Contrasts : 4

Images found at the blog The New Liturgical Movement.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

For the Season " Per Annum " 2017 : 1

The vestments shewn in the adjacent photograph were prepared by the Saint Bede Studio for a returning customer, a young priest from Germany.

This chasuble, in the Saint Bede Studio's Saint Austin design, is made from an English ecclesiastical brocade and is lined in taffeta. The vestments are ornamented with an orphrey braid of the Studio's own design in colours of green and gold upon red. The braid is directly based on a design by AWN Pugin.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Enquiries: stbede62@gmail.com

The Spoken Word in the Roman Liturgy : 1

Photograph from a children's Mass-book
shewing the celebration of Mass
according to the "Interim Missal".

This article is re-published to complement an article appearing on the blog The New Liturgical Movement, titled Death by Dullness : Prioritising Speech over Silence and Song. Readers are invited to read the article by Dr. Kwasnievski.

One of the characteristics of the Roman Rite until the Introduction of the Pauline Missal in 1970, was the balance it achieved between silence, singing, the spoken word and ritual action. Even the so-called Interim Rite, which had various iterations between 1964 and 1968, still preserved much of this balance.  The Roman Rite "spoke" to people on a number of levels, not just the cerebral level. Its silences spoke, its aesthetics spoke, its unique and other-worldly music spoke.

On the other hand, one of the great flaws of the Pauline Missal is that it is far too cerebral. Everything has to be comprehensible intellectually. The Council Fathers decreed that the Church's Rites had to be "intelligible", but unhappily, the Pauline Missal took this injunction too far.

The typical celebration of the New Mass, Ordinary Form - call it what you will - is very wordy. If the texts in the Missal itself weren't more than enough, we are also subjected to little commentaries, entertainments, even ferverini during the Mass. Words, words, words. Too many words.

At the same time, ritual action in the New Mass has been reduced to a minimum. Silence is imposed by the celebrant, rather than being organic to the Rite. One strange example of this, which we experience too often, is the celebrant - having preached his homily - goes and sits down and a period of silence is endured. Presumably we are to meditate on his spoken wisdom: but does anyone remember more than two sentences that he said?

Let us be very careful to avoid an overly-cerebral approach to the Sacred Liturgy (New or Old).  Might we not aim, rather, to recapture and preserve that old balance of the Roman Rite: silence and sacred music supporting the Ritual actions?

Conical vestments

We are pleased to offer this post featuring vestments made by the Saint Bede Studio for a returning customer from Germany.

These vestments were made from dupion silk of a deeper shade of crimson-red and in the semi-conical form.  The ornament of these vestments, formed from a bronze-coloured galloon, is simple but distinctive. It consists of the well-known TAU form enriched with two adjacent diagonal strips of galloon. The vestments are fully-lined in taffeta of a bronze colour.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

Important Notice : 2017 Ordinands

Re-posted from 2nd January

Because of strong demand, the Studio's scheduled of commissions for the period January - August 2017 is now over-flowing. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to carry out work on any new enquiries until after that time.

Because this will disrupt the service we normally offer at this time of year to Ordinands, we wish to advise that a number of white chasuble sets will be made available for sale on this Blog during the first half of 2017 to ordinands * whose need may be urgent. These will be simpler sets, ornamented with a variety of the Studio's unique braids.

If you are considering vestments, please do not delay in contacting us, because the schedule quickly fills.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

* NB. No enquirer requesting a maniple will be presumed by The Saint Bede Studio to be rigid or defective in love. 

On the Feast of the Epiphany

On the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, we are pleased to present these vestments, recently completed for an English customer.  Our customer commissioned the vestments in the Studio's  Saint Giles style, as a gift for a priest of the Oxford Oratory.

The chasuble (shewn adjacent), was sewn from an Italian lampas in colours of silver, straw and taupe and was ornamented with an orphrey in blue with medallions in applique-work.  A galloon based on the work of AWN Pugin outlined this orphrey. The vestments were lined in a blue silk taffeta of a vibrant shade common in the mediaeval period.

Our customer kindly supplied us with a photograph of the vestments being worn for the celebration of Mass (during the Christmas Octave in the private chapel of his London residence), which are grateful to reproduce below.

Please click on the images for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

Figure 2.
Father Dominic Jacob of the Oxford Oratory
offering Mass in a private chapel in London.
Image : Courtesy of Mr Anthony Jeffery.

Saint Philip Neri Festal Vestments

At the beginning of the New Year, the Saint Bede Studio is pleased to offer this post about a set of vestments in the Saint Philip Neri style. These vestments were prepared for a priest in Hong Kong celebrating the Jubilee of his Ordination.

The vestments are made from a beautiful silk damask, ivory-coloured. The ornament, in the Roman style, is formed from outlining galloons, enriching a silk brocade in ivory and gold thread. The lining is of taffeta in a sunny shade of gold.

Please click on the adjacent image for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

To all readers of this blog, our best wishes for God's abundant Blessings in 2017.