Happy St. VaLENTine's Day

 

A very happy and blessed St. Valentine's Day to all. May your heart be united to the hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and to the ones you love. Love is all about sacrifice so it's fitting it fell on Ash Wednesday this year, marking the beginning of the holy season of Lent. Take heart, those of you in the cold North. As the days lengthen and warm, you too, shall have buds and blossoms! We sang our first ever High Mass for this day and I was heartened to see so many cadets from the Citadel in attendance. It was beautiful.

My niece made this lovely card for my birthday and it's got the perfect recipe for Fridays. We love our beans! We'll be singing this beautiful hymn written by Pope St. Gregory the Great (AD 540-604), the one who gave us the heavenly Gregorian chant. You can read more about him and his prodigious output here: Pope Gregory I › Texts | Hymnary.org  The Glory of These Forty Days | Hymnary.org Here's a link to a beautiful singing from the Trinity Chapel Choir.

The glory of these forty days

We celebrate with songs of praise;
For Christ, by Whom all things were made,
Himself has fasted and has prayed.

Alone and fasting Moses saw
The loving God Who gave the law;
And to Elijah, fasting, came
The steeds and chariots of flame.

So Daniel trained his mystic sight,
Delivered from the lions’ might;
And John, the Bridegroom’s friend, became
The herald of Messiah’s Name.

Then grant us, Lord, like them to be
Full oft in fast and prayer with Thee;
Our spirits strengthen with Thy grace,
And give us joy to see Thy face.

O Father, Son, and Spirit blest,
To thee be every prayer addressed,
Who art in threefold Name adored,
From age to age, the only Lord.

Happy Thanksgiving

A happy and blessed Thanksgiving to all. I keep in prayer all who are lonely at this time. Know that God is with you. Here's a favorite poem by Joyce Kilmer:

Thanksgiving
 

The roar of the world is in my ears.

Thank God for the roar of the world!

Thank God for the mighty tide of fears

Against me always hurled!

Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife,

And the sting of His chastening rod!

Thank God for the stress and the pain of life,

And Oh, thank God for God!

The Music of Christendom and a Poem Wolcum, Wolcum

I know that for many people Christmas ends on Dec. 26th or after 12 days of Christmas at Epiphany but some of us celebrate all 40 days of Christmas season with beautiful music culminating at the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Feb. 2nd (also called Purification of Mary; Candlemas). And I just received a lovely letter from a wonderful music teacher, Dr. Susan Treacy, who has a new book that is on its way to me to fill the gaps in my education: The Music of Christendom. She shared a lovely poem that I cannot just keep to myself. Here's the excerpt from her letter: 

I’d like to end my letter with the following poem to wish you blessings throughout the entire season of Christmas, from December 25th to February 2nd.  The Middle English lyrics below date from about 1400 and were written by the composer Thomas Ashwell (ca. 1478 – after 1513 (possibly 1527?).  They can be found in Sloane Ms. 2593 at the British Library in London.  Five and a half centuries later Benjamin Britten (1913-76) would use them for one of the carols in his Ceremony of Carols (1942), for treble choir and harp.  All the major feast days of Christmastide —hidden in their Middle English clothing—are mentioned in the poem. 

Wolcum, Wolcum

Wolcum be thou hevenè king

Wolcum Yole!

Wolcum, born in one morning

Wolcum for whom we sall sing!

Wolcum be ye Stevene and Jon

Wolcum Innocentes every one

Wolcum, Thomas marter one

Wolcum, be ye, Good Newe Yere

Wolcum Twelfth Day both in fere[1]

Wolcum, seintes lefe[2] and dere

Wolcum Yole!

Candelmesse, Quene of bliss

Wolcum bothe to more and lesse

Wolcum be ye that are here

Wolcum Yole!

Wolcum alle and make good cheer

Wolcum alle another yere

Wolcum Yole! Wolcum!

 [1] in fere, together.

[2] lefe, dear.

I love being Catholic. We begin a new liturgical year in Dec. for Advent, celebrate Christmas for 40 days, then begin preparing for the 40 penitential days of Lent followed by the Easter season, which is 50 days, and ending with the feast of Pentecost. This season is the longest, one for growth. Love how it ties into the seasons, the cycles of feasting and fasting. May Christmas joy remain with you all throughout the New Year!

NB: We participated in a Gregorian Chant workshop with Susan in 2018 while she was still at Ave Maria University. She's retired now so I hope she's open to offering workshops to parish choirs.    

Holy Saturday Musings with Links and a Poem: LIMBO

Jimmy Akin has an interesting piece about pinning down the date of Jesus' Crucifixion

Descent of Christ from the Cross
 ~ Jean Joseph Weerts (AD 1847-1927)

and it's April 3, AD 33.

Saturdays are devoted to Mary. If her greatest joy had been to hold the baby Jesus, then the greatest sorrow occurred when she held the dead Body of her Son on Good Friday. Yet, she in her sorrow had the fullness of the faith even though everybody had lost it--the Apostles and holy women did not expect the Resurrection even though Jesus Himself spoke about it! There is a beautiful and more thorough explanation here from which I quote: "It is precisely the day that reminds us of the tragic hour of doubt and abandonment... Until the triumph of the Immaculate Heart comes we are living a great Holy Saturday in which one would say that everything we love lies in the grave without balms and in disorder, contempt, hatred and abandonment." 

I've been spending a lot of time with St. Joseph and it's clear that his greatest sorrow was knowing that the beautiful Child would one day suffer and His Mother will share that pain and sorrow and he would not be there to protect them. And so I repost: In the Apostles Creed, which we recite daily, we speak of Jesus descending into hell. This is not the hell of the damned, but simply the abode of the dead, before the gates of heaven were opened. And here's a beautiful poem about it:

Limbo By Sister Mary Ada, OSJ

 

The ancient greyness shifted

Suddenly and thinned

Like mist upon the moors

Before the wind.

An old, old prophet lifted

A shining face and said:

“He will be coming soon.

The Son of God is dead;

He died this afternoon.”

A murmurous excitement stirred

All souls.

They wondered if they dreamed –

Save one old man who seemed

Not even to have heard.

And Moses, standing,

Hushed them all to ask

If any had a welcome song prepared.

If not, would David take the task?

And if they cared

Could not the three young children sing

The Benedicite, the canticle of praise

They made when God kept them from perishing

In the fiery blaze?

A breath of spring surprised them,

Stilling Moses’ words.

No one could speak, remembering

The first fresh flowers,

The little singing birds.

Still others thought of fields new ploughed

Or apple trees

All blossom-boughed.

Or some, the way a dried bed fills

With water

Laughing down green hills.

The fisherfolk dreamed of the foam

On bright blue seas,

The one old man who had not stirred

Remembered home.

Andrea di Bonaiuto (AD 1346-1379), Descent of Christ to Limbo

And there He was

Splendid as the morning sun and fair

As only God is fair.

And they, confused with joy,

Knelt to adore

Seeing that He wore

Five crimson stars

He never had before.

No canticle at all was sung

None toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song.

A silent man alone

Of all that throng found tongue –

Not any other

Close to His heart.

When the embrace was done,

Old Joseph said, “How is Your Mother,

How is Your Mother, Son?”

Blessings!

Today is the Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude and what fondness I feel for St. Jude since it was the church named in his honor that we were received in and how fitting--he's a patron of impossible causes, but all is possible through Christ Jesus! All the Apostles were martyred except for John and it fills me with awe--Christians everywhere, especially in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are being martyred every day. I wonder if we in the West could be as brave.

I've not been well but even that's been a blessing because there's been more time to spend contemplating God. We celebrated the Feast of Christ the King yesterday and it fills me with so much joy just knowing He is King of all and to surrender my life into His care. 

For Respect Life month, the pastor of St. Clare of Assisi invited me to sell BOUND after Mass. It was so lovely to be able to tell parishioners why I wrote the book. I'm praying it will spark many discussions about choosing life when it's hard. Fr. West had two posters showing the latest progress on the building itself. I was bowled over by the beautiful stained glass windows we'll be getting and also the High Altar! Check out this short video about it. It's going to be such a beautiful house of God!  

We picked that shiny eggplant and I made a ratatouille. And wonder of wonders, there are four more baby eggplants! Good thing we'll be having a potluck supper after the Requiem Mass. Doesn't Michael look like a proud papa?!

Finally, an unexpected gift from Pearl Meaker. She composed the layout with the photograph, Hebrew writing, and calligraphy of a hymn verse. I have her permission to share it. May it bless you too!