the Crypt (where the Relics were stored), would once have emerged, blinking into the light.
English: Gothic Statues in the Portail Royal.
Français: Portail central du porche occidental de la cathédrale de Chartres.
As well as the main sculptural areas around the Portals, the deep Porches are filled with myriad other carvings, depicting a range of subjects, including local Saints, Old Testament narratives, naturalistic foliage, fantastical beasts, Labours of the Months and personifications of the 'active and contemplative lives' (the vita activa and vita contemplativa). The personifications of the vita activa (directly overhead, just inside the left-hand Porch) are of particular interest, for their meticulous depictions of the various stages in the preparation of flax – an important cash-crop in the area during the Middle Ages.
If the North Transept Portals are all about the time leading up to Christ's Incarnation, and the West Façade is about the events of His life and Passion, then the iconography of the South Transept Portals addresses the time from Christ's death until His Second Coming. The Central Portal concentrates on the Last Judgement and the Apostles, the Left Portal on the Lives of Martyrs, and the Right Portal on Confessor Saints (an arrangement also reflected in the windows of the Apse).
Just like their Northern counterparts, the South Transept Portals open into deep Porches, which greatly extend the space available for sculptural embellishment. A large number of subsidiary scenes depict conventional themes, like the Labours of the Months and the Signs of the Zodiac, personifications of the Virtues and Vices, and, also, further scenes from the Lives of the Martyrs (Left Porch) and Confessors (Right Porch).
In the Middle Ages, the Cathedral also functioned as an important Cathedral School. In the Early-11th-Century, Bishop Fulbert established Chartres as one of the leading Schools in Europe. Although the role of Fulbert, as a scholar and teacher, has been questioned, perhaps his greatest talent was as an administrator, who established the conditions in which the School could flourish, as well as laying the foundations for the rebuilding of the Cathedral after the fire of 1020.
Français: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France.
La chapelle Saint Cœur de Marie.
English: Chartres Cathedral, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France.
Great scholars were attracted to the Cathedral School, including Thierry of Chartres, William of Conches, and the Englishman, John of Salisbury. These men were at the forefront of the intense intellectual rethinking, that culminated in what is now known as the 12th-Century Renaissance, pioneering the Scholastic philosophy that came to dominate Mediaeval thinking throughout Europe.
By the Early-12th-Century, the status of the School of Chartres was on the wane. It was gradually eclipsed by the newly-emerging University of Paris, particularly at the School of the Abbey of Saint Victoire (the 'Victorines'). By the middle of the century, the importance of Chartres Cathedral had begun to shift away from education and towards pilgrimage, a changing emphasis reflected in the subsequent architectural developments.
Orson Welles famously used Chartres as a visual backdrop and inspiration for a montage sequence in his film, F For Fake. Welles’ semi-autobiographical narration spoke to the power of art in culture and how the work may be more important than the identity of its creators.
Feeling that the beauty of Chartres, and its unknown artisans and architects, epitomised this sentiment, Welles, standing outside the Cathedral and looking at it, eulogises: "Now this has been standing here for centuries. The premier work of man perhaps in the whole Western World and it’s without a signature: Chartres.
"A celebration to God’s glory and to the dignity of man. All that’s left, most artists seem to feel these days, is man. Naked, poor, forked, radish. There aren't any celebrations. Ours, the scientists keep telling us, is a universe, which is disposable. You know it might be just this one anonymous glory of all things, this rich stone forest, this epic chant, this gaiety, this grand choiring shout of affirmation, which we choose when all our cities are dust, to stand intact, to mark where we have been, to testify to what we had in us, to accomplish.
English: Chartres Cathedral at night.
Français: France Eure-et-Loir Chartres Cathédrale vue nocturne.
"Our works in stone, in paint, in print are spared, some of them for a few decades, or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash. The triumphs and the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life. We’re going to die. “Be of good heart,” cry the dead artists out of the living past. Our songs will all be silenced – but what of it? Go on singing. Maybe a man’s name doesn't matter all that much". (Church bells peal . . .)
Joseph Campbell references his spiritual experience in The Power of Myth: "I'm back in the Middle Ages. I'm back in the world that I was brought up in as a child, the Roman Catholic spiritual-image world, and it is magnificent . . . That Cathedral talks to me about the spiritual information of the world. It's a place for meditation, just walking around, just sitting, just looking at those beautiful things".
English: Chartres Cathedral against the sun.
Français: coucher de soleil sur la cathedrale de Chartres.
Joris-Karl Huysmans includes detailed interpretation of the symbolism underlying the art of Chartres Cathedral in his 1898 semi-autobiographical novel, La cathédrale.
Chartres was the primary basis for the fictional Cathedral in David Macaulay's "Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction", and the animated special based on this book.
Chartres was a major character in the religious thriller, "Gospel Truths", by J. G. Sandom. The book used the Cathedral's Architecture and History as clues in the search for a lost Gospel.
The Cathedral is featured in the television travel series, "The Naked Pilgrim"; presenter Brian Sewell explores the Cathedral and discusses its famous relic – the Nativity Cloak, said to have been worn by The Virgin Mary.
Popular action-adventure video game "Assassin's Creed" features a climbable Cathedral modelled heavily on Chartres Cathedral.
One of the attractions at Chartres Cathedral is the Chartres Light Celebration, when, not only is the Cathedral lit, but so are many buildings throughout the town, as a celebration of electrification.
Tomás Luis de Victoria, sometimes "Italianised" as "da Vittoria" (circa 1548 – 1611), was the most famous composer of the 16th-Century in Spain, and one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.
Victoria was not only a composer, but also an accomplished organist and singer as well as a CatholicPriest. However, he preferred the life of a composer to that of a performer. He is sometimes known as the "Spanish Palestrina", because he may have been taught by Palestrina.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Double of the First-Class with a Common Octave. White Vestments.
On this Feast, the most ancient (6th-Century) and solemn of the Cycle of Mary, the Church invites all her children in the Catholic world to unite their joy (Introit) and their gratitude (Preface) with those of the Angels, who praise the Son of God because of that day His Mother, bodily and spiritually, entered Heaven (Alleluia).
Admitted to the enjoyment of the delights of eternal contemplation, She chose at the feet of the Master the better part, which shall not be taken away from Her (Gospel, Communion).
The Gospel of the Vigil was, indeed, formerly read after today's Gospel, in order to show that the Mother of Christ is happy among all others, because, better than all others, "She listened to the Word of God". This word, the Word, the Divine Wisdom which, under the Old Law, dwelt among the people of Israel (Epistle), dwelt in Mary, under the New Law.
On the Una Voce Of Orange County Web-Site, all Text and Illustrations are taken from the Saint Andrew's Daily Missal, 1952 edition, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press.
The Word became Incarnate in the womb of The Virgin, and now, amid the splendour of the Heavenly Sion, He fills Her with the delights of the Beatific Vision.
The Church on Earth, like Martha, has to care for the necessities of this present life, but she also, like her, invokes the help of Mary (Collect, Secret, Postcommunion).
A Procession has always been a part of the Feast of the Assumption. At Jerusalem, it was formed by the numerous Pilgrims who came to Pray at the tomb of the Blessed Virgin and who, thus, contributed to the institution of this Solemnity.
The Clergy of Constantinople also held a Procession on the Feast of the Rest, or Assumption, of Mary. At Rome, from the 7th-Century to the 16th-Century, the Papal Cortege, in which the representatives of the Senate and people took part, went on this day from the Church of Saint John Lateran to that of Saint Mary Major. This ceremony was called the Litany.
[On this occasion, they used to recite over the people, assembled for the Procession, the Collect for Assumption Day, which is first in the Sacramentary and mentions this Mystery, whilst our Collect of the Mass on 15 August was only the Second Collect and has no direct relation to the Feast.
This is the First Collect: "It is our duty to honour the Solemnity of this day, O Lord; the Holy Mother of God did, indeed, suffer temporal death, although the bonds of this death could not hold back Her, whose flesh formed the Body of Thy Son, Our Lord who liveth and reigneth . . ."]
The Introit for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gaudeámus omnes in Dómino . . . (Let us all rejoice in the Lord, . . .) is that of the Feast of Saint Agatha (5 February).
From the 11th-Century, this Introit was also used in seven other Masses which are in the Missal, among which are 15 August (today's Feast) and 1 November (Feast of All Saints).
The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for
The Vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Violet Vestments.
The Epistle is "Ego quasi vitis" ["As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches"] (taken from The Book of Wisdom) from the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16 July).
Christ, after having lain for only three days in the tomb, rose again and ascended into Heaven.
Likewise, the death of The Virgin resembled, rather, a short sleep. Hence, it was called "Dormitio" (Dormition), and before corruption could defile Her body.
God restored Her to life and Glorified Her in Heaven.
These three privileges are celebrated by the Feast of the Assumption, which follows logically from the privilege of the Immaculate Conception and the privilege of the Mystery of the Incarnation.
For sin never having defiled the Soul of Mary, it was right that Her body, in which the Word had become Incarnate, should not be tainted by the corruption of the tomb.
Rievaulx Abbey was founded in 1132 by twelve Monks from Clairvaux Abbey, France, as a Mission for the colonisation of the North of England and Scotland. It was the first Cistercian Abbey in the North. With time, it became one of the great Cistercian Abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.
The remote location was ideal for the Cistercians, whose desire was to follow a strict life of Prayer and self-sufficiency, with little contact with the outside world. The Patron, Walter Espec, settled another Cistercian community, founding Wardon Abbey, in Bedfordshire, on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited estates.
The following Italic Text is from the Video on YouTube.
Monks of one of the Abbeys of the Solesmes Congregation sing this beautiful Chant.
The Te Deum is attributed to two Fathers and Doctors of the Church, Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, and is one the most majestic Chants in the Liturgy of the Church.
It is sung in Traditional Seminaries and Monastic Houses at the Divine Office and for Double Feasts of the First Class, The Nativity, Easter, Corpus Christi, Epiphany, Pentecost and those Feasts which have an Octave.
The Solemn Te Deum is sung on all occasions of public Church rejoicing (in Traditional Catholic Churches).
The Abbey lies in a wooded dale, by the River Rye, sheltered by hills. To have enough flat land to build on, a small part of the river was diverted several metres West of its former channel. The Monks altered the course of the river three times during the 12th-Century.
The old course of the river is visible in the Abbey's grounds. This is one illustration of the technical ingenuity of the Monks, who, over time, built up a very profitable business mining lead and iron, rearing sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe.
Rievaulx Abbey became one of the greatest and wealthiest Abbeys in England, with 140 Monks and many more Lay Brothers, receiving grants of land totalling 6,000 acres (24 km²) and establishing Daughter Houses in England and Scotland.
Towards the end of the 13th-Century, the Abbey had incurred a great deal of debt with its building projects and lost revenue, due to an epidemic of sheep scab (psoroptic mange). This ill fortune was compounded by Scottish raids in the Early-14th-Century. To make matters worse the decimation of the population caused by the Black Death, in the Mid-14th-Century, made it difficult to recruit new Lay Brothers for manual labour. As a result, the Abbey was forced to lease much of its land. By 1381, there were only fourteen Choir Monks, three Lay Brothers and the Abbot left at Rievaulx, and some buildings were reduced in size.
By the 15th-Century, the original Cistercian practices of strict observance, according to Saint Benedict's rule, had been abandoned in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle. It was then permitted to eat meat and more private living accommodation was created for the Monks, and the Abbot now had a substantial private household.
The Abbey was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1538. At that time there were said to be seventy-two buildings occupied by an Abbot and twenty-one Monks, attended by 102 servants, with an income of £351 a year. It also had a prototype blast furnace at Laskill, producing cast iron as efficiently as a modern blast furnace; according to Gerry McDonnell (archeo-metallurgist of the University of Bradford), the closure of Rievaulx delayed the Industrial Revolution for two-and-a-half centuries.
Henry VIII ordered the buildings to be rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead. The Abbey site was granted to the Earl of Rutland, one of Henry's advisers, until it passed to the Duncombe family.
Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.
English: The Church, the Bride of Christ and Mother of the Faithful in Baptism. Illustration to Scivias II.3, fol. 51r from the 20th-Century facsimile of the Rupertsberg Manuscript, circa 1165-1180.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B., (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis) (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, BenedictineAbbess, visionary, and polymath.
Elected a magistraby her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the Monasteries of Rupertsberg, in 1150, and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of Liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.
She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, Liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising brilliant miniature illuminations.
Although the history of her formal recognition as a Saint is complicated, she has been recognised as a Saint by parts of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.
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![Photo: APOLOGETICS AGAINST ATHEISM
Saint Thomas Aquinas...
>>Article 3. Whether God exists? [...] I answer that, The existence of God can be proved in five ways...
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm
Venerable Pope Pius XII...
>>The Proofs For The Existence Of God In The Light Of Modern Natural Science...
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12EXIST.HTM
Father Robert Spitzer...
>>>Proofs Of Jesus' Existence 2000 Years Ago...
http://magischristwiki.org/index.php?title=Why_Believe_in_Jesus%3F
Father Robert Spitzer...
>>>Proofs Of The Existence of God...
http://magisgodwiki.org/index.php?title=Why_Believe_in_God%3F](https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1013299_10151549818786814_1380416785_n.jpg)
