What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Our frequent guest St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) drills into a couple verses of Ps. 95(96) in his Enarrationes in psalmos 95, an excerpt of which is in in the Office of Readings in the Liturgia horarum for this 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time in the newer calendar. 

We are moving quickly to the end of the liturgical year.  Therefore Holy Church is more and more focusing our attention on the Four Last Things, death, judgment, heaven and hell.

I don’t want to go to Hell for eternity.  Do you?

Augustine and I give you some tips on how to avoid that nasty end. 

Folks, we are going to die and be judged, the Lord will come again, whether we ask Him to or not.

His mercy is ours for the asking.

 

 08-11-16 : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Along the way you might hear these tunes:

Praise to the Lord -  Faith of our Fathers
Sonata Chquitanas: Andante – Bolivian Baroque – Florilegium
Sanctus/Benedictus – Missa pro defunctis – Palestrina – Chanticleer

The iTunes feed is working.  It stops and starts again… mysteriously.  Beats me!

Some of the last offerings (check out the PODCAzT PAGE):

072 08-11-11 The death of St. Martin; starlings, cuckolds, bell ringing and a skull
071 08-11-06 "Faith inscribed across your heart": Benedict on Cyril of Jerusalem & Cyril on faith, your treasure
070 08-11-01 Venerable Bede on All Saints; a collage; don Camillo (Part IV)
069 08-10-30 Augustine on Ps 103; Benedictines can sing!
068 08-08-04 Interview – Fr. Tim Finigan on the Oxford TLM conference; don Camillo (Part III)
067 08-07-29 St. Augustine on Martha, active v. contemplative lives; don Camillo (part II)
066 08-07-25 don Camillo (part I): VM - advice on getting TLMs & “pro multis”

We welcome as our guest the 5th century writer Sulpicius Severus who speaks to us about St. Martin of Tours who
died in 397 and also the english poet John Clare who died in 1864. Sulpicius Severus died sometime between 420 and 425.  He was was the earliest biographer of St. Martin, the bishop of Tour in France, who died in 397.

We will also hear "Martinmass" by John Clare written on 11 Nov 1841.

    ‘Tis Martinmass from rig to rig
    Ploughed fields and meadow lands are blea
    In hedge and field each restless twig
    Is dancing on the naked tree
    Flags in the dykes are bleached and brown
    Docks by its sides are dry and dead
    All but the ivy-boughs are brown
    Upon each leaning dotterel’s head

    Crimsoned with awes the awthorns bend
    O’er meadow-dykes and rising floods
    The wild geese seek the reedy fen
    And dark the storm comes o’er the woods
    The crowds of lapwings load the air
    With buzes of a thousand wings
    There flocks of starnels too repair
    When morning o’er the valley springs

I have lots of digressions about St. Martin of Tour, including the time I held his skull in my hands.

Since I mention the storni in Rome, there is YouTube video below.  I didn’t make it.  And I suggest you watch it after you hear the PODCAzT.

 

 The death of St. Martin; starlings, cuckolds, bell ringing and a skull [31:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Along the way you might hear these tunes:

Campanero – Orquestra del Sol
Surrexit pastor bonus, motet for 4 voices – Palestrina
Panis Angelicus – César Franck – Westminster Boys Choir
Concerto No. 3 In F, "the Autumn" (l’autunno) – Adagio
Frère Jacques – Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Fra’ Martino – Piccoli Cantori Di Niny Comolli E Lucia Mannucci

The iTunes feed is working.  It stops and starts again… mysteriously.  Beats me!

Some of the last offerings (check out the PODCAzT PAGE):

071 08-11-06 "Faith inscribed across your heart": Benedict on Cyril of Jerusalem & Cyril on faith, your treasure
070 08-11-01 Venerable Bede on All Saints; a collage; don Camillo (Part IV)
069 08-10-30 Augustine on Ps 103; Benedictines can sing!
068 08-08-04 Interview – Fr. Tim Finigan on the Oxford TLM conference; don Camillo (Part III)
067 08-07-29 St. Augustine on Martha, active v. contemplative lives; don Camillo (part II)
066 08-07-25 don Camillo (part I): VM - advice on getting TLMs & “pro multis”

Today it being the feast of St. Leo I, I thought to post links to past PODCAzTs during which I dealt with this great Father and Doctor, the eloquent Pope.

I listened to bits and pieces of a few of them.  There is some pretty good stuff here.  The early efforts are rather primitive, from the recording standpoint.  While the more recent projects are still rather primitive according to the standards of the cognoscenti, at least they have improved a little as I learn.

061 08-05-17 Pope Leo I on a post-Pentecost weekday; Fr. Z rambles not quite aimlessly for a while
059 08-05-15 Leo the Great on Pentecost fasting; Benedict XVI’s sermon for Pentecost Sunday
049 08-01-06 Leo the Great on Epiphany; Lefebvre compared to Athanasius; feedback
029 07-05-18 Leo’s mind blowing Ascension sermon; angels
027 07-05-16 Leo on the Ascension; a Collect; feedback
021 07-04-22 Leo the Great on Peter – Msgr. Schuler
020 07-04-19 Leo the Great and Benedict – Habemus Papam!
010 07-03-25 Leo the Great’s Letter 28 "ad Flavianum" – veiling statues – a "Tridentine" church in Rome
009 07-03-22 Leo on the Passion; Sobrino; confessions on Good Friday
008 07-03-20 Leo the Great on works of mercy in Lent
003 07-03-04 Pope Leo the Great on the transfiguration, the moon, etc.  

We might review, with the help of an old article I wrote for The Wanderer a long time ago, what happened with Attila the Hun:

Attila the Hun, aka the Scourge of God, was ravaging the lands.  In the 440’s the western part of the Empire was disintegrating.  Burgundians had invaded Gaul but were driven off by the powerful general Aetius.  In 439 Geiseric conquered Carthage in North Africa.  In 441 he defeated a Roman force sent against him.  The West was suffering from a critical shortage of military manpower and they were beset everywhere (sound familiar?).  In 450 the Eastern Emperor Marcian cancelled the annual bribe to the Huns, which the Huns did not find amusing.   It happened that the Emperor Valentinian III was trying marry off his sister, Justa Grata Honoria, to an elderly dignitary.  She had other ideas.  Honoria sent a ring to Attila, King of the Huns.  Attila took this as an offer of marriage and demanded half the Western Empire as a dowry.  He then invaded Gaul.  In 451 near modern Châlons, the general Aetius defeated Attila who, instead of withdrawing back into Germany, moved into defenseless Italy in 452.  Aetius was unable to stop him.  The Huns sacked Milan, destroyed Aquileia, began to march on Rome.   Nothing stood in Attila’s way.  

In living memory Rome had been sacked in 410 by Alaric the Visigoth.  You can still see coins from fused into the marble floor of the Basilica Aemilia in the Roman Forum.  The Sack of Rome had a more profound impact on the Romans throughout the West than 9/11 had on the USA and its allies.  In fact, the year 410 in part provided St. Augustine of Hippo with the inspiration to write The City of God, which changed the course of Western civilization.  However, in the 450’s, Italy was nearly prostrate and no army could rescue Italy from Attila the Hun.  The only figure of any prestige in Italy at the time was the Pope of Rome, Leo.  Leo rode north from Rome with a small group of followers and met with Attila before he could reach City and pillage it.  They had a private conversation, legend has it.  We have no idea what Leo said to the Hunnish King, but immediately thereafter Attila turned his army around, left Italy.

In the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter, in the “Cappella della Colonna” we see the tomb and altar of St. Pope Leo the Great.  Over the tomb is a marble relief by Alessandro Algardi (made in 1646-50) depicting the moment of the colloquium of the Saint and the Scourge.  Attila is reeling backward from the sight of the menacing and heavily armed Sts. Peter and Paul swooping down from heaven behind Leo’s shoulder.  A frowning Peter points authoritatively at Leo while the glowering Paul is aiming his finger in a classic “scram” signal.  In 453 (the year Leo gave the sermon that influenced our prayer this week) Attila was heading back through Eastern Europe in preparation for another assault on the Byzantines.  He set up camp so that he could get married, drank himself unconscious and promptly did everyone a favor by drowning in his own blood from a nosebleed.  Attila’s empire fell apart almost at once and the Hunnish menace dissipated as swiftly as it had arisen.  All this in 453 when Leo said: “Beloved, promptly expressing this profession of faith with your whole heart, spew out the impious comments of the heretics, so that your fasting and almsgiving may be polluted by the contagion of no errors.  For then both the offering of sacrifice and the holy bestowing of mercy is clean.”

Today we hear what St. Cyril of Jerusalem (+387) says about faith, the faith handed down to us and which we must inscribe across our hearts. 

Our faith is a gift, a treasure for which we must given an account to the Lord.

Are you increasing the knowledge of your faith?  Are you neglecting it, as the man did who hid his talent in the ground?

Our faith, the faith in which we believe and the faith by which we beleive both guide us to a relationship with the one from whom Faith comes, the one to whom we must render our account.

To introduce Cyril we listen to Pope Benedict XVI from his 27 June 2007 Wednesday audience catechesis about this great Doctor of the Church.  Of course I parse it and drill into in all in my usual rambling way.

It’s a short one today.  I just wanted to do something on this otherwise bleak, gray, rainy autumn day to reach out, at least vocally, beyond the rain-washed windows and wet leaves.

 

 "Faith inscribed across your heart": Benedict XVI and Cyril of Jerusalem [33:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Along the way you might hear these tunes:

Jump Jive an’ Wail – Brian Setzer Orchestra
Autumn – Daniel Hecht
Credo – Missa in duplicibus minoribus I for five voices – Palestrina
Gentle Rain – Astrud Gilberto

The iTunes feed is working.  It stops and starts again… mysteriously.  Beats me!

Some of the last offerings (check out the PODCAzT PAGE):

070 08-11-01 Venerable Bede on All Saints; a collage; don Camillo (Part IV)
069 08-10-30 Augustine on Ps 103; Benedictines can sing!
068 08-08-04 Interview – Fr. Tim Finigan on the Oxford TLM conference; don Camillo (Part III)
067 08-07-29 St. Augustine on Martha, active v. contemplative lives; don Camillo (part II)
066 08-07-25 don Camillo (part I): VM - advice on getting TLMs & “pro multis”

For this Feast of All Saints we tune in to hear what Venerable Bede (+735) has to say.  This is an excerpt from today’s Matins in the traditional Breviarium Romanum and is taken from one of Bede’s sermons.

I comment.

Also, I have a bit of a collage, which just "grew" out of thinking through some e-mail I received while I was working on this, and had Bede’s words about this shortness of this life fresh in my mind. 

There are a lot of broken hearts out there, folks.  It takes time to get things in perspective, but the right starting point helps.

Also, we have another installment of stories about the fictional don Camillo Tarocci, (+ A.D. ... ?) parish priest of "The Little World" created by Giovanni Guareschi.

I began a to read stories from The Little World of Don Camillo back in PODCAzT 65.  There is a Don Camillo tag you can use to find the others easily. 

These delightful pieces are set in post-war Nothern Italy. 

They blend brilliant insight into the human condition with solid applied Catholic Faith. 

Today we hear two tales:

 

 Venerable Bede on All Saints; a collage; Don Camillo (Part IV) [61:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Not sure if the iTunes feed is working.  It stops and starts again… mysteriously.  Beats me!

Some of the last offerings (check out the PODCAzT PAGE):

069 08-10-30 Augustine on Ps 103; Benedictines can sing!
068 08-08-04 Interview – Fr. Tim Finigan on the Oxford TLM conference; don Camillo (Part III)
067 08-07-29 St. Augustine on Martha, active v. contemplative lives; don Camillo (part II)
066 08-07-25 don Camillo (part I): VM - advice on getting TLMs & “pro multis”
065 08-07-19 St. Ambrose “On mysteries”; Interview: Fr. Robert Pasley
064 08-07-15 Bonaventure on Christ “the door”; Interview – Fr. Timothy Finigan
063 08-07-12 Interview: Fr. Justin Nolan, FSSP; consecrated hands, Holy Communion and the Rite of Baptism
062 08-06-26 Interviews with and by Fr. Z; What has Bp. Fellay really said?
061 08-05-17 Pope Leo I on a post-Pentecost weekday; Fr. Z rambles not quite aimlessly for a while
060 08-05-16 Pentecost customs; St. Ambrose on the dew of the Holy Spirit
059 08-05-15 Leo the Great on Pentecost fasting; Benedict XVI’s sermon for Pentecost Sunday
058 08-05-14 Ember Days; Chrysostom on St. Matthias; Prayer to the Holy Spirit
057 08-05-13 John Paul II on the unforgivable sin; Our Lady of Fatima and the vision of Hell
056 08-05-12 Octaves – Fr. Z rants & Augustine on Pentecost
055 08-05-03 Tertullian, again; Fr. Rutler and Fr. Z on Archbp. Marini’s book
054 08-04-29 Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion; St. Ambrose and Emperor Theodosius

After a long hiatus, I am back with another PODCAzT.  Travelling, being tried, tired, and problems with teeth have quieted me at the microphone.  Even with this one, it was a bit of a chore. I also need to reacquaint myself with the tech stuff.

Today we delve into St. Augustine of Hippo’s 3rd Exposition of Ps. 103 (104).  He has three sermons on this psalm, preached in Carthage, probably in 411.  He uses an allegorical approach to interpreting the many elements.  This is a psalm often associated with Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, having as it does the lines: "Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth."  So, we’ll drill into Augustine’s 103, 5-6. and hear the psalm 103 (104) as well.

I got into this psalm today because of the word caminus, which Augustine uses in the sermon.  This one of the words for chimney.  I just made an appointment for my chimney to be cleaned.  Also, he speaks of birds, which we view at the Sabine Farm, and he talks of onagers and rocks and heretics! 

By the way, in paragraph 4, just before this section Augustine in his allegorical approach interprets the wild asses in the psalm as being celibates, which his audience must have enjoyed enormously.

In Kansas City, Missouri recently I met the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles.  They are very fine group of young women, happy and dedicated to prayer for priests.  They have a CD of music, chant and their own compositions.  We will hear one I found on their website.  They sing as beautifully as they smile and bear their traditional habits.

Some of the tunes you will encounter along the way…

On the Air – Carrol Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orphaens
Emendemus in melius by Orlando de Lassus
Concerto for Oboe in D minor, Op. 9-2 – Adagio by Tomaso Albinoni
Ave Maria by the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles
Wandering Along – Carrol Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orphaens

http://www.wdtprs.com/podcazt/08_10_30.mp3
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/10/podaczt-69-augustine-on-ps-103-benedictines-can-sing/

 

 Augustine on Ps 103 & Benedictines can sing! [54:20m]: