Psallite Sapienter

Laudem Gloriæ

2012-02-01T07:24:00.000+11:00

Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity's delight was to be, first on earth and then forever in heaven, "a praise of glory" (cf. Eph. i, 5. 12. 14). While looking up the EF Mass Propers for St John Bosco (whose OF Mass I attended yester-day), I found his Secret to unexpectedly refer to this: Súscipe, Dómine, oblatiónem mundam salutáris Hóstiæ, et præsta: ut, te in ómnibus et super

$100 Bet: My Money's on Tony

2012-01-31T18:52:00.002+11:00

Tribal loyalties run deep - my mother cannot even conceive of the possibility of voting Liberal, whereas I have often done so! (Non-Australians please note: in Australian political terms, to a first approximation "Liberal" doesn't mean liberal, but conservative. I am no liberal, but I am a conservative.) Ideology aside, given the maladministration evident in both the State and Commonwealth

$100 Bet: My Money's on Tony

2012-01-31T18:51:00.000+11:00

Proposed Latin Mass Chaplaincy

2012-01-31T15:29:00.002+11:00

Here in Tasmania, all are playing a waiting game, as news of the appointment of our next Archbishop is confidently expected. (I heard a very pleasing rumour as to the name only yester-day.) One matter that the new Ordinary must take in hand is that of making long-overdue provision for the legitimate aspirations of many Catholics in Tasmania, who wish for regular Extraordinary Form Masses to

Proposed Latin Mass Chaplaincy

2012-01-31T15:29:00.000+11:00

Chevra Tehillim

2012-01-30T21:42:00.002+11:00

So good it is to have returned after a long absence to reading the whole Breviary daily! Strange to say, I seem always to best do this on holiday: all but part of Matins on Thursday, and all on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and now Monday, Deo gratias. I love the psalms, old friends as they seem to me, and it is great to have the opportunity to recite all one hundred and fifty of them in a week.

Excellent Schola

2012-01-29T19:32:00.001+11:00

I was delighted (as Abp Hart likes to say) to hear the chant sung with such purity at High Mass at St Aloysius this morning. Adorate Deum, the Introit, is a particular favourite of mine - and last week, so caught up was I in M.C.-ing the Mass, I hardly attended to its music at all. Mass IV and Credo IV were good choices and sung beautifully also - indeed, I was emboldened to join in these from my

Condign punishment!

2012-01-27T19:08:00.002+11:00

The gross disrespect and physical violence shewn to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition yester-day, and now the outrageous burning of the Australian flag, by malcontents, demands the full force of the law: arrest, trial, and an exemplary sentence if convicted. As for that illegal squatters' "embassy" dirtying Canberra, it ought be cleared away forthwith, a blot well overdue removal.

Off to Tarrawarra

2012-01-25T18:42:00.000+11:00

Seven years and two weeks ago, a friend of mine entered Our Lady of Tarrawarra Abbey; to-morrow, Br Luke will take his solemn vows as a Cistercian monk there. Getting to the Abbey will mean getting up about as early as the monks do! – I am taking the 6 a.m. flight to Melbourne, which requires arising before the sun, even in these days of high summer. Thursday will be a reunion in many ways, given

3rd Sunday after Epiphany

2012-01-21T21:28:00.001+11:00

To-morrow, off to Hobart for to M.C. at our Missa cantata! (The last few days I've been away up the far north-west, I'm about to go down to Hobart and back, and come Thursday I'm flying to Melbourne... a busy time.) It being the Third Sunday after Epiphany, the Liturgy echoes with the glory of Christ's Manifestation to the Gentiles: that is the hermeneutical key for this Sunday, Adorate Deum. (

Back from the Far North-West

2012-01-21T18:02:00.001+11:00

Green Point Beach, Marrawah, on the west coast of Tasmania (280 km from Launceston).When at full scale, the windfarms to the north are just visible. Two days ago, I was at Marrawah and Arthur River – the westernmost settlements in mainland Tasmania, locales I'd never previously visited – and yester-day, at Cape Grim and Woolnorth Point (northernmost tip of Tasmania), as part of a tour of

In the Grand Traditions of the Italian Navy

2012-01-17T15:08:00.000+11:00

Far from being the last man on board, that criminal suspect, Captain Schettino, appears to have deserted his command and ensconced himself in a comfy lifeboat before his own passengers were all rescued, the disgrace! It is well-known, given events of the early forties, that the Italian army operates best in retreat, and Italian battleships reverse rapidly back to port when danger threatens; but

Parity... with the Euro?

2012-01-17T10:58:00.003+11:00

I suppose some might think it selfish that, not content with encouraging the breakup of the U.K., I also keep among my other intentions the desire that the Euro continue to fall in value (as it surely will for well-known reasons, such as the unaccountable refusal of the Greeks to accept German expertise in balancing their books – after all, matters in Athens are a real polnische Wirtschaft,

A Singable Gloria at Last

2012-01-17T09:50:00.000+11:00

I surprised myself in the shower this morning by spontaneously singing Paul Taylor's setting of the Gloria in excelsis (the new translation of course) from his Mass of St Francis – unlike all the unmemorable settings of the old ICEL paraphrase thereof (I recall my old parish priest saying that he'd never found an appealing one), this one is singable and tuneful. I suppose I shouldn't be too

Papa Marcelli

2012-01-16T21:03:00.000+11:00

To-day, at Lauds (according to the Dominican Breviary) there is a memorial of St Marcellus I, Pope and Martyr (reigned May 308 to 309); and of course this brings to mind the even shorter reign of Pope Marcellus II (9th April to 1st May 1555); and in turn Palestrina's famous Missa Papæ Marcelli, composed to honour his memory, whose polyphonic magnificence, according to legend, averted the danger

Pray for a New Archbishop

2012-01-16T12:06:00.000+11:00

Like many dioceses throughout Australia and the whole world, that of Hobart is waiting for a new bishop; turning to the Missal, I find these prayers "For the Election of a Pope or a Bishop": O God, eternal shepherd, who govern your flock with unfailing care, grant in your boundless fatherly love a pastor for your Church who will please you by his holiness and to us show watchful care. Through...

Farewell Christmas, Arise Scotland

2012-01-14T21:47:00.003+11:00

Farewell, Christmastide, till next year! – or so I thought, having done with the last of the Christmastide Offices (that of the Octave of the Epiphany, and the Lord's Baptism), and now this morning reading Lauds of St Hilary; but of course Candlemas, due in a few weeks, is the last echo of Christmas, 40 days after... ****** On a political note, I am delighted to read that a referendum on

Question re Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation

2012-01-12T21:58:00.004+11:00

Does any one out there know when the Latin of the two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation was changed? Was it in the editio typica tertia, issued 2002? I noticed that a change must have been made, since in the present 2010 English translation, the Prayers include whole phrases missing from both the old ICEL English paraphrase, and the Latin issued in 1983 (yes, bizarrely enough, while these

Mass for the Church (White)

2012-01-11T11:41:00.000+11:00

Deo gratias, white vestments! My parish priest, being a wise pastor, celebrated a Mass to-day "For the Church", using the first of the formularies in the section of the Missal rather clumsily referred to as "Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions" – I give the orations below, and note for the moment (do not fear, gentle reader) that he used, as seemed appropriate, the Eucharistic

Sundays, then Saints, then Ferias

2012-01-11T08:37:00.000+11:00

Pruning the calendar of feast days gets things exactly backwards, since historically speaking Mass was celebrated firstly on Sundays, then on the feasts of martyrs and other saints. The development of the whole suite of feasts and seasons around Easter and Christmas paralleled this – hence the days of Lent have proper Masses, as they lead into the celebration of Holy Week. Penitential times

Green Time

2012-01-10T19:38:00.001+11:00

Fr Rowe detests green vestments – he avoids wearing them whenever possible. (So he told me when I was one of his parishioners over in Perth some years back.) Luckily, being a priest who only uses the Extraordinary Form, he has his wish, given the multiplicity of saints' days even in the somewhat pruned 1962 calendar, and so in most cases wears green solely on Sundays after Epiphany and after

Stupid Things Heard on the Radio

2012-01-10T10:48:00.002+11:00

While driving, I listen to ABC News Radio, which broadcasts Federal Parliament live when it is in session – hence some of the stupid things I hear from time to time: Just to-day: shock, horror! the percentage of workers with tertiary qualifications in the farming and agriculture sector is far lower than in other areas of employment! For Pete's sake... A few days ago: a reporter, evidently getting

Prex Eucharistica Brevior

2012-01-08T21:09:00.001+11:00

To my astonishment, the official documents of the work of the liturgical reformers in the late sixties, all in Latin except for some rulings from Paul VI quoted in Italian (!), quite openly refer to their ongoing drafts for what is now Eucharistic Prayer II as Prex eucharistica brevis or Prex Eucharistica II Brevior – the brief or briefer Eucharistic Prayer! How breathtaking, given that this

I Love the Epiphany

2012-01-07T22:21:00.005+11:00

The Lord's Epiphany, I realize, is a favourite feast to me, dearer perhaps than Christmas! - being more spiritual, more mystical, the older of the two feasts, more easily solemnized, not dumbed down, not commercialized, not kiddified, not just a feast at table, not dominated by considerations of cooking turkeys and hams and puddings, nor of giving and receiving gifts (good, very good, though such

Invenerunt Puerum cum Maria Matre ejus, et procidentes adoraverunt eum.

2012-01-06T23:44:00.003+11:00

They found the Child with Mary His Mother, (genuflect) and falling down they adored Him.— St Matthew ii, 11. Especially at Christmastide, most especially on the feast of the Epiphany, when I come before the Crib, I love to repeat these words as I kneel to adore the Saviour Whose image I see before me, offering not gold, frankincense nor myrrh, but my heart's oblation, as I find the Child with

Noveritis EF and OF

2012-01-06T23:13:00.003+11:00

Know, dear brethren, that, as we have rejoiced at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, so by leave of God's mercy we announce to you also the joy of his Resurrection, who is our Saviour. [On the 5th day of February will be Septuagesima Sunday. ‡] On the 22nd day of February will fall Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of the fast of the most sacred Lenten season. On the 8th day of April you will

Three out of Five

2012-01-06T18:05:00.001+11:00

Having heard Mass at the city church to-day, it was comforting to find that the celebrant is happily using the new translation there, and the large noonday congregation of about 35 was also content. From what I've seen of the five local priests (my own parish priest, for the north-western part of this city; the three priests in the central parish; and the one in the southern parish), it thus

In a similar way

2012-01-06T16:25:00.000+11:00

Am I the only person to find the phrase "In a similar way", employed in the new translation of the Mass in every one of the Eucharistic Prayers to render the Latin Simili modo (or rather Similiter, in the case of the first E.P. for Reconciliation), very banal? I note that in the old translation, the words Simili modo were simply left untranslated! – except in E.P. IV, where they were rendered "

What about Punishment?

2012-01-06T09:22:00.005+11:00

An auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles has resigned, owing to the unfortunate revelation that he has two teenage children. A handwringing statement of "sadness and shock" emanates from the Archbishop: but what about the justified anger and rebuke due to such a shocking piece of episcopal hypocrisy? Meanwhile a Canadian bishop has been imprisoned for possession of immoral images of children. (There

Plausible Reforms

2012-01-04T11:26:00.007+11:00

Pursuant to my notes about those prayers most easily omitted from the Ordinary Form Mass, I was reminded of some plausible reforms that I have mused on – some returning to the more traditional forms, some more radical: 1. For a start, the "Glory be to the Father" formerly an interal part of the Introit should be restored to its proper place accompanying the Entrance antiphon. No opportunity to

Omitted Prayers

2012-01-04T08:31:00.002+11:00

At Ordinary Form Mass, the following texts are sometimes omitted by unliturgical priests, despite the illicitness of doing so: the Entrance Antiphon when nothing else is sung in its place; either the Kyrie, when the Penitential Act does not contain it, or the Penitential Act, when the Kyrie is said by itself, as if it suffices alone (this shows ignorance of the distinction in fact and history

The Shortest Options

2012-01-03T21:42:00.006+11:00

Given the love for a quick Mass that causes many a Catholic to languish, I thought it might be a service to servants of the Liturgy (i.e. priests) to list all the shortest, fastest, quickest options in the Ordinary Form (especially in this Olympic year): Never use incense; Never sing (stick to Low Mass, in other words, just like in the old days); Always employ a server (to hold the Missal, set

The Most Holy Name

2012-01-03T17:59:00.002+11:00

By mistake, I read the ferial Office yester-day, when I should have said the Office of the Holy Name of Jesus (according to my Dominican Diurnal and Breviary); so, instead of reading the ferial Office to-day, I'm saying the Office of the Holy Name. "Office for Office", after all, is the principle. In addition, to-day, the 3rd, is the Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name in the Ordinary Form,

"The Alternative Has Become the Norm"

2012-01-03T15:55:00.002+11:00

Responding to my earlier posting about how the Roman Mass is de facto the Hippolytan Mass, an "anonymous young priest" (we assume, a Catholic! perhaps a Coo-ees contributor? but probably not to that aCatholic Catholica...) has emailed me to remark that: - At least in Australia, clergy exercising legitimate options have routinely opted for the simpler and shorter. “2 is the new 1” as far as EPs

Addendum re Eucharistic Prayer II

2012-01-03T15:24:00.005+11:00

Opening up Hänggi & Paul's Prex Eucharistica (Fribourg, 1968), to find the versio latina antiquissima of the Eucharistic Prayer in the little work called The Apostolic Tradition attributed to St Hippolytus, and then to compare it with the Latin of Eucharistic Prayer II, I find that, of the 244 words of the ancient Latin version, I must underline 78 as not being found in the modern E.P. II, even

Is the Roman Rite and Mass synonymous with the Roman Canon?

2012-01-03T08:36:00.003+11:00

Taking a traditionalist perspective of Mass, is the modern Mass substantially the same as the traditional Mass if and only if the Roman Canon is used? (Of course I recognize that Christ is made present in His Sacrament in both Masses; and that both forms are licit and God-pleasing per se; and that a certain Supreme Pontiff has termed them two forms of the one Roman Rite. Nor am I fussing about

Eureka

2012-01-01T09:56:00.000+11:00

It must have been an illumination vouchsafed by the Paraclete, I say in all humility: on New Year's Eve at the parish vigil Mass, I finally understood why, at O.F. Mass, the first reading on the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, Maria Mater Dei, is from Numbers 6:22-27, specifying the manner in which to impart the Aaronic benediction. I had been trying to fathom the intended connexion between that

Frs Bob Maguire & Bill Uren - Say the Trad Mass!

2011-12-30T22:04:00.000+11:00

I hear on the grapevine that Fr Bob Maguire, that lovable independent thinker, has taken to saying the Trad. Mass on Sunday evenings, and has even spoken in praise of it on the radio. Extraordinary! More amazing still, Fr Bill Uren, S.J., not normally thought of as a traditionalist, has promised to say such Masses at Newman College, given that many young people there have asked for it. I think

All I want for Christmas... er, New Year...

2011-12-30T17:50:00.000+11:00

Please may I have:1. A new Archbishop (a strong Catholic);2. A Traditional Mass each Sunday (at least in Hobart);3. The Australian Ordinariate up and running - including a local congregation.Of your charity, pray for these intentions – and for the many other dioceses and archdioceses around Australia where similar needs are felt. Dear readers, feel free to add your own wants and needs to this

Missæ Bifaciatæ et Trifaciatæ

2011-12-30T16:59:00.001+11:00

I have already at length discoursed upon that liturgical curiosity, the triple Mass, when discussing the Missa trifaciata offered at Christmas in the Dormitionist Order; for lesser but still prominent feasts, those Canons maintain the antique custom of offering up a twofold Mass, a Missa bifaciata. Passion Friday, as all men know, is the last Lenten Friday before Good Friday; while in past

Altar Card for the New Mass on Sale!

2011-12-30T10:44:00.002+11:00

Simply amazing! Everything old is new again; or, back to the future... St Pauls Publications are offering an altar card, 297 by 210 mm (produced by C.T.S. in the U.K., unsurprisingly), to assist priests in saying the new Mass – in both English and Latin! – and which is described as follows:This encapsulated card reproduces the text of the prayers of consecration in both the new English

Papal Liturgy, or, As they do it at the Oratory

2011-12-26T22:46:00.002+11:00

I didn't watch the Papal Midnight Mass, being busy with Christmas present-opening and then lunch with family and friends (after myself attending Midnight Mass at Carmel, then serving the Dawn Mass in my parish), but heard from my parish priest that it was splendid, and that the music was much, much improved over the usual proverbially bad standard of the Sistine Choir. Having been thus alerted,

Missa Trifaciata

2011-12-24T14:55:00.003+11:00

Our friends the Dormitionists, that most retiring of religious Orders, whose charism is to live here and now eternal rest in Christ, awake somewhat rested from the Great Slumber they undertake, from Our Lord's Annunciation until the very Eve of His Nativity, imitating therein the pattern of the Divine Master; and thereupon celebrate the three Masses of Christmas as one. This, of course, images

A Snowball's Chance in Hell

2011-12-23T22:10:00.001+11:00

Comet Lovejoy – what a nice name! – has evidently taken Churchill's advice to heart: "If you're going through hell, keep going." It rounded the Sun on the 16th of December, only a few weeks after its discovery, in what was thought to have been a suicidal plunge to within 150,000 km of the torrid, roiling surface of our star, passing through the very corona, the superheated atmosphere thereof –

Good Priest, Bad Priest, Poor Crazed Layman

2011-12-23T19:17:00.002+11:00

No, the poor crazed layman is not in fact me (though close enough), but Vincent - pray for him - who became disturbed when he heard voices after Mass the other day (my voice and Father's! - I had popped into the sacristy to drop off his Christmas present), and started praying out loud such choice orations as "Send their demons back to hell"; which made me worry for his sanity. Father told me

Fr Blake on Our Lady as Model Communicant

2011-12-19T10:49:00.000+11:00

Fr Ray Blake has a most devout and thought-provoking post about Our Lady, the perfect model of all communicants, truly a Spiritual Vessel uniquely fit for the Lord. Indeed, were we not commanded to communicate, who could imagine himself worthy to receive Christ? But Truth Himself saith, Take, eat. With the Centurion, Holy Church bids us pray, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under

Santa Loves Jesus This Much

2011-12-19T10:38:00.000+11:00

A famous fresco depicting St Nicholas striking Arius for his blasphemy against Christ (sent me by a Dominican father).

Feast of St Lazarus

2011-12-17T13:14:00.001+11:00

To-day, as well as being the day whereon the O Antiphons begin to be employed at Vespers, while, at Lauds, special antiphons for the psalms are supplied, is the feast of St Lazarus, whom Our Lord raised from the dead. The Dormitionists keep this day with a special Mass...

The Advent Prose

2011-12-14T17:39:00.000+11:00

At Benediction after Compline on Tuesday, we sang the Advent Prose, Rorate cæli desuper; I was minded to look up something about it, and found - an old post of mine on this very chant. What plaintive notes, what expectant thrill...

Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe

2011-12-12T16:38:00.002+11:00

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us! I blogged about the Mass of her feast some years back, but the links to the EF texts thereof don't work any more, so (after some digging) here is the Proper, ne prorsus interiret. INTROIT Sedulius; Ps. 44:2 Salve, sancta Parens, enixa puerpera Regem: qui cælum, terramque regit in sæcula sæculorum. Ps. Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego opera mea regi

Faith and Faithfulness

2011-12-08T21:20:00.000+11:00

We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self.— II Tim. ii, 13 (Jerusalem Bible) I always give thanks for the unmerited gift of faith; I always wish I were a good deal more faithful! I often reflect that "the devils believe, and tremble"(James ii, 19); for "faith without works is dead", as the next verse of that Epistle reminds me. It always seems a mystery

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross

2011-12-07T18:28:00.003+11:00

It seems that we await word from the Vatican on the official starting date for the Australian Personal Ordinariate* for former Anglicans – early next year? – but at least we know it has been placed under the patronage of Our Lady of the Southern Cross: a busy Lady, seeing as she is patroness of the troubled diocese of Toowoomba, indeed chosen as such by none other than the notorious last Ordinary

St Hubert's Hospice

2011-12-06T18:08:00.000+11:00

Suzie still recovering from her operation for a benign adenoma of the parathyroid, and now Gracie recuperating from the removal of two lipomas, I have decided that my home has become St Hubert's Hospice for Sick Hounds. Of your charity, dear reader, pray for all sick animals, particularly my sorry pair! SS Dominic and Francis, SS Roch and Hubert, pray for them.

Semi-Pelagian Sermon

2011-12-06T10:57:00.000+11:00

An unusual sermon at Carmel this morning: referring to the parable of the lost sheep, the preacher most unfortunately said "Well, none of us have gone astray, so how does this apply to us?" What pride, what hubris! Surely every Christian feels himself a lost sheep. He went on to surmise that perhaps this parable could mean for us "good sheep" that we might have hidden talents or gifts we need

Back from Hobart

2011-12-05T15:04:00.000+11:00

All went well for our monthly Missa cantata: the liturgical proceedings took just over an hour, as usual, and I felt that I'm settling into the role of M.C. with somewhat more assurance (though I did have our poor priest read the Communion and Postcommunion of the 1st Sunday before I realized my error and redirected him!). While our choir was depleted in numbers, as well as chanting the Ordinary

En route to the South

2011-12-03T11:55:00.003+11:00

An experiment, this - while I wait for a second coffee, I'm blogging from my iPhone at Zeps in Campbell Town. Brunch done, I'll amble along to the bookshop in the convict-built cellar of the Fox and Hounds [sorry: the Foxhunters Return - an odd name either way, considering there were no foxes in Tasmania], and visit the local church and the three priests' graves behind it, before motoring on. By

A Nice Little Poem

2011-12-02T12:17:00.003+11:00