52:59

S2008 Jun 14, 2025

OLDIE PODCAzT 61: Pope Leo I on a post-Pentecost weekday; Fr. Z rambles not quite aimlessly for a while

Today is Saturday in the Octave of Pentecost, or at least it ought to be in in the Novus Ordo as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar.  This is the sixth and final PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave.  Sermon 80 of St. Leo the Great (+442), was preached on one of the fast days in the week after Pentecost. It is incredibly short, so we hear it in its entirety in English first and then in Latin.  I give some pointers for how to listen to both the English and what to listen for in the Latin as well. Please forgive me for a slip… I forget what century we are presently in.  Oh well… Then, I just ramble.  More than I usually do, that is.  I wasn’t even going to make this PODCAzT today, but at the last said… what the heck.  So, I look around at the books on my desk and pick things up and just start talking, and creating links between them and what pops into my mind.  This is a bit of an experiment. For music, we have Come, Holy Ghost from the Choir of Queen’s College, Oxford, then O, Come Holy Spirit by the King’s Consort, then Veni Creator Spiritus by a whole bunch of Franciscans.  Toward the end we hear Veni Sancte Spiritus again from Queen’s College. To wrap it up, Veni Sancte Spiritus, the whole thing, the Sequence in Gregorian Chant sung by the Norbertines at Sant’Antimo in Italy. 

53:28

S2008 Jun 13, 2025

PODCAzT 60: Pentecost customs; St. Ambrose on the dew of the Holy Spirit

as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar. This is the fifth PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave.  Thanks to your feedback for the last couple days.  Stats dropped yesterday, so this may be the last one. Today we will look at some customs associated with Pentecost, very beautiful.  These customs informed the rhythm of people’s lives for centuries. Then we will drill into the image of the dew of the Holy Spirit (which some bishops sadly think people are too thick to understand and therefore want to eliminate the image from liturgical translations…).  To help we enlist the help of a very wise Bishop, the great Ambrose of Milan (+397) who always tried to explain hard things to his people rather than make them out to be too stupid to get the point.  Ambrose wrote a work On the Holy Spirit in which he explains the dew that descended on Gideon’s fleece in the Book of Judges.  So, we will hear Judges 6 and 7 and then Ambrose allegorical commentary.  Fascinating stuff, I can tell you. This reading from Scripture and the patristic commentary, gives you a sense of how some of the Father’s worked with Scripture and how their reflections can be useful for us today. Of course, I have lots of comments along the way. For music, we have an antiphon for Pentecost in Gregorian chant, and a bitter sweet song Dancing at Whitsun, a folk song, which speaks of the rhythm of our lives and the challenges we endure.  There is a Fastasia super Kom, Heiliger Geist BWV 651 by J.S. Bach on the pipe organ, which Holy Church recommends above all other instruments.  We hear a haunting Byzantine Communion for mid-Pentecost, in other words this very week and at the end a real change of pace, which you can listen to yourselves.

55:06

S2008 Jun 12, 2025

OLDIE PODCAzT 59: St Leo the Great on Pentecost fasting; Benedict XVI’s Pentecost sermon

From 15 May 2008: Today is Thursday in the Octave of Pentecost, or at least it ought to be in in the Novus Ordo as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar. This is the fourth PODCAzT for the Pentecost Octave. Today we learn what St. Leo the Great (+461) thought about the fasting Christians should engage in after Pentecost, in other words on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this very week! These are our Ember Day’s those beautiful days which helped Catholics for may centuries regulate the rhythm of their lives in the consecration of the seasons of the year, and learn to use God’s creation with moderation. Leo has a fascinating insight about how we cannot truly be Christians, in a deeper sense, without fasting and almsgiving. These two necessary practices, shape in inner man in Wisdom…Sapientia. Then we hear the Pentecost sermon of Pope Benedict XVI, [once] gloriously reigning. He speaks about the diversity of our Church which must, as a necessary characteristic have unity, without which a group cannot truly be called a Church. This has ecumenical implications, bet on it! Of course, I have lots of comments along the way. For music, there is a festive paschal Alleluia from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, just to remind us of the connection of Easter and Pentecost. We have some Gregorian chant from the Monastery of Sant’Antimo is Tuscany, an Alleluia: Veni Sancte Spiritus and also the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is one of my very favorite of all the chants of the year. Also, there is a text of Hildegard von Bingen, an O Sapientia. Moreover, Thomas Tallis‘s Loquebantur variis linguis helps us stay focused on what this Octave is about. Finally, we have a prayer invoking the help of the Holy Spirit, appropriate in this Octave of Pentecost.

51:19

S2008 Jun 9, 2025

OLDIE PODCAzT 56: Octaves – Fr. Z rants & Augustine on Pentecost

ORIGINAL NOTES: Today is Monday in the Octave of Pentecost, or at least it ought to be in in the Novus Ordo as it is in the older, Traditional Roman Calendar. I dig in to what a liturgical Octave, is adding my own comments. The we hear from the great St. Augustine (+430) on the feast of Pentecost, preaching on 12 June 412. He has interesting wine imagery and talks about what it means to be a living member of the Body of Christ.