I don't get it either.

Hm? Please explain. I've noticed it a lot, it's become even a stereotype. I don't know where it comes from.

Relics.

Relics at S.Peter's Basilica on All Saint's Day.

I've often wondered where people get relics from. Not just priests, there are lots of laypeople, even some I know who have them. I'd like to have one some day, maybe of one of my patron saints, like S. Nicholas of Tolentine, or S.Cecilia.( Or the rarest of all, of the True Cross. Greely and McBrien will recant their heresy before I get the last when.)
Interestingly enough, and yes, I'm, outing you guys, when I walked into the sacristy this morning before mass, there was a whole mess of reliquaries on the top shelf of the vestments cabinet-maybe about 12 of em'. Two had relics , and the rest were empty. I've never seen them before, so I suppose they're new.They were shaped like This.

I failed.I'm sorry.

I've decided to try out for the baseball team. I promised myself I wouldn't play baseball ever, that I was never good at baseball, and that's why I super-failed at it so many years ago. But I figure I'll be fine, as the school team is'nt that good to begin with. Unless I do something really stupid, I should be okay.
Time to work on pitching.
So If you hear anything about a small private school in Philadelphia who's baseball team loses a game or something due to a gaffe by a player, it could be me.
For that, I apologize in advance.

Just a Reminder!

There are some people that just shouldn't be alive.
She ain't too pretty either.
Actually, Forget the PC-ness. She makes my eyes hurt,and my retinas are screaming in pain for the torture I've just forced them to undergo. Sorry little guys! I promise no more photos mind-numbingly phsycho, headache-causingly stupid, horrifyingly unsightly people.

*Headdesk*

I overslept. But I figured I'd be okay, it was only 7:00 anyway. Okay then, so I leave the house at 7:35, just in time to get to the end of the block and see my bus drive past. A block away.Without me in it.
But I figured I'd be okay, it was 7:40. I'd be a little late for school, but I could take the subway. So I take out my breviary and say lauds during the 10 minute walk to the subway station*, stopping by a store to get some daily caffeine. I get there just in time to see my train go past, and realize that I don't have my SEPTA pass anyway. It's 7:53. But I figured I'd be fine.Okay, new plan: go home, get pass, grab an apple tart, catch a different bus, catch a different train and miss most of my first class. I get home and look at the clock.
It's already past 8:30.
And I knew I failed. That's it. Game over. The jig is up. You missed a day of school again. All because you wanted apple tarts at 11:30 the night before, and just had to make some.
*Slams head on the desk repeatedly*
* Yeah, about that. The nearest subway station is only a three minute walk, and a skateboard ride of one minute. But , they're rebuilding it so it's been closed for months.

Go Here.

NOW.

The check is in the mail.

Perscripto in manubus tabellariorum est

He's right, it is better in Latin.

Now, back to my little art project.

Ritual Notes.

No, not this kind or this kind.
(Though both are good reads.)
Instead of posting them in the Ship all the time, I'll put em' here.

Vigil of the Epiphany:
Sung mass with incense. I served this mass.
-The best gold gothic set, with the tudor rose patern.
-Kalends!
-Sorry, the bell broke at the elevation of the host. My bad.

Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord:

-It was the cloth-of-gold Roman* chasuble again, the one that looks like it's the same one S.Clem's uses on Epiphany.
- This is something new. Now there's a master of ceremonies. He took father's biretta and held his vestments as he went up the altar, and helping with the laying on of incense and incensation of the altar. He's wearing the festal surplice, with the lace. I still think mine is better. It's much more Roman than his.
-Missa Secunda for the mass setting. It's good to see that the choir director is finally using whole polyphonic mass settings instead of just parts.
-The kalends is sung! Very nice, though I liked it better with Fr. Matthew at the vigil mass.
-"We Three Kings of Orient are" at the offertory. Very nice three-part choral setting, even nicer descant to finish it off.
-More M.C. , now helping Fr. by turning the pages of the missal and lifting the chasuble at the elevations.
-" In the Bleak Midwinter" I can't beleive that people hate this. I love this piece, especially this setting.
- Veneration of the image of the bambino at the altar rail while singing " As With Gladness Men of Old".
- Good ol' BWV 572 to finish off.

*Actually, it's a German cut. Don't be fooled, not all fiddlebacks are Roman chazzies.

Happy feast day!

Today is the feast of one of Philly's own saints. Yup, S.John Neumann, one of our bishops,a confessor. Instead of reciting vespers, I sang vespers from the common, with that wonderful to chant antiphon on the magnificat, Iste est fideles et prudens dispensator. I wanted to sop by the shrine for a visit to his relics, but alas, it was'nt to happen.
Some of you might know that last year, his relics, which are set under the alar of the shrine for the veneration of the faithful.) were reclothed. Previously, he was in a horrid 70's looking cassock-alb, polyester chasuble. and short polyster mitre. Now, he wears a whhite brocade roman chasuble, stole and maniple, and a silk pontifical dalmatic and tunicle. He wears episcopal gloves and the old episcopal ring with the stone, and a better gold-trimmed mitre. The alb has some lace which shows his choir cassock. I wonder if they got that historically correct? (Oversleeves and all that.)

Hmmm........

Well, some of you might know that one of my hobbies is music. Well, there were discussions last week at the first Friday mass/ social of putting together another youth/junior choir to sing at that mass. I think there used to be a junior choir at Lourdes, but it just kind of, I unnoh, disappeared.Tis could be interesting. I might even get involved, even though my expereince with liturgical music is a bit limited. I wonder if they'd be interested in my settings of the propers in English?
Hmmm....

Go Here.

NOW.

Chesty.

No, not that kind, this kind. A homicidal piece of furniture with the mind of a six year old who wants to kill you because you wouldn't be his Super Best Friend.
I love fable II. I love Chesty. I love Super Best Friends.
Be aware, a blog name change is coming.

Semi-ranty tips on how to receive communion.

1) WASH YOUR FREAKING HANDS!
If you receive communion in the hands, please wash your hands. There's nothing like seeing someone come up for communion with visibly dirty hands. You know that you'll see in a lot of ancient churches, in many of the Roman basilicas, that the holy water fonts are huge. More like deep basins than little bowlettes. This was because the faithful would wash their hands in he water before the liturgy so at they could receive communion with outwardly clean hands. (One of the many things that some of those behind the movement for communion in the hand apparrently did not like about how i was originally done, and thus did not restore.)
A freind of mine keeps some Purell in her bag and washes her hands with it at the Agnus Dei.
Go and do likewise.

2) CLEAN YOUR FREAKING MOUTHS!
If you receive communion on the toungue, pleas take the time to brush your teeth before mass. No one wants to see what you had for breakfast or dinner stiking all about your teeth when you receive communion. Get some Listerine and wash your mouth too. No one wants to smell said food, along with countless other unpleasant odours when you receive communion.

3) MAKE IT CLEAR HOW YOU'RE RECEIVING!
Please make it clear so the preist and theh server with the communion paten is'nt left guessing. Fold your hands a waist level if you're receiving on te toungue, and at chest level already folded if your receiving on the hands. Please Don't fold your hands at chin level if you're receiving on the tougue, as it makes it impossible for the server to put the communion paten under your chin.
And please Don't put your hands at waist level if you're receiving in the hands, as the server often ends up iting the ciborium of your hands with the paten when they are that low.

4) PLEASE CONSUME THE HOST IN FRONT OF US!
Sheesh, I can only run nervously after some dimwit person who deciedes to casually pluck the host in their mouth at some point between the altar and their pew before I'm racking up sins.
Just make it abundantly clear as much as you can that you do plan to eat the host . Follow the law and put the host in your mouth immediaely, while in the prescence of the priest and his server. Same goes if you receive on the toungue. Make it abundantly clear as much as you can that you do plan to eat the host .

5) STICK OUT YOUR TOUNGUE!
Don't just make a tiny little slit with your mouth. Open it as much as you can, and stick out your toungue as much as possible, or the host won't fit.

6) ALWAYS USE BOTH HANDS!
If you can't, then jus receive on the toungue, I's unsafe to receive in the hands if you don't have both hands, as it's too easily for you to drop the host/not hold it properly/not be able to put it in your mouth properly.

8) Don't forget the sign of reverance!
Unless you receive communion kneeling, you have to bow or genuflect in adoration before receiving communion. Just the rules.

Just me rambling after serving mass again and taking greif from communicants. [/semi-ranty directions.]

12th Night Party.

On the Real 12th night. I'll be going. You should go too if you can, or at least have your own if you can't!
Sitting here learning the chant for second vespers of the epiphany, as I sing vespers on special occasions.
Nearing the end of all the Oofuri chapters there are on onemanga.

Holy Name of Jesus

"For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:6 Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. 8 He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. 9 For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: 10 That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:11 And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."
Phillipians 2:5-11
Remember, even in the modern Roman rite, priests and other liturgical ministers are still required to bow the head at the name of Jesus whenever it occurs in the liturgy. Sad fact that many priests decide to dispense themselves of this rule on their own authority because they think it's it 'medieval' or 'fussy'.
Pray the Litany of the Holy Name, the hymn 'Iesu Dulcis Memoria', or the Psalter of Jesus in reparation for blaspemies against the Holy Name today!