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

Rumors are flying around that the Pope signed a document authorizing wider use of the older, "Traditional" Mass, the so-called "Tridentine" Mass in the 1962 edition of the Missale Romanum (the last edition before the Council began).

I don’t know (yet) if these rumors are true and some of my usual sources are a little coy at the moment, which leads me to think that something is up.  What, however, we won’t know for a while.

On one site called Archvium Liturgicum we read this:

NUNTIO VOBIS GAUDIUM MAGNUM: HABEMUS MISSAM

My trans:

I announce to you a great joy: we have the Mass

"According to authoritative sources, His Holiness of Our Lord, Benedict XVI, now happily reigning, signed a Decree yesterday by which he concedes a wide freedom in the celebration of the Tridentine liturgy.  The terms of these concessions are not yet known, but it seems that they are a prelude to a reconciliation with the members of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X."

So, Rorate Caeli posts a link to a ACPRESNA story in Spanish which Rorate translated as (not my trans. but my emphasis):

VATICAN - March 30, 2006 (ACI) – The Missal of Saint Pius V, which the Catholic Church used up to 1962 and which was replaced by the "Novus Ordo" (New Order) liturgy approved as a consequence of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, could be approved for universal use, according to sources close to the Vatican.

The decision, regarding which Pope Benedict XVI consulted with the cardinals and with the heads of the Vatican dicasteries, could be announced after the April 7 meeting of the Pontiff with the "capidicasterio" [Heads of dicasteries].
...
The universal approval would mean that the old rite Mass may be freely celebrated throughout the world by the priests who wish to do so.

The measure is not directly related to the problem of the Lefebvrist schism, for, as a theologian, the Pontiff always expressed his wish to recover this liturgy.

ACIPRENSA is not wholly reliable, but this is interesting.

As I have said many times in the last few years, I will believe it when I see it.

COLLECT
Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine,
tuae miserationis operatio,
quia tibi sine te placere non possumus.

In the pre-Conciliar Roman Missal this was the Collect of the 18^th Sunday after Pentecost.  It had an ancient source in the Gelasianum and the Tridentinum.  For a change, The Redactors, didn’t mess around with this prayer.  Then again, there isn’t much to mess around with, is there?   This is as simple as yesterday’s was complicated.  Perhaps The Redactors chose one that was really easy for today because they were still trying to figure out what yesterday’s prayer meant.  Be that as it may…

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O Lord, we beg You, may the working of Your mercy
direct our hearts,
for we cannot please You without You.

Given the intricacy and depth of some of the prayers of the Lenten weekdays, this is startlingly stark.  We have to conclude, I think, that it was chosen from our of the prayers for the Season of Pentecost for insertion into Lent because of its vocabulary, pointing to the themes The Redactors decided were important for us.  We see a reprise of vocabulary of the heart and of direction and guiding.

In earlier contributions to this Lenten WDTPRS series, I have mentioned St. Augustine of Hippo’s great insight that God crowns His own merits in us.  Surely that is what is at work in today’s prayer.

AN OLD HANDMISSAL VERSION FROM SOMEWHERE ONLINE
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord,
that the operation of thy mercy may direct our hearts,
forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee.

This is what you would have heard… or rathyr, hearde of yore in the

1549 Book of Common Prayer
O GOD,
for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee;
Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges
directe and rule our heartes;
Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

I rather, er um, rathyr lyke the way they turnéd downe syde up the ourdre of thynges. 

Would that we might be able to have prayers like this in the new translation!

Since ICEL got to make up prayers higgeldy piggelty, so can we.  Here is another addition, animi causa, to our distinguished collection, namely…  

A MOCKING LAME DUCK ICELESE VERSION
God,
you are nice.
Be nice and help us love.

I think this get’s to the essence of what the old ICEL "translators" gleaned from the Latin originals, don’t you?  After all, it expresses our need for the sacrament of niceness, which is the heart and soul of the old ICEL versions and the now cliché theology behind them.  And don’t forget to look into everyone’s eyes at Mass, er… liturgy.  As we were taught in seminary (and I am not making this up) when "community" goes forward for "bread" the sacrament takes place when you look into each other’s eyes.

The folks at the wonderful Astronomy Pic of the Day have made an amazing discovery.  The Moon’s Expiration Date!  You can see it in a crater toward the lower right.

Apparently,

" Using the new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to confirm that the Moon is made of green cheese. The telling clue was the resolution of a marked date after which the Moon may go bad. Controversy still exists, however, over whether the date resolved is truly an expiration date or just a "sell by" date. "To be cautious, we should completely devour the Moon by tomorrow," a spokesperson advised.  ... "