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

May I recommend that you check out the very nice black and white graphics for Stations of the Cross on the blog The Lion and the Cardinal.  They are very much worth a close look. 

The graphic above is by the author of the blog in question, Dan Mitsui. 

COLLECT
Deus, qui fragilitati nostrae congrua subsidia praeparasti,
concede, quaesumus, ut suae reparationis effectum
et cum exsultatione suscipiat,
et pia conversatione recenseat.

This prayer today was not in the pre-Concilar Missale Romanum.  It also has me scratching my head.  Once I looked up all the references, I knew why.  In effect, this is clearly a cut and paste job and it just doesn’t hang together well.  A predecessor (Concede, quaesumus, domine, fragilitate nostrae sufficientiam conpetentem, ut suae reparationis effectum et pia conuersatione recenseat et cum exultatione suscipiat: per.)  is in the Gelasianum Vetus in two places, Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent and for Septuagesima.  The "et fragilitati nostrae congrua praeparasti subsidia" is in the Veronese in April and references to fragilitas and pia conversatio in a prayer in July. 

Subsidium is, you guessed it, military language.  It means, "the troops stationed in reserve in the third line of battle (behind the principes), the line of reserve, reserve-ranks, triarii".  Thus, it is "support, assistance, aid, help, protection, etc.".   A reparatio is "a restoration, renewal".  Recenseo is "to count, enumerate, number, reckon, survey" and "to go over in thought, in narration, or in critical treatment, to reckon up, recount, review, revise".  Blaise/Dumas says “recolere, rappeler, célébrer le souvenir de…”.  But there is in the entry no reference to our prayer, which I find puzzling. 

Conversatio is a super-charged word in Christian literature, which has to do with "manner of life", how one comports himself.   This is often used in monastic literature.  I now have also at my fingertips the helpful big dictionary of the indefatigable Albert Blaise, the Dictionnarie Latin-Francais des Auteurs Chrétiens reworked by Henri Chirat.  This lexical tool is out of print, so I can’t suggest you buy it any time soon.   I will have to start distinguishing now Blaise/Chirat from Blaise/Dumas, won’t I!  Any way, Blaise/Chirat shows that Patristic sources handle conversatio in a moral sense of conversio as well as "genre de vie".  As I mentioned before, it also indicates "monastic life", though that is outside of this context. 

Pius, in the mighty Lewis & Short is "honest, upright, honorable" and "benevolent, kind, gentle, gracious".  With respect to God it points to His mercy.  In respect to man, in much Latin literature, it point to his interior and exterior response to duty, the exigencies he faces. 

The suae refers back to something feminine, which leaves a single candidate, fragilitas nostra. 
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The problem with cutting and pasting a prayer together is that you don’t get much of a unified "vision" from it.  This is a good prayer, don’t get me wrong, at least I think it is a good prayer, but it is not in the same league as some of the ancient integral works we have seen, even having endured slight changes from The Redactors.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, who made ready suitable helps for our fragility,
grant, we beg, that it may both catch up
the effect of its own renewal in exultation,
and sum it up in upright conduct of life.

?? 

What on earth does this mean? I think we need …

ANOTHER VERSION TO SPIN THIS OUT
O God, who prepared the helps proportional to our (sin induced) frailty,
grant, we beg You, that our (sin induced) frailty
may both take up in joy the effect of its own renewal
(that effect being the Passion and Resurrection)
and also critically express (our sin induced frailty) by means of a proper manner of living.

I can’t tell you how much I look forward to reading your own perfect versions of this very odd Collect.  Perhaps I am burning out from work on top of illness, but I am still scratching my head.  I think I nailed it, however.

The "effect of our renewal" is the impact of the merits of Jesus’ Passion, Resurrection and subsequent Ascension to the right hand of the Father.  The "congruent helps" are the mysteries of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection.  These are our two hinges.

The sin of our First Parents opened a chasm between us and God which no mere human being (very limited) could bridge or repair.  This reparation or renewal required a human being (because of justice) but no mere human was proportioned to the work of our salvation.  So, from unfathomable love, God stepped into and over the chasm.  In the fullness of time, the Second Person took our humanity into an indestructible bond with His divinity.  Only the God/man could repair the rift.  The Passion and Resurrection are the "congruent helps", proportional to such an effect of reparation/renewal.

Realization of this must have a consequence for our lives.  It must transform us.  The effect, which is interior, must find outward expression.  We feel joy interiorly and this must be expressed outwardly.  The reordering of the disorder of our soul is an interior and invisible effect, but that effect must be brought to outward expression in proper conduct of life.

That is, I believe, what is going on in this very odd snipped and pasted prayer.  Not bad, but it is not user friendly.

COLLECT
Clementiam tuam, Domine, supplici voto deposcimus,
ut nos famulos tuos, paenitentia emendatos
et bonis operibus eruditos,
in mandatis tuis facias perseverare sinceros,
et ad paschalia festa pervenire illaesos.

This was not in the 1962 or previous editions of the Missale Romanum.  However, the Gelasianum Vetus provides a predecessor of this prayer.

I think we have seen all of the principal vocabulary already, so let’s move along to what the prayer really says.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O Lord we are beseeching Your mercy with this humble prayer,
that you cause us, Your servants,
corrected by means of penance
and polished by means of good works,
to persevere genuine in Your commands,
and to attain unscathed to the paschal celebrations.

We should remind ourselves of certain recurring questions when reviewing these ancient prayers.  Again we have the possibility that clementia tua would have rung in the ears of our ancient forebears as a title, "Your Clemency".  This title points also to a divine characteristic, at least from our miserable point of view.  God is merciful and kind.  The words supplex, votum, deposco suggest a very lowly attitude on our part. 

The overarching image is that of God as Teacher, I think.  The prayer is addressed to God the Father, through Christ (Per Dominum…etc.).  Yet Christ as Teacher is a common image in early Christian art.  Our vocabulary also suggests this; we are corrected (emendati) and polished/instructed (eruditi).
 
This is a finely crafted prayer, beautifully balanced and intricate.  Look at that chain of accusatives stretching through the prayer: (nos & tuos) famulos … emendatos… eruditos… sinceros… illaesos.  These are all descriptions of what God has made us and will continue to make us through His mercy.  Another series threads through the prayer in the ablative: paenitentia… bonis operibus… mandatis.  These are the means by which God made us into the accusatives.  Note also the chiastic parallel in the structure.  Correction and penance connect best with perseverance and commands, which polishing and good works connect best with being attainment and soundness.  A logical sequence is found as well.  First, we see what we are by means of something (corrected/instructed) and then what we are for something (genuine/unscathed).

Christ is the perfect model of all that is mentioned in the prayer.  He is the perfect exemplar.  St. Augustine, in his monumental City of God is a little cautious about presenting the Lord as being our model and exemplar.  He knows that Christ, the perfect model, presents for us an unattainable challenge.  For Augustine, the lives of the martyrs and other holy men and women are more helpful and realistic models.  In their fully be merely human lives they show us that we fully human but merely human people can live the life to which Christ’s commands and perfect model calls us. 

In looking at this prayer, I got the fleeting impression of the figure of David.  David is the focus of much attention on the part St. Ambrose.  Perhaps digging into Ambrose on David and some of the vocabulary might produce interesting results.

Also, there comes to mind the ancient way of producing written texts.  In rhetorical training orators were taught to approach topics in stages.  They would find the questions and points of interest (inventio) and then arrange things properly (dispositio) and come to a proper way to deliver the concepts (elocutio).  There is a whole raft other terms applicable to this process.  Still, that is a basic scheme.  In our prayer today we see something of the same process in penance, requiring introspection and examination, the proper application of things especially though the guidance of divine commands and teaching, and finally the outward expression of the proper content through fulfillment of God’s commands and the festive joy that we attain.  Also, in writing out texts, there would be a process of drafting and correction (emendatio or castigatio, which we have seen in the prayers for Lent) and also the polishing of the text, sometimes even literally.  To prepare a sheet of vellum or a scroll, it needed to be polished, mistakes were scraped off and the site repolished.

We are works in progess.  God’s works.

In this last phase of Lent let us ask Mary, the great Mother of God who is Mother of the Church and Queen of Martyrs, to accompany us in a special way by her intercession, that we may persevere in our resolve to be conformed to all that Christ and Holy Church enjoins on us.

One of the frequent participants in the blog, Martin, made a proposal about composing a prayer for those involved in the creation of a new English translation of the Missale Romanum.  I think this is a good idea.  The aforementioned Martin then posted a prayer in English.  I called for a Latin version and he put his money where is Shift Key is located and posted a Latin version.

Folks, I invite YOU to come up with your own prayers for the people involved in the translation process.  Post them here as comments.  

You don’t have to post them in Latin.  Since this is an English language issue, post in English.  If you are from a country where the process is going on (e.g., there is a new German version of the Missal underway), post in the relevant tongue.  Don’t think you have to post in Latin… but you can if you want!

Another thing.  When writing this prayer, keep in mind at this point that there have been a couple of draft translations already.  My spies tell me that one of the major things slowing the process is the constant submission of revisions by the USCCB.  And the revisions are not, for the most part, improvements in anyway I can think of.  So, the Holy See and Vox Clara, the ICEL team and the bishops conferences are the players in this.  The onus right now is on the conferences to finish their work.  That is what is slowing the process.

COLLECT
Deus, qui et iustis praemia meritorum
et peccatoribus veniam per paenitentiam praebes,
tuis supplicibus miserere,
ut reatus nostri confessio
indulgentiam valeat percipere delictorum.

In the Gelasianum Vetus for Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent we had "Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui et iustis praemia meritorum et peccatoribus per ieiunium erroris sui ueniam praebis, miserire supplicibus, parce peccantibus: ut reatus nostri confessio indulgentiam ualeat percipere dilictorum: per dominum nostrum."   In the Hadrianum of the Gregorian Sacramentary there was: Deus qui et iustis praemia meritorum et peccatoribus per ieiunium veniam praebes miserere supplicibus tuis, ut reatus nostri indulgentiam valeat percipere delictorum. Same day with the indication of the same Roman Station of St. Paul’s outside the walls.  

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, who does profer to the just the rewards of merits
and through penance forgiveness unto sinners
be merciful to Your humble petitioners,
so the confession of our guilt
may prevail in obtaining remission of our offenses.

We need to be clear about something.  What we do on our own cannot obtain anything from God on its own merits.  To paraphrase St. Augustine when God crowns our merits, He crowns His own merits in us.  

I wrote this next excerpt from a WDTPRS article for Super Oblata of the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  I think it applies.  Also, I am really sick right now and just don’t have it in me to do much more, so here goes.  Some of the rest of you can dig into the vocabulary and syntax.

___

We have here a pairing of words which are, so to speak, two sides of the one and same coin: meritum and praemium.  Meritum or “merit” is the right to a reward (praemium) due to some work done.  Supernatural merit is the right to a reward for a work God determines is good and which is done for His sake.  This sort of work must be supernatural in its origin, that is, it is done under the influence of grace, and supernatural in its purpose.  God alone is the source of supernatural good and therefore He must designate it as such.  Consider the consecration in Holy Mass which contains the command of Jesus at the Last Supper and His description of what His commands lead to.  Christ tells us that consuming His Body and Blood are for eternal life (cf. John 6).  He commanded His Apostles to do what he was doing.  If we do what He commands for His sake and the reasons He described, then we merit the reward God designates.   The vocabulary (devotio, servitus, meritum, praemium) boldly communicates the truth of our stance before God.

Non-Catholics often think that when Catholics talk about merit, we are saying we can earn salvation by performing good works. The Church doesn’t teach this. The Council of Trent said that “none of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification; for if it is by grace, it is not now by works; otherwise, as the Apostle says, grace is no more grace” (13 January 1547 Session VI, Decree on Justification 8, cf. Rom 11:6).   Holy Church teaches that Christ alone merits anything in the strictest sense.  Man by himself does not merit supernatural rewards (cf. CCC 2007).  When moved by grace we do those things God promised to reward (cf. Rom 2:6–11 and Gal 6:6–10). God’s grace and His promises are the source of all our merit (CCC 2008).  We must make a distinction between condign merit, awarded because it is fully deserved and our action was proportioned to the reward, and congruent merit, awarded by God’s generosity for imperfect works.  The Bishop of Hippo St. Augustine (+430) eloquently teaches (ep. 194, 19 – read this out loud): “What, therefore, before grace is man’s merit, by which merit he receivesexcept by grace and since God crowns nothing other than His own gifts when He crowns our merits?”  The theology of this teaching, even the key phrase of Augustine, is in Preface “de sanctis” – (De gloria Sanctorum): “…et, eorum coronando merita, tua dona coronas….”  Clearly the Church continues faithfully to hold to her traditional theology of merit and grace.

Here is another update for the Internet prayer!   I am pleased to present KOREAN thanks to a priest friend I live with here in Rome.  Many thanks to him for his time and effort.  Say a prayer for him. 

Feel free to send contributions to the collection! 

KOREAN     NB: This may not appear correctly if you do not have the proper fonts.

인터넷 접속 전에 하는 기도문
당신 모습대로 저희를 창조하신 전능하시고 영원하신 하느님,
특별히 하느님이시며 인간이신 당신 외아들 우리 주 예수 그리스도 안에서,
당신은 선하고 참되고 아름다운 모든 것을 추구하라고 저희에게 명하셨나이다.
그러므로 당신께 간구하오니,
인터넷 상에서의 순례 동안에
주교이자 교회학자이신 성 이시도르의 전구로
하느님 당신께 합당한 것에만 저희가 눈길과 손길을 이끌어 가도록 하시고,
마주치는 모든 영혼들을 사랑과 인내로 대하도록 하소서.
우리 주 그리스도를 통하여 비나이다. 아멘

Many of you belong to parishes where priests still won’t hear confessions on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. 

Some priests, liturgical experts and even diocesan liturgy offices claim the rubrics of the Missal or “Sacramentary” forbid the sacrament of Penance. 

However, this claim is absolutely incorrect. 

Here is what the texts really say. 

The previous 1970 and 1975 editions of the Missale Romanum (the Novus Ordo) said of Good Friday and Holy Saturday: “Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta penitus non celebrat… On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments”.   

However, since this is in the Missal (the book for MASS), sacramenta refers only to Holy Mass and not the other sacraments. 

The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) clarified this in its official publication Notitiae (#137 (Dec 1977) p. 602).  In the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum at paragraph 1 for Good Friday all doubt is removed.  The above cited text has been amended to say (the change with my emphasis): “Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta, praeter Paenitentiae et Infirmorum Unctionis, penitus non celebrat… On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments, except for (the sacraments of) Penance and Anointing of the Sick”.  

Priests can and should hear confessions during on Good Friday and on Holy Saturday.   Who can  forget the photos of the late Pope hearing confession in St. Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday?

Here is a bonus tip, speaking of confessions.  Some liturgists simply freak out at this idea.  It is both permitted and recommended in some circumstances for confessions to be heard during Holy Mass on other days of the year!  Want proof?  Try the CDWDS document Redemptionis Sacramentum 76 and also the Congregation’s Response to a Dubium in Notitiae 37 (2001) pp. 259-260. 

In an attempt to curtail some spam, I turned on a couple features in the blog which I am still trying to sort out.  I found a whole raft of your good comments waiting for my approval for public view.

Thanks!   This is my fault for not finding them sooner.  Do keep posting!   I will get the hang of all the features of WordPress sooner or later.  I have also hacked the style sheet pretty thoroughly and added plugins and features.  Patience. 

If you post a reasonable comment and you don’t see it show up, fire me off an e-mail and I will look for it.

COLLECT
Exercitatio veneranda sanctae devotionis, Domine,
tuorum fidelium corda disponat,
ut et dignis mentibus suscipiant paschale mysterium,
et salvationis tuae nuntient praeconium.

This prayer was in the Gelasianum Vetus for this same day.  It was not in the pre-Conciliar Missal: Exercitatio ueneranda, domine, ieiunia salutaris pupuli tui corda disponat, ut et dignis mentibus suscipiat pascale mysterium et continuate deuotionis sumat augmentum: per.  Yes, I wrote it correctly.  The Redactors saw fit to make changes, as you can see.  First, sancta devotio replaced ieiunia salutaris and tui fideles replaced populus tuus.

Exercitatio is "exercise, practice".  Dispono, means basically "to place here and there, to set in different places, to distribute regularly, to dispose, arrange".  There is a military overtone to the word as well, "to set in order, arrange, to draw up, array a body of men, a guard, military engines".  Praeconium signifies, "of or belonging to a praeco or public crier: quaestus, the office or business of a public crier", thus, "a crying out in public; a proclaiming, spreading abroad, publishing".  We have raked over devotio a few times already in the previous weeks, so you can use the little search engine on the left bar of the blog to find previous references.  Suffice to say that devotio is a tough word which in this context means more or less "religious undertaking".  It can sometimes even mean celebration of the Eucharist itself.  Suscipio is "to take upon one, undertake, assume, begin, incur, enter upon (esp. when done voluntarily and as a favor; recipio, when done as a duty or under an obligation)."

LITERAL TRANSLATION
May the venerable exercise of this holy undertaking, O Lord,
dispose the hearts of Your faithful,
so that they may enter into the paschal mystery with worthy minds
and announce the message of Your salvation.

Since we are past the half way point in Lent, there has been a shift in the prayers, I think.  There is a focus on the coming Triduum now.  The vocabulary today with paschale mysterium and praeconium point to the Triduum and Vigil.  Praeconium makes you think right away of the great chant of the deacon called the Exsultet, or Praeconium Paschale.  The Redactors chose to strip the prayer of it older content, in the replacement of "fasts" (ieiunia) with devotio.  

We will verify this in the days to come.

Sometimes when people are not sure of their future positions, they hesitate to accept appointments for distant dates.

In November 2006 there will be a sacred music conference in Rome for the 50th anniversary of the death of Lorenzo Perosi.  There will be some interesting events.  Among them, I read:

Venerdì 24 Novembre 2006

16.30  Vespri, presiede S. E. Mons. Piero Marini, Maestro delle Celebrazioni Liturgiche Pontificie. Patriarcale Basilica S. Pietro – Cappella del Coro.

COLLECT
Deus, qui ineffabilibus mundum renovas sacramentis,
praesta, quaesumus,
ut Ecclesia tua et aeternis proficiat institutis,
et temporalibus non destituatur auxiliis.

A form of this prayer was in the ancient Gregorian in the Hadrianum manuscript "FERIA VI AD SANCTUM EUSEBIUM" which means that it was a Lenten prayer on Friday at the Station indicated.  In the pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum this was used on Friday of the 4th Week of Lent.   In the modern stations observed in Rome today is at Ss. Quattro Coronati al Celio.

Destituo is "to set down; to set, place anywhere" and "(Lit., to put away from one’s self; hence) To leave alone, to forsake, abandon, desert (derelinquo, desero)".  

Blaise says that institutum in the plural is, ehem, "institution" (that’s French), providing, "sacri mysterii".  These are things established by Divine Providence.   The L&S says "a purpose, intention, design; an arrangement, plan; mode of life, habits, practices, manners; a regulation, ordinance, institution; instruction; agreement, stipulation".

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, who does renew the world with sacramental mysteries which can’t be described with words,
vouchsafe, we beseech You,
that Your Church may both benefit from eternal providential designs
and also may not be bereft of temporal helps.

It might to tempting to latch onto the military overtone that the plural of auxilium generally bears and, with words like proficiat (which can be "advance" or "make progress") together with the sense of design or purpose inherent in instititum.

JUST FOR FUN A VERSION FROM AN OLD HAND MISSAL I FOUND ONLINE
O God, who hast ordained thine ineffable sacraments for the regeneration of all men : we humbly beseech thee, that thy Church, being profited by the same to her advancement in all things spiritual, may likewise fail not of thy succour in all things temporal.

On 26 March 2006 His Holiness made a pastoral visit to a Roman parish in thge suburbs called God Our Merciful Father.  It was Laetare Sunday and the Pope wore rose vestments.  I don’t remember having seen His Holiness Pope John Paul II in rose vestments.  It is nice to see some of these traditions returning to use.

During today’s Angelus address the Holy Father made what I think are pretty clear references to the situation of Catholics persecuted in the People’s Republic of China and other places in the world when Catholics suffer religious persecution despite the fact that on paper they are supposed to have rights.  This is interesting in the wake of the Pope’s choice to make the courageous and outspoken Bishop of Hong Kong a cardinal.

Il Concistoro è stato così un’occasione per sentirci più che mai vicini a tutti quei cristiani che soffrono persecuzione a causa della fede. La loro testimonianza, di cui quotidianamente ci giunge notizia, e soprattutto il sacrificio di quanti sono stati uccisi ci è di edificazione e di sprone a un impegno evangelico sempre più sincero e generoso. Il mio pensiero si rivolge, in modo particolare, a quelle comunità che vivono nei Paesi dove la libertà religiosa manca o, nonostante la sua affermazione sulla carta, subisce di fatto molteplici restrizioni. Ad esse invio un caloroso incoraggiamento a perseverare nella pazienza e nella carità di Cristo, seme del Regno di Dio che viene, anzi, che è già nel mondo A quanti operano al servizio del Vangelo in tali difficili situazioni, desidero esprimere la più viva solidarietà a nome di tutta la Chiesa, ed insieme assicurare il mio quotidiano ricordo nella preghiera.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  4^th Sunday of Lent – Roman Station: Basilica of the Holy Cross in Ierusalem

I received via e-mail a note from SM (slightly edited):  “As a reader (of The Wanderer), I enjoy your column.  It is both instructive and well written.  As a two year old Traditionalist now, I realize that I (still have much to learn) but feel in my heart that the Mass of our Fathers is vastly superior in every way to the Novus Ordo Mass.  For the first time ever, I actually look forward to going to Mass. No longer do I need to dread the chattering people, the foisted handshake of peace or the constant focus on ‘we’ over Jesus.  My question to you is this: Why do bishops everywhere suppress this Mass? What are they so terrified of? (Pope) John Paul called for a generous use of this Mass but was ignored by all. What gives them the right to do this? I really feel that we Traditionalists are persecuted. But maybe that is because (the bishops) are afraid of us.” 

Thanks, SM, for your heartfelt note.  Nowhere in the rubrics of the Novus Ordo are people directed to “chatter” or do any of the annoying things we are likely to see in parishes.  The Novus Ordo, when implemented with the proper spirit of obedience and harmony with Tradition, is as “reverent” as any celebration of the older form of Mass you would want to attend.  Be fair to the rite, even when it is abused.  Have some bishops “persecuted” people who want more traditional liturgical expressions?  Probably.  More and more bishops, however, are warming to the 1962 Missale Romanum.  Many are trying to get their liturgical houses in order.  Last week I wrote about Bishop Slattery in Tulsa.   I don’t think bishops are “afraid” of traditionalists.  Some traditionalists have been pretty rude to quite a few bishops.  Rudeness rarely gets you what you want from a bishop or a priest.  St. Francis de Sales (+1622) said “Always be as gentle as you can and remember that one catches more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar.”

This is what I call a “nickname Sunday” (like Gaudete in Advent).  These nicknames often come from the first word of the Introit antiphon.  Today it is “Rejoice!” which signals the coming joy of Easter.   During Lent we are to omit flowers, decorations and instrumental music, except organ but only to sustain congregational singing.  This liturgical austerity is relaxed a little on Laetare Sunday in anticipation of Easter.  This is one of two Sundays when rose-colored (rosacea) vestments can be used. 

In Latin we say repetita iuvant (“repeated things help”) and so I will repeat the explanation for rose vestments.  The Roman station for Laetare Sunday is the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, wherein are deposited the relics of Cross and Passion brought back to Rome by St. Flavia Iulia Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine (+337).  It was the Bishop of Rome’s custom on Laetare Sunday to bless roses made of gold to be sent to Catholic nobles.  Therefore, this Sunday was also called Dominica de rosa or “Rose Sunday”.  Eventually rosacea vestments came to be used on Laetare Sunday at the Basilica of the Holy Cross when the Pope came for the station Mass. From that basilica rosacea spread to the rest of Rome on the same day and, by close analogy, on Gaudete in Advent.  When St. Pius V (+1572) promulgated the Roman Missal in 1570, rose became the rule for the abovementioned Sundays everywhere in the world.  During the iconoclastic 70’s and 80’s rose vestments were trash-canned far and wide together with black and anything looking even slightly traditional.  Today, however, rose vestments are again for sale in religious goods stores.  Rose and black and things traditional are returning Easter-like from the tomb!   Write to me and let me and your fellow WDTPRSers know if you saw rose on this Laetare Sunday.

Our austerely joyful Super oblata or “Prayer over the gifts” was not in the Roman Missal before the Novus Ordo, but its slightly different predecessor is in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary as the Secret for the 4th Sunday of Lent subtitled “second scrutiny”.

Should we try something different this week?  Let’s have some commentary on today’s prayer before we look at its vocabulary, structure and literal translation.   To start our exercise, bend your mind around this image.  We who are rejoicing are nonetheless beseeching.  We are happy beggars.

For our sins we truly deserve damnation.  God’s eternal remedy to the damnation we deserve causes us simultaneously to bend ourselves over as humble supplicants and, to raise our hands and hearts heavenward as we rejoice in our good fortune and God’s mercy.  Our grateful humility prompts us to beg the Lord to continue His gracious work in us, to make us capable of venerating the gifts properly, and also to make them known to others.  We wish others to share in the salvation He has so kindly made possible so that our joy may be increased. 

Now put yourself in church at Holy Mass.  For weeks now the sanctuary has been bare, stripped in Lenten mortification.  Purple has been our visual theme.  The liturgy is “dying” until it rises at Easter.  Today some bright flowers bedeck the high altar, the only altar, around which the well-trained boys serve in cassock and surplice.  The organ was played, sparingly, but well.  Father’s sermon was solemnly amusing, spiritually insightful and comprehensively brief, but in a moving way.  The echo of the Gregorian chant chased the fragrant incense tendrils aloft into the vaults.  You helped to make sure the collection was generous.   On the altar’s mensa glittering gold vessels now stand holding your gifts, the hosts and the wine with its water drops.  The priest, all draped in rose over white linen, has turned around to face you.  For your sake and that of Holy Church he calls upon you to unite your sacrifices to his.  Hundreds of voices together with yours rise from the packed nave upward to God in pursuit of the chant and the incense.   The priest turns back to face the liturgical East.   Silence falls.  He opens his hands and sings.

SUPER OBLATA (2002MR):
Remedii sempiterni munera, Domine, laetantes offerimus,
suppliciter exorantes,
ut eadem nos et fideliter venerari,
et pro salute mundi congruenter exhibere perficias.

My now somewhat soiled, but never dog-eared edition of the Lewis & Short Dictionary shows me that veneror means “to reverence with religious awe, to worship, adore, revere, venerate.”  It can also mean “to ask reverently for any thing, to beseech, implore, beg, entreat, supplicate.”  Congruo produces the adverb congruenter.  Congruo has at its heart the concept of all the parts of a thing fitting together or being in harmonious agreement.  Hence, congru­enter is “agreeably, suitably.”  A Latin remedium is “that which heals again; a cure, remedy” as well as “a means of aid, assistance, or relief.”  It was even used of magical charms or amulets.  Thus, even in its pagan usage there was an element of the spiritual in regard to healing and protection from ills. 

Perficio, perfeci, perfectum is the source of the English word “perfect”.  Perficio means fundamentally, “to achieve, execute, carry out, accomplish, perform, dispatch, bring to an end or conclusion, finish, complete.”  You can see how it signifies “to make perfect” and also “to bring about, to cause, effect”.  It is often followed by an ut.   Today we see an ut clause which governs two accusatives with infinitives distinguished by the classic et…et (“both… and”) construction. 

Suppliciter is from supplex, which in turn derives from supplico meaning “to kneel down or humble one’s self, to pray or beg humbly, to beseech, implore, supplicate” and “to pray to or supplicate as a god; to pray, worship.” Forms of this word are very common in Latin prayers.  We can get at their meaning by examining their roots.  Supplico is formed from preposition sub plus the verb plico, “to fold, double up.”  Someone who is supplex is in an attitude of prayer, bent or folded at the knees or waist.  

Do these Latin words not remind you of what Holy Mass ought to be?

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Bent down imploring, O Lord, we rejoicing people are
offering the gifts of the eternal remedy,
so that You will make us both to venerate the same faithfully,
and to show them forth for the salvation of the world suitably.

Let’s move quickly to the stale lame-duck ICEL version while what the Latin really says is fresh in your minds.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
we offer you these gifts
which bring us peace and joy.
Increase our reverence by this eucharist,
and bring salvation to the world.

“Bring us peace and joy”?   Where did the concept of begging (exorantes) go?  This version is so different from the Latin original that is seems almost to be an original composition and not something from the Roman Missal at all.  You all know that in this WDTPRS we are not pretending to offer liturgically useful versions of the Latin prayer, but I would rather use our version than that ICEL prayer.  Wouldn’t you?  And yet, there are some bishops in the USA who are fighting claw and fang to slow the approval of the new English translation and circumvent Liturgiam authenticam, the document which indicates the norms for the translation.  They want to keep things as they are.  On a happier note, through The Wanderer and the WDTPRS blog on the internet we can consider carefully what Holy Church is attempting to give us in the original prayers.

We are also making room to examine the “Prayers over the people” which were reintegrated in the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum for Sundays of Lent.  In these prayers, which follow the Post Communion, the priest doesn’t refer to “us” or “we”.  Rather, he seems to be speaking in his own voice rather than as part of the people for whom he is praying.

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Tuere, Domine, supplices tuos, sustenta fragiles,
et inter tenebras mortalium ambulantes
tua semper luce vivifica,
atque a malis omnibus clementer ereptos,
ad summa bona pervenire concede.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Defend, O Lord, Your humble ones, sustain the fragile,
and by Your light always enliven
those walking amidst the shadows of things that perish,
and also grant them, mercifully snatched away from all evils,
to attain to the highest of all goods.

Today’s “Prayer over the gifts” underscores our total reliance on God.  He gives us the gift of an eternal remedy (remedium aeternum).  The concept of a remedy is entirely abandoned in the ICEL version, so pay attention to the Latin.   If the Latin talks about a remedy, implicitly there must be an illness, right?  For what illness would we need an eternal remedy?  Nothing other than the illness of sin, both original and personal.  Sin’s infection would also be eternal but for God’s remedy.   Sin mires us in the dark shadows of the mortally dangerous perishing things (mortalia) we hear about in the “Prayer over the people” at the end of Mass.   Unless we are safely guided through these dangerous paths and out of our illness, we will surely be forever lost. 

This is serious business for “Rejoice” Sunday, but Holy Mother Church always gives it to us straight.  She always shows us a realistic view of life and the glory of our promised salvation without ever dumbing them down.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  4^th Sunday of Lent “Laetare” - Station: Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

I want to get to something before Holy Week arrives.  Many have asked WDTPRS and the ASK FATHER Question Box (askfather.net) about a translation point regarding the optional rite of washing feet (the “Mandatum” or “Command” – whence the word Maundy) on Holy Thursday.   In many places women are invited to have their feet washed.  This is against the Church’s laws based on Scripture (cf. Matthew 20:28).  Two main excuses are offered in defense of the abuse.  The first excuse concerns a false sense of service and charity: “hospitality” suggests women must be “included”.  In the USA some might obtusely cite a note having no canonical authority from the (then) NCCB’s Committee on Liturgy in 1987 which uses this “hospitality” argument. The second excuse stems from “inclusive” language: the English words in the ICEL Sacramentary, “men” and “man”, can’t possibly mean “males”.  That would be sexist!  Therefore women must be included.  On the contrary, the Latin rubrics for the foot washing rite has words viri selecti, “chosen men”.  Vir means “a male person”.  If you have been properly informed about this, to insist that “men” (viri) means “men and women” is really to lie.   This whole debate has been cleared up more than once by the Holy See, especially in the 1988 document Paschales sollemnitatis of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.   The rubrics of the 2002 Missale Romanum retain the viri selecti.  There is no way around this.  Legally, linguistically, and theologically the issue is clear.   No conference of bishops, individual bishop or priest has the authority to change this without specific permission of the Holy See.

Readers sent me copies of the letters they wrote to the Prefects of the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Joseph Card. Ratzinger, and of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS), Francis Card. Arinze.  Here are two excerpts.  First, how HE expressed his desires: “So let me beg you to stand fast against adverse influences and firmly support correct English translations in the pro multis consecration formula, the Credo, and other key passages at which people will look for confidence that the new missal is authentic. Both fi