Of favourite authors (and my lovely niece)

Margaret Barker on Laurence Paul Hemming's
Worship as a Revelation: The Past, Present, and Future of Catholic Liturgy

My young niece asks of me, "I understand that you are a hermit, Uncle Vincent, but what do you do all day when you aren't able to get out of the house or even out of bed?"

Yes, it is one thing to be a hermit by vocation and quite another when one is simply housebound, so finding my best uncle-ish voice, I reply, "I read, my dear."

Thinking about it for a minute she says in a very serious tone, "I suppose you must since you haven't got a television ... Do you enjoy what you are reading?"

"If it is something by one of my favourite authors, then I do enjoy it very much."

My niece picks up a book off of my bed and asks, "Should I read this, Uncle?"

I strain to see what she has in hand, and it is Laurence Hemming's Worship as a Revelation.

"Some day, my dear, I hope you shall have read it and countless others, but for now," I say whilst rummaging under a pillow, "I think it best if you read this."

Her eyes light up, "Oh, this is a book by one of your favourite authors!"

Before I could say anything else, she's out the door ready to read a well-worn book of stories by Caryl Houselander. Then I set myself to read what Dr. Margaret Barker had to say as a response to Laurence Paul Hemming's Worship as a Revelation. And I am not disappointed. So now I quote at length from her response & expecting many of my friends to agree with her as I do:

Laurence raises important questions about the relationship between Scripture and liturgy, and the relative ‘weight’ of each in the development and expression of the Faith. The disastrous ‘secularisation’ of biblical studies in the last century or so, springing from German literary criticism and so-called scientific method, has been allowed to drive revision of the liturgy in way that, on reflection, seems unbelievable.

I had no idea, until I read this book, that even Rome had adopted the family meal approach to the Eucharist, with everyone gathered round a table. Losing, or even reducing, the covenant and atonement that is at the very heart of the Eucharist must surely lead us to ask: ‘What, then, is left?’

I realised too, as I read several times the philosophy sections of the book [‘several readings’ was not because they were unclear, but because their implications were dawning on me] just how much the original Christian tradition has been infused with - and dare I say confused with - the ways of Greek philosophy. The God of Abraham, is not the God of the philosophers, although, as I tried to work out in my book The Great High Priest, a great deal of Plato, via Pythagoras, does seem to have come from the temple.

Given my pro-temple stance and my love of gardening, I regard these philosophical accretions as a form of intellectual bindweed, with very deep roots and very difficult to eradicate. Left unchecked, it strangles and kills the other plants. It has to be removed. A similar culling may be necessary if we are ever to recover the original glory and meaning of Christian worship, to see again the original vision. Everything else will become Church history or history of scholarship.

Christian history cannot be undone or rewritten, but there is the possibility of - dare I say it?- another reformation, when we free ourselves from the accumulated clutter of academe, be this Greek philosophy or German literary criticism, and begin to see again what has been with us all the time in our ancient patterns of worship.

Laurence uses some powerful words when expounding Ascensiontide: ‘…when we have been made ready by the grace given in the liturgical signs to understand the full meaning of what we have… already been given’ (p.107). This applies, I suspect, to our whole liturgical heritage.

Eight minutes, I was told, so I can say no more. Except, perhaps, one of my favourite quotations from Bulgakov*, originally written of the Holy Wisdom, but applicable, I think to a good deal more:

"All this wealth of symbolism has been preserved in the archives of ecclesiastical antiquities, but, covered by the dust of ages, it has been no use to anyone. The time has come, however, for us to sweep away the dust of ages and to decipher the sacred script, to reinstate the tradition of the Church, in this case all but broken, as a living tradition."

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* ‘The Wisdom of God’ (1937) reprinted in A Bulgakov Anthology, edd. J Pain and N Zernov, London: SPCK, 1976, pp. 144-56, p. 146.


Brava, Dr. Barker, Brava!

A Bit of Heaven to Begin the Week

Arlene Oost-Zinner directs the Intemediate Women's Schola during the final Mass of the Church Music Association of America's Sacred Music Colloquium XIX. The Schola sings the Alleluia verse for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. Mary Ann Carr Wilson sings the verse.

End of the Pauline Year Homily by Pope Benedict

This magnificent address by the Holy Father deserves greater attention from all of us who love Jesus Christ. I have highlighted words and passages of the address that I found especially invigorating and instructive.


Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Distinguished Members of the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I address my cordial greeting to each one of you. In particular, I greet the Cardinal Archpriest of this Basilica and his collaborators, I greet the Abbot and the Benedictine monastic community; I also greet the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The commemorative year for the birth of St Paul ends this evening. We have gathered at the tomb of the Apostle whose sarcophagus, preserved beneath the papal altar, was recently the object of a careful scientific analysis. A tiny hole was drilled in the sarcophagus, which in so many centuries had never been opened, in order to insert a special probe which revealed traces of a precious purple-coloured linen fabric, with a design in gold leaf, and a blue fabric with linen threads. Grains of red incense and protein and chalk substances were also found. In addition, minute fragments of bone were sent for carbon-14 testing by experts unaware of their provenance. The fragments proved to belong to someone who had lived between the first and second centuries. This would seem to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition which claims that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul. All this fills our hearts with profound emotion.

In recent months, many people have followed the paths of the Apostle the exterior and especially the interior paths on which he travelled in his lifetime: the road to Damascus towards his encounter with the Risen One; the routes of the Mediterranean world which he crossed with the torch of the Gospel, encountering contradiction and adherence until his martyrdom, through which he belongs for ever to the Church of Rome. It was to her that he also addressed his most important Letter. The Pauline Year is drawing to a close but what will remain a part of Christian existence is the journey with Paul with him and thanks to him getting to know Jesus, and, like the Apostle, being enlightened and transformed by the Gospel. And always, going beyond the circle of believers, he remains the "teacher of the Gentiles", who seeks to bring the message of the Risen One to them all, because Christ has known and loved each one; he has died and risen for them all. Therefore let us too listen to him at this time when we are solemnly beginning the Feast of the two Apostles who were bound to one another by a close bond.

It is part of the structure of Paul's Letters always in reference to the particular place and situation that they first of all explain the mystery of Christ, they teach faith. The second part treats their application to our lives: what ensues from this faith? How does it shape our existence, day by day? In the Letter to the Romans, this second part begins in chapter 12, in which the Apostle briefly sums up the essential nucleus of Christian existence in the first two verses. What does St Paul say to us in that passage? First of all he affirms, as a fundamental thing, that a new way of venerating God began with Christ a new form of worship. It consists in the fact that the living person himself becomes adoration, "sacrifice", even in his own body. It is no longer things that are offered to God. It is our very existence that must become praise of God.

But how does this happen? In the second verse we are given the answer: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God..." (12: 2). The two decisive words of this verse are "transformed" and "renewal". We must become new people, transformed into a new mode of existence. The world is always in search of novelty because, rightly, it is always dissatisfied with concrete reality. Paul tells us: the world cannot be renewed without new people. Only if there are new people will there also be a new world, a renewed and better world. In the beginning is the renewal of the human being. This subsequently applies to every individual. Only if we ourselves become new does the world become new. This also means that it is not enough to adapt to the current situation. The Apostle exhorts us to non-conformism. In our Letter he says: we should not submit to the logic of our time. We shall return to this point, reflecting on the second text on which I wish to meditate with you this evening.

The Apostle's "no" is clear and also convincing for anyone who observes the "logic" of our world. But to become new how can this be done? Are we really capable of it? With his words on becoming new, Paul alludes to his own conversion: to his encounter with the Risen Christ, an encounter of which, in the Second Letter to the Corinthians he says: "if anyone is in Christ, he is in a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come" (5: 17). This encounter with Christ was so overwhelming for him that he said of it: "I... died..." (Gal 2: 19; cf. Rm 6). He became new, another, because he no longer lived for himself and by virtue of himself, but for Christ and in him. In the course of the years, however, he also saw that this process of renewal and transformation continues throughout life. We become new if we let ourselves be grasped and shaped by the new Man, Jesus Christ. He is the new Man par excellence. In him the new human existence became reality and we can truly become new if we deliver ourselves into his hands and let ourselves be moulded by him.

Paul makes this process of "recasting" even clearer by saying that we become new if we transform our way of thinking. What has been introduced here with "way of thinking" is the Greek term "nous". It is a complex word. It may be translated as "spirit", "sentiments", "reason", and precisely, also by "way of thinking". Thus our reason must become new. This surprises us. We might have expected instead that this would have concerned some attitude: what we should change in our behaviour. But no: renewal must go to the very core. Our way of looking at the world, of understanding reality all our thought must change from its foundations. The reasoning of the former person, the common way of thinking is usually directed to possession, well-being, influence, success, fame and so forth. Yet in this way its scope is too limited. Thus, in the final analysis, one's "self" remains the centre of the world. We must learn to think more profoundly. St Paul tells us what this means in the second part of the sentence: it is necessary to learn to understand God's will, so that it may shape our own will. This is in order that we ourselves may desire what God desires, because we recognize that what God wants is the beautiful and the good. It is therefore a question of a turning point in our fundamental spiritual orientation. God must enter into the horizon of our thought: what he wants and the way in which he conceived of the world and of me. We must learn to share in the thinking and the will of Jesus Christ. It is then that we will be new people in whom a new world emerges.

Paul illustrates the same idea of a necessary renewal of our way of being human in two passages of his Letter to the Ephesians; let us therefore reflect on them briefly. In the Letter's fourth chapter, the Apostle tells us that with Christ we must attain adulthood, a mature faith. We can no longer be "children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine..." (4: 14). Paul wants Christians to have a "responsible" and "adult faith". The words "adult faith" in recent decades have formed a widespread slogan. It is often meant in the sense of the attitude of those who no longer listen to the Church and her Pastors but autonomously choose what they want to believe and not to believe hence a do-it-yourself faith. And it is presented as a "courageous" form of self-expression against the Magisterium of the Church. In fact, however, no courage is needed for this because one may always be certain of public applause. Rather, courage is needed to adhere to the Church's faith, even if this contradicts the "logic" of the contemporary world. This is the non-conformism of faith which Paul calls an "adult faith". It is the faith that he desires. On the other hand, he describes chasing the winds and trends of the time as infantile. Thus, being committed to the inviolability of human life from its first instant, thereby radically opposing the principle of violence also precisely in the defence of the most defenceless human creatures is part of an adult faith. It is part of an adult faith to recognize marriage between a man and a woman for the whole of life as the Creator's ordering, newly re-established by Christ. Adult faith does not let itself be carried about here and there by any trend. It opposes the winds of fashion. It knows that these winds are not the breath of the Holy Spirit; it knows that the Spirit of God is expressed and manifested in communion with Jesus Christ.

However, here too Paul does not stop at saying "no", but rather leads us to the great "yes". He describes the mature, truly adult faith positively with the words: "speaking the truth in love" (cf. Eph 4: 15). The new way of thinking, given to us by faith, is first and foremost a turning towards the truth. The power of evil is falsehood. The power of faith, the power of God, is the truth. The truth about the world and about ourselves becomes visible when we look to God. And God makes himself visible to us in the Face of Jesus Christ. In looking at Christ, we recognize something else: truth and love are inseparable. In God both are inseparably one; it is precisely this that is the essence of God. For Christians, therefore, truth and love go together. Love is the test of truth. We should always measure ourselves anew against this criterion, so that truth may become love and love may make us truthful.

Another important thought appears in this verse of St Paul. The Apostle tells us that by acting in accordance with truth in love, we help to ensure that all things (ta pánta) the universe may grow, striving for Christ. On the basis of his faith, Paul is not only concerned in our personal rectitude nor with the growth of the Church alone. He is interested in the universe: ta pánta. The ultimate purpose of Christ's work is the universe the transformation of the universe, of the whole human world, of all creation. Those who serve the truth in love together with Christ contribute to the true progress of the world.

Yes, here it is quite clear that Paul is acquainted with the idea of progress. Christ his life, his suffering and his rising was the great leap ahead in the progress of humanity, of the world. Now, however, the universe must grow in accordance with him. Where the presence of Christ increases, therein lies the true progress of the world. There, mankind becomes new and thus the world is made new.

Paul makes the same thing clear from yet another different perspective. In chapter three of the Letter to the Ephesians he speaks to us of the need to be "strengthened... in the inner man" (3: 16). With this he takes up a subject that earlier, in a troubled situation, he had addressed in the Second Letter to the Corinthians. "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day" (4: 16). The inner person must be strengthened this is a very appropriate imperative for our time, in which people all too often remain inwardly empty and must therefore cling to promises and drugs, which then result in a further growth of the sense of emptiness in their hearts. This interior void, the weakness of the inner person, is one of the great problems of our time. Interiority must be reinforced the perceptiveness of the heart; the capacity to see and to understand the world and the person from within, with one's heart. We are in need of reason illuminated by the heart in order to learn to act in accordance with truth in love. However, this is not realized without an intimate relationship with God, without the life of prayer. We need the encounter with God that is given to us in the sacraments. And we cannot speak to God in prayer unless we let him speak first, unless we listen to him in the words that he has given us. In this regard Paul says to us: "Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3: 17ff.). With these words Paul tells us that love sees beyond simple reason. And he also tells us that only in communion with all the saints, that is, in the great community of all believers and not against or without it can we know the immensity of Christ's mystery. He circumscribes this immensity with words meant to express the dimensions of the cosmos: breadth, length and height and depth.

The mystery of Christ has a cosmic vastness; he did not belong only to a specific group. The Crucified Christ embraces the entire universe in all its dimensions. He takes the world in his hands and lifts it up towards God. Starting with St Irenaeus of Lyons thus from the second century the Fathers have seen in these words on the breadth, length and height and depth of Christ's love an allusion to the Cross. In the Cross, Christ's love embraced the lowest depths the night of death as well as the supreme heights, the loftiness of God himself. And he took into his arms the breadth and the vastness of humanity and of the world in all their distances. He always embraces the universe all of us.

Let us pray the Lord to help us to recognize something of the immensity of his love. Let us pray him that his love and his truth may touch our hearts. Let us ask that Christ dwell in our hearts and make us new men and women who act according to truth in love. Amen!

© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

"My Favourite Things"

With the 500th Anniversary of the Coronation of Henry VIII last week, I have been listening to some of my favourite Tudor Anthem recordings:

Admittedly my list of such favourites is much longer, but these three I recommend to those who are just starting a sacred music collection or don't know quite where to begin in acquiring CD's featuring Tudor period anthems.

And for those who prefer Mp3 downloads rather than purchasing CD's ... an excellent composer of a somewhat earlier era than those listed above is Nicholas Ludford whose music is sung so beautifully in the recording listed below as to make both angel and mortal weep for the beauty of it all:

Prayers from the Anglican Heritage

O LORD God Almighty, whose glory Cherubim and Seraphim and all the hosts of heaven with ceaseless voice proclaim ; Hear and accept, we humbly beseech thee, the praises of thy Church below ; and pour down upon thy ministers in choir and sanctuary such a spirit of faith, reverence and joy as shall lift both their hymns and their lives unto thee ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O GOD and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore ; Let the whole earth also worship thee, all kingdoms obey thee, all tongues confess and bless thee, and the sons of men love thee and serve thee in peace ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O LORD, who hast warned us that thou wilt require much of those to whom much is given ; Grant that we, whose lot is cast in so goodly a heritage, may strive together the more abundantly, by prayer, by almsgiving, by fasting, and by all appointed means to extend to those who know thee not what we so richly enjoy ; and as we have entered into the labours of others, so to labour that others many enter into ours, to the fulfillment of thy holy will, and the salvation of all mankind ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

from After the Third Collect (Anglican), 1952

Prayer for Priests

FOR THE INCREASE OF PRIESTS
O ALMIGHTY God, look mercifully upon thy Church, and incline the hearts of many of her sons to offer themselves for the work of the sacred ministry, so that by their labours, thy Light may shine in the darkness of the world, and the coming of thy Kingdom may be hastened by the perfecting of thine elect. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

FOR A PRIEST
O LORD Jesus Christ, great High Priest and gracious Shepherd; receive thy servant N., whom thou hast consecrated to minister to thee in holy things; and grant him such purity of heart and life, and such zeal for souls that he may bring many into union with thee, and fulfill his ministry in holiness to thy glory, our Lord and Saviour. Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.

ANOTHER PRAYER FOR A PRIEST
JESUS, eternal Priest, keep this thy holy one within the shelter of thy Sacred Heart, where none may touch him. Keep unstained his anointed hands, which daily touch thy sacred Body; keep unsullied his lips, purpled with thy precious Blood; keep pure and unearthly his heart, sealed with sublime marks of thy glorious priesthood. Let thy holy love surround him, and keep him ever unspotted from the world. Bless his labours with abundant fruit, and may they to whom he has ministered be here below his joy and consolation, and in heaven his beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.

from St. Augustine's Prayer Book (Anglican), 1967
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Hymn for the Visitation

Dear friends in Christ,

It is my sincere desire that this text be shared widely and used freely. Please feel free to post it on your blogs or email it to friends. I give permission for its use provided that my copyright notice is kept intact and that no words are altered.

Our Lady of the Sign, pray for us!

God bless us one and all,

Vincent Uher

Lo, how she brings Life with her
Concealed beneath her heart,
Eve's daughter, brave and chosen,
God's partner to his art.
Her will knit with divine will
Desires his Word be done.
For God she weaves within her
The body of their Son.

Elisabeth her cousin
A child will bring to birth -
God's answer to her longing,
A prophet for the Earth.
"Peace be with you," said Mary.
Her cousin's babe did dance
The merry steps of best man:
The Bridegroom's here, at last.

Elisabeth cried out then,
"The child within me leapt!
When he heard your sweet greeting,
With joy my baby stepped."
She spoke full of the Spirit,
With insight from the Lord,
"How is it you come to me
The Mother of my Lord?"

The Mother of her Lord, yes,
Great Mary, Anna's child,
A daughter born to Israel,
A virgin undefiled,
She sang out as a woman
Brought up on Hannah's song,
"O praise, my soul, God's greatness.
Rejoice, our Lord is strong."

All ages call her blessed
Just as she once foretold.
Blest is she amongst women,
Her Child blest from of old.
Blest is she who believes God
Who carries God's true Word.
Her Son both God and human
Fulfils great Gabriel's word.

Our Saviour, God of mercy,
Remembers Abraham's fold.
Praise God who casts down tyrants.
Rejoice! Our God is bold.
So sing we with blest Mary
To magnify the Lord
Who raised up his handmaiden.
Oh, holy is the Lord!

Copyright © 2006 by Vincent William Uher III

A hymn for Visitation, Fourth Advent, and the Nativity of St. John Baptist

This may be sung to the Bohemian Brethren tune Far Off Lands

or to the lovely tune Wie lieblich ist der Maien

The Anglican Use Society of the Roman Catholic Church

Magnificent Speakers!

Important Conference!

All are cordially invited to attend this very important conference!

Featured speakers include:

• Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston
  
  
• Fr. John Saward, former Anglican priest and noted English Catholic theologian
  
  
• Fr. James Moore, founding co-pastor of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church
  
  
• Mary C. Moorman, apologist, author, and consultant
  
  
• Dr. Hans-Jurgen Feulner, Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at the University of Vienna.

[note from Vincent: Mary Moorman is an expert on the Caroline Divines who were such an important part of my catholic formation in the Anglican Church. Her books are outstanding, and she is one of the few I have read who understand how important the Caroline Divine Mark Frank is to the theological foundation of the catholic wing of the Anglican Church into which I was born.]

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Remembering Caryll Houselander

Since Holy Saturday I have been diving into the writings of Caryll Houselander. I was definitely led by God to read her writings again. I had the books all arranged in my bedroom for my next bit of evening reading with Compline during Eastertide. Little did I know I would be so ill that I would be confined to bedrest during Easter Day and through to the present moment as I type this ... admittedly slowly, and begging forgiveness for poor grammar and spellings. The first book I took up was Caryll's marvellous little book on the Holy Rosary containing Rosary prayers that she wrote in London in the bomb shelters during World War II -- The prayers were originally commissioned by Maisie Ward for her wonderful book The Splendour of the Rosary.

Here is an example of these prayers for the Second Glorious Mystery:

Christ,
ascended into Heaven,
You bear the wounds
of the whole world
in Your hands and feet
and in Your heart.

They plead for us,
shining like stars
before the secret face of God.

By Your five wounds
purify our five senses;
lift up our hearts into Heaven.

While You draw down
God's mercy to us,
showing our wounds
in Your glorified Body,
let us draw men up to You,
showing Your wounds to the world,
scored on our grey dust
in the bright crimson
of Your love.

--Caryll Houselander

Caryll Houselander, pray for us.

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Prayer to the Wounds of Christ

The Head
O Head of my Saviour and my God, dearer and more worshipful art thou to me crowned with thorns than adorned with a royal diadem. O wounds of the sacred Head, I believe and I confess that from you flow all blessing and all grace ; through you the true water of life is outpoured on all mankind. The piercing thorns have dared to tear the head of their Creator, and for the sins of men is he thus hideously used. O loving Saviour, forgive us those sins and grant us thy grace, for the sake of that precious Blood spilled for our salvation. Amen.

The Hands
O mighty Hands of my Saviour, by whose touch sight was given to the blind, Love stretched you on the cross that men should be drawn nearer to the divine heart. But for his will the cruel tormentors of earthly power were too weak to drive the nails. Woe to us, that by our sins we scorn thy love and renew thy bitter pains. Forgive me, O divine Saviour, and grant us for the sake of thy wounded hands the grace of perfect sorrow and strong will to flee all sin and its occasions, that we may keep our hands from wickedness. Amen.

The Feet
O loving Jesus, our Saviour and our God, thy sacred feet have walked only for out salvation, treading the stony paths in search of thy sheep lost and entangled in the thorns of sin. For this wert thou nailed to the cross by wicked men, and we have earned infinity of punishment. But infinite too is the divine mercy and love for men, and thou hast borne their punishment, praying thine Heavenly Father from the cross to forgive them, for they know not what they do. We wash thy feet with tears, as once did Mary Magdalen, that for the sake of their wounds we may hear thee say, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' Bind our feet, lest they enter on sinful ways ; guide them by thy grace, that they stumble not on stones and fail not for weakness, but reach thine eternal kingdom, where with thy saints we may praise thee for ever and ever. Amen.

From the older form of the Maronite Office of Good Friday

A favourite Maronite prayer

Remain in peace, O holy altar, in peace I will return to thee. May the Victim who has been offered upon thee be for the forgiveness of by sins and the pardon of mine offences ; may it enable me to hold myself without stain or shame before the throne of Christ. Yet I do not know if I shall live to return and assist again at the holy Sacrifice. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, one God, who is the beginning and end of all things. Amen.

Pray for the suffering

O God, the Father of all look down in pity on those who suffer, and heal the anguish of the world; release from the prison-house all held in the bondage of fear and set free such as are bound by the fetters of disease, whether of soul or body. Do Thou care for the desolate, give rest to the weary, comfort the sorrowful, watch by the sleepless, and to those who lie untended in their sickness grant the gentle ministry of angels, to supply their needs and relieve their pain. Visit with Thy great compassion all in their last agony and bring them in peace and safety into Thy Paradise of love. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.