Had intended to attempt St Mary's Saturday...

5:30pm Novus Ordo Mass in Latin (commonly called the 'vigil Mass' because of the execrable catechesis that has held sway in the Church since the 70s), otherwise known as the first Sunday Mass; it is not a vigil Mass in the traditional sense, although I suppose it is, really, in the post-Novus Ordo sense. In any case. I didn't get downtown yesterday evening and am not signed up for Mass this morning so am screwed, I reckon. Tsk.




For some reason that I don't know Saint-Eugène is also livestreaming a low Mass later on, after Vespers. I expect that it has to do with public cult having been forbidden (the appeals at the Conseil d'Etat were rejected yesterday) but am not sure. Individuals can, it seems, go to church e.g. to pray before the Most Blessed Sacrament and priests can still celebrate Holy Mass there 'privately'. If these events happen to coincide, one can hear Mass. I suppose a pastor can announce 'there is no public celebration, but I'll probably be saying Mass as usual', wink, wink, but can't imagine that the lackeys of the state would ignore this sort of 'arrangement' for long. Because I can't follow the spoken French sufficiently well, if M. l'Abbé G. has spoken about this business I've missed it. Not a Solemn Mass earlier, in any case.

Post Tertiam. Have just spent twenty minutes trying to rationalize how I have the columns in Tweetdeck arranged, tsk; the worst sort of First World 'problems'.

Klassikaraadio's 'Concert Hall' program is featuring ninety minutes of Erkii-Sven Tüür's music. This has been on for oh, half an hour, which demonstrates how I have to concentrate on the Tweetdeck nonsense, ha. Vespers is in just over a quarter of an hour. 




Ante Sextam. Still a chilly 44° F. Am reading Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows with Gustav Jenner's String Quartet no 1 in G minor playing in the background. 


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Ante Vesperas. Someone, God bless his heart, chose today to tweet about a Classic FM article from May that reported the Neumz website was online. Neumz is a recording project that will make available (online and via an app for the iPad and mobile telephone etc) the entire three year cycle of Gregorian chant sung in a French Benedictine abbey observing the New Rite, Notre Dame de Fidélité de Jouques. (That the nuns use the New Rite matters, inter alia, because in it the lessons and responsoria at Matins are arranged in a three year cycle, unlike in the Traditional Rite that is established on the basis of an annual cycle.) In any event, the app is supposed to be ready to use this month in time for the beginning of Advent on November 29th. 

The app features the notation for each chant with the text loading simultaneously with the progress of the chant, so that one can 'follow along'-- in a handful of modern language translations-- as the particular hour of the Office is sung. The last time I checked-- as the Classic FM article explained, the site launched in May at Pentecost-- there wasn't an entirely perfect simultaneity going on but such a magnificent project is bound to have glitches along the way. 

Dr John Anderson has pointed out that similar projects in an abbey of men and in a house where the Traditional Rite is used are possibilities. Jouques was a providential opportunity in that he or someone else amongst the team (I have forgotten the details) has a sister or other near relation who is abbess at Jouques-- some sort of personal relationship in any case. 


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