Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Solemn Requiem Mass at Seattle WA

I am pleased to announce:


ALL SOULS DAY
November 2, 2009
7:00 p.m.


SOLEMN MASS OF THE DEAD
According the the Dominican Rite


V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Syverstad, O.P., Pastor and Former Provincial
Celebrant
V. Rev. Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., S.T.M.
Deacon
Mr. Jesson Mata
Subdeacon

Music Program

Tomas Luis de Vittoria
REQUIEM MASS
and
LIBERA
(Absolution of the Dead)

Propers from the Graduale Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum

TUDOR CHOIR OF SEATTLE
under the direction of
Mr. Doug Fullington

CHURCH OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
Dominican Parish
5041 Ninth Avenue N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105
206-547-3020

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Dominican Nuns of Marbury Alabama

I promised the Dominican nuns of the Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Alabama, that I would mention them to our readers and emphasize their dedication to Dominican Chant. But I also want to pay tribute to the community's commitment to racial justice. At the time of their founding in 1944, they were among the first cloistered nuns to break the color line in the Deep South, something very difficult at that time. To the right you can see a picture of the some of the youngest and oldest members of the community.

I have often been asked whether there are any houses of cloistered Dominican nuns in the United States who are dedicated to preserving the chants of the Dominican Order, and I have always answered that all the monasteries of nuns preserve the chant to a greater or lesser degree. But my friends, the sisters of Marbury, are especially dear to my heart because I have been collaborating with them for almost two years in the revision of their music.

Like most of the Dominican monasteries in the U.S., the sisters at Marbury were then using the "Neo-Gregorian" music produced back in the 1970s in the monastery of Buffalo N.Y. When the Dominican nuns, following the friars, adopted the new Roman Liturgy of the Hours back in 1970, they discovered that many, if not most, of the antiphons and other chants of the Liturgia Horarum were new creations and had no music in the medieval chant tradition. In a heroic project old melodies were adapted to fit the new texts. Monasteries of our nuns adopted this music around the world, when they did not convert to vernacular chants.

About two years ago, the sisters of Marbury contacted me asking if there were any way to replace the Neo-Gregorian music with authentic Dominican chants. I assured them that it was possible and we began the project of compiling a new Antiphonal using the order of authentic antiphons given in the Ordo Cantus Officii published by the Sacred Congregation in 1983. Almost all these antiphons have Dominican variants and the substitutions were made. Parts of this project were already in use by the nuns last spring, and when I visited Marbury to celebrate a Missa Cantata in the Dominican Rite for Ascension Thursday. I was then able to hear the Paschal Time Office, with its traditional Alleluia antiphons, in use with the Liturgia Horarum for the first time in my life. The chants for that Mass were those from the Dominican Gradual, which the nuns also use at their regular Extraordinary Form Masses according the Roman Missal of 1962.

The Marbury sisters have always maintained the chant as part of their life of prayer, and it is central to their daily Horarium. When complete, the Advent-Christmas volume of the new Antiphonal will contain the complete music for all the Hours, not just Vespers as at present. The sisters plan to begin introducing this restored music on the First Sunday of Advent. The only thing lacking will be the "prolix responsories" for use at the Office of Readings, but I have included those responsories appointed for use in place of the short responses at First Vespers of Solemnities by the 1983 Proprium Ordinis Praedicatorum. And page references are will be provided for those not included. They can be found in the Dominican Antiphonals of 1863 and 1933, both available for dowload in PDF format on the side bar here at Dominican Liturgy. When complete this new Antiphonal will be available there too.

The Marbury sisters are a small community, but they have been blessed recently with an increase in vocations. They have asked me to call their community to the attention of young Catholic women who feel called to the Dominican spiritual tradition of study and prayer in the form of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, but especially to those women who have a love of Gregorian Chant. Those interested may find the vocation page here. Even if you are not thinking of a vocation to the sisters, their web page is still worth a visit.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Note to readers

The analysis of the "Canonical Status of the Dominican Rite" on the side bar has been updated.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Dominican Libellus Precum Available On-Line


I have been asked many times about collections of Dominican prayers and devotions in Latin. So it may please readers to know that the Libellus Precum ad Usum Fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum ["Booklet of Prayers for Use by the Friars of the Order of Preachers"], has been made available on-line for down-load in PDF format on our left sidebar or here.

This small prayerbook contains the Latin texts of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin in its Dominican Rite form, the Daily Office of the Dead, and many other prayers and devotions popular in the Dominican Order. It also contains special Dominican forms for blessings, including that of the Rosary, as well as the daily Examination of Conscience and the Thanksgiving after Communion. The first edition was produced in 1911 and the last in 1957. This is the edition printed under the Master of the Order Fr. Emmanuel Suarez, O.P., in 1952.

A new version of the Libellus was created and published in 1983 as part of the Proprium Ordinis Praedicatorum, which adapted chants and texts of the traditional Dominican Rite for use with the new Roman Liturgia Horarum. Sadly this section of the Proprium was never published independently.

I know of no translation of the Libellus Precum. Should anyone do one, I would happy to post it for download. I think my collaborator Bro. Corwin Low, O.P., for providing this excellent quality scan.