A Treasure To Be Shared

A 2019 article at CNA by Mary Farrow, featuring comments by Fr. James Bradley and edited for this blog, captures essential features of the season of Shrovetide, which ends today. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/how-to-pregame-lent-septuagesima-carnival-and-shrovetide-56266 Septuagesima Sunday, follows Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays. Sunday kicks off Carnival season, which comes right before Shrovetide, which culminates in Shrove Tuesday - more popularly known as Mardi Gras. [...] “Septuagesima is kept in the personal ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI for former Anglicans, now within the full communion of the Catholic Church,” said Father James Bradley, a priest from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom.   “Septuagesima is still marked in the older Anglican prayer books, and is part of the Anglican patrimony preserved by Divine Worship: The Missal, used by the ordinariates,” Bradley told...

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We in the Ordinariate often hear the lections prescribed for the Ordinary Form of the Mass, readings that do not align well, for example, with the pre-Lenten days of Septua-, Sexa- and Quinquagesima observed in the Ordinariate Liturgy. Dear Eminences, Your Graces, Excellencies and Reverend Fathers of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments , please permit the Pre-Lenten lections to be admitted into the Ordinariate Lectionary. The scriptural readings (Propers) from the Book of Common Prayer prescribed for the pre-Lenten period would provide a peaceable and thorough fix to the current situation. The readings traditionally fixed to the '-gesimas' have for centuries prepared souls to enter well prepared into the Lenten season. Our Extraordinary Form brethren who, it practically goes without saying, have retained the pre-Lenten readings. Please, sir, I want some more. - Oliver Twist It is reasonable to promote and affirm the in...

Reception in the narthex of the church: mother kneeling with son. The Churching of Women ( benedictio mulieris post partum ), i.e., the blessing of one woman with her brand new baby boy (who is less than a week old!), on Monday, February 17th, the memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order , at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church. Celebrating Motherhood! The brief and beautiful ceremony, of 15 minutes or so that involved family and friends gathered before God, was a first for this blogger. Churching is the woman's way of giving thanks to God for the birth of her child, and predisposes her, through the priestly blessing that is a part of the ritual, to receive the graces necessary to raise her child in a manner pleasing to God. Congratulations to the happy parents, Fr. Kenyon and wife Elizabeth, on the arrival of their second son! Saints Sebastian and Edward: pray for him. Procession to the Sanctuary At the Gate: sprinkled with hol...

Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 (Wikipedia) The Personal Ordinariates (Walsingham, Chair of St Peter and Southern Cross) continue the ancient practices of the Ember Days. From the Catholic Herald : The origin of the term English term ‘ember’ is unclear; it may derive from the Old English ‘ymbren’, meaning a circuit or revolution. Other European languages use some version of the Latin term, ‘Quatuor tempora’, ‘four times’.  These celebrations may have been brought to England by St Augustine of Canterbury, and seem to have become established here before they spread from Rome to France and elsewhere. Catholic Encyclopedia: Ember days (corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times) are the days at the beginning of the seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after 13 December (S. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday, after W...

Visit HQ at:  http://www.victoriaordinariate.com/music.html 2 February (CANDLEMAS) Blessing of Candles & Procession Missa L'hora Passa (Kyrie, Sanctus-Benedictus, & Agnus Dei) (Viadana) Missa de Angelis (Gloria & Credo) Offertory Motet: Rise up, my love (Willan) Communion Motet: Adorna Thalamum (Lassus) Opening: Hail to the Lord who comes (Old 120th, EH 209) Processional: Of the Father's heart begotten (Divinum Mysterium, EH 613) Offertory: Sing of Mary, pure and lowly (Hermon, BCP 807) Final: Alleluya, song of sweetness (Tantum Ergo, EH 63) 9 February (SEPTUAGESIMA) Missa Simplicior (Merbecke) Offertory Motet: Simile est Regnum Caelorum (Guerrero) Communion Motet: Illumina Faciam Tuam (Isaac) Opening: Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (Praise My Soul, EH 470) Offertory: Just as I am, without one plea (Saffron Walden, EH 316) Communion: Sweet Sacrament divine (Divine Mysteries, NEH 307) Royal Anthem (in honour of Accession Day) ...

8th Century smashing of images Long have we suffered the despair of utilitarian and/or soulless constructions. Church builders - pastors, parish councils, architects - should pay attention and learn from the authors of the New York Times article cited below. The proposed order, called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” favors classical design for buildings in Washington. It has drawn opposition from architects. By Katie Rogers and Robin Pogrebin Feb. 5, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/arts/design/trump-modern-architecture.html WASHINGTON — Should every new government building in the nation’s capital be created in the same style as the White House? A draft of an executive order called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” would establish a classical style, inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, as the default for federal buildings in Washington and many throughout the country, discouraging modern design. The order, spearheaded by t...

In order for a new year or next year to be a good year or a better year, it is necessary to confront the inadequacies of the former calendar. That is, it is necessary to confront our own deficiencies and those obstacles we encountered around us. We must, to the best of our ability, and cautious not to descend into a haphazard and unfair critique - i.e., the nuclear option - and cognizant of the planks in our own eyes, proceed into the wilderness relying on the Church's guidance, the guidance of faithful pastors and the witness of the saints whose teaching disposes us to the influence of the Holy Ghost. Looking back for a moment, the Gospel according to St Matthew for the Second Sunday in Advent (2019) read in part (3:1-3): In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye ...

Battle of Carnival & Lent - Breugel Shrovetide, the Pre-Lenten Season, is a period of preparation before the liturgical season of Lent. Shrovetide starts on Septuagesima Sunday, includes Sexagesima Sunday, Quinquagesima Sunday (Shrove Sunday) and Shrove Monday, and culminates on Shrove Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras. Catholic Encyclopedia Shrovetide is the English equivalent of what is known in the greater part of Southern Europe as the "Carnival", a word which, in spite of wild suggestions to the contrary, is undoubtedly to be derived from the "taking away of flesh" ( carne levare ) which marked the beginning of Lent. The English term shrovetide (from "to shrive", or hear confessions) is sufficiently explained by a sentence in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes translated from Theodulphus by Abbot Aelfric about A.D. 1000: "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the c...