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

Lightning storn tonight. Lot’s of branch lightning. Hard to predict, but I caught a little.

Meanwhile, back at the Sabine farm...

Here is a detail showing the Risen Lord of one of my vestments in the chapel.

From the same vestment…. can you read what this says?

COLLECT:
Ecclesiae tuae, misericors Deus, concede propitius,
ut, Sancto Spiritu congregata, toto sit corde tibi devota,
et pura voluntate concordat.

Our masterly Lewis & Short Dictionary helps us dig into concordo, at the heart of which is “heart…cor”.  We find in the first place that it means, “to agree together, to be united, be of one mind, to harmonize”.  Then also it has the transitive meaning of “to bring into union”.  Blaise/Chirat has pretty much the same.  I rather like that transitive meaning here, though I am interested to know what you all might come up with.

LITERAL VERSION:
O merciful God, propitiously grant to Your Church
that, having been gathered by the Holy Spirit, in whole heart devoted to You,
may with a pure will be brought into harmony.

Herein we continue our ecclesial and collective preparation for the liturgical re-descent of the Holy Spirit next Sunday.

Notice the progression of thought:

1) God the Father shows merciful
2) God the Holy Spirit gathers
3) heart
4) will

There is a dynamic tension and interplay always going on between the intellective and the affective dimensions of our faith and life.  The God of mercy creates us according to his image.  Thus we can know, will and love.  Since we are not angels there is a process and interplay between the intellect and the will in every human act of knowing of decision and of action.  In the longer span of our lives we also have an overarching tension and interplay between what we know with our head, feel with out heart and choose with our will.  Faith, considered from our perspective, itself comes from both the motion of the heart and the reflection of the intellect.  Faith considered from another perspective, however, is a theological virtue, a grace which God gives us.   Faith must also be considered in itself.  There is a faith in which we believe (that content of the faith we learn and can assent to) and a faith by which we believe (which is the aforementioned grace with which we cooperate).  Deeper yet, the content of the faith is a person, indeed a Divine Person with whom we can and must have a relationship of love, to whom we express ourselves and to whom we come with active receptivity.  You cannot have a relationship of love with an abstraction or a formula our learn by heart.

Each of us have the challenge to get things into harmony, our heart with our intellect, our person with our neighbors, ourselves with our God.  The Holy Spirit, as St. Augustine and others described, is the perfect love between the Father and the Son, and as perfect love, as perfect self-gift of the One to the Other, has all that the Persons have in perfection, including divinity and personhood.   The relation of the Persons of the Trinity, in whose image we are made, mysterious as it is, must be a constant point of our reflection as we strive to bring into harmony all the different dimensions of our lives.  For Augustine, the search and contemplation of the Trinity conforms us to the image of God by thinking of him and loving him.   For Augustine, there are stages of this search and conversion

1) credere Deo ... to believe by means of God
2) credere Deum ... to believe God
3) credere in Deum ... to believe in God
4) credendo in Deum ire ... to go on by believing in God

Augustine was deeply, passionately, fiercely interested in love.  Often and appropriately he is depicted with a burning heart.  For Augustine, belief and love were intertwined.  He described love as a gravitational force pulling us to where we by nature belong.  Some people think the old man was a terrible pessimist about the human condition, especially as he got older, was worn down by constant theological battles and pastoral burdens and deteriorating health.  If he saw the negative side of the human condition, he knew with absolute conviction that love was its solution.  This conviction grew as the years passed.  The great Augustinian scholar A.-M. La Bonnardiere found that between 387-429, Augustine (+430) quoted Romans 5:5 at least 201 times.  Augustine rarely used Romans 5:5 before 411 (the year Rome was sacked by Alaric).  Romans 5:5 is found more frequently between 411-421 when he was fighting with Pelagians about grace.  Many references continue from 421 until his death while he was engaged in his bitter fight with the bête noir of his old age Julian of Eclanum.

What is Romans 5:5?

…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, (v. 5) and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. <supportLineBreakNewLine]—>

Over at the fine Catholic World News (which you ought to subscribe to if you don’t already) there is a very good story on WDTPRS’s favorite Joseph Card. Zen of Hong Kong.   Go read the article.  However, here is an excerpt (emphasis mine):

Questioned about the three bishops who were ordained for the "official" Catholic Church in China earlier this month, without the consent of the Vatican, Cardinal Zen said that he did not think the government was reacting against Pope Benedict’s decision to make him a cardinal. Such a reaction, he said, would be "disproportionate."

The real purpose of defying the Vatican, the Chinese cardinal suggested, was the government’s desire to test the Catholic Church, and to impose its own authority. "Personally, I think it was a test of strength," he said.

Cardinal Zen explained that the government is worried by the loyalty that Chinese Catholics have toward the Holy See. He pointed out that "85% of the bishops of the ‘official’ Church have asked for and obtained recognition from Rome." Hoping to weaken those bonds, the government has installed its own favored clergymen as bishops in the illicit ceremonies earlier in May. The cardinal added that "unjust pressures" were placed on Catholics to participate in the ordination ceremonies and recognize the authority of the government-appointed bishops. Many Catholics, he said, "did not have a lot of choice."

Do you remember that just after the illicit consecrations a few weeks ago I posted here:

In reaction to the consecrations (and probably a lot more beside) Card. Zen said dialogue "cannot continue because people will think we are prepared to surrender".

"We cannot budge. When you brutally place such a fait accompli, how can you call this dialogue?"

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about China and made the point that the only way to deal realistically with situation of the Church is to approach it with strength, rather than simple accomodation.  Pope Benedict has lately made strong statements about reciprocity.  He seems to be moving quickly away from an attitude of appeasement, which perhaps characterized certain dimensions of the Holy See’s relations with nations and separated Churches.

All Hail the Great Zen, who is a perspicacious player in this intricate game of Catholic Chinese Chess.