What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

I am gratified to find that some other folks are now thinking through the Successor of Peter’s wardrobe when contributing to the blogosphere.

For example, over at the catty Whispers in the Loggia a piece was published (finally) about why Pope Benedict might have chosen to wear the stuff he wears: apparently, the Pope needs to be different from other bishops in the world. A very good insight…

... and one that was made here days ago. I posted this observation made by Msgr. Richard Schuler, pastor emeritus of St. Agnes in St. Paul last Saturday. Perhaps his comments are making the rounds, as they deserve.

In any event, it is nice to see some varied thought about the sartorial splendor of Sua Santita.

An honorable mention also for Shrine of the Holy Whapping which offers some young but respectful and sound commentary on the same subject. To them I tip my tricorno (and perhaps expand their vocabulary by one) for their efforts:

o{]:¬)

Pillar of Truth is up and running. It looks as if Dave might be a sensible fellow, in that he also comments on the sport God loves the most. He seems to be a former Lutheran and convert to Holy Church (as is the undersigned… er… oversigned).

In the online Forum I run I created a baseball section there and it is used a little by the participants. It must be their love for goodness, beauty and truth, despite the problems faced by The Game right now. I am extra happy that Pillar of Truth is offering notes about the team of my native place. Good luck to this new blog!

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Your feedback brightens my dark wintry days! Fr. FW of WA writes via e-mail (edited): “I hear very little but have picked up that the US Bishops seem reluctant to make any changes in the Sacramentary translation as it might ‘disturb’ people. Is there anyway to let Rome know that many of us wouldn’t mind if what the Bishops propose were rejected???” Glad you asked, Fr. W! First, write to your bishop and other bishops telling them what you think.

Folks, one reason why the translation is so slow in coming is the lethargic submission of endless emendations to the drafts on the part of bishops’ conferences, especially the USCCB. Strong pressure is now being exerted to scuttle important norms of Liturgiam authenticam. For example, a war has been joined in defense of “for all” (pro multis). According to more than one highly placed prelate, they are fighting changes to the Mass texts, especially “for all”, because changes might upset people.

I don’t buy that red herring for a minute. This absurd claim is asserted by the opponents of Liturgiam authenticam and better translations in general because they don’t want to admit that the lame-duck ICEL versions (and initiatives founded on them) had severe problems. They want status quo. They think you and I are neither smart enough nor fair enough to suffer more changes. After all, they observe, we have used the same texts for three whole decades. Think about the … the… tradition!

Seriously, would Catholics become unhinged by “for many” during the consecration if their priests explained it and said Mass reverently? Is this so hard? I think people are upset by abuse of rubrics, lousy translations, unworthy music, poor homilies, and changes to the Mass schedule, not accuracy, beauty and truth. So, Fr. FW, write: “Your Excellency, be assured that my flock will not be upset to hear accurate translations, because in duty and charity I will help them understand what they mean. Please give your support to accurate translations.” Communicate your thoughts. Be restrained and be concise and be kind and be quick!

On another note, some folks here in Rome have with fluttering hands warned me off printing anything too favorable or too “traditional” about the incoming Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS), His Excellency Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith. I respond saying that all of this chatter is already out there in the blogosphere, so let’s put it all together and try to make some sense of it. Here is another piece. In November 2004, Society of St. Pius X Bishop Bernard Fellay gave a stupendously long and snarky conference in Kansas City, MO, printed in The Angelus. For much of that conference Fellay chops away at those prelates who are the most inclined to be friendly to the SSPX. Then he waxes eloquent about Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith: “We have an archbishop in Rome —well, now he is no longer in Rome, he has been kicked out —who says the Church is not going out of the crisis without going back to the Tridentine Mass.” Well, maybe His Excellency Archbishop Ranjith thinks that and maybe he doesn’t. Let us for a moment admit that Fellay was right and that Ranjith was “kicked out” because he was too much in favor of the older form of Mass, too traditional. If that were so, then maybe Archbishop Ranjith has been brought back to Rome by His Holiness because he is so traditional. In any event, if even a fraction of the rumors about this new Secretary are true, things will be looking up.

This year, New Year’s Day or the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God falls on a Sunday. So far in this six-year series we have looked at only one prayer for this Mass. As we did last week for Christmas, so we shall do for this feast and look at all the prayers together.

COLLECT (2002MR)
Deus, qui salutis aeternae, beatae Mariae virginitate fecunda,
humano generi praemia praestitisti,
tribue, quaesumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus,
per quam meruimus Filium tuum auctorem vitae suscipere.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, who by the fruitful virginity of Blessed Mary
bestowed upon the human race the rewards of eternal salvation,
grant, we beg, that we may perceive her interceding for us,
through whom we merited to receive Your Son, the author of life.

This prayer was in the pre-Conciliar Missal and, slightly different, in the Gelasian Sacramentary for the Assumption of Mary on 15 August (xviii Kalendas Septembris). Now, please forgive me, but I must include the laughably deficient version from…

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God our Father,
may we always profit by the prayers
of the Virgin Mother Mary,
for you bring us life and salvation
through Jesus Christ her Son…

Let’s now move on to the so-called “Prayer over the gifts”. This following prayer was not in the pre-Conciliar Missal, but it does have an antecedent in the ancient Veronese Sacramentary within the body of prayers for September in what appear to be a collection of prayers for the ordination of bishops (“in natale episcoporum”).

SUPER OBLATA (2002MR)
Deus, qui bona cuncta inchoas benignus et perficis,
da nobis, de sollemnitate sanctae Dei Genetricis laetantibus,
sicut de initiis tuae gratiae gloriamur,
ita de perfectione gaudere.

The super useful Lewis & Short Dictionary gives us a fascinating piece of information about initium. Along with “a beginning, commencement” it also means – this is so cool – “secret sacred rites, sacred mysteries, to which only the initiated were admitted”.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God our Father,
we celebrate at this season
the beginning of our salvation.
On the feast of Mary, the Mother of God,
we ask that our salvation
will be brought to its fulfillment.

A lot is going on herein this elegant Latin prayer. First, the priest acknowledges that all good things have their beginning in God. We are His instruments, truly involved, but He is the one who brings them to a good completion: He perfects them through us. The sicut…ita construction sets up a proportional relationship between the two clauses. Just so, we ask God 1) to grant to us to rejoice in the fact of God bringing good things to completion and perfection and, moreover, 2) to grant that we in like manner may revel in the mysterious things He set in motion to begin with. Furthermore, the context of this prayer is a) the Christmas Octave feast of the Mother of God, focused on Mary’s maternity of the divine Person Jesus Christ and also of His Church, us, the members of Christ’s Body and, moreover, b) the raising up to God of the good fruits of the earth God gave us and we worked with our efforts, and His imminent transformation of them through the priest’s words and actions. God begins every good thing. He uses us who cooperate with His plan, and He perfects all things for our benefit and His glory. Notice the de…de…de, all three of which point to the causes of our joy: i) the solemn feast of and fact of Mary’s divine Motherhood, ii) the mysterious gifts (even this Mass itself – initia) accruing to the initiated (baptized and in the state of grace) from God’s free gifts, iii) their perfection/completion. It is super hard to convey the impact of this prayer in English without getting really wordy.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, who kindly begin all good things and bring them to completion,
grant us, now rejoicing over the solemnity of the Holy Mother of God,
so to delight about perfect completion,
as we are glorying about the initiatives of Your grace.

We are coming to the ending of Holy Mass. Those who were able to do so received Holy Communion. There follow a time for reflection and perhaps exaltation of the soul in song.

It has been years since we looked at Post communion prayers, so let’s review what they are. The context of Mass for the Post communionem has a structure similar to contexts of the Collect and Super oblata. In each case there is movement from one place to another in the church: the entrance procession, offertory procession, and the procession for Communion. In each case a choir or schola traditionally sings a psalm with antiphon (see what you lose when you lose Gregorian chant?). In each case the priest makes introductory silent prayers: the “prayers before the altar” in the older form of Mass, the hushed prayers (audible in the Novus Ordo) while preparing the paten and chalice, and finally the orisons he softly recites while purifying the sacred vessels after Communion. In each case the pattern of song and prayer conclude with the priest’s audible prayer, always introduced with an invitation of Oremus… “Let us pray” (and in the traditional form of Mass with the 1962MR the courteous and elegant greeting Dominus vobiscum preceding each invitation). The pattern is present in proclaiming the Gospel: the priest or deacon’s silent prayer for grace and worthiness, the procession with the Evangelarium, the greeting, reading, and sermon, the invitation to pray the so-called “prayers of the faithful”, followed by the concluding prayer by the priest. The structure is the same in all four instances.

In fact, St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) distinguished four sections of the Mass, the last of which after Communion was called the gratiarum actio, the “thanksgiving” (cf. ep. 149,16). In contrast to the Eastern rites (and unlike this column sometimes) the Roman Rite is characterized by concise, spare language. However, for many centuries until the Novus Ordo the Latin Rite’s Mass had a double closing consisting of prayers of thanksgiving and of blessing. Happily these post Post Communion blessing prayers have been reinstated to the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum during the season of Lent after an absence of some thirty years… which restoration makes me wonder how “upset” people in the pews will get from such a radical change! After all, the addition of a prayer makes Mass longer! And sputter for heaven’s sake, those blessing prayers were conspicuously absent from Mass for a venerable three whole decades, an out-and-out tradition! But I digress….

The style and structure of our Latin Post communionem prayers is virtually the same as that of the Collect and the old Secret or Super oblata. These are prayers of petition addressed to God the Father through the Son (per Dominum nostrum). They focus on our gratitude to the Father for all His blessings, especially the continual gift of His Son in Holy Communion. So, the Post communion thanksgiving embraces the Communion of all the faithful, laity and priest together. This was so even in the centuries when people received Communion rarely during the year.

So, at this point in our New Year’s Day Mass, in honor of the Mother of God, the priest, who during Mass is Christ the Head of the Body, speaks for the whole Body, the Church, raising prayers of thanks to the Father for the fact of and effects of the Eucharist, singing:

POST COMMUNION (2002MR)
Sumpsimus, Domine, laeti sacramenta caelestia:
praesta, quaesumus,
ut ad vitam nobis proficient sempiternam,
qui beatam semper Virginem Mariam
Filii tui Genetricem et Ecclesiae Matrem
profiteri gloriamur.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O Lord, we happy ones have consumed the heavenly sacraments:
grant, we beseech You,
that they may be advantageous unto eternal life for us
who exalt to profess blessed Mary ever Virgin,
Mother of Your Son and Mother of the Church.

This is based on a prayer in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary but it was not in an edition of the Roman Missal before the Council. An odd thing about this prayer is that it has a colon at the end of the first line. Colons were often an indication for how to sing the prayers, though they were expunged the editions after the Council.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
as we proclaim the Virgin Mary
to be the mother of Christ and the mother of the Church,
may our communion with her Son
bring us to salvation.

Friends, all of you who follow this column, I wish you with your loved ones and our various nations a blessed Year of Salvation 2006. If during this last year I have erred in anything or fallen short of your expectations I humbly ask your pardon in the hope that you forbore and now forbear. Buon Capodanno! Happy New Year!

The WDTPRS series aims to help you explore more fully and love more deeply the content of the prayers of Holy Mass. Fr. Zuhlsdorf welcomes e-mail (frz@wdtprs.com) and letters sent in care of The Wanderer. Visit the Archive and the Blog (wdtprs.com). Fr. Z is Moderator of the ASK FATHER Question Box (askfather.net) and Catholic Online Forum (forum.catholic.org). This is sixth year of the series.

I have returned to my native place for the Octave of Christmas. At St. Agnes in St. Paul, MN, there was a fine midnight Mass. A full orchestra and large choir began with traditional and modern Christmas carols at 11:15 pm. The church filled to “jammed” status before the procession to the crib began shortly before midnight. The orchestra and choir began Transeamus usque ad Bethlehem, et videamus ....” With many altar boys (no girls) in cassock and surplice, clergy in choir dress the procession included a bier carrying the infant Jesus to be placed in the creche. At the place of the creche, an altar boy dressed in a Franciscan habit in honor of the origin of this great custom, brought the figure of the infant King to the deacon, who placed Him in the manger. The priest blessed the scene and the Introit of Mass rang out in Gregorian chat: Dominus dixit ad me…. The ordinary of the Mass was Mozart’s Coronation Mass and the propers were in Gregorian chant.

Every day during the Octave, Vespers are sung each afternoon, in Latin, followed by a sung Mass in Latin with deacons or deacon and seminarian Acolyte acting in the place of the “subdeacon”.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a detail of the fine presepio at St. Agnes:

... I guess we will have to wait a while longer.

Ratz.

I am back in the USA for Christmas and at my home parish of St. Agnes in St. Paul (MN). There is a marvelous tradition here on Saturday mornings: after the Latin Mass sung in Gregorian Chant by schola (proper) and congregation (ordinary), some folks pile into the rectory for am invigorating sessiunculum. During our chat this morning (which is still going on as I write) we spoke about the recent moves of Benedict XVI to revive some old papal items now well known in the blogosphere.

Msgr. Richard Schuler made an interesting observation: Benedict knows that he has to make himself distinct from the other bishops of the world.

Papal ceremonies must set liturgical standards, Pope says

This is just the sort of news we need to spread around.

But first, a comment: I wrote this for the WDTPRS column for the 4th Sunday of Advent:

On 5 December I attended the annual conference on sacred music held by the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS). His Eminence the Prefect, Francis Cardinal Arinze, presided and outgoing, indeed already out, Secretary Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino was moderator. Since the election of a Pope Benedict there has been a profound shift in “attitude” about sacred music. In the past, defenders of Gregorian chant and polyphony were nearly shouted down by the old-guard of musicians and liturgists pushing “lowest common denominator” music, the sort useful for what they think “active” congregational participation ought to be. In a nutshell, the old guard holds that chant and polyphony are too hard and that people are too thick; we can neither listen well nor grasp the music. In their passé view, “active” participation means that everyone must be singing. At this year’s conference proponents of what the Council asked for (chant and polyphony – therefore well trained choirs to which the congregation listens) spoke of the contemplative dimension of liturgy without which any liturgy inevitably dead-ends in a merely human experience. This doesn’t conflict with congregational singing, of course. This year, proponents of a rebirth of chant and polyphony dominated and were received by the participants with relief and enthusiastic applause. So much did this conference emphasize Latin chant and polyphony that Cardinal Arinze himself pointed out that settings of vernacular texts can also qualify as sacred music. Even during a discussion of inculturation, a speaker from Cameroon emphasized how chant and Latin, wide-spread and much desired in his country, also inculturates by underscoring our membership in one Catholic Church. The theology of Pope Benedict, writing as Cardinal Ratzinger, was at all times felt in this year’s meeting. There was a strong sense of how liturgy must lead to an experience of the supernatural: whereas spoken texts can take the participant only so far toward an experience of the supernatural, music and silence transcend the spoken word’s limitations and lead to an encounter with the true Word who is both the Father’s Song and perfect Singer.

If you don’t subscribe to CWN, you ought to. Now back to our story:

Papal ceremonies must set liturgical standards, Pope says

Vatican, Dec. 21 (CWNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI (bio – news) today said that papal ceremonies “must be exemplary liturgy for the entire world.”

The Pope was speaking to choir of the pontifical chapel, led by director Giuseppe Liberto, after a concert in the Sistine Chapel. Speaking extemporaneously, the Pope spoke about the importance of liturgical music.

The importance of pontifical liturgy has become more pronounced, the Pope said. He noted that “today, with television and radio, many people, from all parts of the world, follow the liturgy.” Those who follow the papal ceremonies are likely to use them as a yardstick against which liturgy should be measured, the Pope said. Thus the liturgy becomes a way in which the Pope teaches the Catholic faithful, giving them a proper idea of what they should expect.

The Pope underlined the importance of beauty in liturgical celebrations. He observed that the beauty of music—especially chant—can enhance the experience of worship. And he added that doing something beautiful for God has its own merit—observing that the site of his talk, the Sistine Chapel, was an outstanding example of a work of great artistic beauty devoted to religious faiath.

Gregorian chant has a special place in liturgical music, the Holy Father continued. He reminded his listeners that the tradition of the Church has always suggested that angels chant rather than merely speaking, and that the beauty of their chant is “a celestial beauty, revealing the beauty of heaven.”

The chant performed by human singers provides an echo of that “angelic chant,” the Pope continued. He thanked the young singers for the contributions that they make to the beauty of papal liturgies, acknowledging the sacrificies they make in order to do so. Pope Benedict has always shown a keen interest in liturgical renewal and liturgical music. His 1999 book The Spirit of the Liturgy devoted a full chapter to liturgical music.

Well… let’s just look at this one. This is on the so-called “Angel Bridge” in front of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. In contrast to the heralds of great joy at the birth of the Lord, this angel is holding one of the instruments of the Lord’s Passion, the pole with the vinegar imbued sponge.

If you are using an aggregator, please use this link. I am having a hard time getting my RSS links set up.

http://www.wdtprs.com/blog/wp-rdf.php

You can cut and paste that into the right stop when you add a new bookmark. It works for me in both FeedReader and Sage for Firefox.

Hmmm… I wonder if Pope benedict is competing with Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis visiting a parish in his see where the pre-conciliar liturgy is in constant and exclusive use:

This is a cappa magna.

No…. this is not Benedict XVI sporting a seasonal Santa Hat. This is it, the real thing, the camauro of yesteryear. Nor is this one-up-manship on the part of a Pope competing with some kids at the audience of 14 December, last. I don’t think it has been used since the time of Blessed Pope XXIII. I bet Archbishop, Piero Marini is thrilled. My prediction is that, one day, His Holiness Benedict will revive the fanon, worn only once at the roman Basilica of Saint Cecilia by John Paul II (interesting story behind that which I will one day tell). The fanon is a type of stripped mozetta, used only by the Roman Pontiff for celebrations of Mass. It is worn over the chasuble and under the pallium. Alas, I suppose he won’t bring back the tiara or flabella. Maybe… maybe… in his declining yers, the sedia gestatoria.

I made a little O Antiphon page which might be useful to some of you. There are links to audio files of the chant both by the undersigned and the schola cantorum of the North American College in Rome (though their files are a little faint). Some discussion of this has been picked up by the very worthy blog of Shrine of Holy Whapping.

o{]:¬) 
I tip my biretta to young people who are studying Latin and learning about these treasures of Holy Church.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 4th Sunday of Advent

Some feedback. MK of Lake View, NY writes concerning my claim in WDPTRS of 29 November last about the origin of the term “secret” which formerly identified the oratio super oblata (the so-called “prayer over the gifts”) in WDPTRS of 29 November last:

It is true that the in the traditional Mass the priest says the Secret quietly. However, the term Secret doesn’t refer to this. The word comes from the Latin secernere meaning to separate, set apart. It refers to the offerings which have been set apart for the celebration of the Mass.

I am always grateful to those who write with comments of any kind. Some folks have kindly written some excellent points and corrected my errors. This time, however, I beg to differ with MK. In Joseph A. Jungmann’s magisterial book The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, the history and nature of the so-called “Secret” prayer is explored in depth. Jungmann writes (p. 90):

The first point to clear up is the puzzling problem of how the oratio super oblata came to be said silently. The earliest evidence of the quiet recitation of this prayer appears in the middle of the eighth century in Frankish territory, in the tradition of John the Arch-chanter. We are thus led to the opinion that the name secreta appeared in the North and that it was here created to indicate that the pertinent oration was to be spoken softly.

Jungmann here supplies an expository footnote (n. 6):

This is the explanation given by Fortescue…. Other explanations of the name are pure hypotheses. Ever since Bossuet it has come to be generally accepted – without historical evidence – that secreta = oratio ad secretionem, that is, either at the “sorting out” of the sacrificial gifts (an action which as such had no religious signification beyond this, but only a purely practical one; thus the secret is equivalently oratio super secreta [a merely conjectural form]; or else at the “sorting out”, that is, the dismissal of the catechumens (there is nothing in the contents to show any connection with this act). – Batifol…proposed a derivation of secreta from secernere in the sense of benedicere, a meaning which is nowhere to be traced.

Given Jungmann’s comments, I thank MK but I must decline to agree.

The station church in Rome for today’s Mass is the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles. During this last week, in the older, traditional Roman calendar, the Ember Days were observed on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. From the 17th onward we hear the great “O Antiphons” before the singing of the Magnificat during Vespers. Normally this week is cut short by the celebration of Christmas, for which we have been preparing during Advent.

SUPER OBLATA - PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS:

LATIN (1970 Missale Romanum):
Altari tuo, Domine, superposita munera
Spiritus ille sanctificet,
qui beatae Mariae viscera sua virtute replevit.

Whereas for the last three weeks our super oblata was virtually identical to the secret of the older, traditional, form of Mass, now we seem to have a new prayer.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O Lord, may Spirit Himself,
who by His power made full the womb of blessed Mary,
sanctify the gifts placed upon thy altar.

This presents no real grammatical mysteries. The vocabulary is straightforward. We might examine briefly two words. Your trusty Lewis & Short Dictionary says that viscera means “the inner parts of the animal body, the internal organs, the inwards, viscera (the nobler parts, the heart, lungs, liver, as well as the ignobler, the stomach, entrails.” It also means even in classical usage “the fruit of the womb, offspring, child.” I think I will “womb” rather than “innards.” Repleo is “to fill again, refill; to fill up, replenish, complete” and thus also, “to fill up, make full, to fill.” The historian Justinus (fl. c. 150) uses this verb with virginem for “to get with child” (13, 7, 7). In our prayer today, when considering replevit I think we must say “filled up” or “made full” the viscera, womb of Mary. But if possible, when we hear the prayer we should try to hold in our minds also the “made complete.” We are not only referring to Mary’s miraculous conception of the “Word made flesh” by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also the very last days of her carrying the Lord and bringing Him to light. On this Sunday we hear the prayer just a few short days before Christmas. Mary was great with child, truly repleta...filled up… made complete.

ICEL:
Lord,
may the power of the Spirit,
which sanctified Mary the mother of your Son,
make holy the gifts we place upon this altar.

ICEL sterilizes the Latin prayer when rendering it into English. The Latin is earthier, more “real” in a sense. Here we have “sanctified Mary” rather than “filled the womb” or somewhat more crudely “innards” of “blessed Mary.” Furthermore, I am not sure why we (or God) need to be told that Mary is the mother of Jesus. We ought to know that. However, given the state of catechesis…. but I digress.

At this point in the Mass we behold the presentation and disposition by the sacred ministers of the gifts of bread and wine on the altar. According to what the rubrics say in Latin (maybe we should have a series of articles called “What Do The Rubrics Really Say?”) the priest turns around from the altar to face the congregation and says (in Latin) “Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be made acceptable in the sight of God, the Almighty Father.” A distinction is made between the sacrifice the priest offers and the sacrifice offered by the people present at the Mass. The Church calls all, however, to active participation in the Mass.

True active participation is to be understood first and foremost as interiorly active participation rather than the shallower understanding of the phrase as exterior or physically active participation (i.e., carrying things, singing, clapping, etc.). While it is true that interior active participation must at times find outward and physical expression, our primary understanding of active participation as Catholics is an interiorly active receptivity. During any liturgy a person can sing, jump around and carry stuff all over the church. That is nothing if there is no interior receptivity. It is possible to be doing all sorts of things and have your mind a thousand miles away. For example, we can be singing something (maybe even in church) and suddenly realize that all the while we have been thinking about what groceries we need or having forgotten to feed the dog. We are outwardly and physically getting all the words and notes right. Interiorly we are not participating in the sacred action of the liturgy.

Human beings are distinguished from brute beasts by an intellect and a free will. We can make a distinction between human actions and acts of humans. The later are things we do without thinking, such as digestion, breathing, and (to a certain extent) other automatic or habitual activities. Human actions, on the other hand, are distinguished from actions of humans by what sets us apart from critters that also do things automatically, by instinct, habit or simple bodily operation. Human actions are shaped more by knowledge and choice. The more we engage our intellect and will in doing something, the more that action is characterized as a human act rather than just the act of a human, hardly to be distinguished from something critters do.

At Mass we must be involved and actively participative as humans – knowing, willing and loving. It is far more challenging to be actively receptive by listening to the Gospel with intense attention than by reading it (aloud or silently via the missalette). If you query many people after Mass about what the Gospel or sermon was about, not very many will be able to tell you with certainty. We need to learn engage our full attention and really participate. It is harder to fix attention, listen, and actively participate in prayer sung by a good choir than it is to sing the hymn with the congregation. Of course there are moments when we are called to both interior and exterior active participation. The congregation has specific responses to make. They should be made with intense focus. That does not mean intense volume, necessarily. It also does not mean the sort of embarrassed mumbling we hear in most parish churches when only a few bother to open their mouths and do something other than stare at the priest like deer looking at the headlights of an oncoming semi. Responses need not be loud but they must be made with at least some desire, intensity and confidence. The “silent spectator” brought on the abuse of the concept of active participation in the first place.

During most of the Mass the faithful are called and challenged to participate actively through willed and active receptivity. We receive the Gospel proclaimed rather than reading it aloud ourselves. We receive forgiveness for venial sins in the penitential rite. We receive Holy Communion and should new take it ourselves. At this point in the Mass, the offertory, we participate actively by giving, by uniting our sacrifices to those of the priest at the altar, alter Christus. We pour forth our sacrifices so that we, like our model Mary, can be “refilled, made complete” by what they are transformed into…the Body and Blood of the living and true God.

I wish you and yours a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas

Originally our Feast today was celebrated on the first Sunday after Epiphany but after the post-Conciliar reform of the calendar it was moved forward, probably so that it could be situated nearer to the feasts of the Nativity and of Mary, Mother of God. This day’s prayer is also said on the Sunday during the Octave of Christmas. Since the implementation of the so-called Novus Ordo, we now have only two octaves: Christmas and Easter. An “octave” is a period of eight days following a feast day, including the feast itself, as well as the eighth day after a feast. Liturgically speaking, time is suspended during an octave and the feast continues uninterrupted. This imitates the creation and (one day) the final summation of the universe. God created the world in six days and on the seventh He rested. The eighth day is then a day beyond the cycle of seven. It is beyond time. It is a glimpse of the perfect eternal sabbath day of heaven. The great feasts we observe in the Church’s year of grace are far too deep to be fathomed completely, yet alone even shallowly if we allot them one day alone. The celebration of an octave allows us to consider a great feast different angles by means of our sacred liturgy. Today we focus on the Holy Family within the context of the feast of Christmas, the our God in His divinity came to light as our brother in our humanity. He came to save us from our sins and reveal us more fully to ourselves (cf. Gaudium et spes 22). When He came in His first coming, He came to be a part of a human family. In the infant Christ, with Mary and Joseph humbly and protectively bent over Him, we see who we really are more fully than ever we could before His birth. The presence of Christ in the midst of His Holy Family is an icon of how He should be present in the midst of every family. That is how important a family is. That is also why the powers of hell will attack the very concept of the family at its roots. Christ must be extracted from the family and its members cut off from Him for hell to work its gruesome purpose in society. When we see the fruits of hell in society, we can surmise that the family is on its heals. Today’s prayer, in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that puts Satan and the fallen hordes to flight, grounds the family in Christ’s self-oblation on the Cross.

SUPER OBLATA:

LATIN (1970 Missale Romanum):
Hostiam tibi placationis offerimus, Domine,
suppliciter deprecantes,
ut, Deiparae virginis beatique Ioseph interveniente suffragio,
familias nostras in tua gratia firmiter et pace constituas.

This super oblata is essentially the same as the secret of the Mass of the Holy Family found in the older form of the Missale Romanum still happily in use in some places where the local bishops have opened their hearts to those who have the legitimate aspiration to make good spiritual use of it. Notice that the word order has been changed a bit since 1962: Placationis hostiam offerimus tibi, Dominie, suppliciter deprecantes: ut, per intercessionem Deiparae Virginis cum beato Ioseph, familias nostras in pace et gratia tua firmiter constituas. The variations are slight: interveniens suffragium in place of intercessio, Joseph in the genitive case along with Mary rather than with the cum of accompaniment in the previous form. One might at this point ask, “Why change it around like that?” Two reason comes to mind. First and foremost, the newer version has more of a “classical” ring to it. It is a bit more “elegant” and less “linear.” Also, bringing St. Joseph into the same case as Mary (genitive) may suggest a greater role for the earthly father of Jesus. This is not to say that in the older form of the prayer he was an after thought. As WDTPRS has mentioned before, the way the words fit together in Latin in a large part depends on their endings. The word order is not always critical. This allows great flexibility in the way the words are arranged and therefore the rhythms and sounds of sentences and paragraphs. This can subtly affect the emphasis that one concept might receive also.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
We offer Thee this sacrifice of appeasement, O Lord,
humbly bent down in earnest prayer,
so that, by the intervening recommendation of the virgin Mother of God and of blessed Joseph,
you may establish our families powerfully in grace and peace.

The fine Lewis & Short Dictionary lets us know that placatio means “a pacifying, appeasing, propitiating” especially of the immortal gods. In our prayer today we might choose a word like “atonement” or even “reconciliation.” I think I will use “appeasement.” I take a cue from the description of way the priest is praying on behalf of the people – suppliciter the adverb of supplex from a conflation of sup- or sup-plico (plico = to fold), and is thus “bending the knees, kneeling down.” Hence, it means “humbly begging or entreating, beseeching.” It is very submissive. Deprecor is another clue. It is not just “to pray”, but “to pray earnestly.” Interventio replaced the older intercessio. They mean pretty much the same thing, interventio being post-classical and intercessio having a legal/political overtone. They both have the dimension of coming between two parties in an act of giving security or surety for one of them. The marvelous word suffragium we worked with on the 2nd Sunday of Advent’s WDPTRS. Firmiter is the adverb of firmus and can be “firmly, steadily, lastingly, powerfully.” Because of the beseeching tone of the prayer and the concept of intervention, I will use the word “powerfully.” When you, gentle reader, go through this vocabulary you might try substituting some of the alternative meanings to see how that will affect the prayer. You will see why translating the liturgy is not an easy task and why we must pray for all involved.

ICEL:
Lord, accept this sacrifice
and through the prayers of Mary, the virgin Mother of God,
and of her husband, Joseph,
unite our families in peace and love.

I suspect that the differences in the tone of the ICEL version and the Latin original are clear enough that they need not be spelled out.

We hear this prayer spoken by the priest, the our mediator with God and alter Christus, at the time when our offerings (spiritual and material) have been placed on the altar in anticipation of the divine act of transubstantiation during the consecration. All that we are and our hopes and desires should be united with the frail hosts and still wine. What we receive in return, particularly through our good Holy Communions, allows us to fulfil our vocations in the world and transform it around us. Thus it is fitting that we should use the language and even the physical posture of bowing down, folding ourselves face down before God and begging Him to form and shape our families. As the family in general goes, so goes society. But what do we find across this threshold of the 21st century? Legal abortion, growing legalization of euthanasia, same-sex marriages, high divorce rates, young women disposing of newborn infants in garbage cans, scientific experimentation on living human beings, the dreadful prospect of cloning. The concept of the family is breaking to pieces. It is good to pray that God might be appeased.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2203 In creating man and woman, god instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are personas equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties. ...

2207 The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.

2208 The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” ....

2210 The importance of the family for the life and well being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty “to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity.” ....

2212 The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called “our Father.” In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a “unit” in the human collective; he is “someone” who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect.