Extra Omnes - the Conclave Begins

 I watched part of the Conclave, I started during the Litanae Sanctorum, and watched a lot of the Cardinals swear on the book of the Gospels. But the most important is what the Papal Master of Ceremonies says, "Extra Omnes", and closes the door of the Sistene Chapel. This signals the start of the Conclave, and voting. While the cardinals are at work, the church waits anxiously for the white smoke to appear, and the announcement of a new pope: "Habemus Papum!". A new pope could come this afternoon, or this evening, or later. The last Conclave took only about 4 rounds of voting. Which was about 2 days. We wait anxiously, praying for the Cardinals.

Official Vatican Site & Conclave Info

Pope Francis Memorial Mass

Yesterday, we had a Mass in Honor of Pope Francis. I would assume that the propers used were from the masses from the dead, from the prayers for the Pontiff. The color of the vestments for the mass was Red. We had one celebrating priest (no con-celebrants), and two deacons. One deacon wore the dalmatic, and the other wore only the stole. I was put in charge of incense, and for the first time, I followed the GIRM:

From the epiclesis until the Priest shows the chalice, the Deacon usually remains kneeling. If several Deacons are present, one of them may place incense in the thurible for the Consecration and incense the host and the chalice at the elevation.

Compare this to mass without a deacon:

 If incense is being used, when the host and the chalice are shown to the people after the Consecration, a minister incenses them.

 Normally we only have one deacon, so when I do incense usually, I kneel at the foot of the altar and incense as the priest elevates the host and chalice. But today, since we had two deacons, and we was willing to help, I was able to have the deacon incense the host and chalice. 

It was a nice service. I wanted to make two notes with this for your use. First, incense. How the deacon is the one to incense. As well, we wore red today. All the music was on the organ. Which the entrance was an antiphon. And the Presentation Hymn was "These Alone are Enough", which I also believe was written by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, which is nice, because he was the founder of the Jesuits, and Pope Francis was Jesuit. And the Communion hymn was also an antiphon, and both the antiphons were from the Funeral mass.

Orate Pro Papa Francisco, Requiscat in Pace +; Eternal Rest Grant unto Him O Lord, and Let Perpetual Light Shine Upom Him

Sunday Mass & Masses for the Dead

Due to the passing of a Pope, we enter a period of mourning and a period of Sedevancantism. Following the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, many of the changes that take place at the passing of a Pope did not take place. A period of Sedevancantism did follow the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI, but a period of mourning did not take place, at least not in tbe same way as Pope Francis. I do believe there was a period of mourning. Popes John Paul II and Francis both died during the Easter Octave. In some places, masses for the dead were allowed to be celebrated. Normally, masses for the dead are not allowed during the Octave days. Besides that, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died during the Christmas Octave. I believe there were masses celebrated for him following his passing. In most places, displays are set up for the deceased Pope, with his picture and a black cloth (Saint John Vianney Seminary had a picture with the Pope and a black stole over, that they posted on Instagram, and which I put here). Besides this, the name of the pope is removed during Sedevancantism, such as when Benedict retired. The name of the pope is completely skipped and in the Eucharistic prayer the name of the bishop is immediately said. Besides this, the name of the deceased pope may be added in the commemoration of the dead. And prayers during the petitions, or homily, or announcements, or following mass, may be said.

Requiscat in Pace, Papa Franciscus + Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him O Lord, and Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him;May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Holy Communion Outside of Mass - A Latin Edition

Some of you may know about a service called: "The Distribution of Communion Outside of Mass". You may have attended one of these services before. I have only ever attended one which was held by a deacon, in place of a normal daily mass. The USCCB recently released an updated version of the text in 2024. And I recently purchased the Catholic Book Publishing Co.'s release of it. 

But I was looking at the prefaces to it (that is the prefacing page s and introduction), and they have three letters in the beginning. And in there is the Latin title for the book (and it's a long one): De sacra communione et de cultu mysterii eucharistici extra missam. Which the English version is called: Holy Communion and the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass. (Which covers the Distribution of Communion but also Adoration and Viaticum and Communion of the Sick).

Now if you look up De sacra communione et de cultu mysterii eucharistici extra missam, you will find a copy of it, that you can download and print as a PDF. This version comes from Archive.org (The Internet Archive), which is an amazing website, that is basically a digital library, with millions of archives of books, music, and other text and audio and software related things. Here is the Latin Version.

I am unaware of where you can find Latin versions of the book in print. If you want, you can always download the PDF and print it out and bind it, or whatever you wish to use it for. Additionally I found an Italian Version. I was also trying to search out a French version too, but was unable to find one.

Just wanted to share this thing that I found, and who knows, maybe it will help someone out.

By the way, a look at Pope Francis's funeral will come on Sunday. I hope to be able to watch it live, but it is at 2 in the Morning, Chicago Time (Central Time). So, I do plan on watching it at some point, and I will review it here Sunday.

Transfer of the Coffin of Pope Francis

 

Yesterday was the Transfer of Pope Francis Coffin (full video here from YouTube). I do not have much to write about it. Most of it is walking, and there are a whole bunch of Cardinal (and other clergy) in choir. I also saw somewhere that the Cope (which was a beautiful cope, and it was nice to see) was one that was used by Pope Benedict XVI. It's also nice to see Pope Francis in chasuble. He has not been the main celebrant of a public mass since 2022! (According to my best research (i.e. a single article). Since then every mass which he has been at in public he has been sitting in a cope, up until before his hospitilization and passing. Interestingly enough, Pope John Paul II, at his last public Christmas mass, celebrated the mass sitting down. Now that is not to say that Pope Francis did not celebrate private masses sitting down or at all. As well, like Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI before him, he is wearing a plain white mitre, as well as holding a Rosary.

Pope Francis will also be buried at St. Mary Major Basillica in Rome, where about six other popes have also been buried. Pope Francis is NOT the first pope to NOT be buried outside of St. Peter's Basillica. The last pope to be buried outside of Rome was in 1903.

Requiscat in Pace, Papa Francisco + Eternal Rest Grant unto Him, O Lord; and Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him

Website Update

 

Update on the Website for Liturgical review. First and foremost, I chose a new design for the blog site. And I like this one better. Besides that, I also added a new page, with contact information. And besides that, there will be more coming soon. I wanted to write this short article in update. And also let you know more new will be coming!

The Passing of Pope Francis

Pope Francis, the Pontiff of the Universal Church, Bishop of Rome, "Servant of the Servants of God", has passed away at the age of 88. This was officially announced Yesterday. Pope Francis passed away following the Easter Celebration.

I took a look at Pope Francis's passing on today's blog post, and YouTube video on my other channel/blog, so I will not take as much a look into his death.

I would like to apologise for the lack of posts here. There will be more posts coming, including some about easter. I will also post about coming liturgical events for Pope Francis. As we saw with Pope Emiritus Benedict XVI, there was transfer of the body, as well as the Funeral Mass and Burial. There will also be events of the Conclave.

Let us continue in Praying for the Pope, and for the entirety of the Universal Church.

Transfer of the Coffin for Pope Francis

Today (April 22), the Service Booklet for the Transfer of the Coffin of Pope Francis was put onto the Vatican Website. The service is (was) held today. The Vatican announced that the servicce will take place tommorow, at 9 AM Rome time.

A similiar service happened following the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, which took place over three years ago.

Also, over twenty years ago (and about fifteen days), Pope John Paul II passed away, on (or on the Vigil of) Divine Mercy Sunday (a day which he established within his pontificate). There is a possibility that I will look back at funeral coverage of these two pontiffs in the coming days. I will also look at the Service of the Transfer of Pope Francis's Coffin on Thursday (since I don't know when it will be up Standard Time). But I was able to look at the service booklet. It's a very simple service, and most of the booklet is only Psalms and the Litany of the Saints, which was similiar to what happened for Pope Benedict.

We'll see tommorow, keep Pope Francis in your Prayers

Good Friday

 Good Friday is day of prayer and fasting. This is reflected not only in how we act this day, but also how our liturgy is celebrated. The mass is a presentation of the one sacrifice of Christ upon Calvary today. The mass, which is a perpetual sacrifice, and almost every minute around the world, a mass is probably being sacrificed. But on these Triduum days, few masses are celebrated. On Holy Thursday, only one mass is celebrated in the Evening. And in certain places, one mass is celebrated for the diocese, the Chrism Mass. But on Good Friday, no masses are celebrated at all.

At 3, a celebration of the Lord's Passion takes place. This is not a mass. It begins with the priest and ministers laying prostrate in front of the altar, which is bare. Then the celebrant, who is only a priest (or bishop) says a prayer, before readings are read. And the Passion Gospel of John is read. Following this a homily follows, and then Special longer Intercessions are read, praying for the pope, bishops, faithful people, and those out of the church. Following this the veneration of the cross occours. Then after this, hosts from yesterday's mass are distributed, the Our Father and Invitation to Communion are said, then the hosts are distributed to the people. Then, the service concludes.

I forgot to mention an interesting part of the Holy Thursday liturgy, the the bells are used during the Gloria, and then they are not used again until the Easter Vigil. Instead, a wooden clacker is used. It may also be used during the Procession, as bells may be used in other processions. The sound of it is reminiscent of a hammer hitting nails, hence it's association with this week, and the passion of our Lord. 

Also on Good Friday, incense is not used. It seems that possibly in the '54 and '62, it was, however there is no instruction for incense to be used in any point of the service. I just wanted to make a note of that.

Holy Thursday

 

We will not be looking at the Chrism Mass. The Chrism mass takes place on Holy Thursday, altough in most places, it takes place earlier. Like in our Diocese it was held on Monday. I wanted to go to the mass, but, someday I will attend. But I don't know much about the service. Plus you did not click on this one to read about the Chrism Mass. This is all about the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. Which, by the way, in the Post Concilliar Liturgy, anyone who attends the mass is not bound to pray Evening Prayer.

The Evening Mass is very similiar to a regular mass. It starts as normal, the procession, the readings, the homily. Than after the Homily they have the Washing of feet, or the Maundy. Maundy comes from the Latin meaning Mandate. This comes from the fact that Christ mandated this to his Apostles. In the pre '54 liturgy, the Maundy took place out of the mass, but was added into the liturgy in the '62 missal.

The Evening Mass continues as normal, with the Canon having a few additions. Holy Thursday is the Institution of the Eucharist, so this mass is very special. 

After this, at the conclusion of mass, a ciborium is brought in procession to an altar of repose for prayer.

The Hosts consecrated at this mass will be used in the service tommorow.

At our parish, the additional hosts are kept in the Sacristy, in a locked cabinet with a candle. The first year I served, we kept them in the Confessional room. And then we would retrieve them on Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. And after the Adoration was over the Ciborium would be movied from the altar of repose to the other hosts.

That's it for today, I don't have much else to say about Holy Thursday!