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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Today is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Please see my prior post for sermons and prayers for this day.
Prayer:
Bestow upon Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of Thy heavenly grace: that as the childbearing of the Blessed Virgin was the beginning of our salvation, so the solemn feast of her Nativity may bring us an increase of peace. Through our Lord.
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Prayer:
Bestow upon Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of Thy heavenly grace: that as the childbearing of the Blessed Virgin was the beginning of our salvation, so the solemn feast of her Nativity may bring us an increase of peace. Through our Lord.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Through the providential gift of the Holy Father's Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, Ss. Peter and Paul in Wisconsin Rapids will begin to offer the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on the First Sunday of the month at 4 PM. This will begin the 3rd of October of this year. The Institute of Christ King will be offering the Holy Mass.
A Facebook group promoting the occasion has been created.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
LMS Chairman has shared some very beautiful images of the Liturgy celebrated as part of a pilgrimage. You can see two very different sanctuaries in these photos yet both successfully convey the holiness of that which belongs to God alone.
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The blog Salvem to Liturgy, features these photos from today of a priest celebrating the traditional Mass at the altar of St. Joseph of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
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Saturday, September 4, 2010
Romanitas Press has successfully republished this classic text of Reverend Edwin Ryan on Candles in the Roman Rite. Description and Photos of this product follow.
CANDLES IN THE ROMAN RITE
Rev. Edwin Ryan, D.D.
3rd edition; 1937
IN the Catholic Faith, candles not only represent “the True Light Which enlightens every man who comes into the world” but much more besides! Discover the rich symbolism and ancient history surrounding the use of church candles in this fascinating, illustrated book. Educate yourself about the rules and practices concerning candles in the Roman Rite through chapters that cover Masses offered by a priest or bishop, a sick call, the Divine Office and even when administering the other Sacraments or for other solemn occasions.
Last published in 1937 and simply written by noted American professor of liturgy, Fr. Edwin Ryan, this large format 36-page book (originally intended as an advertising medium for the now defunct Gross Candle Co.) is also unique and interesting for its wonderful illustrations.
Created especially for this book by artists, Terence J. Hughes and James R. Howard, the illustrations are a combination of vivid watercolors and striking black and white line drawings of altars decorated with candles according to rules of the Roman Church. The illustrations are even more interesting for showing properly constructed altars decorated with a full array of flowers (in the Roman fashion), antependiums, conopaeums, pavement candles, candelabra, and even riddel post curtains and candles.
Perfect for any Catholic (cleric or laic) who wishes to learn more about the traditional Latin Mass. Especially appropriate for sacristans, altar servers, church artisans, ladies’ altar guilds and parish florists. Also a great reference for seminaries, catechism classes, and Catholic libraries.
BOOK REVIEW
Yet another fine reprint from Romanitas Press, this book does not fail either in quality of content or quality of stock. It was originally published by the advertising department of the A. Gross Candle Co., Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland. Romanitas Press has done it again by finding this rare but important work and making it available.
Upon reading the book, one finds out how much they do not know about the use of candles in the Roman Rite. So many of us have been to Mass how many thousands times, always noticing the lit candles on the altar but never putting much thought into why the candles are there and what they symbolize.
Candles gives you the "how" (the rubrics) and the "why" (this history and symbolism) of the use of candles. A nugget of teaching from the book: "The custom of making church candles from beeswax was suggested from the then supposed virginity of bees, their wax being taken as a symbol of the Body of the Redeemer derived from His Virgin Mother, an interpretation which retains its beauty even though the biological concept underlying it has been long since rejected."
Anyone with an interest in the rituals of the Catholic Church will find Candles in the Roman Rite to be a fine addition to their liturgical library. Review by www.churchlatin.com
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Rev. Edwin Ryan, D.D.
3rd edition; 1937
IN the Catholic Faith, candles not only represent “the True Light Which enlightens every man who comes into the world” but much more besides! Discover the rich symbolism and ancient history surrounding the use of church candles in this fascinating, illustrated book. Educate yourself about the rules and practices concerning candles in the Roman Rite through chapters that cover Masses offered by a priest or bishop, a sick call, the Divine Office and even when administering the other Sacraments or for other solemn occasions.
Last published in 1937 and simply written by noted American professor of liturgy, Fr. Edwin Ryan, this large format 36-page book (originally intended as an advertising medium for the now defunct Gross Candle Co.) is also unique and interesting for its wonderful illustrations.
Perfect for any Catholic (cleric or laic) who wishes to learn more about the traditional Latin Mass. Especially appropriate for sacristans, altar servers, church artisans, ladies’ altar guilds and parish florists. Also a great reference for seminaries, catechism classes, and Catholic libraries.
BOOK REVIEW
Yet another fine reprint from Romanitas Press, this book does not fail either in quality of content or quality of stock. It was originally published by the advertising department of the A. Gross Candle Co., Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland. Romanitas Press has done it again by finding this rare but important work and making it available.
Candles gives you the "how" (the rubrics) and the "why" (this history and symbolism) of the use of candles. A nugget of teaching from the book: "The custom of making church candles from beeswax was suggested from the then supposed virginity of bees, their wax being taken as a symbol of the Body of the Redeemer derived from His Virgin Mother, an interpretation which retains its beauty even though the biological concept underlying it has been long since rejected."
Friday, September 3, 2010
Visit my prior post dedicated to this champion defender against modernism and pray in a special way this day for his intercession. Also read my post on his funeral.
O God, Who to safeguard Catholic faith and to restore all things in Christ, didst fill the Supreme Pontiff, Saint Pius, with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fortitude: grant in Thy mercy: that by striving to fulfill his ordinances and to follow his example, we may reap eternal rewards. Through the same our Lord.
Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal
Some Photos of St. Pius X
While many are aware that Gregorian Chant remains the official music of the Catholic Church, considerable attention should also be focused on Old Roman Chant. To illustrate the style of Old Roman Chant, we begin with the following video of the Graduale of the Christmas Midnight Mass.
The encyclopedia Britannica describes Old Roman as "[a] repertory of liturgical melodies written in Rome between the 11th and the 13th century and discovered about 1890". Staying true to its name, the chant originated and largely remained in use in Rome although there is some indication that it spread to central Italy and possibly the areas of present-day Great Britain and Ireland.
Notably, Gregorian Chant and Old Roman Chant not only share similar melodic qualities but also the same liturgical texts. For example, the video above of the Gradual chanted in Old Roman Chant uses the Gradual text which is commonly chanted using Gregorian Chant. In fact, Gregorian Chant is closest to Old Roman Chant than to Ambrosian chant, Mozarabic chant, and Gallican chant. It is believed that Gregorian Chant and Old Roman Chant split into different styles after 800 AD since the feast of All Saints, a later addition to the liturgical calendar, has markedly different chants in the two traditions.
Liturgica.com offers a good overview of Old Roman Chant:
and Schola Hungarica. I would say that Marcel Peres is better because he uses exclusively male voices, which is more historically accurate. Here are some samples of Marcel Peres and his Ensemble Organum.
More Information
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The encyclopedia Britannica describes Old Roman as "[a] repertory of liturgical melodies written in Rome between the 11th and the 13th century and discovered about 1890". Staying true to its name, the chant originated and largely remained in use in Rome although there is some indication that it spread to central Italy and possibly the areas of present-day Great Britain and Ireland.
Notably, Gregorian Chant and Old Roman Chant not only share similar melodic qualities but also the same liturgical texts. For example, the video above of the Gradual chanted in Old Roman Chant uses the Gradual text which is commonly chanted using Gregorian Chant. In fact, Gregorian Chant is closest to Old Roman Chant than to Ambrosian chant, Mozarabic chant, and Gallican chant. It is believed that Gregorian Chant and Old Roman Chant split into different styles after 800 AD since the feast of All Saints, a later addition to the liturgical calendar, has markedly different chants in the two traditions.
Liturgica.com offers a good overview of Old Roman Chant:
The two principal positions regarding Old Roman Chant result from the fact that there are no manuscripts from before the 13th century that accurately and indisputeably represent the form, and thus (at best) accurately documenting the chant form would be a function of "oral tradition." What comprised Old Roman Chant tends to be seen two ways. What might be described as the “academic liturgical” view essentially begins with the thesis that the Roman chant that was completed by about 750 is inaccessible to us in its original form. Further, it is only the Roman chant that was transmitted to the Franks after 754 AD and was modified in significant ways by them (giving us what we know as Gregorian chant), that is accessible to us via extant manuscripts. In the Roman Catholic chant manuscript corpus, it is known that the five manuscripts labeled as “Old Roman Chant” are dated from the late 11th to the mid-12th centuries. Thus, by general agreement, the Old Roman and Gregorian sources each represent a development or modification of the same original, the Roman chant of around 750. Little, if anything, however, is said by proponents of this view about the nature of the liturgical chant sung in the Church of Rome up to that time and it is no surprise that their interpretation of Old Roman Chant sounds like a simplified Gregorian chant. Examples are recordings by Schola Hungarica.There are a couple major purveyors of reconstructed Old Roman Chant these days, notably Marcel Peres
In contrast, what might be described as the “historical reconstructionist” view begins with the common sense assumption that the early church exemplified a high degree of homogeneity, and therefore since early Christian music forms were based on older Greek music forms, it can be safely assumed that Old Roman Chant had its roots in, and probably sounded very similar to pre-Byzantine chant in the early church period. Most of the proponents of this understanding of Old Roman Chant have begun with the oldest manuscripts they have available, and informed by a variety of "extra-musical" datum, set out to try and recreate Old Roman chant--this is an undertaking akin to playing classical compositions on original instruments with the goal or recreating the original sound intended by the composer. In addition, this approach considers manuscripts outside the traditional Roman Catholic corpus to be valid, and since the earliest have notation akin to Byzantine notation, are not afraid to involve Byzantine musicologists to try to understand and recreate the sound. Thus it is no surprise that their interpretation of Old Roman Chant sound somewhat like early Byzantine chant. Examples are recordings by Marcel Peres and Ensemble Organum.
and Schola Hungarica. I would say that Marcel Peres is better because he uses exclusively male voices, which is more historically accurate. Here are some samples of Marcel Peres and his Ensemble Organum. More Information
- Apel, Willi (1990). Gregorian Chant. Bloomington, IN Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20601-4.
- Hiley, David (1995). Western Plainchant: A Handbook. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-816572-2.
- Hoppin, Richard (1978). Medieval Music. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-09090-6.
- Wilson, David (1990). Music of the Middle Ages. Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-872951-X.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
On Saturday, September 25th, I will be conducting an interview with Fr. Frank Pavone, internationally recognized for his work with Priests for Life. I am turning to the readers of this blog and encouraging you to post your questions to Fr. Pavone in the comments section and/or email them to me. I will choose from among the questions to determine the topics in the interview.
If you ever had a question to ask Fr. Frank Pavone and Priests for Life now is your chance.
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If you ever had a question to ask Fr. Frank Pavone and Priests for Life now is your chance.
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