Getting there...
Fifteen days until St. Philip's Day...
Fifteen days until St. Philip's Day...
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Mr. Shea
has a great article over at Catholic Exchange: Measuring Doctrine By Poetry .
Venerable John Henry Newman wrote on a similar topic....
" Of all passions love is the most unmanageable; nay more, I would not give much for that love which is never extravagant, which always observes the proprieties, and can move about in perfect good taste, under all emergencies. What mother, what husband or wife, what youth or maiden in love, but says a thousand foolish things, in the way of endearment, which the speaker would be sorry for strangers to hear; yet they are not on that account unwelcome to the parties to whom they are addressed. Sometimes by bad luck they are written down, sometimes they get into the newspapers; and what might be even graceful, when it was fresh from the heart, and interpreted by the voice and the countenance, presents but a melancholy exhibition when served up cold for the public eye. So it is with devotional feelings. Burning thoughts and words are as open to criticism as they are beyond it. What is abstractedly extravagant, may in particular persons be becoming and beautiful, and only fall under blame when it is found in others who imitate them. When it is formalized into meditations or exercises, it is as repulsive as love-letters in a police report. Moreover, even holy minds readily adopt and become familiar with language which they would never have originated themselves, when it proceeds from a writer who has the same objects of devotion as they have; and, if they find a stranger ridicule or reprobate supplication or praise which has come to them so recommended, they feel it as keenly as if a direct insult were offered to those to whom that homage is addressed. " - From A Letter Addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D.,on Occasion of His Eirenicon
has a great article over at Catholic Exchange: Measuring Doctrine By Poetry .
Venerable John Henry Newman wrote on a similar topic....
" Of all passions love is the most unmanageable; nay more, I would not give much for that love which is never extravagant, which always observes the proprieties, and can move about in perfect good taste, under all emergencies. What mother, what husband or wife, what youth or maiden in love, but says a thousand foolish things, in the way of endearment, which the speaker would be sorry for strangers to hear; yet they are not on that account unwelcome to the parties to whom they are addressed. Sometimes by bad luck they are written down, sometimes they get into the newspapers; and what might be even graceful, when it was fresh from the heart, and interpreted by the voice and the countenance, presents but a melancholy exhibition when served up cold for the public eye. So it is with devotional feelings. Burning thoughts and words are as open to criticism as they are beyond it. What is abstractedly extravagant, may in particular persons be becoming and beautiful, and only fall under blame when it is found in others who imitate them. When it is formalized into meditations or exercises, it is as repulsive as love-letters in a police report. Moreover, even holy minds readily adopt and become familiar with language which they would never have originated themselves, when it proceeds from a writer who has the same objects of devotion as they have; and, if they find a stranger ridicule or reprobate supplication or praise which has come to them so recommended, they feel it as keenly as if a direct insult were offered to those to whom that homage is addressed. " - From A Letter Addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D.,on Occasion of His Eirenicon
Friday, May 09, 2003
Newman and Music
by Mr Philip Crossley
I found this on the website of The Birmingham Oratory . I could not get a direct link to the article, so it is copied here instead.
"Newman’s love of music is not in doubt: it was encouraged and fostered in his family circle; he took up the violin at the age of ten. His two brothers, Frank and Charles, used to accompany him in trios. At Ealing School he composed plays and then music for them. In 1815 he wrote a burlesque opera, composing tunes for the songs and in 1821 wrote to his mother: 'I am glad to be able to inform you that Signor Giovanni Enrico Neandrini has finished his first composition. The melody is light and airy and is well supported by the harmony'.
On going to Oxford he kept up his music and was a playing member of the music club at S. John’s which enjoyed weekly private concerts in the music room. Newman said in 1820: 'I was asked by a man yesterday to go to his rooms for a little music at seven o’clock. I went. An old Don … played bass and through his enthusiasm I was kept playing quartets on a heavy tenor from seven to twelve. Oh my poor eyes and head and back'.
Newman composed instrumental trios at Littlemore, which he played together with John Walker and Mr Bowles.
Beethoven was his favourite composer and his preferences were for Handel, Romberg, Haydn, Mozart and Corelli; Palestrina, Animuccia and Cherubini he held in high regard. Gregorian chant he loved in the Mass but he wrote: 'the only fault will be that it admits no change, but is the same through the fifty-two Sundays of the year'. He was not attracted to Wagner, Brahms, Schubert or Schumann, having grown up with the music of the great 18th century composers. The Cardinal was fond of operatic music, but heard little of it, and when he had to make a choice as to what performances he would attend at the 1879 Festival, said: 'I shall go once and I choose 'Mose in Egitto'.
Those who read the late Mr Frank Hayward’s research into the Cardinal’s hymnology in this magazine in 1998/9 will be aware that of the seventeen hymns listed, six of the settings were Newman’s own compositions and five were adaptations he made from other composers.
In 1877 at the opening of the new organ he preached a beautiful discourse upon the event of the day, and on music, first as a great natural gift and then as an instrument in the hands of the Church. After a performance in the church of Cherubini’s First Requiem in C Minor in 1886, he said: 'It is magnificent music…but when you get as old as I am, it comes rather too close to home'. "
by Mr Philip Crossley
I found this on the website of The Birmingham Oratory . I could not get a direct link to the article, so it is copied here instead.
"Newman’s love of music is not in doubt: it was encouraged and fostered in his family circle; he took up the violin at the age of ten. His two brothers, Frank and Charles, used to accompany him in trios. At Ealing School he composed plays and then music for them. In 1815 he wrote a burlesque opera, composing tunes for the songs and in 1821 wrote to his mother: 'I am glad to be able to inform you that Signor Giovanni Enrico Neandrini has finished his first composition. The melody is light and airy and is well supported by the harmony'.
On going to Oxford he kept up his music and was a playing member of the music club at S. John’s which enjoyed weekly private concerts in the music room. Newman said in 1820: 'I was asked by a man yesterday to go to his rooms for a little music at seven o’clock. I went. An old Don … played bass and through his enthusiasm I was kept playing quartets on a heavy tenor from seven to twelve. Oh my poor eyes and head and back'.
Newman composed instrumental trios at Littlemore, which he played together with John Walker and Mr Bowles.
Beethoven was his favourite composer and his preferences were for Handel, Romberg, Haydn, Mozart and Corelli; Palestrina, Animuccia and Cherubini he held in high regard. Gregorian chant he loved in the Mass but he wrote: 'the only fault will be that it admits no change, but is the same through the fifty-two Sundays of the year'. He was not attracted to Wagner, Brahms, Schubert or Schumann, having grown up with the music of the great 18th century composers. The Cardinal was fond of operatic music, but heard little of it, and when he had to make a choice as to what performances he would attend at the 1879 Festival, said: 'I shall go once and I choose 'Mose in Egitto'.
Those who read the late Mr Frank Hayward’s research into the Cardinal’s hymnology in this magazine in 1998/9 will be aware that of the seventeen hymns listed, six of the settings were Newman’s own compositions and five were adaptations he made from other composers.
In 1877 at the opening of the new organ he preached a beautiful discourse upon the event of the day, and on music, first as a great natural gift and then as an instrument in the hands of the Church. After a performance in the church of Cherubini’s First Requiem in C Minor in 1886, he said: 'It is magnificent music…but when you get as old as I am, it comes rather too close to home'. "
As a devotee of the Venerable and a fan of the Professor...
I simply must mention that today is the feast of St. Gerontius.... a name readers of Newman or Tolkien will surely recognize....
I simply must mention that today is the feast of St. Gerontius.... a name readers of Newman or Tolkien will surely recognize....
This looks as if it will be extremely cool....
The British library will be issuing CD's of various authors, including the Professor, reading, often from their own writings. .
The British library will be issuing CD's of various authors, including the Professor, reading, often from their own writings. .
Thursday, May 08, 2003
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Excellent article posted on the Confederation website
"The contribution of the Oratories to the liturgical life of England"
by Rev. Guy Nicholls, C.O., Priest of the Birmingham Oratory.
The article can be found here .
"The contribution of the Oratories to the liturgical life of England"
by Rev. Guy Nicholls, C.O., Priest of the Birmingham Oratory.
The article can be found here .
Quote from a letter of the Professor to his son Christopher, May 6, 1944
"A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking through the woods of Ithilien) : Faramir...."
"A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking through the woods of Ithilien) : Faramir...."
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord...
and let perpetual light shine upon him....
William Kumer, the father of my dear friend (and fellow Secular Oratorian) Patty, passed away Sunday evening. Prayers for the repose of his soul and the comfort of his family would be most welcome.
and let perpetual light shine upon him....
William Kumer, the father of my dear friend (and fellow Secular Oratorian) Patty, passed away Sunday evening. Prayers for the repose of his soul and the comfort of his family would be most welcome.
Sunday, May 04, 2003
It may not be entirely charitable....
but I'm afraid the thought that popped into my head when checking out this new blog was, "Thank you, Lord, that this guy didn't become a priest !"
but I'm afraid the thought that popped into my head when checking out this new blog was, "Thank you, Lord, that this guy didn't become a priest !"
Good news...
Two friends of mine just got engaged ! Prayers for them as they prepare for the Sacrament of Matrimony would be very welcome.
Two friends of mine just got engaged ! Prayers for them as they prepare for the Sacrament of Matrimony would be very welcome.
If it were not Sunday
today would be the feast of St. John Houghton, who died on this day with the other martyrs of the London Charterhouse in 1535. There is information on him here.
While I love all of the English and Welsh martyrs, (and wish that the feast of the Forty Martyrs was at least given as an option on the US calendar), the fact that these Carthusians were the first ones to suffer, even before the magnificent St. John Fisher and the beloved St. Thomas More (who watched them being dragged to execution from his own cell), makes them special in my eyes. The later martyrs, the wonderful Jesuits and seminary priests, went into enemy territory to fight the good fight knowing what they were up against. The Carthusians were living in a country that had been Catholic for a thousand years, quietly pursuing sanctity in prayer and solitude- and suddenly they were dragged into a politicized religious maelstrom, facing not just any death, but the sickening torture of hanging, drawing and quartering. (It must have been an incredible shock to those witnessing it as well..... imagine the inhabitants of a Catholic country seeing monks, still clad in their habits, being dragged, stripped, half-hanged, and dismembered...)
And St. John Houghton's last words, spoken while he was still conscious even though the butchers were ripping his body apart and tearing his heart from his chest, always make me cry...
"And what wilt Thou do with my heart, O Christ?" ......
today would be the feast of St. John Houghton, who died on this day with the other martyrs of the London Charterhouse in 1535. There is information on him here.
While I love all of the English and Welsh martyrs, (and wish that the feast of the Forty Martyrs was at least given as an option on the US calendar), the fact that these Carthusians were the first ones to suffer, even before the magnificent St. John Fisher and the beloved St. Thomas More (who watched them being dragged to execution from his own cell), makes them special in my eyes. The later martyrs, the wonderful Jesuits and seminary priests, went into enemy territory to fight the good fight knowing what they were up against. The Carthusians were living in a country that had been Catholic for a thousand years, quietly pursuing sanctity in prayer and solitude- and suddenly they were dragged into a politicized religious maelstrom, facing not just any death, but the sickening torture of hanging, drawing and quartering. (It must have been an incredible shock to those witnessing it as well..... imagine the inhabitants of a Catholic country seeing monks, still clad in their habits, being dragged, stripped, half-hanged, and dismembered...)
And St. John Houghton's last words, spoken while he was still conscious even though the butchers were ripping his body apart and tearing his heart from his chest, always make me cry...
"And what wilt Thou do with my heart, O Christ?" ......