The ultimate tribute to our founder Dom Gerard. The full recording of the funeral ceremony: contains the solemn liturgy of the Mass of the Dead, the Sermon of Dom Louis-Marie, the various testimonies, and burial in the abbey church of Barroux. 170 minutes. Price: €12.00
The DVD bears and introduction by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, which you may watch online by clicking the above link. 
I am fairly certain that this is possible, but I could be mistaken: Is it permissible to transfer the Feast of Corpus Christi to the following Sunday in the Traditional Rite? If you can answer this, please leave a comment below. A supporting citation would be most deeply appreciated as well.
Thank you.
This evening, one of my favorite feasts of the year begins. This feast offers some of the best music in the repertoire, which is, naturally, one of the reasons why it's one of my favorites. I went looking for some things to share with you. I was really hoping that there would be a video of Ascendens Christum by Tomas Victoria. No such luck.
Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Brisbane, Australia.
Our Lady of Victories, Brisbane, Australia.
More examples can be found here.
On this the day after the traditional feast of St. Peter Martyr, O.P. (new calendar: June 4), I have the pleasure to announce two important new studies on Dominican saints and the history of devotion to them. Both are by my former doctoral student at the University of Virginia, Prof. Donald S. Prudlo, now assistant professor of ancient and medieval history at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. This first is his book, The Martyred Inquisitor: The Life and Cult of Peter of Verona (+1252), newly out from Ashgate Publishers in their series "Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West." It is now the standard work on St. Peter Martyr himself. This study not replaces and corrects the series of articles by Fr. Dondaine, O.P., published in 1953 and till now the only scholarly study of the saint, it also traces Peter's cult in liturgy, art, music, and sermons until the end of the middle ages, something never traced before. An example of one of the altarpiece painting dedicated to him can be seen to the above right.
Peter was born in Verona to a family tainted with Cathar dualism, but already as a student he turned strongly against that heresy. He entered the Dominican Order in Bologna and became famous for his preaching, converting Cathars and Waldensians, and strengthening the faith of Catholics. He was involved in city politics during the conflicts between factions professing support for the pope and emperor, especially at Florence, where he was involved in organizing popular resistence to the imperial faction. Prof. Prudlo's lively treatment of these street fights are among the most exciting parts of the book. In 1252 he was appointed papal inquisitor in Lombardy, an office he held for about six months, during which, Prof. Prudlo tells us, we only know of one juridicial action: a decree of clemency. Peter was hated by his heretical adverssaries and in the spring of that year a plot was hatched in Milan to have him murdered. During the Easter Octave, he was waylaid on the road outside of Como by a pair of thugs and cut down by blows to the head. He and his two socii had just finished singing the Victimae Paschali Laudes. Prof. Prudlo has reconstructed in detail the events of that last day, for which the investigation records still exist. In the middle ages, his cult rivaled that of St. Anthony of Padua, and he was known in Ireland as patron and deliverer of women in childbirth.
Peter's murderer, the hired assasin Carino of Balsamo, is the subject of Prof. Prudlo's article, ”The Assassin-Saint: The Life and Cult of Carino of Balsamo", Catholic Historical Review, 94 (2008): 1-21, just out in the January number of that journal. Carino escaped from prison in Milan where he had been arrested following the murder. For thirty or so years he wandered throughout Italy as a fugitive. Then one day he arrived at the Dominican priory in Forlì, where he asked to go to confession. As a penance, he became a lay brother, taking the name of Peter, and so he became a domestic of the monastery and died in the odor of sanctity. Soon a local cult grew up around his grave and he was venerated as a model or repentence. You can see his shrine effigy in the image. Devotion continues in Emilia and Romagna in Italy, even if the blessed Carino never made it into the official Domincian calendar.
If it was possible for Carino to become a saint, I would say Grace can save any of us.
Formal fiddleback chasubles and modest Franciscan sandals come together in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Traditional Latin Mass) at Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The video is put to beautiful music from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, our sister order. The music was recorded in Italy and is a fine example of the high quality of their music which, combined with the friars in Italy, are playing a major part in spearheading the reform of liturgical music in Italy.
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In attendance were over 50 students, a great many of them seminarians. In his homily Father Grimm stressed the importance of Catholic traditions, stating that the Extraordinary Form is the same Mass of countless saints including Padre Pio and Elizabeth Ann Seton. After Mass students whom never experienced the Extraordinary Form were greatly impressed by the beauty and reverence of the Mass, remarking that they would like to see the Extraordinary Form celebrated on campus more often.
The March/April issue of the American bi-monthly periodical The Catholic Response featured an English translation of an article originally published in L'Osservatore Romano by Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. The article summarizes the bishop's more complete argument, put forward in his book Dominus Est, in favor of a return to the traditional practice of receiving Holy Communion directly on the tongue. That book, which was published in Italy earlier this year, is especially noteworthy because (1) its author is a bishop, (2) it was published by the official Vatican press, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, and (3) its preface was written by Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, second-in-command of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who agrees that the practice of Communion-in-the-hand needs to be reevaluated and probably suppressed.
Newman House Press has been awarded the contract to publish Dominus Est in English. According to Fr. Peter Stravinskas, the publisher, Bishop Schneider intends to send a copy of the translation to every English-speaking bishop in the world. Toward that end, a donation to Newman House Press in support of this important project would be greatly appreciated. It's worth mentioning that the matter at hand (so to speak) concerns both forms of the Roman Rite, the ordinary and extraordinary. For, while the 1962 Missal (like earlier editions of the Roman Missal), calls for communicants to receive while kneeling, no rubric or canon in the extraordinary form forbids the reception of the Host in the hand. Granted, people who frequent extraordinary-form celebrations of Mass are not likely to put their hands out for Communion; but some bishops have been known to require certain standard "Novus Ordo" features, such as female servers and extraordinary ministers, in those celebrations. Anyone interested in the restoration of the sacred and the preservation of faith in the Real Presence should take interest. For the full text of Bishop Schneider's provocative essay, click here.We have argued for years now of our "state of necessity" and of the resulting supplied jurisdiction that the Church supplies to us. But can we continue to argue this when ordinary jurisdiction is offered to us without any compromise in the Faith? Can we choose freely to remain in this irregular canonical situation where we are? In other words, can a state of necessity be the object of a choice without moral fault? Clearly not And on the other hand: are the authorities ready to accord us regular faculties? If the answer to this second question is affirmative, then we are no longer in the same case of necessity!
All these serious considerations, dear friends, move us to go and see what Rome has to say.
Every culture has paradigms, prominent ways of thinking that are taken for granted and rarely examined for their usefulness or for their ability to get to the truth of various problems that emerge. Few people have the courage to question such paradigms. Friedrich August von Hayek, in his book _The Counter-Revolution of Science_, does just this. While Hayek was an economist, much of what he says relates to our general way of life, and therefore many of his observations apply to liturgy and music.
Since today is the anniversary of Olivier Messiaen's death in 1992, nothing could me more appropriate than listening to his Le Banquet Celeste. This is one of Messiaen's more accessible (I intensely dislike that word; it's loaded with trouble) pieces. In fact, I've never had a negative reaction to this one.
...the extent of the use of vernacular in the Algonquian and Iroquoian missions [was] a distinguishing mark over against the Roman Rite in general, which during the period before Vatican II was quite resistant to any attempts at vernacularization.
However, the term “vernacular” needs to be qualified to a certain extent. Although generally, the language used at each mission was the language of the major ethnic group that inhabited it, certain idioms tended to become standardized languages of prayer which were often different languages than were natively spoken.
Essentially what Salvucci is speaking of are three things; one, which isn't present in the particular quote I have given but which comes up elsewhere in this chapter, is that in some cases different Native dialects were used for liturgical worship than were their own. A second aspect is that the vernacular form of liturgical language remained fixed even while common vernacular speech shifted around them, thereby taking on a kind of parallel to "hieratic English" today, which retains older modes of English speech; the thee's, thou's and thy's if you will. The third and final aspect is that Natives were known to prize rhetoric very highly and used an exalted style of speech in formal situations -- something, Mr. Salvucci tells me, that the French complimented them upon -- which seems to have likely been manifest in their liturgical form of vernacular."...[liturgical Latin] was not an adoption of the "vernacular" language in the liturgy, given that the Latin of the Roman Canon, of the collects and of prefaces of the Mass, were remote from the idiom of the common people. It was a strongly stylized language... (More)
Surely, no one has spoken of music in a more exalted way than has this pope, who restores to art its hieratic purpose. Is this inclusive? Is the cosmos inclusive? Is Christ inclusive? As St. Clement of Alexandria taught, Christ is the "New Song" of the universe. "[It] is this [New Song] that composed the entire creation into melodious order, and tuned into concert the discord of the elements, that the whole universe may be in harmony with it." How is that for inclusive? That New Song is not played on bongo drums, as that would be exclusive -- in the sense that it would exclude the transcendent, which cannot be reached by any bongo drums I have ever heard.
My acid test for any part of the liturgy, including the music, is this: Would a complete stranger observing it believe that what is taking place is the most important thing in these people's lives? I cannot express how I have missed that sense of sanctity in the Mass with which I grew up. I am also a man of the theatre. I was an actor in my early professional life, so I understand the stage. That is what infuriated me about the "new" liturgy of the 1970s. Any competent stage director could have told the liturgical innovators that it did not convey the presence of the sacred. It was so obvious that the conclusion occurred that they must not think the sacred was present. Many parishioners got the message, as they stopped believing in the Real Presence.
No, the transcendent can only be pointed to or reached by the greatest art. When is the last time you heard music at Mass that reinforced your faith rather than tested it? When is the last time you heard the cosmos in your parish?
Rome, April 24, 2008
The Procura Generalis is pleased to announce today that the medical consultors for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously gave positive assessment on the extraordinary healing attributed to the intercession of Ven. Card. John Henry Newman C.O. which was presented by the Postulator as a "miracle" for the desired beatification.
Let us give thanks to God for this important step that accelerates the process of the Cause, which quickly should now come to conclusion.
La Procura Generale è lieta di annunciare che in data odierna la Consulta Medica della Congregazione per le Cause dei Santi ha espresso all’unanimità giudizio positivo sulla straordinarietà della guarigione attribuita all’intercessione del Ven. Card. John Henry Newman C.O. e presentata dalla Postulazione come “miracolo” per l'auspicata beatificazione. Rendiamo grazie a Dio per questo importante passo che accelera l’iter della Causa, la quale in tempi brevi dovrebbe ormai giungere a conclusione.
What I am most looking forward to is hearing the entire stadium, not just listening to some excellent music, which we hope we will have, that they will feel inspired to join in. And that unlike any other thing that might happen in that stadium ever again, you might have 46,000 people singing their hearts out, which will be an amazing thing.... So that's what I'm looking forward to, just having the whole stadium erupt, and have the Pope go, wow, this is the American Church. This is a beautiful thing.
I am pleased to let our readers know that there is now available, through the kindness of Mr. Philip Smith of Notre Dame University, in Latin and English, the ceremony for the creation of a Master of Sacred Theology as bestowed by the Order of Friars Preachers. The "Form for Creating a Master of Sacred Theology"
The ceremony of installation is interesting for the symbolism employed. Normally, it is bestowed by the most recent S.T.M. of the province, who sits in the cathedra, the chair of a Master, to do so. If there is no S.T.M., the one doing the investiture does not sit in the cathedra, but stands next to it. The one to be promoted comes and kneels before him. The candidate makes a Profession of Faith according to the form currently in use. The one creating the new S.T.M. then places a ring on the ring finger of the candidate's left hand, and declares that As you have called Wisdom your friend, and your have become a lover of her beauty, you have asked that she become your spouse: Behold. God gives her to you as spouse, that she be with you always and possess your heart. An S.T.M. wears the ring on the left hand so that there is no confusion between him and a bishop, whose ring on the right hand is commonly kissed. One does not kiss the ring of an S.T.M. Traditionally, the ring of a Master may have only one stone, as in the example above. But often it has none, sometimes having merely an inscription. In the American Eastern and Western Dominican Provinces, it has been the practice to inscribe inside the ring the initials of previous the S.T.M.s of the province. I might add that a Dominican S.T.M. never wears the regalia of the office for liturgy, but only in academic exercises. The S.T.M., however, has the perpetual right to the title "very reverend." Indeed., the Dominican archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, was famous for refusing to use "D.D." (Doctor of Divinity) after his name he insisted on using "S.T.M." because it was the more distinguished academic title. (I thank Fr. Gerald Forgarty, S.J., for reminding me of this.) 
Ceremonially, the granting of the ring formally creates the candidate as a Master of Sacred Theology, although, in fact, the Master may use the title from the day on which it is granted by the Master of the Order and his Council. The one officiating then seats the candidate in the chair and announces his appointment as a Master. He places on the new Master's head the "black biretta" which is the insignia of a Master. The current practice is to use a black biretta with red-purple piping and pom-pom, as can be seen here. As the biretta of a doctor, it has four fins, not three as is the case for the biretta of a license or a clerical biretta. Originally this biretta was probably totally black and had no pom-pom or trim. An example of such a biretta may be seen at the beginning of his post, in the seventeenth-century of the Blessed Neils Stensen, convert, biologist, and bishop--who is not a Domincan as can be seen from his garb. The presider then turns to those assembled and announces: Behold the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field in bloom; may the Lord cause you to increase by thousands, and may he bless you for all eternity. Amen. The new S.T.M. then rises and delivers his inaugural lecture.
Those who are in the San Franciscan Bay Area on November 15, 2008, may see this ceremony performed at 11 a.m. in the Western Dominican Province House of Studies, at St. Albert the Great Priory in Oakland.
Here are some first images of the ordinations to the priesthood which the Holy Father is conferring this morning on 29 deacons of the diocese of Rome. I will only be able to cover the opening of the Papal Mass, but we hope to post more later on.
