Adam of St. Victor − Sequences

The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs, Fra Angelico, 1423-1424, National Gallery, London

THE Abbey of St. Victor outside of Paris during the 12th and 13th centuries produced several noteworthy figures in the history of Christian spirituality, including Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and Thomas Gallus.  The high achievements of the Victorines in the area of contemplation did not occur in isolation, but rather in an integral context that included such things as regular participation in the Mass and Catholic sacramental life.  A lesser known figure, Adam of St. Victor, a contemporary of Hugh, left us many examples of Latin Sequences that were sung during daily masses there.  Studying these helps give us some insight into the spiritual milieu of the Abbey.  The poetic quality of Adam’s Sequences is somewhat variable, but here are two gems: the first for All Saints Day, and the second for the commemoration day of St. Augustine.  The English translations of Wrangham are shown; newer translations have recently been made by Mousseau.

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All Saints Day

November 1

CIII

THE Church on earth those joys pourtrays,
Which heavenly Mother-Church displays;
Keeping her annual holydays,
For endless ones she sighs and prays.

SUPERNAE matris gaudia
Repraesentat Ecclesia:
Dum festa colit annua,
Suspirat ad perpetua.

In this dark vale of woe to-day, 5
That Mother must her daughter stay;
Here Angel-guardians’ bright array
Must stand beside us in the fray.

In hac valle miseriae 5
Mater succurrat filiae;
Hie coelestes excubiae
Nobiscum stent in acie.

The world, the flesh, the devil’s spite
By different methods wars excite: 10
Such countless phantoms’ rush destroys
The sabbath that the heart enjoys.

Mundus, caro, daemonia
Diversa movent praelia: l0
Incursu tot phantasmatum
Turbatur cordis sabbatum.

This evil kindred hate displays
Alike against all holydays.
As, one and all, they fight and strive 15
Peace from the face of earth to drive.

Dies festos cognatio
Simul haec habet odio
Certatque pari foedere 15
Pacem de terra tollere.

Things strangely mingle here below,
Hope, terror, happiness, and pain;
While scarce for half an hour, we know.
Is silence kept in heaven’s domain. 20

Confusa sunt hie omnia,
Spes, metus, moeror, gaudium:
Vix hora vel dimidia
Fit in coelo silentium. 20

How blest that city is, wherein
Unceasing feast-days still begin!
How happy that assembly, where
Is utter ignorance of care!

Quam felix illa civitas
In qua jugis solemnitas!
Et quam jocunda curia,
Quae curae prorsus nescia!

Nor languor here, nor age, they know, 25
Nor fraud, nor terror of a foe:
But with one voice their joy they show;
One ardour makes all hearts to glow.

Nec languor hic, nec senium, 25
Nec fraus, nec terror hostium,
Sed una vox laetantium,
Et unus ardor cordium.

The angel-citizens on high
There, ‘neath a triple hierarchy, 30
The Trinity in Unity
Serve and obey rejoicingly.

Illic cives angelici
Sub hierarchia triplici 30
Trinae gaudent et simplici
Se Monarchiae subjici.

With wonder, — never giving o’er! —
They, seeing Him whom they adore,
Enjoy what, craving as before, 35
They thirst but to enjoy the more.

Mirantur, nec deficiunt,
In ilium quem prospiciunt;
Fruuntur, nec fastidiunt, 35
Quo frui magis sitiunt.

There all the Fathers stand around,
Ranking as worthy they are found;
The darkness now removed of night,
In light they look upon the light. 40

Illic patres dispositi
Pro qualitate meriti,
Semota jam caligine,
Lumen vident in lumine. 40

These Saints, whose feast to-day we grace
With solemn service as of old,
The King, unveiled and face to face,
In all His glory now behold.

Hi sancti quorum hodie
Recensentur solemnia,
Nunc, revelata facie,
Regem cernunt in gloria.

There may the virgins’ queen, in light 45
Transcending far heaven’s orders bright,
Plead our excuses in God’s sight
For all our failures to do right.

Illic regina virginum, 45
Transcendens culmen ordinum,
Excuset apud Dominum
Nostrorum lapsus criminum.

When this life’s troubles all are past,
Through prayer by them to God addressed. 50
May Christ’s grace bring us at the last
To where the Saints in glory rest! Amen.

Nos ad sanctorum gloriam,
Per ipsorum suffragia, 50
Post praesentem miseriam
Christi perducat gratia! Amen.

Source: Wrangham, vol. 3, pp. 170−175.

St. Augustine

Scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine of Hippo, ca. 1490, Master of Saint Augustine, Netherlandish, Metropolitan Museum of Art

August 28

LXVIII

OUR tuneful strains let us upraise
That endless feast’s delights to praise,
When, since thereon no trouble weighs,
The heart observes true sabbath days;

AETERNI festi gaudia
Nostra sonet harmonia,
Quo mens in se pacifica
Vera frequentat sabbata;

The rapture of a conscience clear, 5
That perfumes all those joys sincere,
By which it hath rich foretaste here
Of saints’ unending glory there,

Mundi cordis laetitia 5
Odorans vera gaudia,
Quibus praegustat avida
Quae sit sanctorum gloria,

Where the celestial company
Joys in its home exultingly; 10
And, giving crowns, their King they see
In all his glorious majesty.

Qua laetatur in patria
Coelicolarum curia, 10
Regem donantem praemia
Sua cernens in gloria.

O happy land! how great its bliss,
That knoweth nought but happiness!
For all the dwellers on that shore 15
One ceaseless song of praise outpour;

Beata illa patria
Quae nescit nisi gaudia!
Nam cives hujus patriae 15
Non cessant laudes canere.

Who those delights’ full sweetness feel,
Which not a trace of grief conceal;
‘Gainst whom no foeman draws the steel,
And who beneath no tempest reel: 20

Quos ille dulcor afficit
Quern nullus moeror inficit;
Quos nullus hostit impetit
Nullusque turbo concutit; 20

Where one day, clear from cloudlet’s haze,
Is better than a thousand days;
Bright with true light’s transcendent rays;
Filled with that knowledge of God’s ways,

Ubi dies clarissima
Melior est quam millia,
Luce lucens praefulgida,
Plena Dei notitia;

To grasp which human reason fails, 25
Nor human tongue to tell avails.
Till this mortality shall be
Absorbed in that life’s victory;

Quam mens humana capere, 25
Nec lingua valet promere,
Donec vitae victoria
Commutet haec mortalia.

When God shall all in all appear,
Life, righteousness, and knowledge clear; 30
Victuals and vesture and whate’er
The pious mind would wish to share!

Quando Deus est omnia:
Vita, virtus, scientia, 30
Victus, vestis et caetera,
Quae velle potest mens pia!

This in this vale of misery
The sober mind’s chief thought should be;
This should it feel, while rest it takes, 35
This should be with it when it wakes;

Hoc in hac valle misera
Meditetur mens sobria;
Hoc per soporem sentiat, 35
Hoc attendat dum vigilat;

How it will in that home, — its days
Of earthly exile past, — fond lays
For ever, crowned, the King to praise
In all His glorious beauty, raise. 40

Quo mundi post exilia
Coronetur iu patria,
Ac in decoris gloria
Regem laudet per saecula. 40

These praises, sounding loud and clear,
The Church now imitateth here;
As, in due order, year by year,
The birthdays of her saints appear;

Harum laudum praeconia
Imitatur Ecclesia,
Dum recensentur annua
Sanctorum natalitia;

When, after they have fought their fight, 45
With worth-won honours they are dight;
The martyr crowned with roses bright;
The virgin clad in robes of white.

Cum post peracta praelia 45
Digna redduntur praemia
Pro passione rosea,
Pro castitate candida.

They too receive a golden chain,
Who doctrines Catholic maintain: 50
In which Augustine now doth reign.
One of the great King’s shining train;

Datur et torques aurea
Pro doctrina catholica: 50
Qua praefulget Augustinus
In summi regis curia.

Whose written volumes’ full array
Are now the one Faith’s strength and stay:
Hence Mother Church avoids the way 55
Where errors lead mankind astray.

Cujus librorum copia
Fides firmatur unica;
Hinc et mater Ecclesia 55
Vitat errorum devia.

To follow where his steps precede,
And preach the truths He taught indeed.
Mother! may grace thy servants lead,
And grant the pure warm faith we need! Amen. 60

Hujus sequi vestigia
Ac praedicare dogmata
Fide recta ac fervida,
Det nobis mater gratia! Amen. 60

Source: Wrangham, vol. 2, pp. 186−191.

Readings

Blune, Clemens; Dreves, Guido Maria; Bannister, Henry K. Thesauri Hymnologici Prosarium.(Analecta Hymnica LIII, LIV, and LV), Leipzig, 1911, 1915, 1922. Latin text critical editions.

Fassler, Margot E. Who was Adam of Saint Victor? The evidence of the Sequence manuscripts. Journal of the American Musicological Society 37, 1984, 233−269.

Fassler, Margot E. The Victorines and the medieval liturgy. In: Eds. Hugh Feiss & Juliet Mousseau, A Companion to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris. Brill, 2018; 389-421.

Grosfillier, Jean. Les séquences d’Adam de Saint-Victor: étude littéraire (poétique et rhétorique), textes et traductions, commentaries. Bibliotheca Victorina 20. Turnhout: Brepols, 2008; 773−784.

Mousseau, Juliet. Adam of St Victor: Sequences. Introduction. In: Eds. Boyd Taylor Coolman & Dale M. Coulter, Trinity and Creation: a selection of works of Hugh, Richard and Adam of St Victor (VTT 1), New City Press, 2011; pp. 181−184.  Latin text and English translations.

Mousseau, Juliet. Adam of St Victor: Sequences. Peeters, 2013.

Neale, John Mason (ed.). Mediæval Hymns and Sequences. 3rd ed. London, 1867; pp.128−130 (Supernæ Matris Gaudia).

Shigo, Marie B. Study of the sequences ascribed to Adam of St. Victor. Dissertation. Loyola University Chicago, 1954.

Wrangham,Digby S. (ed.). The liturgical poetry of Adam of St. Victor. 3 vols. London, 1881. Latin and English. vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3.

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Evelyn Underhill on the Profound Mystical Meaning of Christian Liturgy

IN the following excerpt from Evelyn Underhill’s book, The Mystic Way, she makes some insightful and important observations concerning the Christian Liturgy.  Three points in particular are: (1) the Christian Liturgy is a supreme work of art; (2) it has evolved and adapted itself over the centuries as a marvelous accumulation of contributions by countless individuals (and hence, by implication, expresses the great spiritual truths of human nature more than anything designed by a few human beings); and (3) in it one may find a profound symbol for the mystic’s quest for union with God.

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ALITURGY, says Dom Cabrol, is “the external and official manifestation of a religion”: and the Mass, the typical liturgic rite of the Catholic world, is “the synthesis of Christianity.”[1] If, then, our discovery of the mystic life at the heart of the Christian religion be a discovery indeed and not a fantasy, it is here that we may expect to find its corroboration. Here, in that most characteristic of the art-products of Christendom, the ceremonial with which the love and intuition of centuries have gradually adorned the primitive sacrament of the Eucharist, we may find the test which shall confirm or discredit our conclusions as to the character of that life which descends from Jesus of Nazareth. … [I]n the ceremony of the Mass, we have a work of art designed and adapted by the racial consciousness of Christendom for the keeping and revealing of somethings claiming descent from that same source, which lives: lives, not in the arid security of liturgical museums, but in the thick of diurnal existence — in the cathedral and the mission hut, in the city and the cloister, in the slums and lonely places of our little twisting earth. This “something is still the true focus of that Christian consciousness which has not broken away from tradition. The great dramatic poem of the liturgy is still for that consciousness the shrine in which the primal secret of transcendence is preserved. …

The Christian Church has often been likened, and not without reason, to a ship: a ship, launched nineteen hundred years ago upon that great stream of Becoming which sets towards the “Sea Pacific” of Reality. Though she goes upon inland waters, yet hints of the ocean magic, the romance of wide horizons, mysterious tides and undiscovered countries, hang about her. In the course of her long voyage, carried upon the current of the river, she has sometimes taken fresh and strange cargo on board; sometimes discharged that which she brought with her from the past. She has changed the trim of her sails to meet new conditions, as the river ran now between hard and narrow banks and now spread itself to flow through fields. But through all these changes and developments, she kept safe the one treasure which she was built to preserve: the mystical secret of deification, of the ever-renewed and ever-fruitful interweaving of two orders of reality, the emergence of the Eternal into the temporal, the perpetually repeated “wonder of wonders, the human made divine.” She kept this secret and handed it on, as all life’s secrets have ever been preserved and imparted, by giving it supreme artistic form. In the Christian liturgy, the deepest intuitions, the rich personal experiences, not only of the primitive but of the patristic and mediaeval epochs, have found their perfect expression. Herein has been distilled, age by age, drop by drop, the very essence of the mystical consciousness.

“The rites and symbols of the external Christian church,” says Eckartshausen [2], “were formed after the pattern of the great, unchangeable, and fundamental truths, announcing things of a strength and of an importance impossible to describe, and revealed only to those who knew the innermost sanctuary.” Each fresh addition made to this living work of art has but elaborated and enriched the one central idea that runs through the whole. Here it is that Life’s instinct for recapitulation is found at work: here she has dramatised her methods, told in little the story of her supreme ascent. The fact that the framework of the Mass is essentially a mystical drama, the Christian equivalent of those Mysteries which enacted before the Pagan neophyte the necessary adventures of his soul, was implicitly if not directly recognised in very early times. It was the “theatre of the pious,” said Tertullian (De Spectaculis 29, 30; see Hirn, The Sacred Shrine, p. 493) in the second century; and the steady set of its development from the Pauline sacrament of feeding on the Spiritual Order, the Fractio Panis of the catacombs, to the solemn drama of the Greek or Roman liturgy, was always in the direction of more and more symbolic action, of perpetual elaborations of the ritual and theatrical element. To the sacramental meal of apostolic times, understood as a foretaste and assurance of the “Messianic banquet” in the coming Parousia, there was soon prefixed a religious exercise — modelled perhaps on the common worship of the Synagogue — which implied just those preparatory acts of penance, purification and desirous stretching out towards the Infinite, which precede in the experience of the growing soul the establishment of communion with the Spiritual World. Further, the classic exhibition of such communion — the earthly life of Jesus — naturally suggested the form taken by this “initiation of initiations” when its ritual development once began; the allegory under which the facts of the Christian mystery should be exhibited before men. The Mass therefore became for devout imagination during the succeeding centuries, not only the supreme medium through which the Christian consciousness could stretch out to, and lay hold on, the Eternal Order, not only the story of the soul’s regeneration and growth, but also the story of the actual career of Jesus, told, as it were, in holy pantomime: indirect evidence that the intuitive mind of the Church saw these as two aspects of one truth.  Hence every development of the original rite was made by minds attuned to these ideas; with the result that psychological and historical meanings run in parallel strands through the developed ceremony, of which many a manual act and ritual gesture, meaningless for us, had for earlier minds a poignant appeal as being the direct commemoration of some detail in the Passion of Christ.

As Europe now has it, then, in the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox and the Mass of the Catholic Church, this ceremony is the great living witness to — the great artistic expression of — those organic facts which we call mystical Christianity: the “transplanting of man into a new world over against the nearest-at-hand world,” the “fundamental inner renewal,” the “union of the human and the divine.” All the thoughts that gather about this select series of acts — apparently so simple, sometimes almost fortuitous, yet charged with immense meanings for the brooding soul — all the elaborate, even fantastic symbolic interpretations placed upon these acts in mediaeval times, have arisen at one time or another within the collective consciousness of Christendom. Sometimes true organic developments, sometimes the result of abrupt intuitions, the reward of that receptivity which great rituals help to produce, they owe their place in or about the ceremony to the fact that they help it in the performance of its function, the stimulation of man’s spiritual sense; emphasising or enriching some aspect of its central and fundamentally mystical idea.

1. Les Origines Liturgiques, pp. 17, 140.
2. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, Letter II.

Readings

Cabrol, Fernand (Domr). Les Origines Liturgiques. Letouzey et Ané, 1905.

Eckartshausen, Karl. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary. London, 1909.

Hirn, Yrjö. The Sacred Shrine a Study of the Poetry and Art of the Catholic Church. Macmillan, 1912.

Underhill, Evelyn. The Witness of the Liturgy. In: The Mystic Way: A Psychological Study in Christian Origins. London: Dent, 1913; ch. 6, pp. 331−371.

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On the Praying for Others’ Forgiveness in the Catholic Mass

Why the Confiteor is one of the most beautiful and important parts of the Mass

The section of the Roman Catholic Mass called the Penitential Rite is insufficiently appreciated. This part contains, among other things, the prayer known as the Confiteor. Its name comes from the first line, which, in Latin, is Confiteor Deo omnipotente…, in English translated as “I confess to Almighty God….” The Confiteor is the source of the phrase, mea culpa (mea culpa, mea culpa, me maxima culpa — i.e., one confesses that one has sinned “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”

A special virtue of this section of the Liturgy is that it is an opportunity for members of the Church to pray for one another. When I was younger, I understood the Confiteor, along with the Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison (Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy!) which comes later, as being mainly concerned with seeking forgiveness for ones own sins. But with age comes a growth in instinctive concern for others; you look around and see what difficulties and burdens others bear, and, if you have a heart, you naturally want them to be helped. As this charitable concern develops, the Mass takes on new meaning and importance.

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23)

Just think of what the verse above implies. Look at the suffering and the burdens others bear — whether those be their sins, or the consequences of those sins, or the guilt and shame their sins produce. And then consider the possibility that you may be an agent in removing those burdens and effecting their healing. Have you never noticed how real benefits may come to others as the result of your prayers? What if no-one else on the entire the planet is praying for these individuals? That may easily be the case! Can you not bring yourself — indeed, can you not resist the compassionate urge — to pray for them?

To give a personal example, suppose I’m at Mass and I see people in the congregation with serious obesity problems; these days, I’m afraid, that’s an all too common experience. Now God has given me the gift of physical fitness and a strong personal motivation to exercise. This is a grace not everyone has. It is a blessing, and I’m extremely grateful for it. But I have been overweight before, and therefore know that these people suffer very much because of obesity. It’s perfectly natural, then, for me to pray for them.

Now it might be objected, “Aren’t you being judgmental here? On what basis are you apparently equating their health issues with sin?” The answer is that I’m taking a very broad view of sin; it might be better to call the issue here moral imperfection, or even an insufficiency of moral strength. We need to strip ‘sin’ of its judgmental connotations in any case. The original Greek word for sin is hamartia, which means ‘missing the mark.’ It’s appropriate, then, to see the alleviation of obesity, depression, substance abuse, or many other things people suffer from as subjects of prayer in the Penitential Rite.

It is of some interest to note changes in the liturgy apropos of this. Before the reforms of the 1960’s and 70’s, the Mass was, of course, still said in Latin. People may not remember this detail, but in the traditional Tridentine Mass the Confiteor was actually prayed twice. First the priest recited it to the assistant(s) or altar servers, confessing his sinfulness and pleading for the intercession of “Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul” and “all the Saints.” In conclusion he further asked, “you brethren, to pray to the Lord our God for me.”

In response, the assistant(s) — representing the entire congregation — prayed,

May Almighty God have mercy upon you, forgive you your sins, and bring you to life everlasting.

To which the priest said, “Amen.”

Then the assistant(s) recited the Confiteor, changing only the last phrase by asking “you Father, to pray to the Lord our God for me.” The priest then prayed the same response as the assistant(s) had to his Confiteor, to which the latter responded, “Amen.” Then the priest, making the sign of the cross, prayed:

May the Almighty and merciful God grant us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins.

To which the server(s) replied, “Amen.”

This detail actually signifies something momentous: that the priest and congregation, symbolized by the assistant(s), are praying, interceding with God, for each other’s forgiveness.

The present form of the Roman Catholic Mass includes only one Confiteor, said jointly by the priest and congregation. In theory, nothing has changed spiritually: all are praying both for themselves and for each other. But the present liturgy leaves this more ambiguous. If not instructed in the matter, people may misunderstand, and think they are only praying for their own forgiveness.

At one level, it’s perfectly understandable and ordinary for people to be so intent on confessing their own sins and seeking forgiveness that the reciprocity of the Confiteor escapes attention. Yet Christians in this respect are called on to be more than ordinary. They are called to be priests, a priestly people (1 Peter 2:5–10; cf. Exodus 19:6); and one vital function of a priest is to intercede with God for the welfare of others.

Moreover, an exclusively self-oriented confessional attitude fails to recognize a fundamental principle of the psychology of forgiveness, a detail to which Scripture pointedly calls our attention: that forgiving others and being forgiven ourselves are so integrally related as to literally be two aspects of the same thing. Let us recall some relevant passages:

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16)

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6: 14–15)

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

Note that we are not just called to forgive those who have trespassed against us, but also those sins others commit that might not involve us at all.

Sometimes we might think that the connection between forgiving and forgiveness is merely a kind of reciprocal justice: if we forgive, then we’ve done a good deed, and our reward is to be forgiven in exactly the same degree. But the connection is actually much stronger. In a sense, our holding onto grudges, or even just a ‘stinginess’ in wishing forgiveness for anyone, automatically carries with it a burden of moral imperfection, if not outright sin. Said another way, the moment we earnestly pray for others’ forgiveness — not just those who have harmed us, but those who need forgiveness in any way and for any reason — we ourselves come into right relation to God and with ourselves. And whatever burdens we have imposed on ourselves by being out of right relation are removed.

This shouldn’t be taken to imply that an awareness of our own sinfulness isn’t terribly important. Quite the opposite: the more cognizant we are of our need for forgiveness, the more enthusiastic and willing we are to forgive others, as this is a small price to pay indeed. If we fully understood this principle, we would beg and thank God for the opportunity to forgive others!

Perhaps at this point some will expect me to suggest that we should restore the Tridentine Mass, but that is by no means my point. In fact, I think the liturgical changes have been, in the main, for the better. It seems sufficient for the Confiteor to be said once — provided that people are aware of all that’s going on. I believe it proper to say that the main focus of ones prayer here should be for others’ forgiveness. That is the object of our prayer. The action of our praying for others is itself implicitly the prayer for our own forgiveness — so that both needs are being met at the same time.

I do believe, however, that, with the present liturgy, special attention needs to be given to instruct people about the dual nature of the Penitential Rite. Further, some things I’ve read online seem to suggest that in certain diocese and/or at certain times, the Confiteor is omitted from masses. If so, then it seems to me very important that whatever is used in its place emphasize and encourage the dual aspect of praying for forgiveness.

I wrote at the outset that this is something momentous, but have yet to fully explain why. Consider this principle of each forgiving another — of striving to do this oneself, and of coming to regularly expect that others approach you in the same way — carried to its logical extreme. That is, imagine a society where this principle became conventional, usual, regular. In that case the whole orientation of the individual towards others and society in general would be transformed, and for the better. Inasmuch as the ability to heal by forgiving is natural, and human beings are naturally social and gregarious, then an ambient recognition of this principle would amount to a revolution in human consciousness, individual and social. We would achieve in practice what is yet only latent and dormant in our collective potential.  We would change as a species.

 

The Excellence of the Mass as May Be Inferred by the Ceremonies for the Consecration of Churches

The Excellence of the Mass as May Be Inferred by the Ceremonies for the Consecration of Churches

From Chapter 2 (pp. 25 – 31) of The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by Fr. Martin von Cochem, OFM Cap (1630 – 1712).  Translated by  Rev. Camilus Paul Maes, Bishop of Covington, Kentucky). New York, 1896.

First of all, the great excellence of the holy Mass may be inferred from the prayers and ceremonies appointed for the consecration of churches and altars. Any one who has been present at the dedication of a church, who has followed the prayers and understood the ceremonial made use of by the bishop, cannot fail to have been edified by what he witnessed. For the benefit of those who have never assisted at the consecration of churches and altars the ceremonies connected with it shall be briefly described.

THE DEDICATION OF CHURCHES.

The consecrating bishop, who, together with the congregation, has prepared himself by fasting on the preceding day, sets apart overnight the relics to be used in the consecration. On the morning of the day appointed he betakes himself to the place whither they have been carried, and after vesting pontifically recites with the clergy present the seven penitential psalms and the Litany of the Saints. He then goes in procession with the clergy round the outside of the church, the door of which is closed, sprinkling the upper portion of the walls with holy water in the form of the cross, saying: In the name of the Father + , and of the Son + , and of the Holy + Ghost—the clergy meanwhile singing a responsory. On coming back to the church-door the bishop says a short prayer, and knocks with his pastoral staff at the door, saying: Attollite portas, principes, vestras, etc. (“Lift up your heads, ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye eternal gates, and the King of glory will enter.”) He then goes round the church again,lower part of the walls with the same words; and on returning to the door says a different prayer, and knocks with his staff as before. A third time he goes round the church, this time sprinkling the middle part of the walls; he then knocks three times with his staff at the door, saying: “Be opened!” And upon the door being opened he makes a cross with his staff on the threshold, saying: “Behold the sign of the cross; let the spirits of evil! depart!” Entering into the church, he says: “Peace be to this house! “ sprinkling the

In the middle of the church the bishop kneels down and intones the hymn Vent, Creator Spiritus; this is followed by the Litany of the Saints and the canticle of Zachary: Benedictus Dominus Deus (“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.”) While these are being sung he forms a cross with the letters of the Latin and Greek alphabets, which he inscribes with his staff on ashes wherewith the floor of the church has previously been sprinkled; then, kneeling before the high altar, he chants three times the words, Deus, in adjutorium meum intende, etc. (“O God, come to my assistance,” etc.). Thereupon he blesses with the prescribed form of prayer ashes, salt, water, and wine, mixing them together and signing them repeatedly with the cross, and proceeds to consecrate the high altar and the other altars. Dipping his thumb in the preparation which he has just blessed, he makes a cross in the middle and in the four corners of the altar-stone, saying: ” Let this altar be sanctified + to the glory of God, of the Virgin Mary, and all the saints, and in the name and commemoration of St. N. [naming the patron of the church], in the name of the + Father,” etc. These words are repeated five times. Thereupon he goes round the altar seven times, sprinkling it with holy water and reciting the Miserere

He next goes three times round the interior of the church, sprinkling the walls above, below, and in the middle whilst three psalms and antiphons are sung. He also sprinkles the floor of the church in each of the four corners, with certain prayers and the sign of the cross, and returns to the high altar. He then blesses chalk and sand, and mixes them with holy water, thus preparing the mortar for the laying of the altar-stone. Afterwards, going in procession to the place where the relics were deposited on the previous evening, he incenses them, and carries them with lighted tapers and smoking censers round the church. Pausing on the threshold, the bishop makes three crosses on the door, saying: ” In the name of the Father +, and of the Son + , and of the Holy + Ghost, be thou blessed, sanctified, and consecrated.

When the procession reaches the high altar, the bishop makes five crosses with chrism in the cavity of the altar, called the sepulchre, places the case containing the relics in it, incenses them, and closes the repository or sepulchre with a stone that has been blessed and the mortar prepared for the purpose. Thereupon he incenses the altar itself, and hands the censer to a priest, who goes round it incensing every part. Meanwhile the bishop makes five crosses with oil of catechumens on the table of the altar, one in the centre and one in each of the corners, with the same words employed when blessing the water, incenses the crosses, and goes round the altar incensing it. After the prescribed prayer and psalm have been recited he again anoints the altar, making five crosses upon it, saying: “Let this altar be blessed, sanctified, and consecrated.” He then again incenses the crosses and the whole altar. This ceremony is repeated a third time, whilst psalms are chanted by the clergy. Finally, the bishop pours oil and chrism over the whole altar, rubbing it in with his hand. He then goes round the interior of the church, and anoints the twelve crosses upon the walls with the chrism, saying: “Let this church be hallowed and consecrated in the name of the Father, etc.,” and incensing each cross three times. Returning to the altar, he blesses the frankincense, lays five grains of incense wherever the five crosses were made, forms five small crosses out of wax tapers and lights them. Whilst they are burning, he kneels down, as do all the clergy present, and intones the hymn Veni, Sancte Spiritus. This is followed by more prayers and a preface; the clergy chant Psalm Lxvii. in thanksgiving for the graces received; the bishop makes a cross with the chrism below the table of the altar, and recites more and longer prayers. After that he rubs his hands with bread and salt, and washes them in water. The clergy wipe the altar with linen, cover it with an altar-cloth, decorate it as best they can, whilst psalms and responsories are sung. In conclusion the bishop incenses the altar three times, and proceeds to celebrate a solemn pontifical High Mass.

All who have been present at the dedication of a church cannot find words to express their surprise at the number of different ceremonies, anointings, benedictions, and prayers that appertain to the ritual. What is the object of all of these ? It is in order to render the church a temple meet for the great and holy sacrifice offered up therein to the most high God, and to hallow and consecrate the altars whereon the spotless Lamb of God is to be slain in a mystical manner.

This is sufficient to convince any Christian of the sanctity of our churches and altars, and the great reverence we ought to pay to them. Solomon’s temple was but a foreshadow and type of the Christian Church, and yet in what respect it was held both by Jews and heathen! How much the more should we reverence and respect our churches, hallowed as they are by so solemn a dedication! We read in the Third Book of Kings that Solomon, on the occasion of the dedication of his temple, offered up no less than two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand rams. These animals were all slaughtered by the priests, purified, and laid in pieces on the altar. And while the king prayed aloud fire fell from heaven and consumed the victims. The whole temple war filled with a cloud, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And all the people, who beheld the fire and the glory of the Lord, filled with awe, fell upon their faces and adored the Lord. Thereupon King Solomon, standing on a high place in the sight of the assembly of Israel, spread forth his hands towards heaven and said: “Is it then to be thought that God should indeed dwell upon earth ? For if heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house, which I have built! ” (III. Kings viii. 27.)

Who, indeed, can fail to be amazed at this, and feel himself unable rightly to comprehend the dignity of that sacred temple ? And yet that temple was but a type, an image, of our churches. In that there was nothing but the Ark of the Covenant, which only contained the two stone tables of the law, a basket of showbread, and Aaron’s rod that had blossomed. The sacrifices of the Jews were only animals that were slaughtered and burnt, besides offerings of bread, wine, cakes, etc., whereas our churches are dedicated by the bishops with incomparably greater solemnity; they are anointed with holy oil and chrism; they are blessed by being sprinkled with holy water and incensed with frankincense; they are hallowed repeatedly by the sign of the cross, and consecrated finally by the oblation of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. Instead of the Ark of the Covenant we have the tabernacle, where the true bread of heaven, the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, the body and blood of Christ, is continually reserved. If it is right to hold Solomon’s temple in honor, how much more ought we to reverence our consecrated churches, in which God dwells in person.

Our churches are called the house of God, and this in very deed they are, since God Himself dwells in them, and is always to be found in them. He is surrounded continually by a countless host of angels, who serve Him, who adore Him, who worship Him, who praise Him, who offer our prayers to Him. This was foreshadowed by the vision of the patriarch Jacob. Overtaken by night in the open country, he laid down to sleep, and in a dream he saw a ladder standing upon the earth, the top of which reached to heaven. By this ladder the angels of God were ascending and descending, and at the top of it he beheld God Himself. Jacob woke from his sleep trembling, and said: “How terrible is this place! This is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” (Gen. xxviii. 17.) He took the stone on which his head had rested, poured oil upon it, set it up for an altar, and on his return journey he offered sacrifice upon it to God. That was a type of the Christian Church, with its altar, anointed with holy oil and chrism, of which we can in truth say: “How terrible is this place! This is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven,” {NAB: In solemn wonder he cried out: “How awesome is this shrine! This is nothing else but an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!} for here the angels ascend and descend, and carry up our petitions to heaven. Our churches are the place of which God speaks by the mouth of the prophet Isaias: “I will bring them [the people of the Lord] into My holy mount, and will make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their holocausts and their victims shall please Me upon My altar; for My house shall be called the House of prayer for all nations.” (Is. Lvi. 7.)

From all this we learn the sanctity of our churches, and the respect we owe to them. It is because they are the house of God, and Jesus Christ dwells in person within them in the Blessed Sacrament, surrounded by innumerable angels, that we know not how to honor them enough, how to be sufficiently devout and recollected in prayer. If we had a living faith, we should enter a consecrated church with trembling; we should worship Christ present in the Adorable Sacrament with deepest reverence, and invoke the assistance of the holy angels who are there. Such was David’s custom, as he tells us in the words: “I will worship towards Thy holy temple; I will sing praise to Thee in the sight of the angels.” (Ps. cxxxvii. 2, i.) Therefore to be inattentive in church, or in any other way to displease God by disrespectful behavior, is an insult to the Divine Majesty and dishonor to the house of God. Let us firmly resolve on entering a church not to utter or listen to an unnecessary word, nor to look about us, but to behave reverently, to pray devoutly, adore the Lord our God, to confess our sins and implore the divine mercy.

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The Excellence of the Mass

From Chapter 2 (pp. 25 – 31) of The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by Fr. Martin von Cochem, OFM Cap (1630 – 1712).  Translated by  Rev. Camilus Paul Maes, Bishop of Covington, Kentucky). New York, 1896.

http://books.google.com/books?id=B8QxAAAAMAAJ

First of all, the great excellence of the holy Mass may be inferred from the prayers and ceremonies appointed for the consecration of churches and altars. Any one who has been present at the dedication of a church, who has followed the prayers and understood the ceremonial made use of by the bishop, cannot fail to have been edified by what he witnessed. For the benefit of those who have never assisted at the consecration of churches and altars the ceremonies connected with it shall be briefly described.

THE DEDICATION OF CHURCHES.

The consecrating bishop, who, together with the congregation, has prepared himself by fasting on the preceding day, sets apart overnight the relics to be used in the consecration. On the morning of the day appointed he betakes himself to the place whither they have been carried, and after vesting pontifically recites with the clergy present the seven penitential psalms and the Litany of the Saints. He then goes in procession with the clergy round the outside of the church, the door of which is closed, sprinkling the upper portion of the walls with holy water in the form of the cross, saying: In the name of the Father +, and of the Son +, and of the Holy + Ghost—the clergy meanwhile singing a responsory. On coming back to the church-door the bishop says a short prayer, and knocks with his pastoral staff at the door, saying: Attollite portas, principes, vestras, etc. (“Lift up your heads, ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye eternal gates, and the King of glory will enter.“) He then goes round the church again, sprinkling the lower part of the walls with the same words; and on returning to the door says a different prayer, and knocks with his staff as before. A third time he goes round the church, this time sprinkling the middle part of the walls; he then knocks three times with his staff at the door, saying: “Be opened!” And upon the door being opened he makes a cross with his staff on the threshold, saying: “Behold the sign of the cross; let the spirits of evil! depart!” Entering into the church, he says: “Peace be to this house! “

In the middle of the church the bishop kneels down and intones the hymn Vent, Creator Spiritus; this is followed by the Litany of the Saints and the canticle of Zachary: Benedictus Dominus Deus (“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.”) While these are being sung he forms a cross with the letters of the Latin and Greek alphabets, which he inscribes with his staff on ashes wherewith the floor of the church has previously been sprinkled; then, kneeling before the high altar, he chants three times the words, Deus, in adjutorium meum intende, etc. (“O God, come to my assistance,” etc.). Thereupon he blesses with the prescribed form of prayer ashes, salt, water, and wine, mixing them together and signing them repeatedly with the cross, and proceeds to consecrate the high altar and the other altars. Dipping his thumb in the preparation which he has just blessed, he makes a cross in the middle and in the four corners of the altar-stone, saying: ” Let this altar be sanctified + to the glory of God, of the Virgin Mary, and all the saints, and in the name and commemoration of St. N. [naming the patron of the church], in the name of the + Father,” etc. These words are repeated five times. Thereupon he goes round the altar seven times, sprinkling it with holy water and reciting the Miserere

He next goes three times round the interior of the church, sprinkling the walls above, below, and in the middle whilst three psalms and antiphons are sung. He also sprinkles the floor of the church in each of the four corners, with certain prayers and the sign of the cross, and returns to the high altar. He then blesses chalk and sand, and mixes them with holy water, thus preparing the mortar for the laying of the altar-stone. Afterwards, going in procession to the place where the relics were deposited on the previous evening, he incenses them, and carries them with lighted tapers and smoking censers round the church. Pausing on the threshold, the bishop makes three crosses on the door, saying: ” In the name of the Father +, and of the Son +, and of the Holy + Ghost, be thou blessed, sanctified, and consecrated.

When the procession reaches the high altar, the bishop makes five crosses with chrism in the cavity of the altar, called the sepulchre, places the case containing the relics in it, incenses them, and closes the repository or sepulchre with a stone that has been blessed and the mortar prepared for the purpose. Thereupon he incenses the altar itself, and hands the censer to a priest, who goes round it incensing every part. Meanwhile the bishop makes five crosses with oil of catechumens on the table of the altar, one in the centre and one in each of the corners, with the same words employed when blessing the water, incenses the crosses, and goes round the altar incensing it. After the prescribed prayer and psalm have been recited he again anoints the altar, making five crosses upon it, saying: “Let this altar be blessed, sanctified, and consecrated.” He then again incenses the crosses and the whole altar. This ceremony is repeated a third time, whilst psalms are chanted by the clergy. Finally, the bishop pours oil and chrism over the whole altar, rubbing it in with his hand. He then goes round the interior of the church, and anoints the twelve crosses upon the walls with the chrism, saying: “Let this church be hallowed and consecrated in the name of the Father, etc.,” and incensing each cross three times. Returning to the altar, he blesses the frankincense, lays five grains of incense wherever the five crosses were made, forms five small crosses out of wax tapers and lights them. Whilst they are burning, he kneels down, as do all the clergy present, and intones the hymn Vent, Sancte Spiritus. This is followed by more prayers and a preface; the clergy chant Psalm Lxvii. in thanksgiving for the graces received; the bishop makes a cross with the chrism below the table of the altar, and recites more and longer prayers. After that he rubs his hands with bread and salt, and washes them in water. The clergy wipe the altar with linen, cover it with an altar-cloth, decorate it as best they can, whilst psalms and responsories are sung. In conclusion the bishop incenses the altar three times, and proceeds to celebrate a solemn pontifical High Mass.

All who have been present at the dedication of a church cannot find words to express their surprise at the number of different ceremonies, anointings, benedictions, and prayers that appertain to the ritual. What is the object of all of these ? It is in order to render the church a temple meet for the great and holy sacrifice offered up therein to the most high God, and to hallow and consecrate the altars whereon the spotless Lamb of God is to be slain in a mystical manner.

This is sufficient to convince any Christian of the sanctity of our churches and altars, and the great reverence we ought to pay to them. Solomon’s temple was but a foreshadow and type of the Christian Church, and yet in what respect it was held both by Jews and heathen! How much the more should we reverence and respect our churches, hallowed as they are by so solemn a dedication! We read in the Third Book of Kings that Solomon, on the occasion of the dedication of his temple, offered up no less than two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand rams. These animals were all slaughtered by the priests, purified, and laid in pieces on the altar. And while the king prayed aloud fire fell from heaven and consumed the victims. The whole temple war filled with a cloud, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And all the people, who beheld the fire and the glory of the Lord, filled with awe, fell upon their faces and adored the Lord. Thereupon King Solomon, standing on a high place in the sight of the assembly of Israel, spread forth his hands towards heaven and said: “Is it then to be thought that God should indeed dwell upon earth ? For if heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house, which I have built! ” (III. Kings viii. 27.)

Who, indeed, can fail to be amazed at this, and feel himself unable rightly to comprehend the dignity of that sacred temple ? And yet that temple was but a type, an image, of our churches. In that there was nothing but the Ark of the Covenant, which only contained the two stone tables of the law, a basket of showbread, and Aaron’s rod that had blossomed. The sacrifices of the Jews were only animals that were slaughtered and burnt, besides offerings of bread, wine, cakes, etc., whereas our churches are dedicated by the bishops with incomparably greater solemnity; they are anointed with holy oil and chrism; they are blessed by being sprinkled with holy water and incensed with frankincense; they are hallowed repeatedly by the sign of the cross, and consecrated finally by the oblation of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. Instead of the Ark of the Covenant we have the tabernacle, where the true bread of heaven, the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, the body and blood of Christ, is continually reserved. If it is right to hold Solomon’s temple in honor, how much more ought we to reverence our consecrated churches, in which God dwells in person.

Our churches are called the house of God, and this in very deed they are, since God Himself dwells in them, and is always to be found in them. He is surrounded continually by a countless host of angels, who serve Him, who adore Him, who worship Him, who praise Him, who offer our prayers to Him. This was foreshadowed by the vision of the patriarch Jacob. Overtaken by night in the open country, he laid down to sleep, and in a dream he saw a ladder standing upon the earth, the top of which reached to heaven. By this ladder the angels of God were ascending and descending, and at the top of it he beheld God Himself. Jacob woke from his sleep trembling, and said: “How terrible is this place! This is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” (Gen. xxviii. 17.) He took the stone on which his head had rested, poured oil upon it, set it up for an altar, and on his return journey he offered sacrifice upon it to God. That was a type of the Christian Church, with its altar, anointed with holy oil and chrism, of which we can in truth say: “How terrible is this place! This is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven,” {NAB: In solemn wonder he cried out: “How awesome is this shrine! This is nothing else but an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!} for here the angels ascend and descend, and carry up our petitions to heaven. Our churches are the place of which God speaks by the mouth of the prophet Isaias: “I will bring them [the people of the Lord] into My holy mount, and will make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their holocausts and their victims shall please Me upon My altar; for My house shall be called the House of prayer for all nations.” (Is. Lvi. 7.)

From all this we learn the sanctity of our churches, and the respect we owe to them. It is because they are the house of God, and Jesus Christ dwells in person within them in the Blessed Sacrament, surrounded by innumerable angels, that we know not how to honor them enough, how to be sufficiently devout and recollected in prayer. If we had a living faith, we should enter a consecrated church with trembling; we should worship Christ present in the Adorable Sacrament with deepest reverence, and invoke the assistance of the holy angels who are there. Such was David’s custom, as he tells us in the words: “I will worship towards Thy holy temple; I will sing praise to Thee in the sight of the angels.” (Ps. cxxxvii. 2, i.) Therefore to be inattentive in church, or in any other way to displease God by disrespectful behavior, is an insult to the Divine Majesty and dishonor to the house of God. Let us firmly resolve on entering a church not to utter or listen to an unnecessary word, nor to look about us, but to behave reverently, to pray devoutly, to adore the Lord our God, to confess our sins and implore the divine mercy.

Names of God in the Catholic Mass

It is instructive to consider the various names of God used in the Catholic Mass. The list below comes from the regular Order of the Mass, variable Eucharistic Prayers I — IV, and variable Eucharistic Prayers for Masses of Reconciliation I — II, as shown on the web pages of Felix Just S. J. .

God

One God

God the Father

God
The Lord
Lord God
The Lord, Our God
Lord God Almighty
Lord, God of All Creation
Almighty God
Almighty God and Father
Almighty Father
Our Father
God Our Father
Father, All Powerful and Everliving God
Creator of All Life
Heavenly King
Holy Lord, God of Power and Might
God of Glory and Majesty
God of Love and Mercy
Fountain of All Holiness
One God, Living and True
Through All Eternity You Live in Unapproachable Light
Source of Life and Goodness
Our Living and True God
All life, all holiness comes from you through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ Our Lord and God
Christ Our Lord
Lord God
The Lord
Jesus
The Beloved Son, Jesus the Christ
Only Son of the Father
The Holy One
The Most High,  Jesus Christ
Maker of Heaven and Earth
Eternally Begotten of the Father
God from God
Light from Light
True God from True God
The Word
The Word that Brings Salvation
He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord
You Raise the Dead to Life in the Spirit
You Bring Pardon and Peace to the Sinner
You Bring Light to Those in Darkness
Our Savior
Our Savior, Jesus Christ
Savior of the World
Dying You Destroyed Our Death
Rising You Restored Our Life
Lamb of God
You Take Away the Sin of the World
Jesus Christ, Our Passover and Our Lasting Peace
Jesus Christ, Your (God the Father’s) Only Son, Our Lord
The Sacrifice which Restores Man to Your (God the Father’s) Friendship
The Hand  You (God the Father) Stretch Out to Sinners
The Way that Leads to Your (God the Father’s) Peace

The Holy Spirit

The Spirit
The Holy Spirit
The Lord, the Giver of Life (Holy Spirit)
Your (God the Father’s) Spirit