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

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003

SF writes via e-mail: “Thank you for your wonderful column. I use it frequently in our small homeschooling Latin class to help clarify and add interest to our lessons. I have been looking in vain for almost a year for a Latin Bible in order that our highschoolers might start translating from the Bible. We tried to order one from PAX books in Italy for over four months with no luck. Can you recommend which Latin bible to buy and where to get it? I noticed mention of a German edition in The Latin Mass magazine and also that there is a Nova Vulgata Latina from the Vatican – help! I can’t help but think that many Catholic homeschool families (most of whom study Latin) would be interested in ordering a Latin Bible.” Oddly, SF, this is the second time in a very short period that paxbook.com has come up in a reader’s question. Though they list good books, I have so far never heard of anyone being happy with their shipping service. There is a “New” Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible in Latin put out by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. It was in preparation for a long while, coming out in bits and pieces until Pope Paul VI in 1965 established a special Commission for the Neo-Vulgate under Augustin Card. Bea and it was issued by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1979 with his Apostolic Constitution Scripturarum thesaurus. I recommend that you check used bookstores for a volume of the older Vulgate. It is also on the internet in many places. Also, the Neo-Vulgate is available in its entirety online on the Vatican’s website (http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible ) SF, why don’t you simply take texts from that website and print them out as needed in whatever format you want? Remember too, dear readers, is the Congregation for Divine Worship’s (CDW) document Liturgiam authenticam (LA) , establishing the norms for liturgical translations, stipulates that when the liturgical texts indicate specific verses of Holy Scripture, the Neo-Vulgate now is the only reference for what those verses are (since over the history of Scripture scholarship the numbering of verses has changed) though LA does not specify that the Neo-Vulgate text must itself be translated (other ancient sources can be used).

POST COMMUNIONEM
LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
Sit nobis, Domine, reparatio mentis et corporis
caeleste mysterium, ut simus eius in gloria coheredes,
cui, mortem ipsius annuntiando, compatimur.

Though it has little to recommend itself rhythmically there is some strong and pleasant “s” (including the soft “ti + vowel”) and “k” alliteration in throughout this prayer. In the 1962MR we find for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost a similar Postcommunio prayer: “Sit nobis, Domine, reparatio mentis et corporis caeleste mysterium: ut cuius exsequimur cultum, sentiamus effectum.”

As always you veteran WDTPRS readers now instantly recognize how mysterium indicates the sacramental mysteries being celebrated in Holy Mass and that it is usually interchangeable with sacramentum. I will often translate both of those terms with the slightly extended “sacramental mystery”. Reparatio (“a restoration, renewal”) is derived from reparo, which we have seen before, meaning “to get, acquire, or procure again; to recover, retrieve; to restore, repair, renew” and also in mercantile language, “to procure by exchange; to purchase, obtain with something.” Coheres is a noun compound of heres which signifies, “a coheir, fellow-heir”. According to the inestimably valuable Lewis & Short Dictionary, the deponent verb compatior (cvm + patior) communicates both “to suffer with” and “to have compassion, to feel pity”. Patior is what gives us the English word “Passion” for what the Lord experienced before His death on the Cross. To have “compassion” is to suffer together with another person and associate oneself with the pain of another.

Clearly what we have at the basis of this prayer is Romans 8:14-18:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs (coheredes) with Christ, provided we suffer with him (compatimur) in order that we may also be glorified (glorificemur) with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory (gloriam) that is to be revealed to us.

 

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
may this eucharist
in which we proclaim the death of Christ
bring us salvation
and make us one with him in glory.

Right away one needs to be suspicious in a healthy way about the accuracy of this ICEL version, now happily a lame-duck. First of all, it is shorter than the Latin original, which virtually never happens when translating Latin into English. Secondly, even someone who doesn’t know Latin that well will glance back and forth between the Latin and the ICEL versions and see that the Latin words which are in some ways similar to corresponding or derivative English words have not been carried over conceptually in the ICEL text. It may be that we can do a little better, even if we are not in these columns making any attempt to produce a translation that is suitable for liturgical use. In these weekly columns we are simply trying to get at what the prayers really say and, thereby, inspire people to explore and love the great gift of the liturgy more and more.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O Lord, let the heavenly sacramental mystery be for us
a restoration of mind and body, so that we may be coheirs in the glory of Him
with whom we share suffering by proclaiming His death.

The main concept underlying this prayer seems to be our spiritual adoption and our new status in the Holy Spirit as the children of God, the brothers and sisters of Christ, with a common heavenly Father.

In our baptism and by our professing and living our faith we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and, as we read, the indwelling of the three divine Persons of the Triune God (cf. John 14:23). This relationship that begins with humble submission on our part together with the reception of the “character” or “owner’s mark” in our souls, far from enslaving us actually sets us free. Through our baptismal character God goes far beyond merely setting us free from the bondage of sin. He adopts us as His own and actually makes us His sons and daughters, not just slaves or even freed slaves. With the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we can also begin to address God with more than reverential fear and awe. We can now also address ourselves intimately to Him as “Abba” or “Father” (cf. Mark 14:36). And beyond the divine filiation which makes us God’s “legal” children, by which He takes special responsibility for us, He also makes us co-heirs with His eternally Only-Begotten so that we can be admitted also to the joys of heaven which Christ, our brother in our humanity, has in perfect possession with His resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand (cf. Romans 8:34). If once we were slaves of sin and we were His enemies (Romans 5:10-11) now we are sons and daughters, and first class sons and daughters at that, having a (re)birthright to inherit.

However, also within the prayer there is clearly a hint of “unfinished business”. There is an “already but not yet” dimension to the prayer. The process of divine filiation, while enacted in Christ as the first-fruits of what will be open to us, will be complete only at the end of things, with the Resurrection and Final Judgment. As we read in the same eighth chapter of Romans which is at the basis of today’s Post Communion prayer: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (vv. 22-23 – emphasis added).

It might be helpful to consider that, in the ancient world, adoption didn’t carry with it some of the unfortunate stigma that seems to cling to it in more modern times. Perhaps some of the stigma comes from unspoken questions about the circumstances that led to a child being legally adopted rather than remaining with biological parents. For this reason now there are laws and statues, at least in the USA, for secrecy and sealing records so as to protect the parties involved. However, in the time of the early Church, when Paul the Roman citizen wrote to the Romans, adoption was very open, accepted and useful in many levels of society. It was the most normal thing in the world to adopt and be adopted for the sake of sealing the ties between families and ensuring the passing on of political clout and financial power. Without question the Apostle of the Gentiles writes to the Romans (and also the Galatians (4:4-5) and Ephesians (1:5)) about their adoptions in glowingly positive terms. There is not a trace of stigma attached to this divine filiation. It is actually a matter of the greatest consolation and pride!

One has to wonder what kind of impact a new, or rather ancient, sense of adoption might have on the tragic choices women make when they seek an abortion rather than putting her child into the care of people who long to raise him or her.

So, in today’s Post Communion, the priest affirms that we are the co-heirs of Christ and the inheritance we both have now already and still do not yet have in full possession is a share in God’s own glory. We do not know fully what this glory is. It will be revealed to us eventually (cf. Romans 8:18). However, we do know that somehow participation in that glory to come involves our suffering now. If we are co-heirs of the glory that Christ obtains for us, then we are also the co-heirs of His sufferings. Each of us, in our own and individual way, must embrace the sufferings we are offered in anticipation of the glory to come. The Cross always precedes the glory.

For more on the glory that flows from our uniting our sufferings with those of the crucified and risen Lord, it is very worth the time to read the Holy Father’s intense and deep Apostolic Letter of 1984 entitled Salvifici doloris about the Christian meaning of human suffering:

21. The cross of Christ throws salvific light, in a most penetrating way, on man’s life and in particular on his suffering. For through faith the cross reaches man together with the resurrection: the mystery of the passion is contained in the Paschal Mystery. … Thus to share in the sufferings of Christ is, at the same time, to suffer for the kingdom of God…. Christ has led us into this kingdom through His suffering. And also through suffering those surrounded by the mystery of Christ’s Redemption became mature enough to enter this kingdom.

 

22. To the prospect of the kingdom of God is linked hope in that glory which has its beginning in the cross of Christ. The resurrection revealed this glory—eschatological glory—which in the cross of Christ was completely obscured by the immensity of suffering. Those who share in the sufferings of Christ are also called, through their own sufferings, to share in glory. Paul expresses this in various places. To the Romans he writes: “We are…fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him….”

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006

As I already noted on the increasingly popular internet blog, I owe a tip of my cappello romano to frequent correspondent HE for the news that WDTPRS is quoted on the website of the Diocese of Knoxville. An article by Ginger Hutton entitled “Lost in translation” provides contrasting examples of the lame-duck 1973 ICEL version of a prayer and one of our very literal WDTPRS versions. The writer states about the ICEL versions now in use:

Obviously this example is an abysmal translation, but it’s not an isolated one. I studied dozens of prayers while preparing this column and found the phenomenon is all too common. Repeatedly our current translations choose words that de-emphasize God’s power, our dependence on him, and his role as active giver of grace. At the same time they overemphasize our own role and power. Reading these prayers back to back, one forms a picture of a God who is more like our personal assistant than “God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”

This is not just bad translation. It’s a failure to faithfully transmit through the liturgy what we actually believe. This is why the coming change in translations, disruptive as it may seem in the short term, is absolutely critical to the defense of the faith.

She got it right. Translations of Mass texts are critical. Without good translations we do not hear what the Church desires to pray and as a result we are all impoverished. We must support with prayers and encouraging notes all those involved in this daunting task.

Speaking of those in charge of the translations, the Executive Secretary of the new and improved ICEL, Msgr. Bruce Harbert, on 15 September gave a talk at the Catholic Information Center in Washington D.C. The talk available is as a podcast on the internet. Msgr. Harbert explained the proper meaning of the title of the document from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) Liturgiam authenticam. He made the excellent observations that the title doesn’t refer to “authentic liturgy” in the contemporary sense of what is deep or real about a person or thing. Instead, the Latin adjective authenticus, a, um indicates that something accurately reflects the original. In the case of a document, for example, an “authentic” copy, adheres in all important respects to the original. So, “authentic liturgy” points to one that is in accord with the original, that is, the Missale Romanum.

Msgr. Harbert shared his secret dream that Pope Benedict himself will celebrate Holy Mass using the new translation during the 2008 World Youth Day celebrations in Sydney, Australia. He stated, however,

Two years from now, I think, we will have finished the work of translation and got it into a reasonable shape but then its subsequent fate is not in my hands and not in the hands of the bishops of the Commission (ICEL) either. It’s in the hands of local episcopal conferences. It is for your Bishops Committee for Liturgy here to decide what adaptations they want made to the translations that we provided for them; to decide how they are going to print and publish them; how they are going to bring the whole thing into effect. That’s right outside my competence, so don’t ask me when it’s coming out.

There were other very good points in his talk which we can get into, space allowing, another time. In the meantime, let’s get into this coming Sunday’s …

SUPER OBLATA (2002MR):
Concede nobis, misericors Deus,
ut haec nostra oblatio tibi sit accepta,
et per eam nobis fons omnis benedictionis aperiatur.

This prayer did not have an antecedent in any earlier edition of the Missale Romanum, nor have I discovered it in an ancient source. It might be of new composition for the Novus Ordo.

The venerable Lewis & Short Dictionary informs us that fons is a “spring, fountain, well-source”. By extension this means as well “a fountain-head, source, origin, cause.” Make connections in English: for example, “fountains” from which water flows. In church we find a “font”, as in a baptismal font or holy water font. As you are reading this, you see the style of letters make up a “font”. The individual pieces of movable type used printing were once cast by pouring molten metal in a “foundry”. One of the meanings of the Latin fundo, related to fons, is “to make by melting, to melt, cast, found”.

Acceptus, a, um, is from the verb accipio and means “welcome, agreeable, acceptable (synonym. gratus)”. Acceptus is related to gratus, as the effect to the cause; he who is gratus, i. e. “dear”, is on that account acceptus, welcome, acceptable. I think we must say “acceptable” rather than the apparently closer “accepted”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Grant to us, O merciful God,
that this our sacrificial offering might be acceptable to You,
and that through it the fount of every blessing be may opened to us.

The central image in the prayer is that of a grace flowing out from God as from a font, a source, almost like living water, that is, water which flows. Look at the movement concepts here. God is identified as merciful. We ask that what we bring to the altar will be acceptable by God’s power, for He is the origin of all blessings. A blessing from God, a sharing of something of Himself with us, is to be given by means of the offering. This sharing and God’s gift is likened to a fountain opened up.

Our prayer brings to mind different moments in Scripture of flowing and of water. Think, for one example, of how Moses brought water forth from the rock:

“So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.” (Numbers 20:9-11 RSV)

This is an Old Testament prefiguring of the sacrament of baptism. In our baptism we became temples of the Holy Spirit, who is at times described in terms of water, even (pace Bishop Trautman!) as rain or dew. Take a look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church 694 for a description of the Holy Spirit:

Water. The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As “by one Spirit we were all baptized,” so we are also “made to drink of one Spirit.” (I Cor 12:13) Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water welling up from Christ crucified (Jn 19:34; I Jn 5:8) as its source and welling up in us to eternal life….

“But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.” (John 19:33-34 RSV)

The flowing water of the baptismal font opens the way to the other sacraments, in particular the reception and celebration of the Eucharist, the “source and summit” (fons et culmen) of our Christian lives (LG 11; CCC 1324). We are enabled by baptism to participate in Holy Mass with “full, conscious and active participation” (SC 14). The word “full” (plena) refers to the integral way the baptized take part in the liturgy, i.e., internally and externally. “Conscious” (conscia) demands knowledge of what one is doing, excluding any superstition or false piety. “Active” (actuosa) means primarily interior receptivity, made possible by baptism, resulting from an act of will to unite oneself with the sacred action being wrought in the liturgy by the real “Actor”, Jesus Christ the High Priest. This interior participation (actuosa participatio) comes to be expressed also in outward, physical participation. Through this participation, when we unite our gifts, sacrifices and aspirations to the sacrifice of the priest at the altar, the abundant blessings of God flow forth to us in a manner that we cannot hope to comprehend in this life. Non-Christians and non-Communicants can indeed “get a lot out of Mass”. But “full, conscious and active participation” has its moment of perfection: when the actively receptive and properly disposed baptized person receives Holy Communion (cf. De musica sacra 22, c). The act of reception of Communion in the state of grace perfectly unites both the interior activity of the heart, mind and soul with the exterior actions of processing forward and physically accepting the Eucharist with gestures of reverence. Communion is perfect active participation which must be prepared for interiorly.

Today’s prayer points to the goal of our participation at Mass. We desire that our participation and subsequent reception open up blessings for us. Subsequently, keep firmly in mind the words of St. Paul about improper participation and poor reception of the Eucharist:

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. (1 Cor 11:27-30 RSV)

Paul makes the connection between the spiritual and the physical, the interior and the “exterior”. The effects of reception of the Eucharist are, for St. Paul, also physical. If the effects of Communion are also physical, should there not be proper physical preparation for reception of Communion as well as interior spiritual preparation? Should we not prepare ourselves with, for example, fasts and deeply expressive physical gestures of reverence? In fact, the Church requires a Eucharistic fast, perhaps too much reduced to one single hour, before Communion (not before the beginning of Mass) and also prescribes physical movements and signs of reverence during Mass.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God of mercy,
accept our offering
and make it a source of blessing for us.

Ho hum…. Zzzzzzz…..

While we can look forward to something better in the future, that is what most of you still have to hear in church now. We need rich beautiful and, above all, accurate translations to help our participation attain that height which Jesus Christ, through the Holy Catholic Church, desires for us!

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

In his latest and always informative “The Word From Rome” (9 September 2005) Mr. John L. Allen, Jr., the ubiquitous and fair-minded Rome correspondent for the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, relates how he queried Walter Card. Kasper (President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) about a matter of great interest to WDTPRS readers.  According to Mr. Allen, during the press conference before a congress to be held in Rome for the 40th anniversary of Dei Verbum (Vatican II’s document on Scripture) Card. Kasper had spoken favorably about, ‘“inter-confessional translations of the Bible in the various languages,’ i.e., joint projects involving Catholic and Protestant Scripture scholars, theologians, and linguists. Card. Kasper said he wants the congress to examine ‘the state of ecumenical collaboration’ in the Biblical field.”  Mr. Allen asked His Eminence about the Congregation for Divine Worship’s document Liturgiam authenticam which states that “Great caution is to be taken to avoid a wording or style that the Catholic faithful would confuse with the manner of speech of non-Catholic ecclesial communities or of other religions, so that such a factor will not cause them confusion or discomfort.”  Mr. Allen inquired of Card. Kasper: “How are we to reconcile … (this) positive stance on inter-confessional translations with the caution urged by the Congregation for Worship, now under the leadership of Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze?”  Card. Kasper replied, “I’ve written to Cardinal Arinze to suggest that we meet to discuss this. … There are some differences that exist. We haven’t yet had a chance to have the meeting. Perhaps after the congress we can talk about it.”

Fr. RF has written again in response to my comments last week about kneeling during the Eucharistic Prayer of Holy Mass and obligation in the USA to do so (cf. GIRM 23) from the end of the Sanctus, through the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, to the end of the great “Amen” (edited): “Thanks for your response in the column.  The people here are kneeling.  I have two small parishes.  Regarding kneeling during the ‘Ecce’, one parish does, one doesn’t.  The one that doesn’t has a large percentage of elderly.  They decided, what with all the knee and hip replacements and walkers, it would be easier and safer!  One doesn’t often think of the increasing age of the population as a formative factor in liturgical practice.”   Thanks for that, Father RF.  The key here is the common sense being applied: people who are physically impeded can remain standing or sitting as the case may be.  However, people should not be instructed by an authority such as the celebrating priest to violate the law.

Veteran WDTPRSers undoubtedly know I think the “pro multis” question is the most important single issue in the ongoing battles being waged in the increasingly lengthy preparation of the new English text of Holy Mass.  I have learned there is available now for sale on the internet a small lapel pin of a chalice with host and a motto banner with the words “pro multis” superimposed.  I haven’t actually held one, but I saw the website of the group strc.org that sells them.  The group in question, STRC or “Society of Traditional Roman Catholics” is highly critical of anything having to do with Vatican II or the Novus Ordo.  I suspect this group is small.   These are folks for whom the phrase “Latin Mass” is narrowed to refer exclusively to the older so-called “Tridentine” form.  They pledge “fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church and to her teachings as handed down by the Sacred Magisterium through the centuries” but they are unburdened by respect for the present forms of Mass, even when not subject to the common abuses which so afflict many of us.  For what it is worth, at least the pin is pretty spiffy.  I wish I could give one to every reader and you in turn would send them to the members of ICEL and the Vox Clara Committee along with a kind, respectful note expressing warm hopes for a beautiful and accurate translation, especially of “pro multis”.

COLLECT - (2002MR):
Deus, qui omnipotentiam tuam
parcendo maxime et miserando manifestas,
gratiam tuam super nos indesinenter infunde,
ut, ad tua promissa currentes,
caelestium bonorum facias esse consortes.
 
This was, in a slightly different form, in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary and in the 1962 Missale Romanum this Collect was prayed for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost.  Let’s now look at some vocabulary, the nuts and bolts of the prayer.  Parco means, “to spare, have mercy, forbear to injure” and by extension, “forgive.”   This verb is used quite frequently in liturgical prayer as, for example, in the responses during the beautiful litanies we sing as Catholics, especially in time of need: “Parce nobis, Domine... Spare us, O Lord!”  During Lent the hauntingly poignant Latin chant informs our penitential spirit: “Parce, Domine... O Lord, spare your people: do not be wrathful with us forever.”  The noun consors comes from the fusion of the preposition for “with” and sors (“lot”), in the sense of a chance or ticket when “casting lots”, destiny, fate).   A consors is someone with whom you share a common destiny.  The densely arranged Lewis & Short Dictionary reveals that consors is “sharing property with one (as brother, sister, relative), living in community of goods, partaking of in common.”  The English word “lot” can be both “fate” and a “parcel of land.”  Having been made in God’s image and likeness, we are to act as God acts: to know, will and love.  Since God spares us and is merciful, then we must be similarly merciful and sparing if we want to be sharers and coheirs in the lot He has prepared for us.  Shall we get the ICEL version out of the way and then get on to what the prayer really says?

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father, you show your almighty power,
in your mercy and forgiveness.
Continue to fill us with your gifts of love.
Help us to hurry toward the eternal life you promise
and come to share in the joys of your kingdom.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, who manifest Your omnipotence
especially by sparing and being merciful,
pour Your grace upon us unceasingly,
so that You may make us, rushing to the things You have promised,
to be partakers of heavenly benefits.

One of the ways God manifests His almighty nature is by being forgiving and sparing.   God is the creator and ruler, guide and governor of all that is seen and unseen, who keeps everything in existence by an act of His will, and reveals His omnipotence especially (maxime in our Collect) by means of mercy.  By violating God’s will our first parents, i.e. the entire human race, opened up an infinite gulf between us and God.  Since the gulf was immeasurable, only an omnipotent God could bridge that gap and repair it.  God did not repair the breach because of justice, but rather because in His goodness He is also merciful.  

People often slip into the trap of associating manifestations of power with acts of justice.   In this Collect, however, we affirm the other side of power’s coin.  The miracles worked by Jesus in the Gospels, loving gestures to suffering individuals, were acts of mercy often connected to forgiveness of sins.  The affirmation of divine mercy, however, does not diminish God’s justice.  Mercy does not mean turning a blind eye to justice, for that would be tantamount to betraying truth and charity.  Nevertheless, if justice must be upheld because God is Truth, so too must mercy be exercised because God is Love.  For God, balancing justice and mercy is simplicity itself, since He is perfectly simple.  Knowing all things which ever were, are or will be as well as the complexities of each act’s impact and every other throughout history God ha