Three Masses

Fr Christopher's flight from Melbourne was delayed by quite a long time – meaning that our scheduled 7:30 pm Mass for the Assumption began at 8:20 pm! It was very edifying to see the full congregation remain, waiting patiently, and keeping vigil in prayer: we said Our Lady's Rosary and Litany together. At length, our Missa cantata for the Holy Day was celebrated, with the first use of the Missa Regia as the Ordinary (save for Credo III), taking up a French tradition for solemnities.

On Saturday morning, a small party attended Father's private Low Mass of St Joachim, and then enjoyed a festive brunch.

To-day, Sunday, our Dominican visitor sang Mass of the 10th Sunday after Pentecost for a congregation of fifty or so, returning to our usual Sunday Ordinary – Mass XI, Orbis factor. In honour of Our Lady, feted this weekend, we sang "Hail Queen of heaven" after Mass, before repairing to the parish centre for coffee, cake and good cheer. It was a fitting end to our three days of Extraordinary Form Masses.

St Philip's Day

While I didn't make it to early Mass to-day, I attended evening Rosary, and went to confession; which struck me as a decent and apposite manner of worshipping on St Philip's feast, being as he was a great patron of penitents of every walk of life. He is a great saint and powerful intercessor, to whom I owe much, and especially at this present time, given the signal benefits vouchsafed unworthy me. Pippo buono, prega per noi.

Compline and Honours

Though unfortunately our priest was unable to attend, and so we didn't have Benediction last night – at which I served at the city church on Monday night in any case, since the weekly Rosary devotions include Benediction this Lent – we did keep the feast of the Annunciation with special care, by singing the Litany of Loreto after Compline, and ending with the hymn "The Angel Gabriel from heaven came".

In other good news, the pre-eminent rank of Knight and Dame in the Order of Australia has been restored by our Prime Minister, just as the title of Queen's Counsel for senior lawyers is in process of being restored in certain State jurisdictions when it had been replaced with "Senior Counsel". We are a monarchy after all...

Rosary Prayers

After introductory versicles, begin the Rosary with the "Hail, Holy Queen", its usual versicle and the collect "O God, Whose Only-begotten Son" – this was the somewhat startling advice I found in several late nineteenth century books, said to follow the official method laid down for use amongst Dominicans.

These days, of course, one expects to say such prayers at the end of the decades (Dominicans still maintain the introductory versicles, instead of the newfangled Creed, Lord's Prayer and three Hail Mary's); then, instead, they were said beforehand, and afterward – where now they are recited – instead came first the Litany of Loreto, and then the Sub tuum and an anthem to St Dominic, with appropriate versicles and collects.

The collect connected to the Sub tuum in this arrangement seemed familiar, as I have seen it referred to as St Pius V's prayer for use at the conclusion of the Rosary – the more familiar "O God, Whose Only-begotten Son" having been introduced by his successor, Gregory XIII, when he approved a proper Mass and Office for the feast of the Rosary. But the prayer appointed by St Pius V is itself a modification of the Dominican collect for Marian feasts – unsurprising, as Pius was a Friar Preacher:

Supplicationem servorum tuorum, Deus miserator, exaudi, ut, qui in societate sacratissimi Rosarii Dei Genitricis et Virginis congregamur, ejus intercessionibus, a te de instantibus periculis eruamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. R/. Amen. 

(Hear, O merciful God, the prayer of thy servants: that we, who meet together in the Society of the most holy Rosary of the Virgin Mother of God, may, through her intercession, be delivered by thee from present dangers. Through the same Christ our Lord. R/. Amen.)

Having come across this old form, I now preface the Rosary with the Sub tuum, versicle Post partum and collect Supplicationem servorum quorum, plus – from what I've learnt from our local Monday night Rosary group – the Memorare, before I make the usual start by signing myself with sign of the Cross, saying the Creed, and so forth. 

Spanish sources gave a variant to the Dominican or rather "Pian" collect for the Sub tuum (which they paired with the collect of the Angelus for good measure), which I prefer, as it is not so much that we meet together in a society of the Rosary as instead meet to recite it – hence its use in the version given below (Dominicans omit "gloriosa et" in the Sub tuum, by the way):

Aña. Sub tuum presidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genitrix: nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. 

V/. Post partum, Virgo, inviolata permansisti. R/. Dei Genitrix, intercede pro nobis.

Oremus.

Supplicationem servorum tuorum, Deus miserator, exaudi: ut, qui ad recitandum sanctissimum Rosarium Dei Genetricis et Virginis Mariæ congregamur, ejus intercessionibus a te de instantibus periculis eruamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. R/. Amen. 

Ant. We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God: despise not our petitions in our necessities, but ever deliver us from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.

V/. After childbirth, O Virgin, thou didst remain undefiled. R/. Mother of God, intercede for us.

Let us pray.

Hear, O merciful God, the prayer of thy servants: that we, who meet together to recite the most holy Rosary of Mary, Mother of God and Virgin, may, through her intercession, be delivered by thee from present dangers. Through the same Christ our Lord. R/. Amen.

Rosary and Benediction

To mark the end of the Year of Faith, and to pay special homage to Christ the King – for, both here in Tasmania, and also overseas, the customary Eucharistic devotions of Corpus Christi were and are oft transferred to this time of year, given the weather – one of our priests, Fr Kene, kindly offered to give us Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament after the usual Monday night Rosary.

I was pressed into service as a server for Father, and managed to acquit myself without too much bumbling about (always a problem when serving in an unfamiliar sanctuary). We were and are all very grateful to Fr Kene, and he seemed pleased also. Deo volente, we hope that perhaps the weekly Rosary may occasionally be blessed with Benediction again...

Back to the Rosary

When I walked my dogs round to visit the pets of some friends of mine, I was invited to come along to the Monday evening Rosary at Apostles (the Church thereof, the original and main church in Launceston) – it seemed impolite to refuse, so I did so on Monday; and, having joined them and found great consolation therein, how I castigate myself for not having come along months ago, when, for the Year of Faith, they and others first revived this weekly devotion.

For how long have I, each morning, donned the scapular and slipped the rosary beads into my pocket, but neglected to say the latter or even think much about the former. How neglectful I have been, in this as in many other respects: thank God some fraternal correction has intervened – what a grace!

It was good to be there: to pray with others (there was a good number, over a dozen I seem to recall), to kneel before the altar, with an icon of Our Lady displayed on a stand flanked by candles, a basket before it into which written petitions could be added: "We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God…"

All were provided with handsome booklets, and beads were available for those without their own. After the usual prayers to the Holy Ghost (Veni, sancte Spiritus… Emitte Spiritum tuum… Deus, qui corda fidelium… as I know them in Latin)  and the Memorare (a favourite Marian prayer of mine), one of the group led the Rosary (five decades, this week using the Luminous Mysteries, each briefly introduced), then the Litany of Loreto, and we concluded our half hour in common with the prayer to St Michael Archangel.

As before I reproached myself for, until just recently, neglecting daily Mass and the Office, so I must do the same as regards the Rosary; I have resolved to say it after Vespers, and may the Blessed Virgin interceding with her Son gain us such grace that I and many others may both say the Rosary and, meditating on its mysteries, obtain what they promise.

Back to the Rosary

Fr Ronan Murphy, an Irish priest on sabbatical from his parish in the US, came along on the Christus Rex pilgrimage this year, and on Friday gave us a most powerful sermon on the Rosary.  It made me resolve to return to saying the Rosary every day, something about which I have been most embarrassingly slack for too long.  So far, I have kept this resolution, and hope to maintain it.

Gentle reader, have you said the Rosary lately?

Busy Week

So many feasts slipping by... St Bruno, Father of the Carthusians, those admirable champions of Christ, His heroic hermits, was celebrated on the 6th, yester-day; and the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated to-day, the 7th. Reciting her Little Office at least kept the Mother of God and the mysteries of our redemption in mind. On Monday evening, driving home from attending a seminar in Hobart, it was the Rosary that I prayed.

To-morrow, St Bridget of Sweden: to think I was in the church that was once her house in Rome, only a few weeks ago! There are Catholics in Sweden; may their witness to the truth amongst the cold secularism and dying Lutheranism of Scandinavia help many souls find true peace, saving them from the alienation and nihilism that curse that advanced society. St Bridget, pray for us, and for thy countrymen, that we may be made worthy of Christ's promises.

To-morrow is also Show Day, a public holiday here - the Royal Launceston Show is on, and so I may take the opportunity to go for a drive...

I note that the Christus Rex Pilgrimage, which I have just signed up to join, very appropriately begins this year on Friday the 23rd, which in some places and congregations (among them the F.Ss.R.) is the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, Our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Saturday the 24th (when I will join the pilgrims) is the feast of St Raphael Archangel, patron of travellers; and of course Sunday the 25th is the feast of Christ the King (in the Traditional Calendar).

It's only just over a fortnight away...

The Johannine Mysteries

I've been enjoying learning rather a lot from reading over archived posts at Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes, and just now spotted a nice idea: the Johannine Mysteries of the Rosary.

These, as might not be expected, are actually a sequence of mysteries in honour of St John the Baptist, the greatest of saints (after Our peerless Lady, and, as has been the case since the close of the Middle Ages, St Joseph), to be prayed and contemplated on ordinary Rosary beads in the usual manner:

1. 
   The Annunciation to St Zachary that he and his wife St Elizabeth will at last conceive a son, who shall be the Herald of Christ (this event is commemorated in the liturgy on the Vigil of St John Baptist);
2. The Visitation (whereat the unborn John leaps in St Elizabeth's womb, sanctified by the Holy Ghost and rejoicing at the approach of the unborn Saviour borne in the Immaculate Virgin, just as David leapt before the Ark);
3. The Nativity of St John the Baptist (at which St Zachary broke forth in the Benedictus, sung by all generations world without end);
4. The Lord's Baptism (administered by the humble and trembling Baptist, to fulfil all righteousness);
5. The Decollation of St John (which feast we have just marked - the supreme witness borne to Christ by His Forerunner).

I rather like this idea, and may take it up as a work of supererogation to-day.

A Return to the Basics

Sometimes, in the spiritual life, one is well advised to return to the basics.

That is, I think, what I've been doing: remembering Our Saviour's dying words of commendation, "This is thy Mother," I have returned to a stronger Marian devotion - not that I ignored the Holy Mother of God! - and readjusted my prayer life accordingly, according to the short formula of consecration ad Jesum per Mariam: "I am all Thine, and all that I have is Thine, O most loving Jesu, through Mary, Thy Holy Mother."

[It just struck me - in the framed painting of the Madonna and Child with St Philip Neri, that I have hanging here before me, is not St Philip gesturing with one hand to me, and with the other to Jesus and Mary? Is he not recommending me to them?]

For this reason, I feel that the daily recitation of her Little Office has borne fruit, focussing on a doable and beneficial cycle of psalms; and I resolve to be constant again in daily Rosary (something I've badly let slide) - as its Collect says, may we meditate on its mysteries, and obtain their promises. Meditation I need: the Rosary brings before one the central mysteries of our salvation. Little things, too, I aim at: not just the thrice-daily Angelus (as almost always), but a Memorare, a Sancta Maria succurre, and Our Lady's Litanies. Wearing the Scapular, carrying my Rosary with miraculous medal, trusting in the Blessed Virgin's tender care: this is right.

When all other help fails, Mary aids. "As a child has rest in its mother's arms, even so my soul."

I close with the Sancta Maria succurre miseris, since it isn't as well known as it ought be, considering how it is one of the major indulgenced Marian prayers; once attributed to St Augustine, it is now known to be part of a longer prayer by Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres; it occurs at first Vespers for sundry Marian feasts, and in mediæval times was the standard Magnificat anthem in the Hours of the Virgin:

Sancta Maria,

succurre miseris,

juva pusillanimes,

refove flebiles,

ora pro populo,

interveni pro clero,

intercede pro devoto femineo sexu.

Sentiant omnes tuum juvamen,

quicumque celebrant tuam sanctam commemorationem.

(Holy Mary,

succour the miserable,

help the fainthearted,

comfort the sorrowful,

pray for the people,

plead for the clergy,

intercede for consecrated women.

May all feel thine aid,

whosoever celebrate thy holy commemoration.)

Those Luminous Mysteries

When I heard a media report that the late Pope had added new mysteries to the Rosary, I just didn't believe it, assuming that the religiously ignorant fourth estate had stuffed up again.

However, having learnt that their reports were correct, I must say I accepted the Pope's suggestion (which he was careful to state was only that, it being for Catholic piety to determine whether it be a lasting addition or not) with no troubles at all, since the new luminous mysteries do enrich the Holy Rosary.

Now, unfortunately even so harmless a suggestion as adding new mysteries pro opportunitate (not taking away nor altering the old) has in too many brought out the worst paranoid tendencies in Traditionalists: too many have I heard complaining about them in conspiratorial tones, and saying such mad things as "Our Lady didn't give them to St Dominic!"  - who do they think suggested them to John Paul II, Old Nick?

As my mate Justin pointed out recently when confronted by this immobilist attitude, seconding what I have read elsewhere, these mysteries of light act as a most powerful lens to focus upon Western Catholics the treasured interest of the Eastern Churches in these sacred mysteries of the life of Our Saviour:

1. The Baptism of Our Lord by His holy prophet and forerunner John "for the fulfilling of all righteousness" is the great mystery of the Theophany, the revelation of the Trinity in the Son, the Voice, the Dove - and see what is made of all this by Aquinas (Summa Theologiæ, III, xxxix);
2. The miracle at Cana was the first sign worked by Our Blessed Lord, at the intercession of His Holy Mother, and was a foreshadowing both of the Eucharist and of the eternal nuptial feast in heaven, as well as a blessing of marriage as a most holy covenant (hence its use as the Gospel pericope read at weddings in the Byzantine Rite);
3. The preaching of the Gospel and the Divine call to repentance uttered by Our Most Blessed Lord - is this not His preëminent ministry, His exposition of sacred doctrine for our salvation, the handing over of His saving word to us by Him, the saving Word, during three years? - so thought Aquinas (Summa Theologiæ, III, xlii);
4. The Transfiguration - one of the greatest of the Eastern feasts, the strengthening of the disciples in belief in Christ as King of Glory before their trial of faith at His Passion, the Passage from death to life He was to accomplish for us all at Jerusalem, the revelation of the splendour effulgent of His sacred humanity, the pledge of the Beatific Vision and our future glory (see also Aquinas, Summa Theologiæ, III, xlv);
5. The Institution of the Eucharist, and therefore of the Priesthood, by Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ: Se dat suis manibus! - who would not love to dwell on this, so inextricably linked with the Sacrifice of Calvary?
   

Again, while having a constitutional round Lake Monger, I said my Rosary German-style, and thought on these deep truths: may I "imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen."

German Rosary

(Looking south across the lake to the CBD; the suburb in the foreground is Leederville, and beneath the two tallest trees on the skyline should be St Michael the Archangel Chapel, at the Catholic Education Office.)

While circumambulating Lake Monger after work (forgive my odd style, I just like words and syntax, especially if archaic and arcane), a walk of about three and a half kilometres (a bit more than two miles), I was moved to say the Rosary, and tried it, not in German, but in a German manner (or so I believe), in that, to try and avoid distraction and focus on the mysteries at least verbally, in each Hail Mary, after "...and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus", I added a phrase appropriate to each mystery, as "who rose from the dead", or "who ascended into heaven".  This, as well as stating which mystery I was to consider at the start of each decade, and at the end of each saying "May the grace of the mystery of the ______ come down into my heart and soul and abide there for ever", seemed to help ever so slightly. 

So, dear reader, if you feel so inclined, try it and see if it's a help or hindrance for you.

The Automobile Rosary

Why are simple things oft so hard to grasp?

I was happily saying a Rosary while driving home after visiting my aunt, when I suddenly realized that the answer to the question, How to fit in a daily Rosary, was there being acted out before me, by my own self!

It is perfectly lawful and moral to drive with due attention, and while so doing, to say one's Rosary and consider its Mysteries.

Note to self: do so in future!

Mass, Rosary - and Nocturnal Adoration

This evening's Low Mass was in honour of St Peter Nolasco, one of the founders of the Mercedarians, with commemoration of the second feast of St Agnes. (Confusingly enough, being back to saying the new Office, therein it was the feast of St Thomas Aquinas!) I managed to say my Rosary afterward, in thanksgiving - I say 'managed', because I haven't managed to get round to saying it for some time, because of lukewarmness.

Quite unexpectedly, after returning home and eating some of the Moroccan chicken dish left over from Sunday night, I received a phone call for one of my housemates: it seems owing to some unforeseen circumstance he couldn't make it to his time slot at adoration - I was asked, Could I step in for him? So it was I ended up at nocturnal adoration for 3/4 of an hour; finding myself still very lukewarm, I invoked the Lord as indeed the faithful God, with His Father and Their Spirit in the unity of the Trinity, and recalled St Paul's words to Timothy: "We may be unfaithful, but He is always faithful, for He cannot deny His Own Self" (II Tim. ii, 13). I used the time to make some mental prayer, plus say some Office and other vocal prayers, wishing I were more devout in presence of the Lord. What to pray but to pray with the prophet: Turn thou us and we shall be turned, save us and we shall be saved (cf. Lam. v, 21; Jer. xvii, 14; xxxi, 18).

The Brothers of the Oratory meet tomorrow at the Pro., 6.30-7.30pm, but - wouldn't you know it! - I have an important engagement elsewhere at just that time, and cannot come (tho' I should be able to join them for dinner and conversation later on). So tonight I used some of the prayers I would have prayed with them tomorrow...