Author Topic: Miscellany of Liturgical Treasures (Read 3121 times)

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #15 on:** June 01, 2011, 10:10:19 PM »

Quote from: Pyrrhos

Hobbledehoy, do you know about any literature that deals particularly with the Carthusian Rite? I could only find some pages in other books at the best. Apart from the Mozarabic Rite, they seem to have to most unique liturgy in the western sphere.

I know that Archdale King discusses the Carthusian Rite in a section of his book The Liturgies of the Religious Orders. He even has photographs. It was published in 1955.

He discusses the Mozarabic Rite in his book The Liturgies of the Primatial Sees. He has photographs pertinent to this Rite too.

The Carthusians are interesting. They boast (well, in a good way) that they are the only Order that was not reformed because it did not need a reform.

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #16 on:** July 02, 2011, 02:57:11 AM »

HAPPY FEAST DAY OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY!

The Second Joyous Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Visitation of the same glorious Lady unto her kinswoman St. Elizabeth, enshrines many beautiful and sublime mysteries, so as to make us cry forth in rapt adoration with St. Paul, "O depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God: how incomprehensible are His judgments, and His ways unsearchable!" (Rom. xi. 33). For herein do we find revealed the inestimable and ineffable works of grace that Our Lord deigned to operate in Mary, with Mary, and through Mary; and all the heresies and errors that have insulted the majesty of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary are here utterly refuted and overthrown.

It would be well to lend ear to what Rev. Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange has to say regarding this Mystery: “Mary, who was to give birth to the Savior, brought grace to Elizabeth and to the unborn precursor. Mary herself had been redeemed in an absolutely exceptional manner by the future merits of her Son and she concurred in the redemption of us all. From the moment of her immaculate conception she had been redeemed by a sovereign redemption, being preserved from original sin instead of being healed of it. It was fitting that a perfect Redeemer should accomplish a sovereign and preservative redemption in at least one soul, and in that soul more closely associated with Him than any other in the work of man’s salvation. Truly, what Jesus merited for us in justice, Mary has merited for us with Him and in Him and by Him through the merit of congruity. In this sense it has pleased our Lord that no one should be saved except in consideration of the merits of His Mother. In the same sense it has pleased Him to sanctify the precursor by Mary’s words” (The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus, “The Mysteries of the Rosary”).

Before the great Dominican theologian, St. Alphonsus in his celebrated work, The Glories of Mary, wrote, “And now, if all these first-fruits of Redemption passed through Mary as the channel through which grace was communicated to the Baptist, the Holy Ghost to Elizabeth, the gift of prophecy to Zachary and so many other blessings to the whole house, the first graces that to our knowledge the Eternal Word had granted on earth after the Incarnation, it is quite correct to believe that thenceforward God made Mary the universal channel, as she is called by St. Bernard, through which all the other graces that our Lord is pleased to dispense to us should pass” (Part II, discourse V).

The consecrated Virgins of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, daughters of St. Bridget, have a very beautiful Office for the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in their Breviary. The antiphons found therein testify to the fact that, as St. Alphonsus reports, this Feast was also known as that of “Our Blessed Lady of Graces.”

At First Vespers, this very beautiful antiphon at the Magnificat―that sublime Canticle of adoration and thanksgiving that welled forth from the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin at the sight of the wonders her Son had wrought and had still to work in her, with her and through her―very beautifully echoes the praise of the Our Lady in her Canticle, and lauds the heavenly Lord for having elevated Mary above all other creatures, and for having given us as our dear Mother―so that at the Visitation the Blessed Virgin already began exercising that maternal authority that was given her by Our Crucified Lord at the foot of the Cross (S. John. xix. 26):

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May the King of the celestial armies be magnified, Who hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden, Who hath magnified her above all things which He created: may the benign charity be unceasingly praised of He Who hath constituted her as Mother of charity for us.

At Second Vespers, the antiphon at the Magnificat hails Our Lady, who, in a greater and truer sense than St. Paul, became all things to all men (I Cor. ix. 22):

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Eternally rejoice, O Mother inviolate, who art made all to all things: utmost glory unto the Trinity, gladness unto the Angels, liberator unto the captives, healer unto the languishing, consoler unto the desolate, supporter unto the just, helper unto the condemned, Mother unto the Son of God; blessed be thou everlastingly, and blessed be the Fruit of thy womb.

Being mindful of the truth so beautifully sung by the daughters of St. Bridget, St. Alphonsus exhorts us to have recourse to this Mediatress of All Graces, “If we, then, desire graces, we must go to this treasurer and dispenser of graces; for it is the sovereign will of the giver of every good thing.” And the same consecrated Virgins tenderly cry forth unto her in the antiphon at the Benedictus at Lauds:

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Mary, O Mary, thou principal gem of all sanctity: grant us to humbly serve thee, and be preserved from the thousands of thousands of wiles of the ancient enemy, O Mary.

Finally, the Office for the Feast of the Visitation has this Collect not found in the Roman Missal:

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Almighty, everlasting God, Who out of the abundance of charity didst inspire Blessed Mary the Virgin, impregnated with Thy Son, to salute Elizabeth: grant, we pray; that by her Visitation we may be filled with heavenly gifts, and be freed from all adversities.

Let us never weary of crying forth unto Mary in all our necessities, and may the innumerable graces, excellencies and glories wherewith she has been so ineffably exalted be to us so many reasons to render selfless adoration and thanksgiving unto God almighty, whose infinite and eternal charity fashioned for Himself and for us such a great Mother.

Sources

Breviarium Sacrarum Virginum Ordinis Sanctissimi Salvatoris, vulgo Santæ Birgittæ; horas Deiparæ Virginis per ferias distributas continens opus pium et omnibus eidem Virgini devotis ob Sermones Angelicos accommodatissimum; jussu Illustrissimi et Reverendissimi Domini Episcopi Plymuthensis, Monasterii de Syon Ordinarii denuo typis impressum. Rome, Tournai, Paris: Desclée & Socii, 1908.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori. The Glories of Mary. Ed. Rev. Father Eugene Grimm. 3rd Reprint Revised. Brooklyn, NY: Redemptorist Fathers, 1931.

Garrigou-Lagrange, Rev. Father Reginald. The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus. Trans. Sister Jeanne Marie, O. P. Vol. 2. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1951.

Vladimir · « **Reply #17 on:** July 03, 2011, 06:06:32 PM »

Hobbledehoy,

You wouldn't happen to know where to find a pre-VII Latin-Vietnamese missal would you. Or Latin-Chinese (preferably traditional characters)?

Vladimir · « **Reply #18 on:** July 03, 2011, 06:14:29 PM »

i find a site for traditional/simplified Chinese/Latin and English/Latin:

http://www.chinese-catholic.com/

Deo Gratias

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #19 on:** July 03, 2011, 06:47:06 PM »

Quote from: Vladimir

Hobbledehoy,

You wouldn't happen to know where to find a pre-VII Latin-Vietnamese missal would you. Or Latin-Chinese (preferably traditional characters)?

That would be an exceedingly rare book! I have never seen one myself personally.

I saw one once on AbeBooks.com for several hundreds dollars. I searched for one moments ago on the usual bookseller sites, and I could not find one.

I will keep at least one eye open for one. But I'm glad you found that website!

I must have a very benign Angel Guardian, because most tomes for which I have yearned I have managed to obtain somehow.

That reminds me of a good devotion for book-seekers: whensoever you wish to obtain a tome, have recourse to your Angel Guardian and your celestial Patrons (or Patronesses); the Holy Souls will obtain great things for those who liberate them from the prison-house of Purgatory, so it willmay be of great help to say recite the De profundis, the Miserere, the Dies irae, the Office of the Dead, the Rosary, or offer Holy Mas for them.

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #20 on:** July 04, 2011, 03:03:55 PM »

I found another interesting book by the great Anglo-Catholic scholar, Dr. John Mason Neale:

Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences.

:reading:

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #21 on:** July 16, 2011, 01:25:14 AM »

Proper Preface of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

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Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutáre, nos tibi semper, et ubíque grátias ágere: Dómine sancte, Pater omnípotens, ætérne Deus: Qui per nubem levem, de mari ascendéntem, immaculátam Vírginem Maríam beáto Elíæ Prophétæ mirabíliter præsignásti: eíque cultum a fíliis prophetárum præstári voluísti. Quos autem beáta Virgo hodiérna die per sacrum Scapuláre, in fílios dilectiónis assúmpsit, eodémque indútos, ac pie moriéntes, ad montem sanctum tuum quantócius perdúcere dignéris. Et ídeo cuм Angelis et Archángelis, cuм Thronis et Dominatiónibus, cuмque omni milítia cæléstis exércitus, hymnum glóriæ tuæ cánimus, sine fine dicéntes: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, &c.

Truly it is worthy and just, becoming and healthful, that we should ever and everywhere make thanksgiving unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God: Who by a light cloud, ascending from the sea, didst wonderfully foreshadow the spotless Virgin Mary unto the blessed Prophet Elias, and didst will that the sons of the prophets should pay homage unto her; whom, moreover, the blessed Virgin on this day hath taken up as children of predilection by the sacred Scapular, and those dying, devoutly clothed in the same, Thou dost deign to lead more speedily unto Thy holy Mountain; and therefore together with the Angels and Archangels, with the Thrones and Dominions, and together with all the warriors of the celestial hosts, do we sing the hymn of Thy glory, endlessly proclaiming: Holy, Holy, Holy, &c.

This Preface, taken from the Missal of the Friars of the Order of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel according to the Ancient Custom of the Church of Jerusalem [The Missal According to the Carmelite Rite in Latin and English for Every Day in the Year, published at Rome by the Vatican Polyglot Press in 1953, having an Imprimi potest given by Rev. Fr. Kilian E. Lynch, Prior General of the Carmelite Order, at Rome, 12 June 1953], alludes to the celebrated sign of the coming of Our Blessed Lady, narrated in the Epistle for the Mass of the Solemn Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel proper to this same Missal. The Lord God had stricken Israel with a drought in punishment for its apostasy, and the impious Achab falsely blames the Prophet Elias for the consequent famine, at which he commands Achab to gather atop Mount Carmel the prophets of the idol Baal, whom by a great sign of the heavenly fire he shows to be false and has them slain. Afterwards, “Elias went up into the top of Carmel, and flat on the earth put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant: Go up, and look toward the sea. Who when he was gone up, and had looked, he said: There is nothing. And again he said to him: Return seven times. And in the seventh time, behold, a little cloud as it were a man’s foot, came up from the sea. Who said: Go up and say to Achab: Yoke thy chariot and go down, lest the rain prevent thee. And when he turned himself hither and thither, behold, the heavens were darkened, and clouds and wind, and there fell a great rain” (III Kings ch. xviii., 42-45).

The little cloud beheld by the servant of the blessed Prophet, whom the Carmelites venerate as their Father Founder, has been regarded by the Saints and pious authors as an echo of the grand prophecy of the Redemption that the Lord deigned to give unto Adam and Eve when he cursed the serpent: “I will put enmities between thee and the Woman, and thy seed and the Seed of her: she shall bruise thy head in pieces, and thou shalt lie in wait of her heel” (Gen. ch. iii., 15). This little cloud is a happy portent of that victory which the Blessed Lady Mary ever Virgin wrought at the Incarnation and consummated on Mount Calvary, when Our Savior gave her to us as our new Mother, greater than Eve: “Woman, behold thy son” (S. John xix. 26). This truth is beautifully expressed in a Responsory found in the Bridgettine Breviary:

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℟. Mother Eve, consenting to the enemy, removed herself together with her husband from glory, exchanging life for death; whose happy daughter, obeying God, hath overthrown the enemy, hath restored glory, hath driven away death, * And hath brought back life.
℣. Praise and glory be unto God, Who to a frail mother gave such a daughter, who hath also been made the Mother of her Creator, * And hath brought back life.

This glorious victory is praised in the Introit in the same Mass: “How beautiful are thy steps, O daughter of the Prince!” (Cant. ch. vii., 1), that is to say, how glorious are those sacred steps by which thou, O Blessed Mother, didst bruise and break into pieces the head of the ancient serpent, not only once but many times whensoever by thy patronage and tutelage the just overcome temptations, sinners are liberated from the servitude of Belial, and faithful Christians attain to the glory of Paradise. These wonders the Blessed Virgin accomplishes by means of the holy Scapular, which the Prefaces mentions as a token of Our Lady’s predilection and the speedy means by which souls arrive to Heaven, symbolized by the holy Mountain of God. The imagery of the holy Mountain well becomes today’s Feast, as this Mountain can be taken to mean Mount Carmel, as the Offertory verse of the same Mass says: “I brought you into the land of Carmel, that you might eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof” (Jer. ch. ii., 7).

Let us consecrate ourselves anew to this glorious Lady, the Virgin Mother of God, whom the Lord has constituted as the Mediatress of all graces and the rightful Sovereign of the heavens and the earth. It is only proper that we adore Our Lord for the excellencies and glories wherewith He has endowed Our Blessed Mother, and give our entire beings unto Him through her by whom He gave Himself unto us. As the little cloud announced the great torrents that vivified the parched land of Israel, so let us allow the Holy Scapular to be an authentic token of the torrents of graces that the Blessed Virgin bestows upon her faithful servants. And thus shall we be lead unto that celestial Carmel wherein we shall behold the Our Lord and His Virgin Mother and praise them everlastingly.

Pyrrhos · « **Reply #22 on:** July 16, 2011, 01:49:12 AM »

Thank you sooo much for this! You should really write devotional books based on liturgical texts!