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Day: August 24, 2009

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Poetry

August 24 – An Hymn upon St. Bartholomew’s Day by Thomas Traherne

What powerful Spirit lives within!
What active Angel doth inhabit here!
What heavenly light inspires my skin,
Which doth so like a Deity appear!
A living Temple of all ages, I
Within me see
A Temple of Eternity!
All Kingdoms I descry
In me.

An inward Omnipresence here
Mysteriously like His within me stands,
Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere
That in itself at once includes all lands.
There is some Angel that within me can
Both talk and move,
And walk and fly and see and love,
A man on earth, a man
Above.

Dull walls of clay my Spirit leaves,
And in a foreign Kingdom doth appear,
This great Apostle it receives,
Admires His works and sees them, standing here,
Within myself from East to West I move
As if I were
At once a Cherubim and Sphere,
Or was at once above
And here.

The Soul’s a messenger whereby
Within our inward Temple we may be
Even like the very Deity
In all the parts of His Eternity.
O live within and leave unwieldy dross!
Flesh is but clay!
O fly my Soul and haste away
To Jesus’ Throne or Cross!
Obey!

St Bartholomew by Konrad Witz

Perspective, PNCC, ,

Possibilities, not so much

From the Catholic Answers Forum: Anglican Church in America (TAC) and the Polish National Catholic Church

I wonder with all of the struggle of the TAC/ACA to move towards union with Rome (and the constant expectation of an announcement…over and over), why they do not look towards forming an alliance with the Polish National Catholic Church?

The PNCC has valid orders (according to Rome) and has limited intercommunion. They are seen in a way similar to the Eastern Orthodox in that in extraordinary circumstances the PNCC and Catholics can receive sacraments from one another.

This makes sense until you scratch the surface a little.

Those in the TAC/ACA who long for Rome are really singleminded in that regard. They see no possible alternative, and if they did, they would have been there already. They are actually willing to give up their Episcopal Orders, their former Roman priests who had married, and anyone else in an “unclear” situation, casting them under the bus so to speak; sort of Machiavellian, which is ironic.

Others, who will quit the Church when it joins with Rome, are really Protestants. They like Catholic externals but don’t really believe in the infallibility of the ChurchIt’s one thing to believe that the person of the Bishop of Rome is not infallible, quite another to believe the Church is not infallible.. Not believing in the infallibility of the Church makes these folks a bad fit in any Catholic Church whether it be Oriental, Orthodox, Roman, or PNCC. They are headed for some far corner of the Anglican movement where they can maintain their ‘I’m smarter than the Church’ attitude.

I also think that marriages for the sake of convenience are a bad idea. Why partner with someone if they’re constantly looking over their shoulder for what they perceive to be a more handsome/beautiful/whatever prospect. Could the TAC/ACA accept the Declaration of Scranton in clear conscience? Could they be PNCC? I highly doubt it.

Speaking with Rome doesn’t mean you are at the place ACA/TAC perceived themselves to be, signing copies of the Catechism and FedEx’ing them off to Rome and praying for Newman to descend upon you. I’m sure there’s a few in the PNCC who long for unity with Rome just as there are those like myself who long for unity with Orthodoxy. But no matter. In the bigger picture we’re just PNCC and most of us are happy to work in that part of God’s field. To waste our time waiting, or courting for the purpose of courting, would be an affront to the gifts God has granted us and the work He has asked us to do.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

A review of the recording of Moniuszko’s Masses and other works

From Ionarts: Reviewed, Not Necessarily Recommended: Masses by Stanisław Moniuszko

51X8yIUKCPL._SL500_AA240_Stanislaw Moniuszko: Masses/ Warsaw Phil. Chorus, DUX 0657 (76:42)

Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) was born near Minsk (Polish territory at the time), grew up in Warsaw (then de-facto Russian), and studied in Berlin (capitol of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg). Especially because of his (Polish) patriotic-nationalist sentiment of his music—”especially his operas, he became the national Polish composer and remains so to this day. Only Karol Szyamnowski and the ‘lost son’ Fryderyk Chopin share a similarly high level of popularity. Moniuszko would make for an excellent introduction to a college primer on —Central European History in the 19th Century—, but the Polish record company DUX—”wisely—”focuses on his music, instead.

So far issued are songs of Moniuszko, his two String Quartets, and two of his ten Operas. To that, DUX adds here three masses for organ and chorus: the Latin Mass in Dâ™­ (1870), the Funeral Mass in G minor (1871), and the Polish St.Peter’s Mass in Bâ™­ (1871). The works, composed to —enrich, strengthen, console—, vacillate between Mozartean beauty and romanticized kitsch, but for most of their duration the music stays on the sheerly beautiful, not shallow, side of things. (And, I suppose, how to praise God, if not through beauty.) The Dâ™­ Kyrie (—Ky-rie— sung bisyllabic to match the alternating —Christe eleisons—) and the Funeral Mass’ Offertorium are high-points; how Moniuszko writes for two intertwining female voices—”especially in the St. Peter’s Mass’ Benedictus—”is wonderful to listen to. The Requiem Eternam dabbles prettily: romantic chill-out with a sacred veneer…

My only comment relates to the the reviewer’s mention of kitsch and history. To understand the composer you must understand his life and times, his struggles and values. The kitsch comes from the history – the Polish notion of romanticism. It was exactly that call that spoke to the heart and soul of his listeners, motivating them to action. You can certainly find technical brillance in the pantheon of Polish composers. That brilliance coupled with romanticism made things happen.

Here is Moniuszko’s Our Father (Ojcze Nasz) performed by the Choir of the Pomeranian Academy in Słupsk.

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