Bishop Schneider: Cardinal Roche’s Liturgy Report Is “Manipulative” and Distorts History by Diane Montagna

Bishop Schneider: Cardinal Roche’s Liturgy Report Is “Manipulative” and Distorts History by Diane Montagna

An exclusive interview on Cardinal Arthur Roche’s most recent defense of Traditionis Custodes.

Read on Substack

Announcing "The Disastrous Pontificate": Why This & Why Now

Pope Leo XIV reshapes Holy Week to what it should be - Silere non Possum

The Italian blog, Silere non Possum, has an important announcement. Pope Leo XIV will return to the proper celebration of the Sacred Triduum with a proper morning Chrism Mass and a proper Holy Thursday Mass in the Lateran Basilica of St. John, the actual Cathedral of Rome. Since 2013, we have endured the Begoglian liturgical insult and innovation of ignoring the liturgical norms and dignity and proper worship of God and the sorrow of the Triduum. The narcissistic, attention-seeking sham of foot washing and attendance at prisons and other places, to say nothing of the debasement of the ceremony and the intent, appears to be, thankfully, over.  Laus Deo!

The ritual of Washing of the Feet in the Usus Antiquior is not part of the Mass; it is a ritual that was undertaken at another time of the day. It was a superior washing the feet of inferiors and took place in cathedrals or monasteries, convents or even in a palace with the King washing the feet of his subjects. In the Novus Ordo, the rite was and remains optional. It allowed for the washing of the feet of the laity, but originally women,n which was altered by Bergoglio. Many priests, not wishing to deal with the matter of women, simply option it out. As part of the debatable wisdom of the 1955 Holy Week reform in the Usus Antiquior, it was inserted as an option in the Holy Thursday liturgy, but only for men and could include laity. The traditional manner for the Pope would be to wash the feet of priests, canons, or deacons in the cathedral, thus reflecting Our blessed Lord washing the feet of His apostles, or first bishops, as a sign of service. The idea of washing the feet of prisoners, women, moslems, as an example, as Bergoglio loved to do for attention, was a great thing -- on any other day of the year. Yes, wash the feet of the poor on any other day and not in front of cameras. Such a humble pope he was.

Patience friends. Pope Leo XIV is not Francis II; he is Leo XIV. Resetting takes time.

 
The end of the “Away Trips”: Leo XIV reshapes Holy Week and the Curia’s spiritual exercises - Silere Non Possum

Lily long foretold - Tate Pumfrey

Congratulations, Tate, well done!

Tate Pumfrey Music

O Virgin Mary, lily long foretold, You carry Him whom heaven cannot hold; That Heart which wakes the ever-beating sea Beats in your womb, New Adam from New Eve. Within the darkness of your flesh The Light of Light reposed; You lay your Saviour in the creche, The Word made flesh upon your word, And in the stable, nothing stirred, While coruscating angel wings, Like sunlit snowflakes round the King, Proclaim salvation’s Dayspring. O Virgin Mary, lily long foretold, You carried Him whom heaven cannot hold; That Heart which shed its Blood on Calvary, Beats in this Child, whose death will set us free.

Mendelssohn, There shall a star come out of Jacob

Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon, Duet arrangement by Deux, Vocal Duo!

I wish you all a blessed Christmastide for 2025 and give you this from two years ago. 

I'm very honoured to have Angela Malek as a reader of this blog. Angela is a wonderful singer who recorded a lovely Christmas album with Crystal Jarrell Johnson in 2019. I was to post about it then, but something happened just before Christmas that year—a foul wind from Wuhan. Well, better late than never.

The recording includes some real gems among them, There is No Rose, which my choir will be singing before the Vigil Mass of the Nativity on the Lord, this Sunday, before Mass.

1. There is No Rose of Such Virtu, Trad./ arr. Deux

2. Veni, veni Emmanuel, Trad./ arr. Jerome Malek

3. Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, Trad. Gerald Self, recorder; Alison Fletcher, violin

4. Hodie Christus natus est, SWV 315, Heinrich Schütz

5. Laudamus Te, Gloria, Antonio Vivaldi, Alison Fletcher, violin

6. He Shall Feed His Flock/Come Unto Him, Messiah, G. F. Händel

7. Maria Wiegenlied, Max Reger

8. Ave Maria, Camille Saint-Saëns

9. Il est né le divin enfant, Trad./ arr. Gabriel Fauré/ Deux

10. Quand Dieu naquit a Noël, Trad./ arr. Claude Balbastre/J. Malek

11. Gesù bambino, Pietro Yon

The exquisite rendition of Pietro Yon's Jesu Bambino is below.

More information can be found at:

Deux - Vocal Duo, Music, Classical Musicians (deuxofficialwebsite.com)

And:

(10656) Deux - Classical Vocal Duo - YouTube

A Blessed and Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

No boring Christmas letter. Just a prayer and a hope from my wife, Francoise and me for a blessed and holy Christmastide. Blogging is less now, I've said and written most of it already. More to come, no doubt, but Substack and Podcasts dominate now, and readership is fractured. For those who still stop by, God bless you. Thank you for all your kindness and prayers over the years. To those who have wronged me, you all know who you are, and so do I. I'm still here, you're not, but I forgive you anyway. However, coal is all you will get in your stocking, and that's what you deserve. 

To the rest of you, God bless you and Merry Christmas!

David

O GREAT mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the newborn Lord,

lying in a manger!

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb

was worthy to bear

the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Alleluia!

 

Tomás Luis de Victoria, 1548 – 1611 

 

Giovanni Gabrieli 1554-1612 

 Morten Lauridsen b. 1943

May their memory be a blessing and God's mercy abound.

John 10:22-23. Douay-Rhiems.

"And it was the feast of the dedication (Hannukkah) at Jerusalem: and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch."

Ave Maria - Robert Parsons

Robert Parsons fell into the River Trent and drowned; he was only 37. At this funeral, the eulogy included:

"Qui tantus primo Parsone in flore fuisti, quantus in autumno in morerer flores."

"You who were so great, Parsons, in life's springtime, how great you would have been in autumn, had death not intervened."

From the Sermons of St. Jerome, Priest at Bethlehem. 

Who and what was the blessed and glorious Mary, always a Virgin, hath been revealed by God by the message of an Angel, in these words: Hail, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. It was fitting that a fullness of grace should be poured into that Virgin who hath given to God glory and to man a Saviour, who hath brought peace to earth, who hath given faith to the Gentiles, who hath killed sin, who hath given law to life, who hath made the crooked ways straight. Verily, she is full of grace. To others grace cometh measure by measure; in Mary grace dwelleth at once in all fullness. Verily, she is full of grace. We believe that the holy Fathers and Prophets had grace; but they were not full of grace. But into Mary came a fullness of all the grace, which is in Christ, albeit otherwise than as it is in Him. Therefore, is it said: Blessed art thou among women, that is, Blessed art thou above all women. The fulness of blessing in Mary utterly neutralized in her any effects of the curse of Eve. In her praise Solomon writeth in the Song of Songs, ii. 10,: Rise up, my dove, my fair one, for the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. And again: Come from Lebanon, my Spouse, come, thou shalt be crowned. ~iv. 8.

Not unjustly then is she bidden to come from Lebanon, for Lebanon is so named on account of its stainless and glistening whiteness. The earthly Lebanon is white with snow, but the lonely heights of Mary's holiness are white with purity and grace, brilliantly fair, whiter far than snow, sparkling with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, she is undefiled like a dove, all clean, all upright, full of grace and truth. She is full of mercy, and of the righteousness that hath looked down from heaven and therefore is she without stain because in her hath never been any corruption. She hath compassed a man in her womb, saith holy Jeremiah, but she conceived not by the will of fallen man. The Lord, saith the Prophet, hath created a new thing in the earth; a woman shall compass a man. xxxi. 22. Verily, it is a new thing. Verily, it was a new work of power, greater than all other works, when God, Whom the world cannot bear, and Whom no man shall see and live, entered the lodging of her womb, breaking not the blissful cloister of her virgin flesh. And in her body, He was borne, the Infinite enclosed within her womb. And from her womb He came forth, so that it was fulfilled which was spoken of the Prophet Ezekiel, saying: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. xliv. 2. Hence also in the Song of Songs it is said of her iv. 12,: A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, thy perfumes are a garden of delights. Verily a garden of delights, filled with the perfumes of all flowers, rich with the sweet savour of grace. And the most holy Virgin herself is a garden enclosed, whereinto sin and Satan have never entered to sully the blossoms, a fountain sealed, sealed with the seal of the Trinity.

 

Savior of the Nations, Come