Praxiteles
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@samuel j wrote:
That section of PDF, makes interesting and worrying reading.
What planet are these lads living on…… I love the use of misleading the public:eek:Who was misleading who again…… ah now lads, wake up and smell the coffee, will ye for godsake… 🙁
Fair bit of denial and delusion going on if you ask me…:mad:
The question of who was misleading the public is an interesting one – especially when one considers the perspective offered in this account of the Dublin Conference organised by the Department of the Environment. The impression is clearly given that criticism was made of persons or groups who do not share the liturgical outlook of the Cloyne HACK. In those circumstamces, an organ of the State, you would imagine, would have ensured, in the interest of fair play and impartiality, that such persons or groups would have been afforded the possibility of replying to that criticism.
Praxiteles seems to think that the time has come to deploy the Freedom of Information Act on the Department in order to ascertain exactly what was said and who was criticised or represented as misleading the public.
A veritable treasure arrived with this morning’s post to Praxiteles – an anonymous letter containing a copy of a recent encyclical letter send to all and sundry by Danny “I AM a liturgist” Murphy. While, for the most part, it contains the usual drivil, our “liturgist” friend does however hazard an official – or quasi official – assessment not only of the famous Ballincollig Conference held on 3 October 2008 but also of the Conference held in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin by the Department of the Environment and featuring, it would seem, “a member of AN Bord Pleanala” who commented, it appears, in extenso, on the Bord’s decision in relation to Cobh Cathedral. The encyclical letter is also useful in that it makes reference to “a joint County Council – Cloyne HACK group” and apparently representatives of projects at Ballintotis, Aghada, Glanworth, Castletownroche and Ballyhooly were also discussed. We are also told “there is work to be done in collating the conclusions and matters arising from the Conferences in Ballincollig and Dublin on planning matters and places of worship and, also, with informing matters regarding the REORDERING of St. Colman’s Cathedral and other churches“.
Here are some of the of the more relevant bits of the encyclical letter:
@samuel j wrote:
One would have to wonder how the Investment figure is arrived at…. presumably as with everything else in the current market, pensions etc…it has taken quite a hammering. . There would appear to have been some move too from a Charicash investment account to a Standard.? Investment Account…?
I suppose this spells the end of “ethical investment” for the Restoration Fund.
And another re-reordering casting off the nonsense advocated by Kevin “I used to be a liturgist” Seasoltz and Danny “I AM a liturgist” Murphy. This time it is the chapel of Seaton Hall University which has seen a complete restoration and recovery of the paint scheme and stencils, a restoration of the glass and the dumping of the horror of a wreckovated sanctuary put in in the 1970s – when Kevin “I used to be a LIturgist” Seasolz was in his prime. While the liturgical arrangement here is not exactly 100% on target, it must be regarded as a vast improvement on what it replaces.
On the artistic coordination of the decoration of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Wisconsin, USA:
Well, it is that time of year once again – time to make annual returns to the Companies Registration Office. And being the good little boys they are, the Cobh Cathedral Restoration Fund and the Cobh Cathedral Trust duly and punctually handed in their sums books to the head master this year.
Some interesting first headliners:
a. no new directors have been appointed in the last 12 months. This comes as no surprise – especialy as no respectable business man in the Cok area with a modicum of PR savy would want to have anything to do with this particular company and with the “glory” in which it has covered itself;b. this company must have the oldest set of directors in the WORLD – you will notice that one is 88, another is 79, another is 77, another is 73 and so on.
c. funds transferred tot he reserve fund barely reached Euro 8K – interesting.
d. most income is generated from bank interest.
e. at present roughly about 1, 110, 000 Euro is on hand.
g. pecularily, we learn that there has been a shift away from “restoration” to “maintenance” – no doubt urged on the the collapse of portion of the south arcade;
h. funds are now going to be raised for completion of the “restoration” – I wonder does that mean a funds are now t be raised to attempt another wreck job on the sanctuary?
As soon as Praxiteles can conduct a thorough analysis, we shall have more interesting observations. In the mean time, happy reading!
Some more photographs of Craig Hamilton’s commission for a private chapel in the North of England:
http://www.craighamiltonarchitects.com/docs2/projects/sacred/chapel/chapel8.html
And here we have an example of the use of the sella curulis on an aureus struk by the Emperor Macrinus in 217 A.D. depsicing him and his son in imperial session. It appears that the use of this symbol of jurisdiction came to the Romans ultimately from the Etruscans.
Clearly, the faldstool is something that the school of domestic liturgy is quite incapable of handling, preferring instead the squat position on the floor which symbolized nothing other than sloppiness.
Some more photographs from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver indicating how the High Altar functions:
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Denver, Colorado.
We have seen the maginficent interior of this Cathedral on a number of occasions, but now we have an opportunity to se how it works and was intended to work. These are some shots of a Solemn Pontifical Mass celebrated there yesterday (9 November 2008) by teh Auxiliary Bishop of Denver. Being an Auxiliary, he does not have jurisdiction and hence does not use the throne which is on the left of the sancturay. Rather, he uses the faldstool on the right hand side of the Sanctuary at the foot of the High Altar, facing the people. The usage clearly indicates that he is here by the authority of the Archbishop and represents him. This same use of the sedia curialis was used by the Roman Pro-Consuls when in the provinces of the Roman Empire.
And here we have something interesting: a theology of contemporary church architecture. This, and other postings from the series, should prove interesting reading for the star-gazing wizzards who have spent their lives reading the “signs of the times”.
The introduction to the series:
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2008/11/series-of-architectural-theology.html
And the next part:
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2008/11/part-2-architectural-theology-at-new.html
Well, well, here we have the revival of teh serliana altar piece, flanked by two doors and completed with a retro-sacristy.
@apelles wrote:
Praxiteles, do you know if the ceiling & walls of the Honan Chapel were ever decorated in the celtic revival manner?
My impression is that it was never stencilled bul always palin white. Just note how incongruous those awful things behind the altar are. they compete with the altar as a focus and just cause visual chaos.
@apelles wrote:
oh dear Lord…WHAT IS THAT???
a psychedelic umbrella perhaps?
This is a daubing on the back wall of St Mary’s Oratory, Maynooth, and is, I believe, iedated by a Korean Dominican who was brought to Richard “I should have been a Liturgist” Hurley’s attention by none other than our deear friend Austin Flannery. Richard I.S.H.B.A.L Hurley was responsible for the latest outrage in ST. Mary’s Oratory. Fortunately for the faith of the few remaining clerical students in Maynooth, it has been closed for the greater part of the year, it appears, because the floor has begun to pop up and and other bits and pieces are beginning to fall off here and there. Obviuosly, Richard I.S.H.BA.L. Hurley did not calculate very well for the water-sogged clay typical of the ground aorund Maynooth College.
Also, St Mary’s is supposed to be Richard I.S.H.BA:L. Hurley’s greatest attempt at the domesticisation of the Church’s liturgy – that is, the attempt to apotheose the grotty irreverence of the coffee table “Mass” once popular among the soixant-huitard revolutionaries of the 1970s whose only airm in life was a marxist type deconstruction of Catholic culture and civilization and its replacement by the favuve (and faux) proletarianism of common place things used as totems for a non-material world nolonger believed in, yet tolerated beacuse of its percieved use a force for social change, but ultimately to be discarded.
When that all became a little too much for the avant-garde “architect” of the 1990s, we find the the same brutal spacialism occupied informed not by anything from the tradition of Western Christianity (which is afterall a bad thing even in advanced marxist quarters) but by belief systems patched together from very ill- (and sometimes mis-) understood Bhuddism – just look at John “I didn’t do it” Lynch’s efforts at ST. Nicholas’ Church in Killavullen.
The only problem about the domestication of religion is that religion, so processed by the sausage maker, tends to loose its objectivity and very quickly take on the particular characteristics of the “Golden Calf” syndrome: the participants in this form of religion just keep making it up as they go along and keep making it up to their own satisfaction.
Over the past 12 months, Praxiteles has observed the arrival of new prophet in matters pertaining to ecclesiastical architecture form, of all places, or perhaps forebodingly, Bloodyforeland. Along with the domesticisation of liturgy, the newcomer on the Richard I.S.H.B.A.L. Hurley’s coterie is much given to grandiose embodiements of the phenomenon – and greatly lauds the monstre in Los Angeles. Praxiteles is awaiting an opportunity to nominate this one for the WIll Dosing prize.
Praxiteles is very glad to see that the Oratory still has its grille – sometmg that has been stripped out of the Honan Chapel and which Richard “I should have been a liturgist” Hurley wants to replace with a horrible railway-ticjet office glass door – which, with not a little astonishment it must be said, the Conservation Officer for Cork City is reported to regard as as “simple and elegant” in design.
From the look of the altar, I am inclined to think that the predella is not original and has all the prisiness (and ignorance) of the Bord of Works. I suspect that underneat what now seems a sup̬port for a lighting system you will find probably one marble step which is flush with the deign of the floor Рno interrupted by the intruder.
And just guess where this comes from:
–Who knows? said Stephen, smiling. Perhaps Aquinas would understand
me better than you. He was a poet himself. He wrote a hymn for Maundy
Thursday. It begins with the words PANGE LINGUA GLORIOSI. They say it
is the highest glory of the hymnal. It is an intricate and soothing
hymn. I like it; but there is no hymn that can be put beside that
mournful and majestic processional song, the VEXILLA REGIS of Venantius
Fortunatus.Lynch began to sing softly and solemnly in a deep bass voice:
IMPLETA SUNT QUAE CONCINIT
DAVID FIDELI CARMINE
DICENDO NATIONIBUS
REGNAVIT A LIGNO DEUS.–That’s great! he said, well pleased. Great music!
They turned into Lower Mount Street. A few steps from the corner a fat
young man, wearing a silk neckcloth, saluted them and stopped.Again on the Vexilla Regis, here is the Latin text and the Englich translation:
1. Vexilla regis prodeunt,
fulget crucis mysterium,
quo carne carnis conditor
suspensus est patibulo2. Quae vulnerata lanceae Mucrone diro, criminum
Ut nos lavaret sordibus, Manavit und(a) et sanguine.3. Impleta sunt quae concinit David fideli carmine,
Dicendo nationibus: Regnavit a ligno Deus.4. Arbor decor(a) et fulgida, Ornata Regis purpura,
Electa digno stipite Tam sancta membra tangere.5. Beata, cuius brachiis Pret(i)um pependit saeculi:
Statera facta corporis, Tulitque praedam tartari.6. O CRUX AVE, SPES UNICA, Hoc Passionis tempore
Piis adauge gratiam, Reisque dele crimina.7. Te, fons salutis Trinitas, Collaudet omnis spiritus:
Quibus Crucis victoriam Largiris, adde praemium. Amen.English translation
1. The standards of the King are raised,
the mystery of the Cross shines,
on which the creator of flesh was hung
in the flesh upon the gibbet.”2. Who, wounded with a direful spear,
Did, purposely to wash us clear
From stain of sin, pour out a flood
Of precious Water mixed with Blood.3. That which the Prophet-King of old
Hath in mysterious verse foretold,
Is now accomplished, whilst we see
God ruling nations from a Tree.4. O lovely and reflugent Tree,
Adorned with purpled majesty;
Culled from a worthy stock, to bear
Those Limbs which sanctified were.5. Blest Tree, whose happy branches bore
The wealth that did the world restore;
The beam that did that Body weigh
Which raised up hell’s expected prey.6. Hail, Cross, of hopes the most sublime!
Now in this mournful Passion time,
Improve religious souls in grace,
The sins of criminals efface.7. Blest Trinity, salvation’s spring,
May every soul Thy praises sing;
To those Thou grantest conquest by
The holy Cross, rewards apply. Amen.While on the subject of the Vexilla Regis, Praxiteles just wonders how many in Ireland have ever heard it chanted in the Liturgy from Passion Sunday to Holy Thursday and on Good Friday for the transfer of the Blessed Eucharist from the Altar of Repose or on 14 September, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross?
The answer to that question will certainly leave us with an objective criterion to judge the level of crap we have in the guff from likes of Danny “I’m a liturgist” Murphy; Paddy “I’d like to be a liturgist” Jones; Richard “I should have been a liturgist” Hurley; Alexander “I pretend to be a liturgist” White; Kevin “I used to be a liturgist” Seasoltz and others from the fauve school of liturgy…… So much for this approach to the renewal of the liturgy which has deprived the country of one of the greatest hymnic compositions in western civilization:
In any event, here is a recording of the Vexilla Regis sung by the monks of Randol in France. Keep an ear for the famous words: Regnavit a ligno Deus (at 1:40):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervwTKuUXko
And here is another version without the French accent:
The Vexilla Regis is preceeded by the Pueri Hebraeorum and begins at 3:00
The following are the Bernini statues on the Ponte Sant’Angelo. The numbers refer to the series of photographs in the preceeding post. The Latin inscriptions are taken from the Sixto-Clementine version of the Vulgate:
5. Angel with the lance by Domenico Guidi, with the inscription “Vulnerasti cor meum” (You have ravished my heart) – Song of Solomon 4:9.
10. Angel with the reed with sponge by Antonio Giorgetti, with the inscription “Potaverunt me aceto” (They gave me vinegar to drink) – Psalm 68:22.
9. Angel with the cross by Ercole Ferrata, with the inscription “Cuius principatus super humerum eius” (His principality he bore upon his shoulders) – Isaiah 9:6.
3. Angel with the intitulation on the cross (INRI) a copy by Bernini himself and his student Giulio Cartari with the inscription “Regnavit a ligno Deus” (God reigned from the wood [of the Cross]) The original, by Bernini and his son Paolo, was installed in Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. The inscription here is taken from the Vexilla Regis, written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609) and considered one of the greatest hymns of the Latin liturgy. Fortunatus wrote it in honor of the arrival of a large relic of the True Cross which had been sent to Queen Radegunda by the Byzantine Emperor Justin II and his Empress Sophia. Queen Radegunda had retired to a convent she had built near Poitiers and was seeking out relics for the church there. To help celebrate the arrival of the relic in Poitiers, the Queen asked Fortunatus to write a hymn for the procession of the relic to the church.
1. Angel with the seamless garment and dice by Paolo Naldini, with the inscription “Super vestem meam miserunt sortem” (They cast lots for my clothes) – Psalm 21:19.
7. Angel with the nails by Girolamo Lucenti, with the inscription “Aspiciant ad me quem confixerunt” (They will behold me whom they crucified) – Zachariah 12:10.
6. Angel with the veil of Veronica by Cosimo Fancelli, with the inscription “Respice faciem Christi tui” (Behold the face of thy Anointed One” – Psalm 83:11.
2. Angel withthe crown of thorns a cpy of the original by Paolo Naldini with the inscription “In aerumna mea dum configitur spina” (In my affliction the [crown of] thorns is fixed upon me) – Psalm 31:4 . The original statue by Bernini and his son Paolo was never erected on the bridge. Instead it was installed in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte.
8. Angel with the pillar by Antonio Raggi, with the inscription “Tronus meus in columna” (My throne is the pillar) – Wisdom 24:4.
4. Angel with the scourge by Lazzaro Morelli, with the inscription “In flagella paratus sum” (I was redied by scourging) – Psalm 37:18.
And a panorama:
http://www.italyguides.it/us/roma/bridge_of_castel_st_angelo.htm
