Saturday, May 30, 2009

May 30 -- St Joan of Arc


St Joan never quite made it to the general Roman calendar, not in the Roman Rite and not in Archbishop Bugnini's Novus Ordo. But she's in the French calendar and in several other local calendars. And that seems a missed opportunity. Here we have a saint written about by Bernard Shaw and idolized by Mark Twain. She's had half a dozen films made of her life and at least one opera. There was even a short-lived and not too objectionable TV series that punned on her name and used her "voices" as an inspiration. In short, one of the handful of saints that everyone, Catholic or not, knows of. And she can't make it to the general calendar.

When I can locate my old Diurnale I will put up some of the proper hymns for her feast. Very patriotic if you're French. Gallia vivat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Found it.

For 1st Vespers


First the Latin:

Stat cultrix vigilans pauperis hortuli,
Annorum tredecim parvula, ni sciens,
Primas docta preces, præ sociis pia,
Simplex, mitis et innocens.

Orantem Michaël Angelus edocet,
Quam claræ parili lumine virgines,
Virtutum meritis conspicuæ simul,
Crebris alloquiis fovent.

Dum voces superas excipit, expavet;
Sed, fidens Domino, fortior in dies,
Parens imperiis, pro patria libens
Castam se vovet hostiam.

Mox dulces socias et patriam domum,
Et cum matre patrem iussa relinquere,
Miles facta Dei, quo vocat Angelus,
Fertur nil trepidans eques.

Qui terras statuit, gloria sit Patri:
Qui gentes redemit, gloria Filio:
Sancto Spiritui gloria, qui pias
Et fortes animas facit. Amen.

The English:

She carefully cultivates her poor garden; she is but a child of thirteen, knowing but the usual prayers, but so pious, simple, meek and innocent.

While at prayer, the Archangel Michael teaches her; two illustrious virgins, equal in splendor and virtue encourage her in frequent conversations.

On hearing these heavenly voices, she fears; but, little by little, fortified by divine grace, she obeys their orders, and as a chaste victim, willingly devotes herself to her country.

Out of obedience, she leaves her dear companions, her birthplace, her father and mother, and, become soldier of God, she leaves on horseback, without fear, for the place where the Archangel summons her.

Glory be to the Father, who created the earth; glory be to the Son who redeemed all nations; glory be to the Holy Ghost who maketh souls to be pious and courageous. Amen.


For Lauds:

Hostium victrix, properante cursu,
Carolum ad sanctam comitaris ædem,
Ut triumphantem sacra rite signet
Unctio regem.

Gaudio fundens lacrimas, Ioanna,
Principi plaudis : Domino rependis
Debitas grates, retinesque dexta
Nobile signum.

Erigens longa populum ruina,
Mira fecisti, generosa virgo:
Iure te nostræ patriæ parentem
Sæcla vocabunt!

Sed manet maior meliorque merces:
Te novus poscit labor et triumphus:
Te Deus mittens, dabit ipse vires
Atque coronam.

Qui dedit presso populo salutem,
Laude ter sanctum Dominum colamus,
Semper ut tantæ meritis patronæ
Gallia vivat. Amen.


The English:

After the victory, hastening thy steps thou dost accompany Charles, triumphantly, to the venerable Cathedral, so that according to custom, with holy oil, he may be anointed king.

With tears of joy, O Joan, thou dost congratulate the prince; holding thy noble banner in thy hand thou dost render fitting thanks to God.

Liberating the people from their long captivity, thou hast worked wonders, O generous Virgin! With every right will the ages proclaim thee the mother of the nation.

But a better and more beautiful recompense awaits thee. A new labor with its triumph summons thee: God in entrusting it to thee, will give thee courage and also the crown.

Let us offer our praise to God, who has delivered his oppressed people, and by the merits of this holy patroness, may France live forever. Amen.


For Second Vespers:

Salve, virilis pectoris
Virgo, Patrona Galliæ!
Tormenta dira sustinens,
Christi refers imaginem.

Voces supernas audiens,
Iesu repleta lumine,
Dum fata pandis patriæ,
Silent parentque iudices.

Oppressa flammis clamitas
Iesum, crucemque fortiter
Amplexa, ad Ipsum simplicis
Instar columbæ, pervolas.

Choris beatis Virginum
Adscripta, cives adiuva:
Te deprecante, singulis
Detur corona gloriæ.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio:
Sancto decus Paraclito,
Qui corda amore sauciat,
Vires et auget languidis. Amen.


The English:

Hail O courageous Virgin! Patroness of France. Thy sorrowful passion recalls to our minds the image of Christ.

Instructed by heavenly voices and filled with the light of Jesus, thou dost unveil the destiny of thy Fatherland, before thy silent and terrified judges.

Surrounded with flames, thou dost invoke Jesus: and embracing the cross, energetically, thou dost fly to him as an innocent dove.

Thou, who art now among the blessed choirs of Virgins, succor thy compatriots; may all through thy prayers, receive the crown of glory.

Praise be to the Father! Praise be to the Son. Glory be to the Holy Comforter, who wounds hearts with the fire of his love, and strengthens souls who are weak. Amen.


The translation is from my Diurnal. I suspect there is a proper hymn for Matins that tells the story of her battle victories. But I don't have a copy of the propers for Matins so the hymns for the day hours will have to do.

And finally the collect for her feast:

Deus, qui beatam Ioannam Virginem ad fidem ac patriam tuendam mirabiliter suscitasti: da, quæsumus, eius intercessione; ut Ecclesia tua, hostium superatis insidiis, perpetua pace fruatur. Per Dominum. Amen.

O God, who in wondrous wise didst raise up blessed Joan for the defense of her faith and her country: grant, we beseech thee, through her intercession, that thy church, overcoming all the wiles of her enemies, may enjoy unceasing peace. Through our Lord. Amen.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

27 May -- St Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of England

The old proper hymn for Lauds of the feast of St Augustine as translated by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.:

O, Isle fruitful in saints
Sing a hymn to thine Apostle!
Praise in holy song the Son of Gregory!

Made fertile by his toil,
thou gavest a rich harvest,
and for ages wast famed for thy flowers of sanctity.

He enters England,
having with him his forty brethren.
He bears the standard of Christ.
He is the leader, and brings the pledges of peace.

The trophy of the Cross shines forth;
the word of salvation is spread through the land.
Yea, the king himself, though a barbarian,
receives the faith with a ready heart.

The nation casts aside its savage ways;
it is baptized in the river's stream,
and is born to its new life,
on the very day that the Sun of Justice rose upon our earth.

O kind Shepherd!
from thy heavenly throne feed thy children.
Thy flock has gone astray;
lead it back to the arms of its anxious Mother.

O blessed Trinity,
that art ever pouring the dew of grace upon thy vine!
grant that the ancient faith may rise again and flourish in our land!
Amen.
from Dom Gueranger's The Liturgical Year, volume VIII



A collect for St Augustine's Day:

O Lord our God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thine apostles and send them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating thy Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom thou dost call and send may do thy will, and bide in thy time, and see thy glory; through Jesus Christ or Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.




A Life of St Augustine.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The James J. Coyne Memorial Pipe Band

You can click on these pictures - indeed, on all the pictures sent to The Inn via my mobile phone - and they will expand to fill the screen. At least they do using my Opera browser.



Jimmy Coyne was my first teacher.

That's the beer tent in the background -- flying the Irish tricolour!

. . .although you'll have to click on the picture to see it. Camera phones don't do close-up and detail very well.

Random Pictures from the Phone Camera - Mostly Pipe Bands

2:00 p.m. -- Pipe Band competitions

The day started with the traditional Mass at 7:00 this morning. And now pipes & drums all afternoon. Doesn't get better.
Beautiful day to be out watching the pipes and drums: high 60s or low 70s and a cool breeze. The picture attached (if I did this correctly) shows the Pasadena Scots that I'm listening to right now. A nice set with a slightly modifed "Airlie's Big Day".

Remote Blogging -- Does It Work?

I expect to find out this evening. This is being posted from the Highland Games at about noon listening to the Scottish Fiddlers. Thumb typing is not my favourite thing to do but the newfangledness makes up for it.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Some Piping for the Weekend. . . .



If you can't get to a Highland Games this weekend, here's a bit of piping to tide you over. The players are a duo called Crochallan Fencibles. The piper is playing a set of Scottish Smallpipes with a chanter in A. It's the only rendition of Jack Latin that I've found on the web. The recording quality isn't as good as it might be but the playing is quite nice indeed.

Highland Games Season



The "Games" season has begun with a vengeance in southern California. The two-day Scottish Fair in Costa Mesa began today. Officially the "United Scottish Society's Highland Games and Gathering". This is the first time in a very long time (perhaps ever) that we've had a contest in all 4 WUSPBA grades.

And that's where I've been all day today. And will be most of tomorrow. A wonderful, wonderful weekend thus far. Outstanding music and meeting old friends. There's even been some talk of taking the old Misty Isle Pipe Band out of suspended animation. (The picture is the MIPB of 5 or 6 years ago.)

If you're anywhere in the area of the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds on Sunday 24 May, do stop by. Although, you'd hardly know it from The Inn's reportage, there's a lot more going on than just pipe bands. Take a look at the fair's website here. It's great fun.

(And, FWIW, Sunday is also the feast of St David I, King of Scotland.)

The Two Weeks That Was

Almost three weeks, actually, since The Inn received some attention.

We have been having some heavy-duty construction here at the office cum domicile along with some attendant destruction. SWMBO decided that the pool had to go. (So the ducks will probably never be back.) It needed some major, i.e., expensive, repairs and since neither of us use it much, we have had the pool taken out. And also over the past couple of weeks, a new patio put in, and an enlarged garden begun. And a new, properly graded drive, too. The noise and chaos haven't left much inclination for messing about with the blog.

Tell ya what I have been messing about with, though: my brand, new Scottish smallpipes. These are made by Richard and Anita Evans and have a wonderful, rich sound. I've got An A and a D chanter and 4 drones, an alto, tenor, baritone, and bass. So far I've been sticking with the baritone and bass with the A chanter and the baritone and tenor on the D. There are several workable tunings but these are entertaining enough to be getting on with. And getting my great, lumpy fingers to maneuver about the small space in which the holes on the D chanter reside takes a great deal of getting used to also. Pictures to come.

There is going to be some more knocking and banging about at this location but not until early June when new front and back porches will be built. In the meantime, I am resolved to be more diligent in attending to the poor old Inn.

Monday, May 04, 2009

5 May -- St Angelus, O. Carm.

(You can click on this picture to see some of the exquisite detail.)

St Angelus was one of the earliest recognized saints of the Carmelite Order. As this paragraph on his life indicates, the details of his medieval biographies seem to have been greatly exaggerated. All of the versions indicate that he was of Jewish extraction and converted many Jews to Catholicism during his religious life. He was murdered by a nobleman he was attempting to reform. The illustration above shows him kneeling before Our Lady, the sword of his murderer still in his chest.

The old collect for his feast:

O Lord, let Thy people glorify Thee by honouring the Blessed Angelus, Thy Priest and Martyr, and through his intercession, may they deserve to be led by Thee. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.


Plebs tua te, Domine, beati Angeli sacerdotis et Martyris tui glorificatione sanctificet : et eodem intercedente te mereatur habere rectorem. Per Dominum nostrum. Amen.

A New Carmel

This one is in Pennsylvania:

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has announced that a second community of Discalced Carmelite nuns will be established in the diocese. The new community will be founded from the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of Valparaiso, Neb. They come to the Diocese of Harrisburg because of a constant increase of vocations to their monastery that has caused crowding.

Their community is currently at 33; the maximum number of nuns in a Carmelite monastery is about 21. The Valparaiso, Neb., Carmelites join the Danville Carmelites and the Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary in Lancaster as the third contemplative community of nuns in the 15 counties of the Diocese of Harrisburg.


The motherhouse in Nebraska observes the traditional liturgy only. Presumably the daughterhouse will do the same.

Heard on the radio last week. . . .

. . . .on the day after The Sainted One's news conference:

"What a country. The Miss U.S.A. contestant gets harder questions than the President of the U.S.A."

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Some Piping for the Weekend. . . .

I don't think I've ever posted any piobaireachd. This will remedy that oversight. I've been corresponding with someone last week who happened upon The Inn while looking for something else. She's not only a traditional Catholic and a Chestertonian but a piper with a fondness for piobaireachd. A link to her blog will appear in the left-hand column when I get a moment. So I've been thinking about piobaireachd for a couple of days along with regrets that I hadn't progressed very far with it when my teacher moved on.

In any event, here is Jori Chisholm playing My King Has Landed in Moidart. The introduction is done by Ken Eller, a.k.a. "The Captain".


"My King" is a long piobaireachd and has a problem with the You Tube 10 minute limit. Ergo, Part II:



(So, what's "piobaireachd" I hear you ask, as well you might. The short answer is that it's the classical music of the Highland Bagpipe. You'll find a pretty good discussion here. Of course, you'll also find someone to argue with almost every statement made in the article. But that's the nature of our race and our vocation. We like arguing about the music as much as we like the music.)