Dr. K's Weekly Roundup, January 3, 2025

The Christmas season; Good News from Norcia, Cruachan, Tyler, Front Royal, and Tasmania; Liturgical Lessons from Cupich, the Sarum Rite, the Temple, and Acorns; Theological Treasury; Favorite Articles

Lingering in the light of Christmas

Greetings to one and all, as we journey like little magi through the Twelve Days of Christmas leading up to Epiphany.

As December comes around each year, one of the most common complaints devout Catholics will make goes something like this: “Why does everyone do Christmassy things throughout December until the 25th, and then wake up on the 26th feeling that Christmas is over, when it’s just begun?”

That is quite true. And I’m afraid that churchmen acting in an official capacity are partly to blame for it. Here’s why.

One of the dumbest of the many dumb ideas that invaded the liturgical reform was the complete removal of any and all commemorations, that is, a second (or third) set of prayers (Collect, Secret, Postcommunion) that commemorate a saint or season when there is another observance that takes priority.

Thus, in the most solemn octave of Christmas, every day at Mass — even for the Mass of St. Stephen, St. John, the Holy Innocents, St. Thomas of Canterbury — the TLM prays the orations of Christmas Day as well, helping us to linger in the great mystery of the Nativity of the Lord.

In the Novus Ordo, such commemorations don’t exist, so there’s a pointilistic, individualistic feel to the octave, where it’s still sort of Christmas (because of the Preface and the poinsettias) but otherwise you’ve left the cradle and moved somewhere else. And yet, it’s a time of the liturgical year that cries out for Christmas to be borne in mind day after day.

Just as Vatican II was not a mere victim of cultural revolution but a direct contributing cause to it, so too, the secularization of Catholic attitudes toward Christmas (“it ends after December 25th, throw out the tree”) is partly the result of a reformed liturgy that sidelines Christmas.

The following chart compares the pre-55, 1962, and 1969 calendars around this time of the year. It’s quite illuminating: you can see a profoundly Catholic instinct at work in the earlier (Tridentine) calendar, then several rationalistic moves in 1962, and finally a wave of ignoble simplification in 1969:

(You can read my commentary on this chart over at Rorate Caeli.)

The longer I live, the more gobsmackingly obvious is the wisdom of tradition, as subtle and complex as it is. For that is the way life and salvation history are: full of mysteries and very complex, but all the more luminous and fascinating for that.

People frequently ask the question, “How long does the Christmas season last?”

The Nativity extends out to Epiphany on January 6 (the “twelfth day”¹) and inaugurates forty days of Christmastide, ending on February 2 with Candlemas or the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known by its Greek title, the Presentation of the Lord. In other words, there are four concentric circles of celebration:

1. The Christmas feast, with its vigil and three Masses;

2. the octave, ending on January 1st, the feast of the Circumcision;

3. the Twelve Days, culminating in the Epiphany on January 6th;

4. and the Forty Days, culminating in Candlemas on February 2nd.

Thus, the SOONEST one should take down Christmas decorations would be January 7th, the day after Epiphany. The next obvious time would be January 14th, the day after the Baptism of the Lord is commemorated in the Gospel (the final “echo” of the Epiphany); that’s what I do at home. The very latest would be February 3rd, after Candlemas.

(I wrote about all this in an article at LifeSiteNews, which, from what I can tell, was my most-shared article during my years working for that site!)

Christmas sets the tone for an entire season. If you enjoy classical symphonic music, give this a try: Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony (1927). Grand, delightful, ingenious, and deeply moving.

Indeed, the point of Christmas is to enter into a realization that will last all the year long, as Mark Dooley writes at the European Conservative:

To keep Christmas all the year is to live in the realisation that you have been recreated in Christ — that “old things have passed away; behold, all things have been made new!” The great tragedy is that so many Christians consider the Gospel as either a code of conduct or as the key to postmortem paradise. Few understand that, with the Incarnation, our very nature has been transformed from “sons of disobedience” to “sons of God.” Paul tells us that “having been set free from sin,” we have “become slaves of righteousness” and temples of the living God. To live in that realisation changes everything about how we operate in this world.

I’d go so far as to say that only if we have this realisation at some point in our lives, a metanoia or transformation of mind, can there be the heaven of glory promised to sons and heirs. Otherwise, as both Newman and C.S. Lewis maintained, we would not find heaven at all to our liking; we would run shrieking away from it. O Lord, fit us for the heaven of Thy glory; make us Thy sons and heirs, that we may dwell in Thy house for ever.

Looking back over 2024

Each New Year offers a chance to look back at the preceding year and to “take stock.” I rejoice — and, to be honest, am in a state of disbelief — that Os Justi Press, with the help of God and many friends of His, was able to publish 18 new titles in 2024! You can see 17 of them here (the only one not pictured is The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hymnal).

As a way of saying thank you to our readers, we are running a 10% off sale on all our books, from now through Epiphany (January 6). The discount is automatically applied at check-out. You can see the books listed in order of publication (thus, with the 2024 books all appearing first) at this link.

Good News

Fresh paintings in Norcia

The Benedictine monks of the abbey of Norcia embarked some years ago on an ambitious artistic project for the sanctuary of their renovated monastic church. Scene by scene, painter Fabrizio Diomedi is carrying out the iconographic program. It is really splendid in its overall effect. The Nativity was completed just in time for Christmas. You can find more pictures in this gallery.

Testimonials

I’ve mentioned here before the book The Latin Mass and the Youth: Young Catholics Speak about the Mass of Ages. This is a very important anthology of 42 Catholics between the ages of 12 and 24, discussing their love of the TLM and how it has revitalized their faith. Five examples of what you will find:

• The Incomparable Beauty of the Traditional Liturgy’s Music (Elijah, 18 y.o.)

• A Suspiciously Genuine Joy (Breanna, 22)

• Love and Sacrifice: A Betrothed Couple’s Experience of the TLM (George & Jennifer, both 24)

• The Mystery Before Which One Trembles (Audro, 23)

• First and Lasting Impressions of the Traditional Latin Mass (Daniella, 14)

In a half-hour conversation, Joe Lipa, Phillip Campbell, and two contributors talk about the book and their own experiences:

To purchase: https://tinyurl.com/yy8nu95j (the promo code YOUTH24 will take 20% off up till January 6, 2025).

Major TLM construction project

Here is the plan for the future FSSP church in Tyler, Texas:

Now that St. Joseph’s is bursting at the seams with refugees from all the canceled TLMs, this capital campaign is a truly worthy object of tithing. I urge you to contribute, to whatever extent you can. Now is the time for us all to stick together and help everywhere help is needed. Find out more at their dedicated website.

Incidentally, the Tyler Morning Telegraph of December 27th carried a fairly detailed and positive article on the TLM situation in that ill-treated diocese. There’s a very amusing line that slipped past the editor: “Originally, the community grew by word of mouth, as Latin-speaking people shared it with one another.” We are making progress with the recovery of Latin, but we sure ain’t at that point just yet.

More photos of Christendom’s new chapel

No matter our differences of opinion about this or that detail, we should rejoice about the outpouring of beauty in this cathedralesque church, and the endorsement of tradition that its architecture and decoration represents, as the photo gallery at Liturical Arts Journal demonstrates.

Silent retreats with TLM

People fairly often ask me for recommendations of traditional Catholic retreats. Here is one option you might consider. The traditional Benedictine monks of Tasmania will be offering two silent Ignatian retreats this July in Ohio, one for men and one for women. I know this community well and wholeheartedly recommend the retreats.

Another good place for TLM retreats is Edelweis House in Indiana.

Palestrina festival in Grand Rapids

Palestrina500 has officially begun — a year-long series of solemn Masses in which extraordinary musical ensembles, some homegrown and some from Europe (e.g., the Gesualdo Six, the Tallis Scholars, the London Oratory Schola) will sing famous and obscure works by the great polyphonic composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in honor of the quincentennial of his birth in 1525. For a time, Grand Rapids will be the sacred music epicenter of the USA. Read more about the festival here. What I love about this initiative is how deeply liturgical it is. While there are some pre-Mass musical meditations, nearly everything is being sung for the purpose intended by the composer and the Church.

Message for the new year

The President of the International Una Voce Federation, Dr. Joseph Shaw, delivers a good message to kick off this year of grace, A.D. 2025:

This is a moment, for our movement, of difficulty and suffering, but it is not a moment of weakness. Never in the history of the Federation has our cause enjoyed such scholarly support and cultural prestige. Traditional religious communities are being founded; schools are being established; walking pilgrimages are joined by unprecedented numbers of young people; not only are books being written, but entire publishing houses have been established to bring them to market. If this is what is being done during an official persecution, our opponents must be wondering what will happen when that persecution is finally lifted — for it is clear that it is unsustainable.

Liturgical Lessons

Patrick Giroux asks whether we should consider not having Communion at weddings and funerals that will be attended by a large number of non-Catholics and/or nominal Catholics. Whatever one might think of his radical proposal, at very least a clear announcement should be made from the pulpit about who should and who should not receive. This is not only owed in justice to Our Lord but is also an act of charity to the attendees. I have found that something like this is done universally at TLM locations.

At Crisis Magazine, Anthony Esolen wonders about “Tradition and Treachery”:

Must I make the point that a human culture without tradition is a contradiction in terms? Yes, I do know that people can make an idol out of tradition; just as they can make an idol out of iconoclasm. If you must err, do so on the side of gratitude toward those who have come before us, not on the side of assuming that they were benighted, and that their place should know them no more. If you must err, do so on the side of reverence, not on the side of the flippant or negligent. I do not know whether this or that priest who looks askance at people kneeling to receive Communion is a good or bad man. I will say that he brings the wrong medicine. He is prescribing bed rest for the slothful, sweets for the diabetic, looseness for the slovenly. Of his culpability I say nothing. It is his wisdom I doubt.

At the same site, Fr. John Perricone tells us about “Chicago: Where Eucharistic Revival Goes to Die”:

Layer upon layer of Eucharistic practice was constructed over the millennia as protection against the slightest attenuation of Catholic doctrine regarding the Eucharist. For over sixty years, it has been breached. Look at the result. Clearly, the evidence has taught nothing. Chicago Catholics are to embrace theological thinking that undermines sound logic, simple common sense, and traditional Catholic piety for over one thousand years. The good cardinal must be quite well-intentioned, but this mandate cannot possibly be of any assistance to Eucharistic Revival. It seems to be its death.

The line about “quite well-intentioned” I hear in a distinctly sardonic tone…

Which brings me to a graphic made by Matt Gaspers:

God will not be mocked; but sometimes man should be.

Meanwhile, with restrictions of the TLM continuing to mount and more sure to come in 2025, one has to wonder about “Sarumdipity,” which I define as an unplanned fortunate discovery that you could do the Sarum rite, which was never abolished, without having to bother too many people about the affair. Here’s what the PCED said in a letter in 2013:

The words “responsibility and supervision” are pretty vague. It’s not at all clear to me that this language translates into “explicit permission.” After all, everything that happens in a diocese, whether known to the bishop or not, is technically “under his supervision”; and it can always be assumed that his responsibility is to promote all that is Catholic in his diocese. I don’t have a practical proposal but I feel this ought to be better known throughout the ranks.

January 1st, what is thy name?

An error entirely typical of the liturgical reform was the shifting of January 1 away from the Circumcision of Christ into “the feast of Mary, Mother of God.” While the day always did have plenty of Mariology in it, the ancient connection with the circumcision was always there, in keeping with the Gospel of the day (Lk 2:21).

The history of January 1 is actually very complex, as Gregory DiPippo shows, yet no one with eyes in his head could overlook the most obvious fact: January 1st is the octave day of Christmas, and therefore the day when, according to the Law, the male child must be circumcised and officially given his name. In this way the Christ demonstrated that the Law, which He Himself gave, was good and holy, albeit ordered to fulfillment (and thus, supersession) in Him.

In her wisdom, the Church had always separated out various strands of the mystery of the Incarnation for the sake of our limited comprehension and to multiply occasions on which to glorify God: the birth of Jesus on December 25, with a full octave of Christmassy elements; His circumcision on January 1; His Holy Name on the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity, that is, the first Sunday of the New Year (or, if that Sunday happens to be January 1, 6, or 7, then on January 2); the Epiphany; and finally, the Holy Family.

My prayer, now as always, is that churchmen will someday be humble enough to learn from this age-old wisdom instead of thinking they can replace it with something better.

The Temple

Looking recently at a model of the second Temple as expanded by Herod the Great, I was struck by just how much a traditional (I mean, pre-Reformation) Catholic church contains the same fundamental units.

I know there’s not an exact one-to-one correspondence (obviously, the Jewish sacrifices were done outside and in large numbers) and one could therefore construe the elements differently, but overall, at least architecturally speaking, you have the gradated progression toward the holy of holies, with barriers in the right places (at the outside entrance to the nave, at the inside entrance to the sanctuary); it’s all at the ready to be given a Christian transposition, where the animal sacrifices drop away, to be replaced by the adoration of (that is, by and toward) the Logos within the Holy of Holies: the rational, spiritual worship of the Lamb.

Why liturgy is meant to grow to maturity

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few years. Obviously my book The Once and Future Roman Rite discusses the topic at length, but I am also nearly finished with a Substack post on the question (look for it in January). Meanwhile, Robert Lazu Kmita’s article “Ratzinger & Tolkien on the Novus Ordo and Organic Development” can serve as a teaser:

Growth is natural. Life must follow its course, a process willed and perpetually supported by God Himself. That is why the desire to return to a childhood stage is simply absurd. Even though our Lord said that only those who become like children will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:2), this was not to condemn us to perpetual infantilism but to emphasize the value of purity and innocence. Otherwise, the Holy Scriptures call us to be “perfect men” — mature, complete in our growth. Similarly, the Church’s worship grew under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, transforming from the “acorn” of its origins — the Holy Liturgy celebrated on the night of the Last Supper by God Incarnate Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ — into the Gregorian (i.e., Tridentine) Liturgy of the Holy Roman Catholic Tradition.

Rest in peace, good and faithful servant

On January 1, one of the giants of our times in the field of sacred music, and the publisher of New Liturgical Movement, Dr William Mahrt, passed away at the age of 84. My colleague Gregory DiPippo writes:

As professor of music at Stanford University, as founder and director of the Saint Ann Choir (based in Palo Alto, California), as president of the Church Music Association of America, and as editor of the journal Sacred Music, Dr Mahrt worked tirelessly for decades to preserve the Church’s musical patrimony within the sacred liturgy. Countless singers and musicians have benefitted from his work, and also from his friendship, for you could not meet a kinder man, or one more generous with his time and his encouragement to his fellow musicians. Of few may we so confidently sing, “May the choir of Angels receive thee.”

I had the blessing of spending time with Dr. Mahrt during several Sacred Music Colloquiums, in small classroom settings, and in private conversation. His intellectual acuity, musical memory, liturgical devotion, equanimity, meekness, and servant mentality made him an exemplary torchbearer of worthy causes in a difficult period of time. May his memory be eternal.

Theological Treasury

Heaven

St. Hilary of Poitiers:

Our Lord remaining in the form of a servant, far from the whole circle, inner and outer, of heaven and the world, yet as Lord of heaven and the world, was not absent therefrom. So then He came down from heaven because He was the Son of man; and He was in heaven because the Word, which was made flesh, had not ceased to be the Word.

Understanding this claim hinges on understanding what the Christian tradition means by the “heaven” in which God dwells; this is Robert Lazu Kmita’s topic in his “Jesus Christ, the Cosmic Navigator.”

Earth

Greg Cook, in “My Journey from Orthodoxy to Catholicism: The Role of Social Teaching”:

Catholic Social Teaching helped open the door for me to first appreciate and then embrace Rome and come in from the cold of one of the Greek schisms. My point is to advocate for the sharing of Catholic Social Teaching with the East as part of the basis for a healthy, re-united Church. That will require an appraisal by the concerned parties to see the compatibility of that teaching with Eastern ways, an appraisal that has a number of obstacles to overcome in theology, Tradition, and praxis.

Heaven on Earth

Next time you happen to see, inside a beige church, an ugly box doing duty as a tabernacle, think about this tabernacle, made circa 1180, now in a museum in London but believed to be from the basilica of St Pantaleon in Cologne:

It consists of a core of oak, covered over with gilt copper and enamel, and is decorated with 32 pieces of carved ivory, both elephant and walrus. And then think to yourself that for a long time people summarily filed the 12th century into the “Dark Ages” category and believed that Modernity had brought Progress to the world. More machinery, more congestion, more pollution, more efficiency, more quantities of stuff, yes, that is all true. But better things? Worthier? More beautiful?

The question answers itself.

Read more about this tabernacle and see more pictures over at NLM.

Confusion on Earth

This news broke earlier in December: turns out the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in Belgium is allowing its priests to name Rebecca Charlier-Alsberge, episcopal delegate to the Vicariate of Walloon Brabant, in the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, directly after the pope and local bishop. Here are the comments I made when interviewed by journalist Michael Haynes:

For many years now, the leaders of the Catholic Church on earth have pursued a path decisively at odds with Scripture and Tradition, which unanimously and without exception limited positions of diocesan and curial governance, liturgical ministry, and official magisterium to men, because of the God-willed apostolic structure of the Church and the archetype of Christ as priest, prophet, and king (the embodiment and source of the sanctifying, teaching, and ruling offices).

While to some extent these [offices] can be provisionally separated, they cannot be simply separated, and they can never be absolutely separated from participation in the high-priestly kingship of Christ. This is why having female “acolytes,” “lectors,” “pastoral administrators,” and now “episcopal delegates” is impossible on a sane Christology and a sound ecclesiology.

Earth on the way to Heaven

In a most interesting article, Emily Finley discusses the crucial role of manners in the formation of persons who are capable of liturgizing. Following Burke, she suggests that it is “the little rituals, obeisances, courtesies, intentional pauses, graces, mortifications, politeness, and in general, mannerliness” that “make us human and make this world a humane place to live.”

Burke agreed that these [social] customs were artificial, in a certain sense. Pleasantries and decorum, which Burke called “the decent drapery of life,” indeed covered our naked selves. But this is a very good thing, Burke says. For without such manners, we will see how cruel and savage life can really be. It certainly won’t be anything like Rousseau’s fantastical state of nature in which we drink from a stream and rest under the shade of a fig tree. It will be more akin to the Hobbesian bellum omnia contra omnes, the war of all against all.

It is no surprise that in revolutionary France the guillotine was wheeled out alongside the mandate to abandon the use of “monsieur” and “madame.” The same happened in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution. People were forced at gunpoint to use “comrade” over former titles of distinction. The gruesome and grotesque always accompanies the degradation of manners.

Other favorite articles

Brooke Larson’s “Infertile Couples Whose Faith Gave Us Great Saints.”

Edward Schaefer’s “Tradition and the Family” — a frightening summary of where we are at as a society, and a hopeful outline of the serious response being made by the gritty minority of traditional Catholics.

Robert Keim, discussing why Beowulf is such a great poem:

There is a hint of irreducible complexity in the way that certain literary texts (and not others) kindle the imagination and elicit widespread admiration; I have no intention of presenting Beowulf’s greatness as simple when it is, in reality, quite complex. Nevertheless, I’ll propose something that does, I believe, cut to the quick of this very old poem’s mysterious and, I might even say, very modern power. The magic of Beowulf is a matter of tone — that is, of a poetic tonality whose shades of sincerity and seriousness and unaffected conviction form a deeply appealing contrast with a fantastical, mythical, even surreal story. Reading Beowulf is like contemplating the world with the mind of an adult and the eyes of a child.

Read more here about why Robert and I so strongly recommend Peter Ramey’s new translation of Beowulf. Julian is also quite fond of it, having written two separate reviews (here and here).

At the ever-relevant Substack After Babel, we read about “Where the Magic Doesn’t Happen”:

Ancient wisdom about human relationships, consciousness, and flourishing holds up well in light of modern psychology. But as the digital age drowns us in exponentially increasing rates of new content—most of which is trivial and ephemeral—it is becoming clear that almost everything more than a few years old gets buried by incoming content. This is a serious problem for the continuity of any civilization if most writing and ideas propagate laterally (from peer-to-peer) and very little propagates longitudinally, from generation-to-generation. Our godlike technology may be cutting us off from the accumulated and hard-won wisdom of humanity.

But there are still communities that maintain ties to ancient wisdom, communities in which adults share the work of morally forming the next generation, not just their own children. The clearest examples are religious communities in which home, school, and house of worship are the three main institutions that, when well coordinated, will root children in moral traditions and protect them from anomie…

But, argues Andy Crouch, only if these environments are not saturated or sabotage by certain kinds of technology. Read his essay to learn why.

Lastly, as we draw near to the Epiphany, you might enjoy Michael Foley’s “Epiphany and Its Customs.”

Thank you for reading and may God bless you!

1. This is always a source of confusion: some people begin counting Christmas from Christmas itself, in which case January 5th is the Twelfth Day, while others begin counting on December 26, which gets you January 6th as Twelfth Day (with January 5th as the Twelfth Night). I don’t think it makes much practical difference, since on either scheme, you reach Epiphany at the end.