Into Great Silence: Office of the Night

I was recently given the opportunity to review "Into Great Silence: Office of the Night". The CD features the recording of the Monks of the Grande Chartreuse chanting the Sunday offices of Matins and Lauds. I tremendously enjoyed listening to this CD on Sunday mornings as I sat outside and watched the sun rise. As I listened to the beautiful chant, I prayed along with the monks with my Douay Rheims Bible. I highly recommend this CD to all Catholics.

Product Description
Only in complete silence, one starts to hear.
Only when language resigns, one starts to see.

In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. They said they would get back to him. Sixteen years later, they were ready.

In 2007, the documentary film Into Great Silence came to American theaters. Audiences and critics embraced it immediately. After releasing the soundtrack to the film, Jade Music is proud to release Into Great Silence: Office of the Night.

This is the first time that any recording of the Office of the Night at the Grande Chartreuse is made available in its entirety. The two-CD album is a collection of chants, readings, prayers, and sounds of silence recorded by the film director Philip Gröning during his six-month stay at the monastery.

This Office of the Night appeared to me to be the core of the Monks life and spirituality, the heartbeat of the Order for more than 1000 years. I wanted to share my experience with an audience. - Philip Gröning

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St. Stanislaus Oratory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Solemn High Mass

On Sunday, August 10, 2008, I decided to take a trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While in Milwaukee, I attended Mass at the Oratory of St. Stanislaus, which is the location of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Solely by Divine grace did I choose to attend Sunday Mass there on a highly important day for the local Traditional Latin Mass community. On this occasion, a Solemn High Mass was celebrated according to the Missal of 1962 by Right Reverend Father R. Michael Schmitz, Vicar General in the Institute and Provincial for the United States.

Afterwards, I was able to take a few photos of the Oratory of St. Stanislaus. I have attached them to this post. If you wish to publish these photos on the Internet, I ask you to first specifically write to me about your request. I would also be most interested in finding any photos of the Solemn High Mass, as I did not feel it was appropriate to take photos of the Mass while sitting in the midst of the faithful.

After Mass and Breakfast at a nearby restaurant, I attended the Brewers - Nationals Major League Baseball Game, where the Brewers won 5-4 in the 13th Inning. It was a good game to watch.

Photos:

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Institute of Christ the King Website Updated

Dear Blogger,

The Institute of Christ the King has launched a new Web site at www.institute-christ-king.org.

The new Web site features:

* a fresh, elegant design
* easy navigation and better organization
* a new email list
* RSS news feed
* more resources and information
* new mini-sites for each apostolate with new pictures and maps
* a new home page that pulls the site together
* a solid, secure online donation system
* and much more . . .

This new site will be a great resource for news and information about the Institute, as well as Catholic Liturgy, Tradition, and culture.

The announcement of this new site on your blog would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, and God bless you.

Yours in Christ the King,

Don Taylor [I have met the webmaster before]
Webmaster, Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

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Traditional Latin Mass: August 30, 2008, St. Paul’s Church, Emo, Co. Laois, Ireland

Saint Conleth’s Catholic Heritage Association invites you to honour the Holy Year of St. Paul with Holy Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite on Saturday, 30th August, 2008, at 11 a.m. in St. Paul’s Church, Emo, Co. Laois, Ireland, followed by a tour of Emo Court House and Gardens.

For the past 15 years, St. Conleth’s Catholic Heritage Association has been working prayerfully for the provision of the Traditional Latin Liturgy in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.

Please confirm your attendance to: catholicheritagegroup@catholic.org

For further details consult: http://www.catholicheritage.blogspot.com

Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain

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Leo XIII: Church & State in France

The calumny made headway; and in their credulity the pagans called the first Christians “useless creatures, dangerous citizens, factionists, enemies of the Empire and the Emperors.”But in vain did the apologists of Christianity by their writings, and Christians by their splendid conduct, endeavor to demonstrate the absurdity and criminality of these qualifications: they were not heeded. Their very name was equivalent to a declaration of war; and Christians, by the mere fact of their being such, and for no other reason, were forced to choose between apostasy and martyrdom, being allowed no alternative. During the following centuries the same grievances and the same severity prevailed to a greater or less extent, whenever governments were unreasonably jealous of their power and maliciously disposed against the Church. They never failed to call public attention to the pretended encroachment of the Church upon the State, in order to furnish the State with some apparent right to violently attack the Catholic religion. (Leo XIII: Church & State in France)

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Christian Society - Pope St. Pius X

The civilization of the world is Christian. The more completely Christian it is, the more true, more lasting and more productive of genuine fruit it is. On the other hand, the further it draws away from the Christian ideal, the more seriously the social order is endangered. By the very nature of things, the Church has consequently become the guardian and protector of Christian society. That fact was universally recognized and admitted in other periods of history. In truth, it formed a solid foundation for civil legislation. On that very fact rested the relations between Church and State; the public recognition of the authority of the Church in those matters which touched upon conscience in any manner, the subordination of all the laws of the State to the Divine laws of the Gospel; the harmony of the two powers in securing the temporal welfare of the people in such a way that their eternal welfare did not suffer. (St. Pius X: Catholic Action)

Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain

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Our Lady of Sorrows Priory, Roodepoort Johannesburg

Rev. Fr. A. Esposito SSPX offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Priory, Roodepoort Johannesburg. It is a truly beautiful image - our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of the priest.

Source: Summorum Pontificium Johannesburg

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Served My Second Tridentine Mass

Today I served my second Traditional Latin Mass. Again, Fr. Bernard Danbar OSA said the High Mass, today in honor of St. Alphonsus Liguori with a commemoration of St. Stephen I, Pontiff and Martyr. This Mass was held at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Calumet City, Illinois.

The Traditional Latin Mass is currently held at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Calumet City on the 1st Saturday of each month.

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Society of St. Catherine of Siena

I have added a link to the Society of St. Catherine of Siena to my sidebar.
Editing Note: the original website is no longer available. For similar content, try the St. Catherine of Siena site in Phila., Pa.
Directly quoting from the original website at http://www.caterinati.org.uk:

The Society of St. Catherine of Siena is committed to the renewal of the intellectual apostolate in the Roman Catholic Church. The Society has an association with the English Province of the Order of Preachers. It is registered charity number 1088118.

In particular interest, this Fall the Society of St. Catherine of Siena will launch a new journal: Usus Antiquior. More information on this initiative has been posted by Mark at the above linked post to his website.

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Liturgical Institute, Mundelein, Adds Course on the Extraordinary Form

From Creative Minority Report:


One year after the release of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, The Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois, announced that it has added a required 3-credit course on the history and spirituality of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to its roster of classes. The Liturgical Institute was founded by Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago (left) in the year 2000. Though the primary emphasis of the Institute involves the reformed liturgical books, this course comes in response to the call of Pope Benedict for freer study and use of the missal of 1962. In the summer and Fall of 2007, immediately after the release of the motu proprio, the Institute included several lectures on the topic in its Hillenbrand Lecture Series, including one by Rev. Dennis Gill, Director of Worship for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and another by Bishop Joesph Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. The formal course, whose description is below, will be also be offered for priests and others not enrolled in the Institutes's degree programs.

LI 557 History and Spirituality of the Extraordinary Form

Pope Benedict XVI’s assurance in the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum that every Roman Rite priest may offer the Eucharist and other sacraments according to the form of the rite that was preeminent prior to 1969, provides new opportunities for people to encounter a manner of worship that represents two millennia of exegetical reflection and theological contemplation. Now designated as the “extraordinary” form of the Roman Rite, the Mass that serves as the rite’s liturgical center requires careful consideration. The constituent structures of this eucharistic liturgy’s ordo missae, the content of its ecclesiastical propers, its protocols for integrating biblical readings and antiphons, and the complex character of its multiple eucharistic prefaces and single eucharistic prayer (Roman Canon) preserve a form of liturgical celebration that was already well-established in Europe and North Africa before the 5th century. Subtle but meaningful refinements in this liturgy were implemented by Popes Gregory the Great (7th century), Innocent III (13th century), Pius V (16th century) and, at the start of the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII (1962). In a two-part course that considers the history and spirituality of the Mass of the Roman Rite in its extraordinary form, students will examine the theological foundations and tangible traditions within the Mass whose antiquity and subsequent centuries of celebration on every continent testify to the capacity of liturgy to transcend historical epochs and cultural divisions.

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