Monthly Archives: April 2006

EXCERPT:
The Latin prayer has a repetition of “joy” words (exsultantis…gaudii…laetitiae) which build in a crescendo. The lame duck ICEL prayer gives us a single, albeit perfect “joy”. To my mind, the Latin prayer gives the impression of something ever more to come.

Between God and man there will always be an infinite difference. Even after our bodily resurrection and (hopefully) admission to the Beatific Vision, our joy will never have an end or even a climax. In heaven we will see God “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). Nevertheless, there will always be something new to discover about God. Forever we will be able to find in Him something new and beautiful to contemplate. We will never get to the bottom of God. Therefore, our joy in knowing Him and loving Him will build without ending for all eternity, never decreasing, never failing or slowing. Our heavenly joy will never be “perfected” in the sense of being brought to completion so that it needs nothing else. Our joy will be “perfected” in the sense that we will have finally found the perfect object of consideration and the perfect motive for happiness.
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EXCERPT:
Some of you are probably thinking, “Okay, Father, you have gone too far this time in making that connection.” Have I? I admit that we must always be careful in making our connections and avoid getting too creative, going too far afield. But, since I am writing a column and not actually making the official translation I suppose I allow myself some real latitude. After all, these articles are meant to draw you in, help you to love the prayers and pray them with full, active and conscious participation. Be that as it may, our prayers and especially the prayers having ancient roots, Christian as they undoubtedly are, all spring forth from a vast heritage formed and permeated in great part by two thousand years of Latin literature and culture. In previous centuries, people made rapid connections between texts, sometimes needing only a few words to provide the hook, sometimes requiring only a single unusual or surprisingly placed word. In the pages of Scripture we hear Our Lord constantly make allusions to the psalms and Prophets and His listeners caught those allusions immediately. Oral/aural cultures were and are better at that than we are today in modern Western society. So, the use of the word adoptionis together with exsultet would be sufficient for Latin speakers to make the connection between the prayers. Continue reading →

EXCERPT:
For a true revival of any of these great liturgical arts to take place, the first great “art” that must be resurrected is the language of the Mass. We need far more Latin in the Latin Rite and we need truly beautiful and accurate translations. If we want new and grand forms of artistry for use in the liturgy, then we need language that reflects the reality of what the Church believes about the Mass. If we want vestments that look better than horse blankets or 1960 couch covers, buildings that don’t instantly remind you of juvenile detention centers, movie houses or bomb shelters, music that doesn’t cause you instantly to crave Campbell’s Soup or reruns of Gilligan’s Island, then the most fundamental element – the language – must change. Continue reading →

EXCERPT:
Where the Latin prayer has a repetition of concepts of joy (exsultantis…gaudii…laetitiae) which build in a kind of in a seemingly unending crescendo even through the eternal ages of heaven, our ICEL contribution gives us a single “joy” which is perfected. Since between God and man there will always be an infinite difference, even after the resurrection and we are admitted to the Beatific Vision, there will never be an ending, a final climax, of our joy. In heaven we will see God face to face. There will always, for eternity, be something new about Him to discover, something beautiful to contemplate. We will never get to the bottom of God. Our joy in knowing Him and loving Him will build without ending for all eternity, never decreasing, never failing or slowing, never being perfect in the sense of being brought to completion so that it needs nothing else. Our joy will perfected in the sense that we have finally found the perfect subject of consideration and the perfect motive for happiness. But our joy will not thus be brought to a pinnacle and then be forever without additional perfection. While the Latin prayer leaves me with a sense of ever more to come, the ICEL prayer does not. Continue reading →

EXCERPT:
Another thing that might be worth mentioning is a possible connection between the theme of restored “youth” and the Psalm that the priest would say always at the beginning of Mass: Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat iuventutem meam…. “I will go unto the altar of God, of God who makes my youth joyful.” In baptism we are made members of Christ’s own mystical Person. While there is a clear qualitative distinction between the priesthood of the ordained priest and that of the baptized laity, this idea of youthful and renewed priesthood is part of our Easter joy. All of us, ordained and lay, each in our own way must in the manner of a priest offer our spiritual sacrifices to the Father, uniting them to those of Jesus our High Priest. In Him, we therefore already share that eternally youthful life that will never age. We will one day be risen and glorious, with glorified bodies that will not know age or deficiency and will reflect the beauty of the purified soul. Easter and indeed our own baptism anticipate this glory. I do not think I would have eliminated the concept of glory from the English translation. Continue reading →