Thursday, March 28, 2024
Palm Sunday 2024 Photopost (Part 1)
Gregory DiPippoPhotopost Request: The Sacred Triduum and Easter 2024
Gregory DiPippoOur first Palm Sunday photopost will be put up later today. In the meantime, as we traditionally do, we will plan on having a whole series of photoposts of your Holy Week liturgies, with individual posts for Tenebrae, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. As always, we are glad to receive images of the OF, EF, Eastern Rites, the Ordinariate Use, etc., including any part of the liturgy. Please send your photographs to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org, and remember to include the name and location of the church, along with any other information you think important.
Please read this! – I would ask people to do a few things to make it easier for us to process the photos. The first is to size them down so that the smaller dimension is around 1500 pixels. The second is to send the pictures as zipped files, which are a lot easier to process, (not links, and not as photos attached to an email). The third is to not mix photos of one ceremony with those of another, and to put the name of the ceremony (“Tenebrae”, “Holy Thursday”, “Good Friday”, “Holy Saturday”, and “Easter Sunday”) as the subject of the email. Your help is very much appreciated.“Beauty is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation.” – Pope Benedict XVI.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
The Mass of Spy Wednesday
Gregory DiPippoAs I noted in articles published yesterday and the day before, the Gospel of Holy Monday was originally John 12, 1-36, and that of Holy Tuesday was originally John 13, 1-32. This meant that the Passion of St Luke, which has always been the Gospel of Spy Wednesday, would originally have been the first retelling of the Passion during the Roman Holy Week, after the Mass of Palm Sunday. (As I have also noted on various occasions, this anticipation of the events of the Passion before the liturgical days on which they actually happened is a custom almost unique to the Roman Rite.)
This connection between the Masses of Palm Sunday and Spy Wednesday is highlighted by the introit of the latter, which is taken from the epistle of former, Philippians 2, 5-11.“ ‘The prayer of the poor man, when he shall be anxious, and pour out his supplication before the Lord.’ Who is this poor man whose prayer is noted in this psalm, if not he of whom the apostle said, ‘who when he was rich became poor for our sakes’? (1 Cor. 8, 9) For He, that He might make us participants in His riches, took on the necessities of our poverty; for ‘He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.’ (Phil, 2, 7-8) And just as He became poor for us, so also was He made anxious for us, and at last was handed over to death for us, and for us hung upon the Cross. For He died, as the Apostle, says for our sins (1 Cor. 15, 3) and rose for our justification. (Rom. 4, 25) Now He was able to be anxious from His human nature, from which also He was able to die. Therefore, our (mystical) Head prays in this psalm that through grace we may be led back thither, whence we fell through the fault of our first parent.”
The Risen Christ and the Mystical Winepress, by Marco dal Pino, often called Marco da Siena, 1525-1588 ca. Both of the figures of Christ in this painting show very markedly the influence of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. |
Thus sayeth the Lord God: Tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Savior cometh: behold his reward is with him. 63, 1 Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength? I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save. Why then is your apparel red, and your garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the gentiles there is not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel. etc.
The prophetic Spirit contemplates the Lord as if He were already on His way to His passion, clad in His fleshly nature; and as He was to suffer therein, He represents the bleeding condition of His flesh under the metaphor of garments dyed in red, as if reddened in the treading and crushing process of the wine-press, from which the laborers descend reddened with the wine-juice, like men stained in blood.
The angels, too, were in doubt when Christ arose; the powers of heaven were in doubt when they saw that flesh was ascending into heaven. Then they said: “Who is this King of glory?” And while some said “Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.” In Isaiah, too, we find that the powers of heaven doubted and said: “Who is this that comes up from Edom, the redness of His garments is from Bosor, He who is glorious in white apparel?”
The icon of the Virgin Mary, known as the “Salus Populi Romani”, in the reredos of the Borghese chapel of the basilica of St Mary Major. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Fallaner, CC BY-SA 4.0) |
(Attributed to the Spanish painter Alonso Cano, 1601-67. Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
A New Setting of the Stabat Mater by Peter Kwasniewski
Gregory DiPippoJust in time for Holy Week, Peter has posted to his YouTube channel a recording of his setting of the Stabat Mater, which was premiered by the ensemble His Majesty’s Men on Saturday, August 12, 2023 at St John Cantius Church, Chicago. Although the Stabat Mater hymn is not officially a part of the liturgy of Holy Week, it has long been customary to sing it as an offertory or communion motet; at St Peter’s basilica, for example, Palestrina’s version was sung at the principal Mass of Palm Sunday.
“In this work, I set ten of the verses (1–3, 5, 9–11, 16–17, and 20) for five-part men’s choir, interspersing them with the Gregorian chant for the remaining ten verses (4, 6–8, 12–15, and 18–19); the latter verses are sometimes sung plainly and sometimes with an ison and contrary organum. The purity and simplicity of the chant lines contrast well with the intricate texture and dense harmonies of the polyphony parts.
“This is, moreover, a very live recording — complete with car brakes, city buses, and honking horns, courtesy of the busy neighborhood of St John Cantius! John Cage, Edgard Varèse, and Henry Cowell would no doubt be pleased.”
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
The Mass of Holy Tuesday
Gregory DiPippoIn the oldest lectionary of the Roman Rite, ca. 650 AD [1], the Gospel of Holy Tuesday is not the Passion of St Mark, as it is today, but John 13, 1-32: Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet (1-11), His words to them immediately afterwards (12-20), the revelation of Judas as the betrayer (21-30), and Christ’s declaration that “Now the Son of man is glorified, etc.” The Divine Office preserves a relic of this in today’s antiphon for the Benedictus, which is the first verse of this Gospel: “Before the feast day of Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come, having loved His own, He loved them unto the end.”
The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet, ca. 1305, by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
Therefore, the original Gospels of Holy Monday (John 12, 1-36) and Tuesday (13, 1-32) supplemented the Passion narrative of Palm Sunday with material which is not included in any of the synoptic Gospels. This includes the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, since the ancient lectionaries do not indicate any use of the Gospel which is now read at the blessing of the Palms, Matthew 21, 1-9, or its parallels in Mark and Luke. (The evidence for how Palm Sunday was celebrated in Rome in the early centuries is very scant; we cannot dismiss the possibility that such a reading was part of a blessing of palms, but we have no proof one way or the other.)
St Jerome in His Study, by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons. |
A statue of an angel holding the sponge and reed by which the Lord was given vinegar to drink while he was on the Cross, by Antonio Giorgetti (1635-69), working as an assistant of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. This is one of ten statues of angels holding instruments of the Passion which Pope Clement IX commissioned from the elderly Bernini in 1669, to decorate the Ponte Sant’ Angelo, the main bridge by which pilgrims crossed the Tiber to get to St Peter’s basilica. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Jean-Pol Grandmont, CC BY-SA 3.0) |
Posted Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Labels: Holy Week, Lectionary, Liturgy of the Passion, Passion of Christ
Workshops in June for Composers, Conductors and Choristers, with Sir James MacMillan
David ClaytonDetails are given in the three posters below, one for each workshop; also see the Catholic Sacred Music Project website: sacredmusicproject.org.
Monday, March 25, 2024
The Mass of Holy Monday
Gregory DiPippoAt the Mass of Holy Monday, three of the four chant propers, the introit, gradual and communion, are taken from the same Psalm, the thirty-fourth. (The tract, Domine, non secundum, is not proper to this Mass, since it is sung on most of the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, and for the last time on this day.) Like most of the texts from the Psalms which speak in the person of a man suffering or in distress (“Judge them that harm me, o God,” etc.), this Psalm was taken by the Church Fathers as a representation of Our Lord in the midst of His Passion. For example, a treatise known as the Breviarium in Psalmos, traditionally but incorrectly attributed to St Jerome, says that the opening words are “the voice of Christ in His Passion, and of the Church in tribulation”, and explains verse 13, “I was clothed with haircloth, I humbled my soul with fasting” as follows: “For the Lord put on the roughness (asperitatem) of the Passion. … He celebrated a fast unto the evening, when in the evening of the world, He was offered for its salvation.” (PL 26, 923D; 926D) Cassiodorus (ca. 485 – 585) begins his commentary on the same Psalm by saying, “Through this whole hymn, the words are those of Christ the Lord, spoken from the dispensation by which He suffered.” (In Psalt. Expos.; PL 70, 241B)
The Man of Sorrows, with the instruments of the Passion, ca. 1345-50; part of an altar in the cathedral of Cologne, Germany. |
A page of an Ambrosian Missal of 1594, showing the end of the prophetic reading (Isaiah 53, 1-2), the psalmellus, the epistle (2 Thess. 2, 14 – 3, 5), the cantus and the Gospel (John 11, 55 –12, 11). |
The Mocking of Christ, ca. 1617, by the Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons. |
The Anointing of Christ’s Feet at Bethany, depicted in the Vaux Passional ca. 1503-4. Mary and Martha are shown serving at the table; the Lord has stuck one of His feet out from under it, looking forward to the anointing. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
New Printing of “The Liturgical Rosary”
Peter KwasniewskiI wish that I could wish my readers a blessed feast of the Annunciation, but this year, as happens often enough, the feast is catapulted to the Monday after the Easter Octave, so, April 8. Nevertheless, our Byzantine brethren continue to observe it, and a Marian post does not seem unfitting.
Back in October 2023, I announced at NLM the publication of Arouca Press’ unique devotional book The Liturgical Rosary. (You can read about its contents there.) The popularity of the book was such that within weeks the first printing had been sold out.
Happily, Arouca has done a second printing of the book, but this time, with an imitation leather cover, thin Bible paper, and gold edges. It is more compact than the first edition. Here are some photos.
Order exclusively here from Arouca Press. Shipped from the USA. International shipping available. Bulk discount prices are calculated automatically during checkout.
God bless Arouca Press and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Passiontide 2024 Photopost (Part 2)
Gregory DiPippoAs always, we are very grateful to all everyone who has shared their photographs of their churches veiled for Passtiontide, and two very nice sets of rose-colored Laetare vestments. We are looking forward to see pictures of your Palm Sunday liturgies. Please send them in to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org, and remember to include the name and location of the church, and any other information you think important. Keep up the good work of evangelizing through beauty!
Palm Sunday 2024
Gregory DiPippoA blessed Palm Sunday to all our readers - don’t forget to send your photos to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org!
When the people had heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches, and went forth to meet Him; and the children cried out, saying: This is He that is come for the salvation of the people. He is our salvation, and the redemption of Israel. How great is He whom the Thrones and Dominions go forth to meet! Fear not, O daughter of Sion; behold thy King cometh to thee sitting upon the colt of an ass, as it is written. Hail, O King, Creator of the world, who art come to redeem us! (The second processional antiphon of Palm Sunday.)
The Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, ca. 1530, by the Flemish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502-50), or workshop. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Palm Sunday 2024 Photopost Request
Gregory DiPippoHoly Week is upon us, so please send photos of your Palm Sunday services, whether in the OF or EF, Ordinariate or any Eastern Rite, etc., to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org; don’t forget to include the name and location of the church, and any other information you think important. I would also ask people as much as possible to send the pictures as zipped files, which are a lot easier to process, and to size them down so that the smaller dimension is around 1500 pixels. Reminders will be posted for the rest of Holy Week and Easter fairly soon. Evangelize through beauty!
Last year, we had over 200 photos from 25 churches, located in 12 American states and 7 other countries (with several duplicates) - let’s see if we can’t beat that this year!From the second post: the procession from the Oratory of St Wilfrid in York, England, passes in front of the York Minster.
From the third post: the station outside the church of Notre Dame de Lourdes, home of the ICRSP apostolate in Libreville, Gabon.
From the fourth post: the Mass of Palm Sunday at the Oratory of Ss Gregory and Augustine in St Louis, Missouri.
Passiontide 2024 Photopost (Part 1)
Gregory DiPippoHere is our first photopost of your churches with the crosses and statues veiled for Passiontide. There will definitely be at one more in this series before we move on to Holy Week, and there is always room for more, so feel free to send yours in to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org, and remember to include the name and location of the church, and anything other information you think important. We will also be glad to include photos of other recent celebrations such as St Patrick, St Joseph, and rose colored vestments on Laetare Sunday. Thanks to the contributors, and to everyone who is doing so much good work to restore and preserve the great inheritance of our Catholic liturgical tradition - evangelize through beauty!
Friday, March 22, 2024
The Mass of Passion Friday
Gregory DiPippoFolio 48r of the Echternach Sacramentary, 895AD, with the Mass “of the Sunday of the Lord’s Passion”; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 9433 |