Philadelphia Chapter

Prompta Cuncta Catholicae
From New Liturgical Movement

(Die XXIX Septembris. In Festo Sancti Michaelis, Archangeli)

Prompta cuncta Catholicae
Plebs alumnae gloriae,
Vota simul exhibete,
Et crimina pandite;
Ut cunctorum auctor clemens
Cunctis praestet praestita.

Michael etenim ille
Sublimatus nomine,
Aulae coeli conspicuus
Amori, summi Dei
Princeps Angelorum factus,
Celsusque vocabulo.

Cujus nomen ex virtute,
Et opus ex munere
Ab Omnipotentis manu
Obtinuit servandum;
Ut in Deo glorietur
Cum sociis consortibus.

Summus Domini est iste
Magnus factus nuncius,
Qui tetrum illum horrendum
Refugumque angelum,
Debellando praecipitem
Demersit in erebo.

Iste semper est protector,
Et defensor omnium:
Ut cunctotum postulata
Regi Deo offerat;
Et ab illo destinatam
Plebi praestet gratiam.

Magna siquidem est ista
Dei festivitas,
Hujus almi Archangeli
Michaelis Nuncii;
Quam nos celebrare oportet
Suscipereque devote;

Ut ex ejus impetratu
Mereamur omnium
Obtinere apud Deum
Veniam peccaminum:
Et beatae vitae regno
Perfrui post transitum.

Laus tibi per omne tempus
Trinitas indifferens:
Una Patri, Filioque,
Inclyto Paraclito;
Cujus laus, et potestas
Per aeterna saecula.

Amen.

From: Mark Matthews, Esquire

Re: First Friday, Oct. 7th, and First Saturday. Oct. 1st, Traditional Latin Masses (TLM’s) at St. Albert the Great Church, 212 Welsh Rd., Huntingdon Valley, 19006 PA. (Montgomery County).

Need Directions? Try www.mapquest.com or your favorite routing website.

Dear Friends and Benefactors:

First Friday TLM at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, Huntingdon Valley, PA will be offered by Fr. Harold McKale of St. Bede the Venerable Parish.

As usual, confessions will be heard at 6:30 p.m. followed by the TLM at 7 p.m.

First Saturday TLM at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great will be offered by Fr. Dominick Finn, O.S.F.S.

Similarly, confessions will be heard at 8:30 a.m. followed by the TLM at 9 a.m.

Your help in publicizing these TLM’s would be highly appreciated.

Hope to see you there.

Announcement from Dr. Lucy Carroll

The annual triduum in honor of St. Therese of the Child Jesus will be Sept 29, 30 and Oct.1.
Sung Vespers and Benediction at 4 PM.
Rosary and sung litany at 6:45, music at 7:15 PM
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at 7:30 PM.
Guest organist for Vespers on Sept 30 is Peter Gowen.
Mass: Guest violinist for the triduum is Federico Piantini.
Guest soprano soloist for Sept. 30 is Dolores Ferraro
Dolores Ferraro and tenor George Achilles join the monastery choir Oct. 1.
Come early for a seat!
This year’s guest celebrant/homilist is newly-ordained Rev. Kenneth Brabazon.
Mass will be part Latin, part English.
Music is chant and traditional hymns; special works by Massenet, Franck, Praetorius, Schubert, Telemann, and others.
Carmelite monastery is at the corner of 66th Avenue and Old York Road, where York crosses Broad Street, across from the Oak Lane Diner. Parking lot on 66th; K and C buses stop at the monastery.
Lucy Carroll, organist/music director

Quote from Bishop Fellay’s Inverview:

[…]When I stated on August 15 of this year that we were in agreement on the fact that we did not agree about the Second Vatican Council, I also made sure to explain that when it comes to dogmas, like the doctrine of the Trinity, we are quite obviously in agreement when we find them mentioned in Vatican II. One sentence must not be taken out of its context. It is to the great credit of our theological talks that they seriously examined and elucidated all these doctrinal problems. The joint press release by the Vatican and the Society [Interesting. The press release I saw seemed to come only from the Holy See.] announced that a doctrinal document was delivered to you and that a canonical solution was proposed to you. Can you give us any particulars?

This document is entitled “Doctrinal Preamble”; it was handed over to us for in-depth study. Hence it is confidential, and you will understand why I say no more about it to you. However the term “preamble” does indicate that acceptance of it is a preliminary condition for any canonical recognition of the Society of St. Pius X on the part of the Holy See.

Q: On the subject of this doctrinal preamble, to the extent that this does not concern its confidentiality, can you confirm that it contains, as announced in the press release, a distinction between what is de fide [essential to the faith]—to which the Society fully adheres—and what is dependent on a pastoral council, as Vatican II itself claimed to be, and thus could be subjected to criticism without calling the faith into question?

FELLAY: […] Today, for the sake of objectivity, I must acknowledge that in the doctrinal preamble there is no clear-cut distinction between the inviolable dogmatic sphere and the pastoral sphere that is subject to discussion. […] At the same time, it leaves open to legitimate discussion the examination and theological explanation of individual expressions and formulations contained in the documents of Vatican Council II and of the later Magisterium.” There you have it; no more and no less.

Q: […] … there has been talk about a [personal] prelature rather than an ordinariate; it this correct?

FELLAY: As you correctly note, this canonical status is conditional; only later on will we be able to see the exact modality of it; it still remains a subject for discussion.

Q: When do you think you will give your answer to the proposal in the doctrinal preamble?

FELLAY: [… ] But I can assure you that our decision will be made for the good of the Church and of souls. Our Rosary Crusade, which continues for several more months, must be intensified so as to enable us to obtain, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, the graces of light and strength that we need more than ever.

by Mary Claire Dale, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Incoming Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput doesn’t want the Roman Catholic church to lose members.

But he says it’s not the place for so-called “cafeteria Catholics” who don’t accept all of its teachings.

Chaput has condemned the University of Notre Dame for bestowing an award on President Obama, who supports abortion rights, and thinks Catholic politicians with the same beliefs should not take Holy Communion.

“If they don’t believe what the church teaches, they’re not really Catholic,” Chaput told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, two days before his installation at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

Chaput, 66, will lead an archdiocese shaken by two grand jury reports since 2005 into the church’s handling of complaints of abuse by priests. Dozens of priests have been accused of molesting or raping children, and one, Monsignor William Lynn, is the first U.S. church official ever charged with a crime for allegedly transferring predators to new parishes.

Chaput’s predecessor suspended about two dozen accused priests amid an outcry over the second grand jury report in February. They remain in limbo while the complaints are investigated, and some fellow priests wonder how they will ever return, if exonerated, to parish life.

Chaput, known for dealing firmly with abuse complaints as Denver’s archbishop since 1997, pledged to complete the inquiries as quickly as possible.

“It’s not good for anybody to be left hanging,” he said. “It’s not good for the victim, it’s not good for the families of the victim, it’s not good for the priests or the parishes that they serve.” Chaput said.

“We have to make good judgments, as quickly as possible, for the sake of the common good,” he said.

Chaput, a Native American born in Kansas, belongs to the Capuchin order, a branch of the Franciscans who espouse simplicity, poverty and prayer.

He believes the laity should play leadership roles in the church — and not just because of the shortage of priests.

“In the early church, I think most of the missionaries were lay people,” Chaput said. “They’re doing what they should do.”

His installation also comes as unionized Catholic high school teachers go on strike and the archdiocese struggles, along with others across the country, with dwindling school enrollment, Mass attendance and revenue.

Yet the church, with about 500 active priests and nearly 1.5 million members in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, remains a powerful force in the region. About one-third of the area is Catholic.

Chaput succeeds Archbishop Justin Rigali, whose actions to address the sex-abuse crisis since 2003 were criticized by both the second grand jury and the head of his own reform panel. Chaput pledged to use his considerable skills as a communicator to heal the local church and its people.

“I’m not a magician, and I can’t work miracles,” he said. “(But) what I know about Philadelphia is, it has a grand and glorious history, and has a lot of accomplishments to be proud of.”

Before a key meeting in Rome, the leader of the traditionalists stressed that he was not prepared to make any compromises and also revealed some interesting behind the scenes happenings…

by Alessandro Speciale, Vatican City

“If their aim is still to force us to accept the second Vatican Council, the discussions have been clear enough in showing that we have no intention of doing any such thing.”

These were the decisive but prudent words of Bernard Fellay, who was adamant he would not agree to any compromise with the Vatican. On the 15 August, Fellay spoke openly about the talks between the Lefebvrians and the Holy See during the “summer University” of the Society of St. Pius X, fonde by Monsignor Lefebvre.

The transcription of the public interview with the Lefebvrian superior, held by the Society’s press agent, the abbot Alain Lorans, was published a few days ago, on the eve of the meeting in Rome between Fellay and Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which should encapsulate two years of “doctrinal talks” between Rome and the traditionalists.

The Lefebvrian superior’s judgement on the discussions was anything but friendly: “They are not beneficial right now because there is a clash of mentalities… In any case, we are certainly not in agreement. If there is one thing we agree on, that is that we do not agree on anything.”

Monsignor Fellay, one of the Society’s four bishops, ordained against Rome’s will by Monsignor Lefebvre and whose excommunication was removed by Benedict XVI in 2009, called for “extreme prudence” in terms of their relationship with the Vatican, especially in view of next week’s meeting, of which he said he did not know what to expert.

The removal of Fellay’s excommunication, which also meant Monsignor Richard Williamson, an English bishop undergoing trial in Germany for denying the existence of gas chambre and the dimensions of the Holocaust, did not improve the Brotherhood’s position. The Society is not recognised by Rome and its ordinations, which have carried on over the years despite the ban imposed by bishops and the Vatican, are considered “illegal” by the Church.

“If the Society of St. Pius X is to be recognised, the Vatican Secretary of State said in December 2009, they absolutely must recognise the Council and the teachings of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI himself.”

“People must not believe everything they hear,” the traditionalist superior told his followers. For example the rumours going round about Cardinal Levada making a “pro position” to the Brotherhood to allow it to entre into communion with the Holy See once again: “On what conditions?” Fellay asked himself, “the way I see it, there must be certain conditions.”

He went on to say that “there are those who say that up until now, they (the Vatican, editor’s note) have always tried to shove the Council down our throats. I don’t know. All I am saying is: We are moving on. We have our principles, above all faith… Without faith God can never like you, so our decisioni s made. Faith comes first, no matter what, it even comes before recognition by the Church. We need to be strong.”

During the long interview, “Fellay also revealed nemerous behind the scenes facts relating to the difficult but ongoing relations between the Vatican and the Brotherhood in recent years. A figure which stood out was Colombian cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, formerly president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, in charge of improving relations with the traditionalists. Even after his retirement, when the former Holy Office took the Commission under its wing as was requested by Benedict XVI, the cardinal seems to have stayed in close contact with Fellay, keeping him up to date with what was going on in the Vatican.

Fellay also explained how the arrival of Pope Ratzinger on the papal throne “set something off” in the Vatican, changing the winds in favour of the traditionalists and opening the way for their potential reintegration: “However, thinking about it and as far asthe person himself is concerned, the mood has certainly changed. Even in the Vatican, his arrival gave courage to those who, calling themselves conservatives, were forced to hide.”

Still, with the revocation of excommunications and the Williamson case in 2009, relations “became more tense”: in June that year, Fellay claims he tried desperately to meet with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but in vain. The traditionalist superior was “diverted” to the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, cardinal Levada.

Lefebvre’s successor, underlined more than once the divisions that esiste inside the Vatican Curia and warned that any news arriving from Rome should be taken with a pinch of salt. Fellay used the example of an Augustinian monk who was excommunicated and espelle from Rome having “converted” to “Monsignor Lefebvre’s society.”

The traditionalist superior claimed he went to Rome with the monk’s excommunication letter, signed by the Vatican Congregation for the clergy and that he showed it to Monsignor Guido Pozzo, current Secretary of Ecclesia Dei and head of the Vatican “negotiating” team engaged in talks with the [Fraternity].

“This is how the letter should be treated,” Pozzo allegedly said to Fellay before tearing it to pieces before him. The secretary of Ecclesia Dei is supposed to have added: “You should tell your priests and your flock, that not everything that comes from Rome comes directly from the Pope.”

Referring to another example, fellay spoke of a case of “ecumenical informing,” in which he was the central figure: after some Lefebvrian bishops, who were still excommunicated, were forbidden to celebrate the eucharist in the Lourdes sanctuary, the traditionalist superior contacted cardinal Castrillon, still president of Ecclesia Dei, to “condemn” the fact that some Anglican bishops had been allowed to celebrate mass.

“I am not calling them bishops because they are all laymen, they are not real priests, let alone bishops,” Fellay added with disdain.

The following excerpts come from pp. 155-169 of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s work, Liturgy and Personality (Longman’s, 1943) in a chapter titled “The Spirit of Discretio.” This particular passage touches on a variety of subjects we have raised here on NLM over the years, and particularly these past few months.

Some of the subjects addressed by von Hildebrand in this excerpt include:

-a non-reductionst view of the sacred liturgy
-the relationship of the liturgy and
non-liturgical devotions
-the hierarchical relationship of the liturgy and devotions
-the proper chants of the liturgy vs. hymns
the progression of minor and major orders.

The excerpt is lengthy, and I fear it may discourage some of you from reading it, but I would encourage you to make the effort. There is much to unpack here.

“In the Liturgy we find the spirit of discretio expressed in its three lines of development. Its structure and atmosphere clearly testify to this spirit, and the man who lives in the Liturgy grows organically into that spirit.

Let us recall the structure of the Holy Mass. Behold its organic unfolding for participation in the mystery. it is not a hurried march towards the great final aim, Holy Transubstantiation. One is aware that certain stages must first be passed through. First the Introibo mounting with the Confiteor to the altar of the Lord, the confrontation with God, the prayer for the forgiveness of sins, and then the centering of the Mass on the mystery of the feast of the day, as expressed in the Introit. Then the Kyrie, the great solemn cry for mercy; the adoring praise and thanksgiving offered to God in the Gloria; the Oratio with the special allusion to the mystery of the feast of the day; the illumination and preparation of our spirit through the epistle or lesson. Then comes the praise of the Gradual and the Alleluia, which rise as an echo to the epistle; and then the even more solemn and deep illumination of the words of eternal life of the Gopsel. The Credo resounds as a solemn response to the revelation contained in the words of the Lord through an expressly professed Faith. All this is an organic preparation, an ascension toward the mystery. Then follows the Offertory in which we give ourselves up to Christ in order to be carried by Him and with Him to the Father; the elevation of the host and the chalice; and the Lavabo which is another purification on a higher scale, performed alone this time by the priest directly on the threshold of the mystery. But we still stand in the world of symbols; it is still the priest as representative of Christ who acts, while we participate in his act.

As we approach the mystery more closely, we hear the sursum corda. What a deep sense of the entirely new which is now on the point of beginning, of the inner elevation of our attitude to a new scale which is now demanded. But before Christ enters our midst to perform the sacrifice of the Cross, the solemn praise and thanksgiving for the magnalia Dei must resound once more in the Preface culminating the song of praise of the Angels: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus! Now the last veil drops, the authentic actio begins, the celebration of the mystery itself. First, the ultimate, highest unfolding of the consciousness of communion — the prayer for the Holy Church and its Head, the loving glance cast on our fellow men, the drawing of all into the mystery, the glorious vision of the Communion of Saints. And then, the world of symbols and of human acts fades away: Christ Himself, our Head, sacrifices Himself to His heavenly Father.

Truly we behold in the Holy Mass the primary image of the entire dramatic rhythm of being, all the stages which much be traversed, the necessity of ascension, and inner preparation for the utterance of an objectively genuine “Word.” In the transubstantiation, we also behold the primal pattern of a full “now.” Here we learn to know the moment charged with inner significance; here where time and eternity meet, we understand the ultimate essence of the full “now.” But the further development of the Holy Mass is as organic as the ascension to the Holy Mystery. After participating expressly in the sacrifice of Christ, reaching its climax in the prayer Per ipsum, cum ipso et in ipso (Through Him, with Him and in Him), follows the third part of the Holy Mass, the sacrificial meal which is solemly initiated by the Pater Noster, the Lord’s prayer. In the first part of the Pater, we once more are in the rhythm intended purely for the praise of God, which until now has dominated the entire sacrificial act. In the second part of the Pater we ask for the bread of life and the forgiveness of our sins…

We find in the structure of the Holy Mass the primal image of the sense of the dramatic essence of being, its inner laws of development and the necessity of passing through objectively presented stages. But this sense of dramatic rhythm is also expressed in many distinct elements of the Liturgy, as for instance in the incensing of the altar during the Kyrie and the Offertory, the incensing of the Gospel, as well as in the blessing received by the deacon before the reading of the Gospels. We also find it in the purification of the chalice and the ablution of the hands after communion, in the fact that the initial prayers are recited at the foot of the altar, as well as in many other details. These are not mere fortuitous creations of the rubrics, but the expression of the sense of different objective degrees and what must take place in each of these before we dare pass to the next one. They are the fruit of discretio.

We also find this spirit of discretio in the structure of the Breviary as well as in the articulation of the various Hours. They are all dominated by the clearly expressed sense of the rise, culminating in the point and decline, the organic unfolding of a single theme.

This spirit is reflected above all in the rite of baptism and the ritual of Holy Orders….

The Liturgy deeply expresses the sense of these various stages which are to be objectively passed through for an achievement of the final aim. This is also reflected in the fact that though today even for the baptism of adults the entire baptismal rite is compressed in a short space of time, the gradation of the liturgical steps have been preserved in tact…

The same is true of Holy Orders. There are seven different orders still separated in time even today, organically leading to the essential aim. What a discretio in the gradation of powers required by the various orders! How distinctly is there expressed here also that element of discretio in which the degrees of relationship with the Kingdom of God are clearly distinguished in the various acts directed towards God. The divine service of the reading of the epistle can be performed by one who is still only a sub-deacon; the divine service of the reading of the gospel and the preaching of a sermon is open only to the deacon. Whereas the latter may distribute Holy Communion, the priest alone can offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This discretio is also clearly reflected in the distinction within the Liturgy between the sacraments and sacramentals. The wholly new degree of sacredness possessed by the sacraments in relation to the sacramentals is clearly expressed through the Liturgical treatment. Both are forms of divine service, both are destined to glorify God, yet they are distinctly separate in so far as their objective link with God is concerned. And how deeply is the entire Liturgy penetrated with the sense of the depth of the level at which something must be performed. Its own atmosphere of ultimate depth and of the presence of God, its profoundly sacred spirit, entirely irradiated by the face of Christ, prevents us from slipping onto the peripheral level so often presented by non-liturgical forms of devotion.

Everything in the Liturgy, even the singing, is formed by the spirit of Christ. What a world of ultimate greatness and truth, towering high above all individual deviations and entanglements, discloses itself in the solemnly uttered Deus in adjutorium meum intende! It draws us into the sacred realm where there is no place for anything profane.

And let us recall, on the other hand, the swamp of triviality and sentimentality into which certain modern religious hymns sink even though full of good and pious intentions. These hymns actually invite the faithful to drop into the superficial; they lead the outsider astray, for instead of offering him the true face of Christ, as revealed in the Liturgy, they falsify it through a sugary sentimentality. Instead of drawing us out of our narrowness into the pure mysterious atmosphere of the King of Eternal Glory, instead of revealing to us the entire “suavity,” the mysterious splendour of the “fairest of the children of men,” they lead us into a world of sentimentality and philistine narrowness repulsive even from the natural point of view. Many hymns induce the faithful to abandon the level of genuine religious emotion for the sphere of childhood memories; or else they incite to a profession of feelings of mere allegiance such as are typical of any Fourth of July gathering. This does not concern the purely aesthetic problem, but rather the question as to whether or not a hymn reflects the spirit of Christ, whether or not it is penetrated with a truly sacred atmosphere; it is the question of the level to which it leads us inwardly when we follow its spirit. Indeed it would be too naive to believe that the spirit of Christ is always reflected in everything which has been composed with the intention of edifying and is not heretical or immoral.

In the piety which is not determined by the Liturgy, the weight is easily shifted to that which is far less directly linked to God; it is shifted from the centre to the periphery. For many, attendance at the month of May devotions or rosary devotions appears as important as attendance at the Holy Mass on week-days. And even when they do not place them theoretically on the same scale, they actually give their preference to the devotions. Yes, many recite during Mass a prayer of devotion to Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony. For many, in the month of May, devotion to Mary overshadows Easter time. For them this devotion to Mary stamps the day far more than does the Easter Cycle. For many, solemn benediction appears as central as the Mass. For many, the visit to a famous place of pilgrimage is a more solemn contact with the supernatural than that obtained by participating in the Holy Sacrifice. They tremble in awe far more in touching a relic than in the Preparation during which we tread before the Lord’s altar. Than man who is formed by the Liturgy possesses, on the contrary, the discretio which makes him more aware of the true degrees leading to the mystery, and also the narrower spheres within the divine service. He will fully affirm the venerable non-liturgical forms of piety; he will be fully aware of their beauty which belongs to them in so far as they are secondary branches of the primordial, but he will see and experience them in their right place where they objectively stand.

The Liturgy teaches us to put everything in its right place in the realm of God…”

On the matter of the major and minor orders, on reading von Hildebrand’s words in their regard, it put me to mind of the recent call made by Bishop Athanasius Schneider for a motu proprio re-establishing the minor orders and subdiaconate throughout the Latin rite.

Apart from the two lists of Saints in the Communicantes and in the Nobis quoque, most of the divergences between the Roman Canon and the Ambrosian are fairly slight, involving no more than a small omission, a small addition, or a difference in the order of the words. A few of the changes, however are more significant:

In the Te igitur, the Holy Roman Emperor, the king or the duke may be named in addition to the Pope and the Archbishop; this variant was present in most medieval uses of the Roman Rite, and is still found in the Dominican Missal. At the beginning of Quam oblationem, the words “quam pietati tuae offerimus – which we offer to Thy holiness” are added immediately after “oblationem.”

The Institution Narrative, beginning with Qui pridie, varies in several regards from the text of the Roman Rite: (additions noted in bold.)

“Qui pridie quam pro nostra omniumque salute pateretur, accipiens panem, elevavit oculos ad caelos ad Te, Deum Patrem suum omnipotentem, tibi gratias agens, benedixit, fregit, deditque discipulis suis, dicens ad eos:

Simili modo postquam cenatum est, accipiens Calicem, elevavit oculos ad caelos, ad Te, Deum Patrem suum omnipotentem, item tibi gratias agens, benedixit, tradiditque discipulis suis, dicens ad eos:

Who on the day before He suffered for our salvation and for that of all men, taking bread He raised up His eyes to the heavens, to Thee, God, His Almighty Father, and giving Thee thanks He blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying to them…

In like manner, after the supper, taking the Chalice, He raised up His eyes to the heavens, to Thee, God, His Almighty Father, and again giving Thee thanks, He blessed it and handed it to His disciples, saying to them…”

The words “pro nostra omniumque salute” are used in the Roman Rite only at the Mass of Holy Thursday. The descriptive terms which the Roman Canon adds to speak of the Lord’s hands, similar to those of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, (into His Holy and Venerable hands), and of the Chalice (this excellent Chalice) are omitted. Furthermore, the two parts of the Narrative are assimilated to each other by the repetition of the words “He lifted up His eyes to the Heavens, to Thee, His Almighty Father” before the consecration of the Chalice.

In both cases, the actual words of Institution (Hoc est… Hic est…) are identical to those of the Roman Rite, including “mysterium fidei.” However, the words after the consecration of the Chalice appear in a much more elaborate form in the Ambrosian Rite, one of its most beautiful features:

“Mandans quoque et dicens ad eos: Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam facietis, mortem meam annuntiabitis, resurrectionem meam praedicabitis, adventum meum sperabitis, donec iterum de caelis veniam ad vos.

Commanding also and saying to them: However so often you shall do these things, you shall do them in remembrance of Me, you shall announce My death, you shall proclaim my Resurrection, you shall hope for my coming, until I come to you again from the Heavens.”

The Unde et memores omits the word “beatae – blessed” in reference to the Lord’s Passion, but adds “mirabilis – wonderful” before the Resurrection, and calls the Ascension “most glorious.” The final words of the Nobis quoque, “et praestas nobis”, are expanded to “et nobis famulis tuis largiter praestas ad augmentum fidei, et remissionem omnium peccatorum nostrorum. – and grantest to us Thy servants bountifully unto the increase of our faith, and the forgiveness of all our sins.”

The Doxology of the Canon is also notably different from the Roman version.

“Et est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti, ex ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso, omnis honor, virtus, laus et gloria, imperium, perpetuitas et potestas, in unitate Spiritus Sancti, per infinita saecula saeculorum. Amen.

And to Thee, o God, Father Almighty, from Him, and through Him, and in Him, belong all honor, virtue, praise and glory, rule, eternity and power, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.”

The ritual that accompanies the Doxology is also different. Three crosses are made with the Host over the Chalice at the words “ex ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso.” However, the two further crosses made with the Host in the Roman Rite are not made in the Ambrosian. Instead, the priest holds the Host over the Chalice with the fingers of his left hand; he then takes the paten in his right hand, and at the words “imperium, perpetuitas et potestas” makes three crosses with it over the Host and Chalice together, before singing the final words out loud.

The rituals which accompany the recitation of the Ambrosian Canon are for the most identical to those which are found in the Roman Rite, but again, with a few interesting differences. On the two occasions on which the priest kisses the altar, at the beginning of the Te igitur, and again at the Supplices, he makes the sign of the cross on the altar first, and then kisses it. There is no Lavabo during the Offertory; instead, immediately before the Institution Narrative, the priest goes to the Epistle side, and washes his fingers without saying anything. After the elevation of the Chalice and the last genuflexion, he stretches out his hands “in the manner of a cross”, as the rubrics say, a custom also common to many Uses of the Roman Rite.

On Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI challenged the men and women of today’s world to recover the deepest meaning of art, in its multitude of expressions, but particularly as the path of beauty which leads to God. And in doing so he also shared personal memories of how art had moved him to God with the five thousand pilgrims gathered for the general audience in the tiny village of Castel Gandolfo.

He said “On several occasions during this period, I have recalled the need for every Christian to find time for God, for prayer, amid the many occupations of our daily lives. The Lord Himself gives us many opportunities to remember Him. Today I will touch briefly on one of these channels that can bring us to God and also be of help in encountering Him: it is the path of artistic expression, part of that “path of Beauty “, of which I have spoken several times and which man today should recover in its deepest meaning”.

Pope Benedict continued “perhaps sometimes, before a sculpture, a painting, a few verses of a poem or a song, you have experienced deep within an intimate emotion, a sense of joy, that is, you have clearly perceived that in front of you there was not only mere matter, a piece of marble or bronze, a painted canvas, a series of letters or a combination of sounds, but something bigger, something that speaks, capable of touching the heart, of communicating a message; of elevating the soul. ”

“Works of art are the fruit of human creativity, which question the visible reality, trying to discover its deep meaning and to communicate it through the language of shapes, colours, sounds.” The work of art, in short, “is an open door on the infinite,” which “opens the eyes of the mind, of the heart.”

However, he added, “there are artistic expressions that are true paths to God, the supreme Beauty, indeed they help nurture our relationship with Him in prayer. These are works that are born of faith and express faith. One example of this is when we visit a Gothic cathedral; we are enraptured by the vertical lines that shoot up towards the sky and draw our eyes and our spirits upwards, while at the same time, we feel small, and yet eager for fullness … Or when we enter a Romanesque church: we are spontaneously invited to recollection and prayer. We feel as if the faith of generations were enclosed in these splendid buildings. Or, when we hear a piece of sacred music that vibrates the strings of our heart, our soul expands and helped to turn to God. A concert of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, in Munich, directed by Leonard Bernstein, again comes to my mind. After the last piece of music, one of the Cantate, I felt, not by reasoning, but in my heart, that what I heard had conveyed to me truth, something of the truth of the great composer’s faith and this pressed me to praise and thank the Lord and beside me was the Lutheran Bishop of Munich and spontaneously, feeling this, I said to him, you know, its true, a faith and beauty so strong and irresistibly expresses the presence and truth of God”.

Pope Benedict then turned spoke of how certain artists have touched our lives : “How many times have paintings or frescoes, the fruit of the faith of the artist, in their forms, their colours, their light, encouraged us to direct our thoughts to God and nourished in us the desire to draw from the source of all beauty. What the great artist, Marc Chagall, once wrote remains true, that for centuries painters have dipped their paintbrush in that coloured alphabet that is the Bible. How many times, then can artistic expressions be occasions to remind us of God, to help our prayer or for the conversion of the heart! Paul Claudel, a poet, playwright, and French diplomat, in the Basilica of Notre Dame in Paris, in 1886, while he was listening to the singing of the Magnificat at Christmas Mass, felt God’s presence. He had not entered the church for reasons of faith, but to in search of arguments against Christians, and instead the grace of God worked in his heart”.

The Holy Father concluded: “I invite you to rediscover the importance of this path for prayer, for our living relationship with God. The cities and towns all over the world preserve works of art that express the faith and remind us of our relationship with God. Visiting places of art, it is not only an occasion for cultural enrichment, but above all it can be a moment of grace, an encouragement to strengthen our relationship and our dialogue with the Lord, to stop and contemplate, in the transition from simple external reality to a deeper reality, the ray of beauty that strikes us, that almost wounds us in our inner selves and invites us to rise towards God.”

Beauty matters. In matters in sacred art, sacred music and sacred liturgy. Indeed, it matters generally.

The Saints of the Ambrosian Canon (Part 2)

by Gregory DiPippo

Posted Friday, September 02, 2011

The list of Saints in the Ambrosian Nobis quoque begins with “John and John”; these are evidently the Baptist and the Apostle, the latter of whom is named earlier in the Communicantes. It is not clear why the church of Milan felt the need to repeat the name of the Apostle, but he is not the only one named twice. After St. Stephen the First Martyr, who comes after John as in the Roman Rite, St. Andrew’s name is also repeated; St. Matthias, who took the place of the traitor Judas, is omitted. There are of course other early saints named John and Andrew, but none of them is particularly prominent, or has any obvious connection with Milan.

St. Barnabas’ name was added to the Canon by the revision of St. Charles Borromeo, in reference to a late and unreliable tradition that he was the first bishop of Milan; it does not appear in any earlier printed edition or manuscript of the Ambrosian Missal, despite its presence in the Roman Canon. Ss. Ignatius of Antioch and Alexander are omitted, and the list of male martyrs is completed by Ss. Peter and Marcellinus, who are named in the opposite order from the Roman Canon. Their church in Rome was one of the first basilicas built in the city, by the Emperor Constantine himself, and would also have been known to St. Ambrose.

All of the female martyrs named in the Roman canon are included in the Ambrosian, but in a different order, with six other women added to their company. Ss. Agnes and Cecilia, two Romans, begin the list, followed by Ss. Felicity and Perpetua, who were martyred together at Carthage in 202 A.D. St. Anastasia, devotion to whom was formerly very important in Rome, follows; the Roman basilica dedicated to her is the station church for the Dawn Mass of Christmas, at which she is still commemorated in the traditional rite.

Ss. Agatha and Lucy, both Sicilians, are named next to each other in the Roman Canon; in the Ambrosian, St. Euphemia of Chalcedon, a martyr of the persecution of Diocletian, is placed between them. The church built over her grave was the site of the fourth ecumenical council, and in the Byzantine Rite, she is called a “Great Martyr.” In the Roman Rite, she is traditionally kept only as a commemoration on September 16th, the feast of Ss. Cornelius and Cyprian; Milan has kept her feast with greater prominence, preferring to move the two bishops to another day.

After Agatha, Euphemia and Lucy, St. Justina of Padua is named; traditionally venerated as a virgin martyr, nothing is really known of her for certain. She may have been killed in the persecution of Diocletian, but in the Middle Ages, she was said to be a disciple of St. Prosdocimus, who was sent by the Apostle Peter to evangelize the city. As mentioned earlier à propos of Ravenna, the whole of northern Italy was part of the ecclesiastical province of Milan in the patristic era; this might explain why a fairly obscure non-Milanese martyr was added to the Canon. The chapel of the university of Pavia, very close to Milan, was dedicated to St. Justina by St. Charles.

There follows the Roman widow Sabina, another saint of very uncertain history; her acts claim that she was converted by a Syrian serving girl named Serapia, and that both of them were martyred under Hadrian, a month apart from each other. In the Roman Rite, she is kept as a commemoration on August 29th, the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist; oddly enough, she is not kept with a feast at all in the Ambrosian liturgy.

The Duomo of Milan as it stands today is the result of a project which began in 1386, to replace the two cathedrals which had hitherto served the see of St. Ambrose. The larger “summer church” as it is still called in Ambrosian liturgical books, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and used from Easter until the Third Sunday of October, the feast of its Dedication; it stood where the modern cathedral stands, but was no. The smaller “winter church”, which was demolished in 1543, stood on the opposite end of the modern Piazza del Duomo, and was dedicated to St. Thecla, for which reason her name is included in the Canon of the Mass. The apocryphal work in which her life is recorded, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, enjoyed great popularity in ancient times and into the Middle Ages, even though it was exposed as a forgery in the middle of the second century; she was greatly venerated by the many of the Church Fathers. In these Acts, Thecla is said to have been the first to heed St. Paul’s exhortation to virginity as a superior way of life; having refused marriage to a nobleman, she was put to various torments, but miraculously delivered from them all, and died at Iconium in Asia Minor at a great old age. The Byzantine Rite calls her “First-martyr among women and Equal-to-the-Apostles”; she is also named in the traditional form of the Prayers for the Dying, “As Thou (Lord) didst deliver Thy most blessed Virgin and Martyr Thecla from three most dreadful torments, so also mayest Thou deign to deliver the soul of Thy servant.”

The façade of the Duomo, completed in 1812. Note the plaque over the main door, with the simple inscription “Mariae Nascenti – to Mary being born.” The feast of the Virgin’s Nativity is the patronal feast of the church.

Thecla is followed by St. Pelagia, a Christian virgin of Antioch martyred in the persecution of Diocletian. When soldiers came to kill her, knowing that she would be likely be raped first, she threw herself off the roof of her house; St. John Chrysostom, who was born in Antioch less than fifty years later, says that she was permitted to do so by a peculiar inspiration of the Holy Ghost. St. Ambrose devotes a passage to her in his book on Virginity (III.32-37), and mentions her in one of his letter (ep. VII ad Simplicianum), for which reason her feast is kept by the church of Milan on October 8th.

Finally, the name of St. Catherine of Alexandria, one of the most popular saints in the High Middle Ages, was added to early printed editions of the Ambrosian Missal, although it is not found in any of the manuscripts, and carried over into the revision of St. Charles Borromeo. Prior to this addition, there were twelve women martyrs in the Ambrosian Canon, perhaps a deliberate imitation of the company of the twelve Apostles.