For those in the Chicago area, I will be giving a lecture on “Liturgical Chant: Wellspring, Model, and Heart of All Sacred Music” at St Mary Byzantine Catholic Church, in Whiting, Indiana, on Saturday, November 3. The church is located at 2011 Clark Street; Byzantine Vespers will be sung at 5 p.m., with the lecture immediately after. All are welcome.
On November 4, the Catholic Art Guild will host its second annual conference with leading artists, architects, and theologians, to rediscover the power of beauty in the modern world.
The one-day conference, entitled "Formed in Beauty," will feature Alexander Stoddart, Sculptor in Ordinary for Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland; Ethan Anthony, principal architect for Cram & Ferguson; Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Thomistic theologian, liturgical scholar, and choral composer; and Juliette Aristides, Classical Realist Artist, Author & Founder of Aristides Atelier.
The conference will open with an orchestral Latin Mass in the baroque splendor of Chicago’s historic St. John Cantius Church, with the Canons Regular who are well known for bringing beauty into worship. Conference presentations and discussions will take place at The Drake Hotel, followed by an elegant banquet and culminating in a stimulating panel discussion.
Ticket sales help us to cover the cost of putting this and future events together for the Art Guild. We are extremely grateful for your support and hope you will join us for this amazing event!
NB: Early-bird ticket special ends September 1, and those traveling from out of town should book hotel rooms ASAP so as to avail themselves of the special rate that ends a month before the event. Participants may also wish to consider coming in early for the annual Mozart Requiem on All Souls' Day at St. John Cantius.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 4th 2018
The Drake Hotel & St. John Cantius Church
Conference Agenda
11:00 am Choral High Mass St. John Cantius Church
12:30 pm Bus departs to Drake Hotel
1:00 pm Drake Hotel, Grand Ballroom: Registration
1:15-2:00 Lunch Buffet, Drake Hotel, Grand Ballroom
2:00-2:45 Speaker: Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Catholic Artist
2:45-3:00 Break
3:00-3:45 Speaker: Juliette Aristides, Classical Realist Artist, Author & Atelier
3:45-4:00 Break
4:00-4:45 Speaker: Ethan Anthony, Principal Architect, Cram & Ferguson
4:45-5:00 Break
5:00-6:00 Keynote Address: Alexander Stoddart, Sculptor
6:00-6:30 VIP Wine & Cheese Reception for Ticket Holders
6:30-7:30 Dinner in the Gold Coast Room
7:30-8:30 Q&A and Panel Discussion
8:30-9:00 Social Time
For more information about purchasing tickets, dinner, room reservations, and FAQs, please visit this link, or go directly to ticket sales (which repeats much of the same information).
A reader asked me to publicize a one-day event coming up this Saturday, which looks like a great opportunity for Catholics, especially clergy, who wish to learn more about beautiful church design and how it relates to the nature and needs of the liturgy. The event is co-sponsored by the Catholic Art Guild and the Liturgical Institute. To register, visit here. Wednesday evening (4/11) is the cut-off for registrations.
Church Architecture Study Day: From the Sacrament to the Mysteries
Join Dr. Denis McNamara for a one day immersion of church architecture from a Catholic perspective.
9:30 Registration, Coffee, etc
10:00 Session I: Biblical Foundations of Church Architecture: The Temple, the Synagogue and the Mystical Body
11:00 Break
11:15 Session II: Classical Architecture: The Sacramental Meaning of Ornament, Decoration and the Column
12:15 Break and Questions
12:45 Lunch (included in the cost of the program)
1:45 Session III: The Objective View of Beauty: Learning from Thomas Aquinas
2:45 Break
3:00 Session IV: What the Church Intended: The Twentieth Century to Today
4:00 Questions
4:15 Adjourn
The cost of the program includes a lunch buffet of sandwiches, salad, coffee and dessert. Clergy and seminarians attend for free. Lunch orders will take place 48 hours prior to the event.
Please email info@CatholicArtGuild.org with any questions; visit here to register.
There have been celebrations at St John Cantius, Chicago on the 13th of every month since last May to celebrate the centenary of the Fatima apparitions. This Friday, October 13th, over 3000 attended the final event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 'Miracle of the Sun'. Bishop Joseph Perry celebrated Pontifical High Mass which was attended by a large number of the faithful, including many religious and clergy, as well as a large group of seminarians from Mundelein Seminary. Father Rocky Hoffman, Executive Director of Relevant Radio preached the sermon. Following Pontifical Mass, there was a candlelight ceremony to crown the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on the steps of the church. The statue was carried by members of the Chicago Police Department. More photos here.
Thousands came out to pray in a historic procession with Our Lady of Fatima Saturday for an end to violence in Chicago, following the Virgin Mary's request to pray for conversion of sinners and peace.
During the candlelight procession, which took place on the 100th anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima, Portugal, an estimated 2,000 people came to St. John Cantius Parish in Chicago, to take part in the first of six processions to be held on the anniversary of each of the apparitions. The procession was one mile long and concluded with benediction at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
The monthly events will culminate with a Solemn Pontifical High Mass celebrated by the Most Rev. Joseph N. Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago on Friday. October 13, the 100th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun.
Chicago’s Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica will host its first Traditional Latin Mass in over 40 years at 3:00 pm on Friday, December 30. The Mass will be part of the annual Christmas week bus tour of historic Chicago churches organized by Prayer Pilgrimages, featured in Extraordinary Faith Episode 4, along with another High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St Mary of the Angels Parish at 12:30 PM on Thursday, December 29. Everyone is invited to both Masses; you do not need to be part of the bus tour.
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica is well-known for being the site of the film narrated by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, The Immemorial Tridentine Mass.
People who read NLM and therefore take a keen interest in the use and abuse of the sacred liturgy are probably aware that the concept of the Eucharistic Congress, while noble and excellent in itself, has fallen in recent decades on very hard times. I won't go through the horror stories (there's enough bad news already), but anyone with a strong stomach can find photos and videos for themselves, which exhibit all the progressive liturgists' worst tendencies, so frequently and justly skewered by the theological pen of Joseph Ratzinger. Whether it be dancing or balloons, ridiculous vestments or happy-clappy music, space-age arena sanctuaries or brutherly luv, it's all there. The only thing lacking is . . . well, an appropriately reverent and beautiful celebration of that most profound mystery of the faith, the Most Holy Eucharist, the true Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Sacrifice by which He works out our salvation.
But it wasn't always this way -- far from it. Not long ago I had the opportunity to linger lovingly over a splendid book produced in commemoration of the 1926 Eucharistic Congress in Chicago, which was in so many ways a land of thick Catholicism, before the postconciliar collapse. This volume had such treasures, both historical and liturgical, that I wished to share photos of it with the readership. It's also just a marvelous example of publishing, back when ecclesiastical publishers knew what a "commemorative volume" of this sort should look like. One of the things I find most striking is the extravagant welcome extended to the papal legate, who was honored, feasted, coddled, and exalted much more than even a pope is today when he visits the USA. These pictures speak a thousand words about the massive post-1960s collapse of societal dignity, formal respect, and veneration for religious authority. Plus, things like the Gregorian Children's Choir of 62,000 (I'm not kidding) point up the absurdity of saying that the Church "was in desperate need of renewal." In one sense, she always does; but never more so than after the Council that was called for that purpose.
For me, the most remarkable thing of all is the outdoor Mass. A noble baldachin modeled after that of St. Paul's-Outside-the Walls in Rome was constructed for the occasion, and a massive pipe organ was installed. While one may reasonably question (as did Ratzinger) the trend towards ever-larger outdoor liturgical events, it seems to me that the Chicago Congress proved that it could be carried out well -- something we have rarely seen at World Youth Days.
One of many "chapel train cars" that traveled around the USA bringing the Mass to Catholics in remote places
