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

This just in…

Chirac ‘shocked’ by use of English at summit
Upset French leader bolts EU meeting after Frenchmen switches languages

BRUSSELS, Belgium – President Jacques Chirac said on Friday he had been so shocked to hear a fellow Frenchman speak English at a European Union summit the previous day that he had felt compelled to leave the room.

“I have to say I was profoundly shocked to see a Frenchman express himself in English at the (EU) Council table. That’s why the French delegation and myself walked out rather than listen to that,” Chirac told reporters.

What moral fortitude for a major European leader.

D’ya suppose he went out and burned a car in protest?

There was some biretta confusion this morning.  Birettas are to be worn with the center point to the right, so that you can grasp it with the right hand and move the thing.  Birettas are always handled with the right hand.

It was a little amusing to see His Holiness put the hats on the new cardinals with the points every which way.  This created some real confusion for the first fellow, who couldn’t find the point when birettaquette (as I call it) dictated that he tip it as he went on his way.

Look, when these consistory ceremonies get a little repetitive, you start noticing details.  For example, the Holy Father inadvertantly gave the titular church of St. Helena to two cardinals.   Can we say that His Excellency Archbishop Marini is responsible for all these goofs?  Why not.  "Point to the proper page, for Pete’s sake!"

Cardinal Zen did receive his properly oriented from the hand of the Pontiff.

Let this be a warning to my fellow clerics.

This is an amazing photo.  The flag of the People’s Republic of China in the Square of St. Peter.  I note with satisfaction the similarity of color to that of the cardinalatial habit, symbolizing the williness to shed blood for the Faith. 

During the Public Consistory, His Holiness spoke a homily in Italian.  The official text released by the Holy See has this following paragraph.

La Parola di Dio, che poc’anzi è stata proclamata, ci porta indietro nel tempo. Con l’evangelista Marco siamo risaliti all’origine stessa della Chiesa e, in particolare, all’origine del ministero petrino. Con gli occhi del cuore abbiamo rivisto il Signore Gesù, a lode e gloria del quale l’atto che stiamo compiendo è totalmente orientato e dedicato. Egli ci ha detto parole che ci hanno richiamato alla mente la definizione del Romano Pontefice cara a san Gregorio Magno: "Servus servorum Dei". Infatti, Gesù, spiegando ai dodici Apostoli che la loro autorità avrebbe dovuto essere esercitata in modo ben diverso da quello dei "capi delle nazioni", riassume tale modalità nello stile del servizio: "Chi vuol essere grande tra voi si farà vostro servitore (*4V6@<@H); e chi vuol essere il primo tra voi sarà il servo di tutti (*@L8@H)" (Mc 10,43-44). La totale e generosa disponibilità nel servire gli altri è il segno distintivo di chi nella Chiesa è posto in autorità, perché così è stato per il Figlio dell’uomo, il quale non venne "per essere servito, ma per servire e dare la propria vita in riscatto per molti" (Mc 10, 45). Pur essendo Dio, anzi, spinto proprio dalla sua divinità, Egli assunse la forma di servo – "formam servi" -, come mirabilmente si esprime l’inno a Cristo contenuto nella Lettera ai Filippesi (cfr 2,6-7).

I can assure you that the Holy Father did not use an expletives which required deletion.

(This was posted after the paragraph in question was pronounced in public, according to the conditions of the embargo). 

I noticed also that His Holiness mispronounced the last name of His Eminence William Levada when he read his name at the beginning of the consistory (probably because he assimilated it into the Latin he was speaking), but when he thanked him at the beginning of his homily, His Holiness prounounced it correctly. Poor Cardinal Levada will be dealing with this, and other language issues, during his term in Rome.

His Holiness focused in his homily today on the title, "dear to St. Gregory the Great": Servus servorum Dei…. Servant of the servants of God.

This is illuminating in light of the fact that Benedict has dropped another title, that the Patriarch of the West.

There was a recent explanation offered through the Ponitifical Council for Culture about why the title was dropped.

Think about it.  By dropping that title, you bring to bear the focus of many on all of the titles of the Bishop of Rome.  You get people thinking about what they all mean.  This underscores the role of the Petrine Ministry in the Church, which is a deep point of reflection of the present Holy Father.

Titles mean something.

The word "cardinal" comes from Latin for "hinge". These new Cardinals are the "hinge men" or closest collaborators of the Pope.  They also, therefore, must associate themselves more closely now than ever, to the service of the servants of God, even to the shedding of their blood.

And the readings chosen for today gave a dark and even bloody tenor to the ceremony.  The first reading brought to mind the famous moment so many of these older men know so well from the older way of singing Compline.  The reading was from 1 Peter about how the Devil, our Adversary, our Enemy, is like a roaring lion looking for those whom he might devour.  In the Gospel from Mark, they heard the Lord foretell His Passion nd how the discplies were going to drink of that Passion as well.  The Holy Father, ever since his incredible Stations of the Cross last year before his election, has underscored the contrast between God’s ways and the world.  In his New Year message, he spoke of conflicts and those who violate the rights of man.  I believe this Holy Father understands what the stakes are in today’s world. 

COLLECT
Cordibus nostris, quaesumus, Domine,
gratiam tuam benignus infunde,
ut ab humanis semper retrahamur excessibus,
et monitis inhaerere valeamus, te largiente, caelestibus.

This prayer is in the ancient Veronese Sacramentary in the month of December, which was a fast time, of course: Cordibus nostris, quaesumus, domine, benignus infunde, ut sicut ab escis corporalibus temperamus, ita sensos quoque nostros a noxio retrahamus excessu.  In the Gelasian it was given for Tuesday of Lent, which I am not sure.  In the pre-Conciliar Roman Missal a predecessor was found on Friday of Passion Week: Cordibus nostris, quaesumus, Domine, gratiam tuam benignus infunde : ut peccata nostra castigatione voluntaria cohibentes, temporaliter potius maceremur, quam supplices deputemur aeternis.

For inhaereo, which is "to stick in, to stick, hang, or cleave to, to adhere to, inhere in" and it is constructed with the dative.  I like "cleave to", because there is an echo of the spousal relationship of God and His Church in the word.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O Lord, we beg, kindly pour
Your grace into our hearts,
so that we may always be drawn back from human aberrations,
and we may be strong enough, you making it possible, to cleave to heavenly admonishings.

God admonished our First Parents not to eat of the fruit of the tree.  Yet, because of the wiles of the Enemy, they turned their will from God’s command and made the choice to decide their own good and evil.   Now, because of the rupture with God, our intellect and will is gravely wounded, still good, but wounded.  We can still reason to what what is good and right and true by means of the tangle of our minds and through the help of different kinds of authority.  Then our will must make the choice to grasp what is good and right and true.  Our intellect and will need the necessary help of grace.  

All good things come from God.  When we make the choice to grasp hold of those things, God makes our hands strong enough for the grasping.  Together we bring to completion those things He began.  So, God crowns His own works in us, so that they are simultaneously His and ours.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog, Ei-I-Ei-I-OOOO!  OR, I guess, it should really be EUOUAE

I tip my biretta to Argent by the Tiber   o{]:¬)    for the heads up about a fun new blog redolent of Geoffrey Chaucer called Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog.  This is just too fun.  I shall put it in the same folder with the fabulous efforts of Laudator Temporis Acti.  

So far I have learn some Middle English internet abbreviations – VERY useful those!  I also enjoy the Advice Column.  Here is a sample:

Aske Chaucere, parte the firste

Q: My dog is a retriever, but he won’t chase a ball. Every time I throw a toy across the room, he climbs in my lap and licks my face. I know he needs exercise—what do I do?

Pinned To The Floor

A: Ma Cher Pinnede to The Floore,

By my feithe, firste y oght to praise yow for yowre carefulle husbandrie and governance of yowre hounde. Ther arn sundrie folke who fede ther houndes with rosted flessh, or milk and wastel-breed and reken litel of the helthe of the dogges in question. Yowre care maken myne eyes to watre with teres, so like it is unto my love for litel Lowys my sone.

Actuallye, a tale of litel Lowys shal bere the kernel of myn counsel unto yow. This yuletide, y gave hym an astrolabe with instructions written by yowres trulie with muchel care and laboure. But whatte does he opene firste? The XBOX CCCLX thatte my Lorde John of Gaunte gave vnto hym. The astrolabe ys styll in its brighte shinye wrappinge papere.

By thys ensample yow might undirstonde that alle thynges taken aftir ther nature, especialie dogges and litel boyes. And Plinie the Eldre telleth us in booke 8 of historie naturale that houndes do chace the enemies and bestes awaie from ther maistres, and yliche that the hostes of Garamante and of Castabale didde usen armies of dogges, for they arn fierce and bloodie. So yow can see thatte "toyes" are not goinge to do it. Yow nede fynden some animal or enemy for yowre dogge to kille, and thenne he will reallye go atte yt.

Le Vostre G