Bringing Back the Poppy

A Wall Street firm is trying to bring back the Memorial Day poppy. From the Wall Street Journal this weekend:

Kudos to Jason DeSena Trennert for starting a campaign to bring the poppy back to Wall Street. On Tuesday, Mr. Trennert and his colleagues at Strategas Research Partners will be wearing red crepe-paper poppies and also sharing them with clients. He's trying to renew a great tradition.

Once upon a time, before Memorial Day inspired thoughts of a weekday at the beach, it marked an opportunity to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of America. The poppy became a symbol of remembrance and gratitude for departed soldiers after World War I and the publication of the 1915 poem "In Flanders Fields."

A fine idea.

When I was a boy there was an American Legion member or two on every block selling the little plastic or paper poppies. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone with one of the little red poppies in his lapel.

Even More Piping for the Weekend

But you'll have to go here to hear (and see) it.

It the competition draw it looks like there will be 19 bands this year. No Grade I competition this year, although L.A. Scots usually put in a performance appearance.

Should be a good weekend.

Some Piping for the Weekend

A nice couple of reels from Jerry O'Sullivan on uillean pipes, Tim Cummings on border pipes, and Chris Norman on flute.

Upcoming. . . .

It doesn't say, but the May procession for Our Lady is included.

Vanity

"It is vain to rule if your subjects can and do disobey you. It is vain to vote if your delegates can and do disobey you."
G.K. Chesterton in the Illustrated London News, 5/12/1912

Found on this wonderful little page.

Bl John Rochester

Another of the English martyrs is commemorated today. Bl John Rochester was a monk of the London Charterhouse who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy recognizing Henry VIII has head of the Church. In consequence he was hanged in chains from the walls of York.

There is a short piece on his martyrdom here.

Some Piping for the Weekend

Northumbrian small pipes this week. The two tunes are Wards Brae and an old Scott Skinner tune, Lovat Scouts.

Climate Change

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--Robert Frost (sic)

Someone with a following must have been discussing eschatology the other day since The Inn has received another batch of hits from folks looking for something on The End of the World. I didn't really think about that when I named The Inn but we do get quite a few visitors here from time to time looking for the inside skinny on Armageddon. All of which made me think of Robert Frost's Fire and Ice, which, I suppose isn't really about fire or ice or the end of the world. But I liked it and my streams of consciousness, like the looms of the world, spin as they will.

Hence the above.

May 9 -- Bl Thomas Pickering. O.S.B.

The ninth of May is the anniversary of the execution of English Benedictine martyr, Blessed Thomas Pickering.

From the good old Catholic Encyclopædia:

Lay brother and martyr, a member of an old Westmoreland family, b. c. 1621; executed at Tyburn, 9 May, 1679. He was sent to the Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory at Douai, where he took vows as a lay brother in 1660. In 1665 he was sent to London, where, as steward or procurator to the little community of Benedictines who served the queen's chapel royal, he became known personally to the queen and Charles II; and when in 1675, urged by the parliament, Charles issued a proclamation ordering the Benedictines to leave England within a fixed time, Pickering was allowed to remain, probably on the ground that he was not a priest. In 1678 came the pretended revelations of Titus Oates, and Pickering was accused of conspiring to murder the king. No evidence except Oates's word was produced and Pickering's innocence was so obvious that the queen publicly announced her belief in him, but the jury found him guilty, and with two others he was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The king was divided between the wish to save the innocent men and fear of the popular clamour, which loudly demanded the death of Oates's victims, and twice within a month the three prisoners were ordered for execution and then reprieved. At length Charles remitted the execution of the other two, hoping that this would satisfy the people and save Pickering from his fate. The contrary took place, however, and 26 April, 1679, the House of Commons petitioned for Pickering's execution. Charles yielded and the long-deferred sentence was carried out on the ninth of May. A small piece of cloth stained with his blood is preserved among the relics at Downside Abbey.

You can find it here.

May 8 -- St Indract

I would have thought St Indract to be about as close to unknown as any saint in the calendar. If it comes to that, he's only in one calendar, a medieval calendar applicable only to the area around Glastonbury Abbey. Wikipedia, of all things, has quite a long piece about St Indract. You can find it here. Admittedly a good bit of it consists of arguing back and forth with itself about the details of the saint's life.

Mrs D'Arcy comes at the story a bit differently. There's a bit more about the Irish in early medieval England than there is about St Indract:

“Glastonbury of the Gael”, the monastery which, alone in all England survived through the centuries, under British, Saxon, and Anglo-Norman rule, is believed to be one of the places occupied by the Irish in the fourth century when they were making settlements in western Britain. While the influence was still Irish, at least at a very early date, a Celtic monastery was founded at Glastonbury. Legend links the Saints Patrick, Brigid and Benignus with Glastonbury. Its first church was dedicated to Blessed Mary and St Patrick. A parish was called “Beokery, otherwise Little Ireland.” The lives of many Irish saints were collected or written at Glastonbury, supposedly the source of John of Tynemouth's section devoted to Irish Saints in his Sanctilogium. Tenth century St Dunstan was educated and became a monk at Glastonbury with Irish scholars as his teachers and Irish books for his studies.

Indract, an Irish prince and the 21st Abbot of Iona, was martyred near Glastonbury. He had come to Iona about 832 in a time of constant danger from Norse pirates. Blathmac had been murdered on the altar steps. Already the “minda”, sacred articles connected with Colmcille, had been moved back and forth to Ireland several times. Kenneth McAlpin had removed relics of Colmcille to Dunkeld and made it the chief church of Scotland and the Iona brethren transferred the Columban headquarters to Kells in Ireland.

Sometime before 854, Indract, his sister Drusa and other religious made a pilgrimage to Rome, setting out, perhaps, from one of the places in Cornwall or Somerset with which tradition connects their names. On the return they were murdered near Glastonbury by pagan Saxons. And in that place fostered, if not founded, by the Irish, were enshrined the relics of Indract and his companions.

A Good Tune Can Be Found Anywhere

In a child's nursery in France, for instance:



Or a Civil War encampment:



Or in the midst of some Tchaikovsky at the Royal Ballet (at least for the first 50 some seconds or so):



Or here. Yes, even here:



In pipebandland it's called "The Steamboat". No idea what Pëtr Illych called it. Probably "the country dance bit" or some such.

Canadian Women's Army Corps Pipe Band

No, I didn't know there was one either. But from May 1943 to 1946 when they were disbanded, Canada had a Women's Army Corps Pipe Band. You can read more about them here. There are a couple of short newsreel videos at the linked site also. Alas, they don't lend themselves to embedding so I can't put them here but you can access the video page and get a sample of their sound. The films also show them wearing a tam, which gives a better look than the picture above.

Three Weeks Later. . . .

Well, three and a half weeks later, not to put too fine a point upon it. It has been rather a long time since we put in some time at The Inn.

And we have been rather busy. Most of it isn't worth mentioning; just a load of odds and ends that needed doing to keep the household humming along. Oh, I had a couple of interesting gigs in the interim. E.g., I played for the annual St George's Day celebration put on by the Royal Society of St George. (Think about that for a minute: a Mick in Highland dress playing Scottish tunes for the English national day. Only in America.) It was topped off with choral evensong, one of my very favourite services on the planet. Very enjoyable, indeed.

I missed mentioning some of my favourite liturgical and saints days. The Forty English and Welsh martyrs were commemorated only last Friday and never a mention here. If you're interested, see Mrs Vidal's Fountain of Elias. . .and don't fail to follow the links. There was also St Maelrubha, the great Irish apostle in Scotland. His feast is on April 21st, but time got away from me on him, too.

And while we're on the topic of evensong and liturgical days, our priest who presides over our little Anglican-Use/prospective-Ordinariate community in the OC, is, as of last month, our "priest" no more and now officially a Catholic layman, much as thee and me. Although, technically he is a Catholic seminarian on the cusp of ordination to the diaconate. We are, as it were, waiting for our priest to be ordained a deacon. Now, that's a sentence you don't see every day. A prayer for him and his family and our little community would be appreciated.

As we have said so many times in this space, we will try to do better in minding The Inn. But, as always, no promises.

Found While Looking for Something Else

It breaks my heart to see so many souls being lost. If only things were not so bad! If only there were not more and more being lost every day! Help me, sisters in Christ, help me in imploring our Lord to grant this!

This is why He has gathered you here; this is your calling; this is what your task has got to be; this is all you have got to long for, cry for, pray for!

The world is on fire; and it looks as though they would like to condemn Christ anew, so to speak, for they keep bringing up endless accusations; they are trying to wreck His Church. For the love of God beg His Majesty to hear our prayers in this regard; and I--wretch that I am--will also beg Him for the same thing, since His glory and the good of His Church are at stake.

-The Way of Perfection, St Teresa of Avila

Some Piping for the Weekend

Yes, posting has been scarce lately. The Inn hasn't even had a mention of Holy Week or Easter. There have been a couple of health incidents along with some much happier events, which we will talk about later. But in the meantime, it is the weekend and there ought to be some piping. Here is a bit of the Edinburgh Tattoo with the massed pipe bands doing their thing for the opening ceremonies. You'll notice a couple of Irish pipe bands: the South African Irish and the Queen's Royal Hussars (Queen's Own and Royal Irish).

2 April -- St Bronach

April 2d is the ancient feast of the 6th century Irish virgin, Bronach. Almost nothing is still known about her. What remains is the history of St Bronach's bell. Mrs D'Arcy relates the story:

For 50 years, fireside reminiscing kept alive the memory of the mysterious former ringing of an invisible bell in Kilbroney churchyard. Scoffers called it a ghost story. Then in 1885, a storm felled a great oak there and workmen chopping up the old tree found in the fork of two branches a very ancient bronze bell which is ascribed to 6th century craftsmanship. The ring holding the tongue of the bell had worn away and so the mystery of the ringing and of the silence was cleared up. It was Bronach's lost bell, one more holy relic that was hidden away in the Reformation and finally recovered.

About a mile from Rostrevor in Country Down in the ancient church of Kilbroney, so named for the saintly Bronach registered in the martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal as the virgin of Glenshesk and of Kilbroney of which she is the patroness. In the Rostrevor church yard may be seen Bronach's Cross and in use in the parish church there is Bronach's own bronze bell.

The Holy Father on "Father"

This piece by Pope Benedict appeared in the March issue of the Magnificat. It was the "Meditation of the Day" for last Wednesday. (I don't see that it says where in the Holy Father's writings it occurs.)

Father -- with this word I express my certainty that someone is there who hears me, who never leaves me alone, who is always present. I express my certainty that God, despite the infinite difference between him and me, is such that I can speak to him, may even address him familiarly as "thou" (German du). His greatness does not overwhelm me, does not reject me as insignificant and unimportant. Certainly I am subject to him as a child is subject to his father, yet there is such a fundamental similarity and likeness between him and me, yes, I am so important to him, I belong so closely to him, that I can rightly address him as "Father". My being born is not a mistake, then, but a grace. It is good to live even though I do not always perceive it. I am wanted; not a child of chance or necessity, but of choice and freedom. Therefore I shall also have a purpose in life; there will always be a meaning for me, a task designed just for me, there is a conception of me that I can seek and find and fulfill. When the school of life becomes unbearably hard, when I would like to cry out as Job did, as the psalmist did -- then I can transform this cry into the word "Father" and the cry will gradually become a word, a reminder to trust, because from the Father's perspective it is clear that my distress, yes, my agony, is part of the greater love for which I give thanks.

Nice One

One of the opinion pieces in the WSJ this morning opens with this:

Social networking, texting, email and digital messages have borrowed the keys to the English language and are joy-riding all over the landscape, smashing body panels and junking up the fancy interior. Many thoughtful people are worried.

I enjoyed that more than all the rest of the paper.

(Insightful as it is, the author doesn't necessarily go where that first sentence might lead you to believe he's going. I'm not sure I agree with his conclusion, although he's pretty persuasive. The article is here if you want to decide for yourself.)

Sidebar: Blogspot, the high-tech child of Google, doesn't recognize texting as a word. And having typed that sentence, I notice that Blogspot doesn't recognize Blogspot either. Is that irony or am I thinking of something else? Fowler's is in the other room where Herself is having a nap and I can't look it up.

Beannachtai na Feile Padraig a dhuibh

Well, here it is St Patrick's Day and I haven't a decent post for the day that's in it. And no time to put one up. I'm off as soon as I finish this to play for a wedding in Fallbrook. This should be about an hour and a half away. But as it's supposed to be lashing down with rain, I suspect closer to two and half hour since no one in this half of the state knows how to drive in the rain.

If I can remember how to do it and I get a minute I'll see if I can thumb type a post from the phone.

In the meantime, here's Catholic.org's post for St Patrick.

And a collect:

Deus qui ad prædicandam gentibus gloriam tuam beatum Patritium Confessorem atque Pontificem mittere dignatus es: ejus meritis et intercessione concede; ut, quæ nobis agenda præcipis, te miserante adimplere possimus. Per Dominum. Amen.


O God Who wast pleased to send the blessed Patrick, Thy confessor and bishop, to preach Thy glory to the heathen, grant, through his merits and intercesion, that by Thy mercy we may be enabled to accomplish the tasks Thou settest us: through or Lord. Amen.

Another one:

O Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, that he might bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee; Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen

This site says you can watch a video of the New York parade in honour of St Patrick.

Scenes of Rome

The Holy Father's celebration of Vespers with the Archbishop of Canterbury made the news last week. (Here, f'rinstance.)

And my friend Eloise sent me a link to a webpage with some gorgeous pictures of the Camaldolese monastery where the celebration occurred. You can find it here. It appears you could also tour a good part of Rome following the links on that page.

Encyclopædia Britannica: R.I.P.

Perhaps you saw it in this morning's paper: The Encyclopædia Britannica has published its last edition. I saw it in the WSJ (the online version is here) but it must have been in all the dailies. It seems they can't sell them in the two-dozen-hefty-volumes format any more, so it'll be cds, online and tablet "apps" from now on.

The Britannica was the foundation of many a student paper in my school days. There were others; I remember Compton's and Colliers and wasn't there an Americana? Do any of them exist any more? (It occurs to me I could, ahem, look them up online. So I did. Collier's is no more but Compton's and the Encyclopædia Americana are hanging on. So says {{sigh}} Wikipedia.)

But never mind the others. The Britannica was the gold standard. I'm not sure why I thought that. I certainly had no scholarly discernment in high school. Maybe it was because the binding was classier and the articles were longer. Or perhaps it was just more fun to browse in. Did you ever get lost in the encyclopædia? You went to look up one thing and ran across an article on something you'd never heard of or something you'd always wanted to know more about and here were ten pages on the very topic. It was even easier to get lost in the encyclopædia than the dictionary. Only the internet seems to be better at leading the curious mind off on an unintended vagary, which Hilary was writing about just the other day but which I can't cite you to because she's gone on hiatus. Again. I wish she wouldn't do that. Some writers become addictive and she's one of them. I'm having mild withdrawal symptoms.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, the Encyclopædia Britannica. Alan Massie has a lament for the Britannica and a short history here that's worth a read.

Some Piping for the Weekend

We haven't had a pipe band up for the weekend piping in a while now. This is the Bushmill Irish Pipers of San Francisco playing their medley last year at the Pleasanton Highland Games. They won their grade with this one. Keep listening for the march off and a nice rendition of The Dawning of the Day.

St John Ogilvie, S.J.

Today is the feast of St John Ogilvie,S.J., the first canonized Scot since 1250. He was martyred for the faith in Glasgow in 1615. His grave is on the north side of the cathedral in a felon's plot, the exactly location of which is unknown.

Fr John Hardon gives a fine life of and spiritual meditation on his fellow Jesuit here.

There's a more nuts-and-bolts life here.

The miracle that led to St John's canonization.

Oooooh! Solar Flares!

You saw the headlines in the papers this morning about the solar flare that was supposed to occur this morning.

It did.

And NASA has a nifty video showing it here. It's worth clicking the full-screen button for this one.

Always assuming the said solar flare left you with internet access.

How To Make the Republican Primary Race Interesting

Report it like this.

Not encouraging, of course, or joyful. Nothing that would fill one with optimism. Just interesting. Good writing will do that for a lot of things.

"His Blood Cries Out"

"I know the meaning of Cross." -- Shabaz Bhatti

The General Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan, held from 20 to 25 March last year in Multan, Punjab, unanimously approved the proposal of Bishop Andrew Francis to submit to the Holy See a formal request to declare the Catholic Minister Shahbaz Bhatti a “martyr”. Cardinal Keith O'Brien has publicly given his support to the cause.

Details at The hermeneutic of continuity.

The Knox Bible Back in Print

According to the Baronius Press website, their edition of Msgr Knox's translation of the Bible goes to press today. So by May or June my favourite translation of the scriptures will be available for the first time in thirty or forty years. My old hardback edition - "Student Edition" it said on the now long-gone dust jacket - is in now tatters with the cover held on by a few threads only.

You can find the Knox Bible page on the Baronius Press website here.

Found While Looking for Something Else

Eugene Lambe busking with the uilleann pipes in Galway . . .and that's all I know about it. (Except I should know the name of the first tune but it won't come to mind.)

Note his beautiful use of the regulators.

Quinquagesima Sunday. . .

. . .means two days until Shrove Tuesday and three days until Ash Wednesday and Lent begins.

More on Quinquagesima Sunday itself can be found here.

Some Piping for the Weekend

The Seven Pipers Band out of Arizona play "Mozart on the Rampage" and "Pumpkin's Fancy" for their Highland dancers.

Catholic Prophecy. . .maybe?

Well, it's certainly looking more like it every day.


From Pope Benedict XVI:

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members.”

More at The Anchoress' site here.

Not Found In This Morning's Wall Street Journal

Pope Benedict XVI:

“The world of finance, while necessary, no longer represents an instrument that favours our wellbeing or the life of mankind, instead it has become an oppressive power, that almost demands our adoration, mammon, the false divinity that truly dominates the world”.

And:

“Faced with conformity and submission to this power, we [Christians-ed] are non-conformists: it is not having, but being that counts! We do not submit to this, we use it as a means, but with the freedom of the children of God”.

From Vatican Radio's website

St Valentine's Day

You've heard it before on St Valentine's Day. And I am once again amazed (appalled? depressed? all of the above?) to realize that the ecclesiastical calendar mavens of the western rites thought it a good idea to drop one of the only two saints universally recognized by most of the known world, regardless of religion, and replace him with . . . Ss Cyril and Methodius.

Great saints, to be sure. Universally honored in the eastern churches and pillars of Christianity. But ask the man in the street in most of English-speaking world about Ss Cyril and Methodius Day and be prepared for a blank look. And what was wrong with their old feast day on July 7 anyway?

Fortunately, St Valentine is still in the traditional Roman calendar of 1962 which may still be used by those who will.

Here's a bit about him and his day from the old Anglican Breviary:

On this day is commemorated blessed Valentine, a priest of Rome who was martyred for Christ, probably in the persecution of Claudius the Goth, about the year 269. He was buried on the Flaminian Way; and about 350 a church was built over his tomb, and later a catacomb was constructed thereunder, wherein were buried the remains of many Martyrs. This church, with its cemetery, was the first to greet the eyes of pilgrims coming to Rome to visit the sepulchres of the ancient heroes of the Faith, and therefore his cultus grew, and spread through the world. But in the early years of the ninth century, his body was transferred to the basilica of St Praxedes lest, being outside the walls of the City, it should be desecrated by the Saracens. The popular story is that holy Valentine was cajoled with promises in order to wean him from Christ; and than when these failed, he was beaten with clubs, and finally beheaded.

In England, from the time of Chaucer onwards, there was a belief that on his feast-day the birds began to choose their mates. From which arose the custom of arranging betrothals in Saint Valentine's Tide; and in honour of the fidelity of this servant of God, those who were betrothed called each other Valentine, as a pledge of their mutual fidelity, in token that those who wed are united together in Christ, of whose unbreakable union with humanity in his Church the Sacrament of marriage is ever an outward and visible sign.

One Step at a Time. . . .

On January 1st of this year the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter (in North America) officially came into being and Fr Jeffrey Steenson, was named as the Ordinary. Yesterday, the Rev Msgr Jeffrey Steenson was officially installed as the Ordinary at a ceremony in Houston.

Whispers in the Loggia has the story here.

Msgr Steenson's installation homily, text and video.

The event in pictures here and here.

(The links were pilfered, with thanks, from Fr Bartus's very agreeable Anglican Patrimony.)

Some Piping for the Weekend

Gary West - Vermont Bellows Pipe School Instructor from nate banton on Vimeo.

It's the very end of the weekend but not too late for some first class smallpiping from Gary West who finishes up with a rendition of The Mason's Apron that's right up there with the 78th Frasers' version on the Live in Ireland recording.

Ron Paul; No Longer a Non-Person?

Christopher Manion on Ron Paul in the 2 February 2012 number of The Wanderer:

In 2007, Joe Sobran observed that, “ until now, the GOP has been able to contain [ Cong. Ron] Paul by pretending he wasn’t there. But the silent treatment can no longer stifle this soft- spoken man. He has been proved right too often.” It’s seldom that the liberal media work hand in glove with the GOP establishment, but for the past five years, they’ve teamed up to keep the good doctor under wraps. But now all that has changed.

Suddenly the GOP is all smiles about Ron Paul. Pundits who scorned him or ignored him are now singing his praises. It’s a matter of necessity, compelled by fear: National Review, which has strayed far from its traditional conservative roots since Bill Buckley’s day, now offers online polls that begin, “ Apart from Ron Paul, who won the debate?” — because Paul kept winning the polls. Once a firm believer in ramming Paul down the Memory Hole, NR now reaches for its crystal ball as it struggles to explain its silence. . . . .

Why the sudden change? Unadulterated fear. Without Dr. Paul’s supporters this fall, the GOP is a dead duck. But the Tea Party is getting short shrift too, sidelined in the cat- fight that seems to be consuming the “ front runners.” Right now, alas, November is Obama’s to lose.

There's more in the paper and it's online also but, wouldn't you know, behind a subscription wall and can't be linked to directly. But you can subscribe at the link above.

Quiet

The book review in this morning's WSJ resulted in another volume in the growing want list: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

Yes, we live in a world where brassy men and women who can work a room and run a meeting and look good on television seem to dominate. But, writes Ms. Cain, there is still room for introverts. In fact, she argues, there should be more room, because introverts are great. They think more, they are less reckless and they focus on what really matters—relationships and meaningful work—rather than on the glittering but empty prizes of financial reward and job title. Introverts are Rosa Parks and Gandhi. Extroverts are economy-busting Wall Street CEOs. . . . .

The Papal States

Vatican Radio this morning has a lecture on the end of the Papal States. It's in two parts and takes about half an hour.

Part I

Part II

There are some fascinating stories here.

1st Amendment? What 1st Amendment?

The Obama administration's anti-Catholicism has been much more out in the open of late. You've read about the contraceptive and abortifacient mandate recently no doubt. There has been a lot of interesting commentary. Here's some of it:

First from Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal: “His decision on Catholic charities makes Romney’s big gaffe look trivial. What a faux pas, how inept, how removed from the essential realities of America.” The rest is here.


Michael Gerson in the Washington Post

This one is from the Catholic Bishops' own USCCB, bluntly entitled “White House Misrepresents Its Own Contraceptive Mandate”.

Many individual bishops have had something to say. Here's Bishop Carlson of St Louis


The bishops of Alabama

The Catholic News Agency thinks about the political ramifications.

And note this one from the Telegraph in England citing an anodyne rationale for the decision. I don't think so, and not least because the BO administration doesn't impress me as all that technocratic.

Bl William Richardson

On 7 February some English dioceses keep the feast of Blessed William Richardson who was the last priest martyred under Elizabeth I. The good old Catholic Encyclopædia has a brief summary of his life here.

According to one account he was arrested at Clement's Inn on 12 Feb., but another says he had been kept a close prisoner in Newgate for a week before he was condemned at the Old Bailey on the 15 Feb., under stat. 27 Eliz., c. 2, for being a priest and coming into the realm. He was betrayed by one of his trusted friends to the Lord Chief Justice, who expedited his trial and execution with unseemly haste, and seems to have acted more as a public prosecutor than as a judge. At his execution he showed great courage and constancy, dying most cheerfully, to the edification of all beholders. One of his last utterances was a prayer for the queen.

Frozen Roma

We're having a little rain here in the Athens of the southeast corner of the county this morning. So no practicing in the park today.

But Hilary reports that, although hell has not yet frozen over, Rome has. See here , here, and here. Oh, and here, too.

A portent, no doubt.

But probably not of global warming.

February 4 -- St Gilbert of Sempringham

Today is the feast of St Gilbert of Sempringham in some of the English calendars. He is the founder of the only English religious order to come out of the middle ages. He never really intended to found an order. He originally gathered a group of women to be enclosed nuns and looked for some priests to look after them. When St Bernard refused to take them under the care of the Cistercians, he founded an order of canons regular to do so.

The good old Catholic Encyclopædia has a short life of St Gilbert here.

And as long as we're mentioning English saints, today is also the feast of St John Stone who was martyred on this day in 1539. He denied that Henry VIII could be head of the church or married to Anne Boleyn while his first wife still lived.

"Behold I close my apostolate in my blood, In my death I shall find life, for I die for a holy cause, the defence of the Church of God, infallible and immaculate" he said as the executioners prepared to do their work. Stone was hanged, drawn and quartered. . . .

His life can be found here.

The absolute, final, last day of anything at all like Christmas

That's today, the last day of Epiphanytide. The "daft days", so called in ancient Scotland due to all the merry-making, ended with Hogmanay. The 12 days of Christmas ended on 6 January, the proper feast of the Epiphany. The Pauline Rite ends Christmas and Epiphany on 13 January, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. And the last real liturgical day counted from Christmas is Candlemas which is 2 February. Everything else in the traditional Roman Rite is counted as weeks after Epiphany until Septuagesima.

And tomorrow is Septuagesima Sunday, which makes today the very last day of Epiphanytide.

Septuagesima begins the pre-Lenten period. We won't hear the Alleluia in the traditional rite again until the Easter vigil. A farewell to the Alleluia hymn used to be sung at Vespers on this Saturday but nothing so florid remains even in the traditional rite. Here's one of those hymns taken from Dom Gueranger's The Liturgical Year with the translation of Dom Laurence Shephard, O.S.B.

And from 13th century France:

Alleluia dulce carmen,
Vox perennis gaudii,
Alleluia laus suavis
Est choris coelestibus,
Quam canunt Dei manentes
In domo per saecula.

Alleluia laeta mater
Concivis Jerusalem :
Alleluia vox tuorum
Civium gaudentium :
Exsules nos flere cogunt
Babylonis flumina.

Alleluia non meremur
In perenne psallere ;
Alleluia vo reatus
Cogit intermittere ;
Tempus instat quo peracta
Lugeamus crimina.

Unde laudando precamur
Te beata Trinitas,
Ut tuum nobis videre
Pascha des in aethere,
Quo tibi laeti canamus
Alleluia perpetim.
Amen

The sweet Alleluia-song, the
word of endless joy, is the melody
of heaven's choir, chanted by them
that dwell for ever in the house
of God.

O joyful mother, O Jerusalem our
city, Alleluia is the language of thy
happy citizens. The rivers of
Babylon, where we poor exiles live,
force us to weep.

We are unworthy to sing a ceaseless
Alleluia. Our sins bid us interrupt our
Alleluia. They time is at hand when
it behoves us to bewail our crimes.

We, therefore, beseech thee whilst
we praise thee, O blessed Trinity!
that thou grant us to come to that
Easter of heaven, where we shall
sing to thee our joyful everlasting
Alleluia. Amen.

Some Piping for the Weekend

Koady, Ellen and Ward at MPF Fall 2010 from nate banton on Vimeo.

Dr Ellen McPhee on Scottish smallpipes plays some knockout reels with a couple of friends.