Managed to afflict my right eye...

With a slight abrasion as I awoke at 0230ish-- I believe I rubbed the stiff hairs of the eyelid against the surface of the... cornea, is that the word? In any case, it is a mild episode; I decided to stay up and said Matins of the feast of the physicians Saints Cosmas and Damian, martyrs whose names are remembered daily in the Canon of the Mass. Am now watching the video recording of the Saturday Ember Day Mass Venite adoremus Dominus, which I didn't follow then. The singing of the Benedictus es, Domine after the fifth lesson from the Book of the Prophet Daniel always marks the beginning of the season in beauty although the Ember Days are days of conversatio morum and penitence. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sǽcula. 

Back to the Tract before the Gospel, Laudate Dominum omnes gentes. 

The collect for the feast of Our Lady of Ransom, which occurred on Saturday, is quite splendid really.

Deus, qui per gloriosíssimam Fílii tui Matrem, ad liberándos Christi fidéles a potestáte paganórum nova Ecclésiam tuam prole amplificáre dignátus es: præsta, quǽsumus; ut, quam pie venerámur tanti operis institutrícem, ejus páriter méritis et intercessióne, a peccátis ómnibus et captivitáte dǽmonis liberémur. Per eúmdem Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
R. Amen.

... O God, Who didst use the glorious Mother of thy Son as a mean to ransom Christ's faithful people out of the hands of the unbelievers, by enriching thy Church with yet another family, grant, we beseech thee, that we who reverently honour her as the Foundress of that great work, may for her sake and by her prayers, be redeemed from all sin and all bondage unto the evil one. Through the same Jesus Christ, thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

That is the English version supplied at Divinum Officium; the Marquess of Butte's, I believe. I became impatient trying to render the nova Ecclesiam tuam prole amplificare satisfactorily so have recourse to this. That we may for her sake and by her prayers be redeemed from all sin and all bondage unto the evil one.

And the Benedictus es, Domine is reprised at the sortie des clercs.

Had in the mail, the real mail, postman, mailbox, all of it, yesterday or perhaps Friday, an advertisement for one of the local theatre companies, Oregon Contemporary Theatre it is called. I'm too poor in retirement-- it is simply the fact: I'm not at all complaining-- to spend $180 for a discounted package of six tickets. But then, even were I living without any financial constraint, of the six productions at least four of them (witchcraft, LGBxyz, gender/'transitioning', colonialism/cultural appropriation) are prima facie propaganda in one form or another for society's degradation in these latter days. The one unambiguously not nonsense is an adaptation of Jane Austen, the Darcys and the Bennetts being kept from knowledge of 'an unwelcome guest' (guess which Wickham...) by the servants at Christmas-- so it does at least 'explore the confines of class'. 4.5/6, then. And the sixth is about a woman who's managed to raise a son convicted of sexual assault-- but of course it's 'all about her': the oestrogen level will be through the roof at that show, I suspect, hence an adjusted score of 5.5/6 for cultural propaganda. All of this makes sense, given OCT's name, certainly, and 'Eugene', but I'm not a member of their target audience. 

LDVM