#ASonnetADay – 37. “As a decrepit father takes delight…”

Posted on 14 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in Poetry, SESSIUNCULA, Sonnet A Day |
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Reason #987680 for Summorum Pontificum

Posted on 14 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On this anniversary of Summorum Pontificum going into effect I share with you something from Tradition In Action.

There was on 28 August 2020 an ordination of a deacon in the Diocese of Wollongong.  As part of the ceremony, an Aboriginal performed pagan rituals beforehand.

That’s just a taste.

 

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, You must be joking! | Tagged
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14 September 2007 – 13th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum

Posted on 14 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Thanks to Fr. Finigan for this photo!

Today is the 13th anniversary of the implementation of Benedict XVI’s monumentally important Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.  It went into force today, though it was released on 07/07/07.  This document is perhaps the most important gift from the too-short pontificate of Papa Ratzinger, and we honor him and thank him for it.

On this day in 2007, I had the honor to be the guest of my good friend, His Hermeneuticalness, Fr. Tim Finigan at his parish in Blackfen.  We had a Solemn Mass, I preached, there was a grand reception in the hall with laity and clergy.  I recall that that is where I first me the late Marie Dean (aka Supertradmum) who commented here very often.  In the evening Father and I went to Brompton Oratory for a Solemn Mass.  It was a happy day.

Benedict surely choose the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross for Summorum Pontificum to take effect for a reason.  The older, traditional form of the Roman Rite is, itself, a constant exaltation of the Cross.   The Holy Cross of our salvation must be central to our liturgical rites.  It truly is in the traditional form, while it is far less so in the newer form… especially in the way that it is celebrated far and wide.   Having the Cross firmly before our eyes in our sacred liturgical rites is critically important for our identity.  The Cross challenges our earthliness.  It draws us into its mystery, which is simultaneously frightening and alluring.

Back in 2007, I posted here some Rules of Engagement, now that SP is in force.  I think they still pertain.

Fr. Z’s 5 Rules of Engagement now that the Motu Proprio is in force:

1) Rejoice because our liturgical life has been enriched, not because “we win”.  Everyone wins when the Church’s life is enriched.  This is not a “zero sum game”.

2) Do not strut.  Let us be gracious to those who have in the past not been gracious in regard to our “legitimate aspirations”.

3) Show genuine Christian joy.  If you want to attract people to what gives you so much consolation and happiness, be inviting and be joyful.  Avoid the sourness some of the more traditional stamp have sadly worn for so long.

4) Be engaged in the whole life of your parishes, especially in works of mercy organized by the same.  If you want the whole Church to benefit from the use of the older liturgy, then you who are shaped by the older form of Mass should be of benefit to the whole Church in concrete terms.

5) If the document doesn’t say everything we might hope for, don’t bitch about it like a whiner.  Speak less of our rights and what we deserve, or what it ought to have been, as if we were our own little popes, and more about our gratitude, gratitude, gratitude for what God gives us.

I think these Rules apply even today.

And I have a few others, which I have posted elsewhere… ma lascia stare.

I sometimes call Summorum Pontificum our “Emancipation Proclamation”.  I also refer to it as a key element in Benedict’s “Marshall Plan” for rebuilding the Church as a bullwark against the Dictatorship of Relativism that so threatens us after the devastation which occurred in the wake of Vatican II.

In no way am I less convinced of that now, than I was then.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Benedict XVI, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged ,
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WDTPRS: Exaltation of the Cross … and kingly herbs … and BASIL EMERITUS!

Posted on 14 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  The feast commemorates the discovery, as tradition has it under sweet basil herb bushes, of the Holy Cross by Emperor Constantine’s mother St Helena in AD 325 in Jerusalem as well as and the Dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher built on that site in 335. A portion of the Cross was placed there.

The Basilica was consecrated on 13 September and, on 14 September the fragment of the Cross was shown to the people so that the clergy and faithful could pray before it.  In 614 invading Persians and King Chosroes absconded with it. They held it until it was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 628 and returned to the Basilica.

Let’s see today’s …

COLLECT (1962):

Deus, qui nos hodierna die Exaltationis sanctae Crucis annua solemnitate laetificas: praesta quaesumus; ut cuius mysterium in terra cognovimus, eius redemptionis praemia in caelo mereamur.

LITERAL VERSION:

O God, who on this day gladden us by the yearly solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: grant, we beseech You; that in heaven we may merit to attain the rewards of redemption of Him, whose mystery we have known on earth.

The colons and semicolons in the older way of printed liturgical orations are intended to help the priest sing the prayer, rather than to give it greater sense.

The force of the last phrase is “whom we have known on earth in mystery”.  Remember that mysterium is nearly interchangeable with sacramentum.  Notice the parallel set up between in terra… in caelo.  In this life, we can know Christ and what is promised us in heaven only as through a glass, darkly, as St Paul put it.  Our supreme contact with Christ in this life is in the sacramental mysteries, in our sacred liturgical worship and in Holy Communion.  In heaven our knowledge will be more direct, though God will forever remain Mystery, tremendum et fascinans, awesome and alluring.

Here is another version from the beautiful hand missal from Baronius Press:

O God, who this day dost gladden us by the yearly feast of the Exaltation of the Cross: grant, we beseech Thee, that we who on earth acknowledge the Mystery of Redemption wrought upon it, may be worthy to enjoy the rewards of that same Redemption in heaven.

The Baronius Press hand missal, printed in the UK, was released in 2007, the same year that Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum which greatly freed up the use of the 1962 Missale Romanum.  This document, with its juridical solutions to many burning issues, is one of the most important accomplishments of Benedict’s too short pontificate.

Let is now move to the Ordinary Form, or Novus Ordo edition of the Missale Romanum.

COLLECT (2002):

Deus, qui Unigenitum tuum crucem subire voluisti,  ut salvum faceret genus humanum, praesta, quaesumus, ut, cuius mysterium in terra cognovimus, eius redemptionis praemia in caelo consequi mereamur.

This was pieced together from phrases from Collects of Palm Sunday and of Wednesday in Holy Week as well as today’s feast in the pre-Conciliar Missal, as we just saw above.

LITERAL ATTEMPT:

O God, who desired that Your Only-begotten undergo the Cross so that He would make the human race free, grant, we beseech You, that we merit to attain in heaven the rewards of redemption of Him, whose mystery we have known on earth.

OBSOLETE  ICEL (1973):

God our Father, in obedience to you your only Son accepted death on the cross for the salvation of mankind. We acknowledge the mystery of the cross on earth. May we receive the gift of redemption in heaven.

Not content to chop the Latin into two sentences, the translators opted for three.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should under the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven.

Today, the aromatic herb basil (Ocimum basilicum which, comes from Greek basileos, “king”) is blessed by our Eastern brothers and sisters and placed in abundance around their Crosses.

Permit me to channel my inner John XXIII and suggest that having pasta and pesto with friends and loved ones, would be a fine way to observe the feast day.

And some of you old timers here might remember

BASIL EMERITUS!

He moved from the sidebar to his secluded residence in the Blog Gardens on 28 February 2013.  A sad day.   But he is still on his wheel.  (You might have to enable “flash”)

HERE

Posted in Lighter fare, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ,
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Does anyone know what is really going on in Mexico City?

Posted on 14 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Does anyone know what is really going on in Mexico City?

I have had email saying that there is going to be a huge “occupy” protest in the Constitutional Plaza (Cathedral, National Palace) to try to force President Obrador to resign.

Another report suggests that Obrador sent the National Guard into the Cathedral to close it down.

The Archdiocese tweeted that the Cathedral is closed for services.

Do any readers from Mexico have accurate information?

Posted in The Coming Storm | Tagged
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#ASonnetADay – 36. “Let me confess that we two must be twain…”

Posted on 13 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in Poetry, Sonnet A Day |
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ASK FATHER: Roman clerical tonsure

Posted on 13 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

What was the state of, requirement for tonsure, for secular clergy, in Rome, under Saint John XXIII, after his 1960 Synod. (That synod seems to represent the apex of the organic development of clerical discipline flowing out from the Council of Trent).

Funny this should come up today of all days.    On 14 September 1972 Paul VI released a document which he had signed on 15 August.  This was the – in my opinion – disastrous Ministeria quaedam.

In Ministeria quaedam abolished the minor orders.   Not to worry.  The minor orders had only been around since the earliest centuries of the Church.  Yeah… it was time to get rid of those old things.   Yes, things are so much better now.

In any event, the minor orders were conferred on males having attained the age of reason.  Before they received orders they had to first receive clerical tonsure.   Once, that inducted men into the clerical state.  Now, diaconate marks entrance to the clerical state.

So, tonsure has not been obligatory since 1 January 1973, which is when Ministeria quaedam went into effect.   It was subsequently superseded by the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Some institutes such as the FSSP and the ICK – with the permission of the Holy See – now regularly confer tonsure and then the minor orders.  However, their members still do not become clerics until diaconate.

At one time, the clerical tonsure was rather extensive, as in the illustration.  However, it came to be reduced to about a silver dollar – or priest’s host – sized shaved circle at the crown of the head.   The tonsure was obligatory for clerics according to the 1917 Code of Canon Law.  The bare spot had to be maintained.  Letting the tonsure grow over was tantamount to abandoning clerical state. If a man let it grow over and then refused to restore it after being warned, he could be dismissed from the clerical state.

Why so important?  Because by law clerics were forbidden to participate in some public entertainments.  With the tonsure, clerics could not pretend not to be clerics.   Of course in time of persecution, it also made them easier to identify.

I used to see the clerical tonsure occasionally when out and about in Rome and I once had a barber who, the first time, always offered to give me one… until God and time did the job.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests | Tagged , , ,
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#ASonnetADay – 35. “No more be grieved at that which thou hast done…”

Posted on 12 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in Poetry, Sonnet A Day |
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Battles that saved Western Civilization

Posted on 12 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

According to one reckoning, today, 12 September, could be the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).  They are probably wrong, but… who cares?

Marathon is, of course, a Greek word (Mάραθον or modern Greek Μαραθώνας and ancient Μαραθών, Latin marathrum) meaning “fennel”.  The famous battle (related by Herodotus +425 BC) was likely fought in a fennel field, which grows wild in the in the eastern part of Attica.

This was one of the most significant event of ancient history. Changed… saved… Western Civilization.     

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Vienna in 1683, leading to the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary.  Changed… saved… Western Civilization.

You would have had to guess that if there are, 150 years after the fact, Civil War reenactors, then there are Marathon reenactors, 2500 years after the fact.   Indeed there are.  I read about it some years ago.

Battle of Marathon.  Very cool.  A great maneuver was involved and great discipline by the Greeks.  To make a long story very short, just as the much large Persian forces were shifting their position and loading their cavalry back into ships, the Greek general Miltiades sent the Greeks on a frontal attack charging over a mile in a tight formation to sweep through the Persian flanks.  As they collapsed, the Greeks focused on the center and as the Persian wings retreated, the Greeks forced an envelopment.  The Athenians sent a runner Pheidippides to Athens. 21.4 miles away.  He ran the distance, gasped “Νενικήκαμεν! Nenikékamen! We were victorious!”, and died.

Robert Browning, by the way, wrong about Marathon in his 1879 poem Pheidippides.

So, when Persia was dust, all cried, “To Acropolis!
Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!
Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!” He flung down his shield
Ran like fire once more: and the space ‘twixt the fennel-field
And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,
Till in he broke: “Rejoice, we conquer!” Like wine through clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died – the bliss!

One man’s bliss…

Note the reference to fennel. Also the reference to the God Pan, who instilled “panic”, they say, in the enemy Persians. I’m all for that, given who is running Persia now.

This was the poem which inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin and other founders of the modern Olympic Games to invent a running race called the Marathon.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged
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#ASonnetADay – 34. “Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day…”

Posted on 11 September 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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