#we still use latin in our Mass on sundays

[livehorses]

Friday of Sorrows or Passion Friday

A week before the Good Friday, we Catholics commemorate a special Friday dedicated to the advocation of our Lady of Sorrows. This is a day dedicated to remember all the pain Mary suffered on the Passion of her Son, to pray and accompany her in her despair. The Devotion to the Sorrowful Virgin goes back to the early years of Christianity, and quoting Wikipedia: “In 1727, Pope Benedict XIII extended a feast commemorating the sorrowful Virgin Mary to the whole of the Latin Church, assigning to its celebration the Friday in Passion Week, one week before Good Friday.” But these specific traditions held in Hispanic countries persist since the Viceregal era. In México were originally started by the “Servitas” (Mary’s Servants Order) in XVIII Century.

There were two dates for this feast, the Friday before Palm Sunday and September 15. Although with the Second Vatican Council, all the duplicated feasts were reduced to one date. The date of the fifth Friday of Lent was removed and the one in September was left. However, Mexicans tend to focus more in the Independence Night, but the tradition of the Friday of Sorrows is still strong in churches and towns. Later on, the Pope Saint John Paul II reintroduced it as a mass commemoration. As always, the tradition brought by the Spanish to America, took a very unique and folkloric tone.

On this Friday, in some towns and states around the Mexican Republic it’s made a procession in which it’s carried an image of the Sorrowful Virgin around the block. It’s also a tradition that people put an altar either on a church or in their house with many elements that each one of them keep a particular symbol.

The Virgin of Sorrows

Firstly takes protagonism an image of the Lady of Sorrows, covered with black, dark blue or purple clothing, to highlight her state of grief, with luxurious embroidery and crowned with an encrusted crown. Those images made by the hands of skillful artisans are the most beautiful and moving one could find, resembling in her expression the work of Renaissance sculptors and painters like Michael Angelo or Raphael. The most notable aspect are the tears that fall over the Virgin’s cheeks. Some of these images are centuries old.

The colorful glass spheres

Around the Altar there are placed a numerous group of glass spheres of bright colors, with the popular intention to cheer up the Virgin’s mood and as a way to comfort and distract her.

The whithered flowers and grass

Because we’re meant to be grieving, it’s traditionally prohibited the placing of aromatic and beautiful flowers. Instead, it can be used whithered purple flowers or, four weeks before, plant seeds of wheat, barley, chia and lentils on little pots, and let them grow without permiting the rays of the Sun to land on them. That way, the plant grows with a yellow tone, dried and whithered to resemblance the discouragement of the Virgin. Specifically these plants make reference to one of Jesus’ teachings: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

The wheat is also the plant used to prepare the communion wafer, and therefore, the grass of wheat represents the Eucharist. Sometimes it will be accompanied with a bunch of grapes, since from this fruit the wine for the Eucharist is made.

The pierced oranges with flags and drawings of sawdust or whithered rose petals

Also along the Altar are many oranges pierced by flags, sometimes of cut paper material or with silver and gold tones. As long as I remember, these last colors represent Mary and Jesus respectively, showing this way the closeness they have with each other as Mother and Son. The orange is the fruit of choice resembling the sour taste with the sour feeling within the Virgin’s heart as she saw her tortured Son in the way to Calvary. The flags represent how even the sorrow is crowned with the banners of glory that promise the Resurrection’s victory. Also, the pierced fruits by the flags are meant to simbolize the pierced Inmaculate Heart of Mary by seven swords, making reference to the prophecy of Simon the prophet in the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: “And to you, a sword will pierce your soul” Luke 2:35

There’s also a catholic devotion that comes from that prophecy, that remembers The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, which contemplates: The Prophecy of Simon, The Flee To Egypt, The Child lost and found in the Temple, The meeting in the road to Calvary, Jesus’ Crucifiction and Death, The descent from the Cross, and The Entombment. For each one of these sorrows is prayed a Hail Mary. Sometimes, the Virgin’s Monogram, precisely her Inmaculate Heart pierced by seven swords, can be represented along Jesus’ Monogram with sawdust of diverse colors or whithered rose petals. In general, the Altar is full with colorful sawdust desings.

Elements of Christ’s Passion

In some Altars it can be seen some elements of Christ’s Passion, like the ladder that was used to descend Jesus from the Cross, the Cross itself, the nails, the spear which was used to pierce Jesus’ chest, the rooster that sang as soon as Peter denied to know Jesus, the whip used to hit Jesus, the dices with which the soldiers made a bet to see who of them would keep Jesus’ robe, the crown of thorns, the sponge with vinegar and many more.

Candles, cut paper and garlands

As a decorative addition, the rest of the Altar is decorated with traditional chinese paper usually with Mary and Jesus’ initials, garlands of white and purple colors and with multiple candles. As always the purple symbolizes sorrow, grief, penance and sobriety, while the white is purity and holyness. The candles represent the light that God projects over the World, vanishing all darkness and shadows. Candlelights can also represent a night of vigil, when someone stays awake to pray. In that way we express we keep company to the sorrowful Virgin the moment she’s left alone after her Son’s Death, as the Apostle Saint John did. By the light that the bright flags reflect from the candles, it is traditionally said that the Altars of Sorrows are set on fire.

Flavored waters

One of the most popular elements in the Altar of Sorrows is the fresh flavored waters. Around this time in México, the weather has turned hot, and people search for ways to calm their thirst and cool off. It’s a tradition long lost in the urbanized zones to visit the neighbour houses to see each one’s altars and to stand by to pray a little. When a visitor arrives, since centuries ago the tradition is that this one asks: “Has the Virgin wept yet?” and the host inmediately hands off a glass of fresh flavored water. As you can imagine, these special drinks are meant to symbolize the numerous tears the Virgin wept on Good Friday. The flavors can vary and each one has a respective meaning. The Jamaica one, by its strong reddish tone symbolizes Jesus’ spilled blood, the Horchata one, made of rice with milk and cinnamon (rice with milk, a traditional Mexican dessert) mixed with water, by it’s white color represents Mary’s purity and others say its her maternal milk, the tamarind one is the vinegar that Jesus tasted in the Cross and finally the lemon with chia one is Mary’s tears mixed with sour feeling. Anyways, the flavors can be more than these ones.

The Friday of Sorrows is no doubt one of the most beautiful and devotional ones in all the liturgical year here in México, its devotion and pious aspect is mixed with strong tradition and floklore, making it unique as how each mexican tradition could be.

Is there something simillar in your country to commemorate the Friday Of Sorrows?

If I have time, I will share with you photos of my Altar I usually make each year.

Photo and research sources:

https://inah.gob.mx/boletines/5100-altar-de-dolores-tradicion-viva-en-museos-del-inah

https://desdelafe.mx/noticias/sabias-que/todo-lo-que-debes-saber-sobre-el-altar-de-dolores/

https://www.reconociendomexico.com.mx/altar-de-dolores/

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=luisalberto.rosalesherrera&set=a.932188683482052

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viernes_de_Dolores

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_of_Sorrows

[automatismoateo]

Becoming atheist is one of the best things that has happened to me via /r/atheism

Becoming atheist is one of the best things that has happened to me I just wanted to share my story. I can’t sleep and was scrolling through Reddit so here I am. I grew up in a hard core catholic family. Never missed a Sunday of church, prayed the rosary on long car rides, catholic grade school, catholic high school. My husband’s family is the same way but even more intense - Latin mass conspiracy level I remember always questioning religion even at an early age. I asked my parents if Adam and Eve lived with dinosaurs because they were the first humans and they told me to ask a priest. I hated going to church. Being forced to wake up early and listen to the same prayers, chants. I can’t tell you one homily I listed to in the 27 years I was raised catholic. I mostly daydreamed about my life during that time and looked forward to whatever we were having for breakfast that morning. Despite this I loved my family and I had always respected being catholic and thought it was necessary to have good morals. There was also that nagging fear that if I stopped believing completely I would burn in hell, so there’s that. When my husband and I met, we connected on our strong catholic background and recognized we were both lukewarm Catholics at best. We questioned the religion during our years together but still always accepted we were Catholics for a few years. I’m not sure when my husband became atheist , it was sometime before me but he let me go at my own pace. The last straw for me was watching the Netflix documentary The Keepers. I could not fathom how priests who were abusing young children are protected by the church on many levels. And not just one priest, many. I remember feeling nauseous watching. Everything was wrong. Anything that is good wouldn’t do this. I decided then that the religion I was born and raised to believe was all a sham. I was initially shell shocked. I realized my previous day to day thoughts and choices were burdened by trying to follow the rules of my religion. Once I realized that there was no eternal hell waiting for me if I made a “bad” choice, I had never felt more free. I looked around me, everyone who prayed, religious references on tv, everything having to do with religion seemed comical and I couldn’t believe the world we are living in. I started feeling like a normal person surrounded by crazies. My world turned upside down. I’ve never felt more empowered because with this I also realized anything I had accomplished to that point was my achievement, all me, and not just some part of a plan that was made for me by an all knowing figure. I replaced believing in religion to believing in people and our individual capabilities. The only word I can use to explain that change in mindset is freedom. It’s the best thing. Submitted March 29, 2024 at 10:47AM by moscowmulemind (From Reddit https://ift.tt/NwbUr2a)

[ericleo108]

Your Sun

03/19/2024 Click here for Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube. “Your Sun” is my 72nd official release and my 107th track published. This is my first spoken word track as Eric Leo 108. There is no beat and the audio was organized by Sam Peters at La Luna Recordings and Sound in Kalamazoo Michigan. The cover art is a self-taken photo and self-edited cover.

I talk about this blog post and other updates in the latest Sunday update here:

As explained by the National Weather Service, “There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as Equinoxes. The word equinox is derived from two Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night).” The spring equinox signifies that after this there will be more daylight than night throughout the day in the Northern Hemisphere. 

I intentionally released this spoken word poem on the day of the spring equinox because it’s a poem to humanity as if it was coming from the sun. And nothing signifies that better than the overtaking of light from the sun on the northern hemixphere that is the spring equinox. 

I originally created this poem to express myself in the CosmicLuve.com log, specifically the September 2022 - Hope post. As you can read, the poem has nothing to do with her but it was largely inspired by Emma Watson. 

To briefly make you fully updated. I have a book called “108 The Story of Discovering Earth’s Consciousness” about why and how I think the planet and stars are conscious. Then In the blog (at EricLeo108.com) I show how Gaia (the Earth) could play match maker to guide evolution using telepathy. Basically, attractive, potential mates are used as vessels to paint the canvas of a broader message from Gaia. I explain all this at CosmicLuve.com which is a running log on my blog at EricLeo108.com. This is a poem from the Suns perspective given this information. I chose to release this on the 19th because that’s the day of the spring equinox. 

The actual spring equinox is on the 19th but Christianity celebrates it on the 31st because its the first full moon after the spring equinox. Just like Christmas which is based on the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, Easter comes from a pagan tradition around the spring equinox. Easter is derived from the German Eostre or Ostara which is the goddess of spring. In the most popular story Ostara found a dying bird in the snow. To save it, she turn it into a white hare which she gave the power to lay eggs once a year and gift them to worshipers. And that’s why there are bunnies and eggs on Easter. You can read a fuller story here. It has nothing to do with Jesus rising from the dead and everything to do with celetial patterns and Christian’s culturally appropriating pagan traditions. I have left a video that explains more.

All these christian events and celestial dates line up because Jesus is based off the myth of the sun, which I find worth worshiping. I think Jesus is Western Civilization’s imaginary friend that they made up to make themselve feel better and control the masses, but the sun, which the imaginary friend is based on, is very real and worth worshiping. To be clear, again, I think the sun is conscious and would be the ultimate ruler in our local cosmic domain. 

With that said, I am actually terrified of the sun. Most aging, like wrinkles and lines, come from sun exposure. The only reason the Earth is livable is because we have an atmosphere that protects us from the suns rays from burning us alive, and they still cause cancer.  Have you ever heard of a choronial mass ejection and what it would do to life as we know it? It would basically be like setting of a global EMP (electro magnetic pulse) that would whip out satellites and electronics. The world almost came to an end in 2012 which is also when the Mayan calendar ended. This is because in July of 2012 there was a coronial mass ejection that almost hit Earth that you can read about from NASA, Business Insider, or Wikipeida. 

I have taken a twitter poll asking “Would you straight-up worship the sun” and all voted “no, that’s stupid.” But in a very real way Christians worship the sun because they worship Jesus which is based off the myth of the sun, they just don’t know it. In this way I’m glad we have people worshiping the sun, I just wish it wasn’t through Jesus. I think we should organize a cohort to worship the sun (and turn towards it) like Mecca and occasionally I do. 

Given all this, trust me when I say, I hope I did the sun justice in this poem.

Lyrics:

I am you

I made you

When they say “you’re bright,” “you’re glowing”, or “you’re radiant” 

You can best be assured you got that from me

And I tell you this because

I love you like the stars love rain

Like the earths vibration through you

I feel and share myself

Like the elements of my dead body combine to be the coalescence of life

Then gave birth to the very carbon lifeforms that can understand what I am

How I love you

I cradled you in my bussum

I watched you as you took your first steps

How your curiosity as child made you a conquerer in your adolecense

And although you may deny it, you still feel the pain of war

The gnawing agony for more

And as the lover you take, do you not ask Are you satisfied my dear?

Or even ask? Satisfied from what?

Do you not understand that

Like penguins bond over pebbles

Or finches sing and dance

I love you like the stars love rain 

Like from the bacteria in the gut

The colony you Excrete aromatically

I would take you then

Like the forest and fonna The earth blackend by your burn

I would take you then

Like the mineral salt in the ocean

Was acidified by your hand

I would take you then

Like you were the diseased

I was helpless by your side

And all I could do is weep

Like rain, even still

I would take you then

I am better because I got to hold you

I nurtured you from nothing

And as a faithful dog greets you when you get home everyday

I will always be there for you

In good times and bad

In sickness and health

I love you like the stars love rain

You made this worth it

Your sun

[brucescamblercpa]

Bruce Scambler: RE-ASSESSING FAITH AND RELIGION POST COVID WITH DOMAN METHOD MEDICAL “MIRACLES” 

Here we are as post COVID survivors.  Where does that put you with your religious beliefs?  Do you still possess your core religious convictions. Do you believe more so now that your prayers delivered you safe from a pandemic?  Did you pray more during the pandemic? Do you still pray that much more than pre-pandemic? Or have you survived and fallen back to normal?  

What exactly is the new reality we face?  Do we have the wisdom to comprehend it?  A question to consider is whether more “wrong doers or sinners” compared to practicing faithful were taken in the pandemic? To begin to try to know the answer one would have to know what exactly is  a “wrong doer” or “sinner”?  There have been many accounts of priests or Church Sunday school teachers, who have been found to be child abusers.  For all their piety are they heaven bound?   Were they sinners or saved?  Was this pandemic a harvest of righteous souls?

This is where we mush consider our faith, and understand that existential humility defines the limits of our wisdom and virtue, whether as individuals or collectively.  Existential (being that which relates to existing) splits between philosophy and logic.  Philosophically because we are free to choose our religion, the existential dilemma exists precisely because we are free,  that is have you chosen wisely? Yet being free, we are also inherently responsible to make our own choice for which religion or denomination will get us to eternal life. The logic is no less clear.  Existentially regarding this proposition, we are either right or wrong.  Either way we are affirming or implying the existence of an eternal life still to come for us living in this new post COVID reality.  

You survived! Is that because you are good?  Fundamentally as we are all sinners, it seems we are all wrong? Across different religions and beliefs we can’t all be right.  Certainly if I am wrong, that then follows with faith that you have no more chance of knowing you are right, so then are we all wrong.  In my novels, the Blonde Citizen series I suggest no one individually nor in any establishment has got the answer.  What is coming in the future is foretold in riddles and verses, which to date no human or AI has correctly interpreted.

 Frankly, from all I have read the church based religions can not give that answer, of who is wrong, or why you and I survived the pandemic while so many others perished.  The Christian churches and some other religions are mired in political idealism.  In reality they exist to tithe the masses and further the existential status quo.     Unless some new form of living reality comes into existence, perhaps eternal life linked mind to AI,  then we will meet an inevitable implosion and human destructive end.

  The existential proposition is that in reality you survived the pandemic, and the proposed reasons as to why you survived,  being for your religious beliefs are constructed fictions.  You actually survived by medicine or luck of your DNA.

Consider my mother who is about to turn 90, she survived the pandemic following instructions and having the jabs and boosters.  She has maintained her Catholic faith even while living in ‘Protestant’ England for over sixty years. As for church relationship being of  primary importance,  Mother’s insistence was upon my brother and I being christened Catholic in circa 1958 and 1962.  I took my first communion Catholic circa 1966.   During trips to 

Heerlen, Limburg, I attended Catholic church with Oma, Mother and family. With rote learning of the Latin and Dutch Masses I was able to participate, praying and speaking out load. Later in life I sung and chanted English High Church Masses. Mother instilled strong Catholic values, always insisted on Church attendance, and participation. Mother was having none of 

the protestant Methodist religion and services offered at our boarding school.  Mother insisted even while attending a Methodist boarding 

school that the I be allowed to walk (some three miles return) to Canterbury’s St Thomas’s Catholic Church, (located very close to Church of England Canterbury Cathedral), weekly or more often to attend Catholic Mass and Communion. Respondent became an “Altar boy ” or 

Acolyte. There you can see there are a range of Christian  church options available, Catholic, Church of England, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, to non denominational -and many more.  You have a choice or church and religion and it could make all the difference to your future.  

Moving on from a pandemic, there are other issues of heath where hopes of survival or some improvement are low.

Consider special needs children.  Is it prayer and faith that will cure? Or is it the medical treatment?  It is hard to know.  Perhaps it is both.  As an example 

I was fortunate to be included with friends at the same time as  being  an Acolyte in a Glen Doman treatment project.  This was back in 1973-77.  I helped my co-acolyte school friend Aloysius, with a “what seemed like a miracle cure” for his brother.  Aloysius’s brother Thomas Ignatius was oxygen deprived during a troublesome mid-wife home natural birth.  His pre-treatment testing showed he was mentally stuck at an equivalent of a two-three (2-3) year old when then aged eight (8) years old.

Perhaps you have arrived at this page in a search for learning difficulties cures or treatment for other children’s mental conditions.  The fact is that this example of success for a child who had oxygen starvation,  is a continued success.  The treatment is still being offered fifty (50) years on, and in multiple clinics worldwide.  Through Glenn Doman’s insight and  groundbreaking solutions to child development, hundreds of thousands of special needs children around the world have had developmental improvement.  The conditions include those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, as well as Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), or other genetic abnormalities, Autism, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, epilepsy, oxygen depravation,  or other learning difficulties.  These have all been helped by the Doman Method.

Glenn Doman’s treatment program is now prescribed by Doman International.  “The Doman Method” has been tried and succeeded where many other palliative jtreatments failed.

On first getting to understand the method, you may be a little concerned.  It does involve making the child’s brain functions learn new paths of operation.  In non-medical terms the brain has to be put under modest stress.  That happens when the body is oxygen deprived.  Hence short time period mouth and nose maskings  cause the brain to make new paths and connections.  With regular maskings, over an extended time, and other treatments prescribed by the Glenn Dolman school (it was in Florida back then) over several (4-5) years, the rehabilitation led to Aloysius’s brother Thomas Ignatius being tested with a comprehension akin to an eight (8) year old when actually twelve (12). He became a good runner.  Later Respondent heard he passed sixteen (16) year old exams. Sessions took one to two (1-2) hours twice a day (after morning and evening church) to guide and re-train his friends Aloysius’s younger brother.

If you are a parent, this is an actual example of a successful treatment, and review of what  makes the Doman Method different is not confined to generalities.

 Our experience was that the team of child brain specialists were all incredibly knowledgeable.  With so many success stories they are very experienced.   My journal notes were that they were very approachable, accessible, and made great suggestions. 

After the maskings, the next stages we followed were for four of us to be holding an arm or a leg, with Thomas on a raised table, and in this holistic approach, we in turn would simulate an early chest on table  crawl, left arm-right leg move forward together and then back as right arm-left leg move.   After several weeks the body is raised and kneeling crawling in place, followed by actual crawling when deemed ready.  And lots of it.  Wearing out our long pants we took to shorts and knee pads.  After that walking, jogging and running.

The Doman method does get you full of hope, and the process is one of lots of enthusiasm.  Whether adding in spiritual prayer is an additional help, can’t comment.  It really seems with all the Doman success, that when it comes to treatment of disabilities and special needs this revolutionary practical approach works.  Given now with remote learning the education in the child’s familiar home, maintained in love and care of parents that this is best.  Why it has not been accepted in mainline medical treatments is as puzzling as who started the Covid pandemic!

From my experience I would  recommend Doman International. Faced with drug treatments or hospital visits, which all diminishes the hope of cure or improvement, this is a better recommendation.

If you have a child with autism, cp, ADHD,  developmental delay, or some other developmental issue, do be sure you learn about this method.

Writer is in no way affiliated with Doman. Doman International is an independent organization that uses The Doman Method (the Doman Method was created by Glenn Doman) to help educate parents of children, and help to developmentally improve children with special needs.It really works.  Thomas showed great improvement and instead of being despondent about his future hope returned to the home.  

The conclusion is that there is an asymmetrical relationship between extential faith and actual cures.  One is left to make one’s own choice, in the knowledge that whatever faith you choose, you will be wrong.  It is the case because the faith establishment is wrong.

[paula-of-christ]

Read a claim that Vultum Dei quaerere (written in 2016) meant that the Pope was trying to destroy cloistered religious life. The only thing that's come out since then regarding cloistered life is Cor Orans. Which means before I finish this article I have to finish reading both of these things.

I know for sure Cor Orans dictates that cloistered life needs a minimum of 9 years of formation but I'm not sure what else it dictates. But I'm really not sure what this priest thinks is going to happen to "destroy" religious life. If you're a papal enclosed monastery, then yea, you have to follow the rules of the papacy. I understand he serves a community that does the Traditional Latin Mass, but that is clearly being approved by your Bishop if you're still doing it, so the Pope has no say in that. Him sending an apostolic representative to view if you're following the rules for papal enclosure is not destroying anything.

I guess I'll just have to read those two documents before I perform full opinions but the cloister I'm joining feel supported by the Vatican so idk what this priest is on about.

[flagellant]

Hey, I was just wondering, how conservative are Catholic churches in general in the US? Like, just your every day St Stephen's in Sleepyville, Nowhere?

Cus it occured to me that, certainly in Birmingham UK, I am fairly free to assume a Catholic church will be relatively liberal so long as it doesn't advertise a time for Latin mass or say anything about pre Vatican II on its message board. Most churches seem to have an "were not preaching against it if we just don't preach about it" attitude to the most controversial issues.

For example, when we had a priest come over from Ireland to complete his seminary training the first sermon he gave was on the sin of all extra marital relations and he was very quickly taken aside by the parish priest and told not to do it again. Likewise when we had to read the letter from the bishop decrying the legalisation of gay marriage my church and most churches I know had a real hard time finding someone willing to read it.

And I guess on some level I've just assumed that's the same the world over; that the hierarchs and some ultramontane churches are gonna be super cringe about their Catholicism but the majority of churches are just quietly ignoring all that and getting on with the business of being a good parish church. And I guess I'm just beginning to really grok onto the idea that that might not be the case?

Not really the case for most, sadly. The best way I can describe the average congregation in America is "Politely extremely conservative". As in, they usually don't want to host sermons on the sins of extramarital sex, or how all gays are going to Hell...but they all still believe it, and they're not challenging anything. I remember when US federal marriage equality was instituted, that very same Sunday I went to mass, and our bishop had written up a letter to explain how nothing was going to change etc.

[granolagaeilgeoir]

One evening I was heading to mass, and a non-Catholic friend of mine wanted to come along. Naturally, I was really excited, because someone was showing an interest in my faith, which is so centrally important to my life. Afterwards, though, this friend of mine kept making remarks about how it was "weird" and we all "seemed like a cult." So I asked what they meant, and they said it was mainly because we all knew what to say at what time, and when to sit, stand, kneel, etc. And the fact that this seemed to disturb her was pretty upsetting, because to me, this is one of the most beautiful things about the Catholic church.

The word Catholic comes from the Greek word katholikos, meaning "Universal." That is, the Church and its celebrations, such as the Mass, were specifically designed so that they could be accessible to all. This is why, up until the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, masses were only celebrated in Latin. Masses are still celebrated in Latin today, but the vast majority of Catholics attend Novus Ordo (Ordinary Form) Masses, which are celebrated in their native tongue. Regardless of which type of Mass one attends - Traditional Latin Mass or Novus Ordo - no matter where you are in the world, you can enter any Catholic Church and participate. Attending a Novus Ordo Mass in Brazil is the same as in the United States, as in Kenya, as in Poland, etc. As a participant in the Mass, everything you say translates to the same thing as it would elsewhere. The only difference is what language you say it in. So, let's say, you are a native English speaker on vacation in France, and you're attending mass on a Sunday, and you don't speak a word of French. This is totally fine. Because you still understand exactly what's happening. (Side note: this is why I say the Mass is especially helpful if you are a Catholic attempting to learn another language -- it is a great aid in your language-learning journey because it utilizes vocabulary, idioms, etc, that you are already familiar with.)

The same thing obviously applies to the Latin Mass, except wherever you are in the world, it is exactly the same, language and all. This is why a lot of Catholic secondary schools offer Latin as a language course option, since it is the official language of the Church (I am incredibly angry that mine did not have such a choice, as I would love to learn Latin both as a Catholic and as a scientist, fan of Donna Tartt novels, etc).

So, because the mass is essentially celebrated in the same way around the world each time (for the most part; there are additional parts to the mass on Holy Days and certain feast days, but I'll not go into that here), and because practising Catholics attend mass at least once a week, and those of us who have been practising the Catholic faith since we were born have essentially attended the mass thousands of times by now, we quickly learned what the responses were, when to stand, when to kneel...you get the idea.

Every time I am in mass, I know that in addition to the people standing around me in my own parish, there are millions of others doing the exact same thing as me around the world -- affirming our faith in and our love of Christ. And to me, that is beautiful.

[shredsandpatches]

sunday snippet (who was then the gentleman edition)

A little bit from the Mile End meeting today, which I’ve been working on for the last week. It’s surprisingly difficult—figuring out how into the weeds I want to get with the terms of villeinage is kinda tricky—but I think this section came out pretty well. (I feel like you can probably see traces of current events in it; I’ve certainly been thinking about the 1351 Statute of Laborers a lot recently for that reason and that’s at the root of a lot of the commons’ grievances.) Although I think I might let it sit for a bit now and work on something else tonight; Richard has agreed to make the concessions and now I have to move people around until they can find out what’s happened at the Tower.

In the passage below, John Ball’s dialogue owes a lot to Froissart’s depiction of the beginnings of the revolt, although I am much kinder to him than Froissart is. 

...Also I think Richard kinda likes him (in my version) because the first exchange of dialogue they have is this, and Richard may not approve of the Lollardy but he respects the sass.

“You’re John Ball, if I’m not mistaken?”

“Ah, so you’ve heard of me!” Ball says. “Any of it good?”

Richard grins. “No,” he says.

Ball grins back. “Good.”

That’s not the actual Sunday snippet though—I didn’t include it because there’s too much stuff between that and the part that is the actual snippet, which is this: 

--

It’s Ball who takes up the argument, though. “We are all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve,” he says. “What is the difference between those men standing behind you, and these gathered here? And yet those men—” he gestures toward the royal party— “have everything, while the great majority of men and women—” and now he gestures toward the massed commons that surround them— “have little, or nothing. You wear silk and ermine, and live in great palaces and drink spiced wine, while these people wear rough cloth, and work in the field at the mercy of the weather, and sleep in straw. Now, the prelates will tell you that God has placed them in those positions, that distinction between men came into the world with sin. But I ask you: who of these good people around you is a greater sinner than your uncle of Lancaster, or even your average church prelate? Did our Lord not say: it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye, then a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven?”  

“Master Ball,” Richard says, “I am not the King of Heaven.”

“Indeed not,” Straw says. “England is far from heaven, and you’re the King of England, your Highness—the poor just as much as the rich. You’re our King, too. We’re looking to you to free us. To allow the poor laborer to work for a decent wage, and not because a rich man owns the land he was born on. We are men, your Highness. We’re not animals. Those men don’t own us, just because they had the fortune to be born rich. They’ve lived like that, off of our backs and our labor, for too long. It’s too late for them—they’ll never change things. They’ll never set us free. But you’re still young, your Highness. You can change it.”

As Richard listens, a growing sense of awed unease grips him. What he’s always been taught is much like what John Ball has just accused the prelates of teaching. Men and women are bondmen, or free, based on God’s will, and they are made for the lot in life He chose for them: laborers to work in the sweat of their brow, nobles to rule and to fight. He would never have expected common workers to speak—to be able to speak—as intelligently as Jack Straw has just spoken to him, or an ordinary village priest to be capable of more than enough Latin to say the mass, if he had not heard it himself. That, he would have said only days ago, is how the world is. The men before him think and feel just as he does, as his family does, as the men of his council do. If that is so, how can he let them linger in bondage?

“But first,” Straw continues, “we ask you for justice, against the men who have enforced our servitude for so long. We ask for the right to seize and punish traitors. Your Highness needs to clean house, before you change the realm.”

Richard bites his lip, inhales slowly, and looks carefully at the faces of the men before him. He thinks of Archbishop Sudbury, who had given him his blessing before he’d set out for Mile End, and wonders if he made it out, or if he’s even still alive. He thinks of the people in the Tower, waiting for him to bring peace and safety to the realm. England’s hope, now, rests all in you, Sudbury had said. Do what you must, your Highness, and God be with you.

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for 15th Sun after Pentecost (Dominican rite)

Gal 5:25-26, 6:1-10; Luke 7:11-16

Here in the Rosary Shrine, I celebrate Mass both in the reformed Roman Rite, and also in the Dominican rite. Consequently, on most Sundays I would have a different set of Scripture readings to pray and think about, and so I would sometimes write two different sermons. Over the course of the year, as I’ve now read through the whole of the Lectionary in the older form of the Mass, I am frequently struck by the epistles that are appointed to be read during this time after Pentecost. The vast majority of the passages are from the pastoral epistles, which deal with relations among Christians. Hence the epistles read in the Mass are directed ad intra, instruction for the Christian assembled for divine worship, and they tell us how we are to treat one another, how we should behave within Christ’s holy Church, and thus the kind of virtues we should foster as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Consider, for example, this sentence from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians today: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Just before this passage, St Paul has listed the fruits of the Spirit, among which is gentleness. So, here again, he exhorts us to be gentle with one another, particularly when someone has fallen into sin, presumably even serious sin. In the Greek text, the fruit of the spirit, translated as gentleness is prautes, which means mildness of disposition, meekness, just as Christ says in Matthew 11:29 that he is “meek [or gentle] and lowly in heart”; the same Greek word, prautes is used here. The Latin translation by St Jerome, interestingly, uses two different Latin words for prautes. In Galatians 5:23, when St Paul lists the gifts of the Holy Spirit, prautes is translated as mansuetudo, which means tameness, mildness, clemency. And then, when the same Greek word recurs in today’s epistle passage, in Galatians 6:1, the translation of prautes is lenitas, which means softness, tenderness, and leniency. So, how are we to treat a fellow Christian who has fallen into sin? St Paul says that one who has the gifts of the Holy Spirit would behave gently, with mildness just as Christ is mild and un-condemning with us, and with leniency.

Why is this? Because we have clay feet, we are fallible sinful people too, because we too might be tempted and fall into sin. Hence, he says: “look to yourself”, watch out, mind your own business! Hence Our Lord also warns us in St John’s Gospel: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” (Jn 8:7). Or in St Matthew’s Gospel: “Judge not lest you be judged” (Mt 7:1), which is not a call for us to relinquish any discernment of right from wrong, but rather a warning not to presume to condemn another Christian. For, as St James says in his pastoral epistle: “He that… judges a brother… judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the Law but a judge. There is [but] one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbour?” (Jm 4:11-12)

The Holy Spirit, therefore, gives us his gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord, so that we might bear fruit, including the fruit of meekness, gentleness, lowliness of heart. For it is with a spirit of gentleness that we shall be kept from falling into the grave sin of spiritual pride, of judging and condemning a brother or sister in Christ. St Jerome’s use of the word mansuetudo, tameness, suggests that the Holy Spirit is seen to be at work in our lives when he tames us, and so we are held back from harsh judgment of a fellow Christian, and so we exhibit that other fruit of the Holy Spirit, namely, self-control.

Among the gifts of the Holy Spirit are those that affect our knowledge–firstly, knowledge concerning God and the revelations of God and the means to salvation. But also true knowledge about ourselves. So St Paul enunciates a fundamental truth for us in today’s epistle passage: “If any one thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Those who are wise, who fear God and who have understanding will be able to say, without self-recrimination or self-effacement or without destroying one’s proper sense of self-esteem, that, in truth, “I am nothing”. The great Dominican mystic, St Catherine of Siena, told her confessor, Bl. Raymond of Capua that Jesus appeared to St Catherine in a vision and told her: “You are she who is not.” With these words, this wisdom and knowledge imparted by a supernatural grace to her soul, St Catherine was thus given a remedy for pride.

For as Blessed Raymond of Capua went on to say: “Here is a healing remedy, for what wound of pride can enter into a soul that knows itself to be nothing? Who can glory in anything he does? And thus, all vices are driven out by the words, “You are not”. Then, Bl. Raymond adds: “Here too are many anxieties diminished. For, [as Blessed Raymond says] “whenever I or any of the other friars was afraid of any danger, Catherine would say, “What have you to do with yourselves? Leave it to Divine Providence. However much afraid you are, Providence still has his eyes on you and is always aiming at your salvation.”

This, my friends, is saintly wisdom, given from on high by the Holy Spirit. For many in our age are rapt in pride, and they do not even know it. Many people, for example, appear anxious to save the world, or to save the planet and its environment, or to save the Church, and their anxieties arise not because these causes are not worthy of our attention and care, but because they vaingloriously think that the salvation of the Church, of the world, of other people depends on them and their particular action, and so they become activists and campaigners, and they anxiously can think that the outcome depends on them. But St Catherine and Holy Scripture suggests that this is precisely the dangerous hidden deception of pride: to think that I myself am a saviour. But I am he who is not. So, “look to yourself” says St Paul. “Leave it to Divine Providence” says St Catherine. Hence today’s epistle says: “Let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Our spirit of meekness and gentleness towards our fellow Christians, therefore, overflows into benevolence for all people but especially for those who are also baptised into the true Faith, into the life of grace in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, many interactions among us Christians and particularly between Catholics on social media cannot be said by onlookers to be benevolent or gentle or meek in spirit, and this is true even when the comments are directed towards the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ! Earlier in his letter to the Galatians, before he lists the fruits of the Holy Spirit, St Paul lists the “works of the flesh”. Among them are “anger… dissension, party spirit” (cf Gal 5:20) – a better translation for the latter might be something like tribalism – and I think one has to honestly and prayerfully reflect on how we behave online, how we speak to one another and about one another, and then ask ourselves: do I exhibit the works of the flesh or the fruits of the Holy Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”, says St Paul (Gal 5:22-23).

Now, don’t get me wrong: sometimes we do need to fight for what is right, and to make a stand for the vulnerable as we did at the March for Life yesterday. Where sin abounds, we should do what we can in justice and in charity to stop it. However, we must do so in all humility, with gentleness and meekness, without judging and condemning the other, because we know that but for the grace of God, we too would and could and often do fall. For as Our Lord says: “Without me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5). Indeed, without God, we are nothing, and can do no good.

Therefore, St Paul declared to the Corinthians: “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.’” (1 Cor 1:28-31) So, let us always first look to ourselves in order that in all things we keep looking to the Lord!

[friendoftheelves]

People, what is somethings you wish writers knew about your culture, I'll start (I'm English):

If you say British-English I will riot. It's standard English, American English is just the most commonly spoken version of English, being the dominant culture

Nobody cares about sports at Secondary school, I didn't realise my school had sports teams until like year 11 when I saw them leaving and it was just a casual observation

Also Primary school = reception to year 6 or ages 4 to 11, Secondary school = years 7 to 11 or ages 11 to 16, Sixth Form (attached to a secondary school) and college (independent from a secondary school but otherwise same thing) = 16 to 18. Primary school to Secondary school is compulsory, after that you have to attend some form of further education whether that be an apprenticeship or sixth form/college is up to you. It is common to have a compulsory uniform for secondary school and less common for both primary school and sixth form/college. Primary school and sixth form/college uniforms are noteworthy whereas a lack of compulsory uniform in secondary school is noteworthy

American culture is the dominant one, we have watched and read a lot of American media

If you're poor, you live in a council flat and probably have free school meals, "trailer trash" isn't really a thing because trailers just aren't a common occurrence, the only group I can think of that commonly lives in "trailers" is 'gypsy' who are their own community and live in motorhomes. Discrimination against them is common but not in your face, which I will explain in a bit because that is its own point

People care a lot about both rugby and football and if you call it soccer and act all superior about you will make a lot of people mad because British football officially came first and a lot of languages call it something that sounds very close to football in their language and American football is closer to rugby in how it looks to us so it is a very sore point

Also, in case you haven't gathered, Britain is subtly anti-American we had an empire and we are bitter we lost it so seeing America get to where we were is something Britain does not react well to

British culture is all about pretending everything so normal and subduing, ignoring and otherwise refusing to acknowledge what strays from that "normal" so unless we are forced to openly acknowledge it we will not and then we will passive aggressively snipe at it. American culture is all about being in your face, British culture is all about pretending we don't see what's wrong. We refuse to acknowledge we even had an empire

Class is a big deal. The elites in our culture have historically been their own one and this is still seen today. Class divide is what defines us. We have things like the house of commons and the house of lords. Rather than the rich ending up in positions of power due to society falling to prevent their privilege, British culture and actively encourages elite power. There is still discrimination but because of the importance of class divide and the British refusal to acknowledge our own faults, it presents differently. Race is seen as it's own class below working class and there is discrimination between the white classes. The working class are seen as beneath the rich and the rich are seen as 'upperclass tw**s'. The middle class are then seen as traitors and having abandoned the working class because the elite government has purposefully drafted policies to ensure that happens

Also,all of the above applies to English culture. There are three countries in Great Britain and 4 countries in the UK. England, Wales, Scotland and North Ireland and the divide between these countries is clear. Scotland actively hates England, Wales passive aggressively hates us and Ireland is a mess we created (I would suggest waiting for someone who is Irish to explain that because I don't know enough about it and it is an incredibly complicated topic which plays a significant role in politics)

Also we dislike the French, Britain and France are rivals because we have been fighting on and off for centuries but the French are still seen as equals. We dislike them but we will fight alongside them if if comes to it

Also accents are important, because of the class divide, if you have a working class accent you are being discriminated against, if you have a posh accent you will be hated but people will respect your 'authority', no matter how much they hate

Oxbridge is elitist but there are so many other great Unis across the UK

To American media specifically, stop romanticising British culture, I have never seen the academia aesthetic you are portraying and it irritates, we are not just the rich upper class, look at our history people you portray and because of the class divide it hurts to see that as our only representation

Also London is its own thing, Britain does not recognise London as representative of Britain and London does not like everywhere that is London, it is the most diverse and the biggest city in the entirety of England by a large margin, it does not feel like the rest of Britain

On that point, there are many, many other cities and other towns outside of London, please acknowledge them (having never been to a lot of cities I can't explain them to you)

London does have divides within it such as the divide between North and South of the river, the South does not want to be part of London and the North refuses to acknowledge it. The Northern edge of London is also up for debate, for me it is the edge of Zone 3 (on a tube map) and the other side of the North circular by car but for others it might be further in or out so be aware of that. There is also divide between the post codes for example Wood Green and Tottenham, both have the same council (Haringey) but there is a clear divide between them only further emphasises by Haringey having two MPs one for Tottenham (David Lammey) and one for Wood Green and Hornsey. Both Wood Green and Tottenham have bad reps but the Wood Green half of Haringey starts drifting into middle class at its edges with Hornsey being solidly middle class so be aware of the variation in boroughs

And, London has no centre. It is a city that grew with its country and absorbed the surrounding towns. So if you say the centre of London people will assume you mean a specific part in zone 1 but will not know which part you are talking about and will assume you are talking in a generalisation. If they are traveling with you though, they will expect further clarification, don't say the centre and expect me to know where

Also, there is no space between houses in England, they are mostly semi-detached. I once watched an episode of escape to the country where someone tried to find a detached house and just struggled massively. You either have to pay loads of money or be in the middle of nowhere before your house is fully detached and it will still be only the same distance away from another house as the average American house is. We have one of the highest populations in Europe but a small land mass

Going on from that, Britain is definitely European and has a lot of shared culture whilst still obviously being it's own thing (like every single other country) but Britain acts like and will get mad at the suggestion that they are European like any other European country because 'we are entirely seperate and on an island and how can we not have become our own thing' the actual variation is because Rome (contrary to what the school system will teach you) had very little impact on Britain so we aren't as similar to the other Latin speaking countries as is expected, the main reason we are still similar is because of the impact of Norman conquest. Also everyone underestimated the effect of Scandinavian and Germanic culture on Britain because we act like all they did was pillage when in fact they settled down and where embraced by Briton (unlike Rome which did actually pillage and subjugate Britain without being widely accepted) so that's why there is variation. We are very European but not in the way people expect so Britain refuses to acknowledge it

Honestly British culture is a lesson in tolerance versus acceptance. But there is still active discrimination as people of colour and the LGBTQ+ can attest

Also Christianity is baked into Britain to the point that even atheists follow Christian customs without questioning it but significantly less extreme than France which just stops on Sundays (but is acknowledged as a Christian country so you know) and 'pagan' - so, in this case, Celtic, anglosaxon and Norse - culture has effected us being carried down in fairy tales and witchcraft

Some of this will be upsetting to many people as it should be because British culture hurts, it discriminates without acknowledging it and I want people to know that. I want people to see that when they write about it because the alternative is writing about Britain as if it has faults and that would be so much worse. So writers, please bear all of this in mind when talking about Britain, even and especially, the ugly parts

This has been a white, middle class, Londoners, perspective on Britain and no I will not call myself English because the divide between England and London means that being a Londoner rather than just English matters in this context

I would recommend listening to the perspective of Brits from other groups, such as England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, working class, upper class, Brit of colour, non-passing queer folk, Muslim, Hindu, Indian (the largest immigrant group is actually Indian and that's just immigrated in their lifetime rather than born British and Indian), Jewish (especially Jewish I can talk about that on another post but let's just say the Jewish have never been accepted but always been part of Europe) and so on, to get a more comprehensive view of Britain

[pamphletstoinspire]

Holy Saturday - April 3, 2021

Christ is in His tomb. Rather, His Body is in the tomb, but when His Soul left His Body, He descended into Hell to “free the captives.” “Hell” here refers to the place of the dead in general (“Sheol” in the Hebrew, or “Hades” in the Greek), not to the place of torment with which the word “Hell” is most usually associated with today. The world “Hell” in the loosest, earliest sense includes:

the Limbo of the Fathers, the place for those who were righteous by charity and faith in the coming Messias and who died before His Coming

the Limbo of Infants, where, possibly, those who are sent who die without personal guilt but without Baptism after the time of Christ, or who died without charity and faith in the coming Messias before the time of Christ. This would be a place of beautiful, natural happiness, no punishment, and no sensible suffering.

Purgatory, where righteous people go to be cleansed of the temporal effects of their sins

Gehenna, the “Hell of the Lost,” the eternal place of punishment for the damned, the place we usually refer to as simply “Hell” today

by Dom Gueranger

The Easter Vigil

It was the practice of the Church, and one that had been handed down from the earliest ages, that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should not be offered up either on Good Friday or Holy Saturday. Good Friday, the anniversary of Jesus’ death, was exclusively devoted to the remembrance of the mystery of Calvary, and a holy fear kept the Church from renewing that Sacrifice upon Her altars. For the same reason She abstained on Holy Saturday, also, from its celebration. The burial of Christ is a sequel of His Passion; and during these hours when His Body lay lifeless in the tomb, it was fitting that the Sacrifice, wherein He is offered as the glorious and risen Jesus, should be suspended. Even the Greek Church, which otherwise never fasts on the Saturdays of Lent, follows the practice of the Latin Church for this Saturday: She not only fasts, but even omits the celebration of the Mass of the Presanctified.

Such was the discipline of the Latin Church for nearly a thousand years; but about the eleventh century, an important change began to be introduced with regard to the celebration of Mass on Holy Saturday. The Mass which, hitherto, had been celebrated during the night preceding Easter Sunday, then began to be anticipated on the Saturday; but it was always considered as the Mass for the hour of Our Lord’s Resurrection, and not as the Mass of Holy Saturday. The relaxations that had been introduced with regard to fasting were the occasion of this change in the liturgy. In the first ages, the faithful watched the whole night in the church, awaiting the hour when Our Lord rose triumphant from the tomb. They also assisted at the solemn administration of Baptism to the catechumens, which so sublimely expressed the passing from spiritual death to the life of grace. There was no other Vigil of the whole year so solemnly observed as this: but it lost a great portion of its interest, when the necessity of baptizing adults was reduced by Christianity having triumphed wheresoever it had been preached. The Eastern Church kept up the ancient tradition; but in the West, dating from the eleventh century, the Mass of the Resurrection hour was gradually anticipated, until it was brought even to the morning of Holy Saturday. Durandus of Menda, who wrote his Rational of the Divine Offices towards the close of the thirteenth century, tells us that, in his time, there were very few Churches which observed the primitive custom; and even those soon conformed to the general practice.

As a result of this change, there was an apparent contradiction between the mystery of Holy Saturday and the Divine Service which is celebrated upon it: Christ is still in the tomb, and yet His Resurrection began to be celebrated; the hours preceding the Mass were mournful, yet before midday the paschal joy had broken out, and the Lenten fast was ended. We will give a general view of the solemn Easter Vigil Service; afterwards, we will explain each portion.

In February of 1951, the Holy See under Pope Pius XII issued a decree restoring the Easter Vigil to Holy Saturday night. The decree states that by its gradual removal, in the course of centuries, to Saturday morning, this ancient and most important rite had suffered loss of significance. Furthermore, few of the faithful could attend the Saturday morning service. In response, therefore to petitions from throughout the world, the Holy See determined to permit the celebration of the restored Easter Vigil on an experimental basis. On November 16, 1955, the Restored Order of Holy Week was made permanent. In the remainder of this article, we will give the text of the Restored Easter Vigil, while retaining whatever of Abbot Gueranger’s original commentary is of historical interest.

According to the Decree, “the solemn Easter Vigil is to be celebrated at a suitable hour, namely, one which will permit the solemn Mass of this vigil to begin about midnight between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Where, however, the conditions of the faithful as well as of the place make it fitting in the judgment of the Ordinary to anticipate the hour for celebrating the vigil, this should not begin before twilight, or certainly not before sunset.”

The great object of the whole of the Easter Vigil Service, and the center to which every one of the ceremonies converges, is the Baptism of the catechumens. The faithful must keep this incessantly before them, or they will be at a loss how to understand or profit by this liturgy. First of all, there is the blessing of the New Fire and of the Paschal Candle. After this are read the prophecies which have reference to the mysteries of tonight’s Service. Then comes the blessing of Baptismal water and the font, beginning with the first part of the Litany of the Saints. The matter of Baptism thus prepared, the catechumens receive the Sacrament of regeneration. Even if there are no catechumens, or even no Baptismal font nor a need for Baptismal water, the celebrant nonetheless leads the whole congregation in a renewal of Baptismal vows. The Litany of the Saints is concluded and immediately after, the Holy Sacrifice is celebrated in honor of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Finally the joyous Office of Lauds brings to an end one of the longest and most fatiguing Services in the Latin Liturgy.

At Rome, the Station was at St. John Lateran, the mother and mistress of all churches. The Sacrament of regeneration was administered in the Baptistery of Constantine. The thought of these venerable sanctuaries carries us back in thought to former centuries when, each year, not only was holy Baptism conferred on some adults, but also a numerous Ordination added its own splendor to the sacred pomp of this day, whose liturgy, as we have just said, is the richest of the whole year.

Blessing of the New Fire

In ancient times the Catechumens were given their final instructions on the Wednesday of Holy Week; they were then told to present themselves at the church on Holy Saturday at the Hour of Tierce (that is, about nine in the morning) for their final scrutiny. The Priests were there to receive them; they who had not been previously examined upon the Symbol (the Creed) were then questioned. The Lord’s Prayer and the biblical attributes of the four Evangelists having been explained, one of the Priests dismissed the Candidates for Baptism, bidding them spend the interval in recollection and prayer.

At the hour of None (about three in the afternoon), the Bishop and all the Clergy, vested in violet, would proceed to the church for the beginning of the Easter Vigil. The first ceremony consisted in the blessing of the New Fire, which was to furnish light for the whole Service. It was the daily custom, in the first ages of the Church, to strike a flame from a flint before Vespers; from this the lamps and candles were lit for the celebration of that Hour, and the light thus procured was kept up in the church till the Vespers of the following day. The Church at Rome observed this custom with great solemnity on Maundy Thursday morning, and the New Fire received a special blessing. We learn, from a letter written in the eight century by Pope St. Zachary to St. Boniface the Archbishop of Mainz, that three lamps were lit from this fire, which were then removed to some safe place, and care taken that their light be not extinguished. It was from these lamps that the light for Holy Saturday night was taken. In the following century, under St. Leo IV, whose pontificate lasted from 847 to 855, the custom of every day procuring new fire from a flint was extended also to Holy Saturday.

It is not difficult to understand the meaning of this ceremony, which is no longer observed by the Latin Church except on Holy Saturday. Our Lord said of Himself: “I am the Light of the world” (John 8: 12). Light, then, is an image of the Son of God. Stone, also, is one of the types under which the Scriptures speak to us of the Messias. St. Peter (1 Pet. 2: 6) and St. Paul (Eph. 2: 20), quoting the words of the prophet Isaias (Is. 28: 16), speak of Jesus as the Corner-Stone. The spark which is struck from the flint represents Our Lord rising from His rock-hewn sepulcher, through the stone that had been rolled against it.

It is fitting, therefore, that this fire which is to provide light for the Paschal Candle, as well as for those that are upon the altar, should receive a special blessing, and be triumphantly shown to the faithful. Formerly the faithful used to put out the fires in their houses before going to the church; they lit them, on their return, with light taken from the blessed fire, which they received as a symbol of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

All the lamps in the church were extinguished, which was a symbol of the abrogation of the Old Law, which ended with the rending of the veil of the temple; and that the New Fire represents the preaching of the New Law, whereby Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, fulfilled all the figures of the ancient Covenant.

In order to help our readers to enter more fully into the mystery of the ceremony we are describing, we will here mention a miracle which was witnessed for many centuries. The clergy and people of Jerusalem assembled for the service of Easter Eve in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. After waiting for some time in silence, one of the lamps suspended over Our Lord’s tomb was miraculously kindled. The other lamps and torches throughout the church were lit from this, and the faithful took its holy flame with them to their homes. It would seem that this annual miracle first began after the Saracens had taken possession of Jerusalem: God so ordaining, that it might be a proof to these infidels of the divinity of the Christian religion. The historians of those times, who have written upon the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, all speak of this miracle as of an incontestable fact; and when Pope Urban II went to France, there to preach the First Crusade, he brought forward this miracle as one of the motives which should inspire the faithful with zeal for the defense of the Sepulcher of Christ. When Our Lord, in the unsearchable ways of His justice, permitted Jerusalem to be reconquered by the infidels, the miracle ceased, nor has it ever been witnessed from that time. Our readers have no doubt heard of the scandalous scene, which is now repeated every Holy Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (see image above): we allude to the deception practiced by the schismatic priests, whereby they persuade their deluded people that their ingenious trick for lighting a lamp is the continuation of the miracle.

In the Restored Easter Vigil, the Blessing of the New Fire takes place outside the church doors, just within them, or inside the church where the people can better see and follow the sacred rite. Already in Old Testament times, God had chosen fire as a visible sign of His presence—for example, in the burning bush on Mount Sinai, in the pillar of fire going before the Israelites through the desert, in the fire of sacrifice on the altar of the Temple. The kindling of fire from a flint-stone is therefore, a vivid image of Christ’s renewed Presence among men: as the spark leaps from the flint, so He arose from His rock tomb. After the Fire has been struck, it is blessed by the celebrant:

O God, through Thy Son, the true Cornerstone, Thou hast enkindled in the faithful the fire of Thine own brightness. Hallow + now for our use and profit this New Fire struck from stone, and grant us through this Easter feast to be so inflamed with desire for Heaven that we may attain with pure souls to the feast of everlasting brightness. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The celebrant sprinkles the New Fire with holy water and incenses it, after charcoal has been lit from the Fire. Now the Paschal Candle is presented to the celebrant to be blessed.

Blessing of the Paschal Candle

The sun has set, and our earth is mantled in darkness. The Church has provided a torch, which is to spread its light upon us during the whole of this long vigil. It is of unusual size. It stands alone, and is of a pillar-like form. It is the symbol of Christ. Before being lit, its scriptural type is the pillar of a cloud, which hid the Israelites when they went out from Egypt; under this form, it is the figure of Our Lord, when lying lifeless in the tomb. When lit, we must see in it both the pillar of fire which guided the people of God, and the glory of our Jesus risen from His grave. Our Holy Mother the Church would have us enthusiastically love this glorious symbol, and speaks its praise to us in all the magnificence of Her inspired eloquence. As early as the fifth century, Pope St. Zosimus extended to all the churches of the city of Rome, the privilege of blessing the Paschal Candle, although Baptism was administered nowhere but in the baptistery of St. John Lateran. The object of this grant was, that all the faithful might share in the holy impressions which so solemn a rite is intended to produce. It was for the same intention that, later, every church, even though it had no baptismal font, was permitted to have the blessing of the Paschal Candle.

An outline of the Cross, together with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and the numerals of the current year, is inscribed on the Candle with a stylus, to teach us that the Risen Christ, the Alpha and Omega (our Beginning and End), the Lord of all Ages, should shine in our lives during this coming year of grace. The celebrant first cuts the Sign of the Cross upon the Candle, saying: “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and End.” He then cuts the Alpha above the Cross, and Omega below it, saying: “The Alpha and the Omega.” He inscribes the first numeral of the current year in the upper left angle of the Cross, saying: “His are the seasons.” And the second numeral at the upper right, saying: “And the ages.” The third at the lower left, saying: “To Him be gory and dominion.” And the last at the lower right, saying: “Throughout all ages unto eternity. Amen.”

Five grains of incense (symbolizing Christ’s five glorious Wounds, as well as the spices brought to the tomb by St. Mary Magdalene) are now presented to the celebrant. He blesses them, sprinkles them with holy water and incenses them. He then fixes them upon the Cross which he has already cut in the Candle, saying: “(1) By His Holy Wounds, (2) glorious, (3) may He protect us, (4) and preserve us, (5) Christ the Lord. Amen.”

The celebrant now lights the Paschal Candle from the New Fire, saying: “Christ rises resplendent; may His Light dispel from each heart and mind the evil night!”

Finally, he blesses the burning Candle, saying:

We beseech Thee, Almighty God, pour forth Thy abundant + blessing upon this burning Candle. Thou, the Unseen, Who renewest all things, intensify the splendor of this night. May the Candle we offer tonight shine more brightly through the secret addition of Thine own radiance. And wherever a portion of this hallowing mystery of fire shall be carried, may the evil of Satan’s malice and guile be driven out, and the power of Thy majestic glory be made manifest. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The Solemn Procession and Exsultet

Small candles are distributed to the clergy and people, and a procession forms in the back of the church. The deacon, now vested in white, carries the Paschal Candle. The procession advances a few steps, until the Deacon raises the Paschal Candle and sings: “Lumen Christi! (The Light of Christ!)” All turn toward the Candle and genuflect, answering: “Deo gratias.” The celebrant then lights his own candle from the Paschal Candle, and the procession continues. Near the middle of the church, the deacon repeats the Lumen Christi on a higher tone. All genuflect and respond as before; this time the clergy and servers light their candles. In the sanctuary the deacon repeats Lumen Christi in a still higher voice. All genuflect and respond again; the candles of the congregation are then lit, while the deacon fixes the Paschal Candle in its stand and prepares to sing the Exsultet.

The deacon proclaims the Easter solemnity to the people while chanting the praises of the Paschal Candle; and whilst celebrating the glories of Him, Whose emblem it is, he becomes the herald of the Resurrection. The altar, the sanctuary, the other sacred ministers, all are in the somber color of the Lenten rite; the deacon alone is vested in white. At other times, he would not presume to raise his voice as he is now going to do, in the solemn tone of a Preface: but this is the Vigil of the Resurrection; and the deacon, as the interpreters of the liturgy tell us, represents St. Mary Magdalene and the holy women, on whom Our Lord conferred the mission of preaching to the very Apostles that He had risen from the dead, and would meet them in Galilee.

The chant refers to the “wax which the mother bee wrought.” Holy Church sees in the wax produced by worker bees, who are virgin females, a figure of the Body of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary:

Let the angelic choirs of Heaven now rejoice; let the Divine Mysteries rejoice; and let the trumpet of salvation sound forth the victory of so great a King. Let the earth also rejoice, made radiant by such splendor; and, enlightened with the brightness of the Eternal King, let it know that the darkness of the whole world is scattered. Let our Mother the Church also rejoice, adorned with the brightness of so great a Light; and let this temple resound with the loud acclamations of the people. Wherefore I beseech you, most beloved brethren, who are here present in the wondrous brightness of this holy Light, to invoke with me the Mercy of Almighty God, that He Who has deigned to admit me among the Levites (i.e. deacons), without any merits of mine, would pour forth the brightness of His Light upon me, and enable me to perfect the praise of this wax Candle. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ…

The deacon continues the chant in Preface tone:

It is fitting indeed and just, with all our strength of mind and heart, and with our voice as instrument, to praise the invisible Father Almighty, and His Only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who paid to the Eternal Father, in our stead, the debt of Adam, and by the merciful shedding of His Blood for love of us, blotted out the guilt incurred by Original Sin. For this is the Easter Feast in which the true Lamb is slain, Whose Blood hallows the doorposts of the faithful. This is the night in which Thou of old didst lead our forefathers, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt to pass through the Red Sea with dry feet. This is the night which scattered the darkness of sin by means of the pillar of fire. This is the night which at this time, throughout the world, restores to grace and unites in sanctity those who believe in Christ, and are separated from the vices of the world and the darkness of sinners. This is the night in which Christ burst the bonds of death and came forth as Conqueror from the grave. For unless we had been redeemed, it would avail us nothing to be born. O wondrous condescension of Thy mercy toward us! O incomprehensible goodness of love: to redeem a slave Thou didst deliver up a Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, which the Death of Christ has blotted out! O happy fault, that merited a Redeemer so holy and so great! O truly blessed night, which alone merited to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the dead! This is the night of which it is written: “The night shall be light as the day,” and: “Then shall my night be turned to day, in my rejoicing.” For the holiness of this night drives out wickedness and washes away guilt; it restores innocence to the fallen and joy to the sorrowful. It banishes enmities, establishes peace, and brings low the pride of vain man.

Wherefore, in this sacred night, receive, O Holy Father, this evening sacrifice of incense; Holy Church, by the hands of Thy ministers, offers it to Thee in the solemn oblation of this Candle wrought by the labor of bees. For now we have heard the praises of this column of wax which the sparkling fire lights to the honor of God. And though the fire was spread to kindle other flames, such sharing does not lessen the force of its light. For it is constantly fed by the melting wax which the mother bee wrought to form this precious Candle. O truly blessed night, when Egypt was plundered and the Hebrews enriched. O night, when Heaven is wedded to earth, and God to man.

We beseech Thee, therefore, O Lord: may this Candle, consecrated to Thine honor, continue with undiminished light to dispel this night’s darkness. Receive it as a fragrant and pleasing offering, and let its light mingle with the lamps of Heaven. May the Morning Star behold its flame—that Morning Star Who knows no setting: He Who upon returning from the grave, serenely shone forth upon mankind. In this festival of Easter joys, we beseech Thee, therefore, O Lord, for ourselves, Thy servants, for all the clergy and Thy most devoted people, together with (our most blessed Pope N. and) our Bishop N.: grant peace to our days: guide, rule over, and protect us by Thy constant care. Look with favor, too, upon our rulers. Assist them with Thy boundless love, and gracious mercy; direct their hearts toward justice and peace, that after this life of earthly labors they may attain, together with all Thy people, to the heavenly fatherland. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord…

Here the deacon takes off the white dalmatic, vests in violet, and returns to the celebrant. Then begin the Old Testament prophecies.

It is fitting indeed and just, with all our strength of mind and heart, and with our voice as instrument, to praise the invisible Father Almighty, and His Only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who paid to the Eternal Father, in our stead, the debt of Adam, and by the merciful shedding of His Blood for love of us, blotted out the guilt incurred by Original Sin. For this is the Easter Feast in which the true Lamb is slain, Whose Blood hallows the doorposts of the faithful. This is the night in which Thou of old didst lead our forefathers, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt to pass through the Red Sea with dry feet. This is the night which scattered the darkness of sin by means of the pillar of fire. This is the night which at this time, throughout the world, restores to grace and unites in sanctity those who believe in Christ, and are separated from the vices of the world and the darkness of sinners. This is the night in which Christ burst the bonds of death and came forth as Conqueror from the grave. For unless we had been redeemed, it would avail us nothing to be born. O wondrous condescension of Thy mercy toward us! O incomprehensible goodness of love: to redeem a slave Thou didst deliver up a Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, which the Death of Christ has blotted out! O happy fault, that merited a Redeemer so holy and so great! O truly blessed night, which alone merited to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the dead! This is the night of which it is written: “The night shall be light as the day,” and: “Then shall my night be turned to day, in my rejoicing.” For the holiness of this night drives out wickedness and washes away guilt; it restores innocence to the fallen and joy to the sorrowful. It banishes enmities, establishes peace, and brings low the pride of vain man.

Wherefore, in this sacred night, receive, O Holy Father, this evening sacrifice of incense; Holy Church, by the hands of Thy ministers, offers it to Thee in the solemn oblation of this Candle wrought by the labor of bees. For now we have heard the praises of this column of wax which the sparkling fire lights to the honor of God. And though the fire was spread to kindle other flames, such sharing does not lessen the force of its light. For it is constantly fed by the melting wax which the mother bee wrought to form this precious Candle. O truly blessed night, when Egypt was plundered and the Hebrews enriched. O night, when Heaven is wedded to earth, and God to man.

We beseech Thee, therefore, O Lord: may this Candle, consecrated to Thine honor, continue with undiminished light to dispel this night’s darkness. Receive it as a fragrant and pleasing offering, and let its light mingle with the lamps of Heaven. May the Morning Star behold its flame—that Morning Star Who knows no setting: He Who upon returning from the grave, serenely shone forth upon mankind. In this festival of Easter joys, we beseech Thee, therefore, O Lord, for ourselves, Thy servants, for all the clergy and Thy most devoted people, together with (our most blessed Pope N. and) our Bishop N.: grant peace to our days: guide, rule over, and protect us by Thy constant care. Look with favor, too, upon our rulers. Assist them with Thy boundless love, and gracious mercy; direct their hearts toward justice and peace, that after this life of earthly labors they may attain, together with all Thy people, to the heavenly fatherland. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord…

Here the deacon takes off the white dalmatic, vests in violet, and returns to the celebrant. Then begin the Old Testament prophecies.

The torch of the Resurrection now sheds its light throughout the holy place, and gladdens the hearts of the faithful. In ancient times, the preparatory ceremonies for Baptism were now begun. They occupied a considerable portion of time, especially when there were a great number of aspirants to Baptism. It is for this reason that the bishop would come to the church at the hour of None (about three in the afternoon), and that the great Vigil began so early. Whilst these rites were being administered to the catechumens, the rest of the faithful would listen to appropriate passages from the Scriptures, which were read from the ambo, and which were the complement to the Lenten instructions.

These lessons were twelve in number; but in the Lateran Basilica, we may say there were twenty-four, since each was read in Latin first, then in Greek. To each was added a prayer, which summed up the doctrine expressed in the preceding prophecy. To some of them was added an appropriate canticle from the Old Testament, and was sung by the whole assembly to the well know melody of the Tract. The catechumens, when their preliminary ceremonies were finished, were allowed to enter the church, where, in the place assigned to them, they would listen to the Lessons, and join in the prayers. How could they better continue their preparation for the great Sacrament? And yet, there is an aspect of mournfulness about this portion of the Service, as the longed-for hour had not yet come. Frequent genuflections and the somber-colored vestments strongly contrast with the beautiful flame of the Paschal Candle. The hearts of the faithful would still be throbbing with the emotions excited within them by the Exsultet; they were impatient to see their Jesus’ Resurrection fulfilled in the Baptism of the catechumens.

In the restored Easter Vigil, the preliminary ceremonies are performed at an earlier hour, if there be any candidates for Baptism during the nocturnal Liturgy. The number of Lessons is reduced to four:

The First Lesson is the Creation account of Genesis (1: 1—2: 2), in which we see an image of the “new creation,” which Jesus Christ wrought in us through Baptism. The Father made, the Son re-made; the Father created, the Son redeemed.

The Second Lesson is the account from Exodus (14: 24—15: 1) of the destruction of the army of the Egyptians by the waters of Red Sea. The Exodus from the slavery of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea foreshadowed the deliverance of mankind from the bondage of sin, and its attaining freedom by passing through the waters of Baptism. And as the pillar of fire later on led the Israelites safely through the desert, so our risen Light, Christ, leads us through the darkness of earthly life into the brightness of grace and glory.

In the Third Lesson the Prophet Isaias (4: 2-6) looks forward to the holy and purified state of the new Chosen People after the judgment of God would cleanse away current wickedness and the Messias had come. For us, it amounts to an exhortation to lead holy lives as a result of our Baptism, especially since we enjoy the loving and powerful protection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Fourth Lesson from Deuteronomy (31: 22-30) recalls the admonition of Moses to the Chosen People and a prophecy of their infidelity: “…For I know that after my death you are sure to become corrupt…” We are reminded that even the elect of God may fall; nor are we secure without our earnest collaboration with God’s grace. The warning God here utters to the Chosen People of old, is meant also for us.

First Part of the Litany of the Saints

In ancient times the Litany of the Saints was not chanted until after the Baptisms. It served as an interval while the clergy vested for Mass and other preparations were made for the Holy Sacrifice. The chanters would repeat each invocation three times. In the restored Easter Vigil, the Litany is abbreviated and divided into two parts. The first part—the actual invocation of the Saints—is chanted now, as a preparation for the Baptismal service.

Blessing of the Baptismal Water (and Font)

The blessing of water for Baptism is of apostolic institution, as we learn from many of the holy fathers, among whom we may mention St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and St. Basil. It is just, that the instrument of so divine a work should receive every mark of honor, that could secure to it the respect of mankind: and, after all, does not this honor and respect redound to God, Who chose this creature to be, as it were, the co-operator of His mercies to us? It is from water that we came forth Christians. The early fathers allude to this, when they call Christians the flesh of Christ. We cannot be surprised, after this, that the sight of the element that gave us our spiritual life should excite us to joy, or that we should pay to this element an honor, which is referred to the Author of all the graces about to be bestowed.

The prayer used by the celebrant for blessing the water is so full of elevation of thought, energy of diction, and authority of doctrine, that we may, without hesitation, attribute it to the earliest ages of the Church. The ceremonies which accompany it bespeak its venerable antiquity. It is sung to the solemn tone of the Preface, which imparts such a lyric effect. The celebrant first recites a preliminary prayer, and then begins his magnificent blessing. He is filled with the holy enthusiasm of the Church. He turns to the faithful, and they respond. He is going to lead them to such grand mysteries: Sursum corda!

Almighty and everlasting God, be present in these mysteries of Thy great love; be pleased to act in these Thy Sacraments. Send forth the Spirit of adoption to re-create a new race of those whom the font of Baptism will bear to Thee. Thus what we perform by our humble ministry will be made effective by Thy power. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son…

He continues in Preface tone:

It is fitting indeed and just, right and helpful to salvation, for us always and everywhere to give thanks, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God, Who by Thy invisible power dost wonderfully produce such mysteries, yet Thou dost assist with Thy presence the gifts of Thy grace and dost incline the ears of Thy mercy even to our prayers.

O God, even at the beginning of the world, Thy Spirit moved over the water that it may conceive the power of sanctifying. Through water, O God, Thou didst wash away the crimes of the guilty world, and by the pouring out of the deluge didst give a prefigurement of the means of regeneration: that one and the same element might work mysteriously both the death of vice and a new beginning of virtue. O Lord, look upon the face of Thy Church, and multiply in Her Thine acts of regeneration; Thou Who by the torrent of Thy grace fillest Thy holy city with joy, opening the font of Baptism over all the earth for the renewal of mankind; by the command of Thy Majesty may She receive from the Holy Ghost the grace of Thine Only-begotten Son.

Here the celebrant pauses a moment, and putting his hand into the water divides it in the form of a Cross, to signify that it is by the Cross that this element receives the power of regenerating the souls of men. This wonderful power had been promised to water; but the promise was not fulfilled until Christ had shed His Blood upon the Cross. It is this Blood which operates by the water on the souls of men; and with the action of this Precious Blood is joined that of the Holy Ghost, as the celebrant tells us in this prayer, which he thus continues:

May the Holy Ghost impregnate this water, prepared for the rebirth of men, by the secret infusion of His Divine Power, that there may be reborn from the stainless womb of this divine font a new creation conceived in holiness, the children of Heaven. May they all, though differing in age and gender, be alike brought forth as infants by grace, their mother. Therefore, may every unclean spirit, at Thy command, O Lord, depart from hence; may the whole malice of diabolical deceit be entirely banished. Let no infection of the power of the enemy prevail here. Let him not encircle it with his snares, nor enter it by stealth, nor taint it with corruption.

After having thus besought God to protect the water of the font from the influence which Satan seeks to exercise over every creature, the celebrant puts his hand into it. The august character of a bishop or priest is a source of sanctification; the mere contact of his consecrated hand produces a salutary effect, as often as he acts in virtue of the priesthood of Christ, which dwells within him:

May this, Thy creature, O Lord, be holy and innocent, free from every assault of the enemy, and purified by the destruction of all his wickedness. May it be a living fountain, a water that regenerates, a purifying stream: that all who are to be washed in this saving bath may receive within them, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, the grace of a perfect cleansing of their sins.

While pronouncing the following words, the celebrant blesses the water, thrice making over it the Sign of the Cross in honor of the Holy Trinity, in Whose Name men are baptized:

Wherefore, O creature of water, I bless thee by the living † God, by the true † God, by the holy † God, by that God Whose Word in the beginning separated thee from the dry land, and Whose Spirit moved over thee.

Here he parts the water and sprinkles some toward the four corners of the earth, making an allusion to the four rivers of Paradise, and reminding us of Christ’s command that all believers are to be baptized:

Who made thee flow forth from the fountain of Paradise, commanding thee to water the whole earth with thy four rivers. Who in the desert changed thy bitterness into sweetness, and made thee fit to drink; and Who brought thee forth from the rock to quench His people’s thirst.

I bless † thee likewise through Jesus Christ His Only Son, Our Lord, Who in Cana of Galilee changed thee into wine by a wonderful miracle. Who walked with His Feet upon thee, and was baptized in thee by John in the Jordan. Who made thee flow forth from His side with His Blood, and Who commanded His disciples that such as believed should be baptized in thee, saying: “Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

The celebrant interrupts the chant and recites:

Do Thou, Almighty and merciful God, while we are now fulfilling this command, be present with us; graciously send forth Thine Own Breath.

Christ conferred the Holy Ghost upon His Apostles by “breathing” on them. The same sanctifying Spirit is, therefore, here signified. The Holy Ghost is called Spirit, which means a breath—He is the Divine Breathing, that mighty Wind, which was heard in the Cenacle. The celebrant accordingly breathes upon the water in the Sign of the Cross three times and says:

Bless this clear water with Thy Breath, O Lord, that besides its natural power of cleansing bodies, it may also prove efficacious for the purification of the souls of men.

The deacon brings the Paschal Candle from its stand to the celebrant, who lowers it into the water three times, to a lower depth each time, while singing, each time in a higher pitch. This is the most solemn rite of the blessing. It signifies the mystery of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan, whereby the element of water received the pledge of its future sanctifying power. The Son of God went down into the stream, and the Holy Ghost came upon Him in the form of a Dove. But now, it is something more than a promise—the water receives the reality, the virtue; and it receives it by the action of these two Divine Persons. While the Candle symbolizes the Sacred Body of Christ, its flame symbolizes the celestial Dove hovering over Him:

May the power of the Holy Ghost descend into all the water of this font.

With the Candle still immersed deeply in the water, the celebrant leans forward over the font: and that he may signify the union of the power of the Holy Ghost with that of Christ, he breathes again upon the water—this time, not in the form of a Cross, but in that of the Greek letter Ψ, which is the initial of the Greek word for Spirit. The upslanting arms of this letter also signify the “Tree of Life.” This done, he resumes his prayer by the following words:

And may He make the whole substance of this water fruitful and capable of regenerating.

The Paschal Candle is now raised up out of the water, and replaced in its stand by the deacon. The celebrant continues:

Here may every stain of sin be washed away; here may human nature, created to Thine image, and reformed to the honor of its origin, be cleansed from the filth of its old state; that every man who enters this Sacrament of regeneration be born again to a new infancy of true innocence.

He concludes without chant:

Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son: Who will come to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire. R. Amen.

Some of the blessed Easter water is now set aside with which to sprinkle the people after the renewal of their baptismal vows, and for the sprinkling of homes and other places.

But the Church is not satisfied with having given Her blessing to the water. On Holy Thursday, She was put in possession of the graces of the Holy Ghost by receiving the Holy Oils: She now mingles a portion of these with the water. The faithful—seeing how every symbol expressive of divine adoption is made to bear upon the Baptismal Water, whence men receive salvation—will learn what is the reverence they should have for it. The celebrant, taking the Oil of Catechumens, pours some upon the water in the Sign of the Cross, saying:

May this font be sanctified and made fruitful by the oil of salvation, for such as are reborn from it unto life everlasting. R. Amen.

He then pours out a portion of the Holy Chrism—the most sacred Oil the Church possesses—in the Sign of the Cross, saying:

May the infusion of the Chrism of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, be made in the Name of the Holy Trinity. R. Amen.

He then pours both Oils together, making the Sign of the Cross thrice and saying:

May this mingling of the Chrism of salvation, and of the Oil of Unction, and of the water of Baptism, be made in the Name of the † Father, and of the † Son, and of the Holy † Ghost. R. Amen.

The Oils are now mixed with the water, that thus every portion of it may come into contact with this additional source of sanctification. The Holy Oils likewise symbolize the Holy Ghost—the “Anointer”—with Whose “unction” we are filled at Baptism. Pouring the Holy Oils into the water therefore signifies a fullness of His sanctifying power communicated to the Baptismal Water.

If there are any Catechumens to be Baptized, the celebrant resumes white vestments and confers this Sacrament. By Baptism each of us has entered the great Paschal Mystery—Christ’s Death and Resurrection became our death to sin and rising to a new life of grace. By assisting at the Baptism of new members of Christ’s One, True, Catholic Church, we realize anew how great is the gift of our own re-birth, and we welcome the new members as our true brothers and sisters in Christ.

If the Church has a Baptismal Font, the newly blessed Baptismal Water is carried to it in a solemn procession. Having poured the Baptismal Water into the Font, the celebrant prays:

Almighty and everlasting God, look graciously upon the devotion of Thy people who are to be born anew. Like the deer they have sought the fountain of Thy living water. Mercifully grant that their thirsting faith may, through the mystery of Baptism, sanctify both soul and body. Through Our Lord…

The font is incensed, and the procession returns.

Renewal of Baptismal Promises

Although this ceremony was not formerly part of the official Easter Vigil Liturgy, the practice is of ancient origin. The Council of Sens, held in Paris in the year 829 and convoked by King Louis the Pious to remedy the disorders of Christians, which were widespread at that time, judged that the principle cause of the corruption of morals was the forgetfulness or ignorance of the vows of Baptism; and it could find no better remedy for so great an evil than to order Christians to renew their Baptismal promises.

In churches having no Baptismal font, the above ceremonies of the Blessing of Baptismal water may be omitted. However the Renewal of Baptism Promises always takes place—if need be, the people will be sprinkled with ordinary blessed water.

If the Sacrament of Baptism has not been conferred, the celebrant exchanges his violet vestments for white at this time. The ceremony begins with the celebrant incensing the Paschal Candle, while the candles of the congregation are relit from its flame.

The celebrant then faces the people and admonishes them:

My dear brethren, in this most sacred night Holy Mother Church commemorates the death and burial of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In return for His great love, She lovingly keeps watch with Him. And looking forward to His glorious Resurrection, She rejoices with an exceeding joy.

But, as the Apostle teaches us, we have by Baptism been buried with Christ unto death. As Christ, then, has risen from the dead, so we too must walk now in newness of life. For we know that our old self has been crucified with Christ, that we may no longer be slaves to sin. Let us remember always that we have died to sin and to the world, but we are to live for God, in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Therefore, beloved brethren, having completed the Lenten observance, let us now proceed to renew the promises of our holy Baptism. By these promises we once renounced Satan and all his works, as well as that world which is the enemy of God; we vowed, furthermore, to serve God faithfully in His One, True, Holy, Catholic Church. And therefore, I ask you once again:

Celebrant: Do you renounce Satan? All: We do renounce him.

Celebrant: And all his works? All: We do renounce them.

Celebrant: And all his pomps? All: We do renounce them.

Celebrant: Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth? All: We do believe.

Celebrant: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was born into this world and Who suffered for us? All: We do believe.

Celebrant: And do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting? All: We do believe.

Celebrant: Let us now together pray to God, as Our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us: All: Our Father, Who art in Heaven…

Celebrant: And may Almighty God, the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who caused us to be born anew by water and the Holy Ghost, and Who granted us remission of sins, keep us by His grace unto everlasting life, in the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord. All: Amen.

The people are now sprinkled with the Easter water, as a reminder of their own Baptism. They should, accordingly, receive it with sincere sorrow for their past sins, and a firm determination to live in the future as re-born children of God and faithful members of His Holy Church. After the aspersion, the people again extinguish their candles.

In preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Litany of the Saints is now concluded.

Solemn Mass of the Easter Vigil

The solemn Litany is drawing to its end, and the choir has already begun its closing invocation—Kyrie eleison!—which is also the beginning of this Mass. The celebrant comes forth from the sacristy with all the pomp that marks the principal feasts of the Church, and then, ascending the altar, he offers the homage of incense to the Most High. Hence, an Introit, which on other occasions is sung by the choir during the procession from the sacristy to the altar, is not needed.

The morning star has blended its rays with those of our Paschal Candle, just as the deacon prayed might be; but now, the morning star itself begins to pale, for the star of day—the figure of our Jesus, the Sun of Justice—is soon to rise.

The censing of the altar is finished; and then—Oh glorious triumph of our risen Jesus!—the celebrant sings forth, in a transport of joy: Gloria in excelsis Deo! The hitherto silent bells peal to the glad angelic hymn, whilst the purple coverings are removed from the images and the altars are decked with flowers and candles. The enthusiasm of our Holy Faith has mastered every heart, making it beat with emotion. The choir takes up the heavenly canticle, and continues it to the end. The celebrant then sings this prayer for the newly baptized throughout the world:

O God, Who dost illumine this most holy night by the glory of the Lord’s Resurrection, preserve in the new children of Thy family the spirit of adoption which Thou has given; that renewed in body and mind, they may render to Thee a pure service. Through the same Our Lord Jesus Christ…

The Epistle is from St. Paul to the Colossians:

Brethren: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you too will appear with Him in glory.

After this, the souls of the faithful—yea, the very walls of the church—echo with the joyful tidings—Alleluia!—which the celebrant, filled with holy ardor, intones to the well-known melody. The choir repeats it after him. Thrice—each time on a higher note and with an increase of joy—the heavenly word is interchanged between the celebrant and choir. At this moment all mournfulness is at an end. One feels that God has accepted the expiatory works of our Lent; and that, by the merits of His Son now risen from the grave, He pardons our earth, since He permits us to hear once more the song of Heaven.

But something is still wanting to the joy of our Easter. Jesus has risen from the tomb; but, so far, He has not shown Himself to all. His Blessed Mother, St. Mary Magdalene, and the other holy women, are the only ones who have as yet seen Him; it is not until the evening that He will appear to His Apostles. We have only just begun the day. Therefore it is that the Church once more offers Her praise to Her God, under the Lenten formula of the Tract. Likewise, no additional torches accompany the Gospel, which is St. Matthew’s account of the Resurrection; the book, however, is incensed. Here again we have an allusion to the events which took place on this great morning—the women went to the sepulcher carrying sweet spices with them, but the light of faith in the Resurrection was not as yet in their hearts:

Now late in the night of the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven, and drawing near rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment like snow. And for fear of him the guards were terrified, and became like dead men. But the angel spoke and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, Who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen even as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord was laid. And go quickly, tell His disciples that He has risen, and behold, He goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him. Behold, I have foretold it to you.”

The celebrant does not intone the glorious profession of Faith: it is reserved for the second Mass, which is to be celebrated later in the day. By this omission of the Creed, the Church would remind us of the hours which elapsed before the Apostles, who were to preach to the world the mystery of the Resurrection, had themselves honored it by their faith.

The Offertory verse is also omitted; the celebrant begins to offer the bread and wine to be used in the Sacrifice, immediately after the Dominus vobiscum. This omission is also of ancient origin, when the Offertory verse accompanied a lengthy procession. To shorten the already long ceremonies, the procession also was omitted. Also omitted are the Kiss of Peace (which is accompanied by the words, “Peace be to thee!”) and the Agnus Dei (which ends with, “Give us peace.”) It was not till the evening of the day of His Resurrection, that Jesus spoke the words, “Peace be to thee!” to His disciples. Holy Church, reverencing as She does every detail of Her Jesus’ life, loves to imitate them in Her own practice, and thus omits these words from this Mass.

In ancient times, the newly baptized would receive also, before the Mass began, the Sacrament of Confirmation—if they were adults and if a Bishop were present. At the Vigil Mass they would all make their First Holy Communion—even the newly baptized infants. The deacon would dip his finger into the Chalice, and then put it into their innocent mouths. Afterwards, to signify that they were all now, by their Baptism, those new-born babes of whom St. Peter speaks (1 Peter 2: 2), they would receive a little milk and honey—it was also an allusion to the promised land of Heaven, now opened to them.

Lauds

In consequence of the service being so long, the Church makes these Lauds as short as possible, and gives them a joyous character, in keeping with the return of the Alleluia. They are drawn up so as to form parts of the Mass—the Communion verse and Postcommunion oration:

Ant. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Ps. 150: Praise the Lord in His sanctuary; praise Him in the firmament of His power…

Ant. Bened. Now very early in the morning of the first day of the week, when the sun had just risen, they came to the sepulcher. Alleluia.

The celebrant incenses the altar for the last time while the choir chants the Benedictus. The Antiphon is repeated and the celebrant sings the Postcommunion oration:

Pour forth upon us, O Lord, the spirit of Thy love, that those whom Thou hast nourished with the Easter Sacraments, may by Thy goodness, be of one mind and heart. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son…

The deacon sings the Ite Missa Est as usual, adding a double Alleluia! The same will be done throughout the Easter Octave.

Instructions for Holy Saturday

by Leonard Goffine, 1871

Why is this day called Holy Saturday?

Because on this day Jesus, the Holy of Holiest, through whom we also should become holy, rested in the sepulchre, and because the Church to-day receives the blessed baptismal water, by which the unbaptized is born again to a new, holy life, which is also indicated by the blessed fire and the Easter-Candle.

Why is new fire struck from a flint, blessed, and the lamps and candles in the Church lighted from it?

In old times it was customary to strike a new fire, bless it, and light the candles by it every day, and later every Saturday; it is said, that in the eleventh century this ceremony was restricted to Holy Saturday. The fire is struck from a stone to indicate, that Christ is the light of the world, and the stone which the Jews rejected, has now become the corner stone of His Church (Ps. cxvii. 22.); that the divine Son, the light of the world, was apparently extinguished at His death, but at His resurrection shone anew; that all those who in Church to-day are physically lighted by this fire, may one day be filled anew, in the future life, with spiritual light. This fire is blessed, because the Church blesses every thing that is used in her service in Church, and because the light and fire used in Church must be holy, for they represent Christ, who brought the fire of love upon earth with which to enkindle our hearts. (Luke xii. 49.)

What is represented by the triple candlestick?

The triple candlestick represents the most Holy Trinity of which the second Divine Person came down to earth as the true light. For this reason the priest (or deacon), sings three times at the lighting of each candle: Lumen Christi, “Light of Christ,” and kneeling three times humbly adores the Triune Deity, and especially the true divine light of Christ for which he says Deo gratias, “Thanks be to God”.

What is the Easter-Candle?

It is an emblem of Christ, who has risen from death, of whom the pillar of fire which led the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, was a prototype, as Christ, the true light, has led us from the bondage of Satan into the freedom of the children of God. The five holes in the candle represent the five wounds of Jesus by which mankind was healed (i. Pet. ii. 24.), and the five grains of frankincense signify the spices with which the body of our Lord was embalmed.

Why are the Easter-Candle and all the others lighted from the triple candle?

To show that Christ was begotten by the Father of light from all eternity, and is therefore true God from true God, light from light–that from God, through Christ, He being the light of the world, comes all man’s enlightenment, and is diffused by the grace of God over all. (ii. Cor. iv. 6.)

To what do the twelve lessons, sung after the blessing of the baptismal water, all point?

They point to the baptism in which we are born again to a new life.

Why is the baptismal water blessed with so many ceremonies, and what is its signification?

The baptismal water signifies the blood of Christ by which our souls are purified, and in which the devil is drowned as Pharao in the Red Sea, and is blessed with so many ceremonies, that the different effects of baptism may be known, and that this holy Sacrament may be administered and received with the more reverence, devotion, and sanctity.

What is the meaning of these ceremonies?

The priest with his hand parts the water into the form of a cross, to illustrate that God gives the secret virtue to this water, through Christ who died on the cross, of changing all those born in original sin into holy people. He touches the surface of the water with the palm of his hand, to show that the Holy Ghost is over this water as at the creation, and bestows many graces on those who are baptized. He blesses it, signing it three times with the sign of the cross, because the water receives its sin-cleansing power only through the sufferings and the merits of Christ, from the Father, by the cooperation of the Holy Ghost. The baptismal water is thrown by the priest towards the four parts of the earth, because the grace of baptism should reach all nations. The priest breathes on the water three times in the form of a cross: the Creator breathed upon the first man, and breathed into him the breath of life, Christ breathed upon the apostles the Holy Ghost who by His grace and power revives and sanctifies those who are baptized. The Easter-Candle (emblem of Christ, risen from the dead), is dipped three times, and each time deeper into the water, to show that the baptized should become more and more enlightened through the light of Christ’s doctrine, more and more penetrated by its divinity, more and more purified from sin. The people are sprinkled with this water to remind all those present who have received sanctification in baptism, and have lost it by sin, that they should strive by tears of repentance to regain it. Finally, oil and chrism are mixed in the water as a sign that the grace of the Holy Ghost which is represented by the oil and chrism, is given in its fulness to the water; and also, that the baptized should, after baptism, devote themselves exclusively to the service of Christ, the Anointed One, and unite themselves in love to Him.

Why is the baptismal water blessed only on this day and on the Saturday before Pentecost?

Because in early times adults and neophytes were baptized only on these days; and because the Saviour, risen, is the example of a soul sanctified by baptism and by the Holy Ghost, the Author of all sanctity and the true fountain of the grace of baptism.

How should we assist at the blessing of the baptismal water?

With sentiments of sincere gratitude for having been given the holy grace of baptism; with the firm resolution of preserving our baptismal innocence, or if we have lost it, of obtaining it again by penance. We should renew our baptismal vows on this day especially, first by saying the apostle’s creed, making acts of faith, hope, and love, and an act of contrition, and then saying with heart and lips: I renounce the devil, all his pride, and all his suggestions.”

Why does the priest prostrate himself after blessing the baptismal water, rising again when the litany of the saints has been sung?

To most humbly ask God, by the intercession of the saints, that He would give to all men without exception the grace of baptism, that as all men have been dead and buried in sin, so they may rise with Christ as new creatures to grace and eternal life.

Why are the altars redecorated on this day?

Because the Church, the beloved bride of Christ, desires to announce in advance to her children the glad tidings, that the Lord has risen from the dead: she decorates herself therefore, and causes the bells to peal and joyous hymns to resound. It also refers to Christ, at His resurrection, having adorned Himself with a glorious, incorruptible body.

Why is there no Introit in this day’s Mass?

The Introit of Mass was formerly an entire psalm, sung while the people were assembling in Church; but as in early times the people on Easter were already assembled and assisting at the ceremonies, no Introit was sung at the Vigil Mass, as to-day, although Mass is now said in the morning, the Church having abolished the night vigils, on account of abuses. PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. O God, who enlightenest this most sacred night by the glory of the resurrection of the Lord; preserve in the new offspring of Thy family the spirit of adoption Thou hast given them; that being renewed in body and soul, they may serve Thee with purity of heart. Throught etc.

EPISTLE. (Colos. iii. 1-4.) Brethren: If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life; then you also shall appear with him in glory. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. EXPLANATION. St. Paul places Christ’s resurrection before us as the example and motive of the spiritual resurrection from sin, which should be effected in us by the holy Sacraments at Easter time.–With Christ we should die to the world, and live hidden in Him, if we desire to rise at the Last Day with Him in glory and be acknowledged before all men by Him as His own.

After the epistle the priest says three times: Alleluia! as a joyful exclamation over the Redeemer’s triumphant victory.

GOSPEL. (Matt, xxxviii. 1-7.) In the end of the Sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven; and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it: and his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men. And the angel answering, said to the women: Fear not you; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen as he said. Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid. And going quickly, tell ye his disciples that he is risen: and behold, he will go before you into Galilee: there you shall see him. Lo, I have foretold it to you.

What are we to learn from this gospel?

That we, too, will receive the plenitude of divine grace and heavenly blessings, if like these pious women we seek Christ early, that is, by making a good intention before we begin our work.

Why is there no Credo or Agnus Dei said, nor the kiss of peace given, and short vespers said after communion?

Formerly, and in Rome even now, the Credo or confession of faith is said by the newly baptized, the Agnus Dei was sung in the litany of the saints, and these are therefore omitted in the Mass. The kiss of peace is not given, because Christ has not yet said to His disciples, Peace be with you. Short vespers are said after the priest’s communion, because this day is a type of the eternal Sabbath in heaven which has no vespers, that is, evening.

Do not omit to-day to once more visit the holy sepulchre, to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, to thank Him for His passion and death, and to honor His sorrowful mother. If in the evening the solemn ceremonies of the resurrection are held, assist at them and there make the repeated resolution to rise from the sleep of sin and begin a new life with Christ.

[fls8729]

Biden shows little desire to reverse Trump's Cuba policies

The Biden administration’s first major move on Cuba is the strongest signal yet it has little appetite to reverse Trump-era policies toward the island nation.

The State Department this past week listed Cuba as among those “not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts,” renewing a determination first made in 2020.

For those in favor of normalizing U.S. ties with Cuba, the move was seen as a purely political decision, but one that suggests the Biden administration may continue with the hardline approach taken by former President Trump.

“It’s a political determination, and a signal they’re trying to give the right wing that they’re going to stick with the status quo,” said Fulton Armstrong, an American University professor and director of Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

“These determinations are B-O-G-U-S,” he added, criticizing the State Department for offering little insight into what factored into its decision.

The determination was made under the Arms Export Control Act, which requires a report every May listing countries barred from defense exports and sales with the U.S. Obama had removed Cuba from the list in 2015.

But the statute is also one of the three laws weighed when adding countries to the state sponsors of terrorism list — something Trump added Cuba to in the final days of his presidency.

While the Biden team has pledged to review Trump’s state sponsor of terror listing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in March that “a Cuba policy shift is not currently among President Biden’s top priorities.”

To Cubans, the latest determination looks like a continuation of the Trump era.

“The U.S. changed presidents, but it’s more of the same,” Alejandro Gil Fernández, Cuba’s deputy prime minister and top economic policy minister, wrote on Twitter.

The State Department said the decision was made after “a review of a country's overall level of cooperation in our efforts to fight terrorism, taking into account our counterterrorism objectives with that country, and a realistic assessment of its capabilities.”

Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela are among the other countries on the list.

The decision earned praise from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has blasted Cuba for remaining close with Venezuela. He called the move “a positive step that follows four productive years of the Trump Administration’s efforts to end Havana’s destructive and destabilizing efforts.”

But others see little fodder for the determination beyond Cuba agreeing to let Colombian National Liberation Army members stay in the country after negotiations it hosted on behalf of the nation in 2018 fell apart, and the Colombian government refused safe passage for the group to return.

“It's hard to have cooperation on counterterrorism or anything else if you're not talking with one another,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) a longtime proponent of normalizing ties with Cuba, told The Hill, noting the limited diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“And it's hard to get cooperation when the United States has not moved forward with any kind of genuine reengagement with Cuba,” he added.

The hesitancy to do anything similar to the Obama-era thawing of Cuban relations follows significant losses for Democrats in Florida. Trump won the state in November, while Democrats also lost two South Florida districts in an election that underscored the party’s struggles to win over more Latino voters.

The designation is the latest move from an administration that has publicly sought to distance itself from the Obama administration — not its predecessor — when it comes to Cuba.

“Joe Biden is not Barack Obama on policy toward Cuba,” Juan Gonzalez, senior director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, told CNN en Español in April.

Geoff Thale, president of the Washington Office on Latin America, described Cuba and Venezuela as the center of the GOP’s successful messaging in Florida before they gained the two House seats in November, including the district encompassing Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood.

“It wasn't really saying, ‘You don't want to end the embargo on Cuba,’ it was a campaign that said ‘Democrats are all socialists and socialism will ruin your life.’ And is that a wild distortion of Democrats’ policies and the Democratic party? Yes, it is. But as a media hit it was fairly effective,” he said.

“The easy answer is to say, ‘We won't do anything about Cuba or Venezuela, and if we do, we’ll do it as quietly as possible,’ ” he said.

But Thale doesn’t think that’s the smart strategy.

“Say ‘We are making challenges in Cuba policy, and those changes actually benefit Cubans in America and their families in Cuba that will overtime lead to greater freedom in Cuba,’ ” he said.

“[Democrats] will probably get painted as socialists no matter what they do, so it seems to me they need to think smarter about what they can do on strategy,” he added.

But some see Biden’s approach toward Cuba as part of a broader strategy of taking a tough stance on other communist countries.

“They are returning to the Cold War with practically everyone — with Russia, with China, with Cuba — and I don’t know that that is very smart right now,” said Carlos Alzugaray, a former Cuban diplomat and ambassador.

“But he won’t admit the Obama option is the only option. Because what other option is there? Continue pressuring the government of Cuba? First, that doesn't get done what you think it gets done,” he said, arguing that Cubans are not going to overthrow their government because of the U.S. embargo, which has been in place in some form since 1958.

“But secondly, it makes the United States look bad. It makes the U.S. look mean and vindictive with a small neighbor.”

Still, not all proponents of normalizing ties are worried the carryover determination means the U.S. policy toward Cuba has been settled.

“I’m choosing to look at this as not that big of a deal,” McGovern said. “My understanding is there is a review going on in the administration of what our Cuba policy should be. And my hope is that if it is done objectively and rationally, he will conclude that we need to reengage.”

But Armstrong said the lack of an appetite to reverse even on the Arms Control Export Act list doesn’t signal an administration seriously considering sweeping change.

Sunday shows preview: Bombing in Kabul delivers blow to evacuation... Hurricane Ida could strengthen to Category 4 before hitting US

At the Cuba Communist Party’s eighth party congress in April, the nation for the first time established a government without a single Castro on its roster. Still, the theme was “continuidad,” a nod to continuity of its plans to slowly loosen the government’s grip on the economy as Raúl Castro stepped down from his post.

“There is more continuidad on Cuba policy in Washington than there is in Havana,” Armstrong said.

“They’ve continued the Trump policy without public debate, without evidence, and without the normal government processes of looking at the facts.”

[steveng-rogers]

Hostie and Wine PRIEST AU(happygowriting kinktober day 1=Food Kink )

Pairings: Stucky(StevexBucky), Dandy(DaytonxAndy), slight Ducky(DaytonxBucky) Dark-ish!Steve and Andy. College boys Bucky and Dayton. 

Rating: M+ (to be clear that is Mature, meaning if you’re under the age of 18 DO NOT READ or INTERACT)

Word Count:  4,143 

Warnings: Explicit, 18+ ONLY. M/M. Heavy blasphemy kink. Food kink. Restraints, gagging(not too heavy). Dirty talk, mild degrading. Alcohol. Demonic chants(not too weird, translation will be at the end of the fic) the real warning is the bad Latin. Blowjobs, hand jobs, anal sex, male giving and receiving. Praise kink. (If there are any thats not listed and you think I should list, let me know)

Summary: Harmless fun for Bucky and Dayton turns into a fantasy filled night with the help of father Steve and Father Andy. 

A/N:  I used CPDV(Catholic Public Domain Version) translation of the Bible because it’s easier to understand. I don’t know any Latin, so what you find here is google translated. Don’t repost this anywhere unless you have asked me for permission. I worked very hard on this :) thankyou for curtisbb for proof reading this and happygowriting for providing this awesome prompts. 

    Morning Sunday mass, early, boring, and so hard to pay attention to. It’s 

their day off and if it were any other colleges, they would be in bed and do

 whatever they desired. But being in a Catholic private college means they live

 under a strict rule of Catholicism and their many masses and some might say

 “rituals”. 

    Dayton White and Bucky Barnes are now sitting on the third row from the 

altar. Not stiff enough to sit on the very first row and not rebellious enough to

 sit in the back row like those hooligans. Plus they have enough heads to keep

 them from getting in trouble from talking to each other and from here they 

have enough distance between those heads to steal glances at their new

 priests. That is exactly their topic of whispers for almost three weeks now. 

    They look at each other, giving each other the “eyes” when the Bishop is 

trying to use slang or use any remarks to be funny. 

    “In our reading today we learned that Jesus was brought out by the spirit to

 be tempted by Satan. Now as you all know Jesus was or rather still is the OP

 (Over Powered)  man and God. He refused to be tempted you see..”

    Dayton rolled his eyes, really OP? “What is this? A video game convention?”

 Bucky laughs quietly at Dayton’s comment, making sure to bow his head so it’ll

 look like he’s coughing or something. Dayton smirks and pat Bucky’s back to

 make it more convincing to others that are watching. The angels and the

 heavens are not the only ones who've been watching the two, there are two

 pairs of glistening blues who already set their eyes on them. They know their 

ticks and their subtle coded movements. 

    Dayton felt the burns of their stare and because he is Dayton White he

 dares to look at the two priests. Father Andrew Barber holds up a finger to his

 lips, ever so subtle and quick to tell him to “hush” and Father Steve Rogers on

 the other side of him, just raised his eyebrows at the younger men. Dayton

 nudges Bucky’s elbow and points with his chin to them. He looks up, a little too

 quickly and finds Father Steve already looking at him. They look away and

 back to the Bishop. Both of the young men feel the cold shiver running down 

their spines, making them clutch the matte black blazer of their school’s 

uniform tighter around their body. Something is amidst. Something dark.  

    “And just like Jesus said in Matthew 4 verse 7, you can say to Satan that

 they cannot tempt you for you are a child of God and your faith will save you.” 

    When the time of the communion came, their favorite part. They wait for

 their turn and go in line to receive their hostie and wine. The body and the

 blood of Jesus. 

    Father Andrew holds out the white, round hostie and Dayton submissively

 opens his mouth to receive it. And father Andrew places the hostie in Dayton’s

 mouth and gives a light pressure on his thumb as it reaches the top of

 Dayton’s tongue. Bucky on the other hand is on his way to receive the wine

 from none other than Father Steve. Father Steve extends the gold chalice to

 Bucky and Bucky couldn’t help but to lick his lips. The wine is not the one he

 had in mind to satiate his thirst and father Steve saw that in his eyes. So he

 tips the chalice to Bucky’s mouth, his index finger brushes lightly against

 Bucky’s lips as it was so strategically placed on the outline of the chalice by

 father Steve. 

    No one noticed when these exchanges happened, for they are subtle and

 very easy to miss. But for the four of them, it leaves them breathless and

 wanting more, so much more. 

    Long after the mass was done and dinner was served, Bucky and Dayton

 decided to lounge around their common room. Dayton is sitting on the sofa,

 close to the window, catching up on some assigned reading and Bucky is

 sitting close to the fireplace finishing up his essay. After hours, both boys grew

 bored. Their minds start to idle and they can’t seem to concentrate on their

 task. And the saying goes, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Usually 

Dayton is the one who would come up with things to do, but today Bucky came

 up with something. Rather devilish. 

    “Dayton.” Bucky closes his laptop and sits towards his bestfriend, a playful 

grin on his face.

    “What is it?” Dayton looks up from his book and raises his eyebrows at him,

 clearly interested. 

    “You know when the priests and church staff go to sleep right?”

    “Yeah, around 9 oclock. Why?”

    “What do you say we steal some hostie and raid the wine cellar?” Bucky

 suggested and Dayton just shakes his head, impressed at how reckless Bucky

 is being right now. 

    “No and you know why.”

    Bucky stood and went over to Dayton. “They’re not yet blessed, so we'd only

 be guilty of stealing. Plus the confession room opens tomorrow and you know 

who is going to be there.” Dayton thought about being alone in the room with 

father Andrew and he’s sold. 

   “Okay fine, you got me. If we get caught, you’re taking the blame.”

    “Alright so you’re calling cauliflower?” Bucky said their code word and

 Dayton gave him a nod. The plan is locked and loaded. 

     Around nine oclock, the two best friends waited until the light on their hal

l was dimmed. Then Bucky leads them to a room where the unblessed hostie

 are made. Dayton waited outside while Bucky went in to snatch some bags of 

hostie, sure they tasted like nothing but when you’re tempted the devil will help

 you indulge. 

    Then out of the corner of his eyes, Dayton saw two figures walking towards

 where he is at. It was so dark and Dayton can only see dark shadows and by

 God, if these are ghosts he’s gonna make a run for it. Then as they walk

 closer, Dayton can make up the outline of a face and oh. Oh. He knows that 

beard, those broad shoulders, and the cross necklaces. It’s the twin priests.

 They were too busy arguing quietly until father Andrew saw him and father 

Steve followed his gaze. 

    “Mister White? What are you doing out so late?” Father Andrew raises his

 eyebrows in question and Dayton can feel his palms getting clammy. 

    “And where is mister Barnes? You two are usually together, are you not?” 

Father Steve asked as he looked around for Bucky. Dayton smiles nervously 

and reminds himself to be calm.

    “Oh well, Barnes and I are looking for uh..” He trails off as he hears Bucky’s 

footsteps getting closer to the door. “Cauliflower!” Dayton exclaimed, loud 

enough for Bucky to hear and the footsteps stopped abruptly. 

    “Cauliflower?” Father Steve and Father Andrew look at each other and back

 at Dayton. 

    “For what?” Dayton cursed in his heart, damn it. “For a project that we’re 

working on.”

    “Well, I better not find you in the confession booth tomorrow confessing

 about this lie. Or they will be severe punishments.” Father Andrew 

emphasized on the word punishment and that sends chills throughout Dayton’s

 body. 

    “Yes, father.” With that the two priests left him there and once they’re out of 

sight, Dayton exhales and knocks on the door for Bucky to come out. “Oh my

 god, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Bucky laughs with the bag of hostie in

 his hands. “Shut up, we almost got caught.” Bucky grins and throws one of the

 bags at Dayton. “But we didn't, so come on. One more stop.” 

    Dayton went inside the wine cellar this time and Bucky was outside, to look

 out for them. Once they got the goods, they head back to their dorm room 

completely unaware that they’ve been followed. 

    The clock strikes midnight and the two boys are enjoying their wine and 

hostie in their dorm room. They’ve spiked the wine with vodka, a gift from their

 Russian friend Pietro. They’re a giggling mess, the slight buzz was a nice 

feeling, and the tasteless hostie somehow is sweeter in their mouths. 

    At exactly 12:12 am, the door opened and the boys were met with large 

figures standing on the door. “You didn’t lock the fucking door Barnes.” Dayton

 glares at Bucky, who is now looking up at father Steve. “I’m sorry..” 

    “What do we have here?” Father Steve crouches down and grabs the 

opened bag of hostie from Bucky’s hand. 

    “This doesn’t look like a cauliflower, does it?” Father Andrew asked as he 

inhaled the tip of the wine bottle. 

    Bucky and Dayton weren't sure on what to do other than to look up to the 

two men. “But you knew that Dayton and Bucky?” Father Andrew looked into 

their eyes. Both boys look down, shame burns the words out of their mouths. 

    “Come on, you two are smart right? Use your words.” Father Steve edge on.

 But they can’t even whisper a word out. “Get up both of you.” Dayton can feel

 his legs wobbles as he slowly stood. Bucky was not much better because he’s

 still on the ground. 

    “Bucky.” Father Steve warns and Bucky immediately stands. “We can expel 

the both of you for this. Do you want that?” Father Steve said, tilting Bucky’s

 chin up to look at him. Both boys shake their heads. “Didn’t I say use your 

words?” He warned them, annoyance laced his tone. “N-no father.” Bucky 

managed to stammer out. 

    “Please we’ll do anything to not get expelled.” Dayton finally spoke. “Hm 

anything?” Father Andrew hums as he locks the door behind him. “Yes, father 

Andrew anything.” He stalks over and stands in front of Dayton. “Call me 

Andy.” Dayton swallows the lump on his throat and nods. The older men

 exchange a knowing look to each other and when they turn their heads to the 

boys, the pupils in their eyes grow dark. The younger boys gasp, prickles of

 arousal dance down their bodies as the men extend their hands out to them. 

    Steve snakes his arm around Bucky’s waist and Bucky voluntarily steps 

closer to him, pressing their bodies together. Andy runs his index finger down

 Dayton’s jawline slowly, eyes following Dayton’s lips. 

    “Kiss me.” They whisper to the boys with their lips so temptingly close to 

them. 

    Bucky and Dayton close their eyes and kiss them. Dayton almost whimpers 

when Andy returns his kiss, so demanding his kiss was. He kissed Dayton so 

deeply, almost as if he wanted a taste of the wine he’d been drinking. 

    Bucky inhales deeply when Steve kisses him back, so soft as if he is to savor

 Bucky’s lips with his. He wraps his arms around Steve’s shoulder, one hand 

running through his golden locks and he tugs as Steve bites down on his lips. 

That earned Steve a hopeless moan from Bucky. 

    Andy backs Dayton to his bed. His lips find its ways to Dayton’s neck as he 

pushes him down to his bed. “Been wanting to taste you. Ever since you lick 

my finger on our first communion. You know exactly what you’re doing to me.” 

Andy whispers with his thumb brushing against Dayton’s lower lips and he bites

 down on his thumb teasingly. “ ‘course I do father, had to lay my claim on you.”

 Andy chuckles, dark and deep as he tugs Dayton’s white button down off. 

    Steve has Bucky’s legs wrapped around his waist as they kiss hungrily.

 When Bucky lays down on the bed and looks up, Steve’s black button down

 was already half opened thanks to Bucky’s wandering hands. Steve ripped his

 shirt open and maybe it’s the alcohol, but Bucky lost it as he looked up, seeing 

Steve’s bare chest and the little sun tattoo just underneath his left collar bone.

 He groans and moans out, “Daddy.” Steve smirks down at him. “Oh? You’re 

daddy’s boy huh?” Bucky’s face flushed red, pupils blown darker than the new

 moon. “Hm.” And he nods. Steve huffs, hand palming Bucky’s crotch “Use your

 words Bucky.” He gasps out, “Yes! I’m daddy’s boy.” 

    Andy pulls down Dayton’s pants along with his red briefs, then he starts to 

stroke his length drawing sweet little noises from him. “You’re already

 throbbing baby. What happens if I put my mouth on you hm? Are you gonna 

cum right away like a horny teenager?” Dayton groans in protest. Sure he had 

been deprived of this kind of fun, but that doesn’t mean he and Bucky hadn’t 

fooled around or that he was an inexperienced virgin. “Why don’t you find out

 mister Barber? Put your mouth around me and I’ll prove to you how 

‘inexperience’ I am?” Dayton smirks, he can see a flash of anger on Andy’s

 dark eyes. “You think you’re in charge here? Oh I don’t think so.  I am and 

you’ll do as I say.” Andy pulls his belt off his waist and runs the metallic tip on 

Dayton’s bare chest, making him tremble. “I told you there is going to be a 

severe punishment if I caught you and here we are.” 

    Bucky was bare as the day he was born, a quivering, and a flushed little 

thing Steve thought. “Play with yourself sweetheart, imagine it was me just like 

you’ve been confessing in the booth.” Bucky bites down on his bottom lips,

 trying to contain his moans as he slides his hand up and down his own cock. 

Steve grabs the bottle of wine and takes a huge swig out of it, palming himself 

as he watches Bucky play with himself. “Don’t bother being quiet, come on let

 daddy hear how good you sound .” Bucky’s toes curl as he moans out Steve’s

 name. “O-ohhh S..S-Steve, daddy please touch me, touch me.” Steve takes 

another swig of the wine, then he leans down to kiss Bucky, filling his mouth 

with the red liquid. “Good boy, keep going. Keep touching that pretty thing. 

Make daddy proud.” Bucky is a sucker for praises and Steve amplified that, 

with his husky and soft voice and Steve, he goddamn knows it. 

    Dayton’s hand is now all tied up to the upper railing on his bed, his fingers 

bare down on his palm, making his knuckles white as Andy toys around with 

his nipples. “Don’t you make a fucking sound. Or I’ll edge you and make you

 watch your best friend get fucked like you wanted while you’re here,

 pathetically begging for me to make you cum.” Andy sits up and takes his 

black button down off him, showing off the little moon tattoo under his left collar

 bone and that makes Dayton’s mouth water at the thought of having his mouth

 all over that tattoo. “Maybe I like to be edge Andy, won’t be the first time I 

watched my best friend get his way.” Now that was a mistake and Dayton was 

too late to pull back. Andy fished out his white, clergy collar, and enfold it

 around Dayton’s jaw, muffling his mouth. The priest breaks down the hostie 

into smaller pieces, placing it down Dayton’s chest to his happy trail where the

 skin glistens with Dayton’s precum. “I want you to remember that verse from

 Luke 22nd, about the last supper. Recite it, the last of verse 19.” Andy pulls 

down the collar just a little so Dayton could talk. The younger man breathes 

heavily as he tries to remember it. “This is my body, which is given for y-you. 

Do this as a commemoration of me ohh...” Andy growls as he licks and eats

 the white pieces of hostie along Dayton’s body. “Good, good boy.” He coos

 softly, putting the collar back on to Dayton’s mouth. 

    Bucky almost came under Steve’s watch and of course, Steve being the 

sadist that he is pulls his hand away. Bucky whined, closing his legs to hide his

 painfully hard on from Steve. “No sweetheart, keep it wide open. I want you to

 recite the memory verse I have given you. Come on I’ll help you, Luke 22nd,

 the last of verse 20.” Bucky’s wine stained lips quiver as he struggles to

 ground himself, Steve is all but smiles and proud because he knows Bucky

 could do it. “This.. uhm chalice is the new covenant in my blood, which will be

 shed f..f-for you.” Steve opens up Bucky’s jaw and pour the remaining of the

 wine into his mouth. “Drink sweet boy and don’t waste a single drop.” Steve

 commands him and Bucky gulps it down like he was told to. Before Bucky 

could finish, Steve wraps his hand around Bucky’s neck and squeezes it, 

enough to make him gasp and then he kissed him like a starved man. His 

other hand, strokes Bucky’s cock making the younger man moan into their 

kiss. “Bucky, sweetheart. Cum on my hand. You deserve it, for being so fucking

 good to me.” He whispers as he licks the droplets of the red liquor along 

Bucky’s lips and like the command of God, Bucky moans out and came all over

 the priest’s hand. “Ah! Steve-oh god, da-daddy..ah.” Bucky’s whole body 

trembles as Steve strokes his cock some more. 

    Andy and Steve are prepared to have this moment with them, have been 

planning it for months, and it’s finally here. They came willingly, well one of 

them certainly did. They glances at each other as they grab the small pack of 

lube that they’ve brought with them. Once they’ve stripped themselves naked 

and on their knees above their chosen ones, the twins starts to chant 

something like prayers under their ragged breaths. 

            “Satanas Domino, per gratiam tuam

            Concede mihi precor te 

            Ut ad virtutis in 

            Mente consipere ac reddere 

            Quam ad facere cupio.” 

    Steve teases the rim of Bucky’s hole and he shudders, still sensitive from 

coming too hard. Steve hush him quietly as he slides his lube coated fingers 

into him. Stretching him open and getting him ready for him. “Barely put up a 

fight with me. Was I always the subject in your wet dreams Bucky? Those 

things you’ve confessed to me in that dark booth, all me huh?” Bucky thought 

he was being subtle, but the shame of getting caught shot arousal to his dick

 and he tightened around Steve’s digits. “Answer me.” Steve demands and

 Bucky whimpers out, “Yes, yes. ‘S all you Steve.” 

    Dayton is painfully hard, he wanted to protest, but his mouth is stuffed and

 not in the way that he likes. Andy chuckles darkly at his attempts and without

 warning he drips the cold liquid of the lube on Dayton’s red rim and that earns

 him a choked out moan from Dayton. “You’ve finally found your match? 

Somehow you know only I can make you like this, you came with me with your

 inappropriate comments thinking that I might blush and came again wishing

 that I do them to you.” Andy slides his digits in and made a scissoring motion 

inside him, Dayton bites down on the collar trying his hardest to be quiet. Andy

 adds to the torture as he licks and sucks on the top of Dayton’s cock. 

“Mmmph-Andy!..” 

    They toy and play around with the two for what feels like hours. They want 

them savored and teased like Satan did to Eve in the garden of Eden. 

    Steve strokes himself and with Bucky all ready for him, he slid inside him 

slowly. Bucky immediately tightened around him, feeling every veins on Steve’s

 cock. “F-fuck Steve.” He moans desperately, cock already twitching and 

wanting to cum again. “By God Bucky, don’t you cum before I tell you to.” Steve

 sets a slow pace until he’s all sheathed inside him. “Fuck. Oh yes, all hot and 

tight for me. All for me huh Bucky? Goin to fuck the sweet sin into you.” Bucky 

wraps his legs around Steve, hands on his back with his fingers clawing at the 

older man’s back. Steve’s words, his cock, and the way his hand squeezes his 

legs made Bucky desperate to let go, but he can’t it all feels so good and all he

 wanted is for Steve to have him like this for the rest of his days. “Daddy oh 

god, ngh- please fuck me, harder Oh!” Steve grabs the headboard and starts

 to fuck him slow and hard, making Bucky feel every inch of him. 

    Andy has Dayton’s legs on his shoulders as he keeps teasing him, sweeping

 the tip of his cock and slowly putting it inside Dayton but not quite fucking him. 

Dayton let out a frustrated, pushing his hips down to seek more of Andy. 

“Darling you’ve got to earn it, you know that don’t you?” Tears slipped down 

Dayton’s flush cheeks, he’s so unbelievably hard and he hasn’t cum in the last 

hour. He’s aching and desperate for Andy to just fuck the daylight out of him. 

Andy took the collar off Dayton’s mouth, wanting to listen to Dayton’s pleas 

more clearly. “Andy please, you’ve tortured me enough, ah-I can’t please.” 

Andy smiles devilishly, kissing Dayton’s wet cheeks. “Can’t what hm? Take it 

anymore?” Dayton nods, his walls finally crumbling down under Andy’s touch.

 “I love hearing you beg. That honeyed voice of yours darling.” Andy gave 

Dayton what he'd been pleading for and Dayton swore he saw the halo on top 

of Andy’s head as he felt the delicious stretch on his hole. Dayton’s hole 

swallows Andy’s dick almost all the way in and Dayton is already a whimpering 

mess under the priest. Andy pushed in some more till he bottoms out, making 

Dayton cry out in pleasure, “Jesus-ah! Andy, A-ah Andy.” The said man starts 

one unrelenting pace as he pressed Dayton’s legs up to his chest to fuck him 

deeper. “Sweet heavens, you felt better than I’d imagine. Look the way you

 take my cock. Like a good fucking whore.” 

    Steve fucked Bucky until he’s on his third orgasm, Bucky is all but a writhing,

 sweet thing under him and Steve hasn’t even come once, but he’s so 

goddamn close. Steve’s hand closed around the metal railing of the headboard

 as he moves his hips hard against him. “Steve, Steve oh daddy. Fuck, fuck. ‘S 

too much.” Bucky whined, high pitched and breathy and that edged Steve on

 even more. “Almost sweetheart, daddy’s gonna cum in you yeah? Fill up that 

sweet ass of yours and make you cum again.” Bucky clenches around Steve, 

making Steve bend the metal in his hand. He rams his hips harshly as he 

finally spills his seed inside Bucky and Bucky moans lewdly as his own cock 

twitch and he came for the fourth time. “Ouhh daddy. Steve hahh.” Steve holds

 Bucky close as he rides his high, his hand loosened around the metal and he

 moans deeply in Bucky’s ear. 

    Andy has Dayton on all fours, his reddened ass in the air and his face all 

flushed against the pillow. Andy spanks Dayton’s ass as he rails him from

 behind, making Dayton whined all high pitched into the pillow that he’s 

clutching. “Fucking Christ Dayton, darling look at you. All nice and fucked out.

 Want me to cum inside you hm? Fill you nice till all you can feel is me?” Andy 

whispered in Dayton’s ear with his deep voice that made Dayton shiver. “Yes,

 yes. Give it to me. Fill me up, fill me up -ah!” Andy rams that sweet spot of 

Dayton’s as his hand snakes down to pump his cock. “Cum Dayton, you’ve 

earned it. Be a sweet boy for me darling, make me fucking proud.” Dayton’s 

mouth falls open, but not a whisper of word comes; instead his ass clenches 

around Andy’s cock as his cock shoots out hot, white cum on the sheet 

beneath him. “Yes, there you go sweet boy. You’re my sweet boy, keep coming

 baby.” Andy gave a couple of hard thrusts till he came inside Dayton, his head 

falling upward like Cain did when he worshipped God. Andy growled deep and

hoarse as he filled Dayton up, Dayton hums sweetly as Andy leans down and 

kisses down his back. 

    The twin cleans their partners up with warm towels, making sure they’re 

going to be comfortable come morning. The clock strikes 3 am and the two 

priests quietly slip out of the dorm room. Their eyes gave out glints of red, a

 devilish smirk painted across their lips as they walked side by side. “Who 

would’ve thought?” Steve chuckles. “You know what he said,  fruits taste better 

when they’re forbidden.” Who would’ve thought that demons only prey on 

beautiful women? They prey on beautiful men too.

Translation of the Latin piece: Lord Satan, by your grace, grant me, I pray thee the power to conceive in my mind and to execute that which I desire to do. 

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Meat Is Latest Cyber Victim as Hackers Hit Top Supplier JBS (Bloomberg) The world’s biggest meat supplier has become the latest casualty of a cybersecurity attack. JBS SA shut its North American and Australian computer networks after an organized assault on Sunday on some of its servers, the company said by email. The attack sidelined two shifts and halted processing at one of Canada’s largest meatpacking plants, while the company canceled all beef and lamb kills across Australia, industry website Beef Central said. Some kill and fabrication shifts have also been canceled in the U.S. Hackers now have the commodities industry in their crosshairs with the JBS attack coming just three weeks after the operator of the biggest U.S. gasoline pipeline was targeted. It’s also happened as the global meat industry battles lingering Covid-19 absenteeism after recovering from mass outbreaks last year that saw plants shut and supplies disrupted.

China’s future gateway to Latin America is a mega-port in Peru (America Economia) Despite local opposition, Chinese investors are pumping billions into the Chancay project, a massive port complex north of Lima that will boost trade between China and Latin America as a whole, reports Gonzalo Torrico in business magazine America Economia. The Chancay port complex, with an initial investment of $1.3 billion, will turn this fishing and farming town into a regional hub that could redefine shipping lines in the entire southern Pacific. Since 2019, the project’s main stakeholder is the Chinese state firm Cosco Shipping Ports (60%). Cosco is a partner in 52 port projects worldwide. But in the Americas, Chancay is the first being built with Chinese capital. The complex is expected to be fully functional by 2024, helping consolidate China’s influence in South America, and in Peru especially. In the last decade, this country has become the regional crux of China’s economic and geopolitical interests. So far, Chinese firms have invested more than $30 billion in Peru, a figure exceeded only by money spent in Brazil. The principal sector is mining, which has absorbed more than half all these investments and has proven to be an excellent source for the mineral materials China needs to keep its industrial sector humming. One of those materials is copper, which Peru produces in great quantity.

More boats on canals and rivers than in 18th century as thousands opt for life afloat (Guardian) Little more than six months ago, Paul and Anthony Smith-Storey were still living in a three-bedroom semi-detached house near St Helens in Merseyside. But now the couple—and their dog, Dexter—have traded it all in for a life afloat in a two-metre-wide narrowboat on Peak Forest Canal in Derbyshire. “We took the equity out of the house, bought the boat and thought we’d enjoy it while we were still alive,” said Anthony, 48, an NHS sonographer. They are not the only ones. Record numbers are spending time on Britain’s rivers and canals, according to the Canal and River Trust. Such is their popularity that the charity, which manages 2,000 miles of waterways across England and Wales, says: “There are more boats on our canals now than at the height of the industrial revolution.” The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) said there are about 80,000 powered boats across the waterways of England, Scotland and Wales. Boat builders and sellers put the surge in interest down to the pandemic.

NSA spying row: US and Denmark pressed over allegations (BBC) European powers have pressed the US and Denmark over reports the two worked together to spy on top European politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Danish broadcaster DR said Denmark’s Defence Intelligence Service (FE) collaborated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) to gather information from 2012 to 2014. Mrs Merkel is among those demanding answers. “This is not acceptable between allies, and even less between allies and European partners,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking with Mrs Merkel.

The Taliban Say They’ve Changed. On the Ground, They’re Just as Brutal. (WSJ) During a recent trip, Kamaluddin visited a barbershop to obtain the illicit pleasures of clean-shaven cheeks and a fashionable mustache. But the shopkeeper, 25 years old, planned to let it regrow before heading home, wary of incurring the Taliban’s wrath. His father and brother were caught last month using smartphones in their home district of Arghistan, an area effectively ruled by the movement. The insurgents confiscated the devices, which could be used for supposedly un-Islamic behavior such as playing music and videos, and forced the men to swallow their SIM cards. Kamaluddin recounted the incident as he waited to return from Kandahar, the government-controlled provincial capital. “They will put me in prison if they see me like this,” he said. “If the Taliban come back, they will bring darkness.” The Taliban, ousted from power by a U.S.-led invasion 20 years ago, are poised to expand their influence as American forces leave the country. The group has sought in recent months to present themselves as a responsible state actor to regional powers and the West. Indeed, some of their most-violent punishments, such as amputations for accused thieves, are used less frequently than in the 1990s as they seek to avoid alienating Afghans. Yet accounts from Kamaluddin and others living under Taliban rule, as well as insurgents themselves, suggest that the group’s governance is as ruthless as ever.

Delhi Reopens a Crack (NYT) The Indian capital, which just weeks ago suffered the devastating force of the coronavirus, with tens of thousands of new infections daily and funeral pyres that burned day and night, is taking its first steps back toward normalcy. Officials on Monday reopened manufacturing and construction activity, allowing workers in those industries to return to their jobs after six weeks of staying at home to avoid infection. The move came after a sharp drop in new infections, at least by the official numbers, and as hospital wards emptied and the strain on medicine and supplies has eased. Life on the streets of Delhi is not expected to return to normal immediately. Schools and most businesses are still closed. The Delhi Metro system, which reopened after last year’s nationwide lockdown, has suspended service again. But the city government’s easing of restrictions will allow people to begin returning to work—and, more broadly, to start to repair India’s ailing, pandemic-struck economy.

Myanmar carries out air strikes after militia attacks (Reuters) Myanmar’s military used artillery and helicopters on Monday against anti-junta militias in the country’s east, witnesses and rebels said, forcing residents to flee and join thousands of others displaced by recent fighting in the region. Residents of Kayah state bordering Thailand said the military was firing artillery from positions inside the state capital Loikaw into Demoso, about 14.5 km (9 miles) away, where a People’s Defence Force said it had attacked troops and was coming under heavy fire. Myanmar’s military is fighting on multiple fronts and struggling to impose order since its Feb. 1 coup against Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government, sparking nationwide protests and paralysing strikes. Decades-old conflicts between the military and ethnic minority armies have also reignited, while militias allied with a shadow government have stepped up attacks on the army, which has responded with heavy weapons and air strikes, forcing thousands to flee.

North Korea’s missile warning (Foreign Policy) North Korea warned the United States on Monday that relaxing South Korea’s missile limits could lead to an “acute and instable situation” in the region. “The termination step is a stark reminder of the U.S. hostile policy toward (North Korea) and its shameful double-dealing,” said Kim Myong Chol, an unofficial mouthpiece for Pyongyang, in a statement issued by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. The United States recently lifted a 500-mile range restriction on South Korea’s missile program, in place since 1979. South Korea’s industrial ability to ramp up new missile production “could lead to an arms race with devastating implications,” Donald Kirk wrote last week in Foreign Policy.

Australian court upholds ban on most international travel (AP) An Australian court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the federal government’s draconian power to prevent most citizens from leaving the country so that they don’t bring COVID-19 home. Australia is alone among developed democracies in preventing its citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country except in “exceptional circumstances” where they can demonstrate a “compelling reason.” Most Australians have been stranded in their island nation since March 2020 under a government emergency order made under the powerful Biosecurity Act. Surveys suggest most Australians applaud their government’s drastic border controls. The Australian newspaper published a survey last month that found 73% of respondents said the international border should remain closed until at least the middle of next year.

Lebanon’s economic crisis (Foreign Policy) Lebanon’s economic collapse could rank within the top 3 “most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century,” according to a new report issued by the World Bank. The report cites the “brutal and rapid” contraction of Lebanon’s GDP, which dropped from $55 billion in 2018 to $33 billion in 2020. “The social impact of the crisis, which is already dire, could rapidly become catastrophic,” the report notes, as more than half of Lebanon’s population is already living below the poverty line.

Congo killings (Foreign Policy) At least 55 people were killed in overnight attacks near two villages in eastern Congo, close to the border with Uganda. Congolese officials blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist insurgent group that in March was deemed a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. The group killed more than 850 people in 2020, according to the United Nations. At the beginning of May, President Félix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege across the affected regions, surging troops in a bid to quell violence.

[archiveofprolbems]

The Sounding Image: About the relationship between art and music—an art-historical retrospective view by Barbara John

Since the early days of Modernism, the interplay between art and music has given considerable impetus to the development of new art forms. [1] This essay will examine the pre-history of this modern synergy. In comparison with other contributions to Media Art Net, the historical framework here is considerably larger. This is justified by the nature of the subject matter: artificial images and sounds have been created since the dawn of human culture. Therefore it is quite right that many texts refer back to prehistory, or at least the ancient world. But a great deal remains speculative here, and often history is reinterpreted, or even written, from an entirely modern point of view.

The approach in this essay will be different. Theoretical statements by artists that have come down to us will be used to show, from a short review of Western culture, how this relationship, which began in very different conditions, changed over the centuries from an art-historical point of view and led to all the arts working together on an equal footing. The route will lead rapidly from antiquity and the Middles Ages to the transition from classical artistic techniques to the beginnings of media art.

Art and music - an unequal start

In the Christian West music was one of the seven free arts, the so-called artes liberales, whereas fine art was seen merely as a craft activity. [2] Music's high standing was based on the philosophy of Pythagoras, who explained musical theory in terms of mathematical laws that were interpreted cosmologically in the Middle Ages. With arithmetic, geometry and astrology, music made up a quadrumvirate working on a mathematical basis within the artes liberales, and it was allotted a special function as a hinge between microcosm and macrocosm.

But even Plato recognized a special connection between eye and sound. Synaesthesia (Greek: sharedsensitivity) has been an epistemological topic since the days of ancient philosophy. Since the Baroque era in particular is has also been an experimental field for inventors of machines and theoretical speculators, like Pater Castel, for example. But this essay will not deal with individual aspects so much as synaesthesia in its full cultural context.

Medieval sacred art and music

The Western roots of a direct interplay between art and music lie in Christian liturgy. [3] The structure of the church building as the place where mass is celebrated emphasizes the special significance of music through the choir, which is immediately adjacent to the altar. Music is an indispensable part of the celebration of mass, and the artistic decoration of the altar is essential for the ceremonial process. Ostentatious medieval piety required staging that appealed to all the senses, like a religious Gesamtkunstwerk: the act of worship climaxing in the raising of the host is accompanied by singing, incense and the glow of candles - with the altarpiece as a pictorial setting. The variety of artistic contributions ranges from the decoration of the musical instruments via the miniature painting in the hymnbooks to panel painting.

The liturgical order determined the content of the art and music programme. The fixed Christian festivals in the liturgical calendar do not determine the choice of liturgical singing alone, they also affect the iconography of the altarpiece. This applies particularlyto the worship of Mary and saints that was widespread in the Middle Ages. This led to an expansion of the iconography of Mary in panel painting, and in liturgy to an increasing number of hymns venerating the Mother of God, which were sung on the appropriate feast days. One especially striking example of saint-worship is the altar painting by the Cologne master Stephan Lochner for the altar of the Three Kings.

In contrast with the Latin hymns, which ordinary people did not understand, and the theological content of the altarpieces, which had to be explained to laymen, a much more vivid way of conveying religious messages developed with the rise of mysticism. Mystery plays, particularly the Easter Passion Plays, emerged from the 12th century, and proved a fertile field of activity for painters, sculptors and musicians. They stimulated new musical and pictorial compositions. Performances required musical accompaniment, and at the same time new ritual figures were designed, like for example the Passion ass for the Palm Sunday play and the sculpture of Mary to be raised in the nave for the feast of the Assumption. Both music and art helped to stage a popular spectacle with religious content.

Book-, wall- and panel-painting count as important pictorial evidence of the history of popular and instrumental music. But they were not intended simply to illustrate, but also to instruct. David with his harp, Salome's dance and the host of angels playing musical instruments are particularly familiar Biblical themes. [4] In secular images we find the singing troubadour, round dances or the personification of music.

Renaissance - the arts in competition

Social changes started in the late Middle Ages: painters, sculptors and architects began to be classed as artists. In the early days of the Renaissance, the arts started to compete with each other. Until then the fine arts had been subordinate to the artes liberales like music, but this was questioned by universally talented artists like Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). One key reason was the discovery of central perspective. This led to a close link between art and mathematics, as artistic composition was now subject to mathematical rules.

Alberti and Leonardo studied perspective intensively, and demanded enhanced status for thefine arts in their writings, particularly in relation to music.

Alberti was principally concerned with the arts' competition between each other. He felt that painting should be allotted the highest status. As a humanistic scholar he insisted that painters should not just have artistic talent, but should also be taught all the free arts, above all geometry. In his theoretical treatise on painting «De Pictura» of 1435/36 he writes: «Hence painting enjoys such high esteem that its exponents, given the admiration accorded to their works, are almost inclined to think that they are to the greatest possible degree similar to God. And is it not further the case that painting should be deemed the teacher of all the other arts - or at least their outstanding adornment?" [5] And Alberti goes on to write: «So: this art gives pleasure, if it is cultivated; it ensures esteem, wealth and eternal fame only if it is so cultivated that it reaches a high standing, Given this - as painting turns our to be the best and most honourable adornment of all things, worthy of free men, beloved equally of the learned and the unlearned - I require all the more emphatically of youth that is eager to learn that they may turn their efforts towards painting, to the greatest feasible extent.» [6] Alberti, who rose to considerable fame as an architect in particular, applied musical numerical proportions to architectural construction. Famous examples are his designs for the churches of S. Francesco in Rimini (1453) and S. Andrea in Mantua (1470). [7]

Leonardo raised the argument to a higher plane. He doubted the superiority of the artes liberales as opposed to the fine arts. His exemplary comparison of art and music led to a demand that art should enjoy equal status. As a universal scholar, he was knowledgeable in all fields. It is said that Leonardo even designed musical instruments, for example a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head for Prince Lodovico Sforza in Milan. He is also said to have been an outstanding musician. For his famous portrait of the Mona Lisa he arranged for music and singing during the sittings, to encourage the subject to look cheerful. [8] In his now famous treatise «Il Paragone», Leonardo wrote in detail about the relationship between painting and music: «If you say that the non-mechanical sciences are the intellectual ones, that I say thatpainting is intellectual and that it, just as music and geometry consider the relationship between the continuous quantities, and arithmetic the relationship between the discontinuous quantities, painting considers all continuous qualities of the relationship between light and shade and with perspective, those of distances.» [9] And further: «Music can be called nothing other than the sister of painting, as it is subject to hearing, as sense that comes after sight, and creates harmony by combining its well-proportioned and simultaneously appearing parts, though they are compelled to emerge and to fade away in a single or several tempos. These tempos enfold the wellfitting quality of the elements from which the harmony is composed, no differently from the way that the lines describe the elements of which the human beauty is composed. Painting towers over and dominates music, because it does not fade away immediately after it is created like unfortunate music, but, on the contrary, remains alive, and so something that in reality is nothing but a surface shows itself to be a living thing. Oh wondrous science, you keep the fragile beauty of mortal man alive, and it thus becomes more lasting than the works of nature, as these are subject to the remorseless changes of time, and of necessity become old. This science (painting) relates to the divine being as its works relate to the works of this being, and for his reason it is worshipped.» [10]

The particular significance of mathematics as a common basis for music and fine art was addressed above all in marquetry work. From the late 15th century, the wooden cladding of choir stalls and scholar's studies showed trompe-l'oeil-like still life compositions made up of mathematical instruments, musical instruments, books and views of architecture.

Artists vitae, like that of Giorgio Vasari, dating from the 16th century, repeatedly report on the musical talents of individual artists. One of these is the Venetian painter Giogione (1478–1511), a passionate lutenist whose divine singing and playing of music was held in such high esteem that he was invited to prestigious events staged by the nobility as a musician. [11] He addressed music in his painting as well. Music is the central theme in one painting by Giorgione, the «Concert champêtre» (c. 1510, Louvre, Paris). The pastoral scene shows a lutenist resting in a meadow,turning to face a shepherd, and also nude woman playing a flute. On the left-hand edge of the picture a second naked woman is holding a jug over a stone trough. Giorgione, who was himself a passionate musician, is addressing the pastoral landscape as a place of musical inspiration here, where the urban musician is being given artistic inspiration by the divine muses and the shepherd. [12] Another example of the secularization of music as a theme takes us to Rome and the late 16th century.

Baroque - secularization and illusionism

In the course of the 16th century, music increased in popularity as part of a process of increasing secularization, but also as a topic of tangible refinement of sensual delight in life. In painting, the theme tends to crop up as an allegory of fleeting, transient existence. It quickly became a favourite subject for the genre painting that was emerging at the time.

The Italian painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) offers an early example. For his Roman patron Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, with whom he lodged for a time, he painted a half-figure Group Portrait with Musicians. The youth playing the lute in the centre is surrounded by three other young men, including Caravaggio himself, who is placed behind the lute player on the right and looking at the viewer. He has a horn in his hand. In the background on the left it is possible to make out a winged cupid with a vine. A fourth youth is completely absorbed in studying sheet music. Even if one assumes that these are portraits of musicians from Cardinal del Monte's entourage, the ancient costumes also suggest an allegory, similarly to Giorgione's picture. As well as the homoerotic nature of the piece, its significance includes the allegorical reference to love and music. [13]

In the next century, further development of secular themes led to the emergence of the music still life. Musical instruments depicted alone appear as individual pictures, but also in an allegorical cycle of the human sensory organs. Old inventories record that cycles of this kind were arranged in Baroque chambers of art and curiosities, the predecessors of the modern museum. Rooms of this kind displayed a microcosm of paintings and sculptures, stuffed animals, herbariums,minerals, optical instruments and much more. Music still lifes do not just depict a whole range of the instruments of the day, the idea of vanity makes them instruments of the vanity of sensual pleasure, indeed quite simply into an allegory of man's short life.

Musical instruments occur in the context of depicting a loose life in countless Baroque genre pictures. Music being played in an inn, at a lovers' tryst or in a society salon becomes the symbol of a morally dubious approach to life.

In Baroque churches, architecture, painting and sculpture enter into a symbiosis under religious conditions for the last time. This aimed to merge all the genres, but also posed the threat of making religious content too superficial. As a response to the Counter-Reformation, Catholic church interiors were redesigned to enhance religious edification: high, vaulted naves, colourful painterly and sculptural decoration, highlighted with gold, an organ. The Catholic Church reacted to the Protestant ban of images with a new and sensual pictorial strategy that was not content with presenting a single image, but included the whole church interior. All the design elements worked together on the basis of the Baroque sense of emphatic sensuality and overflowing emotion, but also the idea of transience. The church interior was seen as a reflection of heaven, and an attempt was made to dissolve the boundaries between this world and the next with the interplay of architecture, sculpture and illusionistic wall painting. The nave was intended to open out as it rose, and the believer's eye was to be turned towards heaven and the welcoming saints, all to the sound of the organ. The 17th and 18th centuries are celebrated as the heyday of organ-building. Regular organ landscapes were created, driven by different architectural and liturgical requirements: it was only in liturgical celebration that musical orchestration and artistic decoration of a space could merge. This was to influence one of the guiding intellectual forces of Modernism - Richard Wagner - to some considerable extent.

Early Modernism - Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk

In the course of the 19th century music acquired outstanding status when compared with the fine arts. Music's expressive resources could successfully reach awide public that was listening to a new language - especially that of Beethoven - after the Enlightenment, revolution and a war that had raged all over Europe. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer remarked on this: «Music is the true common language that is understood everywhere…. But it does not speak of things, rather of nothing but wellbeing and woe, which are the only realities for the will.» [14]

It is not surprising under these conditions that it was a musician who tried to bring the arts together, naturally with music in prime position: Richard Wagner (1813-1883). In his essay «Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft» (The Art-Work of the Future), he conceived an interplay of the arts as a Gesamtkunstwerk: «The great Gesamtkunstwerk that has to embrace all genres of art, in order to consume, to destroy each one of these genres to some extent as resources for the sake of achieving the overall purpose of them all, in other words the unconditional, direct representation of perfect human nature - this great Gesamtkunstwerk it (i.e. our spirit) recognizes not as the arbitrary possible deed of the individual, but as the necessarily conceivable joint work of the people of the future.» [15]

Wagner identified the composer Beethoven, the hero of «absolute music», as leading the way in this movement. He describes Beethoven's symphonies as «redeeming music from its own most particular element to become general art. It is the human gospel of the art of the future. No progress is possible from it, from it only the perfect work of art of the future can follow directly, the general drama, to which Beethoven has forged the artistic key for us. Thus music has produced from itself something that none of the other separate arts could do.» [16]

Wagner believed that he had received this artistic key himself. He strove towards the Gesamtkunstwerk he so desired to achieve by building the Festspielhaus in Bayreth, reserved exclusively for performances of his own works. The musical staging, with the orchestra in a concealed pit that concentrates the audience's attention entirely on the interplay of music and stage setting is seen as a precursor of cinematic performances.

Wagner's ideas were not without their effect on the fine arts. One of the outstanding examples of hisenormous cultural influence is provided by the Leipzig artist Max Klinger (1857- 1920). Over 16 years, and at a cost of over 100,000 marks he created his polychrome «Beethoven» sculpture.

Classical Modernism - the early days of abstraction

Wagner's synaesthetic ideas became the starting-point for one of Modernism's fundamental developments: abstraction. The simultaneity of acoustic and visual perception, made reality by staging at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, became a new challenge for those who were preparing the way for abstract painting. As well as Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957), Mikalojus Ciurlionis (1875-1911) and Francis Picabia (1879-1953), these included the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). Looking back on his early days on Moscow, Kandinsky remarked: «But Lohengrin seemed to be to be a perfect realization of this Moscow. The violins, the deep base notes and the wind instruments in particular embodied the whole power of the evening hour for me at that time. I saw all my colours in my mind, they were there before my eyes. Wild, almost mad lines drew themselves in front of me. I did not dare use the expression that Wagner had painted <my hour> in music. But it was quite clear to me that on the other hand painting could develop the same sort of powers that music possesses.» [17]

A key experience for the synaesthetically inclined Kandinksy was contact with the music of the composer Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951). With Franz Marc, Alexei Javelensky, Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münther and other members of the <Neue Künstlervereinigung> he attended one of Schönberg's concerts in Munich on 2 January 1911. The programme included a string quartet that introduced Schönberg's atonal period and the opus 11 piano pieces. This concert gave Kandinsky an important boost on his way to abstraction. His 1911 painting «Impression 3» was created as a result of this musical input. [18]

Abandoning perspective and also detaching colour from the objective motif took Kandinsky straight into abstraction. Even though he had taken the first steps in this direction in 1908/09, he had needed the crucial musical experience to help him risk the decisive step. Just as Schönberg had liberated himself from the constraints of the rules of musical composition,Kandinsky was trying to extricate himself from the dictates of imitating nature. Thus the end of central perspective in painting coincided with the loss of a binding key system in music. Composer and painter met at a turning-point. Kandinsky immediately tried to get in touch with Schönberg personally, who also painted, and made him a member of the «Blauer Reiter». In his first letter to Schönberg, he wrote: «You have realized something in your works that I was longing for in music, admittedly in an uncertain form. The natural movement through their own fate, the personal life in the individual voices in our composition in precisely what I am trying to find in the form of painting.» [19]

Unlike Kandinsky, who was decisively inspired towards atonal music by Schönberg, for the French painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) simultaneity and hence temporal perception shifted into the centre of his artistic output. He used the rules of simultaneous contrast to create vibrations in the eye. Time became a new category within artistic creativity, taking over from the meaning of space with a central perspective to a certain extent. Rhythm created a particular affinity between art and music. Delaunay's pictorial motifs started to move, they were even intended to lead to insights into the world over and above the optical effect. His friend, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, poetically called this way of painting «Orphism.» A piece of Paragone seems to flare up again when we read this statement by Delaunay: «The eye is our most highly developed sense; it is most closely connected with our brain, our consciousness. It conveys the idea of the vital movement of the world and this movement is called simultaneity.» [20]

In Delaunay's case, painting became time-based colour composition. Perception was no longer based on the classical perspective composition of a rectangular framed picture. In his 1912 series of «Window Pictures» Delaunay composed imaged that were metres long, representing the perception of the picture subject as a time sequence, like an excerpt.

Delaunay wrote as follows about his «Window Pictures«: «The choice of ‹Window Pictures› as a title is still a reminder of concrete reality; but the new form the expressive resources are taking canalready be seen. These are windows on to a new reality. This new reality means nothing other than spelling out new expressive resources; these create the new form purely physically, as elements of colour. Among other things, these pictorial elements are juxtaposed contrasts that build up pictorial architecture, a complex, similar to an orchestra, developing like movements in colour. […] The series invokes only the sujet, the composition and orchestration of colours. That is the origin, the first appearance of non-representational painting in France. […] The colour is its own function; all its motion is present at every moment, as in musical composition at the time of Bach, or good jazz in our day.» [21]

Delaunay's reflections about the meaning of colour, linked with the loss of perspective and the new pictorial order analogous with musical composition are reminiscent of Kandinky's ideas. In fact the two artists met at the first «Blauer Reiter» exhibition in Munich in December 1911, in which Delaunay also featured. Correspondence between them from autumn 1911 to spring 1912, when Delaunay began his «Windows Series», has survived. [22]

From painting to the moving picture

Alongside Delaunay's painterly approach, artists also tried to compose colour rhythms as real movement. Leopold Survage (1879-1968) designed over seventy studies for his film project «Rhythme Coloré» in 1913. This was a colour-rhythm symphony that was unfortunately never realized. Survage summed up his aims as follows in 1914: «After painting had liberated itself from the conventional objects of the outside world, it conquered the terrain of abstract forms. Now it has to get over its last, fundamental barrier - immobility, so that it can become an expressive resource for our sensations that is as rich and subtle as music. Everything that is accessible to us has duration in time, which manifests itself most strongly in rhythm, activity and movement […] I want to animate my painting, I want to give it movement, I want to introduce rhythm into the concrete action of my abstract painting, rhythm that derives from my inner life.» [23]

As well as Survage, the Swedish painter Helmuth Viking Eggeling (1890-1925) and the Dadaist and film pioneer Hans Richter (1888-1976) worked on this subject. The two men met in Zurich in 1918, and worked together for several years in their search for a universal language. Richter described this period as follows: «Music became a model for both of us. We found a principle that fitted our philosophy in musical counterpoint: each action produces a corresponding reaction. So we found a suitable system in counterpoint fugue, a dynamic and polar arrangement of conflicting energies, and we saw life as such in this model. […] Month after month we studied and compared our analytical drawings, which we had prepared on hundreds of sheets of paper, until we finally came to see them as living creatures that grew, and then passed away […] Now we seemed to be confronted with a new problem, that of continuity […] until - late in 1919 - decided to do something. Eggeling made one theme of elements into the <Horizontal-Vertical-Mass>, on long paper rolls, and I made one of the rolls into <Präludium>. [24] The results of their experiments with form on long paper rolls took Richter and Eggeling directly to film. Their abstract formal studies became the basis for film scores. They and Walter Ruttmann (1887-1941) count as pioneers of the abstract film. [25]

The Bauhaus was a special place where the different arts could develop symbiotically. Many of the masters teaching fine art there were extraordinarily interested in music, like for example Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer, (1888-1943) and László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). Paul Klee (1879- 1940) also repeatedly included motifs from music in his drawings and water-colours. He discovered a relationship between painting and music at a very early stage. He put it like this in his diary: «The main disadvantage for the observer or re-creator is that they are faced with an end, and seems to be going in the opposite direction as far as genesis is concerned. […] Musical works have the advantage of being taken up again in the sequence in which they were conceived, and on repeated hearing the disadvantage of being tiring because of the evenness of the impression they make. For the ignorant, creative work has the disadvantage being at aloss about where to begin, and for the intelligent the advantage of varying the sequence strongly while taking it in.» [26] Klee perceived space as time, like Delaunay, to whom he had been introduced through Kandinsky in 1912. Instead of the concept of simultaneity that Delaunay had introduced, Klee used polyphony: «Polyphonic painting is superior to music in that temporal qualities are more spatial here. The concept of simultaneity merges more richly here. To illustrate the backward movement that I think out for music, I remember the reflection in the side windows of a moving tram.» [27]

Klee also claimed the category of time for painting. Differently from Leonardo, he sees time as the element that links the individual arts. His water-colours produced around 1921, which include «Fuge in Rot» (Fugue in Red), greatly influenced experiments with light projections taking place in the Bauhaus.

Abstract sounds - multi-media performances

Klee's colour compositions stimulated Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893-1965), who was still registered as a Bauhaus student at the time, to conduct his first experiments with light projections. [28] His first ideas for the so-called «Farbenlicht-Spiele» (Colour-Light Games) date from 1921/22. The abstract play of coloured forms was performed at the Bauhaus in 1923, accompanied by piano music. Several fellow performers were needed to realize the score the artist had devised. The colour forms emerging from the darkness of the projection room are directly reminiscent of Klee's water-colour compositions, they are painting translating into movement. Hirschfeld-Mack said of his light projections: «…we are aiming for a fugue-like, strictly structured play of colours, always derived from a definite colour-form theme.» [29]

The Hanover Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (1897-1948) did not work with colours, but with words. His so-called «Merz art» includes all artistic fields, from architecture via painting to poetry. According to Schwitters, the word «Merz» means «bringing every conceivable material together for artistic purposes, and technically the fact that the individual materials make the same effect in principle..» [30] Perhaps it was by chance that the first Merz work happened to come into being in association with music: Schwitters had his subject,a doctor-friend, play the piano while sitting for a portrait. When the man started to become agitated over Beethoven's «Moonlight Sonata», Schwitter intuitively glued a beer mat on to the cheek in the portrait! His first Merz poems were written around 1919, like «An Anna Blume» (To Anna Blume), for example. The «Lautsonate Merz 13» (Sound Sonata Merz 13) appeared on a gramophone record in 1924, and the «Ursonate» (Sonata with primeval sounds) was composed over a long period in several versions from 1922 to 1932. Schwitters wrote as follows in the magazine G in 1924: «It is not the word that is originally the material of poetry, it is the letter.» Thus he claims letters, or sounds, as the raw material for his poetry, like the rubbish he found in the streets and used for his material collages. Schwitters summed up his intentions in «Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Künstler» (The Artists' Right to Self-Determination) in 1919: «Merz poetry is abstract. Like Merz painting, it uses complete sentences from newspapers, posters, catalogue, conversations etc, as given elements, with and without changes. (That is terrible.) These elements do not need to fit in with the meaning, as there is no more meaning. (That is also terrible.) There are also no more elephants, there are only parts of the poem. (That is dreadful.) And you? (Draws war loan.) Decide yourselves what is poem and what is frame.» [31]

Fine artists increasingly frequently took part in avant-garde plays or even wrote their own pieces in the 1920s. Known works are Kandinsky's drafts for Mussorgsky's «Pictures at an Exhibition» (1928) or Oskar Schlemmer's «Triadisches Ballett» (Triadic Ballet), 1922/26.

An early example of composers and artists working together is provided by the Russian Futurist Alexei Krutschonych's opera. Michail Matjuschin set the libretto of his opera «Sieg über die Sonne» (Victory over the Sun) to music, and Kasimir Malevich designed the costumes and stage set. The piece had its world premiere in St. Petersburg in December 1913. The piece's trans-rational language was made up of incomprehensible word coinages, and came to express the so-called new reason that replaced the old values, symbolized by the sun. The opera was also of lasting importance for artistic development in Russia: Malevich deployed elements of Suprematism for the first time here. The Russian Constructivist El Lissitzky (1890-1941)takes up the theme again in 1920/21. He designed mechanical figures as a «three-dimensional design for an electro-mechanical show» for a planned new performance of the opera «Sieg über die Sonne» as a multi-media spectacle.

Lissitzky explained his aims himself in the foreword to an edition portfolio containing a selection of the stage designs: «This material is the fragment of a work created in Moscow in 1920/21 … We build a scaffolding in a square that is accessible and open on all sides, that is the show machinery. This scaffolding makes it possible for the show bodies to move in absolutely any way… They glide, roll, float up, in and over the scaffolding. All the parts of the scaffolding and all the bodies involved are set in motion using electro-mechanical forces and devices, and these are controlled by a single person. This is the show designer. His place is in the centre of the scaffolding at the switchboard for all energies. He directs the movement, the sound and the light. He switches the radio megaphone on and the din of railways stations rings out over the square, the roar of Niagara Falls, hammering in a rolling mill. Beams of light follow the movements of the bodies involved, refracted by prisms and reflections…The sun as expression of the old world energy in torn down from the sky by modern man, who can create his own source of energy because of his technical mastery. This idea in the opera is tied into the simultaneity of events. The language is alogical. Individual poems are sound poems.»

The classical artistic techniques like instrumental music and painting have already been gradually overcome by Survage, Viking-Eggeling, Richter, Ruttmann, Hirschfeld-Mack and replaced by new media forms like film, light and sound apparatuses. A new totality is designed that no longer operates as a individual work of genius, but is intended to be an event for the whole of society, in the political context of revolutionary Russia. Here the imposition of technology on human beings and sound has finally consumed Wagner's vision of the divine composer in favour of a world of apparatus that confronts the artist with a completely new set of tasks.

[1] For an introduction see Karin v. Maur (ed.), Vom Klang der Bilder. Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1985; Helga de la Motte-Haber, Musik und bildende Kunst, Laaber, 1990; Frank Schneider (ed.), Im Spiel der Wellen. Musik nach Bildern, Munich, 2000.

[2] M. Bernhard, »Musik«, in Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. VI, Munich, 1993, column 948-955.

[3] Johannes Tripps, Das handelnde Bildwerk in der Gotik. Forschungen zu den Bedeutungsschichten und der Funktion des Kirchengebäudes und seiner Ausstattung in der Hoch- und Spätgotik, Berlin, 1998.

[4] H. Braun, «Musik, Musikinstrumente», in: Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, 4th vol., Freiburg 1994, column 597– 611.

[5] Leon Battista Alberti, De pictura, 26, quoted from: idem, Das Standbild. Die Malkunst. Grundlagen der Malerei, ed. by O. Bätschmann/Ch. Schäublin, Darmstadt, 2000, p. 237.

[6] Leon Battista Alberti, De pictura, 26, quoted from: idem, Das Standbild. Die Malkunst. Grundlagen der Malerei, ed. by O. Bätschmann/Ch. Schäublin, Darmstadt, 2000, p. 245.

[7] Cf. Leon Battista Alberti, ed. by Joseph Rykwert/Anne Engel, Manuta, 1994, pp. 224-241.

[8] Cf. Giorgio Vasari, Le vite dei più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori, ed. by G. Milanesi, vol. IV, Florence MDCCCLXXIX, pp. 28, 40.

[9] Leonardo da Vinci, Il Paragone, LV 31c, quoted from: Leonardo da Vinci. Sämtliche Gemälde und die Schriften zur Malerei, ed. by André Chastel, Munich, 1990, p. 135.

[10] Leonardo da Vinci, Il Paragone, LV 29, quoted from: Leonardo da Vinci. Sämtliche Gemälde und die Schriften zur Malerei, ed. by André Chastel, Munich, 1990, p. 146.

[11] Cf. Giorgio Vasari, Le vite dei più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori, ed. by G. Milanesi, vol. IV, Florence MDCCCLXXIX, p. 92.

[12] Cf. Gabriele Frings, Giorgiones Ländliches Konzert. Darstellung der Musik als künstlerisches Programm in der venezianischen Malerei der Renaissance, Berlin, 1999.

[13] Cf. The Age of Caravaggio, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1985, pp. 228–235.

[14] Arthur Schopenhauer, Paralipomena § 218.

[15] Richard Wagner, «Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft,» in idem, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 3, Leipzig, 1907, ( pp. 42–177), p. 60.

[17] Wassily Kandinsky, Rückblicke (Berlin 1913), 3. ed. Bern, 1977, p. 14.

[18] Cf. Schönberg, Kandinsky, Blauer Reiter und die Russsche Avantgarde, Journal of the Arnold Schönberg Center 1/2000, Vienna, 2000.

[19] Quoted from Matthias Schmidt, «Arnold Schönberg und Wassily Kandinsky. Biographische Annäherungen,» p. 19, in Journal of the Arnold Schönberg Center 1/2000, pp. 16-32.

[20] Robert Delaunay, «Das Licht,» in Hajo Düchting (ed.), Robert Delaunay. Zur Malerei der reinen Farbe, Schriften 1912– 1940, Munich, 1983, p. 125.

[21] Robert Delaunay, «Das Licht,» in Hajo Düchting (ed.), Robert Delaunay. Zur Malerei der reinen Farbe, Schriften 1912– 1940, Munich, 1983, pp. 36-37.

[22] Cf. «Wassily Kandinsky – Robert Delaunay: Ein Dialog im April 1912. Rekonstruktion», in Robert Delaunay. Sonia Delaunay. Das Centre Pompidou zu Gast in Hamburg, Cologne 1999, pp. 186-191.

[23] Leopold Survage, Document Nr. 8182, July 29, 1914, Académie des Sciences, Paris, quoted from: Karin von Maur (ed.), Vom Klang der Bilder. Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1985, p. 228.

[24] Quoted from Standish D. Lawder, «Der abstrakte Film: Richter und Eggeling,» in: Hans Richter 1888–1976. Dadaist. Filmpionier. Maler. Theoretiker, Berlin/Zurich/Munich, 1982, pp. 27–35, here p. 30.

[25] Cf. the essay «Sound & Vision in Avantgarde & Mainstream» by Dieter Daniels and the source text by Walter Ruttmann, «Malerei mit Zeit.»

[26] Quoted from Christian Geelhaar, Paul Klee. Schriften. Rezensionen und Aufsätze, Cologne, 1976, p. 173.

[27] Paul Klee, Tagebuch Nr. 1081, quoted from Christian Geelhaar, «Moderne Malerei und Musik der Klassik – eine Parallele», in: Paul Klee. Das Werk der Jahre 1919–1933. Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 1979, pp. 31–44, here p. 37.

[28] Cf. Holger Wilmsmeier, Deutsche Avantgarde und Film. Die Filmmatinee ‹Der absolute Film› 3. und 10. Mai 1925 (diss. Heidelberg, 1993), Münster ,1994, pp. 7–16. Anne Hoormann, Lichtspiele. Zur Medienreflexion der Avantgarde in der Weimarer Republik, Munich, 2003, pp. 116–120, 159–166.

[29] Quoted from Anne Hoormann, Lichtspiele. Zur Medienreflexion der Avantgarde in der Weimarer Republik, Munich, 2003, p. 165.

[30] Kurt Schwitters, «Die Merzmalerei,» (1919), quoted from Kurt Schwitters. Ich ist Stil, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, 2000, p. 90.

[31] Kurt Schwitters, «Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Künstler.» 1919, quoted from Dietmar Elger, Der Merzbau von Kurt Schwitters. Eine Werkmonographie, Cologne, 1999, pp. 17–18.

© Media Art Net 2004

Source: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/image-sound_relations/sounding_mage/

[tpanan]

My Sunday Daily Blessings

January 17, 2021

Be still quiet your heart and mind, the  LORD is here, loving you talking to you...........                                                                                                                                                              

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 65, Cycle B

First Reading: 1 Samuel 3: 3b-10, 19

Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am.  You called me.” “I did not call you, “  Eli said.  “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep. Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am, “ he said.  “You called me.” But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son.  Go back to sleep.”

At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am.  You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”

When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

Responsorial Psalm:  Psalm 40: 2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

"Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will."

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 6: 13c-15a, 17-20

Brothers and sisters: The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body; God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

Verse before the Gospel: John 1: 41, 17b

R. Alleluia, Alleluia.

"We have found the Messiah: Jesus Christ, who brings us truth and grace."

R. Alleluia, Alleluia.

**Gospel: John 1: 35-42

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,

“What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” — which translated means Teacher —, “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”

So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” — which is translated Christ —. Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” — which is translated Peter.

*Meditation:  

Who is Jesus for you? John calls Jesus the Lamb of God and thus signifies Jesus' mission as the One who redeems us from our sins. The blood of the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12) delivered the Israelites from their oppression in Egypt and from the plague of death. The Lord Jesus freely offered up his life for us on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 Corinthians 5:7). The blood which he poured out for us on the cross cleanses, heals, and frees us from our slavery to sin, and from the "wages of sin which is death" (Romans 6:23) and the "destruction of both body and soul in hell" (Matthew 10:28).

It is significant that John was the son of the priest, Zachariah, who participated in the daily sacrifice of a lamb in the temple for the sins of the people (Exodus 29). In Jesus John saw the true and only sacrifice which could deliver us from bondage to sin, death, and the powers of hell. How did John know the true identity of Jesus, as the Son of God and Savior of the world (John 1:29)? The Holy Spirit revealed to John Jesus' true nature, such that John bore witness that this is the Son of God. How can we be certain that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of the living God? The Holy Spirit makes the Lord Jesus Christ known to us through the gift of faith. God gives us freely of his Spirit that we may comprehend - with enlightened minds and eyes of faith - the great mystery and plan of God to unite all things in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

"What do you seek?" John in his characteristic humility was eager to point beyond himself to the Christ (means Anointed One and Messiah). He did not hesitate to direct his own disciples to the Lord Jesus. When two of John's disciples began to seek Jesus out, Jesus took the initiative to invite them into his company. He did not wait for them to get his attention. Instead he met them halfway. He asked them one of the most fundamental questions of life: "What are you looking for?" Jesus asks each one of us the same question:"What are you searching for? Do you know the meaning and purpose for your life?" Only God, the Father and Author of life, can answer that question and make our purpose fully known to us. That is why the Lord Jesus invites each one of us to draw near to himself. He wants us to know him personally - to know what he came to do for us and what he wants to offer us.

"Come and see" "Come and see" is the Lord's invitation for each one of us to discover the joy of friendship and communion with the One who made us in love for love. Saint Augustine of Hippo reminds us that it is God, our Creator and Redeemer, who seeks us out, even when we are not looking for him: "If you hadn't been called by God, what could you have done to turn back? Didn't the very One who called you when you were opposed to Him make it possible for you to turn back?" It is God who initiates and who draws us to himself. Without his mercy and help we could not find him on our own.

When we find something of great value it's natural to want to share the good news of our discovery with our family, friends, and neighbors. When Andrew met Jesus and discovered that he was truly the Messiah, he immediately went to his brother Simon and told him the good news. Andrew brought his brother to meet Jesus so he could "come and see" for himself. When Jesus saw Simon approaching he immediately reached out to Simon in the same way he had done for Andrew earlier. Jesus looked at Simon and revealed that he knew who Simon was and where he came from even before Simon had set his eyes on Jesus. Jesus gave Simon a new name which signified that God had a personal call and mission for him. Jesus gave Simon the name "Cephas" which is the Aramaic word for "rock". Cephas is translated as Peter (Petros in Greek and Petrus in Latin) which also literally means "rock".

To call someone a "rock" was one of the greatest compliments in the ancient world. The rabbis had a saying that when God saw Abraham, he exclaimed: "I have discovered a rock to found the world upon." Through Abraham God established a nation for himself. Through faith Peter grasped who Jesus truly was - the Anointed One (Messiah and Christ) and the only begotten Son of God. The New Testament describes the church as a spiritual house or temple with each member joined together as living stones (see 1 Peter 2:5). Faith in Jesus Christ makes us into rocks or spiritual stones. The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of faith to know the Lord Jesus personally, power to live the gospel faithfully, and courage to witness the truth and joy of the Gospel to others. The Lord Jesus is ever ready to draw us to himself. Do you seek to grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Lord Jesus Christ, fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit that I may grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth. Let your Spirit be aflame in my heart that I may joyfully seek to do your will in all things.

Sources:

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

**Meditations may be freely reprinted and translated into other languages for non-profit use only. Please cite copyright and original source at dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org