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

Be sure to visit The Crescat to see the results of the Ugliest Vestment poll.

The one I voted for won…. or is it lost.  

You decide.

These things must be seen to be believed.

Make the some popcorn and share the moment with a friend.
 

LATIN: O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.

ENGLISH: O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Scripture Reference:

Luke 1:78, 79
Malachi 4:2

Relevant verse of  Veni, Veni Emmanuel:

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer,
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

We are all desperately in need of a Savior, a Redeemer who is capable of ransoming from the darkness of our sins and from the blinding and numbing wound of ignorance from which we all suffer.  In their terrible Fall, our First Parents inflicted grave wounds in the souls of every person who would live after them, except of course – by an act of singular grace – the Mother of God.  Our wills are damaged.  Our intellect is clouded.  In Christ we have the Truth, the sure foundation of what is lasting.  All else, apart from Him fails and fades into dark obscurity.  He brings clarity and light back to our souls when we are baptized or when we return to Him through the sacrament of penance.  

At Holy Mass of the ancient Church, Christians would face "East", at least symbolically, so that they could greet the Coming of the Savior, both in the consecration of the bread and wine and in the expectation of the glorious return of the King of Glory.  They turned to the rising sun who is Justice Itself, whose light will lay bare the truth of our every word, thought and deed in the Final Day.  

This is the Solstice day, for the Northern Hemisphere the day which provides us with the least daylight of the year.  From this point onward in the globe’s majestic arc about the sun, we of the north, benefit from increasing warmth and illumination.  It is as if God in His Wisdom, provided within the framework of the cosmos object lessons by which we might come to grasp something of His good plan for our salvation.

Let us turn to the LIGHT, repent our evil ways and habits, and grasp onto Christ in His Holy Church, for as we read in Scripture:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.  He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God."

John 3:16-21 (RSV)

Here is the Collect for 21 December.

COLLECT:
Preces populi tui, quaesumus, Domine, clementer exaudi,
ut, qui de Unigeniti tui in nostra carne adventu laetantur,
cum venerit in sua maiestate,
aeternae vitae praemium consequantur.

This prayer is pretty much identical to a Post Communion in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary during the "tenth month" ("Decem"-ber). Remember that laetor is deponent.

LITERAL VERSION:
Gratiously hear the prayers of Your people, we beseech You, O Lord,
so that those who are rejoicing about the Coming of Your Only-Begotten in our flesh,
may attain the reward of eternal life
when He will have come in His majesty.

As we have seen many times, the prayers of Advent look in two directions, back to the historic moment of the Nativity of the Lord and also forward to the moment when He will come in glory to judge the living and the dead.

The prayer juxtaposes caro ("flesh") and maiestas ("glory" or "majesty"). The maiestas here refers to the characteristic of God we see at times revealed in Scripture as, for example, when Moses encounters God in the cloud on the mountain or in the tent of the ark. The encounter with God’s majestic glory (Greek doxa, Hebrew kabod) transforms Moses flesh so that it is so bright that he must wear a veil over his face. The Lord, when He comes, will transform everything in His presence and our sight of Him in the bosom of the Trinity in the Beatific Vision will transform our human flesh forever.

The prayer is also careful to link joy with prayer, as if prayer would be a sine qua non for joy.

>Rhetorial question alert:

Can someone who does not pray truly be happy?

ANOTHER POSSIBLE VERSION:
Listen with clemency, we pray, O Lord,
to the prayers of your people,
that those who rejoice at the coming
of your Only-begotten Son in our flesh
may, when he comes in his glory,
receive the reward of eternal life.

There has been some attention in the Catholic blogosphere given to a parish in my home diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. 

Fr. Leo Tibesar of St. Francis Cabrini landed smack in the middle of some controversy about homosexual unions.  

This controversy compelled a clarification from the Archdiocese.  

Here is the Archdiocesan statement with my emphases.

Charges about Father Leo Tibesar & St. Frances Cabrini Parish

Various bloggers and websites have reported that Father Leo Tibesar, of Saint Frances Cabrini Parish in Minneapolis announced his intention to bless same sex marriages. Those reports are not true. Father Tibesar has never blessed a same sex marriage nor does he intend to do so, which would be a violation of his priestly vows and state. He made this very clear in a public clarification issued by Saint Frances Cabrini’s parish council and following a meeting with Archbishop Harry J. Flynn.

During his meeting with Archbishop Flynn and Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates, Father Tibesar also agreed to remove any language from the St. Frances Cabrini parish website that is in opposition to Roman Catholic Church doctrine and to refrain from statements in any form that are contrary to Church teaching. He confirmed these commitments to Archbishop Flynn in a letter following their meeting. Communications Office, Archdiocese of StP&M

Why am I posting this?

First, the statement above makes reference to "bloggers".  Since I am originally from that Archdiocese, and since WDTPRS is one of the most highly frequented of the Catholics blogs, I don’t want anyone to have even the slightest idea that I ever posted an entry about St. Francis Cabrini parish.  I am not one of the bloggers who wrote about this issue.  I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Second, I am posting about this because I am pleased with content of the statement.  It is a very good thing that people know that a Catholic priest, in the midst of controversy, has never done what he was accused of doing.  He didn’t in fact do something so scandalously irresponsible as bless a same-sex "marriage".  That should make people happy and relieved.  Also, steps are being taken to remove improper language from the website.  Moreover, Archbishop Flynn has taken the matter in hand.  All these are good things.

Third, this is a chance to make yet another clarification.  The statement above refers to "same sex marriages".  There is no such thing as a same-sex "marriage".  "Marriage" of any sort can only be heterosexual, never homosexual.  The language of the statement might reflect the quick and sloppy terminology of the media, but we all have to be clear that the terms "same sex" and "marriage" cannot be wedded in any way.  That said, the statement still gets the point across.

Fourth, we are seeing more and more how the Catholic blogosphere is having an impact on the life of the Church and on the wider media.  When something questionable occurs, and bloggers get hold of it, the information is disseminated with great speed. 

Then the meat grinder fires up. 

We have to be careful, friends.  It is good that the Catholic blogosphere can act as a "watch dog".  But that is not enough.

When we find that bad things are taking place, we mustn’t fall into the trap of taking delight in them because now we have something to flog other people with. 

We run the risk of sinning when we take delight in the misfortunes of others or when we take up other people’s errors so that we can hurt them.

Dwelling on the negative or on the missteps of others is spiritually risky business.

Furthermore, Catholic bloggers and those who participate in commenting should be promoters of the positive, not just vigilantes.

Some years ago, I heard Cardinal George speak at a meeting of the Catholic Press Association.  He told the assembled journalists that it was the role of Catholic writers to report not merely the doings of Church figures, but rather to report on the "life of grace".  And the only way the reporters would recognize grace in action amongst God’s people would be if they too were in the state of grace.

This is something for us to keep in mind when stories crop up on the Catholic blogosphere.