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

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.