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

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003

With baseball coming to its annual apex (“the extreme end of a thing, the point, summit, top”), a friend recently asked the meaning of a Latin phrase, Eamus Catuli, visible in large letters in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field in Chicago. This is, of course, “Let’s Go Cubs!” Eamus is the first person plural jussive subjunctive of the verb eo and catulus means “the young of animals, a whelp”. I am sure that all sensible readers of WDTPRS will be root root rooting for the Twins as they strive to defeat the arrogant Yank. Thus, to facilitate your cheering, “Ite Gemini!” is commonly used for “Go Twins!” (Extra credit to you for: Septentrionales vapulate!)

I have had a lot of e-mail from readers along the lines of “What is going on over in Rome, anyway?” I am not sure, and it is entirely speculation for me to guess. In other words I, along with Rome, seem to be in the dark, especially after the recent power outage in Rome. Aside from the big news that the Holy Father has named thirty new cardinals plus one more in pectore (keeping his name in secret until it is opportune to reveal it, as was the case of the great Chinese Cardinal Ignatius Kung (Gong) Pinmei) and aside from the speculations about his health (which is not really news) and aside from the tid-bit that His Holiness has given the honor of the title Archbishop to three of his closest collaborators (Stanislaw Dziwisz, assistant prefect of the papal household and his personal secretary of many years; Piero Marini, the master of the papal liturgical celebrations and heir-apparent of liturgical luminaries such as the deceased Giacomo Card. Lercaro, Archbp. Annibale Bugnini, and His living Eminence Virgilio Card. Noé; and also the American prefect of the papal household James Michael Harvey who is responsible for organizing papal audiences and many other things for the Pope), there is always the on-going kafuffle about the new liturgical document that is supposed to come forth, jointly prepared by the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith and that of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDF & CDW).

The Holy Father called for this document in his encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia. Some had speculated that it would be released in October. However, we know now that it has been, in its draft form, sent back to committee at least for the time being. The draft had been leaked to the Italian press and, ever since, some rather hysterical comments about the content have been raising hackles far and wide. Liberal comments usually include exaggerated observations about the Vatican intending to abolish altar girls, sure to send their own into paroxysms of froth and whip up even greater opposition. In fact, all the draft seems to reassert is already existing legislation, though it apparently makes some other rather common-sensical propositions, such as returning Communion rails to churches where they had been removed, making clear the distinctions between the roles of the clergy and of the laity in Mass, and correcting the abuses of inter-Communion with non-Catholics, and reining in things like dancing and clapping., but I suspect that the draft of the document was leaked to the press in order to stir up a frenzy and get it torpedoed. How one tires of it all.

On to less controversial topics and this week’s….

POST COMMUNIONEM
LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
Maiestatem tuam, Domine, suppliciter deprecamur,
ut, sicut nos Corporis et Sanguinis sacrosancti
pascis alimento,
ita divinae naturae facias esse consortes.

This prayer seems not to have a precedent in the older, pre-Conciliar 1962MR, though it has traces of something from the Gelasian and Veronese Sacramentaries.

My confidence in the highly worthy Lewis & Short Dictionary brings back again to its information packed pages to discover if, by chance, there are any special wrinkles in the meaning of the noun maiestas which hitherto I had not yet considered. In the L&S you will eventually find this word under the lemma or “headword” majestas. Note the “j”. In classical Latin, there really was no “j”. This came to be used over time to indicate the sound of the onset glide, the “ye” sound in the combination of letter “a-i-e”. I told this before some time ago, but it bears a repetition. It is the sort of story that one hopes is true. I once heard tell of a Latinist in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State who had a humorous exchange with the Holy Father. When the newly-elected Pope visited their offices where all the Vatican’s official documents were translated this Latinist respectfully made an observation to the Supreme Pontiff about the way he was spelling his name – “Joannes Paulus” rather than the more Latinly correct “Ioannes Paulus”. The curial servant told the Vicar of Christ that in Latin there is no “j”. The Pope pondered this for a moment and then remarked, “There is now.” A majestic answer if there has ever been one. I don’t think any other person on earth could have said that. Back to our word: maiestas means in the first place “greatness, grandeur, dignity, majesty of the gods; also the condition of men in high station, as kings, consuls, senators, knights, etc., and, in republican states, of the people”, and thus, “honor, dignity, excellence, splendor”. In Latin, the crime of high treason was perceived as an offense against the dignity of the People and was known as laesa maiestas (from maiestatem laedere – to injure, offend the majesty, etc.) In English you will find the phrase “lese majesty” as well as a French version “lèse majesté”.

Furthermore, I noted as I did a search for “maiestas” in my past articles to see what and when I may have written about it, I found that it appeared in my WDTPRS articles two years ago in the Collect of the 29th and 34th Sundays of Ordinary Time (the 34th being also the Solemnity of Christ the King in the post-Conciliar liturgical calendar) and in the Super oblata series last year on the 32nd and 3rd Sundays of Ordinary Time. In other words, maiestas makes its appearance in the proper prayers for Mass at the very end of the liturgical in preparation for Christ the King, when we celebrate the return in glory of the King of Dreadful Majesty (Rex tremendae maiestatis as the Dies Irae names Him).

You veterans of WDTPRS know that maiestas can often be synonymous with Gloria. Which in early Latin Fathers of the Church such as Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose and in early liturgical texts, gloria is the equivalent of biblical Greek doxa and Hebrew kabod. This “glory” is a divine characteristic. Gloria is a divine transforming power which He desires to share with us. In the life to come, God’s glory will transforms us into what He is in an everlasting “deification.”

Suppliciter is from supplex (related to the verb sup-plico indicating a “bending the knees, kneeling down”) is an adjective for “humbly begging or entreating; humble, submissive, beseeching, suppliant, supplicant (synonyms: humilis, submissus). The adverb suppliciter is “humbly, submissively, suppliantly”. The verb pasco stands for “to cause to eat, to feed, pasture”. Alimentum means “nourishment, nutriment; and concretely, food, provisions, aliment.” By extension it means, like the Greek tropheia, “the reward or recompense due to parents from children for their rearing”.

When the priest at Mass uses the Roman Canon (1st Eucharistic Prayer), observing the old-fashioned way of doing things, he bends before the altar at the words: “Supplices te rogamus, omnipotens Deus: iube haec perferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum, in conspectu divinae maiestatis tuae; ut quotquot ex hac altaris (he kisses the altar) participatione sacrosanctum Filii tui Corpus et Sanguinem (he makes the sign of the Cross over the Host and Chalice) sumpserimus, (he stands up straight and makes the sign of the cross over himself, saying) omni benedictione caelesti et gratia repleamur.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
We suppliantly beseech your majesty, O Lord,
that, just as you feed us now
upon the provisions of the most holy Body and Blood,
just so you may make us to be the partakers of the divine nature.

We have in our prayer the juxtaposed images of a King, with His powerful majesty and a Shepherd who pastures us with the nourishment so we need.

I was intrigued by the secondary meaning of alimentum as that which is owed by children to pay back a parent for the rearing received. Clearly we owe the King and Shepherd something for the nourishment He gives us in this amazing exchange called Communion. In light of this concept of an exchange, I recall the prayer of the priest (in the older form of Mass with the 1962MR) when He is preparing to receive the Communion of the Precious Blood, in the moment that the Sacrifice is about to be completed and a valid Mass truly offered. He says/said with the Psalmist: “What return shall I make to the Lord for all He has given me? I will take the chalice of salvation, and I will call upon the Name of the Lord. Praising will I call upon the Lord and I shall be saved from my enemies.” Similarly, the final line of the Post communion reminds me of the prayer by the priest at the offertory of Mass when he puts the tiny bit of water (symbolic of our humanity) into the wine (God’s divinity) within the chalice: “Per huius aquae et vini mysterium efficiamur divinitatis consortes... Through the mystery of this water and wine may we be made partakers of His divinity, who condescended to become a partaker of our humanity.” In this prayer there is heralded the miraculous exchange of self-gift which occurs in the good Communion of a believer.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Almighty Father,
may the body and blood of your Son,
give us a share in his life.

I have said this before but after working through the Latin, again, I had to get up from my chair, go to my shelf and actually double check to make sure that I had copied the right prayer for this week’s offering, which I had typed ahead of time. Yes, it really is that disappointing. On the one hand, the Latin is so very evocative, calling to mind numerous rich associations and applications. On the other hand, we have the ICEL version. As always, I want to be fair and remind you that this ICEL version (which you hear in church on Sunday) is, if not a lame duck, at the very least a duck with really sore webs. I used to quote quite often from the CDW’s 2001 document Liturgiam authenticam establishing norms for vernacular translations. This Sunday’s English ICEL version of the Post communion drove me in both hope and frustration to LA for insight into what we might expect to see in the future. I want you to note that while the CDW is realistic about the level of formation of many of the Church’s faithful throughout the world, at least they do not automatically think people to be so dense that they require prayers so stripped of anything challenging that they say little or nothing, and that poorly. This is what we can look forward to (emphasis added):

25. So that the content of the original texts may be evident and comprehensible even to the faithful who lack any special intellectual formation, the translations should be characterized by a kind of language which is easily understandable, yet which at the same time preserves these texts’ dignity, beauty, and doctrinal precision. By means of words of praise and adoration that foster reverence and gratitude in the face of God’s majesty, his power, his mercy and his transcendent nature, the translations will respond to the hunger and thirst for the living God that is experienced by the people of our own time, while contributing also to the dignity and beauty of the liturgical celebration itself.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006

Even as I prepared breakfast one day for my friend and recent guest Fr. GW of MN, he pointed out an error in my Latin version of the Super Oblata for the 26th Week. I transcribed “...per ea nobis fons omnis benedictionis aperiatur”, instead of “per eam…”, which refers back to the feminine oblatio. So, dig out that article from your pile of WDTPRS clippings and pen in the correction. My error in the Latin, however, does not make a difference to my translation, which was accurate. Remember, folks, WDTPRS is more than just a good source for breakfast conversation.

A notice in the German language Kathpress-Tagesdienst (Nr. 230 – Sunday, 1 October 2006) reports that Viennese professor of Church History Rupert Klieber stated that, “In the debate over the Christian roots of Europe we theologians today must be one thing above all else: a good translator.” His point is that the Church has a magnificent treasure to share with the world. It must be shared in a way that is appropriate to a modern context. Otherwise, the Church runs the risk of receding into a ghetto. What the Church has to give to the world must be inculturated. This WDTPRS series aims at opening up more of the actual content of the Church’s liturgical prayers through accurate translation. This is also the goal of Liturgiam authenticam (LA) from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. Remember that LA was fifth instruction “for the right implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council”. The fourth instruction in 1994 was called Varietates legitimae which was about inculturation in the liturgy. Translation and inculturation are inextricably woven together. This is part of what makes translating ancient Latin prayers into Modern English so very difficult. We must always make sure that the translated prayers are not in language so remote from the listener that their content fades into obscurity. At the same time, the translations must not be rooted in the passing fads of daily speech.

Fr. Anonymous sent a note expressing a measure of pessimism about a future reception of the new translation on the some priests. Here are his comments (edited heavily to protect the innocent): “I just finished up with the annual (clergy meeting) in my diocese. Me and my big mouth! I talked to a few of my brother priests of the ‘older generation’ who did not seem one bit pleased about the forthcoming new and improved translations of the Roman Missal. In fact, this issue is such a deep wound for some of these gentlemen, that they remained visibly shaken, angry, and cold toward me throughout the days of our conference because of my enthusiasm and support for the new translations.” Right, Fr. Anon., I know exactly what you mean. I too have been treated like a slug on a sidewalk by men of that same “generation”. These aging hippies are toting more baggage than the Titanic ever did.

Fr. Anon. elaborates: “An older priest mentioned that the current response ‘And also with you’ is a much more ‘natural’ response to the greeting ‘The Lord be with you.’ I interjected: ‘Had not people already been trained to say ‘And with your spirit’ from about 1965 thru about 1972, and that the English translation had been in fact CHANGED in about 1973 to what it is now.’ He was not impressed with that insight. At the time I didn’t think to mention that since dialog in the Mass comes forth from a formal act of DIVINE Worship of Jesus Christ we ought to consider something not necessarily ‘natural’ but maybe ‘supernatural’ (e.g. ‘And with your spirit’); but I did not say it at the time, which was probably just as well.” Yes, Father, but he wouldn’t have been convinced even had you managed to levitate as you said it.

Father “Anonymous” continued: “Honestly what I described frightens me. I wonder whether some clergy or groups might just outright refuse to use the new translation. Will the Church experience the ‘shoe on the other foot’? Will we have a ‘Society of Archbishop Bugnini’ demanding an indult for the use of the 1973 ICEL translations because of their ‘attachment’ to that particular usage? God help us!” Don’t be despondent Fr. Anonymous. The next time you are with these folks, just remind them that, unless they hurry, we will be compelled to use the new translation for their funerals. “Society of Archbishop Bugnini”! Good one! I was about to quip something about imagining what their liturgies would be like, but on further reflection most of you don’t need to imagine. Or want to.

Imagine now that we finally get around to this Sunday’s “Prayer over the gifts”. This was the Secret of the 1962MR’s Tuesday in the Octave of Easter and the Fifth Sunday after Easter and it remains for the Seventh Sunday of Easter in the Novus Ordo. However, in most places we now have Ascension Thursday Sunday on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, so I guess most people won’t be hearing it more than once a year.

SUPER OBLATA (2002MR):
Suscipe, Domine,
fidelium preces cum oblationibus hostiarum,
ut, per haec piae devotionis officia,
ad caelestem gloriam transeamus.

The sound of those a’s with m’s in the last line invoke wonder. The end has a delightful cadence: trans-e-á-mus.

We dealt with officium last week, so I refer you to that article. The monumental Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary shows that transeo means “to go over or across, to cross over, pass over, pass by, pass; be changed into any thing.” Pius means something closer to “dutiful”, in regard to us, and “merciful” in regard to God. We have also studied gloria many times. Latin gloria (translating Greek doxa and Hebrew kabod) is a divine characteristic. St. Hilary of Poitiers (+367) taught that gloria or claritas is a transforming power God will share with us. When God shares His divine splendor with us, we will through eternity be transformed and “divinized”, always shining more and more brilliantly as God’s reflections, His images, forever becoming more and more like Him.

The L&S says devotio comes from the verb devoveo meaning, “to vow, devote (usually to a deity)” and such things as “to promise solemnly” and “to devote to the infernal gods, i. e. to curse, to execrate” and thus, “to bewitch by conjurations”. In a more Christian sense someone who is devotus “is pious, devout” or “obedient to authority.” The adverb devote is in Adoro Te devote, the familiar hymn of St. Thomas Aquinas (+1274): “I adore/worship You faithfully/devotedly”. Devotio, then, has similar meanings including “a devoting, consecrating” and “featly, allegiance, devotedness”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Take up, O Lord,
the prayers of the faithful with offerings of sacrificial victims
so that, through these services of dutiful devotedness,
we may pass over unto heavenly glory.

In 1985 the Association for English Worship (AEW) made a booklet with some possible translations, comparing them to the ICEL version. For the most part the AEW provides a …

SMOOTHER VERSION:
Lord, with this sacrificial offering
receive the prayers of the faithful,
so that through this act of worship and devotion
we may be drawn towards the glory of heaven.

We must linger over the fascinating word devotio. In ancient Christian Latin devotio can understood in many ways, such as Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac (cf. Ambrose, Hex 5, 21, 66), an interior faith expressed outwardly even unto martyrdom (cf. Cyprian ep. 55, 11), a seasonal fast or liturgical action (cf. Gelasian and Veronese Sacramentaries), among others. Centuries later St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae describes devotio as an “active” virtue. In regard to meditation and contemplation the Angelic Doctor wrote: “The intrinsic or human cause of devotion is contemplation or meditation. Devotion is an act of the will by which a man promptly gives himself to the service of God. Every act of the will proceeds from some consideration of the intellect, since the object of the will is a known good; or as Augustine says, willing proceeds from understanding. Consequently, meditation is the cause of devotion since through meditation man conceives the idea of giving himself to the service of God” (STh II-II 82, 3 ). A few more centuries later devotio is developed in Jesuit spirituality: devotio refers to our duty. Our devotions must lead or help the soul to keep the commandments of God and the duties of one’s state of life, one’s vocation, before all else. Each of us has a God-given vocation to follow. We must be devoted to that state in life and the duties that come with it as they are in the hic et nunc, the “here and now”.

A person must not focus on the state he had in the past, or wishes he had, or should have had, or might yet have someday. Those are unreal and misleading fantasies that distract us from reality and God’s will. When I am truly devotus in fulfilling the duties of my state as it truly is here and now, then God will give me every actual grace I need to fulfill my vocation because I am fulfilling my proper role in His great plan. Thus devotio makes each of us actively receptive to what God wills and gives, no matter what it is.

This is a key to understanding our roles, especially of lay people, in the sacred action of the liturgy. True “active participation” is first and foremost interior active receptivity. Can you see the connection between your “pious devotions” and your being devout in devotio? With this virtue in place we are made authentic “collaborators of God” (1 Cor 3:9; cf. 2 Cor 6:1-2). As devout Catholic we go into the world bringing our own part of God’s plan for the salvation of all to fruition in everything we say and do. All that we do is transformed.

Today’s prayer recognizes our deep and unavoidable obligation before God, our sacred duty. As His people we are capable of receiving a share of God’s transforming glory. Remember that transeo can mean also “be changed into something”. The word devotio invokes an entire world view. The virtue of devotio leads us always to say, with the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30 RSV). Our lives must be evaluated in light of our obligations under God’s plan and providence. Our prayer, then, firmly expresses the nature of the relationship we have with God. We are not equals. We rely on him totally and every good thing we have comes to us from on high. If we faithfully fulfill our God-given duty, He will share with us His own transforming glory for eternity.

Here is how the St. Andrew Bible Missal (1962) rendered this prayer: “Lord, accept the prayers of the faithful with the offering of sacrifice. While we pay you our duty of loving devotion, may we gain the glory of heaven.” All in all that is pretty good, even though it splits the sentence. I wonder if we will find the same content in the lame-duck version from…

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
accept the prayers and gifts
we offer in faith and love.
May this eucharist bring us
to your glory.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2001

JM sent an e-missive (edited): “About this time last year you invited suggestions as to where next to take the WDTPRS column.  As I am outside the US and receive mail very erratically, I don’t know if you have invited similar suggestions for this year or not.  But in case you have, I cast my suggestion for a translation of the ordinary of the Mass.  Since you have already covered the Eucharistic prayers I don’t imagine that would be enough to fill a year.  But it surely needs covering nevertheless.”  Thanks for the pitch, JM.  I have been getting all sorts of suggestions from people lately ranging from producing books from the articles to providing WDTPRS coffee mugs and t-shirts (I am guessing these are coming from the younger folks).  Some people have also mentioned that these columns are pretty hard to understand sometimes.  Sorry about that.  I try to provide a little something for everyone but some of it is going to be a bit complex.  

I want to extend many thank to The Wanderer’s own Paul Likoudis, who phoned me with a tip about an internet blog called Whispers in the Loggia.   The fellow who runs this blog, Rocco Palmo, occasionally initiates discussions about the seemingly endless production of the new English translation of the Missale Romanum.  They focus on the ordinary of the Mass.  While I applaud their choice of subject matter, I haven’t found any mention of this WDTPRS series in their message threads yet.  A serious lacuna, that.   In any event, under date of 27 September there is some chat about the “pro multis” issue.  Rocco the blogger says: “As it’s been asked, I will confirm that the most recent drafts coming from ICEL state at the consecration of the wine ‘for you and for all.’  ‘And for the many’ is nowhere to be found.”  Well, Mr. Palmo, my spies informed me that there is a serious battle being fought over this issue.   When this kabuki dance between the Congregation for Divine Worship, Vox Clara, ICEL and the USCCB is over I suspect that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will make the decision in favor of some variation on “for (the) many”.   Let us not forget what ICEL’s Executive Secretary Fr. Bruce Harbert claimed when responding to WDTPRSers who wrote to him last year, namely, that Pope Paul VI had reserved to himself the approval of all translations of sacramental forms.  I was eventually able to dig up the citation for this (i.e., AAS 66 (1974) 98-99).  

MC writes via e-mail (edited): “The Ukrainian Rite Catholic Parish in my neighborhood uses ‘for many’ in their English translation of the Mass texts.  I appreciate your WDTPRS column and your other reporting in The Wanderer. Keep up the good work.”   Thanks, MC.  If the non-Latin Catholics can get this right, why can’t the Latin Catholics?   I am glad you sent that, MC.  Also, I will keep writing as long as there is support for the articles.   Messages from you readers help a lot in that regard.  Another thing that will help is increasing the number of subscriptions to this paper.  You can help a lot by giving a gift subscription or two.  Spread the word.  The more people who read this column, and the more who begin paying closer attention to what the prayers of Holy Mass really say, the greater the impact we may be able to gain with the powers-that-be who are overseeing the preparation of the new translation.  I cannot emphasize enough the pleasure and surprise expressed to me by some of the prelates to whom you good readers have written letters.   Your supportive notes to me and to others truly make a difference!  
 
COLLECT - (2002