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.

The Parisian Mass for the Octave of Corpus Christi

Some of the oldest Roman octaves, such as those of Ss Peter and Paul and St Lawrence, have a Mass on the octave day itself which is different or partly different from that of the main feast; Peter and Paul also have another Mass for the days within the octave. However, by the time the feast of Corpus Christi was promulgated in the mid-13th century, this custom was no longer being developed for new celebrations, and the Mass of the feast was simply repeated though the octave. As I noted recently, the neo-Gallican Parisian Missal of 1738 added a proper Epistle and Gospel for each day within the octave of Corpus Christi, a development which by the standards of its time was certainly an innovation, but one in keeping with tradition. This Missal also contains a special Mass for the octave day, which is for the most part quite well composed from a literary point of view.

The Mass of the Octave of Corpus Christi, from the 1738 Parisian Missal

The introit is taken from the book of the Prophet Malachi (1, 11), a text which was already understood to be a reference to the Eucharistic sacrifice by St Justin Martyr in the mid-2nd century.

Introitus Ab ortu solis usque ad occasum, magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificatur et offertur nomini meo oblatio munda, quia magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, dicit Dominus exercituum. Ps. 49 Deus deorum Dominus locutus est, et vocavit terram a solis ortu usque ad occasum. Gloria Patri. Ab ortu solis.

Introit From the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. Ps. 49 The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken: and he hath called the earth from the rising of the sun, to the going down thereof. Glory be. From the rising.

The Collect is taken from an ancient Sacramentary of the Gallican Rite.

Oratio Deus, qui magno misericordiae tuae munere, docuisti nos redemptionis nostrae sacrificium celebrare, sicut óbtulit Póntifex noster Jesus Chrifius in terris: da nobis, quaesumus, ut sanctifìcati per oblatiónem Córporis et Sanguinis ejus, cum ipso mereamur in sempiternum consummari; Qui tecum.

Prayer God, who by the great gift of Thy mercy, taught us to celebrate the sacrifice of our redemption, as our priest Jesus Christ offered (it) upon the earth: grant us, we ask, that sanctified by the offering of His Body and Blood, we may merit to be perfected for ever with Him who liveth and reigneth...

The neo-Gallican revisers were very fond of creating themes in the liturgy, and this Mass is no exception. The Epistle, Hebrews 7, 18-28, continues the thought of the Introit and Collect on the universal priestly offering of Christ. This passage is perhaps also chosen for Corpus Christi as a deliberate rebuke or challenge to the Calvinists, who often cited the words of verse 27, “Who needeth not daily (as the other priests) to offer sacrifices first for his own sins, and then for the people’s, for this He did once, in offering Himself”, against the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Gradual joins the line of Psalm 109 quoted above by St Paul with the figure of Melchisedech, whose appearance in the book of Genesis (14, 17-20) is read as the Epistle on Friday within the Octave.

Graduale Melchisedech rex Salem, protulit panem et vinum, erat enim sacerdos Dei altissimi. V. Juravit Dominus, et non poenitebit eum: Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.

Graduale Melchisedech, the king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God. V. The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

The Offerings of Abel and Melchisedech, mosaic from the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, 526-547 AD. (Image from Wikipedia by Roger Culos - CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Alleluia is also taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews (9, 26), after which St Thomas’ Sequence Lauda, Sion is said as on the feast day.

Alleluia, alleluia. Christus in consummatione saeculorum, ad destitutionem peccati, per hostiam suam apparuit, alleluia. – Alleluia, alleluia. Christ at the end of ages hath appeared for the destruction of sin, by the sacrifice of Himself, alleluia.

The Gospel, John 6, 58-70, is the fourth of a series of readings chosen to give a broader selection from the Eucharistic discourse of that chapter than the four verses (56-59) originally provided by St Thomas’ version of the Mass. (Monday, verses 27-35; Tuesday, 41-44; Wednesday, 51-55.) The neo-Gallican revisers, like most “right-thinking” liturgists, were painfully obsessed with making the liturgy more Scriptural and more didactic; the results of their tinkering are often comically inept, as for example, in the damage which they did to St Thomas’ Office of Corpus Christi. Here, however, they have shown a commendable respect for the original tradition, while at the same time building from it, an example which the modern revisers of the lectionary might profitably have heeded.

The Offertory is taken from the First Epistle of St Peter, 2, 4-5.

Offertorium Ad Christum accedentes lapidem vivum, et ipsi tamquam lapides vivi superaedificamini, domus spiritualis, sacerdotium sanctum, offerre spirituales hostias, acceptabiles Deo per Jesum Christum, alleluia.

Offertory Coming unto Christ, as to a living stone, be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, alleluia.

The first part of the Secret (up to the asterisk) is taken from a very ancient prayer found in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries; in the latter, as in the Missal of St Pius V, it is assigned to the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. (The Latin version of this prayer, moved to the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, somehow managed to survive the Consilium intact; the 1973 ICEL version of it was one of the old translation’s most grotesque failures, as Fr Zuhlsdorf noted here in this very useful commentary.) The second part was composed specifically for this Mass.

Secreta Deus, qui legalium differentias hostiarum unius sacrificii perfectione sanxisti: accipe sacrificium a devotis tibi famulis; et pari benedictione, sicut munera Abel, sanctifica; ut * Christo sacerdoti et victimae per fidem adunati, nosmetipsos tibi hostiam viventem, sanctam, et beneplacentem exhibere valeamus. Per eundem...

Secret O God, who by the perfection of the one sacrifice didst ratified variety of offerings prescribed by the Law; receive (this) sacrifice from the servants devoted to Thee, and sanctify it by a blessing (as Thou did with) the gifts of Abel; so that * we, united by faith to Christ, who is priest and victim, may be able to offer to Thee ourselves, as a living, holy and well-pleasing sacrifice. Through the same...

The Secret “Deus qui legalium” in the Echternach Sacramentary, 895AD. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9433) In the Gelasian Sacramentary, it appears in the third of sixteen Masses under the heading “for Sundays”, without further qualification. Later sacramentaries would reorganize the material in the Gelasian in broadly similar, but not identical ways; in the Echternach, it is assigned to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, rather than the Seventh.

The Communion antiphon is taken from 1 Corinthians 11, 24-25, an unusual (for neo-Gallicans) example of a partial and inexact quotation.

Communio Hoc corpus quod pro vobis tradetur: hic calix novi testamenti еst in meo sanguine, dicit Dóminus: hoc facite, quotiescumque sumitis, in meam commemoratiónem.

Communion This (is the) body, which shall be delivered for you: this chalice is the new testament in my blood: do ye this, as often as you shall receive it, for the commemoration of me.

The Postcommunion is a new composition, which cites the idea of the Communion antiphon, again keeping to a theme.

Postcommunio Domine Jesu Christe, qui corpus et sanguinem tuum esse voluisti humanae salutis pretium, Ecclesiae tuae sacrificium, et nostrae infirmitatis alimentum; praesta, quaesumus, ut haec sancta, quae in tui commemorationem nos súmere praecepisti, sempiternam nobis redemptiónem operentur. Qui vivis.

Postcommunio Lord Jesus Christ, who willed that Thy Body and Blood be the price of man’s salvation, Thy Church’s sacrifice, and the nourishment of our weakness; grant, we ask, that these holy things, which Thou didst command us to receive in commemoration of Thee, may effect for us everlasting redemption. Who livest.

The Octave of All Saints 2023

From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the conclusion of the sermon for the seventh day in the Octave of All Saints.

Into these joys of the heavenly fatherland shall enter all the confessors, and the rest of the company of the faithful of either sex, those who, turning aside from the temptations and enticements of the flesh, have kept the purity of the Faith with unshaken discipline of the heavenly precepts, united to peace; or else, being once sunk by the evils of the vices, have been led by penance through the remedy of the sacraments, and so emerged from the pit of death.

The Trinity Adored by All the Saints; Spanish, ca. 1400. Retable from the Royal Monastery of Valldecrist, a Carthusian house founded by King Martin I of Aragon in 1385. The Saints on the left and right sides are arranged in their traditional ranks: from top to bottom, Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins and Holy Women. (From the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City)

Therefore, with all the strength of our faith let us unite ourselves to the memory of such great heavenly patrons, which we have now examined so often in these holy readings, that we may strive to imitate the holy and praiseworthy conduct of those whose glory we extol with frequent praise. For, whom the merit of the Saints delight, service in the worship of God must also delight in equal measure. … In our lives, let us also, according to our ability and station in life, follow all the Saints whom we accompany in solemn veneration; that we may be lifted up before the merciful Lord by the protection of those in whose praises we delight.

The Legend of Simon Magus

Until the year 1881 [note], July 5th was celebrated on the general celendar of the Roman Rite as a day within the very ancient octave of Ss Peter and Paul. The breviary lessons for the second nocturn are taken from a sermon of St Maximus of Turin, a Church Father of the late 4th and early 5th, of whom very little is known. This sermon recounts a famous legend concerning the death of the Apostles as follows.

The Fall of Simon Magus, by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1461-62

“On this day, then, the blessed Apostles shed their blood; but let us look to the cause for which they suffered, namely, that among other miracles, they also by their prayers brought down the famous magician Simon in a headlong fall from the empty air. For when this Simon said that he was Christ, and claimed that as the Son he could ascend to the Father by flying, and, having been lifted up by his magical arts, had at once begun to fly; then Peter knelt down and prayed the Lord, and by his holy prayer, overcome the magician’s flight. For his prayer ascended to the Lord before the flight did, and his just petition came there before (Simon’s) wicked presumption did; Peter, being set upon the earth, obtained what he asked for before Simon could come to the heavens whither he was headed. Then did Peter set him down like a prisoner from the lofty heights, and dashing him down with a steep fall onto a stone, broke his legs; and this, as a reproach of what he had done, so that he who had just tried to fly could suddenly no longer walk, and he that had taken on wings lost the use of his feet.” (Sermo 72 de natali Ss Apostolorum Petri et Pauli)

Church Fathers even earlier than St Maximus, such as St Justin Martyr and Arnobius, knew of the tradition that Simon Magus, who sought to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from St Peter (Acts 8), was in Rome at the same time as the Eternal City’s founding Apostles. The apocryphal Acts of St Peter tell the story that Simon sought to win the Emperor Nero to his teachings, which he would prove to be true by flying off a tower built in the Forum specifically for this purpose. As he was lifted up into the air by the agency of demons, Peter and Paul knelt on the street and prayed to God, whereon Simon was dropped, and soon after died of his injuries.

In the unintentionally hilarious 1954 historical epic The Silver Chalice, Simon Magus is played by the great Jack Palance, wearing what is perhaps the very worst super-hero costume ever made. (Palance, by the way, was born Volodymyr Palahniuk, to a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic father and Polish mother, in Pennsylvania mining country. This movie saw the debut of another world-famous actor, Paul Newman, whose performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination; despite this, Newman himself once called it “the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s.”)

The legend goes on to say that the enraged Nero arrested Peter and Paul and threw them into the Mamertine prison before their execution. There they converted the two wardens, Processus and Martinian, in whose acts it is told that St Peter caused a well to spring up from the ground so that he could baptize them. The site has been venerated as the place of the Apostles’ imprisonment for many centuries, and pilgrims can still visit it to this day; a plaque near the door lists the famous Roman prisoners, such as King Jugurtha of Numidia, who were killed there, the Saints who suffered and died within its walls, and the later Saints who have come to venerate the site.

On the opposite end of the Via Sacra, the principal street of the Roman Forum, Pope St Paul I (757-67) built an oratory dedicated to Peter and Paul, nicknamed ‘ubi cecidit magus – where the magician fell.’ This oratory contained as its principal relic the stone upon which St Peter knelt to pray for the defeat of Simon Magus and the vindication of the Christian faith. It was later demolished, but the stone itself is preserved in the nearby church of Santa Maria Nuova.

Photo by JP Sonnen. The Italian inscription above says “On these rocks St Peter set his knees when the demons carried Simon Magus through the air.”

[note] In October of 1880, Pope Leo XIII added the feast of Ss Cyril and Methodius to the general calendar, and assigned their feast to July 5th. The day within the octave of the Apostles was chosen to express the hope for the reunion of the Orthodox Slavs, originally evangelized by Cyril and Methodius, with the See of Peter; this is also stated in the proper hymns of their Office, which were composed by the Pope himself. Their feast was celebrated on this day from 1881 to 1899. At the end of 1899, the feast of St Anthony Maria Zaccaria, founder of the Clerks Regular of St Paul (also known as the Barnabites, from the titular Saint of their mother church in Milan) was extended to the universal calendar, and placed on July 5th, the day of his death in 1539; Ss Cyril and Methodius were then moved to the 7th. In the post-Conciliar calendar, they were moved again, to the day of Cyril’s death, February 14th.

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.

The Alleluia of Christmas Day, the Protomartyr, and the Beloved Disciple

I always feel that the feast of the Beloved Disciple, the Eagle Evangelist, the Divine, the Theologian, the Seer of Patmos, ought to receive much more attention than it does. Part of the reason for that feeling might be personal: my wife and I chose this feastday for our nuptial High Mass twenty-three years ago. But it also has to do with my study of St. John’s Gospel and St. Thomas Aquinas’s commentary thereupon, which is his most profound biblical work; it has to do with my brushing up against St. John nearly every day in the form of the Prologue that serves as the traditional Mass’s “epilogue.” And ever since I read Scott Hahn’s book The Supper of the Lamb, I have thought about St. John’s Book of Revelation as the template for Catholic liturgy.

As a church musician, it pains me that the feast of St. Stephen, St. John, and the Holy Innocents, indeed every day of the Christmas octave until the Circumcision, relatively rarely sees a sung Mass or a solemn Mass. Most clergy and musicians are exhausted after the liturgical (and other) excesses of Christmas, so church tends to be sparsely attended on these octave days. I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon during the octave of Easter. Even though each day of the octave has a splendid proper Mass, all of them graced with some of the most sublime chants of the entire repertoire, one will be lucky to see a motley group sprinkled in the church for low Mass. I wonder if it has been ever thus. Perhaps readers more knowledgeable of historical precedents regarding the observance of days within these two octaves could add some observations in the comments.

Fortunately, over the past three decades, I have been called upon, at one time or another, to sing Mass for most of these octave days, and thus have slowly become acquainted with their more exotic riches. Singing for the feast of St. Stephen last year, I was surprised by the challenge presented by the grand Offertory “Elegerunt Apostoli Stephanum levitam”—with its exultant flourishes on the words plenum fide and Domine Jesu, and its climbing figures on lapidaverunt and spiritum—and the equally grand Communion “Video caelos apertos.”

What really caught my attention was the fact that the same melody is used for the Alleluia on December 25th (Mass of the Day), December 26th, and December 27th, with only the words changing. In this way, the liturgy establishes a subtle but profound connection between these three feasts and their respective Gospels. The Christ-child, Word made flesh, the faithful witness, “the only man who was born to die” as Fulton Sheen once said, is accompanied in the Gospel procession by His first martyr, and by the virgin disciple who followed the Lamb whithersoever He went, even to the foot of the Cross and the empty tomb. The great light descends to the earth; the heavens are opened for the just; true testimony is borne to the Light who is the Life of men.
 

CHRISTMAS DAY

Dies sanctifícátus illúxit nobis: veníte, gentes, et adoráte Dóminum: quia hódie descéndit lux magna super terram. (A sanctified day hath shone upon us: come ye Gentiles and adore the Lord: for this day a great light hath descended upon the earth.) [The Gospel of the day is the Prologue of St. John.]

ST. STEPHEN

Video cælos apertos, et Jesum stantem a dextris virtutis Dei. (I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of the power of God.) [The Gospel of the day is from Matthew 23, Christ's prophecy of the coming persecution of His disciples, and His lament over Jerusalem.] 

ST. JOHN

Hic est discipulus ille, qui testamonium perhibet de his: et scimus, quia verum est testimonium ejus. (This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things: and we know that his testimony is true.) [The Gospel is from John 21, the curious passage where St. Peter asks Jesus about John, and receives a response that is then said to be misinterpreted as John not dying.]

A pragmatically-minded person might point out that it’s also a mercy to the singers to give them the same melody three days in a row, so that if they are going to sing all these Masses right after Christmas, some of the weight has been lifted off their shoulders. How like the tradition of the Church, to do something at once so beautiful and so practical!

Photos by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

The Parisian Mass for the Octave of Corpus Christi

Some of the oldest Roman octaves, such as those of Ss Peter and Paul and St Lawrence, have a Mass on the octave day itself which is different or partly different from that of the main feast; Peter and Paul also have another Mass for the days within the octave. However, by the time the feast of Corpus Christi was promulgated in the mid-13th century, this custom was no longer being developed for new celebrations, and the Mass of the feast was simply repeated though the octave. As I noted recently, the neo-Gallican Parisian Missal of 1738 added a proper Epistle and Gospel for each day within the octave of Corpus Christi, a development which by the standards of its time was certainly an innovation, but one in keeping with tradition. This Missal also contains a special Mass for the octave day, which is for the most part quite well composed from a literary point of view.

The Mass of the Octave of Corpus Christi, from the 1738 Parisian Missal

The introit is taken from the book of the Prophet Malachi (1, 11), a text which was already understood to be a reference to the Eucharistic sacrifice by St Justin Martyr in the mid-2nd century.

Introitus Ab ortu solis usque ad occasum, magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificatur et offertur nomini meo oblatio munda, quia magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, dicit Dominus exercituum. Ps. 49 Deus deorum Dominus locutus est, et vocavit terram a solis ortu usque ad occasum. Gloria Patri. Ab ortu solis.

Introit From the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. Ps. 49 The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken: and he hath called the earth from the rising of the sun, to the going down thereof. Glory be. From the rising.

The Collect is taken from an ancient Sacramentary of the Gallican Rite.

Oratio Deus, qui magno misericordiae tuae munere, docuisti nos redemptionis nostrae sacrificium celebrare, sicut óbtulit Póntifex noster Jesus Chrifius in terris: da nobis, quaesumus, ut sanctifìcati per oblatiónem Córporis et Sanguinis ejus, cum ipso mereamur in sempiternum consummari; Qui tecum.

Prayer God, who by the great gift of Thy mercy, taught us to celebrate the sacrifice of our redemption, as our priest Jesus Christ offered (it) upon the earth: grant us, we ask, that sanctified by the offering of His Body and Blood, we may merit to be perfected for ever with Him who liveth and reigneth...

The neo-Gallican revisers were very fond of creating themes in the liturgy, and this Mass is no exception. The Epistle, Hebrews 7, 18-28, continues the thought of the Introit and Collect on the universal priestly offering of Christ. This passage is perhaps also chosen for Corpus Christi as a deliberate rebuke or challenge to the Calvinists, who often cited the words of verse 27, “Who needeth not daily (as the other priests) to offer sacrifices first for his own sins, and then for the people’s, for this He did once, in offering Himself”, against the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Gradual joins the line of Psalm 109 quoted above by St Paul with the figure of Melchisedech, whose appearance in the book of Genesis (14, 17-20) is read as the Epistle on Friday within the Octave.

Graduale Melchisedech rex Salem, protulit panem et vinum, erat enim sacerdos Dei altissimi. V. Juravit Dominus, et non poenitebit eum: Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.

Graduale Melchisedech, the king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God. V. The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

The Offerings of Abel and Melchisedech, mosaic from the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, 526-547 AD. (Image from Wikipedia by Roger Culos - CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Alleluia is also taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews (9, 26), after which St Thomas’ Sequence Lauda, Sion is said as on the feast day.

Alleluia, alleluia. Christus in consummatione saeculorum, ad destitutionem peccati, per hostiam suam apparuit, alleluia. – Alleluia, alleluia. Christ at the end of ages hath appeared for the destruction of sin, by the sacrifice of Himself, alleluia.

The Gospel, John 6, 58-70, is the fourth of a series of readings chosen to give a broader selection from the Eucharistic discourse of that chapter than the four verses (56-59) originally provided by St Thomas’ version of the Mass. (Monday, verses 27-35; Tuesday, 41-44; Wednesday, 51-55.) The neo-Gallican revisers, like most “right-thinking” liturgists, were painfully obsessed with making the liturgy more Scriptural and more didactic; the results of their tinkering are often comically inept, as for example, in the damage which they did to St Thomas’ Office of Corpus Christi. Here, however, they have shown a commendable respect for the original tradition, while at the same time building from it, an example which the modern revisers of the lectionary might profitably have heeded.

The Offertory is taken from the First Epistle of St Peter, 2, 4-5.

Offertorium Ad Christum accedentes lapidem vivum, et ipsi tamquam lapides vivi superaedificamini, domus spiritualis, sacerdotium sanctum, offerre spirituales hostias, acceptabiles Deo per Jesum Christum, alleluia.

Offertory Coming unto Christ, as to a living stone, be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, alleluia.

The first part of the Secret (up to the asterisk) is taken from a very ancient prayer found in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries; in the latter, as in the Missal of St Pius V, it is assigned to the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. (The Latin version of this prayer, moved to the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, somehow managed to survive the Consilium intact; the 1973 ICEL version of it was one of the old translation’s most grotesque failures, as Fr Zuhlsdorf noted here in this very useful commentary.) The second part was composed specifically for this Mass.

Secreta Deus, qui legalium differentias hostiarum unius sacrificii perfectione sanxisti: accipe sacrificium a devotis tibi famulis; et pari benedictione, sicut munera Abel, sanctifica; ut * Christo sacerdoti et victimae per fidem adunati, nosmetipsos tibi hostiam viventem, sanctam, et beneplacentem exhibere valeamus. Per eundem...

Secret O God, who by the perfection of the one sacrifice didst ratified variety of offerings prescribed by the Law; receive (this) sacrifice from the servants devoted to Thee, and sanctify it by a blessing (as Thou did with) the gifts of Abel; so that * we, united by faith to Christ, who is priest and victim, may be able to offer to Thee ourselves, as a living, holy and well-pleasing sacrifice. Through the same...

The Secret “Deus qui legalium” in the Echternach Sacramentary, 895AD. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9433) In the Gelasian Sacramentary, it appears in the third of sixteen Masses under the heading “for Sundays”, without further qualification. Later sacramentaries would reorganize the material in the Gelasian in broadly similar, but not identical ways; in the Echternach, it is assigned to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, rather than the Seventh.

The Communion antiphon is taken from 1 Corinthians 11, 24-25, an unusual (for neo-Gallicans) example of a partial and inexact quotation.

Communio Hoc corpus quod pro vobis tradetur: hic calix novi testamenti еst in meo sanguine, dicit Dóminus: hoc facite, quotiescumque sumitis, in meam commemoratiónem.

Communion This (is the) body, which shall be delivered for you: this chalice is the new testament in my blood: do ye this, as often as you shall receive it, for the commemoration of me.

The Postcommunion is a new composition, which cites the idea of the Communion antiphon, again keeping to a theme.

Postcommunio Domine Jesu Christe, qui corpus et sanguinem tuum esse voluisti humanae salutis pretium, Ecclesiae tuae sacrificium, et nostrae infirmitatis alimentum; praesta, quaesumus, ut haec sancta, quae in tui commemorationem nos súmere praecepisti, sempiternam nobis redemptiónem operentur. Qui vivis.

Postcommunio Lord Jesus Christ, who willed that Thy Body and Blood be the price of man’s salvation, Thy Church’s sacrifice, and the nourishment of our weakness; grant, we ask, that these holy things, which Thou didst command us to receive in commemoration of Thee, may effect for us everlasting redemption. Who livest.

Why We Should Revive the Octave of Corpus Christi in the Usus Antiquior

On the Thursday nine weeks after Holy Thursday falls the feast of Corpus Christi — specifically, the Body of Christ, not the Novus Ordo’s substitute commemoration “the Body and Blood of Christ,” which is in any case usually transferred to Sunday (and is not by any means the same as an “external solemnity”) on account of the hierarchy’s nearly-unanimous surrender to the imperious dictatorship of work. (The traditional calendar, thanks to Pius IX, appropriately includes a feast for the Most Precious Blood of Jesus on July 1st, a theme to which John XXIII dedicated an encyclical in 1960.) Like the Ascension, Corpus Christi falls properly on a Thursday: always has, always will, wherever tradition is valued as befits Catholics.

Corpus Christi was originally instituted as an octave. Whoever believes that Our Lord is really, truly, substantially present in the Most Holy Sacrament would not be able to celebrate this “incomprehensible mystery of love” for just one day and then move on, like a person checking off a task on his to-do list and moving on to the next. No, there must be the full, rounded, lavish praise of eight days: time stands still and we bask in the glory of the Incarnate God in our midst until the end of time and the end of signs.

So obvious is this ecclesial instinct that when Our Lord Himself appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to ask for the institution of a feast in honor of His Sacred Heart, He specified that it was to take place on “the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi” (see here for further details). That is why it occurs the Friday of the week following the feast. It has retained this spot in the 1962 and 1969 calendars, a position that would seem rather random in the absence of the octave; it’s like the “ghost pain” where a severed limb used to be, which Descartes used as evidence of the untrustworthiness of the senses. My view is that if the octave’s good with Jesus, it’s good with me.

Although the abolition of this octave was one of many egregious preconciliar liturgical deformations that happened under Pius XII, mid-way between the gutting of the Psalter (1911) and the gutting of the entire Roman rite (1969 and environs), today we may rejoice that, thanks to discreet indications from the quondam Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, the octave of Corpus Christi may be observed today, in this happy period of the restoration of the Tridentine rite. The 2020 Ordo for the Usus Antiquior, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, indicates that the Octave of Corpus Christi may be observed in some fashion. (Incidentally, it also says that the Preface of the Nativity may be used.) It doesn’t explain how it is it to be observed, but probably assumes that anyone who is competent to read these rubrics in Latin can figure out from an old missal what to do. Here is a photo of the page from the 2021 Ordo:

Technically what this is saying is that where it has been a traditional practice to hold special devotions, with the faithful, on the days formerly within the Octave of Corpus Christi, these devotions may be continued. Where a procession takes place on these days, two Masses of the Most Holy Eucharist are permitted as Votive Masses of the II cl. (Missale Romanum, 1962 edition, rubric after the Mass of Corpus Christi): “Septem sequentibus diebus, ubi fit processio, permittuntur duae Missae de SS. Eucharistia: (61), ad modum Missae votivae II classis.” Yet in the current context where so much pre-55 restoration has already taken place, we can intuit the appropriateness of adopting tout court the octave that originally existed and which Our Savior Himself took into account in His Providence.

As I’ve mentioned on other occasions, Anglophone traditionalists are sometimes too legalistic when it comes to asking and waiting for explicit “permissions” from “the Vatican” to do X, Y, or Z. The way things are done in Rome is very Italian: hints are dropped, nudges are given, a quiet wave of the hand. Often, the lack of a prohibition or an outcry in view of obviously known cases can be construed as “soft” approval to continue. This is very important for restoring the fullness of the Roman Rite of the Mass (especially its calendar), which suffered intensifying depradations of bad taste and bad theology from the 1940s onward, beginning with the “Si Diligis” Mass for Supreme Pontiffs. And when you think about it, this way of proceeding makes sense. It would be a form of suicide for anyone at the Vatican to issue express permission to go back on what has been pushed forward by a succession of popes and curial decrees; but by allowing restoration to spread unchecked, good things happen and no one is hurt.

On June 11, 2020, Fr. Zuhlsdorf wrote:

In 1986 the English edition of Joseph Ratzinger’s Feast of Faith was published by Ignatius Press. At the time, it was a bombshell of enormous importance. It is still extremely helpful in understanding the state of the Church in the world and is foundational in Ratzinger’s faith. In that volume the future Benedict XVI reflected on the feast of Corpus Christi, which held profound significance for him from his youth onward. His Holiness juxtaposed the sad decline of Eucharistic devotions after the Second Vatican Council with what the Council of Trent taught. Although the anti-triumphalism of some post-Conciliar liturgists had repressed Eucharistic exposition, adoration and processions,

(and now Fr. Z proceeds to quote Ratzinger):

the Council of Trent had been far less inhibited. It said that the purpose of Corpus Christi was to arouse gratitude in the hearts of men and to remind them of their common Lord. (cf. Decr. desc. Euch., c. 5; DS 1644). Here in a nutshell, we have in fact three purposes: Corpus Christi is to counter man’s forgetfulness, to elicit his thankfulness, and it has something to do with fellowship, with that unifying power which is at work where people are looking for the one Lord. A great deal could be said about this; for with our computers, meetings and appointments we have become appallingly thoughtless and forgetful (pp. 128-9).
          Let us consider Trent again for a moment. There we find the unqualified statement that Corpus Christi celebrates Christ’s triumph, his victory over death. Just as, according to our Bavarian custom, Christ was honored in the terms of a great state visit, Trent harks back to the practice of the ancient Romans who honored their victorious generals by holding triumphal processions on their return. The purpose of Christ’s campaign was to eliminate death, that death which devours time and makes us cultivate the lie in order to forget or “kill” time. … Far from detracting from the primacy of reception which is expressed in the gifts of bread and wine, it actually reveals fully and for the first time what “receiving” really means, namely, giving the Lord the reception due to the Victor. To receive him means to worship him; to receive him means precisely, Quantum potes tantum aude — dare to do as much as you can. (p. 130)

Lastly, St. John Henry Newman, in his Sermon Notes for the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi (May 25, 1856, not intended for publication), expressed the following eminently Catholic sentiments, which we would do well to adopt and internalize once again as our own:

There is no feast, no season in the whole year which is so intimately connected with our religious life, or shows more wonderfully what Christianity is, as that which we are now celebrating [viz., Corpus Christi]…. The world is in wickedness. Satan is god of the world; unbelief rules. Now this opposition to us has a tendency to weigh us down, to dispirit us, to dull our apprehensions.… Now observe, How almighty love and wisdom has met this. He has met this by living among us with a continual presence. He is not past, He is present now. And though He is not seen, He is here. The same God who walked the water, who did miracles, etc., is in the Tabernacle. We come before Him, we speak to Him just as He was spoken to 1800 years ago, etc. Nay, further, He [does] not [merely] present Himself before us as the object of worship, but God actually gives Himself to us to be received into our breasts. Wonderful communion. This [is] how He counteracts time and the world. It [the Blessed Sacrament] is not past, it is not away. It is this that makes devotion in lives. It is the life of our religion. We are brought into the unseen world.

The Pentecost Embertide Fast: Renewing in Faith and Fervor the Gift Once Given

Stained glass window by C. E. Kempe in the church of St Giles in Cambridge.
Photo by Lawrence Lew, O.P.

A reader asked me a question last year at Pentecost, and I wanted to bring it up again this year now that we are within the ancient solemn Octave of Pentecost (in the authentic Roman rite of the Catholic Church). He had asked “why, during the Pentecost Octave, would the traditional liturgical calendar insert three penitential Ember days. I truly want to be joyful and singularly reflect on the joy and incredible work of the Holy Spirit during this very high Octave. Why couldn’t the Ember Days be bumped to the week after? I feel like it’s liturgical schizophrenia.”

When I shared the question with my NLM colleague Michael Foley, he decided to write a response, which I highly recommend to readers: “Dubium: Is It Appropriate to Fast during the Pentecost Octave?” (This, I would note, is an example of a dubium that actually received a reply.)

Beyond all the excellent points made by Dr. Foley as well as by Gregory DiPippo whom he quotes in extenso, I would like to add that fasting is not just a sign of penance, but also a sign of solemnity, urgent preparation, and efficacious supplication. Remember what Jesus says to the apostles: “Some demons can only be cast out by prayer and fasting.” So if we are building up to ordinations, when the devil and his restive servants have more than a little interest in ruining things or at least marring them, it’s highly appropriate for us to fast, even in the midst of celebrating the outpouring of the Third Person. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that drives out unclean and malicious spirits; conversely, the evil angels wage war throughout the whole of history against the gifts and fruits of the Spirit of God. The loss of fasting is, from that perspective, of a piece with the loss of effective belief in the devil and in the spiritual combat in general.

A priest friend of mine, who had been a monk in a Novus Ordo monastery and is now living in a traditional Benedictine community, shared with me his great disappointment during those earlier decades whenever Pentecost came: it lasted one day, then immediately gave way to “Ordinary Time.” As he immersed himself in the traditional Octave (including the pre-55 Vigil of Pentecost), he noted the crucial lesson it imparts: the prolongation of the feast with an octave shows that, even after the gift of the Holy Spirit has been bequeathed to the Church, we must pray constantly for His light and consolation. We must pray earnestly that the gift once given—to which the Church has, as it were, a permanent right—will reach ourselves and will renew the face of the earth in our times. One could compare the gift of Pentecost to a trust fund, where the beneficiaries receive payments if they request them, but not if they forget about it or ignore it.

By suppressing the octave and praying for the Spirit only in the lead-up to the feast, the subtle impression is given that after the day of Pentecost the Church cannot do anything wrong, since “the Church already has the Holy Spirit.” In other words, we recall the Apostles asking, but we do not recall liturgically the Apostles continuing to ask and deepening their relationship with the Font of Life and Fire of Love, and our need to emulate them in that regard. As Fr. Zuhlsdorf never tires of pointing out, the fact that the Church is indefectible in herself does not mean you or I or any bishop or any Christian land is incapable of defecting from the Faith or being destroyed by enemies. And frankly, since the liturgical changes, we have seen a skyrocketing increase in bad decisions and confusing (if not erroneous) teaching.

One is reminded, in this connection, of the flurry of Facebook posts that always go up when a Novus Ordo Solemnity coincides with a Friday: “No abstinence from meat necessary today!” According to the letter of the law, that is quite correct. But if we step back and consider the almost total loss of asceticism from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar—our fasting and abstinence requirements are laughably minimalistic and constitute a never-ending scandal of counterwitness against the truth of what we claim to believe and the sources of our faith—then we will see that the preconciliar practice of abstaining on Fridays regardless of what feasts may arise is a far better practice, because it retains the symbolism of the connection between each Friday and Good Friday, maintains a stable habit from week to week, and offers us a recurring opportunity for self-denial. The same may be said of fasting during Lent, and, finally, of Ember Day and Rogation Day fasts. Most of our fasting is and is meant to be penitential, but some of it, as we have seen, is simply an expression of spiritual earnestness, a cleansing of the mind, and an additional weight of supplication for others in the Mystical Body.

Love makes burdens light. That is one of the signs that the Holy Spirit is truly in our midst: He moves us to do more, to suffer more, to abstain from material goods and to embrace spiritual ones with greater fervor. This is what the Pentecost Ember Days remind us of; this is the light burden, born of joy and expectation, to which they challenge us. The real liturgical schizophrenia, it seems, would consist in saying we believe these great mysteries but then acting in no way different from our unbelieving neighbors.

The Church in history is like this incomplete sketch by Van Dyck:
in one sense the picture is clear, in another it remains to be filled in.

Correlations between the Sacraments and the Readings for the Octave of Pentecost

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

If I had a perfect memory, I would be able to remember where, in the vast forest of online postings, someone first pointed out this beautiful correlation. Whoever you are, thank you for sharing it to begin with, and giving me the opportunity to flesh it out here.

In the traditional Latin rite’s Octave of Pentecost — present since at least the late sixth century but tragically excised by a liturgical reform bent on hypersimplification, in spite of a professed love of ancient things — we find a sequence of readings that, by the sweet arrangement of the Holy Ghost, bring to mind each of the seven sacraments of the Church, through which, in this “Age of the Spirit” that stretches from Pentecost until the Parousia, the members of Christ are sanctified. Each year, the “Time after Pentecost” reminds us of the gifts and opportunities of our present condition, suspended, as it were, between creation ex nihilo, when only God’s righteousness reigned, and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home (cf. 2 Pet 3:13).

During the week of Whitsuntide, the Mass readings exalt the sacraments. In fact, multiple sacraments are exalted each day, in an intertwined manner that I will not here be able to expound fully (see Guéranger, Parsch, and Schuster).

In Monday’s Epistle (Acts 10:42–48), the Holy Spirit falls on all who heard Peter, and he commands that they receive baptism. The Gospel (John 3:16–21) is taken from the discourse where Jesus speaks to Nicodemus. the offertory antiphon continues the theme: “The Lord thundered from Heaven, and the Highest gave His voice; and the fountains of waters appeared, alleluia” (Ps 17:14,16).

Tuesday’s Lesson shows Peter and John laying hands on the baptized, strenghtening them in the Holy Ghost: confirmation. “In those days, when the apostles that were in Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John; who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for He was not as yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost” (Acts 8:14–17).

Pentecost Ember Wednesday’s Gospel gives us part of the Bread of Life discourse (John 6:44–52), highlighting the Eucharist: “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is My flesh for the life of the world.”

Thursday’s Gospel (Luke 9:1–6) describes the authority of the priesthood to cast out devils, cure the sick, and to preach the Gospel: “At that time, Jesus calling together the twelve apostles gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.”

In the Gospel of Pentecost Ember Friday, Christ forgives the sins of the man lowered down on a pallet (Luke 5:17–26), a power exercised in Confession. The verse of the Introit highlights the liberation won through the sacrament of penance: “In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be put to confusion: deliver me in Thy justice, and rescue me” (Ps 70:23).

In the Gospel of Pentecost Ember Saturday, Christ is shown healing the sick (Luke 4:38–44), reminding us of the power of extreme unction. “At that time, Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, went into Simon's house: and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought Him for her. And standing over her He commanded the fever, and it left her: and, immediately rising, she ministered to them. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them to Him: but He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them.” The offertory antiphon begins with the words: Domine, Deus salutis meae… O Lord, the God of my health/salvation.

But where is holy matrimony?

We might offer a practical and a speculative reason why marriage is not featured in this series. The practical reason is that there are only six days to work with: Monday through Saturday. The next Sunday is the feast of the Most Holy Trinity and, as it were, the octave day of Pentecost. (It is, however, interesting to note parallels between the Introit and Communion antiphons from Tobias on Trinity Sunday and the Introit from Tobias of the Nuptial Mass.)

The speculative reason is that marriage, uniquely among the sacraments, is already a natural institution existing from the time of creation, which Christ elevated to the dignity of a sacred sign that effects in the spouses what it signifies, namely, the union of Christ and His Church. Unlike matrimony, the other six sacraments, while they had prefigurations in the Old Law, had no proper existence before their institution by the Lord. They are altogether new — like the newness of the atonement that canceled out our debt, like the newness of the resurrection of Christ that abolished death in the new supernatural Head of the human race, the second Adam. The Pentecost octave stresses the newness of the gifts of Christ: His six “ex nihilo” sacraments, through which the grace and charity of the Holy Spirit is poured out into our hearts.

I had almost said: May we never take these sacraments for granted. But the strange Coronatide though which we have passed, and from which we are still suffering, has purged many Catholics of this fault: we do not take for granted what is taken away from us for a time. May that deprivation come to an end, and may our longing for these ineffable mysteries never end until we draw our last breath.

Visit Dr. Kwasniewski’s website, SoundCloud page, and YouTube channel.

A little humor, courtesy of Dom Hubert van Zeller

An Invitation to Join in the “Octave of Liturgical Restoration,” May 1–8

Enterprising traditionalists from Down Under have proposed that May 1 through May 8 be observed by proponents of the usus antiquior as the “Octave of Liturgical Restoration.” This week is certainly one of the weeks that sustained the most damage under Pius XII and John XXIII.

The longstanding connection of May 1 with “Pip n’ Jim” was lost, to be replaced by a “workerist” feast intended to vie with the Communist’s International Workers’ Day, but never successful in doing so. The ancient feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross on May 3 was abolished, as was an equally ancient feast of St John at the Latin Gate, commemorating the attempted martyrdom of the Beloved Disciple. The octave culminates in the Apparition of St Michael on May 8, also removed from the general calendar — all this, even prior to the global devastation visited on the calendar by a “trio of maniacs” (in Louis Bouyer’s words) whose revisions were approved by Paul VI. (The other four feasts — St. Athanasius, St. Monica, St. Pius V, and St Stanislaus — remain on their traditional dates in the 1962 Missale Romanum.)

The octave would be observed in two ways: first, by celebrating the older feasts on these dates, as far as possible; second, by praying privately a Collect that was lost in the ill-considered reform of Holy Week under Pius XII (the text of the Collect will be found on the image that accompanies this post). In this way, the octave could become a time of special annual prayer for the restoration of the fullness of the Roman Rite.

The laity may easily follow along with the ever-popular reprint of the 1948 St. Andrew Daily Missal.

MOGA (Make Octaves Great Again): Photos from the Christmas Octave of Solemn Masses in St. Louis

As Candlemas approaches, and the final days of the Christmas season slip away, let’s look back on a unique liturgical event that took place this Christmas in St. Louis. Below is a brief account from one of the members of the Schola of St. Hugh.

It all started with a conversation between two seminarians last summer. Both St. Louis natives, these friends met for dinner and pondered the upcoming academic year. One of them, who has a devotion to St. Stephen, mentioned how great it would be if they could assist together at a Solemn Mass in honor of his Saint’s feast day on December 26th. Better yet… Why not have Solemn Masses for the entire Christmas Octave?

Thus, the plan for a Solemn Christmas Octave in St. Louis — lovingly nicknamed MOGA (Make Octaves Great Again) — was born.

While these seminarians studied during the fall, a lay friend of theirs kept the idea alive. He worked with the rector of the Oratory of Ss. Gregory and Augustine to schedule Masses at the oratory for each of the Octave days. Things escalated during Advent with a flurry of choir rehearsals, clergy training, server training, and volleys of emails to keep everyone informed.

St Luke’s Church in St. Louis Missouri, home of the Oratory of Saints Gregory and Augustine.

Finally, the beautiful midnight Mass of Christmas arrived, and it was followed by seven glorious Solemn Masses. Throughout the Octave, various clergy from across the archdiocese ministered to over 1000 lay faithful who assisted at these Masses. Many of the lay faithful commented on how the solemn liturgies deeply moved them and drew them into the mysteries of Christmas. Some of the lay faithful even made it a point to come to every one of the Octave Masses.

Feast of St Stephen

The oratory’s regular choir collaborated with the Schola of St. Hugh, a small task force of musicians from both the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Bellville diocese, to provide polyphony, organ fanfares, and chant. Some of their musical selections included Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium, Palestrina’s Alma Redemptoris Mater, and the rarely heard chant settings III and V from the Kyriale.

Some readers may ask if a solemn octave was really necessary and assert that Low Masses are perfectly acceptable. To understand what motivated the participants of the Solemn Octave, one must first recall that divine worship is the supreme act of religion, which is the highest of all moral virtues and a part of justice (Summa theologiae, q. 81, aa. 5-6). A thirst for justice leads to the desire to worship God with the greatest possible solemnity.

The Church needs an abundance of solemn liturgies because the Church needs justice. She needs priests, deacons, subdeacons, masters of ceremonies, processions, incense, chant, and the rich rubrics of the solemn liturgies because it is in these that She praises God with worship par excellence. If a lack of ministers and choristers precludes a Solemn Mass or at least a Sung Mass, then a Low Mass is good and, of course, always a great blessing. But when clergy and gifted musicians find themselves spurred on by a hunger to give their utmost in divine worship, then this inspiration should not go unheeded.

The organizers of the Solemn Christmas Octave were grateful to pay court to their newborn King and, according to their abilities, render Him His due. The Solemn Christmas Octave was the occasion of many graces, and plans are already underway for a Solemn Easter Octave in St. Louis.

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