The "Te Deum" (also known as The Ambrosian Hymn or A Song of The Church) is an Early-ChristianHymn of Praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, "Te Deum laudamus",
rendered as "Thee, O God, We Praise".
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 (Editor: Such as The Feast of All Saints), 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 temple of Agrippa was dedicated, under Augustus, to all the pagan gods, hence its name of "Pantheon". Under Emperor Phocas, between 607 A.D. and 610 A.D., Pope Boniface IV Translated hither numerous remains of Martyrs taken from The Catacombs.
On 13 May 610 A.D., he Dedicated this new Christian Basilica to Saint Mary and The Martyrs. The Feast of this Dedication later took a more Universal character, and the temple was Consecrated to Saint Mary And All The Saints.
As there was already a Feast in Commemoration of All The Saints, Celebrated at first on various dates in various Churches, then fixed by Pope Gregory IV in 835 A.D., on 1 November, Pope Gregory VII transferred to this date the Anniversary of The Dedication of the Pantheon as a Church. The Feast of All Saints, therefore, recalls The Triumph of Christ over the false pagan deities. In this Church is held The Station on The Friday in The Octave of Easter.
As The Saints, Commemorated during the first three Centuries of The Church were Martyrs, and the Pantheon was at first Dedicated by The Church to them, The Mass of All Saints is made up of extracts from The Liturgy of Martyrs. The Introit is that of The Mass of Saint Agatha, used later for other Feasts; the Gospel, Offertory and Communion are taken from The Common of Martyrs.
The Church gives us on this day a wonderful vision of Heaven, showing us, with Saint John, the twelve thousand signed (twelve is considered a perfect number) of each tribe of Israel, and a great multitude, which no-one can count, of every nation and tribe, of every people and tongue, standing before the Throne and before The Lamb, clothed in White Robes and with Palms in their hands (Epistle).
Christ and Our Lady; The Blessed Battalions distributed in Nine Choirs; The Apostles and Prophets; The Martyrs, crimsoned in their blood; The Confessors, adorned in White Garments; and the chaste Choir of Virgins, form, as The Hymn of Vespers sings, The Majestic Court.
It is composed of all those, who, here below, were detached from Worldly riches, Gentle, Suffering, Just, Merciful, Pure, Peaceful, and Persecuted for The Name of Jesus. "Rejoice," The Master had foretold them, "for a great reward is prepared for you in Heaven" (Gospel, Communion).
Among those millions of The Just, who were faithful Disciples of Jesus, on Earth, are several of our own family, relations, friends, members of our Parochial Family, now enjoying the fruit of their Piety, adoring The Lord, King of Kings, and Crown of All Saints (Invitatory at Matins) and obtaining for us the wished-for abundance of His mercies (Collect).
Every Parish Priest Celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
[Editor: The following two paragraphs are taken from "The Liturgical Year",
by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.]
FIRST VESPERS FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS.
The Bells ring out as joyously as on the brightest days. They announce The Great Solemnity of the closing Cycle: The Feast which shows us time stamped with the impress of Eternity, and God taking possession of the declining year and gathering in its harvest.
At the sound of their triumphant and harmonious peals, The Church, prostrate and Fasting since morning, raises her brow to the light. Guided by Saint John, she penetrates The Secrets of Heaven; and the words of The Beloved Disciple, uttered by her lips, assume a tone of incomparable enthusiasm. This Feast is truly The Triumph of her motherhood; for the great crowd of The Blessed, before The Throne of The Lamb, are the sons and daughters she alone has given to The Lord.
Psalm CIX: Dixit Dominus.
This is one of The Messianic Psalms. The Messias sits at The Right Hand of The Father. He is
The Son of God, The Priest of The Most High, The King Triumphant.
Psalm CX: Confitebor Tibi.
The Prophet sings The Wonders worked by God for His people during The Exit from Egypt
and at Mount Sinai. This is a figure of what God does for The Church.
Psalm CXI: Beatus Vir.
The Just Man is happy because he follows The Commandments of God;
great will be his reward in Heaven.
Psalm CXII: Laudate Pueri.
This Psalm is the beginning of the Hallel, which the Jews sang
especially at Easter, while eating the Paschal Lamb.
Psalm CXVI: Laudate Dominum.
The Power of God has been made manifest: Ours the duty of praising it.
The All-Night Vigil (Russian: Всенощное бдение, Vsenoshchnoe bdenie), Opus 37, is an a cappella choral composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff, written and premiered in 1915. It consists of settings of Texts taken from The Russian Orthodox All-Night Vigil Ceremony.
It has been praised as Rachmaninoff's finest achievement and "the greatest musical achievement of The Russian Orthodox Church". It was one of Rachmaninoff's two favourite compositions, along with The Bells, and the composer requested that one of its movements (the fifth) be sung at his funeral. The title of the work is often translated as simply "Vespers", which is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work: only the first six of its fifteen movements set Texts from The Russian Orthodox Canonical Hour of Vespers.
Chapter: Apocalypse vii. 2-3.
Behold, I, John, saw another Angel ascending from the rising of the Sun, having the sign of The Living God; and he cried with a loud voice to The Four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea, saying: Hurt not the Earth, neither the Sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Hymn (Eighth Tone).
Rabanus Maurus, Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop of Mayence, is supposed to be the author of the following Hymn. The perfidious nation, whose expulsion from Christian lands is Prayed for, was, in the 9th-Century A.D., the Race of infidel Normans, who filled the empire with slaughter and ruin under Charlemagne's weak successors. The striking Conversion of these savage destroyers was the answer of The Saints. May they ever hear The Church's Prayers in a like manner, enlighten those who persecute her without knowing her, and make of them her firmest supporters. [Editor: This paragraph is taken from The Liturgical Year, by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.]
The most illustrious Martyrs had at Rome, from the 4th-Century A.D., their Basilicas, where was Celebrated each Year the Anniversary of their death, or, rather, their birth in Heaven.
At that time, a number of Masses were prescribed without any fixed day in honour of those who had no public recognition. When, later, the names of Saints, who were not Martyrs, were introduced into The Ecclesiastical Calendar, a more Universal character was given to such Masses.
It is thus that, in the 8th-Century A.D., The Gregorian Sacramentary indicates among The Common Masses without a date: The Mass in Honour of All Saints.
Fixed in the following Century on 1 November, it became The Mass of All Saints' Day, for which we are this day prepared by a Vigil.
This explains why the Mass of The Vigil, as well as that of The Feast, contains extracts from The Masses of The Common of Martyrs.
The Vigil of All Saints is of Simple Rite and its Liturgical Colour is Violet. As with all Simple Rite Vigils, The Office runs from Mattins to None.
At Mattins, The Invitatory, Hymn, Antiphons, Psalms, Versicle and Response are from The Psalter for Friday. The Lessons, Proper to The Vigil, in The Nocturn, are a Homily of Saint Ambrose from The Common of Several Martyrs.
The Responsories are from The Friday of The Fifth Week of October. The Te Deum is not sung. The Second Scheme of Lauds for Friday is sung with Psalms 50, 142, 84, Domine, audivi auditionem tuam, and 147.
The Office Hymn is Aeterna caeli gloria. After the Antiphon on the Benedictus has been repeated, the Ferial Preces are sung, with the Choir kneeling. After The Collect of The Vigil, The Suffrage of The Saints is omitted (c.f. pre-1911-13 praxis when The Suffrages were sung).
At Prime, the Psalm displaced from Lauds by The Miserere is added to The Psalmody of The Day: Pss. 21(i), 21(ii), 21(iii), and 98. Both The Dominical and Ferial Preces are sung, with the Choir kneeling. At the other Hours, the short series of Ferial Preces are sung, again with the Choir kneeling, before The Collect of The Vigil.
Mass is sung after None. Following the normal rules for Vigils, four Candles are placed on the Altar, in contrast with two on ordinary Ferial Days. The Deacon and Sub-Deacon wear Violet Dalmatic and Tunicle, not Folded Chasubles. The Ferial Tone is used for The Orations and for The Preface and Pater Noster.
There is no Gloria. The Second Collect is of The Holy Ghost, Deus, qui corda, The Third Collect is Ecclesiae. As it is a 'Kneeling Day', the Choir kneels for the Prayers and from the Sanctus until Pax Domini. As the Gloria is not sung, the dismissal is Benedicamus Domino.
Vespers are First Vespers of The Feast of All Saints, with a corresponding colour change to Festive White. The Office is Proper and the Antiphons Vidi turbam magnam, etc, are sung, Doubled, with Pss. 109, 110, 111, 112 and 116. The Office Hymn is Placare, Christe, servulis. At Compline, The Dominical Psalms are sung.
In the 'Liturgical Books of 1962', The Vigil of All Saints has been abolished. Today is kept as a
IV Class Ferial 'Green' Day. Mass is of Pentecost XX, there is a single Collect. Although the Gloria is not sung, Ite missa est is the dismissal.
Ushaw College was affiliated with The University of Durham from 1968 and was the principal Roman CatholicSeminary for the training of Catholic Priests in the North of England, finally closing in 2011 due to the shortage of Vocations. The buildings and grounds are now maintained by a Charitable Trust.
Solemn High Requiem Mass,
Saint Cuthbert's Chapel,
Ushaw College,
Ushaw, County Durham,
England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Zephyrinus.
Solemn High Requiem Mass,
Saint Cuthbert's Chapel,
Ushaw College,
Ushaw, County Durham,
England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Zephyrinus.
Dawn Mass in
The English Martyrs Side-Chapel.
Ushaw College,
Ushaw, County Durham,
England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Zephyrinus.
Saint Cuthbert's Chapel.
A perfect setting for
Celebration of The Divine Mass.
Ushaw College,
Ushaw, County Durham,
England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Zephyrinus.
Saint Cuthbert's Chapel.
A perfect setting for
Celebration of The Divine Mass.
Please God, one day this Chapel will be a regular Mass Setting, again.
During the height of Ushaw Seminary in the 1960s,
over 400 Seminarians would attend Daily Divine Mass in this Chapel.
Current location: Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium.
Notes: Auftraggeber: Joducus und Isabelle Vyd, urspr. für die Johannes dem Täufer gewidmete Seitenkapelle in St.-Bavo in Gent, Wandelaltar, in Zusammenarbeit mit Jan van Eyck entstanden.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002.
ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Insignia of The Vendean Insurgents (Royalist Insurgents), during the War in Vendée, 1793, who fought against Suppression of The Church in The French Revolution. Note the French words
" Dieu Le Roi ", beneath the Heart-and-Cross, meaning " God The King ".
(Wikimedia Commons)
In his Encyclical of 11 December 1925, His Holiness Pope Pius XI denounced the great modern Heresy of Laicism. This Heresy refuses to recognise The Rights of God and His Christ, over persons and peoples, and organises the lives of individuals, families, and of Society itself, as though God did not exist.
This Laicism ruins Society, because, in place of The Love of God and one's neighbour, it substitutes pride and egoism. It begets jealousy between individuals, hatred between classes and rivalry between nations.
The World denies Christ, because it ignores His Royal Prerogatives. The World must be instructed on this subject. Now, "a yearly Feast can attain this end, more effectively than the weightiest documents issued by Ecclesiastical authority".
The Holy Father has instituted this new Feast to be a public, social, and official declaration of The Royal Rights of Jesus, as God The Creator, as The Word Incarnate, and as Redeemer.
This Feast makes these Rights to be known and recognised, in a way most suitable to Man and to Society by the Sublimest Acts of Religion - particularly by Holy Mass.
In fact, the end of The Holy Sacrifice is the acknowledgement of God's complete Dominion over us, and our complete dependence on Him.
And this Act is accomplished, not only on Calvary, but also through The Royal Priesthood of Jesus, which never ceases in His Kingdom, which is Heaven. The great reality of Christianity is not a corpse hanging from a Cross, but The Risen Christ Reigning in all the Glory of His Triumph in the midst of His Elect, who are His Conquest (Epistle).
And that is why The Mass begins with the finest vision of The Apocalypse, where The Lamb of God is acclaimed by Angels and Saints (Introit).
The Holy Father has expressed his wish that this Feast should be celebrated towards the end of The Liturgical Year, on The Last Sunday of October, as The Consummation of all The Mysteries by which Jesus has established His Royal Powers and nearly on the Eve of All Saints, where He already realises them in part, in being "The King of Kings and The Crown of All Saints " (Invitatory at Matins); until He shall be The Crown of all those on Earth whom He saves, especially by The Mass.
It is, indeed, principally by The Eucharist, which is both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament, that Christ, now in Glory, assures the results of the Victorious Sacrifice of Calvary, by taking possession of Souls through the application of the Merits of His Passion (Secret) and thereby unites them as Members to their Head.
The end of The Eucharist, says the Catechism of The Council of Trent, is "to form one sole Mystic Body of all The Faithful" and so to draw them in the cult, which Christ, King-Adorer, as Priest and Victim, rendered in a bloody manner on The Cross and now renders, in an un-bloody manner, on the Stone Altar of our Churches and on the Golden Altar in Heaven, to Christ, King-Adored, as Son of God, and to His Father, to Whom He offers these Souls (Preface).
Mass:Dignus est Agnus. Commmemoration:Of the occurring Sunday.
