Saturday Morning Varia: Russian Sacred Music, Cardinal Antonelli

A few interesting stories to round-up this Saturday morning. First, on Zenit, Pope Points to Music as Harmony of East and West, which came in the context of a concert held in his honour and sponsored by the Russian Orthodox patriarch. The Holy Father noted that the music showed forth the "soul of the Russian people and with it the Christian faith, which find an extraordinary expression precisely in the divine liturgy and the liturgical singing that always accompanies it." He continued: "In the liturgy and from the liturgy is unleashed and begins to a great extent the artistic creativity of Russian musicians to create masterpieces that merit being better known in the Western world".

The Pope commented as well, "Let us make Europe breathe with its two lungs again"

Also on Zenit related to this same story, Russian Patriarch Sends Greeting to Pope.

In other matters, Phil Lawler has given a review of a book we also have looked at here on the NLM, The Development of the Liturgical Reform, based on the memoirs of Cardinal Giuseppe Ferdinando Antonelli, in A 'Liturgist' Need Not be a Liberal.

(While on the subject of that book, the folks at The New Theological Movement blog noted to me in the past month that they have provided their own review of this work.)