Quarant' Ore so far...

Things are going beautifully so far at Blackfen with the Quarant' Ore. Yesterday, Mass, a Votive Missa Cantata of the Blessed Sacrament, began at 8:00pm. The visiting Schola sang the Propers and Ordinary splendidly to the plainchant melodies of Mass IV for Double Feasts. The Blessed Sacrament now exposed for Adoration, the Acolytes lit the candelabrae and other surplus candles fitting to direct attention to our Sacramental Lord and after Mass we prepared for the Procession and Litanies. Liturgical processions can sometimes be unedifyingly untidy but our procession proved quite the opposite and we processed around the church singing the praises of God with the Pange Lingua. On our return to the Sanctuary, so great was the attendance that we were obliged to halt to allow worshippers to pass. Kneeling in the presence of Christ, the Sanctissimum was incensed after which the Litany of the Saints was intoned by the Cantors. The Litany of the Saints is my favourite Litany and in the immediate presence of Our Lord the petitions held an ineffable power, not altogether comfortable, albeit fair; I felt that the hand of God had reached into my soul and stirred those regions where love, awe and reverence are mingled and lost and mean little other than the knowing that God is here with us, and He loves us. Poorly expressed perhaps but such is the way of things. The feeling was very present at the time and perhaps not recapturable - I am especially not able to articulate it with unfitting language! After Mass, many stayed to watch. I watched myself after tidying up and went home finally after 3:00am.

Today, after a long wait, I got to the church at around 5:30pm and helped the Master of Ceremonies with a few odd bits. I set the Altar Missal, the small ugly one (we used this perforce for practical reasons), and changed some candles among other things, and the time for Mass drew near. The Mass was of course a Votive Mass pro pace, a Missa Cantata, celebrated at the Lady Altar. All the servers were under 14 years old and most were under 9! The parish choir chanted the Propers to the Rossini Psalm tones which, in an odd way, was reminiscent of the ''quiet'' nature of the Second Day of the Forty Hours. The absence of the bell came as a surprise to some. During the distribution of Holy Communion, the Adoro te Devote was sung beautifully, and what a fitting hymn for Holy Communion. I don't know it by heart yet, nor did I quite understand why Christ was referred to as the ''pious pelican,'' but there we are. Fr Finigan explained it afterwards; a beautiful simile derived from legend that the pelican pierced itself to feed its young.

After Mass, we changed more candles and retired to the parish club for refreshment. It was nice to catch up with a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen for two weeks. Then we went into the small hall for tea and a bite to eat before more watching. A film was on about St Thérèse...I won't be watching that again. And then, at around 11:30pm, we went into the church to watch...gosh this is a very ''matter of fact'' way of narrating this; ''then we did this, afterwards we did that,'' but maybe you all think otherwise. Having caught up on my Rosary and watched for a while, I read De Imitatione Christi (craftily my Latin homework, but it's still devotional and edifying in the reading). I only brought one chapter, so after I had read it I took up the Altar Missal. At this point, my little friend came over to sit next to me, and together (in hushed voices) we went through the Latin of the Missal, beginning, appropriately, with the Feast of Corpus Christi. I found the instruction in the presence of Our Lord not at all untoward and I am sure that it will bring grace and consolation to both of us - almost it reached the loftiness of a spiritual talk. I'd love to be able to teach Latin one day.

That's pretty much it up to now. I left the church at 3:00am again; I'd have stayed longer only I have to work tomorrow (well today actually!) and I need to catch up on some sleep anyway. I am looking forward to the next Mass. Mac has some photos on her blog. More information on Sunday afternoon. Glory be to God!

The above image is Gustave Dore's rendering of the Beatific Vision, as imagined by Dante in The Divine Comedy. I post this image because the spiritual graces of a Quarant' Ore can be so great that they bring about visions and miracles. During a Quarant' Ore at his parish church in 1944, J.R.R Tolkien saw a vision of the Light of God in the Blessed Sacrament. I shall post more on that soon...