Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Our Lady of the Rosary? of Victory? Help from readers?

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day I posted about the upcoming Pontifical Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary which Bishop Joseph Perry (Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago) will celebrate this week, Thursday in Manhattan (6 PM at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan). If you haven’t, there is more information here.

Most of you also know the history of this Feast. It commemorates not just the Rosary but especially the efficacy of the Rosary in obtaining a great naval victory over an Islamic fleet in 1571, the Battle of Lepanto.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a summary of the history of the Feast:

It is believed that Heaven has on many occasions rewarded the faith of those who had recourse to [the Rosary] in times of special danger. More particularly, the naval victory of Lepanto gained by Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet on the first Sunday of October in 1571 responded wonderfully to the processions made at Rome on that same day by the members of the Rosary confraternity. St. Pius V thereupon ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should be made upon that day, and at the request of the Dominican Order, Gregory XIII in 1573 allowed this feast to be kept in all churches which possessed an altar dedicated to the Holy Rosary. In 1671 the observance of this festival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 6 August, 1716 (the feast of our Lady of the Snows), at Peterwardein in Hungary, commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church.

Under St. Pius V, it was called “Our Lady of Victory.”

Speaking of Manhattan, and Our Lady of Victory some of you may know a lovely little church in the Wall Street district that Card. Spellman built to commemorate the Allied Victory in WWII. Here’s a picture of a great plaque from the narthex that I shot last April.

Later, the Feast was renamed the “Feast of the Holy Rosary”. A 1962 hand missal describes this Feast as “Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.”

This perhaps calls into question the Wikipedia article which claims that Pope Paul VI changed the name in 1969.

I am short on time at the moment. Perhaps you readers can get to the bottom of this? When did the name of this feast change and why?

This feast has me thinking….

Consider the news:

The guy who attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square earlier this year was sentenced to life in prison. The news media reports that as he entered the courtroom for sentencing, he warned Americans that more attacks were to come:

“Brace yourself [sic]for the war with Islam. This is the first droplet of the flood that will follow.”

The Feast of the Holy Rosary is a feast of victory. This is a good moment to reflect on times of special danger.

Throughout history, when there have been threats of invasion or attacks, disease or famine, Holy Church has responded with processions and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the prayers of the Rosary.

First we must pray for avoidance of danger and of peace. But if peace is not to be, then we must pray for victory.

I take this opportunity again to remind anyone around the New York City area – whether you are a great proponent of the Extraordinary Form or not – to come to Holy Innocents in Manhattan and, in solidarity, participate in the Holy Mass being offered on the the Feast of Our Lady of Victory/the Holy Rosary/Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

Posted in The Drill | Tagged Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Victory, rosary
21 Comments

Why Summorum Pontificum? Reason #7454 – O the humanity…

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Mulier Fortis found this. This is not my fault. It’s her fault. She got it from somewhere else, but it is still her fault, okay? Don’t blame me.

She wrote:

Courtesy of Hilary over at Orwell’s Picnic. [WARNING! DANGER!] You click on this link, and then [WARNING! DANGER!] click play. The idea is to see how long you can survive before you have to click stop.

Looking at the link URL, it seems to be a setting for the new translation of the Gloria. [Yes… they do want to sabotage the implementation of the new translation, don’t they.]

This blog post carries a health warning. I was frozen in shock for 50 seconds. I now need to go and have my ears syringed or something… I also need a restorative brandy. It is not a game for the faint-hearted…

…and certainly not a game for anyone who likes music.

How long did you survive listening to that?

I lasted about 10 seconds into the actual singing. O the humanity….

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM |
123 Comments

The Magisterium of Nuns now inspires proponents of unnatural “marriage”

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the debate about Obamacare, many catholic women religious failed in their Catholic identity test. They rather chose to give cover to catholic pro-abortion democrats in Congress so that they could salve the consciences and vote in favor of legislation that would fund abortion. All this despite the admonishment and warning of the Catholic bishops of the United States.

These women religious set themselves up as an alternate, parallel “magisterium” over and against that of the bishops’ authority to teach. This is their Magisterium of Nuns.

The National Catholic Fishwrap has chosen to underscore one of their favorite topics by running a story provided by the Religion News Service.

The story, by Daniel Burke, is entitled “Catholics face ‘mutiny’ over teachings on gay marriage“.

I will spare you the details of the article which you can read on your own.

But this is the salient part.

After describing initiatives to defend the true nature of marriage, for example, Archbp. Nienstedt’s good project to send 400,000 DVDs to Catholics in Minnesota, we read:

Catholic gay-rights supporters have been emboldened by the example of nuns who bucked the bishops by supporting the health-care overhaul Congress passed last March, said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, one of the groups involved in Equally Blessed.

“People are using that as a touchstone,” he said. “They see that the nuns were courageous and they feel like they can be courageous. Courage is contagious.”

The abortion issue is now feeding into the unnatural “marriage” issue. Are we surprised? Really?

If the Catholic bishops in the United States needed a little reminder about how many of the communities of women religious are not on the same page, look no further.

To any bishops reading: There is no common ground with the women religious who are trying to undermine your authority. Dialogue serves the purposes of the left. They are at war with you.

The Magisterium of Nuns does not teach for the Church. Our bishops teach for the Church.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged abortion, health care, LCWR, Magistierum of Nuns, Obamacare
21 Comments

REVIEW: Vatican’s new 1962 Missale Romanum

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

You may have heard that the Vatican Press published their own version of the editio typica 1962 Missale Romanum. We knew about this, of course, but now I said Mass with it this weekend.

Through paxbooks $334.

Every parish, every priest, every seminarian, every school and convent chapel needs a 1962 Missale Romanum.

Here are a few shots so you can see what it is like.

This is an altar missal, in beautiful red leather.

The cover is reinforced.

The paper is heavy and textured.

Ribbons.

The Canon.

St. Joseph.

This is important for a celebrant: the text is arranged well so that the page turns come at convenient moments.

It is an attractive book.

Title page.

Bottom line: I want one.

Posted in Brick by Brick, REVIEWS, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM |
28 Comments

Have a Placid day!

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today in the traditional Roman calendar it is the feast of the 3rd c. Sicilian martyrs St. Placid and companions, slain during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian.

Today in the revised calendar is the feast of Sts. Placid and Maurus, companions of St. Benedict in the 6th c.

The saints are sometimes confused and both have their feast on 5 October.

Here is the Vatican Curia’s calendar.

Here is the entry in the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum.

5. Commemoratio sancti Placidi, monachi, qui inde a pueritia carissimus fuit discipulus sancti Benedicti.

Here is the entry in the1878 Martyrologium Romanum.

Messanae in Sicilia natalis sanctorum Martyrum Placidi Monachi, discipuli beati Benedicti Abbatis, et fratrum eius Eutychii et Victorini, ac Flaviae Virginis eorum sororis; item Donati Firmati Diaconi, Faisti, aliorumque trignita Monachorum, qui a Manucha pirata pro Christi fide necati sunt.

I have always had an interest in St. Placid, the Benedictine of the 6th c., because of a book I found during a retreat when I was in seminary. The book is called La vie de petit st Placid… The Life of Little St. Placid by Mother Geneviève Gallois. I have it in French and in English.

A sister name Placida came to Mother Geneviève and asked her to draw her a picture. Mother drew 104 and thus the book was born. It is a work of deep spiritual value and nearly painful charm.

Mother Genevieve, who had come from an extremely anti-clerical background, was a talented painter. She had bad health and a hard time when at 23 she entered the convent of the Les Bénédictines de la rue Monsieur (20 rue Monsieur in the 7e arrondissement). She wound up being a novice for 22 year, in fact.

Here is one of her paintings.

A couple more images from the book.

About Mass. Click to enlarge.

Here

Posted in Just Too Cool, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Geneviève Gallois, St. Placid
7 Comments

DETROIT 17 Oct – Assumption Grotto – Solemn TLM – Mass of Igor Stravinsky

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On Sunday 17 Oct at 12 Noon at Assumption Grotto parish in Detroit there will be a Solemn TLM (Extraordinary Form). The setting of the Mass is by Igor Stravinsky. The undersigned will be celebrant for the Mass.

Assumption Grotto’s annual benefit dinner is on the same day after the Mass. See their site for details.

I am really looking forward to hearing the Stravinsky Mass! Additional music for the Mass will be by J.S. Bach. That’s not a contrast, is it?

During one of my previous visits to Assumption Grotto, the pastor, Fr. Perrone, spoke about the Stravinsky and astonished me by what he told me about it. I had never heard it before and didn’t know that Stravinsky had written a Mass.

He was Orthodox, of course, but he wrote his Mass setting from real piety and not for a commission. Here is a bit of text about the Mass, just to get your head around what he was doing.

So, why did Stravinsky, in 1944, begin work on a liturgical musical form which was alien to his own religious tradition? The answer may be found in his Expositions, where he recounts finding some Masses by Mozart in a second-hand shop in Los Angeles in 1942. He wrote: ‘As I played through these rococo-operatic sweets-of-sin, I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one‘. By ‘real one’ he may have meant a Roman Catholic one that would allow the use of instruments – Stravinsky wrote that he could ‘…endure unaccompanied singing in only the most harmoniously primitive music’. Like Howells, he eschewed the decorative style and set out to write a work which would be ‘…very cold music, absolutely cold, that will appeal directly to the spirit’. In a conversation with Evelyn Waugh, Stravinsky noted: ‘My Mass was not composed for concert performances but for use in the church. It is liturgical and almost without ornament. In making a musical setting of the Credo, I wished only to preserve the text in a special way. One composes a march to facilitate marching men, so with my Credo I hope to provide an aid to the text. The Credo is the longest movement. There is much to believe’. (source)

I look forward to this occasion at Assumption Grotto.

I urge any of you readers in the area to come and participate! Put it on your calendar.

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Assumption Grotto, Fr. Perrone, Igor Stravinsky
25 Comments

Madison, WI: Society of Jesus Christ the Priest

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have in the past written about a group of priests in Wisconsin, in the Diocese of Madison, called the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest. His Excellency Most. Rev. Robert Morlino has entrusted several parishes to these priests around the area of Sauk City. Some background:

I am staying with them over the weekend at their rectory in Sauk City. This seems to be a healthy group of hard working men. The people here are lucky to have them.

My reason for the trip to Madison was to support a Gregorian chant workshop sponsored by the Diocese. How many times have you seen Gregorian chant workshops sponsored by a diocese?

Another reason I went is because an old friend, and colleague of a mentor the late Msgr. Schuler directed the workshop.

Here is Fr. Skeris in action.

The man who made this happen is Bp. Robert Morlino, who has been a stand up guy in defense of life and of good liturgy.

Note the Benedictine arrangement of the altar at the Diocese Center/Chancery.

To my mind, an iconic image in the lobby of the chancery says something about what Bishop Morlino is facing.

Perhaps you had heard that a few years ago the Cathedral of Madison burned down. Bp. Morlino told me that no one would let him into the wreckage to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament. The Bishop found some Catholic firefighters who rescued the Lord from the ruins. It was enshrined in painting.

Here is a detail. One carries the ciborium, another the lunette.

Here is one of the photos of the moment which the bishop sent. It is a slightly different angle, but the firefighter in the center has the lunette.

It seems to me that the image of lay people, indeed a type of warrior/guardian helping the main priest in an effort to rescue the Blessed Sacrament, the source and summit of our Catholic identity, from a burning ruin is a way of understanding what Bp. Morlino is facing in his mandate as Bishop of Madison, arguably one of the most liberal regions in the USA.

I got a sense of the spirit of the community of priests who have the HQ in Sauk City, about 30 minutes away from Madison. These are happy and hard working guys with a whole cluster of churches to mind. Also, they are taking care of each other as well. One of their group has been suffering terribly from leukemia and everyone is on deck. They are prayerful, charitable, with great humor, theologically and liturgically sound.

Also, they have great taste in coffee mugs!

This happy pyramid was stacked up for the sake of the evening’s supper. Fr. Skeris from the workshop was to come along with the Bishop and the Vicar General Msgr. Bartylla.

The main feature of the supper was paella. One of the priests did most of the cooking in their communities mother house in Spain. I was glad to roll up my sleeves and help with some of the prep.

Here is Fr. Del Priore adding some wine to the paella. Note that they don’t have a stove in their main kitchen!

Ingredients from Spain, even from their own olive trees!

On Sunday morning it was off to nearby Roxbury for me, and Mass (Extraordinary Form) at St. Norbert’s. This is a beautiful church, although there were some unfortunate wreckovations of the sanctuary. I understand that everything removed was saved!

Can you believe the previous pastor would have set up an iron-board altar in front of this?

Here is a perfect example of why, even if you advocate Mass “facing the people” setting something up in front of an altar like this is a bad idea.

St. Norbert’s is a pretty as a postcard setting and church. This was founded in a very German Catholic area.

The people I met there was happy and delighted to have the priests of the Society.

Across the street from the parish is a German restaurant! With a Bavarian flag flying!

And so it was time to leave… which I did with regret.

I hope to be able to visit them all again and I congratulate Bp. Morlino for the successful workshop and the choice to have these priests in the diocese in support of his heavy mandate in a difficult diocese.

Posted in Brick by Brick, On the road | Tagged Bp. Morlino, Society of Jesus Christ the Priest
30 Comments

The Feeder Feed: New old arrival!

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The seasons come and go. You can watch the shift in the constellations in the sky, the length of nights against the length of days, the changing of the leaves. The ancient Romans had special priests who watched the flights of the birds to understand the favor of the gods.

A few days ago, I looked out and saw a familiar bird I haven’t seen for a while.

Here is Junco hyemalis hyemalis the Slate-colored Junco.

They like to peck around on the ground and they will winter here, having come from Northern Canada.

And here is Nuthatch Triumphans!

There is, by the way, a bird feed sale going on right now at the place I usually go. I’m just sayin’….

Posted in I'm just askin'..., The Feeder Feed | Tagged Junco
4 Comments

DVD of the Pontifical Mass in Washington DC

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At long last there is a DVD available of the Pontifical Mass for the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s election celebrated in Washington D.C.’s Shrine of the Immaculate Conception!

Here is the website. You can preview the DVD.

[wp_youtube]VaydRX5y0vk[/wp_youtube]

You might remember Bp. Slattery’s fantastic sermon.

Posted in Brick by Brick, The Campus Telephone Pole |
9 Comments

Detroit’s Archbp. Vigneron stands up! POLL ALERT on STEM CELLS!

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This comes from Freep… Detriot Free Press. NB: POLL ALERT! There’s a poll in the right-hand column of that article, asking whether you favor or oppose embryonic stem cell research.

My emphases:

Even in petri dish, life merits protection

I started out as an embryo. So did you and everyone else who shares this planet with us. And there is great significance to this irrefutable fact beyond the shared experience.

Time magazine’s cover story this week about the influence of life in the womb states the case: “We are the way we are because it’s in our genes: the DNA we inherited at conception.” Yes, upbringing and environment have a huge impact on our lives, but one thing never changes until our last natural breath: our DNA. Each human embryo is unique — it does not have the same DNA of the mother or father. That cell not only becomes us, it is us.

This reality is critical context as the World Stem Cell Summit meets in Detroit. Progress in research on umbilical cord blood cells and adult stem cells is to be saluted and supported. Patients and advocates alike can look to the growing number of cures and treatments discovered through research that does not destroy the living human embryo. Conversely, experiments on human embryonic stem cells deserve our scrutiny and scorn. If not us, who will speak for our fellow citizens-to-be?

We are blessed to live in a country with some of the most extraordinary founding documents in history. If, indeed, we believe we were “created equal,” doesn’t that belief extend to the indefensible living embryo in a petri dish? “Unalienable rights” means they can’t be taken away by the state.

Doesn’t that apply to science as well? And what of “life” in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? First, it must begin.

Embryonic stem cell researchers will attest that it is imperative to preserve an embryo because it is a living cell. It is after the living embryo is preserved with its human DNA signature that it is dissected, cloned, destroyed or discarded. True democracy is built on life, not death.

Ours is not the first country or culture to selectively pursue a moral calculus that justifies taking a life to enable scientific experiments. We know from sad experience that dangers follow when we put human hands on the switch of life and death.

Embryos are the genesis of human life, and it is morally unacceptable to intentionally destroy them, even if the scientist is trying to cure a debilitating disease or parents are responding to a difficult challenge in their family life. The country we live in defends human rights at home and abroad. That defense must extend to the laboratory.

In Michigan’s Compiled Laws, the fetal protection act is precise on punishing individuals who harm or kill a fetus — or embryo! — during an intentional assault.

How can there be such a disconnect with what happens in an assault case and what occurs in a laboratory when a human life is destroyed? The person who harmed an embryo in an assault is charged with a felony. The person who destroys an embryo in a petri dish is held harmless and likely considered some sort of medical pioneer. Yet the results were the same: two fewer people in the world who had no power to stop what was happening to them and had no voice in their demise.

The question is called.

Allen Vigneron is the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.