August 4: Our Holy Father St. Dominic, C., O.P., I Class

O happy parent, Spain, rejoice in giving to the world the joy of new offspring!  But, rejoice still more, Bologna, because you are favored with the glory of so great a father.  O universal Mother Church, sing in praise as you celebrate the festival of this new source of fame!  (Super psalmos antiphon to the Laudate psalms at First Vespers.)

Thus begins the Office for the Feast of Our Holy Father St. Dominic, which we celebrate on August 4 in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar.  In the Dominican Rite, this feast is a I Class feast, and is prayed according to the rubrics for the Festive Office.  Since today is a Sunday, a commemoration of the XI Sunday after Pentecost is made.

Three years ago year, on August 6, we marked the 800th anniversary of Our Holy Father's passing, from this life into eternal glory.  May his prayers continue to sustain our Order, even during these most difficult of times.

Antiphonarium S.O.P. - 1933

Yesterday, I received the latest, and probably last, addition to my collection of Dominican Rite liturgical books.  The elusive "Antiphonarium Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum - Pro Diurnis Horis".  This is the volume that contains the chant for the day hours of the Dominican office.  It was published in 1933, under the authority of Master General Stanislaus Gillet, O.P..

I'd like to give a big shout out to Tom Kiser of Vivarium Books for keeping his eyes out for this one, which I have been trying to find for years.  He is a great proprietor and a true bibliophile, from whom I have obtained a number of the books in my collection.

It's a great volume, chock full of the wonderful chant that the Order used to use to sing the office.  The binding is tight and the leather cover is in good condition.  Looking forward to using it!

Compline During Lent - III Sunday of Lent to Passion Sunday

As we work out way gradually through the holy season of Lent, the Dominican Breviary refreshes us with a new Nunc dimittis antiphon beginning tonight at Compline.  We will use this antiphon up till the Saturday before Passion Sunday exclusive.

This time, the antiphon is the famous "Media vita", which is a humble acknowledgement of our utter helplessness against the power of sin and a somber plea for help from our "Holy God, holy Mighty One, holy and merciful Savior ."  This antiphon is actually an old responsory, and it is said that when chanting it, St. Thomas Aquinas was brought to tears.

This antiphon could easily be our mantra throughout the year and we can draw much spiritual fruit from meditating on it. May St. Thomas pray for us, that we be granted the grace to feel true sorrow for our sins, to repent for them, and for the grace to turn to God in our weakness and frailty.

St. Thomas Aquinas...pray for us.

New Article on Dominican Chant

In case you missed this this post on the website of the Order of Preacher, Br. Innocent Smith, of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. in the USA (Province of St. Joseph), has published an article entitled "Dominican Chant and Dominican Identity" in the Journal "Religions".

This article discusses the role that chant has played in the development of the spirituality of the Order.  Here is the abstract:

The Order of Preachers possesses a venerable chant tradition that dates back to the thirteenth century. This essay describes Dominican chant, showing how it developed as a consequence of the attitudes to the liturgy expressed in the Ancient Constitutions of the Order of Preachers. These constitutions stressed that the liturgy was to be performed with careful attention to bodily posture, with a succinctness and brevity that would allow time for study and preaching, and with gradations of solemnity that would express the inner hierarchy of parts of the liturgy and of the liturgical year. After the initial development of the repertoire, Dominican chant has gone through periods of decline and revival, which are briefly traced in this article together with a consideration of the place of the chant in the contemporary practice of the Order. Throughout the last eight centuries, the chant of the Order of Preachers has played an important role in the inculcation and preservation of Dominican identity within the Order and in the lives of individual friars and sisters.

This is a very well written article, that is accessible to anyone who has even a rudimentary knowledge of the Office and Mass. You can download this fine article here.