Such a beautiful morning! I'm practically blinded by Phoebus rising, so am keeping my eyes due South. The Mass today, the Friday within the Octave of Easter, is Edúxit eos Dóminus in spe, allelúia (Introibo): the Lord has captained them in hope, alleluia, and submerged their enemies in the sea, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. The waters of Baptism have conquered the foes whose enmities have enslaved the people-- wonderful.
Holy Mass will be streamed from Saint-Eugène at the usual hour, 1000. I must get me to Prime after I finish my juice; finally bought an Oxo hand juicer and it is very, very good. Why I didn't do this twenty years ago, I've no idea.
Am looking to buy a complete edition of the Breviary published before 1955; at Bookfinder.com (where am dozing off, searching), one must evidently shop for each volume individually, keeping track of publisher, edition size, and date as one proceeds. Eh.
Hæc dies, quam fecit Dóminus: exsultémus et lætémur in ea.
V/. Benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini: Deus Dóminus, et illúxit nobis.
Allelúia, allelúia. V/. Dícite in géntibus: quia Dóminus regnávit a ligno.
So far as my bad comprehension of spoken French goes, I think Fr Guelfucci made no direct reference to the tristes circonstances in his homily-- the burden seems to have been: gardez toujours la joie de Pâques! Which may well be comment enough.
Dom Prosper on today's Liturgy, Friday being the sixth day of Creation.
... This is the sixth day of the creation. Upon it, the hand of the Son of God formed the body of man out of the slime of the earth, into which he breathed living soul. This was the creature that was to be the king of the visible creation. A simple command of the divine Word had sufficed to call from the earth all the animals that live upon it; but when, towards the close of this great day, the Creator said: ‘Let us make man to our image and likeness’, He did more than merely command, He seems to have deliberated: He deigned to become the artificer of His work.Let us adore this His sovereign goodness towards our race, and ever gratefully honour the Friday of each week, as the day whereon the Son of God completed the work He began on the Sunday by the creation of him who was to be master and lord of the world.Nor is this the only mystery that should make Friday dear to us. It was on this same day, that the divine Word, having taken upon Himself the Flesh He Himself had made, died upon the cross, that He might save His rebellious and lost creature, man. O sacred day! day that didst witness both our creation and our redemption! Thou speakest to us of the Son of God, and of His love for us, even more sweetly than of His power! Let us express all this by reciting the following devout prayer, which the Mozarabic Liturgy uses on the Friday of Easter week.Deus, Dei Filius, qui hominem, quem sexto die formasti ex nihilo, sexta aetate saeculi redemisti sanguine tuo: et qui tune bene conditus male cecidit; nunc melius reformatus surrexit: da nobis, ut ita veraciter redemptionis nostrae mysterium perpendamus, qualiter in morte et resurrectione tua perenniter gloriemur: ut qui tempore salutis, mundo occurrens, mortem nostram moriendo devicisti, ab aeterna nos liberes damnatione judicii.
God, Son of God, who, in the sixth age of the world, didst, by Thy Blood, redeem man whom Thou hadst formed out of nothing on the sixth day, and who, though created in goodness, fell into evil, but has now risen regenerated unto what is more perfect: grant that we may so truly prize the mystery of our redemption, as that we may forever glory in Thy Death and Resurrection: and that Thou, who, in the time of our salvation, didst succour the world and conquer our death by Thine own, mayst deliver us from the eternal damnation of the Judgement. Who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
No idea about the poetic formatting but am not fussing with it. Before I go out for my afternoon walk, let's see what Cardinal Schuster has to offer today.
As the station of yesterday was called simply ad Apostolos, so that of today was known as ad Martyres, and was intended by the Roman Church as a special tribute of veneration to her heroic sons, who, as the Apostle says, had not spared their life ut meliorem invenirent resurrectionem. The martyrs indeed seem to have a particular right to the glory of the resurrection on account of their perfect resemblance to Christ crucified; and many ancient liturgies kept a special feast in their honour in the very midst of the Easter festival. Today’s station ad Martyres remains as a last record of this early liturgical tradition, for, later on, the collective feast of the martyrs was transferred, even in Rome, to the middle of the month of May, and still later to the first day of November....During this week the Church repeatedly accentuates the importance of our baptismal initiation. On each afternoon of this Octave she conducts the neophytes in their white robes again to the baptistery, and in today’s Offertory she desires that the date of their baptism may be a memorable and festive day throughout their lives. Indeed, she establishes the Paschal annotinum [those baptized in the previous year would celebrate a memorial of the day; whether this happened only on the anniversary or in every succeeding year I don't know] in memory of the baptism received by them at the Easter of the previous year. It is impossible to impress too much on the minds of Catholics of our time the realization of the holiness to which they have been called by the sacrament of baptismal regeneration. The very promises made at the moment of baptism are a token of this sanctity, for by them we have pledged ourselves to renounce for ever Satan and all his works and to aspire to being perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. A merely negative goodness is not enough; we must not aim only at being good, but at being perfect, after the example of our divine Master. It is to Christians especially that God has said 'Be ye holy, for I am holy', and as children partake of the nature of their father, so also we, who are the children of God, should make it our chief care that the divine likeness in us should become each day more perfect, according to the ineffable beauty of our heavenly Father.
There is not a single cloud visible in the skies, nary a one. First afternoon with just a t-shirt on outdoors, I think. Fridays I used always to say 'the Agenda' (as the expression en chartreuse has it), the officium defunctorum, but several weeks ago I began making a commemoration of the dead in each day's Prime, following the monastic office custom, and giving up the weekly observance. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth, died today. He was a man who has been part of the 'public background' of my entire life and his death is sorrowful to me chiefly for that reason. The funniest tweet I saw earlier, not quoting Prince Philip himself, was Eccles's:
Breaking: @JoeBiden has sent condolences to Queen Elzabeth on the death of her father.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescat in pace.
It is also the feast of Saint Casilda (11th century), of Saint Waldetruda (7th century), and of Saint Peter (13th century).
V. Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum. R. Deo grátias.
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