And now,for your consideration..

..That hymn from a while ago. I got some guesses through e-mail, but no one could get it exactly right. The fact that I'm posting it today should make it blatantly obvious what the text is based on.
The author too, is still un-guessed.

Tonight.

At 7:30 PM: Sung vespers, benediction, and Te Deum in thanksgiving for benefits of the past year, at Our Lady of Lourdes.

x3

It's already the third snowfall of the season. At least this one isn't very deep at all.

From the Divine Office

"Glorificamus te,Dei Genitrix,quia ex te natus est Christus; salva* omnes qui te glorificent."
"We Glorify thee, O Mother of God, For of thee Christ was born:save* all who glorify thee"
Magnificat antiphon, Dec.30.


I know. Yikes."Salva omnes". I know this particular antiphon has variants and some exact matches in 14th-15th century breviaries (usually at matins though), so I'll just read it as one of the many pre-17th century texts that match S.Louis de Montfort's incarnational marian theology

Corde Natus ex Parentis..

Like I said, this is one of my favorite Christmas hymns, and the official Latin edition of the modern Roman breviary gives it as the hymn for first and second vespers of the feast of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. (Arguably the oldest Marian feast of the kalendar, and certainly one of the most profound and beautiful of the church's year.)
I'm still using my vesperal, only now, it's onto Christmastide. All of this office is taken from the older liturgical books, including the rather tricky and yet, quite beautiful (both musically and textually) antiphon "O admirabile Commercium", and the magnificat antiphon "Propter nimiam caritatem suam". The latter I've sung in my head so many times, that I have no problem with it.
I'm using it as a text for my meditations as I prepare for my total consecration on the feast day. It's been 33 days, and I hope I've done it right. If not, a short day of devotion tomorrow will hopefully make up for it!

No, you have'nt made a mistake.

I'm trying out three different templates for the next nine days or so. (I found the link for them here. Thanks sir!) (Oh yeah: Go there! When I get my links and stuff back up, he'll be there.)
Feedback is appreciated. I'm actually not too keen on going back to a light text on dark background, as I find it hard to read, but you take the bad with the good. Besides, there's two others.


And can I thank*whoever's responsible for making me think that this operating system does'nt open compressed files without WinZip, when It does? And can I thank the creator of one of the templates I was going to pick,but who did the HTML wrong and neither my brother or I** could fix it? (And he makes templates and Gaia profiles, so he knows quite a bit about coding.)

*Totall no0b at coding, so yeah, the Undertstatement of the Year and all that.


**Insert Kanye West/Taylor Swift interruption joke HERE.

And now,

A musical Interlude.

The world's most underrated composer..

...Is Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.I mean, not his church music (Like his well-played magnificats), but his symphonies, And his wonderful piano concerti. I heard one of his symphonies on Sirius about two months ago, having never heard anything but a few of his choral works, and I got hooked.
Too bad though.

More Goodness.

From the divine office:
"Sancta et intácta Virgo Deum nobis génuit, téneris indútum membris, quem lactáre méruit: omnes ipsum adorémus, qui venit salváre nos."

"The holy and intact Virgin hath borne for us God, endued with tender members,whom she hath merited to suckle:Therefore, adore we all him, who hath come to save us."

-Magnificat antiphon, Vespers of the Holy Innocents.

Ritual Notes.

This is midnight mass and Christmas day.

Midnight:
There were less poinsettias than last year, and I could see the relics among them on the high altar.There were carols before mass (Including my two favorites: "See Amid the Winter's snow", Away in A Manger" sung to 'cradle song', and "Of the Father's Love Begotten".) The vestments were the same set as last year. (The set identical to this one), the cope of which set was worn during the procession.The creche was blessed and a short few minutes of prayer said before it before the procession. The hymn was "Hark! the herald angels sing", with some glorious organ improvisations before and after the last verse. versicle and collect at the high altar, then the ministers put on their maniples, the celebrant his chasuble, and mass began.

I just want to say that I almost died every time the choir sang a portion of the mass. The gloria and the benedictus were the best. (And it was the first time I've ever heard the long version of the gloria, either in life or a recording. And one more comment: How exactly does Haydyn define "Brevis"? The sanctus and benedictus required the priest to wait before continuing the mass, I'll give him that the Kyrie was a good length, but he more than made up for it.)

Going on:

Fr.Joseph gave the homily, and sat in choir with someone else who I've seen around,but don't know.At the offertory, 'Adeste,Fideles" was sung after the offertory antiphon, and the offertory was taken up at the 'orate,fratres'.There were six red torchlights at the consecration. Fr.Joseph helped to give communion, so it went faster than last year.Mozart's "Laudate dominum" and "O magnum mysterium".The blessing was sung, and the recessional was "Joy to the world". The postlude was one of Bach's preludes on "In dulci Iubilo" (There are three, and I don't know which BWV number if was yet.)
I only have one very selfish and Wrong comment: The church was full, and with all the people inside,(Ergo,soft surfaces) the acoustics got deadened. So that lovely reverb we usually get to shape the choral and organ music and make it sound ethereal was gone.

That said, not only was it great, but it was shorter than last year by at least 15-20 minutes, even with a Haydyn mass setting.)

Christmas day:

Not as many people as at last night. In fact, most of the servers did'nt come. The mass was still nice though: The chasuble stole, and maniple from last night's set, and the M.C. wore a surplice matching the celebrant's alb.The processional was the same as from last night, all the propers were sung (No cutting of the introit this year) the mass setting was "de angelis" with credo III .The responsorial psalm was okay I guess, but the alleluia was great. At communion (Of the Father's Love Begotten" was sung after the proper antiphon and psalm. The recessional and postlude were the same as last night.

Christmas day.

A sermon of S.Leo the Great

"Dearly beloved : Unto us is born this day a Saviour. Therefore let us rejoice. Sadness should find no place amongst those who keep the Birthday of Life. For as of this day Life came unto us dying creatures, to take away the sting of death, and to bring the bright promise of joy eternal. And no one is excluded from sharing in this our gladness. For all mankind hath one and the same cause thereof, to wit, that our Lord, the Destroyer of sin and death, because he findeth no one free from condemnation, is come to set everyone free. Rejoice, O saint, for thou drawest nearer thy crown! Rejoice, O sinner, for thy Saviour offereth thee pardon! Rejoice, O Jew, for Messias is come. Rejoice, O Gentile, for God calleth thee to life! Now is come the fulness of time, fixed by the unsearchable counsel of God, when the Son of God took upon him the nature of man, that he might reconcile it to its Maker. Now is come the time when the devil, the inventor of death, is met and beaten in that very flesh which hath been the field of his victory.

When the Almighty Lord entered this field of battle against the devil, he did so in great and wondrous fairness. For against our cruel enemy he opposed not the armament of his uncreate Majesty, but the lowliness of our flesh. He brought against him the very shape and the very nature of our mortality, with this difference only, that he was without sin. For his birth is not like that of the ordinary run of men, of whom there is the saying : No one is clean from stain, not even the day-old babe. In this birth alone no desires of the flesh had place. In this birth alone no consequence of sin had part. A Virgin of the kingly lineage of David was chosen to be the Mother who grew heavy with the sacred Child. She was chosen to conceive this divine and human offspring in her body because already she had conceived him in her soul. And that the unwonted events ordained by the counsel of God might cause her no alarm, she was taught them beforehand when the Angel announced that what was to be wrought in her was of the Holy Ghost, and that to become the Mother of God was not to forego her virgin modesty.

Wherefore, dearly beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Ghost : who for his great love, wherewith he loved us, hath had mercy on us ; and even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, that in him we might be a new creature, and a new workmanship. Let us then put off the old man with his deeds. And, having obtained a share in the Sonship of Christ, let us renounce the deeds of the flesh. Acknowledge, O Christian, thine own dignity, who hast been made partaker of the divine nature, and change not back my misdoing into thy former baseness. Bethink thee whose Body it is whereof thou art made a member, and who is its Head. Be mindful that he hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into God's light and God's kingdom."

Merry Christmas!

Though, apparently not for the Holy Father. I wonder if it was the same lady as last year?
With the pope walking round down on the ground like that, among the crowds, this kind of stuff is an inevitable evil. Oh well, there's nothing that can be done about that. (except for the Solution that Must Not Be Mentioned.)I just sang first vespers (among much distraction. Thanks mom and brother.) I spent most of Monday and Tuesday making garlands for the house (Only real greenery will do! Besides, since the pine,boxwood,and holly come from Cobbs Creek, it's free.) and I spent last night and this morning cleaning and hanging decorations. I decorated my home altar after None, with a gold tablecloth, the usual four candlesticks, and two candelabras. Minus the votive lites, there's 12 candles there. And I have two vases with pine, holly, red and white roses, paperwhites, red poppies, and some little white berries. (I'm avoiding poinsettias this year at all cost.)
And I just heard the choir at King's College, Cambridge, singing Advent Lessons and Carrols on Sirius. Gawd, it's awesomeness X2. The
I'll say matins at home, and be at Lourdes for the procession and high mass at 12:00 midnight.
Also:
A guy from Verizon was suppossed to come today to install a new line, but never showed. So around three, my dad called Verizon to find out why. Turns out, the man came past at 8:30 A.M. (And I was up at 7) to see if he fing the electrial box. He saw that my neighbor's dogs were in the lot nextdoor, and so he left without talking to us or even letting us know that he came by. Wow. What happenned? Did he see dogs and say "Goody! Now I get the whole day off! Sure, I could knock on the door and see if the box is even back there in the first place, then go through the house to the backyard, but that would take, like, effort."

P.S. :

Here's your festal music:

In Dulci Iubilo, S.Karg-Elert

Solemn Vespers, Brompton Oratory.

O Magnum Mysterium, Tomas Luis de Victoria

And the piece de resistance, the great one, the long-waited for thing:

Kyrie, Missa 'O magnum Mysterium', T.L. de Victoria. Sung by Westminster Cathedral Choir, my favorite Catholic choir.

Vigil of Christmas.

"Crástina die delébitur iníquitas terræ: et regnábit super nos Salvátor mundi."
"Tomorrow the iniquity of the earth shall be done away, and the Saviour of the world shall reign over us."
Third antiphon, Lauds.

"And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations. He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice and be joyfull in his salvation. "

"Compléti sunt dies Maríæ ut páreret Fílium suum primogénitum."
"Complete are the days of Mary to give birth to her first-born son."
Benedictus antiphon, lauds.

"Festína, quæsumus, ne tardáveris, Dómine Iesu, ut advéntus tui consolatiónibus sublevéntur, qui in tua pietáte confídunt. Qui vivis."
"Make haste, we beseech thee, O Lord Jesu, that they may be lifted up by the consolations of thy coming, who confide in thy mercy."

Today's collect for the office.....

...Is probably the most beautiful of the advent season:

"Deus, qui hominem delapsum in mortem conspiciens, Unigeniti tui adventu redimere voluisti: praesta, quaesumus, ut qui humili eius incarnationem devotione fatentur,ipsius etiam Redemptoris consortia mereantur."

O God, who beholding man fallen into death, didst will to redeem him by the coming of thine only-Begotten: grant us, we pray thee, that as we profess his Incarnation with humility and devotion,we may likewise merit the fellowship the very same Redeemer."

Thank you, Consilium.

...........................

........Unfinished, and found in this condition in my house.
OH WELL.