Our First Triduum and Easter

A great success – this year, the Hobart Latin Mass Community celebrated the Triduum and Easter for the first time since the liturgical changes in the nineteen-sixties.

Fr Mannes, a Dominican currently based in Sydney, very kindly came down to Hobart to officiate – he is an excellent singer, and rendered the Exultet extremely well. The choir also performed admirably (no mean effort, singing all the chant, plus motets, at the liturgies for four days in a row), as did the servers; the only real mishap resulted from yours truly, as M.C., managing to step on and break the incense boat, while manoeuvring the umbella into place at the start of the procession to the altar of repose on Holy Thursday evening (I had driven down from Launceston after work, so arguably I was a little distracted). Several appreciative comments about every other aspect of the liturgies were received: I still can't believe we did it! (The incense boat will be repaired in due course…)

In order to be ready for the special rites, we practiced from 6:30 pm onwards on Holy Thursday, and on Good Friday from after Stations till the afternoon Liturgy, with a break for a penitential lunch, while on Holy Saturday we practised from about 6 pm onwards. On Easter Monday it took us till nearly 11 am to get everything packed up. The Archdiocese very kindly lent us several old vestments and a chalice for the liturgies, as the sacristy at St Canice wasn't fully equipped for the many ceremonies carried out.

Our timetable was as follows:

• 7:30 pm Holy Thursday: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, sung and with incense as usual (no footwashing this year), followed by the procession to the altar of repose, then the stripping of the altars and Compline (90 minutes all told); adoration at the altar of repose continued till midnight;
• 10:30 am Good Friday: Stations of the Cross (half an hour);
• 3:00 pm Good Friday: Solemn Afternoon Liturgy (only 75 minutes - the Passion was read, not sung, and there were less than our usual Sunday numbers present);
• 7:30 pm Holy Saturday: Easter Vigil (2 and a quarter hours - the church has no font so all that part of the service was omitted);
• 10:30 am Easter Sunday: Missa cantata, with Vidi aquam beforehand (70 minutes);
• 9:00 am Easter Monday: Low Mass, with the Ordinary sung (40 minutes).

On Good Friday evening at 8 pm, I went with a friend and Fr Mannes to attend the Greeks' service of Matins, with procession of the epitaphion; it was good to see, and I met up with several whom I know, but I found it a very long three hours, so I decided to turn down the invitation to come back the next evening after our own Vigil! Having stayed in Hobart for four nights, I've now returned home on a cold, wet autumn afternoon.

Next year, who knows? With a sufficiently augmented choir, we could even attempt Tenebræ… it would be shorter than the equivalent Byzantine Rite service that I attended.

Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday in Melbourne

While I was staying in Melbourne over Easter, I only had access to the Internet via my mobile phone; and for that reason didn't update my blog.  But now, being at leisure for a while, I intend to look back over my time away, and write of it.

The Easter Vigil began at 8:00pm outside Maryvale (the former presbytery next to the church of St Aloysius, now the offices and so forth for the Latin Mass community), where a decent fire was blazing in a pit dug out of the lawn.  Fr Marshall sang the Exultet beautifully, as I recall.  I will not bother offering reflections on the lengthy service, other than to note its uniform majesty – however, for some inexplicable reason St Dominic was omitted from the Litanies of the Saints!  Again, there was a strange misprint in the otherwise excellent booklets supplied, according to which the Bishop was to breathe upon the baptismal water so as to trace "the Greek letter μ (mu)".  The Liturgy, otherwise excellent in all respects, concluded at 11:10pm, with Happy Easter our greetings to each other as we departed.  I was particularly struck by the magnificent Guerrero motet Maria Magdalene.

Next morning, I arrived at church before 9am; a nice lady brought coffee over, while we fell to practising the chants for the morning's worship.  Having togged up in soutane and surplice, and the rulers of the choir in copes (I found that a bit strange, as did some of those required to do so, but so be it), we entered the liturgical choir in the sanctuary, and there began Terce at 10:30am, while the Bishop was vested at the faldstool from the vestments laid out on the altar.  Terce sung, we processed, singing Salve festa dies, to Our Lady's grotto; Regina cæli was sung, then repeating the Salve festa dies we processed back through the main doors and down the nave to begin Easter Sunday Pontifical Mass at 11:00am.  All was chanted, excepting the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, which were from Palestrina's Missa Æterna Christi munera.  The splendour of the Roman Rite on Easter Day, with 25 in the sanctuary, cannot well be described.  Again, Mass took 90 minutes.

I went off to the Balaclava Hotel for the usual lunch after Mass; and returned to church for the Vespers that afternoon.

Vespers again were sung with cantors in copes; having heard and participated in pretty badly-sung Vespers in years past, it was a huge relief and a privilege to join with such well-done worship of the Almighty.  His Lordship did not pontificate, but sat in choir.  The Magnificat was sung in a fauxbourdon by the estimable Ronan Reilly, with organ variations during the censing of the many altars. Vespers ended, we in choir quickly made our way to the west end gallery by the organ, from where we sang during the ensuing Pontifical Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, concluding with the Laudes regiæ and a setting of the Sub tuum to a Russian melody.  The afternoon worship, this evening sacrifice of praise, took an hour and a quarter, a fitting end to Easter Sunday.

Having a cup of tea afterwards, and an impromptu sing-along of Easter hymns, helped relax into a quiet evening after the busy day at prayer.

Three Sermons

Fr Greg, the visiting Dominican at our local Carmel, has continued his masterly sermon series.  I cannot do them justice in extenso, but can summarize the burthen of his words.  

At the Easter Vigil, he impressed upon us what oft we neglect to note in the Gospel account: that the myrrhbearing women at the Tomb were amazed and terrified, not just by the Angel, but by the news of the Resurrection of Christ - for Easter, while joyous, should also amaze and alarm us.  After all, now that One has risen from the dead, our lives take on a totally different meaning: with eternal life now in prospect, we must needs reorder our affairs to take cognizance of this fact, and this will be no simple or painless task (as the lives of the Apostles, Martyrs, and all Christian Saints illustrates).  

On Easter morning, Fr's homily concerned the deepest truth of this Feast of feasts: that the Resurrection signifies the Father's Yes to Christ, His Yes to His Son's trust in Him, and therefore His Yes to all human hopes for deliverance, for life, for salvation.  Having had such an answer, what sure-founded joy is ours!

To-day, commenting on the Novus Ordo Gospel appointed, about the holy women seeing Our Lord, falling down before Him and clasping His sacred Feet, our preacher pointed out what he had once years before told me in pithy form: that the cure for all doubt and fear is worship and prayer.  (As he had put it, and as I ever remember it and repeat to others and pay heed to it, "If you lose your faith, the last thing you do is stop saying your prayers and stop going to Mass" - for that is precisely when you most need to pray and go to Mass!  True.)  

How do we have hope and trust and faith in Jesus Christ, in His salvation, in Him saving even us?  For we can feel unworthy of God's love - "As if that had anything to do with it," Fr commented forcefully: leaving unsaid what we ought ever recall,  that God's love is gratuitous and unmerited!  Or we may feel - in our Pelagian age - that we have no need of His salvation, which our goodness will deserve of itself, thank you very much, God perforce granting it, as too many suppose.  (O wretched deception and presumptuous heresy!  Salvation is unmeritable!)

We strengthen our faith and win against doubt and fear when we come to worship God at Mass, when we pray, when we contemplate Divine things.  The contemplative life is essential for our souls.  (I suspect the nuns well know the force of this: that's why they are in Carmel, for God's love and to save their souls, yea, and by intercession and example to help save men.)

As always, Fr Greg's homilies are deserving of praise, and I do wish he will one day publish them.  In the meanwhile, I will continue to note what I comprehend of them: but be mindful that "everything is received according to the mode of the receiver" - I do note them do with my emphases, in my language, with my editing, comments, revisions and excisions!  Poor Father...

Easter Elevation Aspiration

Si consurrexistis cum Christo, quæ sursum sunt quærite, ubi Christus est in dexteram Dei sedens; quæ sursum sunt sapite, non quæ super terram.  Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo.  Cum Christus apparuerit, vita vestra, tunc et vos apparebitis cum ipso in gloria. - "If ye be risen with Christ, seek ye the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right of God: savour the things that are above, not those that are upon earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ appears, who is your life, then you also will appear with Him in glory."  (Col. iii, 1-4)

This is a favourite text of mine, being the Easter Vigil Epistle in the Old Rite, and the Easter Day Epistle in the New!  I know it (in Latin) by heart; the above English is my translation.  (The whole of Colossians iii could well form a complete rule of life.)

But why this?  Because it leads into my change of Elevation aspiration; normally, adoring the Host and Chalice as they are successively elevated, I pray the Ave verum; but during Eastertide, the following verses of Ad cenam Agni providi instead:

O vera, digna hostia,

Per quam franguntur tartara,

Captiva plebs redimitur,

Redduntur vitæ præmia.

(O true, worthy Victim, / By Whom Tartarus is smashed, / A captive people redeemed, / The rewards of life restored.)

Quæsumus, Auctor omnium,

In hoc paschali gaudio,

Ab omni mortis impetu

Tuum defende populum.  Amen.

(We beg, Author of all, / In this paschal joy, / From all motions of death / Defend Thy people.  Amen.)

[St Pius V breathed forth his pure soul to God while praying the last-quoted verse of this hymn.]

Roadtrip Report

Departure: about 1pm, Easter Sunday.

Return: about 8pm, Easter Monday.

Approximate distance covered: 400km+.

Having had a good sleep in till 11.30am, and having been at the Trad. Vigil, which suffices for Matins, Compline, and Lauds, all I had to read on Sunday at noon was Prayer during the Day from the Divine Office. Luxury!

Once dressed, packed and breakfasted, I drove from home about 20km to Good Shepherd Church, Kelmscott, with my car already packed by Fr Rowe the day before, prior to the Vigil, with vestments, candles, booklets, and whatnot (in other words, with everything needed for Mass at Bunbury, plus vestments for Kelmscott). The journey took about half an hour - then, upon arrival there, the vestments were unpacked, and, after making my Easter confession, I went to practise the music with Fr Terence (who was to play the none-too-reliable electric organ, as well as sing). Fr Richard joined us shortly before Mass began, just before 2pm. Fr Rowe and servers - including Aaron, who was bringing the Frs R. & T. on the trip in his car - processed in.

The proper Vidi aquam, Mass propers psalm-toned, Mass Orbis factor, Credo III, the Victimæ paschali, O filii et filiæ (solo by yours truly) at offertory and Ad regias Agni dapes at communion - after I made my Easter communion - some organ interludes, and "Through the Red Sea brought at last" for a recessional, comprised our modest and rather unevenly-executed programme. (The Ad regias Agni dapes is an especial favourite of mine, since it is so appropriate for the reception of Holy Communion in Eastertide, and I like in this season to use part of it as a prayer at the Elevation of the Host.) But of course this was but the ornament of the Holy Liturgy, in which we have seen the resurrection of Christ, once more made present in His Body and Blood as our feast and sacrifice, triumphant on the very day of His victory over death.

Fr Rowe gave a short sermon (based on an earlier remark of Fr T.) lampooning the local unbelieving Anglican Archbishop, for his comments in the newspaper to the effect that those believing in the literal, physical resurrection of Our Lord were "living in fairyland": as Fr Rowe pointed out, it is pretend clergy of a pretend church that are living in fairyland [as could be said quite literally of their Dean at St George's, BTW], and one may well ask why they bother at all with their ecclesiastical pretense: is this not hypocrisy? As the Apostle reminds us, If Christ be not risen, our faith is in vain - but He is risen, and His resurrection is our hope.

Come 3pm, Mass concluded, and - after some tasty sandwiches and fizzy cordial provided by the servers' mother - we headed off in convoy for Bunbury, that great metropolis of the South (population approx. 81,000). Along the way, not one but two stops for petrol! (Aaron thought, when I stopped to refuel, that he wouldn't need to fill up even though he had stopped at the servo too, but he revised that opinion further down the track, and, since they were following us, I had perforce to pull over as well.) Because of all this dawdling, we really had to rush... at least, en route, Fr Rowe led a Rosary for himself and me, and likewise the Chaplet of St Michael, and Vespers and Compline from the Roman Breviary, thus completing the cursus of the day prior to 6pm...

We arrived at St Thomas' Church in Carey Park (a suburb of Bunbury) at about a quarter to six in the afternoon, with most of the people already there and waiting for us. Fr Rowe sent Fr R. into the confessional, and lined up the prospective penitents, and then helter-skelter we all got ready for Mass. The music was the same as for Bunbury, albeit with only Fr T. and myself to sing, and a slightly less ill-behaved electric organ... Fr R. sang the Mass (which began a bit late, at about 6.15pm), and gave a beaut homily (which I suspect he was repeating from an earlier Easter Vigil); we finished by 7.15pm, and then had a good chat afterward with various of our friends and acquaintances - including the family of Peter, a sometime-commenter on this blog, who's currently visiting some Traditionalist Carmelites in America.

Aaron and his two priest-passengers headed off to stay with Michael, who often makes the commute to Perth to serve at the Pro.! But Fr Rowe and I were to stay with friends of ours, with whom he always stays and with whom I've stayed when I've done the Bunbury run with Fr before. Lucky us - Frank (our host) had some dhufish, a Western Australian delicacy, for us, which a mate had caught; lucky for us, since it can be $70 a kilo. A royal Easter feast; Frank shewed me the vintage car he's renovating also, which was quite something. And then, finally, to bed after ten.

Up at 7.30am, breakfasted, dressed, packed, and back to church (Aaron and Fr R. had already been in at 7am for a first Low Mass) for Low Mass at nine in the morning on this Easter Monday holiday: about twenty people came, and Fr Rowe gave them a sermon on the Scriptural proofs of the Resurrection, continuing our anti-Anglican theme. Aaron and the other priests arrived toward the end of Mass, and afterward, after the packing up, we split up - they went to visit the local Discalced Carmelite Nuns (concerning whom I blogged last year), while we went to visit Rosemary and family (Gerard her son was the server today, and he helped yesterday too), lovely people, and while there Fr and I joined them for brunch of bacon and eggs.

It wasn't till after twelve that we returned to St Thomas' to collect the pyx with the Sacred Host. (Fr Rowe takes communion to a shut-in in Mandurah as part of his round trip each month.) I had only past the first psalm of Matins, when he returned with Our Lord. From then till Mandurah, we had Rosary, Chaplet of St Michael, Vespers and Compline (! - he'd finished the rest already), Divine Mercy Chaplet, and so forth: it was a great privilege to travel with a priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament, tho' I didn't manage much more than a very conventional devotion.

Once in Mandurah, while Fr made the sick call I finished Matins and Lauds just about, and then we popped in to visit Gerald for lunch-cum-afternoon tea, during which Aaron and Frs T. and R. arrived, fresh from the same heavy traffic we'd had, but still delighted to have had converse with the nuns, who had all assembled in the large parlour, and had fed them quite a feast into the bargain. Very Catholic! But it was after 2pm by the time we had got to Mandurah, and didn't leave till half-past three: so, back to hard driving on the second-last lap.

Once en route, Fr decided to anticipate Matins and Lauds for Tuesday! So I felt very confused indeed with all this Office. Back at last to his presbytery, we unloaded everything, and to cut a long story short then I had to take him into town for the last Mass of the day at the Pro., not because he was to say it - Fr Terence did - but because he had to set up for the ceremonies afterward...

Arriving at the Orate fratres, by the time I'd run back to the car for my Breviary it was almost time for the consecration, and so I adored at the Elevations then prayed Prime, Terce and Sext, with a pause for a spiritual communion at the Ecce Agnus Dei. After the Last Gospel, Leonine Prayers, and Regina cæli, there was time to complete the Office with None.

[Does anyone else find the sequence Matins (interrupted), Vespers, Compline, Matins (continued), Lauds (interrupted, then completed), Matins of the next day, Lauds of the next day, then finally Prime, Terce, Sext and None of today rather bizarre? I felt disoriented.]

Then - the supplying the ceremonies of Baptism for little Augustina, who'd been laved in the waters of regeneration in the hospital soon after birth in an emergency; now all her friends and family were assembled, including me, who know her mother slightly. Fr Terence did a great job, catechising and preaching as he led us through the ceremonies, which were rounded off by enrolling her in the Brown Scapular and Miraculous Medal, and consecrating her to Our Lady, as is the pious custom. What a beautiful end to Easter Monday: a tiny baby publically recognized as one of the newest members of the Mystical Body of Christ, as we celebrate with joy His triumphant resurrection.

I had been tired, but all this evening ritual restored me, and I joined everyone for a light supper in the garden by the church afterward, before finally driving back to my house.

It's been a great trip, but it is really good to be back home.

Happy Easter to all readers; if you're not clergy I doubt you've had quite so busy or churchy an Easter as I!