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

Right now (as of 1540 Rome time and 0840 EDT) I have the Z-Cam on.  It is pointed at the Church of St. Agnes "in agone", on the P.za Navona as I write. 

Given the kerfuffle about St. Agnes these days,... well… I thought perhaps you could pray to the great virgin marytr for the people involved while looking at a live shot of her church in Rome, at the place where some traditions have her martyrdom.  The skull of Agnes is in the church you see on the Z-Cam.

The Z-Cam might be looking somewhere else later, but will make sure we get to see Sant’Agnese often in the next days and weeks.

PS: As other choices I have Castel Sant’ Angelo, St. Peter’s, the Gianicolo, Sant’Andrea della Valle, Sant’Ivo with its strange cupola by Borromini, the Pantheon, and the Victor Emanuel monument.  Some of these can over lap.  This all might be more interesting than a shot of my desk while I work, right?

I am still receiving many messages from people upset about the doings at St. Agnes in St. Paul.  People are worried about the changes.  Some are afraid St. Agnes will fall apart.  Really afraid.  Others are angry about Fr. Altier. Really angry.

I have to say that if it weren’t for changes in the past, they wouldn’t have a parish they long to protect now.

Let’s leave aside the fate of Fr. Altier for a while.  Whatever beef he might have with whatever program, or whatever stick might be stuck in whatever craw of the chancery… blah blah blah… Fr. Altier couldn’t stay there at St. Agnes forever, right?  Eventually, he would have to go, even if it was because Death reassigned him with his inevitable scythe.  Priests come and priests go.  In Rome there is a proverb: Morto un papa, se ne fa un altro… A Pope dies, ya’ make another". 

A Catholic parish is no more a fly in amber than Holy Mother Church.

Let’s consider a few things.

When you enter the rectory of St. Agnes parish, there is a line of photos of the former pastors.  There were impressive pastors in that parish and impressive assistants. 

Consider that if Msgr. Alphonse Schladweiler had not left St. Agnes in 1957 to become the first Bishop of New Ulm (thus changing the borders of the Archdiocese), Msgr. Bandas would not have come.  Bandas was a peritus at all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council.  He implemented the liturgical changes mandated by the Holy See as they were written and intended, without experimentation or exaggeration or confusion.  If Msgr. Bandas had not died in office when he did, Msgr. Schuler would not have come.  Msgr. Schuler, a member and officer of international Church music organizations, came to St. Agnes in 1969, on the cusp of the Novus Ordo.  He brought with him an expertise in the Church’s sacred music as well as a spirit of obedience to doing what the Council asked.  He defended the school when the world (and women religious) was freaking out.  If Msgr. Schuler had not stepped down, Fr. Welzbacher would not have come.  Fr. Welzbacher, one of the five truly brilliant men I know, raised preaching to a new level (he must be heard to be believed) and also restructured the school in a time of great challenge.  He integrated his contributions into what others had done before.  The new man coming in and he will leave his stamp.

Moreover, all the men who have been around St. Agnes and who are now priests have gone on to be pastors, teachers, writers, etc., all applying what they gained their to the service of the Church in other ways.  One is now a bishop.  They spent many and happy hours, days, months, years at the parish.  They moved on to new tasks.  Change is necessary.

Years ago I wrote an article on change for the journal Sacred Music. I began that article with a quote from Il Gattopardo (in English The Leopard): "Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi…. If we want everything to remain the way it is, then everything must change".

Over at open book, Amy wrote a piece on my friend of many years and onetime companion of (my American) seminary Fr. Altier.  I want to have a little fun with something she wrote,

"...the parish of St. Agnes in St. Paul, MN, a parish famous among even people who have never been there in the same sense that St. John Cantius of Chicago and Assumption Grotto in Detroit are – well-known for traditional liturgy and fine music."

Respondeo dicendum, it might be better to say, "St. John Cantius and Assumption Grotto are known for liturgy and music in the same sense that St. Agnes is". 

My point is that St. Agnes has been at this a lot longer and, perhaps, with a more ambitious schedule, at least as far as sacred music is concerned. 

I remember occasions when the pastors of both St. John’s and the Grotto came to St. Paul to visit the former pastor of St. Agnes.  They wanted to pick his brains and see how things were done so they could implement programs in their own places.  Keep in mind that I know both the pastors of those wonderful places.  I count them as friends and admire them a great deal.

On a more international note, we had the rector of the famous Brompton Oratory as a visitor to the house I live in here in Rome.  When he learned that I was from Minnesota he asked me if I knew Msgr. Schuler (of St. Agnes).   We exchanged some tales and wound up with the amusing quip that rather than St. Agnes being known as the Brompton of America, Brompton is sometimes called the St. Agnes of England!  Very often here I meet people from all over the world who know about St. Agnes and ask all about it. 

There is nothing wrong with some healthy competition and ribbing, of course.  Here is the important thing to keep in mind: the success of one place takes nothing away from the successes of other places.  When something truly works then everyone benefits.  The more people who do things which work the more people benefit.  The pie is made bigger and more delicious by the wonderful slices we take from it, not smaller or limited.    This applies to many good things by which we nourish our faith.  Even blogs!

On Sunday, as I mentioned elsewhere, the Pope spoke a brief message in Latin to a group of students who had made a trip to Rome.  I transcribed what he said.  Here is the text and a short audio clip.

Laetamur Collegii Corderii discipulos magistrumque Romam advenisse;  Quos salutare volumus, eiusdem (eosdem ?) simul adhortantes ut per Latinum sermonem pristinae sapientiae thesauros copiose attingant.

 

Nice!

Monday of the 5th Week of Easter

COLLECT:
Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis,
da populis tuis id amare quod praecipis,
id desiderare quod promittis,
ut, inter mundanas varietates,
ibi nostra fixa sint corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia.

This prayers is same as the Collect for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time and also in the 1962MR on the Fourth Sunday after Easter.  In the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary you find it on the Third Sunday after the close of Easter. 

All those long "eeee" sounds produced by the Latin letter i are marvelous. Note the nice parallels: id amare quod praecipis, id desiderare quod promittis as well as ibi…sint corda and ubi…sunt gaudia.  In the first line the genitives unius…voluntatis are elegantly split by the verb efficis.  A master made this prayer.

The pages of our opportunely situated Lewis & Short Dictionary divulge that varietas means “difference, diversity, variety.”  It is commonly used to indicate “changeableness, fickleness, inconstancy.”  I like “vicissitude.”  The adjective mundanus, a, um, “of or belonging to the world”, must be teased out in a paraphrase.  Efficio (formed from facio) means, “to make out, work out; hence, to bring to pass, to effect, execute, complete, accomplish, make, form”.   Voluntas means basically “will” but it can also mean things like “freewill, wish, choice, desire, inclination” and even “disposition towards a thing or person”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, You who make the minds of the faithful to be of one will,
grant unto Your people to love that thing which You command,
to desire that which You promise,
so that, amidst the vicissitudes of this world,
our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are.

Let us revisit that id…quod construction. We could simply say “love that which you command,” or “love what you command”, but to me that seems vague and generic.  Of course, we must love everything God commands, but the feeling I get from that id…quod is closer to what the Anglican version expresses: “love the thing which you command… desire the thing which you promise.”  This seems more concrete.  

We love and desire God’s will in the concrete situation, this concrete task.  A challenge of living as a good Christian in “the world” is to love God in the details of life, especially when those details little to our liking.  We must love him in this beggar, this annoying creep, not in beggars or creeps in general.  We must love him in this act of fasting, not in fasting in general.  This basket of laundry, this paperwork, this ICEL translation…. Hmmm…, didn’t I say it was a challenge?  God’s will must not be reduced to something abstract, as if it is merely a “heavenly” or “ideal” reality. “Thy will (voluntas) be done on earth as it is in heaven.”