Divine Office – Page 8 – The World is Quiet Here

The World is Quiet Here

Hymn for Lauds, Easter Season:
Aurora Lucis Rutilat

10 May 2019 Divine Office, Seasons

Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky;Heaven thunders forth its victor cry;The glad earth shouts its triumph high,And groaning hell makes wild reply: While He, the King of glorious might,Treads down death’s strength in death’s despite,And, trampling hell by victor’s right,Brings forth His sleeping Saints to light. Fast barred beneath the stone of lateIn watch and ward where soldiers wait,Now shining […]

Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny

29 April 2019 Annual, Divine Office, History, Prayer, Saints

Today is the feast of four great Abbots of the Benedictine Order: Saints Odo, Majolus, Odilo, and Hugh. They were all good and holy men, and during the course of their reigns over the Abbey of Cluny and its associated priories, they reformed western monasticism – indeed, it could be fairly said that together they saved western monasticism. My Monastic […]

Vespers for the Dead

24 April 2019 Chant, community, Divine Office, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Maestra Victoria Solenberger, Moments in Time, Rev. Michael Wagner, Rev. Nicholas Wichert, The Sacred Liturgy

One year ago, our parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation were deep in prayer for the health and soul of our pastor, Rev. Michael Wagner. Rev. Michael Wagner On April 10 2018, Father Wagner collapsed during the celebration of the holy Mass. He was admitted to hospital with an irreversible brain hemorrhage. The doctors advised his family and the archdiocese […]

Holy Week Marathon

22 April 2019 community, Deacon James Fish, Deacon Mike Teskey, Divine Office, Holy Days, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Moments in Time, Rev. Martin Bourke, Seasons, The Sacred Liturgy

I joke sometimes that Holy Week for an MC is like running a marathon. So this year, I used my FitBit tracking and figured out the distance I walked, starting with our Palm Sunday rehearsals and ending on Easter Sunday. This year, I clocked about 70km – that’s 43 miles. Given that a marathon is 26 miles, I actually walked […]

Tenebræ

14 April 2019 Annual, Chant, Deacon James Fish, Divine Office, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Seasons, The Sacred Liturgy

Schedule for Holy Week

09 April 2019 Annual, Chant, community, Deacon James Fish, Deacon Mike Teskey, Divine Office, Holy Days, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Moments in Time, Prayer, Rev. Martin Bourke, The Sacred Liturgy

The following is the Holy Week schedule for the parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation in Tacoma, Washington. It’s less jam-packed than previous years, but there’s still a lot here! Wednesday Tenebræ is not to be missed. And of course, the Holy Triduum is essentially one giant liturgy (with some serious overnight breaks) that begins with the Introit of the […]

Lenten Vespers

07 March 2019 Chant, Deacon James Fish, Deacon Mike Teskey, Divine Office, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Rev. Martin Bourke, Seasons

At my parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma, we are celebrating Sunday Vespers as we do each Lent. Please, join us in the coming weeks if you are local and able. Chanted Vespers is a beautiful and traditional way of worship in our faith.

Sedimus et Flevimus

30 January 2019 Divine Office, Latin, Meditations, Polyphony

Feeling rather melancholy this evening, and one of the psalms from Vespers particularly struck home. Super flumina Babylonis ibi sedimus et flevimus : * cum recordaremur Sion : In salicibus in medio ejus * suspendimus organa nostra. Quia illic interrogaverunt nos, qui captivos duxerunt nos, * verba cantionum : Et qui abduxerunt nos : * Hymnum cantate nobis de canticis […]

The Phantom of the Octave

19 January 2019 Divine Office, Holy Days, inside baseball, The Sacred Liturgy

The Church used to celebrate many Octaves. Many great solemnities, and even some older feasts of lesser liturgical stature, had an Octave. Some holy days are so holy that a single day can’t contain them. Take Easter, for instance. The ancient tradition of the Church is to add an entire week to the Sunday that is Easter, making it actually […]

A Plea for Beauty in the Sacred Liturgy

13 January 2019 Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, Cardinal Sarah, Divine Office, Exhortations, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Meditations, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Saint John Paul II, Rants, Rev. Gabriel Mosher OP, Rev. Kyle Mangloña, The Sacred Liturgy

Superman fights for “truth, justice, and the American way!” We should fight for the three transcendentals: truth, beauty, and goodness. The transcendentals were known to the Ancient Greeks, but Catholic theologians quickly baptized them into their study of philosophy and theology. Transcendentals are the timeless and universal attributes of being. They are the properties of all beings, as well as […]

O Emmanuel

23 December 2018 Annual, Chant, community, Divine Office, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

We come to the last of the O Antiphons, for tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the great Vigil of the Nativity. I mentioned yesterday that the O Antiphons were arranged backward into the song Veni, Veni Emmanuel. This was by design, for the Antiphons themselves are a backward acrostic. The first letters of the Messianic titles — Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, […]

O Rex Gentium

22 December 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

With Christmas just days away now, we hear the penultimate O Antiphon this evening. I mentioned a couple of days ago that the antiphons might sound vaguely familiar to you. In the 12th Century, an unknown composer compiled versions of the O Antiphons into a single Advent hymn, called Veni, Veni Emmanuel. You know the English version as O Come, […]

O Oriens

21 December 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, History, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

light in the darkness

It is altogether right and proper that we should celebrate Christ as the bringer of light on this, the day of the winter solstice. This was an ancient holy day in many religions, as indeed it continues to be. On this, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, where people for eons have begged their divinity for […]

O Clavis David

20 December 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

Continuing on with our annual tradition, we come closer and closer to the birth of the Messiah, “the holy one, the true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one shall close, who closes and no one shall open”. The key is the symbol of authority. Christ is the Key of the House of David who opens […]

O Radix Jesse

19 December 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

By now some of you might be thinking that the O Antiphon words are sounding kind of familiar, even though you’re not really up on your Gregorian Chant. In fact, these antiphons are some of the earliest attested antiphons in the Divine Office, being mentioned in passing in the works of Saint Boethius in the early sixth century. They’re rooted […]

O Adonai

18 December 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

Today is the second “O” antiphon, O Adonai. O Sovereign Lord! O Adonaï! come and redeem us, not by thy power, but by thy humility. Heretofore, thou didst show thyself to Moses thy servant in the midst of a mysterious flame; thou didst give thy law to thy people amidst thunder and lightning; now, on the contrary, thou comest not […]

O Sapiéntia

17 December 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, Holy Days, Latin, Seasons

O Wisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for our annual look at the O Antiphons. These antiphons are part of the prayers at the liturgical hour of Vespers (evening prayer) for the 17th through the 23rd of December – the 24th is of course the Christmas Vigil itself. They are ancient prayers, possibly dating back […]

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