Today's the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi...

Which is commemorated in the Traditional Rite because it is the 18th Sunday post Pentecosten (although the 'external solemnity' of the feast of the Holy Rosary is celebrated today at Saint-Eugène and other churches that observe the 'form' of 1962*). There is a sequence that the Franciscans use (or did formerly use), attributed to the venerable Thomas of Celano, as is also the Dies irae

Holy Mass from Paris which, alas, I didn't drag myself out of bed at 0200 for. I've only now finished Matins and Lauds and must attend to my shower et cetera, and Prime. 


Gaudeamus * omnes in Dómino, diem festum celebrántes sub honóre beátæ Maríæ Vírginis : de cujus solemnitáte gaudent Angeli, et colláudant Fílium Dei.

 


 

*As I understand it, the feast of the Holy Rosary was celebrated on the first Sunday of October until Pius X's changes to the calendar etc etc; thereafter it was celebrated on the 7th. The 1960/1962 Missal (the 'extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite') evidently provides that an 'external solemnity' can be celebrated on the nearest Sunday i.e. so that more people are able to participate in the celebration, so that a parish need not go to the trouble and expense of two solemn Masses in a week etc etc. I expect that today is the day because next Sunday is already a feast of the Virgin, that of her Maternity. In the Novus Ordo, this feast is united with the Octave Day of Christmas and the feast of Our Lord's Circumcision, and all three are celebrated as one feast on January 1. 

Post Sextam. There is a deep-voiced frog in the back yard, or perhaps in the neighbor's back yard-- if it is a frog. It occurs to me it might be two branches squeaking against each other, or pieces of the fence, in the wind. But I think it's a frog; my musical judgment is not top of the line, but I'm pretty sure it's a frog or toad. Two rainy seasons ago, there were a number of them under the house; their chorus, as beautiful as it was in itself, kept me awake more than once. Why there were none last year, I have no idea. 

Vespers from earlier at St-E.

 



Mr Trump's people may stage a photo op or two, and he definitely appears in public with the, ahem, advantage that some variety of cosmetics gives to him; these have been the national crises of the day or so past in the media. If he manages to win re-election, I quite frankly think that at the first press conference after the return to normal business he ought to tell the members of the press corps that they can go ---k themselves if they imagine that going forward he's going to dignify the leading and loaded questions with responses. There's bound to be someone present who has a real question about a real issue that is of substantive concern to the national well-being.

There is a decent and intelligent and faithful Catholic fellow I follow on Twitter who wrote a quasi-despairing tweet the other day about how we Catholics who will vote for Mr Trump are lost in some pagan ritual in which we worship the GOP and the excesses of the market economy while pretending to ourselves that we are motivated by the doctrine of the Church. The only way to respond, I thought, was to suggest that the situation will have to become much worse before it can get any better. I have no doubt but that eventually Providence will give us good shepherds, after we have gone through trials of fire and civil war and famine. Until then we will muddle along in our little refuges, hiding from the approaching cataclysms.

I did go to see the Pope's new encyclical letter at the Holy See's website but there was no Latin text so it will keep. Have begun reading Scripturae sanctae affectus, however, the apostolic letter published on the feast of Saint Jerome, 30 September, in commemoration of the great Doctor's 1600th anniversary.  My first quibble was that the opening sentence treats 'Sacred Scripture' as a singular; Scripturarum sanctarum affectus, it ought to have been, in my opinion. The Bible is not a manual of theology, compact in its editions for the ambo, the home, and the schools, as much as some of the separated brethren would like to pretend that it is. My second criticism is that it is lamentable how little use Franciscus makes of his predecessor's apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini from ten years ago. 

It is a crime that the Latin text of Verbum Domini is missing from the Holy See's website.

Post Nonam. I haven't thought of this song for quite a while; was at Twitter a couple of minutes ago and noticed in Twitter-provided 'news' column that 'people are concerned about the poor Secret Service people' along for the ride when Mr Trump left the hospital to greet his supporters. People? 'Journalists interested in crippling Mr Trump's re-election campaign' is what that means in context.


So let us not talk falsely now
Because the hour is getting late

 

Dylan.

 


 

And Hendrix, requiescat in pace.

 


 

And Michael Hedges, requiescat in pace.

 


 

 ***

 

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