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

This week’s cover story on U.S. News & World Report is about the return to traditional forms of worship in various religions.

Here is some of the article.  It is not all about the older form of Mass:

A Return to Tradition
A new interest in old ways takes root in Catholicism and many other faiths
By Jay Tolson
Posted December 13, 2007

Worshipers come to St. Mary, Mother of God in downtown Washington, D.C., for various reasons, but many say that a big draw is the Tridentine Latin mass that is said here every Sunday. Soon, St. Mary may be less well known for that distinctive liturgical offering than for the number of big-name government and media types that occupy its pews. Now that Pope Benedict XVI has loosened the restrictions on churches that want to observe the pre-Vatican II rite, more parishes are availing themselves of the option. Call it part of a larger conservative shift within the church—one that includes a renewed emphasis on such practices as personal confession and reciting the rosary as well as a resurgent interest in traditional monastic and religious orders.

...

Something curious is happening in the wide world of faith, something that defies easy explanation or quantification. More substantial than a trend but less organized than a movement, it has to do more with how people practice their religion than with what they believe, though people caught up in this change often find that their beliefs are influenced, if not subtly altered, by the changes in their practice.

Put simply, the development is a return to tradition and orthodoxy, to past practices, observances, and customary ways of worshiping. But it is not simply a return to the past—at least not in all cases. Even while drawing on deep traditional resources, many participants are creating something new within the old forms. They are engaging in what Penn State sociologist of religion Roger Finke calls "innovative returns to tradition."

...

I think this might be Shishin but I am not sure.

Anyone?

Yesterday I was delighted both to attend a Mass with rose vestments (though they were sorta pink) and to use true rosacea.

I am in good company in not wanting to wear pink, or confuse it with liturgical rose, or rosacea in Latin.

"But Father! But Father!", some of you are even now wildly typing.  "Surely you don’t wear pink, do you?"

Nope, dear readers.  Fr. Z does not wear pink vestments, unless he must sacrifice for the greater good.  Sure, for the sake of distinguishing Gaudete from other Advent Sundays, I have consented to putting on a pinkish vestment when I didn’t have a good clear choice.  The good outweighs the bad, in those cases.

However, liturgical rose really is a color.  And real priests always choose rosacea for Gaudete and Laetare.

"But Father! But Father!", some of you saying with furrowed brows.  "If rose isn’t pink, then what is it?"

Here are a couple examples of what this color is.  Keep in mind that on my monitor they look just right.  On your monitor, they might not be the same.  That said,...

Here is a vestment I shot last year in Rome in the sacristy of Gesu e Maria on the Via del Corso.  It is too spectacular for words.  Click on it to get a close up so you can see the color better.



However, the chapel of The Sabine Farm has a very nice, and very old set of rosacea vestments I brought back from Rome.  They were given to me by a ultra-modernist who was getting rid of old stuff.  

Here they are.

And closer.  You can see the little Roman style pom pom on the corner of the burse.



Notice that rosacea, in both the versions I show here, are a little more on the orange side of pink, closer to the pink that is like salmon.

And now you will have a more discerning Catholic eye when Laetare rolls around.

This is good news from the blog Philadelphia Roamin’ Catholic.  My emphases:

To-day we had a new celebrant for the Traditional Latin Mass at Our Lady of Consolation in the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia. Until now the 2 p.m. Latin Mass has been said by a rota of three priests who had been ordained prior to the institution of the Novus Ordo. To-day, however, we were glad to welcome the pastor of the parish as one of our new celebrants. Father Dennis Carbonaro has been at the parish for just a little over a year, but has been very welcoming to the TLM community—so much so that he decided to learn how to say Mass according to the Extraordinary Use. When he was ordained to the priesthood the Novus Ordo had been well in use for many years, so he comes to this without any experience. To-day was a bit of a "trial by fire" since the priest scheduled for to-day was sick and no one else could make it. Thus, Father Carbonaro decided to say the Mass though he had just begun learning how to say Mass according to the Extraordinary Use two weeks ago! (And he did a very good job I might add.) Please keep Fr. Carbonaro in your prayers, as well, pray for more pastors like him.

WDTPRS applauds Fr. Carbonaro! 

Yesterday, the Bishop of Madison, H.E. Robert Morlino, celebrated a Pontifical Mass in the older rite with the help of members of the Institute of Christ the King.

I am waiting for details.

You might remember that Bishop Morlino had a change of view on the older form of Mass after Summorum Pontificum was released.

I have been getting notes from the head of the Newman Society at Oxford, asking for a reply.

I did reply, but I think you are not getting my mesasges.

In any event, I am contemplating a trip to the UK.  If you wrote to me about this, please know that I am interested and I did write back.  I will have to sort dates out.

If you write, you might include a land-line phone number.

It is fun to look at the stats for the blog to see where people are… more or less.

Here is a snapshot of some of your locations during the last 5 minutes or so.

Keep in mind this is not very exact.  Sometimes when we log onto the internet, the location given for us could actually be at some distance.  Also, some log-ins simply show "United States", which isn’t too helpful.

Still… I always find in amazing and humbling to see that so many people from around the world are checking in at the same time.

Siauliai, Siauliu Apskr…
Notre Dame, Indiana
Vancouver, Washington
Washington, District of…
Richmond, Virginia
Berkeley, California
Notre Dame, Indiana
Bronx, New York
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Minneapolis, Minnesota
New Windsor, New York
Omaha, Nebraska
Baltimore, Maryland
Mandeville, Louisiana
Erie, Pennsylvania
Newark, New Jersey
Durham, North Carolina
Hopkinton, Massachusetts
Saint Louis, Missouri
Ludwigsfelde, Brandenburg
Mount Vernon, Iowa
Fairfax, California
Auburn, Alabama
Wausau, Wisconsin
Tangier, Virginia
Lincoln, Nebraska
Poway, California
Chicago, Illinois
Dallas, Texas
Collegeville, Minnesota
Topeka, Kansas
Portland, Maine
Coldwater, Michigan
Port Deposit, Maryland
Vero Beach, Florida
Lorena, Sao Paulo
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Sydney, New South Wales
Topeka, Kansas
Alexandria, Virginia
Farmington, Michigan
Providence, Rhode Island
Saint Louis, Missouri
Bowie, Maryland
Katowice, Slaskie
Sayreville, New Jersey
Atlanta, Georgia
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Saint Louis, Missouri
Rome, Lazio
Maple Park, Illinois
Jasper, Alabama
Baltimore, Maryland
San Diego, California
Maple Park, Illinois
Cleveland, Ohio     
Gibsonia, Pennsylvania
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Calgary, Alberta
Los Angeles, California
Dearborn Heights, Michi…
Plano, Texas
Nairobi, Nairobi Area
Krzeszowice, Krakow
Neuchtel, Neuchatel
Mellen, Wisconsin
Coeur D Alene, Idaho
Claypool, Indiana
Avondale, Pennsylvania
Jasper, Tennessee
Carol Stream, Illinois
Schaumburg, Illinois
Rockville Centre, New Y…
Dublin
Motherwell, North Lanar…
Saint Meinrad, Indiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
Rome, Lazio
Jacksonville, Florida
Dubuque, Iowa
Chestnut Hill, Massachu…
South River, Ontario
Lake Mary, Florida
San Antonio, Texas
Lafayette, Louisiana
Aliso Viejo, California
Miami, Florida
Egham, Surrey
Dartford, Kent
Atlanta, Georgia
Mountain View, California
Clifton, New Jersey
Lincoln, Nebraska
Toronto, Ontario
Atlanta, Georgia
Morden, Merton
Saint-Front, Aquitaine

We have come to the last days of the Church’s preparation for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord.  

Let’s look at the proper Collect for 17 December in the 2002 Missale Romanum:

COLLECT:
Deus, humanae conditor et redemptor naturae,
qui Verbum tuum in utero perpetuae virginitatis
carnem assumere voluisti,
respice propitius ad preces nostras,
ut Unigenitus tuus, nostra humanitate suscepta,
nos divino suo consortio sociare dignetur.

This ancient prayer is from Gelasian Sacramentary as well as Rotulus 31 published together with the Veronese Sacramentary. It was not in any pre-Conciliar edition of the Missale Romanum.

A REALLY LITERAL VERSION:
O God, creator and redeemer of human nature,
who desired Your Word to assume flesh
in a womb of perpetual virginity,
look propitiously on our prayers,
so that Your Only-Begotten, now that our humanity has been taken up,
may deign to integrate us into His own fellowship.

ANOTHER VERSION SOME THINK IS GOOD:
O God, creator and redeemer of human nature,
who willed that in an ever-virgin womb
your Word should take flesh,
look with favor on our prayers,
that your Only-begotten Son,
who has assumed our humanity,
may admit us as partakers in his divinity.

You see in this prayer how the will of the Father and the Son are perfectly in harmony. We ask the Father that the Son will deign…

We have again a confluence of the different Advents of the Lord, at Bethlehem in the past and as Judge in the future.

Christ took up our flesh in the Incarnation. He took up our flesh in His own Person at the Assumption.

He desired to share our lot (Latin sors).

We ask to be sharer is of His lot (con-sors).

On December 17th we enter into that final stretch of our Advent preparation. In the Church’s solemn prayer of the hours, at Vespers, the great "O Antiphons" are sung. Today we have the first.

Years ago, I made a little webpage for the O Antiphons.  It might be useful.

By way of introduction, here are a few points all Catholics should know.

First, the song Veni, veni Emmanuel is a musical presentation of the themes of the O Antiphons.

Second, the first letters of the "addressee" of the Antiphon, arranged backward spell out "Ero cras... I will be (there) tomorrow".  So, there is a clever "count-down" in the antiphons.

Third, each of the "O Antiphons" carries Old Testament biblical figures. At the same time each one carries an element of the New Covenant. These two characteristics are juxtaposed and a third dimension emerges which serves as a point of meditation when considering the Incarnate Word, the Son of God made flesh.

Today’s O Antiphon is O Sapientia.

LATIN: O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodidisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae. 

ENGLISH: O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Scripture References:
Proverbs 1:20; 8; 9
I Corinthians 1:30

Relevant verse of  Veni, Veni Emmanuel:
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who orders all things mightily,
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

In today’s "O Antiphon" – "O Sapientia" – we are drawn into the Old Testament’s wisdom literature. Wisdom is a divine attribute. The divine Wisdom is personified. Wisdom is the beloved daughter who was before Creation, Wisdom is the breath of God’s power, Wisdom is the shining of God’s (transforming) glory. (See Sirach 24:3 and Wisdom 8:1.)

Wisdom is also something which we deeply desire. It is also a human attribute, not just a divine attribute, though authentic human wisdom is never separated from a relationship with God. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as we learn from the psalms as well as the school of personal hard-knocks. From this convergence of awesome respect for God with the experience of learning through life’s mysterious calendar, we understand (if we are wise) that wisdom is more than mere knowledge. It is something more than love.  It is something more than just a special astuteness regarding how to get along in life, a certain kind of savior faire. Rooted as it is in fear of the Lord, true human wisdom is both love and that knowledge of God that seeks to understand, the knowledge that is completed by faith. 

The Prologue of John’s Gospel refers to the "Verbum caro factum...the Word made flesh". He is the divine Logos… the eternal thought/word/reason. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing can be. So, the New Testament image in the Prologue of John brings to completion the imagery of Wisdom. He, the Word, is the archetype of the material universe. All things are ordered in and to Him.

Our lives, to be happy, need order. Our individual private lives and our collective lives in larger society must have structure and order. They must be disposed in such a way that the real and genuine good of all is fostered and promoted. Thus, in human governance we struggle to find the proper balance of exercise of power (without which governance and order is not possible) and gentle concern for the individual and community (without which there is mere imposition and tyranny and exploitation for some end material or ideological). Wisdom permits the balance of these.

This first "O Antiphon" shows us the Creator of all that is invisible and visible, the whole of  spiritual and material creation.  It is moving according to an eternally disposed plan of divine Providence toward an inexorable end: that God may be all in all. In this end the blessed elect will participate. We have had the way opened for us toward this end by the Word (divine) made flesh (human). Our humanity now sits in transformed glory at the right hand of the Father in an indestructible bond with the Son’s divinity. The risen Christ is the new Adam…the new Creation. With unspeakable sweetness He orders our salvation. With irresistible power all things exist and move according to His will. Our lives have meaning only in Him, according to His guidance, who handles us "suaviter et fortiter".

Our Old Testament and New Testament figures and images merge into a new point of reflection for our lives which today’s "O Antiphon" underscores as "prudence" – "Come…Teach us the way of prudence!"

"Prudence" comes from the Latin "to see/look ahead". It is one of the four "cardinal" virtues, one which other virtues depend. Prudence is a habit of the intellect that allows us to see in any circumstance what is virtuous and what is not. Prudence helps us to seek what is virtuous and avoid what is not. Prudence perfects the intellect (rather than the will) in practical decisions. It determines which course of action must be taken. It indicates what the golden mean is hic et nunc...here and now. This mean is at the core of every virtue. Without the virtue of prudence courage becomes foolhardiness… rushing in to the wrong danger in the wrong way at the wrong time. Without the governing of prudence mercy devolves into slackness and enervated weakness, spinelessness.

But this is still a kind of prudence which is merely human prudence, not looking beyond the issues of daily life.  We must also look beyond this vale of tears. In addition to the prudence which grows out of the school of hard-knocks and which becomes a sound and good habit through repeated acts, there is another prudence, an "infused" prudence. This kind of prudence is a grace given us by God out of His merciful love. This greater prudence, which governs other grace-filled virtues, cannot be separated from the life of grace. It is exercised in the state of grace.  Mortal sin is its enemy.  This higher kind of prudence helps us to determine the proper things that help us to salvation.  It helps us to avoid things that slam the door that Christ opened (mortal sin). Thus, prudence cannot be separated from charity, which is in the soul as a characteristic of sanctifying (habitual) grace.

Today in the opening "O Antiphon" we sing to Emmanuel who is coming.  We plead with Him, for He orders all things "sweetly and strongly."  He teaches us how to avoid things that harm us, both in material concerns and in our pursuit of the happiness of heaven.  He teaches us true prudence.

Take stock: is there something going on in my life that needs to be examined in prudence? Am I doing something which is going to be an obstacle to the happiness of heaven? Christ is coming, both at Christmas as the infant King and the end of the world as the Judge and King of fearful majesty. This is a cause to rejoice.  But it is also cause to prepare prudently and well the way of the Lord and make straight His paths before He comes, as we heard about on "Gaudete" ("Rejoice!) Sunday of Advent.

UPDATE: 16:27 UTC 17 December

I got this interesting note by e-mail from a Dominican in Washington, D.C.

I thought you might be interested in today’s entry on our blog, www.dominicanfriars.org, about the Dominican Chant version of the O Antiphons.  Also available on that page is a .pdf booklet of the Dominican Chant O Antiphons, along with the pointed text of the Magnificat (and an English translation).  The booklet is what we will be using for our liturgy here at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where we’ll be singing the antiphons and Magnificat in Latin at Vespers. 

From Petrus we learn more about Archbp. Piero Marini’s new book. (My translation).

Now Msgr. Piero Marini takes aim: "The Roman Curia against the Second Vatican Council"

VATICAN CITY - In a book published for now only in English and presented on Friday in London, [Archbp.] Piero Marini, who for 20 years until last October filled the role of Master of Ceremonies, explains how, in his words, the liturgical reform desired by the Second Vatican Council was held hostage and progessively buried by the Roman Curia.  The volumen, A Challenging Reform, was printed by the Liturgical Press and presented to the public in Westminster, in the residence of the Cardinal in London, Cormac Murphy O’Connor, before a strong group of Vatican dignitaries, among whom were also the Nuncio in Great Britain, [Archbp.] Faustino Sainz Monuz.  The event is covered on the internet site of the National Catholic Reporter.  "The liturgical reforms (of the Second Vatican Council) was not understood or applied only as a reform of some rituals, Mons. Marini said during the presentation.  "It was the basis and inspiration for objectives for which the Council was convoked."  "The objective of liturgy," he continued, ... was nothing other than the objective of the Church and the future of the liturgy and the future of the Church." ...

There is more, but I am feeling ill. 

He does understand something: Change the liturgy, and you change the Church.  

To which we respond….

That National Catholic Reporter article is by non other than my friend the nearly ubiquitous fair-minded former Rome correspondent for the ultra-lefty aforementioned weekly, John L. Allen.

Allen reminds us of how Marini (I) engineered the female shaman’s limpia rite exorcism of Pope John Paul II in Mexico during the ceremony for the canonization of St. Juan Diego.

The article concludes:

In coming weeks, Marini and company will be on the road in the United States to promote A Challenging Reform. Projected dates include:

• Feb 11-12: Boston College
• Feb 13: Catholic Theological Union in Chicago
• Feb 13-15: University of Notre Dame
• Feb 15-17: New York and the United Nations, with a luncheon hosted by America magazine

Most of these appearances, [Jesuit Fr. Keith] Pecklers said, will be “invitation-only” because of limited space or the nature of the event. Ironically, despite the fact that Marini has served in the Vatican for 40 years, there are no present plans for an event in Rome.

Papa Ratzinger, His Holiness Rome’s Bishop is… well… acting like a bishop.

He burys the dead, namely his "hinge-men", Cardinals, who are of the clergy of Rome. 



He consecrates altars in new churches.

He meets the folks.

 

He wears duds which properly identify who he is.

 

He blesses stuff.

 

He wears many hats.

He does paper work.

He prays.

 

Today, ante diem xvi kalendas januarias, is the 1st day of the ancient pagan Roman celebration of Saturnalia. 

Saturnalia was a festival in honour of Saturn.  There were banquets and people wore a soft floppy hat called a pileus.

No business could be conducted, so all the shops and markets were closed.  People would gamble, eat a lot and exchange gifts.  One custom was that masters would serve their slaves.