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

Did you know that today is the titular feast of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome?

"But Father! But Father", I can hear you objecting. "Don’t you know that that basilica is called ‘St. John‘? How can the Transfiguration of the Lord be the titular feast?"

Glad you asked. The real name of the Lateran Basilica is the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior, St. John Baptist and St. John the Evangelist at the Lateran. So, for a titular feast you really need a feast of the Lord.

While today is the main day for the basilica, they do make much over the two saints John as well. I do too. For my "onomastico", as the Italians call it, or "name day" I claim both the Baptist and the evangelist. That way I get two says in the summer (don’t forget the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist) and one in the winter.

And let us not forget that the Lateran Basilica is a Major Patriarchal Basilica. There are lots of minor basilicas in Rome and throughout the world There are five Patriarchal Basilicas in Rome to go with the five ancient patriarchal sees, four major patriarchal basilicas and one minor. How did that happen? The patriarchs always were allocated (symbolically) a basilica in Rome, thus Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, had St. Peter’s in the Vatican, St. Paul’s outside the walls, and St. Mary Major. When Jerusalem was added as a patriarchate it was assigned St. Lawrence outside the walls, though it remained a minor basilica.

The Bishop of Rome as Patriarch of the West had the Lateran Basilica obviously. And he still does, even though the Pope seems to have dropped the title of Patriarch of the West (remember that?). Interesting move that. And now some of the Orthodox are irritated that the Pope dropped the title.

I opined a long time ago that by dropping the title the Pope might be signalling that he is not patriarch of the West ONLY, but patriarch of pretty much everywhere (except for outer space, which I think belongs to someone else whom I shall not name).

Anyway, this is the titular feast of the Lateran Basilica.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003

I have been getting a good deal e-mail from you all these days, and less of your conventional or “snail” mail. I assume that some letters may be piling up in the office of The Wanderer. Be patient. Also, if you are writing, keep in mind that the paper goes to press on Thursdays: I need to have things prepared in advance.

TF of IL writes via e-mail: “I am writing to thank you for your fine column in the recent issue of the Wanderer. As a classical philologist who attends a Tridentine Mass, with the blessing (the) Bishop…, I have thought that a Latin column is exactly what traditional Catholics need these days.” Great minds think alike TF. Thanks for the feedback. CGZ of KY writes: “In the last few years I have had friends who subscribe to the Wanderer provide me with copies. I have greatly enjoyed reading your column, and have come to a deeper understanding of my faith and the immense task ahead of those of us who are musicians serving in the Church. I look forward to getting greater access to your column even though I have moved away from those friends who supported my growth with copies of the Wanderer.” CGZ thanks. As I have said before, “The most important goal of this series, however, is to inspire a greater love of the riches presented to us by Holy Mother Church in our beautiful sacred liturgy, both in Latin and in English.” I also want hereby to inspire you the readers to support in the positive ways of prayer and concrete encouragement the bishops and others who are responsible for preparing the new English translations of the liturgical books in use today. Also, may I make a suggestion, CGZ? How about subscribing to The Wanderer? That way you not only do you a) not have to depend on other people giving it to you, but you can also b) support the continuation of the paper (and thus the column) and c) spread the joy to others (read: gift subscriptions). For a weekly newspaper The Wanderer is very affordable. I can’t tell you how many people write to say that they get it from someone else, take a copy from church, etc. I respond saying that, if you want The Wanderer you must all support it – just like anything else.

JS writes, via e-mail: “I have a Latin question. What does "P.P." stand for with the papal signature; Ioannes Pavlvs p.p. II?” This is an abbreviation for the word “Papa” which means “Pope”. Thus, on documents which the Holy Father signs and in inscriptions from the past that you might read on the buildings and fountains of Rome you may see this “PP”. Effectively it means, “John Paul, the second Pope of that name”.

Speaking of the walls and fountains of Rome, from time to time (both in the interactive Forum I moderate on the internet and also through your e-mails) I receive requests or hints about my leading a pilgrimage to Rome. A pilgrimage is something that might be arranged if enough people express concrete interest. Such a pilgrimage would involve daily Mass in Latin (newer and older rites), visits to the major basilicas, churches, and other monumental sites with an explanation of their history and the art within them, a daily spiritual conference, confessions, time to sit at a café on a piazza and sip some wine, a papal audience, and a plate or two of spaghetti…. Be prepared a) not to see everything there is to see, b) to spend money, c) and to walk… a lot. Perhaps you might drop a line to The Wanderer if you are interested. That will provide an indication of whether or not we should pursue a trip for small groups. It is one thing to dream or imagine and quite another to make it work.

POST COMMUNIONEM
LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
Quos caelesti recreas munere,
perpetuo, Domine, comitare praesidio,
et, quos fovere non desinis,
dignos fieri sempiterna redemptione concede.

In the 1962MR, in the section Orationes diversae, this was the Postcommunio of the Mass no. 6, “for Prelates and the Congregations committed to them”. In other words it was one of a set of prayers that could be added in addition to those of votive or other Mass being celebrated. It might seem strange to those habituated to the Novus Ordo and the present anti-Roman attitudes of many in the “American Church” to be praying for the men who work in the Roman Curia, but that is what these prayers are for. As a matter of fact, in these WDTPRS columns I have often asked for you to pray for those preparing the new liturgical translations. That would include officials of the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith and of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. It is interesting, therefore, to reflect on this prayer now in light of the placement it had for so long.

In our weekly (daily?) ritual we open the cover of the colossal Lewis & Short Dictionary in search of insight into the vocabulary and thus what the prayer really says. We begin with the verb recreo which means, “to make or create anew, to remake, reproduce, restore, renew” and it applies to both mind and body. Thus we have the word “recreation”, the restorative activity such as play, which restores Jack when he is in danger of becoming a “dull boy”, as the proverb has it. L&S indictes it is like reparo and reficio (from reficio there derives the word “refectory”, a place where meals are taken in seminaries and religious houses). Recreo is used poetically by authors such as Sedulius and Paulinus of Nola for the renewal or transformation of baptism. This makes sense, given that this verb is a composite: re-creo, creo meaning “to create”. In baptism we are “re-created” as the new creations of which Christ is the first fruit. Recreo is clearly connected to eating in Latin, as far back as the rather wild and popular playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (+ c. 184 B.C.) who gave us through the mouth of the character Peniculus: illic homo homines non alit, verum educat / recreatque ... he does not merely feed men, but fattens and transforms them (by much eating)” (Menaechmi – “The Twins”: 1, 1, 23).— Indeed, at the risk of seeming irreverent (for the comic plays of Plautus are decidedly not virtuous in most respects) the monologue of Peniculus is not without application to approach to Holy Mass:

The people who bind captives with chains, and who put fetters upon runaway slaves, act very foolishly, in my opinion at least. For if bad usage is added to his misfortune for a wretched man, the greater is his inclination to run away and to do amiss. For by some means or other do they release themselves from the chains; while thus fettered, they either wear away a link with a file, or else with a stone they knock out the nail; ‘tis a mere trifle this. He whom you wish to keep securely that he may not run away, with meat and with drink ought he to be chained; do you bind down the mouth of a man to a full table. So long as you give him what to eat and what to drink at his own pleasure in abundance every day, i’ faith he’ll never run away, even if he has committed an offence that’s capital; easily will you secure him so long as you shall bind him with such chains. So very supple are these chains of food, the more you stretch them so much the more tightly do they bind. But now I’m going directly to Menaechmus; whither for this long time I have been sentenced, thither of my own accord I am going, that he may enchain me. For, by my troth, this man does not just nourish people, but he quite rears and reinvigorates them; no one administers medicine more agreeably. (adapted trans. by Henry Thomas Riley).

Consider how, when we come to realize what food for body and soul we have in the sacred sacrificial banquet of Holy Mass, how the devout servant and loving disciple of Jesus, freed from the chains of sin, will be ever more and more chained to his Table with longing and in gratitude for the Lord’s own generosity. We are not merely fed by Christ. We are reared and nourished. When we go directly to Him in the Eucharist, we are quite “remade”.

Praesidium is a “a presiding over; hence, defense, protection, help, aid, assistance; especially of soldiers who are to serve as a guard, garrison, escort, or convoy”. Think of the Presidio of San Francisco in California. It is thus by extension “aid, help, assistance of any kind”. In our Latin liturgical heritage we Catholics sing the very ancient hymn, coming from the time of terrible persecution of the Church “Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix... Under your protection we fly, O Holy Mother of God….” Comitor (comito) means “to accompany, attend, follow”. The word we find here, comitare is the imperative of the deponent verb, which is passive in form and active in meaning.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Accompany, O Lord, with your continual protection,
those whom you have refreshed by this heavenly gift,
and grant that those whom You do not cease to cherish,
may become worthy of eternal redemption.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
you give us the strength of new life
by the gift of the eucharist.
Protect us with your love
and prepare us for eternal redemption.

One can make a few quick observations about the differences between these versions. First, the use of “protection” (praesidium) suggests that there is something hostile out their while “strength of new life” does not. “Protect” is included later in the ICEL version while the Latin brings it in immediately. A “heavenly gift” (which is the Eucharist we have just consumed) blends into the prayer a vertical emphasis (a divine dimension) while ICEL’s “gift of the eucharist” may admit a more horizontal (human) view of what happens at Mass. While in the Latin God does “not cease to cherish” us communicants and participants at Mass, there is no emphasis on the unceasing love of God in the ICEL version. ICEL says “prepare us” for redemption while the Latin asks God to make us “worthy” in an ongoing way (dignos fieri) implying a degree of manifest humility before the great mystery and gift of the Eucharist. Also, “may become worthy” (which we beg God to “grant”) hints at our role in the process while the ICEL “prepare us” seems to leave the process entirely to God. That is a bit of a change, since one often picks up hints of nearly Pelagian self-reliance in the ICEL versions. Also, note that in the Latin prayer, the priest is clearly speaking in his role of mediator. While the priest is clearly included in the group for whom he is praying, it is almost as if he is alone, speaking intimately with God for the people present and absent. The ICEL version, though it can be read in the same way, strikes me as more egalitarian by the priest using a general “us”.

Our Latin prayer for today conveys a deep sense of total reliance on Almighty God. We need His protection as we face the vicissitudes of life. We know that the Enemy prowls, seeking to devour us (cf. 1 Peter 5:8). If we are honest, we see our present defects and remember our past delicts. With the knowledge that only the pure will see God in His heavenly City, of which our Church is a shadow (cf. Rev 21:27). We are shaped and readied for this reward through grace and elbow grease. God prepares us in His own ways. He also makes us capable of fulfilling our own part, according to our will and intellect by which we shape our words, deeds and that dimension of our spiritual landscape that we command. Through all the challenges this earthly journey brings, the Eucharist is the concrete demonstration that, while there is breath in our bodies, God never ceases to cherish each one of us.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2002

It is time again for some of your feedback. RG of IA writes via snail-mail: “I’m sending this via “snail-mail”, as you referred to the time-honored postal system in your July 4 column. This subtle (albeit trite) reference causes continued financial stress for my son. He is a rural mail carrier for the U.S. Poster System…. Mail box bombs, anthrax scares, and 110 miles of gravel roads are burdens enough.” RG… I fully accept your expression of concern for your son. I would respond to what you wrote. First, the epithet “snail-mail” did not originate with me or my columns: this term has been around for a long time. Also, I sincerely do not think that “snail-mail” is derogatory. Considering the speed of electronic mail, or e-mail, everything else other than telepathy or divine locutions, move pretty slowly. Second, I have a high sense of admiration for the efforts of letter carriers. This is an ancient and honorable profession. The ancient Romans made great use of the services of the tabellarius who also made his appointed rounds. Third, it is interesting to see how the methods of communication in our modern world are simultaneously reflecting who we are and how we talk to each other as well as shaping the same. There is a great deal to be said for the written word… written in the sense of ink on paper or incisions on surfaces. There is something elegant and personal about the material offerings of written words. The pre-recorded “You have mail” file on your computer may amuse, but it cannot satisfy the sense like the sight and feeling of the cool and smooth written envelope, with its stamps, return address, and extension in space as it is held in the hand. At any rate, RG, there is nothing derogatory about the term “snail-mail.”
We continue this week in our project to inspire you to write elegantly crafted “snail-mail” to the members of the Vox Clara (VC) committee established to work with the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) and ICEL in the rapid and proper development of new English language liturgical translations as well as revision of existing translations according to the norms established in the CDW’s document Liturgiam authenticam (LA). We should be willing to express encouragement concerning their challenging work. Here is the next pair of addresses, which bring us now to a total of 6 of the 12.

His Excellency
Most Reverend Justin F. Rigali
Archbishop of St. Louis
4445 Lindell Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63108-2497 USA
(Website: http://www.archstl.org)

His Excellency
Most Reverend Oscar H. Lipscomb
Archbishop of Mobile
P.O. Box 1966
400 Government St.
Mobile, AL 36633 USA
(Website: http://rcamobile.org/)

Be sure to keep your letter brief and kind, reassuring the bishop of your prayers and hopes for improved and faithful translations. We must always be keenly aware of the extremely difficult vocation that bishops are charged with. Do not seek to contribute to their burden by bitterness in this important matter: be positive and hopeful.

SUPER OBLATA:
LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
Propitius, Domine, quaesumus, haec dona sanctifica,
et, hostiae spiritalis oblatione suscepta,
nosmetipsos tibi perfice munus aeternum.

This week’s Super Oblata prayer, called also the “Prayer over the gifts”, was in the 1962MR as the secret of Monday within the Octave of Pentecost. Take note, Latin students, of the ablative absolute hostiae spiritalis oblatione suscepta.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
In your mercy, we beseech you, O Lord, sanctify these gifts
and, as the offering of this spiritual sacrifice is received,
perfect us ourselves into an eternal offering worthy of you.

You might remember that we something quite similar not too long ago in the super oblata of Trinity Sunday (which is very close to the traditional Roman calendar’s Monday in the Octave of Pentecost): Sanctifica, quaesumus, Domine Deus noster, per tui nominis invocationem, haec munera nostrae servitutis, et per ea nosmetipsos tibi perfice munus aeternum.

Most of the vocabulary of this prayer is straightforward and common in liturgical contexts. We might review, through our consultation of the never-dusty Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary, the finer points of perfice which is an imperative of perficio. Perficio, perfeci, perfectum is the source of the English word “perfect”. It means fundamentally, “to achieve, execute, carry out, accomplish, perform, dispatch, bring to an end or conclusion, finish, complete.” Thus it is “to make perfect’ and also “to bring about, to cause, effect; with ut.” Having an imperative form in the prayer, it means “to achieve, execute, carry out, accomplish, perform, dispatch, bring to an end or conclusion, finish, complete.” While it is acceptable for us to say “make us an eternal offering” it would be nice to bring along more of the impact of perficio’s “completing” and “perfecting” sense. In a way, that nosmetipsos emphasizes this. The enclitic –met can be added to pronouns for a measure of emphasis: nosmet: “we ourselves”.

The vocabulary of this prayer reminds me of a passage in the New Testament:

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. (domus spiritalis sacerdotium sanctum offerre spiritales hostias acceptabiles Deo per Iesum Christum) 1 Peter 2:1-5

 

This passage is found in the context of a series of imperatives presented to Christians for the sake of their new life and new identity. The first imperative (1 Peter 1:13) is a command to live in hope of the coming of Christ. The second (v. 15) is to live a holy life in the midst of the world. The third (v. 17) is for the Christian to have the proper fear of God rather than of prevailing things of the world. The fourth (v. 22) is that is proper love of others. The fifth (1 Peter 2:1-10) concerns how we are to long for spiritual nourishment so that we can mature in our Christian lives and vocations. We find here images of human growth, as in infants being fed on milk so they can grow into adulthood, and the building up of a dwelling… and not just a dwelling, but a “spiritual dwelling/house”, or a “temple”, and thence into a priesthood. This is a fundamental element of Christian life: it stresses the communal dimension so critical to authentic Christianity as opposed to the “me and Jesus” attitude of some evangelical and fundamentalist “Bible Christians”. Though all these images of our passage are simultaneously express different angles of the same body of Christ, the Church, we see a logical movement from growth as an individual (infant) to a community (temples are for groups, not merely individuals) into a priesthood (integrating the action of the community of Persons, the Trinity).

His Eminence Josef Card. Ratzinger, in his wonderful book A New Song For The Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today (Crossroad Publishing Company, 1996) presents a reflection on the imagery of “living stones” which, though applied in his book mainly to seminary formation and priesthood, nevertheless is applicable to every Catholic in every walk of life, particularly today. His Eminence writes:

The goal is the house; what precedes it are the stones – living stones in the case of a living house. The fact that our verse talks about building in the passive voice is part of this: Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house. Our thirst for action requires that we translate such words without exception into the active voice: Let us build the kingdom of God, the Church, new society, and so forth. The New Testament sees our role differently. The construction manager is God or the Holy Spirit. We are the stones – for us building means being built. An old liturgical hymn for the construction of a church describes this graphically; it speaks of the blows of the curative chisel, the thorough treatment with the master’s hammer, and the right assembly of the pieces through which the blocks of stone finally grow together into the great building of Jerusalem. This touches on something very important: building means to be built. If we want to become a house, we – each and every one of us – must accept the fate of being cut and carved. (pp. 163-164)

 

Perhaps we can hear our prayer now and hear some new things. First, given our current contemporary context wherein we are awaiting the preparation of new and better liturgical translations, we Catholics yearn for good and rich nourishment so that we, as individuals and as a Church, can deepen our relationship with Christ and thereby make our proper contributions to the world around us. In the liturgy we receive “pure, spiritual milk” and more. Personally, I want more than the non-fat or 2% we have been given so far in our translations. Second, no matter what we think of the translations, we are still receiving an inestimable gift in Holy Mass. We ought to strive to live up to what Christ Himself imposes on us all: “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled and then come offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)

We must offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”

“If we want to become a house, we – each and every one of us – must accept the fate of being cut and carved.”

ICEL:
Merciful Lord,
make holy these gifts,
and let our spiritual sacrifice
make us an everlasting gift to you.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

I had a nice e-note from FW. “Dear Father Zuhlsdorf, my wife and I enjoy your column in The Wanderer. We have tried locally to obtain the Lewis and Short Dictionary (L&S) – you so often refer to – but have had no success. Could you recommend a possible source or two we could contact. We would happily consider a used copy hopefully in usable condition. Thank you for your guidance and suggestions.” The full title is A Latin Dictionary Founded on Andrew’s Edition of Freund’s Latin Dictionary by Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short and William Freund. Oxford University Press, (Revised edition) 1979. The ISBN is 0198642016. I saw on the Amazon.com site that (at the time of this writing) it is selling for $195 new and there are used copies for $165. Alibris.com is comparable. Don’t confuse the L&S with the excellent but rather more narrowly focused Oxford Latin Dictionary edited by P.G.W. Glare.

Good constructive criticism came by e-pistle from DMS (edited): “I love your column in The Wanderer. The depth you draw out of the prayers clearly shows our current poverty. Makes me wish I had had a much better second-year Latin teacher back in ‘63-’64. My only gripe with your work is a relatively minor irritation, a change of persons that came up again in the issue of July 7. Translating Deus, qui errantibus…veritatis tuae lumen ostendis, you have ‘O God, who does show…’ This always grates on my ears. Seems like it should be, ‘O God, (You) who do show…’, or ‘O God, (You) who show…’, the You being understood. Any comment?” Sure, DMS. I made a pretty awful mistake there and I am glad you caught it! That was probably the relic of a redaction that I didn’t catch. This brings up a good point. When we translate what is normally called the Latin “present” tense, or what is perhaps better called “contemporary” tense, we can use various ways to do it. For example, for bibo we can say, “I drink / I am drinking / I do drink”; for bibis “You drink / You are drinking / You do drink”; for bibit, “He drinks / He is drinking / He does drink”. You can all now see the mistake I made. DMS is surely not the only one who noticed this. I am happy to grovel publicly like this to make a point. If we want an improvement over the ghastly translations we are now enduring, if we want the Holy See and ICEL to correct past mistakes, then I ought to be the first to take corrections when my errors are pointed out.

Here is a quick tip for writing to me by e-mail. Be sure to put something like “WDTPRS” in the subject line, or some other pertinent eye-catching phrase. Otherwise, if you leave the subject line blank or put something generic like “Hi!” or vague like “I have a question”, your message will more than likely be deleted by my e-mail filters or my own “Delete” button stabbing finger. I get lots of junk e-mail, so my defenses are pretty stringent. If you write by snail-mail, while the kind folks in the office of The Wanderer periodically forward your missives, I wouldn’t want to miss your feedback. In addition to addressing it to me c/o The Wanderer, you might judiciously add a “Attention: Fr. Z” elsewhere on the front of the envelope.

COLLECT - (2002MR):
Adesto, Domine, famulis tuis,
et perpetuam benignitatem largire poscentibus,
ut his, qui te auctorem et gubernatorem gloriantur habere,
et grata restaures, et restaurata conserves.

This Collect was not in any previous edition of the Missale Romanum. In the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary our prayer is present but in slightly different form. The Veronese Sacramentary reveals that a close cousin of our Collect was used by our ancestors during the month of September. Our modern version simplified the grammar. In looking for possible sources for this Collect I found some similar key vocabulary combinations in the works of M. Tullius Cicero (+ B.C. 43 – Ep. ad fam. 2.6.4), the writings of Milan’s great bishop and doctor Ambrose (+397 – Hexameron Day 1.2.7) and in the sermons of the grand Augustine (+430 – s. 293d, 5). When we hunt for sources for our prayers we verify how deeply interwoven the Church and culture have been over the millennia.

The Latin Collects we are given each week have a magnificent content. When the alter Christus, the priest, lifts these prayers on high in the context of the sacred mysteries of Holy Mass, the words have power to shape us. Christ, the Head of the Body, is speaking. As Catholics we should long to be formed according to the mind of the Church so that we can understand ourselves to be one Body and then shape our world as a result. As Christ’s Body it is our solemn duty to bring the content of these prayers (namely Christ Himself!) into every corner of the world we affect. Once society and our culture are properly shaped and informed, then that culture has something worthy to give back to the Church. This is a dynamic exchange: the Church shapes us; we shape our world around us; we give our holy gifts, good and true and beautiful, the very best we can conceive, back to the Church who integrates them into herself. The favors God offers through Holy Church must always have logical priority in the interchange between the Church and the world, even though the two-way process is unceasing and simultaneous. This is authentic inculturation! This is a critical feature of the Congregation for Divine Worship’s document Liturgiam authenticam which lays down translation norms.

Two weeks ago we looked in depth at famulus, a “servant” who was seen in antiquity as part of a household, the extended family. This word appears frequently in our prayers. Adesto is the “future” imperative from the verb adsum, “be present” in both the physical and the moral sense. By logical extension, adsum means, “to be present with one’s aid or support; to stand by, to assist, aid, help, protect, defend, sustain.” You can understand that a word pointing to the concept of “presence” can have many levels of meaning. It can also mean, “to be present in mind, with attention, interest, sympathy; also, with courage; to give attention to something, to give heed, observe, attend to; also, to be fearless, be of good courage.” “Adsum!” is a famous word for Catholics. In the Rite of Ordination for Bishops, Priests and Deacons, men are ritually “called” to receive Holy Orders. The names of the ordinands are called out one by one and they respond, “Adsum! … I am present!” There is much talk of a “calling” or “vocation” to the priesthood. While men can have inklings and interior experiences of being called by God, this moment in the rite is the formal moment of a “calling” – vocation.

We are into the nuts and bolts of our prayer. Largire is an imperative form of largior which is deponent (active meaning, but passive in form). According to the always useful Lewis & Short Dictionary, it is “to give bountifully, to lavish, bestow, dispense, distribute, impart.” The deponent verb glorior means “to glory, boast, vaunt, to brag of any thing, pride one’s self.” Glorior is constructed with the accusative object (as it is in our prayer with an accusative with infinitive) or with the ablative either absolutely or with a preposition. Something which is gratus, a, um is “beloved, dear, acceptable, pleasing, agreeable” while someone who is gratus is “thankful, grateful; thankworthy, deserving or procuring thanks.” I am going to translate grata as “favors”, which I hope gets both at the sense of being thankful for something we longed for done for or given to us as well as the beneficial dimension of what God does.

Many of our Collects at this time of year use similar vocabulary, not just the usual sort of words standard for a Roman prayer, but slightly unusual words which perk up our attention. For example, last week we saw dux (“leader, guide, commander”) and rector (“ruler, leader, governor; helmsman”). This week we have gubernator, which is “a steersman, pilot” or “a director, ruler, governor”. Thematically, these terms are equivalent. During the Ordinary Time of our liturgical year there are little groupings of modern Collects linked by vocabulary or theme. Themes and vocabulary might be, for example, military or agricultural or judicial. The Collects in the Novus Ordo are mostly either unchanged or derived from prayers in ancient sacramentaries even if they were also in previous editions of the Missale Romanum. While they are grouped together now, they were taken from different times of the year. I cannot help but think that the choice to group them together was a conscious choice.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father of everlasting goodness,
our origin and guide,
be close to us and hear the prayers of all who praise you.
Forgive our sins and restore us to life.
Keep us safe in your love.

Some concepts of the Latin found their way in here, but this “Opening prayer”, while undeniably expressing nice thoughts is pretty detached from what the Church wants us to hear. But wait… what’s this I see? Uncharacteristically, ICEL allowed the word “sins” into their version! Our weekly examinations demonstrate that, way back when and with the complicity of many, ICEL consistently expunged references to sin and grace, our own needy humility, God’s majesty, the possibility of hell for the unrepentant, etc., from the prayers we are compelled to use today. Therefore, I am elated to find in today’s ICEL prayer a reference to sin! It is all the more amusingly ironic that the original Latin does not talk about sin. Would it not be wonderful if the forthcoming translation corrects these blatant mistakes? This might be one of the grata we ask God to restore to us who believe in Him. Do take a moment to write a kind letter expressing your hope for a sound and accurate translation.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Be present to Your servants, O Lord,
and grant Your unending kindness to those seeking it,
so that You may restore favors to those who
glory in having You as author and guide,
and You may preserve them once restored.

My main problem with the ICEL prayer, as nice as it is, is that it has nothing of the urgency and earnestness of the Latin. It lacks something fundamental in its attitude. Our recognition of who we are and who we are not together with who God is, is fundamental to this Collect. Take note of the different status of those to whom the Latin prayer refers. On the one hand, God is our creator. He directs our paths. He is eternal and kind. He gives gifts. He can be present to us. On the other hand, we are servants and needy seekers. We need favors and things for which we must be grateful. They are unattainable apart from God’s kindness. We do not deserve them apart from Him. Some of us have lost God’s favors. We are incomplete until He restores them to us. We are weak and incapable of retaining God’s kind gifts unless He Himself preserves them in us once He has given them back. He will not restore them unless we beg Him in His kindness to do so. Our lowly status of servant is the key to everything received or regained. The clear, crisp and cold reality of our neediness is masterfully juxtaposed with the warming, healing and reassuring confidence to be found in God’s presence.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Transfiguration & 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006

In a 21 July CNS story by Cindy Wooden on the recent Vox Clara Committee meeting in Rome we find the following (emphasis mine):

Archbishop Hughes (of New Orleans) said that as a member of a Vatican advisory body he was not free to share Vox Clara’s reactions to the U.S. text, or to try to guess how the congregation would respond to the U.S. bishops’ request for approval. However, he said: “Some of the adaptations are more substantial than others. Those that are not, we dealt with expeditiously and recommended approval.” Currently, the United States is the only country that does not use the phrase "consubstantial with the Father" in describing Jesus. The U.S. bishops proposed to continue using the phrase "one in being with the Father." During the U.S. bishops’ June meeting in Los Angeles, Archbishop Hughes’ motion to keep the word “consubstantial” was defeated.

 

I cannot help but repeat what I have said many times in these WDTPRS articles: they must think people are too stupid to understand these things. In any event, progress on the new translation is being made. The ICEL text of the Order of the Mass has been approved by the bishops’ conferences of England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland. The Canadians and Irish will vote on it in October, and the Indian bishops in January.

This year our Sunday coincides with the feast of the Transfiguration. Because Ordinary Time is not a “strong “ season like the Lent/Easter cycle or Advent/Christmas, a feast of Our Lord substitutes the Ordinary Sunday. Let’s look at all three of the prayers for the Transfiguration.

The word transfiguratio is interesting in itself. In classical, post-Augustinian Latin Pliny used this for “a change of shape”. However, that is not what happened with Christ on the mountain, probably Mount Tabor in Galilee not far from Nazareth. What happened?

If we see Christ’s Baptism at the Jordan as the beginning point of His public life, and the Ascension as the end, then the Transfiguration its zenith. The accounts of the Transfiguration are found in Matthew 17:1-6, Mark 9:1-8, and Luke 9:28-36. Also, 2 Peter 1:16-18 and John 1:14 refer to it. What happened? Scripture tells us that a week or so after Jesus and the disciples were at Caesarea Philippi (where Christ gave Peter the "keys") Jesus took Peter, James and John to a high mountain. They were surrounded by a bright cloud, like that in which God spoke to Moses. Christ shone with light so dazzling it was hard to see. On either side of Him were Moses the Lawgiver and Elijah the Prophet. A voice was heard, as at the time of Jesus’ Baptism: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him". The Gospels of Matthew and Mark use the Greek word metemorphothe for what happened. St. Jerome in his Vulgate chose transfiguratus est. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) expand the event saying "his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow," or "as light," according to the Greek text. This brightness has been taken to be a glimpse of Christ’s divinity shining through His flesh. Christ allowed the three key Apostles to see this so as to strengthen them before His Passion soon to follow.

Getting back to the word transfiguratio, it clearly points to a dramatic change, though in Christ’s case not one of form or shape. The word is from the preposition trans with figura. A figura is “a form, shape” but also in philosophical language a “quality, kind, nature, manner”. Most interesting to me is the mean of figura as a “form of a word” or “a figure of speech”. Think of the Prologue of the Gospel of John 1:14, recited by priests for centuries at the end of Holy Mass: “we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father”. In the Prologue of John the Evangelist says that Jesus the Son is the divine logos, the Word: “In the beginning was the Word….” A word is an utterance which projects the concept of the speaker. The Jews has used Hebrew memra, God’s creative or directive word or speech which manifests His power in the mind or in matter, as a substitute for the divine Name of God. Jerome’s choice of a word with the root figura or “figure of speech” is very apt in many ways, and its draws our imaginations into the realm of God’s eternal uttering, His eternal rhetoric.

COLLECT (Transfiguration):
Deus, qui fidei sacramenta
in Unigeniti tui gloriosa Transfiguratione
patrum testimonio roborasti,
et adoptionem filiorum perfectam mirabiliter praesignasti,
concede nobis famulis tuis,
ut, ipsius dilecti Filii tui vocem audientes,
eiusdem coheredes effici mereamur.

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration
of your Only-begotten Son
strengthened the sacrament of faith by the witness of the fathers (Moses and Elijah),
and in a marvelous way foreshadowed the perfect adoption of children,
grant to your servants that,
hearing the voice of Your beloved Son himself,
we may merit to be made the same Son’s coheirs.

In the Transfiguration, God reveals more fully the Sonship of Jesus and, thus, reveals in Jesus, our own sonship. When the Father reveals the Son as Son, He is telling us about His own life, how He generates the Son and how the Holy Spirit from all eternity is the love between them. Fortified with this knowledge, we can participate in the life of the Trinity in a fuller way. Because of our unity with Christ in our common human nature, the way to divine sonship is opened up. He is the Father’s Son by nature, but we by grace. God makes us His children through a perfect adoption… adoptio perfecta. From God’s point of view, it is perfect (“brought to completion”) because God puts His seal and mark upon us. From our point of view, it will be perfect only when we see God face to face in heaven.

Because of this adoption, the adoptio filiorum and adoptio perfecta, an eternal inheritance awaits us. We merit a patrimony. St. Leo the Great (+461) said in a sermon (s. 51): “In this mystery of the Transfiguration, God’s Providence has laid a solid foundation for the hope of the Church, so that the whole body of Christ may know what a transformation will be granted to it, and that the members may be assured that they will be sharers in the glory which shone forth in their Head.”

We are already sons and daughters by God’s adoption, but that sonship is not yet completed. We lack the final essential component: perseverance in faith and obedience for the whole course of our lives. Even the Apostle Peter, his eyes dazzled by the Lord on Mount Tabor, failed to see what was happening. The great St. Augustine in a sermon on the Transfiguration (s. 78, 6), addresses Peter, and through Peter he really addresses us: “Descend the mount, O Peter. You wanted to rest on the mountain. Come down.” We still have work to do in this life before we can rest. Citing the same passage of Augustine the CCC 556 takes up this same theme:

Peter did not yet understand this when he wanted to remain with Christ on the mountain. It has been reserved for you, Peter, but for after death. For now, Jesus says: “Go down to toil on earth, to serve on earth, to be scorned and crucified on earth. Life goes down to be killed; Bread goes down to suffer hunger; the Way goes down to be exhausted on his journey; the Spring goes down to suffer thirst; and you refuse to suffer?”

 

SUPER OBLATA:
Oblata munera, quaesumus, Domine,
gloriosa Unigeniti tui Transfiguratione sanctifica,
nosque a peccatorum maculis,
splendoribus ipsius illustrationis, emunda.

Two words catch our attention here. First, splendor, found in our favored L&S but not in dictionaries of later Latin such as Souter or Blaise/Chirat. Splendor means “sheen, brightness, brilliance, luster, splendor”. Logically, it also refers to “excellence”. We should tie splendor to gloria, that divine characteristic. Splendor is probably here because gloriosa was used earlier. Words like gloria, splendor and claritas (in the next prayer) are nearly interchangeable. Using a variety of different words is a sine qua non for a good orator. An illustratio is a technical term from rhetoric, a “vivid representation” intended to complete a concept in the mind of the listener. The word transfiguratio itself may have an overlay of meaning from rhetoric.

LITERAL VERSION:
Sanctify, O Lord, we beseech You,
the offered gifts by the glorious Transfiguration of your Only-Begotten,
and cleanse us from the stains of sins by the splendors of His dazzling example.

In this context think of illustratio as a momentary flash of who Christ really is, both man and God. A word which is uttered projects a meaning to another. Here, a dazzling vision “utters” another explanation of God’s will even as the divine voice was heard by the three Apostles. But such a vivid “example” must alter us who perceive it.

POST COMMUNION:
Caelestia, quaesumus, Domine, alimenta quae sumpsimus
in eius nos transforment imaginem,
cuius claritatem gloriosa Transfiguratione
manifestare voluisti.

LITERAL VERSION:
May the heavenly nourishments which we consumed,
transform us, O Lord, we beseech You, into the image of Him,
whose splendor You desired to make manifest in the glorious Transfiguration.

Consider the splendor of the transfigured Lord. His humanity was for a moment suffused with the brilliance of His divine nature. God desires to share with us His own gloria, His claritas, His splendor. Jesus reveals something of what He will be after His Passion, but also what we will be. Let us not forget the words of the Second Vatican Council, in a key passage deeply influenced by the late Pope John Paul II when he was a young bishop participating in the preparation of Gaudium et spes 22 (emphasis mine):

The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. … He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled, that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. … Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His death; He has lavished life upon us so that, as sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit: Abba, Father!

 

The Transfiguration of the Lord teaches us more fully about ourselves and our calling. This ties in perfectly with the Eucharist, which when we receive It properly is. Unlike the ordinary bread we convert into who we are by consuming it, the spiritual food of the Eucharist transforms us more and more in what He is. Perhaps we can for a moment imagine after a good Holy Communion our hearts momentarily transfigured by God’s eternal glory, making our hearts like unto His.