Posted on 11/26/2005 2:06:18 PM PST by NYer
For those who missed it, this is the first time the Holy Father has celebrated First Vespers with a worldwide broadcast. It's becoming evident (IMHO) that he is using the media to draw in an audience to witness the Cathoic liturgy as he believes it should be celebrated. And what a magnificent and beautiful celebration we witnessed today.
The announcer reminded listeners that Pope Benedict XVI has enacted norms to ensure the Basilica of St. Peter's provides respectful silence at all times. The Holy Father processed in wearing a magnificent new cope, more evidence of his intention to restore the liturgical vestments to what was intended, even by VCII.
Vespers began with the chanting of a beautiful hymn that I haven't heard since childhood (apologies but not even the Vatican Press Office has provided all the details of this celebration), followed by the reading of Psalm 140
AP - Sat Nov 26, 1:13 PM ET
Pope Benedict XVI listens in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, during the celebration of First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent, for the beginning of the new Liturgical Year, Saturday Nov. 26, 2005. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)
Another hymn was sung by the choir, followed by the reading of Psalm 141. The Crucifix and altar were then incensed. BTW - this Crucifix is from the Sistine Chapel. It was recently restored and in the process, slips of printed prayers were discovered inside it, inserted by Dominican nuns over the past century. These 'treasures' have now been turned over to the Vatican Museum for safekeeping and preservation.
The Holy Father then read his homily. For now, it is only available in Italian at this link. CELEBRAZIONE DEI PRIMI VESPRI DELLA I DOMENICA DI AVVENTO. I expect Zenit News Agency will provide the English translation later this evening, at which time I will post it to this thread.
AP - Sat Nov 26, 1:34 PM ET
Pope Benedict XVI delivers his address in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, during the celebration of First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent, for the beginning of the new Liturgical Year, Saturday Nov. 26, 2005. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)
After the pope's homily, the choir chanted the Magnificat. This was followed by the entire congregation reciting the Our Father in Latin, another hymn and the close of Vespers.
If you have the opportunity to watch the replay, it will be rebroadcast on Tuesday, at the time specified in my earlier post.
Apologies for the less than formal reporting of this beautiful event. Check EWTN's web site (http://www.ewtn.com) during the week to see if they will televise next week's Vesper service.
Magnificent vestments; what an epitrachelion! He really looks like a hierarch should!
Gorgeous vestments!
Aside from that, however, I am so thrilled with the orthodoxy of the service, the concern for beauty and respect, and the concise homily (I read Italian) that sums it all up...magnificent!
I'll have to make a mental note of that :-). So do I. What other languages do you read/write/speak?
Is that the cope?
The only language I speak is Spanish. I read - and in some cases understand spoken - Catalan, Portuguese, Gallego, French and Italian. My Latin is not as good as it should be, although at one point I had really worked it up and used to subscribed to Latinitas, the Latin language magazine.
Until this Pope, I pretty much used my Italian only for business/legal translation, but I'm finding his homilies to be a real incentive for broadening my scope!
Big Daddy opened the ecclesiastical year in style on this vigil of the First Sunday of Advent, wearing a cope, stole and mitre from the winter collection of the House of Marini (yes, thank God, he's still there) and a morse of the Lamb of God last worn by John Paul at, I think, the consistory in 2001. No comment on the allegedly Prada shoes.
Some of you might've seen the Evening Prayer, which ran this morning US time. If you didn't see it, you should've seen it. As the Pope was coming down the aisle, the cellphone-cameras being trained at him by people either jumping on chairs or sitting on the shoulders of others -- this was inside the Basilica, mind you -- the casual observer might've thought that an XBox360 or something was being processed in.
Your typical Italian pandemonium means that, seven months in, the natives love this guy.
In his homily, the Pope said (all translations are my own):
"God calls us to communion with himself, one fully realized at the return of Christ, and he calls us to do that which enables us to be ready for this final, decisive encounter. The future is, so it's said, contained in the present or, better still, in the presence of this same God, in his unfailing love, which never leaves us lonely, which doesn't abandon us even for an instant, but as a father and mother never fail to guide their children in their growth."
Benedict XVI went on to speak of the Pauline delineation of man as "'spirit, soul and body'... a unity articulated in somatic, psychic and spiritual dimensions. Sanctification is given of God and is his initiative, but the human being is called to correspond with his whole self, leaving nothing excluded."
If nothing else, we now know who tailored these beautiful vestments.
LOL! I guess Marini is a Roman house? I was chatting with a friend who thought he got his vestments made by a German company, but somebody else said that it the company was Roman. Bet they're having a grand time working on these beautiful things!
Love the bling!
The epitrachelion is the stole.
That's a representation of the breast plate of the High Priest of the Temple at Jerusalem.
Wow NYer thanks!
I read somewhere, but can't remember source, so anyone correct me, but I believe the Papal vestments are made by one small business, family-owned that has been entrusted with this responsibility for several hundred years.
Thanks for posting these great pics, NYer!
I believe Rocco was just being cheeky and referring to Abp. Piero Marini when he said "House of Marini." The vestments look like they are from the Vatican sacristies. I'll bet there are some exquisitely beautiful vestments tucked away in the sacristies that haven't been worn by a Pope in ages. May Benedict XVI bring them out of storage!
If you are referring to this post, I don't see anything about a rebroadcast on Tuesday.
I had it set up to record the live broadcast this morning (since I had to be somewhere early today), and as I was getting ready to leave, I blew a fuse (old house, even older electrical system). Aaaargh! And I got back home during the homily of the afternoon replay. Is it really going to be rebroadcast on Tuesday?
Perhaps that's the Marini referred to in the article?
Actually, I bet you're right. It probably refers to keeper of the vestments, who is obviously bringing all sorts of goodies out of his storerooms.
I'm so glad that those awful "liberation theology" rags, usually made of self-righteously dull left-wing fibers and adorned with infantile-looking stitchery, seem to have gone away. I hope nobody is preserving those things for the future!
The family-owned business that has made papal vestments for approximately the past 400 years is Gammarelli. I don't know if they have made copes, stoles, chasubles, etc. They do make cassocks, sashes, zucchetti, etc. In other words, they make the daily vestments/garments worn by the Pope. I don't know if they make the more elaborate vestments for liturgical use.
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