Regina Cæli

The Regina Cæli takes the place of the The Angelus during Eastertide, although most of us, not having a personal choir, have to make do with recitation.

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluia:
Quia quem meruisti portare. alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia,
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et lætare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum lætificare dignatus es: præsta, quæsumus, ut per eius Genitricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuæ capiamus gaudia vitæ. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.


Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia.
Hath risen, as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray: O God, who through the resurrection of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ didst vouchsafe to give joy to the world: grant, we beseech thee, that through His Mother, the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christ Is Risen!

Well, I never did find time to put up more from the Blessed Cardinal Schuster.

I was able to attend more of the Sacred Triduum this year than I have in a very long time. Maundy Thursday was at St John Chrysostom in Inglewood. It was sparsely attended. But then it was hardly advertized at all. If you saw mention of it here, you saw half of the advertizing for it. At least that's all I saw. But it was splendid nonetheless. Fr Bishop celebrated, including the washing of the feet. There was no stripping of the altar ceremony since the regular parish Mass was to be held shortly afterward. The schola was the one which sings at the 1st Sunday Masses at Dominguez chapel. In the cavernous spaces of St John's they were not merely good, they were glorious. St John's is very large with a huge vaulted ceiling, marble floors, stone walls, wooden pews and not a piece of carpeting or sound-deadening material in sight. Talk about a "live" church. It was an ideal venue for chant and polyphony.

For Good Friday we went to St Mary by the Sea in Huntington Beach. For a start it's an improvement over the cross-town trek to Inglewood. St Mary is a little church with plaster walls and wooden floors so this schola had to do without architectural assistance. But it was beautiful anyway. Of course, it was in the old rite and you can't ruin the old rite. Once again, no deacons to help. But on Good Friday there's no Mass so there is no large section spoken quietly to give the priest a break. Fr Alphonsus, poor thing, was chanting for almost the whole two hours. The proper chants for the Gospel presume three deacons and provide for a slightly different pitch and vocal range for each "part". But Father did it all and very well, too. If you'd like a sample of the Gospel chant, this one is very well-done:



There are two more parts. The whole thing is about 20 minutes. It's quite marathon even if you're not one priest alone.

On Holy Saturday my best-laid plans ganged seriously agley. There was no celebration in the traditional rite to be had. The local N.O. ceremonies are not to be endured. I've done that. I won't do it again. The Abbey does celebrate a magnificent Holy Saturday liturgy in what is basically the Pauline rite but with some Norbertine touches. However, it doesn't end until after midnight, which means not getting to bed until after one, and then up again at 5:30 or 6:00 so I can go play for a Protestant early morning service that I do annually. And I'm too old to get by on 4 or 5 hours sleep. So I'll say my own prayers and get to bed early.

Ha.

Who knew the neighbours would think Holy Saturday such an excellent time for a loud, drunken party including a dj and his turbo-charged amplifiers? Not I. So, no private prayer, no posting on The Inn, and to be sure no early to bed. Instead put on the ear phones and listen to something decent until after 12 when they decide they've had enough. On Easter Sunday I played my gig on 5 or so hours sleep. Fortunately, I can play Amazing Grace six times through even while half asleep. (Yeah, Amazing Grace. What can I tell you? That's what they wanted. I suggested "Jesus Christ is Risen Today". Nope. Amazing Grace. He who pays the piper, etc.)

The traditional Mass at St Therese later in the day was, as the late Cardinal McIntyre used to say, grand and glorious. Fr Bishop. Traditional Rite. Palestrina. Need I say more?

Help with the Rosary

A helpful site for a Rosary pray-along can be found here.

It's congenially paced with interesting film clips of various sites and shrines in the Holy Land. No cheesy background music, no out of-sync responders, all the traditional texts of the prayers are used including the thees and thous. In short, a very pleasant and useful site for those so inclined.

Good Friday

From The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum) by the Blessed Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster, O.S.B.

Christ had said, Non capit prophetam perire extra Hierusalem; for this reason the station is held today in the basilica known as Sancta Hierusalem, to which the Pope formerly went barefoot, walking in procession from the Lateran. He swung, as he went, a censer filled with precious perfumes before the wood of the true cross, carried by a deacon, whilst the choir sang Psalm csviii: Beati immaculati in via.

Originally, as a sign of deep mourning, this day was aliturgical, as were usually all the Fridays and Saturdays of the year in Rome. Thus, when towards the sixth century the rigour of the ancient rule was somewhat relaxed and the Friday stations of Lent were instituted, the Popes still continued for many centuries the ancient Roman usage, which excluded even the Mass of the Presanctified on this day. Therefore the present rite does not go back beyond the Middle Ages, and represents the order used in the titular churches in Rome, in which the Pope was never present.

The Adoration of the True Cross on Good Friday was taken, as we have already said, from the Liturgy of Jerusalem, where it was already in use towards the end of the fourth century. Indeed, for a long time, in the West also, this adoration formed almost the most important and characteristic part of the ceremony, the central point, as it were, of the whole Liturgy of the Parasceve. Ecce lignum crucis: this is the beginning of the parousia of the divine judge, and at the sight of the triumphal banner of redemption, whilst the Church prostrates herself low in adoration, the powers of hell flee away terror-stricken into the abyss.

In Rome in the Middle Ages the papal reliquary containing the true cross was sprinkled with perfumes, indicating thereby the sweetness of the grace which flows from the sacred wood, and the inner unction and spiritual balm which the Lord pours into the hearts of those who carry the cross for love of him.

According to the Ordines Romani of the eighth century, today's ceremony took place partly in the Sessorian Basilica and partly in the Lateran. Towards two o'clock in the afternoon the Pope and palatine clergy moved in procession barefoot from the Lateran to the stational basilica, where the Adoration of the Cross took place, followed by the reading of the Passion according to St John, and the Great Litany for the various ecclesiastical orders and for the necessities of the Church. The procession then returned to the Lateran. Singing as they walked the psalm Beati immaculati in via. On this day of sadness neither the Pope nor the deacons received Holy Communion, but the people were free to do so either at the Lateran, where one of the suburbicarian bishops celebrated, or at any of the titular churches in the city.

Towards the ninth century the rite was somewhat altered. The Adoration of the Cross was deferred until after the Litany, which was followed by the Pater Noster together with the Communion of those who were present. The procession of the Blessed Sacrament did not take place at that point, the ceremony ending with the Pope's blessing – “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti” – to which the assembly replied: “Et cum spiritu tuo”. Everyone then recited privately the Vesper psalms, after which all went off to break their fast.

More later if I have time.

Rumours of Traditional Holy Week Services Confirmed

From the Una Voce Los Angeles website:

St John Chrysostom Church - Inglewood

Holy Thursday, April 21st
5:00 PM

Good Friday
3:30 PM




From the bulletin of St Mary by the Sea in Huntington Beach:

Good Friday
7:00 p.m. - traditional Tridentine Good Friday Liturgy


Of course Fr Perez's little chapel of Our Lady Help of Chrisians always has a full schedule of services. But it's such a tiny little chapel and the regulars do fill it up quite early.

The Sacred Triduum in Rome

From Vatican Radio (& TV):

"A reminder to all of our on line readers and listeners that you can follow the Triduum and Easter liturgies presided over by Pope Benedict XVI, live from Rome on Web TV with – or without – commentary in English."

The link is here.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday in Jerusalem. This is a very nice video with good resolution. It's worth watching in full-screen.

My Palm Sunday was on a smaller (much smaller!) scale but equally moving. Perhaps more. We went to the traditional Mass at St Mary by the Sea. We had one priest, a tiny schola, and a smallish congregation which fit quite handily into the little courtyard for the blessing of palms. But unlike the new rite, our blessing in the old rite prayed for protection from the wiles of the demon. . .a sentiment that becomes more pertinent by the day. We had a little procession with our blessed (and almost exorcized) palms into the church. The Mass included the solemn chanting of the Passion Gospel. I think it was designed for the three deacons but Fr Alphonsus sang it by himself and did so wonderfully. I was fascinated by the pitches chosen in the chant for the various characters. It reverses Verdi's standard choices. The Gregorian prefers the bad guys - Judas, the pharisees, etc. - to be tenors. Our Lord seems to a bass baritone. Those of us who naturally reside in the lower registers are duly chuffed.

The rest of the day was sunny and warm and contained rumors of traditional Holy Week ceremonies to come. But I don't have all the details yet.

Acquiring Humility Through Sitemeter

The Sitemeter application can be very useful. It's also a bit of fun, browsing around for odd links.

Spiritual improvement through Sitemeter isn't usual. Until this morning. Someone arrived at The Inn while searching for "eedjit".

I am duly humbled.

Some Piping for the Weekend

Richard Evans playing "Swindon, Tweedside, Keelman o'er the Land and Lady's Well on a D set of Northumbrian Smallpipes".

(Richard and his wife made my Scottish small pipes.)

Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Dept.

The taxes are finished for another year. We now have to drive down to the credit union and withdraw vast amounts of cash to send off to Pres. Barack H. Obama (Dem., Kenya) and Gov. Edmund G. Brown (Dem., Outer Space).


Until next year.


Presuming the country's still here.

Packed Your Bags Yet?

The Vatican is holding a, um, conference (is that the right word?) for bloggers. Well, 150 of the chosen, anyway. The original link reference I saw was in Italian. My Italian is pretty much limited to what occurs in Verdi and Donizetti. And not all that much of that. But here it is in English, courtesy of Fr Finnegan.

Even if I could afford it, I imagine my chances of being among the select are right up there with my chances of winning the gold at the Northern Meeting. But my (and your) chances ought to be better at this one:

The *Other* Rome Blognic.

Still can't afford it, but it's nice to be welcome.

By the way, I don't know for sure what a blognic is either but from the description it sounds like a good thing. I must have been isolated in my --ahem-- Catholic ghetto when that one was coined. And while we're philologizing, in the Italian language page there is a little illustration bearing some of the only English words: "Vatican Meeting". But the Italian begins Un incontro di bloggers. Incontro? Is that our old friend in English, the encounter group? Should I be afraid?

[Addendum: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. No, not an encounter group. I went digging through the stacks and found my old Harper Collins Italian dictionary, which I bought when I was going to teach myself to converse with my friend Carlo in Italian. It seems incontro just means meeting. Although, it can mean meeting as in a football match, which adds yet another interesting coloration to the whole thing.]

Music to Accompany Form 1040

TurboTax should include it on their cd.

(It's a piobaireachd called "The King's Taxes")

Passiontide

We are in the midst of Passion week. In my youth, and even today in parishes of the traditional communities, the images are veiled until the Easter vigil. Even in some other places the veiling tradition continues.

Here is a beautiful post that will tell you all you need to know about the Passiontide veiling. And even more here, this time with pictures.

Has It Been Two Weeks Already?

So it would seem. The evidence appears incontrovertible.

As we used to say when I was a boy, "I've got the miseries." (Or more nearly "I'se got da miz'ries", as I learned it phonetically.) It started with something which the MD says might be a hernia or just an inflammation, but isn't, thank God, cancer, and so far reacts well to the anti-inflammatory and the pain medication. This is topped off with the standard springtime sore throat and cough type cold. In short, da miz'ries.

The thing is, if one feels cruddy enough, nothing seems quite interesting enough to blog about. If I can't rouse some enthusiasm for this effort, I can hardly expect you to, now can I. (This post, however, is about me. And so even though you may be bored senseless with it, I am fascinated.)

And now no matter how I feel, I have left myself with less than a week to finish the taxes. (Which I'm supposed to be doing now.) So when another post will appear is anybody's guess.