Dawn had already sloughed off her blankets and risen for the day-- broad morning by the time I managed to get out into it. Tsk. Today is of course the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord, Corpus Christi. Much to my disgust, at the parish it isn't celebrated until Sunday i.e. in my case not until the Saturday evening 'Vigil Mass'. Much to my disgust. To make the day worse, Saint-Eugène really isn't streaming the Mass this morning, I guess. Will check in at 1000 just in case, tsk. Thought about renting a car and driving to Saint Thomas (the local FSSPX church) in Veneta but will not. The Office will be enough today, alas.
Christum Regem adorémus dominántem géntibus: Qui se manducántibus dat spíritus pinguédinem.
And Palestrina's setting of the penultimate strophe.
Am off for Prime.
Post Primam. The crow asserted it's dominance and chased off the jays, returning to pick up two peanuts at once. It flew off and the jays returned for theirs. The squirrels, not wanting to fuss with the crow, I guess, began to engage in their own squabbles (or else they were mating). They gnaw at the dog's bones; not quite sure why. Surely they are not consciously sharpening their teeth, so I suppose the particles of bone provide nourishment of some sort.
Ante Tertiam. The beginning of an article by Dr Kwaniewski from Monday on the restoration of the Corpus Christi Octave.
On the Thursday nine weeks after Holy Thursday falls the feast of Corpus Christi-- specifically, the Body of Christ, not the Novus Ordo’s substitute 'the Body and Blood of Christ', which is in any case usually transferred to Sunday (and is not by any means the same as an “external solemnity”) on account of the hierarchy’s nearly-unanimous surrender to the imperious dictatorship of work. (The traditional calendar, thanks to Pius IX, appropriately includes the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus on July 1st, a subject to which John XXIII dedicated an encyclical in 1960.) Like the Ascension, Corpus Christi falls properly on a Thursday: always has, always will, wherever tradition is valued as befits Catholics....
Much to my disgust, there is no Mass of Corpus Christi here in Eugene today. Much to my disgust. While I myself approve of Dr Kwasniewski's interpretation of the Ordo-- let a thousand flowers bloom! (very much a misquotation of that odious tyrant Mao)-- I suspect that not everyone does, and that Mons N. et alii are more than willing to send Pastor A. to the diocesan doghouse if A.'s parish manages to celebrate a 'quasi-octave'. Still.
Today's sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem is such a splendid work, both the chant itself and the marvellous text.
A sad thing but true is that I don't own any books by the venerable Ronald Knox apart from his translation of the Bible; this reproach occurred to me as I read this essay by Father Charles Fox earlier.
Post Sextam. Of the five works made available in a virtual concert by the Eugene Symphony tonight the only one I have any interest in hearing is Ralph Vaugh William's Fantasia upon a Theme of Thomas Tallis. I can listen to X number of recordings of that piece on Spotify and YouTube this afternoon, and of course I can make a point of vaguely listening to the other four pieces on YouTube before the final Vaughn Williams this evening. Sigh. I give them $120+ a year in lieu of paying for non-existent tickets but that they can imagine that there is general enthusiasm for Zhou Tian, John Cage, Chen Yi, and Terry Riley, well, well, I hope they're right. Have written myself into the position of feeling obliged, now, to turn on the YouTube recording at 1900. I must have altogether missed the live stream on May 20th, tsk; it has gotten to the point that I pay very little attention to them.
The Bach Festival begins on the 25th and I've paid them almost no attention, either: everything is live streamed-- the Dunedin Consort at home in Scotland, the Emerson String Quartet in New York, and so on. The "pianist-activist" Lara Downes is the 'future' of the Festival, evidently (well, well: "the Festival also features a glimpse at our future plans with concerts from pianist-activist Lara Downes", not the same thing but I doubt I shall ever again be well-disposed to the OBF). The University is getting itself around to naming an artistic director-- I forget the three gentlemen's names but one of them was the conductor of the Eugene Symphony, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, whose tenure ended in my first or second year here, I believe. Time for None.
Ante Vesperas. Have been reading the Commissario Brunetti stories, as I've mentioned; I believe I'm on the final $3 one. Two more at least await via the Public Library. Anyway, a few nights ago I decided to experiment with an episode of the series on Prime; this didn't work because who knows why-- something to do with Amazon or with the 'channel' that provides the Brunetti series. Frustrated, I tried the next evening and ran into what I presume were or was the same issues or issue. Last night, it occurred to me to use a different browser and off we went. It is a German production, ha; a cast of Germans speaking German with English subtitling. I couldn't easily get beyond the humor of that and don't imagine I'll watch rest of the series. The Brunetti actor, eh, more or less he fit my 'reader's image' of the protagonist; but perhaps this was so because none of the others did: not the Paola, Patta, Vianello, Chiara, Raffaele, and most certainly not the Elettra, actors and actresses, none of them.
O sacrum convívium, in quo Christus súmitur: recólitur memória passiónis ejus: mens implétur grátia: et futúræ glóriæ nobis pignus datur, allelúja.
Time for Vespers.
Pange, lingua, gloriósi
Córporis mystérium,
Sanguinísque pretiósi,
Quem in mundi prétium
Fructus ventris generósi
Rex effúdit géntium.
Nobis datus, nobis natus
Ex intácta Vírgine,
Et in mundo conversátus,
Sparso verbi sémine,
Sui moras incolátus
Miro clausit órdine.
In suprémæ nocte cenæ
Recúmbens cum frátribus,
Observáta lege plene
Cibis in legálibus,
Cibum turbæ duodénæ
Se dat suis mánibus.
Verbum caro, panem verum
Verbo carnem éfficit;
Fitque sanguis Christi merum:
Et si sensus déficit,
Ad firmándum cor sincérum
Sola fides súfficit.
Tantum ergo Sacraméntum
Venerémur cérnui:
Et antíquum documéntum
Novo cedat rítui:
Præstet fides suppleméntum
Sénsuum deféctui.
Genitóri, Genitóque
Laus et jubilátio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedíctio:
Procedénti ab utróque
Compar sit laudátio.
Amen. Alleluia.
I can never sing this hymn without recalling the conclusion of Benson's The Lord of the World.
Quantus tremor est futúrus,
Quando Iudex est ventúrus,
Cuncta stricte discussúrus!
In Benson's novel, the chaos of the Second Coming is accompanied by the Dies irae, which gives way at the very end to the Pange lingua gloriosi. Hmm; a long time since I read that novel. Ah, it is the feast of Pentecost; Benson alludes to the Dies irae in the text but doesn't cite it. "Then this world passed, and the glory of it."
Ante Completorium. Maestro Lecce-Chong is prosing on before the music begins. Zhou Tian's work for strings, Nocturne, is pleasant enough, sure, sure. Terry Riley's, eh; I suppose they are never going to give up the video accompaniments. I won't buy a ticket to one of those concerts, not that my refusal to do so will bother them at all. Idiots.
It is also the feast of Saint Caecilius of Carthage (3rd century), of Saint Hilarius of Carcassone (6th century), and of Saint Clothilde (6th century).
V. Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum. R. Deo grátias.
LDVM
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