Childermas

Until the last preconciliar reforms, Mass of the Holy Innocents – Childermas – was said (except if it fell on a Sunday, or was kept as a double of the first class) without Gloria in excelsis, without Alleluia and without Ite missa est: for all these joyful cries were seen as inappropriate to so sad a day. For the same reason, not the red of martyrs but the violet or purple of penance and sadness was worn, with the same exceptions.

Unsurprisingly, this day Fr Paul preached on the evils of abortion and the pro-life cause; Mass was offered up for the protection of human life from conception to natural death. As ever, the culture of life is face to face with the culture of death, as the West embraces societal suicide.

How many little children suffer at the hands of Herods today! And in Belgium we have the gruesome spectacle of euthanasia for children – you'd think the Belgians would have remembered the Nazi regime and all its evil deeds, and not emulated them in pervertedly imagining that there can be "life unworthy of life". How long, O Lord! Such crimes can only cry to heaven for vengeance.

At the end of Mass at Carmel we sang the piteously plaintive Coventry carol: 

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Lullay, thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay. 

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

Bye, bye, lully, lullay. 

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his owne sight,

All young children to slay. 

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay. 

Childermas

The Holy Innocents bore witness to Christ, not by speaking, but by dying: and so they won the martyrs' crown.

In the Divine Office for their feast (a fine composition), and in a part of it online, an apposite extract is given from St Quodvultdeus, Archbishop of Carthage and Metropolitan of Africa, confessor of the Faith under the Arian Visigoths.

The Coventry Carol, with its haunting tune, and sad words, to me sums up the horror of this commemoration – the soldiers hunting out the children, bashing them against walls, slaying them with swords, the unchilded mothers screaming...

From among many versions of the Carol seen sung on YouTube:

In sympathy with the sadness of this feast, until the last pre-Conciliar reforms, the Te Deum at Matins and Gloria in excelsis at Mass were not sung on Childermas day except it fall on Sunday; and, except on Sunday, not red, but purple was worn.

As often, the Dominican Breviary puts us in touch with medieval tradition, and provides not only proper antiphons, but also proper psalms for Matins of the Holy Innocents, the antiphons drawing on and interpreting those psalms in light of the feast:

Aña i.  Novit Dominus vias Innocentium, qui non steterunt in viis peccatorum.  (Cf. Ps 1:6a, 1b; & Ps 1)

Aña ij.  Rex terræ infremuit adversus Christum: quia rex in Sion constitutus super innocentium millia regnat.  (Cf. Ps 2:1a, 2ac, 6ab; & Ps 2)

Aña iij.  Deus, judex justus, judica nos secundum innocentiam nostram.  (Cf. Ps 7:12a, 9bc; & Ps 7)

Aña iv.  Ex ore infantium, Deus, et lactentium laude perfecta, destruis inimicum.  (Cf. Ps 8:3; & Ps 8)

Aña v.  Judicabit Dominus pupillum, et viduam: et pluet super peccatores laqueos ignis.  (Cf. Ps 10:7; & Ps 10)

Aña vj.  Mortis usuras rex impius exegit super innocentes: sed illi requiescunt in monte sancto Dei; malignus ad nihilum est deductus.  (Cf. Ps 14:1b, 4a, 5ab; & Ps 14)

Aña vij.  Quis ascendit, aut quis stabit in loco sancto Dei?  Innocens manibus, et mundo corde.  (Cf. Ps 23:3-4a; & Ps 23)

Aña viij.  Innocentes adhæserunt mihi, quorum pedes avulsi sunt a laqueo mortis.  (Cf. Ps 24:21a, 15b; & Ps 24)

Aña ix.  Filio regis datum est judicium: ut salvet innocentes filios pauperem: et humiliabit Herodem calumniatorem.  (Cf. Ps 71:2b, 4bc; & Ps 71)

The last antiphon is instructive: Christ the newborn King, about Whose everlasting Reign the Royal Psalmist sings, is He to Whom judgement is given (by the Father); He shall save the innocent sons of the poor; and He shall humble Herod the proud.