5th Sunday of the Year, Simple English Propers

The Simple English Propers, now fully in stock (with a ribbon!!)

Two Icons by Kathy Sievers

Kathy Sievers teaches at an icon painting teaching program that takes place regularly at Mt Angel Abbey in Oregon (close to where she lives). She also teaches in Illinois and Florida. You can see more of her work at her website, here and more about the Mt. Angel program here
.

A few things caught my eye about these two icons is the lovely rhythm and grace of the lines. As well as have that calligraphic flow in the abstract, they do describe form well (without deviating from the iconographic style); so that, for example, we can read the folding of the cloth and how it relates the form underneath very easily. This is the mark of a good draughtsman. Also, look at how she has modelled the form. She appears to do a base layer in quite mottled paint - probable quite a thin single layer of paint (I'm guessing) as a wet puddle of quite dilute paint. This evapourates unevenly an so creates that mottled effect as the white gesso underneath shows through more in some parts than others. Then she paints the mid-tones and highlights on top of that. These are much denser, opaque layers of paint. The overall effect is very attractive, I think. I am painting a large Christ in Majesty at the moment and want to paint a blue robe. I have been looking at different ways of doing this, and Kathy is giving me some pointers through her work.

Dominican Rite Celebrated at Thomas Aquinas College on the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

This past January 28th, the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Mass in the Dominican rite was offered on the high altar of the chapel of Thomas Aquinas College.

The Mass was celebrated by the chaplain of TAC, Fr. Paul Raftery, O.P.

The following complete video recording of the entire Mass was made by Joe Haggard.

Custom Made Pontifical Sandals

As we continue to witness the steady but sure growth and revival of the usus antiquior in the life of the Church, a natural result is that once common personal liturgical items like certain pontificals need to be sought out again by prelates (ideally) or at very least sought by those communities who might more frequently host Solemn Pontifical Masses.

In that vein, I was rather interested to see the obviously newly made pontifical sandals pictured to the right. I asked who had made them, and I am told they were made by the following company within Italy:

Calzaturificio Derby
via XXV Aprile 78
18100 IMPERIA (IM)
ITALIA

Tel. +39 331 1122631

While this is not their focus, but rather custom work, apparently, yes, they do are willing to take orders for these -- though you must provide the liturgical textile.

I offer this for whatever it might be worth, but it looks like they've done some nice work here.

NLM Reprint: Historical Notes on Candlemas

"And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord: And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons: And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon: and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he also took him into his arms and blessed God and said: Now dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word in peace: Because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel."

-- St. Luke 2: 22-32

* * *

The scripture above speaks to the mystery which we celebrate today, that of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple and of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, taking place forty days after Christ's birth -- also called "Candlemas". It was at this time that the Law of Moses required that "the mother was to 'bring to the temple a lamb for a holocaust and a young pigeon or turtle dove for sin'; if she was not able to offer a lamb, she was to take two turtle doves or two pigeons; the priest prayed for her and so she was cleansed. (Leviticus 12:2-8)" (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Candlemas")

Dom Columba Marmion, OSB, in his work, Christ in His Mysteries, reflects on this event in the life of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary noting that "when Jesus is forty days old, the Blessed Virgin associates herself yet more directly and deeply with the work of our salvation by presenting Him in the Temple. She is the first to offer to the Eternal Father His Divine Son." The Catechism of the Catholic Church further comments that "the presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord. With Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with the Savior... Jesus is recognized as the long-expected Messiah, the 'light to the nations' and the 'glory of Israel', but also 'a sign that is spoken against'. The sword of sorrow predicted for Mary announces Christ's perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will impart the salvation God had 'prepared in the presence of all peoples'." (Para. 529)

Over the years we have covered off various liturgical aspects of this feast. This year, we shall particularly focus on some historical considerations in relation to this feast's custom of the blessing of and procession with candles. First, we begin with Dom Prosper Gueranger. In The Liturgical Year, Gueranger comments accordingly on the history of the blessing of the candles on Candlemas:

It is exceedingly difficult to say what was the origin of this ceremony. Baronius, Thomassin, and others are of the opinion that it was instituted toward the close of the 5th century, by Pope Gelasius, in order to give a Christian meaning to certain vestiges still retained by the Romans of the old Lupercalia. St. Gelasius certainly did abolish the last vestiges of the Lupercalia, which in earlier times the pagans used to celebrate in the month of February. Pope Innocent III, in one of his sermons for the feast of the Purification, attributes the institution of this ceremony of Candlemas to the wisdom of the Roman Pontiffs, who turned into the present religious rite the remnants of an ancient pagan custom, which had not quite died out among the Christians. The old pagans, he says, used to carry lighted torches in memory of those which the fable gives to Ceres, when she went to the top of Mount Etna in search of her daughter Proserpine. But against this we have to object that on the pagan calendar of the Romans there is no mention of any Feast in honor of Ceres for the month of February. We therefore prefer adopting the opinion of Dom Hugh Menard, Rocca, Henschenius, and Pope Benedict XIV; that an ancient feast that was kept in February, and was called the Amburbalia, during which the pagans used to go through the city with lighted torches in their hands, gave occasion to the Sovereign Pontiffs to substitute in its place, a Christian ceremony, which they attached to the Feast of the sacred mystery, in which Jesus, the Light of the world, was presented in the temple by His Virgin-Mother.

The mystery of today's ceremony has frequently been explained by liturgists, dating from the 7th century. According to Ivo of Chartres, the wax, which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee, always considered as the emblem of virginity, signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by His conception or His birth, the spotless purity of His Blessed Mother. The same holy bishop would have us see, in the flame of our Candle, a symbol of Jesus who came to enlighten our darkness. St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking on the same mystery, bids us consider three things in the blessed Candle: the wax, the wick, and the flame. The wax, he says, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of our Lord; the wick, which is within, is His Soul; the flame, which burns on top, is His divinity.

Continuing on, Gueranger comments on the Candlemas procession:

Filled with holy joy, radiant with the mystic light, excited, like the venerable Simeon, by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the Church goes forth to meet her Emmanuel. It is this meeting which the Greek Church calls the Hypapante, under which name she also designates today's Feast. The Church would imitate that wondrous Procession, which was formed in the Temple of Jerusalem on the day of Mary's Purification.

[...]

The holy Church opens her chants in this Procession with the following Antiphon, which is found, word for word, in the Greek Liturgy of this same Feast.

ANT. Adorn thy bride-chamber, O Sion, and receive Christ, thy King. Salute Mary, the gate of heaven; for she beareth the King of glory, who is the new Light. The Virgin stands, bringing in her hands her Son, the Begotten before the daystar; whom Simeon receiving into his arms, declared to the people as the Lord of life and death, and the Saviour of the world.

However, with regard to the question of the historical origins of the candlelit Candlemas procession, Archdale King, in his appendix, "Byzantine Influence on the Roman Rite" (The Liturgy of the Roman Church) comments:

The feast of the Purification, which, like the Annunciation, was originally a feast of our Lord, was observed in Jerusalem with a solemn procession as early as the end of the 4th century, although there is no mention of candles. The... Presentation... was, however celebrated with lights in the following century, a usage which Cyril of Scythopolis ascribes to a Roman lady of the name of Ikelia. It was thus a Christian practice borrowed from Jerusalem that was introduced at Rome, not an imitation of the pagan Lupercalia. (p. 451)

King likewise comments on the antiphon noted above, noting that it is "a translation of a Greek tropary which seems to come from Cosmas the Hagiopolite."

Anton Baumstark in Comparative Liturgy speaks to both points noted by Gueranger and King above. Commenting on the question of the origin of the candlelit procession -- pagan Roman or Eastern Christian -- he suggests:

May not the explanation lie in the fact that the practice of using candles in celebrating the traditional Feast of the [Presentation] was introduced at Jerusalem in the fifth century by the Roman lady named Ikelia? An ancient Roman custom would thus have been brought to Jerusalem and there become attached to a Christian Feast... Later it would have returned to its place of origin as an element in the Christian celebration when this was established at Rome. (p. 150-151)

Whatever the case, the Candlemas procession is certainly a beautiful custom invested with Christian meaning and significance. We conclude with the following description, provided by Cardinal Schuster in his work, The Sacramentary, which details a description of the Candlemas procession culled from the Codex of St. Armand, as it might have been in Rome circa A.D. 800:

At dawn on February 2, each title and deaconry in the city [of Rome] sent out its own parochial procession, which wended its way towards the Forum Romanum to the church of St Adrian. In order to guide their steps in the darkness through the ruins of the ancient buildings of Imperial Rome, the faithful carried lighted candles, whilst the clergy chanted psalms and sang antiphons, to which the people replied with the customary cry: Kyrie eleison. As soon as the Pope arrived with his deacons at the basilica of the martyr he entered the Secretarium and assumed the black Paenula as a mark of penitence, those immediately accompanying him doing the same.

Then the clergy and the various scholae of cantors were admitted into the presence of the Pontiff that they might each receive a candle from his hands. This distribution being ended, the cantors intoned the antiphon of the Introit: Exsurge, Domine, which is still preserved in our present Missal, and the Pope made his solemn entrance into the church of St Adrian. After the Introit followed the Kyrie eleison, as in all Masses. Next came the Collect -- now preserved only in the Gregorian Sacramentary -- after which the procession commenced.

... even in the ninth century the people divided themselves into seven companies, each one of which was preceded by its own cross...

The Pope walked barefoot and was preceded by two acolytes with lighted candles in their hands. These walked on each side of the subdeacon who swung a thurible from which arose clouds of incense. Two staurophori, each bearing a cross, walked before the Pope, who was followed by the scholae of cantors in ordered ranks, chanting psalms.

Another Parish "Re-turns" Ad Orientem Liturgicum

In the recent, January 29th Sunday bulletin of the Oxford Oratory, we read the following very good news which takes effect today, the Feast of the Presentation:

What is particularly nice to read is not only that this is being effected, but also the fact that it has also been popularly desired -- a source of yet further encouragement. Our best wishes go out to the Fathers and faithful of the Oxford Oratory. May yet more follow a similar course.

High Altar of the Oxford Oratory
(Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP)

February 2012 Adoremus Bulletin

The February edition of the Adoremus Bulletin is now online (and I see the cover carries art by Daniel Mitsui):

Restoration of the Virgin of Lepanto

This statue of Our Lady was on board of the Royal Galley commanded by Don John of Austria, half brother of King Philip II of Spain, at the Battle of Lepanto. The flagship of the Christian fleet is precisely that one which seized the Sultana, the enemy flagship, and decapitated the commander of the Ottomans, Ali Pasha, while Pope Pius V was praying the Rosary in Rome for the victory of the Holy League. It was October 7, 1571, a date which is commemorated every year by the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

On board of the Galera Real, this wooden statue of the Virgin of the Rosary became "Lady of Victory". It had been offered to John of Austria by the Venetian allies. Back in Spain after this great military exploit on which the statue of the Mother of God had watched, it was left by Don Juan of Austria at his death in 1578 to the Brotherhood of the Galleys in the church of St. John Lateran - now destroyed - in the Port of Santa María in Cádiz.



In 1854 the statue was transferred to the Cadets College of Marine Guards Academy of San Fernando, ancestor of the Spanish Naval Academy. It received a first restoration of the hands of the artist Flores Loma in September of that year.

The statue - then almost forgotten - suffered the ravages of time and was very worn. It has been given to the Naval Museum of Madrid, where, after restoration, and will be soon visible to all, in "gala dress", as promised the restorer Jose Maria Galvez Farfan. With its beautiful eyes that has kept up today its high intensity, the same that has galvanized fighters against the "Grand Turk."

Calendarium Sanctorum Hiberniae, February 1st: St. Brigid of Kildare

A St. Brigid's Cross

Today is the feast of St. Brigid of Kildare, the patroness of Ireland. I often feel inclined to mention it because of how much more attention St. Patrick's Day tends to receive in popular devotion.

We sometimes speak here of what sorts of customs one could bring into the home which are associated with the liturgical year. One such custom that families may wish to pursue on this day is the making of a traditional St. Brigid's Cross (seen above). For instructions on how to do so, see here. Here, also, are some foods to consider for St. Brigid's Day.

So then, let us read something about this saint from some historical sources, beginning with the Martyrology of Donegal (Martyrologium Dungallense):

Virgin, abbess of Cill-dara. She was of the race of Eochaidh Finnfuathairt, son of Feidhlijidh Reachtmhar, son of Tuathal Teachmhar, monarch of Erinn. Broiccseach, daughter of Dallbronach, son of Aedh Meamhair, was her mother, and she was the sister of Ultan of Ard-Breccain, and it was Ultan that collected the virtues, and miracles of Brighit together and who commanded his disciple Brogann to put them into poetry as is evident in the Book of Hymns, i.e., The victorious Brighit did not love, etc.

When Moling was returning from the king of Erinn after obtaining the remission of he Borumha (the tribute of oxen) from Fionnachta, king of Erinn, the people of the king were seized with regret, and they followed him to kill him. When Moling saw this he had recourse to the protection of the saints, and he implored Brighit first, and said: O Brighit, bless our path, etc.

A very ancient old book of vellum, in which is found the Martyrology of Maelruain of Tamhlach and the saints of the same name, and the names of many of the mothers of the saints, states that Brighit was following the manners and the life which the holy Mary,mother of Jesus had.

It was this Brighit, too, that did not take her mind or her attention from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time, but was constantly mentioning Him, and ever constantly thinking of Him, as evident in her own life, and also in the life of Saint Brenainn, bishop of Cluain-fearta. She was very hospitable and very charitable to guests and to needy people. She was humble, and attended to the herding of sheep and early rising, as her life proves, and as Cuimin of Coindeire states in the poem whose beginning is, Patrick of the fort of Macha loved, etc. Thus he says:---

The blessed Brighit loved Constant piety, which was not prescribed: Sheep-Herding and early rising Hospitality towards men of virtues. She spent indeed 74 years diligently serving the Lord, performing signs and miracles, curing every disease, and sickness in general as evident in her own life, until she yielded her spirit, after having completed seventy-four years as we have said before, A.D. 525, and she was buried at Dun in one tomb with Patrick, where Colum Cille was afterwards interred. The life of Ciaran of Cluain states, chapt. 47, that the Order of Brighit was one of the eight Orders that were in Erinn.

* * *

Ultan's Hymn

Brigit, excellent woman, a flame golden, delightful,
May (she), the sun dazzling splendid, bear us to the eternal kingdom!
May Brigit save us beyond throngs of demons!
May she overthrow before us (the) battles of every disease!
May she destroy within us our flesh's taxes
The branch with blossoms, the mother of Jesus!
The true virgin, dear, with vast dignity:
May I be safe always, with my saint of the Lagenians!
One of the pillars of (the) Kingdom with Patrick the pre-eminent,
The vesture over liga, the Queen of Queens!
Let our bodies after old age be in sackcloth
With her grace may Brigit rain on us, save us!


Iconographic Image of St. Brigid: Source


* * *

Solemn Pontifical Mass for the Feast of the Purification, Miami

Our readers in South Florida will be glad to hear Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami will be celebrating a solemn pontifical liturgy in the Extraordinary Form for the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, at 7:30 PM on February 2, this coming Thursday. The mass will take place at the Church of the Epiphany (8081 SW 54th Ct.) in Miami, Florida. Musica Sacra Florida reports:

Musical highlights include Tournemire’s office from L’Orgue Mystique for the day (Purificatio B. Mariæ Virginis), played by Mr. Thomas Schuster, Organist and Director of Music at Church of the Epiphany, as well as a Missa Brevis by Zachary Wadsworth, and a commissioned motet by Dr. Paul Weber (Franciscan University of Steubenville.) Choral works will be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the University of Florida under the direction of Dr. Edward Schaefer. The Gregorian propers of the day will be sung by a Women’s Schola Cantorum under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Donelson of NOVA Southeastern University.

The celebration is part of a Tournemire Symposium organized by the Church Music Association of America (CMAA), and will be live-streamed at www.livemass.net. For more information on the live-streaming, as well as catechetical events associated with the mass, go to the Musica Sacra Florida website.

CORRECTION: [01/02/12, 11:31 PM] An alert reader informs me that the address for the church (as opposed to the rectory) is actually 8235 S.W. 57 Avenue, Miami, FL 33143, Miami, Florida.

Candlemas in the Dominican Rite

As Thursday is Candlemas, called in the traditional Dominican Rite the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I though that it might be a suitable time to post something about the rituals attached to this feast in the Dominican Rite. These rites are the same in both the 1933 and 1965 Dominican Rite Missals and seem to go back virtually unchanged to the thirteenth century.

After Terce on the feast, the prior, in cope, accompanied by the deacon and subdeacon in dalmatics, who carry the missal and the processional, enter the choir preceded by the acolytes in albs carrying lighted processional candles. If the feast falls on Sunday, the priest performs the Asperges, if not he proceeds directly to the blessing. Standing before the step to the sanctuary, where the sacristan has placed the candles to be blessed slightly to the prior's right as he faces the altar, he sings the blessing in a moderate voice, using the tone for collects at the Hours:

The Blessing

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who on this day presented your Only-Begotten Son to be received into the arms of the Blessed Simeon in your holy Temple; we humbly entreat your clemency that you would be pleased to + bless, to + sanctify and enkindle with the light of your heavenly blessing these candles, which your servants wish to receive and carry lighted to the honor of your name; that by offering them to you, our Lord and God, we being worthy and inflamed with the holy fire of your sweet charity, might deserve to be presented ourselves in the holy temple of your Glory. Through the same Christ Our Lord. R/. Amen.

The Distribution and Nunc Dimittis

The prior then sprinkles the candles with holy water from the stoop held by the acolyte. The cantor then comes forward and offers a lighted candle to the prior and intones the Antiphon Lumen ad Revelation Gentium. It is sung by the community and followed by the chanting of the Nunc Dimittis, during which the antiphon is sung again after each verse of the canticle. This chant is repeated as many times as necessary for lighted candles to be distributed to the whole community.

The Procession

When all have their candles, the community then moves in procession fashion into the main cloister. The procession has this order, 1. a friar in surplice with the holy water, who sprinkles as he goes, 2. the acolytes with processional candles, 3. the crucifer, 4. the friars, two by two, in order of religion, youngest first, 5. the prior, flanked by the deacon and subdeacon (who carries the book). The procession moves counter clockwise around the cloister, stopping for the four stations, at each of which the acolytes and crucifer turn to the friars so that they can gaze on the cross for a moment. The cantor then intones the antiphon that accompanies the move to the next station. These antiphons are:

At Station 1: Ave Gratia, which celebrates Mary's role the birth of Christ who is light of the world.

At Station 2: Adorna, which calls on all to prepare their hearts, as Simeon did, to be a bridal chamber for Christ, the world's savior.

At Station 3: Responsum, which recalls how Simeon had been promised that he would not see death until he took the Light of the Gentiles in his arms.

At Station 4: Hodie, which recalls how Joseph and Mary brought the Christ Child into the temple. It is fittingly sung as the friars, carrying their candles, reenter the chapel and take their places in their stalls.

The ministers, meanwhile, return to the sacristy and the prior puts on the chasuble for Mass. When the ministers are ready, the friars begin the Officium of the Mass, Suscepimus. Friars hold their lighted candles in their hands until the Offertory. I might add that in the Dominican Rite the famous sequence Laetabundus is sung at this Mass.

The Candle Offering

When he has finished the Offertory Prayers, the prior receives his lighted candle and comes with the deacon and subdeacon, holding their candles, to before the altar. The sacristan comes up with a basket to receive the ministers' candles, which he snuffs and places in it. The friars of the community then come forward in procession, in order of seniority, enter the sanctuary, and offer their lighted candles, handing them to the sacristan and kissing the prior's hand. When all have offered their candles, the prior returns to the altar, receives the censer, and does the incensing and the lavabo. The Preface of Mass is that of the Nativity.

The Proprium Missarum Ordinis Praedicatorum of 1983 provides that these ceremonies may be incorporated into the Mass of the Presentation in the new Roman liturgy. And this includes the Laetabundus, even if the candle rituals are not done.

Vestments from the Era of Pope Clement VIII

These photographs aren't the greatest, and I have very little information on the vestments themselve, but they show a set of vestments which bear the arms of Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605) and which I believe are in the Vatican collections. If anyone has more information on this particular set, feel free to offer them in the comments.