White Work
White Table Works (Trabalhos da Mesa Branca) are very special works that are least common of all. The complete name for these types of works is "The table for esoteric and psychic studies". According to the official ICEFLU website, "as the name says, it was a work designed to develop the psychic apparatus and knowledge of the various lines and entities, as well as promote the spiritual and esoteric studies, as well as to serve as a prefix to ecumenical work and alliance with other spiritual lines".
An ‘Hinário’ (collection of hymns) is sung and danced on important days of the Church Calendar. The Hinários that are sung are those of the spiritual leaders of the doctrine. Most of the dancing Hinário works take place during summer and winter festivals which are aligned with the summer and winter solstices.
For these works it is common to sing O Cruzeiro: Mestre Irineu, O Justiceiro: Pd Sebastião, O Cruzerinho: Pd Alfredo, Padrinho Alex Polari and others.
In the hinário ceremony each line has to have the “platoon”, the people responsible for the line. When sometimes a person gets sick for a moment, because of his (her) guilt’s, whatever, there has to be a guardian to give assistance; man to assist men, woman to assist women. The fardado has the right to leave [away from the lines] for only three hymns, the most. The rehearsal is very important because it is when the person is going to learn in order for everyone to arrive in the official ceremony already knowing. Our work is as of the one of a barrack; everyone equal. The most important in the fardado’s attitude is the obedience, to each one render their services with the maximum of obedience, each one having their position, their service post, therefore, you have to carry it out with much dedication and obedience. There are so many good things inside this hinário, O Cruzeiro, and what is needed is to comprehend it. Many people sing but the comprehension remains so adverse... And it doesn't exist this thing of mixing lineages, no, to act things out. I never saw Mestre altering himself in anything.
Edited text from Percília Matos da Silva's personal account
***
The hinário services are, in general, preceded by a terço*. Other hinários, shorter ones, are preceded, as habit, by the nine prayers** and one “Hail Holy Queen". The hinário service is closed with 3x “Our father” / “Hail Mary” and one "Hail Holy Queen", followed by the closing procedure.
*one round of the full rosary
**This aspect of the so called "nine prayers" is one of the juiciest in the set of fine teachings that master Irineu kept presenting us. When he referred to the "nine prayers" he was referring to the "Our Father", to the "Hail Mary" and to the "Holy Mary" prayed three times. And what this means? The prayer that we know as "Hail Mary" has a clear origin content division: While the first part "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou amongst women! Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb" is integrally based in the biblical text, when the angel greets Mary and announces the redeemer, the second part "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray to God for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen" is the result of elocutions that the Catholic church added during the course of a millennium. "Jesus" was placed in the middle of the two parts around 1300 D.C. It was thence that Mestre Irineu dealt with the "Hail Mary" as if they were two prayers: The first one reproduces the angel's greeting to Mary; the second elevates our prayers to her. Therefore, one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Holy Mary composed three prayers; times three, and we have the "nine prayers" (Luiz Carlos Teixeira - www.juramidam.jor.br).
***
"And he [Mestre Irineu] liked the danced hinários to do not have interruption for anything, except for an intermission, even less for speeches and lectures, with the hymns being sung one after the other, don’t you know? Without 'much space' in between them".
Percília Matos da Silva
Confession
According to the orientation of the master founder of our Doctrine, Mr. Raimundo Irineu Serra, the Hymn of number 17 of the hinário O Cruzeiro, "My Divine Father in Heaven" (confession), is not danced, it is to be sung 3 times, slowly, without musical instruments, without maracas, each fardado with a candle in hand. After singing it three times, it is prayed 3x Our Father / Hail Mary, one Hail Holy Queen and Praised be God + "May our Mother…"
The Confession hymn is only sung during the works of Saint John (23/06), Immaculate of Conception (07/12) and in the Kings Day (05/01).
In some centers, depending on the leader, and of the need, this hymn can be sung in other dates, where the hinário O Cruzeiro is sung, in a way to soften existing problems in the fraternity or in the astral. It remains up to the president of the session the decision of whether sing or not this hymn outside the official dates.
Also read the interviews with Raimundo Gonçalvez and dona Maria Martins Monteiro about the hymn My Divine Father in Heaven (Confession).
***
Bendito* da Sexta-Feira Santa (Bendito of the Holy Friday)
from the book "Contos da Lua Branca" (Tales of the White Moon), by Florestan Neto.
“When of the history of the Bendito, I did not drink Daime yet. I was about nine years old. Then, nearby home, always in the month of May, the month of Mary, we had some ladies who prayed the rosary. They did novena and I was always there. After they prayed the rosary they sang those Benditos, and over there they sang this Bendito of Friday. I remember that these ladies were from Ceará*. Then I learnt this Bendito by heart. It has even a history, a person who said to me that this Bendito was Priest Cícero* who received, but I am not sure. Then, on a given day, I reminded myself to sing it for Padrinho Irineu. He thought it was beautiful and it really did fit with the passage of the holy Friday. When I sang it for him it was near the holy week, and he asked me to sing it in the Holy Week’s work. I sang it after the rosary, during the intermission and at the end of the work. Then he asked to sing it every year in the Holy Week”, accounts Mrs. Francisca Nascimento.
Bendito* (Blessed) is how a prayer that is initiated by this word is called in some areas of Brazil, but many times they are also prayers or narrative solos in reference to Saints and Catholic divinities.
Ceará* is a state where many of the first followers of Mestre Irineu came from.
Cícero Romão Batista* (1844-1934), Catholic priest, was a charismatic religious and politician leader, having numerous miracles attributed to him. He was born in the city of Crato, south area of the State of Ceará, fixing residence later in life in the city of Juazeiro do Norte. Being inspired by the life of Saint Francis he remained in total chastity throughout his life and his performance extrapolated the limits of his actions as a valiant shepherd of souls. Exercising great influence in the development of the state, where his deeds reverberate even today, he also practiced alternative ways of cure, having as base medicinal herbs. He died on July 20, 1934, with 90 years of age, causing deep consternation in the heart of the local population as well as to thousands of devote spread by the Northeast of Brazil. Rejected by the Church, he became the true saint of the Brazilian northeasterners and as such he is worshipped with an unshaken faith spite Rome's indifference.
Mrs. Francisca Nascimento, sister of Mr. Luiz Mendes do Nascimento, was who presented this Bendito to Mestre Irineu. Below are the lyrics of the Bendito in the totality. It is sung repeating the verses.
Dona Francisca sings the Bendito of the Holy Friday
Na quarta-feira Jesus com seus discípulos
Foi a Oliveira, foi a Jerusalém
Foi a Páscoa, meu Jesus com seus discípulos
Que padeceu a favor de nosso bem
Na quinta-feira Jesus banhou os pés
Com grande gosto, prazer e contentamento
Depois da ceia, meu Jesus restitui-se
Com grande gosto meu Santíssimo Sacramento
Na sexta-feira Jesus subiu ao horto
Foi rezar três horas de horação
Encontrou Judas na frente de uma tropa
Já vinha ele de alferes capitão
Judas pelo lado direito
Com falsidade lhe beijou divinamente
Jesus disse: - Eu conheço a falsidade
Com este beijo que agora tu me destes
Neste dia Nossa Senhora chegou
Às oito horas Sexta Feira da Paixão
Encontrou-se com seu filhinho preso
Madalena, ó que dor no coração
Depois jesus Cristo arrastado
Cobriram ele em trono pequenino
Lhe botaram uma coroa na cabeça
Era tecida com 72 espinhos
Daí saíram com Jesus a rua estreita
Cartamente a rua de amargura
Encontrou-se com a Sempre Virgem Maria
Era sua mãe que chorava com ternura
Ó, minha Mãe, que por mim tanto chorava,
Sendo ela, Maria e Madalena
Quando eu cuido que vinha a meu socorro
Cada vez mais redobrava a minha pena
Chegou Longuinho com a lança e cravou
No peito esquerdo, em cima do coração
Quando o sangue lhe batia pelo rosto
Se ajoelhou, a meu Deus pediu perdão
***
Delivery of the works
Important ritual in the Daime liturgy is the “delivery of the works”, during King's Day, closing and at the same time the year's liturgical opening, like in a permanent continuity of the devotional cycle, one of the rarely occasions in which we sing the hymn 25 of the hinário O Cruzeiro Universal -- Oferecimento (Offering) -- where at the end of the hinário the battalions line in front of the male and female commanders, and face to face with these [commanders] the soldiers raise the right hand, with the palm forward, affirming:
“In God’s Holy Peace I received my works of (Year) and in God’s Holy Peace I deliver my works with (or without) alteration, and with few (or many; or without) prayed prayers”
The female Commander deliver the works of the female battalion to the General Commander of the Salon (that generally is the male Commander, who accumulates both functions), the General Commander deliver to the Vice-president and the Vice to the Free Center’s President -- and this one should deliver the work of all the fraternity to Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra, in the invisible plan.
Juarez Duarte Bomfim
***
The Diversões (entertainments) of Mestre Irineu
They are an integrant part of the official works where we sing the Cruzeiro. To sing the entertainments [during the intermission] is a duty to all fardados in these dates. To not sing the entertainments implies to present an incomplete work. We should make an effort to keep alive this instruction of Mestre Irineu.
Florestan J. Maia Neto -- from the book "Contos da Lua Branca"
