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

In another entry on this blog there are questions and comments about having the "Tridentine" Mass in the vernacular.   Apparently radio commentator Paul Harvey inaccurately launched some rumor about this.

"But Father!  But Father!", some of you are muttering.  "That sounds like a really good idea!" 

So, gentle readers … good idea?  Not good?  Latin only?  Could the vernacular be the best of both worlds?

One commentor in this blog said:

What would be so bad if the MP included the option for a priest to use the 1962 missal translated into the vernacular?

Wouldn’t such an option be a good way of introducing the post-Vatican II group to the Traditional Mass?

Another comment responded:

The oldies around here (like me) all remember “a translation” in the pages of some missal from some publishing house about 1962, but which version would we take?

No. It would be an unofficial translation if we did that. It’s not that all that simple. We’ve had our fill of ad hoc translations—that is precisely the point of doing Latin. We have to fix this shambles the liturgy is in.

That raises an interesting point.  It just so happens that for my WDTPRS article for this week’s 13th Sunday of Ordinary time, in which I scrutinize the Post Communion, I compared older version of the prayer.  It happens that this Post Communion was identical to a prayer in the 1962 Missale Romanum.   Here is an excerpt:

[T]oday’s Post Communion, which was in the 1962 Missale Romanum for the votive Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ High and Eternal Priest. 

POST COMMUNIONEM (2002MR):
Vivificet nos, quaesumus, Domine,
divina quam obtulimus et sumpsimus hostia,
ut, perpetua tibi caritate coniuncti,
fructum qui semper maneat afferamus.

I like the chiasmus pattern.  A chiasmus is an “X” shaped figure of speech: AB-BA.  When the pairs are placed above each other, they form an X, like the Greek letter chi which looks like an “X”.  The AB-BA in divina quam obtulimus et sumpsimus hostia puts the feminine divina… hostia on the ends and then embeds the relative clause with two perfect verbs.  Elegant. 

Let’s dig at affero (or adfero) with our fabulous lexical shovel, the Lewis & Short Dictionary.  In its basic meaning, when applied to portable things affero is “to bring, take, carry or convey a thing to a place”.  Regarding news it is “to report, announce, inform, publish”.  Concerning reasons or excuses it means “to bring forwards, allege, assert, adduce”.  But in the Classical period it could, though rarely, mean “to bring forth as a product, to yield, bear, produce”.  Now we are getting somewhere.   The references provided in L&S are from the Vulgate and two of them pair affero with fructum (“an enjoying; proceeds, profit, income; fruit, consequence, result, return, reward, success”).  Coniugo means “to bind together, connect, join, unite; to unite, join in marriage or love”.  Think of English “conjunction” and “conjugal”.   The imagery of the prayer is nuptial.

Since this prayer remains as it appeared in the pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum, out of curiosity we can again consult those good old hand missals people carried to church stuffed with memorial and ordination cards.

The New Roman Missal (1945):
We beseech Thee O Lord that the divine victim
which has been our oblation and our food may give us life;
so that united with Thee in perpetual charity
we may bring fruit that remaineth forever.

The New Marian Missal (1958):
We beseech Thee, O Lord, may the divine hosts
which we have offered up and received, quicken us;
that, bound to Thee by an eternal love,
we may bear fruit that remains evermore.

I like that “quicken” for vivifico.  L&S likes it too, “to make alive, restore to life, quicken, vivify”.

Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1959):
We pray, Lord, let the offering and reception
of the divine victim vivify us,
that, united to You by perpetual charity,
we may bear an everlasting fruit.

Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1959 – New Edition 1961):
We beseech You, O Lord, that the Divine Victim
which we have offered and received, may give us life,
so that united with You in enduring bonds of love,
we may bring forth everlasting fruit.

And last, but least, the lame-duck version from

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
may this sacrifice and communion
give us a share in your life
and help us bring your love to the world.

That is what you will probably hear on Sunday at church.   On planet WDTPRS, however, it would be something like this

LITERAL VERSION:
May the divine sacrificial victim
which we have offered and received enliven us, O Lord, we entreat You,
so that joined to You by love everlasting,
we may bear the fruit which remains for ever.

If you are used to reading Sacred Scripture or liturgical texts in Latin your ears would have instantly perked up at the sound of “fructum qui semper maneat afferamus”, an allusion to John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide (ut eatis et fructum adferatis et fructus vester maneat); so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

Okay… look at those versions.  

One of the advantages to having those prayers in Latin is that people were free to participate fully, consciously and actively at Holy Mass with the aid of whatever approved hand missal they chose.  It might even be interesting over coffee and doughnuts after Mass to compare your different versions and figure out what the differences were.

So, "Tridentine" Mass in the vernacular: good idea?

Here is something I wrote for the paper:

We won’t know the details of the Motu Proprio until it is promulgated, but we must consider several points.  When a major document comes from the pen of a Pope, I always look at what he is saying both to the Church (ad intra) and to the world (ad extra).  

By this Motu Proprio Pope Benedict will establish the older form of Mass as an extraordinary rite of the Latin Church, the Novus Ordo being the ordinary rite.  It will clarify that any priest can celebrate Holy Mass with the 1962 Missale Romanum in private.  Some traditionalists claimed that no priest needs permission, but this remained a disputed question.  It will also more than likely lay down that when a certain number of the faithful make a request, a priest, probably a pastor of a parish, will be able to celebrate the older Mass publicly without specific permission of the local bishop.  It is rumored that perhaps thirty people will be necessary for this.  The Motu Proprio will certainly protect the authority of diocesan bishops and religious superiors to oversee their priests and liturgies.  I heard once that if a bishop wanted to block public celebrations in some place or by some priest the Motu Proprio might require him to present reasons to the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”.  That is speculation.  Soon we will know for sure.  The Motu Proprio will more than likely spell out the role of the Pontifical Commission and what will happen if there are disputes between priests and bishops.

What will the results of this be for the Church herself (the ad intra dimension)?  First, Pope Benedict is working to re-root celebrations of Holy Mass in the tradition whence it emerged.  He has written that it was unreasonable that a rite of Mass so important to the Catholic Church for so long should suddenly be virtually forbidden.  He wrote in the past about how liturgy grows slowly and organically, from rites and cultures enriching each other.  The Novus Ordo, stitched together by experts on table tops, constituted a break in this process.  Derestriction of the older form of Mass will help to heal people hurt by the loss of the older rite.  Widespread celebrations will have an impact on the way the Novus Ordo is celebrated… and vice versa!  It cannot be otherwise.  This has already been happening.  The derestriction might help to heal the rift between the See of Peter and the SSPX, though there are also theological issues to work through (e.g., Vatican II’s document on religious liberty).

In 1988 John Paul II, in his own Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta, called for bishops and priests to be generous and to show respect to those who wanted older expressions of the liturgy.  Some did.  More didn’t.  Pope Benedict is confirming for progressivist priests and bishops that traditional Catholics are not just the nutty aunt in the diocese’s attic.  They have rights.  They have something valuable to contribute. The Motu Proprio might also be a historically important document: it will stress the rights of priests and laypeople rather than of the bishop.  In a way, I wager many people will find that their nutty old aunt, now that she’s back downstairs and mixing again, was a whole lot sharper and had more to contribute than they imagined.  Maybe there wasn’t much wrong with her all along.

Above all, the document will make concrete Benedict XVI’s desire for a “hermeneutic of continuity”.  A “hermeneutic” is a principle of interpretation, like a lens through which you examine a question.  In his 2005 Christmas address to the Roman Curia, His Holiness spoke of a “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” used by many after the Council.  This resulted in a terrible break with our tradition.  For many it is as if nothing good or worth preserving happened before Vatican II.   Pope Benedict is working to reestablish continuity with the past, though not uncritically, through a “hermeneutic of reform”.  Derestriction of the older form of Mass must be seen as part of his vision for this reform, this rebuilding of continuity with the Church’s tradition.

Rebuilding continuity with past leads us to consider what the Motu Proprio will say to the larger world (ad extra).   Pope Benedict is convinced that the Church has a right to her own language, symbols and identity.  She has a right to express them in the public square.   There has long been an effort to silence the Church in public debate.  If Catholics attempt to express themselves as Catholics, in a Catholic way and with Catholic concerns in politics, economics, academics and the arts, they are marginalized.  Politicians, for example, claim that although they may be Catholic, their Catholic faith won’t affect their voting on social or ethical issues.  These politicians perceive this faithless dodge as a way of remaining relevant.  Pope Benedict, however, while he defends the concept of properly understood laicality, brings issues to the public square in a decidedly Catholic way.  In Italy this has started to create some unrest.  The Italian bishops are rediscovering their voice in the piazza and the left is furious.

The Motu Proprio to derestrict the form of Mass that shaped Catholic identity for centuries is a major move in the Pope’s project to recover continuity with our tradition and therefore reinvigorate the Church in an ever more secularized and relativistic world.

It is important that we receive this Motu Proprio well.  We must be very gracious.  For decades many traditionalists and liturgical conservatives have been ignored or treated poorly.  Some have admittedly brought mistreatment upon all of us by their sour bleating, but we unquestionably are more sinned against than sinning.  We must be joyful and polite to those who have not shown us due respect.  Therefore, as I wrote in my Five Rules of Engagement …, we must not “strut” when this derestriction occurs.  Furthermore, if the Motu Proprio contains points we don’t favor, we must avoid whining about them or else keep our mouths shut.  This Motu Proprio will need to be implemented.  The progressivist ploy has always been to say, “Welllll … you see … we really need time to study this before we can implement it.”  During this interval if a traditional Catholic loudly bellyaches and is nasty, he will only do harm.

Remember too that priests are going to wind up caught between groups of lay people on the one hand and the bishop on the other.  Be very careful.  Consider the priest’s position.  A bishop or religious superior can show a priest displeasure in many ways.

Above all, before and after the release of the Motu Proprio we must get down on our knees and sing both Te Deum and Non Nobis.  Praise God and remember that this is really all about Him. Pray for bishops and priests:  they will implement the Motu Proprio.  Pray that their hearts may be open and their actions prudent.  This is a very joyful time, but you just might also add my own simple daily prayer: “Dear Lord, help me avoid doing harm today.”

This is too funny!   The Curt Jester offers a… well… you read it.  I tip my biretta!  o{]:¬)

I have too say, he nailed this!  Not quite sure what "MSM" is exactly, but it must have something to do with the modern liberally slanted media.  My emphases.

With the upcoming release of the Motu Proprio liberalizing the Tridentine rite you can expect a surge of articles in the MSM getting things wrong. As a service to the MSM I will give them a Motu Proprio boilerplate that they can arrange as they want with just the right spin, or is that rite spin, so that it fits into their normal templates. This boilerplate has enough mistakes and biases it make it indistinguishable from any other MSM article that will be appearing in the coming days.

• Some people feel nostalgic for the Latin Mass.
• In the Latin Mass the priest faces away from the congregation and prays, sometimes in a whisper, in Latin, a language unfamiliar to most of the world’s one billion Roman Catholics. Unlike in the new Mass which is celebrated in the vernacular with the priests facing their congregations.
• Because two generations of American Catholics are accustomed to hearing the Mass celebrated in English, it’s unlikely most will want to switch to a liturgy that is longer, more formal and celebrated in a language they don’t understand.
• Pope Benedict is taking the church back to before Vatican II and removing the reforms of the Council. Liberal, reform-minded Catholics are concerned about these rollbacks to progress made.
• Some prayer for the Tridentine liturgy are offensive to Jews.
• The Rev. said .
• The groundbreaking Second Vatican Council opened the door to worship in the local vernacular.
• The Latin Mass involves a diminished role for women as altar servers and eliminates progress made in women’s equality since Vatican II.
• These changes will only aggravate declining Mass attendance by introducing a liturgy not relevant to the times.
• Insert comment by former America editor Thomas Reese now a fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. (Make sure you mention he was forced out of the editorship by Pope Benedict.) If you can’t get in touch with Thomas Reese for a direct quote just mention something about clash of cultures between conservative priests and liberal congregations.
• Pope Benedict has been receiving resistance from the Bishops in France, England, and Wales who worry about the change dividing the church.
• But liberals are deeply wary because a number of the rite’s adherents are associated with ultra conservative groups that oppose the radical reforms ushered in by the Council.
• The proponents of the old Latin mass are said to number no more than 2 percent of Catholics, and polls show that the majority of Catholics embrace the reforms of Vatican II. There seems to be no demand for it.
• Insert a comment from a proponent of the Tridentine Rite at the bottom of your piece.

Just mix and match and you will have a story ready to go to press in minutes. If you need some more fluff you can always mention once again how no one knows Latin anymore. You can always do a man in the street interview outside of a Catholic Church after Mass. Though contrary to what you might think don’t ask younger Catholics their opinion on this, look for someone with gray hair to get a good quote on why this change is bad.

Isn’t this just right?  I bet we can find some other things.

We could probably even come up with a sour-grapes template too.

Yesterday in a post about an ANSA story on the recent MP meeting I mentioned that ANSA made an error about the number of bishops present.  ANSA reported that some 15 bishops were present when I and others thought there were some 30 bishops.

ANSA was right and I, with others, was wrong.

So, kindly take note.  There were some 15 present and not 30.

This is from ANSA on the MP.  They spoke with Card. Bertone.  Here is an excerpt (my translation):

"Leaks in circulation during the autumn of last year about the first draft of the Motu Proprio hypothisized that a request by a certain muber of faithful would be enough to compel a priest [to celebrate] with the Tridentine rite.  The project of total direstriction of the Mass in Latin raised doubts and reservations in some bodies of bishop, especially among the French and Americans, fearful that the presence of two liturgical rites could in the end fracture the unity of national Churches and remove authority from the local bishops.  From last December, behind the scenes, various modifications were made to the original document, to grant to the bishops – or so it seems – to nevertheless have "the last word".

"The role of the bishop is central in the dispositions of the order of celebrations", the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, explained today, commenting on the Motu Proprio.  With the restoration of the pre-Conciliar liturgy,  he added, it was desired above all to give homage to the "great riches of tradition".  The document of the Pope is not just an homage to the grand past of Latinity: it could also reopen the path toward a reconciliation of the Lefebvrite schism.

Le indiscrezioni circolate nell’autunno dello scorso anno sulla prima bozza di Motu proprio ipotizzavano che bastasse la richiesta di un certo numero di fedeli per obbligare un sacerdote al rito tridentino. Il progetto di totale liberalizzazione della messa in latino aveva suscitato le perplessità e le riserve di alcuni episcopati, in particolare quello francese e quello statunitense, timorosi che la presenza di due riti liturgici potesse alla fine incrinare l’unità delle chiese nazionali e togliere autorità ai vescovi locali. Dal dicembre scorso, dietro le quinte, sono state apportate diverse modifiche al documento originale, per consentire ai vescovi – a quanto pare – di avere comunque "l’ultima parola".

 "Il ruolo del vescovo è centrale nelle disposizioni dell’ordine delle celebrazioni", ha spiegato oggi il cardinale segretario di Stato vaticano, Tarcisio Bertone, commentando il Motu Proprio. Con il ripristino della liturgia pre-conciliare, ha aggiunto, si vuole sopratutto rendere omaggio alla "grande ricchezza della tradizione". Il documento del Papa non è solo un omaggio al passato grandioso della latinità: esso potrebbe anche riaprire la strada verso la ricomposizione dello scisma lefebvriano.

You may think the news about the Motu Proprio is great, but this is out of this world.

I think we can make some analogies with the derestriction of the older Mass, no?

In any event, this is very cool stuff, and a nice change from motumania!

NASA Mars Rover Ready For Descent Into Crater

 

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock-paved slope into the Red Planet’s massive Victoria Crater. This latest trek carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable science.

 

Opportunity already has been exploring layered rocks in cliffs around Victoria Crater. The team has planned the descent carefully to enable an eventual exit, but Opportunity could become trapped inside the crater or lose some capabilities. The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.

 

The scientific allure is the chance to examine and investigate the compositions and textures of exposed materials in the crater’s depths for clues about ancient, wet environments. As the rover travels farther down the slope, it will be able to examine increasingly older rocks in the exposed walls of the crater.

 

"While we take seriously the uncertainty about whether Opportunity will climb back out, the potential value of investigations that appear possible inside the crater convinced me to authorize the team to move forward into Victoria Crater," said Alan Stern, NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "It is a calculated risk worth taking, [Pope Benedict told the gathering…] particularly because this mission has far exceeded its original goals." 

 

The robotic geologist will enter Victoria Crater through an alcove named Duck Bay. The eroding crater has a scalloped rim of cliff-like promontories, or capes, alternating with more gently sloped alcoves, or bays.

 

A meteor impact millions of years ago excavated Victoria, which lies approximately 4 miles (6 kilometers) south of where Opportunity landed in January 2004. The impact-created bowl is half a mile (800 meters) across and about five times as wide as Endurance Crater, where Opportunity spent more than six months exploring in 2004.

 

The rover began the journey to Victoria from Endurance 30 months ago. [Sorta like our trek to the MP, no?  A long slow crawl over a rocky alien desert.] It reached the rim at Duck Bay nine months ago. Opportunity then drove approximately a quarter of the way clockwise around the rim, examining rock layers visible in the promontories and possible entry routes in the alcoves. Now, the rover has returned to the most favorable entry point.

 

"Duck Bay looks like the best candidate for entry," said John Callas, rover project manager, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It has slopes of 15 to 20 degrees and exposed bedrock for safe driving."

 

If all of its six wheels continue working, engineers expect Opportunity to be able to climb back out of the crater. However, Opportunity’s twin rover, Spirit, lost the use of one wheel more than a year ago, diminishing its climbing ability.

 

"These rovers are well past their design lifetimes, and another wheel could fail on either rover at any time," Callas said. "If Opportunity were to lose the use of a wheel inside Victoria Crater, it would make it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to climb back out."

 

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