Anthology: Chants and Polyphony from St. Michael's Abbey

I was recently given the opportunity to review "Anthology: Chants and Polyphony from St. Michael's Abbey". The CD features the recordings of the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael's Abbey. While I have heard first-hand experience of the Norbertine order falling headfirst into liberalism, St. Michael's Abbey remains as a beacon of hope for the order. The CD features 18 beautifully Catholic titles including Exultet, Attende Coelum, Panis Angelicus, Ave Maria, Verbum Caro, and more! I highly recommend this CD to all Catholics.

Product Description

After "Christmas at St. Michael's Abbey" - "The singing on this album is so very beautiful, and thoroughly authentic," California Catholic Daily - Jade Music is proud to release the second album by the Norbertine Fathers: Anthology: Chants and Polyphony from St. Michael's Abbey, another rare release of chants and polyphony from a domestic U.S. abbey.

The eclectic selection on this album is a cross-section of music sung at the abbey that includes chants from the liturgy as well as motets and music from the Renaissance era. These latter are sung on more solemn occasions like Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, and other great feasts of the liturgical year. "Anthology: Chants and Polyphony from St. Michael's Abbey" is a testimony of the vigor and subtle beauty of Gregorian chant as sung today in the USA.

St. Michael's Abbey is a community of Norbertine Canons Regular in Orange County, California. Its first members were Hungarian priests who escaped communism to find refuge in the United States in 1957. The community was raised to the status of an abbey in 1984, because of its growth. St. Michael's Abbey now numbers nearly 70 members.

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His Excellency Richard Williamson: Mass after Confirmation: April 16, 2008

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SSPX BISHOPS ARE NOT EXCOMMUNICATED - OFFICIAL FROM THE VATICAN

Today, since today was an interim day for a silent retreat at which I was obligated to attend, I began to browse through the blogs on my sidebar. Then, I noticed the glorious news: the bishops of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X have been declared as not being excommunicated. I have long supported the idea, canonically legitimate, that the Priestly Society of St. Pius X was never excommunicated because the initial decree was unjustifiable per Canon Law.

Yet, regardless, today it is official: The Bishops Bernard Fellay, Alfonso de Gallareta [sic - Galarreta], [Bernard] Tissier de Mallerais, and Richard Williamson are not excommunicated!!

Sources:

New Liturgical Movement: Excommunications Lifted
New Liturgical Movement: Response of SSPX Superior General
New Liturgical Movement: FSSP Press Release

As additional information becomes available in the coming weeks, I will update this post. Check back at the bottom of this post for future updates in the coming weeks.

Update (February 7, 2009): It is unfortunate that political reasons have caused the following stories:

Rorate Caeli: SSPX expels Father Abrahamowicz
Bishop Williamson is no longer rector of the seminary in Argentina (confirmation)

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Requiem for His Royal Highness, King Louis XVI

 

Via The New Liturgical Movement. Scenes from the Requiem Mass at St.Eugene-St.Cecile (Paris, France) on the occasion of the anniversary of the death of the former King. Mass from January 2009. 

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

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Anglican Use Requiem Mass

This requiem Mass was offered according to the Book of Divine Worship, the approved usage of the Latin Rite for certain congregations in the United States who have been received into the Catholic Church from the Anglican tradition.

I thought that this video was stunningly beautiful. I particularly love the black vestments, clearly illustrating our morality.

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Pope Benedict XVI Wears Fiddleback at the 2009 Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany

Image Sources: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

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Pledge Against Indecent and Immoral Motion Pictures

The American bishops at a meeting in Washington in 1938 requested all Ordinaries to have the Pledge of the Legion of Decency taken by all the Faithful at all Masses, in all churches and chapels throughout the United States, on the Sunday within the octave of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. For more information, see Vigilanti Cura: Encyclical of Pope Pius XI promulgated on June 29, 1936.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

I condemn indecent and immoral motion pictures and television programs, and those which glorify crime or criminals. I promise to unite my efforts with all those who protest against them.

I acknowledge my obligation to form a right conscience about films and television programs that are dangerous to my moral life.

As a true Roman Catholic, I pledge myself to watch only good motion pictures and television programs. I promise, further, to stay away altogether from places of amusement and sources of entertainment which are offensive to God and occasions of sin for myself and others for whom I am responsible.

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Good King Wenceslas

In honor of the Feast of St. Stephen.

St. Stephen, ora pro nobis!
St. Wenceslas I, ora pro nobis!

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Christmas 2008 Urbi et Orbi

This year, The Holy Father will not wear cope and mitre for the Urbi et Orbi blessing

To forestall any rash comments, this is not without precedent, as may be seen from the accompanying picture of Pius XII imparing the Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter 1952. The choice would seem to be connected to the fact that the Pope does not publicly celebrate the Missa in die, and is therefore not vested prior to the blessing. Msgr. Marini explains that it is "a solemn benediction which is not connected to a particular liturgical rite."

Source: NLM

Text:

"The grace of God our Saviour has appeared to all" (Tit 2:11, Vulg.)

Dear brothers and sisters, in the words of the Apostle Paul, I once more joyfully proclaim Christ’s Birth. Today "the grace of God our Saviour" has truly "appeared to all"!

It appeared! This is what the Church celebrates today. The grace of God, rich in goodness and love, is no longer hidden. It "appeared", it was manifested in the flesh, it showed its face. Where? In Bethlehem. When? Under Caesar Augustus, during the first census, which the Evangelist Luke also mentions. And who is the One who reveals it? A newborn Child, the Son of the Virgin Mary. In him the grace of God our Saviour has appeared. And so that Child is called Jehoshua, Jesus, which means: "God saves".

The grace of God has appeared. That is why Christmas is a feast of light. Not like the full daylight which illumines everything, but a glimmer beginning in the night and spreading out from a precise point in the universe: from the stable of Bethlehem, where the divine Child was born. Indeed, he is the light itself, which begins to radiate, as portrayed in so many paintings of the Nativity. He is the light whose appearance breaks through the gloom, dispels the darkness and enables us to understand the meaning and the value of our own lives and of all history. Every Christmas crib is a simple yet eloquent invitation to open our hearts and minds to the mystery of life. It is an encounter with the immortal Life which became mortal in the mystic scene of the Nativity: a scene which we can admire here too, in this Square, as in countless churches and chapels throughout the world, and in every house where the name of Jesus is adored.

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Image Source 1: REUTERS/Osservatore Romano
Image Source 2: Wikipedia

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Tridentine Mass Instructional DVD for Priests by the FSSP

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has put together some great videos on the spirituality and the rubrics for the Traditional Latin Mass.

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