Wednesday, May 13, 2009

37.
A PRAYER FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE FREEMASONS.
Domine Jesu Christe, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime et miserando manifestas; tu qui dixisti: Orate pro persequentibus et alumniantibus vos, clementiam Cordis tui sacratissimi imploramus erga animas ad imaginem Dei conditas, sed miserrime perfidis muratorum illecebus deceptas, et in viam perditionis magis ac magis ambulantes. Noli ultra permittere ut Ecclesia, Sponsa tua, ab eis opprimatur; sed intercessione Beatissimae Virginis Mariae Matris tuae et justorum precibus placatus recordare misencordiae tuae infinitae; et perversitatis eorum oblitus effice ut ipsi quoque ad te redeant, per amplissimum poemitentiam Ecelesiam consolentur, facinora reparent, aeternitatisque gloriam consequantur. Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who declarest thine almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity; thou who hast said: Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; we beseech the mercy of thy most Sacred Heart on behalf of those souls made in the image of God, yet most wretchedly decieved by the enticements of the perfidious Masons, and who now walk further and further down the path of perdition. Permit not that they should overcome the Church, thy Bride; but assuaged by the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary thy Mother and the prayers of the righteous, remember thine infinite mercy: Cause their perversities to be forgotten, that they themselves may also turn back to thee; that they, through superabundant penitence, may be consoled by the Church, that they may amend their deeds, and that they may be led to the glory of immortality. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen. [my translation.]

His Holiness, Leo XIII., by a brief, August 16, 1898, granted to the faithful who recite the above prayer An indulgence of one hundred days, once a day.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Text chant notation...


I've been reading some about the history of chant notation lately, and I'm interested in the earliest versions we have. They don't notate pitch, and seem to be elaborations of the tone or accent marks used in Greek. They sufficed, however, since when chant started being notated with pitches, the manuscripts are in basic agreement. That makes me wonder if there isn't some way to go back to that with our expanded unicode font sets, and notate chants in a way that's more concise on a page than with the square notation. Here's what I've been playing with.