Quinquagesima at Colebrook

I had a meeting to attend in Colebrook this afternoon, and, having found out that Fr Pius hoped to celebrate Mass at the church there, decided to shave 50 km off my usual drive to the Latin Mass in Hobart, plus make my meeting in good time, by going to the Priory Mass at 11 am at St Patrick's. It was nice to have a later start in the morning and an easier drive…

Because the beautifully restored Pugin-designed church has an intact rood screen, and the front pews have been placed antiphonally with the choir lectern in the midst for the monastic Office, taking my place in the first of the pews placed lengthwise across the church I had a view as it were into the gem-studded casket that is the sanctuary, within which space, and most especially before the altar, the holy of holies at its upper end, the sacred liturgy unfolded before me and the others in the congregation.

The Prior was the celebrant, and his first five candidates the servers, of the Missa cantata, preceded by the Asperges as usual. I was moved by the engaging detail that Fr Pius led the singing of the Gregorian Propers and Ordinary (Mass XI & Credo I), with the rest of the servers forming the choir – he himself sang the Gradual alone, and psalm-toned the Tract (the only concession to their small numbers). 

Father preached – as one would expect – a detailed, focussed and liturgically-illuminated homily, reminding us that the Lord in today's Gospel foretells his Passion and Resurrection, while the Apostle emphasises in the Epistle, given our Lenten penance about to begin, that all our doings without charity are worthless. 

After Mass, the altar party moved to the Lady Altar, where before Our Lady of Colebrook they sang Sub tuum, before invoking Our Lady of Cana, praying the following prayer to St Joseph for the success of their just-established monastic foundation, and finally invoking St Mary of the Cross, before returning to the sacristy.

Prayer to St Joseph attributed to St Francis de Sales 

Glorious Saint Joseph, Spouse of Mary, grant us, we beseech thee, thy paternal protection, through the Heart of Jesus Christ. O thou whose infinite power reaches out to all our needs, rendering possible for us that which is impossible, look upon the concerns of thy children with thy fatherly countenance. In the troubles and sorrows that afflict us, we have confident recourse to thee. Deign to take under thy loving protection this important and difficult endeavour, the cause of our worries, and dispose its success to the glory of God and to the benefit of His faithful servants. Amen.

Quinquagesima; Russian Martyrs

For the first time in a few weeks I was back at my actual parish church for Sunday Mass (OF) – after all, I was rostered on to read (yes, I do; and serve; and sing).  I find I missed my excellent parish priest's birthday, and the surprise birthday party thrown for him by the parish!

While in the modern calendar it was the 5th Sunday per annum, I certainly think of it as Quinquagesima, since after all it falls nearly fifty (in fact, 49) days before Easter. Ash Wednesday approaches...

Meanwhile, my friend the sub-deacon at the Russian Catholic parish in Melbourne informs me that they kept the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Russia on Sunday (the last before the first of their pre-Lenten Sundays, the Sunday of Zacchæus, which would be "Nonagesima" in Western terms, since Julian Easter falls very late this year, on the 5th of May) – quite rightly, since, as he texted me, "the greater part of [the] Russian Catholic Church was slaughtered in the godless persecution" carried out by the Soviet Communists, to say nothing of the countless Orthodox slain, from the Tsar down to the humblest peasant. May their memory be eternal! And may such martyrs pray for us.

I subjoin some texts from the Divine Liturgy (Troparia sung during the Beatitudes and at the Little Entrance; Kontakion; and the Prokeimenon, Epistle, Alleluia and Gospel of the Saints):

Remember, O Lord, the dreadful torments which the new passion-bearers suffered for Thee, who have now sprouted forth from our race; and accept their entreaties for our salvation.

O righteous Judge, Thou hast opened the kingdom of heaven unto the confessors of the Church of Russia. Hearken, O Lord, unto their righteousness, and give ear unto their supplication for the salvation of our souls.

O most divine Trinity, return us from our captivity! We know that sin hath increased in our land more than ever before; yet grace also hath shone forth in the struggle of the new saints, who also entreat Thee, O thrice-holy God, for the salvation of our souls.

Gather the dispersed; raise up the faint-hearted; call them that have renounced the holy Faith and convert them, O gracious and all-pure Virgin Mary, entreating Christ the Saviour, with the holy new martyrs and confessors, for the forgiveness and salvation of our souls. 

O ye holy hierarchs, royal passion-bearers and pastors, monks and laymen, men, women and children, ye countless new-martyrs, confessors, blossoms of the spiritual meadow of Russia, who blossomed forth wondrously in time of grievous persecutions bearing good fruit for Christ in your endurance: Entreat Him, as the One that planted you, that He deliver His people from godless and evil men, and that the Church of Russia be made steadfast through your blood and suffering, unto the salvation of our souls. 

O ye new passion-bearers of Russia, who have with your confession finished the course of this earth, receiving boldness through your sufferings: Beseech Christ Who strengthened you, that we also, whenever the hour of trial find us may receive the gift of courage from God. For ye are a witness to us who venerate your struggle, that neither tribulation, prison, nor death can separate us from the love of God. 

Prokeimenon (Ps 43:23a)

For Thy sake, O Lord, we are slain all the day long. 

Epistle (Romans 8:28-39)

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Alleluia Verse (Ps 33:17)

The righteous cried, and the Lord heard them, and He delivered them out of all their tribulations.

Gospel (Luke 21:12-19)

They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Hobart Latin Mass for Quinquagesima

It being the first Sunday of the month, I drove down to Hobart for the 11.30 am Missa cantata, at which I assist as M.C. (though I'd rather be in the choir, as previously).  It does seem to help Father, but it nearly was the death of me: standing on the altar step at the Epistle side, pointing out the Postcommunion, I almost fell backwards... which at least gave some entertainment to alert members of the congregation.

Quinquagesima: The Parting of Friends

Not a few ministers of the Church of England will to-day officiate for the last time at an Anglican Eucharist, ere they keep a Lenten fast before entering full communion with the Church Catholic at Easter, and are then ordained Catholic priests at Pentecost, to live in and serve the nascent Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

This is a time for them to farewell friends: sadly, not all will follow nor understand their decision.  Back in Newman's day, the outraged Establishment greeted such news with talk of "Another Perversion!" (since in their eyes the less pejorative term "conversion" was insufficiently odious, as only a warped person would be entrapped by sinister Papists); to-day, talk of "disaffected... defectors" appears in the mass media.  Against prejudice, misunderstanding and the loss of friendship, they can only interpose Christian charity, loving and praying even for them that despitefully use them.

Most appropriately, then, we may turn to the what the Pope has dared to name the Anglican Patrimony worthy of being brought into the Church, and look to one of the Collects already used in Catholic liturgy for some decades by the American forerunners of the present Ordinariates; in the Book of Common Prayer, it is the Collect for Quinquagesima, "the Next Sunday before Lent" (strangely, in the Book of Divine Worship, it is moved to the 7th Sunday after Epiphany, but at least supplied with a longer doxology as below in square brackets), based upon the Epistle for that day, being St Paul's hymn to charity (I Corinthians xiii):

O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee.  Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake[, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever].  Amen.

Domine, qui nos docuisti, quod omnia opera nostra sine charitate nihil sunt: Mitte Spiritum Sanctum tuum, et infunde in corda nostra charitatem illam, eximium tuum donum, veram vinculum pacis et omnium virtutum, sine qua omnis vivens coram te est mortuus: Hoc largire propter unicum Filium tuum Jesum Christum. Amen.

The Latin is from Bright and Medd's standard translation of the B.C.P. (1865 edition).

Quinquagesima / 7th Sunday per annum

Well, in the Church's Year of Salvation it's Quinquagesima; and in the Novus Ordo, the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B.  Sigh.

Fr Kene (yay!) was again our celebrant for the Sunday Mass at Carmel; unlike the other priests, he seems to enjoy coming to say Mass for the sisters, likes the Gregorian chant they sing, even having us use the Confiteor so the sisters can chant the Kyrie as well as the Gloria (plus the Sanctus and Agnus Dei further on), and even tries singing the Collect and Preface (as to-day) so as to fit in with the generally more sacral style of Mass at Carmel.  Again, though, what a sad comment on the Novus Ordo that one has to go to the monastery for Mass done without banal mediocrity much in evidence!

Given the readings for this Sunday (the Gospel from St Matthew v, 38-48 being that of the healing of the paralytic), he preached on how the Lord will extend to us His healing hand if we but pray; and how He so prizes our souls, that He wills to grant spiritual healing even over the physical healing extended to the bodies of the sick: we should therefore supplicate Him to heal our aversion to prayer and to liturgy (yes, he actually said that!), and all other wounds of our souls.  Furthermore, Fr Kene observed that too often "the crowd" impedes our approach to Christ, setting up obstacles and distracting us from our highest good, which is to come nigh unto the Lord, the Divine Physician.

The sisters had evidently prepared short, sharp and arresting petitions for the Prayer of the Faithful: for the ministers of the sacrament of Penance; for those enduring atheistic tyranny; for devotion to Our Lady the Refuge of Sinners; for the bushfires and for preservation therefrom; for all the dead.  That's what such petitions ought be, not longwinded mini-sermons more about propagandizing the congregation than begging God for mercy.

As usual, the ICEL paraphrases of the orations at Mass were hardly even that: but years past I obtained (largely from Fr Z's WDTPRS) literal renderings thereof, which, together with the Latin originals, I printed out onto small inserts put into my modern missal; while I only took my Breviary to Mass this morning, I did take the relevant insert with me inside its front cover, and was struck by how bad and misleading those stupid ICEL prayers are - look to just the Collect (originally that of the 6th after Epiphany) and Prayer after Communion (that of the 5th after Epiphany, with two words different):

Præsta, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus, ut, semper rationabilia meditantes, quæ tibi sunt placita, et dictis exsequamur et factis.  Per...

(Grant, we beg, Almighty God, that we, meditating always on rational things, may fulfil those things which are pleasing to you by both words and deeds.  Through...)

ICEL: Father [no, "Almighty God" - how hilarious that late-1960's committee members rendered the address to the Deity by a term that the feminists would have already hated!], keep before us the wisdom and love you have revealed in your Son [they have taken semper rationabilia meditantes, and changed it into a reference to God's revelation in Christ - which is good, but in no way a translation].  Help us [so much for "grant, we beg"!] to be like him in word and deed [yes, to do what pleases God is to live as Christ did on earth, but that's not at all what the original actually said], for he lives and reigns... [having so rewritten the collect, they now conclude it with Qui tecum vivit... not Per Dominum...]

Præsta, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus, ut illius capiamus effectum, cujus per hæc mysteria pignus accepimus.  Per...

(Grant, we implore you, Almighty God, that we may obtain the effect of that of which we have received a pledge by means of these [sacramental] mysteries.  Through...)

ICEL: Almighty God [they got this bit right for a change], help us to live the example of love [this seems to be their kindergarten version of pignus, a pledge or foretoken] we celebrate [no, what "we have received"] in this eucharist [what a dumbing down from "mysteries"], that we may come to its fulfilment [an elucidation of "effect"] in your presence [a fair enough expansion and explicitation, though not in the original].  We ask this... [again, a rubbish paraphrase: "through Christ" implies both that we ask and that God grants all through the One Mediator, Jesus our Lord]

I think my fisk of these poor attempts at prayer shews just what a crock ICEL sold us; to think that such crap has been inflicted on Roman Catholics these forty years.

******

The Breviary has a commemoration at Lauds of the Chair of St Peter (and of his fellow Prince of the Apostles, St Paul, under one conclusion - for these are the Christian Romulus and Remus): I recall with thanksgiving and prayer that this day, the 22nd of February, eight years ago, I was in Lismore for the episcopal ordination of my former parish priest, Geoffrey Jarrett - ad multos annos!

Oremus pro Antistite Lismorensis Godefrido:

Stet et pascat in fortitudine tua, Domine, in sublimitate nominis tui.  [Cf. Micheas v, 4]

(Let us pray for Geoffrey, Bishop of Lismore*:

(May he stand and shepherd in Thy strength, Lord, in the sublimity of Thy Name.)

[* Literally, "Lismorensine High-Priest"!]

Quinquagesima Eve

Don't forget the beautiful Anglican Use prayer for Quinquagesima...

A Twist on Quinquagesima

The Book of Divine Worship, that Catholic liturgical text drawing on Anglican sources, and allowed for use by those under the Pastoral Provision for former Anglicans in the United States, includes verbatim - as the Collect for the 7th Sunday after Epiphany - the BCP Collect for Quinquagesima. As it has been baptized, so to speak, or at the least been received into full communion, I have no hesitation in quoting what is a most appropriate prayer, given the Quinquagesima Epistle of I Corinthians xiii:

O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.