Tradition is for the Young - Photos of Recent Pontifical Mass

On May 18, the Fourth Sunday after Easter, His Excellency Ronald Gainer, Bishop Emeritus of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, celebrated a pontifical Mass in the traditional Roman Rite at St. Joseph’s Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Mass was sponsored by our friends at the Durandus Institute; the program of sacred music included Victoria’s Missa O Quam Gloriosum.

Anyone who has ever served this rite of Mass knows that it requires a fair amount of organizing and rehearsal to do properly; the reward is, of course, a ceremony which truly impresses upon one, forcibly and unmistakably, the power and majesty of what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass really is. We can all take encouragement once again from the fact that almost none of the people who are making the effort and commitment to put this together are old enough to be doing so from any sense of “nostalgia”; what we see here is a true and sincere love for the richness of our Catholic liturgical tradition. Feliciter! (Photos courtesy of Gaudete Photography; click here to see the full album.)

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The Octave of the Ascension 2025

From the homily of Pope St Gregory the Great read on the octave of the Ascension in the Roman Breviary.

Concerning the glory of (Christ’s) Ascension, Habakkuk also said, “The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood still in her rank.” (3, 10-11) Who is here signified by the name of the Sun, if not the Lord, and by the name of the Moon, if not the Church? For until the Lord ascended to the heavens, His Holy Church was in every way afraid of the hostilities of the world, but after She was strengthened by His Ascension, She openly preached what She had come to believe in secret. Therefore was the sun was lifted up, and the moon stood still in her rank, since, the Lord went unto heaven, His Holy Church grew stronger the authority of Her preaching.

The Prophet Habakkuk, by Girolamo Romanino, from the Sacrament Chapel of the church of St John the Evangelist in Brescia, Italy. (1521-4.) The quotation on the banderole, the opening words of his canticle in chapter 3, follows the Old Latin text, which was translated from the Septuagint, rather than the Vulgate version of St Jerome. St Gregory cites this same older version above.

Therefore, dearest brethren, it behooveth us to follow in heart and mind thither, where we believe Him to have ascended bodily. Let us flee earthly desires; let nothing now delight us here below, who have a Father in heaven. And we must especially consider this, that He Who ascended in peace will return in dread, and require from us a strict account of our keeping of those commandments which He gave us in mildness. Let no man therefore reckon lightly these seasons of repentance, let no one fail to take care of himself while he can, for our Redeemer will come unto judgment all the more strictly, as He hath shown us great patience before the judgment.

The Ascension of Christ, by Jacopo Tintoretto

Practical Steps for Transitioning from the 1962 to the Pre-1955 Roman Rite—Part 1: Introduction

The author of this series wishes to remain anonymous. He is an experienced master of ceremonies and chanter, intimately familiar with both the 1962 rubrics and the pre-1939 rubrics in ordinary parish contexts.

In the summer of 2022, almost as if to mark as well as the first anniversary of the lamentable papal motu proprio, Paul Cavendish and Peter Kwasniewski collaborated to produce and publish a much-needed summary of the changes made to the liturgy in three places:

1) the simplification of the rubrics outlined in Cum nostra hac ætate;
2) the introduction of the new rite of Holy Week in Maxima redemptionis nostræ mysteria;
3) the changes made in the reforms of 1960 and 1962, to the breviary and missal respectively.

This was followed by the publication of Dr. Kwasniewski’s The Once and Future Roman Rite, where he articulates a fundamental position on the inherently traditional and continuous nature of apostolic liturgy, critiques twentieth-century ruptures, and advocates total restoration of the Roman Rite. Dr. Kwasniewski formally plots the way forward with a final chapter on the pre-1955 liturgy, which deserves our thanks and consideration.

A green Sunday at the ICRSP seminary; these Sundays are perhaps the days outside of Holy Week where the 1955 and 1960 rubrics have the most impact for an ordinary parishioner in the pews.

Before proceeding, I should note that this essay takes for granted a reader’s knowledge of, or willingness to learn about the differences in the rubrics. This page is a good place to start.

I have a particular knowledge of the office, above all those which would be more routinely prayed in parishes, Vespers and Compline but also Lauds and the minor hours, as I have prayed the 1962 office with some regularity for nine years, and in private, I prayed a combination of Divino Afflatu, Tridentine Compline and festal offices, and a pre-1962 office with the 1962 precedence (Sunday Vespers, with semidoubled antiphons and all but the highest feasts reduced to commemorations); now my circumstances permit me to always use Divino Afflatu, so I do. [*Note]

It is also worth noting in passing that I have only rarely assisted at a Mass with no interpolations whatsoever from a previous edition of the missal; in my experience, a Mass exactly according to 1962 will be celebrated only by American diocesan priests ordained after 2007. I first discovered the traditional Mass via the FSSP, known for preserving the “extra” Confiteor before communion; then in the diocesan parish of my adolescence, the priest bowed to the cross as required. The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, with which I am most familiar, is famous for “1962 in the hands of Frenchmen” and thus making popular a yet more traditional version of the “rite of Écône,” as described by the Rad Trad. In France, even priests who make their bows exclusively to the book are still incensed after the Gospel at sung Mass — J. B. O’Connell could not be clearer in indicating that this is abolished in the 1962 rubrics — and there is virtually always a Confiteor before the distribution of communion.

Altar cloths being put out on the altar on Good Friday as per the pre-1955 rubrics.

Also, this essay would not necessarily have been welcomed three or four years ago when it was easier to make changes, yet now many priests will feel pressure to toe the 1962 line lest they lose the right even to use that missal, even though, by the same token, now is a favorable time to act. I share their grief and distress, but I hope that they and the members of the flock assisting, such as masters of ceremonies or choirmasters, will read this with ideas for the future, if not for their own strictly private usage away from cameras and the internet, no matter what choice they make in the parishes.

It is somewhat trivial to explain why the Roman rite as it existed in 1954 is the point to which one should return: all of the essential practices are there, albeit with the weekly psalter rearranged by order of Saint Pius X, the antiphons created to accompany this new psalter, and even the new Mass for the feast and octave day of the Assumption instituted by Pope Pius XII. But explaining the extent of the damage even of the 1940s and 1950s is a thirty-minute conversation, without taking into account questions from your inquirer. A priest of my acquaintance who belongs to a traditional community explained it thus to a group of young people: “I don’t really know the details of the changes.” “We pray the 1962 breviary because we’re told to do so.” These are both reasonable answers given the demands of his apostolic activity and his state in life.

For the curious or daring person with some free time, one could prudently pray according to the 1910 office, then 1911/1954, and finally 1955/1960, in order to see what’s up, though looking at a hand missal from the 1940s will be the best most of us can do to see what happened to the Mass in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Precocious laymen might suggest that groups such as the FSSP and especially the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest have failed by sticking to 1962 entirely or by following certain things (e.g., the pre-55 Holy Week, the proper doxology of the hymn at Compline, some of the pre-1962 rubrics of the Mass) while following the 1962 calendar and rubrics in everything else.

On the other hand, their priests are subject not only to the bishop but to their superiors, and these parishes would attract people who know the difference. On the other hand, a diocesan bishop probably does not know the difference off the top of his head, and while his priests would have more freedom to act, they do not necessarily have the time to do the research and to transition the TLM community towards a more traditional observance.

Or do they? Can this be done? I believe this is possible, with careful planning and consideration both of the higher-level stakes (Rome, the bishop…) and of lower-level ones (the needs of the faithful).

In a parish well-known to this author, the pastor arrived and continued to follow the 1962 calendar (especially the precedence of Sundays over virtually all feasts), although the prayers of the foot of the altar and Last Gospel were always recited. Vespers strictly followed the 1962 rubrics, with the commemorations made according to the same.

Slowly but surely, suppressed feasts, like those of the first week in May (suppressed in 1960 as duplicates), came back along with vigils, like that of All Saints said the day before the feast. The Credo was restored to the feasts which previously required it before 1955 and 1960. Holy Week and the Pentecost vigil came back immediately; there is simply no reason to stick with the reformed versions (especially that of Pius XII, but also the version of Paul VI) if you really believe that it is worth reviving the traditional form of the Roman Rite. The priest introduced proper Last Gospels said on Sundays where the feast impedes a Sunday Mass or on certain other occasions required by the rubrics, then seasonal commemorations at Mass (that is, the prayers said after the main oration), and those of feasts; one of the genius aspects of the reforms of Pius X is this legal fiction elevating Sundays over most, but not all, feasts. Finally, the suffrages (the antiphon, versicle, and collect said per the rubrics: one is of “All Saints” sung most of the year; the other said in Paschal Time is “of the Cross”), then sanctoral commemorations (most all of the saints on Saturday evening and on Sunday are just dropped under 1962), and now semidoubled antiphons (intoned to the asterisk, followed by the psalm, then sung in full after the psalm) along with the precedence of the Divino Afflatu rubrics have been restored at Vespers.

So that’s what happened in this parish: a pretty full restoration of the Roman Rite. How, then, does one get there?

In the next three parts, we will look at the Mass, the Office, and the question of Posture. I shall refrain from a detailed treatment of the pontifical ceremonies, since that depends on acquiring a suitable pontifical and a willing bishop (already difficult enough), and the scope is simply too grand for such a series.

Such a transition can sometimes be confusing, as much as for the priest as for the faithful, and one would do well to briefly instruct from the pulpit and in the bulletin or at other appropriate times, such as on Saturday mornings, where there is more time to consider the finer details. Priests should remember a few things: one, that while one must be “all things to all men,” one should never act as if the audience is unintelligent and cannot, through some work, come to learn and appreciate these details according to their capacities.

Note

By the way, the translated general rubrics of the 1920 missal are also available in a beautifully-prepared PDF, though the rubrics to the office appear to be lacking; one gets very far, but only so, with a copy of Learning the Breviary by Fr. Hausmann, S.J. (not to be confused with Learning the New Breviary for the 1960 rubrics), since the Additiones et Variationes to the rubrics of Saint Pius V (under the form known as the Jubilee Rubrics issued in 1900), are what make the Divino Afflatu rubrics so complex.

A Sequence for the Ascension

For the ongoing feast of the Ascension, here is a sequence for it which was sung in the Uses of Sarum, York, and Hereford in England, and in those of Paris and Sens in France. (Despite its great antiquity, and its status as the capital of France, Paris was a suffragan diocese to Sens until 1622.) It is attributed, though far from certainly, to the Blessed Hermanus Contractus (Herman the Cripple), better known as the author of the great Marian antiphons Alma Redemptoris Mater and Salve, Regina. This recording is interesting for the way it alternates between a single voice and the full choir; in fact, sequences were most typically designed to be sung in some form of alternation like this. The Latin text with English translation, taken from Sequences from the Sarum Missal, with English Translations, by Charles Buchanan Pearson (Bell and Daldy; London, 1871. Click images to enlarge.)

Icon Painting Workshop in Crete, August 1-10th, taught by George Kordis

I will be attending this 10-day residential course this summer. It welcomes all, from absolute beginners to seasoned artists, and can be a masterclass for professionals.

Writing the Light is a program of instruction in traditional Byzantine-style iconography that offers comprehensive training through its Certificate Program, from soup to nuts. Their classes are predominantly distance-learning or online, but are supplemented by in-person intensive workshops taught by master teachers, and led by the main teacher, renowned Orthodox iconographer George Kordis. The workshops are part of the full program, but you don’t need to be enrolled in the Certificate Program to attend. Many do so for personal enrichment and enjoyment without completing the whole program. They take place in various locations: Crete, Dublin, Ireland, and several in the US. I recommend Writing the Light instruction, especially to those who want a fully integrated training program that may lead to becoming working artists, and those seeking classes for personal enrichment.

The program emphasises a welcoming approach; many Catholics are enrolled as students. To register and read more about the class, follow this link.

My wife, Margarita, who teaches at Princeton, and I are looking forward to participating in this residential workshop. We have both been invited to speak to the group, but we will also be following George’s tutoring, and painting icons along with the group. As speakers, we represent the Scala Foundation, where Margarita serves as Executive Director, and I am Artist in Residence, and Pontifex University, which offers the Master of Sacred Arts program, where I also serve as Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Sacred Arts. Writing the Light encourages all their students to complement their practical training with the online intellectual and cultural formation that the Pontifex University classes offer.

In my talk, I will emphasise the relevance of traditional Byzantine iconography to all Christians, discuss the impact that sacred art has on the wider culture, and discuss the importance today to all painters of learning traditional iconography, at the very least as a foundational discipline, regardless of what form they eventually specialize in, if we want to re-establish a Christian culture of beauty in the secular West.

Margarita will speak on the importance of artistic practice in education—both K-12 and higher education—as a formative tool not just for future artists, but for the development of every student’s capacity for perception, imagination, and creativity; and how both the making and contemplation of sacred art, such as icons, can nurture a graced imagination that informs all human activity, where beauty, virtue, moral formation, and the love of God are not separate pursuits, but work in unity.

To register and read more about the class, follow this link.

George Kordis is one of the foremost iconographers of our time. His approach, rooted in and never straying from tradition, emphasises rhythmical and flowing line as the basis of form, bringing the tradition alive for contemporary artists. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned iconographer, the course is designed to meet you where you are, guiding you through the whole painting process.

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A History of the Popes Named Leo, Part 5: The Medicis, Leo X and XI

This is the fourth installment of a series on the thirteen papal namesakes of our new Holy Father Leo XIV; click these links to read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

The tenth and eleventh Popes to bear the name Leo were both members of the Medici family, the ruling dynasty (at first de facto, later de jure) of Florence. Thanks to the family’s disastrous lack of concern for the Church’s laws about consanguineous marriage, Cardinal Alessandro de’ Medici was related to Leo X on both his father’s and his mother’s side, and took the name in honor of his relative. But since he died on the 27th day of his papacy, he is really more of a footnote to this series than anything else. He was born on this day in the year 1535, in the reign of another Medici, Clement VII, exactly 300 years before the birth of another Pope, St Pius X.

A portrait of Pope Leo X Medici, with his cousins Giulio de’ Medici, the future Pope Clement VII (born 1478, r. 1523-34), and Luigi de’ Rossi (1474-1519), both of whom he made cardinals; painted ca. 1518/20 by Raphael Sanzio, one of the artists who most benefitted from Leo’s generous patronage of the arts.

Lazy historians, and those who have been unknowingly misled by them, often use the name Medici as a kind of by-word for a general sense that during the Renaissance, the Church was extremely corrupt; and likewise, that the religiosity professed by members of the ruling classes was extremely hypocritical. It is far beyond my scope to untangle the many ways in which this is fair to say, and the many ways in which it is unfair. For those interested in learning more about the matter, I cannot recommend highly enough the relevant chapter (11) of a book I am currently reading, Inventing the Renaissance, by Dr Ada Palmer, who teaches history at the University of Chicago, and whose writing style is very engaging. Suffice it therefore to say that while Leo X’s early career is very astonishing by modern standards, it was not so by the standards of his own age; but the fact that they were the standards of the age goes a long way to explaining why the protestant revolt broke out during his pontificate, and why the Council of Trent needed to happen.

I also need to state that since he lived at the beginning of the 16th century, his papacy is far better documented than those of the Leos we have seen earlier in this series, and this article does not pretend to be anything more than a vary basic summary of his career.

He was born Giovanni de’ Medici in December of 1475, the seventh child of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his wife, a Roman noblewoman named Clarice Orsini. As a second son, he was destined from childhood for a career in the Church, which began at the age of seven, when he was tonsured and made an apostolic protonotary. The following year, he was made commendatory abbot of two different abbeys, one being the great Montecassino; when he was 13, Pope Innocent VIII (his sister Maddalena’s father-in-law) made him a cardinal, although he was not allowed to dress as one until he reached 16. He was then sent to study theology and canon law at the highly prestigious university of Pisa, but found literature far more to his liking. Among his tutors were the two of the greatest scholars of the era, Angelo Poliziano and Cardinal Bernardo Bibbiena.

The wooden paneled ceiling of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Domnica, made in the time of Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, who held the title of this church from 1489 until his election to the papacy in 1513, with the name Leo X. Each section represents a title of the Virgin Mary from an earlier form of the Litany of Loreto. (Photo by Mr Jacob Stein.)

The façade, photographed by our favorite Roman pilgrim Agnese during an evening station procession on the Second Sunday of Lent in 2014.   

Shortly after he was formally vested as a cardinal in 1492, he took possession of his title church in Rome, Santa Maria in Domnica, which he retained for 24 years, until his papal election. The building as it appears today is mostly the result of the major restorations he commissioned, which included the very beautiful paneled wood ceiling shown above. Within less than a month, his father died, and he returned to Florence, only to come back to Rome at the death of Pope Innocent in July, to participate in his first conclave.

The pope thus elected was Alexander VI, the second of the two Borgias, a name which eclipses that of the Medicis as a byword for corruption. Since Alexander was quite hostile to the family, Cardinal Giovanni deemed it best to return to Florence, but shortly after, Italy was invaded by France, and plunged into a period of extraordinary chaos. The Medici were driven out of their city, and the cardinal was forced to flee with several members of his family; he eventually returned to Rome, and stayed out of the Borgia palace intrigues, living quietly in the family palace (now the seat of the Italian senate) and keeping a court devoted to literary pursuits.

The Medici family palace in Rome, known as the Palazzo Madama; engraving by the Italian artist Giuseppe Vasi (1710-82).

The year 1503 saw the death of both his older brother, at which he became head of the family, and of Pope Alexander, after which he participated in two conclaves, since the cardinals’ first choice, Pius III, died after only 26 days. The new Pope, Julius II, was not as hostile to the Medicis as Alexander had been, but not especially friendly either, and for eight years, Cardinal Giovanni’s life continued much as it had under Alexander, until he was made the papal legate to Bologna, which was part of the Papal State.

Julius II is often referred to as “the warrior pope”, since his reign was taken up almost entirely with a vexingly complicated series of wars. The aforementioned book by Ada Palmer contains this absolute gem of sentence which sums things up as follows: “The War of the League of Cambrai is so incomprehensible (that) its Wikipedia page had to develop a new table format to index the betrayals.” Here I note only that in one of the crucial battles of this period, which took place at Ravenna on April 11, 1512, Card. Giovanni was taken prisoner by the French, who would have brought him as a hostage back to France, but he was able to escape and return to Ravenna.

The Liberation of St Peter from Prison, 1513-14, by Raphael Sanzio. This fresco is in the same room as the painting below; the choice of subject was certainly chosen as an allusion to Pope Leo X’s escape from capture after the battle at Ravenna.

Since the republic established in Florence after the fall of the Medici was allied to France, Julius II, hoping to subvert it, sent troops into Tuscany to support their restoration. This led to an appalling sack of the city of Prato, after which the terrified Florentine government allowed the family to return. Cardinal Giovanni and his younger brother Giuliano entered the city in September of 1512, hoping to reconcile the various factions tearing it apart, but republican sentiment against the Medici ran high. In the midst of a plot to assassinate the brothers, the news of Pope Julius’ death (February 1513) arrived, and Cardinal Giovanni departed for Rome to participate in his fourth and final conclave.

The Meeting of Pope St Leo I and Attila the Hun, 1514, by Raphael and students (more the latter than the former), a fresco within the rooms of Pope Julius II, now part of the Vatican Museums. The cardinal at the far left is Giovanni de’ Medici. Julius died before the artist got around to painting him as Leo I, and was then succeeded by Card. de’ Medici, who chose the papal name Leo, and was therefore painted into the image a second time, as his namesake. 

After the high intensity political drama of Julius II’s papacy, the choice of a Medici to replace him was aimed very deliberately at reconciliation. (Plus ça change...) Partly at the instance of his old friend and tutor Cardinal Bibbiena, Cardinal de’ Medici was elected on the very first day of balloting. His papal name Leo was apparently chosen in remembrance of St Leo I, on whose feast day the battle of Ravenna, and his own deliverance from capture, had taken place the previous year. He was only thirty-seven at the time; after him only one other pope, his cousin Clement VII, would ever be elected at a similarly young age. He is also the last pope who was not already a priest at the time of his election.

The hopes of the cardinals that his papacy would be one of peace and reconciliation were soon realized. Late in Julius’ papacy, a group of cardinals had rebelled against him, withdrawn to Pisa, and attempted to call an ecumenical council against him; Julius’ response was to excommunicate them all, and convoke a council of his own. (In one of the most touching displays of popular devotion to the venerable person of the Holy Father, the citizens of Pisa gathered each night outside the place where these cardinals were staying to serenade them with death-threats.) Leo pardoned them all, along with the leaders of the assassination plot in Florence, and of a would-be uprising in Rome. Later on in his papacy, a group of cardinals, including one of Julius II’s nephews, Raphael Riario, would engage in a conspiracy to poison him. The plot was exposed, and the principal leader executed. Leo would have been perfectly within his rights to execute the rest as well, but he let them off with substantial fines, and confiscated Cardinal Riario’s very large palace.

The Palazzo Riario in another engraving by Vasi; originally known as the palazzo Riario, confiscated and turned into the chancery of the Roman Curia by Leo X.  

Pope Julius did not live to see even the beginning of his counter-council, which was continued by Leo, and lasted for almost five years; this is Lateran V, one of the great and ghastly failures among the ecumenical councils, a missed opportunity to enact badly needed reforms. The eruption of the so-called Reformation just after its closure was certainly one of those signs of the times that a more recent ecumenical council said the Church should look out for, and which the Church then, as more recently, completely failed to see. But this was no more the fault of Pope Leo than of thousands of other churchmen of his era, a truth that was recognized many years later by the opening speech of the Council of Trent.

However, he looms large in any history of the Reformation, in part simply because he was the Pope, and in part because he excommunicated Martin Luther. It was also he who issued the indulgence that became the flash-point for the rebellion, which was offered in exchange for monetary contributions to the rebuilding of St Peter’s basilica, a project which had been begun, but just barely, by Julius II. His nepotism, typical for the period, furthered the ecclesiastical careers of several relatives, among them his cousin Giulio, who would become Pope Clement VII after his death and the brief reign (20 months) of Adrian VI. He also expanded the territory controlled by his family, paving the way for them to eventually take absolute control of the Florentine republic and transform it into the Duchy of Tuscany.

A sketch by the Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), made when he visited Rome in 1532-36, showing the ruins of the old St Peter’s basilica, and the beginnings of the construction of its replacement.

In other ways, Leo was actually a very successful Pope. He negotiated a new concordat to regulate relations between the Church and the kingdom of France, which remained in effect until the French revolution. This was part of a more general pacification of relations with France, which in turn brought much needed calm to the whole Italian peninsula. But the politics of the era were such that it was often necessary to change sides, (see again the quote above from Dr Palmer), and towards the end of his reign, he took the part of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V against France, also hoping that the emperor would stem the tide of the Lutheran rebellion. This hope proved vain, but Leo did not live to see its failure, since he died, suddenly and unexpectedly, on December 1, 1521, at the age of only 46.

As stated above, for my purposes, the brief pontificate of Leo XI is really more of a footnote to that of his kinsman Leo X than anything else. He was born on this very day in 1535 to a cadet branch of the Medici family, distinguished from the main line as the Medici di Ottajano. In his youth, he was tutored by a Dominican priest (the Medici family had always had a close relationship with the order), and wished to enter the clergy, but was opposed in this by his mother, since he was the only male left in his branch of the family. It is a sign of the early success of the Counter-Reformation that she evidently did not think he could just as well have gotten ordained and fathered enough illegitimate children to continue the line, as e.g., Pope Paul III had. The former Florentine republic had now been established as a proper duchy, ruled by the main branch of the family, and she duly packed him off to the court in Florence.

In 1560, he visited Rome in the company of Duke Cosimo I, and became friends with his countryman St Philip Neri. Six years later when his mother died, he resumed his studies for the priesthood, and was ordained within a year. He then served as the Florentine ambassador to Rome for some years, residing in the city with his kinsman Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. In 1573, he was appointed bishop of Pistoia, but within less a year, he was transferred to Florence, where he served as archbishop for 31 years. He was made a cardinal in 1583, and participated in a total of six conclaves. (Between September of 1590 and December of 1591, three popes in a row, Urban VII, Gregory XIV and Innocent IX, ruled for less than a year; Urban’s is the shortest papacy in history, 12 days.)

During his time as archbishop of Florence, the Carmelite nun Saint Maria-Magdalene de’ Pazzi had predicted to him that he would be elected Pope, but that his reign would be brief. This prophecy was realized in 1605; elected Pope on April 1st, he was crowned on April 10th, and died on the 27th. His papal reign is the eighth shortest in history!

The monument of Pope Leo XI in St Peter’s Basilica, by Alessandro Algardi. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Torvindus, CC BY-SA 3.0)

A Rubrical Note for the End of This Month

This year, the feast of Ss Peter and Paul falls on the Sunday after the feast of the Sacred Heart (June 27). A priest friend has put forth the question, What does one do about the external solemnity of the Sacred Heart, which would be celebrated on that day? The short answer, according to the rubrics of both the 1960 Missal and of the prior editions, is, Omit it.

The Allegory of the Holy Eucharist, 1750, by Miguel Cabrera. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) 

An “external solemnity” is not the translation of a feast. It is a pastoral provision which may be made, but is not obligatory, in cases where a reasonable number of the faithful are unable to attend a feast on the day itself. The Mass of the feast is repeated, but the Office is not changed to match it; the rubrics of the 1962 Missal (numbers 356-361) describe it as “celebratio … festi absque Officio – the celebration of the feast without the Office.” Whereas on the feast day itself, a church may celebrate as many Masses of the feast as are possible, desired, or necessary, only two may be said of the feast on its external solemnity (number 360), and only one of them may be sung.

Further, it should be noted that according to this rubric, there are only two feasts to which an external solemnity is automatically granted, those of the Sacred Heart and the Holy Rosary; the former may be repeated on the following Sunday, the latter on the first Sunday of October, whether before or after its fixed date of October 7.

An external solemnity is classified as a Votive Mass of the Second class (rubr. gen. 341d), and therefore does not take precedence over a feast of the First class such as that of Ss Peter and Paul.

Other Gospels for the Ascension

The Roman Rite has various ways of arranging the Masses during an octave. That of Easter, for example, has a completely proper Mass for every day, that of Pentecost for every day but Thursday, which was originally an “aliturgical” day; when its Mass was instituted later, it was given proper readings, but everything else is repeated from Sunday. The feast of Ss Peter and Paul is continued with one Mass for the days within the octave, and another for the octave day itself, plus the special Commemoration of St Paul on June 30th. Some others, however, especially the relatively late ones like Corpus Christi and All Saints, simply repeat the Mass of the day throughout the octave.

A folio of the Echternach Sacramntary, 895 AD, with the last two prayers of the Mass of St Paul, those of Ss Processus and Martinian on July 2, and the first two prayers of the octave of Ss Peter and Paul.

The feast of the Ascension falls into the latter category, although the Mass of the Sunday within the octave, which is older than the octave itself, is different. Octaves are for the contemplation of mysteries that are too great for a single day, and it is certainly true that “repetita juvant”, a proverb which the Roman Rite, with its habitual conservatism, historically took very much to heart. One might argue, however, that there was some room for expanding the repertoire of readings within this octave in particular, in a way that would have been fully consonant with the tradition of the Rite, and expanded the scope of such contemplation.

The very oldest lectionary of the Roman Rite, the Comes (the Latin word for “companion”) of Wurzburg, attests to the Roman system of readings as it was in the middle of the 7th century. (The manuscript itself was copied out in roughly 700-750.) Although there are some notable differences, it is unmistakably the same system as that of the Missal of St Pius V. Its Gospels for the Easter season are almost entirely the same, while those of the second oldest Comes, that of Murbach, are exactly the same. Both of them also attest to a feature which was not included in the late medieval Missal of the Roman Curia, the immediate predecessor of that of St Pius V, namely, a series of ferial readings for the Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year. In Wurzburg, this feature is very irregular; some weeks have readings for both days, some have one for Saturday as well, but others them have only for one day, and others have none. In Murbach, which is from roughly a century later, it has been completely regularized, and every Wednesday and Friday has readings assigned to it.

On the Wednesday after the Ascension, the Gospel is the very end of St Luke, chapter 24, 49-53. (Ss Matthew and John do not describe the Ascension, although Christ Himself refers to it in John 20, 17, in the words that form the antiphon for the Benedictus, “I go up to my Father and yours, my God and yours, alleluia.”) The Roman Rite tends to choose shorter passages than both the Ambrosian and Byzantine Rites, which have a longer selection from this passage, verses 36-53 (everything after the Supper at Emmaus), as the main Gospel of the feast; the Byzantines read the Roman Gospel at Orthros. In the Neo-Gallican Use of Paris, which expanded the Roman corpus of Scriptural readings considerably, while keeping to the traditional structure of the lectionary, verses 44-53 were assigned to the octave day of the Ascension.

Another passage which is connected to the feast is one of the most beautiful in St John’s Gospel, chapter 17, which Biblical scholars now often call the “priestly prayer.” On the vigil of the Ascension, the Missal of St Pius V has only the first 10½ verses, breaking off at vs. 11 “… and I come to thee.” The rest of the chapter is not read in either the temporal or sanctoral cycles, but verses 11-23 are the Gospel of the Votive Mass to remove a schism. In the Murbach lectionary, the rest of passage is read on the Wednesday following the Fourth Sunday after Easter; on the Sunday after the Ascension, the Ambrosian Rite reads the full chapter, while the Byzantine reads the first 13 verses. The revised Parisian Use kept the traditional Roman Gospel for the vigil, then very cleverly divided the rest into two parts. Verses 11b-19, in which Christ prays for the Apostles, is read on the Friday within the octave of the Ascension; the rest of the chapter, in which He prays “also for those who shall believe in Me though their word”, is assigned to Tuesday.

Two leaves of the Parisian Missal of 1736, with part of the propers for the Mass for the Friday after the octave of the Ascension, and the beginning of the vigil of Pentecost.

The Parisian Use is in many respects inspired by tradition, as in the examples given above, but did not shy away from innovations, which vary in quality. One of its better innovations, which has no precedent in the ancient Roman lectionaries, is the Gospel chosen for the Friday between the Octave of the Ascension and the vigil of Pentecost, which is traditionally celebrated as a kind of extension of the octave. (The Roman Missal repeats the Gospel of the Sunday). The liturgy of the Ascension often looks forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; an example is the responsory “If I do not go, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, will not come.” With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles will go out in the world to preach the Gospel, for which they, and many others after them, will receive the crown of martyrdom. The Parisian Use therefore moves away from St John, who dominates the Easter season, and takes this passage from St Luke, 12, 8-12, which looks forward to the ongoing witness to the life and teachings of Christ in the mission of His Church.

“At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. But he that shall deny me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but to him that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they shall bring you into the synagogues, and to magistrates and powers, be not solicitous how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say; For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you must say.”