'Missa Salisburgensis' - baroque splendour

I was interested to read the account of the recent visit of the Papal Choir to Westminster Cathedral, which revealed in a practical way, the extent of the Holy Father’s goodwill towards our Country. Without doubt the visit was very much a personal expression of gratitude for the warm welcome he received on his visit to  the United Kingdom, and for the sacred music performed in the his presence, particularly at Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.


This is the first ever visit of the Papal Choir to this country , a truly historic event, which has allowed us to hear sacred music sung by a choir trained in the European continental style, as distinct from the style and technique of Westminster Cathedral Choir, faithful to the post-war Catholic choral tradition inculcated by the late George Malcolm. 


The continental choral tradition  has been described as ‘fulsome’ in its manner of presentation,  which while creating impressive and lively sound, loses perhaps a little in purity of tone and clarity of enunciation; whereas George Malcolm insisted, among other things, on the importance of these particular qualities, delivered directly and precisely. Since then, this tradition has been honed to near-perfection, with Westminster Cathedral Choir now regarded as one of the finest Cathedral Choirs in the world. 


Moving from the 21st century to the 17th century, allows me to introduce a magnificent Baroque composition by Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644-1704), namely his ‘Missa Salisburgensis’, composed for the great celebrations in Salzburg in 1682, commemorating the cities 1100th anniversary as a centre of Christianity, a jubilee unparalleled in the High Baroque era. 


That the papal state of Salzburg enjoyed precedence over the Habsburg emperors and bishoprics, indicates its unique importance, both spiritually and temporarily, with preparations for the ambitious anniversary celebrations beginning years before the event. 


The archdiocese of Salzburg regarded itself as the focal point of Roman and Venetian tradition, and ‘Missa Salisburgensis’ was composed not only for the glory of God, but also for the honour of Salzburg. 


There are six ‘choirs’ in all, comprising two principal vocal choruses with string accompaniment; a ‘chorus’ of recorders and oboes , a ‘chorus’ comprising cornets and trombones; and two groups of court trumpeters,’ outward manifestations of the secular power of the archdiocese, whose fanfares  represented the union between heaven and earth.’ 


The choirs were situated separately, but in complementary areas of the Cathedral, representing the ‘Choirs of angels standing upon every one of the towers of the heavenly Jerusalem, armed with all the instruments of the time, glorifying Almighty God, the Creator of all things.’ 


That is the message of this great Festival Mass, ‘the innermost concern of which, is the unification and strengthening of every section of society in the archdiocese, in the praise of God.’


 Spare a few minutes to listen to the ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Gloria’ from this extraordinary work – you will be blown away – figuratively speaking, of course! I find it deeply spiritual, powerful , and very moving. 


I think that Fr Blake from St Mary Magdalen’s, Brighton, as a baroque devotee, will particularly enjoy this. What about a performance at your Church, Father, it would be a full-house, without a doubt! Sublime sacred music, composed for the glory of God, and performed for the honour of God.                                           
                                    
                                                   KYRIE!KYRIE!

                           
                                                                        

Our Blessed Lady, Queen of Heaven and Earth, guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI

'Viva Cristo Rey! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!

                                

With the Holy Father currently visiting Mexico, a country of which I  know nothing, I thought it time to learn a little about it.


 Mexico, officially the ‘United Mexican States’, is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, with a total area of 761,606 sq. miles, making it the world's 14th largest country by area.

Legislation is based on the ‘1917 Constitution’ formulated as a result of the Mexican Revolution and ensuring  powerful control of the Church by the State,  including the banning of public Masses and religious garb, and  the wholesale  elimination of every aspect  of Catholic education. It capped a century of setbacks for the church, which had enjoyed a government-imposed monopoly of faith for most of the 300 years following Spain's conquest of Mexico in 1521. The revolutionary impositions  sparked the 'Cristero War' of 1926-29 in which tens of thousands of Catholics died  opposing  oppressive State anti-religious laws and violent persecution. The anti-Catholic Constitution remained in force throughout the 20th century, with  religious education outlawed and replaced by  government Marxist/socialist teaching, and  state control of church property and lands. Occasional and gradual  relaxation of the party line were revealed by such events as the open-air Masses and meetings celebrated on the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1980 and 1990. The past decade has seen a more 'conservative' government in power, with a corresponding improvement in Church/State relations.

In spite of decades of religious oppression and interference by the State,  the 2010 census reveals that of the over 112 million population, 82% are of the Roman Catholic faith, with 42% attending Mass weekly. The nearly 93 million Catholics, constitute in absolute terms, the second largest Catholic community in the world after Brazil.  The country is divided into 90  dioceses and there are 15,700 priests and 46,000 men and women in religious orders. The Metropolitan provinces were rearranged on 25 November 2006.


Mexico has one of the world's largest economies, and is categorised by the World Bank as a  newly emerging industrialised country and an emerging power. Great disparity exists between rich and poor, with earnings of  rural workers only 30% that of comparable workers in urban areas, with approximately 46% of the population - 52 million persons, living in extreme or moderate poverty. Mexico is the largest North American car-producing nation, surpassing both Canada and the U.S; and the last decade  has seen enormous growth in the electronics industry providing strong competition to the markets of S.E.Asia. 
    

I have recently been reading a book entitled ‘Red Mexico’ written by  Captain Francis McCullagh, based on his experiences in 1928 in Mexico, the time of the ‘Cristero War’, in which Catholics - particularly the clergy and  young men and women, were arrested and executed without trial, solely because of their  faith. Francis McCullagh, an ex-soldier, journalist and Catholic, had previously visited Russia to see for himself the horrors of the Bolshevik revolution. In this book he equates his experiences in Mexico with those in Russia, seeing diabolical influences in both.
Below is an extract from ‘Red Mexico’; the author has been talking to Senor X, a leader of the local  A.C.J.M. organisation, in permanent hiding from the State police:-
                   
                  “Of all the histories of Saints which Senor X told me that night in a hiding place close to the Prefecture of Police (and all the more likely, therefore, to escape suspicion), the most touching was about a gentle, innocent, and quite unworldly pair,  Joaquin Silva and Manuel Melgarejo, two martyrs whose names are as well known among Mexican Catholics as the name of Edmund Campion was among Elizabethan Catholics.   Silva was 27 years of age at the time of his death and Malgarejo 17.

On 6th September 1926 both left Mexico City for Zamora on a vague pilgrimage of protest and propaganda against the anti-religious legislation of Calles, but without weapons, money, luggage, or military plans.  “Con el intento de trajabar  por la santa causa de cla Iglesia” ("Something of the good old Spanish style about this"). It was just such a pilgrimage as St Francis of Assisi might have undertaken with a companion as simple, frank, pious, outspoken and unworldly as himself; and Silva, whose whole life had been like that of St Francis,  uttered from time to time remarks filled with strange significance, remarks which might have dropped from the lips of ‘il Poverello’ himself.  These remarks are treasured up today in the heart of the Mexican people, and the young man who uttered them is revered as a Saint.

Such a simple pair could not well escape detection; and it was not long before an agent of Calles had ingratiated himself with them and wormed out of them the fact that they belonged to the A.C.J.M.(Catholic Association of Mexican Youth).  This agent was a General, no less, his name was Zepeda.  He posed as a pious Catholic, and on the pretence of showing them scars on his breast, he let them see as if by accident, that he wore a number of religious medals around his neck.  Soon afterwards, this aged Judas threw off the mask and said: “Amigos, estan ustedes perdidos: los tenemos presos” (“Friends, you are lost.  You are our prisoners”).   To which Joaquin replied: “As to me, kill me or do what you like with me, but as for this youth who is only seventeen years old, let him go free.”  But Melgarejo would not have it so.  “No, Joaquin,” he said, “I wish to die with thee.”

Plutarco Elias Calles (1877-1945)  -  President from 1924 -28
Noted for fierce oppression of Catholics leading to Cristero War. Founder of the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later becoming the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico for more that 70 years.

General Tranquilino Mendoza, the G.O.C. in Zamora, offered to set them free if only they promised to cease their propaganda work and to leave the A.C.J.M.,  but they refused and were condemned to death.  On hearing sentence passed on him, Silva remarked, quite simply, that on entering the presence of God, he would pray for General Mendoza and General Zepeda.

They were brought from the barrack where they had been imprisoned to the cemetery, for, save in Mexico City, shooting is almost always carried out in the cemetery, beside an open grave.

Silva refused to have his eyes bandaged.  “Do not cover my eyes,” he said, “I am not a criminal. I myself will give you the signal to fire.  When I say ‘Viva Cristo Rey!  Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! (Hail Christ the King! Hail Virgin of Guadalupe!) then you can fire.”

In some respects the Mexican Army is very peculiar, for against this extraordinary arrangement the O.C. firing party had nothing to say, and a condemned man is never handcuffed or prevented from talking as much as he likes.

Silva certainly talked a good deal, but every word went home, for he talked like one who sees the true value of things and does not judge life and death by the standards of the ordinary man.  When he told the members of the firing party that he forgave them and would pray for them, one of the soldiers was so overcome by emotion, that he threw away his rifle saying ‘Yo no tiro joven, yo pienso com ousted, yo soy catolico’ (I will not fire, young man. I think as you do. I am a Catholic.)  This soldier was shot on the following day.

When the last moment of Silva had come nigh, and he could see the muzzles of the five rifles facing him at ten paces distant, he turned suddenly to Melgarejo and said: “Descubrete, porque vamos a comparecer delante de Dios” (“Take off your hat, for we are going to appear before God”), then, addressing the firing party, he cried, “Viva Cristo Rey! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!” whereupon the soldiers fired, and he fell dead, pierced by all of the five bullets.  On seeing this, Melgarejo tumbled to the ground in a swoon, and the soldiers killed him before he had regained consciousness.

Senor X gave me a list of apparently miraculous cures that have been wrought through the intercession of Joaquin Silva; and Joaquin’s brother Jose Silva, who lives in the United States, says that at the very moment of the execution he distinctly heard his own name called by a voice which he at once recognised as Joaquin’s. At that time he did not even know that Joaquin had been arrested.

For several nights in succession I met Senor X and he introduced me to other members of the A.C.J.M.  They were all between twenty and thirty years of age, but nearer as a rule, to twenty than to thirty; and they were the best types of Mexican youth that I had yet met.  I even found my way into the circle wherein moved the martyrs whose arrest I will later describe. I am glad that I did so for I was thus placed in a position to contrast the snow-white innocence, the untiring industry and the Christian charity of these young men,  with the dark background of crime and hatred and blood against which four of them moved, like Angels passing the mouth of Hell, when on the 23rd November 1927, they crossed the garden of the Prefecture of Police on their way to death.

As for Senor X, he himself suddenly disappeared one day as completely as if the ground had opened up and swallowed him; and taking into consideration all the circumstances that surrounded his disappearance, I came to the conclusion that he had gone to join his young disciples, Silva and Melgarejo."

Ack.  ‘Red Mexico’ by Capt F McCullagh. (Brentano’s Ltd, London. 1928)

                                   
                              ***************

Our Lady of Guadalupe, guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI

'La Naval', Our Lady of the Rosary; and Monica's Prayer.......

              

                      “La Naval” -  Our Lady  Of The Holy Rosary 
                              Quezon City, The Philipines


Sculpted by a non-Catholic Chinese artist who subsequently converted to the Catholic faith, the image of Our Lady of the Rosary was commissioned in 1593 by the Spanish Governor of the Philippines, Luiz Perez Dasmarinas, as a memorial to his deceased father and to his own regime. The statue was entrusted to the Dominicans in Manila and was enshrined in Santo Domingo Church, where it was received with great love and devotion by all the people.


Fifty-three years later, in March, 1646, with Spain  still governing the islands, a fleet of five Dutch warships were seen approaching Manila. Holland was at war with Spain, and the Dutch fleet posed the threefold threat  of conquest, pillage, and Protestantism.  The enemy had chosen a time when Manila was undefended, there being no Spanish warships in the area.


Two commercial galleons, “The Rosary” and “The Incarnation”, were donated by their owners and  quickly fitted out in preparation for battle. While sailing to meet the Dutch aggressors, the crews prayed the Rosary and dedicated themselves to 'La Naval', Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, for whom they had a strong devotion.


The  Dutch ships were fully equipped with cannons, firearms and trained seamen; the two Spanish-Filipino cargo ships were poorly fitted with only a few guns, and a motley crew of Spanish, Filipino, and religious.  Yet by the end of the day the Dutch ships were routed and fled the area, and  the victors sailed home to a hero's welcome, praising Our Lady for her intercession and protection during this battle against a nominally stronger enemy.


During the following months the two Spanish ships continued to patrol local waters, until in July, they found themselves in a narrow strait, trapped by seven Dutch ships. Since their position did not allow them to attack, they could only wait and pray. Fearful of a forthcoming attack, the defenders vowed that if they were victorious, they would undertake a pilgrimage barefoot to the Church of Santo Domingo to thank and honour Our Lady of the Rosary.  
          Miraculously, in the fading light  the two cargo ships were  unseen by the Dutch fleet which turned towards Manila without firing a shot. This allowed the two cargo ships to follow and successfully engage the Dutch ships, forcing them once again to retreat and leave the scene. This victory was attributed entirely to the intercession and protection of 'La Naval', and on returning home the victors  gratefully fulfilled their pilgrimage vow.
 
After two more victorious confrontations, the cargo ships became known by the local people as  “the galleons of the miracle.”  


Yet a fifth time the Dutch fleet appeared for battle. Anxious to defend their honour and restore their pride, the Dutch were determined to win.The advantage was definitely theirs when they found the two cargo ships anchored with the wind against them. Unable to move, the two cargo ships fought where they were and again convincingly defeated the enemy, driving them away never to return. 


Through the intercession of 'La Naval', Our Lady of the Rosary, and against all the odds, the men of Her two cargo ships had defeated fifteen fully equipped warships.


This victory of Manila is similar in many respects to the great naval victory at Lepanto, which was credited to the intervention of Our Lady and the power of Her Holy Rosary. In both instances Our Lady miraculously defended and granted victory to the seamen who placed their trust in Her.


Sixteen years after the successful defence of Manila, an Ecclesiastical Council was convened in Cavite to study the unusual aspects of the five naval victories. The Council consisted of theologians, canonists, and prominent religious. On April 9th, 1662, after studying all the written and oral testimonies of the participants and eye-witnesses, the Council declared that the victories were:
                
"granted by the Sovereign Lord through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin and devotion to her Rosary, that the miracles be celebrated, preached and held in festivities and to be recounted among the miracles wrought by the Lady of the Rosary for the greater devotion of the faithful to Our Most Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Holy Rosary."


The decree was signed by all eight members of the Council.


The statue stands 4'8" tall and is made of hardwood, with ivory covering the faces and hands of Mother and Child. With the Christ Child on her left side, gently supported by the Virgin's left hand, Our Lady's right hand holds a sceptre with a fifteen decade gold rosary draped around the hands of both Mother and Child. Both figures are clothed in exquisite golden dresses and mantles heavily embroidered with golden thread. On the head of the Madonna rests a  magnificent crown matching the one worn by the Holy Child. Around an inner bejewelled golden aura and the crown of the Madonna, is a larger halo of gold, with sparkling jewels at the tips of the twenty-four long and short rays. 

         National Shrine of 'La Naval', Our Lady of the                                           Rosary, Santo Domingo Church, Quezon City.

'La Naval' is presently kept and honoured by the Filipino people in the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City,  designated as the national shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary. Each year the people commemorate the vow of the defenders of Manila by an annual pilgrimage to the miraculous statue to demonstrate their love for Our Lady of the Rosary, and their gratitude for the miracles of protection that took place over 350 years ago.


             Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us all, and guide and protect our Holy Father, our bishops, priests, and religious.
                            **************************                                                      

The following prayer was found typed on a piece of plain paper, tucked into a book belonging to my wife. I don't know the origin, but I suspect that it belonged to my wife's dear sister Monica, a brave, cheerful, and devout Catholic, always with a smile, who died some years ago after years of ill-health. Monica I'm sure is in Heaven, still with that lovely smile.
                                  
                                    Monica's Prayer
        Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and may some day be old.
        Keep me from getting talkative, and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.
        Release me from craving to try to straighten out everybody's affairs.
        Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details - give me wings to get to the point.
        I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of another's pains, help me to endure them with patience.  
       But seal my lips on my own aches and pains - they are increasing and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.
       Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is just possible that even I may be mistaken.
       Make me thoughtful, but not moody;  helpful,  but not bossy;   interested in others but not a busy-body.  
       With my vast store of wisdom it does seem
a pity not to use it all -  but 
       Thou knowest, Lord, that I do want a few friends left at the end.  Amen.