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Micheline's Blog

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Tag Archives: Easter

Holy Week

24 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Feasts, Liturgy

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Easter, Good Friday, Jacopo Bassano, Last Supper, Maundy Thursday, Palm Sunday, Paschal Tridium, Passover, Pietro Lorenzetti, Vernal Equinox

1024px-Jacopo_Bassano_Last_Supper_1542

The Last Supper by Jacopo Bassano (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

800px-Assisi-frescoes-entry-into-jerusalem-pietro_lorenzetti

Entry into Jerusalem by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1320, Assisi Frescoes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pietro_lorenzetti,_compianto_(dettaglio)_basilica_inferiore_di_assisi_(1310-1329)

Compianto (lament) by Pietro Lorenzetti, Basilica inferiore di Assisi, 1310-1329 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Quebec of my childhood, Holy Week was very precious. It justified a rather long holiday that brought grief and joy. Jesus of Nazareth is a tragic figure. “He was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” (See Man of Sorrows, Isaiah 53.)

But there was a holiday and Easter brought Eastertide; it brought spring. I do not remember on which day classes ended, but we were not in class on Holy Thursday (Maundy [washing of the feet] Thursday) and Good Friday. To the best of my recollection, it was a four-day holiday which started on Holy Thursday and ended on the day Easter was celebrated. I do not think it included Easter Monday. At the moment, in Quebec, Holy Thursday and Good Friday are not holidays or fériés (feasts), and Easter Monday is a holiday, a legal holiday.

The week started on Palm Sunday. Branches were woven into fine decorations. We could purchase these at church and take them home. We used them from Easter to Easter. In Quebec, these were not made of palm leaves, but they were boughs, des rameaux. Holy Thursday and Good Friday were devoted to devotional practices. We attended mass and, on Good Friday, we walked from one station of the Cross to another. There were six stations on each side of the church, a total of twelve. (See Stations of the Cross, Wikipedia).

The Narrative

Jesus had been betrayed by one of his twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot. After the Last Supper, a Passover observance and the institution of the Eucharist (Mass), Christ and his disciples went to Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. His apostles could not remain awake and stand vigil with him.

Mass and the Divine Hours

Mass, the Eucharist, commemorates the Last Supper. But the Divine Hours, kept by Cenobite monks, monks living together, commemorate Jesus’ vigil at the Mount of Olives. Books of Hours find their origin in the eight (originally seven) Canonical Hours, or Divine Hours.

Jesus was arrested and condemned. He was flogged (la flagellation), crowned mockingly, a crown of thorns, and carried the Cross on which he was crucified. Crucifixions are a form of torture leading to death. They are still carried out. Isil crucifies some of its victims. 

On Good Friday, at three in the afternoon we had to be quiet. We were told that Christ had died at that hour of the day.

Easter

  • the Easter Vigil
  • the secular celebration

The Easter Vigil was a particularly significant and beautiful celebration. A Paschal candle was lit at the back of the church and carried to the front. Everyone was given a candle. The priest stopped at each row to light one candle and the flame was passed on to everyone occupying that row.

Easter was a lovely celebration. We had many visitors. We ate chocolate, but we did not look for eggs. Then came Easter Dinner, called Supper in Quebec, my mother usually made ham, which was also the case in other households. We did not drink wine.

The Vernal Equinox

  • The Passover (Pesach)
  • The Eastern Church (the Julian Calendar)
  • The Western Church (the Gregorian Calendar)

As you know, Easter is a moveable feast, celebrated near the spring equinox. You may remember that the Gregorian Calendar (Pope Gregory XIII) was adopted because Christmas was celebrated later and later every year and, by the same token, so was Easter. The Eastern Church retained the Julian Calendar (old style: O. S.). This year the vernal equinox, for the northern hemisphere, equal day and night, occurred on 20 March and, in the Western Church, Easter will be celebrated on the 27th of March. In the Eastern Church, Easter will be celebrated on the 1st of May. Easter is rooted in the Hebrew Passover, which will be observed on the 23rd of April.

It appears “Jewish Christians, the first to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, timed the observance in relation to Passover.” (See Easter, Wikipedia.) Passover commemorates the Jewish Exodus from slavery into Egypt. The date on which Easter is celebrated and the links between Passover and Easter, in both the Western Church and the Eastern Church, have been a subject of controversy, beginning with the Council of Nicaea (325 CE). Such matters are best discussed by theologians.

For Christians, Easter is the most important religious feasts of the year. However, Jesus did not found a Church and he was not recognized as their Christ by the Jews. Moreover, he did not leave a sacred text. He was a prophet in Islam: al-Masih (the Messiah, le Messie). (See Jesus in Islam, Wikipedia.)

Mater Dolorosa

One of the most compelling depictions of grief in art is the mater dolorosa. A mother had seen her son suffer and die. As of Good Friday, the Marian Antiphon, of which there are four will be the Regina Cæli  Both Michel-Richard de Lalande‘s Regina Cæli and Pergolesi‘s exquisite Quando corpus morietur are featured in a post entitled Music for Easter (see  RELATED ARTICLES, below).

 

With kind regards to everyone. ♥

800px-Jacopo_Bassano_-_The_Way_to_Calvary_-_Google_Art_Project

The Way to Calvary by Jacopo Bassano (Google Art Project)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • The Marian Antiphonies (5 April 2015)
  • Music for Easter (31 March 2013) ♥
  • Candlemas: the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple & a Festival of Lights (12 February 2012)
  • Canonical Hours and the Divine Office (19 November 2011)

Artists
Jacopo Bassano  also known as Jacopo dal Ponte (1510 – 14 February 1592)
Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1280 – 1348)

Vivaldi‘s Stabat Mater (part one)
Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor)

Pietro_lorenzetti,_compianto_(dettaglio)_basilica_inferiore_di_assisi_(1310-1329)© Micheline Walker
24 March 2016
WordPress

 

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Music for Easter

31 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Easter, Music

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Claudio Abbado, Easter, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, London Symphony Orchestra, Lucia Valentini Terrani, Margaret Marshall, Michel-Richard de Lalande, Regina Cæli

Archetypal Gothic Lady of Sorrows from a triptych by the Master of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece, Alsace c. 1455

Archetypal Gothic Lady of Sorrows from a triptych by the Master of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece, Alsace c. 1455, Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I wish all of you a very Happy Easter.  Let it be musical.  The new Marian antiphon is the “Regina Cæli.”  Michel-Richard Delalande (or de Lalande) , whose “Regina Cæli” I selected, was the finest composer of French

  • A Portrait of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (20 December 2011)

The second selection is Pergolesi’s French grands motets. The second selection is Pergolesi’s “Quando Corpus Morietur.”

Regina Cæli

The authorship of the Regina Cæli is unknown.  It was composed in the twelfth century and was in Franciscan use after Compline a century later.  According to Wikipedia, “legend has it that St Gregory the Great heard angels chanting the first three lines one Easter morning in Rome, while following barefoot in a great religious procession of the icon of the Virgin painted by Luke the Evangelist.  He was thereupon inspired to add the fourth line.”  (See Regina Cæli, Wikipedia.)

The Regina Cæli is one of the four Antiphons or Antiphonies (Anthems in the Anglican Church) dedicated to Mary.  It is sung during the Easter season.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For He whom you deserved to bear in your womb, alleluia.
Has risen, as He promised, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
 
 
Michel-Richard Delalande (15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726)
Regina Cæli
 
 
 
 
composer: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (4 January 1710 – 16 March 1736)
piece: “Quando Corpus Morietur”
performers: Margaret Marshall, Soprano and Lucia Valentini Terrani, Contralto 
orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra (1985)
conductor: Claudio Abbado 
 
  
Detail of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece – Dead Christ

Detail of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
31 March 2013
WordPress
 

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“To Inform or Delight”

29 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Literature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Borzūya, Easter, First Council of Nicaea, Greece, India, Kalīlah, Panchatantra, Paschal Full Moon

untitled
— Kalīlah wa-Dimnah (BnF Bibliothèque nationale de France)
 

Sacred Texts and Epics

This may seem strange, but our fundamental texts are not limited to sacred texts, such as the Bible and the Quran. The Talmud and the Torah are also to be taken into consideration as are the great Epic poems or Epics: the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, the Iliad, also attributed to Homer (Greek), Virgil’s (Latin) Greco-Latin Aeneid and so many other texts. Rome borrowed Greece’s mythology, just as Christianity situated its feasts according to the seasons or to the varying degree of light and darkness the days possessed, which had been the case from time immemorial in a “pagan” world. Interestingly, Christians entered into a ritualistic darkness yesterday, but will burn candles beginning late Saturday night. Easter is a feast of lights, among Christians, as is Hanukka, in Rabbinic Judaism. Last week, Jews celebrated Passover, a feast closely related to the Christian Easter: Pâques. The First Council of Nicæa (325 CE) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox. (See Easter, Wikipedia)

Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, MS. Pococke 400, fol. 75b (Bodleian libraries, Oxford)

Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, MS. Pococke 400, fol. 75b (Bodleian libraries, Oxford)

The Panchatantra and Kalīlah wa-Dimnah

Fables and fairy tales are also fundamental texts, but belong to another strand, a worldly strand.  India is the birthplace of the Panchatantra, Pañcatantra, which features animals. It is a text we cannot ignore. Nor can we sweep away its Persian version, Kalīlah wa-Dimnah There is a Middle Persian version of the Panchatantra, written in 570 CE, by Borzūya.That version has been lost, but Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa was ordered to write the Persian and ultimately Arabic version of the Panchatantra, entitled Kalīlah wa-Dimnah and written in 750 CE. This version has come down to us.

As well, many genres are its progeny or developed at the same time as the Panchatantra. The most notable are the Buddhist Jātaka tales. Buddhism advocates moral wisdom and asceticism, but its Jātaka tales teach a wordly form of wisdom. Personally, I do not think that one precludes the other. They are simply different of a multilayered reality.  

Jātaka tales are about the former lives of Buddha and could be compared to the formulaic “Once upon a time” of fairy tales, an hypnotizing magic carpet that takes the reader or listener to the past. Most, if not all, cultures have a Golden Age, a Paradise, a Promised Land…  Humans give themselves a glorious past and look upon themselves as the descendants of giants. This glorious past is mostly fictional, but it has shaped, to a lesser or greater extent, the collective mind of various civilizations and has therefore attained a form of permanence and truth, a poetical truth. In a sense, we are the authors of these texts.

The Panchatantra as nītiśāstra

The Panchatantra is a nītiśāstra.[ii] In other words, it contains advice for the “wise” conduct of a prince’s life. In his 1924 translation, from the Sanskrit, of the Panchatantra stories, Franklin Edgerton writes that:

The so-called ‘morals’ of the stories have no bearing on morality; they are unmoral, and often immoral.  They glorify shrewdness and practical wisdom, in the affairs of life, and especially of politics, of government.[iii]

Shrewdness and practical wisdom are not necessarily Machiavellian. In Machiavelli‘s world, the end may justify the means, but the third son of the miller (Puss in Boots) is unlikely to find himself ruling a corrupt city-state. Moreover, all humans have to deal with other humans, beginning with members of their family, and may find excellent advice in such books as the Panchatantra and Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, its Arabic version.

A nītiśāstra could be described as a political science textbook and, as we know, Machiavelli is on that reading list. Baldassare Castiglione‘s Il Cortegiano (1528, begun in 1508) would be its courtly counterpart and very civilized. It is salon literature. However Reynard the Fox is a beast counterpart of Nicolló Machiavelli‘s Prince, distributed in 1513 and published in 1532. In short, we have salons, but we also have parliaments, or other forms of government and we have the religious and the secular. For a list of books and treatises on the education of the prince, see Wikipedia’s Mirrors for Princes.

The Fabliaux

With respect to secularism, I should mention the fabliaux, brought to France from the Orient by returning crusaders. These “fables” and characterized by their frequently scatological obscenity. And the same is true, to a lesser extent, of certain Reynard stories.  Yet, the Roman de Renart and fabliaux are available as children’s literature. As for the Panchatantra, it may advocate worldly wisdom, but it is not offensive. Nor is Ramsay Wood‘s translation of Kalīlah wa-Dimnah. My readers who know French may wish to visit the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Roman de Renart  Earlier versions of Puss in Boots would not have been acceptable to précieuses, no more than fabliaux, but Perrault‘s Puss in Boots and other fairy tales were extremely popular in salons and have become the reference.

(Please click on the images to enlarge them.)
 
arab_3465_048arab_3465_05123
— Kalīlah wa-Dimna
 

At any rate, the Panchatantra was extremely popular. It was, in fact, a medieval bestseller, which points to a significant degree of moral acceptability, a secular acceptability  Edgerton writes that:

“…there are recorded over two hundred different versions known to exist in more than fifty languages, and three-fourths of these languages are extra-Indian. As early as the eleventh century this work reached Europe, and before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech, and perhaps other Slavonic languages. Its range has extended from Java to Iceland… [In India,] it has been worked over and over again, expanded, abstracted, turned into verse, retold in prose, translated into medieval and modern vernaculars, and retranslated into Sanskrit. And most of the stories contained in it have “gone down” into the folklore of the story-loving Hindus, whence they reappear in the collections of oral tales gathered by modern students of folk-stories.” (Quoted in Wikipedia’s Panchatantra entry.)

In the Introduction to his first volume of Fables (1668), La Fontaine compares fables to parables. Given their worldliness, the lessons of fables are not the lessons of parables, but both are stories illustrating a moral. Fables inform or/and delight, in which they are consistent with the Horatian ideals.

“The aim of the poet is to inform or delight, or to combine together, in what he says, both pleasure and applicability to life. In instructing, be brief in what you say in order that your readers may grasp it quickly and retain it faithfully. Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full. Fiction invented in order to please should remain close to reality.”

Conclusion

I marvel at the degree to which East meets West on so many levels, i.e. from the lofty spiritual down to a cruder reality and I am enormously thankful to the scholars who have translated and/or studied the masterpieces of the East, scholars such as Sir William Jones (philologist), Sir Charles Wilkins KH, FRS, and, in particular, Sir James George Frazer  FRS, FRSE, FBA, OM (1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) whose Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1906 – 1915) has often guided me. I also marvel at the many ways in which the past informs the present. The fables of antiquity are the exempla (plural of exemplum) of the Middle Ages, its proverbs, its sermons, and we still read animal stories rooted in the Panchatantra.       

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
arab_3467_078v 

   — Kalīlah wa-Dimnah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
28 March 2013
WordPress
_________________________

[i] Vishnu Sharma is considered the author of the Panchatantra, but there are doubts as to the authorship of Panchatantra. Doubts also linger as to the year of its publication.  According to some scholars, it dates back to c 300 BC, but other scholars claim otherwise.  It could date back to 1200 BC.

[ii] Nītiśāstra: Nīti can be roughly translated as “the wise conduct of life.” A śāstra is a “technical or scientific treatise.” (See Panchatantra, Wikipedia.)

[iii] (George Allen and Unwin, London 1965 [1924]) p. 13.  Edgerton’s edition and translation of the Panchatantra is an “Edition for the General Reader.” (Quoted in Wikipedia’s Panchatantra entry.)

The Dalai Lama reads and tells a Jātaka tale (March 2011)

Related articles

  • Further Musing on “Puss in Boots” (michelinewalker.com)
  • Medieval Bestiaries: the Background (michelinewalker.com)

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Happy Easter

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 629 Comments

Tags

Christianity, Easter, Flickr, God, Holiday, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality, Wikipedia

 Pâques©mw

Pâques, by Micheline Walker

I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Easter.  To the left, you will find a fanciful and unfinished painting.  I did it without a model and it is poorly photographed.  But, it is colourful and depicts Easter in a humble way.

Today, I hope to go to Mass at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac.  I am privileged in that I live a short drive away from a Benedictine Abbey.  Two of the Monks are excellent organists, so I sit near the organ and I listen to Gregorian Chant. 

May this Easter be a joyful celebration.

J.S. Bach – Easter Oratorio, BWV 249  

 (please click on the title to hear the music) 

Saint Benedict Abbey, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, tak...

Saint Benedict Abbey, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, taken on June 8, 2008. Uploaded to Flickr by its author, colros (Colin Rose), under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Français : Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

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“And life sprouts up from root to branch…”

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 539 Comments

Tags

Christian, Diego Velázquez, Easter, Marian Antiphons, Mary, Notre-Dame de Paris, Salve Regina, Trinity Sunday

Regina Cæli, by Diego Velázquez (1641 – 1644), Museo del Prado

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez  (6 June 1599 – 6 August 1660) was a Spanish painter and the most prominent artist at the court of King Philip IV.

In his description of the Ave Regina Cælorum, the Notre-Dame de Paris author wrote:

isn’t spring the time when days get endlessly longer and life sprouts up from root to branch?

As of  tomorrow, 6 April 2012, the Marian Antiphon will be the Regina Cæli and it will remain the seasonal Antiphon until Vespers of Trinity Sunday.  But although the Antiphon will change, we will still celebrate the refreshing newness of seasons and the eternal return of spring.

The Marian Antiphons

Immediately below, is our list of Marian Antiphons.  It is probably best to keep them under our eyes.

Please click on the titles to hear the music.

  • Ave Redemptoris Mater (Advent through February 2)
  • Ave Regina Cœlorum (Presentation of the Lord through Good Friday)
  • Regina Cæli (Easter season)
  • Salve Regina (from first Vespers of Trinity Sunday until None of the Saturday before Advent)

However, let us go to Notre-Dame’s Regina Cæli‘s site and read about the Marian antiphony that begins tomorrow.  So I am quoting:

The most recent Antiphony dedicated to Mary (14th century) used to end services. It is sung during the Easter season and makes no mention of the valley of tears, like the Salve Regina, but instead sings of resurrection and heaven, where Mary reigns alongside her Son. This is how many of Notre-Dame de Paris’s sculptures and windows represent her.

May I suggest that even in the stained glass window shown below there is “no mention of the valley of tears.” (Notre-Dame de Paris author).  Tomorrow, 6 April 2012, we will continue to celebrate the refreshing newness each season brings and the return of Spring.

Regina Cæli (Photo credit: Notre-Dame de Paris)

Regína caéli, lætáre, Allelúia!
Quia quem meruísti portáre, Allelúia!
Resurréxit, sicut dixit, Allelúia!
Ora pro nóbis Déum, Allelúia!

Queen of heaven, be joyful, alleluia!
The Son whom you merited to bear, alleluia!
Has risen, as He said, alleluia!
Queen of heaven, pray to God for us, alleluia!

The Velásquez painting shown at the top of this post represents the Holy Trinity crowning Mary,  She is Regina or Queen of heaven and as I have mentioned in a previous post, I believe her importance in the eyes of Christians is that she seems more accessible than the Trinity.  She is a mother and Christians pray to her because they believe she will convey their prayers to Jesus and to God the Father.  She is a mother, the person to whom we confide our hopes, our fears, our sorrows, our joys.

On the Notre-Dame site you will find an interpretation of the Regina Cæli (just click on the title and scroll down).

I have listed next to the image below previous posts you may wish to refer to.

Backside Gregorian Chant - Regina Caeli, Bened...

Backside Gregorian Chant – Regina Caeli, Benediktiner Abtei St. Maurice & St. Maur, Clervaux (Photo credit: Piano Piano!)

_________________________

  • Fra Angelico & the Annunciation
  • On Calendars & Feast Days
  • The Blessed Virgin: Mariology
  • A Christmas Offering: Hymns to Mary
  • Canonical Hours and the Divine Office
 © Micheline Walker
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