Domini res gestas narrare laudare est: Hymns of the Liturgica Horarum

Monday, May 6, 2024

These next three days are rogation days in the Roman calendar, but in this period of rediscovery of our traditions, many may well be asking: what exactly are Rogation days? Rogation days were days which were instituted to appease divine justice, ask for protection, and invoke God's blessing on the harvest. They are divided into the "major" and "minor" rogations, with the latter being the three days before Ascension Thursday -- and hence, this very Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

First, a bit on the origins and the timing of the Rogation days generally:

The Rogation Days are the 25th of April, called Major, and the three days before the feast of the Ascension, called Minor. The Major Rogation, which has no connexion with the feast of St. Mark (fixed for this date much later) seems to be of very early date and to have been introduced to counteract the ancient Robigalia, on which the heathens held processions and supplications to their gods. St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) regulated the already existing custom. The Minor Rogations were introduced by St. Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, and were afterwards ordered by the Fifth Council of Orléans, which was held in 511, and then approved by Leo III (795-816).

-- The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Rogation Days"

Fr. Francis X. Weiser, S.J., further notes the following on the origins of the minor rogation days:

In 470 , during a time of unusual calamities (storms, floods, earthquakes), Bishop Mamertus of Vienne in Gaul originated an annual observance of penitential exercises for the three days before the Feast of the Ascension. With the cooperation of civil authorities he decreed that the faithful abstain from servile work and that this triduum be held as a time of penance, with prayer and fasting. He also prescribed penitential processions (litanies) for each one of the three days. Thus the name "litanies" was given to the whole celebration.

Very soon other bishops of Gaul adopted the new observance. At the beginning of the sixth century it started spreading into neighbouring countries. In 511 the Council of Orleans prescribed it for the Frankish (Merovingian) part of France. The Diocese of Milan accepted the litanies, but held them in the week before Pentecost. In Spain they were observed in the sixth century during the week after Pentecost. The Council of Mainz (813) introduced them to the German part of the Frankish empire... Charlemagne and the Frankish bishops, however, urged Pope Leo III (816) to incorporate these litanies into the Roman liturgy. The pope finally consented to a compromise: the observance of the fast was rescinded, but the penitential procession was approved.

-- Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, p. 41-42

As for the liturgical aspect connected with rogation days, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes:

The order to be observed in the procession of the Major and Minor Rogation is given in the Roman Ritual, title X, ch. iv. After the antiphon "Exurge Domine", the Litany of the Saints is chanted and each verse and response is said twice. After the verse "Sancta Maria" the procession begins to move. If necessary, the litany may be repeated, or some of the Penitential or Gradual Psalms added. For the Minor Rogations the "Ceremoniale Episcoporum", book II, ch. xxxii, notes: "Eadem serventur sed aliquid remissius". If the procession is held, the Rogation Mass is obligatory, and no notice is taken of whatever feast may occur, unless only one Mass is said, for then a commemoration is made of the feast. An exception is made in favour of the patron or titular of the church, of whom the Mass is said with a commemoration of the Rogation. The colour used in the procession and Mass is violet. The Roman Breviary gives the instruction: "All persons bound to recite the Office, and who are not present at the procession, are bound to recite the Litany, nor can it be anticipated".

Lest our readers think this wonderful tradition is but a thing of the past, here's a photograph from a 2017 Rogation day procession in Hungary.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

From the commentary on the second letter to the Corinthians by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop

Saturday, May 4, 2024

From the book of St. Jerome, Priest, against Jovian: Our Lady on Saturday

Benedictio. Per Vírginem matrem concédat nobis Dóminus salútem et pacem. Amen.

Ex libro sancti Hierónymi Presbýteri advérsus Ioviniánum

Apologia ad Pammachium pro lib. adversus Iovinianum, in fine

Christus virgo, Mater vírginis nostri virgo perpétua, mater et virgo. Iesus enim clausis ingréssus est óstiis; et in sepúlcro eius, quod novum et in petra duríssima fúerat excísum, nec ántea quis nec póstea pósitus est. Hortus conclúsus, fons signátus. De quo fonte ille flúvius manat, iuxta Ioël, qui írrigat torréntem vel fúnium vel spinárum: fúnium, peccatórum, quibus ante alligabámur; spinárum, quæ suffócant seméntem patrisfamílias. Hæc est porta orientális, ut ait Ezéchiel, semper clausa et lúcida, opériens in se vel ex se próferens Sancta sanctórum; per quam Sol iustítiæ et Póntifex noster secúndum órdinem Melchísedech ingréditur et egréditur.

Tu autem

R. Felix namque es, sacra Virgo María, et omni laude digníssima:

* Quia ex te ortus est sol iustítiæ, Christus, Deus noster, allelúia.

V. Ora pro pópulo, intérveni pro clero, intercéde pro devóto femíneo sexu: séntiant omnes tuum iuvámen, quicúmque célebrant tuam sanctam commemoratiónem.

R. Quia ex te ortus est sol iustítiæ.

Glória

R. Christus, Deus noster, allelúia.

V. Lord, please bless me.
Benediction. Through the Virgin Mother, the Lord grant us salvation and peace. Amen.

From the book of St. Jerome, Priest, against Jovian
Apologia to Panmachius to the Book against Jovian, at end
Christ is virgin, and the mother of our virgin Christ remains forever virgin, the Virgin Mother. For Jesus entered the world, as he entered the upper room, "the doors being closed", and in his sepulcher, which had been hewn out of the hard rock, "no one had yet been laid", nor was anyone else laid in it afterward. "An enclosed garden a fountain sealed" was Mary. And from that fountain, according to Joel, flows the stream that waters the torrent either of "ropes" or of "thorns". The ropes would be the sins by which we had been bound down; the thorns would be those which choke the householder's seed. Mary is the eastern gate, of which Ezechiel speaks, always closed and luminous, whether concealing in itself or bringing forth from itself the Holy of holies. She is the gate through which the Sun of justice and our High Priest according to the order of Melchisedech goes in and out.
But Thou Lord

R. O Holy Virgin Mary, happy indeed art thou, and right worthy of all praise
* For out of thee rose the Sun of righteousness, even Christ our God, alleluia.
V. Pray for the people, plead for the clergy, make intercession for all women vowed to God. Let all that are making this holy memorial of thee feel the might of thine assistance.
R. For out of thee rose the Sun of righteousness.
Glory be
R. Even Christ our God, alleluia.

Friday, May 3, 2024

Commemoratio Ss. Alexándri, Evéntii et Theodúli Martyrum

Pope St. Alexander I was the sixth Pope of the Catholic Church from c. 108 - c. 119 AD. Most of the information on Pope St. Alexander I is not guaranteed completely accurate. What we do know about him is that he inserted words of institution for the Eucharist in the Canon of the Mass. These words are the ones like such: "The day that He suffered, He took bread into His sacred and venerable hands and lifting the bread to You, His Almighty Father, He gave thanks, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples and said 'Take this, this is my Body..."

He is also attributed to have introduced the use of water mixed with salt to bless homes. He is said to have been martyred by decapitation on the Via Nomentana in Rome. His remains initially rested in the catacombs on the Via Nomentana but were eventually brought to the basilica of Santa Sabina by Pope Pascal I (817-824).

Under Emperor Hadrian, in A.D. 117, Pope Alexander I suffered martyrdom, together with the priests Eventius and Theodulus. Juvenal, bishop of Narni, was executed on May 3, A.D. 377. His Feastday is May 3rd where he and his companions are commemorated in the Mass.

Commemoratio Ss. Alexándri, Evéntii et Theodúli Martyrum

Ant. Fíliæ Ierúsalem, * veníte et vidéte Mártyres cum corónis, quibus coronávit eos Dóminus in die solemnitátis et lætítiæ, allelúia, allelúia.

V. Pretiósa in conspéctu Dómini, allelúia.
R. Mors Sanctórum eius, allelúia.

Orémus.
Præsta, quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus: ut, qui sanctórum tuórum Alexándri, Evéntii, Theodúli atque Iuvenális natalícia cólimus; a cunctis malis imminéntibus, eórum intercessiónibus, líberemur.
Per Dóminum

Commemoration: Ss. Alexándri, Evéntii et Theodúli Martyrum
Ant. Daughters of Jerusalem, * come and see the crowned martyrs, the Lord crowned them in his solemnity and delight, alleluia, alleluia.

V. Precious in the sight of the Lord, alleluia.
R. Is the death of his saints, alleluia.

Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who do keep the birthday of thy holy servants Alexander, Eventius, Theodulus, and Juvenal, may by their prayers be delivered from all evils that presently hang over us.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

From a discourse by Saint Athanasius, bishop On the incarnation of the Word

From a discourse by Saint Athanasius, bishop

On the incarnation of the Word

The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world. Yet it was not as if he had been remote from it up to that time. For there is no part of the world that was ever without his presence; together with his Father, he continually filled all things and places.

Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us. Taking pity on mankind’s weakness, and moved by our corruption, he could not stand aside and see death have the mastery over us; he did not want creation to perish and his Father’s work in fashioning man to be in vain. He therefore took to himself a body, no different from our own, for he did not wish simply to be in a body or only to be seen.

If he had wanted simply to be seen, he could indeed have taken another, and nobler, body. Instead, he took our body in its reality.

Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body; he made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself. In this way he received from mankind a body like our own, and, since all were subject to the corruption of death, he delivered this body over to death for all, and with supreme love offered it to the Father. He did so to destroy the law of corruption passed against all men, since all died in him. The law, which had spent its force on the body of the Lord, could no longer have any power over his fellow-men. Moreover, this was the way in which the Word was to restore mankind to immortality, after it had fallen into corruption, and summon it back from death to life. He utterly destroyed the power death had against mankind – as fire consumes chaff – by means of the body he had taken and the grace of the resurrection.

This is the reason why the Word assumed a body that could die, so that this body, sharing in the Word who is above all, might satisfy death’s requirement in place of all. Because of the Word dwelling in that body, it would remain incorruptible, and all would be freed for ever from corruption by the grace of the resurrection.

In death the Word made a spotless sacrifice and oblation of the body he had taken. By dying for others, he immediately banished death for all mankind.

In this way the Word of God, who is above all, dedicated and offered his temple, the instrument that was his body, for us all, as he said, and so paid by his own death the debt that was owed. The immortal Son of God, united with all men by likeness of nature, thus fulfilled all justice in restoring mankind to immortality by the promise of the resurrection.

The corruption of death no longer holds any power over mankind, thanks to the Word, who has come to dwell among them through his one body.

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Rachel Fulton Brown: the mystery of Mary

This was the

mystery as Anselm of Canterbury saw it:

Nothing equals Mary,

nothing but God is greater than Mary…

All nature is created by God and God is born of Mary.

God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God…

He who was able to make all things out of nothing

refused to remake it by force,

but first became the Son of Mary.

So, God is the Father of all created things,

and Mary is the mother of all re-created things.

In Jeremiah’s words (31.22), ‘creavit Dominus novum super terram, femina circumdabit virum’, ‘that is’, as Bruno of Asti, bishop of Segni (d. 1123), explained, ‘the Virgin Mary carried Christ in her womb, he whom the whole world could not contain’.