May the three-fold blessing of the Triune God be upon all who visit my blog.
Pray for me, a sinner.
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Good St. Matthew, pray for me
The General Collect of The Family Uher
O MIGHTY and merciful God, who gavest thy Son Jesus Christ to be born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to be guarded by the just, venerable, and blessed Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse: Keep the Holy Family ever before our eyes so that we may rightly order our own family to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord who with thee and the Holy Ghost art one God in glory everlasting. Amen.
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St Columba, pray for me.
Pilgrimage of Grace
Holy Wounds Banner
ETERNAL Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all of the souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those within my house, and in my own family. Amen.
Walsingham Abbey
Ave Jesu Christe
Our Lady of the Atonement, pray for us.
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O God of unchangeable Power & eternal Light: Lookfavourably on thy whole Church, that wonderful and sacred Mystery; by the effectual working of thy Providence, carryout in tranquillity the plan of Salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being madenew, and that all things are being brought to their perfectionby Him through Whom all things were made, thy Son JesusChrist our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unityof the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
One of my favourite Eastertide recordings is 'EASTER: Hymns, Carols, and Anthems' from All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, California. I think it is one of the best recordings of its kind with a mixed voice chorus in the United States. The arrangements are splendid, and the voicing of the recording is very good. Click below on the Amazon image of the album to listen to previews at Amazon. If you cannot find it locally, obviously Amazon has it on offer. But do try to 'Buy Local' as my friends here like to say.
During this Paschaltide please do listen to RADIO WALSINGHAM ONLINE. The station is an apostolate of Our Lady of Walsingham Institutes of Catholic Culture Studies in Houston, Texas. The music will be as a blessing upon your daily duties and night watches.
If you do not care for the annoying commercials, you may wish to join Live365.com as a VIP member for $6 a month (at the present moment) and then listen without commercial interruption. VIP members hear much more beautiful music during the day.
A friend asked if there was a very simple setting in English of Regina coeli laetare that his musically challenged parish could learn and sing.
The easiest by far is to use the melody sung to the Easter hymn Jesus Christ is risen todaywith the following text:
Joy to thee, O Queen of heav'n! Alleluia!
He whom it was thine to bear; Alleluia!
As He promised hath aris'n; Alleluia!
pray for us to God above. Alleluia!
The contractions heav'n and aris'n may take some getting used to, but as a text and tune it is the very simplest I know about.
The only published version of this text with which I am familiar is to be found in the St. Ambrose Hymnal of the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. In that hymnal the text can be found as the fourth verse of the Paschal hymnJesus Christ is risen today.
[The tune is usually called 'EASTER HYMN' and is an altered form taken from Lyra Davidica, 1708. The metre is 77.77 with alleluias.]
Audiences have been tremendously enthusiastic about Ola Gjeilo's compositions. To my mind Gjeilo's 'Sunrise Mass' can only be compared to Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna" — and today's audiences (who are starving spiritually) need to hear both works. May you be blest in listening to this masterpiece of beauty and faith.
Here is a splendid new composition by Stephanie Martin sung by the Pax Christi Chorale and students from Fr. John Redmond Catholic School and conducted by the composer herself:
It is time to share with you, dear Reader, an Easter hymn by Phillips Brooks, an Episcopalian bishop, upon the neglected theme of the Holy Angels of the Day of Resurrection. (No doubt you are familiar with his Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem.) The text of Phillips Brooks hymn printed below is taken from The Wartburg Hymnal, that remarkable hymnbook so influential upon the editors of The Hymnal 1940. The text deserves a new hymn tune, but it can be sung to the tune'ST GERTRUDE'(Onward, Christian Soldiers) which many still know. But for now let us read it, pray it, and ruminate upon it:
GOD hath sent His angels to the earth again,
Bringing joyful tidings to the Sons of men.
They who first at Christmas, thronged the heav'nly way,
Now beside the tomb-door sit on Easter Day.
Angels, sing His triumph as you sang His birth,
“Christ, the Lord is risen.”
“Peace, good will on earth.”
In the dreadful desert, where the Lord was tried,
There the faithful angels gathered at His side;
And when, in the garden, grief and pain and care
Bowed Him down with anguish, they were with Him there.
Angels, sing His triumph as you sang His birth,
“Christ, the Lord is risen.”
“Peace, good will on earth.”
Yet the Christ they honor, is the same Christ still,
Who, in light and darkness, did His Father's will;
And the tomb deserted, shineth like the sky,
Since He passed out from it, into victory.
Angels, sing His triumph as you sang His birth,
“Christ, the Lord is risen.”
“Peace, good will on earth.”
God has still His angels, helping at His Word,
And His faithful children, like their faithful Lord;
Schola Magdalena singAlleluiaby Canadian composer Stephanie Martin. The piece is sung and recorded in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Anglican) in Toronto.
I think those in the Catholic Church who love the Anglican Patrimony would be interested in the composer Healey Willan's contributions to an older Basilian hymnal entitled The New Saint Basil Hymnal. This hymnal bears the Imprimatur of H.E. James Cardinal McGuigan of Toronto.
Willan's Mass of Saint Teresa (No. 227) is included as one of the congregational Mass settings in Latin. There is also a very singable four-part setting of HAEC DIES for Easter at No. 43. Willan's HAEC DIES is an elegant composition that a quartet, a modest chorus or a large choir could sing successfully. Anyone familiar with Willan's Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena in THE HYMNAL 1940 would find the musical idiom of The Mass of Saint Teresa very familiar. (I would think that Ordinariate communities would be well served by having in common a congregational setting in Latin by such an august Anglican composer.) It is not as easy to find copies of The New Saint Basil Hymnal as once it was, but copies still can be found from time to time on eBay and online booksellers.
Healey Willan's The Mass of St. Theresa can be purchased separately from the Healey Willan Society (Fr. Scott Haynes of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius in Chicago)at this LINK.
Please head on over to Fr. Christopher G. Phillips' blog and do read his splendid Paschal hymn 'God our Father, Lord of Glory' (which is to be sung to the vigorous Welsh hymn tune 'CWM RHONDDA'). [Note: the original page is no longer online, but I have linked to the page saved by the Internet Web Archive.]
Allow me to share with you the first verse so as to whet your appetite for more:
God our Father, Lord of glory,
Thanks and praise we give to Thee;
In Thy mercy to our fathers,
Thou didst bring them through the sea.
So by water hast Thou saved us,
|: Now from Adam's sin set free. :|
I sincerely hope that this hymn will be sung in Eastertide by those of us of the Anglican diaspora wherever we may be.
“Here observe, I pray, and mark accurately the Saviour’s words. For while it was easy to have said, “That there was such and such a rich man whoever it might be,” He does not say so, but simply calls him a rich man; while He mentions the poor man by name.
“What conclusion, therefore, must we draw? That the rich man as being uncompassionate was nameless in God’s presence; for He has somewhere said by the voice of the Psalmist, concerning those who do not fear Him, “I will not make mention of their names with My lips” [Ps. 15:4]; while, as I said, the poor man is mentioned by name by the tongue of God.”
Jean Lhéritier's Paschal motet Surrexit Pastor Bonus (The Good Shepherd Has Arisen) would have been sung during Holy Mass on Easter Day in the Julian Chapel in the Vatican. It was composed sometime before 1536. The motet is conducted by David Skinner and sung by the choir Magdala.
Action has both dignity and necessity in our lives Action, too, possesses a high dignity of its own; it embodies a specific mode of representing God. That man is an effigy of God is also manifest in the fact that of all earthly creatures he alone is able to change and to shape his environment by a free and conscious choice of purposes; that the right has been conferred on him to perfect outward nature and to share in the creative rulership of God. This is implicit in all action as such; in a specifically high and pure form it is expressed in moral conduct on the one hand, in creative art on the other. The status viae as a whole is characterized by a realization of things not yet real, a production of new things, a tension inherent in tasks awaiting their fulfillment and aims claiming to be accomplished. Moreover, for man in his fallen state, the process of sanctification - of a transformation in Christ - is dependent on a systematic effort towards a moral formation of self and is thus inseparable from a set of ends and means. Consequently, that process is by no means free from that tension towards a purpose to be realized which we have seen to be specifically opposed to contemplation. This aspect of purposefulness attaches both to our effort towards self-perfection and to the works of charity organically issuing from that peerless virtue. We are, in statu viae, not merely being but becoming, subject to the law of change; wherefore, even in our innermost selves we are tied to the world of action and the tension that goes with action. Yet our primary attitude must be receptive Nevertheless, in spite of the high metaphysical dignity of action, in spite of man's specific mission of activity in statu viae, in spite of the requisiteness of action, even for the attainment of our eternal goal, the contemplative attitude ranks higher than any transient activity, however noble. The primary attitude of man, as a creature, is a receptive one. To let ourselves be apprehended by God, to lay our soul open to the influx of God's eternal Word, to expose ourselves to the sword of the love of Christ - therein lies what is most proper to our essence. Our transformation in Christ, again, means primarily our undergoing a process of transformation by Him; He is to engrave the seal of His countenance upon our soul. Our basic attitude remains a receptive one. Thus, too, it is our emptying ourselves before the face of God, our abandoning ourselves to His operation to be filled by His presence, the vacare et videre ("to rest and to see") that effects a regeneration of our souls, enabling us to realize the further elements of contemplation, the amare et laudare ("to love and to praise") in full completeness and depth. Unless we again and again drink of the water "springing up into life everlasting" (John 4:14), the source of true and valid life in us is bound to dry up.
If one clicks once or twice on the hymn below, a larger version should appear that can be printed or viewed more easily online. The text is suitable for Easter and Paschaltide or at any time when the Emmaus pericope is read at Mass.
I kept Heber's original verse that was written before his death. The other verses put together posthumously by his friends, I have set aside. Instead, I offer my own verses which I think better reflect Heber's own Eucharistic theology and which are also suitable for singing in a Roman Catholic or anglo-catholic parish.
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. “I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. “For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden. “See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. “I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you. “Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. “The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.”
MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Basilica of St John Lateran Holy Thursday, 5 April 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Holy Thursday is not only the day of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, whose splendour bathes all else and in some ways draws it to itself. To Holy Thursday also belongs the dark night of the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus goes with his disciples; the solitude and abandonment of Jesus, who in prayer goes forth to encounter the darkness of death; the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ arrest and his denial by Peter; his indictment before the Sanhedrin and his being handed over to the Gentiles, to Pilate. Let us try at this hour to understand more deeply something of these events, for in them the mystery of our redemption takes place.
Jesus goes forth into the night. Night signifies lack of communi-cation, a situation where people do not see one another. It is a symbol of incomprehension, of the obscuring of truth. It is the place where evil, which has to hide before the light, can grow.
Jesus himself is light and truth, communication, purity and goodness. He enters into the night. Night is ultimately a symbol of death, the definitive loss of fellowship and life. Jesus enters into the night in order to overcome it and to inaugurate the new Day of God in the history of humanity.
On the way, he sang with his Apostles Israel’s psalms of liberation and redemption, which evoked the first Passover in Egypt, the night of liberation. Now he goes, as was his custom, to pray in solitude and, as Son, to speak with the Father. But, unusually, he wants to have close to him three disciples: Peter, James and John. These are the three who had experienced his Transfiguration – when the light of God’s glory shone through his human figure – and had seen him standing between the Law and the Prophets, between Moses and Elijah. They had heard him speaking to both of them about his “exodus” to Jerusalem.
Jesus’ exodus to Jerusalem – how mysterious are these words! Israel’s exodus from Egypt had been the event of escape and liberation for God’s People. What would be the form taken by the exodus of Jesus, in whom the meaning of that historic drama was to be definitively fulfilled? The disciples were now witnessing the first stage of that exodus – the utter abasement which was nonetheless the essential step of the going forth to the freedom and new life which was the goal of the exodus.
The disciples, whom Jesus wanted to have close to him as an element of human support in that hour of extreme distress, quickly fell asleep. Yet they heard some fragments of the words of Jesus’ prayer and they witnessed his way of acting.
Both were deeply impressed on their hearts and they transmitted them to Christians for all time. Jesus called God “Abba”. The word means – as they add – “Father”. Yet it is not the usual form of the word “father”, but rather a children’s word – an affectionate name which one would not have dared to use in speaking to God.
It is the language of the one who is truly a “child”, the Son of the Father, the one who is conscious of being in communion with God, in deepest union with him.
If we ask ourselves what is most characteristic of the figure of Jesus in the Gospels, we have to say that it is his relationship with God. He is constantly in communion with God. Being with the Father is the core of his personality. Through Christ we know God truly. “No one has ever seen God”, says Saint John. The one “who is close to the Father’s heart … has made him known” (1:18). Now we know God as he truly is. He is Father, and this in an absolute goodness to which we can entrust ourselves. The evangelist Mark, who has preserved the memories of Saint Peter, relates that Jesus, after calling God “Abba”, went on to say: “Everything is possible for you. You can do all things” (cf. 14:36). The one who is Goodness is at the same time Power; he is all-powerful. Power is goodness and goodness is power. We can learn this trust from Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives.
Before reflecting on the content of Jesus’ petition, we must still consider what the evangelists tell us about Jesus’ posture during his prayer. Matthew and Mark tell us that he “threw himself on the ground” (Mt 26:39; cf. Mk 14:35), thus assuming a posture of complete submission, as is preserved in the Roman liturgy of Good Friday. Luke, on the other hand, tells us that Jesus prayed on his knees. In the Acts of the Apostles, he speaks of the saints praying on their knees: Stephen during his stoning, Peter at the raising of someone who had died, Paul on his way to martyrdom.
In this way Luke has sketched a brief history of prayer on one’s knees in the early Church. Christians, in kneeling, enter into Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. When menaced by the power of evil, as they kneel, they are upright before the world, while as sons and daughters, they kneel before the Father. Before God’s glory we Christians kneel and acknowledge his divinity; by this posture we also express our confidence that he will prevail.
Jesus struggles with the Father. He struggles with himself. And he struggles for us. He experiences anguish before the power of death. First and foremost this is simply the dread natural to every living creature in the face of death. In Jesus, however, something more is at work. His gaze peers deeper, into the nights of evil. He sees the filthy flood of all the lies and all the disgrace which he will encounter in that chalice from which he must drink. His is the dread of one who is completely pure and holy as he sees the entire flood of this world’s evil bursting upon him. He also sees me, and he prays for me. This moment of Jesus’ mortal anguish is thus an essential part of the process of redemption.
Consequently, the Letter to the Hebrews describes the struggle of Jesus on the Mount of Olives as a priestly event. In this prayer of Jesus, pervaded by mortal anguish, the Lord performs the office of a priest: he takes upon himself the sins of humanity, of us all, and he brings us before the Father.
Lastly, we must also pay attention to the content of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. Jesus says: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want” (Mk 14:36). The natural will of the man Jesus recoils in fear before the enormity of the matter. He asks to be spared.
Yet as the Son, he places this human will into the Father’s will: not I, but you. In this way he transformed the stance of Adam, the primordial human sin, and thus heals humanity. The stance of Adam was: not what you, O God, have desired; rather, I myself want to be a god. This pride is the real essence of sin. We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will. God appears as the opposite of our freedom. We need to be free of him – so we think – and only then will we be free.
This is the fundamental rebellion present throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. When human beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from themselves.
We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are united to God. Then we become truly “like God” – not by resisting God, eliminating him, or denying him.
In his anguished prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus resolved the false opposition between obedience and freedom, and opened the path to freedom. Let us ask the Lord to draw us into this “yes” to God’s will, and in this way to make us truly free. Amen.
Another Eastertide recording of great worth is 'Easter Triumph, Easter Joy' from the Shrine and Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. 
