The (5) Sequences in the Church: A History and Tradition of Sequences

What is a Sequence? If you are unfamiliar with the Traditional (Tridentine) Latin Mass, you may not know.  The sequence is the chanted hymn that is recited before the proclamation of the Gospel during the Mass.  The Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes:

The Sequence (Sequentia)—or, more accurately as will be seen further on, the Prose (Prosa)—is the liturgical hymn of the Mass, in which it occurs on festivals between the Gradual and the Gospel, while the hymn, properly so called, belongs to the Breviary. The Sequence differs also in structure and melody from the hymn; for whilst all the strophes of a hymn are always constructed according to the same metre and rhythm and are sung to the same melody as the first strophe, it is the peculiarity of the Sequence, due to its origin, that (at least in those of the first epoch) each strophe or pair of strophes is constructed on a different plan. A sequence usually begins with an independent introductory sentence or an Alleluia (an intonation with its own melody); then follow several pairs of strophes, each pair with its own melody; in the earlier periods the conclusion is uniformly an independent sentence of shorter or longer form.

The sequence which is used in the Traditional Mass is used only on five occasions in the 1962 Missal though it used to be commonplace before the reforms of St. Pius V.  The Book Catholic Music through the Ages: Balancing the Needs of a Worshipping Church states that Sequences were so plentiful before the reforms of St. Pius V that nearly every Mass had its own sequence.  Fr. Michael Wurtz's July 2011 article on Sequences concurs when he writes, "From the 9th century when sequences first began to appear and later in the 12th century when they grew in complexity, hundreds of these hybrid Alleluia verses-hymns were composed and used in the Mass." And commenting on the work of St. Pius V's reform, Michael Davies further writes, "[he] expelled the host of long sequences that crowded the Mass continually, but kept what are undoubtedly the five best"

In the Missal of Pope St. Pius V from 1570, the many number of sequences in the Roman Rite was reduced to only four:

• Victimae paschali laudes for Easter
• Veni Sancte Spiritus for Pentecost 
• Lauda Sion Salvatorem for Corpus Christi 
• Dies Irae for All Souls and in Masses for the Dead

Nearly 150 years after St. Pius V's changes, the 13th century Stabat Mater for Our Lady of Sorrows was added to this list, bringing the total to the number five.  These are the same five which survive in the 1962 Missal that is used today in the Traditional Mass.

Also of note however, certain religious orders retain their own Rite of Mass and the possibility of using other sequences.  For instance, the Christmas sequence "Laetabundus," not present in the Roman Missal, is found in the Dominican Missal. This sequence is permitted for the Third Mass of Christmas, the Epiphany, and Candlemas.

Quiz your Catholic friends and see how many of them can name all five!

Image Source: Tridentine Mass in Strasbourg Cathedral

Read more >>

Indulgenced Acts for the Poor Souls November 1st thru 8th

Make plans now to visit a cemetery each day from November 1st through November 8th for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.  The Poor Souls have so few souls who pray for them nowadays.  They need our prayers.  Go out and visit a cemetery and gain an indulgence for them.

The faithful, as often as they visit a church or public oratory, or even a semi-public oratory (if they may lawfully use the same), in order to pray for the dead on the day on which the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed is celebrated (November 2nd) or on the Sunday immediately following, may gain a plenary indulgence applicable only to the souls detained in Purgatory, on condition of confession and Communion, and the recitation six times during each visit of Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff(June 25, 1914)

The faithful who during the period of eight days from the Commemoration of All Souls inclusive, visit a cemetery in a spirit of piety and devotion, and pray, even mentally, for the dead may gain a plenary indulgence on the usual conditions, on each day of the Octave, applicable only to the dead.

Raccolta Source

For other indulgences applicable to the Poor Souls, please click hereFor other indulgences applicable to the Poor Souls, please click here.

Read more >>

500th Anniversary of the Reformation

Traditional Catholics yesterday celebrated the Feast of Christ the King. Yet a small percentage of Catholics in the world today are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the revolt of Martin Luther.  This video is a powerful overview of the grave evil that was manifest in Martin Luther.

In Brussels Catholic Cathedral yesterday, the 500 years of the hideous acts of heresiarch Luther were celebrated. What did a small group of serious Catholics do? They pleaded Our Lord for forgiveness, by invoking the aid of Our Lady in the Ave Maria in the Rosary.  And for that protest of the blasphemy and profanation of the Cathedral, they were arrested.  Read more. 

Martin Luther must be condemned for his egregious actions and blatant blasphemy.  See these resources:

Letter on the Errors of Luther on the 450th Anniversary

Luther Preferred Mohammed to the Pope

Luther Admitted to Conversations with the Devil

Exsurge Domine

What's Wrong with Martin Luther?

Read more >>

Christopher Columbus: The Holy Admiral

As we conclude this month in which we celebrated the life of Christopher Columbus, who has been unjustly marred by many in our current day, I encourage you to listen to this brief sermon on him.

Read more >>

St. Ursula and Companions

From Catholic Online in honor of today's Commemoration of St. Ursula in the Liturgy:

According to a legend that appeared in the tenth century, Ursula was the daughter of a Christian king in Britain and was granted a three year postponement of a marriage she did not wish, to a pagan prince. With ten ladies in waiting, each attended by a thousand maidens, she embarked on a voyage across the North sea, sailed up the Rhine to Basle, Switzerland, and then went to Rome.  

On their way back, they were all massacred by pagan Huns at Cologne in about 451 when Ursula refused to marry their chieftain. According to another legend, Amorica was settled by British colonizers and soldiers after Emporer Magnus Clemens Maximus conquered Britain and Gaul in 383. The ruler of the settlers, Cynan Meiriadog, called on King Dionotus of Cornwall for wives for the settlers, whereupon Dionotus sent his daughter Ursula, who was to marry Cynan, with eleven thousand maidens and sixty thousand common women.  

Their fleet was shipwrecked and all the women were enslaved or murdered. The legends are pious fictions, but what is true is that one Clematius, a senator, rebuilt a basilica in Cologne that had originally been built, probably at the beginning of the fourth century, to honor a group of virgins who had been martyred at Cologne. They were evidently venerated enough to have had a church built in their honor, but who they were and how many of them there were, are unknown.  

From these meager facts, the legend of Ursula grew and developed. 

Collect:

O Lord our God, grant that we may always honor the victories of Your blessed virgin martyrs Ursula and her companions. Although we are unable to pay them the honor that is due, may we at least offer them our humble tribute. Through our Lord . . .

Read more >>

Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

October 16th is the Feast of the Purity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary in Some Places.  

This Feastday is kept by various religious orders in the Church as it is one of the Masses Said in Some Places.  While not on the Universal Tridentine Calendar, it nevertheless is worthy of our devotion on this day.

The following is taken from Our Lady's Feastdays by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D:

1. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are the Immaculate Conception. The closer a soul is to God, the farther it is from sin. God is infinite good; sin, horrible evil. No one could have had a closer approach to God than you, for it is impossible for any creature to be closer to God's Son than His own Mother. From eternity, before anything was, you were united to your Son in the mind of God as His most pure Mother. When God decreed the incarnation of the Word, His very own Son, through you alone, you had a place in the same plan as Jesus. Since the conception of the Son of God is all holy, all pure, infinitely removed from every appearance of sin, it was supremely fitting that your conception should be equally far from sin. For that reason you were conceived by your mother, Saint Anne, without even the shadow of sin. You are the Virgin most pure. 

Because you were to be the Mother of God, original sin, which like all Eve's daughters you should have contracted, could not touch you. Such a stain would have reflected upon your Son, who is Holiness itself. Then Satan could boast that he had overcome Jesus in you, His Mother. You are pure and sinless. You expressed this to Saint Bernadette at Lourdes when you said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." 

Mary, My Mother, there is no sin in you; in you there is only God's grace—His light, His splendor, His love, His unspeakable delight. You are truly His beloved Daughter, the only one in whom there was never a stain. With you all is pure, virginal, immaculate In you there is no inclination to evil—no impure thoughts or desires. You are God's purest and holiest creature, the one chosen to conceive and bear the Son of God. Who would not love you and endeavor to imitate you, most beautiful and immaculate Mother of God? 

2. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are full of grace. You are the most beautiful of creatures, the one in whom there is no spot, God's masterpiece. You are full of grace, the Lord's free gift, and it overflows in you filling your soul with every virtue and perfection. What marvels of grace possessed your soul! Sanctifying grace made you God's adopted child and the lawful heir to His eternal kingdom, putting you in possession of God's goods and of God Himself forever. That grace made you holy and most pleasing in God's eyes, the special object of His love. Sanctifying grace likened you to God as it did no other pure creature. Because you were full of God's grace and a Virgin most pure, Gabriel could exclaim, "You have found grace with God." No one has found or received such grace as you. 

But who can describe the matchless purity and beauty of your soul? Jesus is the most beautiful of men; you were His mould, His mirror, and He, yours. Your soul contained all the marvels of God's grace, for which reason the Church calls you the Singular Vessel of Devotion. 

Mary, My Mother, you are all beautiful—beautiful in mind, in body, in soul! In you I behold the charm of the purest of virgins, the majesty of the noblest of mothers. You are beautiful at your presentation in the temple; in prayer before Gabriel as he awaited your answer, in Nazareth's hidden life and later as you followed Jesus and listened to Wisdom speak. You were beautiful when you stood as the brave Queen of Martyrs beneath the cross of your dying Son; in the supper room beneath the fiery tongues of the Divine Spirit; beautiful, above all, in the glory in which you reign with Jesus. If a single soul in the state of grace by far excels in beauty all other earthly beauty, what beauty must you possess, Virgin most pure, who surpassed in holiness all other souls in the state of grace! 

3. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are the holiest of God's creatures. You are the holiest of God's creatures because you are the Mother of God. The Prophet tells us that God is "wonderful in His saints" (Ps. 67, 36). How wonderful, then, He must be in the Mother of the Saint of saints! In you, to an eminent degree, all the privileges of other saints meet. The Church venerates many holy virgins, martyrs and other saints, but no one of them has merited or obtained your title of Holy Virgin, Virgin most pure. Whatever of sanctity, of dignity, of merit, of grace and of glory, that we can imagine, all is in you. 

Holiness is a complete separation from creatures and perfect union with God through love. No one ever belonged to Jesus as completely as you, for you are His Mother. Jesus belonged entirely to you, the holiest among women. Your womb was so pure, so immaculate that it became the Holy of Holies, in which Jesus Christ our Lord, the Eternal High Priest, alone found entrance. 

Mary, My Mother, God raised you so high in Himself that He never has created and never will create a holier person more worthy of Himself, of His greatness, of His love, than you, O Virgin most pure. Having carried within you Jesus Christ, the Son of God, you share, as no one else does, in your divine Son's holiness and purity. You come nearest to the holiness of God. 

You are the holiest of women, the Virgin-Mother thrice holy, because you are holy of the Father, holy of the Son, holy of the Holy Spirit of Love. Hence with Holy Church I repeat, "You are all fair, Mary, and the stain of original sin is not in you. You are the Glory of Jerusalem; you are the Joy of Israel; you are the Honor of our people."

Read more >>

100 Year Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun

With over 70,000 witnesses, the Miracle of the Sun is the greatest miracle that has occurred after Apostolic Times.  It is life changing.  May we all immediately change our lives to conform with the message of Our Lady of Fatima before it is too late.

Read more >>

St. Padre Pio on Guardian Angels

"Your Guardian Angel was one of those great warriors who, together with the Angel Saint Michael, defended the honour of God against Satan.  He is still powerful against the devil...and his charity has not diminished, nor will he ever fail in defending us.  Develop the beautiful habit of always thinking of him; that near us is a celestial spirit, who, from the cradle to the tomb, does not leave us for an instant, guides us, protects us as a friend, a brother; will always be a consolation to us especially in our saddest moments.

"Know, my child, that this good Angel prays for you; offers to God all the good works you accomplish; your holy and pure desires. In the hours when you seem to be alone and abandoned, do not complain of not having a friendly soul to whom you can unburden yourself and in whom you can confide your sorrows. For pity's sake, do not forget this invisible companion, always present to listen to you; always ready to console you."

Quote by St. Padre Pio

Learn more about Guardian Angels here: Feast of the Guardian Angels

Read more >>

The Detestable and Abominable Practice of Cremation

A fitting reminder in this sermon on cremation.  For my past article on cremation, see Why Cremation is Not Permitted for Catholics

Read more >>

St Ignatius of Antioch on the Life of A Christian

Strong words from St. Ignatius of Antioch.

"Just beg for me the courage and endurance not only to speak but also to will what is right, so that I may not only be called a Christian, but prove to be one. For if I prove myself to be a Christian by martyrdom, then people will call me one, and my loyalty to Christ will be apparent when the world sees me no more. ... Our task is not one of producing persuasive propaganda; Christianity shows its greatness when it is hated by the world."

Read more >>