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

The WDTPRS series intends to help you enter more fully and love more deeply the prayers Holy Church has given us.  As a result I must constantly attempt the tight-wire of writing too much and too little, of including huge swaths of details to limiting the discussion to a general reader’s needs. 

Still, even the general reader might want a glimpse into what makes this articles in the paper and blog entires here "tick" as it were.

This brings me to offer a note about the dictionaries I consult for this WDTPRS series.  No, friends, your little "Collins" doesn’t cut it here!

For Latin I use mostly the mighty Lewis & Short, whcih in its fuller title is A Latin Dictionary Founded on Andrews’ edition of Freund’s Latin dictionary revised, enlarged, and in great part rewritten by Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and. Charles Short, LL.D. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1879.  On the spine you will see A LATIN DICTIONARY and under that LEWIS & SHORT.  My experience is that, in the main, if you have a good grasp of Latin the one volume L&S will give you virtually everything you need. 

More and more I am consulting Albert Blaise, Le vocabulaire latin des principaux themes liturgique, revised by Antoine Dumas, O.S.B., published by Brepols.  This is a very useful volume.

For Greek I used whatever edition of Oxford’s Liddell & Scott is nearby.  Often that will be the medium of the three sizes of lexica we lovingly call "Middle Liddell".  For Patristic Greek I use the dictionary by Lampe. 

If you want a dictionary of Classical Latin, the 40,000 word entry Oxford Latin Dictionary (P.G. Glare, ed., 1968) will do nicely.  It has very large format, is quite expensive and is limited to classical texts.  It only extend to the end of the 2nd century A.D., about 180 A.D. 

You can also really get into words using Forcellini’s Totius Latinitatis Lexicon (1858-1887).  It is in 10 volumes and fairly rare.  Try also the
many volume Thesaurus linguae latinae or TLL begun in 1900.  It is still in the works.  It is huge and not easy to find.  Also, as Souter remarks in his preface to his own Glossary, Forcellini tended to ignore non-Italianate authors.  Thus, its title is a little misleading.  Since the compilers of great dictionaries such as the Lewis & Short based a lot of their work on Forcellini, they suffer from some of the same drawbacks.

There are some Latin etymological dictionaries.  Useful (and hard to get and expensive) are A. Blaise, Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs du moyen-âge. Lexicon latinitatis medii aevi, praesertim ad res ecclesiasticas investgandas pertinens (1975) and C. du Fresne, seigneur Du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis. This is a 10 volume 5th edition, from 1883-1887.   On the other hand L&S includes very useful etymological information, so Blaise and Du Cange might be overkill.  Also, DuCange is outdated.  Its entries in 17th c. Latin are not always the best.  New tools of Latin etymology are coming.  I have Meillet & Ernout’s Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine which now has a paperback (4th) edition by Klincksieck.   It is spendy but good.

For a cursory look at a word, there is Leo F. Stelton’s little Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995).  Stelton’s preface says that “this book is not intended to be a research dictionary”.  Rather, it is a “practical manual for seminary students once they have completed introductory courses in the Latin language” and that it might be useful also for laypeople.  So, Stelton’s DEL is helpful for a beginning student for a quick consultation.  As such its entries do not include citations showing the word in contexts.  That is very unhelpful but it keeps the size of the volume down too.

This leads me back to Alexander Souter’s fun and useful A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 A.D. published by Oxford, Clarendon Press in 1949 and reprinted in 1997.   Souter worked on the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae.  Again, reading a preface of any dictionary is important and Souter’s renders up some gems.  Here is an example from his 1947 comments:

"When plans were being made for a new Oxford Latin Dictionary, it was decided not to include in the main work writers who flourished later than about A.D. 180.  Thus Christian authors were excluded.  But it was thought advisable to supplement the work by a separate brief glossary of the new forms, meanings, and phrases which appear for the first time after that date, so that students might have some help in reading authors like Ausionius, Claudian, and Ammian, or the City of God and Confessions of St. Augustine, or the Letters of St. Jerome."

He includes some interesting note about how he worked.

"The present work was in effect begun about half a century ago when, in imitation of my dear master Mayor, I began to add words and examples to a copy of Lewis and Short.  The margins of the first copy became after about five years so crowded that I had to purchase a second, which in its turn has become just as full.  Into a third, interleaved, I copied a number of classical examples from Professor Mayor’s annotated copies."

Souter has a great sense of humor too, which no doubt results in much knee slapping at lexicographer parties.

"The preparation of a lexicon of this kind, though tedious, is without its consolations.  Lexicographers can claim to know some of the joys and excitements of all explorers.  We, too, have often to hack our way through tangled growths.  These tangled growths are sometimes tralaticious blunders which have passed undetected, or at least unremoved, through a series of dictionaries." 

HAR HAR.  "tralaticious"!  HAR HAR

And I really like this footnote on p. vi:

"Is there anything more astounding in the history of language than that Geman Pferd should come from paraveredus?"

Yes, friends, this is an exciting world, Latin lexicography.  Perhaps the only thing more interesting than reading about Latin dictionaries is using them.  So get right out there.  You can also click some links in this blog to buy them with ease.

Anyway, this has been a glimpse into my WDTPRS world.  Dash out there are find some of these great tools, each of which is also a jewel.

I don’t think there are many reasons to consult some of the dictionaries of newer Latin, which have all sorts of neologisms, unless you want to make up your own Latin prayers.  I once had to use a prayer from the older Roman Ritual to bless the equipment that went into an old priest’s knee replacement.  Not having many of the words for that stuff in Latin firmly in my mind, I adapted the prayer for the blessing of mountain climbing equipment.  More Latin humor!  At any rate, you can find some volumes by the inestimable Antonio Card. Bacci and by the inimitable Carolus Egger for new words.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  3^rd Sunday of Lent – Roman Station: St. Lawrence outside the walls

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer IN 2006

Bishop Edward J. Slattery has been calling for a serious retooling of the liturgy in the Diocese of Tulsa (USA), where he has been bishop since 1994.  He is writing a series of columns in his diocesan paper, the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic.   After the last Synod of Bishops His Excellency has asked clergy, liturgists and musicians to review Sacrosanctum Concilium.  Here is a sample (my emphasis added): “I ask them to pay special attention to the sections devoted to Sacred Music (Chapter 6, 112 – 121) that those who share responsibility in a parish for the implementation of the Council’s liturgical norms might reacquaint themselves with what the Council Fathers actually wrote concerning the requirements of proper liturgical music, and in particular the principle which places the text in importance over the melody, thus acknowledging the primacy of Gregorian Chant among the Church’s musical traditions, not merely from the position of its great venerability and beauty, but also because chant, having no rhythm, never forces the text to be rewritten to fit a specific meter. Chant allows us a certain sacred space within which that Word which God spoke in ancient times can be heard today with greater clarity and fidelity.  I understand that this review of music must lead to changes and that changes will often be irksome and problematic. For this reason I would caution that this gradual, but definite, reintroduction of Gregorian chant into our parishes and communities be done with careful study, deliberate consultation and much prayer. However, as a sign of the seriousness with which I approach this topic, I am asking that pastors move with some dispatch to introduce their congregations to the simpler chants of the Kyriale, including the Gloria, Sanctus, Pater Noster and the Agnus Dei.”  (Eastern Oklahoma Catholic March 6, 2006).   

Bishop Slattery gives his flock a whole lot more beside.  For example: “I am also asking our people to recover their sense of the sacredness of the sanctuary by refraining from idle conversation in Church before and after Mass.”  Or, how about this: “If… our attention is repeatedly pulled away from the altar to the presence of the cantor or the choir, then our participation at Mass can become a kind of tennis match, and our response in prayer remains shallow and disjointed.  … (W)e should be honest enough to acknowledge that the placement of the choir, cantor and the musicians (in the front of the church) has proven to be a terrible distraction in many parishes.”  

I love this guy.  You should write him a note of support!

His Excellency
Most Rev. Edward J. Slattery
Bishop of Tulsa
PO Box 690240
Tulsa, OK 74169-0240

Today’s prayer “over the gifts” was in the 1962 Missale Romanum as well as the more ancient Gelasian Sacramentary in a section for prayers for charity.  The last line was different in the Gelasian.

SUPER OBLATA (2002MR):
His sacrificiis, Domine, concede placatus,
ut, qui propriis oramus absolvi delictis,
fraterna dimittere studeamus.

The mighty Lewis & Short Dictionary says that studeo means “to be eager or zealous, to take pains about, be diligent in, anxious about, busy one’s self with, strive after, to apply one’s self to or pursue some course of action, etc.; to desire, wish,” etc.  A delictum is “a falling short of the standard of law (hence esp. a transgression against positive law; cf. peccatum, usually against natural law; a fault, offence, crime, transgression, wrong).”  Notice the distinction in classical Latin: a delictum concerns positive law and peccatum concerns natural law.  Positive law is law given by a proper authority.  The Ten Commandments are an example of divine positive law.  The 1983 Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church is positive law, as are civil laws passed by a legislature.  Natural law is written into our very being by the Creator.  In today’s prayer I don’t think we need to put too fine a point on this distinction.    “Transgression” could cover both dimensions. 

The verb dimitto is in the Latin version of the Lord’s Prayer.   In the L&S we discover that dimitto means primarily “to send different ways, to send apart; send forth” and by extension it means “to send different ways, to send apart” as well as “to renounce, give up, abandon, forego, forsake.”  The concept is that of “putting aside” something over which one has power or a right.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Having been appeased, O Lord, grant by these sacrifices
that we who pray to be absolved from our own sins
may be diligent in forgiving the transgressions of our brethren.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
by the grace of this sacrifice
may we who ask forgiveness
be ready to forgive one another.    

Oddly, the word “sacrifice” appears in the lame duck ICEL rendition today.  However, there is a huge difference of meaning between “we who ask forgiveness” and “we who pray to be absolved of our own sins.”

By harming another person, which is what we do when we sin against someone, that person has our IOU.  They have a legitimate claim against us.   We must make restitution when we commit a sin, according to justice.  When others harm us we have a claim against them.  But, as Christians, Christ asks us to be merciful and even to forego some just claims.  In Matthew 18 Jesus tells us the parable about a king who calls in all his IOU’s.  The king summons a servant owing so much that he couldn’t ever pay it back, even with many lifetimes of wages.   The man begs for mercy.  The king forsakes his legitimate claim.  That servant then callously refuses to extend mercy to a fellow servant who owes him far less.  Hearing this, the king is righteously angered and forces that merciless servant to suffer in prison in lieu of paying his debt.   We must always season with mercy our own exacting of justice.   When Christ taught His disciples how to pray (the Lord’s Prayer) the only part of it He went back to explain was the need to be forgiving.  “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).  Holding a grudge and refusing mercy might land us in hell.  Sobering.  Today’s prayer is a jab in the ribs.

It is also a sharp reminder of Christ’s admonition in His Sermon on the Mount: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).  What we are involved in at Holy Mass is so important that we must to the best of our ability be squared away with God, with the Church and with our neighbor ahead of time.  Are you at peace with your neighbor when you seek to unite your sacrifice to that of the priest?  When you dare to receive Holy Communion?

There has been discussion in many circles of the issue of the so-called “sign of peace” during Mass.  Even at the last Synod of Bishops mentioned by Bishop Slattery this was discussed.  In my opinion, if there is going to be a sign of peace at all (and I don’t think there ought to be in most circumstances), it should be done before the offertory prayers of the Mass.  After all, the offertory is when you are “offering your gift at the altar”.   Better yet, it would be a good idea to make sure you are right with your neighbor before Mass begins.  In any event, if we feel compelled to make some gesture during Mass, the logical time to make it would seem to be before the offertory, not immediately before Holy Communion.  Mind you, I am not advocating violating the rubrics in this regard.  Rubrics ought to be obeyed.

But can we ignore the fact that in so many places the sign of peace is handled with egregious carelessness, disrespect and irreverence?  The Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ is on the altar and people start slapping each other on the back, walking around, and chatting.  Some people don’t want to have their backs slapped.  The King of Endless Glory is about to enter into their bodies and they want to prepare themselves.  Instead, they must endure inane chatter and people milling around.  I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want to shake a hand that is still damp from the last sneeze.

This is not to say that the sign of peace cannot be dignified.   The sign of peace of the Latin Church is the Roman greeting, an elegant, subtle gesture.  You gently place your hands on the upper arms of the other and, leaning forward, bring your left cheek near to the left cheek of the other, sometimes repeating with the right cheek.  If you want an example of inculturation, when I was in China I saw the restrained, noble Asian bow first to the priest and then to people on each side.  For the most part, however, I have seen mostly disastrous free-for-alls.

Here is another news flash.  It is in no way obligatory to have a sign of peace at all.  It is completely optional, left up to the priest/celebrant.  Most people, most clergy, don’t know this.  The rubric in the Missal for the sign of peace says pro opportunitate, “in so far as it is opportune or appropriate”.  The sign of peace is done at the discretion of the priest at that Mass.  It is an option.  Period.

"But Father!  But Father!” some will object, “The sign of peace is symbol that WE are Eucharist!  It makes us feel good to be Jesus to neighbor!” (Most liturgists and their fans omit definite articles and pronouns whenever they can in order to sound more “theological”.)  Folks, Mass is not primarily about feeling good or being Jesus to our neighbor.  The Holy Sacrificial Banquet of Mass is all about what God does for us, not what we do in church for God or each other.  We participate on His terms, not ours.   These terms are communicated to us by God through His Holy Church.  The Church teaches that we are to be properly disposed to receive the graces God offers us in Holy Communion, which is the ultimate expression of “active participation”.  We ought to avoid anything which systematically distracts us from our preparation to receive the Lord in Holy Communion.  This necessarily means that we must straighten out our relationships, before Mass.  Friends, make amends.  Ask pardon for the wrongs you have done and forgive when forgiveness is asked.   Don’t let any “sign of peace” be an empty distraction.

During Lent, I have been including the Oratio super populum now restored in the 2002MR.  The priest says this, or will when he uses Latin, after the Post communionem.  It should be in a future English edition of the books for Mass.

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Rege, Domine, quaesumus, tuorum corda fidelium,
et servis tuis hanc gratiam largire propitius
ut in tui et proximi dilectione manentes,
plenitudinem mandatorum tuorum adimpleant.
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LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Direct, O Lord, we beg, the hearts of Your faithful,
and propitiously grant to Your servants this grace,
that, remaining in the love of You and of neighbor,
they may fully discharge the fullness of your commandments.

Remember: these “prayers over the people” are spoken to God by the priest for your sake.  The priest is not speaking to God in the name of the people, himself included.  Rather, he is speaking in his own name asking God to do something for your, amongst whom he is alter Christus.   How grateful we ought to be for our priests, as humanly flawed as they may be.  Without the priest, there is no Eucharist.  How would we manage to fulfill God’s commands and our vocations without the Eucharist, the source and summit of our Christian lives?

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  3^rd Sunday of Lent – Station: St. Lawrence outside the walls

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer IN 2005

You readers are very good to me, I must say.  This via e-mail from KW of MI: “One of my Latin students gave me a copy of your article in The Wanderer about the benefits of studying Latin.  I agree with all of the reasons you outlined, and those are the reasons why I decided to offer a free course in Ecclesiastical Latin at my church last autumn…. (M)y parish has generously allowed me the use of a spacious classroom on Saturday mornings for this class.  … I would like to add to your list of reasons for studying Latin is the therapeutic benefit, especially for individuals with learning disabilities.  Many of these individuals lack the ability to recognize patterns in language, and they can learn new ways to organize their thought processes in the Latin classroom.  … Thank you for writing a wonderful article about Latin studies.”  You are welcome.  The article is online. 

COLLECT - LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Deus, omnium misericordiarum et totius bonitatis auctor,
qui peccatorum remedia
in ieiuniis, orationibus et eleemosynis demonstrasti,
hanc humilitatis nostrae confessionem propitius intuere,
ut, qui inclinamur conscientia nostra,
tua semper misericordia sublevemur.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
you have taught us to overcome our sins
by prayer, fasting and works of mercy.
When we are discouraged by our weakness,
give us confidence in your love.

Does this properly translate the Latin?  Our prayer, taken from the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary for Saturday of the 4^th week of Lent, has many Lenten elements and only a close look at the words can unlock what it really says.  Misericordia means generally “tender-heartedness, pity, compassion, mercy”.  In the plural, as we find it today, it refers to works of mercy.  We find both a plural and a singular in today’s prayer and we must make a distinction between them.  Our bulky and bountiful Lewis & Short Dictionary explains that bonitas is the “good quality of a thing” and also various benevolent and virtuous behaviors.  When referring to a parent, bonitas means “parental love, tenderness.”  Demonstro indicates, “to point out” as with the finger, “indicate, designate, show.”  Demonstrasti is a “syncopated” form for demonstravisti, which helps the prayer to flow.  The L&S states that inclino means, “to cause to lean, bend, incline, turn.”  In a more neutral sense it signifies, “to bend, turn, incline, decline, sink.”  By extension it means, “to decline, as in a fever, or sink down in troubles”, but it can also mean, more rarely, “to change, alter from its former condition”.  We are all at sea with this word, so we turn to Souter’s A Glossary of Later Latin and find “to humble”.  This is probably the direction we must go.  Sublevo literally means to lift up from beneath, to raise up, hold up, support.”   Thus it comes to mean also, to sustain, support, assist, encourage, console” and also, “to lighten, qualify, alleviate, mitigate, lessen an evil, to assuage.”  This word is in the beautiful 10^th century Mozarabic Lenten hymn Attende, Domine often sung in parishes around the world even today: “Give heed, O Lord, and be merciful, for we have sinned against you. / To you, O high King, Redeemer of all, / we raise up (sublevamur) our eyes weeping:/ hear, O Christ, the prayers of those bent down begging.”

Confessio is from confiteor (con-fateor – the first word in our expression of sorrow for sins at the beginning of Mass).  This is a complicated word.  First, confessio is obviously “a confession or acknowledgment”.  The Latin Vulgate (Heb 3:1) and St. Gregory the Great (+604 – Ep. 7,5) use it for “a creed, avowal of belief” in the sense of an acknowledgment of Christ.  The most famous use of confessio, however, must be that of St. Augustine of Hippo (+430), whose stupendous autobiographical prayer is now known as Confessiones.  The excellent Augustinus Lexicon now being developed says confessio has three major meanings: profession of faith in God, praise of God, and admission to God of sins.  We can say “testify” or “give witness to.”  Augustine uses the word testimonium twice in the second sentence of his Confessions.  This is not “confession” in the sense of admission of criminal guilt, nor is it merely to a Christian confession of sins.  Rather, it is a way of giving witness to the Christian character we put on in baptism, a witness by how we live to what the Lord has done within us.  Sometimes that response requires humble admission of sins, sometimes it requires humbly giving glory to God.  Sometimes it demands patient fidelity and the practice virtue in the tedium of everyday life.  Sometimes it requires more spectacular deeds, even martyrdom.  It always demands humility.  The best confession we make is in our words and deeds, according to our state in life, in the midst of the circumstances we face each day no matter what they are.

Our Collect reminds us of the remedies for sin identified by Jesus Himself: prayer, fasting (cf. Matthew 9:14), and almsgiving or works of mercy (cf. Matthew 6:1; Luke 12:33).  When Jesus cures the epileptic demoniac, He says that that sort of demon is driven out only by both prayer and fasting (Mark 9:27 Vulgate).  In Acts 10 an angel tells the centurion Cornelius that his prayers and alms have been seen favorably by God (literally, they ascended as a memorial before God in the manner of a sacrifice).   St. Augustine said: “Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Make for it two wings: fasting and almsgiving” (En. ps. 42, 8).  In a Lenten Angelus address on 16 February 1997, the Holy Father said:

The Church points out to us a path (of moving from a superficial life to deep interiority, from selfishness to love, of striving to live according to the model of Christ himself, that) ... can be summarized in three words: prayer, fasting, almsgiving.  Prayer can have many expressions, personal and communal. But we must above all live its essence, listening to God who speaks to us, conversing with us as children in a “face to face” dialogue filled with trust and love.  In addition to being an external practice, fasting, which consists in the moderation of food and life-style, is a sincere effort to remove from our hearts all that is the result of sin and inclines us to evil.  Almsgiving, far from being reduced to an occasional offering of money, means assuming an attitude of sharing and acceptance. We only need to “open our eyes” to see beside us so many brothers and sisters who are suffering materially and spiritually. Thus Lent is a forceful invitation to solidarity.

This brings us to conscientia.  Conscientia signifies in the first place, “a knowing of a thing together with another person, joint knowledge, consciousness”.  Note the unity, or solidarity, of knowledge in the prefix con-.  It also means, “conscientiousness” in the sense of knowledge or feelings about a thing.  It also has a moral meaning also as, “a consciousness of right or wrong, the moral sense”.     

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, author of all acts of mercy and all goodness,
who in fasts, prayers, and acts of almsgiving indicated the remedies of sins,
look propitiously on this testimony of our humility,
so that we who are being humbled in our conscience
may always be consoled by your mercy.

Remember, words have different meanings, which I why I provide raw vocabulary.  I must point out something that could change this literal translation.  St. Augustine in one of his sermons speaks of the mercy of God.  Using the example of Jesus’ mercy to the woman caught in adultery (John 8), Augustine says – as if Jesus were talking – “Those others were restrained by conscience (conscientia) from punishing, mercy moves (inclinat misericordia) me to help you (ad subveniendum)” (s. 13.5 – 27 May 418 on the feast of St. Cyprian of Carthage).   Even though in the Collect inclino is paired with conscientia rather than misericordia as it is in the sermon, the vocabulary suggests that this sermon may have been a partial source for this ancient Collect.  This could provide a clue as to how to translate it.   So, we can say “we who are being moved by our conscience” or even “we who are being brought low, bent down, humbled by our conscience” or “we who are flagging (as if under a weight) in our conscience” (this is how I translated it for WDTPRS four years ago).   What to do?  When translating we have to make a choice.  This time around I chose “being humbled”.

An examination of our conscience is a humbling experience.  When we look to see who really are inside, we can have different reactions.  Sometimes we find things which frighten and discourage us.  If we are weak in our habits and our faith, that inveterate enemy of ours souls, the Devil who is “father of lies” will rub us raw with our ugliness tempting us to lose hope about the possibility of living a moral life or, in extreme cases, about our salvation.   On a less dramatic plane, falling down in our Lenten resolve on one day can cause a collapse of our will so that we will “flag” and give up.  This is why the Lenten discipline is so important.   By it we learn to govern our appetites, examine our consciences, do penance, and learn the habits which are virtues.  On the other hand, a recognition of sins and failures will “incline” us to call with humble confidence upon the mercy of God who paid the price for our salvation.

As a people united before Christ’s altar of sacrifice, humbled and cast down low, we raise our eyes upwards to the Father who tenderly sees our efforts.   But we can become weary in the midst of our Lenten discipline and the enemy is tirelessly working for our defeat.  Do not forget the military imagery of exercises and discipline we had in previous weeks. In today’s Collect we beg Him to pick us back up, dust us off, and help us stay upright for the rest of the hard Lenten march (sublevemur).   

In am reminded of the moment in the film The Passion of the Christ when Christ falls under His horrible burden of the Cross.  His Mother, our Mother, recalling how once He had fallen as a child and she ran to Him to console Him in His unexpected pain, runs to Him to give Him what support she might in His entirely expected suffering.  She ran to Him and then stood with Him.  Mary hurries also to each of us and stays by our side.  We are not in our Lenten discipline alone.  When we are flagging in our efforts, when we are humbled in our failures, our Blessed Mother is our help, together with all the saints and angels of whom she is the glorious Queen.  We too can be help to others, particularly by not causing for them an occasion of temptation to break their resolve.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  3rd Sunday of Lent – Station: St. Lawrence outside the walls

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer IN 2003

I now have confirmation that the offices of The Wanderer are doing some Lenten house cleaning: feedback dating November of 2001, yes… ’01 has been forwarded.   Fr. JS wrote: “I recently read your articles on the use of Latin.  I’m looking forward to the day when you publish “the Wanderer” in Latin.  In that way you would help us to understand more fully what are the contents of your articles.  Why are you still using English?  That is when we will know that you are really serious about helping us more and helping us appreciate our rich heritage of Latin.”  Better later than never, right?  First, Fr. JS, I note that you wrote to me in English.  Second, if there is any doubt about whether or not I am interested in promoting our Latin liturgical heritage, I hope in the intervening year and a half you will have been convinced that I mean business.  If you are still with us, Fr. JS, accept belated thanks for the note.

Closer to the time of this writing, TT of CA writes: “During WWII the Church provided us with a handy pocket missal with the Latin text on the verso, English translation on the recto, and following the Mass was simple and easy.  Thousands of G.I.s did it every Sunday.”  Yes, TT, this is not really as hard as “liturgists” pretend.  We soliders of the Church militant, GI’s and officers together, carrying our daily burdens and fighting the good fight, are smarter than they think.  And thank you for your service as a soldier.

Fr. CM, S.J., a former Latin teacher and theology prof who taught in Latin, writes: “I wish I had time to study your column in greater detail.  I think you are doing a great work and service to many.  I particularly liked the last part of your column on the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  It was marvelous.”  Heartfelt thanks, Fr., for the experienced praise.   He also informs me of the volumes of his confrere Martin D. O’Keefe, S.J. entitled Oremus: Speaking with God in the words of the Roman Rite (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Studies,1993) and the newer Exsultemus: Rejoicing with God in the Hymns of the Roman Breviary.  Thanks much, Fr.  I knew about the former, but not the later – which I do not have. Oremus is good and useful.  It constitutes O’Keefe’s translations, without commentary, for the entirety of the Missal.   I look at Oremus now and then to see what O’Keefe did. For the most part the translations are good, though he tends, like ICEL, to split the periodic sentences of the original Latin into more than one sentence in English and he paraphrases a bit for the sake of style.    Since I am not trying to provide smooth and stylish translations, I can avoid that even at the cost of producing something a bit awkward.  I would be nice to see the newer volume Exsultemus, which I am sure is excellent. 

Many thanks also to the folks who sent me copies of the comment on the Collect written by “a Fraternity Priest”.  I will look it over.  You collaboration and support makes this labor of love easier to bear.  And now for this week’s prayer, which is a new composition for the 1970MR based on a prayer in the Veronese Sacramentary.

POST COMMUNIONEM
LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
Sumentes pignus caelestis arcani,
et in terra positi iam superno pane satiati,
te, Domine, supplices deprecamur,
ut, quod in nobis mysterio geritur, opere impleatur.

As always we should be sure of our vocabulary. The inestimably functional Lewis & Short Dictionary discloses that sumo means “to take, take up, lay hold of, assume” while by extension it also signifies “to take for some purpose, i. e. to use, apply, employ, spend, consume”.  Given the context of this moment of Holy Mass, when we have just “consumed” the Host, and heading off those who might claim that this supports Communion in the hand, we must be mindful that “take” in English can mean “eat”.  While Americans may be less familiar with this meaning, if you have ever lived with English speakers from Africa or Asia, you will hear it used often in this sense. Pignus, which we had in a prayer not long ago, is “a pledge, gage, pawn, security, mortgage (of persons as well as things).”  The basic meaning of the adjective arcanus, a, um (related to the verb arceo) is “shut up, closed” and thus “hidden, concealed, secret, private.”  It is used in the neuter as a substantive, “a sacred secret, a mystery”.  Supernus, -a, -um is an adjective applied to something “above, on high, upper; celestial, supernal.”  Impleo is “to fill up, fill full, to make full” and “to fill with food, to satisfy, satiate” and thus with the accessory notion of activity, “to fulfill, discharge, execute, satisfy, content.” 

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Taking the down payment of the sacred heavenly mystery,
and, placed on earth, having been filled already with bread from on high,
we kneeling in entreaty beseech you, O Lord,
that, what is being accomplished in us by the sacramental mystery, may be brought to fulfillment by work.

This prayer is an excellent example of the mysterious effects of the Eucharist for the properly disposed baptized man, woman and child, and the responsibilities that derive from our daring to approach so great a gift.  First, please note that that word pignus, “pledge, token” indicates that what we have just “taken” is merely a foretaste of what is to be offered to us in heaven.  Our prayer today says that we here on earth are “already” filled. At the same time it clearly points to the fact that we do “not yet” have the complete fulfillment of mystery, which will be found only in the celestial banquet of heaven in the sight of God.  We have here, as it were, a kind of manna dropping to us from heaven, crumbs from the Father’s feast, though the slightest and tiniest crumb might suffice as the ransom, token, pledge, down payment for every sin committed by every person who has ever lived or ever will live.  If this is not enough to make you kneel and beseech God in thanksgiving, then I can’t imagine what will.  And if that were not enough, we can look at the mysterious effects of this great Sacrament in us.  God desires to share His own transforming glory with His good, but fallen, images – us.  To this end, while we are here on earth to do His will and work toward the fulfillment of His eternal plan, He nourishes us with Himself.  He bears us up and supports us.   When we partake of regular food, our bodies transform it into what we are.  When we partake of the Eucharist, it transforms us into who It is. We become one in an intimate unity. Filled and transformed in this way, we have a responsibility to live our vocations well and properly in this fleeting time on earth.  What we do and what we say redounds, or should so, to the glory of God.   Our deeds must reflect the saving and transforming might of the Eucharist.  They must be consistent with Who the Eucharist is and the reason for which He gives Himself to us in this mysterious way. 

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
in sharing this sacrament
may we receive your forgiveness
and be brought together in unity and peace.

I had to double check to make sure that I copied the ICEL version from the correct Sunday.

During Lent, I have been including the Oratio super populum now restored in the 2002MR.  The priest says this, or will when he uses Latin, after the Post communio.  It should be in a future English translation.

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Rege, Domine, quaesumus, tuorum corda fidelium,
et servis tuis hanc gratiam largire propitius
ut in tui et proximi dilectione manentes,
plenitudinem mandatorum tuorum adimpleant.

MY LITERAL RENDERING:
Direct, O Lord, we beg, the hearts of your faithful,
and propitiously grant this grace to your servants,
that, remaining in the love of you and neighbor,
they may bring to fulfillment the fullness of your commandments.

Notice the use of adimpleo, “to fullfil”.  “Fulfillment” in various senses – to complete and to be satisfied by being filled – seems a major point for Holy Mother Church this week, given the final positions of those “filling” verbs in the two final prayers of Mass this Sunday.

If you recall the description of this “prayers over the people” which I presented a couple weeks back, these prayers are spoken to God by the priest for the sake of the people.  Thus, he is not speaking for the people present at Mass, he is rather speaking for himself and asking God to do something for the people for whom he is alter Christus.   The two prayers at the end of Mass remind me of the statement of the great N. African bishop and doctor, St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) on the anniversary of his ordination.  He refers in his sermon to the heavy weight of his duties as bishop, which he calls a sarcina – the heavy Roman soldier’s military backpack – and of the how his vocation and that of the people are intertwined.   In his anniversary sermon, Augustine describes the dutiful living out of their respective vocations in connection with what Christ does for us, the aid and strength he gives us together with the heavy task we are to fulfill in His service.  He says,

“This burden (sarcina) of mine, about which I am speaking, what other is it than you yourselves?  Pray for me strength, as I pray that you not be heavy!  For the Lord Jesus would not have spoke of his burden (sarcinam suam) unless He was going to carry the one carrying it. But if you would sustain me, that we may bear our burdens for each other according to the precept of the Apostle, then thus we will together and for each other be fulfilling (impleamus) the law of Christ” (cf. Gal. 6, 2).  If He does not carry it with us, we will sink under its load (succumbimus); if He does not carry us, we die (occumbimus).  In the times when I am frightened that I am for you, I am then consoled that I am with you.  Vobis enim sum episcopus, vobiscum sum Christianus… I am a bishop for you, I am a Christian with you” (s. 340, 1 – date uncertain).

In speaking of the Church, Augustine distinguishes Christ the Head, Christ the Body, and the whole Christ (Christus totus).  In this sermon, we can see how Christ the Head (in the person of the priest) and Christ the Body (in the people gathered around the priest) form one Christ (totus).   They are with each other and for each other, with quite different roles but with one single aim: the salvation of souls – their own and of their neighbors.  Augustine says in another homily, when he is taking his people to task, “I do not want to be saved without you” (s. 17, 2).  The priest and the people must sustain each other each in their own way, according to their proper roles, and form one Christ in doing so.  These realities can also be a starting point for consideration of what it means to participate at Holy Mass.  Perhaps in the years to come, when people far and wide will have also the benefit of the Oratio super populum, accurate translations will support the reality of different roles in the liturgy, of the priest, of the congregation, and help them not to be respected and not confused.   They are complimentary and not interchangeable.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  Third Sunday of Lent – Station:  St. Lawrence outside the walls

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2002

Today’s prayer seems to be of new composition.  Let us plunge directly into it.

SUPER OBLATA:
LATIN (1970 Missale Romanum):
His sacrificiis, Domine, concede placatus,
ut, qui propriis oramus absolvi delictis,
fraterna dimittere studeamus.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Having been appeased by means of these sacrifices, O Lord, grant
that we who pray to be absolved from our own sins
may be diligent in forgiving the transgressions of our brothers and sisters.

The mighty Lewis & Short Dictionary lets us in on the fact that studeo means “to be eager or zealous, to take pains about, be diligent in, anxious about, busy one’s self with, strive after, to apply one’s self to or pursue some course of action, etc.; to desire, wish,” etc.  Post-Augustinian Latin it is also “to apply one’s self to learning, to study, be diligent.”

A delictum is “a falling short of the standard of law (hence esp. a transgression against positive law; cf. peccatum, usu. against natural law; a fault, offence, crime, transgression, wrong.”

Notice the distinction in classical Latin: a delictum concerns positive law and peccatum concerns natural law.  Positive law is law given by a proper authority.  The Ten Commandments would be a good example of divine positive law.  The 1983 Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church is also positive law, as are civil laws passed by a legislator.  Natural law is what is writen into our very beings by the Creator. In this prayer, however, I don’t think that we need to put to fine a point on this distinction.    I think that “transgression” can cover both dimensions.  Try plugging one of the alternatives into the translation to see how that changes your perception of the prayer.  This is why I provide several meanings of these Latin words in each article.  On the other hand it is worth considering the distinction of natural law and positive law when listening to this super oblata.  It is a common thing to use the Ten Commandments when making a regular or daily examen, the examination of conscience.  Of course, the divine positive law in the Decalogue is not to be contrasted sharply with natural law, as if the two were in conflict.  The Decalogue codifies what God placed in our hearts.  His laws are sure guidelines by which He helps us not to hurt ourselves and others by violating the image of God in each one of us.

The word delictum brings to mind also the Lenten hymn which many of you might know, Attende Domine.

Refrain: Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.
Ad te Rex summe, omnium redemptor, oculos nostros sublevamus flentes: exaudi, Christe, supplicantum preces.   Refrain….
 

Dextera Patris, lapis angularis, via salutis, ianua caelestis, ablue nostri maculas delicti.  Refrain….

 

Hearken, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against Thee.
Weeping, we lift our eyes to Thee, king most high, redeemer of all.  Listen, O Christ, to the prayers of the supplicants.
Thou right Hand of the Father, the keystone, the way of salvation, gate of heaven, cleanse the stains of our sin.

Instantly you recognize the word dimitto from the Latin version of the Lord’s Prayer: dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris… forgive our trespasses, just as we forgive our debtors (who trespasse against us).   In the L&S we discover that dimitto means primarily “to send different ways, to send apart; send forth” and by extension it means “to send different ways, to send apart” as well as “to renounce, give up, abandon, forego, forsake.”  The concept is that of “putting aside” something over which one has power or a right.  When we commit a sin, we must make restitution according to justice.  It is as if by harming another person, which is what we do when we sin against someone, that person suddenly has our IOU.  They have a legitimate claim against us.   Think of the parable in Matthew 18 by which Jesus tells of the king who calls in his markers.  The king summons a man who owes him an impossible sum to pay back, many lifetimes worth of wages.   When the man begs for mercy the king forsakes his legitimate claim and sets it aside.  That ungrateful wretch does not do the same for a poor fellow servant who owes him far less.  Thus the one who had previously obtained astonishing mercy is now forced bitterly to pay his debt.   In our own doing we must always see to it that “mercy seasons justice”.   When Christ taught his disciples how to pray (the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:7-15) the only thing He took the time to explain… twice… was the need to be forgiving.  No forgiveness for others means no forgiveness for you. 

A word or two about fraterna is in order, I believe.  This adjective fraternus, a, um derives from frater, “brother” and means “brotherly, fraternal” as well as “Of or belonging to a relative or kinsman.”   There does not seem to be an adjectival form for the Latin word for “sister” (soror)…”sisterly” in contrast to “brotherly”.   In Latin masculine nouns and adjectives do double duty very often, especially when they are in a plural form.   Fraternă is a neuter plural and it agrees with an invisible delicta.  You are expected to pick up, or rather hold in your mind, the word delicti from the line before so that we have a contrast between propria delicita … fraterna delicta.  Because in the first case we are being absolved or loosed from our sins, we have the ablative case.  Because in the next line we are forsaking or forgoing sins, which are the object of dimitto and thus need the accusative.  For a nice Latin style we simply leave off saying delicta in the second part because it is understood by the attentive.   You lovers of inclusive language will notice that I chosen to translate this fraternal as “of our brothers and sisters” (much less clunky than “brotherly sins”, which would sound a bit odd).   There is no problem using inclusive language in this case and we do not violate in any way what the prayer really says by including the concept “sisters”. 

ICEL:
Lord,
by the grace of this sacrifice
may we who ask forgiveness
be ready to forgive one another.    

I am very pleased to see that the word “sacrifice” appears in the ICEL rendition of our super oblata today.  That said, I am not quite sure why it is not considered possible simply to translate the other things that are included as well.  I think there is a difference between “we who ask forgiveness” and “we who pray to be absolved of our own sins.”   Similarly, it seems to me that that construction with fraterna, which actually makes you think and make the rapid mental connections mentioned above, is far more concrete than the sterile “one another.”  One need consider the simple fact of the common experience of married couples, or siblings in families and how very much they are obliged to forgive just as they need to be forgiven for things that they have done.

Today’s super oblata brings the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments and our daily Examen to the altar, where the sacrifice of Calvary is about to be renewed.  This prayer sharply reminds us what Christ warned about in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:23-24: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”   (Here “brother” clearly means more than “male biological sibling”, too).    What we are involved in at Holy Mass is so important that we must be willing to be squared away ahead of time, to the best of our ability, with God, with the Church and with our neighbor. 

On a liturgical note, there has been discussion in many circles of the issue of the so-called “sign of peace” during Mass.  In the internet Forum which I moderate there are from time to time heated debates about this.    Given what I offer above, it seems to me that if there is going to be a sign of peace at all, it is best that it should be done before the offertory prayers of the Mass.  After all, the offertory, with its super oblata prayer, is when you are “offering your gift at the altar” to use the RSV translation of Jesus’ words.   It strikes me that before Mass begins it might be a good idea to make sure you are right with your neighbor.  If some gesture needs to be used in the context of Mass, that would seem to be a good time.  

There is practical dimension to this as well.   The sign of peace is handled in so many places with an egregious carelessness, disrespect and irreverence.  Not only are is the Real Presence of Christ upon the altar at the moment when people start slapping each other on the back, walking around and chatting, but some people don’t want to have the back slapped, people milling around about them and inane chatter in their ears.  They want to PRAY and adore Christ, the God/man for whose coming in Communion they are readying themselves.   This is not to say that the sign of peace cannot be a dignified gesture.   The Roman sign of peace is what the rubrics intended.  This involves an elegant and subtle gesture of very gently placing one’s hands on the arms of the other and, leaning forward, bring one’s left cheek near to the left cheek of the other.  When I was in China, I saw at the time of the sign of peace the subtle and noble gesture of slightly turning to each side and bowing, as the priest and people did also to each other.  This can be done well, but it usually isn’t.   I have seen disasters tantamount to rowdy free-for-alls.  Furthermore, and this is something that not many people know, it is in no way obligatory to have a sign of peace at all at Mass.  It is completely optional and up to the priest/celebrant.  The rubric before the sign of peace says pro opportunitate: in so far as it is opportune or appropriate.  The sign of peace is done at the discretion of the priest at that Mass.

Our participation at Holy Mass is for our good.   Mass is all about what God does for us.  Thus, we participate on His terms, not ours.   These terms are communicated to us by God through His Holy Church.  The Church has taught that we are to be properly disposed to receive the graces God offers us.  We have divine positive law, the precepts of the Church, Christ’s own admonishments in Scriptures and the urgings of our consciences to guide us in our preparation to place our own sacrifices together with those of the priest on the altar during Mass.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Third Sunday of Lent – Station: St. Lawrence outside the walls

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2001

COLLECT:

 LATIN (1970 Missale Romanum):
Deus, omnium misericordiarum et totius bonitatis auctor,
qui peccatorum remedia
in ieiuniis, orationibus et eleemosynis demonstrasti,
hanc humilitatis nostrae confessionem propitius intuere,
ut, qui inclinamur conscientia nostra,
tua semper misericordia sublevemur.

I like that parallel of confessionem … conscientia inside the brackets of misericordiarum … misericordia. There are some very nice cadences to this collect.  It is very singable.

 LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, author of all merciful gestures and all goodness,
who pointed out the remedies of sins in fasts, prayers, and acts of almsgiving,
look propitiously on this testimony of our humility,
so that we who are flagging in our conscience
may be sustained by your mercy always.

While misericordia means generally “tender-heartedness, pity, compassion, mercy”, in the plural is can refer to works of charity. Bonitas, on the other hand, is the “good quality of a thing” and also all sorts of good, benevolent and virtuous behaviors.  When used in reference to a parent bonitas can also mean “parental love, tenderness.”  Demonstro is not dissimilar from English “demonstrate” but in Latin it first means, “to point out” as with the finger, “indicate, designate, show.”  In this collect we have a shortened form for demonstravisti, which helps it to flow.  Inclino means in its active sense, to cause to lean, bend, incline, turn.”  In a more neutral sense it signifies, “to bend, turn, incline, decline, sink.”  By extension it means to decline, as in a fever, or  sink down in troubles.  Sublevo literally means to lift up from beneath, to raise up, hold up, support.”   Thus it comes to mean also, to sustain, support, assist, encourage, console” and also, “to lighten, qualify, alleviate, mitigate, lessen an evil, to assuage.”  This word is in the beautiful 10^th century Mozarabic lenten hymn:

 Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.
Ad te Rex summe, omnium Redemptor,
oculos nostros sublevamus flentes:
exaudi, Christe, supplicantum preces.

Give heed, O Lord, and be merciful, for we have sinned against you.
To you, O high King, Redeemer of all,
we raise up our eyes weeping:
hear, O Christ, the prayers of those bent down begging.

The complex word confessio needs some attention.   Confessio is from confiteor (con-fateor – the first word in the expression of sorrow concerning ours sins which we make at the beginning of Mass).  Confessio means several things, however.  First, it is a “confession or acknowledgment”.  The Latin Vulgate (Heb 3:1) and St. Gregory the Great (Ep. 7,5) use it for “a creed, avowal of belief” in the sense of an acknowledgment of Christ.  The most famous use of confessio, however, must be that of St. Augustine of Hippo, whose stupendous autobiographical prayer has come to be known as Confessiones.  According to the excellent Augustinus Lexicon, in the Bishop of Hippo’s works confessio mainly means three things: profession of faith in God, praise of God, admission to God of sins.  In a certain sense, we can say “testify” or “give witness to.”  As a matter of fact, Augustine uses the word testimonium