The Sacred Liturgy – Page 18 – The World is Quiet Here

The World is Quiet Here

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 […]

Our 2018 in Review

31 December 2018 2018 transitions in Tacoma, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg, Blog Ephemera, Camino, community, Deacon James Fish, Deacon Mike Teskey, Family, Francine my love, Fun, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Pistachio House, Rev. Caleb Insco F.S.S.P., Rev. Francis Xavier Kikomeko, Rev. Martin Bourke, Rev. Michael Stinson F.S.S.P., Rev. Michael Wagner, Rev. Nicholas Wichert, Sacred Liturgy Conference

This has been a crazy year. Here at Pistachio House, we had designated 2018 as the “Year of Hygge“. This was going to be the year that we concentrated on coziness. Pistachio House would be finally made into the cozy home we imagined. There would be coffee cake, walks, and new furnishings. It started out strongly enough, and it certainly […]

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 […]

Rorate Mass Resources – in the Ordinary Form

12 December 2018 Chant, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, inside baseball, Latin, Mary, resources, The Sacred Liturgy

Last year about this time, our parish of Holy Rosary celebrated a Rorate Mass in the Ordinary Form. And what, pray tell, is a Rorate Mass? The name comes from the opening words of the Entrance Antiphon, Rorate cæli desuper, Latin for “Drop down dew, ye heavens”. The Rorate Mass is a Solemn Votive Mass in honor of the Blessed […]

The Advent of Advent

01 December 2018 Annual, Divine Office, Seasons

Advent begins with tonight’s vespers, and tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent. Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, and His glory fills all the earth. (Magnificat Antiphon for I Vespers on the First Sunday of Advent, Monastic Diurnal) Not sure exactly what Advent is? Here’s a two-minute snapshot. Meanwhile, I’m doing my annual fumbling to remember […]

Advent Vespers

29 November 2018 Annual, Chant, community, Divine Office, Holy Days, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma

This Advent, as in past years, our parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be chanting Vespers on Sunday evenings. Because of the damage to our beautiful church, this year we’re celebrating Vespers the school auditorium. I know, I know, the poster says the chapel, but we decided at the last moment that the chapel perhaps wouldn’t hold everybody. The […]

Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning!

14 November 2018 Chant, Dom Matthew Britt O.S.B., History, Holy Days, Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma, Prayer, The Sacred Liturgy

Appropriate to today – the Feast of All Souls of the Benedictine Order – we once again have the Dies Iræ, the traditional sequence for Requiem Masses and the Masses of All Souls. Today we pray for the souls of all Benedictine monks, nuns, sisters, and oblates in purgatory. Most probably written by Servant of God Thomas of Celano near […]

Chants of the Masses of All Souls

31 October 2018 Annual, Chant, Holy Days, Latin, The Sacred Liturgy

Can we talk about Gregorian chant? Because All Souls Day – coming up on November 2nd – has some doozies. I confess that I was a fan of chant long before I was a Catholic. In part, God used the beauty of this kind of music to draw me to Him. Specific chants are prescribed for each Mass in both […]

The Feast of Saint Luke

18 October 2018 Annual, Chant, Divine Office, Saints

Saint Luke is my kind of writer. Luke the historian and Luke the lyrical poet are both in evidence in his New Testament writings, his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He freely admits that he never met Christ in the flesh, that he was not a witness to the events he describes in his Gospel. Like any good […]

« 1 … 16 17 18 19 20 … 37 »