As must be obvious from the company I keep, I have an affinity for animals who have received their tutelage from the saints. Joseph of Cupertino raised a flock of sheep from the dead, Hieronymus assisted an injured lion, William of Vercelli ordered the wolf that killed his donkey into service, John Bosco was accompanied by a grey dog, and Anthony preached to the fishes when the heretics would not listen.
St. Sergius of Radonezh lived in the 1300s, and is considered by Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians alike to be one of the greatest Russian saints. He made his home at one point in the wilderness, like the hermits of old. Under various forms and in various times did the devils attack Sergius, but so exhausted did they become of the saint’s rectitude that they attempted to frighten him out of the wilderness with wild animals. Wolves, bears, and other beasts frightened the ascetic, but did not cause him to forget prayer, and eventually the animals let him be. All except for one bear.
Sensing that this bear came not to frighten him but rather was searching for food, the Russian anchorite began sharing his only food with the bear—a slice of bread. The bear made a habit of eating with Sergius, since food was difficult to find elsewhere. More than once, when there was only one slice of bread to eat, Sergius would give it all to the bear rather than let it go hungry.
So do we tame our passions by bread and fasting, and by “making friends of the mammon of iniquity” (Lk. xvi) do we convert them to our own cause.
It is unknown how or when or even if St. Sergius’ Bear met its demise. For all we know, the Russian Bear has been living a lonely eremitical existence in the Russian wilderness for the last seven hundred years, quietly waiting for someone to bring him a piece of bread in exchange for a story about its old master.
“So one is the Abraham who believes, one is the Abraham who works; one is the Christ who redeems, one is the Christ who works… distinguish between these two things as between heaven and earth.” —Fr. Martin Luther
It’s not a well publicized fact that Martin Luther hated St. Augustine and his theology. Those who study Fr. Luther’s personal copies of Augustine’s works against the Manichees have discovered that the mad Augustinian monk wrote glosses in the margins defending that ancient heretical sect against their defector’s attacks. Luther the dualist believed there were deep divisions within the life of the Trinity itself—especially during the suffering of the Crucifixion—but he also ascribed similar divisions to the human person.
How did these manifest? Mostly in the distinction between Man the Sinner and Man the Justified. Every fallen man was, to use his own word image, a pile of feces. Justification fell from Heaven upon said pile of feces like a thick layer of snow, lying over but never transforming the filth beneath. The “saved” man thus has two identities: Sinner and Justified, and never the two will merge. This is in contrast to the metaphorical Old Man and New Man of St. Paul’s theology, who represent one’s worldly and spiritual natures, and who both wish to make the Christian into the image of himself.
It is an identity crisis not unlike that posited by the ancient Greek myth of Heracles, for the son of Zeus was also the son of the mortal woman Alcmene, and he possessed two natures. When he died, burned alive on his own funeral pyre, his divine part flew upwards to Olympus, while his human part sunk down into Hades. His human soul, or shade, yearned forever for its divine counterpart; his divine self, one assumes, happily could not have cared less about the human.
Odysseus Meeting the Shade of Heracles
In like manner, Luther saw the human person as a sort of vessel for hellish and heavenly parts, neither of which could truly transform the other. Since justification sits upon the sinner like a blanket of snow, is it only the snow that is saved? One wonders what happens to Man the Sinner at the moment of death while Man the Justified is swept up into Heaven. Is the former annihilated? Used as compost? Damned, and forever yearning for the cool snow?
Dualist that he was, Fr. Luther was comfortable accepting this contradiction. Quasi-Lutherans that they are, ultramontanists are comfortable accepting a sharp, irrational dualism in the papacy.
This expresses itself especially in their attitudes towards the Bishop of Rome. Believing him (quite rightly) to be the Vicar of Christ and head of the visible Church, the Catholic ultramontanist habitually holds a sharp division between, say, John Paul the Pope and John Paul the Man. John Paul the Pope can do no wrong, and every word and action must be piously praised as coming from the Holy Ghost himself. John Paul the Man is either non-existent (having been destroyed by his elevation to the papacy) or a kind of doppelgänger that emerges when John Paul the Pope slumbers. When a papal Mass is adorned with topless natives or the man in white kisses a Koran in full view of a camera, those faults are either maniacally ignored, or they actually insist that these evil actions are praiseworthy, and that we are simply too sinful to see their merits.
Similar breaks with reality occur concerning other members of the clerical class: laymen defending pederastic priests, priests defending heretical bishops, bishops defending mad cardinals, and so forth. Clericalism is a form of dualism in which Fr. Sinner is covered in the snowy mantle of Fr. Justified—and who are you to judge when he falls?
The Sacrament of Holy Orders imprints an indelible spiritual mark on the soul, bestowing the powers to consecrate, offer sacrifice, and forgive sins. This sacrament is not, however, a magical fluffy layer of snow that makes a priest’s feces stop stinking.
Luther himself was a clericalist, returning from Rome scandalized by the excesses of the Roman clergy and full of zeal to denounce them. He was scrupulous about his own sins after he was ordained a priest, since he did not think himself worthy of the priesthood. He was so obsessed by his own unworthiness that he was nearly unable to finish saying his first Mass, much to the embarrassment of his father.
The general attitude of pre-Reformation Catholics can best be described as one of holy resignation to clerical vice. Whether they had to suffer the keeping of concubines, the buying and selling of offices, the thieving of tithes to live in exorbitance, or even outright perversities, the laity’s reaction to wicked priests was to express their disgust and move on with life. They understood and readily admitted that bishops who murdered others for their own gain were on a steep slope to Hell, and this understanding granted them a measure of peace. Surely it can do the same for us.
Saint Louis Catholic is reporting that the confessional door stolen from St. Francis de Sales Oratory has been returned. After all that work they put into the replacement tarp...
One of the few things this blog unambiguously advocates is a widespread reform of the Roman liturgy that involves recovering essential elements of the Latin tradition conspicuously absent in the "extraordinary form" Office and Mass of 1962. These elements include the psalter (lost to Pius X), Holy Week (lost to Pius XII), decent vestments (lost to the Italians), and decent taste (lost to kitsch).
Serious discussion of the Roman liturgical reforms in traditionalist circles, at least until respectable scholars like Laurence Hemming questioned the 1911 breviary reforms, usually contrasted "pre-1955" with 1962 and highlighted glaring differences such as what Pius XII did to Holy Week as a test run for the reformed liturgy. Something less noticeable is what differs on a more regular basis.
Today, until 1955, would have been the feast of St. John the Evangelist, Our Lord's favorite Apostle. One correspondent, who has successfully implemented proper Last Gospels, public horae minores, and some pre-reform Holy Week days at his parish, lamented that his pastor would be observing Sunday within the octave of the Nativity rather than St. John. Offhandedly, I asked how many Apostles had the 1962 liturgy entirely disregarded in the last year; unexpectedly, he told me five. In another conversation a while back I was speaking with an ordo compiler who offhandedly remarked "Nothing for St Andrew this year. He was only the first Apostle."
I am unsure how strictly the Roman liturgy ranked the Apostles before St Pius V's revisions in 1568-1570. Most local European rites give the Apostles, even Peter & Paul, a semi-double rank. Pius V upgraded many feasts to double rank, which allowed them to outrank Sunday. This does not, however, put the pre-Pius V system on par with 1962. Although a semi-double did not outrank Sunday, it was not discarded. Semi-double feasts impeded by Sunday were transferred to the next ferial day. Under St Pius X's system Apostles' Double of the Second Class feasts continued to outrank Sundays, even though lesser feasts could not (they did, however, warrant commemorations at Mass and in the Office). Even under Pius XII's 1955 revisions there were provisions for commemorating the now lessened feasts of the Apostles. The simplification of commemorations in 1962 breaks with all tradition in completely and utterly doing nothing for Apostles not named Peter & Paul when their feasts fall on Sunday.
Wholesale liturgical restoration is not feasible at this point, even within traditionalist communities, which are quite happy just to get their Mass once a week and have a place at the local parish. We cannot begrudge Catholics gratitude for this. We can, however, push for some provision to be made for such boisterous flaws in a liturgy that purports to be the "Mass of all times." Would it be too much for Fr. Tradman to do a commemoration and proper ultimum evangelium for St. John tomorrow? He only wrote a Gospel.
If you are looking for some spiritual edification beyond Mass, look no further. Here are the Mattins lessons for the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ as well as the Introit, my favorite in the Roman rite, for the third Mass of the day. As they say in the East, "Christ is born! Glorify Him!"
From Isaiah:
1 At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtali was lightly touched: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded. 2 The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen. 3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased the joy. They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils. 4 For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast overcome, as in the day of Median. 5 For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for the fire. 6 For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
1 Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. 3 The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. 6 The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. 7 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass: 8 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.
1 Arise, arise, put on thy strength, O Sion, put on the garments of thy glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the Holy One: for henceforth the uncircumcised, and unclean shall no more pass through thee. 2 Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit up, O Jerusalem: loose the bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion. 3 For thus saith the Lord: You were sold gratis, and you shall be redeemed without money. 4 For thus saith the Lord God: My people went down into Egypt at the beginning to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them without any cause at all. 5 And now what have I here, saith the Lord: for my people is taken away gratis. They that rule over them treat them unjustly, saith the Lord, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long. 6 Therefore my people shall know my name in that day: for I myself that spoke, behold I am here.
From St. Leo the Great, Pope of Rome:
Dearly beloved brethren, Unto us is born this day a Saviour. Let us rejoice. It would be unlawful to be sad to-day, for today is Life's Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, taketh away the sting of death, and bringeth the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter. It would be unlawful for any man to refuse to partake in our rejoicing. All men have an equal share in the great cause of our joy, for, since our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, findeth that all are bound under the condemnation, He is come to make all free. Rejoice, O thou that art holy, thou drawest nearer to thy crown! Rejoice, O thou that art sinful, thy Saviour offereth thee pardon! Rejoice also, O thou Gentile, God calleth thee to life! For the Son of God, when the fulness of the time was come, which had been fixed by the unsearchable counsel of God, took upon Him the nature of man, that He might reconcile that nature to Him Who made it, and so the devil, the inventor of death, is met and beaten in that very flesh which hath been the field of his victory.
When our Lord entered the field of battle against the devil, He did so with a great and wonderful fairness. Being Himself the Almighty, He laid aside His uncreated Majesty to fight with our cruel enemy in our weak flesh. He brought against him the very shape, the very nature of our mortality, yet without sin. His birth however was not a birth like other births for no other is born pure, nay, not the little child whose life endureth but a day on the earth. To His birth alone the throes of human passion had not contributed, in His alone no consequence of sin had had -part. For His Mother was chosen a Virgin of the kingly lineage of David, and when she was to grow heavy with the sacred Child, her soul had already conceived Him before her body. She knew the counsel of God announced to her by the Angel, lest the unwonted events should alarm her. The future Mother of God knew what was to be wrought in her by the Holy Ghost, and that her modesty was absolutely safe.
Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Ghost: Who, for His great love wherewith He loved us, hath had mercy on us and, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, that in Him we might be a new creature, and a new workmanship. Let us then put off the old man with his deeds (Col. iii. 9); and, having obtained a share in the Sonship of Christ, let us renounce the deeds of the flesh. Learn, O Christian, how great thou art, who hast been made partaker of the Divine nature, and fall not again by corrupt conversation into the beggarly elements above which thou art lifted. Remember Whose Body it is Whereof thou art made a member, and Who is its Head. Remember that it is He That hath delivered thee from the power of darkness and hath translated thee into God's light, and God's kingdom.
From St. Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome:
By God's mercy we are to say three Masses to-day, so that there is not much time left for preaching; but at the same time the occasion of the Lord's Birth-day itself obliges me to speak a few words. I will first ask why, when the Lord was to be born, the world was enrolled? Was it not to herald the appearing of Him by Whom the elect are enrolled in the book of life? Whereas the Prophet saith of the reprobate Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. Then, the Lord is born in Bethlehem. Now the name Bethlehem signifieth the House of Bread, and thus it is the birth-place of Him Who hath said, I am the Living Bread, Which came down from heaven. We see then that this name of Bethlehem was prophetically given to the place where Christ was born,.because it was there that He was to appear in the flesh by Whom the souls of the faithful are fed unto life eternal. He was born, not in His Mother's house, but away from home. And this is a mystery, showing that this our mortality into which He was born was not the home of Him Who is begotten of the Father before the worlds.
From St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan:
Behold the beginning of the Church. Christ is born, and the shepherds watch; shepherds, to gather together the scattered sheep of the Gentiles, and to lead them into the fold of Christ, that they might no longer be a prey to the ravages of spiritual wolves in the night of this world's darkness. And that shepherd is wide awake, whom the Good Shepherd stirreth up. The flock then is the people, the night is the world, and the shepherds are the Priests. And perhaps he is a shepherd to whom it is said, Be watchful and strengthen, for God hath ordained as the shepherds of His flock not Bishops only, but also Angels.
From St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
Lest thou shouldest think all things mean, as thou art accustomed to think of things human, hear and digest this The Word was God. Now perhaps there will come forward some Arian unbeliever, and say that the Word of God was a creature. How can the Word of God be a creature, when it was by the Word that all creatures were made? If He be a creature, then there must have been some other Word, not a creature, by which He was made. And what Word is that? If thou sayest that it was by the word of the Word Himself that He was made, I tell thee that God had no other, but One Only-begotten Son. But if thou say not that it was by the word of the Word Himself that He was made, thou art forced to confess that. He by Whom all things were made was not Himself made at all. Believe the Gospel.
A Very Merry and Blessed Feast of the Nativity to All!
An Englishman named Charles Dickens invented Christmas as we now know it, a season of general goodwill and aimless gift-giving that calls for us to put aside our grievances for 24 hours. It has little to do with the Incarnation of God on earth. No where in Dickens' 60 page novella A Christmas Carol do the words God, Jesus, or Nativity appear, nor is there mention of any traditional hymns. There is, however, plenteous contemning of greed, egocentrism, the primitive welfare state, and parsimony. Five centuries before Ebeneezer Scrooge put aside his daily cares and converted his heart to Bob Cratchit Englishmen put aside their daily cares and converted their hearts to the Lord in anticipation of His Nativity.
If December 24 fell on a Saturday, the Church of Sarum transferred the Ember days to the third week of Advent. If it fell on a Sunday then Mattins of Sunday was sung until the third nocturne, at which point the Office of the day began with the psalms and readings of Christmas Eve; the Sunday Mass would be sung in chapter and the Vigil Mass sung in choir at the main altar of the cathedral.
The Mattins Gospel is the same as in the Roman rite, however Sarum favors the writings of Origen over St. Jerome. In Origen we see the beginning of the Church's theology of the Incarnation and Mary's motherhood using phrases that would be canonized at Ephesus in 431:
"Why was it necessary that Mary
the mother of Jesus should be
espoused to Joseph : except in order
that by him this Holy One would be
concealed from the Devil, and that
the spiteful one by trickery should
contrive no vengeance against the
betrothed virgin ? Or for this reason
was she betrothed to Joseph : that
Joseph would be seen to bear the care
of the newborn child and even of
Mary herself : whether going into
Egypt or returning once more from
thence. For that reason she was
espoused to Joseph : yet not joined in
wedlock. Of his mother one saith,
Mother immaculate, mother incorrupt,
mother untouched. His mother.
Whose is his ? The mother of
God, of the Only Begotten, of the Lord, and of the King of all men : of
the Creator and Maker of all things.
He which in heaven is without a
mother : and in earth is without a
father. Of himself which in heaven
according to divinity is in the nature
of the Father : and in earth according
to the assuming of a body is in the
nature of the mother. O great grace
of admiration, O indescribable sweetness,
O ineffable and great sacrament.
Herself a virgin, herself likewise
mother of the Lord, herself the giver
of birth, herself his handmaiden and
his fashioner, herself which gave
birth."
Origen likens Mary's maternity to the miracles of the Old Covenant which preserved the pure from ordinary patterns of corruptions in order to effect a more providential end. In previous times God kept the bush on Sinai to manifest His Law. Now he preserves an unblemished maiden so that He may manifest His Incarnation, remaining both God and Man:
"Who hath ever heard such, who
hath seen such greatness ?
Who could have thought of this :
that a virgin would be a mother, an
untouched would beget, and that a
virgin hath remained and yet hath
given birth ? Just as indeed formerly
a bush was seen to be burning and the
fire did not touch it, and as three boys
were kept shut up in the furnace : and
yet the fire did not hurt them, nor
was the odour of the fumes upon
them : or just as when Daniel was
shut up within the lion’s den : while
the doors were shut a meal was
brought to him by Habakkuk : and
thus this holy Virgin hath brought
forth the Lord : but she hath
remained untouched. A mother hath
produced : but hath not lost her
virginity. She hath given birth to a
child : and as it is said she hath
remained a virgin. Thus the Virgin
hath brought forth : and hath
remained a virgin. A Mother hath
been made by the Son : and the seal
of chastity hath not perished.
Wherefore ? Because it was not only
that man which appeared : but the
Only Begotten was God who had
come in the flesh. Neither unexpectedly
was he born in the flesh :
but perfect divinity came in the flesh.
Whole therefore and undivided, God
came in human kind or was brought
forth in flesh : and both God and
Lord took up the form of a servant.
Neither indeed did a part of the Only
Begotten come in body : nor did he
divide himself such that half was with
the Father, and half was within the
Virgin : but in truth wholly with the
Father, and wholly within the Virgin.
Wholly in nature of the Father, and
wholly in human flesh. Not relinquishing
the heavenly, he came to
seek the earthly. Which in heaven
are preserved : and which in earth are
saved. Everywhere almighty : unbroken,
undivided, this is the holy Only
Begotten God."
Lauds is of the day, except with proper antiphons which anticipate the following day: "Judah and Jerusalem, be not afraid, tomorrow you shall go forth and the Lord will be with you." Lauds does not observe preces on this day nor is a genuflexion made. A commemoration of All Saints may be made on Sunday, but votive prayers and Offices are vanquished until after the Octave day of St. Stephen.
The Vigil Mass is virtually identical to the Roman Vigil Mass on this day with a few additions. Sarum provided additional readings on certain days and sang sequences more often than the post-Tridentine Roman Mass. On December 24 the acolyte, the liturgical minister who holds the paten during the Canon of the Mass, reads Isaiah 62:1-4, foretelling the universality of conversion to the Lord. The sequence, repeated from the Fourth Advent Sunday, and the Alleluia are sung only if the Vigil falls on Sunday.
Not the "rite" setting, but something close.
At Vespers the senior most cleric, ideally the Bishop of Salisbury, celebrates with the four most senior canons ruling the choir. The same is done at Mattins of Christmas Day. The hymn is Veni, Redemptor Gentium by St. Ambrose. During Veni the two thurifers bring a pair of copes to the celebrant, who assumes one and picks another cleric to wear the other, who in turn with incense the altar during the Magnificat. Two other senior canons begin the Magnificat antiphon, which is the same as in the Roman rite: "When the sun shall have risen from heaven, you shall see the King of kings proceeding from the Father, as a bridegroom from his chamber."
Mattins of Christmas Day begins at such a time to allow it end before midnight, when the first Mass of the feast is sung. The first six lessons and corresponding responsories are sung by canons and choristers wearing surplies in ascending order of seniority, allowing the senior-most members of the choir to sing the sixth response. At the first response, after the lesson from Isaiah 9:1-8, five boys wearing amices over their heads face the choir from the altar carrying candles. Between the iterations of the response ("This day the King of Heaven was pleased to be born of a virgin, that He might restore lost man to the heavenly kingdom....") they sing "Glory be to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of goodwill." At the second, fifth, and eighth lessons of Mattins a priest from alternating sides of the choir. The Gospel pericopes, taken from the three Masses of the day, and lessons for the final nocturne, extracted from St. Bede the Venerable and St. Gregory the Great, are read in copes.
Rather than singing the Te Deum immediately, a ninth response is sung while a full Gospel procession arrives at the lecturn in the middle of the choir. The deacon then sings the beginning of St. Matthew's gospel, which recounts Our Lord's genealogy, in a special tone.
Initium sancti evangelii secundum Mattheum source: http://hmcwordpress.mcmaster.ca/
The Te Deum is sung and then the first Mass of Christmas begins, Dominus dixit. The celebrant, who should also have celebrated Mattins, faces the altar after Mass and says "Verbum caro factum est," to which the people reply "Et habitavit in nobis, alleluia." Lauds then commences. After the Benedictus and collect a series of additional antiphons are sung by choristers standing near the choir rulers:
"The Father's Word this day proceeded from a Virgin: He hath come to redeem us, And to the heavenly country hath willed to lead us back: Where the angelic powers with jubilation: Give blessing unto the Lord"
"Shining above the shepherds the angels hath proclaimed Peace, the messenger of peace; Thou O Shepherd of the Church, bestow upon us Thy peace: And Thy children of their debt to their Redeemer teach them, to sing forth in joyful thanks"
A commemoration of antiphons, versicles, and collect is made of the Blessed Virgin to "complete" the Nativity.
After Lauds the second Mass of Christmas is sung. All three Sarum Masses for Christmas are nearly identical with their Roman counterparts, except for the addition of a lesson from Isaiah before the epistle.
Second Vespers was not well attended, speculatively. The good people of Salisbury had settled their brains for a long winter's nap.
