Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe

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. Gloria Patri. Salve…

COLLECT

Deus, qui sub beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ singulari patrocinio constitutos, perpetuis beneficiis nos cumulari voluisti: præsta supplicibus tuis: ut cujus hodie commemoratione lætamur in terris, ejus conspectu perfruamur in cælis. Per.

EPISTLE Ecclus. 24. 23-31

Ego quasi vitis fructificavi suavitatem odoris, et flores mei, fructus honoris et honestatis. Ego mater pulchræ dilectionis, et timoris et agnitionis, et sanctæ spei. In me gratia omnis vitæ et veritatis: in me omnis spes vitæ et virtutis. Transite ad me omnes qui concupiscitis me, et a generationibus meis implemini. Spiritus enim meus super mel dulcis, et hereditas mea super mel et favum. Memoria mea in generationes sæculorum. Qui edunt me, adhuc esurient: et qui bibunt me, adhuc sitient. Qui audit me, non confundetur: et qui operantur in me, non peccabunt. Qui elucidant me vitam æternam habebunt.

GRADUAL Cant. 6:9; Ecclus. 50:8

Quæ est ista, quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol? V/. Quasi arcus refulgens inter nebulas gloriæ, et quasi flos rosarum in diebus vernis.

ALLELUIA Cant. 2:12

Alleluia, alleluia. V. Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra, tempus putationis advenit. Alleluia. 

GOSPEL Lk. 1:39-47

In illo tempore: Exsurgens Maria abiit in montana cum festinatione in civititem Juda: et intravit in domum Zachariæ, et salutavit Elisabeth. Et factum est, ut audivit salutationem Mariæ Elisabeth, exsultivit infans in utero ejus: et repleta est Spiritu Sancto Elisabeth: et exclamavit voce magna, et dixit: Benedicta tu inter mulieres, et benedictus fructus ventris tui. Et unde hoc mihi, ut veniat Mater Domini mei ad me? Ecce enim ut facta est vox salutationis tuæ in auribus meis, exsultavit in gaudio infans in utero meo. Et beata, quæ credidisti, quoniam perficientur ea, quæ dicta sunt tibi a Domino. Et ait Maria: Magnificat anima mea Dominum: et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. 

OFFERTORY II Par. 7:16

Elegi, et sanctificavi locum istum, ut sit ibi nomen meum, et permaneant oculi mei, et cor meum ibi cunctis diebus. 

SECRET 

Tua, Domine, propitiatione, et beatæ Maria: semper Virginis intercessione, ad perpetuam atque præsentem hæc oblatio nobis proficiat prosperitatem et pacem. Per. 

COMMUNION Psalm 147:20

Non fecit toliter omni nationi: et judicia sua non manifestivit eis.

POSTCOMMUNION

Sumptis, Domine, salutis nostræ subsidiis: da, quæsumus, beatæ Mariæ semper Virginis patrociniis nos ubique protegi; in cujus veneratione hæc tuæ obtulimus majestati. Per. 

As for the proper Office, Matins and Lauds at least can be seen over at Nova et Vetera...

Misericordias Domini

On our way into town for Mass this afternoon (giving him a lift in my car again), I had Mike read None, which involved the really fatiguingly long Psalm 88, which all too-aptly begins Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo...

After he finished, I teased him about what it says in the Imitatio about being "So drowsy at sacred vigils, so alert for idle gossip" or somesuch - but no sooner was I in church for the liturgy than I was just about prostrated with tiredness, and barely got through Low Mass, kneeling bowed forward, hanging over the pew in front!  Rather than fight to keep awake for the ensuing Holy Hour with Stations of the Infant Jesus (a Redemptorist devotion), I staggered back to the car, put the seat back and tried to rest - the hour went by very fast, and though I returned to the Pro. I was too late even for Benediction; at least I read Vespers.

We then all went for dinner at Fr's place, which was again a grand affair - Belgian beer (Orval), plus good fish and chips.  Before the food materialized, we had a chance to check out some curious books on the shelves or otherwise in the house, such as Ellard's The Mass of the Future (1948), and a Premonstratensian Breviary (with its  interesting peculiar texts at Prime and Compline)...

Mass, BTW, had been of Our Lady of Guadalupe - taken wholly from the Common of Marian Feasts, except for the Gospel of the Annunciation.  (Last year, I posted about Our Lady of Guadalupe, her Traditional Proper Mass, and her rather unfortunate modern Collect.)  Unusually, Fr Rowe preached a sermon - just a short one.  To commemorate this day (which in the Breviary is a feria) I have just put on a favourite CD: Chanticleer singing Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe, by Ignacio de Jerusalem (1764).  Apparently in New Spain, it was all the rage to attend, not opera, but Matins... how nice to imagine the Viceroy at the Cathedral in Mexico City tapping his foot to the tunes as the service progressed.  If you like Baroque sacred music, well, the CD is Teldec 0630-19340-2.

This CD includes the three following historical lessons narrating the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, apparently from her proper Office:

Mexici, in colle Tepeyancensi, anno millesimo quingentesimo trigesimo primo Dei para Virgo Maria Ioanni Didaco neophyto, uti pie traditur, sese videndam præbuit, eique ad antisititem Joannem de Zumárraga mandatum dedit, quod et instanter iteravit, de æde sibmet inibi construenda.

Episcopus vero signum expetiit.  Mox neophytum patruo morituro sacramenta longinquius ab apparitionis loco quærentem, tertio visu dignatur alma Mater, de patrui sanitate serenat, rosasque extra tempus obortas, in ejus pallio compositas, ad episcopum deferri jubet.

Cujus in conspectu rosis effusus, Mariæ imago, ipsi pallio impressa, uti traditur, mirum in modum præsentibus apparuit.  Quæ in sacello episcopali primum asservata, dein ad exstructam ædem in colle Tepeyacensi translata, denique in magnifico templo excepta est, quo turmatim plebes Mexicanæ magis magisque convenire cœperunt, venerationis gratia et frequentiæ miraculorum.

Traditional Mass Proper for Our Lady of Guadalupe

I have also tracked down the Traditional Proper Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at least that given in the U.S. Supplement to the 1945 St Andrew Missal and Marian Missal!   And here is a better-set-out copy of the Proper Mass, from the 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal.

The Introit, Secret, Preface (of course), and Postcommunion are all taken from the Common Mass for Feasts of the Blessed Virgin.

The passage from Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 23-31 (Vulg.; in the RSV, the chapter and verse reference is 24:17-22, but omitting several verses and phrases that the Vulgate, based on the Septuagint, includes; and note that this book is referred to as 'Wisdom' at Mass, as all readings from the sapiental books were called readings from (one of)  the book(s) of wisdom – libri Sapientiæ), which is given as the 'Epistle' for the feast, alludes to Our Lady's words to St Juan Diego in her role as evangelist of her Son.  The Gospel (St Luke i, 39-47) is that of the Visitation, being applied to Our Lady's "visitation" of the Americas, that she might bring Christ to them.

The Gradual (Cant. vi, 9; V/. Ecclus l, 8) and Alleluia (Cant. ii, 12) allude to her wondrous apparition on the hill Tepeyac, effulgent, and her having St Juan Diego pick the roses blooming there out of season.  The Offertory verse (II Paral. vii, 16 – that's 2 Chronicles for those not referring to an old Catholic bible) refers to the establishment of a Marian shrine on the hill, and the Communion (Ps. cxlvii, 20), to the miraculous image imprinted on the tilma.

Lastly (not in order!), this is the traditional collect, rather less 1960's-sounding than the modern text I critiqued in my last post; there is a misprint on the first website I found this on; according to the second, it must read, not:

Deus, qui beatissimæ semper Deus, qui sub beatissimæ Virginis....

But:

Deus, qui sub beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ singulari patrocinio constitutos, perpetuis beneficiis nos cumulari voluisti: præsta supplicibus tuis; ut cujus hodie commemoratione lætamur in terris, ejus conspectu perfruamur in cœlis.  Per...

(O God, who hast willed us to be heaped with perpetual benefits, being constituted under the singular patronage of the most blessed Virgin Mary, grant unto thy supplicants, that we who joy today in the commemoration of her on earth, may enjoy fully the sight of her in heaven.  Thro'...)

The new collect (see last post) is clearly based on the opening phrase of this prayer, but rather unusually for the Roman Mass adding a further address to God as "Father of mercies", and shortening qui sub beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ singulari patrocinio constitutos, perpetuis beneficiis nos cumulari voluisti to  qui sub sanctissimæ Matris Filii tui singulari patrocinio plebem tuam constituisti.

I can see why this collect was altered, without necessarily agreeing with its alteration.  Many collects in the old rite have the formulaic phrase xxx in terris, (ut) xxx in cælis, almost to the point of weariness, IMHO – not that these sentiments are anything other than good!   For it's clearly far more important to come to see Our Lady in heaven, since if so we shall be saved, than to "seek with faith more eager the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace"; though it may be that through doing the latter, in a God-pleasing manner, we shall be judged worthy of the former.  

It is wrong to neglect our neighbour's welfare; it is through our love of our brother, whom we can see, that our love of God, whom we cannot see, is proven: frightening thought.

My Critique of the Collect of Our Lady of Gaudalupe

After some searching, I've found the modern collect in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Deus, Pater misericordiarum, qui sub sanctissimæ Matris Filii tui singulari patrocinio plebem tuam constituisti, tribue cunctis, qui beatam Virginem Guadalupensem invocant, ut, alacriori fide, populorum progressionem in viis justitiæ quæreant et pacis.  Per...

(My rough translation:

(God, the Father of mercies, who hast constituted thy people under the singular patronage of the most holy Mother of thy Son, grant unto all who invoke the blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, that, with a faith more eager, they may seek the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace.  Through...)

I must say, I find the "social justice" theme attached to the collect rather narrow (when I hear the words "social justice" I want to reach for a revolver, such is the interminable way this is talked about by too many, as if to substitute for sound doctrine and the quest for, not a social utopia, but God's heaven): surely those "who invoke the blessed Virgin of Guadalupe" may be seeking, not merely "the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace" – good, tho' merely temporal concerns – but spiritual goods, above all the salvation of their souls?  And as for "with a faith more eager"!  

It is all to easy to tell that whoever in the Curia approved this gem still thinks that Paul VI is on the throne.  

Our Lady of Guadalupe; Preces (Old and New)

Though (in the 1962 Breviary) this is a feria, I could not let this day pass without praising Our Lady of Guadalupe, Empress of the Americas, Mother of the True God, who appeared in Mexico in 1531 to St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, impressing her sacred image on his tilma, that frail rough garment of cactus fibre, in a manner inexplicable to science, and which has survived fire and acid and a bomb to remain over 470 years later the great miraculous image of the Americas; and who by her wondrous manifestation so moved all hearts as to convert the peoples of the New World to Christ.  The modern second readings (in Latin and Spanish) for the feasts of St Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe are available from the website of the Basilica of Guadalupe.

If you want a stunning piece of music to play in Our Lady's honour, I thoroughly recommend Chanticleer's CD of Matins of Our Lady of Guadalupe, including powerful Mexican Baroque settings of responsories and hymns by Ignatio de Jerusalem (1707-1769), and two thrilling paraliturgical villancicos by Manuel de Zumaya (c.1678-1755).  It even has the three historical lessons from the proper Office of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as approved by Benedict XIV, that great Pope (see here for these lessons); who, upon seeing a faithful copy of the Holy Tilma, exclaimed Non fecit taliter omni nationi - "She hath not wrought thusly in every nation" (cf. Ps 147:9).  Unfortunately I didn't bring this CD with me, nor uploaded it to my iPod.  :-(

******

Since today is a feria here in Australia, I had a different pleasure while saying Matins and Lauds: to kneel and pray the preces.  These are fine prayers, and I wish they were in the Office every day, as they always were in the Traditional Benedictine, and often in the Dominican Breviary (as a Kyrie and Pater noster before the collect at each Hour).  It was unfortunate that the breviary reform of 1955 cut down on the Matins lessons and preces; I understand many traditionally minded clergy (such as those under Bishop Rifan in the Apostolic Administration in Campos) still read these, on the principle that one can hardly be criticised for saying more of the Office than is strictly required.  

As it is, I have taken up – and thoroughly recommend – the traditional practice of saying a Pater and Ave before each Hour (except at Lauds if joined to Matins, nor at Compline, when one says them afterward), and a Pater afterward if no other Hour is to be said straightaway (one also says a Credo before Matins, before Prime, and after Compline).  This helps one get ready for prayer, and guards one's heart from running off heedlessly afterwards: St Ignatius Loyola encourages this when he recommends, prior to making meditation, that one lift one's heart up to God "for the space of a Pater noster".

One of the things I most miss from the new Office is the absence of intercessions before the collect of Lauds and Vespers.  Though they are rather paraphrased than translated into English, even so they are rich, and in the Latin quite excellent.  Earlier I decided to read this morning's intercessions from the new Office:

Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, fratres carissimi, exoremus, qui in sua misericordia nos visitat, lætamque vocem iteremus: Veni, Domine Jesu.

Qui de sinu Patris egressus, venisti ut carnis nostræ vestimentum indueres, – libera quod perierat naturæ vitiatæ contagio.

Qui venturus, in electis agnosceris gloriosus, – nunc veniens, in peccatoribus clemens semper et pius inveniaris.

Gloriantes in laude tua, Christe Domine, – visita nos in salutari tuo.

Qui nos jam eduxisti in lucem per fidem, – fac nos justitia tua pro dignis operibus tibi placitos.

Pater noster...

Omnipotens Deus, qui nos præcipis iter Christo Domino præparare, concede propitius, ut nullis infirmitatibus fatigemur, qui cælestis medici consolantem præsentiam sustinemus.  Per Dominum...

Must go to Mass now!