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Text of the page (random words):
es of christmas now let us discuss the masses of christmas pope telesphorus established that three masses be celebrated on christmas he wished the night mass to be celebrated in order to show that the one who was born at night is the same as the one immolated on the altar and in memory of the angels who sang on that night the angelic hymn gloria in excelsis deo the author of the liturgy also wanted a mass celebrated in the morning in order to manifest the entry of the new light into the world and because the father sanctified him from the moment of his conception therefore the sacrifice is offered at the moment the light breaks or else it is on account of the shepherd s visit where they found the little child lying in a manger for the souls of the saints are fed from it daily a third mass is celebrated at the third hour around nine in the morning to maintain the usual order of mass these three masses signify three times of the world for it is certain that the three ages of the world are saved by this unique birth the night mass signifies the time before the law when the human race was wrapped in the shadows of ignorance that is why at the mass we chant and read the people of the nations that walked in darkness the dawn mass expresses the time of the law in which the light of faith is manifested to the world through the scriptures therefore at dawn is sung and said lux fulgebit a light will shine the third mass celebrated during the day at the third hour denotes the day of salvation and the time of grace when christ is born therefore in the day is sung and said puer natus est nobis a child is born to us which recalls a passage in leviticus you shall eat the oldest of the old store and new coming on you shall cast away the old lv 26 10 the oldest is the natural law the old store is the mosaic and the new is the law of the gospel the natural law taught mankind to know god so the first mass speaks of the eternal generation of christ the mosaic law promised the birth of our lord hence in the second mass we say lux fulgebit the light of the gospel proclaims our lord s birth so in the third mass we say puer natus est nobis this recalls a poem on christmas what do the sacred rites of the mass signify and why are they celebrated here you have it the first at night the next at first light the last in full day noe the temple and christ each had sacred rites night dawn day shadow figure god the first mass pertains to the secret generation i e from the father s substance which was from a father without a mother that is why it is sung at night for who shall declare his generation is 53 8 or because men who lived before the law were almost entirely ignorant of it that is why we sing in it hodie today and before the daystar i begot thee the second pertains to the generation from the virgin s womb which is from a mother without a father therefore it is sung at dawn because men under the law had a partial knowledge of it thus we sing in it a light will dawn upon us today for the lord has been born unto us the third pertains to both which is clear from its gospel where the eternal generation is mentioned here in the beginning was the word and the temporal generation where it says the word was made flesh this mass is sung in the daytime because men in the age of grace had a fuller knowledge of the godhead through his temporal birth since one comes to the father through knowledge of the son sicard mitrale v 6 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading gerhard eger translations 1 comment december 25 2025 3 minutes advent sale starting today until christmas all copies of our office of the dead booklet are offered at the discounted price of us 7 and the english and spanish versions of our traditional roman compline booklet at the discounted price of us 8 the psalterium romanum is offered at 15 for the paperback and 37 for the hardcover moreover we are happy to annnounce that libri sancti press is offering the rule of st benedict translated by abbot mccann and a companion to the monastic breviary at the discounted price of us 10 both books contain significant contributions by us share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading gerhard eger uncategorized leave a comment december 1 2025 december 1 2025 1 minute usuarium a new era of liturgical research some of our readers may know usuarium a digital library and database for the study of latin liturgical history in the middle ages and early modern period this is the world s premiere repository of latin liturgical books and one of the largest medieval databases on any subject with over a million entries the goal of usuarium is a structured description of liturgical divergence from the high middle ages to the council of trent comprehensive both geographically and liturgically the geographical scope comprises all the dioceses monasteries religious orders and other ecclesiastical institutions that have left written records of their ritual life the liturgical scope extends to every component of each ceremony of the mass divine office and occasional rites the interface is equipped with tools that enable a comparative statistical analysis of medieval uses along with mapping capabilities what introits were the churches of europe saying on saturday of passion week a few clicks will generate a map of the divergences page views of all of these sources are just another click away since the purpose of the database is to facilitate scholarly studies of medieval liturgical diversity we are proud to point out this recent study by sharon kabel on the various forms of the wedding mass in the middle ages kabel set out to compare the traditional nuptial mass to what was practiced in europe before the council of trent the goals of this project are to survey wedding masses before trent to catalog the propers and incipits to compare those results with each other then to compare those results to trent s traditional wedding mass using the usuarium interface kabel tabulated the propers and readings from 219 sources and 165 cities and 17 different countries her results are surprising the wedding mass with the propers we know today did not exist before the missal of 1570 the new tridentine mass in fact replaced a diversity of regional wedding masses each with propers stressing various theological aspects of matrimony intriguingly the most common wedding mass was actually a votive mass of the trinity briefly most regions repurposed some or all of a votive mass for the trinity for their wedding mass some sources even called the wedding mass and the holy trinity mass the same thing or placed them in each other s respective sections in the missal do take a look at her study for a variety of graphs statistics and maps here are some words from her conclusion within the scope of this project trent s deus israel wedding mass was nonexistent before trent regarding both the selection and arrangement of texts the deus israel wedding mass would have been seen as a new iteration of the wedding mass not once did all 7 of the deus israel wedding mass incipits appear together before trent indeed the 4 post 1570 sources in this project spanning 4 countries from 1591 1617 adopted almost nothing from the deus israel mass only 17 of sources used more than one trent incipit almost a third of all incipits came from either 1 corinthians or daniel neither of which appear in trent s selections while there was something lost in the shift from regional diverse wedding masses to one wedding mass filled with lesser used readings there was something gained a votive mass with a unique and uniform identity a key belief of the protestant reformation was that marriage was not a sacrament the church had to counter this swiftly and dramatically perhaps it was time for the wedding massto assume a more distinct identity one that emphasized that marriage was indeed a sacrament an outward sign of god s grace what better way to do that than to proclaim that marriage is not simply a contract but an institution created by god and in need of god s protection kabel s work is a demonstration of the power of the usuarium database which for the first time enables a comprehensive statistical study of the liturgical culture of the latin west share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading aelredus rievallensis uncategorized 4 comments november 20 2025 november 20 2025 3 minutes office of the dead website to encourage prayer for the faithful departed during this octave of all saints and beyond canticum salomonis has collaborated with tithe for tradition to produce an online version of the texts included in our office of the dead booklet which can be accessed hereat like the printed booklet this new website presents the full latin text of the office of the dead according to the 1568 roman breviary together with the additional orisons found in the 1614 roman ritual and a facing english translation with psalm texts from the original douay rheims version and original englishing of the rest in other to further a revival of the ancient and mediæval purgatorial economy tithe for tradition allows the faithful to commission offices of the dead to be said for particular intentions it is fitting to recall that of yore the faithful could obtain an indulgence of seven years for reciting matins and lauds of the dead five years for only one nocturn and lauds five years for vespers and a plenary indulgence for reciting matins at least one nocturn and lauds daily for a month the same indulgences were granted to those present at the recitation of the office of the dead breve ap 2 apr 1921 s paen ap 15 jun 1936 the 1999 enchiridion indulgentiarum grants a partial indulgence for saying lauds or vespers of the dead conc 29 2 2 may these resources aid in the deliverance of an unprecedented number of souls from from purgatory this allhallowtide share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading gerhard eger uncategorized 2 comments november 3 2025 november 3 2025 1 minute john of fécamp s complaint on the last things li l john of fécamp was slight of frame but mighty of soul between saint gregory and saint bernard no man in the middle ages as far as i know was borne to the heights of the mystical life with greater conviction than this forgotten monk wrote dom andré wilmart 1 for despite being one of the most widely read spiritual writers in the age of faith modernity consigned this benedictine abbot to oblivion until in the twentieth century when his fellow black monks dom wilmart and dom jean leclercq building on the pioneering work of the inevitable dom jean mabillon rediscovered his œuvre nevertheless the catholic faithful to day remain regrettably unacquainted with this author offering a modest pebble to help fill this lamentable lacuna we herewith present a translation of his versiculi ad excitandam cordis compunctionem little verses to arouse compunction of heart john was born near ravenna towards the close of the tenth century a time of resurgent monastic reform with cluny in full flower sts romuald and peter damian kindling zeal in italy and bl lanfranc and st anselm lifting their prayers at bec john himself was a disciple of his uncle st william of volpiano whom st majolus of cluny had met in italy and brought northward to his abbey later entrusting him with the reform of the abbey of saint bénigne of dijon thither john followed him and when st william was summoned to rebuild the ruined abbey of fécamp in normandy john accompanied him once more in 1010 john was appointed prior of fécamp and in 1028 became abbot ruling the house until his death on 22 february 1079 he was responsible for amassing a collection of 150 volumes for the abbey s library and made six monastic foundations he was forced to take a rôle in norman politics hastings was a property of fécamp and duke william the bastard sent one of john s monks as a messenger to harold godwinson before undertaking the invasion that made him the conqueror but to john these political responsibilities were an intrusion into his love of contemplation the chronicler of saint bénigne which abbey john briefly governed between 1052 and 1054 praised him while he still lived thus born in italy in the region of ravenna learned in letters and trained in the medicinal arts by st william s own command he was more than anyone else a zealous imitator of william s religious conversation doctrine and all virtues because of his small stature was called by the diminutive sobriquet joannelinus but such grace of humility wisdom discreton and the other virtues shone forth in him that as st gregory relates in his book of dialogues about the priest constantius it was wonderous to behold how so many gifts of god s grace abounded in so small a body but because he still dwells in a house of clay it suffices to have said this much for scripture says praise no man in his lifetime 2 part of john s obscurity is due to his own disclaimer of originality he acknowledged that his works were the result of his ruminations on scripture and the fathers especially sts gregory and augustine describing them once as defloraciunculae little flower pluckings for he skilfully borrowed passages and wove them into a truly living and personal work 3 his libellus de scripturis et uerbis patrum collectus little book gathered from the writings and words of the fathers was transmitted as a work of st augustine himself under the title meditationes john s confessio fidei was printed under alcuin s name and his confessio theologica or tripartita under st john cassian s furthermore dom wilmart contended that the prayers before mass that the roman missal attributes to st ambrose are in fact from john s hand among his minor works are the aforementioned rhythmic verses to inspire compunction as was his wont john says these were collected from the scriptures and indeed nearly all of them are biblical quotations or paraphrases the verses are hexametres with a variable cæsura after the fifth sixth or seventh syllable they are grouped in twelve stanzas of eight lines each with the first and last two verses serving as a refrain the text below is taken from the critical edition prepared by dom wilmart with the scriptural references he identified indicated alongside each verse 4 italics indicate elided vowels isti uersiculi ad excitandam cordis compunctionem de scripturis collecti sunt these little verses to arouse compunction of heart are gathered from the scriptures i heu homo heu homo heu te miser homo alas o man alas o man alas for thee o wretched man cur uiuis aequum cui non est intellectus why dost thou live as one without understanding ps 31 9 ad dei quippe conditus imaginem in god s image forsooth thou wast made gen 9 6 caeleste exemplar rite sequi debes thou must ne...
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