Post #113

Topics: Local Artist to Exhibit: Diane Lincoln...Local Artist Named Curator of Art: Lynda Beck...Catholic Questions:Answers...Latin in Everyday Life: Pronunciation Guide for Plants...Words, Words: The New Liturgical Movement...Sistine Chapel: Virtual Tour

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Some were upset that I spoke my mind in this blog about not having Ash Wednesday mass and my perceptions on how this community is viewed and treated amongst the general Catholic community. If I offended you, it was not my intention. Let me stress that I spoke my opinion, the exercise of which is guaranteed by this great nation...and it remains my opinion especially in this little blog, a private layman's endeavor, (please read ......and now the Necessaries below).

I really did not mean to offend anyone. I was speaking to the fact that one cannot count on, in this community, having what is necessary to hold liturgical services in the Traditional Latin form for everyday life. Should I die tomorrow there is no guarantee that I can be assured a traditional catholic funeral.....or that an upcoming wedding will not have to have a specific time to be finished and cleared out of the church to satisfy those who hold the keys....or that we will have Ash Wednesday mass next year, or Good Friday observance or the ability to catechize newcomers in a traditional way.

My comments were directed not only to those faithful pew dwellers to do what they can to promote the Traditional Latin Mass (filling the pews would constitute a greater power) but also to those in higher levels of influence to proclaim the right to our rite...and that we need not fear to simply express our love of God, Gospel and liturgy especially when His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is our greatest advocate!

To those who hold greater power and influence, those who hold the reigns, those who gather to discuss and plan that what affects us all : What are you folks doing to claim this community's God given rights? Are we working to procure what is our spiritual nourishment on a regular schedule?...the kind of schedule we can count on and always depend on (especially after Summorum Pontificum), ...like even the wackiest of "Catholic" parishes have in this city? If you are not doing good, what good is your doing?

I see the advertisement in the Advance still reads in the uninformative: "The Mass in Latin". That would be a good place to start.

If any have opposing opinions or comments (and I really, really do welcome them) please email me at bumpy187@gmail.com. A spirited discussion is always good and I will post all comments.

...and now the Necessaries

Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churchs celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Local Artist to Exhibit at St. Clare Sunshine Room
By Lynda Beck

Diane Lincoln will exhibit 5 pieces of art in the St. Clare Sunshine Room, St. Anthony Catholic church, 258 Ohio, Wichita Kansas. This exquisite showing is up for view and/or purchase through mid-May 2010. 25 % of proceeds from sales will be donated back to the Church.

Diane Lincoln certainly one of the very best liturgical artists in the region and perhaps the whole country.

In 2001 when the Vatican exhibited frescoes at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Diane was one of 2 American artists asked to participate in the exhibition. That is beyond honor!

Diane is a 1966 graduate of Mount Carmel Academy. She then spent two years at Avila University, KC, MO, went on to receive her B.A.E. from the University of Kansas, an MFA from Wichita State, and did post-grad research in Dubrovnik, Croatia. She retired Dec. 2009 as Professor in the School of Art and Design at Wichita State where she was program director of Decorative and Ornamental Painting and Design, and also Asst. Prof. in Drawing and Painting from 1988-2009. From 1991-1998 she also served as Assistant Professor at Newman U where she taught Theology and the Visual Arts, Art and Christianity, in addition to Drawing, Painting, and Design.

Her professional memberships, boards of direction, awards, honors, publications, lecture presentations, and commissions are too numerous to mention.

Blogger's note: Venite Missa Est! will feature Ms. Lincoln's work with full size pictures in an upcoming post.

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Local Artist Named Curator of Art
St. Anthony, St. Clare Sunshine Room

Local artist and St. Anthony parishioner Lynda Beck has been named curator of art (exhibits) to the St Clare Sunshine Room, St. Anthony Catholic Church, Wichita. " It is my intention to have an ongoing exhibit of Religious/Sacred art that I'll change out every 3-4 months. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have such a beautiful space.... and a place period! to exhibit the work of those who make Sacred Art locally. Fine Art in general has a terrible time competing for attention in a culture that doesn't exactly celebrate art. Let me tell you Sacred Art is at least 10 rungs below that!" said Beck.

She has hit the ground running and is already planning for the future . "After the Easter season I plan on bringing in a variety of works with no particular theme. However I do have a Marion exhibit planned for late Aug (all things Mary) to be in place to honor the Blessed Virgin when her birthday is celebrated in the Church in early September."

Lynda Beck is also an artist and has exhibited in the Sunshine Room previousely and has been featured in Venite Missa Est!, Post #80: Iconography:The Art of Lynda Beck.

Kudos to all involved, the parish council, the artists and Ms. Beck. What a wonderful contribution this is to the community.

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Questions/Answers

Catholic Answers Quick Questions

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/quickquestions/dailyquestions

Bloggers note: You can subscribe to Quick Questions to appear in your email daily.

• Question: Who ran the Catholic Church after John Paul II died and before Benedict XVI was elected?
• Answer:During an interregnum (Latin: "between reigns"), the day-to-day business of the Church is administered by the cardinal camerlengo (chamberlain). The camerlengo during the interregnum of 2005 was Eduardo Cardinal Martinez Somalo. The camerlengo does not make any decisions that are not of immediate necessity to the administration of the Church. Any decision that is not urgent to the running of the Church is postponed until a new pope is elected.

• Question: Where did the chapter and verse numbers of the Bible originate? Were they in the original manuscripts?

• Answer: The chapters of the Bible are usually credited to a 13th-century British scholar named Stephen Langton, who eventually became the Catholic archbishop of Canterbury. Langton is better known for his involvement in the conflict over the creation of the Magna Carta. The verses of the Bible are generally credited to a sixteenth-century French printer named Robert Estienne (better known as Stephanus, the Latinized version of his surname).

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Pronunciation Guide for Plants
Gardeners intimidated about pronouncing Latin names.
Submitted by Anne Calovich
Fine Gardening
http://www.finegardening.com/pguide/pronunciation-guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx

Gardeners often lament that they feel intimidated about pronouncing the Latin names of plants. If you've avoided calling black snakeroot Cimicifuga racemosa because you didn't want to tie your tongue in knots, you're not alone. So we've decided to add a department to Fine Gardening that lists the pronunciation of all the Latin names mentioned in that issue. This online version (click here) adds the benefit of being able to listen to the Latin pronunciation of some of those plants as well as to read it.

Keep in mind that pronunciation of words in any language is not always a hard-and-fast matter. As the popular song goes: "You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to..." So enjoy broadening your Latin vocabulary and remember, if you can't remember the preferred pronunciation of a plant name, just say a chosen interpretation with conviction.

The list below includes selected plant names from Fine Gardening #92 (July/August 2003) through the current issue, as well as names from Great Plants, Plant Combinations, and Plant Combinations Volume 2.

Annie Calovich writes for the Wichita Eagle

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Words, Words

By William Mahrt

The New Liturgical Movement

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/

Words make a difference. Even though two words are identical in basic meaning, their connotations may suggest that one is much more appropriate than the other. When it comes to music and liturgy, the connotations of some commonly-used words point to a mistaken ecclesiology. This was an issue in the discussions of Music in Catholic Worship and Sing to the Lord. The former document represented an anthropocentric view of the church and her liturgy, while the latter, while far from perfect, yet included a much more theocentric view. I would suggest that if musicians and liturgists would consistently use the more appropriate terms, a change in attitude might gradually be effected.

Take, for example, two words: assembly and congregation. “Congregation” was used before the council, but has largely been replaced by “assembly.” Etymologically there are subtle differences. “Assembly” derives from ad + simul, a coming together, making similar. “Congregation” comes from con + grex (flock), a gathering together in a flock. Some would object to calling the people in church a flock, as in a flock of sheep, who are simply herded around without exercising their own independent judgment. But I would suggest that the difference between the two terms is more functional: “assembly” implies bringing people together without distinction, being made similar; “congregation” implies being brought together under the guidance of a shepherd. That shepherd, as we know, is Christ, who is represented liturgically by the priest, who acts in persona Christi, who leads in the place of Christ himself. Moreover, in the use of the English language, congregation is specifically religious, while assembly is not. In my recollection, “assembly” was something we had in elementary school, where all the classes gathered in the auditorium, either for some extraordinary entertainment or for some stern exhortation in the face of a looming problem of behavior. It was a noisy affair, but it had the benefit of interrupting the normal schedule of classes, which, even for those who loved school, was a pleasant break in the routine; there was certainly nothing sacred to it. In modern church usage, “assembly” sometimes includes everyone in the liturgy, priests, ministers and people, emphasizing their similarity, while “congregation” retains the distinction of people from clergy. I would suggest, then, that “congregation” better represents the Catholic view of the hierarchical nature of the church, and that “assembly” represents the anthropocentric view of focusing only upon the people. This stands in striking contrast to a Christocentric view of the liturgy, in which the focus is upon the action of Christ, which subsumes priest and congregation without erasing the distinction between them.

There is a consequent term that follows from the de-emphasis upon the distinction of the ordained from the congregation: “the president of the liturgical assembly” or more commonly “presider,” as opposed to “celebrant.” A president is a member of a group, elected by the group as one of them to preside for a time. The notion of a minister, elected by the congregation out of the congregation is characteristically Protestant, and stands in striking contrast to the Catholic notion of priesthood, whose vocation is principally from God, and whose appointment is from the hierarchy of the church. Some will say to single out the priest as celebrant is to deny the fact that the congregation celebrates the Mass, too. That objection can be answered by using the term “priest” itself, though “celebrant” is the traditional term. Either is preferable to “presider,” which has the connotation of being temporary and provisional and not particularly sacramental.

If the liturgy should be Christocentric, then Christ should be the focus of attention, not the congregation. The question of orientation is addressed very well in this issue by Msgr. Guido Marini, Papal Master of Ceremonies, who reports two solutions, clearly endorsed by Pope Benedict: facing east, or facing the crucifix. The eastward direction places the priest at the head of the congregation, with all facing the same direction, making it clear that the action is addressing God. If that is not possible, the usage of the early church of having a large image of Christ in the apse of the church, which is faced when facing east, is approximated by placing a crucifix on the altar which serves the priest as a focal point for his celebration of the Mass.

It is not widely known that the stance facing the people is not required by the liturgy; all that is required is that in constructing new churches, altars be built so that it is possible to celebrate the Mass facing the people. This, of course, should mean that it should remain possible to celebrate ad orientem as well, something not always observed in the construction of new churches.

There are two different Latin terms for the stance “facing the people,” versus ad populum, and coram populo. We know “versus” from its legal usage in expressing an adversarial relationship, as in Brown versus Board of Education, clearly not the kind of relation to be expressed concerning the priest and the people. Etymologically, it stems from “verso,” I turn, so it says “turned to the people.” This is in fact used in the Latin missal, even the new edition of 2002; there it substantiates the ad orientem stance: at certain points the missal directs the priest, “versus ad populum,” turned toward the people, to address of the congregation, such as at “orate, fratres”; or at communion, “conversus ad populum.” Such rubrics clearly express the normal stance of the priest as facing the altar, suggesting a new term “facing God.” This is an important distinction, since the popular media insist on describing the stance of the priest in the old rite as turning his back to the people, consistently overlooking the fact that both priest and people face God.

“Coram populo,” on the other hand, with its use of the dative, suggests a less direct relation; the priest is not facing the people in the sense of directly addressing the people, but celebrating the Mass, “before the people.” I remember the first years after the council, when priests began to celebrate coram populo, seeing the priest begin the Canon of the Mass by incongruously looking the congregation in the eye while saying “We come to you Father.” The whole direction of the Eucharistic prayer is to the Father in renewing Christ’s sacrifice, and must bring the congregation into the act of offering up as the direction of prayer. Too direct address of the congregation by the priest runs the risk of both priest and people overlooking the necessarily transcendent object of the dialogue.

Other terms indirectly express an anthropocentricism. One names the entrance hymn a “gathering song,” often including its function as “greeting the priest.” The introit of the Mass is the procession of the clergy into the church processing to the focal point of the liturgy, the altar, and marking the altar as a sacred pace by incensing it. The music of the introit is to accompany that action and to establish the sacred character of the whole liturgy which is to take place. It is not about the congregation, but about the Mass; the congregation has already gathered, and it need not “greet” the priest yet; this takes place after the introit, when the priest greets the congregation, “The Lord be with you,” and the congregation responds.

To call it a “song” is also a misnomer; it is true that song is a translation of cantus, but in English usage, there is quite a difference between “song” and “chant.” “Song” implies the kind of pseudo-pop music that pervades our churches, and which has no particular musical characteristics which identify it as being for the introit. Chant, for the introit, means that this chant is only sung for the entrance of the priest and only on that day, that it is proper. The loss of the Propers of the Mass and of the great repertory of proper chants is one of the negative results of the council that is only now beginning to be remedied by the revival of chant scholas and the introduction of English propers, whose purpose ultimately will be to lay the ground for the revival of the singing of the Latin propers.

Another misnomer is “opening prayer.” This is properly called a collect, which means the closing prayer of a liturgical action, collecting the prayers and intentions of that rite in a general summarizing prayer. Thus the collect at the beginning of the Mass concludes the entrance rite as a whole, just as the prayer over the offerings concludes the offertory rite, and the postcommunion prayer concludes the communion. The Latin collects of the Roman Mass are models of concise statement and little schools of prayer all in themselves; we rarely hear them, though, because their present English translations are banal, and longer alternative prayers have been provided, leading most celebrants understandably to chose the seemingly more interesting prayers, overlooking the classic Roman collects.

A similar misnomer is the “Prayer over the gifts.” The Latin is oratio super oblata, and “oblata” is better translated as “offerings,” being etymologically linked to “offero,” I offer. It has always seemed to me a bit presumptuous to call the bread and wine offered in preparation for the Holy Eucharist “gifts.” The real gift is what is made of them, the Body and Blood of the Lord, his gift to us. Our humble offerings are but natural elements offered in preparation for the Eucharist; they do not give the Lord anything he needs or wants, but rather are symbols of our offering of ourselves to be incorporated into his Mystical Body, by his action, not ours.

Why address these matters in a journal about sacred music? Because music is an essential element of the liturgy, making substantial contributions to its sacredness and beauty. The words discussed above are off the mark precisely because they contribute more secular connotations, which militate against the sacredness of the liturgy and are thus out of consonance with its music. So let us always choose the more sacred term, that the underlying notion of the sacredness of the liturgy will be properly expressed and thus be consonant with the same purposes of the music.

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Sistine Chapel

Virtual Tour

Here is a great virtual tour of the famous chapel. The Sisitne Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture, evocative of Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament, and its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli. Under the patronage

click image to go to tour:

of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. He resented the commission, and believed his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur. However, today the ceiling, and especially The Last Judgement, are widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievements in painting.

The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480. During this period a team of painters that included Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio created a series of frescoed panels depicting the life of Moses and the life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on August 15, 1483,[1] Sixtus IV consecrated the first mass in honor of Our Lady of the Assumption.

Since the time of Sixtus IV, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected.

The virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, a joint project of Villanova University and the Vatican, has been launched on the Vatican Web site.