Double Book Review: Psalms and New Testament and Vespers for Sundays and Feasts

Readers have probably noticed that I am reviewing a lot of books lately. Of course, Christmas is not so very far away and books always make great gifts for people who still use these odd manipulables of paper, glue, string, leather, and cardboard, but the main reason is that I have been flooded with wonderful books to review and have even had to say no to some offers.

I have paired together two books today, a beautiful edition of the Psalms and New Testament from Baronius Press, and a magnificent new complete Vespers for Sundays and First Class Feasts from Angelus Press. Part of the reason they come together in my mind is that both have the nice black cover that, to my mind, immediately says: "Liturgical book!," even if the Baronius book is meant for personal devotion.

Baronius's Psalms & New Testament

The Psalms and New Testament volume is simply delightful. I myself had been searching for a long time for a compact Bible to use for studying in English the psalms I pray in Latin, and for doing lectio divina with the Gospels. It might just be a personal thing, but I can't stand hauling around gigantic Bibles. It's much nicer to be able to pop a little book in your briefcase or backpack and take it on the road or to the chapel. Moreover, I wanted the Bible to have the Douay-Rheims translation, because it's by far the most helpful for those who are immersed in the traditional Latin liturgy, which uses the Vulgate. As time goes on, my distaste for other translations has increased as I have seen how remote they are from the Roman Catholic tradition. This is notoriously true of the New American Bible, which is a paraphrastic and stylistic travesty (written, as Anthony Esolen once quipped, in "Nabbish"), but it is also true in subtle ways of the Revised Standard Version.

This Baronius edition, therefore, which contains the Douay-Rheims/Challoner has exactly suited my lectio needs over the past few couple of months, and I suspect it will suit the needs of many others, too. It is not quite pocket-sized but it is conveniently small (the photos show that). The cover is flexible leather. As one would expect of top-end Baronius books, the binding is sewn in signatures and the edge is gilt. There is a single yellow ribbon.

The print is quite small, so if you have good vision or good reading glasses, it will be fine, but if you need a larger print for comfort, you'll have to search elsewhere. The formatting of the text is elegant and the typeface old-fashioned but not distractingly so. Cross-references are abundant.

The notes, which are from the Challoner edition of the mid-18th century, are few but potent. They tend to arise at passages that Protestants twist to mean something other than the Catholic Church teaches, or at places where the text is very obscure. I like their vigorous tone and theological meat, which is such a far cry from the spiritually desiccated and ecumenically neutered notes one sees in more recent Bibles.

The Psalms are printed first (pp. 1-78), in the usual Douay-Rheims style, where under each Psalm there is its Latin title, a one-line summary, and the Hebrew description of the Psalm, which in Vulgate Bibles is numbered as the first verse. The Fathers of the Church and the medieval commentators often made a big deal out of these at times rather obscure titles.

Once again, there is a benefit in re-publishing an older edition of Scripture. As C. S. Lewis says, past generations did not have the hang-ups we have. Thus, the editor's summary of Psalm 48 (pictured above) reads: "The folly of worldlings, who live on in sin, without thinking of death or hell." You won't find that in Today's Inclusive Bible.

The Baronius Psalms and New Testament is the best compact book of its genre (i.e., psalms and NT in one volume) that I have ever seen. It has become an invaluable component of my morning routine.

Angelus's Vespers for Sundays and First Class Feasts

In my capacity as choirmaster and schola director, I am frequently in the position of having to create Vespers booklets for special occasions. Since we often sing traditional Roman Vespers, it typically involves cutting and pasting from a PDF of the Liber usualis, supplemented by Benjamin Bloomfield's psalm-tone generator. There are times when I have thought: If this is how much time and expertise it takes to get chanted Latin Vespers ready, no wonder so few people and places are doing it!

Enter this incredible resource, hot off the press. If you want to sing Vespers in the usus antiquior on any Sunday or Holy Day of the year, everything you need is present in this 336-page book, clearly typeset in black and red and very easy to find. It is as if someone took all the helpful Vespers material out of the Liber usualis and reorganized it for non-experts and without any shortcuts or abbreviations.

(Apologies for the fuzzy images; my camera is not very good and neither is the steadiness of my hand.)

Here are some photos of the "Common of Sunday Vespers" to give a sense of how the chant and text are laid out.

Then, if we look (for instance) at the first Sunday of Advent, we get the proper antiphons for the Sunday psalms, the Chapter, Hymn, Versicle, and Magnificat antiphon, and the Collect for the day, as well as which Benedicamus Domino to use. Whoever put this together was aiming to make it as user-friendly as possible. There are two ribbons, a black and a red, which is all that one would need (one for the common, one for the proper).

Finally, as in the Liber usualis, this book groups together Vespers psalms and the Magnificat (simple and solemn) according to the eight tones with all possible terminations.

A pastor who wishes to bring sung Sunday Vespers back into his parish or a Music Director who has the possibility of doing the same should acquire this book post-haste and consider investing in multiple copies of it. What a vision: a parish whose hymn-racks are lined not only with the Parish Book of Chant or the Proper of the Mass or the Lumen Christi Hymnal but also with this Vespers volume... a parish where increasing numbers of families come back to the church at 4:30 or 5:00 pm to chant Vespers together, week after week. It is remarkable how much of a difference the right book can make. This is one we have been waiting for for decades.

To order the Baronius Press Psalms and New Testament ($24.95), visit here.

To order the Angelus Press Vespers for Sundays and Feasts ($39.95), visit here.

Regular Sunday Vespers with the Dominicans in Manhattan

The Dominican parish of Ss Vincent Ferrer and Catherine of Siena in New York City is beginning an excellent new initiative to promote what should be one of the most important aspects of the Catholic liturgical life. Beginning on Sunday, September 18, they will celebrate Vespers every week in the Ordinary Form. These celebrations will draw on the Dominican chant tradition as well as the contemporary Antiphonale Romanum, using a combination of Latin and English: Latin for the ordinary chants, the psalm and Magnificat antiphons, and the short responsory, and English for the hymn, psalms, readings, intercessions, and collect. (See the parish website at this link.)

Each week there will be a singing class at 4:30 pm covering the chants for the week, and Vespers will then be sung at 5:15; the booklet for the first Sunday can be consulted here. The priest who prepared it, Fr Innocent Smith O.P., has been mentioned here on NLM several times in connection with his interest in Dominican chant and various talks that he has given about it. I have known Fr Smith for many years, and I know that he will certainly do a great job in making this a worthy and beautiful celebration of the Church’s evening prayer. The parish evening Mass, sung with Gregorian propers in English, follows at 6 pm.

The choir of te church of St Vincent Ferrer.

Monteverdi Vespers in DC

Last November, Third Practice, directed by Brian Bartoldus, performed Father Claudio Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespro della Beata Vergine in a liturgical celebration of Solemn Vespers and Benediction in Washington DC. Together with this work was a new composition by Baltimore-based composer, Joshua Bornfield, Beatis videamus, taking as its text the Litany of the Saints and as its musical inspiration the motifs found in the Monteverdi vespers. Third Practice were joined by members of Chorus Sine Nomine who provided the plainchant antiphons, and instrumentalists on period instruments.

As is well-known, the various parts of the Monteverdi Vespers do not themselves constitute Vespers of Our Lady in the Roman Rite. In fact, there is some ongoing discussion about the intended use of the settings. Were they intended to be sung together at all? Were they intended for another feast altogether? And so the celebration presented here had to draw also on the plainchant antiphons of the Roman office, and imaginatively position some of the Monteverdi movements around (and outside) the liturgical office to try to use as many of the musical movements as possible. This saw the Pulchra es sung before the office began, the beautiful Duo Seraphim as the altar was prepared for Benediction, and Audi cœlum as an offering to Our Lady after the conclusion of Benediction. It also meant that Monteverdi’s setting of Nigra sum (which in fact contains the texts of both the third and fourth antiphon for Vespers of Our Lady) was sung between the third and fourth psalm, without any break.

This celebration was the third performance of the Vespers by Third Practice, and the only liturgical performance. It was also the best-attended of all three, and attracted a large number of Catholic and non-Catholic faithful for what was a primarily liturgical act of worship, but also a opportunity for a cultural interchange. By presenting the cultural heritage of the Church in its proper context, the “congregation” and the “audience” (as different people saw their roles) were exposed to the full beauty and splendor of the Church’s ritual prayer. It was also an opportunity to include a fine new composition, which itself promotes the Church as a primary patron of the arts, not as an end itself but for the greater glory of Almighty God.

Below you can find a video of the whole liturgy, as well as some pictures (full album here).

Reminder: Vespers (EF), Chair of St. Peter

Readers living in or near New York City are reminded that the Basilica of Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral (263 Mulberry Street, Manhattan) will celebrate its bicentennial with votive Vespers (Extraordinary Form) for the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair on Sunday, February 22nd, at 4:00 pm. The music dates from approximately 200 years before the basilica was founded; composers include Viadana, Anerio, and other great innovators who enriched the western Church with artistic output fitting the reforms of the Council of Trent. The schola will be supported by continuo played on organ and theorbo, making for a unique and gorgeous sound. Father Peter Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., will be the celebrant. More details are provided HERE.

Is Your Liturgy Like What Vatican II Intended?

Although in recent years much has been done to spread an accurate knowledge of the teaching of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, we are still a long way from Pope Benedict XVI’s desire that the faithful everywhere, led by their pastors, would rediscover the riches of the sixteen conciliar documents. The Year of Faith became a year of disbelief, humanly speaking, as we witnessed the almost unprecedented abdication of the papal throne and the accession of a new pope whose words and actions have been interpreted and misinterpreted in a dizzying whirl of media attention that has certainly not been characterized by a patient reassessment of the doctrine of the last ecumenical council—much less the doctrine of the twenty ecumenical councils and the fullness of Tradition that preceded it.

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgated of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (December 4, 1963). If I may borrow a rhetorical strategy from Fr. Fessio, here is what your local liturgical scene would look like if we were all following, to the letter, the teaching of Vatican II:

1. The Eucharist would be perceived by all as a “divine sacrifice,” in which, as in the Church herself, action is subordinated to contemplation (cf. SC 2). The Mass would be understood to be, and would be called, a “holy sacrifice” (SC 7, 47, et passim) and the liturgy in general “a sacred action surpassing all others,” whose purpose is “the sanctification of man and the glorification of God” (SC 10; cf. 112). Indeed, the liturgy would seem like a foretaste on earth of the heavenly liturgy of the new Jerusalem (SC 8).
2. The faithful would be well catechized and well disposed to receive the sacraments fruitfully (SC 11), and would understand the nature of the liturgy and how to participate well in it (SC 14), led by the example and instruction of the clergy (SC 16-19): “through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration” (SC 48). In this way, they would be unlike the majority of Catholics today, who, according to many surveys, are unaware that the Mass is the re-presentation of the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary or that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ—and who also don’t sing very much, in spite of decades of cajoling.
3. The liturgy would look much as Catholic liturgy has looked for centuries, since “there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them; and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing” (SC 23).
4. The ordained ministers would be the only ones performing the actions they are supposed to do, while the laity would be involved in those ways that pertain to them: “in liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who has an office to perform, should do all of, but only, those parts which pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the principles of liturgy” (SC 28; cf. 118).
5. No one, “even if he be a priest,” would ever “add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority” (SC 22.3).
6. The use of the venerable Latin language would be a frequent and appreciated occurrence, since “the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites” (SC 36.1). The vernacular, of course, will be utilized, but only for certain parts of the liturgy (SC 36.2), and the clergy would remember the Council’s request that “steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them” (SC 54).
7. Liturgies would frequently be celebrated in their most noble form, namely, “solemnly in song” (SC 113). Most of the singing would be closely connected with the actual texts of the Mass (cf. SC 112, 113) and the music would be such as “adds delight to prayer, fosters unity of minds, or confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites” (SC 112). There would be an important role for trained choirs or scholas, which preserve and foster the treasure of sacred music—a treasure of inestimable value (SC 112, 114-115). The people, for their part, would sing acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs—and everyone would observe reverent silence at the proper times (SC 30). None of the texts of the songs would be in any way objectionable from a doctrinal point of view, since they would be drawn directly from Scripture or the liturgy itself (SC 121).
8. Notably, Gregorian chant, being “specially suited to the Roman liturgy,” would be given “pride of place in liturgical services” (SC 116). Other forms of sacred music would not thereby be excluded—such as, preeminently, polyphony (ibid.). And of course, the pipe organ would be “held in high esteem” as “the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things” (120). Other instruments would only be used if they “are suitable or can be made suitable for sacred use, accord with the dignity of the temple, and truly contribute to the edification of the faithful” (ibid.). Hence, such instruments as piano, guitar, and drums, which, in the Western world, originated in profane settings and are still associated with genres like jazz, folk, and rock, would never be used for sacred music. None of this is surprising, since the Council Fathers announced their purpose of “keeping to the norms and precepts of ecclesiastical tradition and discipline, and having regard to the purpose of sacred music, which is the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful” (SC 112).
9. Communion under both kinds would be rare—e.g., to newly professed religious in the Mass of their religious dedication or to the newly baptized in the Mass that follows their baptism (SC 55). Similarly, concelebration would be relatively rare (SC 57).
10. Sunday Vespers would be a much-loved weekly occurrence, to which large numbers of faithful flock: “Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually” (SC 100).
11. The liturgical year would be of enormous importance in the life of the community, marked by the observance and promotion of each season’s traditions and customs (cf. SC 102-110). Images and relics of the saints would be publicly honored (SC 111). Sacramentals and popular devotions would abound, such as Eucharistic Processions, Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the Stations of the Cross, the Rosary, the Brown Scapular, and customs connected with saints’ days, because all of these things deepen the spiritual life of the faithful and help dispose them to participate more fully in the sacred liturgy (cf. SC 12-13).
12. The church architecture and furnishings would be “truly worthy, becoming, and beautiful, signs and symbols of the supernatural world” (SC 122), “turning men’s minds devoutly toward God” (ibid.). There would be nothing that could disturb or distract the faithful, since the bishop would have “carefully remove[d] from the house of God and from other sacred places those works of artists which are repugnant to faith, morals, and Christian piety, and which offend true religious sense either by depraved forms or by lack of artistic worth, mediocrity, and pretense” (124), since what are rightly sought are “works destined to be used in Catholic worship, to edify the faithful, and to foster their piety and their religious formation” (SC 127).

Is this what you experience, week in, week out?

Is not the monumental failure to implement much of Sacrosanctum Concilium a scandal?

What became of the great promise of the original liturgical movement? It is hard to escape the impression that Sacrosanctum Concilium was largely a dead letter within a year or two of its promulgation. Should we be happy or sad about that? Indifference seems to be far the greatest reaction. And surely that is unworthy of Catholics.

If those of a more traditional mind have pointed out ambiguous or problematic passages in the conciliar documents (including Sacrosanctum Concilium), they would also be the first to recognize the abundant presence of traditional doctrine—nearly all of which has been systematically ignored or even contradicted in the name of the “spirit of Vatican II.” Pope Benedict’s Christmas Address of December 22, 2005, where he systematically exposed and refuted the false understanding of Vatican II, is one of the milestones of the postconciliar Magisterium and has changed the entire conversation about the Council. There can no longer be a serious discussion of the Council or of the liturgy that does not bring in the expressions the Pope introduced on that occasion—the “hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity” and the “hermeneutic of reform in continuity” (referred to in some later documents simply as the “hermeneutic of continuity”). The conversation has been decisively reoriented. What has yet to be reoriented is the way the Mass is celebrated in most places.

I have been quite surprised throughout my adult life that the places where these points from Vatican II are most being lived, week in and week out, are the chapels of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter and similar communities, where the traditional Roman Rite is exclusively celebrated. This is not to say that the usus antiquior itself embodies every recommendation made (for better or for worse) by the Council Fathers, but rather, that the grand theological vision of Sacrosanctum Concilium—the centrality, dignity, and solemnity of the sacred liturgy, with the devout chanting of its prayers by priest, schola, and people—is being lived out in these communities, and in very few others. That should give us considerable food for thought.

While proponents of the new liturgical movement have reservations about many of the formulations in Sacrosanctum Concilium, it is nevertheless obvious that both those who adhere to the usus antiquior and those who promote a “reform of the reform” model are far more faithful to the explicit teaching of the Council than any of the progressives have been. In the past fifty years, we have seen the rigorous implementation of the suppositious “spirit” of the Council and of its weaker and woolier passages. Now that the Year of Faith has ended—a year full of many surprises—let us continue to pray for and work towards the implementation of the best and clearest of the Council’s teaching.

The Ordinary Form as it should be:
Sacred Music Colloquium, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City

Again, an Ordinary Form celebration that the Fathers of Vatican II
could have recognized as the Roman Rite
(and the people crowding the church were chanting the Mass in Latin...)

Laetare Second Vespers, Brothers of the Little Oratory, San Diego

As our readers will know, one of the things which the NLM is always eager to promote is the Divine Office, not only in private recitation, but also in communal recitation, particularly in its sung form.

Accordingly, I was interested to receive the following video, accordingly described:

The Brothers of the Little Oratory in San Diego, with Chorus Breviarii members, sing 2nd Vespers of "Laetare" Sunday at St. Augustine's Monastery Chapel, 14 March 2010. The Vespers were sung according to the traditional formula found in the 1962 Liber Usualis.

Here is the video.

Sunday and Festal Vespers from Norcia now Available Each Sunday and Feast Day

The NLM and the Benedictine Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy (the birthplace of St. Benedict) are pleased to jointly announce today that, as we begin the liturgical year, so too has a new initiative begun which will make available recordings of festal and Sunday Vespers each and every Sunday as well as for important feast days of the liturgical year.

The monks are, of course, already making available audio recordings of their daily Mass and this addition now makes Sung Vespers, in a Benedictine form of the Divine Office, available to a wider public, thus facilitating greater access to sung Sunday and Festal Vespers than has heretofore been available to the general Catholic public -- not, mind you, as it might be sung by a professional choir of course, but rather Vespers sung from within the intimacy of the monastic community and as part of the day-to-day exercise of the monastic horarium.

It is certainly my own hope that, in addition to providing people with the opportunity to listen in each week, on feast days, or with whatever frequency they may choose, this might further inspire people to take up the praying of the Divine Office as part of their own personal spiritual practice, and also encourage priests and parishes to make sung Sunday Vespers available as part of their own parish liturgical life -- both of which were encouraged by the Second Vatican Council.

Some Practical notes

Vespers will be recorded and made available on their proper day, thus providing the opportunity to listen to the Office on its proper day. This will be particularly the case for North American time zones. Western European listeners are likely to see the recordings available sometime in the latter part of the evening.

The NLM is providing a graphical link in the left sidebar which will take you to these recordings, while also providing a easy reminder of their availability, if not also a general reminder about the Divine Office.

Other Catholic websites and blogs are more than welcome to place a copy of this graphic on their own sites in order that the Divine Office and Sunday Vespers might be promoted. (I would only ask that you upload this graphic to your own sites, rather than linking to the graphic here, which can cause bandwidth issues.) I would personally recommend you make this graphic linkable and link it to this page: "http://osbnorcia.org/?page_id=843. If help is needed in setting this up, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Finally, I would make note that the monks are doing this based on the limited resources they have. If anyone is so inclined, I am sure they would benefit greatly from donations toward audio recording and publishing resources, or even those that might allow them to broadcast live. Do give it some consideration.