+Crown Him
All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ Name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem
To crown him Lord of all!
Bring forth the royal diadem
To crown him Lord of all!
I love that hymn. Though the bare words don’t do justice to the tune, which is ravishingly majestic. To really get it across, you’d have to write it like this:
To CROWN… HIM… LORD O-OF ALL!!!
I sang that at our Saturday vigil today, on the Solemnity of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the year. I’ve been cantoring a lot at that Mass lately – they don’t have anyone else to do it. It’s kind of new for me to do. Anyway, that culminating line is right at the edge of the range where I can really belt it out – and today I knocked it out of the park! For whatever reason, I did better today than I’m usually capable of, and I’m glad. This feast is kind of special to me – in part because it always brings to mind a psalm that is perhaps my very favorite: number 24. It’s played quite a role in my life as a Christian.
Hail him, you heirs of David’s line
Whom David Lord did call,
The God incarnate, Man divine,
And crown him Lord of all!
The God incarnate, Man divine,
And crown him Lord of all!
"Lift up your heads, O gates! Rise up, you ancient portals! Let him enter, the King of Glory! Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts: He is the King of Glory!"
First off… The word "glory" has always spoken to me. The idea of it, even the very sound of the word. It comes very naturally for me to recognize "Glory" as something both to stand in awe in and to rejoice in. Few Scripture passages make me shiver in awed delight more than the ones that promise that we lowly people will be given glory. Who could imagine such a thing? And a phrase like "King of Glory", tying in the idea of majesty and rulership and justice… wow. It made a huge impression on me from the first time I seriously started reading the Bible.
The passage I quoted above is one of the very first ones where it really sank in for me that God had a message for me, right where I was, in what I was reading. That he had a Word for me in the words I was reading. That there was a sense to the words beyond the merely literal gates of Jerusalem; that he wanted me to fling wide the gates of MY heart so he could be enthroned there.
Crown him, you holy saints of God,
Who from his altar call;
Extol him in whose path you trod,
And crown him Lord of all!
Extol him in whose path you trod,
And crown him Lord of all!
Then came another special moment, a few months after I was Confirmed. I was praying and the words of the psalm came to me. I looked it up and read it aloud just because I love it so much. And suddenly it all rushed in on me like a ton of bricks… "We crucified the King of Glory!!!"
We opened the gates and he came in. And our response was to beat him, mock him, spit upon him, and nail him to a tree. Mighty warrior though he was, he did not make any resistance. More than that, he came knowing what would happen! It boggles the mind. And… I did this. I DO this, every time I sin!
How?! Even the demons aren’t that dumb! St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2 that if "the rulers of this world" had known the mystery of Christ, "they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory".
Crown him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon his throne;
All kingdoms of the earth resound
In praise of him alone.
Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee,
And hail him as thy risen King for all eternity.
I could go on. That youth retreat I chaperoned at where I first got exposed to prayer in the Spirit… once, during a time of prayer, I suddenly felt the
urge to say that line from psalm 24 aloud – and it zapped one of the kids I was there with right between the eyes. He said he’d just been reading that psalm and now felt that "glory" should be his "word of the week". 🙂 It was an early sign to me that the Lord was ready and willing to work with me and through me in the realm of Word.
Yes, Psalm 24 is special to me in many ways. And this feast day zapped me between the eyes this year – even though they use 23 as the responsorial psalm of the day. 🙂 (So close, and yet so far! 🙂
For months I’ve felt drawn to pray that the Lord open my eyes, that I may clearly see him at work. I have prayed this prayer often: "Lord, open my eyes that I may see. Open my ears that I may hear. Open my hands that I may give. Open my heart that I may love." And in a larger sense, for years now I’ve asked the Lord to give me as reflexive and natural a recognition and love of him in my brothers and sisters as I do of him in the Eucharist.
The People of Praise had a public meeting yesterday night, and I got prayed over for that very thing – that my eyes be opened to see. He laid me out harder than usual afterward. 🙂 And this evening at the vigil Mass, Fr. Jesse’s homily was on that very point as well – seeing Christ in our brothers and sisters in need. (The parable of the sheep and the goats was the Gospel of the day.)
After Communion, I had the definite sense from the Lord that my prayer was answered. That the answer would grow up in me and develop over the coming days, weeks, months, and years, but that a decisive beginning had been made. It gave me great joy. (I had a very strong suspicion that he’d do something important with me this year before Advent; we shall see what comes of this.)
Oh, Beloved! King of Glory, Majesty, Power, Joy!
The gates are open; if ever they are closed, oh please open them for me!
Enter in. Oh, enter in and take up your glorious crown! Thorns are all I have to offer, my Lord and my Love, not gold, but I know you regard that as the deeper glory, you who took up your royal throne on the Cross!
Reign in me, and through me, and over me. Please, never suffer your glory to depart.
Oh, enter in! Be all in me, as you will be all in all.
Lift up your heads, O gates! Rise up, you ancient portals! Let him enter, the King of Glory!
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, the mighty, the valiant; the Lord, mighty in war!
Lift up your heads, O gates! Rise up, you ancient portals! Let him enter, the King of Glory!
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts: He is the King of Glory!
RyN: I’ll get back to you in an entry on that sometime this week.
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Neat entry. I enjoyed your mention of the psalms and the hymns. 🙂 They are beautiful.
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RYN: “As for Communion in the hand – I don’t think that it is a cause of disbelief in the Real Presence. The cause of disbelief (other than plain and simple sin) is extraordinarily poor catechesis, combined with a “do your own thing” mentality in our culture.” We do need better catechetics. However, our actions need to back up our words. I find that people finally “get it” in regards to the
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Holy Mass when I can point back to something we do as an example of my words. With Communion in the hand, standing, the message I’m giving is that receiving the Holy Eucharist is a rather casual event. Even my aunt who was received into the Church with me two years ago originally didn’t want to receive in the hand (she later did though). Her reason was that it seemed more reverent to receive on
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the tongue. However, like I said, she later gave into the norm of the parish – Communion in the hand. The fact that she originally had qualms about it says a lot, IMO. I suppose my commitment to the Sacred Liturgy as “teacher of the Faith” precludes me from endorsing the new Communion practice. God bless! Adam
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Sorry to hear about your friend’s lack of faith! It is tragic. I sometimes wonder if the replacement of the screen and kneeler in the confessional with the face-to-face “reconcilitation rooms” hasn’t contributed to the loss of faith in the Sacrament of Penance. To me at least, it seems that people lose sight of the importance of sin when they see the confessional set up more like a
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“chat with Father” than a replica of the Last Judgment (e.g. kneeler, crucifix, screen denoting the priest as judge, etc.). What do you think? Adam
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RYN: I don’t know . . . Communion in the hand, standing, seems to lend itself to more abuses and irreverence than the traditional method. Besides, it is better to respect development here and not return to outdated models. It usually backfires when we do that and I think we are currently seeing the results of this. Like I mentioned in DieHardFaithful’s diary some time back, heretics and
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liberals can too easily abuse the new form for Holy Communion (and the “Reconciliation Rooms,” too, I might add), and we don’t need to be feeding their agendas. ~ As for the Modern Mass, I cannot say that it was created by heretics. Only the Church can term someone a “heretic,” properly speaking. Actually, many of the men who worked on the Novus Ordo Missae were avid students of
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the pre-Vatican II liturgical movement, as I am. And the work they done was good in many respects. I just think undue liberties were taken with the traditional Mass. The necessary adjustments could have been done to the traditional Mass without a new Offertory rite (for the bread and wine), a plurality of Eucharistic Prayers, a new temporal cycle and a re-arrangement of the sanctoral cycle.
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Actually, many of the needed reforms were done to the traditional Mass in 1965. Not all, but a good amount of them were done. So, yeah, the Modern Mass is certainly valid and is not devoid of sacrificial references and isn’t an incentive to impiety like some maintain. However, I think it could express the Faith more clearly and should maintain a link with the previous Missal.
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In short, the current Missal needs review, much like the one prior to the Council. Hopefully, with a open mind and respectful attitude, we can make the necessary improvements. My blog that is linked on my frontpage is meant to work toward that goal.
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Btw, where did you read that the catholicity of the Church demands that she retain a presence in the places she has been established in? I hadn’t heard that before. 🙂 Adam
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I’ve missed such entries, bro.
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… and I had a two-hour-long talk with our priest last week, but that’s a story for another day. (I also waited until two weeks before we leave the state, so it’s not like it could possibly resolve anything, but at least I did it.)
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RYN: No, Latin isn’t essential to the Mass. Actually, in the variable parts of the Mass (lessons, chants, and proper orations), it would be best not to use Latin. Use of Latin in these parts obstruct the people’s direct understanding of the Sacred Liturgy. I don’t believe that people should have to be dependent on a textual aid in the Mass. I have noticed that this leads to a
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lack of active participation in the Mass. Of course, Latin should never disappear from any Mass in the Roman Rite per Sacrosanctum Concilium 36:1 & 54. The use of Latin in the Roman Rite helps the parish to exceed its own boundaries and be united with the larger Church. Also, it provides a more reverent atmosphere in the Mass.
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It is very rare to see people acting casually/irreverent in the Church during Mass when Latin is used. It helps (along with other things) to remind the people that the Holy Sacrifice is different from the world. I think it would be best for the Ordinary of every Mass to be in Latin (except in mission lands where a temporary allowance for the vernacular could be allowed)
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and the proper parts of the Mass to be in the vernacular (with possible exceptions for some of the readings/prayers during Holy Week, like the Palm Sunday Passion reading, the Easter Vigil Exultant, and some of the chants of the Sunday Mass from time to time).
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Yes, I have evolved in my understanding of the liturgical reform. It is very difficult to come to a sober understanding of it, given the excesses on both the right and left. However, I think I’m coming to a balanced understanding/critique of it now. How has your position evolved on this issue? 🙂 Adam
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