Unam Sanctam: Out with noble simplicity

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Out with noble simplicity

Out I say! And in with baroque splendour.

Earthly splendour and beauty lifts man's gaze and thoughts upward, so he can ponder the mysteries of the Divine, the God who is the Author of Beauty. A blank, whitewashed wall makes man contemplate only himself and emptiness.

Check these altars.

Easter decorations. Somewhere in the Philippines.

Isaias 53:9

Ecce Homo. From Spain.

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The Altar of Repose Located at Bacolor, Pampanga.

All the pictures are from the excellent blog, Ecce Ego, Quia Vocasti Me, from the neighbouring Philippines. The blog title means 'Here I am, for you have called me.' and comes from the book of Samuel. It is Samuel's response to Eli whom he thought had called him. A friend once joked that the reason he wanted to learn Latin was so he could read his sidebar. LOL!

6 comments:

The Hymn Selector said...: Wow... I'm awestruck. This rivals even those Holy Week setups in Spain.; 2:14 pm
Andrew said...: Hymn Selector, I was also stunned. Did you see the mother of all Altars of Repose? Wow! And the Christ figure. A beauty, marred by suffering, but undimmed. Wonderful.

I really must go to the Philippines someday. I've been hearing so much about it.; 2:43 pm
Andrew said...: It makes me wonder why we were not colonized by the Spanish but got the Protestant Dutch and English instead. Otherwise, we could have been a Catholic country and the altars that you saw could have been from the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pulau Tikus. Who knows?

A man can dream, right? =); 2:45 pm
Anonymous said...: Amazing. You consistently pick out some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen, Andrew, thank you.

On a side-note, I was posting a link to a repulsive Guardian article on a friend's blog a while back (Righteous Indignation) and got to thinking about a comment I found in the responses to the article:

"Ms Bunting is right, but is a bit tepid in her words.

Failing to deal with the challenge of modernity? My God, he runs around in clothes from centuries ago. He lives like a feudal lord in a great palace with priceless treasures. All this supported by the donations of some of the world's poorest."

Which got me thinking about beauty and faith. With your permission, I'd like to link to and maybe use some of the photos from your blogs for an article I'm planning on faith and beauty.; 5:00 pm
Archistrategos said...: Hi Andrew,

Just to clarify, the picture of the Ecce Homo is actually from Spain, and not the Philippines. The rest however are from here, and I am so glad that you liked them. Thanks for the comments on my blog as well.; 3:04 pm
Andrew said...: Mr. Smith, thank you for your comments. You may use any photos you like.

Archistrategos, thanks for the clarification. You write a great blog!; 11:01 am

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Let me tell you a bit about myself and my beliefs.

I am firstly a Christian.
The Lord Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God, my Saviour and my all in all.

By His Passion,

His Death,

and His Resurrection into Glory,

The Lord Jesus has atoned for our sins and opened for us the Gates of Paradise.

I am striving everyday to conform myself to His will for me and am working out my salvation with fear and trembling while looking forward to the Parousia

when Christ shall come to judge the world with Fire.
May He have mercy on me, a sinner.

Ora pro nobis,
Sancta Dei Genitrix

Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God is my mother too.

We honour She, whom God honours

and no matter how we try, we can’t surpass the honours bestowed on her by God her Creator.

Mary, my mother,
Pray for me

Sts. Peter and Paul are my favourite Saints

especially Pope St. Peter, because they show what God can do with simple and stubborn people if they allow his grace to work.

St. Andrew the Protocletos is my Patron Saint

The First-Called Apostle, it was St. Andrew who said:
"We have found the Messiah"
and brought St. Peter to him.

Now, my beliefs.

I’m a Catholic who holds and teaches the Catholic Faith that comes to us from the Apostles.

I pledge obedience to
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

The Successor to St. Peter

Vicar of Jesus Christ

Servant of the Servants of God.

I love and admire his predecessor of beloved memory,

His Holiness Pope John Paul the Great.

I pray daily for his swift canonization,
Deo volente.

His life,

His example

His teaching

and his death

have all left a deep and lasting impression on me.

I struggle daily to live up to the ideals he exemplified,

as he strived to follow Christ His Master, the Good Shepherd.

I belong to the Diocese of Penang, Malaysia.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception,
Pulau Tikus is my Parish Church

I think the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should be celebrated reverently and oriented towards the Lord,

Who Alone should be the focus of the worship of His people.

The Mass in Latin should be normative in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church

and Gregorian Chant should have pride of place,

as decreed by the 2nd Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium.

There should be perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

as a foretaste of the eternal worship of the Lamb in Heaven.

I think we should have more public processions to bring Christ and the Faith to the people.

I think that His Holiness, Pope Pius XII of blessed memory should be canonized immediately

for his bravery in the face of Nazism and Communism

and his fidelity to God and His Church.

Here are some of my favourite Popes.

Pope Boniface VIII
Who promulgated the document from which this blog takes its name.

Pope St. Pius V
Ora pro nobis
Who codified the Roman Missal after the Council of Trent and promulgated Quo Primum.

And in modern times, we have been blessed with the heroic pontificates of

Pope St. Pius X
Ora pro nobis
Who promulgated Pascendi and the prophetic Oath Against Modernism.

I think abortion is the murder

of the most helpless among us.

Pray for the Church in China and the canonization of one of her most faithful sons,

Ignatius Cardinal Kung

The late Bishop of Shanghai

Our Lady
Empress of China
Ora pro nobis

Our Holy Father
Pope Benedict XVI
Gloriously Reigning

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro,
Benedicto
Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum ejus.

St. Michael the Archangel
Pray for us

Interesting Links

Resources

Apologetics

Scott Hahn's Centre for Biblical Apologetics
Biblical Evidence for Catholicism
Dave Armstrong

Resources on the Liturgy

The Tridentine Latin Missal
The Latin-English Parallel Text of the Novus Ordo Missae
Mass Readings for Today
The Office of Readings
Morning Prayer
Evening Prayer
Night Prayer
Parallel Latin-English Psalter

Unam Sanctam

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Out with noble simplicity

6 comments:

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