What Does the Prayer Really Say?  The 2nd Sunday of Advent

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2004

When we approach difficult questions or topics, we must be humble before them, admitting the truth when made plain and ignorance when plainly we don’t have a clue.  I have told you all more than once how baffled I was by something both readers and I received from the hand of the Executive Secretary of ICEL, Fr. Bruce Harbert.  In responding to your (and my) kind letters about the thorny pro multis controversy (“for all” in the sacramental form for the consecration of the Precious Blood) Fr. Harbert systematically penned a puzzling claim without offering support or references, that is: the Holy Father reserves to himself personally the approval vernacular translations of the sacramental forms.  This claim struck me as unlikely and I was not alone – in a copy of a response a WDTPRS reader shared with me I saw that His Eminence George Card. Pell, chairman of Vox Clara, was similarly surprised.  With the help of others I have gotten to the bottom of Fr. Harbert’s contention, which sounded like a dodge.

What Fr. Harbert wrote is true. I verified it.  Of course, he might have saved us some trouble and provided in his letters a reference to reduce our original level of wonder and confusion.  In the Holy See’s official instrument of promulgation, Acta Apostolicae Sedis for 28 February 1974 (AAS 66 (1974) 98-99) we find a circular letter dated 25 October 1973 over the signature of then Secretary of State Jean Card. Villot, countersigned by Archbp. Annibale Bugnini, about this very matter (my translation from the Latin):  “The Supreme Pontiff reserves to himself the power of approving directly all translations into vernacular languages of the formulas of sacraments.”  1973 was the year our present ICEL version was approved.  There was a dust-up going on about whether the vernacular sacramental forms (i.e., “for all”) were heretical.  The circular letter stated a translation (conversio) of sacramental forms was to be prepared (apparabitur – apparo: “prepare, make ready”) by the (then) Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship after consultation with the episcopal conferences; a translation must accurately reflect proper doctrine and be in harmony with the Latin text as much as possible.  Nota bene: the Congregation (at present the CDWDS), not the conferences, not ICEL, furnishes the translation of the sacramental form to the Pope for approval.  I therefore renew my plea to you, good readers, to write with cordial fervor to those in charge of these matters, if you need addresses and don’t have back issues of WDTPRS wherein they were provided, contact either The Wanderer or yours truly.  

Why is this important?  During the fall meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, His Excellency Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman, Bishop of Erie, was re-elected chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Liturgy (BCL – a non-authoritative body).  The BCL must soon review ICEL’s latest draft translation which the Vox Clara Committee recently reviewed in Rome.  Bp. Trautman has been consistently and sharply critical of the Holy See’s norms for translation issued in the CDWDS’s Liturgiam authenticam (LA).  This is rather dramatic, so keep reading.  Enter from upstage: a regular WDTPRSer, JB via e-mail from Washington, D.C., where he attended a “Tridentine” Mass last Sunday.  “Ding” goes the sanctuary bell.  Enter stage right: the priest celebrant in biretta and maniple, Fr. Bruce Harbert, the aforementioned Executive Secretary of ICEL.  I ask you: can you wrap your mind around the image of a member of ICEL’s politburo of yore, say 10 years ago, celebrating a Tridentine Mass?    I say “Kudos, Father.”  No, “for all” during that Mass, I can tell you.  Anyway, JB recounts that, in a conversation with Fr. Harbert after Mass, Father assured him that Bp. Trautman is a scholarly fellow who will not have a negative impact on the translation.  Having confirmed what Fr. Harbert has asserted before, shall we give him the benefit of the doubt in this matter as well?    Quoth Ronald Reagan, “Trust, but verify.”

In 2003 a group decidedly not friendly to the Holy See’s norms, the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Directors (I’ve mentioned them before) presented Bp. Trautman with their Frederick R. McManus Award.  His Excellency spoke inter alia about the then forthcoming CDWDS document Redemptionis Sacramentum desired by the Pope against liturgical abuses.  His Excellency’s anaphoric remarks in 2003 may reveal something of his approach to documents from the Holy See (slightly edited):  

A recent draft of a forthcoming Vatican instruction included several problematic elements – elements which were neither pastorally sensitive nor liturgically correct.  While we are thankfully reassured that more competent and more sensible judgments have prevailed, we need to ask how could such proposals be drafted and approved for submission in the first place?  When such Roman liturgical drafts call us to return to a liturgical mentality prior to Vatican II, we need to say to one another: Keep up your courage.  When liturgical expertise is not respected, … When fundamental principles of liturgical renewal are reversed, we must say to one another: Keep up your courage….

There is more of the same.  Folks, do you see what is going on?  I say keep up your courage, pick up your pens and ratchet up your efforts.   The coming months are decisive!

Lest any “traditional” Catholics think today’s Collect is less valuable because it isn’t old enough, or wasn’t in the 1570 Missale Romanum, it is from the Gelasian Sacramentary, compiled around 750 in Paris from material in use much earlier.

COLLECT - LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Omnipotens et misericors Deus,
in tui occursum Filii festinantes
nulla opera terreni actus impediant,
sed sapientiae caelestis eruditio
nos faciat eius esse consortes.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God of power and mercy,
open our hearts in welcome.
Remove the things that hinder us
 from receiving Christ with joy,
so that we may share his wisdom
and become one with him
when he comes in glory,…

What does the Latin prayer really say?  We now consult that sure stock of Latin lemmas the Lewis & Short Dictionary for actus which means, “an act or action” but also, “the moving or driving of an object, impulse.”  Impedio (built from the word pes, pedis, “foot”) is “to snare or tangle the feet”.   Sapientia means “wisdom”.  In Christian contexts, especially of the Early Church, Wisdom is simply loaded with different overtones from theology and philosophy (philosophia, “love of wisdom”).   The Bible has a group of writings called “Wisdom literature” which were, according to the Fathers of the Church, filled with foreshadowings of Christ who is identified with Wisdom.     The phrase faciat eius esse consortes calls to mind both the Collect prayer in Mass for Christmas Day and also the priest’s prayer when preparing the chalice at the offertory.  A consors is someone with (con) whom you share your lot (sors).   This is at the heart of today’s Collect prayer.  Remember: Deus, “God”, is declined irregularly and in solemn discourse the nominative is used as the vocative form (e.g. cf. Livy 1, 24, 7).  Do not, like ICEL did, fall into the trap of thinking that Deus is the subject of the verbs.  The subjects are plural opera and singular eruditio.  

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty and merciful God,
let no works of worldly impulse impede
those hurrying to the meeting of Your Son,
but rather let the learning of heavenly wisdom
make us to be His partakers.

Last week we were rushing to meet the Lord who is coming and meriting our reward through good works, meritorious for heaven because they are made so in Christ.  In Advent, as the Baptist warns us, we are to make smooth the path for the coming of the Lord.  This week we are again rushing, but, perhaps we are wiser this week after the first rush of excitement: now are now also wary of obstacles on that path which could impede us, snare our feet.  These would be our merely human, simply worldly, works.  These “works of worldly impulse” are not meritorious since they are not performed in Christ.  There is a sharp contrast between heavenly Wisdom which liberates and worldly “wisdom” which entangles.  The Apostle St. Paul contrasts the wisdom of this world with the Wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 1:20;  3:19; 2 Cor 3:19). In Romans 12:2 Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  This is not just a Pauline concept.  Compare our Collect today also with 2 Peter 1:3-4 (RSV): “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge (cognitio: cf. eruditio) of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature (efficiamini divinae consortes).”   

St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) beat up some Donatist heretics and dismantled their argument that all clerics ordained by a sinful bishop would be automatically stained in the same guilt. He used imagery like that of our prayer today (Ad Donatistas post collationem in CSEL 53:19.25, p. 123 my translation): “The sludge (lutum) their feet are stuck in is so thick and dense that, trying in vain to tear themselves out of it, they get their hands and head stuck in it too, and lingering in that sticky mess they get more tightly enveloped.”  The Donatist argument was based in worldly, not heavenly, wisdom.  

Sticky lutum is a metaphor of worldly life.  Neglecting God, who speaks in the Church and our conscience, we weak sinners can convince ourselves of anything, over time: down becomes up, back is made front, black turns into white, and wrong is really right.  We justify what we know, or knew, to be sinful.  Once this becomes a habit, it is a vice in more than one sense of that word.  Occasionally our consciences will struggle against the grip of self-deception, but quite often the proverbial “Struggle”, Novocain for the conscience, supplies permission: “I really ‘struggled’ with this, … before I did it!”  If we go off the true path into the murky twisted woods, thoroughly mired in sticky error we will not escape the Enemy, the roaring lion seeking whom he might devour (1 Peter 5:8).  Nor will we elude Christ the Judge, who will come through dark woods by straight paths.  Advent reminds us to prepare for the coming of both the Enemy lion and the Lion of Judah who will open the seals and read forth the Book of Life (Rev 5:5).

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  2nd Sunday of Advent – Roman Station: Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

Last week I wrote: “WDTPRS thinks there will soon be a significant change at the (Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments – CDWDS) to facilitate their harmonious collaboration with the Holy Father.  Stay tuned.”  Here is the disadvantage of writing for a weekly publication.  It turns out the day after that issue went to press His Excellency Domenico Sorrentino, now former secretary (#2) of the CDWDS, was moved (keeping his title of Archbishop) to the Italian Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino.   There will soon be a new secretary.  That will be a telling appointment.   So why was this change made?   Backed up by Pope Benedict’s second motu proprio document, Sorrentino will ostensibly have the privilege of locking down the zany socio-political hijinx of the Assisi Franciscans who until now have been fairly independent of the local bishop.  We wish him well.

However, according to the well-informed here in Rome, Archbishop Sorrentino was moved also because of a divergence of opinions with the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who is now named Benedict.  The catalyst was partly the infamous pro multis issue.  His Excellency apparently was partly responsible for the insertion of an embarrassing line into the ailing John Paul II’s final Holy Thursday Letter to Priests (no. 4) that seemed to some to bolster support for retaining the translation “for all” and its equivalents in vernacular translations.   At the time, I was unsure what John Paul was saying and I even raised the question of whether or not WDTPRSers had received a response to the letters that had been written far and wide.   Clearly there was something odd about that paragraph.  It was a stretch to find a good way to read it.  I think we got someone’s response, but not the Pope’s!  I wrote about this at length in last year’s article for the 2nd Sunday of Easter (31 March 2005 issue).   In light of the personnel shift, we can now read that paragraph a different way: I didn’t dare write it at the time but it was a salvo in the ongoing war over pro multis.  In this light it is useful to repeat what Pope Benedict wrote some time ago: “The fact that in Hebrew the expression ‘many’ would mean the same thing as ‘all’ is not relevant to the question under consideration inasmuch as it is a question of translating, not a Hebrew text here, but a Latin text (from the Roman Liturgy), which is directly related to a Greek text (the New Testament).  The institution narratives in the New Testament are by no means simply a translation (still less, a mistaken translation) of Isaiah; rather, they constitute an independent source” (emphasis added – in Joseph Ratzinger, God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (Ignatius Press, 2003), pp. 37-8, n. 10).   

SUPER OBLATA - (2002MR):
Placare, Domine, quaesumus,
nostrae precibus humilitatis et hostiis,
et, ubi nulla suppetunt suffragia meritorum
tuae nobis indulgentiae succurre praesidiis.

This was the Secret for this same Sunday in 1962 editio typica  of the last Missale Romanum before the Second Vatican Council.  If the ancient and elegant sound of this prayer made you think that it was in Gelasian Sacramentary you were right on target.     

For you Latin students, placare looks like an infinitive but it is actually the passive imperative of placo, “to reconcile” and also “to soothe, assuage, appease”.  Think of English “placate.”  Hostia, in your dog-eared copy of the Lewis & Short Dictionary, is “a victim, a sacrifice.”  The complicated suppeto means essentially, “to be at hand or in store, to be present” and then by extension, “to be equal to or sufficient for; to suffice, to agree with, correspond to any thing.”  A suffragium is “a voting tablet” and therefore “a vote, voice, suffrage” (as in “suffragettes”, who wanted voting rights for women) and also “a favorable decision, assent, approbation, applause.”  In ecclesiastical lingo a “suffrage” is a recommendation or intercessory prayer as, for example, when pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.  The plural suffragia means something like “points in our favor.”  In other words, we have no good marks of our own merits (nulla meritorum suffragia) on our side of the column by which we can expect anything favorable from God.  Succurro means “to run or hasten to the aid or assistance of one; to help, aid, assist, succor”.  It can also be “to be useful for, good against”.  Its root curro, “to run”, lends succurro an element of haste.   

Our Super oblata today simply screams for the “thees” and “thous” of older liturgical language.  

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Be Thou appeased, O Lord, we beseech Thee,
by the prayers of our humility and by our sacrificial offerings,
and, where no favorable points of merits suffice for us,
succor us by the helps of Thy indulgence.

This Sunday’s “prayer over the gifts” must be kept in context.  This is a season of preparation for the Lord’s Coming.  The Baptist warns us from the wilderness that we ought to “make straight His path” for someday we will face Him.  If ahead of time we have not taken the proper steps, He will straighten us out Himself.  This is a fearful thing to ponder.  Indeed, were it not for the First Coming of the Lord and the Sacrifice He made for us, our impending judgment would reduce the thoughtful soul to abject terror.  During the offertory of Mass the priest, on our behalf, raises to God the elements to be consecrated together with all our gifts of praise and prayers of need.  We seek to please and appease God, whom we distance from us by our sins.

A note about my choice this week to use “thee” forms.  “Thee” forms of address were actually the familiar forms, while “you” was formal.  This distinction of formal and informal died out in English, but here in Europe we pay attention to formal “Lei” in Italian and the familiar “tu”, German “Sie” and “du”, French “Vous” and “tu”.  The proper or improper use of these forms can establish, support or damage a social situation.  Today, unless you are a Quaker, “thee”, “thy” and “thine” sound formal or courtly probably because they are archaic.   Precisely for this reason, I think, “thee” forms work well for liturgical prayer.  Why?  

Today’s egalitarianism, laxity and lack of respect for other people’s dignity together with a dominant “me-my-mine” mentality have leached formality both from our language and also our treatment of each other.  Latin prayers of Mass retain a courteous style lost on most English speakers today.  This is a real loss, too!  When we lose language we lose concepts.  The philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein (+1951) said, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” and “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”  We have lost so very much in the present ICEL translations.   Are the powers-that-be who are preparing the new translations going to give us something substandard again?  Versions leached of the original content?  

Moreover, the CDWDS document Liturgiam authenticam states that we need accurate translations but also a sacral style for our liturgical prayers.  Let us recover the spirituality communicated by the style of the prayers!  Latin prayers of the Mass give us a model of “formal intimacy” with God, a “daring familiarity”, opposed to the raw familiarity conveyed in the present ICEL translations and street speech.   Of course, it is unrealistic to think that the American and other Anglophone bishops are going to adopt “thee” and “thou”, which is sad.  As a matter of fact, I picture a few of them now chuckling over this quaint suggestion with knowing wags of their purple-beanied heads.  Fine!  So far, Reverend sirs, and with due respect, your translation balance sheet isn’t exactly bleeding lots of black ink, is it?  Check out our most beloved Catholic prayers which we learned at mother’s knee: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name…”; “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…”; “…and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host…”; “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts…”; “…never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession…”.  What do people remember?  What prayers do they love?  What style sounds like “church” and like “prayer”?  In lieu of old fashioned English, I suppose we could have more Novus Ordo Masses in Latin.   Imagine… Latin Masses for Catholics of the Latin Church!  People could bring whichever “hand missal” with whichever translation they preferred, one with daringly familiar older language or else …  

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
we are nothing without you.
As you sustain us with your mercy,
receive our prayers and offerings.

Hmmm … Maybe not so much the ICEL version.  

Is something missing?  A constant feature of Latin “prayers over the gifts” is the desire to appease God.  People today often assume God is automatically pleased with them all the time.  Many of us assume our relationship with God is just fine or that we are robotically forgiven the peccadilloes we “struggled with” without further consequences.  Being sorry for a sin, even confessing it and receiving sacramental absolution, isn’t all there is to being forgiven.  We ask for and obtain God’s mercy but we also must pay attention to justice.  We must make restitution.  We must do penance.  If we don’t do penance in this life we will do it in Purgatory – if we die in God’s friendship.  When we consider our past sins we truly have a lot of work to do.  Furthermore, nothing we do on our own merits the great gift of redemption: we are saved by the merits of Christ who makes our good works His own.

Salvation is a gift freely given by God through the merits of Christ’s Sacrifice, but salvation is not a free gift in the sense that we don’t have to do anything to obtain it.  We must cooperate.  Christ died “for all”.  “Many” will be saved, thanks be to God.  We have through Christ the free opportunity of salvation.  Good works cannot merit salvation in themselves, but we are required to perform good works to merit salvation.  In today’s translation I used the phrase “favorable points of merits” but never imagine God as a celestial accountant “up there” keeping books on what we do or haven’t done.  Salvation is not based on a ledger’s bottom line.  How God disposes all things is mysterious, though He has revealed something of His plan through the Catholic Church.  Until our final judgment God alone knows what our good works merit and how they balance against our sins.  In fact, the Church hazards to offer indications of only “partial” or “plenary” indulgences for works we perform.  The only thing we can be sure of is that we must not become lax or presumptuous.  If we want salvation, God must be appeased by our prayers, sacrifices and works, which all must be joined to Christ’s Sacrifice.  At Holy Mass we join all we do and are to the Sacrifice being renewed in God’s sight by the priest.  The priest raises the paten with host and then the chalice with water tinged wine.  He prays: “In a spirit of humility and with a contrite heart may we be accepted by Thee, O Lord; and may this sacrifice today be of such a kind in Thy sight as to please Thee.”  Place yourselves and your needs in that chalice, on that paten, to be transformed.

We need to hear what the prayers really say.  This is becoming more and more urgent.  Holy Church must form and sanctify us so that we, in our turn, can shape the world around us.  In order for the Church to have the impact Christ intended on all corners of the world, the liturgical translations must reflect faithfully and beautifully what the original texts really say.    

Hey ICEL!  Hey CDWDS!  Hey BISHOPS!  Give us sound and beautiful translations!  Need some help?  Drop me a line.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  2nd Sunday of Advent – Station: Holy Cross in Jerusalem

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006

There is great virtue in simply remaining grounded in the Church’s teachings, following the liturgical books carefully, and minding your p’s and q’s.  If nothing else, the Church can help to keep you under control.  That is certainly the case with, for example, the older, “Tridentine” form of Mass and the ad orientem celebration of Holy Mass.  The orientation and the rubrics (with the threat of mortal sin for violations) keep a priest in check so he doesn’t impose too much of himself on the Mass.  The clarity of the Church’s doctrine provides enough grist for any sermon without straying into completely unknown fields and looking foolish as a result.  As if to underscore this, I found a great quotation of H.L. Mencken (+1956) who, while rather anti-Catholic, admired the Roman Church.  The following has implications for our continuing focus on issues of liturgical translation:

“This folly the Romans now slide into. Their clergy begin to grow argumentative, doctrinaire, ridiculous. It is a pity. A bishop in his robes, playing his part in the solemn ceremonial of the mass, is a dignified spectacle; the same bishop, bawling against Darwin half an hour later, is seen to be simply an elderly Irishman with a bald head, the son of a respectable police sergeant in South Bend, Ind. Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it.”  H.L. Mencken, Smart Set Criticism, October, 1923

Mencken was obviously a fan of Darwin, but you get the point.  The priest should stick to priestcraft and the liturgy should be handled so as to retain its mysterious power.  When we try to make it too comprehensible we get into trouble and its impact is gone.  Moreover, when doctrine, prayer, music and gesture are reduced to the lowest denominator we make what is glorious and uplifting merely dull and commonplace.

Moving on, you have probably been waiting patiently for my annual Advent jeremiad about blue vestments.  Lest I disappoint….

Consider the following: the candles on your Advent wreaths are not blue and white, or they better not be!  I hope you made a wreath this year, by the way.  The candles are three of purple and one of rose.  This is because a Catholic priest wears purple and rose at Holy Mass on Advent Sundays.  Tell that to your non-Catholic friends!  No doubt some hipper priests will impose blue vestments on more than one of you.  While blue vestments aren’t as bad as, say, a pudgy nun in spandex doing interpretive dances, or banana bread instead of a host of valid matter, they remain illicit.  

I like blue. Don’t get me wrong.  If the Holy See approves blue I will upon hearing the news order up a set blue vestments with chalice veil, burse and maniple.  I will of course be irritated that long-standing abuse led to the approval, as happened with Communion in the hand and altar girls, but I am a “traditionalist” at heart: things I like are okay and those I don’t are … well… not okay, regardless of their legality.  

Forsooth, what really exasperates me is that only the progressivists’ pet violations obtain subsequent approval.  How about approving some abuses I like for a change?  How about approving use of altars ad orientem?  No, wait… that’s already legal.  How about Mass in Latin?  Hmm… that’s legal too.  How about….  No… birettas are also perfectly fine.  Okay, I’ve got one: How about approving a second Confiteor for “Tridentine” low Mass even though it was removed in 1962? No, I don’t like that one enough to waste our one opportunity.  Here’s a better one: How about all us priests start using a silent Canon?   
Any traditionally minded priest will confirm that doing something perfectly legitimate but “traditional” or even “Roman” in celebrating the “Roman” rite just might bring the swift swing of the axe on any man who hasn’t been a pastor for the last thirty years.  Use blue and you’re a prophet untrammeled by legalism while rejoicing in sign and symbol.  Use Roman vestments and you are a rigid pre-conciliar reactionary trying to turn the clock back.  

Despite documents like Redemptionis Sacramentum (does anyone even think of that document any more?) on liturgical abuses, some people can get away with murdering the rubrics and others, who want to use the books properly and with a traditional style, must still suppress their legitimate desires until they can defend themselves through seniority or assignment.  However, the situation is rapidly improving and the silliness is beginning to dissipate.  Things are looking up!

What should we learn from this?  Until blue is approved, friends, it’s wrong.  But making changes we like before their time is also wrong.  Moreover, we must never strut when things start going our way and the nonsense declines.  Instead, we should express gratitude, quietly pray for the souls of those who caused so much damage, and participate at Mass with lighter hearts as a result.    And thus endeth my annual rant about blue.

How is this for a segue?  I attended the world premiere of the movie The Nativity Story.  It was in the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican.  I warmly recommend the film.  It has the right amount of realism blended with classic images of the Nativity from our imaginations and artwork.  If you are looking for exotic Magi with camels and stars shooting beams of light, you will not be disappointed. The music is good, incorporating themes of well-known Christmas melodies such as Stille Nacht, The Coventry Carol, and Veni Veni Emmanuel.  A propos O Come, O Come Emmanuel, here it is again by popular demand: the anti-blue vestment parody song produced by a friend from seminary lo those many years ago, O Come O Come Liturgical Blue.  I dedicate this song to all of you suffering liturgical abuses in your parishes:

O come, o come liturgical blue;
out with the old, and in with the new.
Let’s banish purple vestments from here,
the color blue is very HOT this year.

REFRAIN: Gaudy, gaudy, gaudy chasubles,
in baby, navy, powderpuff and teal.

Since Advent is the Blessed Virgin’s time,
we’ll wear blue, though it’s a canonic crime,
and in the third week, we’ll wear white.
Although it’s wrong, we’ll say that it’s alright. REFRAIN

Around the wreath we’ll place blue candlelight,
and in one corner, we will place one white.
We’ll drape blue over our communion rail,
and use blue burses with blue chalice veils.  REFRAIN

This week’s prayer after Communion was originally the Postcommunio of the 2nd Sunday of Advent in the 1962MR.  In the 1962MR the prayer is called a “Postcommunio”.  In the 2002MR it is a “Post communionem”.  

LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
Repleti cibo spiritalis alimoniae,
supplices te, Domine, deprecamur,
ut, huius participatione mysterii,
doceas nos terrena sapienter perpendere,
et caelestibus inhaerere.

Let’s look at vocabulary.   The incomparable Lewis & Short Dictionary explains that alimonia is more than a check someone writes each month.   Do you remember from your basic biology class that the alimentary tract is part of our digestive system?  In Italy a "negozio di alimentari" is a grocery shop.    In Latin alimonia is “nourishment, food, sustenance, support”.   In the Vulgate Jerome used “in alimoniam ignis” for “the food of the burnt-offering” which Aaron and his sons are to eat (Leviticus 3:16).   Leviticus concerns itself in the beginning (chapters 1-7) with the different kinds of sacrifices the Jews would offer.  Perpendo means “to weigh carefully, examine; to ponder, consider.”  Thus, perpend: repleo is “to fill again, refill; to fill up, replenish, complete”.  In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 15:19 there is replevi Evangelium, “I have spread the Gospel fully”.  Think of the English word “replete”.  The Latin verb inhaereo is “to stick in, to stick, hang, or cleave to, to adhere to, inhere in; engage deeply or closely in; to be closely connected with”.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
you give us food for heaven.
By our sharing in this mystery,
teach us to judge wisely the things of earth
and to love the things of heaven.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Having been filled with the food of spiritual nourishment,
we suppliants beg you, O Lord,
that, by participation in this sacramental mystery,
you may teach us to ponder earthly things wisely,
and to cleave to heavenly things.

The priest here speaks of both the physical and spiritual dimensions of Holy Communion.  In Communion we receive physical nourishment, albeit in a very small quantity, and more importantly spiritual food of infinite measure.  However, as the scholastic adage teaches, that which is received is received in the manner of the one receiving it.  That is to say, depending on how we are disposed, some people receive great graces (though not all those possible in the infinitely worthy Eucharist), some receive fewer, some receive none, some actually eat and drink their own condemnation (cf. 1 Cor. 11).   In the Lauda Sion sung on Corpus Christi the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas says:

The good consume it, the bad consume It:
but with a different fate,
that of life or of destruction.

There is death for the wicked,
life for the good:
Behold how unlike is the outcome
of a like consuming.

“Participation” in the Eucharist, understood more clearly, is primarily an interior participation made possible by our baptism.  “Full, conscious and active participation” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 14) is rooted in interior receptivity, in knowing what is happening, and being actively receptive to the sacred action of the liturgy.  Certainly anyone who attends Mass as a non-Communicant, even a non-baptized person, benefits in some way from “participation”.  Our participatio is most nearly perfect when an actively receptive, properly disposed Christian receives Holy Communion.  In 1947 the Sacred Congregation of Rites instruction Musicam sacram 22, c, based on Pius XII’s Mediator Dei) explained: “Active participation (actuosa participatio) is perfect when ‘sacramental’ participation is included. In this way ‘the people receive the Holy Eucharist not only by spiritual desire, but also sacramentally, and thus obtain greater benefit from this most holy Sacrifice’”. 

Friends, we must get a few things straight before we dare to approach the most holy and sacred thing on earth.  First, participation isn’t “doing stuff”.  Second, Communion is more than getting your parking ticket validated when you are shopping.  Third, Communion can be either life or, without discernment and proper disposition, doom.  Reflect on your participation and how Holy Mass is celebrated in your parish.  

SMOOTHER VERSION:
Having been satisfied by this spiritual fare,
we humbly entreat You, O Lord,
that by our participation in this mystery,
You will teach us wisely to ponder the things of earth,
and to grasp closely the things of heaven.

The priest identifies what we have received as food for spiritual nourishment, not food unto spiritual destruction.  We are petitioning God to give us the graces we need to discern properly the value of material and earthly things, to weigh carefully their meaning and purpose for our lives, lest what we have, do, or long for become obstacles rather than helps.  

Advent calls us to “make straight the path” for the Lord who is coming.

At Vespers during Advent we priests recite (or ought to) a hymn entitled Conditor alme siderum. This is perhaps from the late 6th or early 7th c. In Pope Urban VIII’s revision of the hymns of the Roman Breviary in 1632, the Advent hymns were greatly altered and this hymn was no exception. The revised hymn, Creator alme siderum, is very different piece. In the Liturgia horarum original hymn has since been restored:

Conditor alme siderum, aeterna lux credentium, Christe, redemptor omnium, exaudi preces supplicum.	Loving Creator of the stars, eternal Light of believers, O Christ, redeemer of all, hear the prayers of supplicants.
Qui condolens interitu mortis perire saeculum, salvasti mundum languidum, donans reis remedium,	You, greatly suffering with us that the cosmos was perishing from the ruin of death, saved the weakened world giving a cure to the condemned,
Vergente mundi vespere, uti sponsus de thalamo, egressus honestissima Virginis matris clausula.	while the evening of the world is verging toward us, as a Bridegroom having come forth from the chamber, the most virtuous enclosure of the Virgin Mother.
Cuius forti potentiae genu curvantur omnia; caelestia, terrestria nutu fatentur subdita.	At whose powerful might All things are bent down at the knee, things celestial, things earthly, things subdued making their profession with bowed head.
Te, Sancte, fide quaesumus, venture iudex saeculi, conserva nos in tempore hostis a telo perfidi.	In faith we beg You, O Holy One, You the Judge of the world about to come, guard us in this era from the weapon of the teacherous enemy.
Sit, Christe, rex piissime, tibi Patrique gloria cum Spiritu Paraclito, in sempiterna saecula. Amen.	O Christ, most merciful King, let there be glory to You, and to the Father with the Consoler Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Here is one poetic translation for the restored, but ancient, text:

Creator of the starry height,
Thy people’s everlasting light,
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
Hear thou thy servants when they call.

Thou, sorrowing at the helpless cry
Of all creation doomed to die,
Didst save our lost and guilty race
By healing gifts of heavenly grace.

When earth was near its evening hour,
Thou didst, in love’s redeeming power,
Like bridegroom from his chamber, come
Forth from a Virgin-mother’s womb.

At thy great Name, exalted now,
All knees in lowly homage bow;
All things in heaven and earth adore,
And own Thee King for evermore.

To thee, O Holy One, we pray,
Our Judge in that tremendous day,
Ward off, while yet we dwell below,
The weapons of our crafty foe.

To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Praise, honor, might and glory be
From age to age eternally.

Alternate Third Verse:

Thou cam’st, the Bridegroom of the bride,
As drew the world to eventide;
Proceeding from a virgin shrine,
The spotless Virgin all divine.

Somewhere along the way, the Gregorian chant melodies for many hymns were adjusted, usually by French speakers, and you can hear the influence of French even on the melodies, for the syllabic emphasis shifted around. Today’s hymn is a good example. In the case of Conditor alme siderum, the melody was adjusted in such a way that the second syllable of Conditor receives an emphasis that it did not have before Vatican II.

"But Father! But Father! So what?!??" you say while drumming your fingers. "What difference could that make??? Aren’t you being too picky?"

Friends, where you place the syllabic emphasis changes the meaning. Perpend.

There are two verbs in Latin that can give us the word spelled Conditor: cóndo, cóndere results in cónditor while condio, condire produces condítor. The verb condo, cóndere, condidi, cónditum, “to bring, lay or put together” in the sense of “establish, build, construct, compose, describe” and, strangely, “hide” is never to be confused with condio, condíre, condivi, condítum: “to put fruit in vinegar, wine, spices, etc., to preserve, pickle”. Our English word “condiment” comes from condio. BEWARE! This gets confusing because since “to lay up”, as in to pickle or preserve, can also be expressed by condo! There is a connection between the words.

Incautious people might sing the Vespers hymn in such a way that we lift our hearts and minds to the merciful Pickler, rather than the merciful Creator. The inattentive singer of vespers sings us an image of a cosmic cook sealing stars into Ball jars or sprinkling fresh herbs through the heavens.

Let’s play with this a while. We can even learn something about how the ancients ate.

M. Porcius Cato (234-149 B.C. – the “Elder” or the “Censor” to distinguish him from his homonymous grandson), in his no nonsense work about running a farm called De agri cultura (called variously De re rustica), wrote: oleae conduntur [condo] vel virides in muria… (muria… think of Muriatic Acid) which means “green olives persevered/laid down in salt brine.” Remember, I said condo can hit from both sides of the plate.

Also in De agri cultura XVII we find the same Cato’s descriptive chapter entitled Oleae albae quo modo condiantur [condio]… “how light colored olives are to be preserved”. Important stuff in Italy even today. Moreover, in his Natural History, C. Plinius Secundus (A.D. 23-79 – who died perhaps from poisonous gases in Stabiae about 16 km from the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius while trying to get good and close… hah… never a good idea), also called Pliny “the Elder” (to distinguish him from his nephew C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus “the Younger” Pliny (A.D. 62-113) – who described early Christians and their liturgical worship in his letters to the Emperor Trajan and who actually wrote the description of Vesuvius’ eruption at the request of the historian C. Cornelius Tacitus) says: vitis ipsa quoque manditur decoctis caulibus summis, qui et condiuntur [condio] in aceto ac muria, describing the cooked tendrils of grapevines flavored with vinegar and salt brine. Yum.

We need to know all of this just in case during Advent we are called upon to sing the great hymn Cónditor Alme siderum...O Nourishing/Kind Maker of the Stars.

Anyway, here is a nourishing poetic translation:

Creator of the stars of night,
Thy people’s everlasting Light;
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
And hear thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
Should doom to death an universe,
Hast found the med’cine, full of grace,
To save and heal a ruin’d race.

Thou cam’st, the Bridegroom of the Bride,
As drew the world to evening-tide;
Proceeding from a Virgin shrine,
The spotless Victim all divine.

At whose dread Name, majestic now,
All knees must bend, all hearts must bow
And things celestial thee shall own,
And things terrestrial, Lord alone.

O thou, whose coming is with dread
To judge and doom the quick and dead,
Preserve us, while we dwell below,
From ev’ry insult of the foe.

To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Laud, honour, might, and glory be
From age to age eternally. Amen.

I wonder sometimes if people have the slightest clue what has been lost to us, even on the level of literature and Western culture. Is it really possible to read classics of Western literature without a working knowledge of the Church’s mighty liturgical texts? I don’t think so. What would someone ignorant of the Church’s Latin liturgy make of this passage from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions (Book 3 – 1728-1731)?

"I have always preserved an affection for a certain air of the Conditor alme Syderum, because one Sunday in Advent I heard that hymn sung on the steps of the cathedral (according to the custom of that place) as I lay in bed before daybreak. Mademoiselle Merceret, Madam de Warrens’ chambermaid, knew something of music; I shall never forget a little piece that M. le Maitre made me sing with her, and which her mistress listened to with great satisfaction. In a word, every particular, even down to the servant Perrine, whom the boys of the choir took such delight in teasing. The remembrance of these times of happiness and innocence frequently returning to my mind, both ravish and affect me.

A century earlier, during the rampant humanism of the Renaissance Pope Urban VIII (Barbarini) revised many hymns for the Breviarium Romanum in 1623, including this one, to the point that it is pretty much a different hymn. It seems this version didn’t make it to France for Rousseau to hear. Compare and contrast.

Creator alme siderum,
aeterna lux credentium,
Iesu, Redemptor omnium,
intende votis supplicum.

Qui daemonis ne fraudibus
periret orbis, impetu
amoris actus, languidi,
mundi medela factus es,

Commune qui mundi nefas
ut expiares, ad crucem
e Virginis sacrario
intacta prodis victima.

Cuius potestas gloriae,
Nomenque cum primum sonat,
et caelites et inferi
tremente curvantur genu.

Te, deprecamur ultimae
magnum diei Iudicem,
armis supernae gratiae
defende nos ab hostibus.

Virtus, honor, laus, gloria
Deo Patri cum Filio,
Sancto simul Paraclito,
in saeculorum saecula.

You don’t need much Latin to know that that is pretty different.

These hymns are pretty interesting, aren’t they?

Here is out Collect for Saturday of the 1st Week of Advent:

This is an ancient prayer found in the Rotulus of Ravenna, which is included by Mohlberg in his edition of the ancient Veronese Sacramentary.

COLLECT:
Deus, qui, ad liberandum humanum genus
a vetustatis condicione,
Unigenitum tuum in hunc mundum misisti,
largire devote exspectantibus
supernae tuae gratiam pietatis,
ut ad verae perveniamus praemium libertatis.

The phrase condicio vetustatis here refers to the "old man" we must put off, the state of sin inflicted by the fall of our first parents.

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who sent Your Only-Begotten
into this world in order to save the human race
from the condition of the old man,
lavish the grace of Your heavenly mercy
upon those devoutly awaiting,
so that we may attain unto the reward of true freedom.

Today is the 1st anniversary of the first entry on this blog.

What a year!  I might finally be getting the hang of things.

Thank you all for helping to make this blog a success.

Thanks to all of you for making a donation to help keep it running (Deo volente).

On the first day, 8 December 2005, I posted this photo taken the night Pope Benedict was elected.  I was pretty tired, after all the stuff from the previous days with Fox News and writing and all.  But when I got home, this is what I saw.  It might be the only time you will see a photo of both the Basilica and the Apostolic Palace illuminated!  I posted it at 10:29 am (Rome time).

This seems a good way to observe the occation of the 1st anniversary.

Here is shot from the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome, where there is a famous Novena before the Immacolata.  A bishop is about to celebrate Mass.

While today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, for the sake of being complete let us look at the Collect for Friday of the 1st Week of Advent:

This prayer was in the 1962 Missale Romanum and is taken from the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary.

COLLECT:
Excita, quaesumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni,
ut, ab imminentibus peccatorum nostrorum periculis,
te mereamur protegente eripi,
te liberante salvari.

LITERAL VERSION:
Rouse up Your might, we beseech You, O Lord, and come,
that, as You are protecting us, we may merit to be snatched away
from the menacing dangers of our sins
and, as You are freeing us, be saved.

Today is the feast of St. Ambrose of Milan (+4 April 397), a titanic figure of the late 4th century who changed the shape of Church and State relations for a thousand years, who brought much of the wisdom of Greek writings to the West, and who helped to bring St. Augustine of Hippo into the fold.

I have written often about Ambrose. Here are a few links which ought to keep your lips moving for a while (that’s a little patristiblogger joke, that last comment).

Of late nights, library naps, and Ambrose

EXSULTET LISTEN

“Let the feet of our minds be stretched out”: Ambrose on “dew” Jerome on Ambrose: “the black croaking raven” St. Ambrose read without moving his lips!

Here is the Collect for Thursday of the 1st week of Advent.

COLLECT:
Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam,
et magna nobis virtute succurre,
ut, quod nostra peccata praepediunt,
gratia tuae propitiationis acceleret.

This prayer was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary and other sacramentaries. It was in the 1962MR as well for the 4th Sunday of Advent ("Rorate")

LITERAL VERSION:
Rouse up Your power, O Lord,
and hasten to aid us with your great might,
so that, what our sins are hindering
the grace of Your merciful favor may make swift.

During Advent we are being constantly given images of movement, of rushing swiftly to a goal. It is principally Christ who is rushing towards us. We are asked to smooth His path, remove the obstacles. When the Lord comes, He will come by the straightest path whether we have straightened it out or not. Our sins make His path crooked.

There is going to be a very interesting conference in Rome on 12 December.  If you are Roman reader of the blog, be sure to go.  In any event, this is the sort of this the Acton Institute is doing here in the Eternal City.

Acton Institute: Celebrating the 15th Anniversary of Centesimus Annus Tuesday, December 12, 2006: 5pm- 7:30pm, Centro Matteo Ricci. The Acton Institute is celebrating the 15th Anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s groundbreaking social encyclical, Centesimus Annus, with a nine-part lecture series featuring many dynamic speakers from a broad range of disciplines. Seeking to further research and discussion of Catholic social teaching, each conference uniquely promotes an ethical analysis of the global market economy from various aspects. The sixth conference in the series, titled Centesimus Annus and Deus Caritas Est: Christian Charity in the Free Market, will examine the relationship between these two significant encyclicals. Too often modern politics forgets the primary place of the person within the state. Both Centesimus Annus and Deus Caritas Est emphasize the fact that the human person essentially belongs at the center of every political and economic structure. As conference speaker Professor Jean-Yves Naudet notes, the two encyclicals emphasize the place of reason with regards to man’s approach to the world, and especially when it comes to understanding the origins and limits of the state and its role in social life. Mr. George Weigel, biographer of Pope John Paul II, will deliver the keynote lecture on Centesimus Annus and Deus Caritas Est. Offering remarks on this topic will be Professor Jean-Yves Naudet, professor of economics at the Université d’Aix-Marseille III in France, and H.I.R.H. Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, Blessed Charles I and proponent of a unified Europe. Rev. Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute, will present introductory remarks. The conference will take place in Rome from 5:00 pm- 7:30 pm at the Centro Matteo Ricci, Piazza della Pilotta, 4. There will be a reception to follow the lectures at the University. For more information, please contact the Acton Institute’s Rome office: tel: +39.06.688.92500, fax +39.06.682.14003, e-mail istitutoacton@acton.org. The Acton Institute is a nonprofit, ecumenical think tank located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Institute works internationally to "promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles." For more on the Acton Institute, please visit www.acton.org. ***

Istituto Acton onlus – Roma Tel: (39) 06.688.92500 Fax: (39) 06.682.14003 istitutoacton@acton.org http://www.acton.org/ital/

Acton Institute – USA Tel: (+1) 616.454.3080 Fax: (+1) 616.454.9454 info@acton.org www.acton.org

There is evidence that, in the last few years, water flowed on the planet Mars.  See the podcast from NASA.

 

Patristiblogger hyperekperisou has kind words about my little … well… not so little Rosary project last October.  I am delighted that he thinks it might be of interest to Protestants.

Patristic Projects

Father Z, on his blog, What Does Prayer Really Say?, started and completed the Patristics Rosary Project. This project follows the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary and seeks out patristic passages which relate to the mysteries to which this rosary refers. Father Z deals with each subject by citing patristic parallels as explanations of the scriptural passages central to each mystery and, then, includes his own commentary. This is a tremendously learned series, but well worth reading, even for a Protestant such as myself.

There is a Christmas meme going around.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
Yes.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Wrapped.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I don’t put up lights, but they would be only white.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Don’t have much mistletoe. Aren’t you supposed to hang holly? Or stockings?
5. When do you put your decorations up?
During Advent but they are completed Christmas Eve.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
It Italy zampone con lenticchie and in the USA probably roast goose with sour kraut.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Not a childhood memory, but as an adult convert receiving my First Communion at Midnight Mass.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I was never fooled.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Only if it is expected with others.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Alas, I don’t have one.
11. Snow? Love it or Dread it?
Snow is great!
12. Can you ice skate?
Of course!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Yes.
14. What’s the most exciting thing about the Holidays for you?
They are holy days.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Panetone with prosecco, about which I have a very good memory from a hard Christmas many years ago.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Perhaps an advent calendar and listening to the seasonal music.
17. What tops your tree?
cf. #10. But I think it would be an angel.
18. Which do you prefer – giving or receiving?
Yes. Receiving a gift well honors the giver.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
In The Bleak Midwinter
20. Candy canes?
No thanks.

I found an interesting blog blurb called Forest Murmurs posted by Fr. Michael Brown, the blog’s demiurge (my emphasis).

Apart from this there are the never ending rumours about a general permission for the traditional Roman rite. The latest suggestion, reported by Fr Zuhldorf [sic] is that the permission will be made public on December 8th. The only evidence that something may be going to happen is the reports of French bishops making clear their opposition to any such move. Meanwhile in this country we are assured that it is all hype and that there is no substance to the stories.

Well… I guess we shall see if there is any substance to it or not.  And, I don’t think I ever gave a specific date.

This makes me curious. 

I don’t know if there are such things as "liberal" Catholic blogs.  There might be.  But, really, imagine such a thing.  So….

Perhaps you readers might give me a hand.  If you find things out there against the idea of any use of the older Mass, or who are completely blowing off all possibility of an indult, let us all know!  Post links and excerpts.  The way I see it, if I am going to post my opinions, suppositions and bits of news, it is only fair to consider the naysayers. 

After all, they might stumble into something true.  Accidently, of course.  Even broken clocks are right twice a day, right?

Here is the Collect for Wednesday of the 1st Week of Advent.

COLLECT:
Praepara, quaesumus, Domine Deus noster,
corda nostra divina tua virtute,
ut, veniente Christo Filio tuo,
digni inveniamur aeternae vitae convivio,
et cibum caelestem, ipso ministrante, percipere mereamur.

This prayer was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary.

Ministro is "to attend, wait upon, serve, esp. at table, to serve up, pour out, hand food or drink".  Percipio is to "to take possession of, to seize, occupy" but also "to learn, know, conceive, comprehend, understand, perceive".  

LITERAL VERSION:
O Lord our God, we beseech You, prepare
our hearts by means of Your divine power,
so that, as Christ Your Son is coming,
we may be found worthy of the banquet of heavenly life,
and, He Himself acting as the servant, we may merit to receive the celestial food.

What is really interesting here is the image of Christ as the "minister" of the heavenly Communion.  Remember what the Lord said about the master of the house who goes away and, on his return, finds the servants ready to let him in when he knocks even if it is at a very inconvenient hour?  Jesus says that in the master of the house himself will serve the servants.  The Pope has used also the referene to the Lord knocking on the door.  Fascinating.

Also, in the verb percipio we have the idea of "perceiving" with the faculties of reason what is going on.  In heaven we will moe from faith to understanding.  There will be amazing moments of realization in heaven.  Never ending opportunities of discovery and amazment before the Beatific Vision.  What food for the soul!  But since we are living in a state of "already but not yet", this can also refer to what will happen in this very Mass later on after reading of Scripture (in which the Lord comes) and the consecration (in which the Lord comes) and in Communion when the alter Christus gives Him to us as we kneel in wonder and gratitude.

I get lots of text messages on my busy cellphone each day. They are cheaper than making a phone call and far more discreet.

Here is one I got this morning:

Fama fert Litteras motu proprio dandas scriptas iam esse et mox promulgandas. Sed mox quid sit nescio. Spes autem non confundit.

What is this all about?

Rumor has it that the Motu Proprio is already written and is to be promulgated soon. What "soon" means, however, I don’t know. Still, our hope is not leaving us deluded.

That SMS is the third confirmation I have gotten. So, I feel safer about saying what I am piecing together. Remember: this is based reliable sources but it is still supposition on my part. I sift the exaggerated stuff out and try to get a consistent picture. In no special order…

1) The document will definitely be a Motu Proprio. (That means it will be from the Pope and not a document of a Congregation or joint document issued by different dicasteries.)

2) At the beginning of November it was in its final draft, after four revisions.

3) During the third week of November it was suggested that the document might come out in about three weeks. This would put it around… well… now.

4) It will authorize private celebration of Mass with the 1962 Missal by any priest as he chooses. Public Masses will be regulated by the bishop.

5) What a "private" Mass is will be defined in the document. A number will be established for what constitutes a "private" Mass. Provided the group is that size, no permission of the bishop will be necessary.

6) If I understand it right, and I admit I might be confused, there might be something in the document about greater numbers of people (than what would constitute a "private" Mass) being allowed to attend without the bishop’s permission so long as a Mass in the Novus Ordo is first provided for those who want it. I am not sure about this element, but it might be a prudent solution. If I am right about this element of the document, the idea would be to ensure that a priest doesn’t simply stop offering people the chance to attend the Novus Ordo and thus force everyone to go to the older form. See what I mean?

7) The document will stress the obligation of bishops to be "generous" in allowing the older form of Mass to be offered publicly with language much strong than that in the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei adflicta" of John Paul II.

A few days ago I jokingly said that it would be just my luck that the thing would be released on a day when I was away from Rome and not able to get online. Well… I am going out of town for a couple days on Friday. Let’s take this cvm grano salis but … hmmm!

About the number of people that might constitute a "private" Mass…. Whereas the older idea of "private" was definitely more restrictive, the new document will more than likely suggest a number.

I haven’t heard what that number is.

You might remember that I reported on a battle in the Congregation over the number of people. In October I wrote:

"the "anti-liberalizing" party, ... rushed to work on attaching restrictive modifications (for example, the need to raise the number of those making the request from 30 to 100),..."

That would surely have pertained to public Masses, not private. So, let’s think about this.

If the anti-derestriction party wanted, say 100 signatures to get a "public" Mass, then you might guess that Mass for a group smaller than 100 would be considered "private". However, 100 would be far too irritating to imagine for the anti-derestrictionists. Anti-derestrictionists would want a very small maximum number for a private Mass, right? The battle I mention here was obviously about some earlier draft. Nevertheless, since 30 was mentioned above, maybe we can imagine that the number permitted for a Mass to be considered "private" might be 30. Let’s hope that it is much higher. I would say… well… just off the top of my head… perhaps a maximum for private Mass of … 1500? More than 1500 and we would need to get the bishop involved. I think that’s reasonable, don’t you? o{];¬)

So, it looks like this Motu Proprio will fill in some of the weak spots in the older Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei adflicta". That M.P. would have worked if more bishops had actually opened their hearts and minds and been generous to people who wanted the older forms – in spite of the fact that traditionalists can sometimes be well… like we know they can be. Human nature being what it is, that was doomed to be not quite enough. I am guessing that the new M.P. will make structural changes to the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" and reshape its mandates. Remember: His Eminence Card. Castrillion Hoyos is President there and he has a lot more time now that he is no longer Prefect of Clergy. He has energy and good will toward the whole issue, too.

In any event, something is in motion. Let’s keep breathing and reasoning in the meantime.

I don’t recall where it was I first saw this "Ipod" shuffle thing some of the other bloggers out there are doing, so I am not sure whom I must credit for the idea. 

A couple problems had to be over come.  To shuffle my gizmo is not really very easy, since I use it for all sorts of things, data files and the like.  Furthermore, it contains 20G of material, so you never know what is going to come out.  Still I found a way to shuffle at least the directories where I store some music and produced this.  I use a player called an iRiver.  While you contemplate the list, and scratch your head, you can glance over at my view as I put it together.

1) Lo Ferm Voler – Music at the Time of  Dante – Ensemble Lucidarium
2) Mid-Air – That’s What – Leo Kottke
3) Paradiso 6 – Dante
4) Variation 15. Canon on the fifth – Bach – Goldberg Variations – Murray Perahia
5) Victory Is Won – Shaman – Santana
6) Dizzy – Dizzy Up The Girl – The Goo Goo Dolls
7) Lungo il fiume – Stato di calma apparente – Paola Turci
8) 2046 Main Theme – 2046 – Shigeru Umebayashi
9) 疯狂世界 – 全体 – 国语老歌新唱-夜上海
10) Occuli omnium, gradual in mode 7 – Pro cantione Antiqua – Palestrina: Masses