Translate

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

BLACK IS THE NEW WHITE

This is the Requiem for Cardnial Meisner. It only last a little bit over three hours.

But please note the sumptuous black vestments and for all the concelebrating bishops and priests--stunning, but of course Germany has money galore from the state, so why not go hog wild?

Please note too, all of the candles surrounding the coffin and all of the candles are themselves what is required for the EF Requiem, unbleached. It is nice to have an unlimited funding source,no?

This is obviously a "renewal or reconciled OF Mass in continuity with the Ancient Form from which it came."

 

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bee here:

I don't know the rubrics, but in the EF Requium Masses I have attended, there was a black pall on the casket. I see Cardinal Meisner's has none. Is that something that optional?


God bless.
Bee

Rood Screen said...

The German ecclesial tax applies only to members of the respective church, who remain free to quit their church and thereby stop paying the tax. Churches are not funded from general tax revenues, and unbelievers pay nothing. It is not, therefore, government funding of churches, but merely government collection of donations from willing supporters.

John Nolan said...

I watched it too. A very impressive ceremony but it seems the Novus Ordo is OTT in this respect for a Requiem Mass.

Incense throughout (two thurifers in the Cologne tradition), the use (from the Kyrie onwards) of Mozart's Coronation Mass, hardly appropriate in the circumstances, lavish organ improvisations and so on.

When the choir sang the Introit from the Fauré Requiem I expected that to be the setting for the rest of the Mass. If an orchestral Mass is wanted that would fit the bill, as would Mozart's own Requiem.

Even better would have been Victoria's Requiem interspersed with plainchant. Why is there a modern aversion to sombre solemnity?

A little more restraint would have been welcome.

John Nolan said...

Also, a cathedral like Cologne would have a vast treasury of vestments, which, unless they were thrown out in the aftermath of Vatican II (which in many places they were) would be available for use.

Actually, Cologne normally does not use its older vestments, preferring the modern woollen things that have been the preference in Germany for the last forty years or so.

Tom Makin said...

A year ago I attended Mass in the Dom celebrated by Cardinal Woelki. The Dom is a magnificent place; soaring, majestic and traditional. I doubt Cardinal Woelki is on the Holy Father's short list though....too conservative

Anonymous said...

It's odd seeing all those bishops who rationalize immorality wearing traditional black vestments. It just confirms how nuts they really are. They hated the cardinal and made his life difficult and let him stand alone. History will condem them and the cardinal will be remembered as the John Fisher of his time.

Anonymous said...

"...the cardinal will be remembered as the John Fisher of his time..."

Oh, the melodrama......

Anonymous said...

"Oh, the melodrama......" was St. John the Baptist being melodramatic when he confronted Herod about adultery?

Arrogant liberal.

A pope dismissing the words of Christ Himself and rationalizing adultery isn't melodrama. It is EVIL. And yes men like Burke and meisner are modern day John Fishers. If Francis could I have no doubt he would i prison them both like Henry VIII did to Ss. Thomas More and John Fisher.

Anonymous said...

Card Meisner was not St John the Baptist.

The pope has not dismissed the words of Christ himself.

Your fantasies are evil. And confronting you about them makes me feel rather saintly.....

ByzRus said...

Not having 3 hours to devote to watching this in entirety, I skimmed through and as a result, echo John Nolan's thoughts. Though impressive, it seems as if they went from the low church reductionist extreme to the other extreme with lavishness and excerpts from multiple orchestral masses. Options run amok, maybe? Again, I have to say, if it is desirable to have so many elements borrowed from the TLM, why not just have the TLM with its rubrics, relying on local language and Latin for the common parts?

John Nolan said...

ByzRC

The Cologne Mass didn't borrow any elements from the TLM. I have been to Novus Ordo Requiems which do, since they include the Dies Irae sequence.

The traditional Requiem Mass is unlike any other Mass. The rubrics are pared down. Incense is not used until the Offertory (in the Dominican Rite not until the Absolutions). Until the later 16th century even polyphony was regarded as too frivolous. The organ is silent.

In the NO it is strictly speaking a 'funeral Mass' - even when sung in Latin it can have other Introits than 'Requiem Aeternam' and there is a wide variety of chants to choose from. There is even an Alleluia outside of Lent. Vestment colour can be purple, black, even white, although the last is not common in Europe.

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous I hope you enjoy your saintly feelings.

I don't feel saintly. I am all to aware of what a miserable sinner I am. But if I am going to be condemed to Hell it will be for my own mortal sins. I will not be dammed for someone else's sins.

Accessory to Another’s Sin
I. By counsel II. By command III. By consent IV. By provocation V. By praise or flattery VI. By concealment VII. By partaking VIII. By silence IX. By defense of the ill done

Anonymous said...

No one is damned for someone else's sins.

If one counsels, commands, consents to, provokes, flatters, conceals, partakes in, is silent about, or defends the sinner, one is condemned for THOSE actions, not the sin of the other.

Anonymous said...

'No one is damned for someone else's sins"

The Church teaches otherwise:

CCC 1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;

- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;

- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;

- by protecting evil-doers.


But I guess you know better than the Church saintly Anonymous

Anonymous said...

No one is damned for anyone else's sins.

John commits murder. I do not commit murder.

I might order the murder, advise how to do it, praise or approve him, hide his culpability, or protect him.

John is condemned for murder.

I cannot be condemned for murder, but for ordering, advising, praising, approving, not disclosing, or protecting him.

No one is condemned for anyone else's sins, but for his/her own sins.

I do not know better than the Church, but I know how to comprehend what I read.

John Nolan said...

Anonymous @ 4:42

So Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot et al. did not commit mass murder since they personally did not kill anyone.

Someone who hires a hitman is indeed convicted of murder, although he does not pull the trigger.

Anonymous said...

Dear saintly Anonymous apparently you have made yourself your own little pope and have decided to correct official Church teaching. Here is something to ponder from a real pope.

"Those who take notice of what is evil in their neighbors, and yet refrain their tongue in silence, withdraw, as it were, the aid of medicine from observed sores, and became the causers of death, in that they would not cure the venom which they could have cured. The tongue, therefore, should be discreetly curbed, not tied up fast." (Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church)

And a little something for the road as I am finishing all communication with your saintliness.

3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, 7 who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith; 9 but they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. 2 Timothy - 3:1-9

Do yourself a favor and go to confession. It will do you so much good.

Anonymous said...

Accessory to Murder.

Anonymous said...

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot et al were guilty of their own crimes as accessories to murder.

No one is damned for anyone else's sins.

Rood Screen said...

Surely some of you can find a more charitable manner of correcting each other.

Anonymous said...

If you participate in a sin via the ways described above, you stand being condemned for YOUR sin, not the sin of someone else.

No one is damned for anyone else's sins.

ByzRus said...

Thank you, John. I always learn something from you!