Reviving An Older Model

This group sounds very promising.

My Choir Cup Runneth Over

I am learning a lot of music right now. It is all very pretty but, at this point, I count myself lucky when I remember which tune goes with which words. Without further ado, I bring you the melodious themes thoroughly devouring my leisure these days:

(For Fun)
Missa Brevis in B Flat Major, Mozart

(For Lent)
Christus Factus Est, Anerio
Coenantibus Autem Illis, Lienas
Media Vita, chant
O Vos Omnes, Victoria
Super Flumina Babylonis, Palestrina
Tenebrae Facte Sunt, Ingegneri
Vere Languores, Victoria

(For Easter)
Haec Dies, Byrd
Regina Coeli, Lotti
Victimae Paschali Laudes, Morales

(For Pentecost)
Factus Est Repente, Aichinger
Missa Secunda, Hassler
Veni Creator Spiritus, Palestrina

Under Construction

As you can see, things are changing around here. Every once in a while a girl needs to reinvigorate her decorating scheme. If she's lucky, nothing gets broken in the process.

A Guilty World

I know a plaintive round with lyrics brief and simple, yet profoundly stirring: "When Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy fell beyond all bounds; when Jesus groaned, a trembling fear seized all the guilty world around." During Lent, we remember our guilt, our need for a Savior. However, if you really strive for holiness, it is easy to "rest on your laurels," forgetting the monstrous evil of sin. Contrition is an act of the will and not primarily a matter of sentiment, but feelings of contrition certainly help inspire a more prompt and perfect will. To that end...I bring you more poetry. While Chesterton emphasizes the joy of the Cross, John Donne evokes the tragedy.

CRUCIFYING.
By miracles exceeding power of man,
He faith in some, envy in some begat,
For, what weak spirits admire, ambitious hate :
In both affections many to Him ran.
But O ! the worst are most, they will and can,
Alas ! and do, unto th' Immaculate,
Whose creature Fate is, now prescribe a fate,
Measuring self-life's infinity to span,
Nay to an inch. Lo ! where condemned He
Bears His own cross, with pain, yet by and by
When it bears him, He must bear more and die.
Now Thou art lifted up, draw me to Thee,
And at Thy death giving such liberal dole,
Moist with one drop of Thy blood my dry soul.

HOLY SONNETS.
XI.
Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side,
Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,
For I have sinn'd, and sinne', and only He,
Who could do no iniquity, hath died.
But by my death can not be satisfied
My sins, which pass the Jews' impiety.
They kill'd once an inglorious man, but I
Crucify him daily, being now glorified.
O let me then His strange love still admire ;
Kings pardon, but He bore our punishment ;
And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire,
But to supplant, and with gainful intent ;
God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.

In Good Hands

I pity all those who reject the doctrine of Divine Providence. There is great comfort in being part of something bigger(and better) than yourself.
"Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum." (Luke 23:46)

A Prayer in Darkness
Chesterton

This much, O heaven—if I should brood or rave,
Pity me not; but let the world be fed,
Yea, in my madness if I strike me dead,
Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave.

If I dare snarl between this sun and sod,
Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own,
In sun and rain and fruit in season shown,
The shining silence of the scorn of God.

Thank God the stars are set beyond my power,
If I must travail in a night of wrath,
Thank God my tears will never vex a moth,
Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower.

Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had
Thought it beat brightly, even on—Calvary:
And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree
Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad.

Stomping Out Abuses?

I wonder if the rumors are true.

Seasonal Music Recommendation

"Media Vita", John Sheppard

The Tallis Scholars have a very nice recording. Here is a translation of the text:

In the midst of life we are in death
of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?
O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen: thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared: before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles: and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Do not cast us away in our old age; When our strength fails us do not abandon us O Lord.
O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts
O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us
O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Confessional State - Read 'Em and Weep

About a week ago I read Cardinal Ottaviani's "Duties of the Catholic State in Regard to Religion."

I almost jumped out of my skin with delighted satisfaction. Let me share a few choice passages:

"I have said, first of all, that the State has the duty of professing its religion, even socially."

"I have said, in the second place, that it is the duty of the Rulers to see to it that the moral principles of the True Religion inspire the social activity of the State as such and its legislation.

He quotes Pope Leo XIII's Libertas: "Justice forbids, and reason itself forbids, the State to be godless; or to adopt a line of action which would end in godlessness, namely to treat the various religions(as they call them) alike, and to bestow upon them promiscuously equal rights and privileges."

From the section entitled "The Rights of Truth":

"Here it is necessary to answer another question, or rather a difficulty, so specious that, at first sight, it may seem insoluble.

"The objection is put to us: You maintain two different standards or norms of action according as it suits you. In a Catholic country, you uphold the doctrine of the Confessional State with the duty of exclusive protection for the Catholic religion. On the other hand, where you form a minority, you claim the right of toleration or straightaway the equality of forms of worship. Hence for you there are two weights and two measures. The result is a really embarrassing duplicity from which the Catholics who take account of the actual developments of civilization wish to be delivered.

"Well, quite frankly, two weights and two measures are to be employed, one for TRUTH, the other for ERROR."(emphasis added with reckless abandon)

In other words, we owe God worship and He has revealed that he wants to receive worship through the liturgy of the Catholic Church. So, it is the duty of the State to acknowledge, protect and honor the one true Faith.

Great Lent Begins

Attende, Domine, et Miserere: quia peccavimus tibi.

TRACT (Ps. 102:10; 78:8-9)
O Lord, repay us not according to the sins we have committed, nor according to our iniquities.
V. O Lord, remember not our iniquities of the past; let Your mercy come quickly to us, for we are being brought very low.
V. Help us, O God our Savior, and for the glory of Your name, O Lord, deliver us; and pardon us our sins for Your name's sake.

Topsy-turvydom

Another gem from Hilary:

I was giving a talk to a bunch of eleventh graders once, and was accused of being 'judgmental', possibly the harshest criticism the poor brainwashed kid could think of.

So, I gave them the Beethoven story...trite and old hat to us, but quite a bit of eye-opening revelation to them and they seemed a bit shocked to be told after they had voted to kill him.

Then I gave them the story of a young woman in an abusive marriage that is about to end, with a family history of epilepsy and mental instability, with no qualifications or money who is pregnant.

I asked them to vote by a show of hands whether they thought abortion should be legal for women in such dire straights.

In both cases they voted almost unanimously for abortion.

I said, "Well, you've just told me that I would have been better off dead. But I personally beg to differ."

People with my kind of political and social beliefs are regularly (and quite tiresomely) accused of judgmentalism. It is, in our culture that extolls license and complete social anarchy, the worst sin.

But I wonder. The pro-lifers say to someone disabled, socially "underprivileged", poor, sick, old or unhappy, "I think you should be allowed to live, to carry on, to give life a try and see what you can make of it".

The abortionists and euthanists say to someone, who has not yet had a first breath or a first glimpse of his mother's face or a first taste of human kindness, "You should be dead, your life has no value."

I wonder, then, who is "judgmental"?