Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Latin in the Ordinary Form

Wouldn't it make more since to publish the altar missals for use in the USA as Latin/English to further encourage the use of Latin? Or wouldn't it also make since for Rome to require certain parts of the Mass to be in Latin and give the option of Latin or approved vernacular for the other texts, e.g. the readings?

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Stole
















































(from Rt. Rev. Msgr. John Walsh's The Mass and Vestments of the Catholic Church)

Friday, January 22, 2010

Sancte Pater, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi



These are the words spoken 3 times by the Papal Master of Ceremonies kneeling before the Pope as he is being carried into the Basilica before his Coronation Mass. The Master of Ceremonies lights some flax that is placed on top of a brazier. The flax quickly burns away as he recites this famous line. Below is a picture of this rarely seen brazier.





Photo taken from Saint Peter and the Vatican by Allen Dunston and Roberto Zagnoli (Arts Service International: 2003)


A picture from a video clip of it being used during the Coronation Mass of Blessed John XXIII.




The Papal Cappa Magna


(below from Handbook to Christian and ecclesiastical Rome by Tuker and Malleson)


A cappa magna of red velvet and ermine used to be worn by the popes, and Eugenius IV. is represented in it at the Council of Florence. The cope was adopted as less precious and more appropriate during Holy Week and for the Matins of Christmas, and there is no example of a cappa magna being worn since the time of Pius V. But a scarlet or red cloak, called cappa del papa, of velvet silk or wool, and in winter lined with ermine, is worn on November 2 and on Good Friday, as less splendid than the manto. The hood is drawn over the head. The popes used to wear the hood called clementina on Christmas night and at other solemnities, as the Cardinal Vicar does now when he enters the church on Good Friday.