Topics: Book Reviews: By James Spencer...It Should Have Been Louder: A Fond Remembrance....The Power of Giving: Christmas in the West....Last Day of Advent: Christmas Eve:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
I hope to see you at midnight Mass tonight. I am so excited! The choir has been practicing like crazy and so have the servers. Christ is coming....our saviour will be born. Imagine the Magi traveling this cold wet night...did the collective world and heavens holds it's breath in anticipation?
James Spencer, writer, Latinist, original writer for this blog returns with two book reviews. Thank you Jim, it is always a pleasure.
James Spencer, writer, Latinist, original writer for this blog returns with two book reviews. Thank you Jim, it is always a pleasure.
...and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churches 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.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Book Reviews by James Spencer
Blessed Be God
by Very Rev. Charles J. Callan, O.P., S.T.M. and Very Rev. John A.
McHugh, O.P., S.T.M.
Reprinted (from the 1960 printing by P.J. Kenedy, NY) in 2010
by Preserving Christian Publications, Inc., Booneville, NY,
ISBN 978-0-9802084-8-1. Bonded Leather cover, gilt edges, with one marker ribbons. 748
pages, 4”X6.5”. $34.00.
This diminutive but truly do-all Catholic prayer book has appropriate prayers for
every occasion you can think of and for several others you probably can’t think of right
off-hand: Prayers for every Church ceremony; prayers before and after just about every
human activity, religious or secular; private prayers for every imaginable intention; and
whatever other sort of prayer there might be.
It has, in both Latin and English: the Ordinary of the Traditional Latin Mass; the
complete daily Mass for the Dead; the Proper of the Wedding Mass; Sunday Vespers; and
Benediction. In English only, it has the Propers for Sundays and Holy Days.
It has excellent sets of before-and-after prayers for Mass, Holy Communion, and
Confession. It has special devotions for various feast days and Church seasons, for Forty
Hours, for each day of the week and each month of the year. It has special devotions to
each Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and several saints. It
has litanies of all sorts. It has the St. Alphonsus Liguouri Stations of the Cross.
It has a brief summary of Catholic Doctrine, and a Church calendar of moveable
feasts that covers each year from 2010 through 2041. This calendar was updated
specifically for this reprint. The calendar in the original 1960 edition didn’t reach to
2010, much less to 2041.
Two “outdated” things have not been updated, and frankly I’m glad they haven’t
been. First, this book contains the old rules for fast and abstinence, which have been
changed frequently and substantially since 1960. However, no Catholic has any problem
learning the new rules. Besides, anyone who follows the stricter 1960 rules will also
fulfill the current, more relaxed “penitential” rules. Second, this book contains the 1960
indulgence scheme (“nnn days”). Whenever you see this, simply change it in your
learning the new rules. Besides, anyone who follows the stricter 1960 rules will also
fulfill the current, more relaxed “penitential” rules. Second, this book contains the 1960
indulgence scheme (“nnn days”). Whenever you see this, simply change it in your
mind to “partial indulgence.” Both of these “outdated” treasures take a person back (or
upward, your choice) to the most recent of the Church’s many “Golden” Ages.
This book will slip into a man’s jacket pocket or woman’s smallest purse.
Because of this portability, combined with such extensive contents, this book has been nicknamed
“the Swiss Army knife.”
On a purely personal note, I must say that reading in this tiny volume the
complete Pre-Vatican II prayers and hymns of Benediction brought back cherished
memories of the days when this was the standard and universal form for Benediction:
O Salutaris Hostia . . . Tantum Ergo . . . the Blessing . . . the Divine Praises (led by the
priest, repeated by the congregation) . . . Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Henceforth
I will carry this little volume whenever I go to our now-rare and multi-formatted
Benedictions. That way I’ll be ready on the off-chance that I encounter Benediction in
this most beautiful format. (Such thinking reminds me of a song that was popular during
WWII: “I can dream, can’t I?”)
upward, your choice) to the most recent of the Church’s many “Golden” Ages.
This book will slip into a man’s jacket pocket or woman’s smallest purse.
Because of this portability, combined with such extensive contents, this book has been nicknamed
“the Swiss Army knife.”
On a purely personal note, I must say that reading in this tiny volume the
complete Pre-Vatican II prayers and hymns of Benediction brought back cherished
memories of the days when this was the standard and universal form for Benediction:
O Salutaris Hostia . . . Tantum Ergo . . . the Blessing . . . the Divine Praises (led by the
priest, repeated by the congregation) . . . Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Henceforth
I will carry this little volume whenever I go to our now-rare and multi-formatted
Benedictions. That way I’ll be ready on the off-chance that I encounter Benediction in
this most beautiful format. (Such thinking reminds me of a song that was popular during
WWII: “I can dream, can’t I?”)
However, I won’t have to dream to make this book valuable to me on many
other occasions. For example, I’m sure I’ll find the prayers before and after Confession
especially helpful. Ditto for the many litanies, and on and on.
This little book can help any Catholic wishing to advance in the life of prayer and
devotion. It would also make a nice gift for such a person on any gift-giving occasion.
Since it appears to be as tough as a Marine Drill Instructor., it should last a long time,
even in the mitts of the heaviest-handed prayer.
-------------------
My Sunday Missal and Manual
By Fr. Stedman
First published in 1938 by Confraternity of the Precious Blood, NY
Reprinted in 2010 by Preserving Christian Publications, Inc., Booneville, NY
www.pcpbooks.com. No ISBN. Imitation flex
leather cover, red edges, with two marker ribbons. 412 pages, 3.5”X5.5”. $15.00
This is the missal with which most of us old-gaffers and gafferettes learned to
follow the Traditional Latin Mass on Sunday, then called simply “Sunday Mass.” It’s
paint-by-numbers simple to use. You put one marker ribbon at #1 in the Ordinary and
the other at #2 in the Proper for the Mass of the particular Sunday. When the priest starts
the Mass with the prayers at the foot of the altar, you follow along at and beyond #1 in
the Ordinary. When he goes to the altar, and you run out of reading material, you flip to
#2 in the Proper, and so on, back and forth between the Ordinary and Proper, right up to
the last Gospel and the prayers after Mass.
Only later did we learn to follow “daily Mass” with the thicker, more imposing,
and less helpful missals of Fr, Lasance, St. Andrew, and so on.
This is also the ideal missal for those who were so unfortunate as to miss those
delightful, enriching “bad ole days” to learn to follow Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary
Form. Once they have mastered this basic skill, they too can graduate to less user-
friendly daily Missals for both Sunday and weekday E.F. Masses.
In addition to the above features, this little shirt-pocket missal has one feature our
oh-so-undisciplined modern congregations needs desperately, namely, an explanation
of the 1935 papal (Pius XI) directives for a “Dialogue Mass.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t
necessary back then to go into what such a Mass isn’t. It wasn’t necessary to tell the
folks of those bad ole days that a Mass doesn’t become a Dialogue Mass when stray folks
here and there in the congregation belt out an occasional “Et cum spiritu tuo” or “Deo
gratias” to wow those around them with their profound knowledge of Latin and the
proper (more or less) pronunciation thereof. No, according to Pope Pius XI, a Dialogue
Mass is a Mass in which the entire congregation joined the altar boys in each and every
one of their responses all through the Mass, and in which the congregation also recite the
Gloria and Credo along with the priest. Clearly, this could happen only at a low Mass,
with no choir to drown out the altar boys’ responses and the priest’s recitation of the
Gloria and Credo.
This little Missal is a treasure, from which any newbie at Sunday Traditional
Latin Masses can benefit, even without the assistance of others (although it works even
better with such help). It would also make a wonderful gift to anyone thinking about
taking the plunge into such Masses.
END
Copyright, 2010,
by James B. Spencer.
First Serial Rights
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
We're thinking of you this Christmas Father Lies.
The entire liturgy of Christmas Eve is consecrated to the anticipation of the certain and sure arrival of the Savior: "Today you shall know that the Lord shall come and tomorrow you shall see His glory" (Invitatory of Matins for the Vigil of the Nativity). Throughout Advent we have seen how the preparation for Jesus' coming became more and more precise. Isaiah, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mother appeared throughout the season announcing and foretelling the coming of the King. We learn today that Christ according to His human nature is born at Bethlehem of the House of David of the Virgin Mary, and that according to His divine nature He is conceived of the Spirit of holiness, the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity.
My Personal Remembrance of Fr. Jarrod Lies at Christmas
"It should of been louder.........". Those were the words that Father Jarrod Lies once started a homily with, proclaiming the birth of Christ and I will always remember Fr. Lies at Christmas for this powerful homily.
He was speaking about the sheer magnitude and meaning of the birth of The Messiah on that certain night some 2000 years ago there in the humblest of settings amongst the lowliest of creatures. Indeed such a universe jarring phenomena should of been louder, it should of reverberated around the world in an instant, trumpets blaring, voices rejoicing but it didn't...God chose to slip into this human realm quietly and humbly.
We're thinking of you this Christmas Father Lies.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Christmas in the West
By Timothy Egan
The New York Times
When I was old enough to drive I loaded up the little car that my dad got for the price of a lawn mower with some of the most durable of food staples and took them to my high school so I could feel good about the holidays. This was the annual Christmas Food Drive, our chance to give something back to the community, or as the more liberal Jesuits put it, “to commit an act of social justice.”
Most everything about the food drive was a mystery. Where was the food going? Indians, we were told. What kind of Indians? Poor Indians, who lived along the Columbia River, north near the Canadian border. How does the food get to them? Never mind. Will they really eat this stuff? Sure. Should we gift-wrap the Twinkies and Ho-Hos, dessert with a shelf life of John McCain? Maybe a Christmas bow, nothing more.
It wasn’t until years later that I found out something magical, even miraculous, in the unintended charitable symmetry of the food drive.
The rule was: no fresh food was accepted, with the exception of potatoes, because spuds could last through the long winter in the interior Pacific Northwest. Other than that, nothing that looked like it came from a farm, or a cow, or the sea. The more unrecognizable as an actual product of nature, the better.
The rule was: no fresh food was accepted, with the exception of potatoes, because spuds could last through the long winter in the interior Pacific Northwest. Other than that, nothing that looked like it came from a farm, or a cow, or the sea. The more unrecognizable as an actual product of nature, the better.
From our part of town, this meant a surfeit of a certain kind. Powdered split-pea soup. Powdered mac ‘n’ cheese. Powdered white cheese. Powdered milk. Sloppy Joe mix. Hamburger Helper. Refried beans. Dinty Moore beef stew. Spam, of course, which Dwight Eisenhower said helped the Allies win the war. And SpaghettiOs — “the round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon!” Indeed, we were heavy on the Franco-American product line, which even then raised a question about why something of nominally French origin was selling a nominally Italian standby.
I’ve since learned that the inventor of SpaghettiOs, after a year-long study of the appropriate shape for a kid-friendly pasta, considered producing noodles that looked like cowboys and Indians. That would have complicated one of our major contributions.
Heavy on sodium and nitrates they may have been, but these foods filled many a winter pantry, and left us with a warm feeling, for multiple reasons, as they left the house. I loaded up my dad’s SIMCA, a Flintstones-era foreign car with less power than it takes to run a toaster, and headed off through deep snow drifts to school.
I parked on a residential side street, in a neighborhood where rusted appliances would often appear on front lawns when the snow melted in the spring. My plan had been to unload the food at the end of the school day, when I had more time. But a teacher told me I could be excused to bring everything in now. Why the hurry?
“Your food might get stolen, Tim.” Stolen? The problem was the neighborhood, I was told, in a hushed voice. Our school was in a poor part of town — called Hillyard, named for the railroad baron. Truth be told, we feared the kids of Hillyard, and made it a point to avoid them except when we had to crush them in sports.
With help, I dutifully carried my donation into the school, where it was stored in the football team’s weight room. From there, it would be delivered to poor Indians on Christmas Eve. Mystery intact, and a better Christmas for some people up north.
About 20 years later, I ran into a man who was raised on the Colville Indian Reservation, home to 12 bands of native people who have lived for centuries along the Columbia River. Growing up, it was rare to spend time with an Indian. Our minor league baseball team was called the Indians, and I raced against a kid from another school who was a full-blood Flathead, but Indians were abstractions for the most part, summoned into rosy view during the food drive.
It was Christmas time, in a social setting, and the man from Indian country started talking about the donated food that would arrive on the rez every year in late December. He said they welcomed the Dinty Moore beef stew and the Spam, but couldn’t stomach some of the other donations. I was amazed — that was our food drive!
“That powdered cheese — it’ll make your guts blow up if you take it with milk,” he said. “Man, that stuff was nasty.”
Well then, I asked, what did you do with it?
“We had our own food drive,” he said. “We took all the things we didn’t like and gave it to the poor white kids. In Hillyard. Made us all feel better.”
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Christmas Eve at Church
Catholic Culture.org
The entire liturgy of Christmas Eve is consecrated to the anticipation of the certain and sure arrival of the Savior: "Today you shall know that the Lord shall come and tomorrow you shall see His glory" (Invitatory of Matins for the Vigil of the Nativity). Throughout Advent we have seen how the preparation for Jesus' coming became more and more precise. Isaiah, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mother appeared throughout the season announcing and foretelling the coming of the King. We learn today that Christ according to His human nature is born at Bethlehem of the House of David of the Virgin Mary, and that according to His divine nature He is conceived of the Spirit of holiness, the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity.The certitude of His coming is made clear in two images. The first is that of the closed gate of paradise. Since our first parents were cast forth from the earthly paradise the gate has been closed and a cherubim stands guard with flaming sword. The Redeemer alone is able to open this door and enter in. On Christmas Eve we stand before the gate of paradise, and it is for this reason that Psalm 23 is the theme of the vigil:
Lift up your gates, O princes,
Open wide, eternal gates,That the King of Glory may enter in. . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment