Posts tagged Liturgical Year
Active Engagement
Feb 20th
Given the primary subject matter of The Anglo-Catholic, presenting the endeavors toward reestablishment of communion between faithful Anglicans and Mother Church, it is quite easy to get caught up in the theoretical, abstract, and esoteric elements of ecclesiology. These discussions are absolutely necessary and beneficial for our growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in broadening our understanding of the means by which our ultimate end, reunion with the Holy Father, will come to fruition. However, as we begin our Lenten journey, let us take pause and place emphasis upon our active engagement with the Catholic spirituality to which the Holy Spirit has called us. I am moved to believe that our work here is well pleasing to Almighty God, but I am persuaded even more so that He will be much more pleased if we demonstrate a genuine humility and contrition before Him. A humility and contrition that pours forth toward heaven an understanding of the grace He has shown us by calling us to such a time as this.
We find ourselves at present in a dangerous situation of temptation. Temptations such as to exhibit pride in our abilities and understanding, temptation toward anger at those who calumniate against us, temptation to sin against hope, that is ceasing to hope in God’s ability to bring to fulfillment that which He so obviously desires, the unity of His people. As our Savior was tempted in the desert for forty days, let us unite ourselves with Him in His temptations during these solemn forty days of Lent, beseeching the mercies of God that we persevere through this our wilderness.
It is good that we reflect upon the familiar, but oft taken for granted, purpose of Lent. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1438) teaches:
The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).
As we relive the the glorious event of salvation history that was and is our Lord’s Passion, may we actively engage in uniting our own present glorious event of salvation history, the reunion of His Body, to His finished work on the Cross.
I would beg of your Christian charity that you would specifically offer at least some (if not all) of your Lenten discipline(s) for the specific intention of the expeditious establishment of the Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans. Priests, please offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass often for this intention. Laity, I implore you to assist in some additional Masses, say a novena, or pray the Penitential Office for our aspiration. Those who are already in communion with the Holy Father, please spread the word among your brethren that we are in dire need of their prayers for our cause. Additionally, may we all avail ourselves of the intercession of our most Holy Mother through the mysteries of the Rosary for the necessities of faithful Anglicans throughout the world.
Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
“Doc”+
Soloviev on the Three Temptations
Feb 17th
I offer you this meditation for next Sunday’s Gospel from Vladimir Soliviev, God, Man and the Church, Cambridge 1937, pp. 123-127. Indeed, we clergy have to be constantly on our guard, particularly in regard to the temptation of power and controlling other people.
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(…) Christ as God freely renounces his glory and by so doing acquires as man the ability to become a sharer in that glory.
But before he can do this the Saviour’s human nature and will must encounter the temptation of evil. There is a twofold consciousness in the theandric personality, of his divine essence and of his restricted natural existence. And since he really experiences the limitations of the last, the God-man can undergo temptation from an external source, the temptation to use his divine power as means to attain ends transcending these limitations.
For a being who lives under material conditions there is in the first place a temptation to make material well-being an end and object and to use his divine power as a means to attain it. “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”. Here the divine substance— “If thou be the Son of God” — and its manifestation — “command” — are to be the means to satisfy a bodily requirement. In reply to this temptation Christ declares that the divine voice is not at the beck and call of material existence but is itself the source of man’s true life: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”. In rejecting this physical temptation the Son of Man receives dominion over all flesh.
The Man-God is then tempted to use his divine power in the interest of his human personality, to sin against reason, to fall into presumption. “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written: He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone”. To do this (“Cast thyself down”) would be a defiance of God by absolutely self-confident man, a temptation of God by man. Christ answers, “It is written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”[1]. In repudiating this sin of the understanding the Son of Man receives dominion over all understanding.
The third and last temptation is the strongest. Bondage to the flesh and spiritual presumption have been thrust aside ; the human will has reached a high degree of moral development and knows itself to be above all other earthly creatures ; and man can aspire, in the name of this moral worth, to dominate the world and lead it to perfection. But the world lies in evil and does not readily submit itself to moral superiority, so it must be forced and the divine power must be used to subdue it. But thus to use unjust violence to attain good ends is to avow that good is powerless by itself, that evil is the stronger, and to worship that principle of evil which reigns in the world. “The Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him, ‘All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me’”. Here is a clear statement of the crucial question for mankind: In whom do you believe? And whom will you serve? —the divine power that you cannot see, or the evil power that you can see all around you? The human will of Christ would have none of this temptation to seek power for itself, even though apparently justified; it repudiated the world’s evil and freely submitted to good : “Then saith Jesus unto him, ‘Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve’”. So did the Son of Man vanquish the sin of the spirit, and he received supreme dominion over all the spiritual kingdom; he had refused to use earthly weapons and to seek earthly domination and in that moment the powers of Heaven were at his command: “and behold! Angels came and ministered unto him”.
By dismissing the temptations that would commit his human will to self-affirmation our Lord shows the harmony of that will in him with the divine will which divinizes his manhood through the incarnation of his Godhead. But Christ’s victory does not stop there. He is a whole man and so he has besides the purely human element (rational will), a natural material element: he is not only made man, he is also made flesh, “sárx egéneto”. And the spiritual triumph over temptation has to find its completion in the overcoming of suffering and death by the sensitive principle, the flesh; that is why it is said in the Gospel, after the account of the temptation in the wilderness, that the Devil departed from Christ for a season. After the principle of evil had been excluded from the innermost part of our Lord’s human being it nevertheless still had power at the outer, over his physical nature, which could be made free only by a similar process of self-abnegation; the physical nature also was freely subdued to the Godhead by Christ’s human will and, in spite of its weakness (“Let this cup pass from me …”), fulfilled the divine will even to the end in bodily torment and death.
The normal order of the three elements in man [divine, material and human uniting the first two] violated in the first Adam is thus restored in the second. The human element by voluntarily putting itself in submissive relationship to the divine element as the plenitude of its own good becomes again the mediating and unifying principle between God and the natural element; this last, cleansed by the death of the Cross, loses its material particularity and impenetrability and becomes the direct expression and instrument of the Spirit, the true spiritual body of the risen Man-God. In his life, his death and his resurrection Jesus Christ shows that God, incarnate in him, is above law and reason, that he can do far more than immobilize evil by his strength or unmask it by his light; he is the Spirit of life and of love, and he redeems and saves that nature which has fallen into rack and ruin, transforming its falsities into truth, its wickedness into goodness—and in this act of triumphant love God finds his own glory. “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”.
[1] These words are sometimes understood as if Christ had said, “Do not tempt me, for I am your Lord, God”. This explanation is wrong, for Christ was tempted as man, not as God. His second reply, like his first, is a direct answer to the Tempter’s suggestion, which is that Jesus should tempt God by a rash action; Christ quotes the Scriptures as forbidding such a deed.
Ash Wednesday Service from the Use of Sarum
Feb 15th
If you wish to use this service order, you can copy and paste it into the publishing application of your choice. This service order is reproduced from the Warren translation (1911) of the Sarum Missal.
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After Sext, first shall the sermon, if there be one, be addressed to the people. Then shall the clerks prostrate themselves in the quire, and say the seven penitential Psalms, with Glory be to the Father etc., and As it was etc., and with the Anthem Remember not etc. The superior priest, having put on his priestly vestments, being in a red silk cope, with the deacon on his right hand, and the subdeacon on his left, and with the rest of the ministers of the altar vested in albs and amices, in prostration before the altar, shall say by themselves the seven penitential Psalms with the anthem Remember not etc.
Pss. vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., cxliii (as in the Prayer Book Commination Service).
Percy Dearmer on the Lenten Array
Feb 12th
As a follow-up to Fr. Chadwick’s recent post on the Lenten Array, here are a couple of extracts from Percy Dearmer’s The Parson’s Handbook.
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From The Parson’s Handbook (Sixth Edition), pp. 511-514:
Lent.—The Lenten array should be hung up on Shrove Tuesday evening for Ash Wednesday[1]. English tradition does not allow of the use of crape, &c., for Passiontide, everything having been already veiled for Ash Wednesday.
The veils are hung up before the crosses, pictures (such as are not removed), and such images as are not of an architectural character[2]. Where there is a triptych, or other reredos with leaves, it is closed. If the reredos has no leaves, it should be covered by a white veil. The veils should be of white linen, brown holland, or of silk (not of crape). But nothing whiter than the toned white of homespun linen should be used; the white linen of which surplices are made (especially when the mellowness is spoiled by washerwomen’s blue) does not have a good effect. The beauty and significance of the Lenten white will be at once appreciated if this is remembered; for the walls of the church being distempered in a toned white (as they should be) the veiling of pictures, reredos, &c., causes them to be lost in the general background till Easter comes again. For the same reason the leaves of a triptych should be painted the same white on the outside[3].
The frontals and dorsals give excellent opportunities for appliqué or painted work in red on rough white linen[4], but these, of course, must be most carefully designed. Sometimes blue linen (the common true indigo blue, not the hideous ‘violet’ falsely so called) may be used for covering images[5]; but there is a danger of the blue interfering with the effect of the general white, especially if the white is decorated with a little red[6]. Generally the great Rood was veiled in linen[7], and the Lenten veil which hung in front of the sanctuary (a relic of the primitive custom of hiding the altar within curtains during the Holy Mysteries) was often made in strips of various colours; though this too was often white like all the rest[8]. The vestments should be like the frontal[9]. Apparels should be worn in Lent[10] and Holy Week[11], as during the rest of the year.
A special processional cross was usually reserved for Lent. It was generally of wood, painted red, and it was without the image of our Lord[12].
[1] The Consuetudinary (p. 138) says before Mattins on the Monday following, when Lent was reckoned to begin; but before the end of the fifteenth century Ash Wednesday came to be the usual day ; and this is certainly more in accordance with the Prayer Book, which orders the Lenten memorial to begin on Ash Wednesday, ‘the first day of Lent.’ See the story about Edward IV, 1471 (qu. C. Atchley, in Essays on Ceremonial, pp. 152,153), ‘according to the rules that, in all the churches of England, be observed, all images to be hid from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day in the morning.’
[2] On Lady Day in Lent at Salisbury the image of the Blessed Virgin above the high altar was unveiled (Cust., p. 139).
[3] However rich be the colour and gilding of ornaments, their beauty will be wasted unless the walls at least of the sanctuary are distempered in white. See p. 76.
[4] See the instances collected by Mr. St. John Hope in S.P.E.S. Trans., ii. p. 233. The following examples of frontals and dorsals are typical:—’White linen cloths powdered with great red crosses . . . with covers of the same suit for covering all the images in the church in time of Lent.’ ’A front, white damask with red roses for Lent.’ ’Cloths of white with crucifix for Lent.’ ’An altar cloth of white for Lent, with crosses of red, with two curtains of white linen.’ ’Linen with crosses red and blue.’ ’Two altar cloths for Lenten time of linen cloth; with crosses of purple in every cloth, and a crown of thorns hanging upon the head of every cross.’ ’With the tokens of the Passion for time of Lent.’ ’With our Lady of Pity and two angels, and another with the sepulchre and two angels for the high altar in Lent.’ ’White satin with pageants of the Passion.’ ’While, spotted with red.’ ’Linen altar cloths with red roses for Lent.’ An instance is given of the fourth year of Edw. VI (1550), when the Lent vestments and hangings were of white bustian and linen with red crosses, and ‘a Lent cloth of linen for the high altar painted with drops’ occurs in the second year of Elizabeth. See also pp. 539-40 in the Appendix.
[5] There are some instances of blue with crosses of another colour, and sometimes both white and blue were used (‘one white and two blue cloths to cover and alter the images in Lenten season’). Blue is assumed in The Beehive of the Romishe Churche (1579), f. 185. ’The whole Lent through, they do cause their images to look through a blue cloth’; but this was a Dutch book, translated a generation after the change in England. Blue was also used at Exeter. Crosses were by no means the only ornament. ‘ Sometimes these cloths were stained or embroidered with devices bearing reference to the subject they were intended to veil.’—Micklethwaite, Ornaments, p. 52.
[6] The reason for this is apparent when Passiontide comes, and the frontals are changed to red.
[7] Many instances of coloured ‘cross-cloths’ are really banners used on the processional cross. Most of the genuine Rood-cloths mentioned in the inventories are stated to be of ‘linen’, or of ‘white with a red cross’. Sometimes a covering for the beam is also mentioned.
[8] Most commonly white and blue ‘paned’, when not of white or blue only. Sometimes red and white, green and red, &c.
[9] Including copes and tunicles: e. g. ‘One whole suit of vestments of white bustian for Sundays in time of Lent, with red roses embroidered.’ ’A white chasuble with a red cross.’ ’White bustian, with orphreys of red velvet.’ ’Deacon and subdeacon (i.e. dalmatic and tunicle) of white bustian for Lent.’ ‘A cope of white with roses for Lent season.’—Hope, as above.
[10] e.g. ‘For Lenten, three albes, three amices with the parours,’ ‘albe and paramits for Lent,’ ‘a vestment with the albe and apparel of white bustian for Lent.’—Hope, ibid. The apparels are best made of the same red as the orphreys of the chasuble. On Passion Sunday they might be changed, and generally black serge is a very good material for the apparels worn with red Passiontide vestments.
[11] Cf. p. 525, n. 7.
[12] ‘Omnibus dominicis quadragesime, excepta prima dominica, deferatur una crux ante processionem lignea sine ymagine crucifixi.’ —Cust., p. 219.
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From pp. 125-126:
A few words must now be said about the Lenten colours. The use of plain white linen marked with red or black crosses, &c., has already been alluded to. This use was akin to that of the Lent veils for pictures, images, crosses, which in England were generally white. Those rules which prescribed black, violet, &c., were at the utmost fulfilled only by the use of coloured vestments and altar frontal on the Sundays, and even on Sundays the white was used by some churches.
This use of white linen for Lent was practically universal in the sixteenth century and earlier: it was in fact the one colour use to which there was hardly any exception. Plain white stuff, fustian, linen, or canvas, with crosses, roses, or other devices of red or purple, was used to cover pictures and ornaments, as well as for vestments, for frontals, riddels, and other hangings. The parson who tries it will find that it is as popular and as readily understood now as it was then.
In churches which are well arranged and decorated this Lenten white looks extremely well, if care is exercised in the choice of a good toned white (such as brown holland is), and of the devices painted on or applied to the hangings. Churches where linen chasubles are used can keep their vestments for Lent when silk and coloured ones are introduced. In other churches it will be better to get vestments and hangings of brown holland or similar material throughout. The use of the Lenten white has the great advantage of distinguishing Lent from Advent (a season to which it has little resemblance), and from the season between Septuagesima and Ash Wednesday.
Carnival
Feb 12th
Some of you might be participating in a carnival somewhere near where you live, that last fling of merriment before getting serious for Lent. The Carnival is an old tradition in many countries, particularly flamboyant in Brazil, much of the rest of South America and Mexico. Here in Europe, strong Carnival traditions are found in Germany, Belgium the north of France and, not least, Venice. There are traces of the carnival traditions in England, and it is often celebrated with great pomp in Orthodox countries.
The word carnival is most likely to be derived from the Latin carne vale, meaning “goodbye to meat”. The old fasting and abstinence discipline required perpetual abstinence during Lent and fasting (one full meal and two collations each day) on all days except Sundays. Most carnivals are celebrated during the Septuagesima and Sexagesima weeks and the few days before Ash Wednesday, especially on Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday.
In England, we speak of Shrovetide. The word comes from shrive, the old English word for going to confession and receiving Absolution. We still use short shrift in modern usage, meaning brief and unsympathetic treatment, deriving from the very brief period allowed to a condemned prisoner to make his confession before being carted away to the gallows. The idea of eating pancakes is to use up all the last of the animal fat, which was also forbidden under the strict abstinence laws.
In the United States, Mardi Gras is celebrated, coming from the Cajun traditions of Louisiana, Mississippi and the old French colonies. Mardi Gras is simply French for “Fat Tuesday”, the same day as Shrove Tuesday in England.
There is also something to say on the Roman Forty Hours Devotion, also called Quarant’ Ore in Italian. This involves perpetual exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for the adoration of the faithful. There are processions in some churches with the singing of the Litany of the Saints. The full forty hours are rarely observed, even before Vatican II. It often takes the form of a period of adoration lasting from one to two hours, followed by Benediction. This devotion may hardly seem to be in the spirit of the fervent reading of Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, but some Anglican parishes practice it all the same! I certainly recommend it.
Lenten Array
Feb 12th
Lenten Array is the characteristic veiling of the altars and statues of churches following the English Use, which follows medieval north European precedent. The purple you see in many churches is a Roman Catholic custom which was only followed universally from the nineteenth century. Lenten Array negates colour to a large extent, marking the penitential character of Lent. It is highly effective.
The material is usually unbleached linen, but I found an off-white cotton that looks almost identical to linen, but much cheaper. The red is crimson as used in Passiontide, rather than the scarlet used for Martyrs and Sundays outside Eastertide, Advent and Lent. Unlike the Roman Rite, in the English Use, the statues and icons are veiled not only in Passiontide but also throughout Lent. The altar cross should also be veiled if the figure of Christ shows a triumphant character. The veil bears a black cross. I veil the altar crosses for Passiontide.
The photo opposite is my own chapel, appointed in “Wareham Guild” style.
Why is English Lenten Array different from the Roman violet (with violet veils in Passiontide)? I refer the reader to look at this lovely article in the New Liturgical Movement.
I also found this explanation (see Full Homely Divinity – Lenten Customs):
“In [the Sarum] tradition “according to the rules that in all the churches of England be observed, all images [are] to be hid from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day in the morning.” This is called the Lenten Array and it includes a curtain which hides the reredos, a frontal which covers the altar, and veils which cover other statues and pictures in the church. The colour was Lenten white which was natural linen material, sometimes referred to as ash colour. According to An Introduction to English Liturgical Colours, “The explanation of this use of white, which is closely akin to ashen, is ‘in this time of Lent, which is a time of mourning, all things that make to the adornment of the church are either laid aside or else covered, to put us in remembrance that we ought now to lament and mourn for our souls dead in sin, and continually to watch, fast, pray, give alms….,’ wherefore ‘the clothes that are hanged up this time of Lent in the church have painted on them nothing else but the pains, torments, passion, bloodshedding, and death of Christ, that now we should only have our minds fixed on the passion of Christ, by whom only we were redeemed.” This practice made a startling transformation of the church for the whole of the Lenten season so that Easter literally burst forth like the Lord from the tomb when the church was returned to normal state.”
Septuagesima
Jan 31st
Note: This article is inspired to some extent by a chapter in Dom Guéranger’s Liturgical Year, which is too lengthy to reproduce here. Also see this fine article in the New Liturgical Movement.
Septuagesima is a brief period of two and a half weeks to prepare us for Lent. Anglicans using the Prayer Book are familiar with this short season. It also features in the ancient Sarum Use and the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. The three Sundays are called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. They are named from their numerical reference to Lent, which, in the language of the Church, is called Quadragesima, that is, forty, because Easter is prepared for by the forty days of Lent.
Those who take Lent seriously prepare for Easter as the Catechumens of the early Church prepared for their Baptism – by learning the faith, praying, converting to the Lord Jesus and doing good in the world.
The Septuagesima season was abolished in the modern liturgy probably because it is not as old as Lent. Dom Guéranger identifies its origin as the Byzantine Liturgy (which I have not verified for this article).
In one of his homilies, Saint Gregory the Great mentions the fast of Lent lasting for less than forty days due to the Sundays. The deficit of the four Sundays is made up by the days from Ash Wednesday until the Saturday in Quinquagesima week, and these days were instituted after Gregory’s pontificate. It will be noticed that this final half-week of Quinquagesima week is not yet, properly speaking, Lent. For example, the Common Preface is used at ferial Masses, not the Preface of Lent.
Peter of Blois (12th century), says in his sermon 12: All religious begin the fast of Lent at Septuagesima; the Greeks, at Sexagesima; the clergy, at Quinquagesima; and the rest of Christians, who form the Church militant on earth, begin their Lent on the Wednesday following Quinquagesima. I should add a word about the word carnival. It comes from two Latin words, carne meaning flesh meat and vale meaning good-bye. Today, it is associated with merry-making and feasting in some parts of the world, northern Europe in particular, but also in South America. But, the word means “good-bye to meat”. A strict Lenten observance means abstinence from meat, dairy products and even fish except for Sundays. The Church has lessened the rigour for most of us and allows meat except on Fridays. Perhaps we could add Wednesdays to Fridays for abstaining. But that is for Lent. Fasting begins on Ash Wednesday.
The Gallicans retained some practices of the Oriental Churches, and this is certainly how the pre-Lent found its way into the Roman liturgy. These mournful weeks do not bind us to fasting as in Lent, but prepare us spiritually. We stop singing the Gloria and Alleluia at Mass, and Alleluia is not pronounced at the Office either. This discipline of abolishing the Alleluia at Septuagesima goes back to the eleventh century, under Pope Alexander II, who only renewed a rule already sanctioned in that same century by Pope Leo IX.
As mentioned, Septuagesima means seventy, and has a numerical relation to Quadragesima (the forty days). In reality, there are not seventy but only sixty-three days from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter. Each of the three previous Sundays has a name expressive of an additional ten, which is not exact numerically, for the reason that Sundays are an octave apart, and not ten days. Quinquagesima means fifty and Sexagesima means sixty. The Septuagesima season depends on the date of Easter celebration. It comes sooner or later. January 18th and February 22nd are called the Septuagesima keys, because the Sunday, which is called Septuagesima, cannot be earlier in the year than the first, nor later than the second, of these two days.
In liturgical terms, the deacon and subdeacon at High Mass respectively wear the dalmatic and tunicle. In Lent, they wear the folded chasuble.
In spiritual terms, it can be a good time for thinking about our Lenten resolutions: being more assiduous with prayers, more careful what we write on the Internet, making that little bit more effort to make blogs more edifying and pleasant to read. Then, and only then, do we think about those privations motivated by our conversion, and which we will keep in the secret of our Garden of the Soul.
The Church recommends the Forty Hours devotion, exposing the Blessed Sacrament and having people come to Church for adoration.
Rex divine, Rector regum
Jan 30th
Heavenly King, of Kings the Pastor,
Giv’r of laws, of justice master,
Ruling all by Thy behest,
Unto Thee to-day we render
Praise for him, to memory tender,
Charles our King, of kings the best.
Traitors shedding blood like water
Filled the land with crime and slaughter,
Law was trampled in the mud,
Noble churches left forsaken
And the White Rose, overtaken
By the sword, was red with blood.
Thus the bardic verse fulfilling,
“There shall be a time of killing
When the ravens shall be fed,
And a King without pollution
Midst a realm in revolution
Shall be numbered with the dead.”
Violent men without compassion
Proudly spurned the ancient fashion
Of the sacred right divine;
From his friends by madmen riven
Was our King to judgment driven
Stained with blood his Royal line.
Faithful son of Mother holy,
To the Church devoted solely,
He to keep her laws was fain.
He her champion ever glorious,
Was beaten still victorious,
Robbed of life, but conqueror slain.
“He nothing common did nor mean
Upon that memorable scene,”
When on the block he laid his head;
“Nor called the gods with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right,”
But went to death as to his bed.
Fair exchange King Charles was making
When, the crown immortal taking
For the earthly crown he wore,
By the axe he followed faster
To the realm of Christ his master,
And the cross behind him bore.
Lo, the priest who shares his glory
(Laud his name and laud his story),
For his fellow-martyr waits
And the white-robed host upraising,
Heart and voice their Saviour praising,
Greets him at the heavenly gates.
He by dying brought salvation
To the torn and shattered nation,
Life restored and liberty;
For the Martyr’s blood was sowing
Seed from which the Church is growing,
Seed of immortality.
Ere his death one word was spoken:
That “Remember” was the token
Of his coming victory.
So his blood brought life and healing,
And the Church’s triumph sealing,
Never shall forgotten be.
(C.B. Moss)
Alleluia.
Full Homely Divinity
Jan 29th
I am quite surprised that this site – Full Homely Divinity – hasn’t been mentioned here.
It concentrates on the old folk traditions of English parish religion and spirituality, both in medieval English Catholicism and its survival in post-Reformation Anglicanism. I have often found this site useful for matters like Sarum Lenten Array (which I use) and things like hot cross buns on Good Friday and the Easter Sepulcre. Thus, liturgical rites fit in and harmonise with popular traditions.
This site (I don’t know who is running it) is entirely non-polemical and irenic in its tone. It seems to be independent of “party interests”. It supports the use of the Book of Common Prayer, but I see no sectarian objections to the use of the English, Anglican or Sarum missals.
Take a look at this site, and comments would be welcome.
King Charles the Martyr
Jan 29th
“I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.”
Tomorrow, the thirtieth day of January, is the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I. In all editions of the Book of Common Prayer from A.D. 1662 to A.D. 1859, opposite January 30 in the Kalendar stands the entry, K. Charles Martyr.
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It is easy enough, no doubt, for any one who is so inclined, to neutralize all that the Church can say, by a dexterous use of party-feeling: easy, to call it a device of the State for upholding a particular set of opinions. But the matter may be brought to a short issue. If attachment to the cause of our injured King, and sympathy with his high-minded patience, were not in entire harmony with the principles inculcated in all other parts of the Prayer-Book: if Sanderson, Hammond, and Taylor, those Restorers of our fallen Church, spoke otherwise on the duty of subjects, than as former generations of true Churchmen had spoken: then we might perhaps have cause to fear, that Feeling had got the better of Reason, in this one portion of our yearly solemnities. But if they “all speak the same thing, and there be no division among them;” and (what is infinitely more) if what they speak be altogether scriptural: if the doctrine of submission and loyal obedience be only one inseparable branch of the universal doctrine of resignation and contentment—an ingredient of that unreserved Faith, without which it is impossible to please God—then let us bless our Preserver, for not leaving us without special witness to a part of our duty, where all experience has proved us so likely to go wrong. Let us trust our civil welfare to the Gospel rule of non-resistance, as fearlessly as we trust our domestic happiness to the kindred rule of filial obedience. Such conduct, if universal, would be a perfect security to liberty: inasmuch as the same principle which forbids illegal resistance, would equally forbid being agents in illegal oppression. And they who abide by it, be they many or few, have for their warrant the general tenor and express word of Revelation, the example of our Blessed Lord, His Apostles, and His suffering Church. In every case, the burthen of proof lies wholly on those who plead for resistance.
And what if young men—the high-born especially—instead of that degrading ambition of commencing, early, “men of the world,” would consent to shape their own conduct by the noble simplicity and downright goodness of him, whom we this day commemorate? the secret of whose excellence lay, chiefly, in two qualities, by them most imitable: consistent purity of heart and demeanour, and strict constancy in devotional duties, under the guidance of his and our Church? Does any one believe that such a change would leave society at all a loser, in point of true generosity and courtesy, or whatever else makes life engaging?
But if all this must still be unheard—if the instruction of the day be quite drowned, in men’s eager cry for what is called Freedom: at least the service answers the purpose of a solemn appeal from human prejudice, to Him, before whom king and subject must ere long appear together. To whose final and unerring decision, not, it is hoped, with presumptuous confidence, nor yet with any uncharitable thought, but in cheerful assurance that resignation and loyalty can “in no wise lose their reward,” we desire, now and always, to “commit our cause.”
(Sermon V. Danger of Sympathizing With Rebellion. Preached by John Keble before the University of Oxford, January 30, 1831.)
* * *
O Lord, our heavenly Father, who didst not punish us as our sins have deserved, but hast in the midst of judgement remembered mercy; We acknowledge it thine especial favour, that, though, for our many and great provocations, thou didst suffer thine anointed blessed King Charles the First (as on this day) to fall into the hands of violent and blood-thirsty men, and barbarously to be murdered by them, yet thou didst not leave us for ever, as sheep without a shepherd; but by thy gracious providence didst miraculously preserve the undoubted Heir of his Crowns, our then gracious Sovereign King Charles the Second, from his bloody enemies, hiding him under the shadow of thy wings, until their tyranny was overpast; and didst bring him back, in thy good appointed time, to sit upon the throne of his Father; and together with the Royal Family didst restore to us our ancient Government in Church and state. For these thy great and unspeakable mercies we render to thee our most humble and unfeigned thanks; beseeching thee, still to continue thy gracious protection over the whole Royal Family, and to grant to our gracious Sovereign Queen Elizabeth, a long and happy Reign over us: So we that are thy people will give thee thanks for ever, and will alway be shewing forth thy praise from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
* * *
O Lord we offer unto thee all praise and thanks for the glory of Thy grace that shined forth in Thine anointed servant Charles; and we beseech Thee to give us all grace that by a careful studious imitation of this Thy blessed Saint and Martyr, that we may be made worthy to receive benefit by his prayers, which he, in communion with the Church Catholic, offers up unto Thee for that part of it here Militant, through thy Son, our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. (source “Private Forms of Prayer” 1660, Brian Duppa, Bishop of Salisbury and Winchester.)
O Most mighty God, terrible in thy judgements, and wonderful in thy doings toward the children of men; who in thy heavy displeasure didst suffer the life of our gracious Sovereign King Charles the First, to be (as on this day) taken away by the hands of cruel and bloody men: We thy sinful creatures here assembled before thee, do, in the behalf of all this Nation, which brought down this heavy judgement upon us. But, O gracious, when thou makest inquisition for blood, lay not the guilt of this innocent blood, (the shedding whereof nothing but the blood of thy Son can expiate,) lay it not to the charge of the people of this land; not let it ever be required of us, or our posterity. Be merciful, O Lord, be merciful unto thy people, whom thou hast redeemed; and be not angry with us for ever: But pardon us for thy mercy’s sake. through the merits of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Blessed Lord, in whose sight the death of thy saints is precious; We magnify thy Name for thine abundant grace bestowed upon our martyred Sovereign; by which he was enabled so cheerfully to follow the steps of his blessed Master and Saviour, in a constant meek suffering of all barbarous indignities, and at the last resisting unto blood; and even then according to the same pattern, praying for his murderers. Let his memory, O Lord, be ever blessed among us; that we may follow the example of his courage and constancy, his meekness and patience, and great charity. And grant, that this our land may be freed from the vengeance of his righteous blood, and thy mercy glorified in the forgiveness of our sins; and all for Jesus Christ his sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.
* * *
Blessed God, just and powerful, who didst permit thy dear Servant, our dread Sovereign King Charles the First, to be (as upon this day) given up to the violent outrages of wicked men, to be despitefully used, and at the last murdered by them: Though we cannot reflect upon so foul an act, but with horror and astonishment; yet do we most gratefully commemorate the glories of the grace, which then sinned forth in thine Anointed; whom thou wast pleased, even at the hour of death, to endue with an eminent measure of exemplary patience, meekness, and charity, before the face of his cruel enemies. And albeit thou didst suffer them to proceed to such an height of violence, as to kill him, and to take possession of his Throne; yet didst thou in great mercy preserve his Son, whose right it was, and at length by a wonderful providence bring him back, and set him thereon, to restore thy true Religion, and to settle peace amongst us: For these thy great mercies we glorify thy Name, through Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour. Amen.
Questions about the Three-Year Lectionary
Jan 16th
I touch upon a sensitive subject here, because I know that some of our TAC bishops and priests favour (without obliging their clergy in the matter) following the three-year lectionary used in the modern Roman rite, the current Anglican Use and most Anglican liturgies in use since the 1970’s.
I find it pointless to go into reasons for my reserves about the three-year lectionary when things are expressed that much better in the New Liturgical Movement – Doubts About the Three-Year Cycle. The article and the comments are food for thought.
There are a couple more considerations. I don’t think the lectionary for Mass should compensate for the absence of faithful from the Offices. More importantly, the lectionary of the Roman rite (or that of the Prayer Book) could have been improved along the lines of the early eighteenth-century Parisian missal or the medieval Norman uses including Sarum. Ferial Wednesdays and Fridays have their proper Old Testament lessons, Epistles and Gospels.
My other main reserve is the change made to the temporal cycle made in 1969 by the late Archbishop Bugnini: particularly the Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Trinity (Pentecost) becoming “ordinary” Sundays per annum, the abolition of Septuagesima and the Ember Days, the suppression of all the Octaves other than Easter. One positive aspect of the Pauline reform is the wealth of propers for ferias when no saint’s feast is appointed, and another is the wealth of prefaces.
I hope, in a future reform of the reform, that the old temporal cycle will be restored. I am much less bothered about saint’s feasts being displaced. Those of us who follow the Sarum Use find feasts celebrated on different days to what is prescribed in the classical Roman rite. For example, we celebrate the Holy Name of Jesus on August 7th instead of January 2nd.
I would also hope for a return to a single-year liturgical cycle, not only for the Scripture Readings, but also for the Gradual psalms, Alleluia verses and so forth.
St. Benedict Biscop, Abbot, 690 (January 12th)
Jan 11th
Tomorrow is celebrated the feast of the illustrious Northumbrian monk Biscop Baducing. St. Benedict Biscop, as he has come to be known, established the twin-foundation Anglo-Saxon monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey. The saint caused his model monastery to be constructed with stone and glass in the Romanesque fashion (techniques and materials new to England) and furnished it with sacred pictures, service books, and a vast library collected during his five journeys to Rome. He also engaged Abbot John, Arch-cantor of St. Peter’s in Rome to instruct the monks in the singing of the Roman chant. This venerable abbot sought to enrich his fellow countrymen with the finest treasures of sacred architecture, art, music, and learning from the continental Church and the Eternal City, and I would humbly propose St. Benedict Biscop as a patron of our Anglican Patrimony.
O GOD, by whose gift the blessed Abbot Benedict left all things that he might be made perfect: grant unto all those who have entered upon the path of evangelical perfection, that they may neither look back nor linger in the way; but hastening to thee without stumbling, may lay hold upon eternal life. Through thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth God, world without end. Amen.
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BENEDICTUS Biscop Baducing was born of noble parents in Northumbria about the year 638, during the reign of St. Oswald the King. When he grew up into manhood he became a minister of the next king, Oswy, who gave him lands whereby he might live in wealth and honour. But at the age of twenty-live he gave up his lands and his position, and set off with another young thane, St. Wilfrid, on a journey to the tombs of the Apostles at Rome.
He came back to England full of all he had seen in that wonderful old city, which was in those days the capital of the world. England was but a half-barbarous country; but Rome was full of shrewd statesmen, learned students, clever artists, and (what struck Benedict even more) great monastic houses. So it was no wonder that, when the observant young thane came back to his native land, he had made up his mind that the best thing he could do for the Church of England was to bring over to it the art and learning of Rome.
The thought, too, of the devoted foreign monks haunted him; and, after he had been home for two years, he started off for Rome again. In the island of Lerins, near Gaul, he became a monk, and there he stayed for two years, learning the way of his new life, till the Pope told him that the time had come to work in England, and sent him home again to escort St. Theodore, the great Archbishop of Canterbury.
At Canterbury Biscop became Abbot of St. Peter’s, and for two years he settled down to teach the Saxon boys all that he had learnt in his travels. But he found it hard to leach with the few books that were to be found in those primitive times, and so he determined to make a third journey to Rome. He went over the seas, collecting a store of splendid books; some he bought in Rome, some were given to him by friends there who admired his energy and pluck, and some were bought for him by agents whom he set to work in France to hunt for the precious volumes.
Meanwhile, King Oswy had died, and his son, Ecgfrid, ruled over Northumbria in his stead. When Benedict came to England with his rich cargo of books, he found that his friend the King of Wessex had also died; he therefore changed his plans, and journeyed with his treasures northward to his old home in the moors.
And now he felt that he must win over to his great scheme his new master, Ecgfrid, King of Northumbria. So to Ecgfrid he went, and told him all that he had found since he left his native land for his long travels. He described the fine monasteries which he had seen on the continent, their good works, their steady discipline, their learning and their art, which were so far ahead of that of poor little England. His enthusiasm was so great that he made the young king enthusiastic too, and Ecgfrid gave him out of the royal estates a large tract of land at the mouth of the river Wear.
Thus were the ideals of Biscop made possible at last. He set about at once to build the abbey of St. Peter, Wearmouth, and he determined that it should be–not a rude cluster of wooden buildings–but a monastery after his own heart, properly managed under the old Benedictine rule, with a church built of stone, and a big library.
But alas! No Englishman knew how build in stone, and once more our abbot had to set off on a sea voyage to get masons for the work. He found them in France, and soon came back triumphantly, with a company of skilled stone-masons, and with glass-workers as well. No one had even made glass before in this country, so we can imagine the wonder of the people when they saw the strange-looking furnaces at work, and the little crystal panes that came out of the tire. Still more amazed were they when the white stonewalls had risen up, and they were able to go into the new church and see the bright light that streamed in through the windows. They thought that the glass was a sort of mysterious lamp, and that it never grew dark in the church, even when it was quite dark outside. It was from these workmen that our English forefathers learnt the art of making glass.
So quickly had Biscop’s men worked that in a year the church was ready for service, and the first Mass was said with the rich vessels and the vestments which he had brought over with him from France.
Yet Benedict was not satisfied. There were a great many more things he wanted to put into his monastery; so he crossed the sea a fifth time and made his way to Rome. He brought back with him this time more than he had ever brought before–an enormous number of books, some relics of the saints, a letter from the Pope which, with King Ecgfrid’s consent, made Wearmouth free from all interference, and he brought the venerable precentor of St. Peter’s himself, who taught the English monks how to sing in the Roman manner. Most important of all, Benedict carried away from Rome and set up in the abbey church a wonderful collection of paintings, such as had never been seen before. They were stretched on boards and fastened round the walls, so that those who could not read, as well as those who could, might see the living face of our Lord, and meditate upon the story of the Gospel. The Venerable Bede, who was a little chorister under our saint, tells us how he saw the pictures from the gospel history on the south wall, and those of the ever Virgin Mary and the Apostles, while on the north were scenes from the Apocalypse with the Last Judgment.
Thus was the Abbey of St. Peter, Wearmouth, finished, a monastery after Benedict’s own heart. But still his work was not over; for so many men came to be monks at Wearmouth that after one short year eighteen brothers were sent out from it to live at Jarrow, a place ten miles away at the mouth of the Tyne, which King Ecgfrid now gave them.
The brave old abbot was determined that this new monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow, should not be less splendid than the mother house. He built it in the same style, and set an abbot over it. Then for the sixth and last time he set out on the long and perilous journey to Rome, leaving his nephew, a young monk, strong and handsome, gentle and holy, in charge of Wearmouth.
How proud he must have been as he started on his journey home, carrying with him a new stock of books and ornaments, and a collection of paintings quite as wonderful as those he had brought before. But alas! when he reached Northumbria he found that King Ecgfrid had been slain in battle, that nearly all the monks of Jarrow had died from pestilence, and that his young nephew, who had ruled Wearmouth so well in his absence, was dead also. At Jarrow all who could sing the services were taken off: only the abbot and one small scholar survived. This little boy it was who grew up to be the great historian, Bede; he and the abbot had to take the whole monastic services themselves as best they could.
But Benedict Biscop was not the man to lose courage, even under all these terrible calamities. The monks had already chosen a successor to his nephew, a holy man named Sigfried; and the two saints set about to collect new monks, till very soon both the abbeys were restored to their former prosperity.
And now Benedict’s own life was drawing to its close. A creeping paralysis attacked him, and he who had spent so much of his life travelling about the earth, was forced to lie helpless in his bed for three years, unable even to creep out as far as the chapel to join in the services. In all this terrible trial he was just as cheerful and good as in his bright active days. His beloved monks used to gather round his bed to say the services with him, and to listen to his exhortations. He would beg them to keep faithfully the rules of their order, and to take great care to preserve all the books and treasures he had collected, and, when he was gone, to choose the best monk to succeed him and not to seek for one of high birth. When he could not sleep, the brethren would take it in turns all night to read the Bible to him; and when they were all in church, he would say the service by himself in his cell.
All this time Sigfried, too, was growing worse and worse, till at last both the abbots knew that their death was near, and asked to see each other before the end. They brought Sigfried to Benedict’s bed, and laid him there by his side. The two old men were too weak to embrace each other, and the monks had to place their hands together. Then they told the brothers who it was they wished to second them, and died almost at the same moment, as Benedict was repeating the eighty-third Psalm.
We often hear of men who collect precious books and pictures for their own homes, but St. Benedict Biscop was different to these. All the treasures he collected were not for himself, but for his fellow-countrymen. The books were in libraries where all who could read might study them; the pictures told their story to those who could not read. Our forefathers were rough and ignorant enough in those days; it was Benedict who taught them to love beautiful things; he set pictures before their eyes, he put costly books within their reach, he taught them to make glass, he set up a school of singing, and he made them feel that Christianity meant education and progress, as well as love and faith.
The two abbeys which he had founded side by side continued for long to do their good work for England. When the body of their founder lay quiet in St. Peter’s Church, the monks of Wearmouth went on with their teaching and their prayers, labouring in loving harmony with their neighbours at Jarrow. Learned or simple, each brother took his share, too, of the farm work by which they lived; and each threshed and winnowed the corn, milked the goats and cows, took his turn in the garden, kitchen or bakehouse, at the plough or the forge.
All that simple wholesome life of the early Saxon monks has long passed away, and black collieries now cover the ground where the monks of Wearmouth once laboured. It has not been all progress since then. Sixteen hundred feet below the surface, in the dark tunnels of the mines, poor little children were toiling for fourteen hours every day when Queen Victoria came to the throne; were wearing their little lives out in misery under the very spot where Benedict Biscop and his brethren had once gathered the children together so kindly, and taught them with so much care. It has not been all progress, but those horrible things came to an end fifty years ago, and now, let us hope, the gentle spirit of St. Benedict can look down kindly upon the spot where once he laboured so well.
From The Little Lives of the Saints, Told by Percy Dearmer, London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1904.
20 C + M + B 10
Jan 4th
It is a custom of Holy Church for the priest to bless chalk on the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6th, this coming Wednesday) and for the faithful to inscribe the numerals of the year and the initials of the Three Wise Men over the doors to their houses. It is also traditional for the houses of the faithful to be blessed on this day.
Last year, I created a service sheet with the rite of blessing of chalk, the house blessing, and relevant instructions. The blessings are translated into English from the Rituale Romanum and conformed to the Book of Common Prayer. I offer it here to anyone who might be interested in reviving or spreading this pious custom of the season.
Leo the Great, Sermon 21 – On the Lord’s Nativity
Dec 24th
These are the Monastic Breviary Lessons from the second Nocturn of Christmas Matins. The translation used here is taken from the 1961 edition by the Society of the Sacred Cross in south Wales. Pope Saint Leo the Great is most famed for his Tome to Flavian, his authoritative contribution to the Council of Chalcedon (451) which defined how we are to understand the relationship between Christ’s divinity and humanity. The definition runs:
Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; “like us in all things but sin.” He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God.
We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation (in duabus naturis inconfuse, immutabiliter, indivise, inseparabiliter). The distinction between natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.
The Fathers of this Council acclaimed that, through the voice of this great Pope and Father of the Church, “It is Peter who says this through Leo. This is what we all of us believe. This is the faith of the Apostles. Leo and Cyril teach the same thing“. This is a wonderful testimony of the Pope’s doctrinal authority in the early Church.
Anyway, here is the beautiful sermon on the Lord’s Incarnation.
* * *
Our Saviour, dearly beloved, is born today: let us rejoice. No trace of sadness may be permitted on this birthday of Life. This day abolishes the fear of death and fills us with joy by reason of the promise of eternal life. No-one is excluded from a share in this eagerness. The joy is for one and all: our Lord is the Destroyer of sin and death; he finds no-one free from guilt, so he comes to set every-one free.
Let the Saint rejoice, for he shall soon receive his palm; let the sinner be glad, for he is offered his pardon; let the Gentile awake, for he is summoned to life. When the fulness of time was come, that time ordained by the high and inscrutable counsel of God, the Son of God took flesh from our human nature, that he might reconcile that nature to its Creator, and that the devil, the inventor of death, might be overcome by that same flesh which had been the means of his victory.
God joins battle on our behalf, and there is a great and wonderful equity in the battle-array; for Almighty God comes forth to meet our raging foe, armed, not in his majesty, but in our weakness. He meets him with the same body, the same nature, even with a share of our mortality, yet with no spot of sin. How different is this Child’s birth from all others; it is written: No-one is free from tainting sin, not even an infant that has lived but one day on the earth. Now no spot of the concupiscence of the flesh had penetrated into this unique Birth, no trace of the law of sin remained. A royal virgin of the stem of David was chosen; she who was to be pregnant with holy Fruit, conceived mentally before bodily that Offspring of hers who was both human and divine. While the counsels of heaven were yet unknown to her she was troubled at the strange annunciation, and so she learned from her conversation with the Angel that it was by the cooperation of the Holy Ghost that this thing was to happen to her: so she believed that without loss of her virginity she was soon to be the Mother of God.
Let us give thanks, dearly beloved, to God the Father, through his Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit; for God who is rich in mercy towards us, even when we were dead in our sins hath quickened us together with Christ, and made us to be a new creature in him, and a new workmanship. Let us put off the old man with his deeds: and let us obtain a share in Christ’s sonship, laying aside the works of the flesh. O Christian, learn how great you have become, you who have been made a partaker of the divine nature. Do not return to the former vileness of your old and corrupt conversation. Remember the Head and Body of which you are a member. Never forget that you have been delivered out of the power of darkness and translated into the light and kingdom of God.
O Virgo virginum
Dec 23rd
December 23: The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Eighth Antiphon (according to the Sarum Use / Book of Common Prayer)
O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud? quia nec primam similem visa es, nec habere sequentem. Filiae Jerusalem, quid me admiramini? Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.
O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be? for neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after: Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me? The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.
This feast, which is now kept not only throughout the whole of Spain but in many other parts of the Catholic world, owes its origin to the bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo, in 656. These prelates thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of celebrating the feast of the Annunciation on the twenty-fifth of March, inasmuch as this joyful solemnity frequently occurs at the time when the Church is intent upon the Passion of our Lord, so that it is sometimes obliged to be transferred into Easter time, with which it is out of harmony for another reason; they therefore decreed that, henceforth, in the Church of Spain there should be kept, eight days before Christmas, a solemn feast with an octave, in honour of the Annunciation, and as a preparation for the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity. In course of time, however, the Church of Spain saw the necessity of returning to the practice of the Church of Rome, and of those of the whole world, which solemnize the twenty-fifth of March as the day of our Lady’s Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God. But such had been, for ages, the devotion of the people for the feast of the eighteenth of December, that it was considered requisite to maintain some vestige of it. They discontinued, therefore, to celebrate the Annunciation on this day; but the faithful were requested to consider, with devotion, what must have been the sentiments of the holy Mother of God during the days immediately preceding her giving Him birth. A new feast was instituted, under the name of the Expectation of the blessed Virgin’s delivery.
This feast, which sometimes goes under the name of Our Lady of O, or the feast of O, on account of the great antiphons which are sung during these days, and, in a special manner, of that which begins O Virgo virginum (which is still used in the Vespers of the Expectation, together with the O Adonaï, the antiphon of the Advent Office), is kept with great devotion in Spain. A High Mass is sung at a very early hour each morning during the octave, at which all who are with child, whether rich or poor, consider it a duty to assist, that they may thus honour our Lady’s Maternity, and beg her blessing upon themselves. It is not to be wondered at that the Holy See has approved of this pious practice being introduced into almost every other country. We find that the Church of Milan, long before Rome conceded this feast to the various dioceses of Christendom, celebrated the Office of our Lady’s Annunciation on the sixth and last Sunday of Advent, and called the whole week following the Hebdomada de Exceptato (for thus the popular expression had corrupted the word Expectato). But these details belong strictly to the archaeology of liturgy, and enter not into the plan of our present work; let us, then, return to the feast of our Lady’s Expectation, which the Church has established and sanctioned as a new means of exciting the attention of the faithful during these last days of Advent.
Most just indeed it is, O holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire thou hadst to see him, who had been concealed for nine months in thy chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also thine; to come to that blissful hour of his birth, which will give glory to God in the highest, and, on earth, peace to men of good-will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy thy desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery; complete our preparation by thy powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour has come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to his entrance into our hearts.
O Emmanuel
Dec 22nd
December 22: Seventh Antiphon (according to the Sarum Use / Book of Common Prayer)
O Emmanuel, Rex et Legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et salvator earum; veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster.
O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations, and their Salvation: Come and save us, O Lord our God!
O Emmanuel! King of peace! Thou enterest today the city of thy predilection, the city in which thou hast placed thy temple—Jerusalem. A few years hence the same city will give thee thy cross and thy sepulchre: nay, the day will come on which thou wilt set up thy judgement-seat within sight of her walls. But to-day thou enterest the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on thy road to Bethlehem. Thy blessed Mother and Joseph her spouse would not lose the opportunity of visiting the temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration. They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Aggeus, that great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first;[1] for this second temple has now standing within it an ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built; and within this ark, which is Mary, is contained the God whose presence makes her the holiest of sanctuaries. The Lawgiver himself is in this blessed ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the tablet of stone on which the Law was graven. The visit paid, our living ark descends the steps of the temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled. We adore thee, O Emmanuel! in this thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith thou fulfillest all that the prophets have written of thee; for thou wouldst give to thy people the certainty of thy being the Messias, by showing them that all the marks, whereby he was to be known, are to be found in thee. And now, the hour is near; all is ready for thy birth ; come then, and save us; come, that thou mayst not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, he that saves us.
A Great Antiphon to Jerusalem
O Hierusalem! civitas Dei summi, leva in circuitu oculos tuos; et vide Dominum tuum, quia jam veniet solvere te a vinculis.
O Jerusalem! city of the great God: lift up thine eyes round about, and see thy Lord, for he is coming to loose thee from thy chains.
[1] Agg. ii. l0.
O Rex Gentium
Dec 21st
December 21: Sixth Antiphon (according to the Sarum Use / Book of Common Prayer)
O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum; veni, et salva hominem quem de limo formasti.
O King of the nations, and their Desire, the Corner-stone, who makest both one: Come and save mankind, whom thou formedst of clay.
O King of nations! Thou art approaching still nigher to Bethlehem, where thou art to be born. The journey is almost over, and thy august Mother, consoled and strengthened by the dear weight she bears, holds an unceasing converse with thee on the way. She adores thy divine majesty; she gives thanks to thy mercy; she rejoices that she has been chosen for the sublime ministry of being Mother to God. She longs for that happy moment when her eyes shall look upon thee, and yet she fears it. For, how will she be able to render thee those services which are due to thy infinite greatness, she that thinks herself the last of creatures? How will she dare to raise thee up in her arms, and press thee to her heart, and feed thee at her breasts? When she reflects that the hour is now near at hand, in which, being born of her, thou wilt require all her care and tenderness, her heart sinks within her; for, what human heart could bear the intense vehemence of these two affections—the love of such a Mother for her Babe, and the love of such a creature for her God? But thou supportest her, O thou the Desired of nations! for thou, too, longest for that happy birth, which is to give to the earth its Saviour, and to men that corner-stone, which will unite them all into one family. Dearest King! be thou blessed for all these wonders of thy power and goodness! Come speedily, we beseech thee, come and save us, for we are dear to thee, as creatures that have been formed by thy divine hands. Yea, come, for thy creation has grown degenerate; it is lost; death has taken possession of it: take thou it again into thy almighty hands, and give it a new creation; save it; for thou hast not ceased to take pleasure in and love thine own work.
A Great Antiphon in honour of Christ
O Rex pacifice, tu ante saecula nate, per auream egredere portam, redemptos tuos visita, et eos illuc revoca, unde ruerunt per culpam.
O King of peace! that wast born before all ages, come by the golden gate; visit them whom thou hast redeemed, and lead them back to the place whence they fell by sin.
O Oriens
Dec 20th
December 20: Fifth Antiphon (according to the Sarum Use / Book of Common Prayer)
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae; veniet illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Day-spring, Brightness of Light everlasting, and Sun of Righteousness: Come and enlighten him that sitteth in darkness, and the shadow of death.
O Jesus, divine Sun! Thou art coming to snatch us from eternal night: blessed for ever be thy infinite goodness! But thou puttest our faith to the test, before showing thyself in all thy brightness. Thou hidest thy rays, until the time decreed by thy heavenly Father comes, in which all thy beauty will break upon the world; thou art traversing Judea; thou art near Jerusalem; the journey of Mary and Joseph is nigh its term. Crowds of men pass or meet thee on the road, each one hurrying to his native town, there to be enrolled, as the edict commands. Not one of all these suspects that thou, O divine Orient! art so near him. They see thy Mother Mary, and they see nothing in her above the rest of women; or if they are impressed by the majesty and incomparable modesty of this august Queen, it is but a vague feeling of surprise at there being such dignity in one so poor as she is; and they soon forget her again. If the Mother is thus an object of indifference to them, it is not to be expected that they will give even so much as a thought to her Child, that is net yet born. And yet this Child is thyself, O Sun of justice! Oh! increase our faith, but increase, too, our love. If these men loved thee, O Redeemer of mankind, thou wouldst give them the grace to feel thy presence. Their eyes, indeed, would not yet see thee, but their hearts, at least, would burn within them, they would long for thy coming, and would hasten it by their prayers and sighs. Dearest Jesus! who thus traversest the world thou hast created, and who forcest not the homage of thy creatures, we wish to keep near thee during the rest of this thy journey: we kiss the footsteps of her that carries thee in her womb; we will not leave thee, until we arrive together with thee at Bethlehem, that house of bread, where, at last, our eyes will see thee, O splendour of eternal light, our Lord and our God!
Fourth Sunday in Advent
Dec 19th
THE COLLECT.
O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world with out end. Amen.
THE EPISTLE. Phil. iv. 4.
REJOICE in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all under standing, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
THE GOSPEL. St. John i. 19.
THIS is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us, What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
O Clavis David
Dec 19th
December 19: Fourth Antiphon (according to the Sarum Use / Book of Common Prayer)
O Clavis David et sceptrum domus Israel, qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit; veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel; that openest, and no man shutteth, and shuttest, and no man openeth: Come, and bring the prisoner out of the prison-house, and him that sitteth in darkness, and in the shadow of death.
O Jesus, Son of David! heir to his throne and his power! Thou art now passing over, in thy way to Bethlehem, the land that once was the kingdom of thy ancestor, but now is tributary to the Gentiles. Scarce an inch of this ground which has not witnessed the miracles of the justice and mercy of Jehovah, thy Father, to the people of the old Covenant, which is so soon to end. Before long, when thou hast come from beneath the virginal cloud which now hides thee, Thou wilt pass along this same road doing good,[1] healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity,[2] and yet having not where to lay thy head[3]. Now, at least, thy Mother’s womb affords thee the sweetest rest, and thou receivest from her the profoundest adoration and the tenderest love. But, dear Jesus, it is thine own blessed will that thou leave this loved abode. Thou hast, O eternal Light, to shine in the midst of this world’s darkness, this prison where the captive, whom thou hast come to deliver, sits in the shadow of death. Open his prison-gates by thy all-powerful key. And who is this captive, but the human race, the slave of error and vice? Who is this captive, but the heart of man, which is thrall to the very passions it blushes to obey? Oh! come and set at liberty the world thou hast enriched by thy grace, and the creatures whom thou hast made to be thine own brethren.
An Antiphon to the Angel Gabriel
O Gabriel! nuntius coelorum, qui januis clausis ad me intrasti, et Verbum nunciasti: Concipies et paries: Emmanuel vocabitur.
O Gabriel! the messenger of heaven, who earnest unto me through the closed doors, and didst announce the Word unto me: Thou shalt conceive and bear a Son, and he shall be called Emmanuel.
[1] Acts x. 38.
[2] St. Matt. iv. 23.
[3] St. Luke ix. 58.
