Requiem aternam....

I'm using my brother's wireless today, and I have lots of news. 

Firstly, They are having a high mass of requiem on All Souls Day, November 2nd at 7:00 PM. Tell your friends and spread the news!This'll be the first non-novus ordo requiem I'll have attended in about two or three years. I'm wondering if there will be unbleached candles.

Also, we're having a parish mission on the 26th-27th. The last one was great, Hopefully this year's preacher will be as good as the last one.

Last week I started my aspirancy with These Guys. I spent the weekend at the monastery. It was great, cold weather and a rather unfriendly pet cat notwithstanding.I was given a tour of both the monastery and S.Charles' seminary on City Line ave.  Both have wonderful libraries.

These Guys now have weekly solemn vespers using the Liber Usualis. I went on the feast of the Maternity of the B.V.M., and it was good, if a bit shaky. Somehow, I forgot to bring my Liber with me, but I'll bring it next time.

And speaking of chant,I learned some of the requiem propers and the propers for Christ the King. Both have rather simple introits, but the gradual of the requiem mass threw me off halfway through.

And getting back to the main topic, I have questions for anyone who might know the answers:

1) Is it permissible to have reliquaries on the altar during a sung requiem, or do they have to be removed? What about flowers?

2)Is the catafalque obligatory for requiems on all souls day, or is it just optional?

3)If not, do you still have the absolution after mass, even without the catafalque?

This is a Post about the Rosary.

The Secret of the Rosary,S.Louis Marie de Montfort.

"To commend his own love towards us, and to bring to nought the wisdom of men, God was pleased to take flesh of a woman, albeit a virgin, that he might bring like against like, heal by opposites, pluck out the poisonous thorn, and blot out mightily the handwriting of our sin that was against us. Eve was a thorn, Mary is a rose. Eve is a thorn that pierceth, Mary is a rose that charmeth all the senses. Eve was a thorn that fixed death into all, Mary is a rose that bringeth health to all. Mary was a white rose through her virginity, and a red rose through her love. She was white in her flesh, red in her mind ; white in that she followed the path of grace, red in that she trod down sin ; white by the purity of her affection, red by the mortification of her body ; white by her love for God, red by her compassion for her neighbour.

The Word was made flesh, and dwelleth even now among us. He dwelleth in our memory. He dwelleth in our thought. He hath come down even unto our imagination ; and how sayest thou doth he so? By lying in the manger, by nestling in his Mother's breast, by preaching upon the mountain, by remaining all night in prayer to God, by hanging upon the Cross, by turning pale in death, by going down free among the dead and triumphing in hell, by rising again the third day, by shewing to the Apostles the places of the nails, the marks of his victory, by ascending up into heaven while they all beheld him―of which of these things think we not with truth, with godliness, with holiness? If I think of any of these, I think of God, and he is my God through them all. To think of these things I have decreed to be wisdom, and to set forth the memory of their sweetness I have judged to be prudence. The rod of Aaron the Priest brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds ; but these things are the almonds of that Rod which came forth out of the stem of Jesse, the Rod whereof sprang the flower, a Rod which was raised in Mary into places higher than the earthly tabernacle, higher indeed, even into places higher than angels, since she received the Word into herself out of the very heart of the Eternal Father."

Sermon of S.Bernard, abbot.
And for fun, a Sarum Office of the Rosary.

Well, is'nt that something?

"-1568 AD-ITALY- The Rosary prayers - Ave - are now approved and incorporated into the reformed Roman Breviary by Pope Pius V with the bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices. This followed their usage by the Mercedarians (1514), the Camaldolese (1515) and the Franciscans in (1525)"

(Source)
So when you use the Hail Mary in the Liturgy of the Hours, you know who to thank. I wonder if they know this? (Well, they probably know Now.)

Pater noster, qui es en cieux...

(Photo Credits)

Some readers might know that have an interest with medieval life,especially devotional practices, and one thing I've always like are medieval Paternosters ,now known to us as rosaries. Their paternosters were quite different than our modern rosaries, because the rosary as a prayer hadn't yet been standardised. So you find three-decade rosaries of seven beads each, or six-decade rosaries of five-beads, etc. Most consisted of two decades of a certain number of beads, with a 'Gaud' bead used for the paters and glorias, and smaller beads of a different color used for the Aves.
The archetypical medieval rosary, the one you see so many pictures of seems to usually be of red coral or glass with bone or rock-crystal gauds, strung on a silk cord and either a tassel at one end and a medal or cross at the other, or a tassel on both ends.

Since don't know where to buy one of these, and I've always wanted one, I decided to make one myself. Since my mother has a large collection of old, broken and ruined jewelry, the materials were free, and I was able to make three paternosters.

The first one is the only one I really like and will probably use. It's made of large black agate Aves with alternating rock crystal and amber gauds, a silver tau cross, and a black tassel. It's heavy,but easy to use, and it's one of the rare rosaries that don't look like they're being marketed to suburban teen-age girls who still listen to Avril Lavine**

The other is the stereotypical rosary with red glass Aves, clear glass gauds, a plain silver cross on one end and a medal on the other. The beads are kinda small, so the whole thing is small, and the medal does'nt match.(It's gold-plated.) I would really rather have the medal and a tassel, but there isn't another tassel.

The third is'nt nice, but I had extra beads. It's made of rock crystal Aves and gauds with a brass greek cross on one end and nothing on the other end,while I look for my miraculous medal.


*She's a traitor. She claims she never sang punk, when we were all there when the albums came out. She never had any problem with being punk, but now she wants to be poppy and her music is unworthy of listening. A pox and all that.

Hey guess what! Hey guess what?

Hey, guess what?!
I broke my computer again!
I think this is my fifth time breaking it. Well, I somehow ruined the sound hardware on my laptop. The battery is shot too, and the space-bar has been sticking. My dad is trying to convince me to eventually just get another laptop, but this one is only two years old, and except for the screen, the keyboard,the sound, and occassional preventable crashes , it's fine! It's the fastest in the house and has the most memory So I refuse to give it up

How to destroy your religious order...

..in three easy steps:
1)Embrace secularism
2) Make your religious life no different than practical atheism
3 ) Proclaim that the ensuing decline and death of your order is a good thing.

Sic transit, sic transit...