The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 8: The Birth of the Messiah, Part 1: Katalyma, Pandocheia, House and Cave

(Admittedly, part of this would be a rehash of something I wrote a while ago)

And it came to pass, that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child.

And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

-Luke 2:1-7 (Douay-Rheims Challoner)

I'm sure many of our readers know of the manifold inspirational stories, poems, songs and sermons that have been made through the ages on the innkeeper who either gave Mary and Joseph room or shooed them away. This rude man has been pretty much a mainstay of our Christmas pageants and Nativity scene and is usually made as a prime example of the cruel world that would not accept its Creator. However, did Luke really refer to an 'inn' (in the sense we often understand the word) in Luke 2:7?

December 12 - Our Lady of Guadalupe

And on Tuesday, while it was still night, Juan Diego left his house to come to Tlatilolco to get the priest. And when he finally reached the little hill which ended the mountain range (tepetzintli Tepeyacac), at its foot, where the road comes out, on the side that the sun sets on, where he always passed before, he said: "If I go ahead on the road, I don’t want this Lady to see me, because for sure, just like before, she’ll stop me so I can take the sign to the church governor for her, as she ordered me to; because first our tribulation must leave us; first I must quickly call the [Franciscan] priest (teopixqui motolinia); my uncle is anxiously waiting for him."

He immediately turned toward the hill, climbed up across it where there is a pass, and emerged on the eastern side, so that he could go quickly to Mexico so that the Queen of Heaven would not detain him. He thinks that where he made the turn, the one who is looking everywhere perfectly won’t be able to see him.

He saw how she was coming down from up on the hill, and that from there she had been looking at him, from where she saw him before. She came to meet him beside the hill, she came to block his way; she said to him: "Where are you going, my youngest-and-dearest son? Where are you headed for?"

And he, perhaps he grieved a little, or perhaps he became ashamed? Or perhaps he became afraid of the situation, be became fearful? He prostrated himself before her, he greeted her, he said to her: "My little Maiden, my smallest Daughter, my Virgin, I hope you are happy; how are you this morning? Does your beloved little body feel well, my Lady, my Girl?
"Although it grieves me, I will cause your face and your heart anguish: I must tell you, my little Girl, that one of your servants, my uncle, is very ill. A terrible sickness has taken hold of him; he will surely die from it soon. And now I shall go quickly to your little house in Mexico, to call one of our priests, the beloved ones of Our Lord, so that he will go to hear his confession and prepare him, because we really were born for that we who came to wait for the painful effort of our death.
"But, if I am going to carry it out, I will return here after that to go carry your breath, your word, Lady, my little Young one. I beg you to forgive me, be patient with me a little longer, because I am not deceiving you with this, my youngest Daughter, my little Girl. Tomorrow without fail I will come as fast as possible."

As soon as she heard the explanations of Juan Diego, the Merciful Perfect Virgin answered him: "Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest-and-dearest son, that the thing that frightened you, the thing that afflicted you is nothing. Do not let it disturb you. Do not fear this sickness nor any other sickness, nor any sharp and hurtful thing.
"Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not int he hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you. Do not let your uncle's illness pressure you with grief, because he will not die of it now. You may be certain that he is already well." And at that very moment his uncle became well, as they later found out.

- Nican Mopohua

Dignum Et Justum Est

The Inlatio for the feast of St. James the Great followed by the Sanctus, sung by Ensemble Organum from from Chant Mozarabe: Cathédrale de Tolède (XVe siècle). (Video by yours truly)

The Mozarabic Inlatio, or Illatio, corresponds to the Roman Preface; as Dom Fernand Cabrol says of them (in his The Mass of the Western Rites): "hardly a Mass but has its own; some of them comprise many columns of text, and if they were sung, these must have lasted at least half an hour. We will attempt presently to discover their authors. But we may say at once that they form a dogmatic collection which is priceless for the study of theological history in Spain during the Middle Ages, and a collection which, it must be confessed, has as yet been but little studied. It contains pages which do honor to the learning, the depth, and the culture of Spanish theologians from the fifth-ninth centuries." Here is an excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on the Mozarabic Rite:

"The Illatio or Inlatio. This is called Praefatio in the Roman and Contestatio or Immolatio in the Gallican. With the Post-Sanctus it forms St. Isidore's fifth prayer. There are proper Illationes to every Mass. The form is similar to the Roman Preface, but generally longer and more diffuse, as in the Gallican. It is preceded by a longer dialogue than the usual one [...] The Illatio ends in all manner of ways, but always leading by way of the angels to the Sanctus."

This particular Inlatio (from the Omnium Offerentium) curiously has a reference to a medieval tradition, recorded in the Golden Legend, that St. James cured a paralytic on his way to execution, which caused one of the executioners, a scribe named Josiah, to convert at the spot and be martyred along with him: 'per Jesum Christum Filium tuum, Dominum nostrum: in cujus nomine electus Jacobus, cum ad passionem traheretur, paraliticum ad se clamentem curavit, atque hoc miraculo cor illudentis sibi ita compulsit, ut cum sacramentis instinctum fidei faceret ad gloriam pervenire martyrii' ("through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, in whose name the elect James, when he was being dragged to his passion, cured a paralytic who called out to him, and by this miracle so softened the heart of him who mocked him, as to cause him now imbued with the sacraments of faith to arrive at the glory of martyrdom.")

A Random Nit to Pick: Novus 'Ordo Missae' or 'Novus Ordo' Missae?

Just a short one for today, folks.
As many readers may know, the Mass of Pope Paul VI (aka the Ordinary Form/Forma Ordinaria, et al.) is known in some circles as the 'Novus Ordo Mass'. A stroll through the awl-mightee internetz reveals that this bilingual term is actually quite well-known and used. Some folks even use the term in a pejorative manner, even drawing connections between it and Novus Ordo Seclorum of the US' Great Seal, and from there, the Freemasons or the Illuminati or Jewish bankers or whatnot (take your pick) or even Hitler and his Neuordnung - as good conspiracy theories often tend to do.

There is, however, something wrong about the usage of this term that I find hard NOT to nitpick. Many of the people who use the phrase parse it incorrectly. The original Latin term from which 'Novus Ordo Mass' comes from is novus Ordo Missae. Pope Paul VI himself used the phrase once in a speech for the Consistory for the creation of twenty new Cardinals in May of 1976:

Peculiari autem modo id eo gravius censendum est, quod illuc divisio inducitur, ubi congregavit nos in unum Christi amor, scilicet in Liturgiam atque in Eucharisticum Sacrificium, cum denegetur obsequium normis de re liturgica statutis. At vero, nomine ipsius Traditionis Nos ab omnibus filiis Nostris atque ab omnibus catholicis communitatibus postulamus, ut cum dignitate pietatisque fervore renovatae Liturgiae ritus celebrentur. Usus novi Ordinis Missae minime quidem sacerdotum vel christifidelium arbitrio permittitur. Instructione autem edita die quarto decimo mensis Iunii anno millesimo nongentesimo septuagesimo primo provisum est, ut Missae celebratio antiquo ritu sineretur, facultate data ab Ordinario, tantummodo sacerdotibus aetate provectis vel infirmis, qui Divinum Sacrificium sine populo offerrent. Novus Ordo promulgatus est, ut in locum veteris substitueretur post maturam deliberationem, atque ad exsequendas normas quae a Concilio Vaticano II impertitae sunt. Haud dissimili ratione, Decessor Noster S. Pius V post Concilium Tridentinum Missale auctoritate sua recognitum adhiberi iusserat.

That being said, because of Pope Paul's use of wording here in the Latin, many thus have the misconception that 'Novus Ordo' is somehow the actual title of the OF Mass, sometimes even ascribing spookily vague and threatening qualities to it. Newsflash; It isn't. Folks often parse novus Ordo Missae as Novus Ordo / Missae (which gives us 'Novus Ordo Mass', but the correct way to do it is novus / Ordo Missae, the "new Order of Mass". As everyone may know, the form of the Ordinary (i.e. the regular, unvarying parts) of the Mass, be it the 1570 or the 1970 Missal, has no official title: it is simply called the Ordo Missae, "Order of Mass". Names like 'Tridentine' or 'Pian' or 'Extra/Ordinary Form' or 'Pauline' or 'Latin Mass' are simply unofficial titles. In context Novus Ordo is thus not meant to be a title in the sense of the 'Mass of the New Order': it's just a (rather bland if you ask me) designator - the 'new Ordo Missae'.
Hence, I'm not too fond of calling the 'Ordinary Form' Novus Ordo Mass: it's a misuse of the Latin and gives off the wrong connotations in the wrong hands, in my humble opinion (seriously, 'New Order' (of the Ages?) Mass??). I'd rather people have it called in full English as "the new Mass Order" or suchlike. Or why not use Latin - novus Ordo Missae? ;)

"Our Lord God the Pope"...not: A Tiny Acknowledgement

Just a tiny announcement:
A Youtube user under the name of BeingBob has just referenced my two articles! (Yes, the video's less than a year old now, but you gotta give credit...)



Thanks once again, BeingBob!

The Mass in Gaul, Part 3 (from The Mass of the Western Rites)

Christ in Majesty (c. AD 1100),
Chapelle des Moines, Berzé-la-Ville

The "Commixtion," or "Immixtion," has, like the "Fraction," a dogmatic bearing. The celebrant soaks one or several of the consecrated particles in the chalice, allowing one of them to fall into it. Under this form, with
the words accompanying it in many liturgies, the sole meaning of this rite is to show to the faithful, before Communion, that it is the very Body and Blood of Christ which they are about to receive; and that their separation under the different species of bread and wine is only apparent. Although at this epoch Communion under both kinds was almost universal, the doctrine that Christ was present, whole and entire, under both species, was none the less of equally universal acceptance. The rites of "Commixtion" or "Immixtion," which are attached to this part of the Mass, seem, in our opinion, to favor this interpretation (see "Immixtion" in DACL).

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 7: The Nails of the Crucifixion

Most of us western Christians grew up looking at images of the crucifixion that show Jesus being pierced with one nail over both feet, as in the picture at right. Sometimes we see images which have both feet nailed separately (making a total of four nails), but the three nails version is, for most of the time, definitive. There are people who would even say that this portrayal is "traditional", sometimes almost giving the impression that the four-nails version were somehow a novel variation. We must note, however, that depicting only three nails is purely a medieval (this iconographic convention only started around the end of the 1st millenium), Western thing; Eastern icons, with a few Western-influenced exceptions, uniformly portray four nails being used to pin Jesus down to His cross. And here they are following a more ancient iconographic tradition which could have some basis in historical reality.

The oldest depiction of a crucifixion we have, the Alexamenos Graffito (dating from the late 1st-3rd century AD), clearly shows the crucified figure's feet as being separate. Other early images, such as a late 2nd-3rd century carved jasper either from Syria or Gaza (part of the Pereire Collection), a graffito found in Puzzuoli, another gem, and a relief from Santa Sabina in Rome (ca. 430-435 AD), follow suit in not showing the feet as being placed above the other. This convention has passed on to later Christian iconography, and for a time people, both in the East and the West, portrayed Jesus Christ being crucified with His feet separate.

The Mass in Gaul, Part 2 (from The Mass of the Western Rites)

THE MASS OF THE FAITHFUL

The paten from Gourdon.

The "Prayer of the Faithful" is a prayer recited after the departure of the catechumens by the faithful alone; thus it forms part of the Mass of the Faithful. Sometimes it is called the Prayer of the Church, or the Common Prayer. In the West, especially at Rome, it was recited in the following way: the Pontiff invited the faithful to prayer; the Deacon gave the order to bend the knee; the Bishop pronounced the prayer, and the people responded "Amen." Ed. Bishop remarks acutely, in this connection, that this prayer bears the seal of the Roman Church, in which ecclesiastical authority always maintains its rights, the part of the faithful being reduced to a minimum; while in the East the initiative of Christian people is allowed a much wider scope. To such a degree is this the case that at Rome this prayer might more correctly be called the Prayer "for" the Faithful. We have a very well-preserved type of the prayer in the "Orationes solemnes" of Good Friday. But all other trace of it has disappeared from the Roman liturgy. Under an analogous form it existed in the Gallican liturgies in the sixth century, as is proved by a text of the Council of Lyon under Sigismond (516-523), which alludes to the "Oratio plebis quae post evangelium legitur" (Concilia aevi merovingici," p. 34).
But since then it has disappeared, as it has at Rome, and we find in the Gallican liturgy only diaconal litanies, imitated from those in the Byzantine liturgy.

The Mass in Gaul, Part 1 (from The Mass of the Western Rites)

THE MASS IN GAUL

The Mass of the Catechumens. -The Mass of the Faithful.

 In the volume on "Books of the Latin Liturgy" (Sands & Co., London), pp. 96-103, we have mentioned the different documents by the aid of which the Gallican Mass may be reconstituted and the origins of this liturgy established. On this subject we have also stated that for the description of the Gallican Mass no reliance can be placed on the pretended letters of St. Germain of Paris, though this has been done too often. These letters are not a document of the middle of the sixth century, but an anonymous treatise written a century later (ibid., p. 99). We must therefore, like Mabillon and, more recently, Dom Wilmart (DACL, "Germain, Lettres de St."), keep solely to the other documents which we possess on this subject, and to the texts of contemporary authors, the most valuable of which is that of Gregory of Tours. A very complete bibliography of all these documents will be found in the article ("Gallicanes Liturgies)" of Dom Leclercq, DACL.

From the Gallican Rites...

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:
The Reichenau Fragments (Carlsruhe, 253) are described (no. 8) in Delisle's "Memoire sur d'anciens Sacramentaires." -- These were discovered by Mone in 1850 in a palimpsest manuscript from the Abbey of Reichenau, in the library of Carlsruhe. The manuscript, which is late seventh century, had belonged to John II, Bishop of Constance (760-81). It contains eleven Masses of purely Gallican type, one of which is in honour of St. Germanus of Auxerre, but the others do not specify any festival. One Mass, except the post Post-Pridie which is in prose, is entirely in hexameter verse. Mone published them with a facsimile in his "Lateinische und Griechische Menssen aus dem zweiten bis sechsten Jahrhundert" (Frankfort 1850). They were reprinted in Migne's "Patrologia Latina" (Vol. CXXXVIII), and by Neale and Forbes in "The Ancient Liturgy of the Gallican Church" (Burntisland, 1855–67).

MISSA II

(collectio.) Deum fidelium saluatorem, conseruatoremque credentium. deum aeterne. inmortalitatis auctorem. fratres dilectissimi. unianimiter dominum depraecemur. ut nobis pietatis suae dono spiritali misericordiam indeficienter inperciat p. d.

(collectio ante nomina.) Deus qui pro magnitudinem tuam per uniuersa deffunderis et ubi tamen totus adsistis. discriteus omnium uoluntatis qualitatebus locis temporibus adque personis. uotorum omnium capax. propiciatus exaudi. dum ad cunctus adspices foues omnebus misereris. p. d.

(post nomina.) Recitata nomina dominus benedieat et accepta sit domino uti huius oblatio. nostrisque praecebus intercessio suffragetur. spiritibus quoque karorum nostrorum laetis sedibus conquiiscant. et primi resurrectionis gaudia consequantur. p. d. nm.

(ad pacem.) Exaudi nos deus salutares noster. et in consortio nos diuinorum sacrificiorum dignanter admitte. hac pacem tuam benignus largire. p. d.

(contestatio.) Dignum et iustum est equum et iustum est ut te sancte pater omnipotens aeterne deus. omnibus locis. omnibusque temporibus. per omnia momenta ueneremur. tibi supplices simus. tibi deferamus praecis, te totis stodiis et effectibus adoremus. deus qui ultra omnibus uirtutis. ultra omnis es potestatis. deux uniuersorum arbiter. judex secretorum. quem caeli et terra. quem angeli et archangeli. quem throni et dominationis. quem cherubin. et serafin. incessabili uoce proclamant dicentes. SS. SCS. SS.

(contestatio.) Dignum et iustum est. nos tibi gratias agere domine deus per Xpm Jhm filium tuum. qui cum deus esset aeternus. homo fieri pro nostra salute dignatus est. unice singulare. et multiplex saluatoris nostri mysterium. nam unus idemque et deus summus et homo perfectus, et pontifex maximus. et sacrificii sacratissimum. secundum diuinam potentiam creauit omnia. secundum humanam conditionem liberabit hominem. secundum uim sacrificii expiauit conmaculatus. secundum jus sacerdocii reconciliauit offensus. O unice redemptionis. mysterium singulare. in quo uetusta ilia uulnera. noua domino medicina sanauit. et primi hominis praeiudicia. salutares nostri praeuiligia resciderunt. ille concupiscientiae exagitatus stimolis. hic oboedientiae, confixus est clauis. ille ad arborem manus incontinenter extendit. iste ad crucem pacienter abtauit. ille uoluptate inlecitus gustus explebit. iste cruciatu indebite dolores afflictus est. ideo merito poena innocentiae facta est absolutio debetores jure. etenim obnoxii demittuntur debita quae pro eis ille qui nihil
habebat absoluit. quod singulare mystirium. non solum homines in terris. uerum etiam. angeli uenerantur in caelis. cui me[rito].

(post sanctus.) Uere sanctus. uere benedictus dominus noster Jhs Xps filius tuus. Qui pridie.

(post mysterium.) Domini ac dei nostri sempeterni gloriam depraecemur. orantis uti hoc sacrificium tua benedictione. benedicas et sancti spiritus tui rore perfundas. ut accipientibus uniuersis. legitima sit eucharestia per Jhm Xpm filium tuum deum ac dominum conseruatoremque nostrum, cui est aput te domine cum spiritum sanctum regnum sempiternum perpettia diuinitas in secula seculorum amen.

August 15 - The Assumption

FURTHERMORE Ozias the prince of the people of Israel, said to her, "Blessed are you, O daughter, by the Lord God the most high above all women upon the earth. Blessed be the Lord who made heaven and earth, who has guided you for a wound to the head of the prince of our enemies. For on this day He has so magnified your name that your praise shall not retire from the mouth of men, who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord for eternity, for that you have not spared your life for the sake of the distress and tribulation of your people, but have prevented our ruin before the sight of our God."

(Vulgate, Judith 13:22-25)

And said Ozias to her, "Blessed are you, O daughter, to God the Most High above all the women upon the earth; and blessed is the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you for a wound to the head of the leader of our enemies. For this your confidence shall not depart from the heart of men, who remember the strength of God to the age; and God turn these things to you for an exaltation to the age, to visit you in blessings, since you did not spare your life for the affliction of our nation, but went against our ruin, walking a straight way before our God."


(Septuagint, Judith 13:18-20)

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 6: The Horns of the Altar

In 1 Kings 1:50-52 and 2:28-34, we read that (NKJV):

Now Adonijah was afraid of Solomon; so he arose, and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, "Indeed Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; for look, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’" Then Solomon said, "If he proves himself a worthy man, not one hair of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die." So King Solomon sent them to bring him down from the altar. And he came and fell down before King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, "Go to your house."

Exhibition in Dresden reunites Dürer painting with altarpiece following a 21-year restoration

A tip of my (symbolic) hat to the folks at The New Liturgical Movement for this headline: Durer Altarpiece Unveiled 21 Years After Acid Attack.

LONDON. A panel from Dürer’s first major altarpiece has been restored after a 21-year treatment following a devastating acid attack in Munich. The Virgin of Sorrows has been unveiled in Dresden, where it was reunited with the rest of the altarpiece of the Seven Sorrows for the first time in nearly five centuries.


Dürer painted the Seven Sorrows and the Seven Joys of the Virgin in 1496, at the age of 25. It may have been commissioned by Frederick the Wise for his palace church at Wittenberg. The altarpiece was probably dismem­bered during the Refor­mation, and the seven panels of the Sorrows (of the life of Christ) passed to the artist Lucas Cranach the Younger, whose father had been a court painter. In 1588 Cranach’s estate sold them to the Saxon art collection in Dresden, and they later went to the city’s Gemäldegalerie [...]

The Roman Mass of the Late 15th Century now (partly) up!

It may not be much of a news, I know, but I've finished typing half of the ordo of the 15th century Roman Mass, derived from Henry Bradshaw & Son's Missale Romanum Mediolani, 1474. It's only half-complete, so stay tuned for updates.

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 5: The High Places and the Standing-Stones

10 monumental megaliths possibly comprising a Canaanite
"high place" found in Gezer

In the Bible, we often encounter Canaanite sanctuaries (and Israelite establishments which were imitations of these) known under the name "high places", the normal translation of the Hebrew word bamot (sing. bamah). We do not know the verbal root from which the word is derived, and the noun itself may be pre-Semitic. The cognates of bamah in both Akkadian and Ugaritic mean the 'back' or 'trunk' of an animal, though it can also denote any elevated ground, such as a crest of a hill or height. In the Bible too, apart from the cultic references and some obscure texts, bamah can mean the 'back' of one's enemies (Deuteronomy 33:29), 'heights' (Deuteronomy 32:13; Psalm 18:34; Isaiah 58:14; Micah 1:3; Amos 4:13; Habbakkuk 3:19), the 'back' of clouds (Isaiah 14:14), or the 'waves' of the sea (Job 9:8). The idea which the word expresses therefore is something which stands out in relief from its background, but the idea of a mountain or hill is not contained in the word itself (note how in 2 Kings 16:4; 2 Chronicles 28:4 the "high places" are distinguished from the "hills").