But Jesus Hid Himself

Originally published in 2016.

Today is the Fifth Sunday of Lent which begins Passiontide. If one attends Mass strictly in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite it is not generally apparent having been done away with as a time within Lent. In the traditional calendar, it is called the First Sunday of the Passion with the colloquial Palm Sunday being the Second Sunday of the Passion. There is a further stripping away of liturgical elements and embellishments which began at Septuagesima, 

From First Vespers last night until the Paschal Vigil, the Gloria Patri is not said after the Asperges on Passion Sunday or the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, Introit, Lavabo, and Communion Antiphonal Psalms. In the Office, it is eliminated from some of the Verses and Short Responsories. Jesus is losing his earthly glory. The readings and psalm antiphons reflect this in the Mass and Office. Those who hate him are now plentiful, as plentiful now, as when he walked. Those who seek his death are now coming to the fore. Those who seek the death of His Church are coming to the fore and are also within Her. Lent now takes a change in focus; -- while our penance continues, we now shift towards the passion of Our Blessed Lord and his saving work of redemption.

Abbot Gueranger writes:

"During the preceding four weeks, we have noticed how the malice of Jesus' enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them; and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long-nurtured hatred to a head."

His passion then has begun. His glory, as at Mount Tabor, is no longer apparent.

There is one element that remains in the modernist liturgy depending on the parish's own tradition. While it was once obligatory it is now optional and that is the veiling of the Crucifix and statues, though not Stations of the Cross or the imagery in windows. 

But why? From whence does this tradition come? 

It is thought to have begun around the 9^th century in Germany. When Lent began (which in most languages is a derivative of Quadregesimae, the Latin for forty days), a cloth called a hungertuch, or hunger cloth, was used to cover the altar. It was removed on the Tuesday of Holy Week during the reading of the Passion according to St. Mark when “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” The Gospels in the three-year cycle in the New Lectionary do not reflect the symbolism and beauty of Passiontide and the veiling. They are all from St. John’s Gospel and are in sequence – “I am the Resurrection and the Life;” … “If a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it bears much fruit;” and, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

The change from the one-year Lectionary, in place from St. Gregory the Great, was a grievous error. The desires of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council could have been achieved without the assault on the whole Church tradition of readings. A Lesson could have been added to the Sunday liturgy. Weekdays could have had their own Mass texts whilst still acknowledging the Sanctoral cycle. Interestingly, the Advent readings in the new Lectionary are beautiful and are the one thing that perhaps, one day, be inserted into the old Lectionary.  could have had its own lectionary as in Lent in the traditional rite. The three-year Lectionary remains a problem. Mass is not a bible study and what is lost in the reading below is quite profound, as you will soon comprehend.

For the Mass on the Fifth Sunday of Lent according to the ancient use Roman Missal, the Gospel for no less than 1600 years until 1969 has been the following and it explains the veiling and why they killed Him.

GOSPEL ¤ John 8. 46-59 † A continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. John.

At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: Which of you shall convince Me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews therefore answered and said to Him: Do not we say well, that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me. But I seek not My own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep My word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the Prophets: and Thou sayest: If any man keep My word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost Thou make Thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing: it is My Father that glorifieth Me, of whom you say that He is your God, and you have not known Him: but I know Him: and if I shall say that I know Him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and do keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it and was glad. The Jews therefore said to Him: Thou art not yet fifty years old: and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.

“But Jesus hid Himself.”

St. Augustine said that at this moment by virtue of His divine nature, Jesus became literally invisible.

“He hides not himself in a corner of the temple as if afraid or running into a cottage or turning aside behind a wall or column; but by His Divine Power making Himself invisible he passed through their midst.”

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read the following:

205 God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."9 God is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. He is the faithful and compassionate God who remembers them and his promises; he comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the God who, from beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God who will put his almighty power to work for this plan.

"I Am who Am"

Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you', and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'. . . this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."

CCC 206 In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.

CCC 207 By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the God of your father"), as for the future ("I will be with you").12 God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them.

CCC 208 Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness.13 Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips."14 Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."15 But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: "I will not execute my fierce anger. . . for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst."16 The apostle John says likewise: "We shall. . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Jesus revealed to the Temple authorities, the leadership of Israel, who He was. He knew Abraham and did so in such a way that they would know with absolute clarity who He was. He had done it before, seven times.

1. I Am the Bread of Life: (John 6). 

2. I Am the Light of the World: (John 8). 

3. I Am the Gate of the Sheepfold: (John 10). 

4. I Am the Good Shepherd: (John 10). 

5. I Am the Resurrection and the Life: (John 11). 

6. I Am the Way, Truth, and Life: (John 14). 

7. I Am the True Vine: (John 15).

Note that Jesus, when the Jews questioned his age and Abraham, he did not say, "Before Abraham was made, I was made." Had he said this, they would have just thought him delusional. Rather, He said, "Before Abraham was made, I AM." They knew exactly what He meant. 

Now, he is hidden in our churches and chapels only to be unveiled when we recall His Crucifixion -- "Ecce lignum Crucis," -- "Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the Saviour of the world, come let us adore him." If we hide Him we cannot abide the glory of His saints, therefore, they are also hidden. Christ is shamed. He is humiliated by those whom he came to save. The Jewish "deep state" betrayed Him, and we continue to betray Him today.

He declared Himself before all Israel to be the I AM of the Burning Bush; and for this, they would kill Him. They knew what He said, they knew what He meant. He confessed to them that he was the very Son of God, the very God Himself come to earth.

In the sermon below from 1846, we find an incredible dissertation on Jesus hiding Himself.  It is a sermon by an Anglican, but one would be hard-pressed to find a better sermon or homily said today on the subject from a typical Catholic pulpit. This was a period that led Saint John-Henry Newman home.

Would that we could hear preaching like this today.

Vox.

+ + +

SERMONS FOR SUNDAYS AND OTHER LITURGICAL OCCASIONS

CONTRIBUTED BY

BISHOPS AND OTHER CLERGY OF THE CHURCH.

EDITED BY THE REV. ALEXANDER WATSON, M.A., 

CURATE OF ST. JOHN'S, CHELTENHAM.

Second Series.  VOL. I.

OXFORD: J. H. PARKER. CAMBRIDGE: T. GREEN.

MDCCCXLVI. (1846)

Then took they up stones to cast at Him."

Thus are we brought down from the whole Gospel for the day to that portion of it which will engage our chief attention during the brief remainder of this morning's service. "But Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by."

1. Jesus "hid Himself," as man, in prudence: according to the will of His Heavenly Father. As He had been born in "the fullness of time," so it was at an appointed hour that He was to die. But "His hour was not yet come ": and He therefore avoided whatever might unduly quicken the course of events, or put forward the grand horologe of time. And this He did in obedience to the Will of His Heavenly Father. This obedience was the mainspring of His conduct throughout His earthly sojourn. "Lo I come to do Thy will, O God," was His motto from first to last; and never was it more fully translated into action than in all He did with regard to His final suffering and departure.

When that hour of mingled humiliation and glory, which compressed eternal interests within the compass of a few passing minutes; when that everlasting hour arrived, the holy and obedient Jesus yielded Himself at once into the power of His enemies. Thus, when Satan had entered into Judas Iscariot, Jesus said to the traitor, "What thou doest, do quickly." When Judas came to Him in the garden with men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, "Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am He." And when the impetuous Peter—the first to defend, the first to deny his Master—drew his sword and cut oft" the right ear of Malchus, the High Priest's servant, "then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" When Pilate would fain have released Him, and sought for some pretext for so doing in the replies of Jesus to his interrogatories, "Jesus gave him no answer." And at the last, when He saw that all was "finished,"—prophecy fulfilled, types realised, the preparations for His sacrificial Death complete, His Father's will wrought out,—He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."

But until the arrival of that hour, His conduct was marked throughout by unexampled prudence. While He wrought His miracles before the multitude, and taught openly in the Temple, and in secret did nothing; while He boldly confuted and reproved the Pharisee, the Sadducee, and the Herodian, regardless of the enmity He thereby incurred; He carefully shunned the precipitation of His end. He had a mission of vast pregnancy and moment to discharge; and until this was done, He would not lay down that life which the Father had put into His power. Whenever danger became imminent, He withdrew Himself from the presence of those who sought to lay hands on Him and destroy Him. Thus, on the occasion immediately before us, when the infuriated Jews took up stones to cast at Him, "Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." 

On a previous occasion, when the Pharisees held a council how they might destroy Him, Jesus “withdrew Himself from thence." On a subsequent occasion, similar to that of the text, when the Jews again sought to take Him, "he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan." When the Sanhedrim, after the official prophecy of the unconscious Caiaphas, took counsel together to put Him to death, "Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples." Thus, throughout His whole earthly career, our Blessed Lord exercised a prudence of the highest order; enforcing by His own example the precepts He gave to His first disciples: "Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves ;"—" When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another ." And these precepts, supported by this supreme example, and adapted to the exigencies of Christians at the present day, apply also to us. "As men may not be too tenacious, so neither may they be too profuse and lavish of life and the comforts of it," says Dean Stanhope; "lest, besides their present hardships, they find at last an indiscreet zeal returned, with a 'Who hath required these things at your hands?' Love indeed is apt and desirous to give over-measure, where it can: but still this must not be the effect of passion alone. Prudence should temper and direct it." 

"It is an office of prudence," says Bishop Taylor, "to serve God So that we may at the same time preserve our lives and our estates, our interest and reputation, for ourselves and our relations, so far as they can consist together. For Christian religion, carrying us to heaven, does it by the ways of a man; and by the body it serves the soul, as by the soul it serves God; and therefore it endeavours to secure the body and its interest, that it may continue the opportunities of a crown, and prolong the stage in which we are to run for the mighty prize of our salvation; and this is that part of prudence which is the defensative and guard of a Christian in the time of persecution: and it hath in it much of duty."

Thus far we have endeavoured to consider the conduct of our Blessed Lord, on the occasion under review, on its human side; as an exhibition of prudence and discretion. But it has a sublimer aspect than this; to which we now with reverence will turn.

Jesus “hid Himself," as God, in majesty; the majesty of displeasure. "He did not hide Himself," says St. Augustine, "in a corner of the Temple, as if He were afraid; or take refuge in a house, or run behind a wall, or a pillar; but, by His heavenly power making Himself invisible to His enemies, He went through the midst of them." Just before, He had said, "Before Abraham was I Am"; with evident reference to the Name revealed by the Lord to Moses, as recorded in the First Lesson for this morning's service; when He appeared to him in the burning but unconsumed bush, as he was keeping the flock of Jethro, the Priest of Midian, near the base of Mount Horeb. On that occasion, when Moses would have drawn nigh to see that great sight, the Lord forbad his nearer approach, and commanded him to unsandal his feet, because they were standing on holy ground. He, who required this reverence towards an inferior manifestation of Himself, would not permit the rude hand of violence to invade His incarnate glory. He "hid Himself" in the secret depths of His invisible Godhead.

There is, doubtless, a mystery in this; and we cannot fully understand why He, who submitted on so many occasions to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, refused on other occasions to undergo the indignities that wicked hands would have put upon Him. But a like mystery invested the whole of His earthly career. The darkest shades of humiliation were never permitted altogether to obscure His glory; while yet, that glory was so far hidden, that men despised Him and esteemed Him not. Great, however, as was the mystery of His commingling of glory and shame, the mystery of the manifestation of His glory alone was greater. He might have flashed forth devouring lightnings from the dark and surcharged cloud. He might have kindled into supernatural and overwhelming brightness the splendours of His Divine and resistless Presence. But He did none of these things. He manifested forth His glory by hiding Himself. When the Lord, in the days of old, would preserve righteous Lot and His prophet Elisha from the hand of violence, He smote their enemies with blindness; and so He might have done on this occasion: but, as the threatened indignity was greater, so was the punishment wherewith He visited it. "He hid Himself."

Awful are the exhibitions of Divine glory, when the Lord is raised up out of His holy habitation, and comes forth from His unseen depths to punish the ungodly. But these are as nothing when compared with the hidings of His face. When the Lord would denounce the severest judgments against Israel of old, He said to Moses, "Mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?" And when, on the other hand, He would confer upon His repentant people the greatest possible blessing, He said by the mouth of Ezekiel, "Neither will I hide My face from them any more: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel."

The hidings of Jesus, in the days of His flesh, were yet more majestic and awful. He came into the world for the express purpose, among others, of manifesting the glory and the grace of God: so that to hide Himself was, as it were, to revoke His mission with regard to those from whom He thus withdrew. He abandoned them to the evil of their own hardened and unbelieving hearts, and left them to be filled with their own ways.

It is impossible to conceive anything more dreadful than the condition of the man from whom Jesus has hid Himself. Such a man sinks at once into a state of moral stupidity: he sins on without aim or purpose. Until Jesus hid Himself, the unbelieving Jews had an object against which to direct their malignant attacks; but when He could be no longer seen, their malice, though as virulent as ever, became wholly impotent and senseless. And so, when Jesus hides Himself from sinners of the present day,—who insult His majesty because it is concealed to the-eye of sense or mere reason (though not to the eye of faith), beneath mean and simple accidents,—He leaves them to perish as brute beasts. The force of argument and moral suasion having been tried upon them in vain, together with all other manifestations of the true and holy Jesus, He will no longer expose Himself to the rash temerity and blinded insolence of their invasions, but hides Himself, going through the midst of them, and so passes by.

The abstract contemplation of such a subject is too awful for man to dwell upon at any length; and we will therefore now consider it, (so hastening to a conclusion,) under its practical aspects and bearings.

But is it possible, men may ask, for persons at the present day to commit acts of insult and injury towards the Divine Jesus, akin to that of the blaspheming Jews when they took up stones to cast at Him? Alas, it is but too possible. "Certainly we cannot commit such open blasphemy; but it is another matter whether we cannot commit as great. For, often sins are greater, which are less startling; insults more bitter, which are not so loud; and evils deeper, which are more subtle." Although Christ is no longer on earth in bodily presence, He is here by His Spirit: and it is quite possible for men to repeat the offence of the blaspheming Jews by casting stones, so to speak, against either the Church, which is His Body; or the Sacraments, which are His Presence; or the Poor, who are His Brethren.

The Church is the Body of Christ, "the fullness of Him That filleth all in all:" and they who resist or blaspheme or persecute Her, do in effect resist and blaspheme and persecute Him. And such are not only, nor even chiefly, the openly wicked and profane; whose offences are of a different description: but those who deny the Divine authority of the Church, rejecting her principles for the opinions of men and the maxims of the world; those who deny her Apostolicity, treating her as a merely human and secular institution; those who invade her constitution, legislating for her on grounds of political expediency, and not according to the laws of Christ. "Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." They refuse to acknowledge the Body of Christ in His corporate members; and He hides it from them. They are no longer permitted to behold the tokens of her presence. She becomes to them what they would have her be. In their eyes she has no form nor comeliness, although she is all-glorious within. But with these hidings of her beauty and this withdrawal of her presence, there comes not only an apparent abdication of her authority; leaving men to live as they list, according to the broad measures of the world, instead of the straight and narrow lines of eternity: but also the utter loss of her intercession and benediction. She no longer stands between the living and the dead. A silent curse spreads over the land she has abandoned to itself. The rulers have forsaken Christ, and Christ has forsaken them. The people would have it so, and their house is left unto them desolate.

"Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings:

Be learned, ye that judges of the earth.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And so ye perish from the right way,

If His wrath be kindled, yea but a little.

Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

Again, the Sacraments are the Presence of Christ. In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, He is present by His Spirit, Who, in answer to the prayers of the congregation, is given by our Heavenly Father to infants, when baptized, that they may be born again and be made heirs of everlasting salvation. In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, He is really and spiritually present, being taken and received by the faithful as their heavenly food and divine life. 

Whoever, therefore, despises the Sacraments, despises Christ. Whoever denies their saving power, denies the Presence of the Saviour in them. Whoever in effect casts stones at these, as by cavils or contumely or neglect, does in reality thus cast stones at Christ. And then does the Son of God hide Himself from them in the majesty of displeasure; and Sacraments become to these persons what, in their rationalistic unbelief, they would have them be. 

Baptism, when administered by schismatics and pretenders to Holy Orders, fails to regenerate; and their own theory, that Baptism admits only to an outward union with a nominal church, is, in their own case, verified. The Communion is reduced to a formal commemoration of an absent Saviour. In both cases, as regards their own mere outward show of Sacraments, they are right. They have taken up stones to cast at the spiritually-present Jesus; and He has hidden Himself, going through the midst of them, and so passing by.

Lastly: the Poor are the Brethren of Jesus. They are so even in respect of their mere poverty; although it must not be concealed that the poor man who is a wilful sinner is severed from this communion and fellowship. But he, who is at once poor in this world and poor in spirit, is united by the closest bonds to the lowly Son of Mary. This is strikingly shown in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, wherein the Judge declares that whatsoever is done unto the least of the Hungry, the Thirsty, the Stranger, the Naked, the Sick, the Imprisoned,—being "the poor of this world," but " rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom," —is done unto Himself. Now, we all know how apt men are to "despise the poor." "There are kinds of distress founded on the passions, which, if not applauded, are at least admired in their excess, as implying a peculiar refinement of sensibility in the mind of the sufferer. 

Embellished by taste, and wrought by the magic of genius into innumerable forms, they turn grief into a luxury, and draw from the eyes of millions delicious tears. But no muse ever ventured to adorn the distresses of poverty or the sorrows of hunger. Disgusting taste and delicacy, and presenting nothing pleasing to the imagination, they are mere misery in all its nakedness and deformity." And therefore the many "despise the Poor." But in so doing, they despise Christ; and what is their punishment in consequence? Jesus might rend aside the veil of His humanity, and reveal Himself as God. He might put off the sordid dress of poverty, and clothe Himself with light as with a garment. But He inflicts a severer punishment than this—He hides Himself. The Poor no longer visibly bear upon them "the marks of the Lord Jesus "; and secular legislation, at once blind and self-confident, sets itself to relieve their distress by increasing their degradation. It brands the Poor Man as a Pauper, and consigns him to contempt and shame. Jesus has hidden Himself in majestic displeasure: and men of the world little dream that He will reveal Himself again at the Last Day, and avenge the cause of the poor and the oppressed!

"Oh, how much are they to be pitied, in whatever sphere they move, who live to themselves, unmindful of the coming of their Lord. When He shall come, and shall not keep silence; when a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him; every thing, it is true, will combine to fill them with consternation: yet, methinks, neither the voice of the Archangel, nor the trump of God, nor the dissolution of the elements, nor the face of the Judge itself, from which the heavens will flee away, will be so dismaying and terrible to these men as the sight of the poor members of Christ; whom, having spurned and neglected in the days of their humiliation, they will then behold with amazement united to their Lord, covered with His glory, and seated on His throne! How will they be astonished to see them surrounded with so much majesty! How will they cast down their eyes in their presence! How will they curse that gold, which will then eat their flesh as with fire, and that avarice, that indolence, that voluptuousness, which will entitle them to so much misery! You will then learn that the imitation of Christ is the only wisdom: you will then be convinced it is better to be endeared to the cottage than admired in the palace; when to have wiped the tears of the afflicted, and inherited the prayers of the widow and the fatherless, shall be found a richer patrimony than the favour of princes."

H. H.

 https://books.google.ca/books?id=xogEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=text

Thomas Tallis: O Nata Lux - the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge

All Glory, Laud and Honour

How Allegri's Miserere should really sound | The Marian Consort

 

"Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here!"

1 'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Your glory fills the night;

Your face and garments, like the sun,

Shine with unborrowed light.

2 'Tis good, Lord, to be here,

Your beauty to behold,

Where Moses and Elijah stand,

Your messengers of old.

3 Fulfiller of the past!

Promise of things to be!

We hail your body glorified,

And our redemption see.

4 Before we taste of death,

We see your kingdom come;

We long to hold the vision bright,

And make this hill our home.

5 'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Yet we may not remain;

But since you bid us leave the mount,

Come with us to the plain.

William Byrd - Emendemus in melius.

De Profundis KV93 - W.A.Mozart

'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here!"

Tis Good Lord to Be Here, but not in most of the Archdiocese of Toronto, because Cardinal Collins says that here, there is

How much longer, Eminence, will you cower before priests who refuse to offer the Sacraments and open their churches? 

How much longer, Eminence, will you cower before the diktats of an egoist, unchurched, ignoramus Premier who has neither common sense nor an intelligent quotient above room temperature in order to govern rather than cower in fear before a modern day Mengele! 

How much longer, Eminence, will you cower before “virtuous” public health officials, who have used psychological warfare on the public and a Mayor that laughs behind your back? 

How much longer, Eminence, will you engage in this spiritual abuse that you have put upon the faithful by cooperating with this evil? 

Advent. Christmastide. Epiphantide. The Gesimas. Ordinary Time, if you will. Ash Wednesday. Lent I, II. Is Holy Week next? No Triduum for the second year? Easter, gone? My bet is, yes!

Quite the legacy. 

Cowardice. Hypocrisy. Abandonment of the sheep by a false Shepherd.

Shameful!

archbishop@archtoronto.org

icamilleri@archtoronto.org

northern.region@archtoronto.org

eastern.region@archtoronto.org

bishop.boissonneau@rogers.com

neilm@archtoronto.org

1 'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Thy glory fills the night;

Thy face and garments, like the sun,

Shine with unborrowed light.

2 'Tis good, Lord, to be here,

Thy beauty to behold,

Where Moses and Elijah stand,

Thy messengers of old.

3 Fulfiller of the past!

Promise of things to be!

We hail Thy body glorified,

And our redemption see.

4 Before we taste of death,

We see Thy kingdom come;

We fain would hold the vision bright,

And make this hill our home.

5 'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Yet we may not remain;

But since thou bidst us leave the mount,
Come with us to the plain.

First Sunday of Lent and it's all the way back to before Christ the King and yes, it has been that long since in Toronto, there has been

 

As of Tuesday, February 16, General Secretary Ford of the Ontario Politburo reduced some of the draconian suspension of civil rights in Ontario. In most of the Archdiocese, geographically speaking, Mass today is back at thirty percent capacity. In the population centre, however, of Toronto and Peel (Mississauga and Brampton), the limit is still ten. Collins refused to allow Mass for so few persons so has rather substituted a contrived service of Holy Communion. Toronto and Peel will have no public Mass for at least the Third Sunday in Lent thanks to the fearful Dr. Eileen "Cruella" de Villa's whipping of Collins and General Secretary Ford of the Ontario politburo. 

Your Divine Office for today. Divinum Officium

Prayers of the Mass. TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS PROPERS IN ENGLISH: FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT (tridentine-mass.blogspot.com)

He that dwelleth in the aid of the most high - Note: There are no "Eagles' Wings."

He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven. V.: He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector and my refuge: my God, in Him will I trust. V.: For He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters, and from the sharp word. V.: He will overshadow thee with His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust. V.: His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night. V.: Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark, of invasion or of the noonday devil. V.: A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee. V.: For He hath given His Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. V.: In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. V.: Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample underfoot the lion and the dragon. V.: Because he hoped in Me I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he hath known my Name. V.: He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation. V.: I will deliver him, and I will glorify him: I will fill him with length of days, and I will show him my salvation.

Lent - First Sunday: Tract from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word

The First Sunday of Lent features the longest Tract in the Gregorian repertoire from the Liber Usualis. The Second Sunday of the Passion, or Palm Sunday's Deus, Deus meus is of similar length and is of the same Mode II. It is as if they are book-ends from the beginning of Lent to the Holy Week. While both can be sung in psalm-tone, if it can be managed, they should be sung as above.

Here below, it is sung in the manner in which it would have sounded before the end of the first millennium and the change in style of western chant. The chant at this time was not written down, there were no neums, no staff to put them on. The Cantor would have followed those little red markings, as above, to give him his cues but you can imagine that it was much more fluid and free-wheeling, almost letting the real Spirit, lead him. Note the sound, it is Latin text sung "as the Easterns do," but it is not Byzantine, it is Syriac. The one above, which I and others will chant today, is in the version below. You can hear it smoothed out and structured in the Old Roman Chant.

Now, imagine this. The sound you hear below is the closest thing we know to what Our Most Blessed Lord would have heard in the Temple in Jerusalem and sung Himself.

To those of you trapped in the Nervous Disorder, the great liturgical error of the Church from which She will most surely repent, this is what you should have also heard today.

In 1974, under the orders of the Pope, the Monks of Solesmes published the revised Graduale Romanum for the new calendar. Over 30 years ago, I was told by the late Emeritus Archbishop of Ottawa, that "those who long for Gregorian chant suffer from nostalgia neurosis." Well, that is not what the Second Vatican Council's document on the sacred liturgy had to say, but I digress.

Many of the Mass chants remained intact, others were reordered with different Introits or Communion antiphons for the three-year lectionary, as they often theme with the Gospel. Yet, on this day, and for all of Lent, they are the same. The option of the "Gospel Acclamation" is only an option, it is the Tract that is meet and proper. 

And if you heard "On Eagles Wing's in the nervous disorder today, then you need to find a new parish.

Psalm 90 (91)

1 Laus cantici David Qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi in protectione Dei caeli commorabitur          

The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.

2 Dicet Domino susceptor meus es tu et refugium meum Deus meus sperabo in eum    

He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.

3 Quoniam ipse liberabit me de laqueo venantium et a verbo aspero     

For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.

4 Scapulis suis obumbrabit te et sub pinnis eius sperabis               

He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.

5 Scuto circumdabit te veritas eius non timebis a timore nocturno            

His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

6 A sagitta volante in die a negotio perambulante in tenebris ab incursu et daemonio meridiano               

Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

7 Cadent a latere tuo mille et decem milia a dextris tuis ad te autem non ad propinquabit              

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

8 Verumtamen oculis tuis considerabis et retributionem peccatorum videbis      

But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

9 Quoniam tu Domine spes mea Altissimum posuisti refugium tuum       

Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.

10 Non accedent ad te mala et flagellum non ad propinquabit tabernaculo tuo  

There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

11 Quoniam angelis suis mandabit de te ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis       

For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

12 In manibus portabunt te ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum

In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

13 Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis et conculcabis leonem et draconem 

Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

14 Quoniam in me speravit et liberabo eum protegam eum quia cognovit nomen meum              

Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.

15 Clamabit ad me et exaudiam eum cum ipso sum in tribulatione eripiam eum et clarificabo eum            

He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

16 Longitudine dierum replebo eum et ostendam illi salutare meum       

I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation. 

In this our Lent of Forty Days

Thus it begins. Our Lent of 40 days.

Our journey to the Cross of Calvary and the glorious resurrection of Our LORD and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He is the real Messiah; He is the real Saviour, not some trumped-up, media created, false messiah politician or Hollywood god. False gods and false messiahs are all around us and they are leading "many astray." Some of them wear clerical garb and have letters after their name that pretend to be of a society dedicated to Jesus.

Many believe that the Church on earth is now in Gethsemane. It is night, and the Church has been deserted. Many Catholics have fallen asleep and will be lost; and many more have taken the easy path and have looked for an earthly kingdom, Many remain and they have already and continue to betray the Holy Church, His bride; and as Judas, they do so with a kiss. In Her they remain, they corrupt, they lie, they deceive and "they lead many astray."

In their lack of faith and loyalty, like the apostles in Gethsemane, most have "fallen asleep" and like the one who would deny Our LORD some ointment, they betray her "with a kiss."

Yes, the Church is in Gethsemane and there with her, I shall remain.

We shall journey soon, very, very soon through Gethsemane to the Sanhedrin. When we are called "rigid," are we not already there? Let us go then, let us go singing as the three children did in the fiery furnace as described by the Prophet Daniel.

Let us sing, "Parce Domine, parce populo tuo, ne in aeterum irascaris nobis!"

Let us go singing psalms and canticles chanting as King David did  as wretched as he was; he conspired, lusted, fornicated in adultery, and murdered, and then he repented; and then he wrote this:

Miserere. The repentance and confession of David after his sin. The fourth penitential psalm.

Have mercy upon me O God, in your kindness blot out my offense

Miserere mei, Deus: secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. 
Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam. 
Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea: et a peccato meo munda me. 
Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco: et peccatum meum contra me est semper.
Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci: ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris. 
Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum: et in peccatis concepit me mater mea. 
Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti: incerta et occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi. 
Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. 
Auditui meo dabis gaudium et laetitiam: et exsultabunt ossa humiliata. 
Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis: et omnes iniquitates meas dele.
Cor mundum crea in me, Deus: et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis. 
Ne proiicias me a facie tua: et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. 
Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui: et spiritu principali confirma me. 
Docebo iniquos vias tuas: et impii ad te convertentur. 
Libera me de sanguinibus, Deus, Deus salutis meae: et exsultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam. 
Domine, labia mea aperies: et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. 
Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium, dedissem utique: holocaustis non delectaberis. 
Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus: cor contritum, et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies. Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion: ut aedificentur muri Ierusalem. 
Tunc acceptabis sacrificium justitiae, oblationes, et holocausta: tunc imponent super altare tuum vitulos.