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A Handwritten 1908 Letter from St Pius X Quoting Two Gregorian Hymns
A reader who recently acquired from an antiquities dealer a handwritten letter from Pope St Pius X has kindly shared with us the image of the letter, a translation, and a look into the soul of Giuseppe Sarto, who so loved Gregorian chant that he quoted (relatively obscure) chants as authorities in making his argument.The LetterNote the elegance of ...

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 2)
We continue with part 2 of Henri de Villiers’ examination of the various forms and traditions of the pre-Lenten period. Click here to read part 1. Quinquagesima Week, the fast of Heraclius, Cheesefare Week In both East and West, the week immediately before Lent took on a penitential character very early, beginning at first with abstinence from me...

“Through My Lens”: A New Series on British EWTN with Fr Lawrence Lew
Our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., has another interesting project going on, in addition to his new book, which Peter wrote about last week. This is a series on British EWTN called “Through My Lens”, in which Father Lew shares his traveling experiences, and shows many of the wonderful photographs he takes of the places he visits....

“The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae”: A Publication to Assist in Pre-55 Services
Those who are blessed with access to Holy Week in the Tridentine Rite, that is, the rite celebrated for a thousand years and more prior to Pius XII’s changes in the mid-1950s, may find helpful a resource published by Os Justi Press, The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae, which contains the liturgy (in Latin with English translation) for Palm ...

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 1)
This article by Henri de Villiers was originally published in French on the website of the Schola Sainte-Cécile in 2014. It will be reproduced here in my English translation in four parts, since it is fairly long, and definitely worth a careful read. In it, Henri examines the universal Christian tradition of the preparatory period before Lent in th...

The Reading of Genesis in Septuagesima
The children of Israel served the king of Babylon for seventy years, and afterwards, were set free and returned to Jerusalem. Likewise, we ourselves must serve all of this life, either for our faults and their punishment, or at least in hardship. For this reason, the Church, being set, as it were, in the captivity of Babylon, that is, in this wor...

The Dismissal of the Alleluia
This evening, the eve of Septuagesima, the Roman Rite begins its preparation for Lent by laying the “Alleluia” aside until the vigil of Easter. In the Breviary of St Pius V, which derives from the later medieval customs of the Papal court, this is done with characteristic simplicity; “alleluia” is added twice to the “Benedicamus Domino” and “Deo gr...

Marienberg Abbey in Northern Italy
Last month, we shared four posts of Nicola’s pictures of the abbey of St John in Val Müstair, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. About nine miles away, but on the Italian side of the border, stands the abbey of Marienburg (Mary’s mountain). It was originally founded in 1096 by a local noble family called von Tarasp, in a town on the other side of t...

Mutual Enrichment
Your translation’s divine, Your preaching melodious; Won’t you be My Cyril and Methodius? This Valentine’s Day joke is here reproduced by the kind permission of the author, Fr Dominic Holtz, of the Order of Friars Preachers. Facetus et sagax, docendi semper ac jocandi capax!...

The Magnanimous Contrite Heart
Lost in Translation #120 As we saw last week, the Offertory prayer In spiritu humilitatis contains the verse “In the spirit of humility and with a contrite heart may we be accepted by Thee.” (Dan. 3, 39) A contrite heart is a recurring theme in the Sacred Scriptures, but the terms to describe it are not always the same. In the Old Testament, the m...

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