Upon my return at-long-last home found a box from my amazon wishlist which included, from some kind soul, 2 pudding basins!
I once tried (successfully) to make a pudding with an improvised setup. It was a anxious experience.
This time I want to do something particular.
RESOLVED: I shall make an English Christmas Pudding.
I have already found a suet supply.
I will eventually need to obtain sprigs of holly. It won’t grow here in this drastic place.
Now: I must look for recipes!
In the meantime, here are images from a book I recall from my distant childhood, depicting “Max” preparing what I now at long last understand to be The Christmas Pudding! As a kid I had always wondered what he was making.
Any resemblance to hamsters on sidebars is entirely intentional.
It seems that recently our parish, at the direction of or with the consent of our priest has changed the wording of the Agnus Dei.
Apparently, saying “Lamb of God” three times is boring and silly so now we are to address the second stanza to the “Bread of Life” and the third to “Jesus, Prince of Peace”. I fully recognize that Christ is clearly and fully addressed as any of these three titles, but isn’t the Agnus Dei the Lamb of God and only the Lamb of God? Furthermore, I was taught years ago that the reason for the threefold recitation of Lamb of God was to indicate Christ’s perfection as the sacrifical lamb without blemish. No one else seems bothered by this, but I am just irked by what seems to me to be unnecessary tinkering with a beautiful part of the Mass. So, Father Z., am I out of line, or is this unnecessary at best or even improper? Thank you for your guidance and perspective.
Not everything that seems silly in the Ordinary Form, or Novus Ordo is illicit.
A USCCB document (not having a recognitio from the Holy See) suggests that during the singing of the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) additional “titles” can be interjected while the “fraction rite” is going on. That is, as long as the priest and sacred ministers are arranging and preparing the Hosts for distribution, these additional Christological titles can be interpolated into the singing of the “Lamb of God”, provided that the first and last thing sung is always the “Lamb of God”, the final ending “grant us peace”. I think, however, that is to be done in addition to singing the first two verses as is, not instead of. If they are not singing the first and, at the end, the final verse as written, they may be straying from the rubrics. Again… this suggestionof the USCCB document, does not seem to have the official approval of the Holy See. Therefore, it seems not to be entirely licit to do this.
The 2000 GIRM 83 says: “The supplication Agnus Dei, is, as a rule, sung by the choir or cantor with the congregation responding; or it is, at least, recited aloud. [NB:]This invocation accompanies the fraction and, for this reason, may be repeated as many times as necessary until the rite has reached its conclusion, the last time ending with the words dona nobis pacem (grant us peace).”
In the combox, below, a commentator points out that GIRM 83 says that the text of the Agnus Dei itself may be repeated. GIRM says nothing about adding additional titles.
My own view is that silence is a good thing during Holy Mass. When you are finished singing the actual text of the Agnus Dei, why not just be quite instead of vamping till ready?
“To vamp”, of course, is the verb used by musicians to describe repeating a phrase over and over again to fill time until moving on. Think of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five.
This Agnus Dei thing is sort of a liberal liturgist’s … is sort of a liberal liturgist’s … is sort of a liberal liturgist’s Take Five.
Of course in the Roman liturgy we have always been able to extend a musical moment during Holy Mass when we use Gregorian chant simply by adding psalm verses, or looping back to the antiphon or parts of the antiphon.
The Kyrie and other parts of Mass were often sung with “tropes”. Here is an example of a troped Kyrie. You can hear the interjected verses.
The Agnus Dei was text that was sometimes troped.
Hmmmm …. Dave Brubeck seems to have gotten it liturgically right after all, and that “troped Lamb of God” you are hearing actually has a bit of a pedigree in the history of Church music.
The drawback is. of course, that the interjected titles for the Lamb of God could get pretty silly, couldn’t they. Imagine how a liturgy committee could go to the zoo with that opportunity.
Today in the VIS there is an English rendering of the article I mentioned yesterday from L’Osservatore Romano.
CARDINAL RATZINGER AND REVISION OF CANONICAL PENAL LAW
VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2010 (VIS) – Given below is the text of an article by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. the article is to be published on 4 December by the Italian magazine “Civilta Cattolica” under the title “Cardinal Ratzinger’s Influence on the Revision of the Canonical Penal Law System”.
The Washington Post has a rather slimy question with a poll concerning religious freedom and the US Military, especially in regard to “don’t ask – don’t tell”, which concerns the identity of homosexuals.
Here is the WaPo text: What beliefs ban gays?
UPDATE: Dec 2, 9:18 a.m.: Sandhya Somashekhar reported Thursday that among the findings in the Pentagon’s study of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, is widespread concern within the chaplain corps that permitting gays to serve openly may infringe upon the freedom of religious leaders to express their disapproval of homosexuality. Who will win when gay rights and religious freedom collide?
One example of those conflicting rights, articulated by Terry Mattingly at GetReligion.org is here: “What if a traditional Catholic priest hears the confession of a Catholic soldier — gay or straight — who is in a sexual relationship that violates the Church’s teachings and tells this believer that he or she must repent? Does the soldier have the right to protest, saying that the chaplain has declined to show proper care and respect?”
What do you think?
I know that was a bit incoherent. But there is a POLL you might want to look at.
After looking through the Italian text which I obtained, I can share a few other things in my fast translation. I read German pretty well, but I translate Italian faster, and Italian was clearly the original language.
Pay close attention to his comments about resistance to the older form of Mass and how that resistance must be overcome. It must be overcome, of course, because it is wrong.
3 Q: The Pope asked for “charity and pastoral prudence” for traditionalist faithful. Now, at the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, you are a kind of fire department for cases in which don’t go that way. Where do you find resistance? What what motivations?
The expression “vigilare” translates Greek “episcopein”. Vigilance is the primary competence of the bishop. In this sense the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” exercises the office of observation and vigilance over the application of the Motu Proprio. There still now exist certainly some prejudices and resistance against the Mass in the antiquior rite, either from ideological motives or in part because the request for the Mass in the Extraordinary Form is considered an expression of contrast and opposition to the liturgical reform desired by the Second Vatican council. It is clearly necessary to overcome and challenge these still widespread prejudices and to recover, above all, the unity of the history of the liturgy, the unity of the lex orandi as an expression of the unity of the lex credendi, even in the specificity of the liturgical forms of the one Roman Rite.
3 bis
Q: A clarification: Which objections move a parish priest/pastor or bishop who has no respect for the old Mass to refuse requests?
There are prelates who above all see the risk of a nostalgia or an aesthetic sort, purely ornamental, formalistic, in the request for the old rite. This, however – I don’t want to exclude that in some cases this can also be true – indicates, in just a general way, a kind of bias. Because the antiquior rite has on the other hand a profound richness that must be non only respected, but rediscovered from the vantage point precisely of the liturgy as it is also celebrated today. And so these biases, these oppositions, have to be overcome through a change of a forma mentis. A more adequate liturgical formation is needed.
[…]
6
The Motu Proprio does not speak of the formation of priests who want to learn the say the Mass according to the old books. According to some this is a lacuna (gap), inasmuch as it requires not a little training to celebrate the old liturgy. To this point, what can you advise to priests who are interested?
Certainly the problem of the priest who is suited (idoneo) for the celebration of the previous Rite is of great importance and urgency. I must say that often the motive for which individual Ordinaries have problems in responding favorable to the request of a stable group of faithful to assist at Mass in the antiquior rite is precisely the lack of priests suited to its celebration. It is necessary, therefore, that the faithful making the request, have come understanding and great patience. I am of the opinion that in seminaries there should be offered to seminarians the possibility of learning adequately to cerebrate also the Extraordinary Form. I am not speaking of an obligation, but of the possibility. Where it is possible, one could make use for this preparation of priests of religious institutes which are under the jurisdiction of Ecclesia Dei and which follow the traditional liturgical discipline. However, what seems to be essential is liturgical and theological formation for which it is necessary to reject radically the idea that there exists a pre-Conciliar liturgy in opposition to a post-Conciliar liturgy. There is a growth and deepening in the history of the faith and of the Church’s liturgy, but also in continuity and in substantial unity, that cannnot and must never be lost or diminished. This is the line, the plan that must be follow also in view of a better preparation of clergy.
[…]
9
Will the Holy Father one day celebrate a great Mass in the Extraordinary Form?
I think you are asking the the wrong person!
[…]
There is more, and in time to come I may get to that as well.
This is a handsome and useful book for anyone who is going to go to Rome and plans to visit churches, or who will be living in Rome for a while.
The book covers 51 important Roman churches, giving a history and description of each so that you are sure to see the most important features. It includes floor plans and many photos.
In the back of the book you find a bibliography, glossary, and an index of artists. The artist index is useful if you are trying to hunt down, say, all the painting by Guido Reni found in churches (a few are in museums).
I can tell that most of the photos are fairly recent, too, given the glimpses of scaffolds and cars and fashions. You don’t see, as in some books, cars from 1955.
The book is a softcover, and it really does flex and bend well. The cover is tough and the paper should be durable. It is made to be hauled around. The only drawback is that it is a little heavy. But the positives outweigh that point.
You could consider this as a Christmas gift to someone heading to Rome.
Thomas Caulfield Irwin (1823-1892), December:
It is bleak December noon,
Winter-wild and rainy grey:
By the old road thinly strewn
Drifts of dead leaves skirt the way:
Oh! the long canals and drear,
And the floods o’erflow the weir,
And the old deserted Year
Seems dying with the day.
By the banks the leafless larch
Shakes its boughs in dismal plight;
The blank bridge’s lonely arch
Marks the sullen sky with white:
Beyond the current flows
Through banks of misty snows,
And the wind the water blows,
Here and there, a little bright.
From the dim and silent hill
Looks the moon with face of care
O’er the sad fields, frosty still,
And the icy brooklet there;
And nooked beside the way
The hamlet children play,
Whispering weirdly in the grey
Of the dumb cold evening air.
W.H. Auden, ed., Nineteenth Century Minor British Poets (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1966), gives the poet’s name as William Caulfield Irwin (pp. 10, 194, 366), but he seems to be mistaken.
Here is an offering from the Catholic Sentinel, the twice monthly publication of Oregon Catholic Press, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Portland.
Q — I was wondering, if unity is an important part of catholic teaching, why is it that we do not see the traditional Latin Mass offered more generously? In the past, anywhere you went to a Catholic Church the Mass was exactly the same (only the homily was in the vernacular). So, with an increasing number of parishioners who speak Spanish and other languages, why do we not offer this Mass more often so that we can come together and celebrate Mass without either group (the English speaking and the non-English speaking) feeling lost? [A great question.]
A — This is a very good question, but a complex question, and it shows a real sensitivity concerning the unity of the parish and, indeed, of the Catholic Church as a whole. [Indeed it does.]
Latin has traditionally been the language of the Western Church, and it seems to me that in some respects Latin may be understood as a badge or a symbol of our catholicity. [Indeed it is.]
That’s one of the reasons why various parts of the Mass are often sung in Latin, [Often? These days? Perhaps a little more often than before. But, … often? How about where you live? Is this your experience? It seems to me that the Deacon may be using just a little slight of hand here, perhaps to give the impression that Latin actually is being used… plenty of Latin, surely enough Latin… so much that we really don’t need any more.] e.g., the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei. At the same time, the church [read “Church”] has judged that celebrating in the vernacular languages better enables the active participation of all the faithful in the celebration of the Mass. [The Church also made this judgment in Sacrosanctum Concilium 54 that “steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.“]
Having access to the words and their meanings throughout the entire celebration, including the liturgy of the word, helps us to be more spiritually disposed for the reception of Holy Communion. [I hope this is the case. Is it possible that more people today are “spiritually disposed” to receive Holy Communion since the vernacular has been in use than they were before, when Latin was in use?] This access becomes even richer when one considers the more expanded repertoire of theological meaning in the new English translation of the Roman Missal that goes into effect on the first Sunday of Advent 2011. [“even richer”! I sure hope so. I am not convinced that we have seen lots of riches yet.]
The more generous availability of the older Latin Mass by Pope Benedict was not intended to supplant the various vernacular translations, [okay…] and it was not intended to address the multicultural nature of parishes and dioceses. [hmmm… is that so? What was the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church intended to address in its global diffusion? And what does it accomplish now where it is used?] In his letter to the bishops on the occasion of the publication of the apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum the Pope wrote: “The use of the old (1962) Missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language; neither of these is found very often.” [Does that seem like a non sequitur? That said, I note that the 1983 CIC can. 249 has something to say about the preparation of clergy and Latin. Or am I wrong?]
[Watch this conclusion…] We need to find other ways to deepen the unity of our multicultural parishes beyond the actual celebration of the Eucharist, even as the Eucharist remains the bedrock of our unity in Christ. [Ummm… “other ways”? Why? Why can’t the older form of Holy Mass, which obviously cuts across centuries and all cultural groups and even several living generations not be one of the tools for fostering unity of different groups in a parish? Why is it dismissed by the writer so swiftly? The writer even concedes points about catholicity earlier on. Pope Benedict intended that the older form of Holy Mass – holy in times past, still holy now – be used and that it exert an influence of some sort. This is a time for the “New Evangelization”. Shouldn’t we be using all the tools we have?]
Treat this fellow’s arguments seriously.
Make your case for or against the use of the TLM in a multicultural situation.
I have a hard time trusting the press when reporting things such as this. I am inclined to believe what LifeSite reports.
Still, I think this requires additional explanations.
I thought that the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church were drawing closer in many respects.
Need more irony?
Russian Orthodox Church approves condom use in wake of Pope Benedict’s remarks
BY THADDEUS BAKLINSKI
MOSCOW, December 1, 2010 (LifeSIteNews.com) – Even though Pope Benedict XVI did not approve the use of condoms in the massively misreported statement he made to interviewer Peter Seewald, the Russian Orthodox Church has now issued a statement saying the use of condoms is acceptable.
“The Foundations of the Social Policy of the Russian Orthodox Church distinguishes between abortive and non-abortive contraception. Priests can allow people to use the latter,” [Priests can allow?] said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, to the Russian news service Interfax.
Father Vsevolod added that he did not mean that the Church approves of “any egoistical decisions made by spouses not to have children.”
The archpriest further remarked that people who are infected with HIV should not rely on condoms but rather abstain from sex.
Fr. Vsevolod called on these people to “seriously think whether they should have sex because infection can spread not only by direct sexual contact.”
A request to the office of His Grace Job, Bishop of Kashira and the Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Canada, for comment and clarification on the statement by Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, was not returned by press time.
Contact information for the Russian Orthodox Church in Canada:
Office Of The Patriarchal Parishes In Canada
10812-108 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5H 3A6
Phone: 780-420-9945
Fax: 780-426-5163
e-mail: bishjob@telus.net
I noted at the site of the young Papist that Apple decided to remove the Manhattan Declaration from their app store. I noted at the same site that the obviously illegitimate “catholic” group “Catholics For Equality” – a pro-homosexual organization – is going to promote its own smartphone apps.
I wonder if Apple will take the fake catholic homosexual group’s app but refuse to have the Manhattan Project’s app.
Please remember me when shopping online. Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Thanks in advance.
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Let us pray…
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
Upon my return at-long-last home found a box from my amazon wishlist which included, from some kind soul, 2 pudding basins!
EAW on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “@Charivari Rob: How about calling it the Old Chestnut Award? It will probably only be slightly less feared than the…”
