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

The 20 Tips are getting around.  Again.

I got this via e-mail:

Good morning (here) Fr Z!

I think my pastor reads your blog!  Somebody at the office does anyway.  They do a "big mailing" every lent and advent and it has a letter from the pastor, a prayer book and some general info.  Printed on the last page of this one was your 20 tips for making a good confession!  [LAST page?  All my life… last name starts with Z… always on the last page.  Well, we just see about that.  Someday… someday… HA!]

When I read the title I thought, "How funny, Father Z has something just like this!"  Then I read on and thought, "Hey!  I’ve read this before!"  Sure enough, down at the bottom is your name and website.  That’s why I think it’s my pastor who reads it, because the letter says your website is "excellent" and I don’t think he’d endorse it if he didn’t read it.

The internet makes the world a really small world, doesn’t it?  [Sure does.]

Everyone,

People often write to me for information about books and DVD’s and tapes and courses, etc. etc. etc.  I, alas, lack the time to respond to most of these good-natured queries however much I would like to.  Additionally, I am not always up to date on what is coming to be available.  Thus, I may from time to time as you do to some footwork so as to create both a resource here and also a packet of information I can pass along.

Here is a first project.

Priests often write to me asking for information about DVD’s of the older, "Tridentine" form of Mass so that, I suppose, they can more easily learn how to celebrate it properly.  I know of a few disks, but they are in the USA and I am… well… not.  I don’t have time to look them up on the internet.

Would you be willing to post some information here in your comments about good resources for the older Mass, especially on DVD?  Perhaps some of you know of newer disks I have not seen yet.  (Since I know how it’s done, I haven’t been looking at them). 

Forget about devotional stuff.  Priests who are learning need nuts and bolts. 

Keep in mind if you include more than one link in a comment, my filters will wonder if you are a spammer.  You comment will be put in a moderation queue and I will eventually review it and release it.

Thanks in advance.
 

We continue our Lenten journey through the prayers of Holy Mass with today’s

SUPER OBLATA:
Offerimus tibi, Domine, quae dicanda tuo nomini tu dedisti,
ut, sicut eadem nobis efficis sacramentum,
ita fieri tribuas remedium sempiternum.

LITERAL VERSION:
O Lord, we are offering to you the things which You gave to be dedicated to Your Name,
so that, just as You are completing them as a sacrament for us,
so too You may grant them to become for us the eternal remedy.

We should stay close to the language of healing when we see a liturgical remedium.  In liturgical language we will often have "medicinal" language for concepts like "pardon" and "reconciliation" and the sanctifying effects of sacraments.  So, words like remedium and medicina and medela pop up frequently in Post Communions and Secrets (and Super Oblata).  The fact is that because of our fallen and children of Adam and Eve, we need the healing that comes from becoming true Sons of the Second Adam, through the adoption of sonship offered us through being living members of the Body of Christ. 

Everything has a purpose, or end to which they are destined.  The greatest end that a grape can have, for example is to yield not only wine, but wine for the altar, and not only for the altar but actually the wine that goes into the chalice to be consecrated. 

Just as the offerings of bread and wine are "completed" in an extraordinary way by being at Holy Mass, we also have a perfect end for which we are destined.  When we are integrated into the Body of Christ, we are brought closer to our end, which will be finalized in the Beatific Vision.

Sometimes it helps for us to identify ourselves with the gifts placed on the altar for consecration.  Moments before the Super Oblata prayer, we are invited by the priest to unite our sacrifices to those he offers in his manner of offering.  We all have both burdens and reasons to rejoice.  These we can consciously place into the chalice as the priest prepares it for their own change and elevation and "completion". In a way, the water can be like our own human and earthly portion being joined, absorbed and changed into the wine (the divine), even before they are stupendously raised as the Eucharist.

Put your cares and joys into that chalice together with the drops of water the priest adds to the wine. 

The second reading of today’s Office of Readings is from St. Cyprian’s De dominica oratione.  Let’s look at this wonderful piece.

In the Church of ancient North Africa, the Our Father was an important tool for the formation of new Christians.  It was part of the baptismal rites for adults and was explained to the neophytes, or newly baptized, after Easter as part of the training, or "mystogogical catechisis". 

Three great North African writers gave us commentaries on the Our Father, and you probably can guess who they were.  There is one from Tertullian (who serves as a link between Greek theology and Latin north Africa), one by Cyprian is a pivotal figure in the development of that particularly African expression of Latin Christianity.  Augustine of Hippo has en extended commentary and several sermons about the Our Father.  I have more on this in my little podcast, in which you can listen to the Latin as well.

Here is the English and then the Latin original:

Ex tractatu sancti Cypriani episcopi et martyris De dominica oratione

Cap. 1-3  (CSEL 3, 267-168)

Dear brothers, the commands of the Gospel are nothing else than God’s lessons, the foundations on which to build up hope, the supports for strengthening faith, the food that nourishes the heart. They are the rudder for keeping us on the right course, the protection that keeps our salvation secure. As they instruct the receptive minds of believers on earth, they lead safely to the kingdom of heaven.

God willed that many things should be said by the prophets, his servants, and listened to by his people. How much greater are the things spoken by the Son. These are now witnessed to by the very Word of God who spoke through the prophets. The Word of God does not now command us to prepare the way for his coming: he comes in person and opens up the way for us and directs us toward it. Before, we wandered in the darkness of death, aimlessly and blindly. Now we are enlightened by the light of grace, and are to keep to the highway of life, with the Lord to precede and direct us.

The Lord has given us many counsels and commandments to help us toward salvation. He has even given us a pattern of prayer, instructing us on how we are to pray. He has given us life, and with his accustomed generosity, he has also taught us how to pray. He has made it easy for us to be heard as we pray to the Father in the words taught us by the Son.

He had already foretold that the hour was coming when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth. He fulfilled what he had promised before, so that we who have received the spirit and the truth through the holiness he has given us may worship in truth and in the spirit through the prayer he has taught.

What prayer could be more a prayer in the spirit than the one given us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was sent upon us? What prayer could be more a prayer in the truth than the one spoken by the lips of the Son, who is truth himself? It follows that to pray in any other way than the Son has taught us is not only the result of ignorance but of sin. He himself has commanded it, and has said: You reject the command of God, to set up your own tradition.

So, my brothers, let us pray as God our master has taught us. To ask the Father in words his Son has given us, to let him hear the prayer of Christ ringing in his ears, is to make our prayer one of friendship, a family prayer. Let the Father recognise the words of his Son. Let the Son who lives in our hearts be also on our lips. We have him as an advocate for sinners before the Father; when we ask forgiveness for our sins, let us use the words given by our advocate. He tells us: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. What more effective prayer could we then make in the name of Christ than in the words of his own prayer?

Evangelica praecepta, fratres dilectissimi, nihil sunt aliud quam magisteria divina, fundamenta aedificandae spei, firmamenta corroborandae fidei, nutrimenta fovendi cordis, gubernacula dirigendi itineris, praesidia obtinendae salutis, quae, dum docibiles credentium mentes in terris instruunt, ad caelestia regna perducunt.

Multa et per prophetas servos suos dici Deus voluit et audiri; sed quanto maiora sunt quae Filius loquitur, quae Dei sermo, qui in prophetis fuit, propria voce testatur, non iam mandans ut paretur venienti via, sed ipse veniens et viam nobis aperiens et ostendens, ut, qui in tenebris mortis errantes improvidi et caeci prius fuimus, luce gratiae luminati iter vitae duce et rectore Domino teneremus.

Qui inter cetera salutaria sua monita et praecepta divina, quibus populo suo consulit ad salutem etiam orandi ipse formam dedit, ipse quid precaremur monuit et instruxit. Qui fecit vivere, docuit et orare, benignitate ea scilicet, qua et cetera dare et conferre dignatus est, ut, dum prece et oratione quam Filius docuit apud Patrem loquimur, facilius audiamur.

Iam praedixerat horam vinire, quando veri adoratores adorarent Patrem in spiritu et veritate, et implevit quod ante promisit, ut, qui spiritum et veritatem de eius sanctificatione percepimus, de traditione quoque eius vere et spiritaliter adoremus.

Quae enim potest esse magis spiritalis oratio quam quae a Christo nobis data est, a quo nobis et Spiritus Sanctus missus est; quae vera magis apud Patrem precatio quam quae a Filio, qui est veritas, de eius ore prolata est? Ut aliter orare quam docuit non ignorantia sola sit, sed et culpa, quando ipse posuerit et dixerit: Reicitis mandatum Dei, ut traditionem vestram statuatis.

Oremus itaque, fratres dilectissimi, sicut magister Deus docuit. Amica et familiaris oratio est Deum de suo rogare, ad aures eius ascendere Christi orationem.

Agnoscat Pater Filii sui verba, cum precem facimus: qui habitat intus in pectore, ipse et in voce; et cum ipsum habeamus apud Patrem advocatum pro peccatis nostris, quando peccatores pro delictis nostris petimus, advocati nostri verba promamus. Nam cum dicat: Quia quodcumque petierimus a Patre in nomine eius dabit nobis, quanto efficacius impetramus quod petimus Christi nomine, si petamus ipsius oratione?

 

We continue our Lenten journey through the prayers of Holy Mass with today’s

SUPER OBLATA:
Suscipe, creator omnipotens Deus,
quae de tuae munificentiae largitate deferimus,
et temporalia nobis collata praesidia
ad vitam converte propitiatus aeternam.

This prayer was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary though not in any pre-Conciliar edition of the Missale Romanum.

We have word variety in the verbs defero and confero which, though they have subtle shades of meaning, pretty much point to the same concept.  Converto( r ) has the sense of both changing and of changing directions.  Think in terms of a person who is a Catholic "convert".  He has change directions, but in a sense he has "turned back" and gone in the direction of the Truth.  He is now going in the direction of his true home.  In this he is changed.  For the directional dimension, remember that in the ancient Church of Rome, in celebrations at the Vatican Basilica, people were directed to turn around to pray facing the east  so that the priest and people were facing the same direction (conversi ad Dominum). 

BRUTALLY LITERAL RENDERING:
Accept, Almighty God the Creator,
the things which we are offering from the largess of Your generosity,
and cause the temporal helps conferred upon us, propitiously to change unto eternal life.

This prayer has an echo of the exitus/reditus paradigm from Platonism that so shaped the thought of early Christian thinkers.  The idea is that created things "go forth" from God, they undergo a change or conversion, and then "return back" to their source.  Our prayer clearly indicates that what we are offering on the altar we received from God.  It came from Him (de-fero).  By His power and plan it changes and returns back up to Him.  

The dopes are at it.

I am watching Fox News via Slingbox.

"Experts" who "believe", suggest that sure maybe this is Jesus’s tomb, but who says Jesus had to rise bodily in order to "rise"? 

Can’t have it both ways, friends.

And this is the channel that brought you me during Papal April and now is bringing you Anna Nichol Smith 24/7.

BLECH

We continue our Lenten journey through the prayers of Holy Mass with today’s

SUPER OBLATA:
Accepta tibi sit, Domine, nostrae devotionis oratio,
quae et conversationem nostram, te operante, sanctificet,
et indulgentiam nobis tuae propitiationis obtineat.

I am really too tired to do much with this, so let me free-wheel a little.

In Latin conversatio is not "conversation".  It is a Pauline term especially important later in monasticism for "manner of living".  I am going to lend it contemporary weight with "life-style".  Devotio is another loaded term, but I will let it stand for now. 

LITERAL RENDERING:
O Lord, may the offering of our devotion,
which as You are working within it, sanctifies our life-style
be acceptable to You, and let it obtain for us the forgiveness of your proptiation.

I like how we have these third declensions stacking up on on another: devotio…oratio…conversatio… propitiatio…  nice!

My (philological) choice of "life-style" has purpose.  Some people want to think, and want you to think, that just because they choose a "life-style", then that choice perfectly justifies itself.  No moral judgment is possible once a choice is made. 

Since I am very tired and don’t have the energy to mince words, some "life-styles" are filthy and cry out to God for vengence.  People can fool themselves, or pretend to.  They cannot fool the Judge.  If they are not careful, they will burn in hell.

There is always room in God’s mercy.  We can be sorry for sins and ask forgiveness.  There is room for illness and entrenched habit.  There is a great deal of latitude in God’s mercy.  But His mercy is not such that we should tempt God.  God cannot be fooled.

When there is a conflict between the "offering of our devotion" in which God is at work, and our "life-style", in which we sinners alone are at work…. 

We must bring our "life-style" to His style.

In Vienna being turned toward the East has been a constant experience through history. Sometimes it has been a matter of life or death.

In the spirit of the informal motto we have taken here, Save The Liturgy – Save The World - I tip my biretta to Gerald over at the Cafeteria (or in this case Viennese Caffe) for a something from Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn he translated. o{]:¬) He got it from Kath.net. Here is what Card. Schoenborn has to say about Mass celebrated versus populum and ad orientem versus. My emphasis and comments.

    The question "people’s altar or high altar" has become a reason for dispute. A Viennese parish decided, to once more celebrate Mass using the baroque high altar. A movable people’s altar will only be used for "family Masses". Someone told the media about this which resulted in some clamoring, including the hilarious statement that from now on the priest would "preach to the wall" in this church! [How often do we hear the laughably stupid phrase that the priest has his "back to the people"?]

    First and foremost: It is not decisive in which direction the celebrant faces, but rather what happens on the altar. [True. However, from a point of view of the "psychology" of the changes, Klaus Gamber said that the deorientation of the altar was the more destructive change after the Council.]

    ...

    Second: Both directions of celebration are justified and neither should be suspected or "ideologized". [cough] Mass isn’t celebrated "to the people" or "to the wall", but to God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. The celebration turned "to the people" has the meaning that we all, priests and laypeople, gather around Christ who symbolizes the altar and whose Body and Blood become present on the altar [cough]. The celebration "with the back to the people" is not a turning away from the faithful but facing in the same direction in prayer, expression of the path we walk walk towards God as pilgrims, His wandering people.

    Third: Vatican II did not say anything about the direction of the celebrant. It wasn’t until 1969 that the GIRM said (Nr. 262): "The main altar should be built separated from the wall, so that it can be walked around easily to make the celebration versus populum (towards the people)" In the 2002 edition the following is added: "This should be the case wherever it is possible". The Roman Congregation has declared this as a recommendation, not a requirement. [There is a great deal of controversy about this GIRM 299, which the American bishops mistranslated in their "Built of Living Stones", the successor of your favorite and mine, the so-called Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, which though it had ZERO authority was the basis of Dresden-like devastation to our churches and the souls that (used to) frequent them.]

    Fourth: The oldest direction for prayer is towards the East. The Jews prayed towards Jerusalem, the Muslims towards Mecca, the Christians towards the rising sun which symbolizes the Risen Christ. Thus the respective orientation of the synagogues, mosques and churches. The orientation, ie the "Eastwardness" of churches is one of the "original laws" of church architecture. St. Peter’s in Rome faces westward for practical reasons. therefore the Pope celebrates facing the doors, which are in the East, and because of that towards the people. It is good to remind oneself what "orientation" means.

    Lastly, a personal comment: I love both directions of celebrating Mass. Both are full of meaning for me. [cough] Both help me to encounter Christ – and that is, after all, the purpose of the liturgy.

Years ago I translated a piece in Notitiae which indicated that a new wind was starting ever so imperceptibly to puff into life. The CDWDS admitted, astonishingly, that where there was an important main altar we should not set up a table altar in front of it. This is because the prinicipal of the unicity of the altar for worship is so important.

Right! And let us not forget that His Holiness Pope Benedict has written about this very topic.

The Post-Synodal Exhortation is going to be coming out. I recall that during the Synod, some bishops from the East spoke about how the celebration of Mass "facing the people" had weakened the sense of the liturgy.

We need a massive re-orientation.

Greetings WDTPRSers and welcome to your new home.  We are now on a new server.

Hopefully everything went well and we will be faster and more stable.

Since it is Lent again, and many of you are (I hope) determined to develop the good practice of making a regular and frequent confession.  It is therefore opportune to repost my 20 Tips for Making a Good Confession.  They have been zipping around the internet for years, but some of you may not have seen them yet.

Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession

We should…

  1) ...examine our consciences regularly and thoroughly;
  2) ...wait our turn in line patiently;
  3) ...come at the time confessions are scheduled, not a few minutes before they are to end;
  4) ...speak distinctly but never so loudly that we might be overheard;
  5) ...state our sins clearly and briefly without rambling;
  6) ...confess all mortal sins in number and kind;
  7) ...listen carefully to the advice the priest gives;
  8) ...confess our own sins and not someone else’s;
  9) ...carefully listen to and remember the penance and be sure to understand it;
10) ...use a regular formula for confession so that it is familiar and comfortable;
11) ...never be afraid to say something "embarrassing"... just say it;
12) ...never worry that the priest thinks we are jerks…. he is usually impressed by our courage;
13) ...never fear that the priest will not keep our confession secret… he is bound by the Seal;
14) ...never confess "tendencies" or "struggles"... just sins;
15) ...never leave the confessional before the priest has finished giving absolution;
16) ...memorize an Act of Contrition;
17) ...answer the priest’s questions briefly if he asks for a clarification;
18) ...ask questions if we can’t understand what he means when he tells us something;
19) ...keep in mind that sometimes priests can have bad days just like we do;
20) ...remember that priests must go to confession too … they know what we are going through.

Here is a snapshot of a few places some of you readers are.

San Diego, California
Helsinki, Southern Finland
Los Angeles, California
Spokane, Washington
Osasco, Sao Paulo
Davis, California
Madrid
Chicago, Illinois
Winston Salem, North Ca…
Garland, Texas
Prior Lake, Minnesota
Poughkeepsie, New York
Wallingford, Connecticut
Piedmont, South Carolina
Unknown Country  ... OOOOO… creeeeeepy
Buffalo, New York
Santander, Cantabria
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Westlake, Ohio
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Atchison, Kansas    
Bismarck, North Dakota
Lobo Township, Ontario
Manassas, Virginia
Abington, Pennsylvania
Hicksville, New York
Malvern, Pennsylvania
Abbotsford, New South Wales
Malvern, Pennsylvania
Orange Park, Florida

 

I tried my hand at a podcast.

Wait… I can hear it now…

"But Father, But Father!", one of you will no doubt exclaim, "Why on earth did you…."

You should know a few things.

First, I have no idea what I am doing (something evident to more than one of you I am sure).

Second, in trying to crunch the mp3 down to a reasonable size, the sound deteriorated. Perhaps someone can make TECHNICAL suggestions about programs for this sort of thing, audio files, compression, streaming, etc.

Third, flying in the face of common sense, I included an extended reading of an academic paper. However, the content was so good, covering such excellent foundational ideas for pro-life discussions, that I did it anyway.

Fourth, I don’t have the slightest notion of how to audio files "stream".

Some discussion in comments below about a) what you do, b) what can be done and c) how to do it would be helpful if this is the sort of thing people find interesting.

You have to make a start somewhere. Were we to think that a project had to be perfect from the get go, how many of us would ever get up in the morning?

LISTEN

 

A few days ago I posted a link to an mp3 of a reading of part of a sermon by St. Leo the Great. I got a lot of mail about that. So, I thought I would do it again once in a while, since I am reading them anyway o{];¬) at least for texts originally composed in Latin. For individual recitation of the Office, readings in the post-Conciliar Office is Readings is an improvement, IMHO.

Oh… one more thing. Today I made this reading part of a first attempt at a podcast. Frankly, I haven’t the slightest idea of how to make a podcast. I don’t listen to them, really. I imagine some people are doing them. I had some software to do some simple mixing of files and, well… I just made one. I am sure you’ll have your comments.

But let’s go back to Augustine who surely would have made podcasts had he been able. There is a link for the podcast below.

    Ex Enarrationibus sancti Augustini episcopi in psalmos (Ps. 60, 2-3 – CCL 39, 766)

    Exaudi, Deus, deprecationem meam, intende orationi meae. Quis dicit? Quasi unus. Vide si unus: A finibus terrae ad te clamavi, dum angeretur cor meum. Iam ergo non unus; sed ideo unus, quia Christus unus, cuius omnes membra sumus. Nam quis unus homo clamat a finibus terrae? Non clamat a finibus terrae, nisi hereditas illa, de qua dictum est ipsi Filio: Postola a me, et dabo tibe gentes hereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae.

    Haec ergo Christi possessio, haec Christi hereditas, hoc Christi corpus, haec una Christi Ecclesia, haec unitas, quae nos sumus, clamat a finibus terrae. Quid autem clamat? Quod supra dixi: Exaudi, Deus, deprecationem meam, intende orationi meae; a finibus terrae ad te clamavi. Id est, hoc ad te clamavi, a finibus terrae; id est, undique.

    Sed quare clamavi hoc? Dum angeretur cor meum. Ostendit se esse per omnes gentes toto orbe terrarum non in magna gloria, sed in magna tentatione.

    Namque vita nostra in hac peregrinatione non potest esse sine tentatione; quia provectus noster per tentationem nostram fit, nec sibi quisque innotescit nisi tentatus, nec potest coronari nisi vicerit, nec potest vincere nisi certaverit, nec potest certare nisi inimicum et tentationes habuerit.

    Angitur ergo iste a finibus terrae clamans, sed tamen non relinquitur. Quoniam nos ipsos, quod est corpus suum, voluit praefigurare et in illo corpore suo, in quo iam et mortuus est et resurrexit et in caelum ascendit, ut, quo caput praecessit, illuc se membra secutura confidant.

    Ergo nos transfiguravit in se, quando voluit tentari a Satana. Modo legebatur in Evangelio quia Dominus Iesus Christus in eremo tentabatur a diabolo. Prorsus Christus tentabatur a diabolo. In Christo enim tu tentabaris, quia Christus de te sibi habebat carnem, de se tibi salutem; de te sibi mortem, de se tibi vitam; de te sibi contumelias, de se tibi honores; ergo de te sibi tentationem, de se tibi victoriam.

    Si in illo nos tentati sumus, in illo nos diabolum superamus. Attendis quia Christus tentatus est, et non attendis quia vicit? Agnosce te in illo tentatum, et te in illo agnosce vincentem. Poterat a se diabolum prohibere; sed, si non tentaretur, tibi tentando vincendi magisterium non praeberet.

    From a commentary on the psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop

    In Christ we suffered temptation, and in him we overcame the Devil

    Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer. Who is speaking? An individual, it seems. See if it is an individual: I cried out to you from the ends of the earth while my heart was in anguish. Now it is no longer one person; rather, it is one in the sense that Christ is one, and we are all his members. What single individual can cry from the ends of the earth? The one who cries from the ends of the earth is none other than the Son’s inheritance. It was said to him: Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. This possession of Christ, this inheritance of Christ, this body of Christ, this one Church of Christ, this unity that we are, cries from the ends of the earth. What does it cry? What I said before: Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer; I cried out to you from the ends of the earth.’ That is, I made this cry to you from the ends of the earth; that is, on all sides.

    Why did I make this cry? While my heart was in anguish. The speaker shows that he is present among all the nations of the earth in a condition, not of exalted glory but of severe trial.

    Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

    The one who cries from the ends of the earth is in anguish, but is not left on his own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.
    He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.
    If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.

HEBDOMADA PRIMA IN QUADRAGESIMA - 1st WEEK OF LENT

5) Dominica I in Quadragesima – 1st Sunday of Lent
a) Collect (article from 2001)
b) Super oblata (article from 2002)
c) Post Communion (article from 2003)
d) Collect (article from 2005)
e) Super oblata (article from 2006)

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  1st Sunday of Lent – Roman Station: Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior “St. John Lateran”

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2007

The clock of life continues its incessant tick.  The liturgical cycle of Lent and Easter has returned. Penance and introspection are proper before a great feast.  Holy Church is decked in penitential purple.  The meaning of the season requires austerity.  In church, no flowers.  No instrumental music except on feasts or to support singing.   We shall fast and pray, give alms and examine our consciences in this liturgical desert.

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The season Lent (Quadragesima) is so important that each day has its own proper prayers for Mass and its own “station” church in Rome, a very ancient tradition. From time immemorial on 84 days of the Church’s year (including Ember Days, Sundays of Advent, pre-Lenten Sundays, Lent/Easter and its Octave and Pentecost) the clergy and Roman people “collected” at an appointed church (ecclesia collecta) for preliminary prayers, which was perhaps the origin of Collect, the opening prayer of Mass.  Then they would march in procession singing litanies and chants to meet the Bishop of Rome or his deputy for Mass at the “stopping” church (statio).  A confraternity in Rome dedicated to the cult of martyrs has maintained this beautiful tradition.  Seminarians and priests from the North American College have the custom of participating at Mass at every station during Lent. 

The names of the Roman Stations were printed in the pre-Conciliar Missal on all the appropriate days.  They are still printed on the calendars for offices of the Roman Curia.  Often the prayers and texts for a day’s Mass subtly referred to the patron saint of the church where they were said, or to some historical event associated with the place.  The station tradition was revered throughout the world and people could gain indulgences by visiting churches designated by the bishop of the place where they lived.  The little book published every year called the Ordo, containing practical information about what Mass is to be said each day, still cites the custom of stations and recommends its observance.  The post-Conciliar Missale Romanum strongly recommends (valde commendatur) that this Roman custom be fostered, at least in larger cities.  The manner of observance is described (2002MR, p. 396).  The 2002 Missale Romanum has revived the ancient “prayer over the people” or Oratio super populum after the Post Communion.  We looked at these prayers last year but we should see them again.

This week’s Post Communion is a new composition for the Novus Ordo containing echoes of Matthew 4:4 and John 6:51.

POST COMMUNION (2002 Missale Romanum):
Caelesti pane refecti,
quo fides alitur, spes provehitur et caritas roboratur,
quaesumus, Domine,
ut ipsum, qui est panis vivus et verus, esurire discamus,
et in omni verbo, quod procedit de ore tuo,
vivere valeamus.

Our The Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary, oozing with Latin learning, says reficio (whence derives refecti) means, “to make again, make anew, put in condition again; to remake, restore, renew, rebuild, repair, refit, recruit” and thence refectus , a, um, is “refreshed, recruited, invigorated”.   In an ecclesiastical institution a dining room is called a “refectory”.  The verb proveho signifies “to carry or conduct forwards, to carry or convey along, to conduct, convey, transport, etc., to a place”.  Alo is “to feed, to nourish, support, sustain, maintain” and esurio “to desire to eat, to suffer hunger, be hungry, to hunger.”

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
you increase our faith and hope,
you deepen our love in this communion.
Help us to live by your words
and to seek Christ, our bread of life.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Having been renewed by heavenly bread,
by which faith is nourished, hope advanced and charity strengthened,
we entreat You, O Lord,
that we may learn to hunger for Him who is bread living and true,
and that we may be able to live
by every word which proceeds from Your mouth.

The ancient origins of the “prayer over the people”, the Oratio super populum, are quite complex, rooted in the Eastern liturgies of Syria and Egypt and also of the West.  In his monumental The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development (II, pp. 427ff) Joseph A. Jungmann emphasizes that we are at a “frontier” moment at this point of Holy Mass.  We are at the threshold of the sacred precinct, between the church and the world.  We want the influence of our intimate contact with the divine to carry over into the outside world. 

In a Post Communion the priest prays for the people, himself included.  In a “prayer over the people” he prays for the people, but does include himself in the prayer.  By the time of Pope Gregory the Great this prayer was used only during Lent, a time of greater spiritual combat requiring more blessings. Keep in mind that people doing public penance (ordo poenitentium) could not receive Holy Communion, but they urgently wanted blessings in their trial.   Thus, this prayer was very important to the Roman people.  In 545 Pope Vigilius was celebrating the station Mass at St. Cecilia in Trastevere (trans Tiberim – across the Tiber River).  The soldiers of the pro-Monophysite Byzantine Emperor Justinian arrived after Communion to arrest Vigilius and conduct him to Constantinople.  The people followed them to the ship demanding “ut orationem ab eo acciperent… that they should receive the blessing from him”.  The Pope prayed over them.  The people said “Amen”.  Away went Vigilius.  He returned to Rome only after his death. 

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Super populum tuum, Domine, quaesumus,
benedictio copiosa descendat,
ut spes in tribulatione succrescat,
virtus in tentatione firmetur,
aeterna redemptio tribuatur.

This Sunday’s prayer has roots in the first of three “thanksgiving” prayers of the so-called pre-Conciliar “Mass of the Pre-sanctified” on Good Friday: Super populum tuum, quaesumus, Domine, qui passionem et mortem Filii tui devota mente recoluit, benedictio copiosa descendat, indulgentia veniat, consolatio tribuatur, fides sancta succrescat, redemptio sempiterna firmetur.

When first I saw tentatione I assumed the influence of Italian had produced an error.  But we dig deep to learn what the prayer really says!  Latin tento is tempto, “to handle, touch, feel a thing”.  It also means “to try the strength of, make an attempt upon, i.e. to attack, assail” and then “to try; to prove, put to the test; to attempt, essay a course of action”.  The rare succresco signifies “to grow under or from under any thing; to grow up”.  In virtus, we have “manliness, manhood, i.e., the sum of all the corporeal or mental excellences of man, strength, vigor; bravery, courage; aptness, capacity; worth, excellence, virtue” which also means “moral perfection, virtuousness, virtue” and “military talents, courage, valor, bravery, gallantry, fortitude”.

MY LITERAL RENDERING:
Upon thy people, O Lord, we beg thee,
let a plentiful blessing descend,
so that hope in time of trouble may grow up,
valor in time of temptation may be strengthened,
and eternal redemption may be granted.

Vocabulary like tribulatio, te(mp)tatio, redemptio juxtaposed with virtus remind us that we depend on God’s grace for the virtuous strength and courageous fortitude befitting soldiers of Christ in this Church Militant.  Lent is spiritual combat. 

Be bold.  Be ready.

Sometimes one person an make a big difference.  His influence though subtle at the moment can begin a trend or influence future events for good or evil.

Fr. Robert F. Drinan, SJ, died recently.  It may be that younger people don’t know who he was or what he did.  Here is an article from the The Catholic Times of the Diocese of LaCrosse (WI).  The editor is an old friend with a razor sharp mind and very good training in philosophy.  Here is the 8 February obituary essay for Fr. Drinan.  It merits a close reading.  My emphasis.

Father Drinan, ex-congressman, Jesuit and law professor, dead at 86.
 
   Jesuit Father Robert F. Drinan, the first Catholic priest to vote in the U.S. Congress, died Jan. 28 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, where he had been treated for pneumonia and congestive heart failure for the past 10 days.
   Although recognized as a brilliant civil law scholar at Georgetown University and praised as an anti-war and human rights activist, Father Drinan generated controversy for pursuing elected office without Church approval andfor his support for legalized abortion while in Congress.
   Like current Church law, the law in effect when Father Drinan made his first congressional run in 1970 forbade a cleric to hold political office-unless he received permission ftom his local ordinary.
   Fr. Drinan had not obtained the permission of either Boston’s Cardinal Richard Cushing or Worcester’s Bishop Bernard Flanagan when he successfully ran for Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional seat, nor did he get approval from Jesuit Father General Pedro Arrupe. Though Father Drinan was re-elected four times during the 1970’s, he never acquired the necessary permissions.  [One could argue that the superiors who did nothing to discipline Fr. Drinan were complicit in his actions.]
   Soon after Father Drinan’s 1970 election, the head of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia, publicly announced that Father Drinan’s holding,public office went against both the law of the Church and the express wishes of the U.S. bishops.
   It was only after a general order from the Holy see [given early in the Pontificate Of Pope John Paul II] that required all priests to withdraw from politics that Father Drinan announced "with regret and pain that he would not seek re-election for a sixth term. " Father Arrupe said at the time that the 1980 order to resign reflected "the express wish" of Pope John Paul II. ["With regret and pain".  Jesuit spirituality suggests that it should have been a joy for him to obey from the beginning.]
   At the press conference announcing his withdrawal from the race, Father Drinan said his goal in Congress had been to work for justice in America and for peace throughout the world."
   Among Father Drinan’s historic moments in Congress was his July 31, 1973, introduction of the first formal resolution to impeach President Nixon. "The time has arrived when the members of the House must seek to think the unthinkable," he said from the House floor.
   He served on House committees on the Judiciary, Internal Security, and Government Operations and on the House Select Committee on Aging, and chaired the Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice from 1979 to 1981.
   He was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War, and in a 1974 speech to the American Academy of Religion he criticized the churches of the United States for failing to speak out on such political issues as the threat of genocide from nuclear weapons and the danger of worldwide famine.
   Senator John F. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who ran for president in 2004, told the Boston Globe that Father Drinan "lived out in public life the whole cloth of Catholic teaching."  [With a few excisions!  Indeed, "out" of whole cloth is just about right.]  Kerry, who served as the priest’s campaign manager during his first election run in 1970, called him "a forever gentle, resilient, tenacious advocate for social justice and fundamental decency. "
   But George Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington and a syndicated columnist, told Catholic News Service January 29 that Father Drinan’s reputation as a fighter for human rights was tainted by the fact that he was "on the wrong side" of the abortion issue and played "a pivotal role in the transition of  the Democratic Party"from a pro-life party to one that ardently supported keeping abortion legal.
   That role "cannot be ignored in assessing his record in general or the claims made about him as a great advocate of human rights," Weigel said.
   As a legislator in the years following the Roe v. Wade decision, Father Drinan had a near-perfect anti-life voting record and was a vocal supporter of what he passionately termed a woman’s "constitutional right" to abortion, which he considered a separate issue from his "personal opposition" to the practice.
   After leaving congress in 1981, Father Drinan returned to Georgetown, and also became President of Americans for Democratic Action, on whose behalf he urged the moral necessity of electing abortion "rights " candidates to Congress.
   Notably, in 1996, Father Drinan spoke in favor of President Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act. His celebration of a January 3 Mass at Trinity University in honor of new speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who supports legal  abortion, brought new criticism
   In his Web log or blog for First Things magazine January 19, Father Richard John Neuhaus called him "a Jesuit who, more than any other single figure, has been influential in tutoring Catholic politicians on the acceptability of rejecting the Church’s teaching on the defense of human life."

How would you like that for a legacy? 

A priest friend commented in his parish bulletin about Drinan’s death:

The words of Psalm 55 (54) could serve as his epitaph, harsh. to be sure, but apt: "His speech was smoother than butter, yet war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil. yet they were drawn swords!" Let us pray that he received from God’s mercy, if only at the very last moment, the grace of conversion of heart! 

 

 

We are moving.   No, our address is not changing.

The blog has been on a server with a remote mysql service which created some instability problems.

This should take place pretty soon.  I don’t think we will have any significant downtime.

 

 

Yesterday’s favorite so far, though I haven’t really looked at all of them yet.

The uncompressed version sucks the oxygen out of the room.