Second Sunday after Epiphany Mass and Picnic

Today the Latin Mass community, North and South, gathered at Colebrook to attend the monks’ Mass for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, reflecting on the mystery of the Wedding feast at Cana and Our Lady’s intercession thereat, and afterwards to have a pleasant picnic at their property at Rhyndaston. Mass was glorious and moving, the elevation barely visible through clouds of incense – “and the glory of God filled the sanctuary” – and put me in mind of what Dom Anscar Vonier wrote about “The Doctrinal Power of the Liturgy of the Catholic Church” in his Sketches and Studies in Theology:

One of the great advantages of the liturgical presentment of Catholic dogma is found in this, that it sets forth revealed truth in a non-combative and non-controversial way. It is truly the divine bread prepared for the use of the children. We forget the unbeliever, the heretic, the schismatic, when we are gathered together for the Feasts of the Lord; instead, we are made to remember the Angelic Choirs and the Saints of heaven. If evil and Satan are at all alluded to in the liturgy, such remembrances are songs of triumph, because in the Liturgy the powers of darkness are mentioned only in connexion with Christ's victory over all sin. It is indeed a supreme satisfaction to the Catholic soul to be thus left to enjoy the Faith for its own sake; it creates in the Church a spirit of confidence far more potent than any controversy, however well conducted, can do.

(I quoted quite a lot more of this back in 2008.) 

2nd Sunday in Boring Time

Ever since an old acquaintance explained to me the concept of Boring Time, I've never felt like referring to it by any other name.

In any case, by a happy coincidence that even Bugnini didn't efface, the Collect this Sunday is the same as that for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, so I felt rather at home when at early Mass at Carmel to-day; again, Fr Kene was the celebrant, again the nuns sang the Kyrie and Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei in Latin plainchant, and I was able to hear a solid homily, assist at the tremendous Sacrifice, and receive its fruits in Holy Communion.

The other orations of the Mass were also noteworthy; the oratio super oblata was the Secret for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost in the old Missal, and the post communio was the Postcommunion for Friday after Ash Wednesday in the same (changing only tua to una).

In order to the better pray the Mass, I read along in the Latin of Eucharistic Prayer III, which I find orthodox and acceptable, though I wish for the Roman Canon and not some recent composition based on a suggested model by Dom Cipriano Vaggagini, however learned.

Fr Kene preached quite well on the universal vocation to holiness, which is God's perpetual call to each one of us in our state here and now to do His Will by living a moral life and acting as His instruments to call others also to heed the same still, small Voice, just as we ourselves have heard His Call through intermediaries deployed in our path by Divine Providence that we may be saved.  Thus he expatiated on the call of Samuel in I Kings (I Samuel) iii, and its more perfect image in the call of the first Apostles by Our Lord in St John i, 35-42.  In particular, he exhorted us to fly fornication, as St Paul so counsels in I Corinthians vi, 13-20.  

I was amused, let us say, to note that - as Paul VI desired - the passages for the Lesson and the Epistle have been edited to remove the more earthy and distressing verses; which of course are just the lessons we really need!  So God's judgement upon the iniquitous house of Eli are omitted (I Kings iii, 11-18), and the stark words of the Apostle (I Cor. vi, 15b-16):

Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?  Never!  Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her?  For, as it is written, "The two shall become one".

The much-vaunted ultra-copious lectionary of the Novus Ordo is I think foolishly bowdlerized.  How stupid, in our oversexed shameless culture!

Farewell, Epiphanytide

Even in the 1962 Breviary, tempus per annum is nigh... with Compline to-night, Epiphanytide ends, and then we have four weeks after Epiphany until Septuagesima Sunday on the 8th of February comes to prepare us for Lent.  Nonetheless, this period of time still carries traces of the mystery of the Epiphany...

In the Traditional Rite, the chants of the Sunday Masses will continue the theme of the adoration of Christ made made manifest: In excelso throno vidi sedere virum, quem adorat multitudo Angelorum (this Sunday's Introit); Omnis terra adoret te, Deus (next Sunday's); Adorate Deum, omnes Angeli ejus (the 3rd and 4th Sundays' Introit).  Similarly, the Divine manifestation of power in Christ will be the subject of the Gospel passages read: the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana this coming Sunday (St John ii, 1-11); then - immediately after the Transfiguration, upon descending the mountain - the cure of a leper and next the healing of the Centurion's servant upon that officer's noble confession of astoundingly strong faith (St Matthew viii, 1-13); and on the 4th Sunday, the stilling the storm by Our Blessed Lord (St Matthew viii, 23-27).  How utterly appropriate to this prolongation of our consideration of the Manifestation of Christ will be the Offertory and Communion on these two last Sundays: Dextera Domini fecit virtutem ("The right hand of the Lord hath wrought power") and Mirabantur omnes de his ("All marvelled at these things").

(BTW, Romans having been run through at Matins from after Christmas until the days after Epiphany, now a start has just been made on I Corinthians, which continues this week; next week will feature II Corinthians; the 3rd week after Epiphany will have Galatians and Ephesians at Matins; and the 4th week, Philippians, Colossians, and I & II Thessalonians.  Of course, at Matins only excerpts of this rich fare can be fitted in - in the coming time I hope to sit down with my pocket New Testament and catch up on at least some of these marvellous inspired words of the Apostle in this his year.)

The Mass in commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord is that of the Epiphany, but for the orations and its proper Gospel (St John i, 29-34), as follows:

At that time: 

John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who taketh away the sin of the world.  This is He, of whom I said: After me there cometh a Man, Who is preferred before me: because He was before me.  And I knew Him not, but that He may be made manifest* in Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.  And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him.  And I knew Him not; but He Who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon Him, He it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.  And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God.

[* The Greek word here is φανερωθῇ (to be revealed, to be made known) from φανερόω (to reveal or make known); whereas our word Epiphany (ἐπιφάνεια) comes from ἐπιφαίνω (to appear, to give light), itself derived from φαίνω (to shine) both of which in the passive mean "to appear, to be revealed" - I surmise that all these words are related, but am unsure.]

I've just sat down (with the Cricket on in the background) and read over Bl Columba Marmion's conferences on the Epiphany and Baptism of Our Lord from Christ in His Mysteries.  Among many deep insights, which I would wish to quote in extenso, I was struck by his explanation of why Christ came to accept from John the baptism of repentance: though He was without sin, for us He was made sin, as the Apostle dares tell us (II Cor. v, 21), as the Head and elect representative of our fallen race, and so "to fulfil all righteousness" (St Matt. iii, 15), Our Lord thus signified His taking upon Himself the sins of the world, He Who alone could and would in process of time take them away by nailing the handwriting that was against us to the Cross, through He Himself, all immaculate, sinless and holy, being nailed fast thereto for us, made accursed for us by hanging on that infamous gibbet, that we might be made the righteousness of God (II Cor. v, 21).  Glory to Him for ever!

It is with these thoughts that this Collect of the Baptism, again, like the oldest and purest Roman prayers, very deep and surprisingly widely applicable, is best appreciated; for it delves deep into the mystery, not presenting it in a facile ICEL manner suited to kindergarten inmates, but summing up in lapidary prose a consideration well worth pondering:

Deus, cujus Unigenitus in substantia nostræ carnis apparuit: præsta, quæsumus; ut per eum, quem similem nobis foris agnovimus, intus reformari mereamur.  Qui tecum vivit...

(God, Whose Onlybegotten in the substance of our flesh hath appeared: grant, we beg; that through Him, whom we have acknowledged to be outwardly similar to us, we may deserve to be inwardly reformed.  Who with thee liveth...)

Christ hath wrought our salvation - now we must by faith in Him, by obedience to His commands, by His grace lay hold of His gift of eternal healing, that the objective salvation He won for us may effect our subjective salvation, "that the salvation promised us may be ours".