Looking for Perspective II: The Chatter Machine

This is a slippery step
source: DamasceneGallery.com

What is the biggest problem orthodox Catholics face today?

Infelicitous clergy who whisper into the ears of the pope? No.

A conspiracy afoot to re-suppress the pre-Conciliar rites of Mass or to dampen the growth of the Traditionalist movement? No.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Years of ghettoization, which only began to subside after Summorum Pontificum, 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.

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 Theophilia, or the Hesychasts. We can read the Scriptures and familiarize ourselves with more than the famous stories that appear on Sunday Masses per annum. 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.

In Vino Veritas

Barolo source: Forbes.com

These days there is neither morning nor evening, one keen observer stated. There is only coffee time and wine time. Some of us may be home with little respite at the end of the day other than a glass of wine, that nectar which filters thoughts, reveals falsehoods, and which is incapable of lying about itself.

Many people like wine and dislike wine culture. I am among them. Wine, as with Holy Writ and theology, is a double edged sword: the more someone knows the more he or she may enjoy something. Yet, the more someone knows the more room there is for doubt, snobbery, and loss of sincerity. One thinks of James Suckling sipping a spitting Chateau La Tour while praising it in cognates of broken French.

Wine is what economists call a Giffen good, particularly in restaurants. A Giffen good is something that people are more likely to buy the more it costs. Another example of such a product would be potatoes during the Irish famine, when price exacerbated perceived shortages and caused increased consumption. Most people do not know about wine, although most people can tell whether something is objectively good or bad. The asymmetry of knowledge keeps people away, holed up in their familiar bottles of "Cab". This is all very unfortunate, since even a common palette can appreciate wine with a little patience.

The best wines are outrageously expensive, and that is often a fair price for them. First growth, and even some second growth, Bordeaux bottles can fetch a four figure sum without any age. The same is true of some wines of Burgundy. The best wines of Provence, Italy, Germany, Latin America, an Australia tend to be more approachable, although not freely approachable. Similarly, the worst wines are fairly priced at a few dollars. At $7 St. Michele is a reasonably reliable base for a beurre blanc, nothing more. In the middle price range, from $15-$200, taste becomes somewhat subjective and the critics become very fallible. It is in this sweet spot where most vinophiles live.

Perfecting Tradition

We in the Latin Church have clamored over "organic development" in order to explain our support of the ancient Roman rite, the idea that the Roman liturgy as it existed prior to the mid-20th century represents the crystallization of the Church's mind, art, prayer, and Tradition until that point. Perhaps no other tradition parallels the organic development and perfection of the liturgy as well as wine.

Much like the liturgy, its essential elements are its roots. The best vines are the oldest, although not for obvious reasons. Older vines' roots extend deeper into the ground, acquiring more the taste of the terroir and not becoming overly saturated with water, which produces a larger grape with a diluted taste. The roots are the essentials of wine, and that which isn't well rooted is more generic, bland, and uninteresting.

The roots mean the winemaker is merely a custodian and the viticulturalist's laborious work nurtures what he is already given. This is not to say the roots do not decline or that the tradition does not require adjustment, but it does mean that active tinkering or "perfecting" is discordant with the conservative, passive aspect of making wine.

Wine has changed considerably since ancient times. Most of what we think of as wine dates to the 19th century, but the "roots" go back considerably further. Many of the great wine growing regions of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France were used by the Romans for the same purpose that they are today. Romans valued Greek (!) wine and imported it at great cost, although it perhaps reflects the Romans' affinity for all things Greek rather than the Hellenic nectar's actual worth. Ancient wine was strong, acidic, and always cut with water to make it more approachable. This practice, still visible in the Mass as the union of Christ's divinity and our humanity, had the added bonus of disinfecting water from common wells.

Nothing has had as much influence on the development of wine as the Mass. Prior to medieval Christianity wine was a generic, albeit desirable drink almost always of regional notoriety. Monastic production of wine and the desire of laymen to produce something worthy of the altar changed wine into something separate, something good. Drinkers held back the water and producers aspired to make something useful for the Church while incidentally making a potable for all people.

Until the last few centuries wine was always blended. Many of the great Old World wines are still blended, however in a very different manner than it was then. While today's Bordeaux generally mixes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc in some combination, it was once a blend of red and white grapes. The Chateau Lafitte praised by Thomas Jefferson would have been light pink, soft in tannins, and gentle to taste.

The wealthy drank the elegant blends of whatever the region grew best. The common folk, like us, mulled their wine in the winter—another practice which still survives in many homes around Christmas—with popular spices. They drank it in much the same way as prior generations of Americans consumed soda. One dietary historian speculated that medieval persons drank 1-1.5 litres of wine a day (~a quart to half a gallon for those of us who hate the metric system).

Then came a great disruption to tradition. Phylloxera was wine's Reformation. These little lice ate away at the old vines, killing off much of what was considered worthy for wine. Then came a viticultural miracle worker, an American who discovered Texan vines, immune to the lousy louse, could be grafted onto the old vines or planted in old vineyards. Phylloxera washed away, leaving a wake of devastation in its wake. Vineyards that once grew red and white now picked one or the other. The master of the estate had to determine new proportions of grapes to plant, given his terroir, and blend the resultant harvest accordingly.

Much like the Mass, wine's unbroken traditional was nigh broken. By the determination of its custodians it survived in an altered state using the tools, customs, and inherited wisdom of the past. There is no magic formula to determine which grapes to grow on a certain hill or how those buds will figure into the final product. Despite controlled testing and the intrusion of a prior science into the field, the most desirable wines, irrespective of price point, are those fashioned by time.

Enjoyment

As stated above, the "taste notes" of some wine writers is nauseating and turns good people off of a good thing. Some flavors are obvious, like dark fruit in Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon based wines or honey suckle in Sauternes. Most of what is enjoyable in good wine is ineffable, a series of succulent, momentary bursts of flavor that hit the tongue and gradual fade, leaving only tannins behind. A patient novice to wine may not know the finer points of the connoisseurs, but he will know immediately what is good, what has depth of flavor, and what is bad. Much like liturgical commentators, those who know absolutely nothing and those who know near everything are to be trusted, but pseudo-scientific midwits should be regarded with all possible suspicion.

Like all traditions, the best wine cannot be enjoyed immediately. The maceration of the grapes into a viscous liquid, the fermentation in the barrel, and the bottling merely synthesize various aspects of the the vine and place it into someone's hand. It does not make the wine ready to drink. Good wines need years to break down, come together again, and form new flavors while taking off the harsh edge of youth. An older laborer may produce a wine that will not flourish until after his death, a quiet and even selfless devotion to craft.

And like other traditions, wine has a shelf life. It does not improve forever. Most wines deteriorate after ten years. The greatest wines peak at thirty years and begin to turn to vinegar around fifty years. Even the best things are transitory and the craft must continue.

Newness

The story of "New World" wines is, again, much like that of the liturgy. Where the wheel has not been re-invented something wonderful often results. On the contrary, catering to modern tastes is usually disastrous.

Napa Valley growers plant many of the same vines known in France: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay. With few exceptions the result is somewhat underwhelming. "Pinot" and "Cab" lose their unique taste, "Chard" becomes sweet and worthy only of loquacious women at Fourth of July parties. There is the abomination of "White Zinfandel". Still, real Zinfandel grows very well in California while it has been forgotten in southern Italy. Malbec from Latin America and Shiraz from Australia can be enchanting. Transplants need not directly imitate their origins, but they do lose something if they betray all custom to their new home.

Christ is Risen!

"If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

"And he shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one he gives, and upon the other he bestows gifts. And he both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering. Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

"Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

"O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen."

He Descended into Hell: Holy Saturday Vesperal Mass

First, let me say that contrary to many contemporary opinions the old Holy Saturday liturgy was not at the wrong time. It was at an unusal time, morning, rather than after the canonical hour of None, around 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm, but it was never a night time liturgy. Also, it is not Easter's Mass done the day before, nor is it a midnight Mass, as at Christmas. It is a Mass and liturgy meant to help us anticipate the Resurrection. Let us see what the Church has given us.

The liturgy begins after None, the last "little hour" of the afternoon. The deacon and subdeacon still wear the folded chasubles, their penitential vestments. The clergy and laity gather outside the church, where, hopefully, someone has lit a fire. The priest, vested in violet, sings three luminously themed prayers: the first referring to the "brightness of Your Son," the second calling God the "Creator of all lights," and the third an actual blessing. This is very reminiscent of the Eastern blessing at the end of Divine Liturgy, which quotes St. James in calling God the "Father of Lights," of all that is perfect, luminous, and good.

A server ignites coals and the priest imposes and blesses incense. He sparges the Holy Fire with blessed water and then incenses it. He also blesses five grains of incense which he be inserted into the Pascal Candle, representing the light of Christ throughout Easter season, inside the church.

The deacon then changes his penitential folded chasuble for a white dalmatic and maniple. He takes a large, triple-branched candle and, lighting a new wick from the Holy Fire, enters the church exclaiming Lumen Christi—"The Light of Christ." This happens twice more until we are in the church proper.

A deacon with the triple-candle preparing to enter the church.

The deacon then petitions the priest for a blessing, approaches the Paschal Candle, which is off to the Gospel side of the altar, and sings the Exultet, a long blessing. The Exultet is rich with imagery of light in the night and the deliverance from Egypt. This day is the deliverance from our spiritual Egypt: Sin and Death. Part way through, the deacon inserts the five grains of incense, calling them an "evening sacrifice," and lights the Paschal Candle. The video to the left is a singing of the Exultet at St. Peter's Basilica two years ago. I find the continued use of the prayer in the newer rites odd, given that none of the actions mentioned in the text are performed, nor is the intention any longer to bless! The prayer concludes with a petition for the Pope and the, no longer extant, Holy Roman Emperor. The lights of the church go on at the words Vere beata nox—"Oh, truly blessed night!" In the middle ages, when this ceremony took place in day light, the windows of the church would be covered in dark cloth, which would be removed at those words, washing the church in God's light after a spiritual slumber.

The deacon returns to his penitential folded-chasuble and, along with the priest and subdeacon, read twelve prophecies, which are chanted by lectors in the middle of the choir. The prophecies together form the story of salvation, both in anticipation and in prediction of Christ:

1. Genesis 1:1-31, 2:1-2: The creation of the world by God, the ruler of all things. He sees that it is good.
2. Genesis chapters 5-8: The Great Flood and God's commissioning of Noah to build an ark. The ark is a foreshadowing of the Church, which God gives us to protect us from the Flood of Sin.
3. Genesis 22:1-9: Abram is about to offer his son, Isaac, but an angel intervenes. For his love of God, the Lord makes a covenant with him and renames the man Abraham.
4. Exodus 14:24-15:1: God lets the Israelites pass through Egypt unto freedom through the Red Sea, which drowns the pursuing forces of the Pharoah. Baptism will be our watery means of passing unto freedom.
5. Isaiah 54:17, 55:1-11: God has heard the cry of His people and will honor the promises to David.
6. Baruch 3:9-38: God has absolute knowledge and dominion over His creation.
7. Ezekiel 37:1-14: The bones of the fallen will rise again under the spirit of the Lord.
8. Isaiah 4:1-6: The Lord will wash away the "filth of Jerusalem" and build a covenant.
9. Exodus 12:1-11: God prescribes the Passover sacrifice of a lamb to the Jews, which will deliver them from God's plague over the first-borns of Egypt. They will be free. Christ is the perfect, spotless Lamb, the perfect sacrifice. He will intercede for us before the Father.
10. Jonah 3:1-10: The prophet Jonah convinces the city of Nineveh to repent of their sins and do penance, averting their impending destruction. Penance is necessary to pay the debt of sin, not just to be forgiven.
11. Deuteronomy 31:22-30: Moses provides for his death and the continuation of the Israelites into the promised land. This succession of leaders will continue until Christ.
12. Daniel 3:1-24: King Nabuchodonosor attempts to kill three Jewish children for not worshiping his idols. They are thrown into a fire, but angels guard them.

In between these readings are sung various prayers and sung psalms. A procession forms and heads to the baptismal font. The priest blesses the empty font and the water in it by plunging the Paschal Candle three times. He sprinkles water towards the four points of the compass and then the faithful with Holy Water from the font, and then infuses Holy Oils into it. He proceeds to baptize and confirm any converts present in the normal manner. The procession then returns to the altar as the choir sings the Litany of Saints, doubling the invocations and answers (ex: choir: Pater de caelis, Deus, Miserere nobis people: Pater de caelis, Deus, Miserere nobis). If there is no font, everything until the Litany is excluded.

Everyone kneels for the duration of the Litany, which takes the place of the Introit of the Mass. The intention of the Litany is mainly to pray for converts, but also for the Church as a whole, as She enters the Paschal mystery. The priest, deacon, and subdeacon remove their outer vestments and prostrate themselves.

Towards the end of the Litany the priest and his ministers rise and head to the sacristy to vest in white vestments for Mass. Servers prepare the altar with the missal and put on the best, most festive frontal.

The altar candles are lit from the Paschal Candle. The ministers of Mass return and sing a normal solemn high Mass. The Gloria is the lovely Lux et Origo setting. The Epistle is from St. Paul's letter to the Colassians, in which the Apostles tells us that if we are dead with Christ, Christ will rise and us with Him.

The priest sings Alleluia for the first time in two months. Absorbed in joy, he sings it three times, each higher and each repeated by the choir. The Gospel, taken from St. Matthew's account of the myrrh-bearing women finding the empty tomb, is accented by the fact that candles are not carried in the procession, emphasizing that the Resurrection has not yet happened for us, but that we are anticipating it. All of this subtlety is indicative of the restraint of the old Roman rite.

The celebrant reads the Gospel before the deacon sings it.

As this is a vigil, the Creed is not sung. There is no verse or chant prescribed for the offertory, so the organ  is played or Latin hymns are sung.

The preface is of Easter. During the Canon of the Mass, the Communicantes prayer is unique: "Communicating, and keeping this most holy night of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh; and also reverencing the memory...." The Pax is not given and the Agnus Dei is omitted. This may be for two reasons: (1) the Lamb is not yet risen and with us or (2) this liturgy is so old that it pre-dates the eighth century introduction of the Agnus Dei. 

After communion and the cleansing of the vessels, a short Holy Saturday Vespers is sung rather than a communion chant. It is psalm 116, surrounded by a triple Alleluia. The priest begins the antiphon on the Mangificat: Vespere autem sabati....  During the Magnificat everyone is incensed as usual. The priest sings the post-communion prayer, which I have given below:

Pour forth, O Lord, we beseech thee, the Spirit of thy love into our hearts, and by thy mercy make all them to be of one mind to whom Thou hast given to eat of thy mystic Passover. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

The dismissal is Ite, missa est, alleluia! Alleluia. The Deo gratias response is also given a double alleluia. The priest says the Placeat, gives the blessing, and recites the Last Gospel as normal. It is traditional to end the liturgy with the Regina Coeli.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice! Alleluia!
For He Who you did merit to bear, Alleluia!
Has risen as He said, Alleluia!
Pray for us to God, Alleluia! 

These rites would end about four hours after they started. The main point of celebrating this liturgy early was so that Paschal Mattins and Lauds could start at a reasonable time. The twentieth century de-emphasis of the Divine Office saddens me. Paschal Mattins and Lauds are the most important liturgical event of the entire week, more so than any Mass or office. In these offices we formally begin the celebration of the Resurrection. In Eastern Churches the people wander the church looking for Christ, but not finding Him! He is risen! They then sing Mattins and Lauds at midnight, followed by Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is of Easter Sunday, it is not a vigil nor is it a midnight Mass, as we have on Christmas. The reformers lost this critical difference and canned the most important office of the year in the process.

In the West there would be a Resurrection ceremony, which would find the sepulcher created on Good Friday empty, the crucifix would be adored again as on Good Friday, and Mattins and Lauds would be sung. Mattins has one nocturn, with lesson from a sermon of Pope St. Gregory the Great, in which the saintly pontiff says we, the Church, must come to Christ's tomb bearing gifts like the women if we are to be surprised and rejoice. The Te Deum is sung de tempore for the first time in two months. At Lauds, the first antiphon declares that an angel descended from heaven to roll back the stone. The antiphons for this Lauds are among the most beautiful of the year. There is no hymn at Mattins or Lauds. The dismissal has a double Alleluia, as at Mass. The office ends with the Regina Coeli again. Easter has begun at this point.

Good Friday: The Presanctified Mass

Today's Pre-Sanctified Mass is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, liturgical rites in the Roman Church. A "Mass" without a consecration, it follows the pattern of liturgy that pre-dates even St. Gregory the Great, to whom this particular day's ceremony is attributed: readings, collects for the needs of the Church, the Eucharist, and Vespers. This day is not Church theater or ritual for its own sake. This is worship of the God of all Who died for all.

The priest and his two deacons, who wear folded chasubles rather than dalmatics, prostrate themselves before the altar for enough time to pray psalm 50, the Miserere, in silence, while servers spread a cloth on the altar. Like at Mass, the crucifix and candles remain on the altar, though unlit.

A lector sings a prophecy of the prophet Osee (or Hosea, in the Hebrew spelling), which foretells the suffering, burial, and third day rising of Christ. Then the subdeacon sings chapter 12 of the book of Exodus, which recounts the manner in which the finest lambs were killed during the first Passover in Egypt. This sacrifice liberated the Israelites from the bondage of the Pharoah. The sacrifice of the perfect victim, Christ, liberated the world from the bondage of death. God does not want a sacrifice because He wants things to be destroyed. A true sacrifice is the gift of what is precious to one's self unto another. This was the intent of the Israelites in Egypt, and more so on the Cross. A tract, psalm 139, is sung: Eripe me Domine ab homine malo—"Deliver me, Oh Lord, from the wicked man!"

Three deacons then sing the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John, beginning with His arrest in the Garden and ending just after His death on the Cross. The deacon of the "Mass" removes his folded chasuble, as at Mass, and sings the burial of Christ as the Gospel, suggesting that this, not the general narrative, is the most important text of the day.

Priest and subdeacon listen to the Passion.

Then deacon, now wearing the "broad stole," returns to the other ministers. Returning to the epistle corner, the priest sings the Solemn Collects, some of the oldest continuously used prayers in the Church. Moreover, these prayers give us some indication as to what the structure of the Mass was like in the mid-first millennium and for what those Christians prayed. There is a preface to announce the prayer intention, followed by Oremus—"let us pray," Flectamus genua—"Let us kneel," and Levate—"Let us stand" before the actual prayer itself.

The prayer intentions were:

• For the welfare of the Church universal
• For the Pope
• For the clergy, people in religious life, virgins, and widows
• For the enlightenment of the catechumens and the remission of their sins
• For the cleansing of the world of errors
• For the rescue of heretics and schismatics
• For the conversion of the Jews
• For the end of idolatry and conversion of the pagans

No genuflection was made during the prayer for the Jews. A genuflection was added by Pope John XXIII in the revised rite of Holy Week in 1959, although John XXIII seems to have continued to celebrate the old Good Friday in the Sistine Chapel!

The prayer that caused so much consternation is as follows:

Orémus et pro pérfidis Iudaeis: ut Deus et Dóminus noster áuferat velámen de córdibus eórum; ut et ipsi agnóscant Iesum Christum, Dóminum nostrum.

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui étiam iudáicam perfídiam a tua misericórdia non repéllis: exáudi preces nostras, quas pro illíus pópuli obcæcatióne deférimus; ut, ágnita veritátis tuæ luce, quæ Christus est, a suis ténebris eruántur. Per eundem Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Unlike the other solemn intercessions on Good Friday the clergy and people make no genuflection between the announcement of the intention and the actual collect. Initially I did not think this prayer bigoted, but I did consider it unnecessarily inflammatory given the use of the term "pro perfidis Iudaeis." That all changed when then-Pope Benedict issued a shiny new prayer for the Jews to be used during 1962 rite Good Friday services. A friend of mine reacted positively to the new prayer, saying it brought us away from "tribal hate" and towards a more brotherly outlook on our antecedent religion. At this point I began to re-consider my position. Benedict's prayer, although different from the traditional one, at least asks for conversion, in stark contrast to the vague platitude in the Pauline Missal's Holy Week.

The first clue in my re-evaluation was the true contextual meaning of that term "perfidis," which does not mean "perfidious" in the modern understanding (wretched, wicked, evil), but rather "faithless." This ought not be anti-Semitic. It is merely a deduction. Anyone who does not believe in Christ lacks proper faith.

The next, and most profound, point makes the loss of this prayer a liturgical, historical, and theological travesty. The intention asks that God might "remove the veil from their hearts," which the collect proper continues to petition that the Jews might "acknowledge the light of Your Truth, Which is Christ" and that they may be "rescued from their darkness." To understand the deeper meaning and truth of this prayer we must recall what happened at the end of the Crucifixion.

"Jesus, when He had taken the vinegar, said: 'It is consummated.' And bowing His head he gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). In tract 119 St. Augustine writes "What, but all that prophecy had foretold so long before? And then, because nothing now remained that still required to be done before He died, as if He, who had power to lay down His life and to take it up again, had at length completed all for whose completion He was waiting." Our Lord's death on the Cross completes everything the Father promised in the Old Covenant and which He appointed His Son to do for our sake. The prophecies and promises are, at this point, fulfilled. Fulfillment, in the Church, does not mean something finished. Rather it means something brought to fruition.

Consequently, the covenant God made with the Jews did not vanish entirely, but became something else, something greater and, as the angel told the shepherds when He was born, a great thing "for all peoples" (Luke 2). The God Who dwelt only among the Jews and Who only revealed His intentions to them and Who only acted among them now dwells and reveals Himself and acts among all people and for the good of all. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22), but not limited to the Jews. The Old Covenant, now something greater, ends as it was. The Temple veil "was rent in two from the top even to the bottom" (Matthew 27:51). The veil, which concealed the awesome qualitative presence of God within the Temple, is entirely torn when a new, and greater, covenant is sealed in the Blood of Christ. Here is a New Covenant for all people. God, no longer hidden behind the Temple veil, is now accessible to all people. St. Paul reflects on this in his epistle to the Hebrews (9:1-8):

"The former indeed had also justifications of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made the first, wherein were the candlesticks, and the table, and the setting forth of loaves, which is called the holy. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holy of holies: Having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament covered about on every part with gold, in which was a golden pot that had manna, and the rod of Aaron, that had blossomed, and the tables of the testament. And over it were the cherubims of glory overshadowing the propitiatory: of which it is not needful to speak now particularly. Now these things being thus ordered, into the first tabernacle the priests indeed always entered, accomplishing the offices of sacrifices. But into the second, the high priest alone, once a year: not without blood, which he offereth for his own, and the people' s ignorance: The Holy Ghost signifying this, that the way into the holies was not yet made manifest, whilst the former tabernacle was yet standing."

We have come halfway to understanding the significance of the older Good Friday prayer, but only halfway.

What does a veil, curtain, or wall do? It keeps something concealed, but also protects that something from exterior elements, usually light. Our Lord said "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). The Jewish leaders persuaded the crowds gathered in the Roman praetorium to reject Jesus and ask for the release of a bad man. After dissolving themselves of the Savior promised to them Jerusalem fell and the Temple, the place of God's covenant with them, burned to the ground. What survived was not Judaism in the pre-Christian sense, but a new sort of Judaism meant for scattered local communities and based on the Jewish people's experiences as the minority in an increasingly Christian world (the so-called "modernist" George Tyrrell wrote an interesting letter on this subject, concluding that Catholicism is the real continuation of Judaism). Rabbis replaced priests; synagogues replaced the Temple; and the Talmud became a new holy book to the Jewish people rather than the New Testament books. This reformed, leaner Judaism would help Jewish culture survive its coming difficulties and would also insulate Jewish people from the light of Christ—as it was founded partially in reaction to what Christ did. When the Father tore down the Temple veil to reveal Christ's light to all a new veil ascended to shield that light.

No one should conclude that this is anti-Semitic. Fr. Hunwicke points out that Arabs are Semites, too. This prayer is about Judaism, not Jews as an ethnic group. On some level the concepts "faithless" persons and of hiding the light of Christ with a "veil" applies to all non-believers. And yet the Jewish people, given their unique place in the chain of event that led to Christ's Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection, surely warrant a unique place in the liturgical prayers, particularly given their once exclusive covenant with God.

I have never felt comfortable with the description of practitioners of post-Temple Judaism as our "older brothers" in the faith, given that the Judaism which preceded Catholicism no longer exists. I suspect the shift in attitude towards Judaism and the eventual revision of this prayer results from [humanly understandable] European guilt that followed the Holocaust. The pope who initially altered this prayer (John XXIII) aided Pius XII's efforts to obstruct deportations of Jews in Turkey. The pope who introduced the 1970 prayer (Paul VI) served the same Pius XII as his secretary during the War. And the pope who issued a new prayer for the 1962 Missal (Benedict XVI) was a young German man during the War and who, certainly, has a greater cultural association with the Holocaust than the other two.

And yet I maintain that the loss of this prayer is something worthy of re-consideration. It contains a wealth of lessons about covenants, the meaning of the Crucifixion, the openness of Christ's grace, and the danger of veiling Christ's light. During the first fourteen or so centuries, or more, of this prayer's use no one decided to attempt mass extermination of the Jewish people. Hitler's anti-Semitism had nothing to do with Catholicism. His was a neo-pagan, racially-based hatred steeped in the eugenicist delusions pervading secular culture in the early 20th century—not that modern "intellectuals" have disowned the spirit of this delusion. Axing this prayer added very little and pushed aside very much.

The ministers, probably for mobility in ancient times, remove their outer-most vestments and the deacon retrieves the veiled crucifix from the altar and gives it to the priest. The priest, beginning at the bottom of the epistle side, steps higher and towards the center of the altar, unveiling part of the crucifix and singing Ecce lignum crucis—"Behold the wood of the cross"—as he rises. The people respond In quo salus mundi pependit. Venite, adoremus!—"On which hung the salvation of the world. Come, let us adore!"

This happens three times, after which the entire crucifix is visible. It is then laid upon a pillow or cloth and adored by the people. First the priest, then the ministers of the service, then any other present clergy, and the servers. They all adore barefoot. Then the congregation adores, making three prostrations before their kiss of the cross.

Although the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified supposedly died in 1956 under Pope Pius XII, John XXIII continued to use it in the Sistine Chapel, as seen in this 1959 celebration.

Ecce lingum crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit.

Venite, adoremus!

Whilst the laity make their adoration, the altar is prepared for the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified and the choir sings the Reproaches, which includes the Trisagion.

The crucifix is then placed upon the altar, where it would normally go, and is reverenced with a genuflection for the rest of the day.

The clergy, and laity if they wish, process to the altar of repose, where the Blessed Sacrament has been over night.

The Sacrament is then incensed by the priest, who assumes the hummeral veil and takes the Sacrament back to the main altar.

This is a full Blessed Sacrament procession, with incense and the processional cross carried before the priest and the Sacrament. The great hymn Vexilla Regis is sung.

The procession returns to the main altar.

The deacon arranges the chalice and its veil, containing the Sacrament, as it would be at Mass.

The Blessed Sacrament is then incensed by the celebrant.

The subdeacon prepares the chalice with wine and water, as he would at Mass and the "Gifts" are incensed in the same way they would have been at a regular Mass. The priest turns to the people and says the Orate, fratres... ("Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours....) as at Mass.

One English friend of mine always insisted that the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified is indeed an actual Mass. He had something of a point. Its prayers are those of a Mass. It is not a simple communion service. Although there is no consecration of the Host, the actions imitate those of a Mass in order to emphasize the relation between the Mass and Calvary, that they are one and the same sacrifice of Christ.

The celebrant then sings the Pater Noster, "Our Father," and elevates the Host for public adoration as he would after consecration at Mass. He then fractures the Host as at Mass and mingles a fragment of the Blessed Sacrament with wine. Liturgical reformers particularly disliked the pious medieval belief that the fragment consecrated the wine into the blood of Christ (which Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox still believe).

The union between the offering of the Body and Blood here and the same sacrifice that took place on the Cross cannot be emphasized enough. There are two reasons why no active consecration takes place here: the first is that the Eucharistic (which comes from the Greek word for "thanksgiving") has a celebratory character to it, which makes it ill suited for today; the other is that today the priest is less an agent of Christ, in persona Christi, than the rest of the year. Today Christ does everything. He offers Himself on His own and by His own accord. So the priest elevates the Sacrament as at Mass both for adoration of the people and to parallel the same work of Christ that takes place at a normal Mass.

The priest then says the communion prayers of Mass and consumes the Host as normal. He consumes the chalice's contents saying nothing, leaving some mystery as to whether consecration occurred or not!

Today the congregation and attending clergy do not and cannot receive Holy Communion. As we have the Real Presence one could say that today we have the Real Loss. The gravity of this Loss is lost on us today. For one day out of the year there is no Blessed Sacrament, there are no holy images, there are no candles, nor is there any vibrant color. All there is after the Pre-Sanctified Mass is the Crucifix. One is reminded of Cordellia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited lamenting the de-consecration of the family chapel during which a visiting priest consumed the Sacrament and took the altar stone and relic with him. Cordellia asked Charles must "every day be Good Friday?" As a matter of principle when I attend the Pauline Good Friday I do not receive Communion. Doing so misses the point today.

Before monstrances and private receptions on Communion, the Roman Eucharistic praxis saw the presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the altar as perpetuating His very real place on earth. In his second sermon on the Ascension of the Lord, St. Leo the Great preached that "that which till then was visible of our Redeemer was changed into a sacramental presence, and that faith might be more excellent and stronger, sight gave way to doctrine, the authority of which was to be accepted by believing hearts enlightened with rays from above." Laurence Hemming connects the Roman Eucharistic theology with the liturgy of the Ascension, when the Paschal candle is extinguished after the Gospel and the remaining candles in the church are lit from the fire, diffusing Christ's light from one source to many places; similarly, the Pope used to send fragments of the Eucharist from his Masses to other parishes of Rome to emphasize the Communion of the bishop with the city and clergy; perhaps most shocking to modern readers is that it was common practice for believers to bring Holy Communion home in a muslin bag and consume it prior to family supper, bringing Christ's presence from the altar to the Christian's home.

The middle ages witnessed a shift in liturgical action, not necessarily one in outlook. Medieval piety valued stillness, shocking the believer, staring at the presence of God before him. Out of this was born the elevation of the consecrated elements during the Canon of the Mass. Perhaps a more dynamic development was that of processions, most apparent in the Norman liturgical family during Holy Week. In Sarum the Eucharist was carrying by the priest, presumably in a pyx, during the Palm Sunday procession; in spiritual eyes Christ's refusal of entry into Jerusalem and triumphant crossing through the door truly was relived; similarly, a host was buried in the sepulcher after the corpus was deposed from the crucifix on Good Friday only to be removed and placed back in the tabernacle for the Resurrection. 

The Mass of the Presanctified fits into this story. One Good Friday no one save the celebrant has anything to do with Communion. In the Holy Temple Christ's Real Presence vanishes. In practice some hosts would be reserved in case of emergency last rites, usually in the rectory or in a side chapel in the church; in these cases, however, no reverence is traditionally rendered to the Sacrament until Pascha.

The priest purifies his fingers and the subdeacon cleans the chalice as normal at Mass.

Vespers, the same as yesterday except for the addition of mortem autem crucis ("even unto death on a cross") to versicle and a proper Magnificat antiphon, are chanted in a monotone immediately.

The clergy then leave in silence unless they intend to follow the custom of deposing the corpus from a Crucifix and "burying" it in a sepulcher, a medieval practice which is still alive and well in parts of England, Poland, and the Byzantine rite. One such ceremony, at the monastery of the Franciscans who care for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, is shown below.

This marvelous rite was replaced with a general communion services. The revised rites, from 1956 until 1969, involved a maddening three changes of vestments. Prayers and readings, in both the 1956 rite and the Pauline rite, take place at the chair, the altar, at a podium, and any where else you can find. Odd.

A blessed Good Friday to you all.

A blessed Good Friday to all.

Mandy Thursday Evening: Crucifixion Mattins

Mandy Thursday Morning: Reconciliation of the Penitents

Vexilla Regis

The hymn Vexilla Regis is the standard of Passiontide, especially this week. Written by Saint Fortunatus not long before the papacy of Saint Gregory the Great, this Vesperal hymn would have been sung around midday during Passiontide for a millennium, making it a central point to the last few weeks before Pascha.

The hymn itself is constituted of the verses of Fortunatus, three of which are always skipped during its prescribed liturgical uses, and two medieval accretions (O Crux ave and the Trinitarian doxology). As with many other hymns it was revised during the years of Urban VIII to fit pagan meters and vocabulary. It escaped the drastic evolution of some other hymns (cf. Te Christe splendor Patris). Although I cannot recommend haphazard and compulsive reforms there is an elegance to the verse:

Vexilla Regis prodeunt:
Fulget Crucis mysterium,
Qua vita mortem pertulit,
Et morte vitam protulit.

Vexilla Regis places the wood of the Cross at the heart of the salvation story. As mankind fell from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil so the Son of Man will "rule the nations from the wood [of a tree]". Arbor decora et fulgida, it is where mankind returns to its principal mistake, that of disobedience which Christ will expunge and restore by His love and obedience to the Father.

Antiphonal chant at Vespers de tempore follows the standard antiphons per annum, whereas the Lauds antiphones accentuate this fundamentally personal drama about to unfold:

Frámea, suscitáre advérsus eos, qui dispérgunt gregem meum.

Appendérunt mercédem meam trigínta argénteis: quibus appretiátus sum ab eis.

Lábia insurgéntium, et cogitatiónes eórum vide, Dómine.

Clarífica me, Pater, apud temetípsum claritáte, quam hábui priúsquam mundus fiéret. 

Vespers and the rest of the Office return to an archaic, primitive form after Compline of Spy Wednesday. There are only the psalms, the responsories, and, is applicable, the due canticle with its antiphons followed by the suffrage. Vexilla Regis does re-appear on Good Friday at the Blessed Sacrament procession announcing Christ as King on the day He accepted a crown of mockery from the Gentiles and turned His back toward Jerusalem.

John XXIII ignored many of Pius XII's changes to Holy Week, not least among them were the prohibition of ordinations during the Triduum and the revised manner of adoring the Cross. Another restoration of Pope John's was to continue to use Vexilla Regis in its former place and manner in the city of Rome.

This magnificent hymn only appears one other time of the year, during the first and second Vespers of the Feast of the Holy Cross on September 14. Then the words hoc passionis tempore victoriously change to in hac triumphi gloria. It is a hymn worthy of the Psalmist and one every Catholic should attempt to commit to memory along with the Te Deum and Marian anthems.

A blessed Holy Week to all.