YOU ARE ROSEMARY


What herb are you?
brought to you by Quizilla"

Random thought: Why the freak do they call it "theraputic cloning"? Theraputic...it makes it sound like it should involve mud-packs and mango chutney hand lotion rather than screwing around with things that shouldn't be screwed around with and then killing off the "excess" embryos. New-speak at work, I suppose.

I'm not sure which this comparison is more insulting towards, John "Herman Munster" Kerry or Charles II of Spain...

How does THAT happen?

Kids Visit Margaritaville - September 29, 2004: "Virginia grade schoolers accidentally served alcohol at lunch "

All praise to you, St. Tony,
You found my lost wallet!
I thank you now sincerely,
And so publicly blog it!

Huh.

In my Sacraments class yesterday, we were discussing Confirmation.

We discussed the origin of the old "slap" which used to be given during Confirmation. In the 4th Century, a kiss was given to the newly initiated in the Christian community; through time, especially with the advent of infant baptism, this kiss was replaced with an affectionate touch of the cheek. In the 9th Century, as the focus of Confirmation shifted to a strengthening of the individual with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to fight the Christian fight, the sacrament took on a more "militaristic" character -- preparing the good Christian soldier. In the meantime, bishops started being a bit more efficient with their affectionate taps, and well, a slap (and theology thereof) was born.

But more a more surprising discovery deals with the words of the sacrament of Confirmation. I was confirmed by the now-standard formula, N., be sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This, however, is a new development in the Church.

Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Constitution on the Sacrament of Confirmation, 1971, initiated this change. To quote the document, "In the West, the words of the rite that completes baptism were less settled until the 12th and 13th centuries. But in the 12-century Roman Pontifical the formulary that later became the common one first occurs." From the 1100's until the 1970's, Western Catholics were confirmed with the words I sign you with the sign of the Cross and confirm you with the Chrism of Salvation, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Paul continues: "We judge preferable the very ancient formulary belonging to the Byzantine Rite... We therefore adopt this formulary, rendering it almost word-for-word. Therefore... by our supreme apostolic authority we decree and lay down that in the Latin Church [it] be observed for the future."

Frankly, I'm surprised I had to learn about that in a class, and never read anything about it on an embittered Geocities site somewhere.

Happy Patron Saint's Day to my Dad!

Sancte Michael Archangele,
Defende nos in proelio contra nequitiam
Et insidias diaboli esto presidium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecemur:
Tuque, princeps milÌtie celestis,
Satanam aliusque spiritus malignos,
Qui ad perditiunem animorum
Pervagantur in mundo,
Divina virtute,
In infernum detrude. Amen.

I am the Very Model of a Modern Vicar-General

from the Penzance Codex of St. Gilbertus of Sullivan
translated by Matthew of the Holy Whapping and Lauren of Cnytr

This is what happens when two too-smart-for-their-own-good Catholic Nerds get together online with a six-hour time difference, with too much time on their hands, and also with too much popcorn and caffeine in the immediate vicinity. You Have Been Warned. And without further ado...a one and a two and a...

I am the very model of a modern vicar-general,
I've information liturgical, ecclesial and clerical,
I quote the Popes of Latium and councils ecumenical,
From Chalcedon to Vatican, with subjects esoterical.

I'm very well aquainted too in matters sacramentical,
I know the sin occasions both the distant and proximical:
About the Nicene Credo, I'm teeming with a lot of views:

(Views...views...views...ahahaaa!)

With many complex facts about the substance Homoousios!

Chorus of Seminarians: With many complex facts about the substance Homoousios,
With many complex facts about the substance Homoousios,
With many complex facts about the substance Homoousi-ousios!

I've very good recessional, antiphonical canticles,
I know the secret names of all the Jesuit conventicles,
In short in matters liturgical, ecclesial and clerical,
I am the very model of a modern vicar-general!

Chorus of Seminarians: In short in matters liturgical, ecclesial and clerical
He is the very model of a modern vicar-general!

I know salvation history, King David's and the Sampson locks,
I answer hard sed contras, and own a pair of scarlet socks.
Respondeo dicendum every Vatican concilius,
All liturgics I can celebrate in Romanist basilicas.

I can tell undoubted Augustines from Bossuets and Zwinglians,
I know a Sarum Epiklesis and excommunicate the Arians,
Then I can hum the Sanctus if I've heard the mode ex nihilo,
And sing in tono recto Pax Domini cum spiritu tuo!

Chorus of Seminarians: And sing in tono recto Pax Domini cum spiritu tuo,
And sing in tono recto Pax Domini cum spiritu tuo,
And sing in tono recto Pax Domini cum spiritu tuo!

Then I can write encyclicals in a monastical scriptorium,
And pontificate the meaning of St. Paddy's grand loriculum,
In short in matters liturgical, ecclesial and clerical
I am the very model of a modern vicar-general!

Chorus of Seminarians: In short in matters liturgical, ecclesial and clerical,
He is the very model of a modern vicar-general!
In short in matters liturgical, ecclesial and clerical
He is the very model of a modern vicar-general!

From a crucifix housed in Spoleto, Italy

Lauren, St. Blog's very own cadette in Italy, discovers a disturbing--and I think, oddly beautiful--allegory at the foot of the cross: a skull drinking the blood of Christ. It's one of those surreal, bizarrely earthy bits of shock-therapy medieval hagiography which in the end serve to knock our own complacent times halfway back into God's cosmos.

I won't say what I think it means, but I will tell you this and let you, O reader, make of it what you will: the old Adam was traditionally said to have been buried on Mount Calvary, the place of the Skull.

Clementine: Joel, I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a screwed-up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours.
Joel: I remember that speech really well.
Clementine: I had you pegged, didn't I?
Joel: You had the whole human race pegged.
Clementine: Probably.
Joel: I still thought you were going to save me. Even after that.

--Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Nom du Spam of the week: Corrugation F. Celestial, who sent me an email with the Borgesian title of Ó âàñ ìàëåíüêèé ùåíîê?

Rory: It's Al's Pancake World.
Christopher (her father): Good pancakes?
Rory: No, he doesn't serve pancakes.
Christopher: Okay.
Rory: He switched to international cuisine a few years ago and dropped the pancakes. He would have changed the name but he'd already had like a million napkins printed up with the original name. So he just kept it.
Christopher: And what kind of international cuisine?
Rory: He kinda hops around. Last month it was "A Salute to Paraguay."
Christopher: Anyone salute back?
Rory: Not really.

--Gilmore Girls, season 1

Sacre Bleu!

INSTITUT DU CHRIST ROI SOUVERAIN PRÊTRE strikes again!

Continuing to do surprising things in Wisconsin and Illinois, the Institute of Christ the King (yet another example of France's propensity for spawning inspiring religious orders that take root everywhere but France) has just taken possession of the Church of St. Gelasius, which the Archdiocese of Chicago had been working fevorishly to demolish.

Read more at the Catholic Citizens website.

The story is quite fascinating: the local neighborhood contested the Archdiocese's decision to demolish the church, successfully zoning it as a historical landmark *despite an ordinance forbidding them to zone churches as landmarks*... because the parish had been closed a few years before and was no longer serving as a church!

This one's for my pal and fellow blogging confrere Andy, everyone's favorite Helvetian-American fungus hater. Swiss savants have discovered a 1,000-year-old edible mushroom that covers 86 acres. And I thought portobellos were scary.

The new Marian-blue off-roader pope-mobile arrives for testing at the Institute of Christ the King's secluded Tuscan seminary.

Don Jim points us to a handy chart of comparative prejudices in the European Union: Portugal thinks Belgium makes good beer, while Belgium hates everyone else's beer. And the Dutch are variously "offensively tall," "failed Germans," or "cheap tippers."

***

When piety is not enough: A chastening article on when orthodox Catholics divorce...which also proves, on the lighter side, that my attempt last year to pick up a girl based on her chausible preferences while shopping at Gamarelli's (buying presents for her clerical friends, of course) is not only counterintuitive but potentially dangerous.

***

To continue today's dysfunctional gender-relations theme, Don Juan Victorio, persisting in his quest to, as he puts it so prolixly, shamelessly impress "Catholic Fabulously Gorgeous and yet Totally Modest Babes" with his PODdity and get mentioned on the Shrine, has emailed me a picture of a traditionalist priest blessing a tractor. No mention of triple immersion here.

I am, of course, mentioning this for your own information and not to shamelessly impress Gorgeous and yet Totally Modest Ladies. Try to think of it as the principle of double effect.

***

These guys are so crazy and awesome that they sip Earl Grey ALL the time: Taylor Marshall inveils the Official Anglican Fox-Hunting Webpage to a stunned public, earning him the nickname of the "C. of. E's Father Sibley."

***

Hooah! Chaplain marching cadences at Cnytr, with a strange guest appearance by his Holiness on a pogo-stick.

***

And it also looks like ND has just finished beating the cr--p out of Washington State, if the reports from the stadium are any indication. So much for a team that wears purple.

This is already a monumental weekend in my college career...


...and it's only Friday night. Why, you ask, is this weekend unlike all other weekends? Therein lies the tale

Tonight, after the usual 5:15 Mass, someone noticed that a side door in the Basilica entry was unlocked. After debating the ethics of the situation for about 0.0002 seconds, Dan and I went up...

...into the bell tower. That's right. That holy grail of every domer's college years, that goal second only to getting into the Golden Dome itself, is ours. We ascended the increasingly steep and unstable wooden stairs, being reminded more every second of a rather tense scene or two from Vertigo. First we passed the St. Anthony bell, which is so large that they no longer swing it, for fear that it will cause structural damage to the tower. In it's glory days, they say you used to be able to hear it miles away, in Niles, MI. Now, they only ring it once a year, for ordinations, and even then they only hit it with one of those mechanical clappers, rather than swinging the whole bell (a feat which, reportedly required six "hefty" Irish to get started).

We soon realized that an entire party of fellow Mass-goers were joining us, onward and upward. The merry band continued on past more sets of bells, reaching, a few floors up, a walled-off cubicle taking up most of that floor. Inside was an interesting contraption of wires and wooden tabs--the bell organ. The sounds of this instrument can be heard playing the Alma Mater late on Sunday nights, but they really pull out all the stops on Palm Sunday, when the melodies of the hymns are rung out as we process into Mass. Although today, sadly, it's mostly run by an electronic keyboard in the sacristy, every so often a brave music student gets a chance to try their hand at it.

Further explorations afforded a view of the campus through the wall vents, nearly level with the needley side towers. Finally, after a few more flights of wooden stairs that (we tried not to remind ourselves) were surely not meant to hold more than 20 college students on an afternoon jaunt, the tower suddenly narrowed, and there was only a steep staircase, more of a ladder, really, leading up through an opening between some support beams.

Only a few of us at a time went up to the foot of the ladder, as this flooring was, if possible, less stable-looking than previous floors had been. At the top of the short ladder, I could hear the faint mechanical whirr of gears. I leaned over and reached as far as I could, and touched the back of one of the clock faces.

So, there you have it. No hunchbacks, heck, not even any bats in our belfry. Still, though, it was an exhilirating experience to be on the same floor as the bells at a quarter past the hour, feeling the sound ringing through my entire body.

Maybe Augustine was right, and forbidden pleasures really are the most alluring. But these were some darn good pears.

Just got back from watching Bon voyage, an off-the-wall 2003 French-language spies-in-World War II movie which feels like a screwball remake of Casablanca with a touch of Tea with Mussolini. The principal plot is pretty simple: gangly scientist (Jean-Marc Stehlé) and cute-but-geeky girl friday (Virginie Ledoyen...sigh) try to get a shipment of the world's only heavy water across the English channel while the on-the-lam members of the French legislature try to hammer out an armistice with the Germans. Colonel Wilhelm Klink, despite being the only human being to drink heavy water, is conspicuous by his absence.

It's a bit paint-by-the-numbers, but it's beautifully shot, the costumes and sets are exquisitely vivid and the real pleasure comes in the frenetic interactions of the cast as they try to one-up, back-stab or make up with each other, ping-ponging from one diplomatic or personal crisis to the next. Throw in a cabinet minister (Gérard Depardieu), his naively manipulative actress mistress (Isabel Adjani...double sigh...in a pitch-perfect send-up of shallow forties starlets), a wrongly-imprisoned writer (with requisite soulfulness), and a newspaperman-turned-German spy and you've got a wild little film, where dark, hard-hitting tragedy and oddball humor sit side-by-side with surprising ease.

Of course, even if it had been horrid, Isabel Adjani in that hat (triple sigh) was worth the price of admission.

Surely this is the PODdest way to die: 7-Foot Crucifix Falls, Kills Woman. Um, no, wait, I didn't really say that. Requiem aeternam dona eis.

You wouldn't know it...

... but when Muslims aren't begging for the release of hostages, some of them are actually TAKING hostages!

CNN.com - Religious leaders in hostage plea - Sep 23, 2004: "Muslim and Christian religious leaders in the hometown of a British hostage facing death in Iraq have appealed for his captors to free him."

Well, that was an innocuous line. "Facing death in Iraq" -- from no one (certainly no Muslims) in particular, I imagine.

Matthew was named by twain names, that was Matthew and Levy. Matthew is expounded a hasty gift, or a giver of counsel, or it is said Matthew of magnus, and theos, that is God, as it were a great God. Or of manus, that is a hand, and theos, that is God, as it were the hand of God. He was a gift of hastiness by hasty conversion, a giver of counsel by wholesome predication, great to God by perfection of life, and the hand of God by writing of the gospel of God. Levy is interpreted assumpt, or applied, or put to, or set. He was assumpt and taken away from gathering of tolls, he was applied to the number of the apostles, he was put to the company of the evangelists, and set to the catalogue of martyrs.

--Bl. Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea Sancta, Caxton Translation

In reality, it means gift of God, but I love old Jacobus too much to correct him. A happy patron saint's day to all out there who share my name!

ARRRRRRR!!

This Sunday is Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19!

Cardinal Stuart...otherwise known as Henry IX and I of England

Dining Hall Conversations One Hears Only in my Circle of Friends

The great Performing Arts Center rug debate continues: "It looks they ran out of money...It looks like casino carpet."

A friend: I forget, were the Jacobites the good guys or the bad guys?
Me: (without hesitating) The good guys.

En Garde!

I just recieved an email from the friendly neigborhood Anglican. No, I want to specify -- not Dan, who has Anglican tendencies (see Matt's post of quotes from the week), but Taylor.

Thus saith the Anglican: "I've got some damning quotes from the Fathers against transubstantiation and episcopal celibacy on my blog. What saith the Shriners?"

The quotes can be found here.

I note with fraternal amusement that this post is located beneath a piece on why heretics and schismatics always want to dialog ;)

I guess I would start addressing this issue by not addressing this issue. Instead consider the theology (as taken in the strictest sense, the study of God Himself) of St. Justin Martyr. All of us know Justin martyr. We love Justin Martyr. Frankly, we wish that parts of the New Testament were written as succintly as Justin Martyr. But Justin, he's a solid guy -- his description of the Mass, the Eucharist, everything. And our first non-Biblical witness in the historical record for a lot of Christian teaching.

Except for his articulation of the Godhead. It's subordinist -- the Father "ranks first, in the second place the Word, and in the third the Holy Spirit." A stunning philosophical error -- how can God be less than God be less than God? -- and a heresy to boot. One of the strongest witnesses to the Christian tradition biffed a pretty big point, mostly because he didn't have the concern to analyze it carefully or didn't have the philosophical language to ask the question correctly.

Similarly, as anyone who has perused Abelard's (shudder) "Sic et Non" knows, there is almost no topic of Christian belief for which you can't get two or more Church Fathers to disagree. OK, relative to transubstantiation, it kind of stung to see St. Ambrose seem to vote no. But it is hardly surprising that the Fathers were not unanimous on something as tricky as transubstantiation when they were not unanimous on a softball question like subordination within the Trinity.

The real question is, "who's right?", not "who said what?" Abelard took some palpable measure of joy by airing the disagreements of the Fathers in his book, forcing a Medieval age that perferred to think through others to admit that, occasionally, disagreements must be settled. But this is why the Church did not stop speaking with the death of St. Augustine; this is why the Church has a voice, the magisterium, through all history, as the Holy Spirit refines in her the same teachings within her depositted those two millenia ago.

The matter at hand. First, it ought be understood that transubstantiation is not revelation; it is the most accurate explanation of a point of revelation (ie, the Eucharist) which is availible. Transubstantiation is more an explanation with which one ought not to disagree, rather than one with which one ought TO agree -- specifically with reference to the East. The Orthodox don't disagree perse, but they don't embrace the term because they don't "think" that way. But nonetheless, this philosophical explanation of a revealed doctrine (the Eucharist) is, the Church argues, both true and beneficial to learn.

The Catholic Encyclopedia argues that, regarding transubstantiation, "The argument from tradition is strikingly confirmed by the ancient liturgies, whose beautiful prayers express the idea of conversion in the clearest manner. Many examples may be found in Renaudot, "Liturgiæ orient." (2nd ed., 1847); Assemani, "Codex liturg." (13 vols., Rome 1749-66); Denzinger, "Ritus Orientalium" (2 vols., Würzburg, 1864), Concerning the Adduction Theory of the Scotists and the Production Theory of the Thomists, see Pohle, "Dogmatik" (3rd ed., Paderborn, 1908), III, 237 sqq."

Looking now towards Thomas Aquinas, we consider III Q75 Art. 2 of the Summa Theologica. Thomas' OTC takes a markedly different interpretation of the writings of St. Ambrose of Milan: "Ambrose says (De Sacram iv) 'Although the figure of the bread and wine be seen, still after the Consecration, they are believed to be nothing else than the body and blood of Christ.'"

On his own authority, Thomas goes on to point out that things do not magically appear out of nothing: if suddenly we have a burning fire, the fire was not added to the wood but proceeds from the conversion of the wood. When something comes to exist that did not formerly exist, it does not come "ex nihilo;" it is because something else that did exist has changed or given way that the new substance may now exist. "Consequently it remains that Christ's body cannot begin to be anew in this sacrament except by change of the substance of bread into itself. But what is changed into another thing, no longer remains after such change."

So, my volley. It looks like we may have to do more work at looking into what Ambrose had to say?

This week's dorm newsletter includes an apocryphal pamphlet title from the hall chapel's holy card rack: The PopeMobile: Eight Cylinders of Holiness.

Random Quotations from the Past Week from Myself and my Friends

"Ah, the Nashville Dominicans, those heartbreakers..."

A friend describes the carpets in the new Performing Arts Center: "It looks like nineteen-sixties Victorian."

"...manly lace..."

Myself, feeling left out: "We altar boys never got to have groupies."

"That would make a good alb."

"That Catholic book discussion group...probably a good place to meet women."

"I've got some phytoplankton!"

"Cassock alert!"

My friend Stephen: "I think we should start a fashion trend among Catholic men of wearing swords in public."

An angry arkie: "I am going to specifically write an article telling people not to call it [the Performing Arts Center] the 'PAC.'"

"I can't help it; I like argyle."

"We're watching a program about the world's greatest bathrooms."

G-Money comments on my axe-bearing beadle: "He's a Tridentine mass groupie!"

Andy: ...and then there was the female policeman--
Me: Was she cute?
Andy: What?
Me: I said, was she cute?
Andy: What does it matter if she was cute? She was a female policeman!

Me, on wearing an oversized surplice: "I felt wide. I felt like Archbishop Laud."

"Wanna talk about tropical fruit?"

Me, on being Hispanic: "I know, I know, I don't seem very Hispanic. There's lots of Cubans that don't seem Hispanic. We're everywhere. I think some day they'll give a signal over the radio or something and we'll all suddenly drop cover and break out the salsa music and big shirts..."

A key principle of liturgy: "We're in favor of more hats in the sanctuary. We're in favor of more hats in general."

"We Had...A Vision. Of a poster."

"Unisex. Meaning...BOTH SEXES!"

"You know, Josemaria Escriva banned Opus Dei members from listening to Pink Floyd. I find it funny we have a saint that contemporary."

"Mmmmmmm...cassocks."

Andy overhears one of my plans to re-translate the liturgy: "Did you just use 'Cranmerian' as an adjective?"

"...red cassocks with ruffles..."

"We've decided he's really Anglican. And Canadian."

"Show him the picture of the Latin Mass groupie!"

Laypeople interested in comparative clerical fashion:

Me: Father Collins [the Franciscan] was there.
A friend: And what was he wearing?

I expand on my friend's carpet assessment: "...nineteen-sixties retro George Jetson Disney Victorian..."

Me: "All the good women are in convents."

Andy solicits an opinion of our chant abilities: "With 1 being Marty Haugen and 10 being Anglican."

My future career plans: "I want to be Duncan Stroik when I grow up."

You really got to respect a religious order that has their own halberdier. I'm a bit mystified as to what this guy is doing here, but I approve. This is a picture from the website of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest (ICRSP) showing the Te Deum held in honor of new ordinands in 2004. My guess is he's a beadle or verger--New Orleans Cathedral had one up until 1904, and he had his own halberd too. Weird, but in a good way, like the page with the Cardinal's hat. I think, on the whole, there should be more men with axes around, so I applaud Msgr. Watch for his (inimitable) sense of style. Though I wish he'd stop hiking his fascia way up under his arms...

This Is Classic

Stolen from: In Nomine Domini

OKINAWA: Non Stop Fright

Anyone who has been to Asia has probably made a sport out of spotting horrible abuses against the English language -- many of which could be settled with a decent dictionary, except that even the dictionaries sold on the streets of Asian cities are often disasters themselves.

Be sure to check out www.engrish.com for more classic goofs...

"It reminds me of the Scarlet Pimpernickel."
"What?"
"You know, the French Revolution?"

--exchange between two random girls on the quad while helping me burn some red sealing wax to close a letter

Hildegarde Again

In the face of those who assume, in posting some of Hildegarde of Bingen's work, I've been brainwashed by the mushy rabid new-agey feminist crowd, and as the Shrine's resident Knight-Errant, I find it incumbent 'pon me to defend the old girl's honor. I point you to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, which lists her as a saint. It notes, interestingly, that, while "no formal canonization has ever taken place, but her name is in the Roman Martyrology and her feast is celebrated in the Dioceses of Speyer, Mainz, Trier, and Limburg, also in the Abbey of Solesmes, where a proper office is said."

Since she belongs to the tail end of that hazy era when the causes of Saints were only starting to become a prerogative of Rome, I find no reason to question the imagination of popular piety, and the Martyrology is nothing to sneeze at. (Incidentally, perennial Shrine fave St. Christina the Astonishing was also never officially canonized, so she's in good company). Plus, the Encyclopedia doesn't make her sound like a closet Dan Brown-ist like some of her modern apologists pretend her to be.

Just because some clown trumpets a spurious 'sacred feminine' doesn't mean that we should shrink back from saying that Woman is not truly glorious in her God-given dignity, in her complementary covenant with Man which images the eternal procession of the Trinity. Heck, take a look at the golden Lady on top of the Dome here!

While the Sibyl of the Rhine may be a favorite among those (ahem) ladies who can't spell 'women' correctly, respondeo that even a blind pig occasionally finds an acorn, as we sometimes say in folksy Florida.

In this day and age when true femininity is trampled in the mud like a silken battle standard trailing from a shattered staff, we should do our part to shout the authentic praise of women and highlight those most noble ladies, Catherine, Joan, Clare (and Hildegarde) who only rose to prominence in the medieval world created by the Church. It is the Church that tamed Man, that gave us chivalry; that gave us the cult of the Virgin, surely the single largest civilizing institution in Catholicism. The Church is Herself a woman, and knows that where women are, civilization lies. Let us never forget this, and hope these models of true womanhood will turn the hearts of those swayed by confused ideas, impure concepts and misbegotten doctrines.

Wait, something interesting in the South Bend Tribune?

I was hanging around in a dorm lobby this morning, when I noticed an article concerning Fr. Brian Stanley, who has been known to lurk around these parts (blogwise and otherwise). The article claims he may have collaborated with the ghost of the Gipper to help save the day this Saturday at the game. (I still maintain it was the Latin Mass, but do we get any calls from the papers? Nooo...)

As if that wasn't enough, below the fold, whose picture should I see but our dear bowtied and bespectacled Professor Stroik, who is working on a Catholic school in the area.

File this away as another one of those "Oh, not that Index" moments.

Here's a pic of my beloved San Gregorio ai Muratori (FSSP), my adopted parish while studying in Rome last year where I learned how the Tridentine Mass really works in a pastoral setting. It also awakened in me a hearty respect for very small churches. The photo, the first I've seen of the chapel online, was unearthed by Christine, "Wife and law clerk, not to mention former hyper-Calvinist, Kierkegaardian, and overall ne'er-do-well," at her blog Laudem Gloriae, which bears reading in and of itself.

FYI, that particular flowered chausible, while nice at a distance, is quite hideous up close; on the whole, though, their sacristy is a surprisingly well-stocked one. Where else but Rome would a church the size of a broom cupboard (seriously) have a relic of the True Cross?

Fr. Tucker allows us a window into his unconscious as he relates last night's dream of a Hapsburg Pope, making me wish I was one of his parishioners. I can't top that in terms of weird dreams (save for one very odd dream some years back which was set in the Basilique Notre Dame de Montreal and involved a Spanish bishop in a blue mitre, stiltwalkers in the choirloft, tinfoil, carpets, an out-of-place Signum Pacis, and a Tridentine Requiem), but the other day while I was riding the South Shore Line to Chicago, I did doze off and imagine the two dippy teenage girls in front of me were discussing Madame de Pompadour and Louis XIV. Trippy stuff.

A red-letter day at Notre Dame

Not quite this POD, but still monumental.

Today (well, yesterday now) marked the beginning of Eucharistic Adoration for this year here at ND. This year was particularly significant for two reasons. First, Adoration hours have expanded drastically to 7 hours a day, 5 days a week! Second, this marks the first year we've been able to hold Adoration in the Coleman-Morse chapel, which was built specifically to house Eucharistic Adoration. Let's hope it sees a lot more of this in the future, and please keep us in your prayers as we work to put the Eucharistic Jesus more and more at the center of campus life.

Go for the Gold!

The liturgical gold, that is. And why not? Could it possibly be too good for Our Lady? I think not. Coming soon to the Solemn Mass of the Blessed Virgin, a gold brocaide chalice veil, matching antependium, and (dare I say it?) perhaps even a burse. Stay tuned...

Ecumenical eye-candy, flying bishops and much, much more from the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Alaska. My only question is: where's Maggie O'Connell?

The Dining Hall Will Never Seem the Same Again

"If you look furtively round the table, Matt, you'll notice a striking resemblance of our group to the Council of Anarchists in The Man Who was Thursday. All we need is a big fat man."

--My friend Stephen, at dinner last night

Matt, Is This Your Fault???

Somehow, someone searching for "yanni impersonator" ended up at our blog!

St. Dominic to his puppy: Anathema, sit!

Tweed, Peanut Butter and Anathema sitting

Fr. Vasily of The Onion Dome discusses trans-fatty acids, "the American abomination, peanut butter," wordy translated liturgies (ICEL take note: Was it short, pithy phrases in Nineteenth Century Russia?), and fooling one's guardian angel with margerine on fast days. *** Jane at Ecclesia Militans talks Tridentine. *** Too much lace (huh?) and a puppy named Anathema, from our beloved friend across the pond Zadok the Roman, presently fetching a circumbendibus in search of a quockerwodger. *** A Dave Barry gag becomes real at the Old Oligarch's. *** Character vs. Fate from Cadet Lauren, who also reports, delightfully, that the new fall look for ladies is librarian chic. More tweed and argyle, in general and for the fair sex in particular, is, in my humble male opinion, always a good thing. *** Erik Keilholtz extolls cold pizza and coffee as the perfect breakfast. He may be on to something. *** And lastly, the Irish Elk posts a gorgeous image of Our Lady of Victories.

Latin Lives Again

Our Solemn Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which our readers know so well, was celebrated in Latin (except for the Liturgy of the Word) this Saturday.

We began with Iesu Dulcis, chanted sparingly (the Sanctus, the Mysterium Fidei, the Agnus Dei, the Pater Noster), and ended with the classic Salve Regina. The rest of the Mass was spoken, since the majority of the congregation had never attended a Latin Novus Ordo before.

It was well recieved. We asked the 40+ congregants to leave us feedback afterwards -- none of it was negative. People asked for it to be repeated on a monthly or a weekly basis.

When we bought our Adoremus hymnals at the end of last year, we were ambitious and purchased 25. They have great music, as well as the Mass parts in Latin and English. These 25 are no longer enough -- we need 20 more! Imagine. "Nowhere else but Notre Dame."

I would also like to formally dare anyone to claim that Notre Dame, the priests supporting these Masses, and the students attending them are "not Catholic enough." Good grief.

Someone mentioned in my post about LAST Saturday's Mass that perhaps Monk would be willing to "Try-dentine" anything. Well, we did indeed say a prayer for the team after Mass yesterday -- and hopefully you all know how that turned out: 28-20, Notre Dame over Michigan. Admittedly, the first quarter involved some of the worst football I'd ever seen, but things surely did turn around. It was the second time in my history here as a student that the crowd rushed the field! (Did you see us on TV?)

Top this day off with a dinner trip our club (about 45 of us) took to the local pizza place (Bruno's) and this, Blogophilus, was the perfect Notre Dame day.

An informative post on medieval underwear from HMS Blog. Once again, if it wasn't for us looking for weirdness, Fr. Sibley would find it eventually.

Another Entry from The Encyclopedia of Failed Ideas:

Pyramidion: The original Pyramidion, the gold cap which topped the Great Pyramid, is of particular interest to the Encyclopedia of Failed Ideas because it is the object whose height is used most to calculate the height of the pyramid by analogy. However, since it was stolen at some point, as is to be expected regarding bits of gold that happen to be sitting around as if they were just, say, rusty pharaonic hubcaps, nobody (except possibly Piazzi Smith) is really sure how tall either it or the Great Pyramid really was.

This earlier Pyramidion is not to be confused with its more modern incarnations. The first, the Pyrami-Dionne, was a Canadian-based Ponzi scheme from the late 1940s involving getting its victims to have families composed of inordinately large numbers of siblings. It was started by Pyramis "Thisbe the Shoulder" Tucci, a prominent member of the Montreal Mafia, in 1948, and crashed shortly before his arrest for herring trafficking in 1954. Then there's Las Vegas's Pyrami-Dion, otherwise known as the Tomb of the Unknown Pop Diva. This should also not to be confused with Grant's Tomb in New York, the final resting place of octagenarian salsa star Celia Cruz.

New Tridentine eye-candy over at The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. Is it just me, or have we seen these vestments a lot there lately? Not that I'm complaining.

Rocky: Hey Bullwinkle, we're in real trouble now!
Bullwinkle: Oh good, Rocky! I hate that artificial kind!

***

Bullwinkle: Well, if you can't believe what you read in a comic book, what can you believe?

***

Fearless Leader: What does Pottsylvania have more than any other country? Mean! We have more Mean than any other country in Europe! We must export Mean!

***

And so, without further ado, Everything You Ever Were Afraid to Ask About Rocky and Bullwinkle.

A Free Translation of Two Sacred Songs by St. Hildegarde

Antiphon: O pulchrae facies (De Virginibus)

O beautiful faces:
Ye who behold God and build up in the dawn's light,
O blessed virgins, O how noble are ye!
In ye hath the King contemplated Himself:
And in ye every heavenly ornament hath He prophesized:
And thus, ye art the most sweet of gardens,
Perfumed in all your adornments.

Sequence: O virga ac diadema purpurae Regis (De Sancta Maria)

O Green shoot and purple crown,
Thy purity cloistered like gleaming armor:

Thou didst branch and blossom, changed somehow
From that which Adam produced in the whole human race.

Hail, hail, from Thy womb proceedeth another life,
Stripped forth by Adam from all his sons.

O flower! It was not the dew that made Thee bud,
Nor drops of rain, nor wind on high:
But clearest divine light that brought Thee forth
From that O noblest bough of Jesse.

O branch, Thy flowering
God forsaw on the first Day of creation:

And so, O golden matrix of the Word,
O laudable Virgin, He made Thee thus!

O how great is Man's side, how strong,
From which Woman didst God draw forth
And who He made the mirror of all His ornament,
The embrace of all creation.

And so together the organs of heaven do play,
And all the earth beholds you, O Mary all-praised,
O Thou, so beloved of God.

O what great weeping and wailing it was,
That crime and sorrow, through the Serpent's council
Didst flow into Woman.

For that woman, whom God sent us as mother of all,
Self-vulned her gut with wounds of ignorance:
And gave dolorous birth as inheritance to all her offspring.

But! O aurora, O dawn, from Thy womb,
Rose the new Sun:
Purging every sin of Eve
And through Thee a great blessing doth flow
Overwhealming Eve's sad deed.

And thus, O Mother of Salvation,
Thou hast bourne the New Light
For all Mankind
Knit together then all us,
The members of Thy Son
Into this caelestial harmony.

Sid's Ginseng Pagoda, c. 2001, in the aftermath of the end of the TanglePlastic fiasco

From Matt's Encyclopedia of Failed Ideas:

Muskrat Pops: The top-selling breakfast cereal of 1967-1974 in the Prairie provinces of Canada. Invented by William Holdhurst, a high-born member of the Calgary social elite with an extreme fascination for rodents, it reached all-time popularity in 1973 when the Captain (though, as it transpired, not Tenille) gave permission for Muskrat Love to be used in commercials. Tenille, already irritated at the Captain's spurious assumption of military (or naval?) rank, cried foul, and the song was pulled three weeks into the ad campaign. The Muskrat Pop boom quickly deflated, further irritated by an extremely infelicitous typo on the new chocolate-flavored sub-brand which accidentally added an extra 'o' in the most unfortunate of places.

Holdhurst attempted to recoup in the mid-80s by attempting to create a special health bran-flake cereal for Weetabix called "Nutria," but it never got past the drawing board.

Tangle Plywood Music Festival: This notorious 'easy-listening' concert series was held from 1995-1998 in the vacant backlot behind Sid's Wholesale Ginseng Pagoda in the Chevy Chase suburb of Washington, D.C.. Started by Marty Flamsteed, a one-time band member on the long-running Lawrence Welk Show, it came to a brutal end after three years and had to be broken up by a squad of ATF snipers.

Quitting Welk in 1984 because of the omnipresent odor of Metamucil and warm prune juice on the set, Flamsteed broke away to form an all-conch-shell big-band ensemble called Lawrence and the Whelks, which broke up six months later because of the impossibility of playing 'bubble music' on empty mollusc shells and also the impending threat of a lawsuit. Flamsteed, crushed, moved on to organize the first 'easy-listening' music festival in history. It began in 1995 after nearly a decade of work with performances by Yanni, Barry Manilow, and an accordion troupe whose name is lost to history.

Introducing Enya to the mix in '97 would prove to be a momentous and ultimately tragic decision as it attracted vast swathes of New Age followers and also the sponsorship of Dramamine. However, Dramamine's concession stand proved to be somewhat redundant, while Enya's fans proved increasingly uncontrollable. A riot broke out in the middle of a performance of "MacArthur Park" when a wiccan high priestess overturned a vat of scalding-hot patchouli oil on a strolling Buffy Summers impersonator, while John Tesh nearly had his eye put out by a joss-stick wielding hippie. Yanni vowed never to return after someone sneaked into his trailer one evening while he was sleeping and shaved him.

In 1998, the festival finally had to close down only three days into the series because a rogue splinter group of Enya fans code-named "The Willow Rosenberg 7" attempted to sacrifice Henry Mancini to the Celtic war goddess Morrigan in the middle of the Burt Bacharach Tribute Q-and-A Session. In 1999, Flamsteed died a broken man above a used records store in Boulder, Colorado, clutching a Ravi Shankar album to his heart.

Seven Tips for Participating in the Traditional Mass

At Dappled Things.

Call It an Examination of Conscience for the Sinister

EvilRulers.com - If I Were The Evil Overlord

If I have an unstoppable super-weapon, I will use it as often as possible instead of holding it in reserve.

I will not indulge in the practice of maniacal laughter, despite the proven stress-relieving effects of such behavior.

I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to demonstrate how evil I am.

I will never turn into a giant snake, no matter how much I might want to, because it never helps.

The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the mountain of despair beyond the river of fire guarded by the dragons of eternity. It will be locked up in my safe-deposit box.

MOST IMPORTANTLY,
I will never utter the sentence 'Before I kill you, you should know...'

Mark Shea Would say..

"Sin makes you stupid."

So does disorderedly dedicating your entire existance to politics, or its outcomes. It makes people do really stupid stuff, like forge documents "from the 70's":

'60 Minutes' Documents on Bush Might Be Fake -- 09/09/2004: "But the use of the superscript 'th' in one document - '111th F.I.S' - gave each expert pause. They said that is an automatic feature found in current versions of Microsoft Word, and it's not something that was even possible more than 30 years ago."

Today is the Marian Feasts of...

Our Lady of the Puy/Le Puy. Velay, France. 221.
Joachim and Anna, the parents of Mary (Orthodox).

"The woods behind Christendom [College] are infested with Mexican bandits."

--Meredith of Basia Me, Catholica Sum

Zadok, in discussing the Most Bizarre Thing He's Seen All Year, thinks he knows what the Shrine of the Holy Whapping would look like on acid. I'm not sure I disagree. *** Andrew Cusack makes me cry with a story on a historic church closure in Harlem and plans out a Catholic academic fantasyland on the Gowanus Canal. *** Harpist Jane from Alle Psalite and her beau Gavin have set up Ecclesia Militans, a new blog on liturgical matters. Encourage them at the start of their labors by visiting the site. *** Dawn Eden, on patrol in her biplane, discovers the sour side of Tarts. *** The ever-talented Lauren the Classics-majoring Cadette from the blog with the impronounceable name, in addition to putting the Militant in Church Militant, has a new site documenting her adventures abroad in Rome this semester. *** Meredith, the Liturgical Avenger, and her friends battle safe-stealing Mexican banditos at Christendom College and live to tell the tale. Perhaps, amiga, they came from Pax House: "Marty Haugen? We don't need no stinkin' Marty Haugen!"

Questionable Practice Spreads

Why is it important to ask if preemptive strikes are safely within the criterion (not just possibly permissable, but safely within) the Just War Theory?

Because sooner or later, someone else says, "Hey, that's not a bad idea."

Yahoo! News - Russia prepared for pre-emptive strikes on 'terror bases' worldwide:
"'With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes,' General Yuri Baluyevsky said Wednesday. "

Today Is...
September the 7th,
the celebration of...

Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lady. Instituted by Pope Gregory II. 722.
Our Lady of Zyrowice. Poland (or Belarus currently, I believe)
Our Lady of Consolata. Turin, Italy.

For the Closet Trekkies at this Blog...
(certain members of our courageous staff have, indeed, attended actual conventions...)

From the blog Proud Member of the JPII Generation:

What StarTrek Race Are You?

Back in Liturgical Shape

The year has begun and so has our Saturday Solemn Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Mass is back and it's solemner than ever... which is to say, um, funner. Not to mention, better-attended: about 45 college students were up and at 'em (ritually speaking) by 9am on a Saturday (for you non-college students, this implies about 5-6 hours of sleep). And all for Our Lord's Blessed Virgin Mother.

We owe significant thanks to the donors who made possible the bells and communion chin-paten... (as well as any donors who might feel compelled to supply silk brocade...) Chalice veils and altar frontals, these are a few of our favorite liturgical things. So, THANKS TO ALL!

In breaking liturgical news, Notre Dame will soon witness its first completely Latin Mass (Novus Ordo) in a while. We've had a handful of priests on campus excited to offer their services in offering these Services. With any luck, our Misa will go Solemnis this next Saturday, and periodically thereafter -- so, wish us luck!

In the words of one first-time participant... "The best Mass on the Notre Dame campus. Thanks for doing this."

Posted by: Andrew / 4:24 PM
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Our Lady of Kazaa, Our Lady of Kazan, what's the difference?

The Ordo Karolingianus, Part V and Last

This is the final part of the Ordo, taking us up to the Last Gospel and the Dismissal. Unlike other portions of the Rite, here the Mass is more similar to the present form of the Roman Rite, without the "duplication" of parts in the Communion rite such as the separate Domine, non sum dignus for the priest. I think this duplication was not just complexity for complexity's sake and had some theological nuances, but I also think that it could be simplified somewhat without significant damage to the rite, perhaps to the benefit of the faithful.

Admitted, the spectacle of the priest saying silently Domine non sum dignus was an edifying one; but perhaps the audible canon with its self-effacing humility might serve the same purpose. Furthermore, it also allows the priest's Communion to come after the Agnus Dei, thus allowing the larger consecrated Host used during the rite to be shown to the people rather than a smaller one. This seems the logical conclusion of the many regulations encouraging the dispensation of Hosts consecrated at the same mass. I have omitted the Pax, presupposing its earlier placement before the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but I am by no means satisfied by this inversion.

I am also somewhat unsatisfied with my my suggestion of restricting the Last Gospel to Advent, Christmas, and the Annunciation: perhaps it should be more common. There is always, I suppose, the possibility of reviving the use of multiple Last Gospel texts, as was previously the practice in very limited circumstances. They might change depending on the season of the year, but this might be unduly innovative and unprecedented. The 1964 Missal suppressed it, suggesting it was of the few edits actually intended by the Council, but the beauty of this this pivotal Gospel text nonetheless suggests it should be preserved.

Lastly: regarding communion under both Species. I think that in principle this is a good thing. Certain theological accretions, quite beautiful ones, explained the priest's drinking from the Chalice alone, though these are secondary to the ancient custom of communicating under both Species. However, speaking from a pastoral pespective, the use of Communion under both Species causes a great deal of procedural trouble and comparatively few people consume it, resulting in a multiplicity of lay Communion ministers, not to mention the difficulty of coordinating taking the Cup at the rail. On the other hand, the Lutherans have maintained the practice at their own services, and still kneel: though, however, their theology does not admit the Real Presence as we know it, and thus are far less concerned about spills. I have also suggested shortening slightly the traditional rite's formula of "Corpus Domini..." to the portion which can be said dignifiedly while making the sign of the Cross with the Host.

Well, that's the end of my idea for the Mass: it's been a fun ride. I will keep tinkering with this Ordo and perhaps when I open up a more permanent website, it'll have a home there. Thanks everyone for your intelligent commentary, your suggestions, and your thoughts. I hope in my own small way I've been able to add something to the vast debate which swirls around this controversy.

THE COMMUNION

P. Let us pray. Taught by our Savior’s command, and formed by divine instruction, we dare to say:

Pater Noster

R. Our Father, Who art in heaven: hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread: and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The Embolism

P. Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evil: graciously grant peace in our days, and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and all the saints, mercifully grant us peace in our days, that, assisted by the power of Thy merciful love, that we may always be free from sin and safe from all distress: as we await the blessed hope of the advent of our Savior Jesus Christ.
R. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever.

P. Lord Jesus Christ, look not upon our sins, but on the faith of Thy Church: and be pleased to grant Her peace and unity in accordance with Thy holy will. To Thee, who lives and reigns, God, forever and ever.
R. Amen.

Then shall the people, all kneeling, all sing aloud these words:

Agnus Dei

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: grant us peace.

Rite of Fraction

As the people sing, the priest shall make his preparation for Communion, saying thus as he divides the Host:

P. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who, by the will of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, have by Thy death given life to the world, by this Thy most holy Body and Blood deliver me from all my sins and from every evil. Make me always cling to Thy commandments, and never permit me to be parted from Thee. Amen.

Or, he shall say, as he desires:

P. Let not the partaking of Thy Body, O Lord Jesus Christ, turn to my judgment and condemnation; but through Thy goodness, may it be for me a safeguard of mind and body and an effective remedy. Amen.

Then shall the priest say silently, mingling the Precious Blood with a fragment of the holy and venerable body of Christ:

P. May this + mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.

Now shall the priest turn to the people, and say, showing unto them the Holy Sacrament:

P. Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takest away the sins of the world.

And then shall all say, striking their breasts thrice:

R. Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should come under my roof: but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.
Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should come under my roof: but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.
Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should come under my roof: but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.

And then shall the priest reverently consume the Host, saying thus silently:

+ May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul unto life everlasting.

And then shall the priest drink the most precious Blood, saying thus silently:

+ May the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul unto life everlasting.

Then shall the priest come to the Communion rail with the ciborium, saying silently:

P. What return shall I make to the Lord for all the things he has give unto me? I will take the bread of heaven and the chalice of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will call upon the Lord and give praise: and I shall be saved from my enemies.

Then the priest shall distribute the Communion, saying each time, + The Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ to each who kneel at the rail. The appointed antiphon or a hymn may be sung as the priest cleanses the sacred vessels, saying this silent prayer:

The Ablutions

P. What we have received with our mouths, O Lord, may we take with pure minds, and from a temporal gift, may it become for us an eternal remedy.

[He also may say thus, either in addition to or in substitution of the preceding prayer:

P. May Thy Body, O Lord, which I have received, and Thy Blood which I have drunk, cleave to my inmost parts, and grant that no stain of sin be found in me: whom these pure and holy Mysteries have renewed.]

[Afterward, he may also say thus, also secretly:

Placeat tibi

P. May the tribute of my service be pleasing to Thee, most Holy Trinity, and grant that the sacrifice which I have offered in the presence of Thy Majesty, may be acceptable to Thee, and through Thy mercy obtain forgiveness for me and all for whom I have offered it.]

THE DISMISSAL

Then shall the priest say, Let us pray, saying the Post-Communion prayer, and then shall he bless the people in these words:

P. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
P. May Almighty God bless + you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
P. (now turning to the people.) Go, the Mass is ended. (or, Let us bless the Lord.)
R. Thanks be to God.

THE LAST GOSPEL

[On the feast of the Annunciation, at Advent and during Christmastide, save at those masses when the beginning of St. John’s Gospel is appointed to be read, the priest shall turn and read these Sentences of Scripture at the northern horn of the altar:

P. In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came as witness to the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not the true Light, but was to bear witness to the Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, (here he shall genuflect) and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
R. Thanks be to God.]

Then shall the priest kiss the altar, and depart, as a hymn or Marian antiphon is sung, unless he should elect to remain and lead some private devotions from the steps of the sanctuary, as is customary.

THE COMPLETION OF THE HOLY MASS
ACCORDING TO THE ORDO KAROLINGIANUS

Columba Aspexit: Sequence for St. Maximinus

A very evocative text, full of remarkably vivid and dreamlike imagery, from St. Hildegard of Bingen, the Sibyl of the Rhine. It has that heady, potent, earthy and sometimes downright weird flavor that characterizes some elements of medieval mysticism. Incidentally, the Latin version of this is being played on the record player in the movie A Beautiful Mind when John Nash meets his imaginary friend in the dorm for the first time.

A dove gazed in
Through the latticed window:
There sweetest balm rained down on her face,
Sweated from bright Maximinus.

The heat of the sun blazed out
To irradiate the dark:
A bud burst open, jewel-like,
In the temple of his heart:
most pure and kind his heart.

A high tower of cypress is he,
Wrought of Lebanon's cedars--
Sardis and hyacinth stones frame his turrets--
A city surpassing the arts
of all other artisans.

A swift stag is he
Who sped to the clearest font,
Pure wellspring springing forth
From the most powerful of stones
Coursed by the most sweet-smelling of spices.

O perfumers! Ye who do dwell
In the most luxuriant viridian
Of the royal gardens,
Ascending on high
As ye finish a holy
Sacrifice of pure rams:

Among ye this architect shines,
A rampart of the temple,
He who longed for the wings of an eagle
As he kissed
His wet-nurse Wisdom
In the glorious gardens of Mother Church.

O Maximinus,
Both mountain and valley,
On Thy towering height
The mountain goat leapt
With the oliphaunt,
And Wisdom was in rapture.

Strong and sweet
In the sacred rites and
In the shimmer
of the altar,
Thou dost rise like incense
To the pillar of praise--
Interceding for Thy people,
Who strive toward the mirror of light,
To thee be praise and glory in the highest!

If I could tell the world just one thing...

Or really, the US and Europe, it would be this quote from "The Restoration of Christian Culture":

"People who care for nothing but themselves inevitably lose to those who, capable of sacrifice, will fight for something more than themselves."

The Ordo Karolingianus, Part IV

The current part takes us through the whole Roman Canon, which I have kept almost wholly unchanged, save for a slightly more explicit Epiklesis based on the suggestion of traditional liturgist Fr. Brian Harrison of the Oblates of Wisdom. Many of the rubrics suggested are derived from the former rubrics, though I have omitted most of the signs of the Cross after the Consecration: while I love them very much, there seems to be evidence that they're mutations of some sort of other oratorical gesture which has been lost. Rather than simply invent a new posture out of whole cloth, I have ommited them since it would seem odd to bless something already blessed: though if someone can offer an explanation of them I would be perfectly happy to reinstate them. Several other crossings have been removed since sometimes three crossings in a row could often look undignified. There are, however, enough hieratic gestures to prevent the Canon from seeming only monologuic.

I considered keeping some sort of cruciform benediction using the Host at the Per ipsum but it seemed clumsy to attempt to simultaneously raise the Host and chalice while also making signs of the Cross with the Host, and I like the idea of the Doxology being marked by an elevation. Also, the Benedictus is now sung in place of the Memorial acclamation since at a high mass it was usually delayed until after the Consecration. I believe St. Agnes in St. Paul does something similar.

The Canon is intended to be spoken aloud, though I have envisioned that the Consecration would be said in a lower voice. Perhaps having the option of a silent canon, though, might be salutary, as while it seems to have been spoken aloud originally according to some sources (which may or may not have been superseded by more recent studies), many beautiful things have been written in its favor. Nonetheless, after the changes of the last 30 years, a silent Canon would be well-night inexplicable to most church-going Catholics, and in the hopes of making the Church's Tridentine heritage more widely disseminated, I think a spoken Canon would be wholly appropriate. Sadly, though, I have been unable to figure out vocally how to distinguish the Nobis quoque peccatoribus from the rest of the Canon. It seems undecorous to shout it.

Furthermore, I have chosen to keep one acclamation, at the end (save for the Benedictus), rather than having the people voice the Amens that were interspersed throughout the older version, as some Neo-Gallican missals had it; while this has some precedent in Coptic customs, it is not Roman practice.

Also, I have noticed that the bell that is to be rung directly before the Consecration has in recent years unintentionally become attached to the Epiklesis. I have kept the custom, though I am not an expect in Pneumatology: perhaps someone might enlighten me as to whether this is a good adaptation of the liturgy.

THE ROMAN CANON

Then shall the priest say the Canon in an audible voice, while all the people and the server shall kneel, beginning thus:

To Thee, therefore, most clement Father, we humbly pray and beseech Thee through Jesus Christ Thy Son, Our Lord, hold acceptable and bless + these gifts, these + offerings, these + holy and unspotted oblations which, first, we offer unto Thee for Thy holy catholic Church. May it please Thee to keep in peace, unite and govern throughout the whole globe, together with Thy servant, our Pope, N., and our Bishop N., and the orthodox of the catholic and apostolic Faith.

Memento of the Living

Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants and handmaids, [N. and N.], of all here present, whose faith and devotion are known to Thee, on whose behalf we offer to Thee, or who themselves offer to Thee this sacrifice of praise for themselves, their families and friends, for the redemption of their souls, for the hope of safety and salvation, and who render their homage to Thee, eternal God, living and true.

Communicantes

Joining in their communion, we glorify the memory, first of all, of the glorious and ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, and also of blessed Joseph, Her most chaste spouse, and of Thy blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, [James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Thaddeus; of Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, N.,] and of all Thy Saints. Through whose merits and prayers grant that in all things we may be strengthened by the help of Thy protection.

Hanc Igitur

Graciously accept, then, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this oblation of our worship and that of all Thy family. Order our days in Thy peace, deliver us from eternal damnation, and cause us to be numbered in Thy chosen flock.

Epiklesis

This oblation, O God, we beseech Thee, (here shall the priest extend his hands over the elements, and the acolyte shall ring the Sanctus bell once) vouchsafe in every way by the power of the Holy Ghost to make it blessed +, approved, effective, right, and wholly pleasing, that it may become for our good, the Body + and Blood + of Thy most dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And here shall the priest bow low, and, when reading the Words of Institution from the appointed text, shall say them in a slow and clear voice, audible but more moderately:

Who, the day before He suffered, took bread into His holy and venerable hands, and raising His eyes to heaven to Thee, O God, His Almighty Father, giving thanks He blessed + it broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying:

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT: THIS IS TRULY MY BODY,
WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.

The Body of Christ is lifted up for worship, and the Sanctus bell is rung thrice. The priest here shall genuflect before the altar.

In the same way, when the supper was ended, taking also this precious chalice into His holy and venerable hands, and again giving Thee thanks, He blessed + it, and gave it to His disciples, saying:

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK OF IT, THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT: WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY, UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS. DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.

The Blood of Christ is lifted up for worship, and the Sanctus bell is rung thrice. In the same way shall the priest here genuflect before the altar, and, upon rising, say, more loudly than before:

The Mystery of Faith.

And all shall sing these words:

Blessed + is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Then shall the priest continue, saying, in an audible voice:

Unde et memores

Therefore, O Lord, we Thy servants and Thy holy people, mindful of the ever-blessed passion of Christ, Thy Son, His Resurrection from the dead, and His glorious Ascension into heaven, offer unto Thy most glorious Majesty, from thy most gracious gifts, a pure Victim, a holy Victim, a spotless Victim: the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of perpetual salvation.

Deign to regard with a gracious and kindly countenance and accept them, as it pleased Thee to accept the gifts of Thy righteous servant Abel, and the sacrifice of Abraham our Patriarch, and that which Thy high priest Melchisedech offered to Thee: a holy Sacrifice and an immaculate Victim.

Supplices Te Rogamus

Then shall the priest bow low again over the Oblation, saying:

Most humbly we implore Thee, Almighty God, to bid these gifts to be brought by the hands of Thy Holy Angel to Thy altar above, before the face of Thy Divine Majesty: (and here shall he stand erect again) that those of us who share in Them and receive the sacrosanct Body and Blood of Thy Son, be filled with + (over the priest) every heavenly grace and blessing.

Remember also, O Lord, Thy servants and handmaids [N. and N.] who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace. [To them, Lord, and] to all who rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and peace.

Nobis Quoque Peccatoribus

To us also Thy sinful servants (here shall the priest strike his breast once) hoping in the multitude of Thy mercies, vouchsafe to grant some share and fellowship with Thy holy apostles and martyrs: John, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, [Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy], Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, and all Thy Saints. Into their company we beseech Thee to admit us, not weighing our merits, but freely granting us pardon. Through Christ our Lord, through Whom Thou dost ever create, sanctify, vivify, bless + (over the priest) and grant us all these good things.

Now shall the priest raise the Body and Blood on high, saying:

Through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory is to Thee, God the Father Almighty: forever and ever.

R. Amen.