As I may have written previously, the Fox and I have been praying, for a while now, the Divine Office from the Divino Afflatu, most perfectly reformed by Pope St. Pius X, and with its most recent pre-Bugnini calendar of 1951. Today, is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome done away with in 1960 by John XXIII and incorporated on to the February 22 Feast of the Chair of Peter at Antioch, where it resides in both the Divine Office of 1962 and the Liturgy of the Hours which came along only a decade later. If one clicks on this link, it is pre-set to compare the day's Divino Afflatu and the Divine Office, just click on the appropriate Hour to compare, Matins, or Matutinum, being the most glaring destruction. Clearly, the liturgical destruction did not begin after the Second Vatican Council, the seeds were already planted and well-watered.
When one compares even the beginning of the impoverishment in 1962 with the Liturgy of the Hours, particularly Matins or the Office of Readings, it is even more profoundly tragic. Yet, not all is lost in the current books, while one can deplore its brevity, and its missing psalms and edited psalms, the Readings themselves, are quite good.
Yesterday, a good priest friend sent me the Reading from Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time.
Second Reading
From a letter to the Ephesians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr
Have faith in Christ, and love
Try to gather together more frequently to give thanks to God and to praise him. For when you come together frequently, Satan’s powers are undermined, and the destruction he threatens is done away with in the unanimity of your faith. Nothing is better than peace, in which all warfare between heaven and earth is brought to an end.
None of this will escape you if you have perfect faith and love toward Jesus Christ. These are the beginning and the end of life: faith the beginning, love the end. When these two are found together, there is God, and everything else concerning right living follows from them. No one professing faith sins; no one possessing love hates. “A tree is known by its fruit.” So those who profess to belong to Christ will be known by what they do. For the work we are about is not a matter of words here and now, but depends on the power of faith and on being found faithful to the end.
It is better to remain silent and to be than to talk and not be. Teaching is good if the teacher also acts. Now there was one teacher who “spoke, and it was made,” and even what he did in silence is worthy of the Father. He who has the word of Jesus can truly listen also to his silence, in order to be perfect, that he may act through his speech and be known by his silence. Nothing is hidden from the Lord, but even our secrets are close to him. Let us then do everything in the knowledge that he is dwelling within us so that we may be his temples and he may be God within us. He is, and will reveal himself, in our sight, according to the love we bear him in holiness.
“Make no mistake,” my brothers: those who corrupt families “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” If those who do these things in accordance with the flesh have died, how much worse will it be if one corrupts through evil doctrine the faith of God for which Jesus was crucified. Such a person, because he is defiled, will depart into the unquenchable fire, as will any one who listens to him.
For the Lord received anointing on his head in order that he might breathe incorruptibility on the Church. Do not be anointed with the evil odour of the teachings of the prince of this world, do not let him lead you captive away from the life that is set before you. But why is it that we are not all wise when we have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ? Why do we perish in our stupidity, not knowing the gift the Lord has truly sent us?
My spirit is given over to the humble service of the cross which is a stumbling block to unbelievers but to us salvation and eternal life.
My response to him was, "Well, it is pretty obvious that most churchmen do not read their Office!"
7 comments:
I'm sure it is scoffed at by most of to-day's clergy. The higher up one goes the more so. It was reported around the time of the first synod that Cardinal Müller only went to confession once a year, so that would be an indication of how they treat the Holy Office &, most probably, Our Lady's Rosary.
I'm tired of everyone being 'nice' to these scoundrels. It is well past the protocol formalities - the CC is floundering. What is going to happen to the vast majority of Catholics who have nowhere to go when the full scale schism is announced. Instead of saying prayers for PF to come to his senses, shouldn't our Cardinals & Bishops be urgently making arrangements for Holy Mass & the full Sacraments to be available to all of God's children globally i.e. if they cannot shift these Modernists from the Vatican. Did Our Lady not mention Fatima being the focal point for the CC at a future date? They have desecrated the Vatican anyhow with satanic masses, incense to idols, praying with infidels, receiving Italy's best abortionist, Paul Ehrlich, Hollywood celebrities, climate change 'experts', light shows etc. The few Catholic Cardinals & Bishops amongst them have had sufficient notice since PF's disastrous election to make plans for this eventuality & now we desperately need to hear them.
"...most perfectly reformed..." this statement, surely, needs to be qualified. Uncluttering the Kalendar was a good thing, but not at the cost of throwing the Roman Psalter, handed down to us by our Fathers in the Faith from the first millenium, overboard. We Trads have to be careful about such selective memory. Tradition is not a matter of juridical fiat.
Christ is Born!
Dear Vox,
Today's readings on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic calendar:
Epistle: James 1: 1-18
1] James the servant of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. [2] My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; [3] Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. [4] And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing. [5] But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
[2] Into divers temptations: The word temptation, in this epistle, is sometimes taken for trials by afflictions or persecutions, as in this place: at other times, it is to be understood, tempting, enticing, or drawing others into sin.
[6] But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. [7] Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. [8] A double minded man is inconstant in all his ways. [9] But let the brother of low condition glory in his exaltation: [10] And the rich, in his being low; because as the flower of the grass shall he pass away.
[11] For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. [12] Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive a crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him. [13] Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils, and he tempteth no man. [14] But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. [15] Then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.
[16] Do not err, therefore, my dearest brethren. [17] Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration. [18] For of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creatures.
Footnote:
[18] Some beginning: That is, a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Verse 17 is used in the Ambo Prayer at the end of the Divine Liturgy.
And I'm sure you will be pleased with today's Gospel:
Mark 10: 11-16:
And he saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. [12] And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. [13] And they brought to him young children, that he might touch them. And the disciples rebuked them that brought them. [14] Whom when Jesus saw, he was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. [15] Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it.
[16] And embracing them, and laying his hands upon them, he blessed them.
Providentially, Bishop Athanasius Schneider (whose patronal feast is today) and his confreres dated their appeal to the faithful today:
http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/2993-bishop-athanasius-schneider-and-two-archbishops-make-urgent-appeal-to-prayer
How great are Your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom.
Vespers, Psalm 103 (also Tone 4 Prokimenon)
In Christ the King,
Margaret
Francis, the Divino Afflatu of St. Pius X was my reference point. It restored the 150 psalm cycle whilst still maintaining the sanctoral cycle tampered with in 1960 and done away with in the Liturgy of the Hours.
The weekly distribution of Psalms in the pre-Divino Afflatu Psalter is the authentic and traditional Roman Psalter. Divino Afflatu also suppressed many of the ancient antiphons and introduced new ones. As I said, one could have kept the traditional Psalter while clearing up the Kalendar. Also, the pre-1911 Psalter is closer to the Benedictine Psalter.
Hello Francis,
I assume that you are familiar with this site:
http://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/versions.html
My understanding is that the Divino Afflatu made adjustments so that all 150 psalms were read, that due to calendar and ranks, they often were not.
It is very, very frustrating to see how much was stripped away in 55 and 60 and then of course, with the new Liturgy of the Hours.
Yes, it is a very good website. I use it occasionally. In the pre-Divino Afflatu period, the Roman Psalter was weekly - but the number of feasts and their octaves were such that the ferial office was rarely said. Divino Afflatu sought to correct the problem by reducing the feasts and their octaves, AND redistributing the psalter - while keeping the weekly schedule, it introduced a new arrangement. This is what I find questionable. The situation could have been addressed by reducing the ranks of the feasts and their octaves to commemorations while kepping the traditional weekly Psalter untouched.
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