Final Reflections on the Offertory and the Lebkuchen Litmus Test

Lost in Translation #127

One of the most surprising treats our family ever received was a German Christmas cookie called lebkuchen. The spiced glazed cookie is made with honey, nuts, citrus peel, marzipan and, most importantly, oblaten, paper thin wafers. According to the story, monks and nuns in medieval Bavaria are credited with making the first lebkuchen as a way of making good use of old, unconsecrated hosts. Today, German bakers make their own oblaten, but the German-American family who baked the lebkuchen for us used the three-inch hosts commonly used by and for the celebrant at Mass.

And consequently, I must confess, our original reaction was one of shock. Was it not sacrilegious to munch on something that had been made for no other reason than to become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ? Were not these wafers dedicated from their inception for a most sacred purpose and was not using them in a Christmas cookie therefore a profanation?

Little did I know then that my initial shock was a useful stimulus in thinking through the two competing theologies of offertory regarding the Mass. The more recent theology contends that the offertory in the Mass is a mere presentation of the gifts and nothing more; to suggest anything else (that is, that it is a genuine offering to God) is to detract from the unique sacrifice that takes place during the Consecration. The older theology agrees that there is but one sacrifice of the Mass, and that it occurs during the Consecration, but it also maintains that the Offertory Rite is somehow a part of that sacrifice. Specifically, it is the first stage in a three-act sacrifice: preparation and consecration (Offertory), transubstantiation (Canon), and consumption (Holy Communion). In the traditional Roman Rite, understanding the Offertory as the beginning of the sacrifice of the altar is reinforced by its proleptic language (calling the wafer the “Victim” and plain wine the “Chalice of Salvation” before their transubstantiation), and by the rule that anyone who arrives at Mass after the beginning of the Offertory Rite (namely, when the priest removes the chalice veil from the chalice) has missed part of the sacrifice and therefore has not fulfilled his Sunday obligation.

The older theology of offertory is in harmony with the Old Testament portrayals of sacrifice. During their journey to Mount Moriah for what is supposed to Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, an ignorant Isaac asks his father: “Behold… fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust?” (Gen. 22, 7) The central sacrificial act of shedding blood is days away from happening, but Isaac is already referring to the creature to be sacrificed as the victim. Similarly, when the people offer one of their livestock to the priests in the Holy Temple for a sacrifice, the animal is already thought of as the victim even though it has not yet been immolated.

Ambiguities in our language make it difficult to appreciate the difference between consecration and transubstantiation. To consecrate is to set apart for divine or sacred use, while to transubstantiate is to change the substance of one thing into another, as when during the Words of Institution bread and wine are turned into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We refer to this act as “Consecration,” but strictly speaking, the elements are consecrated (set apart for divine use) earlier, during the Offertory. The bread is consecrated when it is offered to God during the Suscipe Sancte Pater, and the wine is consecrated when it is offered during the Offerimus tibi. From that moment on, the bread and wine are sacred and special, even though they are certainly not yet Body and Blood.

To appreciate this distinction, I recommend the lebkuchen litmus test. A host (wafer) can have three modes of existence: 1) mundane or profane, 2) consecrated (in the strict sense of the word as set apart), and 3) transubstantiated, in which case it only retains the appearance of a wafer and is now in fact the glorified flesh of the Risen Christ. Can any of these be used to make lebkuchen?

1) Even in the case where a wafer-host has been manufactured exclusively for use at Mass, and even if the German word oblaten is related to the word “offering,” the wafer nevertheless remains an ordinary, profane object and may therefore be used to make lebkuchen. Indeed, it may be salutary for people to make cookies with such wafers as a way of reminding themselves of the enormous difference between ordinary bread and the miracle of the Eucharist.

2) To use a transubstantiated Host for anything other than Adoration or pious reception by a baptized Catholic in a state of grace is a grave sacrilege.

3) That leaves the case of hosts that have been consecrated during the Offertory Rite but have not been transubstantiated during the Canon. What happens if the celebrant has a heart attack as he is saying the Orate fratres and the Mass is discontinued: can one take the hosts from the altar and make lebkuchen with them? If an expanded edition of the De defectibus Missae is someday issued, I believe that it should answer in the negative. Although not transubstantiated, these hosts have been sacralized, designated as “victims,” and to return them to profane use would be a desecration. They should be used for another Mass or disposed of reverently in the manner of a so-called Consecrated Host.

The more interesting question is whether the same can be said for hosts in the New Mass. On one hand, the prayers do not explicitly offer bread and wine to God (a de facto consecration); on the other, it can be argued that because the prayer formerly known as the Secret is now called the Prayer over What Has Been Offered (Oratio super oblata) and that in so far as a sacrifice is still mentioned in the prayers In animo contrito and the Orate fratres, an offertory (the first stage of sacrifice) is implied. In any event, if the new Offertory Rite is nothing more than the preparation of the gifts, and if the Mass should be discontinued before the Eucharistic Prayer, then perhaps those gifts could be returned to sender and used for cookies, since they were never formally given back to God in the first place.

An Old Parisian Sequence for Thursday in the Octave of Pentecost

This article by Henri de Villiers was originally posted in 2014.

While in the use of Rome, the prose Veni, Sancte Spiritus is sung on the day of Pentecost and at all the Masses within the octave, the old use of Paris celebrates each day of the octave with a different sequence.

Here is how Paris used to arrange the sequences during the octave of Pentecost:

1. Pentecost Sunday: Fulgens præclara Paraclyti Sancti
   a subdivision of an old French prose for Easter, prior to the year 1000.
2. Pentecost Monday: Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia
   by Notker the Stammerer (c. 840 † 912). 
3. Pentecost Tuesday: Lux jucunda, Lux insignis
   by Adam of St. Victor († 1146).
4. Pentecost Wednesday: Simplex in essentia
   by Adam of St. Victor.
5. Pentecost Thursday: Qui procedis ab utroque
   by Adam of St. Victor.
6. Pentecost Friday: Alma chorus Domini
   an anonymous French composition, prior to 1000.
7. Pentecost Saturday Pentecost: Veni, Sancte Spiritus
   by Stephen Langton (c. 1150 † 1228).

It is notable that three of these compositions are the work of the famous hymnographer Adam, who, before ending his days in the abbey of Saint-Victor, at the foot of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, was the precentor of the cathedral of Paris from 1107 until roughly 1134. The proses Adam composed for Paris crossed the border of the diocese, and his work quickly spread throughout Europe. Adam’s sequences have a wide vocal range, typical of the school of chant of the cathedral of Paris, a fact which suggests the high vocal art standards which then reigned in our French capital.

Many other proses were subsequently built on the rhythms and songs of Adam; especially well know is the Lauda Sion for Corpus Christi, modeled by St. Thomas Aquinas on the Laudes Crucis by Adam of St. Victor.

Today I would like to present the text and the chant of the Parisian sequence for Thursday in the Octave of Pentecost: Qui procedis ab utroque, by Adam of St. Victor.

The liturgical texts dedicated to the Holy Spirit have become relatively rare in the Latin Church. It may be interesting to renew our acquaintance with this medieval hymnographic corpus of such high quality, as this magnificent repertoire is so rich, both spiritually and musically. Here is how dom Gueranger introduces this prose in his Liturgical Year:

This great liturgical poet of the western Church has surpassed himself in what he has written on the Holy Ghost; and more than once, during the octave, we will select from his rich store. But the hymn we give to-day is not merely a composition of poetic worth; it is a sublime and fervent prayer to the Paraclete, whom Jesus has promised to send us, and whom we are now expecting. Let us make these sentiments of the devout poet of the twelfth century our own; let us imitate him in his longings for the holy Spirit, who is coming that He may renew the face of the earth, and dwell within us.

Here is the chant of this prose, Qui procedis ab utroque, from the excellent Proper of Paris published in 1923-1925:

   

Here is a metrical translation by Digby S. Wrangham:

Comforter, from both together,
From the Son and from the Father,
Who proceedest equally!
Eloquent our utterance render;
With Thy splendour
Bright engender
In our hearts true warmth for Thee.

Love of Father, Son, together;
Equal of them both; with either
One: the same in every part!
All Thou fillest, all Thou lovest,
Stars Thou rulest, heaven Thou movest,
Though immovable Thou art.

Light the dearest!
Light the clearest!
Off Thou scarest,
As Thou nearest,
From the heart its gloomy night:
All the pure Thou purifiest,
Thou it is that sin destroyest,
And its mildew's baleful blight.

Knowledge of the truth Thou spreadest;
On the way of peace Thou leadest,
And the path of righteousness.
From Thee thrusting
Hearts unruly,
Thou all trusting
Hearts and holy
Dost with gifts of wisdom bless.

When Thou teachest,
Nought obscure is!
Where Thou reachest,
Nought impure is;
And, if present Thou wilt be,
Hearts in Thee then blithely glory,
And the conscience joys before Thee,
Gladdened, purified by Thee.

Elements their mystic dower,
Sacraments their saving power,
But through Thee alone possess:
What can harm us Thou repellest,
Thou exposest and Thou quellest,
Adversaries' wickedness.

Where Thou lightest,
Hearts are brightest;
Gloom-enshrouded
Clouds that brooded
There, before Thee disappear;
Fire all-holy!
Hearts Thou truly
Never burnest,
But thence yearnest,
When Thou comest, cares to clear.

Thou the heart, experience needing,
Languor pleading,
Little heeding,
Dost instruct and rouse to right;
Speeches framing, tongues endowing,
And bestowing
Love all-glowing,
Hearts Thou mak'st in good delight.

Sustentation
In dejection!
Consolation
In affliction!
Only refuge of the poor!
Give us scorn for things terrestrial,
And to care for things celestial
Lead our longings more and more!

Comfort wholly,
Founder solely,
Inmate truly,
Lover throughly,
Of those hearts that bow to Thee!
Concord, where is discord, raising,
Ills thence chasing,
Guilt effacing,
Bring us true security!

Thou, Who once by visitation
Didst inform, and consolation
To Thy scared disciples give!
Deign Thou now to come unto us:
If it please Thee, comfort show us,
And all nations that believe!

One excelling
Greatness sharing,
One as well in
Power appearing,
But one God three Persons are.
Coming forth from two together,
Thou co-equal art with either,
No disparity is there.

Such as is the Father Thou art;
Since so great and such Thou now art,
By Thy servants unto Thee,
With the Sire, and Son, in heaven
Our Redeemer, praise be given,
As is due, most reverently! Amen.

Some medieval Parisian manuscripts of this sequence may be seen in the French version of this post.

Pope Leo Restores An Ancient Tradition (From 42 Years Ago)

At the end of this month, our Holy Father Leo XIV will celebrate the feast of Ss Peter and Paul as Pope for the first time. Our readers have perhaps read that the custom will be restored by which during the celebration of Mass in St Peter’s basilica, the pope blesses the pallia which are to be given to those who have lately been made metropolitan archbishops, and personally imposes it on them. In 2015, this custom was changed so that the pope blessed the pallia, but they were imposed on the archbishops back home by the local nuncio. It is difficult to think why this was thought to be necessary, or some kind of improvement, and I think it is a good thing that Pope Leo has undone it. The pallium Mass had become quite a festive occasion in Rome, and many of the new archbishops would be accompanied by large pilgrim groups from their dioceses. It will be nice if these kinds of pilgrimages flourish again.

Pope Leo wearing the pallium during his inaugural Mass last month.

However, it bears remembering that the custom is itself very new, instituted by Pope St John Paul II in 1983. During the homily which he preached at the Mass on June 29 of that year, the pope himself referred to it as a new custom, saying, “During this celebration, this year there will take place the blessing and imposition of the pallia on some recently named archbishops.” I point this out because I have seen a few reports which refer to this as if it were an ancient custom, which it is not; and perhaps this will be useful as a reminder that all customs begin as novelties, and we should not shy away from the new simply because it is new.

As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, the pallium was for a long time not conferred by the pope in person at all, unless the man to receive it was already a cardinal; much less was there any such special ceremony for it in Rome on the feast of Ss Peter and Paul, or any other feast. “The pallium is conferred in Rome by a cardinal-deacon, and outside of Rome by a bishop; in both cases the ceremony takes place after the celebration of Mass and the administration of the oath of allegiance.” Any archbishop, and some bishops who had the privilege of the pallium, could ask to receive their pallium during a private consistory in Rome, but they were not required to do so. And indeed, the Pontificale of Clement VIII has a special section on the pallium, (right after the consecration of a bishop), the rubrics of which presume that the ceremony is not taking place in Rome, but in the new archbishop’s cathedral. However, where it is more convenient, it may be done in some other church of his diocese, or even one outside his diocese, within the metropolitan province.

The ceremony in the Pontificale for the imposition of the pallium goes as follows. No blessing for it is given, since it is blessed by the pope who sends it. A solemn Mass is celebrated, and after the celebrant’s Communion, the pallium is laid on the altar, wrapped in a silk cloth. After the Mass, the bishop who is to impose it sits before the altar on a faldstool, with cope and miter, and in the name of the Apostolic See, receives the oath of fidelity from the new archbishop, who kneels before him vested as if for Mass, but without miter. (The text of the oath is quite long, and was clearly designed with the memory in mind of the less-than-edifying conduct of some archbishops of old...)

When the oath has been given, the bishop rises and lays it on the new archbishop’s shoulders, saying, “Unto the honor of almighty God, and of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of our lord the Pope N., and of the Holy Roman Church, and also of the church of N. entrusted to thee, we hand over to thee the pallium taken from the body of the blessed Peter, in which (pallium) is the fullness of the pontifical office, together with the title of patriarch or archbishop; that thou may use it within thy church on certain days, which are set out in the privileges granted by the Apostolic See. In the name of the Fa✠ther, and of the ✠ Son, and of the Holy ✠ Spirit.” The bishop then withdraws to the epistle side of the altar, and the new archbishop gives the pontifical blessing.

The words “taken from the body of the blessed Peter” refer to the custom, which is indeed VERY ancient, that a pallium is a relic-by-contact from the tomb of St Peter. Within the wall right in front of the Apostle’s tomb is a niche with a silver casket in it, where they are kept until they are sent out. When St John Paul II instituted the custom of imposing them during the Mass of Ss Peter and Paul, it became customary to place the pallia in this casket the evening before, after First Vespers of the feast.

The niche of the pallium within the confessio of St Peter’s Basilica, photographed from upstairs. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Tieum512, CC BY-SA 3.0.)

From an article published in 2017, the pallium of St Caesarius, archbishop of Arles (470-542; elected 502), sent to him by Pope Symmachus.

The Pontificale also contains several restrictions and requirements regarding the use of the pallium. An archbishop was not allowed to be called by the title Patriarch, Primate or Archbishop before receiving it, nor to consecrate another bishop, hold a synod, make chrism, dedicate a church, or perform ordinations. However, he could entrust these functions to another bishop, as long as he was not deliberately delaying the obtaining of his pallium. If a man were moved from one archbishopric to another, he was required to obtain a new pallium, and could not use his old one to perform these functions. An archbishop without a pallium was free to celebrate Mass, but the archiepiscopal cross could not be carried before him. The pallium was not to be used outside the archbishop’s own province, nor in processions, nor at Masses for the dead, but only on certain feasts, (as stated above in the words said when it was imposed), and it was mandatory that he be buried with it.

The following are the feast days when the pallium was to be used, listed in the Pontificale.

• Christmas
• St Stephen
• St John the Evangelist
• The Circumcision
• Epiphany
• Palm Sunday
• Holy Thursday
• Easter Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
• Low Sunday
• The Ascension
• Pentecost
• Corpus Christi
• The five major feasts of the Virgin Mary: the Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, Nativity and Immaculate Conception
• The Birth of St John the Baptist
• St Joseph
• All Saints
• The feasts of all the Apostles
• The principal feasts of the archbishop’s own church.
• At the dedications of churches, ordinations of the clergy, consecrations of bishops, abbots and virgins.
• The anniversary of the dedication of a church
• The anniversary of his own consecration.

Ember Wednesday of Pentecost 2025

The late 12th-century liturgical commentator Sicard of Cremona explains the texts of the Mass of Ember Wednesday in the Octave of Pentecost, and why the summer Ember Day fasts are united to the solemnity.

“The Office of Wednesday preaches on knowledge, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who even unto this day has enlightened the Saints. This gift grew in abundance from the five books of Moses, and the few writings of the prophets, as the Daniel foresaw, saying, ‘Many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold.’ (Dan. 12, 4)

The Gospel reveals this to us mystically in the story of the five loaves and two fishes, which were multiplied between the mouths of those that ate them; likewise, the Law and the Prophets are multiplied in the studies of those that contemplate them. … And note that two readings are done (before the Gospel), since two people are converted to the faith (i.e., the Jews and the gentiles), and because those who are to be ordained (at the Mass of the Ember Saturday) are instructed in the pages of both Testaments. Before these in the Gospel is set forth bread, that is to say, the Sacred Scripture.

The Introit that comes before these (readings) is fitting: ‘God, when Thou went forth before Thy people, making a way for them, dwelling among them, alleluia, the earth was moved, the heavens dropped down, alleluia, alleluia.’ For through knowledge, God has gone forth, which is to say, He has become known; and because by meditating on the sacred expositions, (the Apostles) explained the Scriptures. Therefore, in the Offertory is sung ‘I meditated upon thy Commandments.’ And because they say the same thing, and there is no division among them, rightly the Communion antiphon adds, ‘I leave you my peace, alleluia, my peace I give you, alleluia.’

Pentecost, from the San Piero Maggiore Altarpiece by Jacopo di Cione, 1370

Understand that today’s Ember Day fast does not detract from the solemnity of the Holy Spirit, but rather illuminates it, because the delights of the Holy Spirit bring with them distaste for the delights of the body; and because, the Bridegroom being taken away, the Apostles had to fast, as the Lord had foretold, when He said, ‘The Bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast.’ (Matthew 9, 15) Wherefore, being filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to fast of their own free will. For this reason, some begin the Lent of summer on the previous Monday, but others more correctly esteem today’s fast as the beginning of the fast of this period. And some put the end (of this fast) at the feast of St John (the Baptist), whether it have six weeks or not. Others include the feast of St John, fasting without a fixed ending point, until they fulfill the six weeks.” (Mitrale, VII, 9)

Sicard goes on to claim that a “summer fast” or “summer Lent” was known to St Jerome, but as a matter of choice, not of obligation like Lent before Easter. (He is citing Jerome’s letter 41 to Marcella, but misunderstanding it.) The Eastern churches still have an analogous observance in the “Fast of the Apostles”, which runs from the Monday after the feast of All Saints until the feast of Ss Peter and Paul on June 29. (The Byzantine All Saints is kept on the Sunday after Pentecost, Trinity Sunday in the Western rites.)

Practical Steps for Transitioning from the 1962 to the Pre-1955 Roman Rite — Part 2: The Mass

See here for Part 1: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2025/06/practical-steps-for-transitioning-from.html

Before any kind of work can begin in earnest, one must have an ordo alongside the old books of liturgy and try to learn the rubrics. The well-established Saint Lawrence Press Ordo is slightly different from the web-based Ordo of Restore the ‘54, which has the new Assumption and Immaculate Heart offices, the Common of Holy Popes, and some changes to the calendar, like the feast of the Queenship of Mary on May 31, which bumps Saint Angela Merici to the next day. This is not a terribly important feast, but the problem is now that a new double of the II class interrupts a week routinely filled with some feasts: the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, etc. routinely fall on or around this day, and as a double of the II class, it eventually is transferred to a free day.

One could also simply ignore all but the changes to the Assumption and its octave and call it a day, as the Immaculate Heart Mass has become beloved among Catholics attached to not just the liturgy but to the devotional culture of the immediate pre-conciliar era. But having claimed that “1939” is the recension to which we ought to return, then we ought to explore why this is so, and while honoring Our Lady’s request to honor her Immaculate Heart on five first Saturdays is not something which I treat frivolously, nevertheless, she did not say that it must be with the votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart.

Attention must also be called to the rubrics of votive Masses, somewhat different than the 1962 rubrics, though not challenging as the SLP Ordo has a handy chart. The trouble is that a Requiem Mass or a votive Mass said on more solemn occasions (so, something more complex than the replacement of the ferial Mass per annum when votive Masses are permitted) have special rubrics for the orations, the Gloria, the Credo, and the precedence, all of which are vastly different from the 1962 rubrics, which are not necessarily straightforward or simple as it is.

If one has a sufficient command of French, then referencing the Manuel de liturgie et cérémonial selon le rit romain of Stercky (taking over for LeVavasseur) is indispensable in addition to the original Fortescue. (Vol. II of Stercky is found here.) These volumes are far more comprehensive than Fortescue(-O’Connell) and O’Connell combined, and the work should have been entirely translated a long time ago; they merit republication in French as well. Note that an excerpt in translation entitled Sacrificare, Ceremonies of Low Mass was published in 1946 and is currently available as an on-demand print, though it deserves a proper reprint from a reputable publishing house.

The Last Gospel is a unique, beloved feature of the traditional Mass; why would we not wish for this text to be said at the Mass of the Easter Vigil?

In all cases, it is perfectly wise to begin with the little details: the name of Saint Joseph is not in the canon. One can immediately begin bowing to the cross as required at the epistle corner; using the three tones of voice and two kinds of head bows and bows of the body respectively; always reciting the prayers at the foot of the altar and the Last Gospel—mostly the ordinary one from Saint John; praying the Confiteor before communion; finally, incensing the celebrant of a sung Mass after the Gospel. [Note 1]

Additionally, the priest should simply not sit down, and he should rise a little earlier, in order to read the epistle and gospel at solemn Mass, which essentially no one will mind; the faithful are listening to the chants. Finally, the priest should follow the traditional rubrics for the tones of the preface and Pater Noster, which happen to neatly correspond to the new categories of the 1962 office (in particular, simples are commemorations, simple votive Masses are IV class, and nothing else changes). 

These small changes get us to the situation immediately before 1960, as seen at this Mass of the XXIV Sunday after Pentecost from Ushaw College in England, now closed.

The pastor should also strive to say Mass pro populo on the required days, a table of which would be found in the various books covering the subject. Treating holy days, even suppressed ones, as something special is almost entirely lost, and this will have to be recovered as well. “Why can’t I have Mass said for Grandma Anne and Grandpa Lawrence on their name days?” Well, because the church considers saying Mass for the people under the pastor’s care one of his most important duties.

One can add the Credo for Apostles, Doctors, Saint Mary Magdalene, and the Holy Angels without touching the calendar or precedence and without making any other commemorations. Since there is already a preface of the Blessed Sacrament, the preface of the Nativity on Corpus Christi celebrated on Thursday or as an external solemnity can be used without difficulty, as there is already the possibility of avoiding the common preface or, on Sunday, that of the Trinity, and virtually no one would blink if the same preface was used on the Transfiguration.

As far as more significant changes go, I would of course start with Holy Week and the vigil of Pentecost. A wealth of material exists such that the rite can be celebrated correctly and with dignity; I am no fan of broadcasting all liturgies, but 2020 provided proof that you can celebrate the traditional rite in a parish church with a skeleton crew. It is also true that the most reformatory changes occurred with these days of the liturgical year, meaning it’s impossible to mix-and-match old and new (i.e., pre-55 and 1955-1969) in a satisfactory way.

Nevertheless, if one must be incrementalist, then the easiest place to begin is on Holy Thursday, where the rubrics of Mass would deviate only for the ministers, not for the schola (aside from the Agnus Dei, where the change from the ordinary way is in the Pian rite, not that which came before or after) or for the faithful, and at Tenebræ, usually anticipated as it is. Psalm 50 is still right there in the books, and the strepitus (the fun part, the noise at the end) is essentially never omitted. Good Friday is perhaps the next change, given that the day is unique no matter what, followed by the two more complex and very notably different days, Palm Sunday and Holy Saturday.

Further, if you have folded chasubles for Holy Week, then you can then use them the rest of the year, starting with Candlemas, to which minimal changes were made and which only apply after Septuagesima, which means that only the vestments change (except once every few years).

Replacing “Ite, missa est” with “Benedicamus Domino” in Advent and Lent or on the Ember Days of September, then adding proper Last Gospels on penitential weekdays where the festal Mass is said instead (even without touching the 1962 rubrics of the Lenten calendar precedence!—one thinks of Saint Joseph, the Annunciation, the privileged votive Masses, proper first-class feasts, and the Masses now permitted by the decree Cum sanctissima), would be easy steps to take next, followed by the reintroduction of proper Last Gospels whenever they occur, including when a feast falls on an ordinary Sunday. One might wish to begin earlier with Christmas day, given that its Gospel is already Saint John’s prologue and would otherwise have no Last Gospel. Can anyone protest too much? In fact, the Ordinariate has this privilege!

By the way, there is virtually no reason to ever justify the short form of Ember Saturday’s liturgy, no matter what rubrics one uses otherwise.

The commemorations of the Mass should be added progressively according to the difficulty for the celebrant and the people. These are straightforward on double feasts or when a double feast is simplified due to the Sunday: pray the collects of the (other) saints, then move to the epistle, unless there is an oratio imperata to be prayed by the order of the bishop or other authority (rare if not nonexistent outside of certain traditional communities).

It can become much more complicated at a votive Mass, including the “daily” Requiem Mass which has three orations; when a semidouble or simplex feast is commemorated; or during octaves or other occasions which have different prayers than those of the season (e.g. a day within the octave of All Saints has different prayers than the ones assigned for the time after Pentecost, and so on and so forth).

More will be said about these with respect to the office, but suffice it to say that one could start on the rare occasions when one makes only the commemorations of the season, gradually moving to commemorate feasts, both of which can already be done, at least in a limited way, at a 1962-compliant low Mass. It is probably unwise to start with Sundays or feasts with four collects, e.g., on June 26, 2022, the Sunday within the octave of the Sacred Heart, when, in pre-55 land, collects would be sung of the Third Sunday after Pentecost, of several martyrs, of the Octave of the Lord, and of the Octave of Saint John the Baptist.

That leaves the calendar itself and the other rubrics. Start with the “votive” Mass of the suppressed feasts, all found in the section for various places of the 1962 missal; the feast of Saint Joseph in Paschaltide is the votive Mass of Saint Joseph, so one could usually say this Mass on the third Wednesday of Eastertide without fuss.

If a feast of an Apostle or another II class feast falls on a Sunday and would have taken its place before 1962, one should follow that precedence, commemorating Sunday appropriately. Also, move the Apostles to Monday if there is a conflict, as is the case when October 28 falls on the Sunday which is the feast of Christ the King or when Saint Matthias falls on a Sunday of Lent.

The full vigils, including that of the Epiphany, will have to be last, if one does not already possess a pre-1955 missal. The same holds for the octaves which have proper texts for all or some of the days (in particular, the days within the octave of Saints Peter and Paul), but the Second and Third Sundays after Pentecost have no textual changes not found in a 1962 missal and can be restored quickly as the Sundays within the respective octaves of the Lord.

The pre-1939 recension is imperfect. It would perhaps be better, at conventual Mass, to celebrate ancient vigils instead of later feasts (on June 28, the vigil of Saints Peter and Paul and variously the feast of Saint Irenaeus or of Pope Saint Leo II) and on August 9 (the vigil of Saint Lawrence and the feast of the Curé d’Ars). Instituting the vigil and suppressing or moving around, again, feasts, or removing the vigil in the 1960 liturgy came at the cost of everything else, and a change to permit the vigil at conventual Mass (without having to duplicate the festal Mass) would have mirrored the rubrics for private Masses (I take the meaning of “private” to be the Mass said outside of the parish schedule, not as the “parochial Mass” in lieu of a conventual Mass, where there is no community, the sort of Mass that priests say right after Lauds in the monastery). Those allowed priests to choose the Mass ad libitum when a vigil or ferial day of Lent, or the Ember Days, was to be said, although public Masses, including the main Mass, really ought to be of the feast. [Note 2]

One final change: the Mass of the Rogation days has a unique Alleluia in the pre-1962 missal; the Alleluia with the verse Laudate Dominum is sung, but the form is not responsorial. Two Alleluias are sung as on other days of Paschal Time in the 1962 missal, for consistency.

Surveying the many differences listed above, we should bear in mind that there is no one order that must be followed in implementing them, nor a prescribed pace at which to move. The changes to be implemented in parallel with one’s breviary (to be described in the next post) can be mixed and matched. The order I have suggested, however, seems to be a good general order that makes logical sense. At a minimum, I have tried to lay out each element that will need to be restored to the traditional Roman Mass.

Notes

[1] This one is more controversial, as not every place received an indult for incense at sung Mass before the 1962 rubrics made it universal. But it is the expectation the world over, and further detaching sung Mass from solemn Mass was a step in the wrong direction.

[2] As an aside, though, the term “private Mass” is nebulous, having at least eight definitions and has consequences if the priest is saying a community Mass for his community, conventual or otherwise, or as the main parochial Mass. As noted earlier, a pastor would have had to say Mass pro populo on many feast days according to the former law.

An Illuminated Psalter of the 13th Century

Here is another wonderful discovery from the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, an illuminated psalter from the beginning of the 13th century. (Département des manuscrits. NAL 1392) The manuscript begins with 13 pages of images of the life of Christ, each within a circular medallion, two per page, enclosed in a rectangular decorative border; these cover all the major feasts of the Church year, starting with Christmas (the birth of Christ and the annunciation to the shepherds.) Each such image also has two prophets with banderoles in their hands between the circles, but nothing written on them to identify them specifically.

Epiphany: the Magi before Herod, and with the Madonna and Child. St Matthew does not say how long it was between the actual birth of Christ and the arrival of the Magi, and this image is based on a type common in early Christian art, in which Jesus is a toddler, not a newborn.

The Wedding at Cana and the Baptism of the Lord.

The Temptation of Christ and the Transfiguration, the Gospels of the first two Sundays of Lent.

The parable of the Good Samaritan, and Christ with Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon the Pharisee.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Pentecost Tuesday 2025

Accipite jucunditatem gloriae vestrae, alleluia: gratias agentes Deo, alleluia: qui vos ad caelestia regna vocavit, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Ps. 77 Attendite, popule meus, legem meam: inclinate aurem vestram in verba oris mei. Gloria Patri. Accipite.

The beginning of the votive Office of the Holy Spirit, from the book of Hours known as the Black Hours, made in Bruge, Belgium, ca. 1475, now in the Morgan Library in New York. (click for larger image)

Receive the delight of your glory, alleluia, giving thanks to God, alleluia, Who hath called ye to the heavenly kingdoms, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Psalm Attend, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Glory be. Receive. (The Introit for the Mass of Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost)

This introit is one of the very few pieces of the traditional Gregorian repertoire taken from an apocryphal book, that which in the Vulgate is called the Fourth Book of Esdras. The verses from which it is taken, chapter 2, 36-37, read in full: “Fugite umbram saeculi hujus, accipite jucunditatem gloriae vestrae. Ego testor palam salvatorem meum. Commendatum Domini accipite, et jucundamini, gratias agentes ei qui vos ad caelestia regna vocavit. - Flee ye the shadow of this age, receive the delight of your glory. I bear witness openly to my savior; receive him as one commended to ye by the Lord, and delight, giving thanks to him who has called ye to the heavenly kingdoms.” (The verses which immediately precede these are noted in post-Tridentine Missals as the source of the Introit Requiem aeternam, but the citation is much broader.) The Italian composer Giuseppe Tricarico (1623-97) composed the following version for vocal ensemble.

“God So Loved the World” - The Gospel of Pentecost Monday

As noted last month, the first part of the Nicodemus Gospel, John 3, 1-15 or 16, was said at two other Masses before it was assigned to the Finding of the Cross. On the other hand, the second part, verses 16-21, is found in the very oldest Roman lectionaries on Pentecost Monday, and remains there to this day. This may seem an odd choice, given that it speaks entirely about the mission of the Son, without reference to the Holy Spirit. It is assigned to this day as a compliment to the Epistle of the Mass, which is determined by its Roman Station church.

On Easter Monday, the Station is at St Peter’s Basilica, and the Epistle, Acts 10, 37-43, is part of Peter’s discourse in the house of the centurion Cornelius.

You know the word which hath been published through all Judea: for it began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things that he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed, hanging him upon a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he arose again from the dead; And he * commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he who was appointed by God, to be judge of the living and of the dead. To him all the prophets give testimony, that by his name all receive remission of sins, who believe in him.

On Pentecost Monday, the station is at the basilica of St-Peter-in-Chains; the Epistle repeats the last two verses of the Epistle of Easter Monday, (beginning at the star noted above,) and continues to verse 48.

While Peter was yet speaking these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word. And the faithful of the circumcision, who came with Peter, were astonished, for that the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the gentiles also. For they heard them speaking with tongues, and magnifying God. Then Peter answered: Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Baptism of Cornelius, represented on the bronze baptismal font of the church of St Bartholomew in Liège, by Reiner de Huy, completed by 1118.  Image from wikipedia by Jean-Pol Grandmont.

The second part of the Nicodemus Gospel, therefore, clarifies Peter’s statement that Christ is “judge of the living and of the dead.”

For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. He that believeth in him is not judged. But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God.

In the post-Conciliar lectionary, with the abolition of the Octave of Pentecost, this passage has been moved to the Wednesday after Low Sunday, as part of the lectio continua of the Gospel of John in Eastertide, broadly imitating the custom of the Byzantine Rite. A longer version, John 3, 14-21, is read on the 4th Sunday of Lent in the second year of the three-year cycle, and a shorter version, only verses 16-18, is read on Trinity Sunday in year A. Part of the Gospel is also assigned to the Exaltation of the Cross, verses 13-17. The first sentence is frequently used as an Alleluia verse in the new lectionary, although it is not part of the historical chant repertoire.

In the Byzantine Rite, this verse has a particularly prominent place, since it is cited at the celebration of every Divine Liturgy when the Anaphora of St John Chrysostom is used. During the Sanctus, the priest reads as follows.

We also with these blessed powers, o Lord and lover of mankind, cry out and say, ‘Holy art Thou, and all-holy, and Thy only-begotten Son, and Thy Holy Spirit. Holy art Thou and all-holy, and magnificent is Thy glory. Who did so love the world, that Thou gavest Thy only-begotten Son, that everyone that believeth in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.

This anaphora was created as a substitute for the much lengthier Anaphora of St Basil the Great, in which, by the word-count in Greek, the parallel prayer is almost exactly five times as long. Where St Basil recounts the whole history of our salvation, from the creation and fall of man to the Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming of Christ, with many citations of the Sacred Scriptures, St John Chrysostom sums up the whole economy of salvation with a single verse: “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.”

Chant Camp in Northern California, August 4-8

Chant Camp for Singers Ages 8-17, August 4-8, at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California.

Early bird pricing through June 25th | Discounts available for multiple children from the same family.

More information and registration available here.

Discover the joy of singing the Church’s sacred music!

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music launches its choral program for young singers with an inaugural chant camp. (More information on the academic-year program forthcoming!)

A week of fun, engaging, and positive rehearsals, games, catechesis, time for prayer, and meals together; Chant Camp is a day camp for students who want to grow in their faith, learn to sing, and enjoy fellowship with other Catholics.

Add-on afternoon sessions: pipe organ, music theory, music composition

For students of all levels, from new chanters to those who have some experience chanting or singing in a Catholic choir.

Instructors: Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka & Prof. Christopher Berry

The Byzantine Gospel of Pentecost

After Nicodemus’ discourse with Christ in chapter 3, he will appear two other times in the Gospel of St John. At the end of chapter 19, he comes to help Joseph of Arimathea bury the Lord, bringing myrrh and aloe. Before that, he is mentioned in chapter 7, in the passage which the Byzantine Rite reads on Pentecost Sunday. (John 7, 37-53 and 8, 12)

On the last, and great day of the festivity, Jesus stood and cried, saying: If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He that believeth in me, as the scripture saith, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said of the Spirit which they should receive, who believed in him: * for as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Of that multitude therefore, when they had heard these words of his, some said: This is the prophet indeed. Others said: This is the Christ. But some said: Doth the Christ come out of Galilee? Doth not the scripture say: That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem the town where David was? So there arose a dissension among the people because of him. And some of them would have apprehended him: but no man laid hands on him. The ministers therefore came to the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said to them: Why have you not brought him? The ministers answered: Never did man speak like this man. The Pharisees therefore answered them: Are you also seduced? Hath any one of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees? But this multitude, that knoweth not the law, are accursed.
Nicodemus said to them, (he that came to him by night, who was one of them:) Doth our law judge any man, unless it first hear him, and know what he doth? They answered, and said to him: Art thou also a Galilean? Search the scriptures, and see, that out of Galilee a prophet riseth not. And every man returned to his own house. ** Again therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying: I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

The first part of this reading makes an obvious and appropriate choice for Pentecost, even though the festivity mentioned at the beginning is the feast of Tabernacles, which takes place in the autumn. From very ancient times, Pentecost has been celebrated alongside Easter as a great baptismal feast. In his treatise in defense of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, St Basil the Great refers the beginning of this passage to Baptism, when explaining the words of 1 Corinthians 10, “our fathers … drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.”

The faith in the Spirit is the same as the faith in the Father and the Son; and in like manner, too, the baptism. … as a type, that rock was Christ; and the water a type of the living power of the word; as He says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” The manna is a type of the living bread that came down from heaven; and the serpent on the standard, of the passion of salvation accomplished by means of the cross, wherefore they who even looked thereon were preserved. So in like manner, the history of the exodus of Israel is recorded to show forth those who are being saved through baptism. (chapter 14)

The Mass of St Basil, by Pierre Subleyras, 1743.

This tradition is shared in various ways by the Roman and Ambrosian liturgies. In the former, it provides the text of the Communion antiphon on the vigil of Pentecost, although the Gospel passage itself is not read on that day. The church of Milan reads the first paragraph (up to the red asterisk) on Easter night at a special Mass said for the newly baptized catechumens, and the same passage (including the words after the asterisk) at the parallel Mass for those baptized on Pentecost.

The question arises, though, as to why the Gospel continues with the discussion of Christ’s origins, the failure of the ministers to arrest Him, and the dispute between Nicodemus and the Pharisees, which would seem at first to have nothing to do with Pentecost.

When the ministers who were supposed to arrest Christ come back without Him, the Pharisees note, as a point against Him, that His followers come not from among themselves or the rulers, but rather, from “this multitude that knoweth not the Law (and) is accursed.” The Jewish feast of Pentecost commemorates the giving of that very Law to Moses on Mt Sinai; in the Synaxarion, broadly the Byzantine equivalent of the Martyrology, the notice for Pentecost states, “This feast we also took from the Hebrew Bible; for just as they celebrate Pentecost, honoring the number seven, and that when they had passed through fifty days from Pascha they received the Law, so we too as we celebrate for fifty days after Pascha receive the all-holy Spirit, who gives laws and guides into all truth and lays down what is pleasing to God.”

The scene known as the “traditio legis - the handing down of the Law”, represented in an ancient Christian sarcophagus now in the Pio-Christian collection of the Vatican Museums. The scroll in Christ’s hands is that of the new Law which replaces the Mosaic Law, and which He consigns to the Apostles for them to teach to all nations.

When read on Pentecost, therefore, these words remind us, as St Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians (3, 13-14), that “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law … That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus: that we may receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.” This is precisely what happens in the Acts of the Apostles, as first the Jews, and then the Gentiles are baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, and begin to live under the new law given to the Church. The Byzantine tradition has a special chant from the same chapter of Galatians, “As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ, alleluia,” which is sung on Pentecost in place of the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty one…”), as also on the other days originally dedicated to the celebration of Baptism, such as Easter and Epiphany.

Part of the dispute also refers to Jesus’ supposed origins in Galilee, whence no prophet comes. When Nicodemus asks for Him to be heard before judgment, in accordance with the Law, the Pharisees say to him sarcastically “Art thou also a Galilean?”, as if to say that he could have no reason to ask this, other than as an act of special pleading for a fellow countryman. Although Christ Himself was born in David’s city of Bethlehem, the Apostles were natives of Galilee; at Pentecost, the Jews from various places who hear them speaking in their local languages ask themselves, “Are not all these that speak Galileans?” (Acts 2, 6) St Peter tells them that what is happening is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” This to the Jews; in Acts 10, 37, when he preaches to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, Peter notes that Christ’s ministry “began from Galilee.” St Paul will later state (Acts 13, 31) that the witnesses to the Resurrection were men who had come with Christ “from Galilee.” Therefore, the Pharisees who prided themselves on their knowledge of the Law and the Scriptures, and spoke of the ignorant as “accursed”, are shown to be wrong, as prophets have indeed arisen from Galilee.

Lastly we may note how at the end, the Gospel jumps from the final verse of chapter 7 to verse 8, 12 (at the point marked above by two asterisks.) The eleven verses not included here are the Pericope of the Adulteress, also sometimes known as the Wandering Pericope. This passage is missing entirely from several important early manuscripts of the Bible, and occasionally appears at the end of Luke 21, rather than the beginning of John 8. Among others, Ss John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria both pass it over in silence in their respective commentaries on the Gospel of St John; the gap in the Byzantine lectionary therefore reproduces the Gospel text before the Pericope of the Adulteress had wandered into it.

A leaf of a ninth-century Greek lectionary. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Grec 277

All this is summed up beautifully in the first Ode of the Byzantine Matins of Pentecost. “Indeed, as Thou once promised Thy Disciples, Thou sent forth the Paraclete, the Spirit, O Christ, and shed light on the world, O Lover of mankind. That which was proclaimed of old by the Law and the Prophets has been fulfilled; for today the grace of the divine Spirit hath been poured out on all believers.”

The Vigil of Pentecost 2025

IN those days: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones. And he led me about through them on every side; now they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, thou knowest.” And he said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones, and say to them, ‘Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” And I prophesied as he had commanded me, and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion, and the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them.

The Vision of Ezechiel, 1630, by Francisco Collantes (Madrid, 1599-1656); Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

And he said to me, “Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again.’ ” And I prophesied as he had commanded me, and the spirit came into them, and they lived, and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. And he said to me, “Son of man, all these bones are the house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people, and will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, o my people, and shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: saith the Lord God.’ ” (Ezechiel 37, 1-14, the sixth prophecy of the Vigil of Pentecost, and seventh of the Easter vigil.)

This passage was accepted by the Church Fathers from the most ancient times as a prophecy of the resurrection of the body at the end of the world, and hence of the Resurrection of Christ that makes this possible. In the later second century, St Irenaeus of Lyon writes:

“Now Isaias thus declares (26, 19), that He who at the beginning created man, did promise him a second birth after his dissolution into earth: ‘The dead shall rise again, and they who are in the tombs shall arise, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice. … ’ And Ezekiel speaks as follows: ‘And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and the Lord led me forth in the Spirit, and set me down in the midst of the plain, and this place was full of bones. And He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were many upon the surface of the plain very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Lord, Thou who hast made them dost know. And He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and thou shalt say to them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord to these bones, Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come upon you, and I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh again upon you, and I will stretch skin upon you, and will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. … ’ ”

It is cited to the same effect by Tertullian, St Cyprian and St Ambrose in the West, by Origen, St Cyril of Jerusalem and St John Chrysostom in the East, among many others.

A Christian sarcophagus of the first quarter of the 4th century, with a representation of Ezekiel’s vision of the bones on the left, and the Adoration of the Magi on the right. The figures on the far left are cleverly shown in various stages of resurrection; the standing figure next to them is Christ, who is holding a thaumaturgical wand to indicate that He is performing a miracle, as Ezekiel looks on from behind. 

In the Byzantine Rite, this lesson is read at Orthros of Holy Saturday, one of the most beautiful services of the year, commonly called Jerusalem Matins. This is the only day on which this long and complicated ceremony ends with a special synaxis of three readings: Ezekiel 37, 1-14; 1 Corinthians 5, 6-8 and Galatians 3, 13-14 (as a single reading, titled to the former); and Matthew 27, 62-66, which tells of the setting of the guards at the Lord’s tomb. Among the Slavs, it is sometimes sung in a special setting; this recording was made at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, nine years ago. (The first few times I attended this service, I knew barely a word of Church Slavonic, and had no idea what was happening most of the time. It was sung rather more slowly than it is here, and the cantor used a score with all the notes printed out, rather than a lectionary, so I thought it was some kind of solo motet, a lamentation for the Lord’s death.)

This English version is also very beautiful; the prophecy is preceded by a chant from a Psalm called a prokimen, like most Scriptural readings in the Byzantine Rite other than the Gospel. This recording skips the Epistle and its prokimen, and goes straight to the Alleluia before the Gospel, one of the most beautiful in the repertoire.