tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33485235197881887532024-03-12T19:36:44.678-05:00The Rad TradThe Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.comBlogger1279125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-34216551094693484042021-12-11T00:00:00.007-06:002021-12-11T00:00:00.236-06:00No Finer Time for Hope<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb_yGHan8w3HhUS3Y3yUwT0hUDawjCwDiymnoMvRWLJ-EUCTVgxXW-G5wqBORGf-vIkowRiD855n7r6iQMQCI0ie_RULrcv4S41XMB9pd4F9Vpns5Mtr4AqipTuZzyaPTBjlLZe2itpBt1QOttBvyIRUjK_ABlN80UoovfY7Da8pUdR-LKUyOI0zCv=s1765" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Demolished bunker of Adlerhorst in Germany." border="0" data-original-height="1182" data-original-width="1765" height="429" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb_yGHan8w3HhUS3Y3yUwT0hUDawjCwDiymnoMvRWLJ-EUCTVgxXW-G5wqBORGf-vIkowRiD855n7r6iQMQCI0ie_RULrcv4S41XMB9pd4F9Vpns5Mtr4AqipTuZzyaPTBjlLZe2itpBt1QOttBvyIRUjK_ABlN80UoovfY7Da8pUdR-LKUyOI0zCv=w640-h429" title="Demolished bunker of Adlerhorst in Germany." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Demolished bunker of Adlerhorst in Germany.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Austin Ruse, president of the Center for Family and Human Rights and frequent writer of inflammatory truths, recently wrote a short but impassioned book called <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Under-Siege-Finer-Faithful-Catholic/dp/1644130343/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=under+siege+ruse&qid=1626220282&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Under Siege: No Finer Time to Be a Faithful Catholic</a></i>. The book is an expansion of a talk he has given for many years (linked below) about the terrible yet promising times in which we live. He dives more deeply into the moral disorders of our age than most would be comfortable with, to the extent that the reader is left vascillating between fear and anger. The fear is perhaps not so much for the adult reader himself but for his children and the monsters who see all children as prey.</p><p>The links between the degeneracy of the secular world and the moral turpitude within the Church's clergy are not lost on Ruse—although his focus is on worldly philosophies, and he has a massive blind spot when it comes to the responsibility John Paul II bore for the spread of clerical abuse. His survey of the moral landscape could go on much longer than it does, but he keeps it short lest it undermine his fundamental message of hope.</p><p>"There are halos," he writes repeatedly, as if making it a mantra, "hanging from the lowest branches of the trees." Ruse's litany of modern-day saints and martyrs is itself worth the price of admission, but also his deliberation on the opportunities for Catholics to engage with the Devil's army. Ruse himself works with the United Nations and has tangible victories against creeping secularism, but he has advice for those who live in real fear of losing their livelihoods or even their families. His three-tiered recommendation for how to engage ("Quiet and Privately," "Flying the Flag," and "Charging the Sniper's Nest") are intriguing and practical. "Heroes are those who confront evil and charge the sniper's nest. That is the situation we are in," he writes in the introduction.</p><p>Rod Dreher stands out as Mr. Ruse's main vector of divergence. Dreher evinces an attitude of apocalyptic retreat into bunkers that cannot actually hide any target from the military drones of the demonic elite. He sees the end of the world around every corner, and sees the duty of the Christian in such a scenario to run and huddle with the like-minded. For Ruse this is the coward's way out, and he believes that Dreher is a man broken by looking into the abyss one too many times without finding a way to fight back. Traditionalism-as-Nostalgia and unrealistic Monarchist movements are similar targets of Ruse's disdain within the Catholic sphere.</p><p>Hope is not just about the hope of one's eventual salvation. It is also the hope that our work here on earth will not all be in vain, the hope that we can effect real change or at least set the stage for our children to play their part, and the hope that even grave sinners can become fellow sons of God. When we lose hope, we lose our spirit and we have no courses of action left to us but retreat and despair.</p><p>There are different forms of retreat. Some stay faithful to the Church but retreat from the world, and not to do battle with the Devil in the desert. Too many are so broken by the evil they cannot deny within the Church that they retreat even from God. They feel like it is fruitless to point out the scandals and call for change, because the bishops and priests are habituated to ignoring every accusation that does not threaten a lawsuit. Apostasy is a very real problem for Catholics, and it doesn't only affect traditionalist commentators who suffered repeated trauma at the hands of "conservative" clerics. Average lay Catholics have their hearts turned from the faith of their fathers when false friends demand pity for perversion, when it becomes far easier to join the mob than to stand firm at the foot of the Cross.</p><p>Our enemies have us surrounded, Ruse says, and that is exactly where we want them.</p><p>What other religion could make such a claim? Blessed are we when we are persecuted for Christ's sake. God's strength is made manifest in weakness. Wisdom is the mother of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.</p><p>We do not have the luxury of whining about our battle scars; let them simply be our glory in Heaven. There is no last homely house east of the sea in which we may make retreat and be rejuvenated in peace. The enemy is here, and the hill on which we decide to die may be already below our feet. Do not look to the cowards, to the quitters who abandon their fellow soldiers in time of need. (Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.) Leave them to the terrors of their own consciences. There is work to be done.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KYvD60oH3D0" width="320" youtube-src-id="KYvD60oH3D0"></iframe></div><p><br /></p>J.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04821093432726247774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-81165235479450628242021-10-21T00:00:00.025-05:002021-10-21T00:00:00.264-05:00James the Brother of Jesus, Davidic King<p>The perennial debate about the "Brethren of the Lord," so found in the Gospels of Sts. Matthew and Mark, is a sticking point between orthodox Christians and those who deny the perpetual virginity of Mary. The usual Counter-Reformation apologetic against heretics was to argue that the word "brother" had a wide usage among the Hebrews and could easily be the equivalent of "cousin." All this is true enough, but it makes light of the earliest traditions of St. Joseph as a widower and a father by his earlier marriage. The Fathers had little problem with the idea that Christ had step-brothers and step-sisters, many of whom arrived at one of his gatherings to embarrass themselves when they demanded his attention (Matt. 12).</p><p>St. James is easily the most contentious of these figures, and Catholic theologians today tend to collapse "James the son of Alphaeus" (Matt. 10) and "James the Lord's brother" (Gal. 1) into one person, the same James recorded by Josephus and Eusebius as being the bishop of Jerusalem who reigned until his martyrdom just before the Roman sack of the Holy City. This James of Jerusalem, or James the Just, is easily distinguished from James the Greater, who was the brother of St. John the Apostle and the first apostolic martyr under Herod Agrippa (Acts 12). If we rather consider that there were three Jameses—of Zebedee, of Alphaeus, and of Joseph—then new possibilities open up, and we also must admit that there remains little history and tradition for the middle James, despite being among the Twelve.</p><p>My favorite Catholic podcast is that put out by <a href="https://siministries.org/">St. Irenaeus Ministries</a>, a small New York apostolate founded by a convert who was once a Protestant Bible scholar, and which is currently run by his accomplished protegé. Most of the talks put out by SIM are in-depth Scripture studies, steeped in Patristics and even in ancient Jewish scholarship. The ongoing series on the Acts of the Apostles goes into some depth about James and the Brethren of the Lord, sticking with the earliest traditions and making observations that were certainly new to my hearing:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>First, that James the Just was called the "<a href="http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=01-01-005-f">font of all episcopacy</a>" and "bishop of bishops" in the early Church, and there is a special reason for that.</li><li>Second, that James was chosen to take the see of Jerusalem in part because of his close relation to Jesus.</li></ul>To the point of James as the proto-bishop, we need to consider first that he was not an Apostle. The Twelve, as well as the Apostle St. Paul, were sent (<i>apostello</i>) to the whole world to preach, convert, and ordain. Yet James the Just remains in Jerusalem, in his homeland: there he is installed as bishop, there he reigns, and there he dies. The pattern of the Apostles is that they encompass the offices of both bishop and missionary, and they very intentionally spread to the farthest corners of the world in order to preach the Gospel. Most of them die in agony in barbarian lands. The fact that James stays in Jerusalem shows that he is not an Apostle, strictly speaking, but rather that he is the pattern of what we know as a bishop, one who possesses a realm over which he reigns and holds spiritual responsibility, and within which realm he resides and remains.<p></p><p>Along that line of thought, it is believed that James was given the bishopric of Jerusalem because he was the next in line for the Davidic throne. Jesus of course was the Son of David and the proper heir to David's throne, although his kingdom was not of this world. When Christ died and was soon ascended into Heaven, it seemed proper to the first generation of the Church to place one of Jesus's own kinsmen upon that Jerusalem throne. As <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm">Eusebius writes</a> about the succession after James,</p><blockquote><p>After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem which immediately followed, it is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.</p></blockquote><p>Eusebius elsewhere lists the first three bishops of Jerusalem as James, Symeon, and Justus, all of whom could possibly be identified as sons of Joseph (Matt. 13:55, Acts 1:23), and therefore as the kinsmen or Brethren of Our Lord. The fifteenth bishop of Jerusalem in Eusebius's list, and the last of Jewish descent before the Romans forbade Jews in the city, is Judah Kyriakos, believed by many to have been a descendant of Jude the brother of James and author of the catholic epistle. Eusebius also writes that, "Of the family of the Lord there were still living the grandchildren of Jude, who is said to have been the Lord's brother according to the flesh," and that the Emperor Domitian had this family rounded up for questioning to see if they might be rebellious like others of the Davidic line; after hearing their talk of a spiritual kingdom, he "despis[ed] them as of no account." Thus did the line of David rule in Jerusalem, in a spiritual fulfillment of the promise of the Davidic throne while the Apostles still lived, preached, and received martyrdom.</p><p>Indeed, the Brethren seemed to hold a special place in the first century of the Church, not opposed to the Apostles but working in concert with them. In Acts 12, St. Peter asks his disciples to talk to "James and to the brothers"; in Acts 21, St. Luke says that "the brothers received us gladly" and then speaks of meeting James; in 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul says that after the Resurrection Christ first "appeared to James, then to all the Apostles"; in Galatians 2, Paul described James, Peter, and John as special pillars of the Church, although this may have been James the Greater. (It is true that Paul calls James an apostle a chapter earlier ("I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother"), but this seems more like an honorific than a precise description of his role.) Christ's brothers appear to be separate from his disciples until after his Resurrection (cf. the references in Matt. 12 & 13, quite a while after the calling of the Twelve in Matt. 10).</p><p>James the Greater, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, is already of great account in Tradition. He preached in Spain and was the first of the Twelve to receive the crown of matyrdom. His feast is well-loved, he appears in many hagiographies and in imaginative literature of the Middle Ages, and he is even said to have inspired the reign of Charles the Great.</p><p>What of James the Less, the son of Alphaeus? His brother was the Apostle Matthew, or Levi, who seems to outshine James by the writing of the first Gospel, and it was not even this James who wrote the catholic epistle. The Eastern churches say that James the Less was finally martyred in the city of Ostrachina in Lower Egypt by crucifixion. Like so many of the Twelve, James the Less largely disappears after the Gospel accounts, and we only know of his works and death in summary.</p><p>James the Just, brother of Our Lord, pray for us!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5zm_EdCY1xw/YW89U_8X3qI/AAAAAAAACJI/9P00InuDOKQJShsErvpEmJofG0RQgUc-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1076/James_the_Just_%2528Menologion_of_Basil_II%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1076" height="278" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5zm_EdCY1xw/YW89U_8X3qI/AAAAAAAACJI/9P00InuDOKQJShsErvpEmJofG0RQgUc-ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h278/James_the_Just_%2528Menologion_of_Basil_II%2529.jpeg" title="Martyrdom of James the Just" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martyrdom of James the Just</td></tr></tbody></table>J.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04821093432726247774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-764009573454264462021-09-10T18:58:00.002-05:002021-09-10T22:43:26.815-05:00Traditionis Custodes: Part II<p>In the second of our three part look at <i>Traditionis Custodes </i>we will consider the options of the laity and the clergy regarding this <i>motu proprio, </i>like many of Francis's resolutions, an abuse of an ancient and venerable style of papal governance.</p><p>I had promised that part 2 would look at the future of the Church and test the veracity of the "biological solution" hypothesis. We will undertake this study in part 3. The faithful deserve to know their options, but also their duties in these confusing times.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Time is Greater than Space</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br />What the hell does that mean? Generally, nothing at all. Upon further inspect, the critical thinker continues to find no meaning in it, but rings true in a vague, moody, Oprah Winfrey Show way. Essentially, it says the rapid action forces change such that people cannot keep up with it, undermining the need for consensus. Consequently, without consensus, the results of this Latin American mindset elicit unstable government and legacies which only last in their most nugatory aspects.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZLtSmw7L7XE/YTvwcFB5e7I/AAAAAAAACjI/mAYQb19S3G8jCkMfuCkpGyMUo7Gp4KSMACLcBGAsYHQ/s559/peron.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="419" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZLtSmw7L7XE/YTvwcFB5e7I/AAAAAAAACjI/mAYQb19S3G8jCkMfuCkpGyMUo7Gp4KSMACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/peron.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><i>Traditionis Custodes</i> will likely be followed by further directives aimed at priests and bishops who do not sufficiently enforce its banana republic directions or who stray from its spirit, the spirit of murdering the old Mass and removing a point of coalescence for the people attached to it. As such, it is important for Traditionalists and our friends to remain coherent, not to resolve to go out guns blazing in a quick and embarrassing fashion, and to be appraised of all we might do.<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Making Friends</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Some Traditionalists behave as if the self-evident rightness of our liturgical claims, the dishonesty around the reform process, or the falling away from the faith of Christendom since the mid-20th century makes our case. Surely, from an intellectual perspective it does, but a good willed person in a local parish or an average bishop who took a semester of Latin during seminary probably will not find this compelling. Despite all the lectures, arguments, articles, and blog posts, we are the recipients of magnanimity, not its givers. More than ever, Traditionalists are in need of friends, be it weak friends or strong friends.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This delicate necessity should frame every step we take. That is why making snide public comments about The Council, deriding "Novus Ordo" clergy (whoever they are), and signing onto anti-vaccine conspiracy theories will not help us make friends. These actions will play into Papa Bergoglio's claim that we are a derisive and divisive clan. Instead, we need to build bridges into the Church structures wherever we find them.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Is there a point to making friends, other than the immediate survival of the old Mass? Absolutely. Its eventual restoration is the reason. The progressives know this and see it as both an administrative and spiritual obstacle to their vision of the Church. In our last post I mentioned an old book called <i>The Mass of the Future </i>from 1948. Who asked for a "Mass of the Future" in 1948? Perhaps some Ultramontanists would say the Holy Spirit asked for it. Maybe, but only a handful or priests and even fewer seminarians wanted it at that time. In 2021, how many priests and seminarians desire greater liberty to pray the old Mass or to preach from an unabashedly Christocentric perspective, free of fear of reprisal? It certainly is not a majority, but it is certainly a much larger minority.</p><p style="text-align: left;">First, I would advise anyone living in a place with continued availability for the old Mass to drown his bishop with gratitude. Should we be genuinely grateful when the archbishop of Paris shut down some Latin Masses in his diocese, leaving only half a dozen options outside the two FSSPX parishes? Yes, because those Masses remain. When I lived in Connecticut ten years ago there were a dozen old rite Masses in our tiny state, but almost all of them were at horrible times in the afternoon in rundown churches and usually only on Sundays and the odd Holy Day. In Paris, excluding the FSSPX, there remain options daily for the availability of the old Mass, which means those communities and spheres of Tradition will not be going away. Bishops should be made aware of our gratitude, because it will do much more for us and for them than self-entitlement.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Moreover, invite your bishop to visit annually, even if he is not fond of the old liturgy and may decline the opportunity to pontificate. Do not give him a rosary-counting spiritual bouquet, for he will find it curious, but do make your sentiments know and ingratiate your parish to him. <i>TC</i> similarly demands that the ordinary appoint a representative to monitor Traditionalist communities. Why not invite him to celebrate Mass? Why not involve yourself with regular parish catechetical work or volunteer events? Make the old Mass and its attendees an inextricable part of the life of the local Church.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Be the Squeaky Wheel</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">If you lack access to a Mass, or have lost it, then make friends with other parishioners and start to become.... compelling.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I do not mean starting a Facebook page in denunciation of the bishop, but instead to be the "squeaky wheel which gets the grease". <i>TC</i> provides for the bishop to appoint one or several places in his diocese for the old Mass to be said, so remind him of that compulsively. Point out the inconvenience of travel, as some San Diegans did with effect on their pro-homosexual bishop when they did not want to travel to the ghetto parish run by the FSSP (I say that because the parish is in a ghetto). They were rewarded with Mass on an Indian Reservation, which may not be much, but it keeps the old Mass alive in two places rather than one.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If your bishop is not too keen on heeding these requests immediately, then take a high visibility approach. When he visits your parish, then during coffee hour make sure to ask him about the old Mass during the open mic time. Ditto for his annual fundraising dinner. If he gives you pushback, then go woke so he goes broke: "I don't appreciate that you are de-legitimizing my prayer" or "I <i>feel</i> like it's not safe to be a Catholic in this sort of diocese" or "I'm sorry, are you explaining to me how I feel?" Yes, it is prissy and ridiculous, but it is likely to be the language anti-traditional prelates speak. It is also the language which elicits a response unfortunately, in our day and age.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Effectively, get as many people to refuse to take no as an answer as possible. In this approach, it is best <i>not</i> to act collectively, because a bishop can say "no" to a group once and be done, but he will have much more difficulty say "no" many times a year to hundreds of different people. At that point, he will not have a request; he will have a problem.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Indeed, even if your bishop has retained the old Mass, this is still a good approach. Drown him in gratitude, of course, but the continued growth of the Traditional Mass and Traditionalist movement will ensure that the need for new old Masses will not abate.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Giving His Excellency Options</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">These are extreme, near-last resorts and not ones I happily recommend, but being innocent as doves is not useful unless we have the guile of serpents, too.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If you are without an old Mass anymore, why not sue? Seriously. Catholics who had made their spiritual home in a parish with the old Mass could reasonably ask for any large donations or money sent to their diocese back since they gave it with the understanding that their needs were being met. Have you donated vestments, given to the bishop's annual appeal, or funded youth catechism? Surely, you did so because you thought your diocese was doing something good for you without any expectation it would be taken away.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On its own, this might be frivolous, but there is normally a lawyer to be found in every parish and a class action suit never looks nice. Why would a bishop be eager to get rid of a case he would likely win? For one, because he could still lose. Another reason is that even if the defendant wins, lawsuits are very expensive and look bad in the press. Most bishops want to be archbishops; most archbishops want to be cardinals; most cardinals want their own dicastery in Rome. Hemorrhaging money and making one's diocese look negligent will not accelerate these aspirations. Setting up one or two Masses is a much cheaper, quicker, and better looking solution.</p><p style="text-align: left;">An even more extreme option, which I hesitate to recommend, would be to gather a large group of the faithful who have lost their Mass and request a meeting with either the bishop or his vicar general. Inform said prelate of your concern and offer to assist them in ministering to your party by inviting the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X into town on your own dime. Every penny and sixpence that would have gone to the local parish, Catholic school, Catholic hospital, or bishop's fund will now go to supporting a Fraternity priest who will visit a few times a month to gather the faithful in his diocese.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Pope Francis has given the FSSPX faculties for Confessions and, with consent of the ordinary, for marriages, which means there is little the ordinary can do as far as condemning faithful who would take this approach. Canon Law and papal decrees cannot apply to those outside the Church, so excommunication of FSSPX adherents is out of the question.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Resisting the FSSPX's Siren Call</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FOM-FNYfkDA/YTvw7RFGT6I/AAAAAAAACjQ/gLmpL0VMrHsznVfsqzVBXt931vicpy7qACLcBGAsYHQ/s458/lefebvre.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="458" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FOM-FNYfkDA/YTvw7RFGT6I/AAAAAAAACjQ/gLmpL0VMrHsznVfsqzVBXt931vicpy7qACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/lefebvre.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />I give remuneration of the FSSPX as a final option because the Church is a coherent institution and, as people in a position to play the "art of the possible", we should keep our minds focused on retaining the old Mass and a Christocentric mindset in normal Catholic environs. The FSSPX was founded at a time when the Church was in a state of perpetual revolution and with no refuges in sight. Despite the politics of Pope Francis, the current situation is not as dire as that of 1975. The FSSPX is a lifeboat, not a solution. Archbishop Lefebvre, in his sermon given prior to Mass during the 1988 episcopal consecrations, stated that <p></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">"This is why I sent a letter to the pope, saying to him very clearly: 'We simply cannot (accept this spirit and proposals), despite all the desires which we have to be in full union with you. Given this new spirit which now rules in Rome and which you wish to communicate to us, we prefer to continue in Tradition; to keep Tradition while waiting for Tradition to regain its place at Rome, while waiting for Tradition to re-assume its place in the Roman authorities, in their minds.' This will last for as long as the Good Lord has foreseen."</p></blockquote><p>I will never condemn those who look to the FSSPX for spiritual guidance or as a refuge where normal Catholic life may be lived for their children, but it will never be a solution or an alternative to doing the work to restore Tradition and regular Catholic life as broadly as possible.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Priests</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Neglected in all these discussions are priests. Francis has assumed total power, and shared it with the bishops who agree with him. Their enemies are enumerated as "rigid" seminarians" and laymen who deride Vatican II. What of clergy, who in great part have found their priesthood enriched by the ancient rite of Mass?</p><p style="text-align: left;">First, do not cease to celebrate the old Mass, even if that means privately. A bishop may call upon you, priest, to stop celebrating the old Mass in public and even pretend to have the authority to do so in private. This is utter nonsense. <i>Guardians of Betrayal</i> abrogates <i>Summorum Pontificum</i>, which is nonsense because <i>SP</i> merely recognizes a fact, it does not grant any permissions. When scientists discovered the cell in the 19th century and consigned the old Greek "elements" of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire to the dustbin, would it not have been ridiculous for a university to "abrogate" the paper of the discovering scientist, to claim that we had atoms for a while, but now we are back to the four Greek elements instead?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Second, remember that the Law of the Church is behind you. <i>Quo primum tempore</i> has principles enshrined in the current Canon Law, namely immemorial custom, meaning that even if something is abrogated, if it has the force of custom behind it then its use is legitimate. For a legal argument, look <a href="http://theradtrad.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-old-rite.html">here</a>. In the end, Saint Thomas Aquinas, <i>the</i> common teacher of the Catholic Church, writes that</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">"Wherefore by actions also, especially if they be repeated, so as to make a custom, law can be changed and expounded; and also something can be established which obtains force of law, in so far as by repeated external actions, the inward movement of the will, and concepts of reason are most effectually declared; for when a thing is done again and again, it seems to proceed from a deliberate judgment of reason. Accordingly, custom has the force of a law, abolishes law, and is the interpreter of law."</p></blockquote><p>The Church is on your side, even if that means you need to bide your time and await better days.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Concluding</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">These ideas are meant to meet people depending on where they find themselves in this current crisis, which I believe may last for a decade or more, and which represents a setback in the effort to restore worship, but only a setback. The disciples of modernity have power, but they have no intellectual tradition, they have spent the Church's moral capital, and they bear few sons. That said, they manage to survive from year to year.</p><p style="text-align: left;">In our last installment in this series, we will look at how <i>Traditionis Custodes</i> meets the the trajectory of the things and the future of the Latin Church. Stay tuned.</p>The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-74152323210048736932021-08-22T12:47:00.004-05:002021-08-23T10:13:44.510-05:00Traditionis Custodes: Part I<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t8gj1T7gdJA/YSKNko2ysiI/AAAAAAAACi8/mr6t2l6Fy-4xUWx3uwW3R7O-kgmRdC2gwCLcBGAsYHQ/s632/mass.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="541" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t8gj1T7gdJA/YSKNko2ysiI/AAAAAAAACi8/mr6t2l6Fy-4xUWx3uwW3R7O-kgmRdC2gwCLcBGAsYHQ/w343-h400/mass.JPG" title=""Mass in a Church" by Mary Evans" width="343" /></a></div><br />There is no need to bore anyone by recapitulating the
details of <i>Guardians of Betrayal</i>, “Latin” version <i>Traditionis
Custodes</i>, promulgated on a Marian feast last month by the Pope. For the
best reading on the subject, I advise looking and these two articles from NLM
(<a href="https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/08/peace-builder-or-pacifier-some.html#.YSJ0FYhKjIU">here</a> and <a href="https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/08/the-revolution-is-over.html#.YSJ0MYhKjIU">here</a>).<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Instead, during this brief return from the dead of the
internet, we shall endeavor to accomplish two things: 1- to provide some
context, and with it, some self-criticism, for this document and 2- to ask what
it means for the future.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Origins of the <i>Traditio<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What are the origins of this betrayal? Nominally, Pope
Francis attributes this intervention to pastoral and doctrinal necessity, the
need to rescue the reputation and adherence to Vatican II from traditionalists,
the epicenter of Vatican II-denial. Further reading suggests <i>TC</i> came at
the directive of the Italian bishops’ conference, who, although an unimpressive
lot, are not quite as progressive as Pope Francis on matters of Church
government. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Pope is eager to have his synodal view of the Church—a
great immobilizer for the Eastern Churches—and the Italian bishops have
resisted this move. The Italian Church, much like the Church in America some
decades ago, is both in decline and living off the merits and capital of the
past, both spiritually and financially. In Naples they will still come out for <i>San
Gennaro</i> and in Rome they will flood St. Peter’s for the Christmas midnight
Mass, but the churches are only sporadically filled throughout the remaining
Sundays of the year. Some bishops are quite progressive while others follow a
Siri-esque line. Indeed, there is not much to commend or unite the bishops of
this decaying Christian nation than a dislike of the “Tridentine” liturgy. Why?
Is there a fear of neighboring France?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">France is a nation of 67 million people, of them about 50
million self-described Catholics. Prior to the outbreak of the Coronavirus,
only about 5% of that 50 million heard Mass on Sunday, or 2.5 million people. Some
numbers I saw years ago, during the controversy surrounding their attempted
rehabilitation by Benedict XVI, estimated adherence to the Fraternity of St. Pius
X around 100,000 Frenchmen and a similar number for “indult” Masses. Those
figures may have grown in the last decade, but with the drop in Mass attendance
due to COVID-19, a figure unlikely to recover to its former mediocrity when
this pandemic ends, the traditionalists will continue to be much bigger fish in
an ever-shrinking pond.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Italy is not France, but it has the potential to become a
traditionalist hub. Many of the more prominent traditional and conservative
thinkers in the Latin Church are either Italian or live in Italy just as they
tended to come from France decades ago. There are less than a hundred Latin
Masses available in Italy and only half of those Masses take place every
Sunday. Some years ago, <i>Una Voce</i> reported that there were hundreds of
petitions for Latin Masses in Italy going unanswered. I wish I could find this
report and scrutinize it; reasonably, many of these requests probably overlap
(multiple people in a parish or village asking for the same thing), but there
is a bottled-up demand. Moreover, the horror of the Pope when hearing about “rigid”
seminarians underscores a fear of young priests who could unilaterally promote
the old Mass for the next five decades in a withering liturgical milieu. The
bishops’ concern, if they see the Roman Mass as a threat rather than as a
spiritual treasure, is in fact warranted.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Among these factors, it is also worth remembering that the
Italian Church is liturgically behind the rest of the Church in terms of
liberalization. They did not have Communion in the hand, for instance, until
John Paul II. Msgr. Bugnini looked at the papal basilicas as his enemies because
they guarded the Gregorian musical tradition, and, indeed, in Rome and throughout
Italy, many cathedrals and collegiate churches retained a daily sung Mass with Lauds
and Vespers daily until quite recently. The expulsion of Giovanni Vianini’s <i>Schola
Gregoriana Mediolanensis</i> from the basilica of San Vittore is a symptom of
the same. Andrea Grillo may be the prophet of modern Italian liturgy, but there
is also clearly a fear that the new, “rigid” seminarians may be his Jeremiah.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>They See Themselves
in Us<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Guardians of Betrayal</i> is principally about power, not
liturgy. It is an attempted dis-enfranchisement of a hub of people who have a
different spiritual bent, a different view of the world, and a different desire
for the future of the Church than the Pope does or his Age-of-Aquarius
collaborators. Their predecessors, the revolutionaries of the ‘40s and ‘50s, began
their revolution occupying a smaller portion than we do today of a Church much
more uniform in faith and worship than we have today. They achieved their
revolution through finding the right levers of power to pull, manipulating
their way through committees, bureaucracies, and clerical appointments until
they could convince the 2,000 bishops of the Church that a wholesale refresh was
the only way to keep the Church relevant. They kept underground during the
papacies of Pius XI and Pius XII, while still finding ample opportunities to
introduce dialogue Masses, <i>versus turbam</i> worship, and to mention the
inevitability of the “Mass of the Future” (a book by Gerald Ellard SJ).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Traditionalists are, unfortunately, often more “conservative”
by temperament than militant. This is a crucial problem because conservative
people tend to value their individual liberty over the broader picture. There
are evangelical and militant people in the Latin Mass movement who would find
themselves at home with the 17<sup>th</sup> century Spanish missionaries to the
Americas or with the early Franciscans, but most I think are content to stay in
their parishes and make their first Saturdays. They assume, not unreasonably,
that the demographic trends in the Church mean the inevitable fall of the progressive
faction and a better future. They are not entirely wrong, but they do not see
the entire picture as well as the well-aged reformists.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">People who are conservative by temperament, like most men,
tend to want things clear, obvious, out in the open. In a word, they naturally
expect affairs to be settled openly and honestly. These are noble attributes
and ones which we have inherited from the image and likeness of God, damaged
though they are by our limits and the effects of Original Sin. These are not
traits generally shared by people who are good at politics or politicking. The
necessity of making friends and doing the “art of the possible,” rather than
doing what is obviously right, is bothersome to us. At some level, the decade
of “TLM good, Novus Ordo bad” articles and books are directed toward this open
and honest perception of human decision making, whereas the more relational
method is what really creates change.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Progressive churchmen know this full well, and while there are
relatively few sympathetic prelates and cardinals who would die on the hill of
the old Mass, their number has grown. Would it be wrong to pull one’s self away
from one’s parish and play the game of politics for the greater good? St.
Gregory the Great lamented the loss of silence and his difficulty praying since
being ripped out of his monastery to become Pope; administrative affairs
depressed him, whereas his ears were once full of divine silence, they were now
full of gossip, positioning, and frivolities. Yet, he endured.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Similarly, St. Peter Damien is remembered as a firebrand
polemicist and preacher, but he also left his monastery to participate in the “art
of the possible.” In his fight against sodomy in the clergy, he would visit
bishops, present the idea that homosexual clergy should be excommunicated and
only given the Sacraments <i>in extremis</i>, and then backpedal to a more
moderate position, such as a suspension for a few years or perhaps laicization
for the worst offenders. He promoted monasticism, both for its roots in
Christian life and because the monasteries he founded were generally answerable
to the Apostolic See rather than to the local ordinary, creating a rival sphere
of influence and orthodoxy. A true reformer, the saint possessed a strong
vision of the Church and sought it through every means available rather than
abiding in perfunctory hope.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Progressives recognize their own past ascendancy with our current
potential. What is more, the old Mass has created a rallying point and a pivot
for organization that progressives in the past lacked, which is why the result
of their reforms was so disparate from place to place. Traditionalists would do
well not just to appreciate their position, but to learn how to use it.</p><p class="MsoNormal">“Be ye wise as serpents and simple as doves.”</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Vatican II<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nominally, <i>Guardians of Betrayal</i> originated out of a
concern for the integrity of the Second Vatican Council and concern that its
rejection would sow seeds of dissent and division within the Church. Much can
be said of Vatican II, but this article is not the place. Readers of this blog
will know that the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century liturgical reform had next to
nothing to do with Vatican II, that it was in fact the independent project of
the papacies of Pius XII and his protégé, Paul VI, that under the <i>Consilium</i>
it became a runaway train, and that Vatican II was used to justify the reforms
through parliamentary manipulations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All the same, <i>TC</i> makes official the conflation of the
Novus Ordo with Vatican II and the old Mass with not-Vatican II. Aside from underscoring
the historical and liturgical illiteracy of its authors, <i>Guardians of Betrayal</i>
brings about a new issue: in merging the New Mass with Vatican II, and in turn
the old Mass with not-Vatican II, does not banning the old Mass effectively
sweep the pre-November 1969 Church into the dustbin? And with it the authority
and prestige of the Pope’s very office? Benedict XVI’s “hermeneutic of
continuity” received some just criticism from liberals and traditionalists, but
it had with it the noble goal of keeping the Church whole throughout its
history. Even Paul VI lamented the difficulty of moving past the old Mass and
stories of his private disconsolance confirm that those feelings were quite
genuine. The guise of Vatican II and the near-universal adaptation of the Novus
Ordo in 1969 could at least suggest that the liturgical change of the time was
an act of the Church in a particular direction. <i>TC</i> is a one-way,
unilateral decree which scornfully looks upon the souls and consciences of
people who find fulfillment in the same place where most saints found it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Future</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In part 2 we will consider what all of this means for the
future of the liturgy, of Church government, the “biological solution”, and
what we should do.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I also hope to post a review of the wines produced by the
monks of Le Barroux soon.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the interim, keep the faith.<i><o:p></o:p></i></p>The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-23298147662991701272021-08-03T00:09:00.000-05:002021-08-03T00:09:28.919-05:00The Year of St. Joseph: Sold into Egypt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D7cniRzgsds/YQGh-vCXY8I/AAAAAAAACIQ/SLIiBf0op5gDE8Kpn_QwVeZeYLSpZAkwQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/Alexander_Maximilian_Seitz_-_Joseph_Being_Sold_Into_Slavery.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="1000" height="453" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D7cniRzgsds/YQGh-vCXY8I/AAAAAAAACIQ/SLIiBf0op5gDE8Kpn_QwVeZeYLSpZAkwQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h453/Alexander_Maximilian_Seitz_-_Joseph_Being_Sold_Into_Slavery.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>The Year of St. Joseph, proclaimed by the Holy Father to extend from December the 8th of last year until the same of 2021, offers the faithful a cornucopian wealth of spiritual riches. January gave us a devout Catholic president, named appropriately after the ecclesiastical year. March gave us the triple treat of Jordan Peterson flirting with Christianity, Milo Yiannopoulos straightening himself out while growing a mullet, and Pope Francis instituting a fifteen month-long overlapping Year of the <i>Amoris Laetitia</i> Family beginning on St. Joseph's own feast day. April featured the exposure of financial malfeasants in the Vatican. Finally, July has given us first a bit of Louisiana legislation celebrating the annual feast of St. Joseph the Worker, and then a timely reminder of the need to be faithful custodians of the Catholic tradition. The patron of the universal Church is assuredly watching over us with restful eyes.</p><p>If nothing else, this whirlwind of church politics has been a bracing reminder of the need for Christian souls to cling ever more closely to Christ the Bridegroom. It is a difficult thing to keep one's mind on heavenly things, and one's heart detached from the pomp and treasures of this world. This is nearly impossible when you are being betrayed, as it often feels, by those who most owe you fraternal love and fellowship.</p><p>"Behold, the dreamer cometh!"</p><p>Much as Joseph of old was stripped of his many-colored coat and sold to passing slave traders of his own distant kin, so have we too been stripped of the glorious gifts handed down from our fathers and cast into a pit with no water. It is a sad state of affairs—one which would have broken a man of lesser faith—but not the disaster it might appear to be. Will we too see the day when it can be said, "You thought evil against me, but God turned it into good"?</p><p>The other Josephs of Scripture also serve as examples. Joseph of Arimathea boldly asked permission of the procurator to bury Christ in the face of what was clearly deadly persecution; so we too must treat respectfully the holy things which authorities attempt to destroy. Joseph Barsabbas ("son of an old man," in some translations) was considered to fill the role of the Iscariot after the Ascension, but ended his clerical career as a relatively obscure bishop and martyr; so we who have no pride of place must remain faithful to the end. Joseph Barnabas ("son of consolation") bravely confirmed St. Paul's conversion before the other Apostles, but was later humbled when he followed St. Peter into error; so should we take care not to allow human respect to blind us to hard truths. Finally, Joseph the Betrothed is an example of fidelity to God's commands and readiness to do what is needed in the worst of times.</p><p><i>Ite ad Joseph</i>, indeed. Go to each holy Joseph and beg them to petition God for a double spirit of the grace given in their troubles.</p>J.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04821093432726247774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-41504037786765111632020-08-23T15:40:00.002-05:002020-08-23T15:40:14.895-05:00The "Latin" Mass<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QGLreX9Dy_0/X0LUGLRrdtI/AAAAAAAACb8/93YJoy0BFisOA06czcQzr2FuxChS4nSOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s690/rood.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="690" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QGLreX9Dy_0/X0LUGLRrdtI/AAAAAAAACb8/93YJoy0BFisOA06czcQzr2FuxChS4nSOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/rood.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Inaccessibility remains the greatest hurdle of the traditional Roman rite to the faithful of the Latin Church. It is not the priest "facing away" from the people, nor the supposedly ritualized ceremony, nor the quality of the vesture, nor even the music. It is principally the language and the seriousness of the old Mass which shocks people. The older rites intentionally separate the sacred and the profane, simultaneously lifting the profane terrestrial elements of bread, water, wine, and human flesh to the Sacred as Christ Himself did.</p><p>In a recent <a href="http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/08/the-western-liturgys-sonic-iconostasis.html#.X0BoashKjIU">article</a>, Dr. Kwasniewski argued that the Latin language and music form an sonic iconostasis in the old Mass, an expression of the inherent separatedness of God from Man and His lifting of Man up to Himself. This was not meant to keep the people out, only to emphasize the greatness of the mysteries celebrated in past times under a baldachin or behind a rood screen and in modern times beneath a linguistic veil.</p><p>Dr. K's observations are in continuity with the Byzantine tradition of viewing the development and enhancement of the liturgy as the work of the Holy Spirit by the means of human accidents rather than as intentional human oddities. Eastern Christians, Catholic or dissident, view their liturgical traditions in their current forms as the work of the Spirit and laden with spiritual meaning. For instance, in prior times the rood screen of the Greek churches separated the people from the sacred action, as in the Latin rite, but during the late Palaiologian empire, the people began to hang their icons on the screen. Although this was an historical curio, the practice stuck and the screen became a solid wall. Far from viewing this change as a corruption or something belonging to the 15th century, they saw this as an elaboration of the old screen's bifurcation of the mystery of the Mass from the world and the obvious presence of the saints at the altar ("invisibly escorted by the angelic hosts").</p><p>All this sounds quite good and easily relates to the Byzantine visual veil on the Eucharistic sacrifice, but if this is true it has been true for most of Latin Christendom's history, not all of it. The Latin language was spoken as the vernacular of most of the former-[Western] Roman Empire for centuries after the collapse of Rome under the barbarian invasions of the fifth century. The same language people spoke was the same language as the Roman Mass, however it sounded very different from the Latin one hears at the nearest Traditional Mass today. Indeed, our Latin Masses would have been discernible, if disagreeable, to Cicero and to the Roman Christians of Nero's days. It would not have been too intelligible to sainted popes like Leo and Gregory the Great.</p><p>Enter <i>Late Latin and Early Romance</i> by Roger Wright, an influential, but somewhat controversial summary of the evolution of Latin from Cicero through the Middle Ages. The author follows certain changes to pronounced Latin which are visible in misspellings in graffiti at Pompeii or in the journals of contemporaries of the third to sixth centuries. Dipthongs concatenated, words ending in M or T or S started to drop off the last consonant much like how Puerto Ricans speak Spanish, and soft vowels took on longer O sounds. "Multum", for instance, became pronounced "multo", like modern Italian. The more familiar elements of Ecclesiastical Latin, the "ch" sound and modern pronunciation of V, entered the language just after the Julio-Claudian dynasty with the rest coming later.</p><p>What's more, Latin, spoken as a vernacular in Iberia, Gaul, some part of Britain and the Germanic lands, and elsewhere, continued to take on characteristics of indigenous languages or the speech patterns of the people in those areas. The result was a Latin not unlike modern English, a language with a written tradition quite different from how it is pronounced today. "How are you?" would phonetically be pronounced "Ho-w ar-eh y-uw" before major changes to our tongue during the Renaissance. Latin underwent a similar change after the Fall of Rome through the age of Charlemagne. There was one written tradition of Latin, universal and unchanging everywhere, pronounced differently almost everywhere, being pronounced as proto-Italian in northern Italy, as proto-French in Gaul, and as proto-Spanish and proto-Portuguese in Iberia. Mass and the Office were likely observed accordingly, with the texts nominally being the same everywhere, but pronounced and sung in a way intelligible only to the people of a given area, a universal language of the liturgy until it was spoken.</p><p>Charlemagne desired a revival of classical learning and an accumulation of knowledge, which would require a coherent linguistic tradition among those who were to be educated. His advisor, the deacon Alcuin of York, suggested that the Latin spoken among the educated in England be normalized throughout the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, reaching Rome and becoming the "Church Latin" which today sounds so much like Italian. Wright and other modern Latinists are somewhat derisive of Alcuin's Ecclesiastical pronunciation, believing it artificial. It was in fact the natural evolution of Latin in a particular area which had its own local, Germanic languages, which is why Ecclesiastical Latin sounds closest to Classical Latin which a very few exceptions (Vs, Cs, and dipthongs). The two are mutually intelligible, which cannot be said of either language regarding the proto-Romance languages which evolved elsewhere.</p><p>With more provinces of Latin Christendom adopting the Ecclesiastical method, the Mass and Office ceased to be in a spoken vernacular and instead became a semi-intelligible sacred tongue despite the written words remaining entirely unchanged. The resulting situation would have been something very similar to Church Slavonic: something generally intelligible, but entirely so, to Ukrainian and Russian speakers. Speakers of proto-French, proto-Spanish, proto-Italian, and proto-Portuguese certainly would have been able to understand and learn the psalms and <i>ordo Missae</i> over the course of their lifetimes and even understand it, but the variable parts—the readings and orations—would have been lost on them.</p><p>As a result, the faithful took on new manners of being occupied during these moments. Educated people often recited the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To the masses, the processions to the altars before Mass, the dramatic events of Holy Week, the blessing of sacramentals, the great feasts of the year, the mystery plays, and the vernacular hymnody associated with these days became <i>their</i> manner of participation in the liturgical life of the Church and remained so in most places until the 20th century.</p><p>Even before the "deadening" of Latin by Charlemange and Alcuin, constant abecedarian engagement with the words of the Mass were foreign to the Roman tradition. The <i>Ordines Romani</i> recount that the chants of the Mass were not popularly sung, but delivered by local subdeacons according to seniority. The celebrant dictated how long chants would be sung by signalling when to move to the <i>Gloria Patri</i>. Office and place admitted one to a certain level of participation in the liturgy, not merely language. With the opening of the sanctuaries and simplification of ceremonies after the Reformation the Latin language was the only remaining veil of mystery which surrounded the Mass and the liturgical act for centuries. Latin filled the void of the rood and the sanctuary veil.</p>The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-32330487690344209322020-08-15T00:00:00.001-05:002020-08-15T00:00:05.170-05:00Collects for the AssumptionOne of the most beautiful Masses in the Roman Missal is that of August 15, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The Mass is an interesting one textually and musically, beginning with the <i>Gaudeamus omnes</i> introit common to certain saints in the Middle Ages and generally used, along with <i>Salve sancta parens</i>, for Marian feasts.<div><br /></div><div>Festively, the Assumption, or Dormition, originated in Constantinople under the Byzantine Emperor Maurice, who was murdered by the man who re-introduced beards to the East. The feast is not present in the Leonine, or "Verona", Sacramentary, but it is present a few generations later in the Gelasian Sacramentary, an early ninth century Gaulish recension of the Roman Sacramentary from a century earlier. There are two collects given, neither which match the noble <i>Famulorum</i> of the Tridentine Mass nor the <i>Veneranda</i> of the post-Gallican rites but which do seem to have inspired the tone and literary character of both.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first:</div><blockquote><div>"Deus, qui spe salutis aeternae beatae Mariae virginitatie foecunda humano generi praemia praestitisti, tribue, quaesumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamis per quam meruimus auctorem vitae nostrae suscipere."</div></blockquote><p>The second:</p><blockquote><p>"Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui terrenis corporibus Verbi tui veritatis Filii unigeniti per venerabilem ac gloriosam semper virginem Mariam ineffabile mysterium coniungere voluisti, petimus immensan clementiam tuam, ut quod in eius veneratione deposcimus, te propitiante consequi mereamur."</p></blockquote><p>Neither collect mentions the miracle of the Assumption, instead drawing attention to Mankind's hope for salvation in the Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ. The expectation of intercession in exchange for veneration, what Eamon Duffy called a "transactional" aspect of medieval piety, is apparent in the last words of the second collect and survived in the <i>Veneranda</i> collect used in the Sarum, Dominican, and most other non-Roman, Latin rite Missals:</p><blockquote><p>"Veneranda nobis, Domine, hujus diei festivitas opem conferat sempiternam, in qua sancta Dei genitrix mortem subiit temporalem, nec tamen mortis nexibus deprimi potuit; quæ Filium tuum Dominum nostrum de se genuit incarnatum."</p></blockquote><p>One wonders if <i>Veneranda </i>began as the second collect above, <i>Omnipotens</i>, and passed through Byzantine influence. The words "nec tamen mortis nexibus deprimi potuit" call to mind the Greek hymn sung on the feast:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"When you gave birth you kept your virginity, when you fell asleep you did not abandon the world, O Theotokos. You passed into life, you who are the mother of life, who through your intercessions redeem our souls from death."</p></blockquote><p> As always, the Roman rite favored the more subtle and restrained text, <i>Famulorum</i>:</p><blockquote><p>"Famulorum tuorum quaesumus Domine, delictis ignosce ut, qui tibi placere de actibus nostris non valemus, Genitricis Filii tui Domini nostri intercessione salvemur."</p></blockquote><p>The Roman collect aligns more clearly with the first prayer from the Gelasian Sacramentary, <i>Deus, qui spe salutis</i>, with its emphasis on Mankind's necessity for Mary's intercession and our general helplessness without it. While certainly medieval, the prayer does not embrace the period piety as strongly as the other [proposed] set of prayers.</p><p>Both <i>Famulorum</i> and <i>Veneranda</i> appear in the 10th century Gregorian Sacramentary, although the respective Masses proper to the feast varied locally. Interestingly, neither collect retains the ancient, post-Patristic emphasis on the Incarnation that the Gelasian prayers do, and only <i>Veneranda</i> mentions Our Lady's death and assumption directly. <i>Famulorum</i>, however, is not a generic Marian prayer. Outside of local feasts, the Assumption was <i>the </i>Marian feast in the early Middle Ages—the Annunciation being a commemoration of the Incarnation, not solely in <i>dulia </i>of Maria. As the primary Marian feast, the Assumption was worthy of a more generalized petition in the collect.</p><p>Not all Missals, however, split into these two neat camps. For example the surviving Missal from the St. Lucia Monastery in Abruzzo gives an entirely different text. The Lyonese rite, even after the neo-Gallican textual vitiations of the 18th century, retained <i>Veneranda</i> on the feast and <i>Famulorum</i> during the octave. Such is the rich history of this rich feast.</p><p><br /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Below is an annual repost of one of the more insightful liturgical articles on this blog.</span><br /><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Liturgical theology is, according to Aidan Kavanagh, not a theological examination of the liturgy, but theology done by means of the liturgy. Liturgy is the <i>theologia prima </i>of the Church. When someone asks a Catholic how to learn more about the faith, the believer never directs the inquirer to obtain a copy of Denzinger. Invariably, the believer tells the non-Catholic to go to Mass (and hopefully at a carefully selected location). With this in mind, let us [very succinctly] consider what the Church told and taught us about the Assumption of the Mother of God today.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9aB0oSGLvpg/U_wMIIMSj2I/AAAAAAAAA_M/1YDyfIzJPP0/s1600/Rome%2B069.JPG" style="color: #5158a7; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9aB0oSGLvpg/U_wMIIMSj2I/AAAAAAAAA_M/1YDyfIzJPP0/s1600/Rome%2B069.JPG" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Apse of St. Mary Major with mosaic of Mary as Queen of Heaven,<br />crowned by and reigning with Christ.<br />source: Rad Trad's collection</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Mattins—or the "vigil," as Dobszay insisted on calling the first major hour—consists of nine psalms and readings divided evenly into three nocturnes. Contrary to the eccentric and rich local traditions of northern Europe, which created special texts for Marian feasts, the Roman rite retains a primitive and sparse text. The psalms and hymns for the feast are typical of any Marian feast prior to the 1860s when Pius IX issued a unique liturgy for the Immaculate Conception. Where the Assumption stands alone is in the Mattins lessons and the text of the Mass. According to Dom Gueranger: </span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">"the Lord Pope went to St Mary Major, where, surrounded by his court, he celebrated First Vespers. At the beginning of the night the Matins with nine lessons were chanted in the same church.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">"Meanwhile an ever-growing crowd gathers on the piazza of the Lateran, awaiting the Pontiff's return.... Around the picture of the Saviour, within the sanctuary, stand twelve bearers who form its perpetual guard, all members of the most illustrious families, and near them are the representatives of the senate and of the Roman people.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">"But the signal is given that the papal retinue is redescending the Esquiline. Instantly lighted torches glitter on all sides, either held in the hand, or carried on the brancards of the corporations. Assisted by the deacons, the Cardinals raise on their shoulders the holy image, which advances under a canopy, escorted in perfect order by the immense multitude. Along the illuminated and decorated streets, amid the singing of the psalms and the sound of instruments, the procession reaches the ancient Triumphal Way, winds round the Coliseum, and, passing through the arches of Constantine and Titus, halts for a first Station on the Via Sacra, before the church called St Mary Minor.... In this church, while the second Matins with three lessons are being chanted in honor of the Mother, some priests wash, with scented water in a silver basin, the feet of the her Son, our Lord, and then sprinkle the people with the water thus sanctified. Then the venerable picture sets out once more, crosses the Forum amidst acclamations.... it at least enters the piazza of St Mary Major. Then the delight and the appluse of the crowd are redoubled; all, men and women, great and little, as we read in a document of 1462 (archivio della Compagnia di <i>Sancta Sanctorum</i>), forgetting the fatigue of a whole night spent without sleep, cease not till morning to visit and venerate our Lord and Mary. In this glorious basilica, adorned as a bridge, the glorious Office of Lauds celebrates the meeting of the Son and the Mother and their union for all eternity." (<i>The Liturgical Year</i>, August 15)</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">All rungs of Roman society paused regular life and joined Christ and Mary in the divine life for a night and an octave, celebrating Mary joining her Son in eternity and anticipating their own union with Christ in eternity. Mary was the first of what Christ wants all Christians to become by the Sacraments, albeit in a lesser degree.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">The first three lessons are extracted from chapter 1 of the Song of Songs:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">1</span> Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for thy breasts are better than wine,<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">2</span> Smelling sweet of the best ointments. thy name is as oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved thee.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">3</span> Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments. The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the righteous love thee.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">4</span> I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">5</span> Do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards: my vineyard I have not kept.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">6</span> Show me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">7</span> If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">8</span> To my company of horsemen, in Pharao's chariots, have I likened thee, O my love.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">9</span> Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's, thy neck as jewels.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">10</span> We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">11</span> While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth the odour thereof.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">12</span> A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">13</span> A cluster of cypress my love is to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">14</span> Behold thou art fair, O my love, behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">15</span> Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">16</span> The beams of our houses are of cedar, our rafters of cypress trees.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="text-align: start;">Some of these verses are very sensual and even sexual. Let no one say that the medievals were prudish on matters of intimacy! These verses can be applied both as the Church's acclamation to the Virgin, joyfully exclaiming her maternal nurturing of us Christians working out our salvation in fear and trembling. These words can also, with some care and reservation, be interpreted as a dialogue between Mary and her Creator. The first verse "</span>Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for thy breasts are better than wine" speaks to Mary on a level of intimacy that no man ever knew, but Christ did. He nursed from her, yes, but He, in the Father, also created her in accordance with His divine plan for mankind. The image of the breast conjures immature sexual ideas today, but previous peoples instantly affiliated it with nurturing and familial ties: the affection of the husband, the nurturing of the children—two kinds of love, the second generated from the first, which reflects the Divine Love. At this level of power and privacy did Mary know God, of course without the sexual element. Should the dialogue interpretation continue, Mary is both removed from conventions "I am black, but I am beautiful" and presented as close with God on the level of bride in the King's chamber, as the versicle before the third nocturne says.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">The readings in the second nocturne come from St. John of Damascus' second treatise on the Dormition of the Mother of God. These readings replaced the writings of St. Dionysius of the [pseudo] Areopagite —which would have been the lessons read at St Mary Minor—with the Tridentine reforms. St. John explains the typology of the Virgin, her prefigurement in the Ark of the Covenant, which housed the old promise between God and mankind, and its fulfillment in her, who housed the new and eternal promise between God and mankind. And like Christ, she did not refuse death, but embraced it as a path to life away from the death wrought by Adam:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">"From her true life had flowed for all men, and how should she taste of death? But she yielded obedience to the law established by Him to Whom she had given birth, and, as the daughter of the old Adam, underwent the old sentence, which even her Son, Who is the very Life Itself, had not refused; but, as the Mother of the living God, she was worthily taken by Him unto Himself."</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">In the treatise from which the above passage in extracted, the Damascene saint goes on to teach that Mary's body could <i>only </i>be assumed into heaven because its use by Christ consecrated it as a thing of heaven. The treatise goes on to recount the entire event of the Dormition and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, which ran the course of three days:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">"<span style="color: #424242; font-size: 15.2px; line-height: 16px;">An ancient tradition has been handed down to us, that, at the time of the glorious falling-asleep of the blessed Virgin, all the Apostles, who were wandering throughout the world preaching salvation to the Gentiles, were caught up aloft in the twinkling of an eye, and met together in Jerusalem. And when they were all there, a vision of Angels appeared to them, and the chant of the heavenly powers was heard; and so with divine glory she gave up her soul into the hands of God. But her body, which bore God in an effable manner, being lifted up amid the hymns of Angels and Apostles was laid in a tomb in Gethsemane. There for three whole days the angelic song was heard.</span></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: #424242; font-size: 15.2px; line-height: 16px;">"But after three days, the chant of the Angels ceased, and the Apostles who were present (for Thomas, the only one who had been absent, came after the third day, and wished to adore the body which had borne God) opened the tomb; but they could by no means find her sacred body in any part of it. But when they only found those garments in which she had been buried, and were filled with indescribable fragrance which emanated from them, they closed the tomb. Amazed at this wonderful mystery they could only think that he, who had been pleased to take flesh from the Virgin Mary, to be made man, and to be born though he was God the Word, and the Lord of glory, he who had preserved her virginity without stain after childbirth, should also have been pleased to honor her pure body after her death, keeping it incorrupt, and translating it into Heaven before the general resurrection."</span> </span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">The best sermon this writer ever heard preached about the Assumption, or "Dormition" given the setting, was that of a Melkite deacon. Paraphrasing and condensing ten minutes into a few sentences, "Heaven and earth were not vast enough to hold Gods' glory, but Mary's womb was. Christ received His Divine nature when He was begotten of the Father in eternity. He received His human nature when He was conceived and born of Mary in time. When her earthly course was run, Mary died and her body was taken into heaven by the One Who created her because it was inconceivable that the womb which ore God-made-Man could decay in the ground. But this does not separate Mary from mankind. God became united to mankind through her. Mary was the first. We will never know God as closely as she did on earth, except perhaps when we receive Holy Communion, but we can pray to know Him in eternity because of her."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; float: left; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; margin-right: 1em; padding: 4px; position: relative;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joyfulheart.com/christmas/images/frangelico_annunciation968x700.jpg" style="clear: left; color: #5158a7; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/KKKHBHQNOyXFWg_UVX5-5YRVw6yIBJ5HXJVGFLG9HVyClrLpIuUDorwWAWaXNWUT5KFTV4lLy-W1lDB3o7NAaugTc3nIew7OZ3bopnmFms3_7fcM0JydxRZG57cVgPuMVm0=s0-d" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><i>The Annunciation </i>by Fra Angelico<br />source: joyfulheart.com</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">At the third nocturne we arrive at the Gospel of the day, also used in the Mass of the day. The pericope, Luke 10:38-42, is the same Gospel story applied in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in the Greek tradition for this feast, adding verses 11:27-28. The last verses used in the Byzantine liturgy highlight the entire point of the Gospel for this day: "<span style="line-height: 21px;">And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it." Is any depiction in pre-modern art more popular than that of the Annunciation? Mary became special because she bore Christ. She is a powerful intercessor with Him, indeed <i>the </i>most powerful intercessor with Him precisely for this reason. But also for this reason Mary is not a lone, solitary figure of power. She matters because wherever she is, Christ is nearby. Practically every depiction of the Virgin before the vulgar kitsche artwork of the 19th century showed Mary and our Lord Jesus together. In the various <i>pieta </i>paintings and sculptures, the great paintings depicting the Crucifixion and Norman rood screens recounting the same event, and first millennium holy images—Eastern and Western alike—Mary is with her Son. So let us agree with the woman in the crowd: blessed is the womb that bore the Lord! And then let us turn our attention from Mary to Christ by hearing the word of God and by keeping it.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; line-height: 21px;">Culminating with the Mass, the Introit invites us to enter into the heavenly abode of joy, elevated from the earthly joy and instruction in Mattins and Lauds, as well as the rites local to the diocese of Rome described by Gueranger above. In the Mass God's presence begins as a mystic one and elevates into a literal presence that can be seen and touched, a presence similar to the one Mary knew as Christ's mother. The collect of the Mass is among the best in the Roman tradition:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">"</span><span style="line-height: 16.8906px;">Forgive, O Lord, we beseech thee, the sins of thy servants: that we who by our own deeds are unable to please thee, may be saved by the intercession of the Mother of thy Son our Lord."</span></span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;">This collect, as Fr. Hunwicke has stated, is <i>the </i>theology of Mary East and West. What words could better express our Lady's place in the plan of salvation? The Mass became the integral part of the Assumption liturgy and, in time, many stunning settings of the Mass were written by the great polyphonic and choral composers. Palestrina's setting of the Ordinary of Mass is a personal favorite. The below sequence of videos has both the proper chants and Palestrina's setting concatenated, as for a Mass.</div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IksdCSgB--g" width="320" youtube-src-id="IksdCSgB--g"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x2lzeAAEZu0" width="320" youtube-src-id="x2lzeAAEZu0"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 15.84px;">Lastly, the feast is an octave. This blog has discussed in other posts the concept of the eighth day and the theology of the Resurrection. Christ rose on the eighth day after He entered Jerusalem and He appeared to the Apostles on the eighth day after that, one octave after another. Moreover, the Resurrection constitutes the eighth day of the week, the new day of Creation, or re-creation. Mary's tomb, like her Son's was found empty. While the myrrh-bearing women and the Apostles Peter and John only found a few burial garments in Christ's tomb, Mary's tomb was found full of flowers and sweet scents. Christ's Resurrection brought mystery only clarified with the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Mary's Assumption was clear and a fruit of Christ's Resurrection. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vIu8PDXs71E/U_wK25SZIMI/AAAAAAAAA_E/qb1N6eO1KMU/s1600/%24(KGrHqJ%2C!iIE4rL%2BRwiQBOOZNUy2-Q~~0_35.JPG" style="clear: left; color: #5158a7; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vIu8PDXs71E/U_wK25SZIMI/AAAAAAAAA_E/qb1N6eO1KMU/s1600/%24(KGrHqJ%2C!iIE4rL%2BRwiQBOOZNUy2-Q~~0_35.JPG" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="212" /></a>Unfortunately, this historic and gladsome liturgy was altered in 1950 after Pius XII's definition of the Assumption—wherein he says nothing new and clears up none of the controversy stemming from the chirpy immortalist crowd, even if the accompanying letter did in fact say she died. The Office readings were altered severely: the first reading is now taken from Genesis chapter 3 and the next two readings from Corinthians (the same passage used in the Requiem Mass). The Pope's encyclical <i>Munificentissimus Deus</i> replaces one of the lessons from St. John of Damascus. The hymns are new and utterly ghastly. And the Mass is entirely new. The Introit is no longer an invitation to joy, but instead an excerpt from Revelation chapter 12. The collect is banal beyond belief and the Gospel is the account of the Annunciation heard at practically every Marian feast now other than the Immaculate Conception. Of all the changes to the feast in 1950, the insertion of Genesis chapter 3 at Mattins and the new Introit of Mass stand out most. Far from according to a "hermeneutic of continuity" with the previous liturgy, these texts exude the images of plaster statues and devotional lithographs so common in the 19th and early 20th century. Who has not seen a plaster statue of the Virgin, clothed in blue, perhaps with a bulbous baroque crown rimmed in twelve stars, standing on a blue globe and crushing the head of a green snake? The problem that arises from this depiction of Mary as crushing sin and standing above the moon, crowned with stars is not so much what it says as much as what it fails to say. The Mary of these images, pieces of art, and, to some extent, devotions is an aggrandized Mary not entirely dependent on Christ for her importance. There is nothing wrong with these texts doctrinally, but they replace other texts that were more coherent, beautiful, and holistically reflective of the Church's understanding of our Lady. The octave was stripped in 1955.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;">As with Holy Week, the same people who created the Pauline liturgy restored a few small portions of what they vitiated in the 1950s. The old<i> Gaudeamus omnes </i>Introit is made available as an option. The Mass as a whole is just as bad as the Pian Mass though. The readings are respectively Revelation 12 and the 1951-1969 Mattins readings from Corinthians; the Gospel is again the Annunciation. <strike>Mattins</strike> The Office of Readings gives Ephesians 1:16-2:10 and again Pius XII's encyclical as the lessons. The mystical understanding of Mary in union with Christ, representing the Church, and the link between the God-Man and mankind is obscured or forgotten. Who can deny that even the most pious of Roman Catholics—far better people than the Rad Trad—only know of Mary through the kitsch statue or as the object of the line "Hail, full of grace"? Again, there is nothing strictly heterodox about this folkish interpretation, but it comes at the cost of the stronger, traditional interpretation of the feast.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;">On a happy note I know of at least one priest who celebrated the old Mass and kept the old Office for August 15 and the octave! This feast, like so many of the most ancient feasts in the Roman rite, brings the faithful deep into the <i>mens </i>of the Church and her theology of the mysteries of God.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px; text-align: center;">Gaudeamus omnes in Domino!</div>The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-5571610094629796272020-08-12T00:00:00.234-05:002020-08-12T00:00:06.542-05:00Tolerance Is a Virtue<p>The old lists of "Catholic Necessaries" once found in missals and prayerbooks include such helpful reminders as the Ten Commandments, the Precepts of the Church, various collections of virtues and vices, and, one that I keep returning to, the Spiritual Works of Mercy. A few of these can be twisted into a kind of know-it-all-ism, like instructing the ignorant or admonishing sinners; others are less susceptible to vanity, like forgiving offenses and praying for the living and the dead. One I meditate upon frequently is phrased variously depending on the source: the USCCB has it as "bearing wrongs patiently," another says "be patient with those in error," but my favorite version (found in the Baronius Press missal) is to "bear patiently the troublesome."</p><p>Not as the world giveth does the Church give admonition to tolerance.</p><p>The unending Season of Covidtide has given Catholics ample opportunity to revisit old grudges and revive familial squabbles. We have bishops publicly announcing private think-tanks for discussing the radicals of the Catholic world and their problematic online presence. We have wannabe-warriors demanding the clergy offer more Masses and fewer facemask requirements. We have eschatological worriers scribbling crypto-chiliastic timelines for our edification. In saner times such persons could be the source of lightly humorous caricature, but we live in times devoid of a sense of humor. We do not think that those who are troublesome to us, inside or outside the Church, are at all funny. Perhaps we should.</p><p>To bear patiently the troublesome does not mean to make excuses for their sins nor to always refrain from calling them out, but it does mean to put into practice one aspect of our Lord's admonition, "Let not your heart be troubled." This work of mercy is also distinct from the simpleton's advice to "never lose your peace" (even when engaged in grave sin). It may mean sometimes that you ought to roll your eyes at stupidity and merely leave a conversation with a slightly insulting but insightful comment, but it should definitely mean that you do not decide it is your mission to "fix" all the faults of your neighbors.</p><p>Tell your brother he should stop fornicating with a lady friend? Certainly. Cancel him for dressing in tweed and rambling on forever about St. Bellarmine? Perhaps this is a good opportunity to bear a troublesome person patiently and leave it be.</p><p>I do not know where all the boundaries lie. Where does one stop bearing patiently and begin the work of instruction and admonition? The application of wisdom often needs to be subtle, differing much by situation. I have seen too many people work themselves into frenzies over things that are morally minor but greatly annoying. They strain out gnats and risk swallowing camels because they have no tolerance for troublesome people.</p><p>In times when stress is imposed by national unrest and global pandemics it is good to be reminded of the patience of Christ in the face of so many troublesome people. He not only had to put up with his own murderers but with his Apostles, and with us.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ONxhl7hEp4/XzKo_GbTqlI/AAAAAAAACB0/cYWhGskgzu482TpDiPrtKAnMJ7FUtdosgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1277/Pacientia_or_Patience.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1277" data-original-width="787" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ONxhl7hEp4/XzKo_GbTqlI/AAAAAAAACB0/cYWhGskgzu482TpDiPrtKAnMJ7FUtdosgCLcBGAsYHQ/w394-h640/Pacientia_or_Patience.jpg" width="394" /></a></div>J.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04821093432726247774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-67630366877913954682020-07-22T20:19:00.003-05:002020-07-23T21:03:37.310-05:00Three Months of the Late Tridentine Breviary<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q85zD7PIhFU/XxjlQvGEZZI/AAAAAAAACbc/VzOMXYmNntwDfjwpmAoxP3CQEmYkiPzAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1039/vesp.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="1039" height="329" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q85zD7PIhFU/XxjlQvGEZZI/AAAAAAAACbc/VzOMXYmNntwDfjwpmAoxP3CQEmYkiPzAQCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h329/vesp.JPG" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Vespers in the Church of S Francis in Assisi</i> by Mikhail Petrovich Botkin</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>My edition of the <i>Breviarium Romanum</i> is an <i>editio post typicam</i> from the era of Pius IX. It includes the feast of Saint Joseph under the title Patron of the Universal Church. Someone printed the additional votive offices of Leo XIII and the instruction to cease transferring Semi-Doubles and put these things in the back at a later date. Since the first week of May I have followed the rubrics and instructions in my Breviary exactly, although I confess my ignorance of when the local cathedral or my home parish were consecrated, so those octaves may have been neglected. What follows are some observances on the late Tridentine Office prior to the alterations of S Pius X.</div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: center;">The Psalter</h4><div><br /></div><div>As noted elsewhere on this blog, by the time of <i>Divino afflatu</i> the Roman Office was encumbered with feasts of nine lessons, bringing out the psalms from the Commons on a near-daily basis outside of Lent and putting the Roman psalter into considerable desuetude. This is largely true in my late Tridentine Office, with even formerly minor saints from the original medieval kalendar of S Pius V receiving promotions of their feasts from Simples to Semi-Doubles. </div><div><br /></div><div>That said, there are still a sufficient number of feriae and Simples in a given month to give the psalter its place. This month the 7th and 9th were feriae while Pius I (11th), Praxedes (21st), Pantoleon (27th), Ss Abdon and Sennen (30th), and the vigil of the Apostle James (24th) all employ the psalter of the day on Simple feasts. Simples still use the Dominical Lauds and Prime psalms, but those hours already have very little true daily variability. Most of the variability happen at Mattins, where the ferial psalms would be said on all of these days. However, given the rarity of adjoining Simples and feriae even in as sparse a month as July, the Vespers of the day are rarely sung unless a lesser feast falls on Sunday. This month only the first Sunday was a Dominical Semi-Double. The rest have been impeded by John Gaulbert, Vincent de Paul, and Saint Anne, the mother of Our Lady. This is a remarkable contrast because in the kalendar of S Pius V the month of July compares to Lent in its sparsity of feasts in between the comparatively festive months of June and August. In this kalendar May and June have more feriae than July.</div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: center;">Variety is the Spice of Life</h4><div><br /></div><div>The monotony of the late Tridentine Office can be overstated. Although there is great repetition of the psalms, the differences in feasts and their nature (bishops, martyrs, virgins, confessors etc) means different Mattins responses, chant tones, and lessons are employed throughout the Office. An Orthodox friend once observed that the true treasure of the Roman Office is the second nocturne of Mattins, with the unique readings on the lives of the saints or the mysteries that day celebrated.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another less obvious source of variety in the late Tridentine Office is the occurring Scripture. Despite the prominence of Double feasts and the <i>de facto</i> ignorance of the ferial psalter most days, the occurring Scripture is generally observed during the first nocturne of Mattins while the lessons from the back of the book only take precedent on the more ancient feasts or feasts which possess unique texts, today's feast of Saint Mary Magdalen being an example.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Office of Our Lady on Saturday was observed a few times during the last three months and of course the Office of the Dead on the first day without a feast of nine lessons was read, too. These do add something to look forward to and supply the medieval spirit of devotion through liturgy to a kalendar with little room for personal discretion.</div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: center;">Repetition</h4><div><br /></div><div>Variety does have its limitations, however, in this Office. Next month is August, the most festive month of the year in the Roman rite, with the feasts of Peter in Chains—ancient and great, the finding of Saint Stephen, the dedication of Our Lady of the Snows, the Transfiguration, Saint Lawrence and his octave, Our Lady's Assumption and her octave, Bernard of Clairveaux, Augustine, Louis IX of France, the Beheading of John the Baptist, and a number of other lesser days. There is not one day without a feast or vigil, and the 1570 kalendar of S Pius V is not much freer. </div><div><br /></div><div>Despite the density of feasts, August has no sequence of identical days. This past week my Breviary called for the exact same texts of a Confessor for four consecutive days (five if factoring in first Vespers). None of the saints were Doctors or martyrs, so aside from the occurring commemorations and Scripture, the exact same Office was said for four days without an octave occurring. This would not be a problem, as octaves are replete in the old kalendar and repeat aspect of the same Office for eight days aside from readings, if not for the fact that this particular Common is used numerous times every single month. At second Vespers of S Camillus de Lellis it instructed me to read Vespers as at first Vespers for a Confessor, non-martyr, non-bishop until the Chapter, at which point I was to switch to the Vespers of S Vincent de Paul, and read onward from the Vespers of a Confessor, non-martyr, non-bishop. By Sunday night I knew instinctively to begin Vespers with <i>Domine quinque talenta tradidisti mihi....</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><h4 style="text-align: center;">Divino Afflatu</h4><div><br /></div><div>These points are important if only because they mean <i>Divino Afflatu</i> outmoded the ancient Roman psalter to fix one problem without fixing the rest. Every day in the S Pius X system is a day of nine psalms and the occurring Scripture is read just as much. While I would not say <i>Domine quinque talenta tradidisti mihi</i> as often I would continue to say the chapter, <i>Iste Confessor</i>, and the antiphon <i> Similabo</i> just as often. The quasi-<i>Novus Ordo</i> nature of the <i>Divino Afflatu</i> rubrics—mixing ferial psalms and festive readings on Simple, Semi-Double, and Double days—means that the tonal diversity of even the late Tridentine Office was suppressed in favor of more or less the same thing weekly. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Divino Afflatu</i> accomplished some reasonable things in the kalendar, making the "lollipop" Dominical feasts optional in favor of fixed days. Formerly the Patronal feast of the Church was always observed on the third Sunday after Pascha, Saint Joachim always fell on the Sunday after the Assumption, the Precious Blood was always the first Sunday of July, and Our Lady of Sorrows was always the third Sunday of September, and Our Lady of the Rosary would always be on the first Sunday of October, permanently suppressing those days. </div><div><br /></div><div>What was needed was not necessarily a reform of the psalter, but a reform of the kalendar. Almost every Italian or French founder of a minor religious order after the Council of Trent found his or her way into the kalendar as a Double feast of the universal Church despite the absence of wider devotion to these saints and their lack of enduring interest. Even a reduction of their ranks to Simple would not clear out the clutter. </div><div><br /></div><div>We need to relearn the craft of local kalendars. Would it be so bad if Camillus de Lellis and Jerome Aemeliani were only on kalendars in Italian dioceses? While local medieval rites are largely extinct, the principle of local kalendars is not and is a good solution to this problem, allowing these saints' veneration to continue where they are revered. Vincent de Paul would be a proper Semi-Double feast in France, widely loved, but perhaps not on the level of their patrons, Michael the Archangel and Joan of Arc.</div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: center;">Going Forward</h4><div><br /></div><div>Despite its repetition, my Breviary does represent the Roman Office and liturgy more fully than what came after it so I will continue to use it. It is the Roman rite, albeit an imbalanced expression of it. Despite its imperfections it also reflects the kalendar, on most days, as it is in both the pre-Pius XII and 1962 rites used by most traditional Catholics today, differences acknowledged (ex. switching S Dominic and S Jean Vianney).</div>The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-47630494903548700142020-07-18T18:35:00.000-05:002020-07-18T18:35:05.267-05:00Taking Stock of the Roman RiteGiven the surreal state of the world during and after the Corona Contagion it may seem difficult to appraise the state of the Roman liturgy. All the same, the liberalization that Benedict XVI initiated turned into a semi-restorationist movement after the red pill that is the Bergoglian pontificate. Mutual enrichment, improving the <i>Novus Ordo</i>, and minimizing abuses were all lauded for six years and then reality struck.<br />
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News of a strange survey to the bishops of the world on the status of the old rite has re-invigorated fortress Tradistan, which is hardly the appropriate response. Two of the questions about the mechanics of how the old Mass is promoted do read oddly, but the idea that the older Missals are under threat looks grossly exaggerated. The supposed plan, rumored a few years ago, that Rome would reconcile the FSSPX, abrogate all permissions, and give the Fraternity total authority seems antipodal to Rome's extension of newer feasts to the older kalendar[s] and the accompanying extension of the old Holy Week, something long gone in the aliturgical FSSPX. After 13 years of ordaining more and more young priests interested in older rites and saying their first Masses the old way, particularly in the United States and some parts of Europe, putting the genie back in the bottle would not be as simple as in 1969.<br />
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Instead, it might be worth thinking about what is worth doing in the future for the old rite, which is not necessarily the same as the 1962 rite. The Roman liturgy has expanded in both ex-Ecclesia Dei and diocesan settings, but requires a bit more direction to take more permanent root among the faithful.<br />
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Priorities</h3>
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The foremost priority should be to get the old Mass, in some way or another, in every parish possible. Yes, there is an entire old liturgy. Yes, there is the question of 1962 vs. the real old rite. Yes, there is the Office. The explosion of old rite Masses in the United States in the last decade has shown interest in the older liturgy to be generally infectious, with priests who do the old Mass, if even only on occasion, adapting the manner of bringing Communion to the home bound or the richer texts in the <i>Rituale</i> for Baptism. </div>
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The laity kept the old Mass alive during a long winter, but its future depends on the willingness of priests not only to say it but also to promote it within the right setting. Saint Mary's in Norwalk, CT is an excellent example of this. Thirteen years ago they began a Sunday-only 1962 Mass in the basement of the parish, for the ordinary would not permit the older Mass to substitute for a new rite Mass in any church schedule, only to supplement it. Within weeks the Mass had to be moved into the main church and they configured their Mass schedule so that it became the main Mass on Sundays. All the same, the weekday and other Sunday Masses were still new rite, in the vernacular. There was a Wednesday night old Mass and the old Mass popped up on liturgically interesting days like Candlemas, but the clergy were careful to nurture interest among the laity rather than force it. A decade later there are now half a dozen other churches within a thirty minute drive, yet Saint Mary's still packs them in on Sundays, does the full old rite Holy Week (Tenebrae and all), and recently instituted weekday Masses in the older form. A forced issue could well have killed the parish or created a situation like that of Fr. Michael Rodriguez in El Paso, TX, but the discretion of three successive pastors has proven out over the last decade and a half.</div>
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With some place in a parish, the older Roman liturgy is more likely to grow than decline or stagnate. This presents a unique opportunity in the "messy" pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, where liturgical propriety and centralization are at their all-time lows in the post-Vatican II Church. As said before on this blog and elsewhere, one reason why the old Holy Week took off, even before the <i>Ecclesia Dei</i> permission for certain groups in certain settings, is the knowledge that the '62 Police are busy with other things or just don't care. The 1962 liturgy—Mass, readings on great feasts, kalendar, psalter, processions, Office etc—is not a full expression of the Roman liturgy and how the faithful have been united to God in prayer in the Western world and its spheres of influence. This affords Catholics ample space and power to promote the genuine old liturgy, either on great days (<i>Gaudeamus omnes </i>on Assumption) or lesser days (add the commemorations on Sundays and feriae).</div>
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This brings us to the third priority, which is the eventual, fullest practice of the liturgy whenever possible. I don't know what some priests, who protest that sung Mass on November 2 or a procession on February 2 is unnecessary, are really doing in their rectories, but they need encouragement to get out into the liturgical world. Fullness of liturgical practice need not mean pulling out all stops on the rare opportunity, in some parish with a once a month Latin Mass on Saturday morning, that the Mass is sung. No need for lace, polyphony, prissy movements, and daily-shined brass on every occasion, but do the liturgy well and at its highest appropriate expression whenever possible. Try to get your <i>Missa cantata</i> to become a solemn Mass, but don't make a "green" Sunday into a Duplex I Classis feast. Try to get first Vespers for your parish's patronal feast if Vespers would be novel in your parish. Ask if Father could give you absolution the old way—it makes Confession shorter. The restriction should not be your imagination, only your prudence.</div>
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The People</h3>
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People who attend the old Mass generally get a "bad rap", as those bereft of the English language say. This is not entirely unjustified, but given fifteen years of experience with the "TLM" in different American and international settings it is fair to say that the eccentrics and "bohemian lunatic fringe" (cf. Geoffrey Hull) give the broader Traditionalist world a bad name.</div>
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This may be a controversial idea, but the best thing people who love the old Mass can do is wait for the day their bishop asks if they want to invite the FSSP or ICRSS into their diocese and then politely decline. Until a few years ago the Traditionalist clerical orders had no presence in New England, save the FSSPX retreat center in Connecticut and one mission Mass they ran elsewhere in the state. There were some of the eccentric Trads to be found, especially the sort who decry the lamentable state of ecclesiastical politics, but generally these were approachable people who had trekked through the difficulties of keeping the old Mass going and hence formed some sort of community, which made the accretion of visitors to the community something very easy. Ten years later many of my old acquaintances threw up their [newly found] fedoras with joy at the news some group was coming to their area. Within weeks the women dressed like characters from Laura Ingalls Wilder, the men complained about the bishops without end, the priests gave nothing but instructional sermons on behavior, and interest in Fatima became the equivalent of moral righteousness. Devotions exceeded interest in the example of the saints. One woman was spiritually unrecognizable seven years later. Those who did not home school suddenly arose suspicion. "Novus Ordo" became a synonym for any disagreeable phenomenon.</div>
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The Saint Peter Fraternity, the Institute of Christ the King, and the other groups are not the problem themselves. Isolation is the problem, and restricting the old Mass to a small parish creates a self-imposed ghetto mentality which simultaneously stunts the old Mass and turns its adherents to reactionaries rather than militants.</div>
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This is not the case everywhere run by the FSSPX, FSSP, and ICRSS, but it is prevalent enough to be a recognizable pattern is sequential pastors allow or encourage this sort of thing. In a world currently tearing down its history and accusing the non-woke of being inherently wicked persons, the last thing anyone needs is a new brand of crazy.</div>
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We should not prefer the old rite because it is less obnoxious than the new, although that is certainly true and a very valid reason for initial interest. We must prefer it because it is the tested means for the Christian to know God and to save his soul, to purify and realize God's image within him. If we accomplish this we may save the Mass and even ourselves.</div>
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The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-35885211543710597652020-07-08T22:17:00.003-05:002020-07-08T22:19:04.400-05:00"Science""Science" is a word. Some self-purported secularists and rationalists seem to believe "science" is a spell, an incantation which calls wisdom and vanquishes superstition.<br />
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I remember some years ago Richard Dawkins and Roger Scruton debated the merits of religion as a social feature on BBC. Agnostic Scruton said Christianity merited its place through its patronage and inspiration for the great arts, namely the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Dawkins, in a trill of intellectual and rhetorical mediocrity, predictably made the platitude that it could have been even more beautiful if a <i>scientist</i> had built it. Applause roared from the mental midgets in the rafters.<br />
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Blame the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment philosophers championed a return to the Greek understanding of reason, at least as they read it, and believed science to be the purest expression of reason, despite the fact that hardly any of them were scientists or mathematicians. The romance with science began with Newton. "God said, 'Let Newton be!' and there was light," saith Alexander Pope. Voltaire and his mistress would translate Newton from Latin or English into French before committing the carnal act, the implication being the the gravitational constant drew Émilie to Francois.<br />
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At its heart science is not "truth" in a conventional sense. Pure science, the sort that can be tethered to mathematics—like physics and astronomy—is a systemic description of physical phenomena. The scientist is a person of unique talents, but also of a narrow temperament that does not equate well outside his sphere. Newton shook the Baroque world with his seemingly <i>ex nihilo</i> theories about gravity, mechanics of movement, and derivative calculus. Those things may be true, but are they truth?<br />
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The Enlightenment writers never said the definition of the derivative is the Truth in such a way as could replace Christ, God, the Church, and conventional morality, but they and their descendants certainly believed that such a mechanical understanding, a discursive sort of deduction could be applied to social and philosophical questions, too.<br />
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In following this thought, philosophers have consigned themselves to total irrelevance in the world. The last brilliant philosopher may have been Wittgenstein. The last meaningful one was Nietzsche. Neither one quite fit the Enlightenment mold, although both could be said to have essayed to find their own place and Mankind's place in a world in which rationalism has killed God. The philosophers' bromide, "science", made <i>scientists</i> into social commentators and pop celebrities, men like Hawking, Dawkins, and Tyson (the value of the contributions to science of these three are very different). None of them has added anything of value to government, to morality, to inspiration for quotidian life, nor have they pointed the direction for a shining future for Mankind, despite some cheer-leading. Common people who today say they "believe in science" and who a century ago said they "believe in reason" and five centuries ago said they "believe in the Scriptures" have no more idea what Darwin <i>really</i> wrote about evolution than they know about Aristotle or the Book of Job. All of this would be fine if only we were not told that science is a model of behavior and thinking fit for all problems and questions.<br />
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History, as Americans are learning today, is an important subject. It is also a very human and hence personal subject. Science has some place to contribute to History as far as testing the age of the documents or digitally recreating events to test purported narratives, but generally reason and understanding are totally different modes of thinking. The former relies on an objective hypothesis, tests it against available facts, and then sets a precedent for the future that others must accept. Understanding is far less linear, far calmer, and far more nuanced. Information can be destroyed or re-discovered. History is often based on a received understanding that forms modern beliefs and attitudes and which hence, even if scarcely documented, must be accepted as the <i>de facto </i>narrative. It is also a subject which is very personal, that is, involving persons and their reasons and hence involving right and wrong. Were the Senators right to kill Julius Caesar? Or for Catholics, what was the understanding of Holy Orders in the first few centuries of the Church? And because progressives love carnal questions, is homosexuality, as we know it today, something that can be found in every society and generation in the past? Science does not purport to have an answer and "science" certainly wants to have an answer.<br />
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Enlightenment thinkers believed reason, and hence science, could answer all Mankind's questions and reform societies in a peaceful, egalitarian manner. They similarly believed education should be more broadly available because it diffused this mechanism for thought. What no Enlightenment writer thought was that reason and the scientific approach was fit for every man. Voltaire wondered what would happen if people ceased to believe in God. Religion became seen as a behavioral educator for the masses while reason was for the educable elite. This understanding of religion and of the non-rational is still espoused by the likes of Jordan Peterson, who still has his merits.<br />
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Instead, religion is gone and "science", or scientism, is a widely believed and un-practiced dogma of the new faith of our day, Materialism. It is like a ejaculatory prayer to be uttered against a <strike>demon</strike> Christian. How hopeless these people would be if they took the time to believe in it.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-33095975477336528402020-07-03T15:01:00.000-05:002020-07-03T15:01:07.847-05:00Fancy CatholicsAre you "fancy"?<br />
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"[Rad Trad], you are verrrrry fancy," I was told by a coworker, chewing and spitting out the words in his deep drawl.<br />
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An old classmate heard that I began attending the Divine Liturgy some years ago and snarled, "Did those babushka ladies and their fancy liturgy win you over from reality?"<br />
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It is with a sense of bedlam and near-resentment that people condescend that which they do not understand as "fancy." Anyone who has attended Vespers at my parish with the Rad Trad himself cantoring knows how very un-fancy the Byzantine rite can be. I was once forbidden to sing the <i>Regina coeli</i> before Mass at the Oxford Oratory, but the Greek rite singing loud is preferable to singing well, making me an ideal cantor for lesser services.<br />
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The concept of an ordered <i>taxis</i> is offensive to some Catholics born a generation ago, reared during the post-Vatican II "liturgy wars" between parishes that did not rip out their pipe organs and the more modern parishes with priests refusing to don the chasuble and singers strumming guitars. The general calming down since those days and the revival of the real Roman Mass exposed a new generation to an altogether different type of worship, where order regulates each step and each office dictates ontologically who does what. The choir sings the Introit in the Roman Mass, the subdeacon sings the Epistle in the Roman Mass, the cantor chants the <i>stichera</i> at Greek Vespers. There is no question of which opening song, who lectors, and which cantor will wave her arms during the responsorial psalm. Indeed, the music isn't much harder than secular musical styles, they just require a few months of patience to learn.<br />
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So how did liturgically minded Catholics, especially the Traditionalists, get so "fancy"?<br />
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It was in part our own making. In order to retain the old Mass during the years betwixt <i>Missale Romanum</i> and <i>Summorum Pontificum</i>, mainstream Catholics had to concoct some reason, other than those expounded by the likes of Michael Davies and Mgr. Lefebvre, to continue the old Mass. In places like France the Liturgical Movement baked the liturgy into the piety of those who wished to continue it. In the Anglosphere this was untrue and required a different approach.<br />
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The solution was to champion the old Mass for its cultural value, its great aesthetic beauty, and its unique features like periods of quiet. This is certainly how many American Catholics had to approach their bishops following the 1984 and 1988 "liberalizations" under John Paul II and it was similar to the approach of the the writers of the "Agatha Christie" indult:<br />
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"Today, as in times gone by, educated people are in the vanguard where recognition of the value of tradition in concerned, and are the first to raise the alarm when it is threatened. We are not at this moment considering the religious or spiritual experience of millions of individuals. The rite in question, in its magnificent Latin text, has also inspired a host of priceless achievements in the arts - not only mystical works, but works by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs. Thus, it belongs to universal culture as well as to churchmen and formal Christians. In the materialistic and technocratic civilisation that is increasingly threatening the life of mind and spirit in its original creative expression - the word - it seems particularly inhuman to deprive man of word-forms in one of their most grandiose manifestations. The signatories of this appeal, which is entirely ecumenical and non-political, have been drawn from every branch of modern culture in Europe and elsewhere."</blockquote>
Thus, we did not wish to be "fancy," but became fancy for a time nonetheless. Anyone who has ever attended spoken Mass at an FSSPX church or in a pre-<i>Summorum </i>indult Mass at 3pm in a ghetto knows how very un-adorned the old Mass and its attendees really are, unadorned with silly instruments and bored people wanting to take their turn in front.<br />
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We have all heard this canard before, but I hear it less and less with each passing year. That is some cause for optimism.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-64630870614125400262020-06-28T22:43:00.001-05:002020-06-28T22:43:25.833-05:00Marital Admonitions: Tradition or Liturgical Abuse?The wedding went off without too many hitches, the Mass very a well sung <i>Missa cunctipotens Genitor Deus</i>, and Arcadelt's <i>Ave Maria</i> graced the offertory. As a silver lining, we did not have to endure a sermon! The Mass did have one tiny feature that I have only seen at nuptial ceremonies conducted by the FSSP, that of inserting "admonitions" into the liturgical texts of the Nuptial vows and votive Mass.<br />
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I have attended several pre-1970 wedding Masses and the three or four I have heard at FSSP parishes are the only ones which contain this particular practice. Indeed, it is somewhat hard to equivocate what this practice is because it varies a little every time I attend a wedding in such a setting. This past wedding, a solemn high Mass, the "admonition" was a speech or instruction read from a print-out prior to the vows laid out in the <i>Rituale Romanum</i>. It contained the familiar "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today....", the secular "If anyone knows any reason why these two should not be joined....", a some good words on the nature of marriage as a Sacrament of God and for His own ends. Then followed the straightforward exchange of vows, the blessing of the ring[s], and the solemnization by the priest dictated in the <i>Rituale</i>. As a preface to the actual rites of marriage and as a means of sprucing up the rather bare Roman rites of nuptial, one could do worse. On the other hand, one could do more.<br />
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During another wedding at the same parish, a low Mass celebrated by a different priest, the same opening "admonition" was read before the vows. Then prior to the blessing of the bride which follows the <i>Pater noster</i> yet another vernacular admonition was read. Then came the blessing for fecundity following the <i>Placeat tibi</i>, which was again preceded by several paragraphs of vernacular admonitions—textually forgotten to this writer. Yet another wedding attended months early had an even different pattern.<br />
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Consultation with a 1910 Missal, a Baronius hand Missal, a 1945 St. Joseph Missal, the Ecclesia Dei (RIP) hand booklet, and the Paul V and Pius XII editions of the <i>Rituale Romanum</i> reveals no mandate or precedent for this practice. The closest thing is a warning that contracting marriage prior to denouncing heresy does not invalidate the union. Interestingly, pastors were warned against marrying cohabitants, but were allowed to marry the homeless under certain conditions.<br />
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So are extensive "admonitions" a tradition, an elaboration of the Nuptial rites, or an outright abuse?The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-54371662686827750262020-06-26T20:19:00.000-05:002020-06-26T20:19:18.510-05:00Should You Fall in Love?Should you love your fiancée? Most people think you should these days, although what that entails is somehow less clear. Adducing the Angelic Doctor's obvious belief that love is "to will the good of another" falls like a cymbal on the ears of the faithless and even on some of the faithful.<div>
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Tomorrow I have the unique opportunity to attend a marriage that was neither arranged nor the result of a protracted period of dating and wooing. In short, it fits into neither the modern nor historical modes of contracting a bond to a significant other. The two parties have decided that their union is a matter of spiritual welfare, of necessity for both to live out their lives meaningfully. In some sense they have followed the millennial tendency to look for "relationships" rather than to "fall in love". But is this right?</div>
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It would be hard to fault millennial for refusing to repeat the sins of their parents and grandparents in the realm of marriage. Despite their general proclivity for supporting homosexual unions, they statistically are less promiscuous than the prior two generations and are less apt to divorce. As children of the Great Recession and ex-students burdened with crushing student loan debt, they marry later than the previous generations if they wed at all. While miles off the ideal, they have sought stability rather than the impulse of "falling in love," and for that they deserve some small degree of commendation.</div>
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But is it right to seek a "relationship" instead of "love"? A "relationship" today is a functional arrangement. Both parties have compatible values, they have similar or non-conflicting goals, they can lean on each other for emotive comfort. This is in contrast to those who just "fall in love."</div>
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"Falling in love" has its roots in the wealthier medieval city states, places with robust mercantile classes who needed neither the family alliances of the nobles nor the stable expectations of the feudal vassals. They could afford to marry because they <i>wanted</i> to marry. One might assume that the Montague and Capulet families of<i> Romeo and Juliet</i> were members of this class rather than the landed aristocracy.</div>
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Some centuries into the future post-War American children are compelled to marry at the youthful ages of their parents and yet they are disposed to listlessness owing to an historically unprecedented wealth and security. Teenage angst isn't real, it was invented in the 1950s along with Rock & Roll and songs about puppy love, "unconsummated lust" as Harold Bloom called it. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Elvis, the Isley Brothers, Four Seasons, Phil Spectre, and every other recording outfit beamed tunes to the same theme as <i>And Then He Kissed Me:</i> boy meets girl, girl likes boy, girl loves boy, boy marries girl. This generation discovered that unlike their parents' initial meetings in churches and familial settings, lusting after someone at prom was not a substantial basis for marriage.</div>
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Today's "relationship" outlook on dating is much more in accord with the arranged unions and familial ties of past times. It does not mean these people did not grow to love each other and did not become genuine partners in life. It does mean that marriage includes a vow to love another and does not codify existing attractions. In this sense marriage is much more difficult than we like to imagine. Unions in which the husband and wife are best friends, lovers, and parents are really rare and always have been. By contrast, the "blessed continence" and consideration of the "blessed life" extolled by Saint Augustine as much easier to follow faithfully than the long term consequences of "And then he asked me to be his bride/ And always stand right by his side/ I felt so happy I almost cried/ And then he kissed me". Like all things with our fallen nature, there is no perfect formula, but there is the power of God within the Sacraments to make it work.</div>
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The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-71640429863606029352020-06-13T21:05:00.002-05:002020-06-15T09:41:44.396-05:00In OctavamWe are in the midst of yet another octave, the third in four weeks and the first, depending on which kalendar you use, of four in the coming weeks. June is a celebratory month in contrast to the starkness of the following month of July, perhaps intended by the Church as a gradual easement into green season after the timely joy of Paschaltide.<br />
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The octave we now hold, that of Corpus Christi, is generally like most other octaves in the traditional kalendar and somewhat unlike the three retained in the 1962 kalendar. The Mass and Office are repeated every day that is not a feast of nine lessons, and the octave is commemorated when such a feast does fall within the octave. On the eighth day the Mass is resumed with solemnity and no unnecessary commemorations and the Office returns to a Duplex formula. It concludes the festivity by re-iterating the feast itself in most cases, although there are exceptions such as the unique Mass on the Octave Day of Ss Peter & Paul, retained in the 1962 Missal at least as a votive Mass of the Saints.<br />
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Our three most unique octaves, however, which survived Papa Pacelli's scissors, really do not follow this pattern very well at all. Pascha and Pentecost admit no feasts whatsoever. The Nativity octave need not concern itself with this since it is already both <i>de tempore</i> and sanctoral. What is most extraordinary is that their octave days resemble the feast very little.<br />
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White Sunday is a privileged Double with the Dominical Office of 18 Mattins psalms, the return of hymnody, no <i>Victimae paschali laudes</i> at Mass, and no <i>Alleluia</i> appended to the dismissals. At first glance it might appear that the Holy Saturday Mass and is in fact more Paschal than the Paschal Octave Day. In fact in these eldest rites the eighth day marks a point of departure in bringing the character of the feast back into normality. By contrast, the Holy Saturday Mass anticipated the Resurrection without explicitly making it present.<br />
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In a like manner, the last day of the Christmas octave synthesizes the Nativity of Christ, the Circumcision, and the motherhood of Our Lady. The Office is completely different from that of the preceding Nativity days and those of the <i>comites Christi</i>, instead following the psalmnody of a Marian feast. Only the collect of Mass, however, reflects this Marian character. The Introit is that of the third Mass of Christmas day, but the readings are of Christ's circumcision. The hymns are not those of the Nativity itself, but the purpose of the feast is clearly the end of celebration of His birth.<br />
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Pentecost does not appear to have a proper octave day, although Trinity Sunday could reasonably be considered a crowning point of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the life-giving Trinity now revealed and manifested. The compunction of <i>Alleluias</i> from Paschaltide is gone as is the <i>Regina coeli</i>. Indeed, the Byzantine rite also ends its Pentecost—on Sunday—with a transition back to normality with "kneeling" Vespers, reviving the prostrations in the Office and after the epiclesis during the Liturgy. And yet in the Byzantine rite the week following Pentecost is not an official extension of the feast, but it is called Trinity Week and fasting is banned.<br />
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Perhaps those Orientalizing, archaeologizing vitiations weren't so wise after all?The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-6408536125033505482020-06-04T15:04:00.002-05:002020-06-05T11:57:41.803-05:00Dealing with Urban QuestionsNo, not the self-inflicted chaos hitting most American cities, but rather some more relevant to our season of Pentecost.<br />
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Urban VIII's classicizing revision of the Latin hymns has received more attention in recent years thanks to examples on New Liturgical Movement. The Michaelmas hymn was so altered that it adapted to an entirely different meter and verse structure. The hymn for the octave of Pentecost, <i>Veni, Creator Spiritus,</i> received a more modest revision, with hardly anything changing until the Doxology.<br />
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The choice to revise this hymn at all is curious in light of the changes Urban's committee of Jesuits, priests unbound to the communal Office, decided to make. Almost all the changes, except for one line, were to word order and not to vocabulary or verse. Why, for instance, change "donum Dei altissimi" to "altissimi donum Dei"? In the older order the shift from <i>donum</i> to <i>Dei</i> coincided with the melody, making a more seamlessly singable text than the slightly awkward result for that line. The only noticeable difference was the change of "dexterae Dei tu digitus" to "digitus paternae dexterae".<br />
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Then comes the doxology. According to the generally reliable, but not always current, <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15341a.htm">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> the Congregation of Sacred Rites did not decide until 1899 that the Paschal doxology would be used on all occasions for this hymn. The oldest doxology given for this hymn ("Sit laus Patri cum Filio / Sancto simul Paraclito / Nobisque mittat Filius / Charisma Sancti Spiritus") fell out of use during the Middle Ages. Certainly the Congregation for Rites' decision was not very innovative, as 19th century laymen's books generally note the Paschaltide ending is always used.<br />
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As an interesting aside, the 1875 <i>Serving Boy's Manual and Book of Public Devotions</i> gives the pre-Urban proper doxologies for all hymns. With Gregorian chant out of style in favor of polyphony and choral music throughout the Counter-Reformation and Baroque ages, the older texts may have benefited from the fact the better music of those styles was generally written before Papa Barberini. Much like Pius XII's psalter, Urban's hymnody may have been more widely ignored than most are aware.<br />
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Traditional Text<o:p></o:p></div>
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Veni, Creator Spiritus,<o:p></o:p></div>
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mentes tuorum visita,<o:p></o:p></div>
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imple superna gratia,<o:p></o:p></div>
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quae tu creasti pectora.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Qui Paraclitus diceris,<br />
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donum Dei altissimi,<o:p></o:p></div>
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fons vivus, ignis, caritas,<o:p></o:p></div>
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et spiritalis unctio.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tu septiformis munere,<o:p></o:p></div>
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dexterae Dei tu digitus,<o:p></o:p></div>
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tu rite promissum Patris,<o:p></o:p></div>
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sermone ditans guttura.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Accende lumen sensibus,<o:p></o:p></div>
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infunde amorem cordibus,<o:p></o:p></div>
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infirma nostri corporis<o:p></o:p></div>
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virtute firmans perpeti.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hostem repellas longius,<o:p></o:p></div>
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pacemque dones protinus:<o:p></o:p></div>
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ductore sic te praevio,<o:p></o:p></div>
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vitemus omne noxium.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Per te sciamus, da, Patrem,<o:p></o:p></div>
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noscamus atque Filium,<o:p></o:p></div>
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te utriusque Spiritum<o:p></o:p></div>
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credamus omni tempore.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Gloria Patri Domino,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Natoque, qui a mortuis<o:p></o:p></div>
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surrexit, ac Paraclito,<o:p></o:p></div>
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in saeculorum saecula. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Veni, Creator Spiritus,<o:p></o:p></div>
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mentes tuorum visita,<o:p></o:p></div>
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imple superna gratia<o:p></o:p></div>
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quae tu creasti pectora.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Qui diceris Paraclitus,<o:p></o:p></div>
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altissimi donum Dei,<o:p></o:p></div>
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fons vivus, ignis, caritas,<o:p></o:p></div>
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et spiritalis unctio.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tu, septiformis munere,<o:p></o:p></div>
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digitus paternae dexterae,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tu rite promissum Patris,<o:p></o:p></div>
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sermone ditans guttura.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Accende lumen sensibus:<o:p></o:p></div>
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infunde amorem cordibus:<o:p></o:p></div>
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infirma nostri corporis<o:p></o:p></div>
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virtute firmans perpeti.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hostem repellas longius,<o:p></o:p></div>
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pacemque dones protinus:<o:p></o:p></div>
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ductore sic te praevio<o:p></o:p></div>
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vitemus omne noxium.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Per te sciamus da Patrem,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
noscamus atque Filium;<o:p></o:p></div>
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Teque utriusque Spiritum<o:p></o:p></div>
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credamus omni tempore.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Deo Patri sit gloria,<o:p></o:p></div>
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et Filio, qui a mortuis<o:p></o:p></div>
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surrexit, ac Paraclito,<o:p></o:p></div>
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in saeculorum saecula.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-22580633054369852692020-05-30T00:00:00.000-05:002020-05-30T00:00:08.374-05:00The Vigil of Pentecost<div data-original-attrs="{"style":"text-align: justify;"}" style="text-align: justify;">
Pentecost is too big, too vast, too intimidating for any singular explanation, but the Roman liturgy's rich vigil for this feast nurtures the faithful with some food for thought. Let us consider the liturgy of the Roman rite for this great feast, second only to the Sunday of the Resurrection in importance.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" data-original-attrs="{"style":"font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"}" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">source: traditionalmass.org</td></tr>
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The vigil commences with the celebrant—vested in a violet chasuble—kissing the altar and following the lectors, who read six prophecies from the Old Testament, interspersed with collects sung by the celebrant. The first lesson is the familiar story of Abraham ascending a mountain with his son Isaac, prepared to sacrifice his only child in obedience to God. An angel intervenes and tells a relieved Abraham that God would never really do such a thing. All of this was proclaimed on Holy Saturday, prefiguring Christ's willingness to sacrifice everything to the Father on behalf of the world. Pentecost enters this passage late at the point when God rewards Abraham's fidelity by promising "I will bless thee and multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the seashore.... and in thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because thou hast obeyed My voice."<br /><br />The second prophecy is an extraction from Exodus 14, wherein the Pharaoh's forces chase the Israelites through the desert and into the Red Sea, which St. Moses has just parted by the Lord's command. The Lord then tells Moses to close the Sea and drown the Egyptians, which he does. The tract continues the passage:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified: the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea: He is become my helper and protector unto salvation...."</blockquote>
These two prophecies speak of the same thing, Baptism. Water is a symbol of creation and the essential ingredient of all that lives. Yet water is also uncertain, difficult to control. Genesis chapter 1 speaks of water roaming the earth before it had form. God used water to protect the Israelites from the Egyptians. Egypt itself is a type, a parallel, an example of sin and loss and here God saves His people—fulfilled and most perfectly expressed in the Church—through water. Through water He will "multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven," only He will no longer multiply Abraham's progeny through obedience, but Christ's Church through Sacrament. The second collect of the vigil demands this interpretation:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"O God, who by the light of the New Testament hast made clear to us the miracles wrought in earliest times, prefiguring unto us the Red Sea as an image of the sacred font, and Who in the deliverance of Thy people from the bondage of Egypt, hast foreshadowed the sacraments of the Christian dispensation; grant that all nations who have merited by faith the privilege of the children of Israel, may be born again by partaking of Thy holy Spirit."</blockquote>
The third prophecy, take from Deuteronomy 31, compares and contrasts closely with the Ascension of Christ. Moses, nearing death, has taken care to write down his encounters and history with God. He abjures and confronts his fellows Israelites for their infidelity to God, "For I know that, after my death, you will do wickedly, and will quickly turn aside from the way that I have commanded you." The scripture, excluded from this passage, goes on to tell us that his bones were never found. This is extraordinary. Moses joins Elijah, Enoch, and the Blessed Mother among those whose bones have not been found and the others were taken bodily by the Lord, Elijah in a chariot of fire and our Lady after her death in Jerusalem. Moses, a prefigurement of Christ who leads God's people out of bondage, many believe, Jews included, was also taken up by God. Should he have been assumed by God then an strong parallel with the Ascension presents itself. Christ of course was not assumed into heaven, but rather ascended through His own power as God. Moses brought people forth from human bondage and Christ from spiritual bondage. Both died and were raised, so to speak, and rebuked their followers for their lack of faith. Moses's followers would continue to fail God, even if they would eventually reach the promised land and create a kingdom of Israel. Christ, in a marked contrast, promises something perfect that will never be lost, a "Helper" (meaning of the word Paraclete) to preserve the faithful "in all truth." He ascends telling the Apostles to "baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.... For I am with you always, even until the end of the world." Moses's deliverance from slavery is made perfect in Christ's words.<br /><br />The fourth prophecy again anticipates the inception of the Church in the Baptism of its members, "the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning" (Isaiah chapter 4). At this point perhaps the faithful should consider what Baptism is. It is the movement of water over a person's skin with a Trinitarian formula, yes, but it is so much more, too. "Baptism" derives from a similar Greek word meaning "to immerse" or "to plunge." To be "plunged" into Christ and in the name of the Trinity is more than to enter a visible community or lose a sentence of punishments condine to one's sins. To be "plunged" into Christ is to be immersed and filled with the very life of Christ given by the Holy Spirit, Who, St. Gregory reminds the Church of Rome during Mattins of the feast, is the love of God Himself. The Holy Spirit, to be simplistic, is God's love working and doing something, creating or renewing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes this rebirth in Baptism through water, the physical essential in life and the material, again referencing Genesis chapter 1, which formlessly covered the earth before creation. Water is also like the Holy Spirit, or "Holy Wind" to take a very literal translation, in that water is not easily contained, limited, narrowed, or defined. It enters through crevices unseen and can also be lost by poor care through other unanticipated openings. It is this in water that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, renews His creation. It is for this reason so many commentators have adduced the psalm from the <i>Vidi aquam </i>"I saw water flowing from the right side of the Temple, alleluia; and all to whom this water came were saved...." Therefore the Church uses as her last prophecy in the vigil Ezekiel 37:1-14:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Thus saith the Lord God, Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again. And I prophesied as He had commanded me; and the spirit came unto them; and they lived; and they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.... Thus saith the Lord, I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O My people, and will bring you into the land of Israel.... and you shall have put My spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land; saith the Lord almighty."</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" data-original-attrs="{"style":"font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"}" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">source: traditionalmass.org</td></tr>
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A procession then brings the sacred ministers to the baptistry where the font's waters are again blessed and infused with chrism, itself a priestly thing, as on Holy Saturday. The Paschal candle, extinguished on Ascension Thursday after the Gospel, reappears. Let not the importance of its reappearance be lost. As Dr. Laurence Hemming adumbrates in his <i>Worship as Revelation</i>, all the fires in a church are to be lit from the Paschal fire much as the Presence of Christ in the Sacraments comes from Christ's Incarnation and work on earth. The Paschal candle is extinguished at the end of forty days because, as with Christ and the Sacraments, its purpose, to diffuse holy fire, is accomplished. The fire remains without the candle's use just as Christ remains in the Church without a bodily physical presence. The candle returns because it symbolizes the Resurrection, the event which made this new life in the Holy Spirit possible. The celebrant plunges the candle into the font, almost baptizing the font with the candle rather the other way around. The celebrant sparges the faithful with the blessed water, infuses the chrism, and baptizes catechumens into Christ and His Resurrection. More adept parishes will also have the good sense to administer confirmation at this time, giving the neophytes the Holy Spirit and His "sevenfold gifts."<br /><br />After the baptisms all who have been "baptized into Christ" on earth sing the Litanies of Saints, imploring the intercession of those in heaven who are the perfection of God's promise to Abraham, "multipl[ied] as stars of heaven." The saints, together with those on earth baptized into Christ, form the Church and carry that same Spirit and fire found on Holy Saturday. Pentecost makes the Resurrection permanent on earth, preserved in the Church unto ages of ages.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" data-original-attrs="{"style":"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Mass follows immediately during the vigil. The lesson, taken from Acts of the Apostles, recounts Paul's preaching of the Baptism of Christ, or into Christ, to the Ephesians, hitherto only aware of St. John the Baptist's baptism of repentance. The alleluia is the same as on Holy Saturday. And in the Gospel St. John tells of Jesus saying "If you love me, keep my commandments." What is the Holy Spirit other than the strength to do this? This simple, demanding sentence of Christ calls to mind James 2:18, "I will show you my faith by my works." The Holy Spirit creates, re-creates, renews, strengthens, and preserves the Church in Christ, of Christ, and for Christ, as foretold to the prophets long ago. He makes all things anew, fashioning a new, holier creation out of the materials and persons of the existing, fallen creation. And He will remain with us until the very end.<br /><br />In a rare moment the Byzantine tradition has a far simpler and more understated take than the Roman Church. The Greek theology of this feast can be found in the troparion of Penteost, which I heard today at Divine Liturgy and last evening at Vespers:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Blessed are You, O Christ our God, You have filled the fishermen with wisdom by sending down the Holy Spirit upon them, and Who through them have caught in Your net the whole world. O Lover of mankind, glory to You!"</blockquote>
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The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-86485385610086413072020-05-28T21:13:00.001-05:002020-05-28T21:13:45.178-05:00Taking LeaveHoly Week occupies a place of supreme importance in the Christian life, even if it is but seven days of 365 in one year. Similarly, the first week of May, also a victim of the machinators and pseudo- reformers of the mid-20th century. Amidst Good Friday and Joe the Communist day the more prevalent losses to the kalendar felt throughout the year are less apparent until days like today.<br />
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Octaves are a Latin observance, but the idea behind them is common to some Eastern Churches, too. In my Byzantine parish we were blessed to resume Vespers yesterday, a complicated affair that involved pooling the texts of the after-feast of the Ascension, the after-feast of the Fathers of the Nicene Council, of Saint Nicetas, and plain Wednesday.<br />
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Much like the old Roman rite, the Byzantine Horologion observes the great feasts for more than just the day of the feast itself. Again, like the Roman rite, the texts are usually only proper on the greatest of the great of feasts, like Pascha. For our recent liturgical service, we were often repeating the texts and chants of the feast itself, much as the Roman Mass and Office do for the Ascension and unlike the octave of Pentecost.<br />
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Great feasts of the Byzantine rite last a full week in the case of Candlemas, the Dormition, and the Transfiguration. They count the entirety of Paschaltide, from the Sunday of the Resurrection until the vigil of the Ascension, as one long observance of the feast. Some are shorter, lasting only four days in the case of Our Lady's Presentation.<br />
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The Ascension is unusually a day longer than most, its "leave taking" falling on the <i>second</i> Friday after the feast. This puts the Byzantine practice in accord with the pre-Pian Roman liturgy, which observed the Ascension as a feast for an octave, but repeated the Office on the open Friday after the Ascension (provided no feast of nine lessons fell on that day) and Saturday morning, changing the texts and colors at None for the Pentecost vigil.<br />
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All the more reason to "take leave" of the 1962 books for the entirety of the year.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-48574605921522238132020-05-24T16:37:00.001-05:002020-05-24T16:37:13.744-05:00Looking for Perspective III: A Church or The Church?In our last look on the crisis of confidence orthodox Catholics face we looked at the <a href="https://theradtrad.blogspot.com/2020/04/looking-for-perspective-ii-chatter.html">"chatter machine"</a>, the religious bad news industry which makes writers' livings by stirring up the mixed emotions of the faithful and, inadvertently, weakening their resolve. That is the media creating side of this equation, but what about the media consuming side?<br />
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For those of us who neither make the news nor filter it for benighted readers we are left to take whatever is out there and let it take hold over us. Even if the news is untrue it influences public prejudices and sentiments, which are very hard to break even after reality is exposed (cf. Russiagate). It is for this reason that we Catholics struggle against the chatter machine.<br />
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We endure bad news, but we will keep our faith. Or will we?<br />
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In our post-Modern, post-Enlightenment world we perceive truth to be a relative thing, even if we profess Truth, the person of Jesus Christ, to be an absolute reality upon which every human person depends for salvation. So when the chatter machine finally gets to Mrs. Dithers or young Jack, both are left with a variety of options as to where they can pursue that absolute Truth.<br />
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Our infinite optionitis abounds. I once met an Anglican after Lessons & Carols at the Church of the Incarnation (Anglican) in Dallas who professed that the Catholic Church was the true Church of Christ and that she had maintained the integrity of Apostolic teaching. What was stopping him from making a change? "You guys gotta get rid of that Novus Ordo Mass." Yes, we do, but your parish offers a "modern" and "relevant" rock and roll service in a function room led by a clergyman wearing black trousers and a clerical collar rather vestments. "Yes, but I don't have to go to that, whereas if I was a Catholic I might have to go to a new rite Mass at some point."<br />
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Lapsed Catholics abound. While most fall away as the remnants of the Christian culture fade into history some leave fairly good situations. A fellow I knew during my post-university years left the Church to become Greek Orthodox, convinced that liberalism would never take hold there. After a year he was disillusioned, hopped through progressively more reactionary Orthodox settings until landing in ROCOR, and attends a parish where the women dress like 19th century Russian peasants while the men pretend they want to be there.<br />
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All of this betrays the underlying relativism available to us today. To one shaken by current affairs, especially as given to us by the chatter machine, <i>the </i>Church becomes <i>a</i> Church, something the great reforming saints of the past would never consider nor would the rich and the poor, the educated and the simple who supported their efforts. Saint Francis de Sales did not believe he had the moral option to become a Calvinist, or a secularist, or an Old Believer, or a night-club patron even if he did in fact have the social ability to become at least two of those choices.<br />
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We can be anything—quite literally—imaginable except a confident, stable person who adheres to sure ideas. Confidence is not the same as close mindedness, a reactionary attitude nor is openness an amenability to any and every possibility. Never before have we had so many options to determine what "I am the way, the truth, and the life" means for us, because what it means is actuality is less important to most of us than it ought to be.<br />
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Christ gave each and every human person a conscience and He gave to the Church His own authority through the succession of Apostles. One thinks of the example of Newman, who first came to dissent from prevailing Anglican teaching after years of study, but upon being received by Dominic Barberi into "the one true fold" looked upon the Church as his teacher rather than as the place where similar opinions were held.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-21120547200374584682020-05-21T00:00:00.000-05:002020-05-21T00:00:02.769-05:00Ascension of the Lord<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mosaic of the Ascension of the Cathedral of Monreale</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 15.84px;">From the first sermon on the Ascension of Pope St. Leo the Great:</span><br />
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"After the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein the Divine Power raised up in three days the true Temple of God Which the iniquity of the Jews had destroyed<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">,</span> God was pleased to ordain, by His Most Sacred Will, and in His Providence for our instruction and the profit of our souls, a season of forty days which season, dearly beloved brethren, doth end on this day. During that season the bodily Presence of the Lord still lingered on earth, that the reality of the fact of His having risen again from the dead might be armed with all needful proofs. The death of Christ had troubled the hearts of many of His disciples their thoughts were sad when they remembered His agony upon the Cross, His giving up of the Ghost, and the laying in the grave of His lifeless Body, and a sort of hesitation had begun to weigh on them.</blockquote>
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"Hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples, who had been fearful at the finishing on the Cross, and doubtful of the trustworthiness of the rising again, were so strengthened by the clear demonstration of the fact, that, when they saw the Lord going up into the height of heaven, they sorrowed not, nay they were even filled with great joy And, in all verity, it was a great an unspeakable cause for joy to see the Manhood, in the presence of that the multitude of believers, exalted above all creatures even heavenly, rising above the ranks of the angelic armies and speeding Its glorious way where the most noble of the Archangels lie far behind, to rest no lower than that place where high above all principality and power, It taketh Its seat at the right hand of the Eternal Father, Sharer of His throne, and Partaker of His glory, and still of the very man's nature which the Son hath taken upon Him.</blockquote>
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"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us also rejoice with worthy joy, for the Ascension of Christ is exaltation for us, and whither the glory of the Head of the Church is passed in, thither is the hope of the body of the Church called on to follow. Let us rejoice with exceeding great joy, and give God glad thanks. This day is not only the possession of Paradise made sure unto us, but in the Person of our Head we are actually begun to enter into the heavenly mansions above. Through the unspeakable goodness of Christ we have gained more than ever we lost by the envy of the devil. We, whom our venomous enemy thrust from our first happy home, we, being made of one body with the Son of God, have by Him been given a place at the right hand of the Father with Whom He liveth and reigneth, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen."</blockquote>
The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-39522240136236493902020-05-07T16:27:00.002-05:002020-05-07T16:51:02.579-05:00Ancient Initiation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Holy Saturday has passed. If you followed it as I did, you watched the blessing of the fire and Exultet, left for two hours, and returned to a live stream during the Litanies of the Saints. Very few Christians were initiated into the Church's Sacraments this year.<br />
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In prior years, and <i>Deo volens</i> in the future, catechumens would be cleansed in the healing waters of Baptism after the celebrant exorcised and blessed those waters. While the history of the Roman Mass and Office are well documented other facets are not. The inversion of Confirmation and Communion ages in most countries is recent enough that it requires little research. However, changes to the rites of those Sacraments themselves are more obscure.<br />
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Baptism, Confirmation, and Confession as they are given in the <i>Rituale Romanum</i> and <i>Pontificale Romanum</i> reflect the administration of those Sacraments for other a thousand years. Indeed, all the antiquarianism of the <i>Consilium</i> did not yield a return to public penance and public absolution. Nor did it effect a return to the passive form of Baptism given in the older books.<br />
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The Gelasian Sacramentary is an 8th century Frankish recension of the Roman orations and feasts c.700 AD. It <i>probably</i> reflects the practice of the Roman Church at that time, but separating what was Roman and what was local is not that straight forward. All the same, its texts for Holy Saturday are very near what comes to us in the Curial Missal published by S Pius V and which happily continues to this day. The ceremony in both the Frankish-Roman Sacramentary and the Roman Missal concludes the pre-Mass ceremonies with the initiation of candidates into the Church.<br />
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In the Gelasian book, after the blessing of the font and waters the "celebrant"* baptizes using this ritual.<br />
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C: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?<br />
R: I do believe.<br />
C: And do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was born and suffered?<br />
R: I do believe.<br />
C: And do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Church, the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the flesh?<br />
R: I do believe.</blockquote>
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After each "I do believe" the celebrant immerses the candidate in the holy water thrice. Most ancient sources describe full submersion, which was most likely here given that the neophytes were almost always children by 700 AD, but sprinkling, splashing, and pouring are all attested as methods, too.<br />
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The celebrant then, as retained in the traditional <i>Rituale Romanum</i>, anoints the neophyte with sacred Chrism saying these words:<br />
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"The almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has caused you to be born over again of water and the Holy Spirit and pardoned you all your sins. May He now anoint you with the chrism that sanctifies in Christ Jesus our Lord, and bring you to everlasting life."</blockquote>
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Then follows a very familiar Confirmation. The Sacramentary does not use the term "Confirmation" anywhere, since Baptism and Confirmation were part of the same ritual at this point and initiation was almost always performed by the bishop, but the text does state "Therefor, they are given the seven gifts of the Spirit by the bishop by placing his hands over them with these words." The words given are the same as in the <i>Pontificale</i> and <i>Rituale</i> of S Pius V without the interpolated "Amen" between the seven spiritual gifts:<br />
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"Almighty everlasting God, who once gave new life to these servants of yours by water and the Holy Spirit, forgiving them all their sins; send forth on them from heaven your Holy Spirit, the Advocate, along with His sevenfold gifts, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, fill them with the Spirit of holy fear. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever."</blockquote>
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The only addition in the post-Tridentine books is the accretion of "and seal them with the sign of the cross of Christ, in token of everlasting life" before "We ask this...."<br />
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As with Baptism, the form of Confirmation is very different from either the more recent Roman books or traditions of the Eastern Churches. The bishop merely anoints the "front" of the neophyte with the words "The sign of Christ unto life ever lasting." The neophyte responds "Amen." The bishop greets him as a Christian: "Peace be with you" and receives the reply "And with your spirit."<br />
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Without a break the Litanies (of Saints) begin immediately followed by the <i>Gloria in excelsis</i> and the Mass starts.<br />
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* = "Celebrant" is an ambiguous term here given that a bishop would normally be the celebrant in a ceremony such as this and he is referenced separately. It may refer to this service when a bishop is not present, in which case Baptism could be given, but Confirmation reserved to the bishop.<br />
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It may also mean specifically the celebrant of the Sacrament of Baptism. A few odd sources suggest that the bishop would baptize the first few candidates and a deacon would complete the rest.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-47329016900929041302020-05-04T18:54:00.001-05:002020-05-04T18:54:17.088-05:00The Extent of the EpiclesisDr. K's <a href="http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/05/east-west-disagreements-about-epiclesis.html#.XrCif6hKjIU">discussion of the East-West divide</a> on the theology of how and when the consecration happens during the anaphora immediately brought to mind Kallistos Ware's wise question on this subject: "Where you planning on leaving some of the words out?"<br />
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All things being equal, there are short forms of all Sacraments, East and West, for emergency use, except for the Eucharist and Ordination. Those must always be done within the context of the Divine Liturgy or the Mass. As such, the additional prayers create the context and construe the intention of the Sacrament.<br />
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I tend to agree with Dr. Kwasniewski's interpretation of Patristic references to the "words of the Lord" as meaning the Institution words that come to us in today's received Eucharistic rites. However, I do not see why the Words of Institution are the <i>only</i> acceptable form of consecration. The Greek rite Churches use a very different, albeit still Trinitarian, formula for Baptism than the current Latin Church, which in turn uses a very different formula than it did c.700, as is shown in the Gelasian Sacramentary, which gives the Apostles' Creed as the form.<br />
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Saint Nicholas Cabasilas, a late medieval Greek layman and liturgical writer, supported the Greek view that the epiclesis—the invocation of the Holy Spirit—is necessary for the Eucharist and wondered if the <i>Supplices te rogamus</i> of the Roman Canon is such a prayer. A Ukrainian friend believes the <i>Unde et memores</i> is a Latin epiclesis.<br />
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In the modest opinion of this blogger, that reads one tradition's unique framework into another tradition's in a way that does not quite work. The Holy Spirit is mentioned many times in the old Roman Mass and hardly ever in the new (ironic), but never directly in the Canon. The "Sanctifier" is invoked midway through the offertory and after the dismissal, but the actual Eucharistic Sacrifice is directed toward the Father through the Son. The Canon has a fascinating chiastic structure that deserves attention, but it suffices to say that the Roman anaphora is mainly concerned with supplication, presentation of the Sacrifice, prayers for the living and dead, and ensuring that the Sacrifice is pleasingly received; the whole thing reflected an Old Testament Temple theology illumined by the Sacrifice of the Cross. One could reasonably venture to say that the prayers, even if out of order, of the Roman Canon predate the field of Pneumatology.<br />
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The Eastern Churches, all of them, not just the Greek ones, all include an epiclesis in their anahorae. While Greek theologians generally assign a high importance to this moment in their own rite, it becomes a little difficult to use other Eastern traditions in total support of this point. The epiclesis in the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is of the "descending" nature expounded by the writers available to us in English:<br />
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"Send down Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here offered and make this bread the previous Body of Your Christ + and make that which is in this chalice the precious Blood of Your Christ + changing them by Your holy Spirit."</blockquote>
The Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, formerly used most Sundays of the Byzantine year and now mainly during Lent, asks the same thing with "reveal" instead of "make" being the operative verb.<br />
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The Anaphora of Saint Cyril in the Alexandrian tradition has two epiclesis prayers, one before the Institution narrative and a more familiar (to non-Copts) one afterward. Perhaps the most obvious question comes from the anaphora of Addai and Mari, a prayer of the Church of the East. It contains no Institution narrative and while it does have an epiclesis in the sense of the invocation of the Holy Spirit, it does not ask the Paraclete to perform the act of change as it does in the Byzantine, Coptic, Armenian, and Ethiopian rites:<br />
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"And let thy Holy Spirit come, o my Lord,<br />and rest upon this offering of thy servants,<br />and bless it and sanctify it<br />that it may be to us, o my Lord,<br />for the pardon of sins and for the forgiveness of shortcomings,<br />and for the great hope of the resurrection from the dead,<br />and for new life in the kingdom of heaven<br />with all who have been pleasing before thee."</blockquote>
To what extent can the epiclesis be applied to liturgical theology? To the extent that a rite has it.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-64573235850274684512020-05-02T00:00:00.000-05:002020-05-02T00:00:01.425-05:00God Became Man So That Man Might Become GodIn honor and memory of Saint Athanasius, the "greatest soldier the Catholic faith had", I am reprinting an old summation of his <i>De Incarnatione</i>.<br />
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"God became man so that man might become God" the saintly patriarch of Alexandria writes in section 54 of his treatment of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the central point of the Incarnation of Christ, lifting man from his fallen state and elevating him to intimate confidence and knowledge (understood personally, not intellectually) in the Divine. Why would God do such a thing? Would not such a condescension mean a lessening of the Holy Trinity? Would the Son of God not suffer merely by taking on the human nature?</div>
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Not at all. Athanasius shares St. Augustine of Hippo's view of evil: that evil is the absence, deterioration, or destruction of something good. Through the Fall of Adam and Eve evil came into the human experience. Man, created in the image of God, received from God, Who <em>is </em>life, his life. What is death other than the absence of life? The introduction of evil to the human person is the loss of the Divine life, hence death. By taking on human flesh and dying as a man, God the Son restored and further sanctified the human person: "by offering His own body He abolished the death [man] had incurred, and corrected [man] by His own teaching" (section 10). Again, we ask why God would do this? We can go on and on—as many have—about justification and penal substitution, but why would God even care?</div>
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Because man, the Saint reiterates, was made in God's own image. Death means the image of God evanesces from existence, a consequence antipodal to God's very nature. This corruption of man could only be solved through God becoming man and living the same life and dying the same death as man (section 9). The Saint calls the status of man at the time of the Incarnation "dehumanizing:" man had fallen so far from his original state and become so alien to the Divine nature that he had concocted idols, false gods, and magical incantations for himself as substitutes and superstitions (section 13). God could not allow His image to follow on this slow and painful suicide.</div>
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Still, could God not restore man to his original state remotely? We often ask this question concerning Our Lord's miracles. Why did He scrub the blind man's eyes with dirt rather than just give the word so that he might be healed? Man could have been fixed from a distance, but he would not have actually learned anything or made a choice for God in such a restoration. "In order to effect this re-creation, however, He had first to do away with death and corruption. Therefore He assumed a human body, in order that in it death might once and for all be destroyed, and that men might be renewed according to the Image. The Image of the Father only was sufficient for this need" (section 13).</div>
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The Son of God did not sacrifice Himself immediately for our salvation after His Incarnation. First He had to give His presence in our nature a point and presence that could be passed on through action, and that action is love: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17). Love is inter-personal, including God's love. Indeed, God is a Trinity because God is love! So God remained among men for many years doing good and showing to man what love is and how to love one another (section 16). His works revealed Him to be God.</div>
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Just as His love was inter-personal, so was His death. He died on a Cross for all the people of Jerusalem and other passersby to see (section 21). The same goes for His glorious Resurrection from death and His changing of water into wine and His casting out of demons. All these things He did in public not only so that they might be of benefit, but so that people might know them and by knowing them know Him (section 23).</div>
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Finally, in the Resurrection death, the decay and disappearance of God's image, is no more (section 26). Indeed the Apostles in their own ministries "trample upon death as something dead" (section 27). Death is crushed and is no longer of consequence to us; the death of a martyr or believer is utterly powerless to those who hold to the sign of the Cross (section 29). Those who do not believe have no facts, but instead are convicted by Christ in the death and transitory nature of their substitute gods and idols (section 31)—how true this still is today.</div>
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Athanasius gives a chapter to refuting the objections of the Jews to Jesus by examining the story of salvation in the Old Testament and specific prophecies from Osee, Isaiah, and others concerning suffering, the Annointed One, death, and rising again.</div>
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More interesting, and pertinent to today's laxity of belief, is the Saint's refutation of the gentiles and pagans. The pagans, and the Greeks in particular, object to the Incarnation's restriction of God to a particular place and His binding in terrestrial nature. St. Athanasius begins answering this common objection by first mocking the mythical and ineffective stories of the pagan gods, how stupid they are and how they succeed not in bettering human beings (section 41). The gentiles object, why did God not make Himself known to us by nobler methods, in the mountains and waters rather than in mere flesh? (section 43) Because "For, being men, they would naturally learn to know His Father more quickly and directly by means of a body that corresponded to their own and by the Divine works done through it (<em>ibid</em>). "The whole of the universe was filled with the knowledge of the Lord," writes Isaiah (11:9). The Lord's influence and presence can be found everywhere which, contrary to the objections of the pagans, is precisely why He <em>could </em>take human flesh. Far from a redundant act, the Lord's presence, already ubiquitous, is felt more fully by material beings now that the Lord has taken physical form (section 45).<br /><br />St. Athanasius' last full chapter is a series of common sense refutations of pagan religion in action. Have the pagan gods ever really done anyone any good? Have they increased the virtue of chastity and virginity? Have they effected peace among bellicose peoples like the Chaldeans and Ethiopians, or decreased the superstition latent in those cultures (section 50)? A resounding "no." The ability of Christ to do all of this sufficiently proves His Godhead to Athanasius (section 53). The "darkness of idols prevails no more" (section 55).<br /><br />Despite his times, St. Athanasius' tone throughout the work is very positive and optimistic about the power of the truth of the Trinity and it inevitable triumph in the hearts of men. Paganism would recede as man became more aware of the omnipotent God Who has dwelt with him.<br /><br />This short book is an excellent case study in the relevance of the Fathers to us today. The Fathers wrote in literary terms less bound in theological terminology than the Scholastics or other later thinkers. As a result their writings manage to explain concepts to us without being doctrinaire. In spite of the Latin Fathers', particularly St. Augustine, leaning on the Roman legal tradition and the Greek Fathers' dependence on [neo-]Platonism, their examination of Christian teaching is very humane and intuitive, often based on human experience with some common sense and rationality rather than harsh reason.<br /><br />Why does this matter today? Because we are not living in the thirteenth century, when our neck of the world was Catholic and people had the luxury to ask if the Virgin Mary was conceived under time-exempt privilege <em>per</em> Scotus or protected from sin <em>per </em>the Greeks. They are asking more basic questions like "Does God exist" or "Who was Jesus really" or "Does God actually care about us?"—all questions which, for the mass of people, will need simpler answers.<br /><br />I highly recommend <em>De Incarnatione </em>for some quick and light reading. You can skip the three chapters dedicated to Jews and pagans if you wish, they do not add anything to St. Athanasius' general argument.</div>
The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-51746578748268141512020-05-01T08:27:00.003-05:002020-05-01T08:27:54.233-05:00S Joseph the Worker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348523519788188753.post-28332692376989531392020-04-27T15:18:00.003-05:002020-04-27T15:18:38.721-05:00Looking for Perspective II: The Chatter Machine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a slippery step<br />source: DamasceneGallery.com</td></tr>
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What is the biggest problem orthodox Catholics face today?<br />
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Infelicitous clergy who whisper into the ears of the pope? No.<br />
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A conspiracy afoot to re-suppress the pre-Conciliar rites of Mass or to dampen the growth of the Traditionalist movement? No.<br />
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The secularization of common culture with its disheartening accompaniment of derision for Christ, distrust in the Church, and the worldliness of other Christians? Still, no.<br />
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The greatest problem is that the Christian can care more about these things than about the practice of the Faith. Faith is, according to every Catechism, a gift from God and the inception of belief, preceding even Baptism, for we petition Faith and the promise of eternal life from the Church before entering the cleansing waters of the font.<br />
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People will spend hours a week reading about the latest moronic thing a German bishop said or what writers speculate over a Vatican survey. Concern over current events has its place and no success reform movement has ever transpired in the Church without a genuine interest in current events. Current events, however, do not constitute a full time practice of Christ's precepts or greater spiritual communion with Him.<br />
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The news and religious gossip chatter machines on the internet can eventually become a sort of spiritual pornography, something addictive and stagnating to real personal growth. News blogs and chatter machines cater to the lowest common denominators of religious people: fear, disbelief, and isolation. The propagators of these texts are rarely conscious of stirring concerns, they share the same nerves as their readers and listeners. Still, would many of them have followings and be able to earn livings by discussing what is actually beneficial to the soul? Many would, but more wouldn't.<br />
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I knew a young lady many years ago who lost her mother at an early age. She came from serious money, a large family fortune made in Imperial Hong Kong before the Communists took it over. Her emotionally abusive father and her heiress grandmother then dissipated most of it suing each other and making frivolous expenditures that could not be sustained for the five decades since they started. She was left with very little and was understandably bitter. She made the decision to surround herself with good people, including a good Catholic and a good Coptic Christian. Every time these beneficial influencers would share their joy or time with her she initially became quite happy herself until she reminded herself that she had been shafted in life and that she should retreat into her bitterness. Acerbity and anger became her default emotions, which could only be assuaged by excessive sympathy. She knew this was unhealthy and she knew what she needed to do to get out of it, but more often than not her nerves and misery were more comfortable and familiar than the uncertain promise of a new life. A decade later she has improved much and I am happy to say is a substantially different person.<br />
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Years of ghettoization, which only began to subside after <i>Summorum Pontificum</i>, have colored the Traditionalist movement specifically in a bad way. Every bit of nasty news or rumored cause for concern sends people back into the paranoid culture of 1994. But what of sanctification? Concentrating on what is malevolent is not just a waste of time, it eats away at the soul.<br />
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Rather than reading about threats to the traditional liturgy read about the merits, history, and ancient theology of the old rites. Time spent tracking the heterodoxy of the German episcopal conference could be better spent making an in house retreat following the spiritual exercises of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, of Saint Francis de Sales in his <i>Theophilia</i>, or the Hesychasts. We can read the Scriptures and familiarize ourselves with more than the famous stories that appear on Sunday Masses <i>per annum</i>. We admire the spiritual masters when we hear about them and almost lament that in our dour, de-Christianized time that we cannot do the same, but the truth is we can if we only want to do so.The Rad Tradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899289024837953345noreply@blogger.com5