January 2024 Newsletter & Readings
Greetings,
I hope this newsletter finds you all enjoying a Blessed and Merry Christmas season. Given the season and our focus on preparing for and welcoming the Lord, there is little to report from the UVM team, this month.
I would only note that the selections from Dom Guéranger highlight how the Church calendar quickly points to the myriad ways the Word spread, and continues to spread, first naturally with the Epiphany of the Lord, later in the month with the Conversion of St. Paul, and in between with the commemoration of St. Antony and what is traditionally considered the “official” founding of the monastic movement in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. As Dom Guéranger puts it, following St. Antony’s initiative, “Monasteries were built in every direction, in solitudes and in the very cities; and the Faithful had but to look at these communities living in the fervent and literal fulfillment of the Counsels of Christ, and they felt themselves encouraged to obey the Precepts.”
In what are often challenging times, may we, too, feel ourselves encouraged to emulate the fervor and commitment of those who have heeded the call to holiness by dedicating their lives to prayer and service.
Gaudete! Christus est natus!
In Domino,
Jeff Rowe
Readings
Excerpt: The Traditional Mass: History, Form, and Theology of the Classical Roman Rite
Fr. Michael Fiedrowicz. Angelico Press, pp. 75-76
Structure and Components of the Celebration of the Mass
The classical rite of the Mass includes two main parts, which further subdivide: the Foremass, or Mass of the Catechumens, since in the early Church the candidates for Baptism had to leave the divine worship afterward, and the Mass of the Faithful. The scriptural portion of the service and the Eucharistic sacrifice were placed as counterpoints to each other and related to each other just as the atrium, vestibule, and sanctuary were in an old Christian basilica.
The Mass of the Catechumens
Prayers at the Foot of the Altar
The priest’s entrance takes place in such a way that he first pauses with the acolyte at the foot of the altar and here— hence the name— recites “the prayers at the foot of the altar.” These include a variety of individual prayers (Psalm 42, Confiteor, versicle, and prayers while approaching the altar), which should interiorly prepare the priest and the acolyte, the representative of the people, for the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass, so that right from the beginning they call to mind the thought of sacrifice (Introibo ad altare Dei), their sinfulness and need for forgiveness (Confiteor), and the requisite purity of heart (Aufer a nobis), and allow for a final preparatory reflection on the sacred event that is about to begin.
The prayers at the foot of the altar emphasize the sacredness of the upcoming action, which requires of the priest and the faithful alike appropriate dispositions, awakened in various ways by the individual prayers. Since neither a personal greeting nor a free-form introduction begins the Mass, in the mutual look at God the theocentrism of the sacred action becomes manifest and in the pre-shaped formula the timeless prayer of the Church can be perceived.
…To be continued
Excerpt: The Liturgical Year
Very Rev. Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes, 1833-1875
January 6 - Epiphany of Our Lord
The Feast of the Epiphany is the continuation of the mystery of Christmas; but it appears on the Calendar of the Church with its own special character. Its very name, which signifies Manifestation, implies that it celebrates the apparition of God to his creatures.
For several centuries, the Nativity of our Lord was kept on this day; and when in the year 376 the decree of the Holy See obliged all Churches to keep the Nativity on the 25th of December, as Rome did—the Sixth of January was not robbed of all its ancient glory. It was still to be called the Epiphany, and the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ was also commemorated on this same Feast, which Tradition had marked as the day on which that Baptism took place.
The Greek Church gives this Feast the venerable and mysterious name of Theophania, which is of such frequent recurrence in the early Fathers as signifying a divine Apparition. We find this name applied to this Feast by Eusebius, St. Gregory Nazianzum, and St. Isidore of Pelusium. In the liturgical books of the Melchite Church the Feast goes under no other name.
Lastly, this Feast is called, in many countries, King’s Feast: it is, of course, an allusion to the Magi, whose journey to Bethlehem is so continually mentioned in today’s Office.
The Epiphany shares with the Feasts of Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost the honor of being called, in the Canon of the Mass, a Day most holy. It is also one of the cardinal Feasts, that is, one of those on which the arrangement of the Christian Year is based; for as we have Sundays after Easter and Sundays after Pentecost, so also we count six Sundays after the Epiphany.
The Epiphany is indeed a great Feast, and the joy caused us by the Birth of our Jesus must be renewed on it, for, as though it were a second Christmas Day, it shows us our Incarnate God in a new light. It leaves us all the sweetness of the dear Babe of Bethlehem, who hath appeared to us already in love; but to this it adds its own grand manifestation of the divinity of our Jesus. At Christmas, it was a few Shepherds that were invited by the Angels to go and recognize the Word made Flesh; but now, at the Epiphany, the voice of God himself calls the whole world to adore this Jesus, and hear him.
January 17 – Saint Antony, Abbot
The East and West unite, today, in honouring St. Antony, the Father of Cenobites. The Monastic Life existed before his time, as we know from in-disputable testimony; but he was the first Abbot, because he was the first to bring Monks under the permanent government of one Superior or Father.
Antony began with seeking solely his own sanctification; he was known only as the wonderful Solitary, against whom the wicked spirits waged an almost continued battle: but, in course of time, men were attracted to him by his miracles and by the desire of their own perfection; this gave him Disciples; he permitted them to cluster round his cell; and Monasteries thus began to be built in the desert. The age of the Martyrs “was near its close; the persecution under Diocletian, which was to be the last, was over as Antony entered on the second half of his course: and God chose this time for organizing a new force in the Church. The Monastic Life was brought to bear upon the Christian world; the Ascetics, as they were called, not even such of them as were consecrated — were not a sufficient element of power.
Monasteries were built in every direction, in solitudes and in the very cities; and the Faithful had but to look at these communities living in the fervent and literal fulfillment of the Counsels of Christ, and they felt themselves encouraged to obey the Precepts. The apostolic traditions of continual prayer and penance were perpetuated by the Monastic system; it secured the study of the Sacred Scriptures and Theology; and the Church herself would soon receive from these arsenals of intellect and piety her bravest defenders, her holiest Prelates, and her most zealous Apostles. Yes, the Monastic Life was to be and give all this to the Christian world, for the example of St. Antony had given her a bias to usefulness.
January 25 – The Conversion of Saint Paul
We have already seen how the Gentiles, in the person of the Three Magi, offered their mystic gifts to the Divine Child of Bethlehem, and received from him, in return, the precious gifts of faith, hope, and charity. The harvest is ripe; it is time for the reaper to come. But, who is to be God’s labourer? The Apostles of Christ are still living under the very shadow of mount Sion. All of them have received the mission to preach the gospel of salvation to the uttermost parts of the world; but not one among them has, as yet, received the special character of Apostle of the Gentiles. Peter, who had received the Apostleship of Circumcision, (Galatians 2:8) is sent specially, as was Christ himself, to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel, (Matthew 15:24) And yet, as he is the Head and the Foundation, it belongs to him to open the door of Faith to the Gentiles; (Acts 14:26) which he solemnly does, by conferring Baptism on Cornelius, the Roman Centurion.
But the Church is to have one more Apostle - an Apostle for the Gentiles - and he is to be the fruit of the martyrdom and prayer of St. Stephen. Saul, a citizen of Tarsus, has not seen Christ in the flesh, and yet Christ alone can make an Apostle. It is, then, from heaven, where he reigns impassible and glorified, that Jesus will call Saul to be his disciple, just as, during the period of his active life, he called the fishermen of Genesareth to follow him and hearken to his teachings. The Son of God will raise Saul up to the third heaven, and there will reveal to him all his mysteries: and when Saul, having come down again to this earth, shall have seen Peter, (Galatians 1:18) and compared his Gospel with that recognised by Peter (Galatians 2:2) - he can say, in all truth, that he is an Apostle of Christ Jesus, (Galatians 1:1) and frequently elsewhere) and that he has done nothing less than the great Apostles. (2 Corinthians 11:5)
It is on this glorious day of the Conversion of Saul, who is soon to change his name into Paul, that this great work is commenced. It is on this day, that is heard the Almighty voice which breaketh the cedars of Libanus, (Psalm 28:5) and can make a persecuting Jew become first a Christian, and then an Apostle.
