This Joyful Eastertide - King's College Cambridge.

Three gregorian chants and Passion for Good Friday

Tenebrae Factae Sunt - Good Friday Gregorian Chant Matins

Christus Factus Est by Felice Anerio, Gradual for Holy Thursday

Nos autem - Introit for Holy Thursday, Gregorian chant

Nos Autem Gloriari - Introit for Holy Thursday by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

The Holy Week Liturgies - what we've lost, what we need to restore

Originally published on March 29, 2015

We begin today with the beautiful solemn celebrations of Holy Week. Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ enters today the Holy City on a donkey to the glad shouts of "Hosanna" which in a few days would turn into "Crucify Him!"

Oh, how our liturgical masters have betrayed Him and us.

It is not enough to see the impoverishment of the Holy Week liturgies in the new liturgy as structured, but in most places, as celebrated.

If you want a vernacular Ordinary Form liturgy did you have a full procession with Gregorian chant antiphons? Will Holy Thursday include the antiphons during the "optional" Washing of the Feet (of men only "viri selecti," notwithstanding the Bishop of Rome's personal dispensation of the need to follow the Law)? Will Good Friday include the sung Reproaches? Was it really necessary for the foot washing rite to be inserted in Mass?

Yet, not even the traditional liturgy has been left alone to be celebrated in its majestic history and biblical symbolism. In 1955 a liturgist named Annibale Bugnini convinced a tired and ill holy Pope to make unprecedented changes to the Holy Week rites. For the first time, there would be prayers facing the people and an insertion of a para-liturgy within the Holy Mass. The change of hours was positive so that the faithful could attend, pray, worship and benefit from these venerable rites. Changing the hours would have meant removing Vespers from the Holy Saturday Mass and replacing it with Lauds of Easter Sunday which was done regardless.

The rest was and remains an impoverishment. To imagine that the ancient office of Matins now called the Office of Readings with its three nocturnes and twelve prophesies was jettisoned from the Vigil for an illogical four is still regretted every Holy Saturday by anyone who has examined the two or chants these glorious rituals to commemorate our Blessed Lord's passion, death and resurrection.

Gregory DiPippo at the New Liturgical Movement wrote a copyrighted Compendium of the 1955 Holy Week Revisions of Pius XII. They are worth studying and are linked below.

Part 1:       The Palm Sunday Blessing and the Procession of Palms

Part 2:      The Masses of Palm Sunday, Holy Tuesday and Spy Wednesday

Part 3:      The Mass of Holy Thursday and the Mandatum

Part 4.1:   Mass of the Presanctified, Good Friday, Mass of the Catechumens and the Solemn Prayers

Part 4.2:  Good Friday, The Adoration of the Cross and the Rite of the Presanctified

Part 5:     Tenebrae and the Divine Office of the Triduum

Part 6.1:  Holy Saturday and the Blessing of the New Fire, Procession, Exultet, Prophesies

Part 6.2: Holy Saturday and the Blessing of the Font, Litany of the Saints, Mass and Vespers

Part 7:    The Vigil of Pentecost and the Readings from Sacred Scripture in Holy Week

Part 8:    The Hours of the Celebration of the Holy Week Liturgies

Part 9:    The Reform of the 1955 and Post-Conciliar Holy Week

The Reform of Holy Week in the Years 1951-1956

Rorate Caeli first presented the following translation of Fr. Stefano Carusi's work on the reform of Holy Week under Pope Pius XII five years ago. As our readership has grown dramatically over that time we are compelled to bring it back and share with new readers. This translation is the work of Fr. Charles W. Johnson, a U.S. military chaplain, and one of the first priests in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society:

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-reform-of-holy-week-in-years-1951.html

http://www.unavoce.ru/pdf/FIUV_PP/FIUV_PP14_Part1_HolyWeekReformFinal.pdf

http://www.unavoce.ru/pdf/FIUV_PP/FIUV_PP14_Part2_HolyWeekLiturgiesFinal.pdf

 THE "RESTORED" HOLY WEEK

Msgr Léon Gromier, Papal Master of Ceremonies of Pius XII

a conference given in Paris in July 1960 (original in French)

Translated by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Reprinted below from this link: http://civitas-dei.eu/gromier.htm

The links below are presented for academic and research purposes and are not an endorsement of Father Cekada's position on the papacy being vacant. Vox.

: QUIDLIBET :

http://www.fathercekada.com/2009/04/05/holy-week-palm-sunday-old-vs-1955-rite/

http://www.fathercekada.com/2009/04/07/the-office-of-tenebrae-old-vs-5562-rite/

http://www.fathercekada.com/2009/04/08/maundy-thursday-old-vs-5562-rite/

http://www.fathercekada.com/2009/04/09/good-friday-old-vs-5562-rite/

http://www.fathercekada.com/2009/04/10/bugninis-51-easter-vigil-first-step-to-the-novus-ordo/

http://www.fathercekada.com/2012/03/31/short-critique-of-article-regarding-the-restored-order-of-holy-week/

THE "RESTORED" HOLY WEEK 

Msgr Léon Gromier, Papal Master of Ceremonies of Pius XII 

a conference given in Paris in July 1960 (original in French) 

Translated by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Referring page

Translator's note: Msgr Gromier uses the term pastoral in the substantive, or pastorals in the plural, meaning a person with pastoral ideals. In the context of this conference, the term denotes someone who wishes to modify the liturgy on a pastoral pretext. One may also speak of pastoralism, the notion according to which the liturgy is absolutely irrelevant to modern man and must therefore be reformed. It is a fact that a rite extremely similar to the Novus Ordo was already being discussed and marketed in 1948, the very year Bugnini was appointed to the Congregation of Rites. We can conclude that the reforms of Pius XII and John XXIII are a part of the Novus Ordo. Msgr Gromier immediately saw through the charade.

The "restored" Holy Week was to begin with a question of timetable. It was a question of restoring the use of the Paschal Vigil, based on the pastoral dogma of the Resurrection at precisely midnight. This dogma is not easily defended, for why insist on this when evening Masses, in practice, admit celebration at any time of the day or night, even after the singing of Vespers, when Conventual Mass is celebrated indifferently after Terce, Sext or None? Another problem, the rules of worship are governed not only by the movement of the earth, but also by the discipline of fasting that has been considerably slackened. It results from this that the restored edifice looks like a house of cards. Pastoral zeal extends from Saturday, the culminating point, to the whole Week from Palm Sunday.

The progressive anticipation of the three last days, then their relegation to the original evening opens for us a debate. The introductory general decree affirms that, towards the end of the Middle Ages, the above mentioned solemnities had been anticipated in the morning. Now, the bull of St Pius V, Ad cuius notitiam, of 29th March 1566, therefore 113 years after the end of the Middle Ages, prohibited what was still done, by permission or custom, in cathedral, collegial, conventual and other churches - to celebrate, the evening or towards the time of sunset, Holy Saturday and other solemnities. The goal is obvious: the Church's pastoral office must restore, repair damage; the more they were serious, the more the restoration would be welcome; God alone knows if the restoration to be done, before any other, was not to abolish the bull of St Pius V leaving to Bishops the longed-for freedom, to choose the most advantageous afternoon time for the offices of Holy Week: also allowing, for those who desired it, to make their communion; something that had been abolished for fear that the fast was not kept during the hours of the afternoon - when the celebrant was still fasting.

Its terminology deserves attention; for an apologist maintains us in ignorance. Up to now we knew the Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday In Cæna Domini in Latin, Good Friday In Parasceve in Latin and Holy Saturday. Since we want to amplify the solemnity of the Procession of the Palms, why place this Sunday under the dependence of the Passion, instead of leaving its old name of Palm Sunday, that everyone understands, and that deceives no-one? If Holy Saturday is so-called, Good Friday can be called in just the same way [Vendredi Saint in French], by all the Christians of the world. We have called it in Parasceve (Preparation) for nearly two thousand years; the name alone shows the antiquity of this rite. So, why replace it by Passion and Death of the Lord; a useless renaming, non-traditional, unknown in the Canon of the Mass? In ecclesiastical style, passion means suffering until death inclusively. If the substantive death was so necessary, common sense would demand that it should be added to the word passion in the title of the Gospel: Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi, now called history of the Passion.

The occasion presents itself to examine the juridical capacities of the pastorals. It is not enough to speak about a thing to create it. Office in choro means a liturgical place where ecclesiastics act according to liturgical rules. Office in communi designates neither a place nor a person. It is a group of people reunited without any mandate, without legal entity and who has the pleasure of saying the private Office collectively. The Breviary distinguishes in choro and extra chorum, there is no third term.

To omit Vespers of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday - that is the height of the arbitrary, above all when the reason is given: Mass takes the place of Vespers, taking first place! Now, between Mass and Vespers, there is no rivality: Vespers enjoy equal dignity with other liturgical services. According to times and places, Vespers have disappeared after the Mass of Holy Saturday, as after the Masses of Thursday and Friday. They were never intended to be abolished. The hour fixed by the pastorals fully agrees with the historical fact - fasting until Vespers, preceded by Mass and communion. Vespers of Holy Saturday are in the afternoon, before the nocturnal Mass - but there is no reason to abolish Vespers of Thursday and Friday, after the Mass that is nocturnal by definition. Holy Saturday without Compline is inexplicable. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday with Compline and without Vespers defy reason, for even if we go to bed late, we still go to bed and need to say our prayers.

To qualify the Procession of Palms, the Good Friday service and the Paschal Vigil, the pastorals use the adjective solemn, whilst they do not for all the rest. Now, the solemnity of liturgical services is not an optional decoration; it is of the nature of the service - resulting from all these constitutive elements, not only from some of them. All the manuals explain which functions are solemn or not solemn. Outside of this, so-called solemnity is not an amplifying enticement, to impress and score the goal. It informs us that, by a recent habit, we made a prodigious use of the word solemn even for necessarily or intrinsically solemn acts. We use words, believing we can put more solemnity into the Procession of Palms than into that of Candlemas (Purification), more solemnity into the Procession of Maundy Thursday than that of Good Friday (abolished as we shall see). Always on the same slippery slope, we learn that the Passion of Good Friday is sung solemnly, as if it could be sung in another fashion.

Worthy of admiration and power, pastorals manifest themselves by the abolition of the sad and unfortunate canon 1252 §4, on the fasting of Holy Saturday.

On this day, it is said that, under the symbol of the Paschal Candle, representation is made of our Redeemer, light of the world, who by the grace of His light, chased away the darkness of our sins, etc. This was surrounded by a measure of mystery, without risk for teaching. Now, one insists on crossing all our t's, causing no small incertitude. The various times and places gives us a kaleidoscope of rites, where we have to discern what they have in common. Like in primitive times, fire produces - whether hidden in a place where it is conserved, lit by rays of the sun and a magnifying glass or by a flint - a means of light for the Paschal night. This is the Paschal Candle, accompanied by the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery. The simultaneous and historical presence of two paschal candles does not go at all well with the thesis of the pastorals. The lighting of the Candle is the act of first necessity against darkness, and must evoke the living Christ - but excessively anticipates the announcement of the Resurrection. The amplification the Candle receives from the pastorals makes it resemble an end more than a means. Formerly incensed after its blessing, and even consecrated according to some authors, to-day simply blessed, the Paschal Candle becomes an object that occupies a place between a cross, a gospel book and a relic. All this will become clearer when we get to the day of Holy Saturday.

oOo

During the whole Holy Week, all the texts sung by the deacon, sub-deacon or singers are omitted by the celebrant, who has not to read them. It is of little importance how the celebrants sing (often badly), if they get themselves heard and understood through their loud-speakers. People must listen. What a victory! They revel in this as a return to antiquity, a pledge for the future, a foretaste of reforms to come. This can be of interest to faithful accustomed to using a book, who - with their faces buried in their missals - are isolated from the community, sic! Distinction is made between reading with the eyes or with the lips. It is not admissible, they say, to read with the lips something that someone else is singing. But, reading with the eye can be defended; it has a respectable age, began by necessity, continues by utility, is esteemed; it is part of the pontifical assistance of the Pope and the Bishop.

To forget nothing, we are told that the altar of repose of Maundy Thursday has a solemn character - something the Missal has never said, better written than certain rubrics. These express two prescriptions and one prohibition: the clergy holds lighted candles, to begin with during the singing of the Exsultet, then during a dialogue between the celebrant and the faithful before Mass. It is forbidden to hold the palms during the singing of the Passion. Overall, they pretend to create two obligations for two novelties; they abolish an ancient practice, that finds its explanation explication in Saint Augustine (homily at matins of Saturday before Palm Sunday) : "The leaves of palms are praises meaning victory; for the Lord was at the point of conquering death by dying, and triumphing over the devil by the trophy of His cross".

The vigil of Pentecost is stripped of its baptismal character, and has become a day like any other, and makes the Missal tell a lie in the canon. This vigil was an annoying neighbour, a formidable rival! Instructed posterity will certainly be more severe than is opinion in regard to the pastorals.

Whether we like it or not, the communion of the clergy, desired at the Mass of Maundy Thursday, will always be in conflict with permissions given to celebrate Mass in private.

The pastorals call on Christ the King to give a strong meaning to their solemn procession of Palms; as if this was needed to perfect a situation to which the author of the Gloria, laus et honor wrote sufficiently, but not in the new fashion. Certain modifications of tradition, so well-known, are just as dishonest as they are daring.

The sprinkling of holy water is a paschal rite that is done every Sunday. Palm Sunday is no less a Sunday than any other. When Candlemas [ed. Feast of the Purification] falls on a Sunday, it does not impede the Asperges me. This has never involved sprinkling water onto a table placed somewhere with palms or other objects on it. It is a matter of sprinkling the altar, the clergy, the church and the faithful. Except for the Bishop, unless impossible, the proper place for blessings - as for consecrations - is the altar, or yet within a short distance, the credence table for example.

For centuries, the consecration of the oils is done at the altar, before it was done on a table as to-day, and not in conspectu populi. What have the pastorals to show the people here, those who have stripped the blessing of palms to the bone? A collect, sign of the cross, sprinkling of holy water and incensing; an uninteresting show. Those who abolish the Sunday Asperges, a real liturgical mistake, willingly admit that the celebrant should wander around the church to sprinkle the palms held by the faithful, then makes the same journey to incense them.

A pastoral, professor of a Swiss seminary, announced one day that red is the colour of triumph. He should have been answered by saying: you are very much mistaken, whilst white is the colour of Easter, Ascension, Corpus-Christi. But no, as soon as it is said, it is done; the colour of Palm Sunday will be red, violet remaining for Mass. Not everyone thinks like the professor. The Roman Rite has used violet since it appeared. The Parisian rite, et the uses of so many dioceses, used black until the middle of the 19th century. A few rites used red, for the blessing of Palms and Mass. Some insisted on mourning, others on the bloody sacrifice. Each kept the same colour: no-one had the idea of changing it. The whole office of Palm Sunday is a mixture of triumphal and passion hymns. From Matins to Vespers inclusive, including Mass, we find that the number of passion hymns goes beyond that of triumphal pieces. When these two things are thus mixed, no separation should be brought to bear. The Swiss professor thought he could take example from the reasonable change of colour for Candlemas; but its pastiche is a mere imitation of the modern feast of Christ the King.

The distribution of the Palms, as we read, is done according to custom. Whatever the pastorals think, there are rules to observe before custom. As the celebrant, if he is not the only priest, received the ashes and his candle at the hands of the highest cleric, he is to receive his palm in the same way. If he does not receive it, he will be without his palm at the procession. About this, rubricists have asked whether the pastorals wanted the celebrant not to carry a palm at the procession, because he would have represented Christ who did not carry one. Logically, the hypothesis would have the celebrant on the back of a donkey. Happily, the pastorals stopped there, allowing him to carry a palm.

The pastorals, who reduced the blessing of palms to its simplest expression, did not pass up the chance of extending the distribution, given the superabundance of chants intended for this action. Whilst the length of the blessing seems enormous, this added plethora seems not to satisfy needs.

The subdeacon normally carries the processional cross, each time the celebrant does not need him, carrying the Blessed Sacrament or for the Baptismal Font. An additional subdeacon for carrying the cross is necessary only when the subdeacon has something else to do, as above.

For two weeks, the altar cross remains veiled. Even veiled, it is incensed and revered by genuflection or profound bow. It is forbidden to unveil it for any reason. On the other hand, the processional cross - unlike the altar cross - is carried unveiled at the procession; from departure to return. Two crosses are seen, one veiled and the other unveiled. What do we gather from this?

The disorder augments from the end of the procession. Going before an important personality, accompanying him to the closed doors of the town, stopping to compliment and acclaim him, finally opening the doors with great pomp in his honour - all this has always been one of the greatest possible forms of homage; but it is not good enough for the creative genius of the pastorals.

We can only qualify as vandalism the fact of tearing the Gloria, laus et honor away from its place at the church door, to mix it up with the baggage of processional music that has nearly tripled in length. Stinginess and waste of time go hand in hand. Therefore, no stopping in front of the door, closed then open; the processional cross unveiled to magnify it, it is cheapened by refusing it the virtue of opening the door. All that despite ancient and modern ceremonial, and for what good? The pastoral rubrics make much ado of the expression, nothing impedes, nihil impedit quominus. Here they are used to unleash the faithful who can sing the hymn Christus vincit or something else in honour of Christ the King. This tolerance has naturally its consequences; the faithful make pawns of the clergy, they have a whole choice of chants à la carte. If they are for Christ the King, they like to sing to his Mother who is Queen. So many desires and eminently pastoral wishes.

The Roman rubric said: when the procession enters the church, Ingrediente Domino is sung; the pastoral rubric says: when the procession enters the church, when the celebrant goes through the door, Ingrediente Domino is sung. The door is ignored during the return from the procession - now we watch for the celebrant coming through the door, who seems to be identified with Christ entering Jerusalem.

Between the procession and Mass, they give us a final and recapitulary collect, with defectuous modalities; the celebrant has no need to go up to the altar, above all turning his back to it, just to sing a collect and come back down just after. Have we ever seen that apres Rogation processions? Finally, holding the book in front of the celebrant is proper to the deacon and subdeacon, not to a simple cleric.

Previously, we called the singing of the Gospel Passion the Passion, and the Gospel at the end of the sung Passion was sung in the usual manner of the Gospel. To-day, both parts put together are called the history of the Passion, or yet the Gospel of the Passion and death. Such pastoral progress is worth it! Folded chasubles are one of the oldest characteristics of the Roman Rite; they go back to the time when all the clergy wore chasubles, and were the expression of austere penance. Their abolition makes nonsense of the painting in the Catacombs - an immense loss and an outrage to history. The pastorals simply say the folded chasubles are not easy to find. To the contrary, violet chasubles are found everywhere - and can be folded - whilst violet dalmatics are not as widespread [ed. Violet dalmatics are used during the time of Septuagesima before the beginning of Lent]. It has always been allowed to serve in alb.

oOo

The pastorals like cutting something off the beginning or end of Mass. Their being cut off, apart from the few moments of time saved, are insignificant. What is more important is that they are used as "spring boards" for more important reforms. Thus, neither the psalm Judica me nor the confession are said before the Palm Sunday and Holy Saturday Masses, because some other ceremony takes place. The same goes for the Masses of Candlemas, Ash Wednesday, weddings, funerals and Masses preceded by Communion. On Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday, the undesirable Last Gospel is omitted; perfect, but in the name of what principle? On Maundy Thursday, the Blessing is omitted, because the ceremony is not finished - the same goes for Corpus-Christi and any Mass followed by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament.

When the usage of three extra deacons singing the Passion is introduced, in the form of a lesson rather than that of a Gospel, the end of the Passion is reserved for singing in Gospel form by the celebrant's deacon - to avoid falling into the absurdity of the deacon not singing the Gospel. The three deacons begin and finish the Passion without ceremony, as for lessons; only the deacon does the habitual ceremonies for the Gospel. This was logical, coming from the Papal Chapel. Thus the deacon is eclipsed by the three of the Passion. He then recites the Munda cor meum and received the blessing before singing the Gospel, incensing of the book, kissing of the book and incensing of the celebrant. These three gestures succumb to the pastoral mentality; for the Passion is no longer the Gospel but only a history, history of the Passion. Lacking the Gospel, there is no Gospel book. Consequently, the book of history is not incensed or kissed - what is not kissed is not incensed.

To continue, the passion-gospel books are carried around in any old fashion; they are mentioned only on Good Friday. The pastorals have forgotten how to carry a Gospel book; why there must be three acolytes accompanying it instead of two, that the deacon kneeling to say Munda cor meum has not to bow. They repeat again and again that the passion-gospel is sung or read. Their rubrics are written to make us think that we can read at a sung office and sing in a read office as we like. Half the office can be read and the other half sung, mixing both. This is one of the scourges of the liturgy, as is the vernacular language. This is not new, and was recently encouraged [by Pius XII] in sung ordinations where the ordaining bishop interrupts the singing of the preface to say the essential words. It seems that singing harms the required attention!

The Passion according to the four Evangelists included the institution of the Eucharist, for it introduces the Gospel and takes its place in the Mass. The pastorals, in a hurry when they want, think differently - abolishing the institution of the Eucharist narrative. This is consequently excluded from the liturgy in the Roman Church, without doubt to give a better instruction to the faithful.

The omission of the Psalm Miserere at the end of the Hours relieves the poor clergy and unhappy faithful. This psalm could remain only after Lauds and Vespers or only in choir, or even optional. The pastorals would benefit by reading what Cardinal Wiseman, first Archbishop of Westminster, said about the singing of this psalm at the Office of Tenebræ in the Papal Chapel.

oOo

The Missa Chrismatis, a Pontifical Mass celebrated with 26 priests in chasuble remind us of concelebration, celebrated without any relation with fasting, in which is it forbidden to give Communion, forms a curious problem that is difficult to solve. Its proper preface, in the ferial tone, is found among other curiosities.

In the Roman Rite, the use of the stole is limited by rules; no-one can wear it without a reason. It is put on at the required moment, not before and not after. It is a sacred vestment, and has nothing to do with choir dress, either for individuals or the body of the clergy. Priests have no more the right to wear the stole during Mass where they will communicate than during an ordination Mass where they will impose hands. Saying the contrary, the pastorals abuse their unmerited latitude.

At the Maundy Thursday Mass, the celebrant solemnly begins the Gloria in excelsis. How would he do it differently? Here we find a transposition, perhaps not of great importance, but at least of great pastoral significance. Until now, after the singing of the Good Friday Passion, the liturgy allowed a sermon on the Passion. We had compassion for Christ who died on the Cross, before adoring both. Now, there is no longer any question of this, and it is no longer mentioned. On the other hand, after the Maundy Thursday Gospel, a homily is strongly recommended for us to marvel at Christ washing feet.

Ancient documents show that Mass was never the place or the time for the Mandatum. The washing of the feet was separated from Mass, generally followed by a clergy get-together. The king or emperor participated in the Mandatum, not at Mass. The Cæremoniale Episcoporum situates the Mandatum in a suitable place, in the chapter house or in church, but not in choir. The Missal specifies no place, supposing neither the choir nor the altar. From the moment of the reconciliation of penitents being done in the nave, common sense could not admit laymen into choir. The pastorals want the Mandatum within Mass, only tolerating it out of Mass. They hardly notice that we can wash the feet of clerics - real or considered as such.

A remark is necessary about the distribution of roles. The deacon and subdeacon are charged with introducing the twelve chosen men (no longer thirteen) into the choir, then to lead them back to their previous places. This job is that of a verger or sacristan. It expresses very well the pastoral mentality impregnated with a populist attitude, unfavourable to the clergy. There was a time when each candidate for having his feet washed was carried by force by worthy men before the sitting Pope to have his feet washed. The pastorals, not daring to push "fraternal charity" to this point, are content to use the deacon and subdeacon for introducing lay candidates into choir, then to lead them back afterwards. Some miss the ancient usage mentioned, for not only sport but also the social and pastoral activity of the clergy would have drawn benefit.

We find a big obstacle without any possible dissimulation. By decree of 4th December 1952 the Holy Congregation of Rites censured the incongruity of the fact that the Bishop puts on his shoes and takes them off in the church. Following this, it forbids such a use of liturgical shoes. This had always to be done outside the church, despite the former rules in force. This decree is excessively disputable, for it is based on ambiguity, attributing things that have never been said to the Cæremoniale Episcoporum. Let us not discuss them and be content with forbidding them. The Bishop, outside Mass, receives his shoes and buskins on legs and feet that are not bare, since they are covered with socks. These shoes are sacred vestments, just as much as the mitre and gloves, blessed, received with the episcopate, accompanied by a prayer and reverence. This practice has existed for centuries. On the other hand, 12 men in choir, during Mass, take their shoes off, strip their right feet bare, and put their shoes back on before going back to their places. In summary, twelve bare feet are less incongruous than the two of the Bishop with his shoes on, without counting other differences.

The concern for eliminating the word pax from the Maundy Thursday Mass, since the kiss of peace is not given, extends to a collect, to the Confiteor, etc., to the kissing of the Bishop's hand, to the Ite missa est, the blessing and the Last Gospel. But we do not know if they tolerate other kisses, of the hand and the object; for they could not proscribe them as mechanically. The knowledge of the pastorals is still at the point of confusing the kissing of the hand and the kissing of the ring.

The sparing of the Confiteor at Communion of Maundy Thursday, an exchange that takes the unnoticed Confiteor said in private by the celebrant at the beginning of Mass, so that it takes the place of a collective Confiteor, sung by the deacon before Communion, is, we can say, far-fetched. The subtlety of bartering does not suffice to hide the enormous difference between the two uses of the Confiteor. Too much finesse can be harmful.

Setting out on the procession to the altar of repose and the return give patent proof of the ceremonial dexterity of the pastorals. At the beginning, the celebrant takes the ciborium helped by the deacon, and clumsily; arriving he puts it down with or without the deacon's help, and just as badly. The reforms require from those who do it to be trained, and many are not. From Palm Sunday, we know nothing about the processional cross or the altar. Are they bare or veiled, and in which colour? No-one knows anything.

oOo

The Good Friday service takes the form of Mass in its main lines. This service received its early inspiration from the Orientals. The Mass of the Presanctified took its rightful place, above all if we observe that the Roman Rite had the "dry mass" for many centuries. Despite all, a cry of alarm broke out among the pastorals - it was the death warrant. The alarm was given by a Belgian Benedictine abbot crying out: "The Good Friday ceremony has taken on terrible appearances of a Mass". No more was needed by the pastorals. With an effort worthy of a better goal, they have fulfilled this programme: get rid of the fundamentally Roman elements, adopt foreign elements, restore inferior and obsolete Roman elements, exclude everything that can in any way remind us of a Mass. On this point, their fixed idea was to sing the refrain Delenda est Carthago. The Mass of the Presanctified succumbed under misunderstanding, victim of a kabbal. The liturgical dictionary, in the Migne edition, said in 1844: "The Roman Rite seems to us, as for the adoration of the cross, more grave and edifying than the rite of various dioceses of France". Advice to the pastorals for their entire construction, become a simple exercise of piety, under the name of "Singular and solemn liturgical action for the passion of death of the Lord", an action which, despite its qualification, gives no nobility to its subject.

The Roman Pontifical teaches us that we do not greet a new altar before having placed its cross. The altar itself is not the object of veneration, but the cross that dominates it, and to which all prayers are addressed. There was a time when the cross and candles were brought to the altar on entering the sanctuary, and they were carried away after Mass. This leaving the altar always uncovered is not permitted to-day. This is why I address the pastorals: "On Palm Sunday, you have uncovered the processional cross by pretext of emphasising it. On Good Friday when it is covered, you take the cross from the altar, send it to the sacristy and then have it brought back. How do you explain such a contradiction?" No creative or organisational genius here! We finally note that the cross on the altar brings to mind a Mass.

The pastorals divide the solemn action into four sub-titled parts, of which the second and third are solemn, but not the first and fourth. These doses are just as intelligent and admirable as their authors.

Chasubles - no question of them; they smack of the Mass. Then the poor celebrant has to be happy to be in an alb, as in a country church, despite the ultra-proclaimed solemnity - a contradiction the Roman Rite spared him.

The altar without a cross, if it is worthy of being kissed, has no right to a bow or genuflection, and even less to be prayed to - for an altar is not invoked. In the Roman Rite, when we kneel or make a double genuflection, or a bow, the bow must be slight and not profound. This ancient rule has been confirmed about a half century ago. It is scary to see the liturgy caught between two powers mutually ignoring each other.

The pastorals enrich Good Friday with an introductory collect and three concluding prayers. They abolish with one hand and lengthen with the other. They fall between two stools and are caught in their own net. The celebrant sings the introductory collect at the foot of the altar, for he will go up to the altar only for the great prayers. At the altar, the celebrant does not spread his hands unless he is in a chasuble at Mass and that Delenda est Carthago, hands spread gives place to joined hands. The second lesson takes the place of an epistle sung by the subdeacon, since the name of Mass is rejected and the deacon does not sing the Gospel.

The pastorals have the three deacons say the Munda cor meum and bidding the blessing on Palm Sunday. On Good Friday, the three do not say Munda cor meum and do not bid the blessing, but they go before the celebrant who addresses them a wish in a clear voice. Until now, the Munda cor meum has always come before the Gospel, at all the four Passions. Even the pastorals kept it before their gospel-history of the Passion - but they have excluded it on Good Friday. Why? Perhaps on this day the Passion is less of a Gospel than a history. With the loss of Munda cor meum, the Gospel is not announced. As he gives the blessing, the celebrant speaks media voce, but saying the formula he speaks clara voce. The new formula is without doubt better than the old. Finally the three deacons of the Passion who kneel to bid and receive the blessing do not have a reason to bow to hear the celebrant - we do not bow to respond to Dominus vobiscum.

Now begins the second period with a change of vestments, followed by two others, four in all. This is the punishment by the puritans who blame the Roman Rite for changing vestments too often. The pastorals, mitigating their anti-Mass prejudice, have the celebrant vest to go up to the altar. But, they have him in a cope, at the middle of the altar instead of the epistle corner, with the ministers each side of him, not behind. They have the priest with hands apart despite being in a cope.

They are more concerned with the dimensions of the cross than with its characteristics - a reliquary cross, the wood of the cross is of no interest to them, despite the origin of the rite. They have little knowledge or understanding of the Roman Rite. They transfer the cross from the sacristy to the altar where it was missing, where it should have its fixed place whether or not Mass is celebrated. Keeping the cross veiled does not mean hiding it, relegating it to the sacristy, depriving the altar of it - where it should more than ever be in a place of honour on this Friday. The pastorals should know that the veil should cover the whole cross, not just the crucifix, for it is the cross that is shown.

Other novelties await us. The notion of the pastorals about processions: the deacon between two acolytes brings the exiled cross from the sacristy - a procession. The faithful queue up to adore the cross - a procession. The deacon brings the Blessed Sacrament from the altar of repose - this is not a procession. We are now completely confused. We did not use lighted candles before transporting the Blessed Sacrament, of which the cross is not jealous. Now the pastorals use lighted candles for the cross. It results, among other things, that the celebrant uncovering the cross finds himself among four persons, a lot of people for little space! The cross, brought by the deacon then uncovered by the celebrant, now remains delivered to the hands of two acolytes who should not have this role, above all at the altar - which is not their place.

For centuries and rightly, Catholics have adored not only the cross but also the crucified body of Christ on the floor of the church. This is why we spread a carpet, a cushion, a white and violet veil for a shroud. This goes beyond the ideas of the pastorals, who have the Crucified standing upright. They have thus discarded the showing-adoration of the cross - not an exaltation but bringing it to adorers who prostrate themselves. The adoration of the cross is no less misunderstood - it was done as for the Pope, three genuflections spaced out before kissing the cross or the Pope's foot. But this Friday, the three genuflections are changed into three double genuflections of adoration. It is through this reverence to the Pope that the genuflection became part of the Roman Rite.

At the uncovering of the cross, after each of the Ecce lignum crucis, the action was together with the invitation - we kneeled and adored, responding Venite adoremus. The adoration in silence took place during the three double genuflections before the kissing. The pastorals move the silent adoration of the three destroyed double genuflections, they are associated with each Venite adoremus. In this way it wastes time rather than saving it - again, the pastorals have the adorers go one by one instead of two by two. They probably believe that singing is not good for adoration, attention and recollection.

The problem with the collective adoration of the cross was for a long time solved by the use of several crosses, presented to the faithful for kissing or exposed for adoration in several places. After the adoration, the altar cross is put in its normal place, from where it was taken to the sacristy. Its return gives place to a strange rubric.

Then they change colour. White and black are the original colours of the Roman Rite, but the pastorals prefer violet to black, the most recent colour. They reinforce the mourning of Good Friday by calling it the day of the Lord's death, but reject the black colour of death. They, who exterminate the Mass of the Presanctified, who until now had the celebrant in a black cope, have him wear a violet chasuble. But not for the ministers - they are disguised in dalmatics. Can there be more of a contradiction? If the pastorals saw a clash between communion and black, they should have considered that the Requiem Mass is said in black, and communion is given there even with previously consecrated hosts given as communion just before or after the Mass in black.

I ask the pastorals: what need, what opportunity do you feel to put a chasuble on the celebrant just to give communion? The distribution of communion has never required a chasuble outside Mass. You exterminate the Mass of the Presanctified, you obstinately eliminate the least detail that smacks of this, then you dare to put a chasuble on the celebrant - that you refuse for the ministers. Nothing warrants the celebrant to be vested for Act IV of your production, for you leave him simply in alb for Act I. Your discretionary powers are vast, as are the abuses.

oOo

The procession of Maundy Thursday, definitively instituted by Sixtus IV (+ 1484), and that of Good Friday, instituted by John XXII (+1334), therefore by the same authority, have the same object, same purpose, same solemnity, except the festive character of the first and the mourning of the second. Why abolish one and keep the other? The arrival of the Blessed Sacrament is accompanied by singing of the three antiphons in honour of the cross, in the place of Vexilla Regis having the same purpose, but without doubt un-pastoral.

In the Roman Rite, the celebrant sings the Pater noster alone, entirely or at the beginning and end saying the middle part in a quiet voice. The best proof is that the congregation, having said nothing, responds sed libera nos. All the same, the pastorals had to reform this, and here is the result of their prowess: the Pater noster said and not sung, said by all, said in a sung service, a sad mixture of Latin and Oriental rites, recited solemnly (sic), but stripped of the solemnity of singing, said with joined hands, whilst the Libera nos is said with hands apart. The pitiful explanation given is that the Pater, since it is a prayer for communion, has to be recited by everyone. Two questions: is the Pater more for communion than the other days of the year? Is the Pater more for communion than the other prayers before communion?

The writing of the rubrics is naturally at the same level. Thus we read that the celebrant takes a host with the right hand - so does he strike his breast with the left hand? We don't know if the left hand rests on the corporal or on the ciborium. We read that as he strikes his breast, instead of a medium bow, parum incinatus, the celebrant makes a profound bow - a posture impeded by the height of the altar.

It is disrespectful to the liturgy and the celebrant to abolish the chalice and the large host. A small people's host is ridiculous. The chalice once served as a ciborium, and this could continue. There was a time and place when the Good Friday communion was taken in both kinds, having been reserved, therefore with the chalice. Of this we should be aware. The chalice served for the purification of the celebrant, and opened the way for the clergy. One did not eat without drinking. All this imitated the Mass, did not deceive anyone, did not even oppose general communion - but this is of little importance.

The pastorals introduced three postcommunions, sung by the celebrant with joined hands, at the middle of the altar, between his ministers, and during which all stand. Another curiosity: during Compline the candles are snuffed out. Therefore the cross, now uncovered, can do without light. Now, why were lighted candles needed before its uncovering and during the adoration? A game of compensation: they give the cross light it had not had, and they take away the incensing from the Blessed Sacrament, the cross and the altar.

The Church mourns and weeps during the three days during which the Lord remains in the Sepulchre. During this time of the obsequies of the dead Christ, all the Hours of the Office end with the collect Respice quæsumus, which is exactly the prayer super populum at the Mass of Holy Wednesday. The pastorals break this continuity and unity by a replacement - at the end of the Hours of Saturday they insert a prayer that gives the aspect of a banal vigil, clashing with the rest, above all with the ancient Christus factus est. If the pastorals were logical with themselves, they would see that this prayer, not being in the tone of the three days, had no longer to be said kneeling and with a silent conclusion. This was of finishing Vespers is no less strange.

As for Mass, finishing in the late evening, was the cause of doing away with Vespers, at another time Mass, finishing late into the night, did away with Matins of Easter. The three Nocturnes were reduced to a single one, and this for the whole Octave. With less cause, the pastorals went further by abolishing Easter Matins, but did not dare to extend this to the rest of the Octave. As for the Vigil of Pentecost, massacred, its Octave continues to enjoy a single nocturne.

oOo

As already seen, the pastorals continue the burial of folded chasubles with that of Christ. On the other hand, and with the same deftness, they resurrect some minimal ceremony that is less ancient and abandoned. Also, they answer a question that has never been resolved. The celebrant blessed the new fire to obtain blessed light, with which the deacon lit the paschal candle before which he sang the Præconium. This lighting and singing passed for the blessing of the Paschal Candle. Now there is no doubt, everything is clear - the deacon has only to carry it and sing. The candle brought from I don't know where, under the watchful eyes of the congregation, is subjected to incisions and inscriptions, with explaining formulas, as well as pushing the five grains of incense into the five holes in the candle, which would represent the five wounds of Christ. This brings us back to the symbolism of William Durandus, whose ideas were once in fashion then fell into desuetude. The grains of incense are explained by the relation between fire and the resin of incense. The inscriptions had degenerated into a large tablet suspended on the candle and its candlestick, perhaps imitating the sign INRI of the cross, since the candle had to symbolise Christ.

Here, the Paschal Candle lit and blessed, the pastorals have the lights of the church put out. The Breviary had already done this at the end of Lauds of Maundy Thursday, but this concerned the lamps, electric lights, extinguished until Saturday. They probably want, without saying it clearly, to extinguish all the lights, have the church in darkness, which will be dissipated by the candles of the clergy and people. This brings out the Paschal Candle, something oriental, reminding us of a Candlemas around a big candle.

Whilst the light was given to light the candle already in place, now they carry the lighted candle to put it into place. One of the promoters of the Paschal Vigil was enthusiastic about the imposing proportions of the massive candle, and the majesty of paschal candlesticks. They did not suspect that their sectaries would have reduced everything to the proportions of a village church. When candle and candlestick took on a monumental development, and the candle was no longer transportable, it disappeared from the procession. Light had to be brought to it with the triple candle. Thus it happened that the hero of the triumphal cortege was not carried. We note that with the triple candle and reed, the light of Christ was no less adored.

In the hands of the pastorals, their solemn procession for the carrying of the candle became the negation of reasons principles, a liturgical monster. Their whim of having the deacon and the celebrant walk directly behind the subdeacon and the cross, at the head of the clergy, is the same thing as putting the cart before the horse. One of them excuses this with two stupidities. Firstly, in the proper order the clergy would turn their backs to the candle. Answer - in any procession where a relic or the Blessed Sacrament is carried, backs are turned as praises are sung. The contrary has never been done. The second: in the proper order, the clergy would sing the Lumen Christi turning their backs to the candle. Answer: there is no evil in this, for the genuflection is not made to the candle carried behind, but to Christ who is everywhere. We need to distinguish Christ as light and the light of Christ. Lumen Christi means that the light of Christ is in the lighted candle, not that Christ-light be there.

Reading the pastoral rubrics, we are led to believe that everybody - clergy and people - makes for the candle to light his own candle, which he holds during the singing of the Exultet. We remind ourselves with amazement of not being allowed to hold our palms during the singing of the Passion.

The right place for singing the Exultet and situating the Paschal Candle has always been where the Gospel is sung, the customary place in choir, or on the ambo or choir screen where the paschal candlestick is situated. The position of the candle in the middle of the choir, on a small support, is purely arbitrary. This give rise to fleeting and false interpretations, and does away with the majestic paschal candlestick.

The deacon, holding the book, bids the blessing, then incenses the book as for the Gospel. Why this? The reason is that the Exultet has always been in the Gospel book. Another reason is that the deacon incenses the book containing the praise of the candle that he is going to sing. The direct purpose is not to incense the candle, of less worth than the Gospel book. By incensing the book, the deacon incenses, per modum unius, the candle places against the reading desk. The pastorals could dispense with a new incensing, above all made by turning one's back to the candle.

The pastorals have officiated before an altar without a cross on Friday, but on Saturday, the altar and its cross no longer suffice for them. They want a centre towards which they turn - the Paschal Candle - rivalling the altar. The place for the singing of the Gospel has its symbolism, once disputable. Their place for the Paschal Candle, at the centre of the choir, entirely lacks symbolism. The way the desk is turned, and the deacon singing the Exultet, the reader singing the lessons, with the altar to his right and the nave to his left, shows the charm of the profile position unlike that of the pastorals.

According to the pastorals, the celebrant vests in four ways on Friday, but on Saturday, he is spared from vesting. He remains in a cope instead of putting on a chasuble. Is eludes them that the Prophecies, Tracts and Collects are part of the Mass, and that the Pope once baptised in chasuble.

oOo

The baptistery was an edifice annexed to the church, a kind of hallway, neutral territory, where a person entered as a pagan and emerged as a Christian. Used in a particular way, it was not made to contain the whole congregation. The baptistery has been succeeded by the baptismal font, often badly situated and just as badly constructed, but by whose fault? These faults should never be a reason to abandon them. Baptismal fonts, baptismal water and Baptism go together as one. A spectacular innovation that deliberately separates them, installing substitutes for the font in the choir and baptising in them, then using this recipient for transferring the baptismal water to the font - is an insult to history, to discipline, to the liturgy and common sense. Thus people are baptised in the choir, the place for the clergy, a pagan with those accompanying him. Thus the baptismal water resembles the person brought in pomp to it, from where he was expelled. It was to preserve the baptismal water over the whole year that sumptuous baptisteries were constructed with artistic and majestic fonts. To-day, the pastorals make baptismal water and baptise in a basin, and in this container they carry it to the font, singing the song of a thirsty deer, which has already drunk, and which is going towards a dry font.

The Litany, once repeated so often, is an supplication for the catechumens, before or after their baptism. It is normally sung on the way to the font and coming back from it. As the pastorals introduced a substitute for the baptismal font into the choir, they have the first half of the Litany sung, then the blessing of the water, always under the protection of the Paschal Candle. This time the celebrant faces the people, no longer his profile. What subtlety! Not the return, but the transport of the water to his home raises a thorny question. Whose role is it to play the walking reservoir - the deacon, acolytes, and how many of them? Our task that can arouse jealousies, above all during the obsolete singing of Sicut cervus. Suppose our church has a separate baptistery, the pastorals still dare to give the choice between the liturgical method and their sad invention.

The renewal of baptismal vows, taken from the First Communion for children, is a massive para-liturgy, a purely pastoral creation and un-liturgical, an occasion to insert the vernacular into the liturgy. It is a boring repetition of what has just been done if there has been a baptism. They could go on to renew marriage vows for people at a wedding. Finally it causes an empty space between the transport of the water and the second half of the Litany, therefore a waste of time by returning in silence.

The Paschal Candle finishes by being taken off its little temporary support and put on its candlestick on the Gospel side, ignored until now. Flowers have never been prescribed for the altar. Now the pastorals need them to make it more pleasant.

Monsignor GROMIER

Bergoglio again doubles down on those who refused the China Virus "vaccine"

You closed the Vatican Basilica pressured your bishops to do the same and shut all of us out of churches. 

You stood by whilst a "vaccine" was developed using foetal stem cells and some from actual murdered full-term babies.

You demanded that we all take this poison.

You stood by and did nothing whilst priests were mocked for not taking it, some suspended.

You did nothing to defend the smelly sheep when they lost their jobs.

You bully.

You madman.

You disgust me.

Pope Francis denounces 'anti-vaxxers,' calls COVID jab refusal an 'almost suicidal act of denial' - LifeSite (lifesitenews.com)

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.

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