Fra Prim i de tradisjonelle tidebønnene (dagen før, martyrologiet er alltid ‘anticipert’, uten at jeg vet hvorfor):

December 14th anno Domini 2011 (the 19th Day of Moon) were born into the better life:

At Alexandria, (in the year 250,) the holy martyrs Heron, Arsenius, and Isidore, and a lad Dioscorus. In the persecution under the Emperor Decius the judge caused Heron, Arsenius, and Isidore to be lacerated with divers torments, and, when he saw them to be all equally steadfast, to be burnt. Dioscorus was heavily whipped, but God was pleased that, for the comfort of the faithful, he should then be set at liberty.
At Antioch, the holy martyrs Drusus, Zosimus, and Theodore.
Upon the same day, (in the year 284,) the holy martyrs Justus and Abundius. Under Olybrius the President, in the persecution under the Emperor Numerian, they were cast into the fire, and when they appeared thence unburnt, they were beheaded.
At Rheims, the holy martyrs Nicasius, Bishop, (in the year 400,) of that see the Virgin Eutropia, his sister, and their Companions, who were slain by the savage enemies of the Church (in the year 407.) In the island of Cyprus the blessed Spiridion, Bishop (of Tremithos) he was one of those Confessors whose right eyes were put out and their left thighs hamstrung, and were condemned to penal servitude in the mines by the Emperor Galerius Maximian. He was illustrious for the gift of prophecy, and the fame of miracles, and at the Council of Nice, (held in 325,) he confuted and converted to the faith a heathen philosopher who attacked the Christian religion, (and died after the year 347.)
At Bergamo, the holy Confessor Viator, Bishop (of that see.)
At Pavia, holy Pompey, Bishop (of that see.)
At Naples, in Campania, (in the year 596,) holy Agnello, Abbat (at Naples,) famous for the grace of miracles, who, when the city had been beleaguered, had often been seen with a flag marked with a cross, delivering it from the enemy.
At Ubeda, in Spain, the holy Confessor John of the Cross (died in 1591) a companion of holy Teresa in reforming the Carmelites, whose feast is kept upon the 24th day of November.
At Milan, the holy Hermit Matronian.

Slik leste jeg i dag til Matutin, om den hellige Lucia (286-304):

Lucy a virgin of Syracuse, noble by birth and by her Christian faith, went to the tomb of St. Agatha at Catania and obtained the cure for her mother, Eutichia who was suffering from a hemorrhage. Soon after, she gained her mother’s permission to distribute to the poor all the possessions which were to have served as her dowry. As a result of this charitable action, she was accused of being a Christian and brought before Paschasius the Prefect. When neither promises nor threats could induce her to sacrifice the idols, Paschasius became enraged and commanded Lucy to be taken to a place where her virginity would be violated. But the power of God gave the virgin a strength that matched the firmness of her resolution, so that no force could move her where she stood. And so the prefect commanded a fire to be kindled all around here, but the flames did not harm her. After she had suffered many torments, therefore her throat was pierced through with a sword. So wounded she foretold that the Church would have peace after the deaths of Diocletian and Maximilian, and on December 13 she gave up her spirit, to God. Her body was first buried at Syracuse, than taken to Constantinople, and finally transferred to Venice.

Katolsk.no har også en grundig artikkel om den hellige Lucia.

I dag er evangeliene i den nye og den gamle messen nesten like; i den nye messen hører vi fra Joh 1,6-8.19-28, i den gamle messen Joh 1:19-28. Og slik leste jeg om dette evangeliet i dagens matutinbønn:

Joh 1:19-28
In that time sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him: Who art thou? … (And so on.)

Homily by Pope St Gregory (the Great) – 7th on the Gospels.
Dearly beloved brethren, the first thing which striketh us in to – day’s Gospel is the lowly – mindedness of John. He was so great that it was thought he might be the Christ; yet he soberly chose rather to seem only what he really was, than to let the belief of men invest him with a dignity which did not belong to him; for he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ, at the same time he would not deny what he was in reality; and thus his very truth – speaking made him a member of Him Whose title he would not by falsehood take. In that he arrogated not to himself the name of Christ, he became a member of Christ. While he humbly strove to confess his own weakness, he earned by his simplicity a part in the grandeur of his Master.

Eller det burde vel være helt vanlig, for det er den nye (ordinære) messen som feires, av en katolsk biskop, i en vanlig (noen hundre år gammel) katolsk kirke, slik de aller fleste kirker så ut fram til 1965. Men noen vil sikkert mene at det er upassende at kirkens hovedalter (og også kommunionsbenken) brukes, at alle de geistlige samt (de mannlige) ministrantene bruker tradisjonelle klær etc.

Det er biskop Mario Oliveri, i bispedømmet Albenga-Imperia i Italia, som feirer messen – og jeg har tatt dette fra NLM-bloggen.

Slik leste jeg i dag til Matutin:

Ambrose, bishop of Milan, son of Ambrose, who was a Roman citizen, was educated in the City in the liberal arts. Appointed by the prefect Probus to govern Liguria and Aemelia at his order and with his authority. Ambrose went to Milan. There Auxentius the Arian bishop had died and the people were quarreling about the choice of a successor. In the exercise of his official duty, Ambrose went into the church to quell the riot that had arisen and, when he had spoken at length and eloquently on the peace and tranquility of the state, suddenly a boy’s voice exclaimed, «Ambrose bishop!» Then the whole populace with one voice demanded that he be elected. And so he received baptism (for he had been only a catechumen), the other sacraments of the Christian initiation, all the degrees of orders according to the custom of the Church, and was raised to the dignity of the episcopate. In carrying of his office, he courageously defended the Catholic faith and the discipline of the Church both in speech and in writing, and converted many Arians and other heretics to the faith, among whom was St Augustine, whom he begot to Christ Jesus as his spiritual child. Worn out by all his labors and cares for the Church of God he died on April 4 in the year 397.

Artikkelen på katolsk.no forteller mer, bl.a. (til slutt) om hvorfor han feires 7. desember, og ikke på sin dødsdag 4. april:

Den eldste avbildning av ham (til høyre) finnes i et kapell som er viet hans bror Satyrus i Sacello di S. Vittore in Ciel d’Oro i kirken Sant’Ambrogio i Milano, det dreier seg om en mosaikk fra rundt 470. Da Achille Ratti, den senere pave Pius XI, var ved Det ambrosianske Bibliotek i Milano, påpekte han at St. Ambrosius’ høyre øye satt lavere enn det venstre. Som støtte for teorien viste han til dette tidlige portrettet av ham, hvor denne deformitet er umiskjennelig. Til da var alle gått ut fra at det var en feil som skyldtes kunstnerens udyktighet.

I 1295 utnevnte pave Bonifatius VIII Ambrosius til kirkelærer med sammen med Kirkens tre andre store latinske kirkefedre: Augustin, Hieronymus og Gregor den Store. Han har tittelen «den honning-tungede doktor». Han nevnes i den ambrosianske messens kanon.

Hans kult er eldgammel og veletablert. Siden 1000-tallet er hans fest feiret i Roma den 7. desember, dagen for hans bispevielse, og det er også i dag hans minnedag, selv om han noen steder feires den 4. april, dagen for hans død. Hans navn står i Martyrologium Romanum.

En ny morsom video ser på en del misforståelser rundt Vatikankonsilets vedtak – filmen under begynner med at en ny prest nå snur «ryggen til menigheten» ….

En biskop i USA har utgitt liturgiske regler for sitt bispedømme (se her – pdf-fil), og bl.a. skrevet at man ikke skal holde hverandre i hendene under Fader vår. Noen syns (se her) at dette var forferdelig dumt sagt, og Father Z. kommenterer det hele på denne måten:

Correctly understood, the “full, conscious and active participation” desired by the Council Fathers is rooted in our baptismal character, which makes it possible to receive graces and the other six sacraments. “Active participation” is first and foremost an interiorly active receptivity to all that God is offering. This interiorly active receptivity requires the person to make acts of will to stay focused and attentive to the mysteries of the sacred action. This interior receptivity at times manifests itself outwardly in physical expression, especially in the words people speak as responses, prescribed prayers recited in common during the liturgical action, certain gestures such as kneeling or standing of making the sign of the Cross, and at times walking in procession, as in the case of going forward to receive Holy Communion. In fact, reception of Holy Communion by a baptized person in the state of grace is the most perfect form of “full, conscious and active participation”, for its is the perfect harmony of the interior and the exterior of the person’s active receptivity.

On the other hand, some people – liberal liturgists for example – think that active participation means doing things, such as carrying stuff, clapping, singing every word of everything that could be sung, moving about, etc. They are abetted by clerics who think they are “empowering the laity” and helping their “active participation” by surrendering their own proper roles as clerics to any number of lay people. Liberal liturgists talk of baptism as the foundation of “active participation”. They see baptism as conferring rights, especially the right to do things during the liturgical action. …

… A good example of this liturgy rights activism popped up on the site of the extremely liberal US cATHOLIC, penned by their perennially wrong Bryan Cones. They are staging a nutty over there about the liturgical law issued by His Excellency Most Rev. Roger Foys for the Diocese Covington. Among the issues addressed by the bishop is the liturgically bizarre and often liturgically abusive aberration of prompting people to hold hands and wave their arms around during the Our Father of Holy Mass.